Author: eaumaison (Page 77 of 207)

I’m a day late in posting here, but the pictures are from yesterday’s Friday the 13th when Sammy turned 9 months old!  Sam’s personality has bloomed this month.

He pulls a lot of funny faces.  He smiles at the camera.  He hides himself to play peek-a-boo.  He roared at Jack today while they were play-wrestling.

He grew three new teeth over the past month.

This is not a great picture below, but it captures a bit of his full-face grin.  He squints and bares his teeth and it’s so cute!

He still loves being in his bouncer.  He jumps with his hands in the air, like a roller coaster thrill-seeker.  He dances with his arms in time to music.  He likes books.  We read Goodnight Moon every night and he always stops on “Goodnight kittens” to pet them.  He turns the pages too. 

He shares his food and pacifier.  His eating skills are a lot better after New York.  We can let him sit and eat on his own at meals, instead of constantly managing his food for him.  We’ve been doing signs and he might be starting to do them.  It’s hard to tell, but I think he has a proto-sign for “more” and “all done.”

This photo session was super brief.  He flailed, rolled, and lunged all over the bed.  I can’t leave him on the bed anymore.  I used to put a pillow barricade and let him play up there while I exercised in the same room.  When Jack was with him, I would take a quick shower.  Now I can hardly have him on the bed while I hover over him.  He fell off the sofa-bed in NYC and didn’t learn his lesson.  He will gladly plunge headfirst into the rock pile off our patio if I wasn’t there holding him by the waist.  

He’s so close to crawling.  He leans forward to get up on one foot and one knee.  Sometimes he gets on all for and rocks.  Andy day now he will figure it out. 

My phone is the holy grail for him.  I pulled it out to check a message, and the smiles were over.  I had to hand him my phone to get more pics. 

THE GLORY IS MINE!

I rarely let him touch it, because it goes in his mouth.  Look at my flickr set for evidence.

Nine months and ready to take on the world.

The best way to shop for shoes with kids.

Last week I came back from the New York trip and I’m FINALLY getting around to blogging about it.  It was so much fun.  Tiring, anxiety-inducing at times, and very trying for Sam, but totally worth it.  Amanda arranged a fabulous package of the city for the students and us chaperones, and I my parents were wonderful in accommodating and assisting with my eight month old.  Sam was a trooper, really.  Considering how strange and off-routine we were, he was generally happy.

The best way to share is with pictures!  I decided to break tradition.  Instead of sharing chronological photos, I’m grouping them by type.  All my photos are in this flickr set.  You can click on any below to see the bigger version. 

Sam’s first flight

Dad holding Sam up to things
First, the departure sign, then the welcome lady at the hotel, then an Egyptian sculpture:

Kids being forced to pose as a group
Their enthusiasm waxes and wanes.

Times Square

Central Park

Battery Park

Rockefeller Center

The Rad Hotel Atrium and Elevators

Your ears pop as it zooms up.

Chaperones trailing the kids

Various Tours

The Met, brief tour given by Mom

St. Patrick’s by Amanda

Radio City Music Hall – This was awesome, I recommend it!

Extra cool because they were setting up for the Tony Awards!

Our guide, showing us the “Men Without Women” mural.  My favorite part was seeing the bathrooms, hilarious as that is. 

The Lincoln center tour, here in the lobby of the Opera house.  Sadly, we couldn’t take photos in some of the best parts.  But I got to see a ballet rehearsal on stage and the symphony tech rehearsal.

Grand Central Station (briefly) by Amanda

Getting Around the City

Lunches and Dinners

Hearty Italian at Tony DiNapoli

Food Trucks outside the Met

Turkish Restaurant (not sure the name)  

Pizza after seeing A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (which rightly won Best Musical!  Yay!)

Lunch at Union Square Farmer’s Market

Dinner at Ben’s Kosher Deli

Snacks, Snacks, Snacks

Featuring Sam: the Bottomless Pit

Pinkberry’s and bagels

Falafel and cupcakes

Black and white cookie and rugalach

 

Celebrity Sightings


The Genie from Aladdin (who won his Tony and deserved it!)

From across the street, the green jacket is James Franco and his mob of fans.

Chris O’Dowd seemed friendly.  Dad wanted a picture for his father, who is a fan.  Which makes this even funnier. 

Star of Gentleman’s Guide

Me and my baby

Yay!  Asleep (in a stroller!) in Central Park

On the roof garden of the Met

In Rockefellar Center

In Union Square

We had to come home a day early, so I didn’t get to do Dim Sum or Blue Man Group, but that’s ok.  I think Sam was done done done.  It was a super fun trip.

A couple videos, courtesy of Ben.  First, Jack opening his big present from us: his own Nintendo DS (with a Pokemon game, opened later).

This is apparently what happens when you are the son of a gamer who shares all his stuff with you.  In his defense, he was super excited about the game when he opened it.  Neither gift was asked for or expected by him.  So I think his response was caused by bafflement. We had a good laugh though.

Here is the new (old) wagon being put to work immediately.

Oh, what a day it was!  We had donuts and presents for breakfast, a party at lunch, and pizza and movie for dinner.  There were a few meltdowns, as expected, but I think he couldn’t have asked for anything more.  Well, more presents.  He can’t get enough.  But besides that. 

Tons of photos on my flickr page, but here are some favorites.

Presents in pajamas.  That’s Ben’s old wagon that his folks restored for Jack.  I had one just like it!

At the party, Pin the Spider on the Web

Oh no!  There’s a robber!

Got him with our spiderwebs!

Undead Robber!

Got him good.

Every last drop of silly string was used.

Thanks to Amanda for these great shots.

Sam was thoroughly confused when he woke from his nap.  Poor guy kind of got the short shrift during the party.  Luckily I had lots of helpers to hold him.  Ben protecting his lawn. 

Sam and Henry playing “together” as 8 months olds do.

As requested, a chocolate cake with cherry ice cream inside. 

Patience was running low by 1 1/2 hours, but they stuck it out through the present opening. 

It was a really fun party. I enjoyed having so many of MY friends there too.  Almost none of the moms or dads knew each other.  For the record, Jack’s friends at the party were Nora, Parker, Ellis, Adam, Ella, Hazel, and Olin. 

After a short quiet time, we relaxed in the cool and empty backyard.

Pizza, more cake, and “Everything is awesooooome!” 

Happy (early) Birthday, Jack!

Some other things I meant to write about and haven’t gotten around to:

• For the moment, everyone is healthy.  Sure, Sam is teething, and my cough and rib pain are still there.  But there are no runny noses and I’m off all drugs.  
• Sam finally cut a third tooth.  It was the tiny lower left incisor.  That means the biggies in the front top are still pushing out.  They look so painful.
• Sleep is better, but not great.  We are doing the cry-it-out method for night and naps (like right now, when he woke after barely an hour).  It sucks.  I hate not being able to go fix and soothe him.  We also give him benedryl for tooth pain on some nights, and of course he sleeps awesome after that. NYC next week will mess him up again.  Maybe in June we can finally settle his sleep issue?
• Ben is totally Hank Hill about our yard.  It’s beautiful.  We planted a tree and some bushes and I transplanted some flowers from my mom’s garden.  Some of the irises even bloomed!  
• Molly’s FHS is pretty bad.  We’ve tried all the simple fixes, with the exception of regular play time (I’m too busy, but I’m trying to get Jack on it).  The only other thing we can try are serious drugs.  Not only do I want to avoid the cost and side effects, but the effectiveness isn’t really known.  Wish I could do something for her though.  
• I’m really excited for NYC next week!  I haven’t really mentioned it.  I’m taking Sam with Amanda, my folks and their friends, to chaperone a group of kids.  It should be a blast.  
• Amanda and I went to see the musical Once last week. First, it was great fun just to go out with my sister in dressy clothes.  Second, it was a great show.  Not one I would want to see again.  But funny, well done, good music, creative story-telling, etc etc.  It was a really nice evening out.

Here’s some videos and photos from the past couple weeks. I figured I’d better post them before the big birthday tomorrow.  Did you know tomorrow is Jack’s birthday?  I’ve only been reminded seventy gajillion times today.  (psst, it’s not really his birthday.  That’s the 28th.  But we are having the party on the Saturday before, and I don’t want to tax his little brain with the concept of celebrating earlier than the actual day.  Kid can’t tell a Thursday from a Saturday anyway.  So if you wish to call to tell him Happy Birthday, the 24th is it this year.)

You might see glimpses of my beautiful new walls.  No poopy brown anymore! I love them!  The art is a work in progress still.  Bit by bit.   

Glad I threw on a cardigan. Sam pooped all over his clothes right before story time.

I tried to get jack to help in the bathroom by throwing out the diaper, all wrapped up in clean papers. “Um, no. Jesus doesn't want me to carry diapers and get my hands dirty.”

I think that's a fib. But he came home from Sunbeams where they talked about hearing and he said “Jesus says not to put small toys in my ears.” Savior, and safety expert.