Christmas in New York

This year we enjoyed Christmas at Mike's parents in Mamaroneck, NY. It was a wonderful time, and Vince had lots of family there to play with and get to know, as Mike's sister was up from Atlanta with her husband and two children. The week at his parents was more like a week in Romper Room, and it was pretty much utter chaos the whole time, but I think everyone there would agree to do it all again if we could! It was so much fun watching Vince play (and fight) with his cousins Andrew and Noelle, and Amelia and Melina. One thing we learned is that he definitely needs to work on the idea of sharing! Every time Andrew or Noelle would get within 5 inches of his beloved matchbox cars that he had received from Santa, he'd tail spin into a complete hissy fit. I'd have to say that was true for most things that he happened to want at the time, but regularly came out with the cars, the bus he received, and the toy boat that stays and Nonna and Pop Pop's house. There's no doubt the kid is infatuated with public transit options. Mike and I still keep meaning to ride around town on a bus with Vince, we think his head would explode with excitement if we did that.

Here's the regular morning routine where Andrew and Vince would eat breakfast together. Well, Vince would pretend to eat, and Drew Drew would pretty much eat anything you put in front of him!

Mike's mom always prepares an amazing spread for Christmas dinner, complete with 7 different fishes... an amazing Italian tradition. This year was extra special because this is Nonna's last year cooking and setting it all up! She announced that she's retiring from hosting the Christmas Holiday Extravaganza. One of us has got to step up and take over this Holiday tradition!

Amelia, Noelle, and Melina having fun wearing their Christmas head gear, Vince kept taking his off

Christmas morning, after Vince opened his matchbox cars that came from Santa!

Here's an attempt to get the cousins together for a photo-op. Vince is already melting down, probably thinking Andrew is going to take his matchbox cars that he has clutched in each hand. He did end up sleeping with those cars clutched in his hands too!

We also had fun taking the kids to a local children's museum in Connecticut, called Stepping Stones. They had the most fun in the water area, where they could play with water and plastic balls. It was the cutest thing to watch them running around in their tiny smocks, which were there to help the kids not get too wet....

Andrew and Vince busy with the plastic balls

Ok, grab the balls and then put them in the whirlpool up above! And then they come spitting out the tube below!

And then it was on to the Toddler Supermarket, where Vince went food shopping

Snowed In For the Day

Last night around 10pm, it started to snow.... and it didn't stop until we had over a foot! We woke up to our doors and windows being caked up (and blocked up) with snow. We can't see the pool cover anymore, it all is just covered in snow. Our neighbor came to the rescue and let Mike use his snow blower to clear out the driveway. That was a huge blessing as it would have taken 2 days to shovel all that snow! Mike got the hang of the snow blower pretty well, and quickly learned to pay attention to the direction of the wind.... so you don't blow the snow right onto yourself. He did end up looking like Jack Frost at the end of it all, however. He blasted himself the first few times.

So we had a nice day of staying home. Vince is really enjoying his new Curious George book where George makes blueberry pancakes. So we spent the morning making some pancakes, and we had our little helper to put the blueberries in!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Vince also had fun with his first bubble bath, here he is sporting a nice bubbled beard. He looks sort of like Colonel Sanders!

Visit to the Enchanted Village

Last weekend we went over to Jordan's Furniture to view their Enchanted Village, apparently a true New England tradition... and from the words on the website:

Once, called the Enchanted Village of St. Nicholas, the holiday display was originally created in 1958. At that time, Jordan Marsh Company commissioned a Bavarian toy maker to create 28 fully decorated holiday scenes with 250 “magically” animated figures. Jordan’s Furniture purchased the surviving pieces of the Enchanted Village at auction in May of 2009 and restored the vintage collection to its former glory. The surviving collection includes 59 mechanical figurines and 18 vignettes. The Village is on permanent display in Avon, and is open for all to enjoy during the holiday season.

So we decided to head down and check out the scene. We met up with Chris and Kathryn so Vince got to run through the display with his buddy Adam, and they had a great time.....

waiting in line with mom!

Enamored by the first display

Every 10 minutes or so there would be a 'snow storm' in the village, with small bath bubbles being blown from the ceiling down over all of us! So fun!! Not sure if the bubbles can even be seen in this pic though.



And then there was Santa to greet us at the end..... but Vince and Adam weren't too happy about that part. It's almost heart braking to see their poor little faces!! As soon as I saved Vince from evil Santa, he turned back around to wave and say hi to 'Tanta', and kept saying 'Tanta' the rest of the day.... and now, well..., anyone who dawns a white beard is 'Tanta'.

Here they are, happy again relaxing in a Jordan's Furniture rocking chair

Here's some more frosty pictures of our backyard during the first snowstorm, it was so beautiful! Even with the snow on the diving board

And last but not least, Animal,..... quite literally, getting into the Christmas Spirit

Thanksgiving, Mom's Visit, First Snow

Whoah!! It's been a whirlwind of a month. November was filled with family and friends, gathering at our new place for a Thanksgiving feast. I still can't believe we got 9 adults and 4 kids under two all pretty much seated around the table. The night went off pretty nicely, with the only accident being the knocked over flowers... and that was by an adult! ;) Mike spent the day brining the turkey again, same as last year. It really gives the bird that juicy flavor, no drying out at all!


The kids had fun using our hallway as their race track. They ran up and down it, chasing each other and laughing and rolling around like crazy. It was really the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Here they are caught in mid chase.

Vince and Sylvie giving each other great Thanksgiving hugs... this has got to be the cutest picture I've ever seen!! Little Vince looks pretty content to be smothered by cute Sylvie!


My mom arrived the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and was able to have a good 2 week stay, she of course fell in love with Vince and spoiled him with pretty much whatever he wanted. Lots of reading books and spending good time together.


This past weekend was our first real snow! It made our yard an instant winter wonderland, and we suddenly realized we had Vince's snow suit and jacket... but never bothered to get him snow boots! A quick trip to Babies R Us fixed that problem, and we bundled up Vince and Adam for a good roll in the snow outside. Well, I can tell you that it took about 3 times as long to get them in their outfits as compared to the amount of time they spent outside. Vince lasted all of about 3 seconds before he started melting down and wanting to go inside. He stood in the snow as if his legs were glued to the ground, didn't try and walk one step! He was hilariously miserable, the poor little guy. Adam was a little more adventurous, he actually walked through the snow a few steps before deciding he was done.

It sort of breaks your heart.... but so cute!!

Outside our Front Yard

Family Photos 2009

We went to the portrait studio last weekend to get some updated family photos. It was a bit harder this year with Vince being mobile! Last year we'd put him down and he'd stay there, this year we'd put him down and he'd run all over the place pulling things down, or taking off his shoes! I feel for the poor photographer, he certainly had his work cut out for him, although he sure was flattering. He kept going on and on about how cute Vince was and how easy it was to make him smile. He repeatedly commented "oh my god this kid is adorable!"... it was great.

Amazingly enough, he was able to get a few cute shots of us and Vince......

Autumn Leaves

One thing about having a yard.... there's lots of raking to do in the fall! Being from California, I never really experienced the impressive amounts of fall leaves that cover the grounds about this time of year, making a virtual blanket of brown that needs to be cleaned up. Well...., there's that and also the gardner we had... who pretty much took care of our yard while I was growing up. I can't say I ever did very much in our yard growing up except pick oranges off the tree.

So fast forward to now, where I suddenly have this ginormous area of land that I have to figure out how to take care of. Thank God Mike did all of that growing up.... I'm learning though and it's really fun.

The day after Halloween was dedicated to getting the green grass to reappear in our backyard. I've never racked so much in all my life! As you can see, Vince had so much fun getting in the piles of leaves... he also helped scoop the leaves into the garbage bags, what a great helper!!




Can you guess who this might be in the photo below?! Taken around 1975 when he was about 2 years old.... hmm, I wonder where Vince got his idea for jumping in the leaves! They even have their mouths open in similar gasps in these two pictures!

Our Halloween Pumpkin

Yesterday was our big day to get Vince out there and have him round up some candy for his Mom and Dad. This year was *a lot* harder than last year.... as last year he was immobile, asleep most of the time, and we just wheeled him from house to house while he remained largely indifferent to the whole affair. This year he clearly had his own agenda, wanted to walk on his own, and half the time didn't want to walk in the direction we were going. He'd forget about his trick or treat bag and just leave it behind, or he'd dump out all his candy on someone's front porch to just play with it and then leave it there. He'll figure it out eventually. It didn't take long to teach him to grab the candy and pile it in his bag!

Adam (the little dinosaur) and Vince getting some goods

This being the first Halloween in our new neighborhood, I went around a few days before and asked some of the neighbors how many numbers of kids usually come around. I was told to expect a lot! Well Mike went to Costco to get the candy, and he came back with 16.5 lbs!! We pretty much used all the candy, we estimate that we had about 50-60 kids last night, showing up in huge roving packs all at once and taking each house by storm. We had some mulled wine brewing in the front entry way to offer to the parents that came with the trick or treaters... a big hit with us and most of the parents!

Here's Vince sporting a big grin while he's buried in 16 lbs of chocolate

Vince has taken to offering kisses quite a bit. He'll come at you with his mouth wide open and just smack you with a wet one, never closing his mouth. Not sure where he learned it, but here he his offering a big wet one to his pumpkin


Vince's outfit came with a little hat to complete the pumpkin look, but we couldn't get him to keep it on for much longer than about 2 seconds.

Here he is headed out for his first trick or treat!

Our neighbor Mary just loves Vince and always watches over him like a little mother. She was making sure he was paying attention to the carved pumpkins in our driveway. After all, we did slave over creating them in the kitchen

Another shot of Vince and Mary

Grab the goods and head to the next house!

Vince's friend Adam had apparently been getting some training ahead of time from his parents Chris And Kathryn on how to scoop up candy and put it in the bag. Well, he's a quick learner because when we would show up at a candy bucket, Adam would start scooping away, loading up his bag like a coal miner collecting fuel!! Vince took the slower route: choosing one candy at a time, examining it, and then putting it in his bag. Sometimes he'd go into his bag and pull out some candy and put it in people's candy bowls! He'd be putting the candy back! I clearly need to do some more training with him in prep for next year.


Here's Adam preparing for another session of scooping all the candy he can into his own bag. Vince is just confused and in the midst of losing his hat again.


It was a great first Halloween in our neighborhood, and we're looking forward to many more.