Road Trip

Watching Dora on our way home from a great weekend in Maryland.

Starting Early

Such a young age and already figuring out ways to ignore us.

Park Pictures

I forgot I had these photos on my little camera that I carry everywhere just in case Lyla decides to do something cute. I hate that she decided to give me a big, beautiful grin when I only had this old camera that is literally falling apart. The pictures are from a few weeks ago at the little park on Fulton (we are park snobs and call this the ghetto park...but Lyla loves it).

Playing Around

Baby Ryan

Last weekend, Lyla and I went to Long Beach to see Darcy and sweet baby Ryan. Darcy is one of my oldest and dearest friends (people used to come up to us and ask us if we are twins). She is an Assistant District Attorney in Boston and I (along with her parents, I'm sure) keep hoping that she will move back to New York one day soon. She was home for a friend's baby shower on Saturday, so we naturally invited ourselves over on Sunday.  It was good to catch up and watch the babies play together for the first time.


Ryan really wants to walk but isn't there just yet. He gets around with no trouble though...even if he has to pull on his mommy's hair


Cutie


Look at those blue eyes


How do I look with two?


Lyla doesn't like the sound of that...


Just kidding, Lyla!


After we had been there for a couple of hours, Lyla said "bye bye" to Darcy, walked to the door, looked at me and said "ready." I guess that was my cue to leave.

We went back to my parents' house for a little cousin time before heading back to the city. It's amazing how much chaos can unfold in such a short amount of time.

Visiting Brendan and Kelsey

Staying in touch is hard.  Even when it is with people who you love and care about.  Case in point: Marla and Phil.  We hadn't seen them since before their beautiful daughter was born in the Spring and it was getting a bit ridiculous and, quite frankly, embarrassing for us.  So I reached out to Marla to make plans and this conversation ensued (paraphrased, of course)):

Me:  We miss you.  Let's get together.

Marla:  We miss you too.  And, oh yeah, we MOVED to another State!  How are you?

Me:  What!?  You moved?!  We are good.  And, oh yeah, I changed careers over the summer!

Sad, isn't it?  Luckily, we were all free that weekend, so we journeyed to their new state (just to New Jersey...) for a wonderful and long overdue visit. They have an amazing old house with gorgeous stain-glassed windows and even a secret passageway!

How could we go so long without seeing these adorable faces?




Lyla loved Kelsey. But she has a hard time controlling her love sometimes. At one point, she shoved a chip with hummus right into Kelsey's mouth (Kelsey isn't eating solids yet...sorry about that, Marla)





She loved Brendan too. Marla says it was Brendan's first kiss. I wish I could say the same for Lyla and her loose lips.


Marla and her babies.


Showing off their bellies.


Playing catch with Phil (outfit change after Lyla squirted a juice box all over her sweater)


Thanks for having us, Phil and Marla!

Counting

More on Julia...

She made the news! Watch here:

http://your4state.com/libraries/nxd/media/?data=media_player&v=537086

Go Jules!

Julia's varsity soccer team won their regional final tonight, now they're in the state semis!

Falling for Fall

Just as we were loving the cool Fall weather, it got really cold here beginning last week. Fall is my favorite season in the city. There is so much to do and you can still walk everywhere without bundling up.

These are a bunch of random pictures of us enjoying Fall (which really means eating lots of stuff made with pumpkin and drinking pumpkin spice lattes :) Lyla has been my baking sidekick and we have only had one incident where she nearly amputated her finger in the mixer!


Pumpkin muffins and pumpkin spider web cookies!

Pumpkin picking at Madison Square Park's Fall Fest (which was a little more realistic than last year's Central Park "pumpkin patch")




We had a balloon...and then it was gone.

Admiring our new stickers


Finding a home for our new stickers on the furniture


I guess we are ready for Winter (and Egg Nog lattes!).

Thump

Lyla fell out of her crib on Saturday night. She's had a rough week in the sleep department and Saturday was a particularly bad night. She was waking up every hour or so, crying for about five minutes and then falling back to sleep. Around four-ish, I heard a muffled thump. When I looked at the video monitor, she was nowhere to be found in her crib. I turned over to Mark and said "I think Lyla just fell out of the crib." He hopped up and ran over to her room. As he was walking into her room, she was walking out, looking dazed and confused. She's a pretty tough cookie though, and just cried for a minute or so before falling back asleep in our bed. We squeezed her arms and legs to she if she was hurt but she seemed to be just fine. In the morning, however, we noticed dried blood around her nose, which was a little swollen and bruised (you can kind of see it in the photo).

I had a feeling this could happen pretty soon because I've seen her try to throw one leg over the side of the crib. Now the question is what to do about it. The options seem to be (1) toddler bed, (2) crib tent or (3) hope she learned her lesson. A toddler bed raises a whole host of safety hazards in our apartment and a crib tent just seems like a cage to me. So, we're hoping she's a smart kid and will realize that falling on your face is no fun. Oh, and we'll throw some pillows on the floor in case she's not as smart as we hope she is.

Happy 100th

Aunt Nina would have been 100 years old today.  Whether it was at the kitchen table at 464 or Inverarry Drive, Aunt Nina made each of us feel special and loved.  She was another grandmother, another mother, another friend to every woman in my family. 

Aunt Nina and Uncle Mike would have been over the moon to have the chance to spoil their grandkids and great niece and great nephews, just like they did for all of us.  Aunt Nina would have given Lyla a taste of all the finer things in life and Uncle Mike would have made sure she knew how to program the VCR. 

Happy Birthday, Aunt Nina.  We miss you every day.

New Shoes!

A size 8W. Poor thing -- I've been squeezing her into a 6!

Halloween 2010

We celebrated Halloween at my Aunt Phyllis' house in Lido Beach. She was so great to host us and such a good sport. She came right from the train from D.C., after attending John Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity, back to her house full of sugar-spiked kids. It was Lyla's first time trick or treating from house to house and I think she caught on pretty quick.


First house was a success!


She loved Chrissy's dinosaur costume.


Star Wars buddies (how handsome?)


My cute pup

Lyla thought my fur vest was my matching dog costume.


Lyla and Chris were a little slower than the rest of her cousins -- typically two houses behind the rest of the bunch. But in the end, that proved to be an advantage. They didn't have to waste time walking up to houses where we knew no one was home and they got a heads up on houses that didn't hand out candy.




Dennis came back from one house as we were approaching and with a very dejected look said to me "It's pretzels." We skipped that one! Thanks, Den!


Lyla's biggest rookie mistake was picking the "bad candy". At one house, she could have chosen, Reeses peanut butter cups, Snickers or Twix and she chose the Whoppers. Another time she picked a Mounds over a Crunch bar. Bad choices, Miss Lyla. The debate of the day was whether Butterfinger is a good choice or bad choice. I say bad.


A perk for the parents. White sangria roadies in vampire cups!


With a pitcher following not too far behind in case anyone was running low.


Lyla got a kick out of all the big kids walking around in costume. She really liked this Elvis!


Lyla, Dylan and Nick


Lyla and Nick


Back at the house...Grandma and her babies

Dylan stood guard at the door....One for Dylan, One for trick or treaters...One for Dylan, one for trick or treaters. At one point Eileen found about a dozen candy wrappers in Dylan's lap.


We invaded all the toys at Aunt Phyllis' house.

Happy Halloween!