Back by Popular Demand!

I've neglected The Rock for too long it would seem and the outrage has been singular (namely from my brother). So, to keep you upon the Black Family's activities, I've put December and January up in one gallery.

The quick update is that Quinn is walking around a little more when supported, but still not on his own. He also just started speech and feeding therapy (that makes three therapies... oy!). He LOVES his Music for Aardvarks class and just about anything else having to do with music. On the other hand, he's not a big fan of snow.

Lyla is still having a great time in her dance classes and at pre-school. She spends a lot of time in our "Art Center" and has made many valentines and other artistic masterpieces.

We currently are having a couple weeks of grandmother mania. Erin is doing some work for NYU, so our mom's have agreed to help out with the kids. Grandma Jane is in right now and about to head back to Wisconsin. Next week, Mima comes over to put in her time with the little ones.

Lyla and Quinn will be making a visit to the mikvah next week to have their official conversion to Judaism and then on Saturday, they'll receive their Hebrew names at our synagogue.

I should have made a New Year's resolution to fill in the blog more, but I guess I missed that boat. Oh well! ;-)

Happy Hannukah!

Tonight is the last night of Hannukah, so I just have enough time to get this greeting up! We hope you all had a great Hannukah.

We had a great November and got to see lots of friends and family, as you can see by our November Photo Gallery. December has been a little rough with cold season and some little aches and pains along the way, but we're hoping everyone is in great shape for next week when we head out to Wisconsin to celebrate Christmas with the Slattery's!

We wish all of you a very happy New Year! May it be filled with love, laughter and health.

Black Friday!!

What better way to celebrate our family's national holiday, Black Friday than shopping with us! If you're planning on shopping at Amazon, do it through our link below. It will keep our kids cute. I swear! We'll be able to keep them fed and clothed and it won't really make a difference to you if you're shopping there anyway.

October Photos are Up!

The latest photo album is up for your viewing pleasure.

Things are going pretty well in the Black Haus. Lyla informed me the other night, "You're the best daddy I ever had. I'm gonna love you forever. You're my hero." Lyla now has a pony, ice cream for dinner every night and a gold tea set for her dolls. Aside from that, she's been loving pre-school and is coming home with all kinds of new information and stories to tell us. It's kind of odd that she has a life without either of her parents around.

Quinn has gotten pretty good about pulling himself up on tables, drawers, cabinets, etc. and can now get himself back to sitting, too. He still isn't walking, though. We're not sure if he still hasn't developed the leg strength for it, he's too scared to try or he's just plain lazy. Hopefully he'll get walking soon, but for now, he's crawling like a demon and opening up and emptying every cabinet he can. He hasn't done much in the way of talking either. The most he'll say is "hi" and "mumma". However, he LOVES music. He'll sway back and forth to the beat as soon as he hears any music and he plays the instruments in his music class with total glee.

Quinn Crawling

So, Quinn finally got shaped up enough to get to crawling a few weeks ago. He has low muscle tone, which has led to developmental delays in a few areas, like mobility. Erin has been dealing with juggling his physical therapy and occupational therapy for the last six months or so. Unfortunately, the Early Intervention program is filled with a bunch of therapists who don't really answer to anyone and can shift around appointments whenever they want or not show up or show up late. Whatever works for them, which has made it very difficult to schedule for Erin, Lyla and Quinn's time.

Erin ended up taking Quinn to another therapist outside of Early Intervention who she drives to (yay for having a car!), but that makes 5 times a week he has therapy. He'd better start catching up soon to stop this madness. However, he has started making strides standing while holding on to things like tables and is crawling all over the place, which is fantastic.

So, with no further ado... here's Quinn crawling!

Settling into Autumn

The September Gallery is up! Everything is going pretty well, aside from the regular kid issues like crying for unknown reasons and whining and sibling rivalry. I'll update a bit more on that later and have some video of Quinn crawling... finally!