Our Christmas at home 2011

Christmas came and went so fast this year, and it's hard to believe it's our third Christmas in our home!  Watching it all go by while literally sitting on the couch, came with some good and bad sides to it.  The good part was I was able to avoid the crowds by doing virtually ALL of our Christmas shopping online at home (or sending my poor mom out to hunt for things).  And of course I was SO thankful to not be spending Christmas in the hospital on bed rest or with a premature baby.  (Side note:  Tomorrow I'll be 32 weeks pregnant and haven't had any contractions or any signs that this baby may be coming early so every day gets better!  I don't go back to the specialist until Jan 11, so we'll see what happens then).  Ok, back to Christmas. 

Vince had been speaking for MONTHS about the Thomas Trains that he wanted to get from Santa this year, and when Christmas morning came, he dug through all the presents under the tree until he found any small wrapped items that might possibly be the right size for a train.  He quickly located the three trains that Santa got him, ripped them open like a Tazmanian Devil, and then poof... he was off to his train table in the sun room..... never mind the tricycle, and the wagon that was overloaded with more Christmas presents to open! 

Then there was Zoë, who was content to just poke her finger through wrapping paper and then continue in her daily task of shifting Christmas ornaments from one part of the tree to another... or just completely ripping them off to hide them in another part of the house.  She did eventually realize the potential for the toys that were opened, and with increasing interest she opened and played with her presents..... and she does love her stroller!  (Vince loves the stroller too, which creates a lot of fun when they both want it)

Christmas Eve was spent with the same family as last year, we headed over to Danielle and Kevin's for a wonderful Italian feast.  Max, Vince and Zoë each got to open one present.  It was amazing how quickly the house went from nice and clean, to a mash of ripped up paper everywhere!   Vince and Max got their own fisher price cameras, while Zoë got a fun ball game. 

 Isn't she a little Angel in this dress!

I snuck out again for church that evening, here we are trying to keep the kids somewhat quiet

And some pictures of Christmas morning! Grandma got a nice box of wine from Vince and Zoë

Vince and Zoë finally trying out their wagon, chocolate in hand.  Zoë double fisting her Christmas chocolate treats!

And getting crazy on her sugar rush....

 And so begins the many requests for wagon rides around the house

 finally we made it outside to try the wagon, it was a gorgeous day!  Vince even got a blue lollipop to make his mouth match his jacket

 Merry Christmas! 

We had a wonderful dinner that Nonna and Pop-Pop brought, and it was just a relaxing day of eating and enjoying company.  Unfortunately I failed to get any other pictures of the day... and I'm convinced our family is cursed with picture taking follies, but that's another story.   

Another Beautiful Mother's Day

It's hard to believe this is only my second Mother's Day. It feels like I've had many more, and I can't imagine life without Vince anymore! I received a Mother's Day present that Vince 'made' at school this year, it's the cutest little potted plant that had a note attached: "made with love for mommy, love Vince". It made me cry! Now if I can just remember to water it....
I can't wait to keep getting hand made gifts for holidays, they just make my heart melt.

This year we went once again to the Lilac Festival at the Arnold Arboretum for Mother's Day, and it was once again a beautiful sun filled day (but chilly), with rows and rows of lilacs for us to put our noses to. This year was a little different, as Vince was mobile and could run around from Lilac bush to Lilac bush. He would run and hide under the trees, smell all the flowers he could, and run over to the ponds to watch the ducks. It was a beautiful day of relaxing and enjoying the sunshine.


We ended the day by having some friends over to help us break in our new grill! We are very excited about the new addition to our backyard, and can't wait to have many warm nights outside grilling some good meals. Between three toddlers and six adults, we went through enough burgers/dogs/grilled veggies to make us full and happy for the rest of Mother's Day.

July 4th and Neil Diamond!

This year for the July 4th fireworks show, Neil Diamond was the special guest singer coming to play with the Boston Pops. Really, could any combination be more perfect?!! I mean, when he started singing America.... I wasn't the only one that got choked up, the crowds went nuts. In addition, if you know anything at all about Boston Red Sox fans then you'll know that they sing Sweet Caroline at EVERY Red Sox Game, during the 8th inning. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this entire city will scream out the words to Sweet Caroline whenever they feel there's reason to.

Celebrating America's Independence Day with some homemade pancakes, Vince's favorite!


Some of our friends had the greatest idea in the world!..... to go to the Esplanade the day before the show and watch the dress rehearsal, which was pretty much what you'd think... a complete run down of the show including commentaries, singing, and even shooting the cannons off during the 1812 overture. We also got an extra dose of Neil when he had to sing America twice due to some sort of technical glitch that went on during the first song. Awesome! The crowds were pretty huge, but not as bad as the actual day. Sorry to those that don't share the same enthusiasm as I do for Neil Diamond!! I have to blame it on my mom for her years of playing her Neil Diamond records.

My mom made Vince this special July 4th vest to wear at the celebrations, complete with American Flag buttons

Thanks to Karen, Cesar, and Lauren to getting there early to claim a good spot! We had a clear view of the stage

playing Uno before the show

A clear and quiet sky the night before the fireworks

Day Two: setting up on the Cambridge side to hang out and wait for the fireworks. I wasn't very organized about any of our outings this weekend. I didn't grab any blankets or anything to sit on.... luckily we ran into Mike's coworker friend Kevin, who goes early and claims a big spot on the grass. Beth-Ann and Jason met up with us too! Here we are at around 7pm, counting down to fireworks at 10:30.

Vince held his own for a good amount of time, finally falling asleep around 9:30... right before a small display of fireworks went off just to wet our palate. He had fallen asleep in my arms, and when they went off he woke up wide eyed and looked up at the sky and stared curiously. We were wondering if he'd be afraid, but he did so well! When the main display started we held him and he just watched in wonder, even starting to bop along with the music at one point. No crying for him! He's our brave little man. He's never been scared of loud noises in general, and always comes crawling full steam ahead towards the vacuum when I run it, or when dogs bark loudly

Vince and Dad look up at the show

That's Vince's furry little head glowing in the right hand side of the picture, guess I was too close

I'm not sure how many more July 4th shows we'll be able to make in Boston, but we'll see. We're still moving forward with a house south of Boston.... but after the first house fall through I don't hold my breath anymore.

Ok, only one week of work and then we have vacation for a week! Happy July 4th everyone!

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.

Happy Easter!

Vince had a good time meeting Ms. Easter Bunny, here's one of the better photos with the two of them together... and his signature hat (thanks to Nonna!). It was no small miracle that the photographers were able to get a shot of Vince both without trying to accost the bunny and without trying to take his hat off!

The poor Easter Bunny ended up getting dragged a few times by the ears when Vince was able to get a good grasp and manage a good pull of a couple 3-4 inches before we were able to run over and stop him. Luckily Ms. Easter Bunny was pretty chill about it all.

Here's a few more fun photos from the photography session. We had so much fun getting Vince to smile (it's never that hard).

Here's our little mini man obviously stating that he's number one!

The sweetest little face!

Getting tickled by the flower!

Here's an untouched-up shot of Vince at the beginning of an ear grab

OK, now MAYBE he looks like a Vinnie here....

Vince practices his "gentle" stroke

Happy New Year!

Ok, maybe it is already seven days into the New Year but I figure it's still early on enough to be wishing everyone all the best for the coming year! I've been enjoying friends blogs that have pictures of their little ones from a year ago and seeing how much they really change after just one year! I'd have to get an ultrasound picture to compare Vince from last New Years to this one, but I trust you'd notice a big difference....and instead I put together a photo movie.... so here's to the last 1/2 year of Vince's life, enjoy! I even put some appropriately cheesy music in it....

As for me, I do remember celebrating last New Years with too much fondue while watching poor Dick Clark continue to insist on ringing in the year by hosting the Times Square bash. I had freshly gotten over my (all day) morning sickness but the fondue did a number on me that almost put me back to square one, probably because I must have eaten most of the pot myself, doh!

And for this year, we had planned on going to about three parties.... starting around 7pm with the first one, in order to bring Vince along. Those plans changed though when the daycare reported that the little one had a mild temp of 100.4. Nevertheless, our New Years ended up being celebrated at home with a Netflix movie, some wine, and another round of Dick Clark. We celebrated the count down by going straight to bed at 12:00:01, knowing that the Vincinator wouldn't sleep in late on New Years Day.

I spent most of the next day watching the Pasadena Rose Parade and being homesick for sunny California weather. I remember spending so many New Years on the Rose Parade route with crazy party goers who came to camp out all night... bringing their couches from home and grills to make burgers. I tried one year to bring Mike along to share with him my excitement for the parade and it ended up pouring down rain, of which it hadn't done in the past 40 years!

I suppose that naturally the next thing I should mention are my New Years resolutions.... but I haven't really thought that much about it this time around. Of course I have the garden variety resolutions I'd like to work on: exercising more, eating healthier, etc. When I look back on the last year, it's been BUSY.... finishing school, becoming a mom, passing my boards, and now looking for a new job.... I suppose I would like the year to come to be one of settling in... that is... settling in to "life after grad school", settling in to life as a mom, settling in to the full time work idea, and settling in to the thought that we should probably buy a house sooner than later. Yes, I think it will be another very full year indeed.

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!