There's a first time for everything.

A lot of firsts have happened to our family recently.

For Nate:
First night waking up only once: one night last week, though he then woke up for the day at 5:00am. Still: E for Effort.
First teeth: His two lower front teeth finally broke through this past weekend. They feel like a wee serrated knife. Poor little babe is chewing on anything he can reach and is drooling constantly.
First real food: 3 weeks ago. His response was immediately enthusiastic, with wide open mouth, active swallowing, and reaching both hands out to grab the spoon for more. So far, peas are a favorite, and sweet potatoes not so much, though he'll still eat them.
First "swim:" at Lake George. First exposure to the cold lake water resulted in a firmly negative response (i.e. instant pathetic wailing.) The next day, he was able to be slowly eased in, with a much better result. This baby loves water much like his sister, who always loved her bath, cold water, and getting wet.

For Lula:
First time sleeping with a book: This started a few weeks ago. Books she has bestowed this most high honor upon include Arielle's Hannukah Surprise and an old book of fairy tales titled It Happened One Day.
First time sleeping without wearing a diaper: Started about a month ago as an experiment. She has yet to wet the bed, though we only go diaper-free for naps at this point. She still wears pull-ups at night.

For the whole family:
First time breaking down on the NY Thruway, waiting an hour on the shoulder for a tow truck, and then riding inside the broken car on the back of the flat-bed tow truck (bouncy!) as it drove to the nearest Toyota dealership. Yeah. That was a fun day. It happened just past the Tappan Zee Bridge (coincidentally the site of my only other car-breaking-down experience) as we were making our way up to Lake George. One emergency car rental later and we were on our way. Turns out that when your Mass Air Flow Sensor blows, the gas pedal stops working. And that lesson was brought to you by about six hundo in hard cash money.