Vince Memories - Part I

I wanted to take a few minutes to write down some of the great memories that I have of Vince. For some reason, I feel like he's growing up so fast, and that if I don't write some of these memories down now, they'll be gone forever. Some of them are very recent, some of them are much older.

Here's Part I.

For almost a year after we moved to Braintree, I would take Vince to daycare on the T. It was about a 40 minute ride each way, and I would have him sit next to me for the ride. In the mornings, Lisa would ride halfway with us, and on the way home we were on our own. This was a really special time for us, since I could give him my focused attention for nearly 1 1/2 hours a day. There were no distractions, like a pile of dirty dishes to clean, so it was just us interacting with each other. Here are some of my favorite memories from those trips:

- I would typically take 3-4 books with me each day, and we would read them on the way there and the way back. That much time reading to him really cemented his love of books. We had so many books in heavy rotation, I can't even remember all of the ones that we read.
- I came to learn where so many pieces of construction equipment (diggers, loaders, bulldozers, etc.) that could be seen from when the T runs above ground. Whichever side of the train we were on, I knew when something was coming up that I could point out to Vince. This was great during those rides when he wanted to look out the window. He would get so excited when he saw a bulldozer or digger, he would point and shout. There is also an ambulance depot that he was excited to see.
- Vince picked up the name of some of the T stops from the announcements. The one that always seemed to stick in his mind was North Quincy. Whenever I asked him what the next stop was, no matter where we were, he would say "North Quincy!" So one day we're riding home, and I'm chatting with some of the people around us as Vince is doing cute things. So after we leave the JFK stop, which is the one before North Quincy, I asked Vince: "What's the next stop?" With all of the people around us, he shouted "North Quincy!" All of the people were totally shocked that this 1 1/2 year old had memorized the subway stops!
- My favorite memory on the T was when Vince was about a year and a half old. He was sitting next to me, and on the other side of him was an attractive woman in her early 20s. Vince was standing and babbling something to her, and she was nodding and smiling at him. Next thing, he turns to me and gives me a hug, then turns to her and gives her a hug! She hugged him back and said "Oh, he's the cutest!" The first thing I thought was: "If he's getting away with this now, he's going to be a big headache as a teenager."

to be cont'd.....

Zoë turns 1!

My baby is one year old, and we've been celebrating since the dual party on June 18th.

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Mike brought home a small ice cream cake for all of us to share on Zoë's actual birthday... we got excited at the prospect of being able to watch her make a huge mess with her piece of cake. Cutting a big piece and putting it in front of her, wouldn't you know it.... that little girl gobbled up the whole thing and practically licked her fingers and her high chair table after the cake was gone!

We kept the cake at arms length so she wouldn't burn herself... Vince helped blow the candle out

On our mini vacation to Lake George last week, Nonna and cousin Noelle helped open some presents

It's been an amazing year with our little girl, and I can't say enough how special it is to have a daughter.... we look forward to what the second year brings

Braintree's 4th of July

Our town celebrates the fourth of July on the weekend before; with what we have just found out to be a pretty darn good parade.... followed by a carnival at the high school, and some late night fireworks. My mom was still in town visiting from Vince and Zoë's dual birthday party so she was able to join us for the festivities. We made our way to the town square and planted ourselves down on a good sidewalk space, and waited for the fun to begin. The kids got spoiled by my mom, who visited the various roaming toy carts... buying all sorts of holiday and non holiday goodies for Vince and Zoë. My favorite was Vince's July 4th hat.

Nothing like getting free stuff!

yeah, life is pretty good when you get candy and presents thrown at you from crazy looking clowns

Here we are on one of the carnival rides Vince actually enjoyed.

Mike wasn't so lucky with the ride he took Vince on (I'll spare the pictures). It was a smaller version of the viking boat that you've probably seen, rocking up and down on both sides. Well, Vince freaked on that one... as I sat and watched them go up and down, every time they were up he would scream bloody murder and have the most frightened look on his face. It broke my heart to see him! I had to look away... Mike just put up his hands and went with it. poor kid, I'm sure we've scarred him on that one. Of course my mom was a nervous wreck while watching all of this too, and commenced barking at me for allowing all of this to happen. It stirred up the old story of when she and I went on a similar Viking boat ride at the Days of Verdugo Fair.... although that one was regular sized. We got on the boat-at the very end (I wanted to make sure to be the highest when it swung in the air)... and as it started, and got higher and higher, my mom started freaking out-screaming at the ride conductor to stop the ride because she was convinced I was going to fall out of the ride. We'd swing up.. then every time we swung down she'd take the opportunity to yell at the conductor! Talk about embarrassing..... I'll never forget that day.

Some super fun slides we went down!

Grandma and Zoë got some cuddle time

The Big Birthday Bash

We had a super fun double birthday for Vince and Zoë this year, and we were able to pull it off as a swim party again! I was holding my breath for the days leading up to the party, even the morning of, hoping that the clouds would roll away and sunshine would prevail. Well, it did, and we had a great day outside in the sun and in the pool.

Last year when we had our party, I think I shot all of two or three photos of the whole event (Our family is pretty bad with getting photos on celebrations). But... this year was different. First of all, my friend Jocelyn is starting a little side business of taking photos of kids, so she was there and took so many awesome photos of almost everyone! Jocelyn's photos are great, you can check out all the photos from our party on her blog: Candid Kids
Second of all, I gave my camera to friends so they could log the day, and wow! I have a lot of great photos!

Vince's birthday was actually a day before the party, so we had a little cake ahead of time for just us. Of course, whenever Vince sees a cake with a candle, he gets pretty excited.


Highlights of this year's party:

Highlight #1) My totally amazing, wonderful, awesome, creative, talented, and dear friend Danielle slaved in her kitchen all day making both Vince and Zoë each their own cakes! (AND.. she was able to keep Max away from the cakes, don't know how)

Brobee From Yo Gabba Gabba, chocolate cake with raspberry filling, yum! All the kids wanted this one of course, little people running around with green faces... priceless

Zoë got her own carrot cake with cream cheese frosting... so delicious, all the adults wanted this one

Highlight #2) The piñata - some serious entertainment for the adults, and fun for the kids! I bought one that had strings on the bottom that would pull open a trap door... so the little kids could still get the thing open even if they couldn't hit the candy out. the Lady at the i Party store offered some advice to let the little kids still take some whacks first before you let them pull the strings. That was a great idea, it was so cute watching them try and hit the piñata!

Vince found the piñata ahead of time and was pulling candy out, caught him in the act

finally they all pull the strings and out comes the candy

I put WAAY too much candy in there, but the kids didn't complain

Highlight #3) Having everyone over to enjoy our backyard and pool!







Highlight #4) Umm... I feel bad but I have to mention my friends girl getting her hair stuck in the bubble machine... yes, I think that goes on my highlight list! She was apparently "experimenting" with the fan in the back, noticing how it sucked in the air... so she tried her hair.... and... well.. it sucked in her hair. It got so completely knotted up that I had to go in and get scissors and cut a big gnarled ball of her hair or she would have been destined to have a bubble machine hanging from her head!! It was soo funny! I felt bad for Eloise, I think she was embarrassed. I begged her to let me take some photos but she wouldn't let me do it.

Mother's Day 2011

Aside from life being routinely busy as usual this time of year, we are also getting ready for Vince's 3rd birthday this Friday! We decided to have a joint birthday party for Vince and Zoë this year. Zoë will be one on July 7th (wow so quick!), so their birthdays are pretty close together. They talked it over..... and both agreed that it would be ok to share birthday parties together, but we'll see how long we can do this before one of them realizes what's going on here.

I'm PRAYING for good sunny swimming weather, as we are planning for a large group of friends to come over and hang out in the back yard to swim all day. It's looking very iffy right now, so I'll keep hoping.

Ok, now for continuing to get more up to date on the blog....really, am I still this far behind with blogging?

Wanted to give a quick chronicle of our wonderful Mother's Day brunch at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Having brunch here on Mother's Day has become a tradition for us. Joining along with my Godparents, I always remember how we would sit ourselves down for what seamed like hours and enjoy the buffet and champagne with orange juice.... finding it hard to get up and leave when it was time to go! After wards we'd walk around the hotel, enjoying the beautiful grand ballrooms and other party rooms where they have hosted past Oscar and Tony Awards, as well as other big name social functions. The halls are covered with pictures of "old timers" (as my mom would say) like Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable enjoying dinner and dancing to Big Band music. Then we'd also hear the inevitable, "things just aren't the way they used to be".

Since I've lived in MA, I haven't been able to get back to LA for Mother's Day, but this year we were able to make it happen. And it was so special because it was my first time being a mom myself. Being able to bring Vince and Zoë to the Biltmore for Mother's Day made it the most special Mother's Day ever! (as well as the most hectic... but that's ok)

View of the buffet area from above

Some nice ice sculptures around the buffet

good looking desserts!

Here's our best attempt at getting everyone in a picture at once

Vince spent most of his time under the table, playing with trains

Luckily my mom never noticed that we had Zoë sitting on the floor playing for most of the time
(hey, whatever works.. she was on a blanket at least)

Vince is excited for this week and his birthday Friday. We'll be picking up my mom at the airport on Wednesday so we'll be busy!