Review of 2012- Part 1

Happy New Year! Let's review all the good things that happened last year!

January
We spent New Years Eve in Brooklyn at Jon and Becky's place. The Meghan and Ben had their second son Evan.  Kevin and I finally successfully sleep-trained James when he was 8 months old.  We started a new yearly tradition of watching football and Miss America with friends. Kevin, James and I went to visit my grandmother Daisy and my mother in New Jersey.

James turned 9 months old and started walking! I finally finished scanning my photos after working on the project for 5 years! There was barely any snow in New York this winter (about 4 inches total).

James at 9 months, January 30th

February

Ash, Michele, Jaime and I went to the Brooklyn Brewery for a tour and our own shared tasting.  Kevin mourned another loss of the Patriots to the Giants in the Superbowl (see 2008).  Our mothers both visited James. We celebrated Kevin's 32nd birthday in Williamsburg with barbecue and bourbon, and then we had a low-key Valentine's Day at Sushi Ya restaurant.  Kevin and James had a boys weekend while I took the bus to D.C. for Megan's baby shower and Sarah's 30th birthday (and impromptu belly-rubbing).  I even got a behind the scenes Supreme Court tour from Donald. Christina and Dan's son Hudson was born a week before his due date so I got to hold him even sooner than I hoped.

James had already been walking for almost a month when he turned 10 months old! Kevin documented all my complaints about television in Things My Wife Complains About (TMWCA).

Brooklyn Brewery

March
For my 33rd birthday, Michele and I did 33 fun things which included visiting Hudson, doing a wine tasting, and eating sushi at one Michele's favorite Brooklyn restaurants. Grandma Kathy came to visit James.  On St. Patrick's Day, Kevin made his famous corned beef sandwiches again, and along with Jon and Michele we did a local bar crawl.  A bunch of old coworkers and I attended Adrienne's baby shower.

St. Patrick's Day 2012

With Daylight Savings, James started sleeping through the night to 6:30 a.m.  James turned 11 Months Old and maybe said his first word? We couldn't tell for sure.

Kevin and I went to visit the Bucks in Virginia.  Baby William B. was born and I got to meet him when he was just 9 days old!

April
We went on a little mini-roadtrip where visited the Bucks in Arlington, VA for the weekend and saw the Taylors too. We went to Roger and Lina's wedding in Tysons Corner. Then we visited Cory and Robin in DC. Finally, we showed James around our alma mater in Charlottesville.  It went really well, until James had a total meltdown on our way home, which Kevin wrote about in Diary of an Angry Pink Baby #6.

Our first family trip to DC!

Nana visited for the weekend. We enjoyed Easter at the Gorskis, complete with their signature martinis!  We went to Cape Cod to attend Kevin's cousin's wedding the Pareseau wedding.  The same week, the Adrienne and Liel had a baby girl, Brooke and a few days later the Megan and Ed had a baby boy, William.

James turned a year old and the following week we had his first birthday party at home on Long Island. I finally finished taking a photo of James every day for a year!

James 1st birthday party!

May
On Cinco de Mayo, we went to the Bronx Zoo with Rachel and Tim, Christina and Dan, and their kids. We had a great time.

Then we planned and set off for a big Southeast Roadtrip. We had to pack for 18 days, and we entertained the Jeff and Caroline on the very day we were leaving for the trip. It took us 12 hours of driving straight through the middle of the night to get to North Carolina in time.  But we finally visited Audra andRob at their home in North Carolina, met their adorable son Carter, and even spent part of Mother's Day with them. I got to see the two cutest people ever, Sarah and Aaron get married.  By Day 4 we were wandering around Charlotte, NC without a clue what to do, but at least we started our BBQ binge!

Days 5-6, we visited Atlanta, Georgia for the first time and had the best BBQ ever.  We stopped in Macon, Georgia so that James wouldn't lose his mind, and we got to visit some Ocmulgee mounds. We visited the Trey and Sunny in Jacksonville, Florida, and got to meet their son Cort for the first time.

Day 8, we fell in love with Savannah, Georgia and by days 9-10, I had declared Charleston, South Carolina imminently livable. We stopped in Columbia, South Carolina and then kind of wished we hadn't. James turned 13 months old while we were there.

Savannah, we love you! 

On day 11, we hiked up Clingman's Dome Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.  We visited Katy and Luke, and got to see a lot of Nashville. Day 13 was all about Elvis's home Graceland and some great Memphis BBQ. And then we washed all that BBQ  down with bourbon on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail on day 15.

Having rocked the South, we left and visited Chrissy and Jason in Cincinnati, Ohio and even had some Cincy chilli with them. And we did all that before Memorial Day! We did more before Memorial Day than most people will do the entire summer. Yes, traveling so much was incredibly hard, but it was also fantastic and funny.

June
This month started with a lot of baby news! Aubree and Patrick had their daughter Avery, and shortly thereafter, Cathy and Mike had their second daughter Kennedy. Then, Jon and Becky announced they were pregnant.

Brady came to visit for the first time in a while, and the guys went to the Brooklyn Brewery and Manhattan to party. The following week, Jaime came to visit and we all went to Jones Beach during the day, and in the evening we met up with Michele, Yainice, and Allison for a little BBQ and a Brooklyn bar tour.

James loving Jones Beach

Kevin, James, and I celebrated Kevin's second Father's Day with a trip to the Bear Mountain area so that he could go hiking. James turned 14-months and started bringing us his books to read to him. Fifteen years passed since I graduated high school. Nana came to visit James and we all had a lovely time at the park together. Kevin, Briggs, Jon, Becky, Lukas, Sarah, and I went to Dinosaur BBQ in Harlem together. Yum.

Only one month after returning home from our 18-day Southern roadtrip, Kevin, James and I left home for a 10-day Northern roadtrip. Our first stop was Jim and Lisa's wedding celebration in Quincy, Massachusetts. Our second stop was Martha's Vineyard.

Read about the second half of 2012 here.

Read about the first half of 2011 or the second half of 2011.