Thanksgiving with the cousins

This year for Thanksgiving, we decided to take a drive down to Orange County and spend some time with Mommy's side of the family. We had a big turkey dinner with the family and followed it up with a trip to the Long Beach aquarium the day after.

Love and Hate: the story of sisters

Well, it's been quite a while since the last posting. Ayla had her 5th birthday back in September and Izzy is about to turn 3 in November. Our Ayla, who was once a cute little drooly bald headed baby, has started kindergarten as well. Thanks to Paul's dedicated home-schooling for the past 2 years, she now reads at a 1st grade level and enjoys her bi-weekly visits to the library. Izzy is still being home-schooled and is well on her way to reading simple one-syllable sentences about Zac the rat who likes to swing bats and take naps next to fans. The necessity for diapers and bottles has been replaced by the frequent need for referees. Now that the girls are 5 and 3, their interests seem to be similar. This is the cause for many "that's mine" fights. Ayla is struggling to find individuality while Izzy is busy trying to do everything her big sister is doing. Even though they fight, they're still the best of friends. They love to sing, dance, and make each other laugh.

Lil Baby, not so little

Born Aria Isabella Sperrazza (aka "Izzy" or "Lil' Baby"): Thanks to her Daddy, she's stylin' a new hairdo...no more palm tree pony tail for our little girl. She knows her letters, a ton of songs, and a number of other critical things you should know when you're 2 years old. When asked "how old are you?" she answers "Las Vegas"...not sure if she's being funny or if she's confused. There's one thing we're sure she's confused about though: how to find matching socks. At least she's good at matching shoes. And it looks like we've got another singer in the family. Izzy is constantly singing tunes from the Toxic Audio show which she and her sister have seen at least 15 times. When we're on the road, Izzy entertains the car load with original songs which are all in the tune of Toxic Audio songs but with made up lyrics about skipping to the park and hugging her blankie.

Ayla vs. The Wall

Ayla's Hajee (a kid-shortened version of the Korean word for 'grandpa') was an avid mountain climber back in his younger years. Although he won't be scaling the Himalayas anymore, he continues to share his passion for the outdoors with the youth at his church. With the help of other dedicated parents, he erected a professional grade 20 ft climbing wall right on the church grounds. When his granddaughters visit, it's a prime opportunity to show off that climbing runs in the blood. Here's Ayla (properly trained by her Hajee) conquering the wall, reaching victory at the top, and repelling back down.

Just the 4 of Us

All the elements of a cozy family holiday were in place so that's exactly what we had: a Christmas at home just for the 4 of us. Santa placed the gifts underneath the tree on Christmas eve and Ayla was awake and downstairs by 7:30 the next morning. She was a very good girl all year so she was thrilled to see all the things she had on her list: a piggy bank, drum set, a baby doll, and a musicbox. (We will cherish these days of simple satisfactions for as long as we can.) Even though Izzy did not have any specific requests, she enjoyed a morning of ripping paper without consequence and showing total disregard for the Rules of Sharing. She opened all her gifts but wanted nothing but her sister's stuff. What a chick.
After gifts, we watched A Christmas Story on TV, a first for Mommy. For lunch, we braved the cold and Vegas Christmas crowds to go out for Chinese food. As a favor to Mommy, Daddy made a specialty of his for Christmas dinner and we all stuffed ourselves into the night. Thanks to Ayla's new instruments, we were even treated to a wonderous performance from the house band.

Babes in Park-land

Our munchkins love going to the playground despite the 50-degree weather. Their hands were like blocks of ice and their lips were blue but they were climbin' and jumpin' all around like they didn't each have on 4 layers of clothes. Kids are either really tough or really stupid.

Ayla and Izzy do Disney World

Paul had a gig in Orlando so we decided that the girls should tag along and do Disney. Ayla was visiting her birthplace and our little native New Yorker, Izzy, was seeing Orlando for the first time. Uncle Jay Jay, cousins Morgan and Chase, and Aunt Alicia came too, making it a Sperrazza extravaganza! They met Mickey, drank in the Disney magic, and spent about a hundred hours in line. However, the pinnacle of the girls' visit was a private meet n' greet with Cinderella! Those pictures are not included in this blog. Daddy opted to pay mucho Disney bucks for professional photos and an autograph from Cinderella #23 instead of using his own camera. Daddy's such a sucker for his little princesses.



Aw, the pains of being the youngest kid just hurt so bad. Just a few notches shy of the "you have to be this tall to ride this ride" line, Izzy stands watching from the outside as her sister and cousins enjoy the spinny teacups. Tough break, kid...maybe next year.

Ayla's 4th birthday bash was a blast!

We celebrated Ayla's birthday at Pump It Up...a private inflatable playground where she and her friends were free to lose their minds! Here's a clip of Ayla and Camme going down the giant slide.

The Picture of Sisterly Love

Sept 2007-Paul has been traveling a lot. Being away from his family tends to wear on his soul and this apparently prompts sudden urges to take many many pictures of our kids. I wasn't home during this particular photo shoot but I bet these two monkeys were trying to kill each other right before Daddy gave the "say cheese" command. Whenever I try to capture a moment on film I end up giving the "just friggin' say cheese damnit" command. Thank God Daddy's got the gift of snapping the perfect picture of sisterly love.

It's Not Easy Being Izzy

Lil' Baby is the happiest little soul we know. When she's up, she's busy jumping, laughing, dancing, annoying her sister, and basically running around like a crazy person. Anger to sorrow, her every emotion is expressed with such intensity. Then a couple minutes later, she's back to her happy self. It's hard being little.