I’m at home, on the bed, with Albert awake watching Baby Signing Time.  If this post becomes illegible, blame him turning around.  His favorite key is Caps Lock.`

ThIS IS HOw we watch TV

Spaghetti Man.

Baptism Day

Blue Steel?  or“Baby Time starts NOW!?!?”

 

Okay, so better late than never I suppose!  Chris celebrated his birthday Wednesday the 20th.  We had a nice quiet evening at home, just the three of us at Chris’s request.  His birthday dinner was filet mignon (thanks, Steve, for showing me how to grill it last year!), garlic mashed potatoes, and cranberry spinach salad.  He was very spoiled this year and received a ton of camera stuff, a new lunch box, some sort of tablet thing to edit pictures…new shoes…new gloves…and some new shirts. 

Here he is playing with his new toys.

and for dessert…a peanut butter cheesecake

 

Make a wish!!  Albert loved helping Papa blow out his candles.

 

Happy birthday, Chris- we love you!!

Today we bit the bullet and took Mr Man to get his very first haircut at Papa’s barber.  He was very good and sat really still until the last couple minutes.  He looks like a different man!  Sniff sniff.  

Crazy Amazon Man

The transformation begins…

A brand new man!

 

 If people wonder why it takes me so long to get a load of laundry folded….!

See mom, I’m helping!

I surrender

 Where’s Albert??

Snuggle time

What do you think?  

Today was a beautifully sunny day and the temperature actually reached 40 degrees- which was almost like a mini heat wave compared to the last weeks!  So I bundled up Albert and took him to a local park so that he could run wild for a little wild after being cooped up indoors for so long.  True to form, he had a fabulous time chasing the birds.  He gets so excited it’s funny.  and since he’s currently refusing to talk, he shrieks his delight!

He was also a crazy man on the jungle gym.  So much fun to watch him having a good time!  He always makes me laugh.  

 And, Mr Crazy Man sometimes gets so excited he runs too fast and loses his feet.  By the time we came home his hands were covered in dirt and so were the fronts of his pants and coat!

 

ooh!  Yes!  Success!  what’s in here? (notice the tip toes!)

Reach for it…

Ta-Da!!  A bowl!!

I think it belongs right down here…eerr….i can’t reach!!

that’s ok, I’ll just do the bowl toss- catch!

and for the finale- jump and down and see if the door breaks!

and now the problem is, he thinks it’s super cool to repeat this process- our fault- instead of telling him sternly to get off- we ran for the camera!!

My Mamasan LOVED popcorn, as much as my father I think, which says a lot (and also may be one of the reasons she liked him so much!).  Albert and I in the afternoons once in a while will make popcorn for a special afternoon treat.  He loves it- always makes me think of Mamasan.  I bet she’s smiling!!

oh I’m sorry- did you want some?

It’s some good stuff!!

Last Monday I celebrated my 28th birthday- yikes!  Hard to believe.  The day was quiet and nice.  Albert and I took a nap (I had worked the night before).  That evening my friends Mary, Avery, and Christiana came to dinner at Nick’s with me, Chris, and Albert.  We had a lovely dinner and then came back to our apartment for some Proseco and Avery made this unbelievable bread pudding with croissants, white chocolate and cherries that had been marinated in white wine!  OMG!  FABULOUS!  Thanks to all for helping to make the day special!

Hey!  How‘bout some pasta over here?!

me and my boy

oh…oops…excuse me a moment

the Birthday Girl

Good conversation, with good friends, and good food!

I love my new monkey overalls!  They are oober soft!

 I was using up the last of our white chocolate and candy canes making peppermint bark.  Albert really appreciated it!!  He LOVED licking the spoon- and then proceeded to bounce off the walls.

Sometime around New Years, one night Albert thoroughly entertained us all with his water bottle.  He thought it a grand idea to dump the water out of it all over the floor and proceed to dance in it like a maniac.  We were laughing so hard!!

The pictures don’t really do it justice- I wish you could see more clearly the huge puddle of water he’s playing in

Oops- I think they see me…What?  I didn’t do it….

Hey!  What’s all the commotion about?!

Wait…I think there’s still some in there…

Mr. Wet Socks

Caitlin and Jen (her friend from college) came to visit us over New Year’s.  Here’s some pictures from the trip.

Albert went absolutely insane on New Year’s Eve.

On Christmas morning, Meg came home, then we slept all a bit.  When we woke up, Avery came over and we all opened our presents.

Albert also got to have part of his second candy cane ever.  Notice that he’s sucking on the end that’s still wrapped, and holding the sticky end.

What?  You talkin to me?

Albert got some crayons and drawing paper in his stocking.

See?  Look what I got!

Momma got some new slippers.  New left, old right.

And Albert got his first sip of coffee.

Momma got some nice gift cards.  (And Papa’s loot is over on the left.)

So far, all signs point to his favorite color being blue.

“I’m just really not sure what to do with all these gifts”

The blocks were a hit.  Unfortunately, the only way he plays with them is to put them all back in the jar.  So I build a tower, and he knocks it over and puts the blocks away.  Maybe he’s just trying to say my towers aren’t very good?

Merry Christmas to all!  We’ll catch you closer to New Year’s, when Meg’s sister Caitlin is coming out to see us.

We went to mass on Christmas Eve because Meg had to work that night.  In the process, we got dressed up.  Little man wore a suit to mass.

I’m not sure I like shoes, momma.

But I suppose having momma around makes up for it.

Well, I promised my parents that I would post some pictures of the Saturday of their trip, because we did some touring around Manhattan.  I’m just now getting to it…

 The first thing we did was go see Ground Zero.  You can get a pretty good view of the site from the Winter Garden, but we walked almost completely around.  As you can see, they’ve started construction, and it looks like they’ve got a good portion of one of the new buildings up.

After that, we walked down Battery Park towards the southern end of the island.  Along the way, we stopped to take the requisite Daegele picture. 

(That’s actually the Statue of Liberty.)

 Then we took Grandma’s picture with the sculpture that used to stand between the twin towers.  It was created by a Frenchman, and though I don’t remember the name of it, it symbolized world peace.  They pulled it out of the debris after the towers fell, and it’s serving as a temporary monument until they can finish the museum.

Here’s grandma and dad patting the“Bull”.  Looks like they did a good job…  the stock market closed last Friday at a record high (for the year).

And last but not least, we went to see my work and Rockefeller Center.  Although the tree was still being lit and covered with scaffolding, we at least got a distance shot of the star on the top.

Thank you all three for coming out, we had a great time and hope you did too.  That’s it for now, check back for Christmas pictures!

Every Saturday there is a Farmer’s Market right by Memorial where I work.  I dont mind working Friday nights because it’s quite handy just to cross the street and buy yummy and beautiful produce!  I took my family there this morning and they enjoyed it too.  

mom finding lots of good stuff!

A day of New York shopping: A mop, a coat rack, fruit, vegetables, and a Christmas tree!

For his birthday, Auntie Erin got Albert a monkey that laughs and rolls over.  He wasn’t quite sure about it at first, but here’s a video of him warming up to the crazy cackling monkey.  Thanks, Erin!!

Albert still loves his bath

Aunt Alli is teaching him how to wash his own hair.  Handy!

mohawk man

Each year Union Square has an outdoor Holiday Fair.  Friday dad, mom, Alli, Albert and I headed out for some shopping.  Mission successful!!  We came out with beautiful scarves, new hat for Alli, fresh soaps, tea gifts, new mittens for Albert…and more!  Albert fell sound asleep on my back in the Ergo.  He’s a lot of weight to haul around!

Two happy shoppers and one good trooper

Three happy shoppers

back- breaking love!

you comin’ mom?

happy to be home

Thanksgiving Day was beautiful.  It was sunny and unseasonably warm.  We got up and had great seats for the Macy’s Day Parade- right in front of our TV drinking coffee!!  We went to Carl Shurz Park and let Albert run wild for a little while and then went on a long walk down the East River.  Then it was home to finish cooking and sit down to a lovely Thanksgiving Dinner.  I am so thankful my family was here this year, always is special to celebrate holidays with family.  And it was nice to have Mary join us too, we were her surrogate family for the day.  After dinner Alli serenaded us, and then we watched about 3 hours of Band of Brothers!  Hope all of your Thanksgivings were just as perfect as ours!

Cheers!

Daddy teaching me how to carve a turkey

Too much Thanksgiving!!  His Thanksgiving meal consisted of Penne Vodka, grapes, banana, and sweet potato.  He wanted nothing to do with turkey or anything else!!

This was Albert’s last holiday“first”.  Sniff sniff.  It has all gone by so quickly!!!