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

BEWARE THE HALLOWEEN MUNCHKINS by Kathryn

My friend Kathryn wrote this great narration to the following pictures and I just had to share it with everyone! So here it is (from left to right: John, Vince, Adam):

It begins like any other Sunday, laying on the grass dressed up like goofballs by their parents for Halloween; and then, suddenly, Vince thinks of a plan.

Vince lets his buddies in on the plan. John and Adam listen intently with interest, trying not to attract attention.

Adam is totally wowed. "You are a mastermind", he says. After peeling off another bean ball from his costume, Vince rolls his tongue as if to say, "I know, dude." John takes it in and considers the repercussions.

After giving it some thought, John is also on-board with the plan. He squeezes Vince's hand and says, "Nice one, Vince!! Our parents won't suspect a thing."

"Let's do it!!" they yell, as they roll and kick with laughter.

Yes, We Used Our Baby To Get Candy

Friday night we dressed up in our Halloween threads and set out about 6pm to a friends house so we could take our little ones trick or treating. How else were we supposed to get our stash of candy if not through soliciting our very own flesh and blood, by dressing them up in silly costumes and banging door to door. We made sure to hit the neighborhoods having the big expensive houses, knowing that they would offer up the king size candy bars. Included in that neighborhood was our very own State Rep. Alice Wolf, who when we got to her house was on the phone attempting to save Cambridge Hospital from a 500 million dollar budget cut.

As we approached the front door of each house and the door would open, I made it no secret that we were using our babies to get candy. Hearing my disclaimer about using our son for our sweet tooth cravings inevitably produced a smile out of the candy givers, who would then ooh and aww over our babies and gratefully hand over some stash of chocolate, or the like.

Being the rather disorganized group that we are, we started out on one side of Cambridge and then decided to head over to another side because we had heard about a street where the houses get together to decorate for a common Halloween theme. This year's theme was "Hollow-wood". Each house decorated with Hollywood in mind, and there was even a red carpet in the middle of the street.


All in all we were out for more than 3 hours, must have covered about 2-3 miles when all was said and done, and we had ourselves a hefty bag of candy (which we gave away last night at a party... well, most of it).

Getting everyone ready

pumpkin carving time!

Vince went trick or treating with friend Sally-an honest to goodness junior astronaut!

Vince and Sally were accompanied by their friend Yoda, who brought along Luke and Leah

One of the many props at "Hollow-wood"

More Halloween friends