Happy Halloween from the Petersons!

Today was Alice's first taste of Halloween and she loved it!  She got dressed up in her first costume (a monkey) ...

and had her two favorite bananas...

take her out for her first Trick-or-Treat!

We also had guests visiting from out of town... not sure if you can figure them out from their costumes... but there will be a full post later telling of their adventures in Boston.

What a night for Lisa! (and a week for Lantern!)

This past Friday was a big night for Lisa (aka Alice's mommy) because she received an award at Simmons College for excelling in her 'other job' .  Lisa was honored with the Simmons College Recent Alumna Achievement Award and it made for a very special night.

Danny, Chris (C-Bap), Chris (the mother) and Steve all came up to Boston to celebrate with Lisa.  The dinner was great and the atmosphere was festive.

I even managed to sneak in a picture with the guest of honor!

Lisa gave a speech highlighting what it meant to her to have received a Simmons education and how it has impacted her life and career.  She did a great job and several people at the event offered their congratulations at her achievement.

Leah was also in attendance (and very much responsible for Lisa's nomination!) and shared in the fun
.

To add to it all, Lantern Financial was interviewed in the New York Times on Saturday (link here) talking about the Harmoney service and how the company helps counsel couples.  All in all it was an amazing weekend for Lisa and Lantern!

Alice's First Pumpkin!

Fall has officially arrived here in New England.  The weather has been predictably unpredictable so far - we recently had a snowstorm, and today, we had one of the most beautiful days we've had in a while.  We estimate it was in the low 70s and sunny.

Even though it is still a bit big for her, we thought today would be the perfect day for Alice to wear the sweater that her Grammie Baptiste made her before she was born.  Look at how much she loves it!  So pretty!:

We took Alice to the flower market down the street from us to look at all of the pumpkins today.  Here she is with Mommy, taking it all in:

We love these two photos, and also the fact that they were taken just seconds apart from each other!  Alice has such a range of emotions to share these days!:

Alice chose a pumpkin just her size - here she is checking it out back at home:

Those who were concerned will be happy to know that Alice and Ducky have made up and are good friends again.  We are hopeful for a happy 6 month photo in a few weeks!:

We hope everyone enjoyed this weekend as much as we did.  Here is a link to the rest of Alice's photos from this weekend.

5 Months Old and Anatidaephobia

Alice has reached the five month mark so its time to post some new growth pictures!  Before we got started with the photo shoot, we got a couple great pictures of the family.

We also got a great new picture for Scott's office!

This is where things started to go wrong.  It appears that Alice has all of a sudden developed anatidaephobia (fear of ducks!).  On our first attempt, Alice started crying as soon as the big ducky came out.  We tried to calm her down, but there was no luck.  She only wanted to cuddle in Mommy's arms after being terrorized by the ducky!

We tried again this weekend, but it was the same result.  She sat happily on the couch until the big yellow monster appeared.

We did find a solution to the problem though... who knows what will happen next month!

The photos in the online album tell a more complete story.  Enjoy!

Strollin'

We were noticing that our camera always ends up with lots of pictures of Alice in the stroller / car seat. Some of these pictures are repeats and some are new ones, but they are all of our little cutie.

This one is really funny to us... look at how THIN those legs are!

Here is a link to this set of  photos

Alice tells a story

Here is a little video of Alice telling Mommy a very slobbery story.

Here is a montage of Alice clips... Scott apologizes for all the crazy transitions!

Bennetts in Boston

Shannon and Mary Bennett were in town this past weekend to meet Alice for the first time, celebrate both of their birthdays, and enjoy some time away from the snow in Minnesota.  They arrived Friday evening and we spent the night catching up, playing with Alice and reminiscing about that time Scott made that cake...

Alice spent the time hamming it up with Daddy.

On Sunday, the rain stopped and the sun came out, so we bundled up and headed north to the town of Salem, MA.  As you can see, Alice was excited to get out of the house!

We walked all over the streets of Salem and saw some very, very scary things: including witches, random people in capes, strange fortune tellers, and the scariest of them all happen down this alley.... a poopy diaper to change!

After we got home and had dinner, we enjoyed some intense gaming.  No one remembers the final scores, but we all enjoyed the competition (well, ok, Scott remembers he destroyed Shannon in connect four... well, at least that is how he remembers it!)

We all agree though that Shannon is a more skilled rower than Scott!

 



On Monday we traveled to the Science museum in Boston where we visited the planetarium, Triceratops and the butterfly garden.

I'm not sure if Alice really noticed any of the butterflies, but I am sure she like to be up close to all the pretty flowers and green leaves.  It was a chore to keep her fingers at bay!

We all had a great time visiting with Shannon and Mary and we wish them happy, happy birthdays!  We are also looking forward to their new family member in May!  Alice will have a new little friend in MN and we can't wait to visit!

 

As always, bonus pics can be found in the web albums!

Rice Cereal for One, Please

Today we gave Alice her first taste of rice cereal.  We won't go so far as to say she loved it (as you can see from photo #2), but she didn't cry once.  It seemed the strangest part for her was the spoon.  It was very impressive how quickly she would open her mouth for the spoon, but as she chomped down on it, it seemed to feel funny in her mouth.

It was a successful experiment though!  Now we will wait 24 hours to see how her tummy handles it (ie how well the diaper handles it) and then we will slowly start to blend some more cereal into her diet.

Happy weekend from the Petersons!

Daddy DayCare

Today, Lisa has a client appointment downtown, so I am home with Alice for another day of Daddy DayCare!  We have had a fun day so far.  We went for a walk and then a car ride!  We visited some friends in Medford and then came home for a nap... Alice even took a nap too!

I thought this would be a great time to post some great pictures that Lisa recently took.  You can tell that Lisa took the pics, because Scott is in half of them!

Here is the link to the web album. Enjoy!