Failed Surprise Anniversary Present

After much debate as to whether or not we should post these pictures, Mike and I decided they were too cute not to post!! We originally didn't want to post them because we felt it would cause undue angst amongst our parents; having Mike take Vince to and from daycare on the bike. I admit I'm nervous about it too, but that's all I'll say about that or I'll get myself worked up.

I originally tried to organize this as a surprise anniversary present for Mike.... my plan was to walk his bike to the shop while he was at work and I was home on vacation for Vince's birthday.... It would have worked out great. I dropped the ball however, and ended up giving the surprise away because I jumped to conclusions that he already knew what the surprise was. I left a search of 'baby seat' in the google tool bar on the computer, and Mike saw it. He mentioned it too me, taunting that it was probably an anniversary present. Well, with that comment I just flung up my arms and told him "Yes! I'm getting a bicycle carrier for you to take Vince to daycare! Are you happy it's not a surprise anymore?!" Uhh.... well.... Lisa.... he didn't actually have a clue as to what 'baby seat' meant!! I could have been researching new car seats!! (or said that I was).

3rd Anniversary, and the T-Shirt Tradition

Yesterday Mike and I celebrated our third anniversary! It's been an awesome 3 years of marriage with Mike, he's the best thing that's ever happened to me; he's my hero and true love and I can't wait to spend many many more anniversaries with him!! We had a nice evening out at dinner, and then came back home and watched one of our Netflix movies (that has been sitting there for 4 months). I felt giddy about the idea of watching a movie again, and working through our Netflix que! How's that for how long it's been.

When we thought back on what we were doing at this time last year, our memories got fuzzy... as we were totally sleep deprived new parents to a 1 week old little Vince! To see the picture from last year click here; I must say we look a little more held together than I remember being.

Now, on to the t-shirt tradition. When Vince was born we took a picture and posted it of him in his Daddy's t-shirt.... and we plan on taking a picture every year in that same t-shirt until he basically doesn't let us do it anymore! I predict that's how this tradition will end up dying out... when Vince has had enough of it. Until then....

Vince: 2 weeks old

Vince: 12 months old

First Father's Day

I had Vince tackle Mike this morning so he could give him his Father's Day cards and attack him with hugs and kisses for his Daddy. I think they had a good time, but poor Mike could have slept a couple hours longer (on most days now we both could do that!).


We were able to get up and out early enough to get ourselves a spot to eat at the Deluxe Town Diner. We LOVE that place, and couldn't wait to introduce Vince to their sweet potato pancakes. He loved them of course, (the only vegetables he basically managed to eat today..... he's getting pretty picky) Maybe we need to make pancakes for him at all meals now and cook vegetables into them!!

His Grandma and Pop Pop were in charge of dealing with Vince as they wanted to have the end seats at the table! They got more than they bargained for, but they kept him pretty entertained for a long while. Vince's Pop Pop has been teaching him to stick his tongue out!! sorry, no pics of that great talent yet.

Father's Day Reflections: The First Year

With this being my first Father's Day, I figured that I'd take some time to jot down a few observations about fatherhood. I'm kind of amused by the fact that I had to wait over a year since Vince was born before my first Father's Day, but it has made it pretty special that he's old enough for me to play with.

In no particular order, here are some thoughts of mine:
1) Sleep deprivation is torture. When you have a young infant, and you're waking up every hour and a half, and you're going to work the next day, it really wears you down by the fifth night in a row. All of those Washington lawyers who argued that it's not torture either a) do not have kids; b) were uninvolved parents; or c) are just plain crazy. Sleep deprivation causes you physical pain. A little sleep deprivation can make a grown man cry.

2) Being a father is work. A LOT of work. To me, being a father is about taking care of your child, teaching them right from wrong, and being someone that they respect and want to emulate. Anyone can father a child, but it's hard to be a father. I can only speak about what it's like to be the father of an infant, but it's been a lot of work so far. If you're not prepared to put your life on hold while you take care of your child, then you shouldn't have a child. It certainly affected me more than I thought it would. Some things that you'd like to do, like keep the house clean or stay on top of work, just aren't going to happen. You also don't get much personal time anymore, which was a big adjustment for me. But I really want to be a good father, so I've been putting in the work. I don't want Vince to say what Kurt Cobain did: "I tried to have a father, but instead I had a dad."

3) Daycare pickup is a lot more fun than drop off. Luckily I don't have any problem with Vince when I drop him off. He's not that clingy, and there's a lot of fun things at daycare that he can play with. About half of the time, he's too busy playing to notice that I left. But when I pick him up, it's the best part of his day. When he sees me, he gets so excited, and he crawls as fast as he can towards me. If I don't pick him up right away, or if I put him down to gather up his things, he throws a fit. But I just love the overall joy that he shows when I walk into the room. It's one of the most satisfying parts of being a parent.

4) I don't miss the things I used to be able to do before kids as much as I thought would; except sleeping. There are some things that I used to do, that I don't do anymore, like staying out late at night and having a few drinks. I also don't sleep in half of the morning because I feel ill after staying out late at night and having a few drinks. It's really easy, as a parent, to say: If I didn't have a kid, I could be doing something really cool, like (fill in the blank). Of course, when I didn't have a kid, I wasn't doing those things very often anyway, and having Vince now is far more enjoyable and rewarding than anything I could do that "fills in the blank".

5) The day to day development of infants is more significant than I realized. It seems like Vince is doing new things all the time, and sometimes out of nowhere. I was convinced that he would never crawl - just go from dragging himself across the floor commando-style to walking. Then one day, he comes home from daycare and starts crawling all over the place! Whether it's a new sound that he makes, or new motor skills, it seems like there's something new all of the time. I couldn't imagine missing this part of his life, when he's changing so fast.

6) The most fun month of Vince's life is always the last month. Every day he's more interactive, and there's new ways that I can play with him. The older he is, the more he laughs, and the more he enjoys playing with me, too. Already the first 6 months of his life, which was more work than fun, is starting to fade, and I have more and more memories of the fun that we have together.

Birthday Celebration at Together in Motion

Ok, here's the third and final chapter in the story of Vince's first birthday (can you tell we only have one kid... the next one won't get this much attention I'm told)! On Saturday we invited about 40 people and 18 kids to come help celebrate with Vince at Together in Motion. We originally had thought about Vince's first birthday party as being a fun couple of hours in the park with friends and kids, able to hang out on the grass and the playground. Well hello!! What is up with the weather out here people!? I'm getting sick of the clouds and the rain!! Don't even get me started on the weather out here in New England....

Anyway, we ended up scrambling at the last minute to find an indoor place to move the party so we wouldn't have wet kids running all over the place outside! We found this great little kids space area that has all sorts of obstacle course blocks and giant balls for kids to play with. Sort of like a giant padded crib or indoor playground where you can let your kids run around like crazy! Needless to say, it was pretty much a perfect spot to have a party. All of Vince's friends had a blast in the play area (crawlers and walkers alike), while there was also space for adults to chill out and talk in another room and look into the play area where their little monkeys were getting crazy. All the kids made it through the party without a hitch, minus one casualty of our friends little girl falling face first into the ground..... right at the edge where the play mat stopped and the cement started. Nothing that a little watermelon and cake couldn't fix. Let the photos begin:

Here's the tunnel, one of Vince's favorites

Following one of the older kids through the tunnel

Vince and Isaac scale the stairs

Getting some help across the bridge from his favorite sitter Kathryn

Two sets of twin girls! (Clio and Elsa, and Natalie and Megan)... quickly became friends and played ring around the Rosie


They couldn't wait to get to the falling down part

And now to the cake... well, we forgot to take a photo of our masterpiece watermelon cake before Vince mangled it... you can sort of see the other half on the table in the background of the picture! Mike had the idea when we discovered how much Vince loves watermelon. It was complete with colored cream cheese frosting- with white and green for the rind, and raisins for the seeds! Mike and I are soo bad at thinking about taking pictures!!

Adam's helping out

We forgot to take any sort of photos of any of the two cakes we had... let alone any photos with his grandparents who were at the party! But at least someone helped us remember to get a family photo with the first birthday hat on...

Birthday Celebrations at School and Home

On Vince's birthday we took him into daycare for the greater part of the day so I could spend time at home getting the house cleaned and ready for my mom and the weekend. I did feel a little guilty sending him along to school when I was home, but I quickly got over that. I was able to get my chores done, and Vince had some fun celebrations at school for his birthday!

Here's the infant room sign posting for the day:

Mike and I came to school for the 3pm snack time to share watermelon with the other kids. Vince decided that's what he wanted to bring in to share for his birthday. He's become a fiend about watermelon these days.

Here's the infant one room, from which Vince graduated at the end of last week. He's now in the infant two room. But to Vince's delight, his favorite teacher Jonathon is moving from infant one to infant two as well.... that's Jonathon to the left in the picture.

Let the watermelon festivities begin! There's Vince starting to have a fit because we can't get it to him fast enough (friends Nicholas and Miriam next to him), notice Nicholas looks totally obsessed with the watermelon too..... that kid shoveled in the pieces and then took a few from Vince.. it was hilarious:

This stuff is great!

This table with the holes for seats is genius!

An evening attempt at singing happy birthday just before a meltdown

Happy Birthday Vince!

Last night, right before falling asleep, Mike reminded me what we were doing at this time last year. I kindly smacked him on the head and let him know I'd rather remember the immediate time AFTER his birth.... not the 48hours prior.

Either way, we can't believe our little boy is 1 year today! Where has the time gone? It doesn't seem like we should have a 1 year old on our hands that's for sure. This morning Mike and I snuck into Vince's room and woke him up by singing happy birthday... we do have it on video but I'll spare you our morning singing voices. Vince seemed pretty amused however.

Here he is this morning, coming into the living room to find a new dump truck to play with!

We'll have more birthday pictures later, it's going to be a busy couple of days. We'll pick up my mother today as she is coming from California, Mike's parents will be coming on Friday, and we'll have Vince's birthday party on Saturday.

For now, I can put up a few pictures of our trip to NY this weekend to visit Nonna and Pop Pop. Vince got his first taste of a grown up size piece of watermelon and devoured it! He loves watermelon so much that we've decided to make him a birthday cake in the shape of a watermelon, complete with pink food coloring and raisins for the seeds... (pic to come later)

Where can I get more of this stuff!!

Enjoying the sun and grass on Aunt Donna and Uncle Charlie's lawn

Opening up a birthday present from Nonna and Pop Pop, we started celebrating a little early!

Our First Family Vacation

Last weekend was the first vacation we have taken with Vince where it was basically just the 3 of us. It centered around a co-worker of mine that competes in roller derby tournaments (I was excited to introduce Vince to some ass kicking women!)..... a few of us had planned on going to Providence to see her get crazy in the roller rink, but then it was canceled due to the rain. Mike and I, as well as a few coworkers, had already booked our hotel for the weekend; so off to Providence we drove on Friday. It was only an hour away, but felt like millions of miles away (from work and house chores) as we had a great weekend filled with relaxing at the pool, visiting with friends, and taking Vince to his first zoo trip!

Friday night was Waterfire night, which centers on a series of 100 bonfires that blaze just above the surface of the three rivers that pass through the middle of downtown Providence. Here's an attempt at some photos of the occasion:

I really loved the oil lanterns that they hang up all over the bridge underpasses:

We spent some time walking up and down the waterway, enjoying the music that is played along the waterway to enhance the whole experience.

The next day was gorgeous warm and sunny; the perfect combination for sitting out by the pool all day and relaxing with the rays (baby sunblock included). I was very excited to put Vince in his little swim trunks and matching swim top for the first time, and couldn't wait to get him in the pool for a swim!

Chillin' on the recliner

Not really sure what to think about this large bathtub yet!!

Getting the feel of trying to swim around!

After a while, he was a little pro at being in the water

Vince becomes a little daredevil and jumps into the pool!!
He's the fearless little in-Vinceable!

Time to get warm and dry

Exploring downtown Providence: The State Capitol Building

The next day we went to the zoo, which began with another gorgeous sun filled morning. Vince was asleep for about the first hour we were at the zoo, but when he woke up, boy! did he get a surprise! Say hello to Mr. Elephant

Wait a minute, who is supposed to be the more excited one here... I think Daddy was more excited about the Elephant! Vince looks on, as if mildly disgusted at the site of the giant mammal.

Vince usually starts this really high pitched scream when he is very excited about something. For example, if he sees a dog, he'll start squealing and inevitably freak out the dog and won't get to pet it because it backs off from him. I think that's what happened when this Nigerian Goat was within squealing distance of Vince.... who walked away without letting Vince get a good pet at the petting zoo

The last part of the trip before heading home on Sunday consisted of driving to some random park so Mike could get a hot dog from this semi-famous hot dog cart he read about on Boston.com. Supposedly this guy who owns a pretty highly rated restaurant sells hot dogs across the street at the park on weekends and has a special sauerkraut recipe and vidalia onion relish to put on top of your dog. I opted to NOT try the sauerkraut as it somehow included the ingredient of "duck fat" but the vidalia onion relish was REALLY good. No pictures of the hot dog run this time, but we'll definitely go back to that cart the next time we go to Providence!