At the Aquarium

Em and the lil monkey are enjoying the outdoor seal tank at the aquarium.

Maybe the Cutest Guy Ever!!!

Okay so maybe I am a little biased in his favor, but jeez is this kid cute or what?

Streets of Cambridge

This is what it looked like BEFORE yesterdays 6-8"'s of Snow - yowza!!! The lil' Monkey is becoming quite the sherpa as he learns to navigate the snowy & icy Cambridge streets. The next picture is a kids bike buried up to the handlebars which gives you an idea of the snow level away from the snow plows.

For Rina C.

Okay so remember that day when I called you and I said I thought I was probably a bad mom 'cause all I was giving my kid for dinner was Ramen soup and some cheese slices & you called back and said that it didn't matter and at least I was feeding him -(or something like that). Well, here is the photo of that day. & looking at it I figure you're right - he looks like he couldn't be happier.

Snow Play

AFTER OUR FIRST BIG DECEMBER SNOWFALL THE LIL MONKEY DISCOVERED HOW MUCH FUN PEOPLES TRASH COULD BE.  HE SPENT 20 MINUTES PLAYING IN SOME RECYCLED PAPER ON THE STREET ACROSS FROM OUR BUDDIES HOUSE.  FINALLY I PULLED HIM AWAY (CRYING).

AFTER THE SECOND BIG SNOW WE WENT TO THE FIELD BEHIND OUR HOUSE FOR SOME SNOW-HIPSTER MAKING WITH THAT SAME BUDDIES FOLKS - MUCH FUN WAS HAD BY ALL.

 

... See my Tabblo>

Baby Has Two Mommies

I didn't blog about this earlier cause I was saving it for a Channukah surprise for Em's family - but as of November 27 the Lil' Monkey Officialy and Legally has two mommies. Yup - Our adoption was finalized!!!!

Honestly Em & I have had mixed feelings about the whole process cause it's kinda wierd to have to adopt your own kid, and its also a pretty big financial burden that's placed on queer same-gendered families that is not placed on the "normal" world blah blah blah... and I was also a little sad to be doing this on the East Coast instead of at home in SF where at least we would have lots of other queer mama friends to throw up a big you adopted your own baby tea party for us.

But the good thing is its Done & he is protected if anything happens to me & Em's family & extended family are all legally his family & extended family now & all that is GOOD.

Sledding

walking in the Snow

18 Month Check Up

This morning Em and I took the lil monkey in for his 18 month check up with our ped.
Once again she thought he was just perfect. So for those who care - here are his stats:

Weight (naked - no diaper) 23 lb 1.5 oz

Height 33 Inches

and head size 48 cm

Kitchen Helper

New Tube

Mid November Post

So if you are paying attention you'd be thinking to yourself - Hey What's up?? The lil' Monkey hit his 18 Month Anniversary & I haven't seen any numbers - no height, no weight, no cute little head circumference. Well, that's my fault - I let a few weeks go by after our last Dr. appt before I called to schedule the 18 month check up & by that time the entire month of November was gone & we got slotted for early December. So if you all just wait patient then you'll get those numbers just as soon as we do. What I can tell you is that the lil guy is just smart as a whip. He is so much fun & also funny - whether its hitting Em on the head with a board book when he should be napping or reaching through the slats of my chair cackling "Tickle, tickle, tickle".

He has also tossed out his old habit of bobbing forward and nodding "Yes" to everything we say in favor of testing the power of his "NO!!!" and getting some practice in the fit-throwing department. He is a little bit of a bully sometimes commandeering a favorite toy and giving a push or shove to keep ahold of it, but all in all compared with the other 18 month-ers he is pretty chill. He can still be distracted and his fits when he has them are short-lived bursts.

He is still super active and getting more agile. He enjoys the "circuit" in our park which consists of a two step climb to a platform, another couple of steps to another platform then sitting & scooching on his toosh to the edge of the slide and sliding down WHEEEEE. He also likes the suspended bridge bouncy thing as well as going up the BIG ladder (probably about 8 steps) and sliding down the covered slide - which does Really Fun things to his hair - crazy static electricity.

He is showing a small bit of the OCD - he takes all the push toys in the park and lines them up or parks them in order under the table or under the slide. He also likes to clean (????) - Em and I have no idea where this trait comes from. He will take a cloth or sponge and wipe off the dirty place-mat after he eats, he takes the broom or mop and tries to clean the kitchen floor - sadly he doesn't love the vacumn (I blame this on Mabel since she has a habit of barking at it.) He has even begun to follow a big person (ie Me) into the loo so that he can pull all the toilet paper off of the roll & then sweetly offer it up to you as he says in baby voice " pp ??? poo poo?? "

It is starting to get colder here so we have been discovering more indoor play spaces - sadly coffee shops are too small to contain him, but the library and the childrens museum are most accomadating. Also a few friends are hosting play groups at their houses. He is playing more with Lila - the big gal upstairs (22 months old!!) and we see our buddy Gabe almost every day. The challenge now is trying to figure out how to time the naps to the much shorter days - its dark now between 4 and 4:30 so it feels bad to sleep away the last couple hours of daylight which means I either try to get him down early (before 2) or we wait until after 4 - like today which means he's asleep at dinner time --- but will probably be wide awake & rearing to go at around 10 pm. Oh well.

I am missing Family & our SF Friends a lot right now - Happy Thanksgiving to you all & plan a trip to the East Coast for the coming year!!!!

Fall Walk with Mommy & Grandma

We had another weekend up in the shire with Phancy. The lil' monkey loves his house in the woods, he was playing with all the toys for hours entertaining himself and loving long walks up the leaf covered driveway with Grandma, Grandpa and Mommy. I loved the time away too - I read almost the ENTIRE Sunday NY Times for the first time in I don't know how long. Yummm....

Now its back to a week of real life & then the grandparents are in Boston for a wedding over the weekend so more N. family time.

Dream On....

Yup my boy ROCKS

Fall at the Shire

We went out to the shire this weekend to visit the GParents... & got a really cute shot of the lil monkey in his fancy Patagonia vest playing in the fallen leaves. He had a great time getting lots and lots of attention & I had a good time getting to do some soduko puzzles and lay on the couch. Mabel & Monito both enjoyed running in circles around the house & we luckily avoided a massive rainstorm that blew through Boston. All in all a good weekend & Next weekend mama Em gets to come out to play too.

Trick or Treat

the kids

This time last year...

Too cute II

World Series (of cleaning)

I cleaned our oven today.

I think that this is the first time in my life that I have cleaned an oven.

Back from Seattle

So we got home from our vacation on Sunday morning (6am sunday morning - ouch). We were lucky on the flight home that the lil guy got his own seat so we could set up his car seat & he is able to sleep in it really good. He slept from a few minutes after take-off till about half an hour before landing with one semi-conscious nursing break in there somewhere over the great lakes.

As for me ---- well I discovered that VH1 "classic" shows a couple hours from the 120 Minutes vault of 1980's punkrock and alternative videos ... so at 3 in the morning I was enjoying watching the old Courtney Love followed by Suicidal Tendancies and getting scared by Flock of Seagulls. Em --- well she's a plane sleeper so she did ok.

Our trip was really good. Blasto got to meet KINGSTON - his new cousin, as well as seeing Doron & Raffi in Portland and seeing his cousins in Seattle & Ali & Rhys who went out to Whidby Island for 3 days with us (poor kids had to miss school days and play on the beach instead!!)

We also got to spend a morning with Aunt Suzan and see the Salmon Ladder which was kinda quiet on the day we went but pretty cool nonetheless, plus we got to watch a sailboat get lifted up to go through the ballard Locke.

Anyway here is a link to some photos from the trip:

Seattle Pdx Trip 2007

Hiking

We went up to the Fells today with Kath (& Gabe) and Jeff (& Lila) and let the kids hike around in the falling leaves. Mikey, Lila's dog came too and it was so funny to listen to Lila yelling "Mikey Mikey" as she tried to get him to come to her (which he has the sense not to do).

These three are pretty adorable together & its really nice to watch how they are learning to interact with each other. Lila is totally the leader of the pack and ready to tell Gabe & the Monkey what to do. They are all more interested in someone else's snack & water bottle than they are in their own which makes for some fun pushing & pulling but all in all they are good at sharing for 16 - 20 month old kids. Look at how good Gabe is at sharing his leaf with lil R.

Talking to Aunt Mel on the telephone

Sentences

Okay not quite, but the little monkey is beginning to put two words together. So far he has come up with "Where Da?" when looking for me and "Bye Doggie" to the neighbors little fluffy dog.

Watching the Marching Bands

Honk! Fest today

Here you can see Em and Monito waving their Simchat Torah flag for the marching bands... probably not the most popular sentiment.

oh well & oy vey

A shout out to Mama Kathy in SF

As you can see from this photo even just a little time spent with Mama Kathy in SF pays off big time. The lil guy has been walking for only a couple months now but he's already learned how to put that skill to use & pick up a mop or a broom. Thank the gods, cause you all know that Emily & I are incapable of cleaning house.

Let's hope our little taurus keeps on doing it for us. & Kathy - next visit lets teach him what that toilet scrubber thing is for.

Falling for fall II

Because one video just isn't enough I added this one too.

Falling for fall

Hanging out with Lila

Lila from upstairs has begun to hang out more & more with the lil monkey. Here he is showing her everything there is to know about snaps.

The lil monkey enjoys RiverSing

A few weekends ago on the Charles River at the Weeks bridge a bunch of choirs performed at Sunset - this is an annual beginning of fall thing. I think the lil guy liked it.

Ahhhhhh San Francisco

Where ladies hang from the fronts of churches in dancing cages on Folsom St Faire Sunday --- How we misses you....

xo xo to the peoples back home

Call Me

operators standing by ....

At the Appl* Store

Em was trying to get her I-p#d fixed, (they couldnt' do it) so the monkey & I played with the new phones. Sent myself this picture on the Apple Store Dime

L'Shanah Tovah

A very happy New Year to everyone who's keeping track of these things. Of Course, my new year post is a bit tardy. We were on the road for the head of the holiday. First visiting with our friends Julia & Eli in Ocean Grove NJ (right next to Asbury Park, of Springsteen fame)

A shot of Eli at his Grandma's.



Next we took the train up to Nanuet NY (this entailed 2 changes along the way) for holidays with the family, which of course included another train ride, but this one was a bit more fun. The lil monkey learned a few new tricks from the G-Parents - he said Grandpa, and Zebra, he learned that saying "car, car, car" over & over again will get him 15 minutes on grandpa's lap honking the horn in the driveway, & he had his first trip to T*ys R *s.

We got home on Sunday Night just in time to welcome Jean & Carol to our house as they returned from Flo's wedding in Northampton. We got to spend some time wandering around Harvard & eating ice cream before sending them back west. Now we are tired from all this vacationing & its time to start preparing for fall.

Quack-ers

Monito talks to the ducks.

Horsey

R's First Horse Ride ...

Thanks to Kath, Eric & Gabe for inviting us along for BBQ & Bluegrass at a nearby farm!!!

Monkey & Mama

Our little Bobo posing with the Gorilla sculpture at the zoo.

It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks. Em is on Nights which has thrown off the sleep schedule (ha ha) in our house. Monito had dropped to a single mid-day nap, but most of this week he skipped napping altogether which meant he fell into bed exhausted around 7:30 or 8 pm - kinda like a regular baby. The good part is that he still slept till late in the morning which is what's important to me.

We spent the Labor Day weekend in the Shire with much of the Newfie clan -- R picked up a few new words - "Truck" "Grandma" "Farah" ... he got to spend some time in the pool & got to go to the big outdoor sing-a-long in Great Barrington. We also went to a county fair where there were Sheeps & Goats to be petted and flying pigs... Okay they were diving pigs, but that's still pretty impressive.

We are still going to the parks a couple of times a day ... it can't decide if its summer or fall here - a few days were cool - you know like around 75 degrees - then today it was back to full on sticky hot.

Lil Monkey got a new Cousin

Jamaique's baby boy has arrived! He was born Aug. 29th. at 12:03 pm. 9 lbs!!!! 21 1/2 " tall.....and cute as a bugs ear!
Rumor is he may be going by "Kingston" but that has yet to be confirmed.

Last Night Lobster...

Tonite Em headed to work to start Nights & for dinner the kid & I had...
CornDogs (non-meat), Fish fingers, Frozen Peas, some corn on the cob and
Mac & Cheese from a box.

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Lobster Dinner

Met Adam, Ila and the kids in New Hampshire, headed to Maine for dinner & had a crazy great lobster dinner.

A Photo from Grandpa - Monito on the Cape

August Update

The boy continues to just amaze me. He is so much fun to hang out with, although sorta tiring too now with all the running around. He is just SO happy with himself most of the time it's fun to watch. He runs around & looks back at me with a sh#t eating grin, then takes off again. He is all over the different climbing structures in the playground - never mind that he can't actually negotiate half of them. He is Fearless!!!

He now calls Mabel by her real name most of the time -- separating out the syllables May-Belle - very adorable. He is still signing every time he sees or hears a motorcycle, although he has begun to sign motorcycle for other cool vehicles like large loud trucks, school buses and fire engines.

I am going to need to find some classes to put us into to keep us busy as we come to the end of summer - maybe a music class and swimming at the Y again. Making trips to two or three different parks each day is wearing a tad thin! He still travels pretty well - we did alright on the short flights to DC and back and he did good driving to the Cape and the Shire ... We'll see how he does for a west coast jaunt in October - I'm a bit concerned for that long of a flight, but maybe we'll be lucky.

We've made a few more trips to the Boston Kid Haunts - the Zoo, the Children's Museum & the Science Museum - he seems to "get" more each time we go & to find new things to enjoy. I need to look into memberships for either the kids or science museum I think. I am also going to try and pick some more in "boston" proper adventures for us - he is doing good on the bus & has pretty much given up his morning nap so I feel like we can try am outings over the next couple of months.

Well that's it for now... except here is a picture

(visiting the pigpen @ the farm w/Cuz F.)

The Peach Farm

Monito enjoyed the weekend with Audrey's family. We went to a great park to ride a train, we played with Lots and Lots of Toys at her house, and we rode a ferry across the Potomic - we even picked fresh peaches and tasted some peach pie a la mode.

Peds Appt.

Today was our 15 Month Dr Visit -- He is excellent, of course ... with only one unsightly bruiser on his forehead from MamaCoffee at Andalu the other day. So without Further Ado his stats are:

Weight 21.2 lb (US) - still a skinny minny coming in in the 10th percentile
Height/Length 31.75" - tall - in the 75th Percentile for boys
Head 47 cm around - including the unsightly bruiser referred to above.

He got shots for HIB & DTaP -which they combod into on shot --- done quickly in his lidocained thigh as he stood up screaming in my ear.

Corn on the Cob

The lil monkey realized that he can eat corn from the source....

Sign Language

He has learned a fistful of signs, hi first was nursing, which looks like you're milking a cow - sadly it also looks like waving "hi" & "bye" when rotated causing the kid to get fed at many greetings and to be greeted when asking for a feeding, The next sign was "more" - this one is pretty clear, especially when uesd as he is eating birthday cake, drinking from a big cup or a straw, eating ice cream and snacking on cherrios. We have also been showing him things like "bath" , "hot", "drink water" and "change diaper" --- but in the past week or two we've noticed that he picked up the sign for MOTORCYCLE - (a throttle motion with the hand). He does it when he hears a motorcycle, when we see bikes parked on the street and just sometimes to make me happy during the day. He accompanies the sign with a very cute vrooom-vrooom sound....

Thats my boy!!!!!!!!!!!

First Bike Ride

Emily got a bike seat from Lori, and a new rack to fit it on and a cute yellow chicken helmet & finally took the boy out on his first ever bike ride (I couldn't look). After screaming because he had a helmet on his head, he adjusted and by all acounts had a great time. Now we just need to get my police auction bike working and we can do a family ride down Memorial drive on a sunday when the road is closed.

Cape cod photos

Whats been going on ...

Well wow the kid is tied up in his baby seat eating his morning O's I figured I would do a quick update. We just got back from a week in Cape Cod with Em's Folks and her Brother, Sis (in Law) and Neice - a few video clips are posted below and we've got a ton of photos up on a picassa web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/Suzukigrrl/CapeCodVacationJuly07 .


He is walking like a total champ at this point and hardly crawls at all anymore. He has learned to THROW A FIT and he is working on language possibly tossing off words like: no, up, off, cheese, Rachael, Mabel, woof and the like.

He still loves Saag Paneer and has FINALLY developed a liking for Ice Cream (we were starting to worry), but he eats very little fruit.... no berries -even fresh off the vine, no melon, no peaches, no citrus... A little Apple is about it.

We spend a lot of time with the Cambridgeport Boys Brigade - Gabe, Xander, Nick, Seth (even though he has moved to JP) and Harriet when she gets over from her home in almost Somerville. We also see cuzin Farah quite often - she is crazzzy and sassy - a lot of fun to be around but a lot of energy too. We miss Lori's Boys like crazy & wish them well as they head to Birmingham.

We should be seeing Shari & Lisa & Emma this week... I am looking forward to that. Missing home & Missing Friends....

Snacks

Cousins sharing some P*rate B**ty at the beach.

A Stroll

This is a video shot during our cape cod vacation. The lil' guy likes his mini tent...

New Post....

So I haven't written any news in awhile, its all been photo's & videos and stuff. That's a sign of how BUSY I've been feeling (& how awake the baby is... He doesn't let me type if he's up.) So right now the lil monkey is napping & I am listening to a WEIRD radio broadcast that our friends Lily & Eric are supposed to be on, but until they appear it is just that bad kind of morning radio talk that I HATE --- lots of so gay comments & things about women doing farm animals....

Anyways on to whats up with US...

Em finished Intern Year - and everyone says that things will improve in this second year - I am hoping that's going to be true. So far its been good - she has been doing a new clinic shift where she's had a couple afternoons off and gets to sleep more when she is on overnight call. (More in this case means some --- she gets a couple of hours in a 26 or 27 hour period as opposed to the NO sleep that she generally got on Labor & Delivery Call.) The good thing about this is that her post call day can be partially spent with us doing stuff & not just catching up on her sleep.

Monito is doing TONS of new things -

He started walking right after I got back from SF, and he spends each day
perfecting his technique - it is so cool to watch & he is VERY proud of
himself.

He has also learned to ring the little bicycle bell on cousin Farrah's tryke
when he is riding on it (he sits & we push).

Em thinks that he is talking now... I am not so sure, but she says she's
heard him use the words - "Cheese" when asking for & eating
cheese, "doggie" for Mabel - He definitley says "Woof" to mabel (& sometimes to Aunt Jenny), He has said "baby" as he touched his own chest.

He Naps in his crib most days - but he's been dumping the morning nap on a
lot of days and just powering through on one shortish nap.

He can make a couple of signs - he has done "milk/nurse" for awhile, but it looks a lot like waving hi - so I don't know what he wants a lot of the time, but now he has started signing "MORE" & uses it correctly - turns out he likes Ice Cream after all - he signs more, more, more - just like when he is eating Saag Paneer.

He can drink out of a grown up cup if you hold it for him, and he can also drink from a straw - He learned in SF when I was using up last years Jamba Juice Gift Card.

He is climbing up things - mainly stairs, but sadly he can't climb down. (Poor evolutionary planning I think).

Now that he can balance & stand up pretty good on his own, He is working on his DANCING - for blues music he sticks his bumm out and bends down to the rhythm, for Gaelic Folk he tends to shimmer & do a lot of hand movements... more to be discovered on this front & I'll try to get some video soon.

ME - I loved being able to get out to SF and see so many people, I only wish I could be in a couple of places at once cause I really missed Em when we were on the left coast. The travelling went pretty good, the babe was AMAZING & made it pretty easy on me. Now we are getting ready for a lot of left coasters who are coming East and going to try and squeeze in summer visits with us. I am so excited - you all know that I am missing my friends & family so much - even though I've met some really great folks out here. Speaking of that - Lori & her family have left Cambridge now & moved onto Fellowship in Birmingham Alabama ---- I went by her house to grab some stuff right after getting back from SF & it was so sad to see it all empty ... their house was my main refuge this past 6 months or so cause since Colin is a doc too she totally got the absent spouse thingy.

Okay I think thats the update for now....

Aunt Remi --- Happy Birthday

He Walks....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBY1bEsoR3Q

Gay Day Boy

Photos from the SF Visit

Summer Time & the living is easy

The lil monkey gets wet in a rain puddle left over in the playground, Connor comes along for the ride.