Jake Scores A Puck!

We were lucky enough to get front row tickets (thanks Peepa!) to the Islanders/Capitals hockey game at the Nassau Coliseum! Jake was pretty much terrified to sit right on the ice because he was afraid the players would hit the wall, make a loud noise and the glass might break. He was partially correct in his assumptions - the players did hit the wall and make a loud noise (we jumped more than a few times), but the glass stayed intact and Jake got over his fears (mostly) and really enjoyed the game, sitting on the laps to see over the wall. The highlight was in the 2nd period when a puck went into the penalty box right next to us. An Islanders player was nice enough to throw it to Jake. Needless to say he was on Cloud 9! If we ever go to another NHL game again, it will have a real hard time measuring up to this awesome experience!

Peepa, Uncle Danny and his girlfriend Shannon, Ralph and I, and Jake all went to the game, and you can even see us on the highlight reel! Pause the video at 0:51 and you can see us all from above, we are just to the right of the security guard in the bright yellow shirt. You can see us again a little better at 1:09. You can see most of our group at 3:13, (I'm absent, waiting in line for one of the SIX ladies stalls in the entire stadium), and then you can see us cheering at the glass at 4:16. It was a fantastic time! Thanks to Geedah who sacrificed a sports night out to instead stay home and cuddle with Ali-girl.

Happy 1st Birthday to Alexandria Mary!

I can't believe my beautiful baby girl is one year old. I really can't believe one whole year has passed since she came into our lives. I love Alex so very much and it was a beautiful moment when I went into her room at 12:04 am, kissed her on the forehead and told her "Happy Birthday!" exactly one year after she first came into our lives. We celebrated with dinner and cupcakes, and a few new toys. It was a wonderful day, and I love that we share this special bond every February 23rd! (Did I mention I turned 34 too?)


Alex went to town on her cupcake from Lulu's!

Rub A Dub Dub, Two Kids in a Tub!

Typical bathtime routine in our house these days. Reminds me of some of my favorite pics of Jake in the same bathtub almost three years ago...

Cruisin' Around with Ali

I'm so proud of all of Alex's accomplishments lately! Her accomplishments seem to come two or three at a time, rather than spacing things out. Two teeth will pop thru on the same day, or she'll make a few new words or signs in one day, etc. I don't know why she can't spread the excitement over a few days, but whatever.

My nearly one-year-old girl can clap, wave hi and bye, say a few words (dad, mom, dog, hi, no), stand without any help, cruise around furniture holding on with one hand, crawl at blazing speeds, climb up stairs (she just showed me that last night!), eat any kind of food you put in front of her, and do a few baby sign language signs ("more", "all done"). I am beyond proud and head over heels in love with my sweet girl. She is such a blessing! :)

She looks like she is standing independently here, but her little butt is leaning on the chair. Regardless, she is proud of herself!


Ali almost always has two objects she carries around - one in each hand. Whatever she can find or pick up off the floor or our tables. She is sneaky and quick!






Alex LOVES my cell phone! She picks it up and presses all the buttons. Thankfully, I can lock the keyboard. Jake used to be able to unlock my phone all the time, Ali has yet to call clients and yell "Da!" over and over, but give it time...






"Just texting my boyfriend Mom, I'll be there in a minute..."




I feel like I spend half my day grabbing stuff out of her mouth or when she is out of my line of sight, asking Jake, "Does she have anything in her mouth?" He answers no without looking up, and I come back to find something like this:


She loves all of her little walkers!




"Speaking of walking, Mom says I will be doing it on my own any day now!"


Transferring really well from couch to ottoman!


"SWEET! I found TWO shoes to chew on! No, no germs on here, totally clean, I assure you."

Jake-isms, Volume 4

I'm shocked to see how long it's been since I've posted a "Jake-ism". August of 2009 to be exact. But reading over the Jake-isms Volume 4 notes in my Blackberry, I can see that some of the topics seem to be a very long time ago (many involve the struggles of potty training, preparing Jake for the birth of his baby sister, and the days of breastfeeding Alex). And most of them involve a bodily function. I never claimed not to have a dirty sense of humor, and I see that my four-and-three-quarters-year-old son (as we are required to state these days) is similarly amused by scatological humor. Wikipedia seems to be quite the source on toilet humor, should one decide to research such things. Weirdo.

You can follow all of the previous Jake-isms here.


If you need a refresher on what exactly a Jake-ism is, well, it's something funny that Jake says in the course of the day that I quickly record (once I have stopped laughing or removed my palm from my forehead) in the notes section of my BlackBerry, so I will have it as a reference tool for making my blog readers (anyone left out there or have you all gone to Facebook?) laugh hysterically at their desks, and for me to look back on one day.

So here is the latest installment of the Jake-isms, complete with out-takes from a session I took of the two of them over the summer. I would give you an Alex-ism, but they mainly consist of "da-da-da" the Bronx cheer. Although I did have to tell her the other day: "Icky! We do NOT eat our brother's toenails!", which is a sentence one never expects they will have to speak.

Without further ado, I present Jake-isms Volume 4:


Jake, in his sleep, 5:33 am: "I don't like it! NO I DON'T LIKE BLUEBERRIES!!"

* * * *

Jake, yelling at 6:30 am (two hours before normal wake-up time): "Mommy! Mom!"
Me: "Yes honey?"
Jake: "Mom, I want to ride a horse!"
Me: "Okay...?"
Jake: "Mom, I want to go to sleep."
Me: "Okay."
Jake: Zzzzzzz



Our own little Benjamin Button enjoys telling us about his previous grown-up adventures:
Jake: "Mom, when I was 14, I went to Europe and bought you a Sari."
Me: "That was very sweet of you honey! I think Saris are usually found in India though."
Jake: "I went there too."



Jake, yelling at me from the bathroom while he tries to argue his way out of pooping on the potty: "I wanna go to bed! Pee-pee says I have to go to bed! He says the rules! He's the boss!"

* * * *

Jake, in response to Yo Gabba Gabba (kid's TV show) asking what a kid's favorite thing is:
"My favorite thing is putting my hands in my pants!"



While trying to trim his toenails, he always fights me:
Jake: "You can't look at my toes!"
Me: "I can look at your toes, I made them."
Jake: "No, God made me."
Me: "Okay true, but I grew you. Now gimmie those toes."

* * * *

What to say when someone coughs, according to Jake: "Good cough you!" (As opposed to 'God Bless You' when you sneeze, I guess?)


Jake is rolling out Play-Doh logs, when he says, "Mommy, what color is poop?" (So I guess those aren't gray worms he's making?)


Jake at breakfast: "Mom, I love your butt and your belly. I love private parts." (Which is preferable to the day recently when he informed me that my butt is big. Thanks kid.)

* * * *

Jake, who does a lot of role-playing and we sometimes get confused as to which character he is at the moment: "I'm not Spiderman. I'm just Jake that poops in his pants."



Jake is quite the brainiac. In fact, when we were in for parent teacher conference recently, the teachers let us know that Jake informed them he was smarter than his Daddy.

* * * *

We're looking at a dinosaur book in bookstore. I identify the ones I can, but get to one that stumps me. Jake lets me know it's a "Chomp-o-saurus".


Ralph, giving Jake a bath: "Okay Jake, wash your pee-pee parts."
Jake: "They're called testicles, Daddy."

* * * *

Jake: "Mommy, tell me the story of when I was born."
Me: "Okay, once upon a time there was a tiny baby boy growing inside mommy's belly, and--"
Jake: "You mean in your uterus?"



Jake: "What kind of bear are you, Mommy?"
Me: "Um, I guess I'm a polar bear. What kind of bear are you?"
Jake: "I'm a kidney stone bear."
Me: "Uhhh...okay."



Jake: "I want to be a girl so I can make milk too."

* * * *

Jake: "Mommy, I'm having pain in my breast. I need breast medicine."



I decide to make a CD on my computer of all Jake's favorite songs. I tell him the CD is burning and will be ready soon. A few minutes later, he asks, "Is the CD done baking?"

* * * *

Me: "Jake, do you know what the word 'Appreciate' means?"
Jake: "Yup, it means 'Hi!' in Italian."



Jake asks: "Where does cheese come from?"
I explain to him how cheese is made from milk, which comes from cows.
"No it doesn't," he says, "cheese comes from cheese trees!"



Jake and I are in the laundromat, washing & drying a bedspread that's too large to wash at home. Jake is having a great time exploring the place and says: "Oh my Lord! What IS this?!"

* * * *

Jake: "Mommy, let's go camping together! Daddy should stay home."



Before Alex was born:
Ralph to Jake: "So if you have a little sister, what does that make you?"
Jake: "Sad."
(The answer we were looking for was "big brother", but this was a heck of a lot funnier)


Jake, as we were getting dressed: "Look at my butt!"
Me: "Yes, it's very cute."
Jake: "And it makes funny noises!"

* * * *

Jake, loudly in Panera: "Mommy, you drink the water, and it goes in your belly and then it makes PEEEE!"


Hope you all enjoyed this most recent version of Jake-isms, hopefully my Blackberry will be full of notes again before long. I always enjoy sharing these. :)

More Christmas Pictures

From our official Christmas card photo shoot. It was FREEZING! These poor kids are sitting on a slab of frozen slate, surrounded by snow, at sundown. It was the fastest session I ever did!

Jake, four and a half years old


Alex, 10 months old


And the final shot of the two of them for the card:

Merry Christmas!

I've been a little late this year. Late to send out my Christmas cards, late to post on the blog, late to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. There were grand plans of blog posts with all of the Christmas pictures that didn't make it on the official card, grand plans of printing the kid's Christmas pictures and putting them in frames for the grandparents. Instead, there was a lot of last-minute running around, shopping on Christmas Eve for those last few gifts, and rushing to get client orders shipped overnight to arrive before Christmas morning. In addition, every day since the last blog post, at least one member of our family (and some days all of us) has been sick. It was a crazy hectic season, and not what I was planning for my daughter's very first Christmas.

The kids, during one of their many visits with Santa:


But after all the shopping and the driving and the planning and the wrapping and the packing and the music and the decorating and the late nights, it was magical and beautiful and spent with family, just the way Christmas should be.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas 2010, and I'm happy to be EARLY to wish you a Happy New Year!