Julia and Henry's Family Blog

Grammy sneak peek

2012-02-10T17:34:00.005-05:00

The Grammy Awards are Sunday night, so I thought it was a perfect time to give you a preview of my new song that is sure to be a nominee at next year's show. It's called "Dance Dance Video" and features a special appearance by Henry. The song is still a work in progress (I think it turns into a Lady Gaga song at the end), as is the choreography, but take a look:

Dad's favorite lyric is "pull out the mat/pull out the mat/like a superstar!" What's yours?

In the bag

2012-02-09T14:40:00.000-05:00

Henry and I have had a couple birthdays to celebrate recently (neither of ours, unfortunately!). Last month was Dido's birthday.

Happy birthday, Dido! We celebrated with some delicious cupcakes.

Yum!

Then last week we celebrated Dad's birthday. He had some yummy cake too:

As I said, Henry and I were disappointed that we didn't get any birthday gifts. But we still managed to have a blast with the big gift bag that Dad's one birthday gift came in. As you'll see, the sugar from the birthday cake had kicked in at this point, because we got crazy!

Woo, that was fun! And only three more months until our birthdays, hooray!

Bundled up

2012-01-27T17:16:00.000-05:00

We finally got our first snowfall of the season last week. That Halloween blizzard technically doesn't count, because that definitely didn't happen during wintertime!

Henry and I couldn't wait to get outside and play in the snow, so we got all bundled up.

Henry was only outside for a few minutes before he decided he was ready to go back inside. I, on the other hand, was thrilled to stay outside as long as I could. Look at my snow angel!

The next day, Dad and I went sledding over at the big hill around the corner, and I went down all by myself! Twice! Dad still can't believe I did it, but it was so much fun.

All the snow has melted now, but I hope we get more soon!

Christmas with the cousins

2012-01-18T15:58:00.001-05:00

Right after Christmas, Henry, Mom, Babcia and I headed up to Connecticut to visit our cousins (from left) Sophia, Abby, Sarah and Ava. It was great seeing everyone. Here are a few cute photos of all of us together.

Family circus

2012-01-09T13:57:00.002-05:00

Last month, Mom and Dad took Julia and I into New York City to see our very first circus, the Big Apple Circus. It's held in an enormous tent that's set up in Lincoln Center. On our way in, we saw a scary yeti!

Oh wait, that was just Julia. Then we got seated and waited for the show to begin.

The popcorn was great, but the show was even better. Horses and acrobats and cars...oh my! I got antsy a couple times and needed to take a break outside, but thankfully I was back in time for the big trapeze finale. I loved watching everyone fly through the air, and especially when they fell down into the net below. That was the best part. Julia was stunned when the little girl they pulled out of the audience early in the show ended up swinging on the trapeze (she was part of the act).

After the show ended, we were in for more treats. First off, Mom and Julia posed in front the Lincoln Center fountain.

Then we went over to Rockefeller Center and checked out the humongous Christmas tree.

And finally, we popped into the New York Fire Department Store, where they have a real fire truck that I was able to "drive."

What a spectacular day!

Christmas goes out with a bang

2012-01-05T12:36:00.000-05:00

As much as Henry and I enjoyed the Christmas season, it unfortunately is time to pack everything up until next year. And while it usually takes hours and hours for Mom and Dad to put everything away, I figured out a way to get the job done in mere seconds!

Didn't expect that, did you? Of course the tree didn't really blow up, Dad was using a new iPhone app called Action Movie FX. Henry and I got such a kick out the results that we kept coming up with new scenarios under which we could dodge missles and falling cars. Here are some of the highlights:

Maybe Henry and I will be stuntmen when we grow up!

A Christmas story

2012-01-04T16:56:00.002-05:00

On Christmas morning, Julia and I woke up and discovered that yes indeed, Santa came!

First we opened up our stockings. I got a whole bunch of Thomas trains, and Julia got some fun stuff too. Then it was on to the main event: the gifts under the tree. And we got some great ones! Julia got the Playmobil Grand Mansion she had been asking for...

And I got the car transporter I had also wanted for months. Even better, it was Mack from Cars!

Santa also left me a Cars pullout sofa, just like the princess one Julia had. I immediately starting "napping"!

Julia was also thrilled to get the big gift she had wanted all year: the Barbie Dream Townhouse.

She and Aunt Jess played with it a lot that day!

Meanwhile, I was playing with the Cars Shake n' Go racetrack that Santa got me. Uncle Ryan helped me out with that.

Later in the day, we opened our non-Santa gifts, and Julia got an American Girl doll she'd had her eye on, named Julie.

One thing I had problems grasping: I thought if a gift had Cars or Thomas wrapping paper, that meant that something to do with Cars or Thomas was inside. So I was disappointed a lot...but not every time!

Then we tested out one of Julia's stocking gifts: Disney Sing It, a version of Rock Band where you sing tons of songs from Disney movies. We both enjoyed singing our favorite songs from movies like Cars, Toy Story and Princess and the Frog.

And because we forgot to add this to our Christmas Eve post, here's a picture of Julia, Uncle Ryan and Adrienne from the day before.

We split our Christmas day video into two parts. Here's the first one, showing Julia and I going downstairs and starting to open our gifts.

And here's another one from a bit later in the day:

All in all, it was a very, very Merry Christmas. Julia and I loved our gifts and played with all of them, all day long (and more than a week later, we still love them all). Thanks Santa, and thanks to all our family and friends who made it such a great day!

Happy 2012!

2012-01-03T00:13:00.001-05:00

Henry and I will get back to recapping Christmas soon, but we wanted to wish you all a happy new year! We had such a fun New Years, spending it with our friends Lucy and Olivia (and yes, their parents, along with some other friends of Mom and Dad's). Lucy and her mom and dad were nice enough to get us all matching pajamas, which we couldn't want to all put on to celebrate the new year.

I couldn't get enough of Lucy. I love that adorable baby, in part because she kind of looks like I did at that age!

In addition to the pajamas, we got some other Christmas gifts from Lucy too. Henry got bristle blocks like Dad had when he was a kid...

While I got what looked like enormous pipe cleaners that you can twist into all sorts of shapes to make super-fancy accessories.

Mom brought party favors and noisemakers for everyone so we were all decked out for the new year.

And finally, it was time for the big countdown:

Happy new year! (Okay, we technically celebrated around 8 instead of midnight, but it was midnight somewhere, right?)

Twas the Day Before Christmas

2011-12-29T23:04:00.002-05:00

Henry and I hope that your Christmas was as merry as ours was! Today we'll talk about Christmas Eve. As we prepared for everyone to arrive (Uncle Ryan and Adrienne got there the night before), Henry and I constructed this year's gingerbread house.

Unfortunately, Henry had to keep being reminded that he wasn't allowed to taste the gingerbread house!

Before it was time for church, we changed into our adorable Christmas Eve outfits. Don't we look fancy?

And what do you think of my high heels?

As you probably noticed above, Henry is going through a phrase where he squints as he says "Cheese!" when it's time to take pictures. Fortunately, Dad got a bunch of cute photos where his eyes stayed open.

What a handsome brother I have! That night, we had a yummy Christmas Eve Ukrainian dinner, then it was time to go to sleep in hopes that Santa would visit that night. Did he? Stay tuned...

We wish you a Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T07:19:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas from me and Henry!

For a little Christmas entertainment, here's a video Mom took of me dancing during the intermission at The Nutcracker when she and I went a few weeks back. As you can see, I really loved it!

One day it will be me on that stage!

Hope your Christmas was a very merry one!

Meeting Mykolaj

2011-12-24T06:50:00.000-05:00

Happy Christmas Eve! Santa is coming tonight, but Julia and I already got a visit from St. Nicholas, or Sv. Mykolaj as he's known if you are Ukrainian.

The other week, we all went to the Ukrainian American Cultural Center, where the kids all put on skits about the story of Mykolaj and sang songs. Then Mykolaj arrived and gave out presents to all the kids there. Like me!

What could it be?

Why, it's a fancy ramp for my Matchbox cars with an elevator, a car wash and all sorts of other fun stuff!

Then it was Julia's turn to get her gift from Mykolaj.

What could it be?

Look, it's the special prince and princess puppets Julia had been eying! How did he know?

Our friends Alec and Isabella were there to get their gifts from Mykolaj as well!

And here's a quick video showing one of the skits, and Mykolaj's entrance.

Very nice to meet you, Mykolaj!

Wedding redux

2011-12-16T15:14:00.001-05:00

It's hard to believe that it's almost been two months since Diana and Eric's amazing wedding. We posted lots of great pictures and videos from that blessed event already, but Diana passed along some spectacular photos from the wedding photographer, and we of course wanted to share those as well.

Rehearsal dinner:

Wedding day, at the church before the ceremony:

Wedding ceremony:

Official wedding photos:

Reception:

Thanks for sharing these, Diana! What a wonderful wedding.

Santa boogie

2011-12-15T14:10:00.002-05:00

Look what Henry and I discovered the night that we watched the lighting of our town's Christmas tree: a dancing Santa!

Firefighters

2011-12-12T15:18:00.003-05:00

People always ask how Julia and I get along. And the truth is, 90 percent of the time we get along incredibly well, like this:

Yes, there are times where Julia won't leave me alone, regardless of how many times Mom, Dad or I tell her to stop, but other than that, I couldn't be happier to have Julia for my big sister.

I love you, Julia!

Potty preparations

2011-12-09T14:15:00.003-05:00

Notice anything different about this picture? I'm wearing underwear! After talking for months about how I was going to be using the potty, last week Mom and Dad finally took off my diaper, let me pick out some big boy underwear to put on (I've got Cars, Thomas and Toy Story to choose from), gave me all the apple juice I could drink and watched what happened. Unfortunately, the results weren't very good: I wet myself three separate times, and also went poopie once. (The worst part of it was that I wasn't really aware that I had done those things.) I did go pee-pee on the potty once, but that was after sitting there for about 30 minutes.

I cried each time I had an accident, mostly because I was worried that my underwear would be ruined forever. After that, it was back to diapers, but we're going to try again after the holidays. Oh well.

Storybook ending

2011-12-08T15:57:00.001-05:00

Henry and I loved visting Santa so much that we wanted to see him again. And we got to do just that at a place called Storybook Land. It's a cute family theme park near Atlantic City that is inspired by various nursery rhymes and fairy tales. During the holiday season, it's all decked out for Christmas. First off, we spent more time with Santa. After that, we all went on the kiddie coaster. "It was a little scary," as Henry said. But Mom screamed louder than any of us! Then we said hi to some snowmen.

I masqueraded as one of Snow White's seven dwarfs...

As well as the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

I also found out what happens when you don't listen to your parents.

Uh-oh! Luckily, I was freed just in time to watch Santa light all the Christmas lights at dusk. Here's a video of that, as well as some of the other fun we had that day.

What a great day!

A Jolly old time with Saint Nick

2011-12-07T16:54:00.001-05:00

With Christmas just a few weeks away (I wish it would get here already!), Henry and I wanted to make sure that Santa knew exactly what we wanted. So we visited him during our trip to Grandma and Grandpa's.

We had to wait a line for a really long time because his elves didn't really seem to know what they were doing, but Henry and I didn't mind because we were so excited to see him.

At long last, he arrived. We told him exactly what we wanted (I asked for the Barbie Dreamhouse and the Playmobil Grand Mansion; Henry wants "Cars stuff"), and then we got to spend 10 whole extra minutes on Santa's lap while his Elves tried to make the camera work. I told you they didn't know what they were doing! We passed the time by singing a few songs:

And afterwards, he gave us some lollipops.

Thanks Santa. We'll return the favor and leave a treat for you on Christmas Eve!

Twisted sister

2011-12-06T15:55:00.002-05:00

When Julia and I were at Grandma and Grandpa's, we discovered Dad's old Twister game. We loved playing it! Right foot green, left hand blue, right hand red...the fun never ended, especially because we started inventing our own moves.

When we weren't playing, Julia used the vinyl sheet to make pictures of herself using all of Aunt Jess's costume jewelry. Pretty good resemblance, eh?

Giving thanks

2011-12-05T23:00:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the delay in posting, but Mom and Dad were off work for the past week and a half and we've been busy doing lots of fun things. Starting off with Thanksgiving. For the first time ever, Henry and I were completely healthy during the Thankgiving holiday. No holiday weekend trips to the pediatrician, at long last!

Henry and I had hoped to go into the city the night before to watch the parade balloons get inflated, but the weather didn't cooperate. No matter. We drove to Grandma and Grandpa's on Thanksgiving morning, wearing the Thanksgiving hats that I had made at school. I was a Native American, and Henry was a turkey!

We had such a great time with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Jess. And I did silly things there, like put curlers in Henry's hair.

Here's a video of some of the Thanksgiving highlights, including me saying what I was thankful for this year, us getting ready to drive to Grandma and Grandpa's and best of all, a look at us watching the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV and kicking along with the Rockettes.

There's much more to come from our trip, check back tomorrow!

Advent adventure

2011-11-23T16:13:00.002-05:00

Advent starts Sunday, so Mom, Dad, Julia and I went to the church hall to make this year's advent wreath. More accurately, Julia and I did most of the work, while I ran around.

But I did help a little bit. Look: I held onto the berries!

I also helped put the candles in when Mom and Julia were done.

Doesn't it look great?

And here's a video of all our hard work.

Most importantly, Julia and I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Strange Brew

2011-11-18T11:43:00.001-05:00

Because that freak blizzard canceled our Halloween parade, Mom and Dad never had a chance to see Henry and I sing all the Halloween songs we had prepared for that special day. So, over the weekend, I treated Dad to a little glimpse of what he missed: that Halloween parade staple, "Witches Brew." Henry, who was still eating breakfast during my performance, chimed in a bit too:

A sense of Adventureland

2011-11-10T17:34:00.000-05:00

For our last post of the week, Henry and I are continuing to dust off old photos and videos that fell through the cracks during our busy September. Today we wanted to share two theme park visits we made during that month. First, we went to Adventureland in Long Island, where we spent the day with our friends Audrey and Carl.

Our favorite ride this year was the kiddie log flume. Henry went for the first time, and while we got soaked, we both loved every second of it. You can see it in this video of the day's highlights. See how I cover my eyes going down the hill? I asked Dad if it was okay if I did that, and he said yes.

We also made a return trip to Victorian Gardens in Central Park before they closed it down and prepared to turn it back into an ice skating rink for the winter. Here Henry and I are on the boat.

While Henry and I still loved the roller coaster as much as we did during our first visit, Henry apparently developed a fear of the bouncing frog ride over the summer. Check this out:

Have a great weekend everyone!

Making a list...

2011-11-09T17:47:00.002-05:00

I think Julia started her Christmas list six months ago. She's been writing down everything she sees, and I think she's up to 120 items now (including things like "invisible power"), even though Dad keeps telling her she can only ask for 3 things. If she can do it, why not me? I've been looking through the various catalogs that have been arriving in the mail lately and making my Christmas picks. Take a look

Rock on

2011-11-08T14:13:00.002-05:00

Did you know I'm a rock star? It's true. The other week when Dad had a few days off, he showed me this really fun game on the Wii called Lego Rock Band. It's a family-oriented version of that popular game Rock Band, and sure enough, it had two songs that Henry and I love singing.

Well, I sang and Henry bounced on his horse.

Here's a glimpse at a rock star in training. I've got the pipes and the moves!

White Halloween

2011-11-07T17:46:00.003-05:00

Happy Halloween! Believe it or not, this photo of Henry and I was taken on Oct. 31. Not Dec. 25, but Oct. 31. The weekend before Halloween, we had a freak October blizzard that dropped a foot of snow on us, and even worse, knocked out our power for 15 hours (some of our neighbors were out all week!) and caused several of our trees - which were still living and had leaves on them - to crack under the weight of all that snow. What a mess!

Before that all went down, I showed off the haunted gingerbread house that Mom and I made this year.

Here's a video of the spooky house:

Then, the flurries began. First, it was cute. I tried to catch snowflakes on my tongue, like in Charlie Brown Christmas.

Then things got nuts! The snow piled up, we lost power and heat, and had to huddle together in Mom and Dad's bed that night to stay warm.

By the time Halloween rolled around on Monday, we had made a snowman - make that, snowwitch - to celebrate the holiday.

Later, Mom took us into town, where we went trick-or-treating at the firehouse.

The firemen were exhausted from all the work that had done that weekend during the blizzard! The town ended up postponing trick-or-treating until Friday because of all the downed power lines and power outages, though a few of us went trick-or-treating on the block that day anyway.

Good thing we had gone trick-or-treating at Dad's work! (Henry loved the Hershey bars most of all; I liked Nerds and lollipops best.)

What a crazy holiday! I wonder what Thanksgiving has in store for us?

Going to the chapel

2011-11-04T16:34:00.001-04:00

Finally, we can tell you all about the amazing wedding that Henry and I went to on Oct. 22. Our cousin Diana married a great guy named Eric. We were honored to be in the wedding party as their flower girl and ring bearer. Look at how adorable we were!

In the back of the church, waiting for the wedding to start, Henry found a too-literal use for his ring bearer pillow.

So I watched it for a bit while Henry did what he does best: run around!

The whole family got together for a pre-wedding picture. In addition to the wedding, Mom and Dad were celebrating their seventh anniversary that day!

Henry and I practiced our walk down the aisle one last time before the wedding began.

By this time I was so excited for the wedding to start, I was downright giddy!

Finally, it was wedding time. Alas, Henry got a bit cranky at the last minute, so Mom had to join us for the walk up and down the aisle.

The wedding was terrific! After the ceremony, we hung out at the church a bit for the official wedding pictures.

Then it was time to head over the reception. While we waited for dinner, Henry and I kept ourselves busy by playing with a portable car set that Grandma got for us.

Hey Henry, get off the dance floor! I brought along my wedding Barbies and found the perfect person to play along with me: the beautiful bride!

I also hung out with Aunt Jess...

And my cousin Kathy, Diana's sister.

Before too long, Henry was all partied out.

I was still full of energy, though.

So what to do about Henry? We found him the perfect resting spot.

And that was the wedding! What a blast we had! Henry and I can't wait for the next one, whenever that might be!

Deep in the heart of Texas

2011-11-03T15:33:00.003-04:00

Julia and I had such a great time in Texas for our cousin Diana's wedding. We'll save the big wedding post for tomorrow, and today I'll talk about the non-wedding stuff we did that weekend. First off, we got up bright and early Friday morning for the plane trip down to Houston. I didn't love flying the last time I was in an airplane, but this time was great. Largely because the inflight movie in both directions was one of my favorites: Cars 2. I didn't move the whole trip!

That night, we went to the rehearsal, where Julia and I practiced walking down the aisle, and then we went to the rehearsal dinner.

It was great! The next day was the wedding, but it wasn't until later that afternoon, so we took a dip in the pool and saw a big dragon racing festival that was going on outside our hotel. Then we went to this yummy cupcake place, where as you can see, I really enjoyed my cupcake!

After that, I was ready for a nap.

Yeah, this is the life! Julia, meanwhile, headed up to the bridal suite to get her hair and makeup done with the rest of the wedding party.

Here's a look at some of our non-wedding activities.

Tomorrow: we've got all the wedding photos for you. See you then.

Office party

2011-10-31T21:36:00.002-04:00

You will not believe the weekend that Henry and I just had! Let's just say that we had Christmas weather for Halloween. We'll talk about that another day (and its impact on postponing Halloween); today we want to share the fun we had at Dad's work Halloween party last Friday.

Dad drove us into the city and took us into his office, where we trick or treated until we couldn't carry our bags anymore!

Back in Dad's office, we went through our loot. Henry tried a lollipop....

While I discovered something called wax lips. Freaky!

After that, we headed over to the Halloween party, which was also great.

Here are some video highlights from our People trip.

And as the perfect little cherry on top of a great day, when we got back home, Dad took me to the Iris Gardens around the corner, where they were having a special Halloween event. We saw lots of pumpkins, and I ran around inside a hot-air balloon. Wow!

Little did I know how crazy the weekend was about to get, but more on that tomorrow. For now, Happy Halloween, everyone!

Halloween sneak-peek

2011-10-28T12:00:00.001-04:00

Our Halloween activities begin in full force today, as Julia and I travel to dad's office to go trick or treating at his Halloween party. Then Monday morning we have a parade at school, and finally we go trick or treating for real Monday afternoon. We'll also be wearing our costumes at a Halloween-themed birthday party over the weekend. But before we start dressing up, we wanted to give you a sneak peek at this year's Halloween costumes. Take a look:

I'm Mater from Cars, and Julia is Wonder Woman. Get your Halloween candy ready, because we're coming for it!

Spooky Sesame

2011-10-27T18:38:00.000-04:00

Henry and I made one final visit to Sesame Place for their annual Halloween-themed fun. I was disappointed that it was too cold to go on the water rides (which were already closed for the season), but it was nice to go trick or treating, go through a couple fun mazes and see some Halloween-themed shows. And of course, it's always a treat to say hi to our favorite Sesame pals. Here are just some of the friendly faces we saw during our visit.

Bountiful Harvest Festival

2011-10-27T14:28:00.003-04:00

A couple of weekends ago, our preschool had a Harvest Festival, so Julia and I brought along Mom and Dad and spent one weekend morning having tons of fun. I spent most of the time in the sandbox with my friend Scott, while Julia played with her friends and also got a chance to play the violin.

Here's a quick video from the Harvest Festival:

Halloween is almost here! We're so excited!

Face off

2011-10-26T16:37:00.000-04:00

We'll be showing off our Hollywood costumes before long, but for now, here we are in semi-disguise: sporting a couple of cute face paintings that Henry and I got last month.

Here comes the bridal party!

2011-10-21T11:38:00.000-04:00

As you read this, Henry and I are headed to Houston for our cousin Diana's wedding. And guess who the flower girl and ring bearer are? That's right, us! We'll tell you all about it when we're back next week, but the above photo is a little sneak at what we'll look like when we walk down the aisle.

See you next week!

Farm hands

2011-10-20T11:13:00.001-04:00

Halloween is almost here, so Julia and I took our annual trek to Wightman's Farm to buy pumpkins, go on a hayride and best of all, play in the corn pit! Let's get to the best part first: the corn pit! It's like a huge sandbox, but filled with corn instead of sand (and lots of toys and trucks)! Julia and I had so much fun!

Then we all went on the hayride.

That was great too. After that, we looked for pumpkins to buy. Look what Julia found!

Isn't that silly? (And no, we didn't get it!)

Before we left, we took lots of pictures with all the pumpkins.

What a great day! Here's a video of all our fun"

Halloween is almost here. We can't wait!

Clowning at Clementon

2011-09-28T16:26:00.003-04:00

Before the summer ended, we visited Clementon Amusement Park, which is a fun little amusement park close to Grandma and Grandpa's. Aunt Jess and I took Julia and I, and it was lots of fun. Unlike last year, this year I was tall enough to ride everything, and it was great!

Here are some of our highlights from the day.

By day's end, we were exhausted, as you can guess!

It wasn't quite warm enough for us to do the waterpark as well that day, but we have something to look forward to next summer!

Dressed for success

2011-09-26T17:34:00.000-04:00

Until we finally post our Wildwood pictures - which I promise will happen in the next day or two - here's a collection of some of my supercute fashions from over the past couple weeks. I love dressing up and posing for pictures!

Bye-bye, gallery!

2011-09-15T14:45:00.000-04:00

Now that it's a new school year, it was time for a clean slate. So we took down all my school drawings from the past year — we display them on one of our kitchen walls — which gives us a place to put all of my (and Henry's) new works of art for this coming year. Before we did, Dad took one last photo of the artist (that would be me!) showing off all her masterpieces.

School's cool!

2011-09-12T15:49:00.002-04:00

Okay, Julia and I had no idea when we signed off a few weeks ago that we'd be MIA for so long. Sorry, guys! It certainly wasn't planned, but the end of the summer got really busy, and then a tree fell on our garage and car after a storm, then a much bigger storm came —Hurricane Irene (thankfully we made it through without losing power or getting any flooding in our basement) — and next thing we knew it was time to start school...

Which leads us to today's post. Look, Julia and I started school today! It was my first day of nursery school — my first day of school, period — and Julia's first day of pre-K. Don't we look so cute on our first day?

We had a terrific first day (I ran right in, without a glance back), though unfortunately there were some tears shed. Julia got weepy as Mom and Dad left, and I was having so much fun that I refused to leave when Babcia and Dido showed up at the end of the morning, and threw a huge fit!

We apologize again for the lack of blogging. Rest assured that we have lots of great video and photos to share with you (starting with, yes, Wildwood), and we'll get to it soon! Promise!

Might as well jump

2011-08-19T14:49:00.006-04:00

Henry and I had such an amazing week in Wildwood with Mom and Dad (and Babcia and Dido too)! We'll tell you all about it next week, but here's a little sneak peek to tide you over. Henry and I did a lot of adventurous things during the week, including this: after looking it at warily all week long, on our last night there I finally mustered up the courage to strap myself in to this High Flyer contraption and jump higher than I ever thought possible. Take a look (especially at the last minute, when I'm completely defying gravity):

What a rush! I wanted to go again immediately, but I'll have to wait until next year unfortunately. It can't get here fast enough!

There's much more where that came from. Check back next week!

Concert in the park

2011-08-16T16:15:00.002-04:00

This summer, Babcia and Dido have taken Henry and me to a few outdoor concerts in a local park. The first one was the best: The B Street Band, which is a Bruce Springsteen cover band. They played some of my favorite songs, like "Hungry Heart."

I'm sure you're wondering about our vacation last week. Well, we had a blast in Wildwood! It will take us a couple of days to go through all the photos and videos we took during our trip, but don't worry, we've got some great stuff to share with you!

Julia Gaga

2011-08-12T21:15:00.001-04:00

My favorite song this summer is "Edge of Glory." Not just because Lady Gaga sings it but also because it features a solo from my favorite saxophone player of all time, Clarence Clemons (RIP Big Man). I'm very sad that he died, but I'm happy that I still get to hear his music. Henry and I love to sing along and dance whenever we hear the song. In fact, I don't even need to hear the song to start singing along...

Just call me Julia Gaga!

Now we're cooking

2011-08-08T14:45:00.001-04:00

This summer, I've been taking a cooking class at the local bakery in town. Once a week or so, I spend the afternoon there and making a delicious treat, like cookies. Even though I'm one of the youngest kids there, I hold my own. And everyone loves the yummy treats I bring home for them to sample. Mmmmmmmm!

Bed fellow

2011-08-05T17:22:00.003-04:00

Notice anything different about my bedroom? That's right, there's no more crib! Last Saturday, Dad took down my crib and put my "junior" bed in its place. It used to be Isabella's, who was nice enough to lend it to me until Mom and Dad find me a new bedroom set.

So far, I love it!

Bye-bye, crib! The first thing I did was climb on it and start jumping. So far, the transition has been really smooth. Aside from my first nap, where I got out of bed and started reading books, I've stayed in it, even when I wake up in the morning.

This also means that I won't be in a crib when we all travel to Wildwood next week. Julia and I are so excited about the trip. And don't worry, we'll have a few posts for you next week while we're gone. Hope your week is as great as ours will be!

Chicken feed

2011-08-04T15:17:00.004-04:00

Two weekends ago, we spent some time at Isabella and Alec's country place up in Pennsylvania. My favorite part of the weekend was when we all went to feed the chickens that live nearby. As you can guess, I loved chasing them around (even though I wasn't supposed to), feeding them and running into the coop.

On our way home, Isabella and I were holding hands (don't tell Julia, but I think Isabella had more fun playing with me that weekend), then Julia joined us.

And finally, Alec joined in too!

Here's what happened when we went to feed the chickens:

Cluck cluck!

Feeling Smurfy

2011-08-01T21:10:00.001-04:00

Last weekend, Dad took me to my very first movie premiere ever. Can you guess what it is? That's right: Smurfs!

Dad and I drove into New York City to go to the Smurfs premiere at the super-fancy Ziegfeld Theatre. We knew we were in the right place when I saw a big inflatable Smurf outside.

We went inside and got popcorn and drinks and best of all, a Smurf figurine.

There were also 3-D glasses because it was a 3-D. My 3-D experiences last year with Toy Story 3 and Shrek didn't turn out so well, but I was ready to try again!

There were lots of famous people there, like Katy Perry, Neil Patrick Harris and Sofia Vergara. Then the movie started, and I really liked it...except for the parts with Gargamel. Seeing Gargamel in 3-D was just too scary for me, so about halfway through I told Dad that we had to leave. On the way out, I took some more pictures...

And picked up 2 goody bags, packed with great Smurf stuff like more figurines and Smurf cereal. Yum!

While the 3-D was scary, I'm very excited to see the movie when it comes out on Blu-ray later this year. It was a great premiere—and a great day with Dad!

Getting to the Point

2011-07-29T16:20:00.002-04:00

In the middle of our Ohio trip, we spent a couple days at Cedar Point, the amusement park that Dad grew up going to. It's his favorite amusement park in the country because it has the best roller coasters. Henry and I are of course too young to go on those, but we still had so much fun there. We arrived there at night and checked into our hotel, and even though it was time for bed, Henry kept saying, "Want to go on rides NOW!" Thankfully we were both distracted by a surprise hotel guest:

Snoopy! We saw a lot of him (and the other Charlie Brown characters) at the park.

We went on lots of rides together, and cuddled a bit on the train that took us around the park.

We had a special treat for dinner: Mom and Dad took us to a hibachi restaurant in the hotel, where the chefs make Japanese food right in front of you. Henry and I were both a little scared of the flames but enjoyed ourselves — and the food!

But of course, the highlight was the rides!

There was a Peanuts-themed store with a special play area where Henry and I waited for the Great Pumpkin.

He never showed! At least I got to see Lucy.

It was such a great trip. We watched Dad go on some scary-looking rides (like Top Thrill Dragster), went on lots of kiddie rides, and even cooled off in the water park, where I went on some kiddie water slides all by myself! As if that wasn't terrific enough, Grandma, Aunt Paula, Uncle Ryan and Adrienne joined us on the second day. Here's a video of all the highlights of our amazing Cedar Point adventure: meeting Snoopy, riding the Jr. Gemini roller coaster, hibachi dinner (Henry put a whole sushi roll in his mouth!), our own version of Dragster and much more:

Henry and I can certainly understand why Dad liked Cedar Point so much as a kid. We had the best time!

Hi, Ohio!

2011-07-28T17:48:00.001-04:00

Two weeks ago, I attended my very first family reunion, which Dad's family has every year (Julia made her reunion debut three years ago in Austin). This year's event was near Cleveland, so the four of us got on an airplane. It was my first time with my own seat on the plane (I flew in my carseat); last time around, I had been young enough to fly on Mom and Dad's lap.

Here's a video of how I killed time at the airport before the flight (and at the end, there's a little sneak peek of what happened later that day).

While I love planes and airports, I wasn't very happy during takeoff, and I made Dad hold my hand and comfort me the whole time. I did much better when we were allowed to use electronic devices and I could watch Mater's Tall Tales on our DVD player.

After we landed, we stopped by Youngstown first, to visit with Great-Grandma Emma, whom I had never met before (Julia had only met her once, a week before I was born). We had such a nice visit with her; she's so sweet!

Then we visited Aunt Paula, who lives nearby. We had lots of fun with Maxwell, her cat (or kicia, as we say in Ukrainian).

Maxwell is blind, so I'm sure he didn't know what was going on with these two energetic kids squealing in his direction. It was great seeing Aunt Paula, too.

After that, we spent a couple days at Cedar Point, the Ohio amusement park that Dad went to as a kid, but we'll have a whole other post about that super-fun place. Instead, let's fast-forward to the reunion itself. We also enjoyed seeing our relatives (there were 100 of them in all!), but not as much as we loved just spending time with each other!

And look who was there: Bub! (You know him better as Grandpa.)

Grandma was there too. During the family picnic, she helped me play softball.

Julia's favorite people to spend time with at the reunion, without a doubt, were Uncle Ryan and his girlfriend Adrienne.

She loooooooved Adrienne, and talked about her the whole time! She also loved swimming all by herself in the hotel pool.

Don't worry, Dad was close by the whole time. Here's a video of Julia's solo swim.

We had such a terrific time at the reunion, but Cedar Point was even better. We'll tell you all about it tomorrow!

Into the woods

2011-07-26T15:31:00.002-04:00

Sorry we've been away for so long. We've been very busy, as you'll see over the next week as Henry and I finally start blogging about all the fun things we've been up to.

First up is Ukrainian summer camp, which Mom also went to as a kid. This year, I was old enough to attend, so Mom, Henry and I spent the week in the Catskills at Soyuzivka, the Ukrainian resort (Dad had to work, so he was only up at the beginning and end of the week). Our camp was called Tabir Ptashat: Camp of the Little Birds. The theme was Life on the Farm, and the 4-year-old group I was in was called the Little Chickies.

Every day we did fun activities like play with the parachute.

One day, they brought a horse to camp, and we all went horseback riding.

Another day, my group painted a mural that depicted the Little Chickies.

Here I am showing off our group's hat and nametags (that's my name in Ukrainian; we spoke Ukrainian the whole week!).

One day we took a field trip to a nearby farm. We went on a tractor ride out to the fields, where Henry and I picked snap peas.

Henry wasn't technically attending camp, since you have to be 4 like me, but he happily tagged along all week.

Here I am with my Ukrainian embroidered shirt, known as the vyshyvana sorochka.

One night we attended a bonfire, or vohnyk.

Since Mom was on her own most of the week, she sometimes kept Henry in the stroller so he wouldn't run away (which he likes to do a lot!).

Here I am showing off our camp shirt.

Sometimes our group made silly faces, and we always were smiling!

These flags depicted all the nationalities in attendance at the camp.

As the week wound down, Henry and I posed with Monia, one of our roomies in the room that our families stayed at. We both loved her so much!

On the last day of camp, I got a certificate and also showed off the photo frame I made earlier in the week.

Before we left, I posed for one last picture with Monia. I'm going to miss her!

And here are some highlights from the week, which included lots of Ukrainian songs!

What a fun week that was! I have to give a special shout-out to Mom, who someone managed to watch both Henry and me on her own for most of the week, which is not an easy task. Thanks so much Mom, and I hope you bring us back here next summer!

Going Fourth

2011-07-14T12:36:00.001-04:00

Last week, Dad had to work on July 4 but Julia, Mom, Babcia, Dido and I celebrated Independence Day by attending the July 4 parade.

Flag waving, firetrucks, Spider-Man...you can't beat that!

Here are some of our favorite moments from this year's parade.

Why don't they have parades for every holiday? They're so fun!

Fair play

2011-07-12T23:36:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, Julia and I went to the Meadowlands for the big NJ Fair that comes every year. It was hot but we had a terrific time on all the ride. I headed right for the truck...

Motorcycle...

Car...

And boat...

Julia did the rides too, but she also made time for funnel cake.

Here are some of our highlights from the NJ Fair.

We'll be back next year!

Happy camper

2011-07-08T11:42:00.003-04:00

Not only did I see my first movie this week, but I also went to my very first day of summer camp, at the same school that Julia attends (and where I'll be going to nursery school in the fall). Mom and Dad weren't sure how I would react, but it went really well!

I was so excited to play with all the toys, and in the sandbox, that I ran in and didn't give Mom and Dad a second look. (Meanwhile, Julia cried every morning during dropoff, even though she's been going here now for two years. I think she's a little overwhelmed with being in pre-K now and being dropped off in the back of the building instead of the front.)

So it was a very successful week, and I'm very excited about going to camp every morning. Hopefully things will go just as smoothly in the fall when school starts up! Here's a video of my first morning at camp. We arrived a little early, so I made a friend and ran around (of course) while we waited for them to open up.

I could definitely get used to going here. In fact, I already have!

Speaking of camp, Julia still has to tell you about going to Ukrainian sleepaway camp last week (Mom and I were there too, but Julia was the one who was actually going to camp). So look for that next week!

Special delivery from California

2011-07-07T14:43:00.002-04:00

Our cousin Ava came by for a visit a couple weeks ago. It was so good to see her, especially because Dad inflated the bouncy castle for the first time this year so we could all jump around on it.

We also met Ava's new little sister, Sarah, who's such a cute little baby!

It was so great to see them, because they live in California and we rarely get a chance to get together. Come back soon, Ava and Sarah!

Movie goer

2011-07-06T15:13:00.005-04:00

All those months of running around chanting "Cars 2! Cars 2!" finally paid off: on Sunday, Mom and Dad took me to see my very first movie in a theater. You guessed it: Cars 2! And even better, there was a fun Toy Story short film that aired right before it. I was so excited! Dad shot this video of Julia and me when we got to the theater.

You're probably wondering how I did when the actual movie started, considering that Julia lasted only a few minutes last summer before bolting out of her first movies last summer: Shrek Forever After and Toy Story 3 (she finally made it all the way through Tangled in January). And the answer is that I did really well. I was mostly riveted, though I did get antsy from time to time. And then an hour in, I fell asleep on Mom's lap. But I was in the theater the whole time, so it counts!

Little Gymnast, part 2

2011-07-05T13:23:00.000-04:00

A couple days after Julia's last Little Gym class of the semester, it was time for me to show off all of my new skills for Mom and Dad. Julia was there too, which means that I ended up sharing the spotlight with her.

We went on the airtrak and did lots of other fun activities too.

And at the end of the day, I got a ribbon, just like Julia's!

Here's a video from my last Little Gym class, showing off my sidesteps, jumps, forward rolls and much more (Julia also demonstrates her bear walk).

See you in the fall, Little Gym!

Little Gymnast, part 1

2011-07-04T14:43:00.002-04:00

I just finished up my latest semester at Little Gym, and during the last class I got to show Mom and Babcia all the skills I learned this year. It was an exciting day.

And at the end, me and my classmates got ribbons to celebrate all our hard work. Hooray for us!

I've purposely not given you any specifics because I want to you watch this video and be surprised by all my skills, just like Mom and Dad were:

Dad says I seem really grown up in this video. What do you think?

Babcia's birthday

2011-06-30T07:32:00.001-04:00

Babcia had a big birthday on Saturday, and Henry and I were excited to sing "Mnohaya Lita" and help her blow out the candles on her birthday cake. Happy birthday Babcia!

What fun—and the cake was delicious too!

Here's a cute photo of Mom helping Babcia celebrate her birthday.

I had a couple more odds and ends to share with you, like this photo of my getting my hair cut a couple weeks ago.

And here's an adorable video of Henry and I hugging...and hugging...and hugging...

Tat's entertainment

2011-06-29T17:26:00.002-04:00

I'm one tough dude. You do not want to mess with me! First off, I'm a "Wild One," just like my bib says. And more importantly, check out the tattoo on my left arm.

It's a firetruck tat. That's some serious ink!
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A seat at the table

2011-06-24T13:10:00.001-04:00

Notice anything different about this picture? That's right, no more highchair! For the past couple weeks, I'm been sitting at the table alongside Mom, Dad and Julia, in my very own booster seat.

Meanwhile, Julia, who used to have a seat at the end of the table, has moved next to Mom, so now we've taken the highchair and the fifth seat out of the kitchen and opened up a lot more space.

Have a great weekend. Next week, Mom, Julia and I are going to be away at Ukrainian camp, but Dad has promised to upload a few new posts from Julia and me.

Thank you for being a friend

2011-06-21T14:20:00.000-04:00

I don't get to see my friend Nia as much as I used to, but when we do get together we have such a great time!

Back in Place

2011-06-17T19:13:00.001-04:00

Two weeks ago, Henry and I took our first trip of the year to Sesame Place. Oh how we had missed it! We had initially planned to go there on Saturday and Sunday, but Henry had been a bit under the weather earlier in the week so we just went on Sunday. No matter: we still had a great time. Saturday afternoon we drove down to the hotel, and splashed around in the hotel pool before bed. Then Sunday morning, we had breakfast with some of our favorite characters, like Ernie...

And Bert...

And Abby Cadabby...

And Big Bird...

And last but not least, Cookie Monster!

Then it was time to go on the rides. We all went on the Flying Fish (Mom too, even though she doesn't like it).

Then Dad took Henry and I on Big Bird's Balloon Race.

I was happy to discover that they had installed a new ride for this year: the same swing ride that Audrey and I loved so much at Victorian Gardens! Then I went on the carousel.

Here are the highlights of our first Sesame Place trip of the year:

But I'm forgetting the most important part: the reason we chose this particular weekend to visit Sesame Place is because our favorite musician, Dan Zanes, was performing there.

We had a blast dancing to his music!

Well, for a little while at least, then we got tired out and had to go. Here's a second video from the concert. As you can see, Henry eventually found another way to entertain himself while the concert was going on.

And that was our day. We wished we could have stayed longer, and that it had been warm enough to go on some water rides, but that's okay: we'll be back again soon!

Carnival capers

2011-06-16T12:48:00.001-04:00

Usually, Mom and Dad get home from work too late for us to do anything fun on weeknights, but a couple weeks ago, they both were home a bit earlier than usual. And we took advantage of it by going to a local church carnival. We stayed just long enough for Henry and I to go on a couple rides, including a funhouse/obstacle course hybrid with a super-fun slide that we both loved. Dad had to help Henry a bit, but we had the best time!. Take a look:

And it turns out that the little carnival excursion was just a warmup for the fun trip we took that weekend...but you'll have to come back tomorrow for that story!

Going swimmingly

2011-06-14T15:06:00.002-04:00

For the past month or so, I've finally been taking swimming lessons. Every Saturday morning, Dad and I go to Little Gym and then go for a swimming lesson at the Y. As you can imagine, I love it, especially splashing around and dumping water on myself. But I've also learned to kick, "reach and pull" and blow bubbles (though I have to work on my bubble-blowing skills). Last Saturday, I even dunked my entire head underwater...twice!

For me, another highlight of my swimming lessons is clowning around in the locker room. Try and find me, Dad!

Mom and Julia stopped by during one of my recent classes and took a little video of Dad and me in the pool. Take a look:

Sadly, Saturday night is the last class of this semester. I hope the next semester starts really soon!

Post-preschool

2011-06-13T17:01:00.001-04:00

As of last Friday, I am officially done with preschool. Next up is pre-K. Last week, we held a special celebration where we marched and sang songs for our families (Mon, Dad, Babcia, Dido, Grandma, Grandpa and Henry were all there to cheer me on). As was the case last year, I got to be one of the leaders and hold the flag as we marched, said the Pledge of Allegiance and sang "Grand Old Flag."

After that, we sang several more songs, including "Getting to Know You" and "Oh What a Miracle am I." We tried to whistle at one point, though as my teacher pointed out, I'm one of the only kids who can actually whistle.

After the concert was done, we had snacks and I posed with my friends Isabella and Jasmine.

Henry, meanwhile, went straight to his favorite spot at my school: the sandbox.

I think we all know where he'll be spending most of his time next year when he goes to nursery school!

Here's a video of highlights from our celebration (and in case you were wondering, the energetic boy next to me is named Jack).

I'll miss preschool, but I'm already so excited for pre-K!

Playmobil time

2011-06-10T17:01:00.001-04:00

For my birthday last month, I got a few Playmobil sets and have been having lots of fun playing with them. Here's a short video of me at play(mobil):

Cheeky kitty

2011-06-09T16:14:00.001-04:00

Beside Henry and my birthdays, the other big late May event in our area is that the irises are in bloom at the big Iris Gardens around the corner from our house. This year they had a big festival to celebrate the peak weekend, and I was excited to see that they had face painting.

We stood in a loooong line, but I was very patient until it was my turn. I knew exactly what I wanted: a Hello Kitty painting. The woman went right to work.

And here's the finished work:

Doesn't it look cute? I made sure to pose with some of the irises before we left.

Catch you next year, irises!

Victorian era

2011-06-08T16:57:00.001-04:00

Julia and I had the best visit the other week with our friends Audrey and Carl. Last fall, we met up with them at a great amusement park called Adventureland. This time around, we found another fun place to meet up and go on some terrific rides: Victorian Gardens in Central Park. Every summer, they set up rides over Wollman Rink and turn the place into a fun theme park. We had the best time there.

They have boat rides...

And trucks...

And my favorite, hopping frogs...

There was a swing ride too, but I was too little to go on it, so only Julia and Audrey got to go.

Just wait until next year! My other favorite ride besides the frog was the little rollercoaster, which was so much fun. I was shrieking with delight, and kept saying "More rollercoaster!" every time I got off.

Not only were the rides great, it was fun spending time with Audrey and Carl.

And our moms, who were neighbors growing up, had fun spending the day together as well!

Here are the highlights of our day — you can see how excited I am on the rides!

Balloon rides

2011-06-07T00:07:00.001-04:00

All those birthday celebrations over the past few weeks left Henry and I with lots of balloons. So we decided to get rid of a few of them by letting them go up up up in the sky. (The above photo is of Babcia and Dido watching us let them go.) Here's what happened when we let the birthday balloons go:

Made in the shades

2011-06-02T13:53:00.001-04:00

It's hard to believe there was ever a time where Henry and I didn't like to wear sunglasses. Because they make us look so cool!

Look, we're all set for summer!

Cool pool party

2011-06-01T22:01:00.001-04:00

It's been hot all week; good thing that Mom and Dad got me a new pool from my birthday! It's bigger than the one we had last year, and even better, it's a Cars pool! Julia and I have been having so much fun keeping cool in it.

I could spend hours in there just pouring water on myself (in fact, I have)!

But we're not just pouring water on ourselves and each other, there's a slide too! Here's a look at our pool party fun:

Looks like we're in for a really fun summer!

Fantastic four

2011-05-31T16:45:00.002-04:00

Henry's had his chance to talk about turning two; now it's my turn to talk about my terrific 4th birthday. I got a second Ranpuzel cake for my actual birthday celebration. Isn't it great?

I loved it! It was delicious too!

Here's a video of my birthday, including some of the gifts I got, including a surprise gift from Mom and Dad:

That's right, I got my very own Rapunzel tower!

Aren't I lucky? What a great birthday!

Birthday bonanza

2011-05-30T14:24:00.001-04:00

So technically, I didn't have a birthday party like Julia did, but in truth I barely noticed. Because Mom and Dad smartly listened to me when I asked for balloons and made sure the house was filled with them on my special day. Look, it's Lightning McQueen!

And Thomas, which I pretended was a big toy train. Choo-choo!

Speaking of trains, Mom and Dad got me the best birthday gift: a Chuggington train set. Chuggington is the other train TV show I like. This set is great because it shoots the trains out so fast that they go upside down in a loop.

Traintastic! (as Koko is found of saying)

Here's a video of all the fun I had with my birthday balloons. Julia and I got so excited when we saw Dad come in with them!

And here's a look at me opening - and playing with - my Chuggington set.

What a happy birthday!

Hot wheels

2011-05-25T15:58:00.001-04:00

It's my fourth birthday today! Mom and Dad got things started two weeks ago when they gave me an early birthday present: a bike with training wheels. Thanks to lots of help from Dido, I'm already getting good at pedaling.

And my new bike has also inspired me to do something I haven't ever really done: take an interest in my tricycle.

And for the first time since I got it two years ago, I'm also using my scooter again.

Better late than never, right?

Here's a video of me riding my bike, tricycle and scooter:

I'll fill you in on my birthday festivities later on!

Two fabulous

2011-05-24T16:39:00.004-04:00

Guess who's 2? Me, that's who! My birthday was on Sunday, and what a happy birthday it was! The day before, I told Dad that I had three requests for my birthday: balloons, cake and presents. Make that, Lightning McQueen balloons, cake and presents. I'm happy to say I got them all — and much, much more!

Check out that cake! I told Dad at the end of the day that this was my favorite part of my whole birthday.

I know what you're thinking: it was my favorite part because the cake was so delicious, right? Well, the cake was yummy, and indeed I couldn't stop myself from tasting it...

But for me, the best part was that it came with toys right on the cake! The Lightning McQueen and Mater cars came off the cake, and I was able to line them up with my other cars and play with them. It doesn't get better than that!

Grandma (who came up with Grandpa for the weekend) found these cute Mater party hats, so the whole family put them on!

I had to take mine off for a moment so I wouldn't set myself on fire when I blew out my candles.

Here's a video of all my birthday highlights, including lots of my presents:

But that's not all! I still have to tell you about the balloons and my favorite new toy. So check back later in the week for more birthday news!

A birthday fit for a princess

2011-05-20T17:24:00.003-04:00

It's finally time for me to tell you all about the amazing 4th birthday party I had on Saturday. It was a Pirate & Princess themed party at a place in town called Time 2 Party. All my classmates and friends were there! I got there early and showed off my Rapunzel costume (I made sure that Mom and Dad had Tangled plates, napkins, cups and balloons there, since Rapunzel is my favorite princess of all).

One of my princess shoes kept getting lose, so I had to fix it. The price of looking beautiful, I guess!

Henry had a great time too. I think he thought that it was really his party!

There were lots of carnival-type games for us to play.

Then we found a better use for the ring-toss rings: they looked great on our fingers.

I got even happier as my friends started to arrive.

Henry looked so adorable with his pirate hat on!

In case anyone forgot whose birthday it was...

My friend Jasmine came in her Rapunzel costume too!

We had pizza for dinner, which was yummy.

Mom and Dad searched all week to find a Tangled balloon. Lucky for them that they found one just in time!

We all decorated treasure chests for a fun craft.

Finally, it was cake time. And look who was on the cake!

No wonder I was smiling!

Henry thought the cake was delicious too.

And before I knew it, it was all over. What a terrific party! Here are the video highlights:

As I told Mom and Dad, it was the best birthday ever!

Deep thoughts

2011-05-19T17:16:00.003-04:00

I've got a lot on my mind. Like, why hasn't Julia posted all the photos and video from her birthday party last weekend? (Dad says it's coming tomorrow.) And what do Mom and Dad have planned for my birthday on Sunday? (Dad says it's a surprise.)

Hmmm....

Secret gardener

2011-05-13T16:28:00.001-04:00

I've got lots of work to do before my big birthday party tomorrow! Isn't my landscaping amazing?

I'm just kidding. Of course Babcia and Dido get all the credit for how great our landscaping looks. But it's fun to bring out my own gardening tools and "help" out.

As I mentioned, tomorrow is my big birthday party. All my friends will be there and it's going to be so much fun. I'll tell you all about it next wek!

Let it slide

2011-05-11T09:54:00.003-04:00

These days, there's nothing I like more than to visit my favorite town park. I head right for the twisty slide, which I always go down on my tummy.

Whee! And if Julia is there with me, we like going down together.

It doesn't get any better than this! Here's a look at just how fearless I am on the playground:

Classic Barbie

2011-05-10T17:52:00.000-04:00

Do you think Aunt Jess knows that I played with her old Barbie dolls when we visited Grandma and Grandpa the other week?

I guess she does now!

Mom's the word

2011-05-09T10:47:00.001-04:00

Henry and I put together a very special Mother's Day for Mom. Inspired by the Fancy Nancy Mother's Day book, I decided to make Mom a fabulous breakfast in bed. So Dad and I made her eggs, toast and coffee, and I added our Mother's Day cards and a beautiful flower for the finishing touches. Voila!

Mom loved it — especially the coffee!

Then we all had brunch with Babcia and Dido at a new Asian restaurant downtown. While we were waiting for our food to come, I took the chopsticks and pretended to cut Henry's hair.

Brunch was yummy, and we ended the day with a very special treat: Mom and I went to see the Sleeping Beauty ballet, and it was terrific! What a great day — and I think Mom loved it too. Happy Mother's Day Mom, and Babcia and Grandma too...you guys are the best!

Clowning around

2011-05-06T15:02:00.000-04:00

I wanted to start the weekend with a smile on your face. Just like we did last year, at school we spent a few days talking about the circus, and they gave us all clown makeup!

Story(book Ball) time!

2011-05-05T13:41:00.002-04:00

Julia and I had the best time at the Storybook Ball. Yes, it was fun dressing up, but for me the best part was sprinting around the whole museum. We have lots of photos to share, so let's get started. As soon as we arrived, we posed for a picture in front of the museum.

We ran into lots of characters there, like Dorothy and Toto from The Wizard of Oz.

I kept going back to the slide all night long (along with the city bus). Wheee!

We also got some driving in.

And Princess Rapunzel spent time with a fellow princess.

Look, a swan!

While Julia hung out with the Queen of Hearts in the Alice in Wonderland-themed area...

I ran around in a room that seemed to keep getting smaller!

I couldn't resist going back to play with the ducks — and get as wet as possible.

As we were leaving, we said goodbye to several storybook characters, including one of the creatures from Where the Wild Things Are...

And the Velveteen Rabbit...

And Curious George...

And finally, the Please Teach Museum mascot.

As we were leaving, Julia reenacted the moment where Cinderella loses her slipper running from the ball.

It was a perfect night. Here's a video of our highlights, most of which involve me running amuck around the museum.

We're definitely coming back next year!

Having a (pre-)ball

2011-05-04T16:50:00.001-04:00

Henry and I had so much fun at the Storybook Ball over the weekend! I'll tell you all about it tomorrow, but for now we wanted to give you a peek at the costumes we wore. I was dressed as Rapunzel (along with many of the other girls there!) and Henry wore his Woody Halloween costume.

His hat and belt actually fit now, unlike at Halloween! Check back tomorrow for much more about the Storybook Ball.

Letting down my hair

2011-04-29T12:19:00.003-04:00

Step aside Kate! I know everyone is going nuts over the royal wedding today, but Kate isn't the only princess attending a fancy bash. Tomorrow, Henry and I are going to the Storybook Ball at the Please Touch Museum. And as you can see from the photo, I'll be dressing like my favorite princess, Rapunzel. Don't you love my long hair? Henry will be going as Woody from Toy Story.

It should be great fun, and we'll tell you all about it next week! My very first ball — I can't wait!

Cheery cherries

2011-04-27T16:19:00.001-04:00

Now that the weather is getting nicer, Babcia and Dido took Henry and me to a local park to see the cherry blossoms in bloom. I insisted on wearing one of my princess dresses; Henry, meanwhile, insisted on running around the whole time, which meant that it was hard to get him to stand still long enough to take any pictures. But here are lots of photos from our day frolicking among the cherry blossoms:

That last one is my favorite. I wish I could get Henry to be my royal servant all the time!

Happy Easter

2011-04-26T13:09:00.001-04:00

Our Easter was happy indeed. I was up bright and early Sunday morning so I could see what the Easter Bunny left for me. He hid my and Henry's baskets, and I was excited to discover that yes, he got me the little Rapunzel figurines I had been hoping for. There were some other goodies too, like colored bubbles (which ended up making a mess!) and Easter candy, including a chocolate bunny.

Delicious! Henry loved his too.

In the picture above, he's pointing at his Easter Bunny gift: a talking James train (from Thomas & Friends).

After going to church, we went over to Babcia and Dido's for our Easter feast. Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Jess were there too. There was lots of good food, but we were most excited about the Easter Bunny cake.

After the meal, and after Henry woke up from his nap, we took a few family pictures for Easter.

(Unfortunately Henry started throwing a fit when he sat down with Babcia and Dido, so those pictures didn't come out...)

Here's a video of some of our Easter highlights, especially finding our baskets in the morning.

As I told Mom and Dad, it was the best Easter ever!

Easter hop-penings

2011-04-25T14:18:00.002-04:00

The day before Easter, Julia and I were busy with lots of Easter activities, including another Easter egg hunt (we were going to do it in the backyard, but it poured so we had to do it indoors). Then we donned our fancy Easter outfits to go to Babcia and Dido's Ukrainian church for the annual blessing of the Easter baskets. See how spiffy I look!

And Julia too! What a terrific Easter dress!

Julia also had a special Easter bonnet and jacket—the same jacket that Babcia Helen (Babcia's Mom) made for Mom when Mom was a kid!

Here we all are at the blessing of the baskets.

We had three baskets to be blessed. Julia's is on the left, then mine, then Babcia and Dido's. It was a little too crowded for my tastes, so I ran around with Dad in the stairwell while the blessing was going on.

After the blessing, we went out to dinner with Babcia and Dido and had a special surprise: any impromptu run-in with the Easter Bunny!

Here's a video recap of our jam-packed Easter Saturday:

And Sunday was even better! We'll tell you about it tomorrow.

Bunny business

2011-04-22T11:38:00.003-04:00

Easter's almost here! Julia and I got an early taste of it last weekend, when we went to a Easter egg hunt at one of the local parks.

Alas, there was no candy in the eggs, just tattoos (which are fun too!) and little toys. Then we got to meet the Easter Bunny himself!

Here's a quick little video of our Easter adventure:

Hope you all have a Happy Easter!

Little buddy

2011-04-20T16:52:00.001-04:00

In addition to having weekly playdates, Isabella and I have been going to the same Little Gym class whenever we can. This picture is a bit blurry, but as you can see we have so much fun together at Little Gym!

Let's go crazy!

2011-04-19T12:09:00.007-04:00

While Julia was getting wedding tips from watching Mom & Dad's wedding video, I was concentrating on the music. Especially the song "Let's Go Crazy" from a guy named Prince (why isn't that guy in any of the Disney Princess movies that Julia watches?). Not only it is a great song to dance to, it has the word "crazy" in the title. Since I love being crazy, it's the perfect excuse for me to do just that! Take a look:

You're probably wondering what I was wearing in the video. Well, Julia and I decided to parade around in our new swimwear. I put on my Cars swimsuit, while Julia wore her Rapunzel coverup:

Cute...and crazy!

Here comes the bride (to-be)

2011-04-18T15:43:00.002-04:00

I've been watching Mom and Dad's wedding video, which has me thinking about my own wedding. (Hey, it's never too early to plan, right?) Over the weekend, after Mom had put my hair in curlers as I was getting ready for bed, inspiration struck for my wedding and I had to go downstairs and share it with Dad:

I got a bit distracted mid-plan as I started thinking about the pancakes Mom was going to make the next morning. But won't I make a beautiful bride one day?

Also, you're probably wondering what I'm wearing: it's one of my new Princess Tiana nightgowns! Isn't it super-fancy?

Sleeping alone

2011-04-15T13:38:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone! Julia and I didn't mean to go AWOL this week...it just kind of happened. But I wanted to check in before the end of the week and share my big news: in only one week's time, Dad transitioned me to falling asleep while he sits in a chair outside my bedroom with the door opened just a tiny crack. Dad said it took months to get Julia to that point! Anyway, have a great weekend, and we'll have new photos and videos for you next week!

P.S. Remember Ask Julia & Henry? Probably not, because we haven't had a question all year! So why not send a few our way?

Hanging in my crib

2011-04-07T16:33:00.001-04:00

I've been sleeping in really late these past couple weeks, but whenever I do get up on the earlier side, Julia likes to ask Mom and Dad if she can go into the crib and cuddle/play with me. We always have fun being silly and running around the crib—and sometimes we just hug.

Bronx cheers

2011-04-06T11:35:00.001-04:00

A couple weeks ago when Mom and Dad were on vacation, they took Henry and I to the Bronx Zoo. We've been to lots of zoos, but we had still never been to that one before so it was great to finally get to see it for ourselves. It was a chillier day than we had been expecting, so Henry and I were a little less energetic than you would have expected, but we still had fun seeing all the animals. Henry especially had a great time motoring around the zoo.

I'm just glad we went before that cobra escaped the other week. That would have been scary!

Crash into me

2011-04-05T17:07:00.001-04:00

I'm already looking forward to going to Wildwood, Sesame Place and any other places with rides that we might visit this summer. Because wherever we go, I have a feeling Julia and I are going to ride the kiddie bumper cars. Take a look at this:

In the paint

2011-03-31T16:51:00.001-04:00

In honor of Tuesday's Blu-ray release of Tangled, here's a look at us painting those towers we talked about a couple weeks ago. I really enjoyed painting mine...and so did Henry!

Here's a video of us at work:

Of course, now we don't play with these towers as much as we used to a couple weeks ago...but it was fun while it lasted!

Disco ball

2011-03-29T16:51:00.001-04:00

Time for more dancing! A few weeks ago, Henry and I (and Nia, too!) went to this special dance party at the mall called Baby Loves Disco. They had lots of fun stuff for kids: crafts, nail painting, tattoos...

And of course, dancing!

We really love to dance, in case you haven't noticed!

Winging it

2011-03-28T16:50:00.004-04:00

The insects were on the loose! At Isabella's birthday party a few weeks ago, Henry and I made butterfly and dragonfly wings. Then when we got home, we put them on and started running around the house, acting silly. To be even sillier, I pretended that I was Raggedy Ann, because Mom has been terrified of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy since she was a kid. It was great fun.

Dancing in circles

2011-03-25T13:52:00.004-04:00

Julia and I wanted to end the week with a video we took during our trip up to Connecticut last week. We visited with Aunt Jess and lots of our favorite people, like Andrew, Lucie, Abby and Sophia. One of our favorite parts of the trip (besides running through the hotel) was when Lucie showed Julia and I how to play Just Dance 2. It's a Wii game where you dance around and try to mimic the moves of the person onscreen. We couldn't do that, but we still had a blast dancing to the music. Take a look.

Have a great weekend!

True colors

2011-03-23T10:49:00.001-04:00

I've been doing a lot of growing up in the past couple months. After far too long, my parents finally ditched the bath seat I'd been using in the tub. Now I sit in the tub all by myself!

But that's nothing compared to what else I can do: name all my colors! Here's a video Dad took of me showing off a couple weeks ago. Back then, I still struggled a bit with recognizing things that are red, but now I know all of them!

Spring awakening

2011-03-22T17:19:00.000-04:00

It's spring this week (even though it snowed yesterday morning!), which means it's time for me to break out my spring wardrobe, including this colorful dress. Don't I look beautiful?

You'll also notice this braid in my hair, which I got during my haircut last week. It looks great, and helps keep my hair out of my face too.

I love being outside and getting some fresh air after being cooped up all winter!