Halloween 2011

This year we had a pirate, and a parrot. The parrot pretty much tagged along. The pirate had a first real Halloween, rang doorbells, said "Trick, Treat" and "You put my candy in here." He also said "Thank you" a few times.
We covered the neighbors houses, and for the first time actually had people trick or treat at our house too - we actually ran out of candy. This is probably the 9th celebration of Halloween we have done this week, and Mommy is done. We had one at day care, at Gymboree, we were supposed to go to a party on Saturday but it was cancelled due to the snow, and we wore our costumes to Imajine That. Due to the snow storm some towns are actually not doing trick or treating until Wednesday, Thursday and some as late as next Sunday. I guess if you played your cards right, you could hit every town and rack up a lot of candy (as my husband pointed out).
Mommy is getting better and better at this pumpkin carving thing...

James alternate Halloween costumes (in the likely, and did happen event of puke): Skunk, pumpkin.

Snowtober!

Since it was one for the record books, thought we might need to record it. Yesterday, boys, there was snow on the ground. In October. We had a Nor'easter. About 5 inches of snow, and white out conditions. It was a Saturday night that the snow started falling, and to top it off, it wasn't the first snow of the season either! Mom spent all morning Saturday cleaning up the yard things in anticipation. Boy, I can't wait till you guys can help me with that in a few years...
We had to take lots of photos of course. It was very weird to wake up with a snow covered pumpkin at your front door. The power went out, but luckily our generator kicked right now. Dad spent the better part of the day trying to hook up an antenna so we could get the Patriots game on TV. Of course he got it to work...
During half-time we played in the snow outside. And at night, the Joel's went into the hot tub. Good times were had by all! The power came back on sometime in the middle of the night last night, and now we are back on the grid. Which is actually sort of sad. Snowtober is already over!
Now, today is Halloween. Let's see if we can get our rain boots on over our pirate costume and trudge through the snow to our neighbors house to get some candy and show off our great costumes!

Growing Up Too Fast

I know, I know. I complain a ton about how I am not going to miss this time. I can't wait till they are both older. I am tired of the baby thing. I know. But this week we have made huge strides at moving up in the world and it has given me just a slight, small, tiny appreciation for the fact that my baby is not going to be a baby for long.

First of all, it has always been my goal (since Joel Andrew) to Boobie feed for 6 months. (this will be brief on the boobie feeding). We all know I only made it to 4 for Joel Andrew. So, I thought, let's try to make it to 4 for James. Well, in less than 2 weeks James is going to be 6 months old. I would hazard a guess to say we have made it. Remarkable really. I pat myself on the back. Now what to do? I tried feeding him an ounce of formula two days ago, to no avail... I would honestly just stick with the boob because at this point it is a breeze. 5-8 minutes and he is done, 5 - 6 times a day. No bottle cleaning, and I get to watch TV or play on my phone while doing it. If I had to bottle feed him I might have to - Gasp! - pay attention to him! This is the reward time Mom's get for going through the hard first months of boobie feeding, and I am seriously thinking about throwing it all away. For a few very good reasons, really.

1. I am not getting any calmer. I am ready for my hormones to go back to normal, it has been roughly three years now (with a brief 7 month period in between last boobie feeding and being pregnant) that I have been an emotional roller coaster. I am hoping that the end of hormones going like mad will also be an end to my craziness. Ironically, I have been prescribed medicine to help me with my anxiety. But, I should not take it while breastfeeding. But I cannot relax while breastfeeding. Hmmm.

2. My pump broke. I am not going to buy another $300 pump, and the hand pump, will not cut it.

3. I am going to Las Vegas for 6 lovely days with just my husband at the end of November. I will be dammed if I will bring a pump there with me.

and 4. I did a great job, I am overly impressed with myself. Baby James clearly has a great foundation. I do not feel guilty at all about stopping, and nothing Mrs. Obama or Mrs. Tom Brady can say will make me feel otherwise.

But.... I hate the smell of formula and washing bottles... So we will see.
How did I get sidetracked? Ah, yes. Back to growing up. Do you see my less than 6 month old doing push-ups? How about getting on his knees? This is followed by rocking, and then an attempt at a crawl. He will certainly have the crawling thing down in no time. I am amazed at how quickly he is doing these things, his brother was just rolling from side to side by now. James is sitting up. He is ready to move. Joel Andrew gave him an even more terrified look than I did when he saw him get to his knees this morning. It was as if Joel Andrew was saying: "wait, you are going to move? are you going to grab MY things?"
And, Joel Andrew has been busy growing too fast too. The things he says, like Bill Cosby always says, are the darndest things. He is very smart, very affectionate. But very independent. He wants to do things himself. When we are at Gymboree or when he is in school, he is happy if other kids are around, but equally happy if they are not. He wants to do his own thing. Right now this seems cool. But, I hope he gets into friends soon. I know he loves his one friend Declan, but they do not get to see each other that often.
I have also made Joel a little OCD. I like to give him a sense of routine, and for him to understand the order of things because I think it helps toddlers in general deal with their surroundings. First we go to Gymboree, then we get Quesadilla, then we have a nap. Joel likes to repeat the order to me and he does not tantrum at all because it is like he knows what to expect. But, if you were to change anything up, it is like his whole world has come down. Again... this is a normal toddler thing, right? Or am I OCDing my kid into the crazy class?
Here my two boys are in their Halloween PJs. I can't believe how big they are going to be next year this time. The baby thing, the bottle, learning to crawl will all be a distant memory.

Stone Zoo (again!)

Today we became members of the Stone Zoo (or Zoo New England, Franklin Park Zoo counts too). Yeah, so it is still far from my house, and yeah so they have like 5 animals. But it is a good time. It is like the Zoo people knew to make a Zoo for toddlers. Did you know there is a playground? There is a barnyard where you can pet the animals? There is even a Discovery Center, which makes me understand why people might come in January...
Discovering the Discovery Center was a huge treat for us today. Joel got to see a snake really close, and I can see in a year how valuable it will be. James can toddle around while Joel Andrew learns from some of the Zoo Education Specialists that are in there to ask questions, help out and show you cool things.
The place is empty on a beautiful Monday in October. Look at how close Joel got to the Reindeer. Though he still thinks it is a Moose. He likes to fight with us about somethings lately, and he was not going to let me tell him it was a Reindeer today. Just like, if football is on, he will call it baseball until you are blue in the face.

Our favorite, the Otter. I was for sure he was going to argue with me on this one. How can that be an Otter? We have an Otter (our dog) at home, and she looks nothing like that? But he seemed to get Mommy's explanation. Just as the Otter came over, and said hello to us! It was pretty awesome.

We did have a great time. Joel actually said a few times: "This is Fun Mommy!" Afterwards we went to Jordans - to eat at Fuddruckers and bum around a bit. Both James and Joel loved the water fireworks. It was empty as well. I am starting to understand why most places are closed on Monday - no one gets out. We need to start to take more advantage of this! Next week, the aquarium?

SPL Farm Fair

On Sunday we decided to stop pretending Joel Andrew was going to nap, and we all loaded in the car to the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm in Newbury, Ma. It is about a half hour away, no big sweat. They have an open barnyard which you can visit at anytime, and are owned by my former employer, Historic New England. I love the site manager there, Bethany. I found out through Facebook that there was a fair there yesterday, with beer, so we were in.
Joel fed the horses (which we later learned he was not supposed to do), and we saw the animals, bought some snacks, and shopped at some of the tents. There was live music, which Joel Andrew LOVED. He and I danced, and danced. He had a blast. He may have even napped on the way home... But we didn't quite make it to that. So, after his big day with no nap, he got to watch A Bug's Life last night...

A Trip to the Bank

Yesterday we made a trip to the bank. I thought some of the boys money they received as babies should be making more money than the .0001% it is currently making in savings, so we went to buy CDs. I am too chicken to put anything into investments right now... So there we are, seated across a person at the bank in what should be a simple trip.

Well, has anyone ever said to you: "I'm so glad you guys came in, it has made my day!" ? Because someone said that to James and I yesterday. We were super excited to be at an outing, he was giggling and cooing in delight. I was clearly excited that he was just being well-behaved. All other trips to the bank with my boys is always a screaming fit. But there he was, in his bucket having a grand time as I answered questions and we filled paperwork.

Then, it happened. A huge, big, deep groaning noise like I have never heard before. James' face turns bright red, he squints his little eyes and clasps his tiny fingers together. Big. Deep. Groan. We are at the back of the bank, and people in the front are looking around. What is this noise? The bank teller I am with does not yet have children, and is alarmed. "Is he ok? Is everything alright?"

I take one quick glance back at his red face that immediately melts into a smile and I burst out laughing. I don't think I have laughed so hard in months. I then explain that the baby is just trying to poop.

25 minutes, and a ridiculous amount of grunts later, and we are done with our banking. But, I think James has made a lasting impression on the people there. I think we should get a higher interest rate for it! Poor James though, he is in need of some prunes today.

Mall Tots

Mondays are our tough mornings. I have both kids, and I am usually exhausted from the weekend (not well rested as I should be!). So, I always like to have an activity to ensure that we are not just watching TV all day. Which, I never mean to do, but if we are home, it is what ends up happening...

So, this Monday we took a long trek down to Mall Tots, in Danvers. My husband had been there previous and said it was great. It is pretty good, but not for the 45 minute ride we needed to take. If I lived closer, I would probably be there more often. There were a lot of moms with more than one child, as it is easy to sit on a bench and watch your toddler play with all of the toys. Lots of Little Tikes cars and slides, enough to ensure that there will not be too much fighting. There are two bouncy houses, and one tunnel/slide obstacle. I kind of liked the toned-down obstacles as I could nurse baby James while Joel Andrew was playing and not worry that he was going to jump from high.
I think it was $8 to get in, they had monthly memberships too. All the toys were of a big size, so for some reason it just felt cleaner than say Imajine That where you might worry about all the little pieces and hidden germs. BUT don't try to examine the cars too close here, some of them needed a good scrubbing. If you needed to go to the Liberty Tree Mall with your whole family, this would be a great place to dump the husband and children while you go and get what you need from Best Buy!

Are you ready for some football?

My husband introduced me to football. I never really watched football except for a Super Bowl or two in my youth, but when I moved in with my husband I realized pretty quickly this was going to become a staple of our livelihood. My mother bought me a pillow that says: "We now interrupt this marriage to bring you football season." It is very true. Now it might read: "...interrupt this family..."

I figured out how serious he was when we missed one of our four nights in Walt Disney World to watch a playoff game at ESPN Zone. I caught on real quick, got myself a Troy Brown jersey, and fell in love with the idea of sitting on the couch all day Sunday, watching TV, eating various bad for you foods and drinking copious volumes of alcohol without anyone batting an eyelash. Looking at football this way, of course, made it great big fun. And, thanks to my enlightened look, my husband's friend's wives also found football to be a great time. Cheers to me! Glass always half full on Sunday!

I even took it one step further. How do I combine this newfound love with my love of travel? Well, a dare to my husband. Can we see the Patriots play in every stadium across the country (except for Oakland, who wants to go there?). To date, we have been to 8 stadiums, and I have seen some pretty cool places. From Nashville, to Miami, to San Francisco and San Diego. And last year, we brought Joel Andrew to his first game, in Chicago!
All seems to be going well, except when you add yet another child into the mix, it makes watching football that much more difficult. A toddler that no longer sits still for the games, and does not understand why we are not watching Mickey. A baby that pukes all over and does not want to sit still either. We thought we would make a party of it and have the Kings over yesterday. 6 boys, two Moms and a football game.
It was a great time. But it was chaos. I have to say, it was one of the first times I totally let Joel Andrew be, he is in the other room with Declan - that's cool. He is outside by himself, he won't go far... And it was true, they had a great time. There were some questionable moments with toys flying through the air at the other toddler's head, but we laughed that off to mistake...

Us Moms tried to maximize Man-time at the TV and we brought the boys outside for a while. A strategically timed James nap allowed for Joel Husband to have plenty of TV time. But once I heard that Red Zone announcer on, I knew they were in commercial break and Man time was over... Time to help, Dads!

Again, it was a great time. It is fun to watch Declan and Joel grow and like to be together. And scary to look at Nolan and James now and think in a few short years they will be doing the same. Sooner or later these boys have to get interested in the football game though, right? Because Mommy actually misses watching it too!

James, 5 months

Tomorrow James, you will be 5 months old. I am guessing you are about 20 pounds now, and you are already into 9 month clothing. You have lapped your brother for seasons, and will probably fit into the clothes he wore his second Christmas, for your first Christmas.

You LOVE to eat. Mommy tried to hold you off, but you were not having it. When we first fed you, you seemed a little sad. Maybe you did not like food? Nope, we figured out pretty quickly that you were just frustrated. How do you get more? How do you get it down quicker? More! Now we ration food for you every morning and night because you are still supposed to 95% be on milk. You lap up the bowl, whether it be rice, oatmeal, barley; or apples, squash, bananas, prunes, pears. Then you beg for more. I'd like to say this eating has calmed down your constant puking - but it hasn't. Now we just have fun-colored puke... I can't wait till you can start to feed yourself. I am going to have a ball watching you eat puffs.
You did such a good job figuring out sleep on your own, for a week. Then Mommy took the swaddle away and you were very confused. But you are a smart little man and I know you will figure it out soon. We know you can do it! It is very sad but we are going to have to put the swing away soon too - you are getting way too big and strong for it! As you get to the point of learning to sit up and pull yourself up, swing needs to go... But oh how snuggly you look in it...

As with your brother, every where you go ladies swoon. You are such a handsome little man that everyone is drawn to you. Your toothless smile is priceless, but I know that is not for long either as if all the drool, the rosy cheeks and the need to bite my fingers are any indication, teeth maybe sometime soon as well.
It is hard not to wish this baby time away. To wish you to an age where you are running around and playing with your brother. To when you sleep with no problems, or can feed yourself. We all know I have had a hard time trying to get it all done, and so I do wish for this time next year a lot. But please know, there are many moments where I recognize and try to remember forever how precious you are as such a little man. When you fall asleep in my arms and I stare at you for a while. When I tickle your toes and you coo at me. When you grab my fingers and squeeze them tight. I am going to miss my little guy. But I am even more excited to see how fun my big guy will become!

Milestones

So today I thought I would talk about Milestones. Mine!

I am 32 today. That is way old. But still way young. I only hope I make it to 64... Imagine what I can do in the next 32 years. I am afraid to write this, I always worry I won't make it that long. Birthdays are a nice reminder to celebrate all you have done, and be thankful for all you have done. We are here for such a short time, it is good to be efficient and make your mark! Enough philosophy. What have I done?

Well, I haven't gotten on Ellen yet, or had my 15 minutes of fame yet... And, I haven't travelled to each continent yet. But we are not going to focus on what I haven't done right now. We will focus on that tomorrow.

I have graduated college, and was the first in my family to do so. Not to mention, Cum Laude, with Distinction in the Major, from a top 20 school in the country! Yeah, Colby! I also met my husband there, so I also got my MRS.

I also got a master's degree from Harvard. (extension school, but Harvard nonetheless). That is pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

I fly fished in the Yellowstone River and caught many trout (more than my husband caught). I rode a Zamboni during a Bruins game, and had the crowd cheering for me. Even if most of them were my family and friends. I have ridden a hot air balloon over Napa Valley, Phoenix, and upstate New York. At one time I spoke pretty good Spanish, then pretty good Italian. And, I can read Russian.

Some of my more favorite milestones include when I never played a sport, and then ended up on the Rugby team in college for 3 years. Or, the first time I had a glass of wine at a wine tasting. Or when I climbed up to the Duomo in Florence; ate a fried cricket in a Mercado in Mexico, had a champagne dinner on a boat in St. Petersburg in -10 degree weather. I have been pretty lucky.

I taught myself various 19th century photographic techniques. I force myself to read even though I rather watch TV, and I force myself to garden even though I am generally into hiring someone else to do things, and against physical activity.

But of all the things I have done, the coolest is, you guessed it - having my two boys. I am very lucky to have them and getting them here has certainly been the hardest thing I have done yet. But with each day we are getting better and better and happier and happier. So this is for my boys, these are the things I did before you... What will we do together?

Topsfield Fair

On the agenda for today: The Topsfield Fair. For years I have seen the sign on 95N announcing the fall dates for the Topsfield Fair, which always coincide with my birthday, and I kept thinking, I need to get there. Well, today we did.

As you can see, the skateboard for our stroller came in very handy. Joel Andrew loved to ride on it as we walked the fair grounds. I was surprised at how well it worked out. Especially because he refuses to be tied down in the stroller. So, he hopped off to see the animals, and hopped back on till we got to the next thing.
There are tons of things to do there for the little ones. There was even a magician scheduled at some point, though we totally missed that. We spent most of the time walking around and seeing the animals, pigs, cows, chickens, ducks, llamas, goats, sheep, etc. Joel did not want to touch them, but enjoyed looking. Worked out just fine for me! He did have one freak-out though, when we went into the Poultry tent. He did not like being in that room, with all those chickens, hens, roosters, ducks, geese, pigeons in individual cages. It was creepy, he was right.
One could gain 80 pounds in one day at the Topsfield Fair. They had every bad food known to man. I was lucky and when Joel said he wanted a snack, I looked and looked and all I saw was fried food. I asked him if he wanted french fries and he said No! Can you believe it? We went into the veggie tent, and sure enough they were selling "matos" - Joel's favorite. So, that is what we snacked on, aren't we healthy? I am going to start saving up my weight watchers points for next year though, because they had some authentic looking knishes (YUM!), a polish cart with excellent Kielbasa, and the whole place smelled like fried dough.
Only bummer was they would not let me in the nursing mother's tent. This is because I had a sibling with me, and I am told siblings were distracting to other nursing Mom's. I kinda understood, but then I kinda didn't. I was in a way psyched that there was a room I could corral my one toddler son in while I fed Baby James. How could I corral him out in the open? No matter, Baby James cooperated and waited until we got to the car to eat. All was fine.
Joel loved the model train set, Grumpy better get his job of building Joel Andrew's model trains soon! We saw another elephant. Seeing elephants twice in three days, what a lucky guy? He was the best toddler anyone could have ever had today. And, for that matter James was the best baby. I am glad we did not listen to the weather report and we had our own adventure.

We will certainly be going back each year. To eat the food, see the animals, and later on, go on the rides. They had some kiddie rides and Joel Andrew rode the train all by himself. But it looks like at night there is a fun ride area, with all sorts of games (including skee ball, which I rock at) and a Ferris wheel. Perhaps in a few years this will be Mommy's birthday tradition?

Having such a great morning has rejuvenated me on this Mom job thing. I am ready to plan other adventures! Now, if only they would nap...

The Greatest Show on Earth

Today we got a sitter for Baby James (Auntie Jennie and Unkie Jeremy) and we went to the Circus! The Ringling Bros. Circus! They kept talking about P.T. Barnum, and it got me excited for the days in high school when I was in the show Barnum - I played the Ringmaster. Anyway, the Circus has been around for a really long time and is quite a remarkable thing. I spent a lot of the show sizing up the various characters performing in front of us and had a huge urge to read Water for Elephants. Who are these people? Where do they come from? How do they know how to do this stuff? What do they think of our country - traveling to these random venues? (we were at the Verizon Arena in Manchester). So interesting. They were so talented, it made America's Got Talent people look pathetic.
Joel Husband of course bought the super dooper tickets. We sat in what is normally the penalty box for the ice hockey team there. We had special passes, and we got to go into the ring at one point and watch the show on the floor. Joel Andrew was most amazed at the motorcycles in the steel ball. That is kind of ridiculous to me, I don't see the point, but the boys loved it.
If you go, I would highly recommend getting there early. There is a pre-show where no matter what ticket you have you get to go in the ring and sit next to the clowns and see the performances up close. Kind of a warm-up for the actual show. This was good to get Joel Andrew out of his shell. There is a lot going on at the Circus, and can be overwhelming for a toddler.
I was surprised at how many people the Circus employs, and how little the crowd was that was there. I hope that they are not hurting, but I guess it is not cheap for a family of four ($70 family pack was the cheapest). But, my guess is that is close to the price for going to the movies, or a Museum for a day, and this was so much fun. Yeah, I know, people probably are offended by the elephants, ponies, tigers, etc. being paraded out in front of us. But, it is a big part of our history. I hope the Sunday Morning show does a segment on this soon.
Hands down, all of our FAVORITE part of the show - the Elephants! We can't wait to bring Baby James next year!