Mid-March Check-In

So things around here have been busy.  Time just seems to be slipping through the hourglass way too fast.  I seriously think some sand is missing and I’m not getting a full hours worth on my time.  Like I’m really only getting 55 minutes to an hour and those missing five minutes add up…to two hours!!!!  Those are two hours I could use cleaning…putting away the laundry…or cooking…or god forbid, sleeping.  I wonder if there is a repair shop around here for hourglasses so I can have mine re-calibrated.

Anywaaaaaaayyyy…..what is really on my mind these days is how fortunate I am and how it’s really important that I remember that!  I have friend’s whose daughter was born at 28 weeks and she’s in the NICU and will be for some time.  I just read a story about a couple in Brooklyn that were each diagnosed with a terminal cancer within days of each other.  They have an 18mos old daughter.  And I am sure there is someone out there with a story that is even worse then that.  So the fact that I wish my house was nicer or cleaner or that my furniture didn’t all look like it came from a garage sale…that isn’t really something to be wallowing about.  I have my health.  My husband has his.   My ridiculously precious son has his.  That. Is. All. That. Matters.

I was gonna make this post a bitch session about our experience with the Ringling Brothers Circus but I’ve just gotten finished reading the story about that couple in Brooklyn and it kind of put things in perspective.

Instead I’ll talk of happier things – like words!  Christopher’s gibberish is really starting to take on the appearance of real words.  Now dada has always been better at interpreting what the little man is saying, but now he’s saying stuff even I can understand!!  For instance, yesterday morning he was watching Sesame Street like he usually does.  I came in to the room to get him in his coat and he started going “Ernuh Ernuh Ernuh”….it took me a minute but then I saw Ernie on the screen and realized that he was saying his name.  I couldn’t believe it.  I’ve been trying to teach him everyone’s names for months and all he’s ever said was “Ehmo”.  He really loves saying “Appa” and walks around saying that all the time.  There are more words but I can’t remember what they are at the moment.

He’s a great mimicker.  He sees my keys, grabs them and heads right to the door to try and fit them in the lock.  He sees a telephone and puts it right to his ear.  He loves his shovel and pushes it all over the house. When he sees me open the hall closet he comes running to try and grab the swiffer to sweep the floor.

He also loves to brush his teeth.  Once I wrap a towel around him to take him out of the bath, he starts sticking his finger in his mouth and pretends to brush his teeth.

He loves to be surprised.  He gets a kick out of me jumping from behind a corner and go “aarrrrrgggghhh” really loud.    You have to see the way he flinches and starts laughing.  I’ll run towards him and then he runs in between my legs to get away from me.  We can play that game forever.

He’s close to 29lbs now.  I don’t know his height but he’s tall enough to reach over the table and grab anything that’s not in the middle of the table.  Every day his reach seems to get a little bit longer!!  And he’s strong as an ox.  Try wrestling something away from him that he really wants to hold!  And he just got over the croup again and yet another ear infection.  Hopefully that will be it for awhile.  We had him home from school for a week and I don’t want to do that again.

He loves school!!  Especially now.  They moved him from the 2nd baby room in to the toddler room.  Before he was the oldest in the room and now he is the youngest, but he is doing so much better in there.  He doesn’t cry anymore when I drop him off – he practically leaps from my arms so he can go play with his friends.  And he might be younger then these kids, but he’s the same size so you’d never know that.  In this new room he gets to do more activities, like finger painting and coloring and playing with blocks.  They’ve been sending him in there for a few hours at a time, and officially he started in there full time this week – but you can see a difference already.  I’d say this environment has really helped with him finding voice to so many new words!

February

Just going through some pics from the last month…..

Here is Christopher…sitting on the coffee table…he got up there by climbing up his toddler the seat, the one I left too close to the coffee table apparently  Needless to say the toddler seat got moved very quickly.

He’s gotten real good at climbing up on the couch too -

Grandma made cupcakes…..

Susan and Jordan came to visit and we all went to the LICM

I bought Christopher a cozy new chair to sit on when he’s in his playpen watching Sesame Street

Playing with his Sesame Street characters while I made lunch….

We went to Ocean City to visit Uncle Jeff and Aunt Dawn over the President’s Day weekend.  Here Christopher is with Aunt Dawn at the boat show.  (**I broke my canon point & shoot and have been using Chris Casio….it sucks, all the pictures are coming out blurry!!)

Christopher and Grandma Angie making monkey faces at each other.

After the diner we headed to the playground for some fun….Christopher loved the slide!

So as February comes to a close here is an update on Christopher -

He’s 27lbs 12oz.  32 inches tall.  Size 5 shoe…starting to move on to size 6.  Wearing 18mos – 24mos in clothes.  He can identify lots of things – but still only saying a few words – like da da, ma ma, ehmo (elmo), and appa (apple).  He’s in a phase where he says “ma ma” all the time…..I mean all the time!!  He still signs for “milk” and “more”.  He likes to eat with a fork or spoon – and prefers when he can do it himself.  He’ll like something one day, won’t touch it the next.  Except blueberries.  He LOVES blueberries.  I give him some at every meal.  He also loves quesadillas.  And green apples.  And cheerios. He’s got sooo many teeth now.  Lots of molars in the back are coming in.

LL Cool C…….Ladies love cool Christopher

Now most of you know I’m in to photography and I love taking pictures – a few have ended up as people’s FB profile pics and as the beloved Christmas card pic   But it’s not easy doing pics of myself, so I’ve been looking around to hire a photographer on LI that could do family pics of us.  I happened upon the website of Life Captured Photography and I liked what I saw.  The photographer, Kim Shapiro, has a FB page and I liked it.  She uses it as a promotional tool and sometimes posts promotions like contests to win a free shoot or she does fun holiday themed shoots at a really good price.  The other day she posted she was planning a Valentine’s Day themed shoot – $50 and she’d give you five of the pics on disk that you could use for custom Valentine’s for friends and family.  How could I resist!

Of course I had to buy the little man something special to wear.  So on Saturday I hit up Old Navy for one of their holiday themed t-shirts and I picked him up a pair of red converse at Babies R Us – those and a pair of jeans and we’d be all set.  On Sunday we went out to her home studio in Bohemia for the shoot.  Well from the minute we got there he wouldn’t sit still.  He’s figured out how to climb stairs so he kept running out of her studio area and off to climb up the stairs.  I’d run to go get him and bring him back – while trying to keep him from throwing a tantrum.  Then he ran to one side of the room and started grabbing all the props she had on her shelf.  Then he ran over to her lighting bag and was grabbing all the stuff out of there.  We’d pick him up to put him on the “set” and he’d try to get up and run away.  Then he found the can of puffs she kept down there just for a situation like this – so she kindly offered him some puffs.  Well he was shoving them in his mouth faster then she could put them out!!!!  She’d barely have a chance to step back after giving him some to pick up her camera and take a picture.  It was exhausting!!!!  Back and forth, up and down – I seriously don’t know how she managed to get any decent shots.  But she did – and I can’t wait to get some prints made.  I wasn’t planning on being in any pics, but I ended up grabbing him to try to get him to stay in one place.  Glad I did because I love having new shots of the two of us.  Here are a few from her blog that were my favorites…..

this first one is my favorite, I love his smile!!  In that second one I got a little love

We got a good laugh out of him finally!  And here he was shoveling puffs in his face – pretty sure Kim photoshopped out the pile of puffs she’d put on the floor next to him….that or he’d finally worked his way through them all.

You can see more shots on her blog….looking forward to booking that family shoot.

http://capturedbykim.blogspot.com/2011/02/little-lover-boy.html

Mid Jan Check In

I felt like I just updated this blog but it’s been over two weeks….oops!  I really did mean to be better about posting on here – maybe if I had gotten my hubby an ipad like I wanted so he’d have that to surf the net on and leave MY laptop alone, I’d have realized it’s been so long since my last post.  I guess it doesn’t really matter – it’s not like I can’t just tell you what’s been going on the last two weeks.

This is Christopher eating his oatmeal.  Apparently he really, really likes apples & cinnamon flavored oatmeal.  He likes it so much he picked up this really heavy ceramic bowl and was trying to get every last drop.  This kid is so strong, it’s a bit frightening.

This is Christopher eating pasta.  He really likes pasta and really likes when he can feed it to himself.  His Nanna Angie was very excited when I gave her a copy of this picture.  She said she has a picture of Chris like this when he was a baby…..like father, like son

We went to the train show at the botanical garden in the Bronx

Christopher came to work with me – he had a cameo in a presentation reel we did.  He’s 14mos old and he was nearly as tall as the two 2 1/2 yr olds that were there!  And he wasn’t the least bit shy in front of the camera, go figure!

oh look, someone has figured out how to get out of his pen……great.

oh look, there are FIVE of me….how excited was he to see that!  I on the other hand feel like there are five of him running around and destroying everything around the house all of the time  This was a mirror in an exhibit at the LI Children’s Museum.  I just bought us a membership so we’ll be heading here often….plenty of room for him to roam there.

ooooh look – here he is breaking free again!  Love that look on his face…..all innocent like he’s not doing something wrong.  This kid is too much sometimes.  Good thing he’s cute as hell.

Happy New Year!

I can’t believe it’s 2011.  Another year has just flown by.  I’m 38 years old now.  Now that I really can’t believe!!  I don’t feel 38 – not that I have any idea what 38 is supposed to feel like.  I’m sure you know what I mean.  Remember when you were a teenager and 30 seemed soooooo old!   I do.  Now I’m closing in on 40 – back then I’d have thought that was ancient.  Now of course I have a much different opinion on 40 – and it certainly isn’t ancient!  Good thing too – cause if you’re going to wait until later in life to have kiddies you better be ready  When I’m with monkey I’m lucky to sit for a second at a time and you can forget holding a conversation with anyone!    Visiting family and friends over the course of the holidays drove that point home.  There were quite a few times we’d be out and Christopher would be up past his bedtime.  He’d be having so much fun walking all over the place – one side of a room to the other – getting in to anything he could.  That meant that I was walking all over the place – one side of a room to the other – trying to keep him from getting in to everything he could!!!  People were shocked the way he kept going and going and he never got fussy.  It’s pretty awesome how good he can be – but sometimes you wish you could take out his batteries  And by you, I mean me.  Anyway – here are some pics from the end of the year and the start of this one….

this was Christopher’s last day of school for 2010.  The teacher had a pajama party and Santa was coming in to see the kids – so he had a fun packed day.  Check out his little booties – aren’t they to die for!

It was my birthday as well and my hubby was working – so if it wasn’t for my cousin Marion offering us a last minute invitation – we’d have been sitting around my living room doing nothing!  Instead we spent the evening with her and her family making cookies and decorating her tree.  And she made the night even more special with a surprise visit from my Cousin Patrick – it was the first time I’d seen him in more then 16 years.

Monkey might have been done with day care for the year, but I still had work so I brought him in with me on the 23rd.  I knew the office would be a ghost town and I figured it would be a good chance to bring him in to see Santa at Macy’s.

Some pics from Christmas – just what monkey needed, more toys

Went upstate to visit my family – this was the only pic I got  - 0ur visit got cut short by the blizzard!!  Of course the weathermen had been predicting the storm – but how often do they get this crap right????  This time, this time they get it right.  We were barely there when we had to get in the car and head home.  And let me tell you – I’ve driven in plenty of snowy conditions but I have never driven in weather like this blizzard.  We never should have gone up there and I give my hubby a lot of credit for not once mentioning that as I drove home with my hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel.  The ride took 3 1/2 hours when it normally takes under 2 – thank goodness Christopher slept for 2 hrs and saved his fussing until the last five minutes of the ride.  I don’t know what I’d have done if he started losing it sooner.

A few days later we were able to dig out and head over to Marion’s for a little after xmas celebration.  This time my cousin Walter and his family were there too – they had come up from Georgia.  It was a great time  - but I didn’t get a picture of monkey with everyone – don’t know how I messed that up  Here he is with Emily and Patrick’s girlfriend Janine’s daughter.

Here he is in his new snow outfit, in his new plastic sled – figured while daddy was out hunting we’d try to have some fun in the snow.  Christopher wasn’t really digging it – my yard isn’t very big so it’s not like I could really get in to pulling him around – so we settled for a picture and we’ll pretend we had a blast sledding…..

I just love this sweater – it was a hand me down from my friend Weezy’s boys.  She’s given us some great clothes – she dresses her boys well – thanks Weezy!!!

He’s so proud of himself here.  I had this box near the side door so I could put it in the trash.  He grabbed it and managed to maneuver it past the kitchen table and his high chair – he put it on the floor and then plopped himself on top of it.  He was having a lot of fun.

It’s about time…

That I got my laptop back!!!  My loving husband hijacks my laptop constantly and I’d say that’s why it takes so long in between posts.  Of course he’ll say there are plenty of nights that he’s working that I could do this (like tonite for instance) – but to that I would say maybe the 800 million things I have to do kind of get in the way of computer time.  I could list some of those things but knowing most of you reading this are mom’s too, I know I don’t have to!  Preaching to the choir, right???

Anyway – considering I do have way too much still to do tonite – I’m gonna get right in to things.  I’ve got lots of pictures to post since so much time has passed since the last entry.  And I recently discovered how much this blog has helped me track Christopher’s milestones so I want to include as much as I can!!

This is my Cousin Marion and my Cousin Maureen – related to me on my Mothers side.  I haven’t seen or spoken to them in over 16 years.  You know how it goes, some kind of family fight that keeps you apart.  I could get in to the details and tell my “side” of the story – but it just doesn’t matter.  Either I could go on ignoring that side of my family- or I take a chance and open up that side of my heart.  Of course I chose the latter.   Not having that side of my family in my life all these years was upsetting so the chance to give that side of my family back to Christopher means so much.  We were all slightly concerned on how it would go – could we move on from the past?  Thankfully the answer was yes!  We had a lovely time.  They got to meet monkey and I got to meet their families.

Here is monkey with Marion’s kids Emily & Sean and Maureen’s daugthers Erin & Samantha.  He had a lot of fun tearing up Marion’s kitchen and flirting with the girls

That’s right, that’s my son, swiffering the kitchen floor.  They say it’s important to get your kids doing chores early…….

They also say kids watch too much tv…..I’m trying really hard to not let him sit in front of the tv all the time, but when I’m getting ready for work Sesame Street is a nice way to keep him occupied!  It’s educational, right??  And some cheerios helps too…..

Grandpa Sal came over today.  He gave Christopher a hand walking in to the house.  Check out monkey’s shoes – adorable right??

Bath time!

Christmas tree shopping!  We got a tree a bit bigger then a charlie brown tree but was not too big.  It fits our space in the living room perfectly.  I’ll have to take a picture and get that posted some other day.

Christopher has been playing with this cube forever.  He couldn’t put the shapes in their holes without help, until recently.  Now he can put the circle and the square in by himself.  He’ll sit there and do that forever!  It’s great.  I’ll be in the kitchen doing something and he’s all quiet – I peek around the corner and he’s playing with this cube.

I just love this picture of him – he looks like such a little boy!  Not like a baby at all……

This is what he looked like A YEAR AGO!!!!  Can you believe it – I can’t.

Like all babies he loves playing with the electronics in the house, the remote, the phone…..you get one away from him he takes off and finds another!!!

This is one of his favorite toys. (I said it once I’ll say it again, thanks Anita!!!!)  He’ll sit on the floor and play with this forever too. He’ll take the little magnets and walk all over the house with them.  He races in to the living room and leaves them on the couch and then grabs them again and runs them back in to the kitchen.  That hairdo is courtesy of Grandma Angie….apparently she does this to him at school all the time!  I honestly have no idea how I’m ever gonna take that binky away from him…it’s just so funny to see him with it.

So I dragged Chris & Christopher to the Old Bethpage Village Restoration for their Candlelight Evening and Tree lighting.  Of course the tree lighting had to fall on the same night as daddy’s christmas party…..so it was a little dodgy on how we’d do both…but we made it work.  It meant Christopher had to come to the party and he was up way past his bedtime, but a night out as a family was worth it.  Here were my boys with Santa Claus.

Somebody was nice enough to take a pic of the three of us in front of a Christmas tree inside the exhibition hall – it was sooo pretty.

Here is the xmas tree that was lit – that’s about the only outdoor pic I took.  It was so cold that we didn’t spend much time outside.  That and we thought the wheels on the stroller were gonna fall off – the paths were soooo rocky!  And you couldn’t bring strollers in to the historic houses so we didn’t waste a lot of time checking them out.  We’ll wait to do this again when monkey is a little older!  Note to self, next time remember the stupid flashlight and definitely dress warmer!!!  And maybe bring a thermos of hot chocolate!

After the village, we hit daddy’s xmas party.

The Holiday season has begun…..

I love this time of year!!!  Thanksgiving was nice – Grandma Candy, Grandpa Richie, Grandma Angie, Aunt Victoria and Aunt Gen were here to celebrate with us.  What wasn’t so nice was monkey got sick – throwing up first, then diarrhea – poor thing spent dinner drinking pedialite while the rest of us ate turkey!  But he got lots of love so that made it a little easier.

I just realized I didn’t get any pictures – which sucks.  I was so surprised by his sickness it totally threw me off.  Of course the Grandma’s were quick to point out this will happen all the time, usually on holidays or other special occasions so I should get used to it…..great!

Now I need to get my butt in gear and get the house decorated for Christmas!  We don’t have a lot of space for a big tree, and it’s probably better that we don’t have that kind of temptation around the house for monkey.  The last few years I’ve been getting a little Charlie Brown tree.  But daddy says I have to wait to get it or it will dry out before Xmas.  Of course I don’t think he realizes that the trees they’re selling now will probably be the same trees they’re selling a week from now so it will end up drying out before Xmas no matter how long we wait!!!  So maybe I won’t listen to him and I’ll pick one up this weekend  Christmas just feels more real once the tree is up.  I never did understand how some people wait until Christmas eve to put one up……that’s just cutting it too close for me.

I’ve started addressing the xmas cards – I did two versions because I’m a lunatic – I addressed the first set.  Now the new set that arrived today will go to all the people I hadn’t gotten to yet.  I’ll get to scanning and posting them at a later date.  Of course now I wish I had waited to order cards cause we took the little nugget to visit Santa at Roosevelt Field yesterday and they took a GREAT picture of him and Santa.

I made some tweaks in Adobe Lightroom and came up with this…..which would have made for the best Xmas card!!!!!

Oh well – rookie mistake.  Next year I’ll wait to see how Santa pic comes out before I make my cards……..