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.