January 2007 Archives

Yep, no matter how you slice it moving is a pain in the butt. On the bright side we had no red-eyes, jetlag or dishonest movers to deal with this time, but there's still a ton to do (as if two in diapers didn't already keep us well-occupied!)

Our thanks go to all who helped, including our fabulous sitter Megan and Grandma Sue for watching the girls, and stalwart friends Danny and David for helping us (again!) and making us laugh: we couldn't have done it without you.

Thanks also to my dad for all his help and hard work, and for letting stay at my grandfather's house while he's fixing it up. "That's what family's for," he always says, but he and Grandma Sue have definitely gone the extra mile (or twenty) in helping us. We're very grateful to have spent this year with you.

It's odd to have come full circle and be living down the road from where I grew up: we even stayed in this house for a short time after the fire, when I was in first grade. My first grade teacher lives across the street, and I believe all the adjoining properties are owned by family. Life's even looking up for Eula, who'll have a new playmate next-door and some new woods to explore.

Well on the bright side it's almost February and this is really the first time the thermometer's dropped below zero. Last year I remember it was just after Thanksgiving that we were getting some hard freezes.

At any rate there it was this morning, -1 F on the digital gauge. By lunchtime it had warmed up to a balmy 11, but the wind was still pushing things back down into the sub-zero range. Our friend Eula, who's turned into quite a snow dog for a California girl, took one sniff and decided to head back for the warmth of her crate.

The day that I feared most has come and you know what, it's actually exciting. Our youngest daughter has decided to join her big sister in the quest for forward motion. She's been scooting backward for some time now but just took her first venture forward today. She doesn't seem to know the potential that she has and is only taking small trips to collect one toy at a time. Soon enough she'll be exploring all of the places she's not allowed!

My brother flew out for a week long visit and boy it was a great one. I just dropped him off at the airport this afternoon and I miss him so much already.

We started off by getting a babysitter the first night and heading to our favorite restaurant in Endicott, Lampy's. We LOVE the food there and I decided it would be a great time to break the news of baby #3 to my brother (It was a joke!!). He almost choked on his food. Ah, how I miss my practical jokes on my family. After a wonderful dinner and great conversation (Jake and I had no idea what to do with ourselves without the two girls to care for) we headed into the week. Jake had to work all week so Jesse got to see the ins and outs of my day. I started calling him my manny right away. He is a natural with the girls and helped me non stop. Sophie had a Dermatologist appointment and Jesse came with me to watch Josie. Apparently no one could pass them up in the waiting room and one nurse was commenting how cute Josie was and asked if she was Jesse's. He said "No, I'm the Uncle." To which the nurse replied "Ohhhh, even better!" I don't think she was his type but he's thanked Josie for trying to get him a date. ;)

As with any visit with my family this one was fairly food focused. We took Jesse to Joey's, Lost Dog, Los Tapatios, Wegman's and Apple Hills. He enjoyed almost all of them. I think it's really hard for someone who has had authentic mexican food to enjoy the bastardized east coast version. And don't think we only ate out. Oh no, we had to introduce Jesse to Spiedies. It's so funny because I explain them as kabobs without any vegetables and anyone from this area goes into an almost religious explanation of them, the marinating process, how they were created here, the festival in their name. He enjoyed them and is thinking of coming out for the Spiedie fest this summer.

Of course Jesse was constantly fielding requests from Sophie who thought he was the best playmate ever. They scared each other, sang, raced around the room and watched Sophie's favorite movie Cars. Every morning she woke up with the question "Where's Uncle Jesse?". When she discovered he was sleeping she would ask if she could go wake him up with "a kissy and a tickle".

Overall it was the best visit I can remember having with my brother. We vowed not to let it go as long between visits this next time and promised that no matter where we land, he'll always have a room at our house.

She's actually the one who yelled at the homeless guy going through her recycling, but that's not why we forgot her birthday: sorry Julie!

We hope your big day was everything it's supposed to be, and hope we can make up for missing it with a visit soon!

Seen here holding a day-old Sophie Jean, our friend and former neighbor Mark! has been there for us through thick and thin. From the first time we saw him watering the flowers outside his old house and yelling at the homeless man going through the recycling, we knew it was going to be a special relationship.

Thanks for being such a big part of our lives, from when we lived 30 feet away to 3000 miles. We're so happy for what this past year has brought you, and can't wait to meet Liam and Emily: we're sure they'll treat their dad right on his birthday, and give him lots of diapery presents.

Wishing I could come over, get hit in the head by a football and make everyone go to bed early: those were the days!

Like our Thanksgiving, I'm happy to say this turned out to be the best Christmas I can remember.

Sure, there hasn't been any snow, everyone's been sick and we severely miss our West Coast family and friends (we will amend that soon!): the bright side to it all has been our little family experiencing the holidays together.

Leading up to Christmas we crammed in as many seasonal accents as we could, including decorating the Christmas tree, listening to our favorite holiday mix (see previous Babs post), and watching both The Grinch and A Charlie Brown Christmas in the car. We also took the girls to see Santa when we got our tree (at Lone Maple Farms, one of the freshest trees I've ever had), where Sophie asked for a ball and got her first candy cane.

Sophie opened her Advent calendar dutifully every morning (and usually asked to open it again several more times throughout the day - "I forgot to open mine calendar!" - and for several days more after Christmas). We also bought a Nativity-themed board book to read in the evenings before bedtime, and Sophie helped Grandma Sue light the menorah several evenings during Hannakuh.

On Christmas Eve we loaded up the minivan and drove to my sister's, where with a few exceptions we've celebrated every Christmas Eve for at least the past 10 years. Sophie & Josie were thrilled to see their cousins (Eula & Hannah were happy to see each other too), and even managed to sit still through most of the gorgeous multi-course meal my sister always prepares.

In spite of all her curiosity about her presents, Sophie was most excited about the prospect of sleeping in a "big girl bed": a twin-sized air mattress on the floor of our room which she kept asking to go see the entire time we were at my sister's. In spite of all our fears she managed to stay mostly on top of it all Christmas night, and slept like a rock: we finally had to wake her up in the morning to let her dutifully-waiting cousins tear into their presents.

After breakfast we loaded the minivan back up and drove home while both girls slept in the back; they were both exhausted from all the fun. We had saved a few presents to open together that evening with Dan, David & Katie, and played with all our toys after another fantastic Christmas dinner at my dad's.

Thanks to everyone near and far who made it a great holiday season!

It's been a while since we could both walk to breakfast at Lundy's, catch a movie at Cinema 1 on the company dime, then hit Akira for dinner and Double Rainbow for dessert on your big day, but our sentiments haven't mellowed with age! Here's hoping today is just as much fun.

Word to your Mum, we miss you!
Hope you have a great day and an Anchor Steam to celebrate!

One thing I never expected when I dreamed of becoming a parent was how much crap you carry around with you. Sure, I've got my purse, diaper bag and minivan for larger items but my pockets are what are most frequently used. Things get dropped, broken, taken off, discarded and used and with two little kids, I almost never have time to actually open my purse and place the item in there. So, today I took an inventory of the contents of the pockets on my peacoat.

1 Pooh Bear phone, 1 fleece hat for Sophie, 1 cotton hat for Josie, 1 pair of tweezers (I think I took a tick off of Eula with these?), 2 binkies for Josie, 1 Similac singles packet of formula, 1 pair of sunglasses (these are actually mine!), 1 set of keys (seems normal), 1 small notepad, 1 parking pass, 1 viewfinder with a picture of Jake's Grandma in it, 3 Wegman's receipts, 1 price list for the wooden spoon bakery, 3 shopping lists, 1 security deposit receipt (what a freaking nightmare), 1 list of questions for the pediatrician, 1 Target coupon for $1 off Pepsi expires 12/31/06 (we don't even drink Pepsi), 1 list of rental houses and phone numbers, 1 receipt for donuts from The Cider Mill's last day of the season (mmmm), 1 receipt for our first months rent (signed right over to the slum lord), 1 receipt for our pet deposit (same slum lord), 1 list of office extensions from Team Rein (the slum lord I spoke of earlier), 1 Economy Heating receipt, 1 sticker backing, 2 used tissues, 1 lollypop wrapper, 1 site drawing for an addition Jake did plans for, 1 dime, and 1 small piece of lint.

I am so disappointed that there was only one dime! What should I learn from this? Throw my shopping lists away! Don't rent houses from slum lords! Other than that, the rest of it is pretty legitimate. Maybe I should just clean my pockets out more often.

Regrettably, brother Dan is not feeling well today: a fact that he blames on our youngest daughter who apparently got sick before he did. The jury's still out on who got who sick, but we still wish him the best of birthdays!

Happy Birthday, we love you big-time.