I Know This Isn't an Objective Opinion,

BUT I think he's the cutest little boy. Ever.

What Sam Learned From Uncle Patrick on His Trip to Albany

All I can say is that you are so in for it when you have children, dude. Just wait. You don't know what forces you're messing with. Sorry, Erica.

Merry Christmas!

Princess Caroline

As much as don't want her to get into the whole princess thing, I can't help but smile when I see her looking like this:

Playing Outdoors

We got a good 12-14 inches of snow between yesterday and today. It has yet to stop snowing and they're predicting another 8-12 inches for tomorrow. And then some freezing rain for Christmas Eve and Christmas.
Oh, goody.
But the snow kept the kids fascinated yesterday. Here was the view from inside the house:

And here is a view of the urchins just dying to get outside taken from the front yard:
But, even though we're still about a week behind in laundry and cleaning the house (and let's not even think about the Christmas wrapping) we decided to play outdoors this morning. The biggest challenge was getting dressed. Sam was, shall we say, less than thrilled to be bundled up.

But he didn't seem to mind it once we plopped him in a snowpile.

Caroline helped Dada a lot with the shoveling and roof raking, but enjoyed playing with the wind chimes the most.

Then we were able to go next door to play on the swings, which Sam loved.

The New 'Do

Sam got his hair cut yesterday.
It is too cute, if I do say so myself.
He looks like such a little man now.
And I know you're all jealous of the face paint. But we were at a birthday party and I figured why should I let the kids have all the fun? So I went for it.

Calm Before the Storm

Seems like a familiar pattern. This week last year was super stormy, too.
Now that we have our power, phone and internet back - life is getting back to normal. Actually, our whole neighborhood is dark tonight, but the lights are on for us (guess we're not on the Chandler St grid). I have a feeling the whole power system is on shaky ground right now and the next few storms are going to give us a run for our money. You better believe that I'm jacking up the heat in the house tomorrow just in case we lose our power again. The flashlights, cranky radio and candles are in the ready position.
But before I go down and clean up the kitchen, I wanted to get some pictures off the camera that I thought were blog-worthy...
Taking a snow stroll with the kids:

I think she's making herself a "princess"
Some more pictures from the ice storm


From Sammy and CJ's party:
An action shot of the bibbity-bobbity-boo girl:
An action shot of Sam with the remnants of an Oreo:
At Sam's b-day celebration at Ria's house. Only our kid would try to drink a Hoodsie!

New Ton O' Vids

Kenda Says ROAR!


A Message For Uncle Patrick


Caroline Dances To MoTown


Caroline Sings Sesame Street



The Princess Ballerina...and:


Sammy's Doing Some Walking

One Whole Year...

It's hard to believe it's been a year that Sam has been around.

I felt guilty not posting last night, but we didn't get our internet back until today. I'm sure Sam will look back when he's sixteen and notice that I didn't post on his first birthday and attribute it to the "second child syndrome". Oh, well.

As crazy as this little boy makes me at times, I can't imagine life without him or his wonderful smile. It's amazing to watch him tool around. He adores his sister, riding on his cars and anything musical. He likes eating cheerios, yogurt and peas. Moosie is his favorite toy. He still hates having his diaper changed. Sleeping is not as high on his priority list as Mommy (or Daddy) would like, but it's slowly getting better. =-) As much as I would love to have five consecutive hours of sleep on a consistent basis - when I get a Sammy Hug - it's the best thing in the world and I forget about being so tired. (mostly).

Buddy - we love you very, very much.

Ice Storm: UPDATE

Good news - we're back up and have power, phone, cable (tho the wire is dangling close to the road) and we're waiting on DSL (more on DSL later).

Some quick grades:

• Mass Electric (or whomever hooked us up): A+
• Verizon [field service]: A+
• Charter [customer service]: B-
• Verizon [DSL Technical Support in India]: Big, Fat F---
• Verizon [live human being in the US of A]: A for effort to try to help me.

Ice Storm

The title just about explains it. A nasty ice storm moved throught the area last night. We are without power. We're a little cold and a little sore from moving a lot of trees, but thankful that my parents are here to help out and that no one got hurt.

We had a few dicey hours last light. We moved Caroline into our room because we feared some trees would come down on her room. Thank Goodness nothing fell on the house - but the yard and street is a disaster, to put it lightly. Tree limbs and wires everywhere. They're telling us to not expect anyone to get power back before Monday, but realistically, I think it will be Weds-Thurs AT LEAST before we start to see some progress made. Most of the houses in our neighborhood have simply had the lines ripped right off the house. And there's no way to get the trucks around until the roads are cleared, which is going to take a while.

It's very reminiscent of the Rochester Ice Storm of 91.

Since battery power is precious, I'll be brief. All pictures courtesy of Pops:

We're doing fine. So far - it's an adventure, but I think it may get old quickly. It certainly gives me a whole new respect for our pioneering ancestors. Because, let me tell you - I LOVE my hot showers!

Here's just a quick idea of the devestation we're dealing with - and we don't even have it the worst. From what we hear - Fitchburg to that...

Our new lovely Japanese Maple survived!!! This storm may actually be a blessing in disguise, since the weak trees are down, it will be easier to see the unaffected trees from the Asian Longhorn Beetle infestation. They're being militant about tree removal - so we're thinking mulch is going to be pretty cheap next year!

Caroline-isms

Today Caroline was ON FIRE.
She was everywhere, doing everything and talking to everyone. All at once. And all without a nap.
Yikes.
But she always happens to save her best lines for the other mothers as they're picking up their kids from daycare.
Today she had them rolling on the floor. Of course she picked the speech therapist to perform to.
Let's just start by saying that Caroline loves dinosaurs. Triceratops is her favorite, but every once in a while we get a good mention of a T-Rex or a Iguanadon. Recently she's been obsessed with the "Dinosaur Elephant" (The Cohoes Mastadon in the New York State Museum). She got a postcard "sent" to her from the mastadon and has been carrying it around with her. We've been (unsuccessfully) trying to convince her that the mastadon is not a dinosaur elephant. And I guess we've been pretty vehement about our pronunciation. Because today at daycare she went up to Miss Aimee and showed her the postcard and said very slowly, " Look at me. Say Mast-ter-don."
She is just too much. I think she's developing a Worcester accent, too. Which makes it even more amusing.

Our Big Night Out...

We did it.
We actually got a baby sitter (that wasn't related to us - THANK YOU SEAN!) and went out for a night on the town.
We made our pilgrimage to the Centrum and saw OUR MAN.
And all I can say is AWESOME!
It was a great show. The time flew by and even though they played for more than two hours (though he could have played for 4 hours and still have had most people singing along) - it seemed like he was onstage for five minutes.
His new stuff was great. I liked Pretty Amazing Grace and Home Before Dark.
But it was his old stuff that really rocked the place. Much to the audience's credit - it wasn't only Sweet Caroline. I would say Crunchy Granola Suite and Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show were the hits of the night. But it's hard to boil it down to just a couple of songs. Everyone was into his new stuff, too. And we totally appreciated all the references he did to his concert at the Greek Theater.
Jim and I were certainly on the younger end of the age spectrum - but there was really a cross section of people there. We did get a bit worried going into the Centrum that the people in front of us wouldn't make it up the stairs. I ended up guarding an elderly lady as she went up the flight just to make sure she didn't take a digger (I felt like I was at work).
I don't know what the difference was between this show and the last show of his that we went to - but this show blew the last one away. The energy of the crowd was palpable and Neil and his band were just ON.
It's a very short list of performers that I will part with my money, see more than once (U2, Paul Simon) and feel like it was truly worth it. But I would gladly go see Neil again. Hopefully it will be soon.
But do you want to know the best part?
We had awful seats. When I say awful - I mean it. The very back corner. The top row on the highest level of seating. As far away from the stage as we could be. If we stood up, our view of the stage was blocked by the girders on the ceiling. It reminded me of the old Boston Garden - if you looked down you got sick and if you stood up you got hit in the head with the roof.
But when I went down the stairs to go to the ladies room just before the concert started, I was stopped by an usher that wanted to see my ticket. I just thought he was checking to see if I was in the right place. But then he asked "Do you want better seats?" I said "Sure," and went to go get my jacket and Jim. They gave us new seats - right at stage level on the back right corner of the stage (which wasn't a big deal because it was a mobile stage and the performers ended up playing for everyone) less than 3o feet from the band! It was too cool! Talk about being in the right place at the right time! We were so close that we could see the individual sequins on Neil's jacket!
We wrapped up the night by having some really good sushi.
The perfect end to a wonderful day.
And the kids even slept until seven this morning! Talk about miracles.

Catching Up

With the whole Facebook phenomenon, blogging has been a bit more difficult lately(it's totally addictive). But I really want to keep at it because this is the closest thing I've ever kept to a journal and it's so cool to go back and see how the kids have grown.
A lot has been going on lately, but then again it seems like nothing is going on that's out of the ordinary. We've just been going with the flow.
We had another trip to the doctor today. One of Sam's toes is infected. It looks like it's getting better with the antibiotics - but it bears more watching.
We were finally able to get a Christmas-y picture of the kids. It only took about thirty five pictures to get a decent shot. Thank goodness for digital cameras - it alarms me to think of how much money we would waste trying to get one with 35 mm film.
The shoot itself didn't start off too badly - we got some like this:




But quickly we digressed to shots like this:


So you can appreciate what it took to get a decent picture like this one:

Caroline continues to be in her Princess Phase (much to her mother's chagrin). We got this picture the other night after bathies when she was dressed in her ballgown:

This morning, Caroline was simply fascinated with the snow:

It was cold but we braved the elements and went out for a snow stroll this afternoon...
But the BEST part of the day was when we got to put up the Christmas tree. Sam was true to form and pointed at the tree and said "Eat. Eat. Eat." within the first thirty seconds. Caroline was also true to form and put as many ornaments as she could on the branch lowest to the ground. Junior tried to eat the tree and it required the better part of a cup of water (in a spray bottle) to deter him. I think it's going to be an interesting next few weeks!
Dada and Caroline preparing to put up the lights. Notice in the background how both "Kelley Kitty" and the spray bottle have become prominent in our Nativity display...

As much fun as the tree was, I think the kids had the most fun eating popcorn:


Dada and Caroline hanging ornaments:

Sam was more than a little upset that I was taking pictures instead of nursing him:

But he got over that quickly once we distracted him.



But I think everyone ended up enjoying themselves and definitely likes the tree: