Christmas in Mamaroneck Part 2: The Rest of Our Stay

We spent Christmas Day over at Mike's sister Donna's house. She always makes a beautiful holiday dinner, with so many great dishes.

Here's Vince sporting his cute new pajamas from Auntie Lisa. He's recently gotten the idea that spoons are a fun toy.....while another new thing is that he has a hissy fit if you take anything out of his hands that he is playing with, so the spoon stayed in the picture. Exerting his will already?

Jack gives a tap on the nose

Vince was completely in awe of the ceiling fan

The next set of pictures are taken from Roy Alletti's house, who happens to be Mike's father's cousin's son (I kept thinking they were saying we were going to royal eddie's...). We were out driving around looking at decorated houses but there weren't too many this year.... however, going to cousin Roy's place made up for everything. His front yard is out of control! There was so much there it was like the It's A Small World ride at Disneyland. Vince was asleep through the whole thing as we walked around it, while Maxie barked and growled at all the moving and singing figures.

And lastly here's a few cute shots of Vince with Maxie. It is very clear that we need to get a dog one of these days, as Vince laughed and had so much fun when Maxie was around. He would even laugh when she barked and growled, wasn't afraid at all!

Here they are sharing some blanket time

Here's a picture just seconds after Maxie stole a face lick from Vince. He wasn't sure what to make of it

Nonna got in on some blanket time too

Vince's First Christmas Part 1: Christmas Eve

Ok, time to recap on our first family Christmas! My motivation comes mainly from the fact that Vince obviously won't remember any of it when he's older and would probably like a description (some day), and also that I got an unexpected day off today..... so I have some time. Although why I decided to forgo sending him to daycare anyway I will never understand. I mean I totally love the boy, and I was thinking I would miss him if he went, but now I wish I would have sent him with Mike this morning so I could have at least a few hours of me time. Lesson learned: it's ok to utilize daycare even if I'm home for a day! Anyway, I've deviated from the Christmas theme so let me get back on track.

I ended up having to work on Christmas Eve day so we didn't leave Boston until 2:30pm, which would still normally be a great time only that it was raining almost the whole way to New York and we hit some heavy traffic for a while. What would usually be a 3 hour drive turned into 4 1/2 hours.... but we rolled in right at 7pm and Mike's family was waiting for us pretty much with knives and forks (and drinks) in hand ready to eat when we got there. Mike's mother is a FANTASTIC cook and had an amazing traditional Italian Christmas spread of appetizers available, while the main course included a Baccala Salad, and Linguini with clams. Italians traditionally have a Feast of the 7 Fishes on Christmas Eve, and Mike's mother outdoes herself every year with amazing recipes. She did announce however, that she's only doing this for another few years and someone else has to take over!

Each year there is a Christmas grab bag that usually is done by Mike's nieces Michelle and Erica-it consists of little presents that everyone gets to pick out of the bag... usually included in these presents are such prizes as tea bags, mints, whistles, etc. This year the Christmas grab bag has been taken over by Amelia and Melina so here's a picture of them going around and letting people pick out presents.

Mike picked out this ornament of Oscar the Grouch, while I picked out a valuable ear plug (only one mind you... the second one was missing), and Vince got some Altoid mints

Vince got pretty good at pulling the wrapping paper off of presents.... I missed the next shot of him putting this all in his mouth

Here's a picture with Pop Pop and his three grandchildren that represent the Swiss and German side of the family, like the United Nations!

Can you find the Swiss, German, and Italian flags in this picture?

Vince sporting his 'My first Christmas' pajamas.. shortly before heading to bed Christmas Eve

We failed to get any sort of Christmas family photo with Vince, maybe I'll try to get one with the cats before we take down the Christmas tree!

We Have A Tooth!

Last week I was running my fingers along Vince's gum line (you'd laugh at my to do list these days....) just to check if he has any teeth coming in. I felt a sharp little ridge on his bottom gums! I had to use a bit of pressure to feel it, but I had proof of the little tooth coming in when I checked the book he had just been chewing and saw little nicks where his lower gums were gnawing. Needless to say, his poor books are probably going to start getting more beaten up now that he is getting his choppers (or one chopper for now). There's no way I can get a picture of it yet, but stay tuned for that. He hasn't really been more fussy due to his teething, but he is getting a bit of diarrhea..... anyone know why those two may be linked? Anyway, this tooth is just reminding us of how fast he is growing!

Along the lines of how fast Vince is growing, I got a shot of him having a meal in his high chair for the first time last night. We tried putting the tray on but his little head barely went over the top and he couldn't see, so we ended up just feeding him without it. Thanks Grandma for the Santa hat!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit!

Getting into the spirit of Christmas, our household got together to create a Christmas Dance to share with everyone! click on the link below to view, and Merry Christmas!

Silvestro Christmas Dance

6 Month Visit... and Other Updates

Today Vince is 6 months old. It's hard to believe it's been half a year since my stint in the hospital... when we welcomed Vincent into the world. To see his latest Stats of height, weight, etc. then take a look at the sidebar. He's managed to move up in the height percentile, move a bit down in the weight percentile... but his head has remained bigger than average at the 61st percentile. I hope it's his Daddy's MIT brain he's got in there!!

Of the other happenings since my last post, perhaps the biggest one is that Vince started daycare last week! I'm pretty sure it was harder on me than it was on him... I pictured him in a corner of the infant room crying and not being held by anyone while hoards of other children are running around and occasionally trampling him. Of course that's not what I saw in reality. Vince's teachers have grown to love him already in two weeks, and he's even starting to notice the other babies in the room. Mike has the job of taking him and picking him up each day because it's so close to his work. Here's a picture of them getting ready to brave the cold weather to walk to the train one morning:



With our Christmas tree finally up, my friend Kathryn and I thought it would be fun to get a photo shoot of our boys in front of the tree. The hard part was not only trying to get them to smile, but trying to get them to smile at the SAME TIME! Here's the best we could get with both of them:

Vince's Big Shoot

We took Vince to a portrait studio on Sunday to have some pictures taken before the holidays. Here's a couple of our favorites. You can click on the link below to see the entire album.

From Vince: December 2008

Santa!

On the way home from my parent's house this weekend, we stopped at the Natick Mall to get a photo with Santa. We figured the line would be relatively short on a Monday morning, and the mall was only 5 minutes out of our way. Here's Vince's first photo with Santa:

Vince looks pretty happy, but Santa, not so much. That's understandable, since Vince had a handful of Santa's beard 30 seconds before this picture was taken (FYI Santa's beard was very real.. not your garden variety fake one).

Thanksgiving Weekend

On Friday evening we drove to my parent's house in New York for the remainder of the Thanksgiving weekend. My brother Joe from Florida and sister Anne from Virginia were also visiting this weekend, and it would be their first opportunity to meet Vince.

Overall it was a pretty relaxing weekend. Vince had fun with my parent's dog Maxie. Every time she came near him, Vince would start laughing hysterically. We should have taken some video of it, but we did a poor job of keeping the camera handy this weekend. We have to make sure to get some video during Christmas.

We left Vince with my parents on Saturday night, and Lisa and I went out to dinner with my brothers and sisters. My Mom was looking forward to spending some time with Vince. But by the time we got home, my Mom looked like she just had a run in with the devil. Seems like Vince decided to be a little fussy for a couple of hours, and my Mom didn't have the touch that Vince is used to.

We did take a couple of pictures at breakfast on Sunday morning. Here's Vince with his cousins Amelia (on the left) and Melina (on the right), and his Aunt Hilde:


Here's another picture of Vince and Melina, before Vince started to cry:

Thanksgiving

Since Lisa had to work the Friday after Thanksgiving, we decided to have a few people over for dinner. We had the responsibility to cook the turkey, which I have not had the opportunity to do before. Since I've heard that brining a turkey makes it really juicy, I gave it a try. Here are all of the spices, along with the sugar and salt, that I dissolved in vegetable stock the night before:


Lisa and I woke up at 6am to put the turkey in the brine. Here I am looking my morning best with the bird:


We submerged the turkey into a 5 gallon bucket and the brine mixed with ice water. We took it out after 6 hours and cooked it for about 2 1/2 hours. It was as good as advertised!


Here's a photo of Vince in his "My Little Turkey" shirt. He's happy because his friends Sylvie, Bibi, and Iman are coming over later in the day.


Here's a picture of everyone who came over on Thanksgiving. All of the food was delicious, especially the desserts! (From l-r: Sylvie, Beau, me, Amine, Iman, Bibi, Joc, and Katie.)

A Few Captured Giggles

My favorite thing to do these days is to try and figure out what will make Vince go into giggle mode. It certainly has not been consistent, and what makes him laugh one day may not work the next. He's only just starting to go into side splitting giggles, but when I hear his laughter it's like music to my ears. I mean I feel like it's the greatest thing I've ever heard... and that my kid has got to be the cutest, most talented, and most intelligent baby I've ever seen!

Here's a sample of a little bit of giggling we got out of Vince when we tickled his neck with a napkin

And here's a bit more of him laughing at our fake sneezes. Again, we think this is brilliant but also know that others may not be quite as excited.... I guess that's part of being a parent!

Vince Tackles Rice Cereal and Apples

Vince has recently been sucking down the bottles like a champ. He either has a hole in his leg where all the formula goes out, or his appetite is just getting too big for a liquid diet. In any case, he was in for a big surprise last week when I put a spoon full of rice cereal in his mouth. He started suckling on the spoon for a little bit, probably thinking it was a strangely shaped nipple... but it wasn't too long before he figured out it was food in a different form. Here are some recent photos and video of Vince with his new way of eating.

Here he is with the first couple tries, obviously stunned at this new experience

We were able to take a few classic shots with Vince's reaction to his first apples as well. He seemed to enjoy the new taste, but made a few faces that were reminiscent to what it may be like if we were to have put a juicy lemon in his mouth instead of sweet apples! It provided for about a good 45 minutes of entertainment for Mike and me. After a few bites of the apples he made it clear that he missed his bottle, so we gave up and he sucked down another 6 oz.

I swear, we didn't put lemon juice in these apples!

Vince: Lord of the Dance

Vince loves to kick his legs around as soon as his diaper comes off. It makes for a challenging time getting the new diaper on, but I have found that when he does his little leg dances that he reminds me of that Musical or play The RiverDance where all those dancers are kicking around but it seems their heads stay in one place. Here I've captured a few highlights of Vince's dancing career, this kid's got talent!

Here's a video of him cutting a rug on the changing table

Here's another video of him kicking it up in the bathtub. I happened to capture the nice shot of Mike almost losing Vince from his grasp as he lowers him into the tub.... but Alas he was fine. Disclaimer: yes, both Mike and I realize how dorky we have gotten about how we talk to our baby..... just try to ignore it if you can while you watch.

Fall in Boston

There are several reasons why I would rather live in the Pacific Northwest, but one thing I have grown to love about New England is the Fall. Being from So. California, I never grew up with experiencing much of the 4 seasons. While Winter in Boston is pretty windy, cold, and dark.... Fall is usually full of blue skies and brilliantly colored trees, that shed leaves with shades of red, yellow, orange, and purple. Put that against a crisp blue sky and it's something like a painting to walk through. If anyone wants to come visit us, you should definitely come during Fall. Here are a few pictures I took on our street and at the park near our house. You should be able to click on the picture and see it in full if you want to:

Some trees across the street from our place, me with Vince

Here's Mike cruising along with Vince at the park

Family shot

I just love the hat and matching mittens I found for Vince!

On Tuscon and SkyMall Magazine

Last Thursday we all headed out to Tucson, Arizona for my annual nursing conference. Mike and Vince came along for support (and to have their own fun), as this year I was giving my first presentation at the conference. I daydreamed about the trip as soon as the weather became cool in Boston, especially when finding out that the prediction for Tucson was sunshine, blue skies, and 75 degrees. So we checked in to the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa, and had ourselves a nice weekend in the sun. This was the first time Mike had come with me to a conference, and I do have to say it was quite a distraction knowing he and Vince were around when I was going to my talks. Nevertheless, I was able to attend the lectures I was interested in, and we were still able to visit some nice parts of Tucson and have ourselves some descent Mexican food.



Vince is quite the seasoned little traveler now, with yesterday's final leg back to Boston marking his 10th flight. He is pretty laid back when it comes to traveling by plane. The kid sleeps pretty much the whole time. I on the other hand cannot seem to pick up the art of sleeping while sitting up. Luckily, however, I am easily entertained:

One of my favorite pastimes while flying the friendly skies is perusing through SkyMall Magazine. That magazine has the potential to make me laugh out loud every time I look at it. Let's face it, where else can you buy a miniature Yeti sculpture for your outdoor garden... where else can you buy a marshmallow bazooka, or a cat litter box that is disguised as a potted plant! And don't forget there's the mini staircase for those of you that have little dogs that can't jump onto your bed! Perhaps the highlight of SkyMall oddities was found in yesterday's edition: the NeckPro Traction Device. Yes, you too can have your own portable neck traction device for the low cost of 55 dollars. The magazine really never ceases to amuse me for at least an hour of whatever flight I am taking, and I have actually coveted a few items that I've discovered in their pages.

Here's some pics of our time in Tucson

Mike cruising down the waterslide

Vince takes his first dip in a pool

Tail end of the Rockies

Vince sitting up (almost) in his own bed