Plugged in

Here's one of the girls' favorite poses - camped out on the floor to watch the Letter Factory. Julia asks for "ABCs, ABCs!" It is by far her favorite video.

Monkey in a tube

Here's a pic of Julia all dressed up for one of the many attempts to visit Santa at the mall for pics with him. They went to the play area to calm the troops. However, this trooper was particularly uncooperative when it came time to snap a pic with ol' Saint Nick. Got to hand it to mommy, she's quite persistent. But, in the end, Julia never did make it into a pic with Santa this year.

Perhaps its not her fault, or as mommy says, "she got it honestly." There are quite a few Santa pics from when I was a toddler where one or all of us was screaming, crying, or not in the pic (presumably being consoled off camera by Yiayia - Papou didn't put up with a whole lot of unhappiness).

Sophia, on the other hand, she's all about Santa. She could visit him every day if it were possible (and there for a while, it did seem like it).

The "Mo"

I never did make a post about my "mo". Yes, that's me with the mustache, but its gone now.
I grew a mustache for the entire month of November, or I should save Movember.

In Australia, the slang name for a mustache is a "mo". The Prostate Cancer Foundation has a fundraiser where you get people to sponsor you to grow your mo for the month - and all the money goes toward the PCF research. I was incredibly lucky to raise just over $1,500, which was my goal. If you want to know more about it, visit Movember.com

As far as the mo, I was OK with it but kind of bothered me, especially while I was working out (trapping sweat). Surprisingly, the girls didn't seem to care one way or another. Stephanie took this picture on December 1, after which I promptly shaved it off.

So, as Paul Harvey would say, now you know the REST of the story....

Missing the Girls

Well, it has been several days since the girls have gone up to Yiayia's house for the holiday weeks. Meanwhile, I've been holding down the fort and traveling (Cincy & Indy). Its been awful lonely not hearing the thump-bump, I mean, pitter patter of little feet. But, the girls are happy baking cookies with mommy & Yiayia.

On the other hand, I can't say I miss the snow. When I talked to mommy (Stephanie), she said, "now I know why were down there." Seeing the Brownies highlights from Sunday - I was cold just watching it. The front end of the that same big storm brought cool temps (40ish) and rain but it skipped back into the 50s within a day or so. Of course, I got a small taste of the snow in Indy (22F when we left the hotel on Thursday morning to trekk to the airport) . Anyhow, got to run - need some sleep before I'm back to the airport tomorrow to go see the girls!!!!!

Sorry - no pics (Stephanie took the laptop with all the pics). However, I PROMISE that I will post pics once I catch up to them.

Cute Little Turkey

Still catching up from the Thanksgiving pics. I couldn't resist to post Mommy's favorite: the cute little turkey!!!! Of course, then Julia runs in circles yipping: "turkey, turkey, turkey."

On that front, Grace is doing quite well. She went for her first doctor's visit down here (her 1 week visit was still in Cle) and a round of shots (oh, she LOVED that part). Nonetheless, she's just over 12 pounds in about 10 weeks - so roughly a sack of potatoes. Not bad, but then again, she's eating at every turn of the bend. Likewise, she doing great developmentally - cooing, smiling, and giggling very softly.

Still can't get over all that hair....

Thanksgiving

First, let me apologize that its been so long since the last post. I've been traveling a lot during November. Additionally, our phone & DSL were out for last 8 days (moisture got into the local telecom hub on our street - not so good for the fiber optic cable).

Anyhow, all is well, albeit a little hectic. Stephanie has been singlehandedly holding down the fort while I've been on the road. The girls, between bouts of restlessness, have been doing well. Mommy has been taking them to the library often for story time and to get fresh books (Sophia's newest is about gorillas, the last set included a book about giant squid; Julia is partial to Bob the Builder).

Here's a couple pictures from Thanksgiving:

Getting More Settled

The girls are getting more settled. The found the library and recently visited the Children's Museum, both which they love!

It does take time to get into a routine, especially when its multiplied by 3!!!

Here's a pic of Grace.

Going to Church

First, I apologize that we haven't been blogging as much, its been extremely busy at work and Stephanie has not entirely gotten her feet planted on the ground here. Its only been 3 weeks since they got here. And she's been working very hard to get the house in some shape - it essentially was still in boxes or just out of the boxes when we got here.

Did I mention that she doesn't really know where things are - like the grocery store and Target? So, she hasn't had time to breathe let alone blog. Which means that the blogging is all up to daddy.

Anyhow, this is a pic of the 2 big munchkins - all ready to go to church with daddy and Yiayia (its from 2 weeks ago). Yiayia has since gone back to C-town. Everyone was very sad to see her go. We have talked to her a number of times on the phone but its not the same as having Yiayia with you. The girls talk about how they miss their Yiayia all the time, especially Julia.

We watched almost all of the Tribe-Sox series, every crummy frame of it. Most of you know that I'm the least conspiracy-oriented person, but I still think that Casey Blake may have been paid off.... In any case, its over now, and there plenty of other great things to focus on - like our beautiful girls!!!

Sophia's 5th Birthday Party

We were very lucky to have Thea Chris and Yiayia come to visit for Sophia's Birthday. It was the first visit to Memphis for both.

It was the first birthday party in the new house and, fittingly, it was big sister Sophia's. Mommy made a beautiful chocolate cake that was decorated with Little Mermaid figures (Sophia helped of course).

Here's a shot of the birthday girl blowing out the candles...

Here's a shot of Sophia, Mommy, and Grace.

Additionally, several family friends sent cards and presents for Sophia, which was extremely thoughtful.

Thea Chris was able to visit for the weekend. But Yiayia was able to arrange her work schedule and stay for 10 days!!!

Getting Acclimated

The girls are trying to get acclimated to their new surroundings. Even though they're still quite young, its still a big change.

Its also a big change for mommy. Besides recovering from a major surgery and herding the girls, she also learning about a new house, new city, etc., not to mention not being able to find things that are inadverantly misplaced or still packed somewhere (damn gremlins!).

Meanwhile, daddy is trying to get back in the saddle at work after being gone for 2 weeks. First day back was the being of our internal research conference, so its been hectic - including presentations and formal dinners to entertain some of our out of town people. Of course, it doesn't help that we also just passed quarter end, so there's lots of mandatory deadlines.

Thankfully, Thea Chris and Yiayia (daddy's sister & mom) are coming this weekend for Sophia's 5th birthday party. It will be nice for them to take some heat off of mommy. It will also be the first trip to Memphis for both.

So, we need to get cleaning. And, as the picture suggests, Gracie is sleeping on the job...

We made it

We left Cleveland on Thursday afternoon. Earlier in the day, Stephanie went to her post-op follow-up appointment with her doctor - and everything went well. Picking up the midgets from school was a little tough since most of the teachers had to say good-bye to the girls.

We decided to drive straight through after we got so far in very good time, despite rain through most of Ohio. We weighed the fact that the midgets were sleeping pretty good in van (don't let the sweet pics fool you, they were still restless). Even with stopping several times, including an hour or so for dinner, we made it just about 12 hours.

We made it here (G'town) early in the morning - at about 2am ET/1am CT. Yet, he girls still woke up at 6:15am, which made Friday a rough day. Mommy and daddy were in a foggy haze. We scrambled around trying to get things in working order (some groceries, laundry, cleaning supplies {the movers WON'T move them}, etc).

I'm getting a little concerned, though. Nearly every place we've gone, people are 'shocked' that we have three little ones, and all girls on top of it. You'd think we had quintuplets by the reactions we've gotten. Its kind of comical to watch people's reaction to the three of them, but maybe they know something we don't...

Anyhow, we're finally all here and its nice to sleep in our own bed (even if it is just in a few hour shifts).

A Visit To Uncle Bob's

Today was Gracie's one week doctor's appointment. She checked out "A-OK" and she's essentially back to her birth weight. As an aside, we are sad to leave the wonderful care of Dr. Abrahamson and his staff. They have been wonderful from Sophia's first visit through Grace's. Hopefully we will be able to find such good care in Memphis.

After the appointment, we picked up mommy and the big sisters, so that Gracie could meet Uncle Bob for lunch. Bob is among Stephanie's (and Sophia's!) best and dearest friends.

Thankfully Bob is tech-savvy. He took some pictures and emailed them over to us. We had a good lunch and then visited with Bob for a brief while (before the wheels fell off the cart - this time it was Julia, who had a full scale "binky attack" as soon as we left).

Sophia summed it up best when we pulled out of Bob's driveway, "I love Bob, but we'll see him soon." While we will miss Bob very much, we know that we will see him again soon - and that he can come visit us in Memphis.

Getting Out

The weather in Cleveland on Saturday afternoon was incredible - sunny and 80+. Since mommy was feeling up to it and the natives definitely needed to run off some energy, we headed out to spend some time enjoying the day.

For those in the clan, you might recognize this day as a small tribute to Papou (sans the trip Westside Market, which he did most every Saturday). We started by going down to the Metroparks to feed the ducks on the Rocky River at Eddie's boat dock. Given the time of day and how warm it was, there weren't a lot of duck - maybe 5. Nonetheless, we had a loaf of bread to feed the duckies. A whole gaggle of geese snuck up behind us to crash the party, which chased off the ducks.

We then drove to Lakewood Park to play and run off some of the energy. We started on the bouncy animals (I likey!) and the swings. Can't skip the slide, sooooooo we ran over there too - big sister Sophia is a big fan of the 'twisty' slide. Lastly, we went down the smaller slide for Julia.

Of course, no trip to the park is complete without ICE CREAM, so we headed over to Dairy Queen for a quickie cone - as Yiayia would say, a "micro ho-nocky". Mmmmm, ice cream.....

However, no real tribute to Papou is possible without buying a TV. Yiayia has a small TV/VHS combo in the family room area. It is nice because it fit nicely on a small stand in the corner. It certainly served its purpose, especially when Yiayia had the girls over. But, its just a little too small. So, Sophia and daddy went to procure a suitable TV to watch Dora and Boots. Thankfully Wal-Mart had a great flatpanel 20" LCD/DVD on sale, which fits perfectly on the same stand. (You shop a Wal-Mart too, you just won't admit it, so stop).

We topped off the tribute with a dinner of pork chops and french fries Papou-style, although no cole slaw (sorry Pop, we were out of cabbage). It truly was a great family day.

Being Cute

Julia is doing her best to be as cute as humanly possible. Here she is "bringing" Gracie's spitty cloth to daddy. She has obviously become more comfortable with having Gracie around. She has taken to repeating "our Gracie, our Gracie" several hundred times until mommy or daddy acknowledges that she is, in fact, our Gracie.

The Natives

With a new inhabitant, the "natives" are a little restless. This is what confronted me at the backdoor when I was bring everything out of the van yesterday.

Notice the cute little nose pushed against the glass. Any expert in native behaviors will tell you that is a classic sign of marking your territory, as in "see those smudge marks? They're MINE! And if you want me to share my sippy cup with you , you'd better back it up or I'll open up a can o' whoop@ss on you too!"

Meanwhile, Gracie is humming right along - literally and figuratively. She has a soft hum when she sleeps, just like Mommy. Of course, she's sleeping a lot since she's brand new. The good news is that she falls right back to sleep when she feeds at night (I don't believe in jinxes).

Mommy is on the mend. She's feeling better by the day, but it is still major surgery. She goes to see the doctor for her follow up visit next Thursday, after which we'll probably begin the 10+ hour trekk to Memphis.

With the impending departure less than a week away, Mommy is getting a little sentimental for Cleveland (as in: I can't believe its gonna finally happen, at some points it seemed like it never would). I, on the other hand, have had nearly 8 months of lonely dinners in Memphis to diffuse any thoughts of extending our stay more than necessary. The one exception is the Indians. While I will be able to watch the playoff games on TV in Memphis, I won't be able to listen to Tom Hamilton calling the game on the radio. Nor can I go to game if Rob calls with an extra ticket....

The Girls are Home!!!!

We were finally able to spring the girls from the hospital today. Gracie is starting to eat like a champ. Mommy also starting to feel a lot better, although better is a relative description given everything she's been through. They took out her staples and she has been getting around much better. The tough part will be trying to follow doctor's orders not to pick up the other two midgets.

The big sisters are helping in their own ways. Sophia truly has been trying to help, while Julia has just been trying to pawn off her binky to Gracie. She keeps running over to Gracie and yelling "Binky, binky!". I suppose its because its what makes her feel good, so she figures that Gracie would want to at least try it. So far no luck - she's not even interested - all of which has Julia puzzled. "If she's my sister, how can she not take to the binky like a duck to water?" Whether Gracie will or not remains to be seen.

Anyhow, it is nice to have the girls home, even if its just a temporary home. For those paying for the premium service: yiayia is on her way to Italy. She's probably half way there by now. She needs the break from work, although she'd never tell anyone that. Night, night...

The New Baby

Friends, Romans, and Countrymen....lend me your - binky? That's right, its time to start lending your binky and your Yiayia. When you're just a year and half, that's a TALL ORDER (just ask Julia).

Anyhow, I decided to create a blog so that you can follow the comings-and-goings of the growing Skor Fam.

Yesterday was obviously a HUGE day. Grace Theano was born at 12:36pm...7lbs 2oz, 21" long. Mom and baby are doing great. Hopefully we'll get to spring them both on Thursday AM.

Big sisters, Sophia and Julia, came to visit. Sophia was great with her new little sister, but Julia was a little freaked out that Mommy and Yiayia were holding someone else. While we're talking about Yiayia, she was surprised that we decided on Theano for the middle name.

I'll do my best to post regularly. Stay tuned, this is gonna be fun!!!!!