Category Archives: A update

Photo Albums…

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Our friend E is really amazing at keeping up with her photo albums.  I have a hard enough time keeping up with this blog!

Back in the earlier part of the summer, E, PD, A & I took a girls trip to the Long Island Children’s Museum & I was the only one with a camera!  I have finally gotten around to tweaking the photos (since my camera is broken & all the photos need exposure adjusting!) & I will be printing the photos for E to put in her album.  I will continue to slowly load them to a photo book since I just can’t get my photo album act together!

These girls do a lot together…

Making music is just a little of their fun they have!

Sass Is The New Black…

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A is bringing back the “Sass” like it is the best thing since black clothing…yea, sliced bread is good too, but not as good as my black pants!

She’s been teething like CRAZY lately, and my sweet, funny girl went on a hiatus, while a devil took over her body!  We have 1 new tooth & 3 swollen areas on the gums.  The “I” teeth are terrible.  Every now and again, when the pain subsides (thank you Gd for Target infant tylenol cherry flavor – and thank you Gramma for buying every box in the store for A!) my sweet little girl comes out to play.  Then the drugs wear off and the Sass monster shows up!

Who needs to stay with their Mommy & Daddy when there’s a field to run away from them in????  Who cares about the tractors that are driving around or the “apple police” who won’t let you in their untouched aisles???  Not Miss Sassy A!

See – black looks good on everyone 🙂

Happy Friday!

Paper Mama Photo Challenge: The Little Details

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I’ve been MIA here for a while…no excuses, just Mommy-exhaustion.

Some updates on our lives include A’s completion of 2 weeks of school.  After today’s class she is doing MUCH better than last week!  The girls at Seaside Celebrations in Long Beach, NY get my highest recommendations!  They are amazing with A and are achieving what I thought to be the impossible…getting her to separate from her Mommy…and for me, there are no words to describe my gratitude.

From these new found 2 1/2 hours of “freedom”, my house has clean floors, bathrooms, and is almost dust free!  Over the next few weeks my goal is to have the closets unpacked & organized!  This week I even got to DRY MY HAIR!!!!!!  I’m loving this 🙂

Aside from my new time to clean, this free time has given me something I was sure that I’d lost for good.  An appreciation of my little girl.  As a SAHM I find it difficult (understatement) to appreciate my daughter as much as I should.  I was finding myself day-dreaming of returning to work….only to be knocked back into reality by the screaming toddler attached to my a$$!  I am not the girl who loved their job but gave it up for the well-being of their family.  I hated my job.  It was bad for me, it was bad for my family, it was just bad.  At first, I enjoyed staying home with my infant because I love babies.  The cute, cuddly kind that take bottles & nap on your chest or in a swing.  The babies that cry when they are hungry, tired, gassy…and coo, smile & lay nicely in your arms when they are happy.  Toddlers….scare the CRAP out of me!  They know what they want and will scream and whine until they get it.  They will throw themselves down on the floor in public if you dare to say “hi” or initiate a conversation with another adult.  If they can’t speak the language (any language) than NO ONE CAN!!!!  They are little tiny dictators.  To me, this isn’t fun.  24/7 being ruled by a tiny tot…blows.  But now that I have some time to myself, I can see again that all those things are true, but in between the screaming fits (caused mostly by lack of sleep or snacks), they are really funny!  at least my A is.  She is starting to put sentences together, imitate me, request things with actual words, dance, sing, and just generally do funny things!  Without the time to myself I was not able to see this stuff!

The other day she had school, than she napped & when she woke up she was happy & it was beautiful outside!  I took the opportunity to take A & T down to the beach!  I am so happy to live in this great beach city & be able to take them down to play in the sand on a whim!  My kids literally have Long Beach sand in their toes!

Toes in the sand

Wish us luck in the photo contest!  We were a favorite last week again, but not the winner!  We are going to keep trying!!!

The Paper Mama

Sunday Funday…with a chainsaw, 5 kids, 2 dogs, 6 adults, some football, a BBQ & a skillet cookie!

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Sounds like fun huh?!

Well, remember hurricane pear tree debacle that was this & this?  Well we can add the following to the end of that story…

Mister LK pulling up the stump

Ahhhh no more tree!

The boys actually got that thing out with the combination of a chain saw, a jigsaw & a jeep!  They felt very cool to be able to use the jeep to pull the stump up and out!  I can’t wait to get the Mister on the project of a new trex deck out there (with a wading pool)!!!!

Then we took a little rest & went over to J&D’s house to play, have a BBQ & watch football.  The kids had a blast!

Remember when I said yesterday that Miss A loves her a good hoola hoop?!  Well she was practicing overtime at her cousin’s house!

Then she moved on to the jump-rope!

Little M had other ideas for fun activities that afternoon!Like riding his Daddy's shoulders!And sweeping!

He also thought it was a good time to check out some 3D stuff in his cool glasses!

The babies weren’t the only ones having fun that day!  The bigger kids found fun things to do too!  The girls enjoyed their afternoon making “chalk dust”…which I’d never seen done before.

I thought they might want to paint with it…and they did…but their canvas of choice was strange…


Yup!  The dog!  *Don’t worry – no animals were harmed in the making of this fun day!*  We didn’t let them paint the dog with chalk…and we didn’t let the dog paint herself either!

Mr. IP thought it would be fun to be an attack child…

Or maybe he was pretending he was on a row-boat….who knows!  He obviously thought it was funny.

Pre-Dinner snack of goldfish!!

This day also marked my little girl’s very first 20 minute temper tantrum.  For the day she looks back on these posts to see her “firsts” I’d like to point out that this tantrum was over a Capri Sun.  I don’t really give A juice ever.  She drinks water like it’s going out of style & she eats like a champ so I just don’t see the need for juice…but the big kids were having Capri Sun & A wanted one…BAD…we had to leave the table & sit inside for 20 minutes until she calmed down…then we had to hide the juice packs when she came back out!  Fun times A…thanks.

We came inside after dinner & got into PJs & had some dessert!  It is all about moderation…and since I saved her from having pure sugar for dinner, I gave her some cupcake!

Not that most of it got in her belly – more like her eye!

For the adults, AG & I made an ooey gooey chocolate chip skillet cookie!  Super easy to make and really delish!

By the end of the night the little ones were exhausted & A thought she’d help her mommy out after getting sort of cleaned up … probably giving me a hint that she’d appreciate me stopping to take pictures about now!

Thanks to the P family for such a fun day!  We’re looking forward to picking apples/pumpkins with you guys this weekend!!!

Tiny Dancers….

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It is no question that my little girl is equal parts Daddy & Mommy…masculine & feminine…leather & lace…you get my point.  She loves football, dirt & playing with balls (stop it…she’s a baby…)  But her girly side is coming through LOUD AND CLEAR!  She loves shoes, jewelry & DANCING!

We signed A up for her very first dance class!!!  She’s in the class with 2 friends, Miss SG & Miss IO.  There’s not too much cuter than these little girls in their tutus!

Here's Miss SG hydrating before class starts!

This is Miss IO showing off her accessories!

3 tutu tushies!

Pretty girls taking a rest!

She'll use anything as a necklace!

SG is the ultimate girly girl!

Looking all innocent!

Hoola Girl!

Takin' a break!

She's taking gymnastics next!

After dance stretching!

 

For now, this is more of a “play” class than any actual dancing, but I guess we can’t expect too much from 18 month olds!

What To Do When Your Toddler Acts Like A Newborn…

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You SOAK IT UP!

My poor angel was sick for the last few days.  The kind of sick we haven’t seen here before.  The kind of sick that I should have been more appreciative for!  This sick made my little nuthead a NEWBORN again!!!!

There were only 2 positions A was in all day…

Position 1

Position 2

She woke up at 9:45am…because I went in her room and woke her up.  Then she proceeded to sleep the day away on the couch.

We went to the Dr. who said it could be roseola (although her fever is very low grade), or viral…which is what they always say right?!  She’s got a runny nose & is sneezing a little, but other than that, she just slept.  Enough to make this Mommy worried a little bit.  She was up for about 2 hours total the whole day.  Then her Daddy came home & she got a burst of energy!  She played with him & rounded off her daily nutrition of chicken soup & teddy grahams with a slice of pizza…but before we could say she was feeling better, she climbed up on the couch & passed out!

She slept through the night pretty much & thankfully today she is feeling better.  She still has that low fever, and her nose is runny, but the crazy toddler A is back & the newborn sleepy girl has vanished.  I will miss that baby girl, with her head on my shoulder just sleeping the day away, but I’m happy to see my crazy little girl again!

Made with Love…

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I know that I’ve mentioned how awesome my Grandma was…but I have one more thing to show off!

One of her many talents was knitting.  She was a great knitter and always was making us sweaters!  The other day when we were visiting with my mom we pulled out the old bin with “Grandma” sweaters!  My mom packed them really well & everything was in perfect condition!  Check out A wearing the cardigan my Grandma made for me when I was a baby!

Keep your eyes out for more beautiful sweaters….I have heard the 80’s are BACK and these are the most authentic 80’s pieces there are!  Each one finished with a tag…”Made with Love by Grandma”

 

New Cousin Meetup…

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We had a quick visit where A got to meet her newest cousin CJ.  We had fun!  Here are some shots from the night…A wanted mostly to tickle CJ’s feet & CJ’s Mommy & Daddy needed her to sleep a little so we don’t have too many shots of the little angel awake!

That is what happens when you have dinner with an infant of course!

Getting ready to go to meet CJ!

Mommies & their girls!

Miss A trying to sneak closer to CJ's toes!

Miss A giving Daddy a back rub!

 

Remembering A’s 1st Evacuation!

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I remember when hurricane Gloria hit Long Island back in the day…and I remember our evacuation.  We went to our family friends & my dad’s business partner.  They live in Woodmere & I guess were out of the “evacuation zone”, although in reality, they were about 15 minutes drive away!  I don’t think there’s any documentation of this family get-a-way, but for A’s first evacuation (and hopefully her last), I wanted to document how much fun we had hanging out at Auntie H’s house!

First we started with Daddy & Auntie E going to pick up dinner while A & I waited in Auntie E’s apartment….and this is how well that went…

She didn’t want me!  She wanted her DADDYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

Great.

Then we went back to Auntie H’s house & took a bath & in the morning we played with Cousin S’s stuff.  She has the best stuff according to A!

"There's a CASTLE in this house Mommy!!!!"

"Hey Cousin S...there's a kitty cat in your house too!"

"Listen to my song...la la la laaaaaaa"

"Daddy's turn!!!"

"How about you Mommy!!!???"

"Hey Daddy...you ready to head home?!?!"

So we left…but when we got home, as you know, we couldn’t stay home!  So we went to our friends house, put the girls to bed and got to drinkin’!  Since our friend RD makes “magic” wine, we woke up nice and hangover-free 🙂  All the trains were down so we had an extra day with Daddy home!

A took full advantage of this and got some story time in the morning!

All in all, it was a fun time…and now we’re just hoping the hurricane’s go back to sea where they belong!