1/2 birthday top 5

i love the 1/2 birthday. i insist on acknowledging mine and have even told complete strangers that the day was upon us. i celebrate mine on march 22 (no gifts required - emails are welcome.)

anyway...enough about me. yesterday was wil's 1/2 birthday. his 1st 1/2 birthday, in fact, and neither of us can believe it. we love him more every day and remain in awe that he came from us.

the top 5 things fun facts about 6 month old wil

1) he eats everything...literally. if he is sitting with us as we begin dinner (or breakfast, or lunch) he will reach for the food on our plates and, on occassion, take it from us for himself. he loves fruit, vegetables, chicken, cheerios, pizza crust and buns from chick-fil-a. we are glad he has a healthy appetite...that leaves no doubt that he came from us. ha!

2) he can sit up by himself. fun!

3) he scoots backward all over the house.

4) he flirts incessantly with women...in the neighborhood, in the grocery store, in the gap...old, young, attractive, not so much, everywhere and anywhere. and they love it.

5) he loves, absolutely loves, snapping. and, evidence that he's sure to be brilliant, he has started trying to snap himself. it's hilarious and remarkable but that little thumb and middle finger go together as he watches us and, although he doesn't attempt the motion, we think it's pretty cool that he gets those chubby little fingers together.

he's fantastic. i won't apologize for thinking so. we are thrilled with our 19 lb, 12 oz baby who grew an inch and a half last month and looks more and more like his dad every single day.

happy 1/2 birthday wil! here's to many, many more.

22.

the doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.
~flora whittemore

ah...the list. supposedly slow and steady wins the race. that is how i am going about this...slowly, deliberately and with thought behind each of these items. i am not just going to fly through willy-nilly. the truth is this: i am a procrastinator and the majority of the 34 things will probably be done in the week before my 35th birthday. but let's hope not. in that spirit, i happily check another one (my second) off the list.

this is what our front door used to look like:


and this is what it looks like today:

a vast improvement even if i do say so myself. don't for a second think that this was easy. this is one of those projects that feels like it should take about 2 hours and ends up taking a week and almost all of wil's naptime minutes during that week. whew. so, 5 coats of black on the door, 3 on each of the sides and 5 coats of white on the trim later and we're in business. i even treated myself to a new knocker, doorbell and doormat to set the whole thing off. i have a little touch up to do but nothing that won't take, oh, 5 hours or so. ha!

i love the finished result and am moving on to refinish the porch and railings next. that was not on my list but maybe i'll give myself bonus points for doing extra credit.

**muchas gracias to mi madre for suggesting the color. see mom...i bet you thought i'd take all the credit.

welcome home lucy!

we brought lucy home yesterday and our house feels whole again. the surgeons were thrilled with the outcome of her operation and were glad to send her home a day early. she looks a lot different than she did when we saw her on monday - brighter eyed, less pain, tail wagging again. she hates her cone but will have to wear it until her bandage comes off because the nurses caught her trying to remove the bandage herself. oops. she walks well despite the cast and we were assured that she would experience a full recovery in about 8 weeks.

thanks for all the well wishes! we are so happy that she's home!

lucy

sunday night while visiting friends in PA lucy was hit by a horse and buggy. she came out of nowhere in what we assume was an attempt to chase the horse and, having no real experience with horse and buggies, misjudged her target and was struck by the rear wheel of the buggy. her right front leg is broken, her left paw is wounded and swollen but not broken and her chest and body are bruised and sore. she was treated sunday night in PA and we brought her home yesterday to our vet in NJ which is one of the best in the northeast. she is currently in intensive care and will undergo surgery today to repair her leg. it is important to note that she will fully recover and should suffer no long term side effects.

it goes without saying that we love lucy so much and that this is difficult for us. we feel very lucky that her injuries, while serious, are minor. it could have been much worse and we are so grateful that it wasn't. we pray for her speedy recovery and hope that she'll be back making friends with squirrels and licking us all to death in no time.

we love you lucy!!!!

cookin'

woo hoo! david cook won american idol. way to go to the 13 of us that voted for him. it's about time someone totally different won.

as for the 4 of you that don't watch...there's always january 2009! be there*.

and for my mom...the ONLY vote for david a...who admitted that she'd never seen either sing (true or false mom???!!!???)....WHATEVER.

YIPPEE!

*yes, i am 33 and i love this show even though it's as queer as a 3 dollar bill. i will not apologize for it. and yes, mom, part of me wishes i was the new american idol.

no(ah) way...it's raining again

as i spend yet another "spring" day inside and watch it rain i thought you'd like to know that the total rainfall for shrewsbury, new jersey may 1-19 is 4.03 inches and counting. oh...and it's about 55 degrees.

get in line by twos...we're about to launch.

"view" from our front window

wanted: comments

family, friends, foes, strangers...

i love doing this blog. it has become a real source of pride for me and i love hearing (via phone and email) from all of you that love it. perhaps this request is a bit needy and so be it, but i would love it if you'd comment more. (this does not apply to regular commentators - you know who you are.) sure, you may not always have something to say, but those times that you do, i'd love to hear it.

my blogging girlfriends and i discuss this all the time. the comments are fun and let us know that you are enjoying (or not enjoying) our hard work. so, just a suggestion...next time you read a post and have a thought like "that was really neat" or "what a cute kid!"...let us know! we'd love to hear it!

and i promise you this...if you ever start a blog, i'll comment my heart out. :)

wascally wabbit

the cutest bunny rabbit makes it's home sitting on top of wil's bed. it was a gift from my friend courtney smotherman and her boys. last night ryan and i spent some time playing with wil before putting him to bed and somehow the rabbit got in on the action. i guess wil had never noticed the rabbit sitting on top of his bed before last night. either that or he'd never seen it up close. at any rate, when he saw it he thought it was hilarious. we never know what is going to set him off on one of these laughing fits and we never tire of them.

the pauses in the laughter are a result of my taking the rabbit away from view. in our opinion, the looks on his face in those moments are just as funny as him laughing! enjoy!

spring fling

last thursday we had a visit from our dear friend tia. we had a fun lunch at edie's, did some flower shopping at molzon's and topped off the day with a good glass of wine and some shrimp pasta. tia is one of those gifts that life gives you when you least expect it. she and shawn (her husband) have known ryan since they were teenagers. it's a wonderful thing to meet your spouse's friends and hit it off when them. in this case, we've done more than hit it off. tia has become one of my dearest friends and i feel like i've known her forever. i joke with ryan that if we ever part ways (we won't) that i get tia and shawn in the divorce. (they'd want me anyway)

so, thank you, my friend tia, for a wonderful day and for helping me to get my perennial garden going. who knew you were so knowledgeable about gardening? it just goes to show you that no matter how well you know someone you never know everything. i couldn't have done it without you. i am so proud of it and go outside everyday to stare at it. i will think of tia every time i look at it. thanks for a great day!

the site pre-planting

the plants

the finished product

gorgeous!

perfect!

thanks tia!

let's go to the movies

if you haven't seen lars and the real girl you should run, not walk, to your video store and rent this movie. with the exception of juno, it has been a long time since i've seen a movie this creative and this warm. i don't really know how to review a movie but i will simply say that lars and the real girl is a beautiful movie. it touched me without being sappy and it was sweet without being sticky. it's a unique story, great writing and a great cast that delivers a big punch.
(ryan loved it too!)

oh...and ryan gosling should've definitely won the oscar. he was phenomenal.

ebert says it best. for the real review (using words i wish i had found in my head) read this.

top 5

wednesday night while watching american idol i told ryan that we needed to think of a new top 5. it's been too long. ryan didn't have his thinking cap on...in fact, he was asleep...so i had to do the thinking for both of us....again.

in all honesty my brain wasn't working too well either. it had been a long day and i was ready for sleep. i started looking around the room to see if anything would inspire a new top 5. i didn't have to look very far. curled up between us on the couch was our very own lucy lu. there are thousands of reasons to love lucy....here are only a few.

top 5 reasons we love lucy

1. lucy doesn't look like any other dog

in an age of designer dogs and purebred pets (not that there's anything wrong with that!) lucy has a style all her own. her appearance is so unique that people always stop to ask us exactly what kind of dog she is. we usually say that she's just a mutt...just lucy...and it makes us happy every time.

2. she is living proof that the journey IS the destination

regardless of where we're headed, what we plan to do, who we plan to see, how long we plan to be there...lucy is excited to go. she makes every adventure exciting and greets the world with an open, willing, joyful heart.

3. she faces her fears head on

lucy has never liked the water. when we got her she was deathly afraid of the garden hose and took the long way around puddles on our walks. after her knee surgery in january 2007 she needed to swim as part of her physcial therapy. not only was she afraid to swim but she was unable to swim. ryan and i bought her a life jacket (hilarious), strapped it on her and threw a ball into a little pond near our house in MA. she did not want to go in after that ball but she trusted our crazy cheers and made her way in for it. we kept this up weekend after weekend until she could swim without the life jacket. she now takes a running leap and flies into the atlantic ocean to fetch the ball. she is an impressive swimmer - strong, fast and determined - and has a blast riding the waves.

4. she loves wil

i was nervous about lucy's reaction to wil when we brought him home from the hosptial. lucy was my constant (and on many days only) companion during my pregnancy. when ryan moved to NJ in february she kept me company. when i moved to NJ last july we spent all our days together taking walks and playing ball. i wasn't nervous that lucy wouldn't like wil but that she'd feel replaced. turns out...she doesn't feel replaced at all. she loves wil and layed down at his feet (literally) when we brought him home. she has been so gentle, so patient and so loving toward him. our only complaint is that she'd like to lick him to death if we'd let her. i suppose that's not a big complaint in the scheme of things. we know they will be great friends when wil is older and we will be glad to have someone to share our ball throwing duties.

5. she loves us

lucy is a loyal, unflinchingly constant, gentle, loving friend and companion. she loves and lives with utter abandon...in the moment, for the moment, unconditionally. she causes us to stop daily and share love, show love, receive love. it's not something that we always remembered to do before her and it's a wonderful lesson. without her our life would be less interesting, less funny and less unexpected...although we might have more room in bed but, hey, nothing is free.

we love lucy...she's our brown-eyed girl and we are better for having her in our lives.

zzzzzz....

apparently i didn't get the memo. maybe my inbox is full. maybe they had the wrong address. hell, maybe they meant to leave me out. whatever. the joke's on them...i'd much rather be awake with the peace and quiet than asleep and missing it.

this is what is happening inside 126 park avenue today, thursday, may 15, 9:25 a.m.

wil napping in his bed (woo hoo!)

murphy shields his face from the paparazzi

stone was asleep - the camera woke her up

lucy has two beds of her own...but prefers ours

i am about to clean the bathroom...impossible to do while sleeping

summer salad

i love to cook. i love denise. i love denise more than i love to cook and i love to cook a lot.

denise is doing an interactive post on her blog about summer salads. because i love denise and because i love to cook it's only natural that i would participate.

it's not yet summer here (ugh) but i am already thinking of all the great salads i like to make during the hot weather. if we aren't grilling we jump from one pasta salad to another all summer. now that i am growing a garden i will be able to supply some of my own ingredients. that'll cut down on the grocery bill that (i agree denise!) seems to steadily climb as the country faces what may or may not be a recession.

anyway, below is the recipe for one of my favorite summer salads...enjoy!

basil tortellini salad

1 package cheese tortellini (i use butoni & have substituted chicken tortellini for the cheese)
1 small red sweet pepper, cut into bite-size strips
1 cup broccoli flowerets
3/4 cup thinly sliced carrot
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon snipped fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup pine nuts or chopped walnuts, toasted

- cook pasta according to package directions, drain. rinse with cold water, drain again. in large mixing bowl combine pasta, sweet pepper, broccoli & carrot.
- mix mayonnaise, parmesan cheese, basil, milk, pepper & garlic in a small bowl. pour dressing over pasta mixture. toss lightly to coat. cover and chill for 4 to 24 hours.
- before serving, stir in nuts and, if necessary, more milk to moisten.

11.*

lions, tigers and bears...oh my! in celebration of my first mother's day ryan and wil took me to the bronx zoo for the day. we had an absolutely wonderful time and i couldn't have asked for a better way to spend the day. the zoo is a beautiful oasis in the middle of the city and once inside it's hard to believe that you're in a city at all! ryan loved the gorillas and i, of course, loved the giraffes. both were magnificent!

we finished the day at our favorite mexican food spot, carlos o'connor, before coming home to mow the yard and relax in front of a thrilling (but not victorious) red sox game.

thanks to ryan for making the day perfect and all about me. apparently, he either read my list or read my mind because going to the zoo was just what i wanted to do. i love my guys...thank you for loving me too!

for more highlights of our day, click here.

*11 is a 2 part item. visiting the bronx zoo completes part 1...up next...the central park zoo!

moms

i love my mom. and now that i have wil, i know how she feels about me. what a beautiful thing it is to be someone's mom. only 5.5 months into this gig and my heart soars each time i look at wil and remember that he's mine. it's an awesome thing and an extraordinary responsibility. yes, it's also the hardest job in the world...but today, mother's day, let's just love our mothers and, if you are a mother, love being one.

The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children. ~Elain Heffner

for a photo gallery of great moms, click here*.

*regrettably, i do not have pictures of all the great moms i know...i also do not always have moms with their kids (or all of their kids). this is an album of moms that, well, i have pictures of. enjoy!

can you EAR me now?

okay, so this blog isn't supposed to be all about wil but, hey, i spend 90% of my day with the kid so my experiences with him are going to be blogged about.

the poor kid has an ear infection. it only took me 3 days to figure it out and get him to the doctor. actually, let me give credit where credit is due...ryan was the one to point out the white goo in his ears. oy vey. ay dios mio. SIGH.

there has been a lot of crying, snot and we have begun calling him wil vader but there is also medicine which denise promises me will produce "a new kid in 24 hours." i'll hold her to it.

with any tragedy comes comedy and we always seem to get our fair share of both. after the doctor's visit we went straight to CVS to fill the prescription. problem: i left the prescription at the doctor's office. SIGH.

while we were at CVS the second time, waiting for the prescription to be filled, wil got tired of being in his carseat. uh, really tired. to avoid a scene i took him out of the carseat and held him, swaying to the muzak CVS is kind enough to provide its waiting customers. we swayed around the magazine rack to lucky star and he smiled at the women on the covers. (apparently he has a sweet spot for gweneth and is thrilled with the news that john & jen are a couple).

then, in a twist even law & order (shout out to my mom - law & order's biggest fan) couldn't manufacture, a familiar tune began to play. i knew within a few bars but i couldn't help but second guess myself. then i knew...then they started....boyz II men....i'll make love to you.

the lights went down and we swayed to the muzak. one man's comedy is another man's tragedy...in this case, one man's comedy was that man's comedy again. good times.

wil, get well soon!

the grass is always greener...

our yard is three weeks young today. if this beginning is any indication of what's to come we might get the yard we dream of afterall! grow grass grow!




and my first tomato has popped up...it's a new variety called "lucille"...tasty!

(note: lucy isn't crushing my veggies. nothing has been planted yet. garden coming soon.)

rockabye baby

lately i've been having trouble remembering the words to lullabies. and by lately i mean since wil was born. in the beginning i would just forgo the singing and hum or make the shhhhhh sound but that's not working so well anymore. singing works and as we all know, when something works, go with it. i remember certain songs (twinkle, twinkle & rockabye baby) but i only get so far before the words escape me. when this happens, as it often does, i launch into my old standbys: jesus loves me and take me out to the ballgame. i know all the words to both of those. usually a few choruses of jesus loves me followed by one or two slow, singer-songerwriter versions of take me out to the ballgame and we have a sleeping wil. but not always.

driving home from north carolina a few weeks ago was the pits. we drove 55 mph in a torential downpour almost the entire way which added hours to our trip. we also took a wrong exit in washington d.c. taking us through the city and not around it. fun to see the pentagon but not at the expense of another half hour added to the drive. needless to say...the trip was long and we starting to feel it.

as we approached the new jersey border the rain broke, sun came out and we picked up the pace. we were feeling good and beginning to see home on the horizon. then we hit a wall of traffic. s-l-o-w again. slow. really slow. stopped. slow. stopped. slow. sigh. we fumbled our way along the turnpike. we got 45 miles from home. we were overjoyed. ryan turned the sirius to BACKSPIN and we rapped along with the notorious B.I.G. and puffy. good times.

just as big poppa was wrapping up wil decided he was done with the ride. done being in the car. done being nice about it. done being patient. done, done, done. DONE. to drive the point home wil began to wail. he was distraught. he was beside himself. it was apparent that he wasn't going to stop. we tried everything. loud SHHHHHHHHHHH. whistling. windows down. windows up. i crawled in the back seat and tried to help. nothing was going to work. nothing. ryan suggested soft singing. we'd already tried loud singing. so i started a very soft version of take me out to the ball game. VIOLA! it worked. he began to calm down and soon he was quite and still, watching me sing. 30 minutes of take me out to the ball game and jesus loves me will take a toll on anyone. desperate for another song i couldn't think of one. well, not really. i couldn't think of an appropriate one. in fact, the only song i could think of wasn't just inappropriate, it was weird. but i was blank. ryan was blank. and so, having no choice, i began the slow, soft version of the boyz II men hit, i'll make love to you. i sang (not to him, but at him...very important to note that difference), wil smiled and ryan couldn't stop saying, "this is just wrong." we thought of ross & rachel singing baby got back to emma and persevered.

we laughed. we wanted to cry but we laughed harder. we were exhausted. we were punch drunk. we were completely out of ideas but we took a chance on the one we had. and, guess what, it worked. please don't call CPS. i promise to google lullabies...see if i can't learn the lyrics to a few age appropriate songs, er, uh, relationship appropriate songs.

until then...good night. sleep tight.

banana fana fo fana

wil is an eater. at the ripe old age of 5 months he's already showing skills that could rival any major league eater. he loves sweet potatoes, has a real soft spot for kiwi and goes bananas for, well, bananas. however, his desire for the banana has gotten a bit out of control as of late.

exhibit A:

it's not a spill...it's BA-NAN-A

on thursday wil enjoyed a banana as an afternoon snack. for all the fun he had i didn't enjoy myself quite as much. no...from the beginning he was fighting me for control of the spoon and launched into a huge gutsy cry when i didn't refill said spoon quickly enough.

exhibit B:
i have asked nicely for the last time...i want that spoon lady

because wil is only 5 months old and cannot yet feed himself i insisted on holding the spoon. what insued was a fight not only for control of the spoon but the bowl as well. he not only cried for the spoon he resorted to SCRATCHING me and grabbing my shirt. alas, when i got all the banana down him i was going to get down him with any respectibility left, i gave in...i gave up. i gave him the spoon. unsatisfied, having only scored half of the bounty, he began attempting to launch himself out of the bumbo to get to the bowl. again, i gave in and handed him the bowl. he immediately shoved his face his face down in it and, quickly realizing it was empty, threw it on the floor.

exhibit C:
now didn't i see a bowl around here somewhere...

exhibit D:

this just in: lucy does not eat sloppy seconds

my go-to gal, lucy, was called in to destroy the evidence. in an unlikely twist of fate she decided that food cast aside without any care was definitely not for her. this resulted in my sprinkling cheese ON THE FLOOR over the banana. (please do not ask me why i did this. i am a new mother. i am tired. i do strange things from time to time. if this is as odd as it gets, let's consider ourselves lucky.) lucy happily lapped up the cheese...and left the banana behind. (snob) ironically, later, when i removed wil's clothes and put them on the floor to take the hamper, lucy happily lapped up all the banana off his shirt while i washed wil. REALLY?

the rest of the evidence is below. wil fought me for control of the banana and he won. of course i think the joke is on him because he ended up wearing more of the banana than he got in his mouth. oh, and where is the bib you might ask? ripped off by our dear wil in the melee and cast to the four winds. no picture of that. you'll just have to take my word for it.

here are some shots of the victor savoring his win. there are no shots of the loser. when you are a loser no one wants to take your picture.

round 1 (and only): wil

vic-tor-i-ous!

aaahhhhhhhhhhhhh...banana

i think i'm gonna need a short shower

when do we eat next?