Jake's Second Birthday Extravaganza

Pictures from Jake's Second Birthday, featuring ELMO!

We all had to get an official party portrait with our party hats on. From top left corner: myself (making a rare appearance on the blog), Grandpa Jim, Ralphie, Papa Ralph, the birthday boy, Mema Mary, Aunt Barb, Grandma Mary Ellen, and Steve.


Personalized place settings:
































Jake rocks out on his Rooney Doodle guitar. We're down with the Doodlebops, but we're pretty mad that Disney Channel isn't showing them at 10am anymore. Our morning schedule is all messed up! :(


Jake practices playing one of the two guitars he got for his birthday with Grandpa Jim.


Jake on the refinished rocking chair that used to be mine when I was a baby - looks pretty good for being almost 22 years old, huh? ;)

Easter 2008

Easter was pretty low-key this year after everything we were going through following the loss of Papa Joe, but we still managed to gather at Mema Mary and Papa Ralph's for a nice dinner and an Easter egg hunt for Jake. Our little guy looked very dapper in his linen suit and was spoiled with no less than FOUR Easter baskets! (One from Grandma & Grandpa, one from Mommy & Daddy, one from Mema & Papa, and one from Aunt Barb)

Here is Jake in his new linen suit and tie in our front yard before we left for church:


An easter basket still life


Kissing dada at home after opening his baskets


Then we were off to Mema and Papa's for more easter baskets and candy. Here's my favorite little Mr. Chocolate Mouth. This picture makes me want to nibble his little cheeks!


Jake got some kiddie plastic golf clubs in his Easter basket from Aunt Barb and he loved them! Ralph showed him some techniques.


How can I have an Easter post without having a picture like this? (Aunt Barb, say the word and I'll go ahead and post your Bunny ears picture too :) )


Jake had so much fun searching for eggs that we snuck more out of his basket and tossed them around the yard so the game went on longer for him.


Back inside, my little computer-programmer-in-training went to work trying to Google pictures of geckos and elephants - his two favorite things right now.


Right as the sun was going down, I dashed outside with Ralph and my sister-in-law Laura and Jake to get some yummy pictures in the delicious sunlight. (Laura, remind me to shoot you an email with all of your gorgeous new headshots :) )


We had a beautiful Easter and Jake got more candy than any toddler ever needs. He still asks for it daily, pronouncing 'chocolate' in a way that sounds like he's saying: "Got you!" (pronounced: gah-chew!)

Our 15 minutes of fame...

Hey look! We got into the local paper on Jake's birthday! They attributed a gramatically incorrect quote to me, and also mis-spelled my name, but that's par for the course...

UPDATE: Oh goodness... it seems there's a video too. If you blink, you'll miss me, but there is a clip of me at about 1:20 seconds into the video titled Palisades, Part 2.

Stinkin Blogger!

Can someone please tell me why I can't upload any stinkin pictures on Blogger right now? ARGH! I have a dozen-ish great pictures from Easter that, despite all my efforts, won't stinkin upload!!! ARRRRRGGGHHHH!

Happy Second Birthday!

Happy Birthday to our sweet little boy. What a wonderful two years it has been! You make us laugh and smile every day, you amaze us with your capacity to learn, your excitement for life and your ability to show love. We love you so much Jake and hope you have a wonderful day!

(Yes, pictures will be coming shortly. I have a LOT of catching up to do on here....)

Papa Joe

Thank you all so much for you kind words. I am still somewhat in shock and don't know how to process this yet. How do you sum up 83 years of an incredible man's life in one blog post? I woke up this morning and could hardly remember what I posted yesterday. It was the longest day of my life. And the shortest day of his, now that I think about it...

The house is so quiet without him, and not at all in a good way. No more buzz of a loud television for a man who had damaged his hearing as an engineer for the bomber squadron in the war. No more hum of the oxygen machine that kept him breathing, after years of breathing in fumes from being a house painter. No more booming voice that had selflessly rushed into burning houses and buildings to save people in his days of being a fireman.

Whenever you lose someone, you lose part of yourself. I have lost all four of my grandparents, and both of Ralph's grandfathers, and those days stay with me forever. My heart aches for Grandpa Valentine, Grandpop Guie, Gram Valentine, Grandmom Guie, Papa Paul and now Papa Joe. A part of me died with each of them. My heart grows and heals each day I spend Jake, and I see him growing the hearts of my mother and father and of my mother-in-law and my father-in-law. As life goes on, we grow a little and we die a little, but we just keep going.

I take comfort in knowing that they are all together in Heaven, and that someday I will be there with them too, in a better place. On Good Friday, Papa went Home, and was reunited with his wife Josephine. I think of all of the loved ones on the other side - young and old - and I think of the great celebration they are having in Heaven today.

Farewell Papa Joe

This is not an easy post to write. It's a post I knew would be coming, but I never expected it to happen so soon.

For those of you who didn't know, for the last ten months we have been living with Ralph's grandfather, in his home here in New York. He's lived in this house since 1951. His health was failing since our wedding in 2004, and we moved in to try to give him some company, help out in any way we could, and to be able to spend some time with him before he would one day pass away. We assumed that day would not be coming anytime soon.



We lost Papa Joe this morning at 6:50 am. He was such a good man who had fought so long. His heart was so weak, his lungs were so full of fluid, and he had been gasping for air for months now, even with oxygen round the clock. This morning he simply took his last breath. He was Ralph's grandfather, but I considered him my own grandfather. I loved him and respected him. He was a kind and giving man, a war veteran, a devoted husband and a man of God. He loved Jake so much and I am so glad he got to see his only great-grandson every day for the last 10 months.