Ferrara's in Florida

There's nothing like cousins! Sable & Ruby met their first cousins Tony, Holli, Lexi, T, Rhea & Aiden. Boy did they have a blast. Most vacations are just another work day for me -- just in a different (usually tougher) environment (because we're away from home). But this trip was different: Perhaps I enjoyed myself the most as the four kids entertained Sable, Philip and Tony engaged in ping-pong wars, and Holli pampered Ruby. Just when I began to reminisce about the wonderfully relaxing day, Ruby started winding up and belted cries from the back seat for 90 minutes on the way home...

Pastor Fabian, the pastor we served for 5 years in NYC, now has a blog. He is very inspiring and encouraging. I will add it to my Friends Near and Far links so that you can regularly check it for uplifting words and motivation to be all that you can be for God. http://www.pastorfabe.blogspot.com/

The real superstar: Daddy. Ruby can't keep her hands off him. Sable can't get enough of him; notice, she is wearing his socks.

After two whole years Sable is attempting to say her first name. It has been a process: At first when I would ask, "SABLE, what's your name?" She would point to her chest and say "NAME!!" After Ruby was born I would insist, "SABLE, what's your name?" She would habitually poke her index finger to herself and say, "Ruby! Ruby!" But this week she got it and she is not only answering my question with her name but she is speaking in the third person...and every blond-haired child on the TV or Internet bears the name Sable in her eyes...except it sounds like "Hair Bow."

...these days with my two beauties. Life can also be described as a circus, too, but with all the commotion comes lots of laughter.

Ruby is privy to our most confidential files, phone calls, and business. In the first six months of her life, she's spent many feedings between me and my laptop. It's just plain easier to nurse her while working than it is to pump at my desk. Someone needs to create a quieter pump--Last week I was on a call when in the middle of a sentence, the person said, "Wait, are you back in New York? I hear the subway passing." HA! Ruby's last feeding of the night My little luv bugg

Ruby Simone Sable Yukari Sable Yukari Ruby Simone

We did it. My girls and I ventured to uncharted territory: the mall with no help (unless you count 'help' as Sable refusing to sit in the double stroller insisting she help me push Ruby in it). Piercing Ruby's ears was a 360 from piercing Sable's. I thought it would be a 1-2 punch no fuss experience...the joke was on me. Ruby squirms alot and I was hoping she'd just sit still on my lap, ha! So Ruby fussed when her ears were marked with dots. Then the gun on her ear lobe...and my hand on her forehead...and bloody screams sans blood. Ear #2 pierced with a ruby stud...it stole my Ruby's breath away...then gasps of air...and more screaming with real tears (awwww). Then the "oohs" and "ahhhs" of the passersby approving of the rubies on my Ruby...the frown faded and the smile returned. I was going to celebrate my success of this eventful ear-piercing with my near-two-year-old touching every make-up sample, brush, counter and mirror in Merle Norman ...