Independently standing!

He didn't need anything to pull himself up, he doesn't have anything to hold...

Just standing there, and loving it. 

Whoops.

Hey!  I just learned how to do this! Gimmie a break!

Ummm... Honey? Is that *my* wedding veil?

Why yes, yes it is.  And now I'm off to marry your husband....  (He's her "prince")

Holy cannoli!

Naked baby tookas! 

Busted!  Yes, yes, I'm photographing your butt again.

Jonas has a waffle.

And he's reeeaaaallly excited about it.

YEAH! WAFFLE!

All that excitement wore him out.

So he got comfy to watch a little Elmo.

Yes, yes, yes. More butt pictures.

Look at it!  It's so soft and plump!  I just want to squeeze it.

Jonas, however, has other ideas.

He figures if he knocks me over I won't be able to get the naked butt pictures.

He's right.  Knocking me down and laying on me?  Amazingly effective at keeping my camera pointed up, at the ceiling, instead of down at his tookas. (If anyone has a better spelling for that, let me know.)

Oh

For

The

LOVE!

Who gave this kid mousse?

His own bowl?

No supervision?

He's ONE!

Nobody thought "Hey! Maybe I should spoon feed this kid, instead of handing him a tool to destroy the dining room, his outfit, his high chair...."  Who did this?

Oh.  That was me, wasn't it. (Look at this face!  Could you say no?)

When he was done, he pitched his bowl.  You can see it there in the bottom right corner.

Quite an arm that kid has, when it's fueled by chocolate and sugar!

Yeah.

He can climb on the couch now.

Unassisted.

And we know he loves the hat.

So I wandered out and found this.

Fireman on the couch!

I, of course, took 4 million pictures.

And seem to have posted 3 million of them here.

Oh, yeah. 

This is totally what this toy is for.

It seems that I can take 4 million pictures.

But only think up captions for about 15.

So while these are super cute,

You'll have to caption them in your head, yourselves.

Don't let the lack of pithy comment keep you from opening them.

He's adorable.

Look at that sweet face!

Another waffle.  The boy is obsessed.

I swear, these girls are not being tortured. I don't know what is up with these "smiles".

Ok, that's a bit better, now that they have their babies.

Jaynie's friend Bridget came over for a "sleepover" (translation - we babysat while her parents went out to dinner.)

And we looked in her bag we found an almost identical nightgown, and the exact same slippers as Madam has.

They were pretty stoked about matching, and we were pretty stoked about getting pictures of it.  How cute are these girls? 

Hmmm.  What is this?

Uck! Cream of Wheat?  The hell?

Hmmm.  Actually pretty good.  Messy, just how I like it.

Uh, yeah I'm wearing a tiara at breakfast?

Sheesh, Mom.  What else do you expect?

Speaking of wearing cute stuff...

Jonas has free access to my baking stuff.

This would be the sides of a springform cake pan.

What is he thinking here?  Necklace?

I'm thinking "Huh, that'd keep his hands down when I'm wiping his nose..."

This kid gets THE wrinkliest feet in the bathtub.

Seriously!  Look at these suckers!  I can't explain why water affects his feet more than anybody elses.  

Aaah.  Our vacation to Abruzzo.  Here we have the princess climbing up up up to the top of the completely vertical town we stayed in (Navelli).

And here's a hysterical one of me and the kids.  Hysterical because of Madam's tiara situation, and also?

Jonas's complete lack of interest in our explorations.  (He couldn't fall asleep snuggled up against me?  He had to lean waaaaay out like that?  My back!  My poor, poor back!)

What?  You've  never worn a tiara over a wool hat before?

We reached the top just in time for sunset.  How pretty is that?

Here we are, crossing the moat to get into the Castle in L'Aquila (Joe took approximately 40348037 pictures from this angle looking at the mountains, but not one of the fortress itself.  If you follow that link you'll find a good shot, and also some info about the city and the stuff we saw.) 

Entering a real, live CASTLE!  Jaynie was beside herself.

She insisted on the dress and tiara when touring the castle.  She wanted to look "Princessy!"

We check out some art.

Jaynie was a big fan of any painting with angels in it.  A princess castle with angel paintings?  Does it get any better?

The Fontanna Delle 99 Cannelle

Basically, the fountian w/ 99 spigots.  We counted. 

After a hard day of castle touring, the Twink is beat.

Jonas finally sees his chance to wear the tiara.

Hmmm.  This is trickier than it looks. 

Basilica Santa Maria di Collemaggio.

We tried to tell her it was a church, but she was insistent that this was also a "castle".  Especially once she went inside and saw the painted ceilings, sculpture, etc. Then it was "MY castle!"

Tired Mommy, with fat baby tied to her.

Tired (but happy) Mommy, with fat baby tied to her, and kid hanging from her leg.

Outside big, impressive church (that I have no idea the name of - it was in Sulmona)

Inside big, impressive (nameless) church.

Sulmona was beautiful.

It's famous for candy-making, and there were shops all along the roads with big flowers and butterflies etc made from candy.

We didn't get a single picture of all that.  But look!  Pretty mountains!

Back home just in time for me to open my birthday presents!

Does that look like a 30 year old to you?  No?  That's what I thought.

Princesses, ready for the Carnevale party!

What's this?

A duck, also ready to party!

And now, some action shots.

Yes, she insisted on pink cowboy boots with this dress.

Well, what would you have chosen?

Surely not sneakers?

Ok, you probably can't tell what's going on here...

But they've got all the kids doing kind of a conga line thing..

Except Jaynie.  She just danced right in the middle of it,  never noticing that she was the only one not in line.  Gotta love her.

Back at home, we see what she was hiding under the Snow White dress...

Pj's and boots!  That's some look, Twink.

Ah, our day at the Naples zoo.

These birds were the first animals we saw.

Before we realized what a nightmare the zoo was.

So just appreciate how cute these kiddos are.

And never, ever go to the zoo in Naples.  Trust me on this.

Back on base,

For pizza in the park!

Does it get any better than this?

Apparently not!

I love how they both looked like little Eskimos this winter.

Thank you, Emma, for the cute coat!

Spinning herself - how did this kid get so big?

And how did this kid get so messy?

Ah, by eating both his and Jaynie's pizza.  Right.

She didn't even notice. Too. Busy. PLAYING!

Ok, kid.  That's great, but could you smile now?

Perfect!

The Moore's hit Rome!

We come with cute kids and a camera.

Ready to take pictures in front of anything that holds still.

What the heck is he so amused by?

Holy cow - something's funny...

Ah, this would be our trip to the Rome zoo.

Sooooo much better than Naples.

Jonas loved the goats. (Joe assured me that he didn't let Jonas actually put his hand in the goat's mouth.  I'd say this picture makes him a liar, wouldn't you?)

Looking at "What lions eat".  Interesting exhibit, considering it's proximity to the.. uh.. food. 

I didn't see any of this first hand.

Imagine my surprise at finding these pictures of her crossing a tightrope.

What?  I'm totally up for this!

Give me a little credit, Mom.

This I did see.

Brother and sister see-saw.  How fun is this?

More fun than this net swing, apparently.

Seriously, have you ever seen two kids have less fun?

Watching the Italian elephants veeery carefully.  Never know what they do differently over here.

Wanting to tour Rome but have kids that still take an afternoon nap? No problem!  They can sleep while you go!

These are the Spanish Steps.  These are the Spanish Steps covered with people.  These are the Spanish Steps covered with people that Joe pushed Jaynie (sleeping in the stroller) down.  We meant to find the bottom of them, but accidentally approached from the top.  Whoops.

Kids in front of Saint Peter's. 

Ha.  Kids and Mommy (who is attempting to hide from the camera) in front of St. Peter's. Guess he's too fast for me. 

Trevi Fountain!

We all threw money in, so we'll all be back. =)

Jaynie with another street performer.  She's a sucker for a guy in make-up.

Would you look at this cheesy smile?  What a ham.

Jaynie cracking me up, in the Forums.

Pushing that stroller up that uneven walkway w/ all the huge potholes?  Just as much of a nightmare as it looks.

This looks like a baby with a plan...

Ah.  The plan is to strip naked and climb all over his Dad.  (Anyone else rooting for him to pee here?  Or is that just me?)

What, exactly, is going on over there?

Aaah.  I see.  Joe had the dragon breath, and Jonas is trying to help him out.

After a strenuous game of dentist, Jonas likes to do some heart-attack-inducing climbing.