Our Friends on Halloween 2014

All of our friends looked adorable on Halloween so I thought I'd feature some here.

First, let's start with the happiest Halloween ever. Last year Owen was getting stem cell treatment for his cancer, and this year he was running down the street trick-or-treating. So this wins for awesomest happiest Halloween picture:

Owen and Hailey

I am biased in favor of awesome group costumes- so they come next!:

The Where's Waldo crew: Rachel, Tim, Eleanor and Isaac-Waldo

Wizard of Oz: Michele-Dorothy and friends

Jim and Lisa the vampires and theirs son Otto as a bat 

Family cuteness:

 

Kevin's tiny princess cousin Abigail


Kevin's cousin Mike and Mike's gf Havi

Childhood friends and their kids:

Casey's kids, Oliver and Laurel (far left)

Jon's kid Ben as Elmo

Trey and Sunny's pirate Cort and parrot Max

Neil the ape and his baby banana Bettina (and mom Ann)

College friends and kids:

Christina and Dan's superhero Hudson

Megan and Ed's Buzz Lightyear William

Princess Meghan and her knight Evan and ninja Nate

Batman-Cory and Cat Lady-Robin, although this would have 

been a perfect opportunity for Robin to be Batman's Robin 

Jeff and Inga's panda Silas

Other adorable friends:

Cathy's princesses Madison and Kennedy

Anna's kids: fairy Clara, lion Maxwell, Hogwarts student Abby, Princess Leah Lydia

 

Lina and Tiger Caleb

I only had one fur baby submission this year:

Janice and Darren's Fudgie the spider

LI Children's Museum 2013

On Saturday, we scored free passes to the Long Island Children's Museum through our town library. We were actually trying for a different museum but they have a limited number of free passes to different museums and you check out the passes the way you might check out a book. The children's museum worked out pretty well though. We only had an hour there before they closed, but it's super boring for adults, so an hour was about the maximum that I could handle anyway.

James and Kevin outside the LI Children's Museum

We started with the temporary exhibit-- Bloodsuckers-- which was not a fun Twilight or True Blood exhibit, but a sobering one about bloodsucking bugs. I learned quite a bit about my bug nemesis the mosquito, but nothing new that I can actually employ against them.

James playing some kind of tick and mosquito game

He is not winning.

A huge gross tick

I looked around and there was a sand area and a water area, but both would have made James ill-suited to ride back in the car with us. The other areas were mostly classes, so we took James to the  toddler area behind a big school-bus-shaped door. It was a little area full of entertaining things for tots, but it was a little mini Wild West of stealing and pushing. We stayed on James as best we could, as even the little tiny areas were somewhat accessible. At least James had a great time.

James playing with a little town map full of movable vehicles

Toddler area clearing out as it gets close to closing time

James working at a bodega/grocery store like his Cuban and Irish great-grandparents

Running out of the construction excavator

Visiting Janice and Darren- March 2013

Janice, Darren, and Fudgie

We spent most of our Spring Break trip with Janice, Darren, and their pug Fudgie. We arrived late on Thursday evening, and took it easy. Friday, Janice was off from work so we spent some quality time in the afternoon, went to lunch and took James to the park. The park had a fun sandpit where James made sand pies and shoveled little paths.

At the park on Friday

Scooping up sand in the pit

Not that James needed any activities really. He loves little dogs like Fudgie, and Janice and Darren have a little backyard they can chase each other in. Pretty much heaven for James.

Chasing Fudgie outside

Playing with Fudgie inside

Saying goodnight to Fudgie!

Of course, my favorite part of the day was still after James went to sleep. We ordered take out and watched the final Twilight movie. This is a little tradition of ours with Janice and Darren, and it started ironically, but then I kind of got into it. And by kind of, I mean I really got into it. We like mocking it while we watch it though, so there were lots of jokes as the expense of Taylor Lautner, who we dubbed "Uncle Boyfriend."  

After William B's birthday party on Saturday, Darren and Janice joined us for a trip to another bigger park. James had the run of the whole place and at one point tried to steal some sporting equipment from an adult couple. After that we returned him to Janice and Darren's backyard where he managed to get himself stuck in some shrubbery.

Hanging out in the back yard on Saturday

 

Not only is he stuck in shrubbery, but I am taking a photo instead of helping

We ordered take out again, but after James fell asleep we realized we were out of Twilight movies and faced the existential crisis of what other movie to watch. Kevin would have voted for college basketball as he had spent much of the weekend sneaking games on his phone. We tried to give Kevin and Darren a choice in movies, but they kept insisting the decision be left to me and Janice. Unfortunately for them, Janice and I are vaguely sadistic, so we picked Taylor Lautner's movie Abduction. We got drinks and placed our bets on how many minutes before Lautner removed his shirt. I guessed 10 minutes, and Kevin and Janice guessed more than that, then Darren guessed 3 minutes, "if not in the opening credits." Yeah, he won.

Multi-tasking: Giving James an evening bottle, snuggling Fudgie, watching basketball.

Cute! Snuggled up for movie night.

Some other recent visits with Janice and Darren: Janice visited me on my birthday, I saw Janice and Darren in DC in January, Janice and I went up to Warwick for Girls Weekend in November, and we took a trip into Manhattan in October. Wow! We've been doing really well with visits lately!

Visiting Janice, Darren, Megan, and Ed 2012

We spent the weekend with Janice, Darren, and their pug, Fudgie. Saturday's highlights included a visit from Megan and Ed who are expecting a baby in two weeks. Megan has the same due date James had last year, but we'll see if she gets lucky with an on-time arrival. It was the first time Megan and Ed met James who is decidedly out of the baby phase and into the toddler-causing-trouble phase.

Bucks + Taylors + Clouthers = Happy

Janice, Megan, (baby William T. in belly), me, and James

James spent the majority of his day alternating between being timid of Fudgie and then chasing Fudgie around trying to grab his tail. James and Fudgie were fast friends and even (to the adult humans' chagrin) insisted on sharing toys. At one point James grabbed Fudgie leash, and Fudgie seemed ready and willing to go for a walk with him. Sadly for Fudgie we don't let James outside by himself. 

Pretending to walk Fudgie

We also watched Twilight: Breaking Dawn together, and though we claimed we were doing so ironically, I'm going to admit that I loved every cheesy illogical bad-acting moment of it. But it was fun to talk during the movie and crack jokes. Given the nature of the movie, most of our jokes were shockingly inappropriate (ask me in person and I'll tell you though) but here's a family friendly one.

Kevin: "You know what the ONE thing that doesn't make sense about this movie is?"
Darren: "Yeah, they're vampires, so why do they need air bags?"

Apparently, Darren has an issue with the fact that, "Mr Sparkle has a different Volvo in each movie, and what's Volvo's appeal? Safety! You're cursed with eternal life - throw caution to the wind and drive an old British roadster. When it breaks down, you can fly home."

Sunday we went to an Arlington baby park and James ran around touching things he shouldn't, screaming in horror when he walked into the sand box, swinging, and playing a little soccer with Auntie Janice.

James and Janice playing soccer

Swinging with "dah-T" (daddy)

Finally, Sunday afternoon Jaime came over to assist the Bucks with babysitting James while Kevin and I enjoyed the Landsman wedding.  It was super nice of the three of them to watch him for us, because as I explained to many people at the wedding, bringing James would have been no fun.  No one would have been pleased when he ate all the flower petals in the aisle or sprinted onto the dance floor during the first dance.  Discipline doesn't work so well on an 11-month-old, especially when said-11-month-old is stronger than his mother.  The Jaime-Janice-Darren babysitting team boldly changed diapers, fed James, gave James his evening bath, delighted in watching more Fudgie-chasing, and happily put him to sleep. No small feat! Thank you buddies!

Bonus glamour shot of Fudgie because he is that cute

Visits from Friends- July 2011

In the first ten days of July, we've visited with friends six of those days.  With the baby in the mix-- I'm impressed with us but also exhausted!

First, Ash and Michele L slept over the night before Ash and I left for the Corbman wedding. We ordered sushi and stayed up way too late having philosophical conversation and feeding the baby (at 1 a.m.). That might not have been the best idea for me.

A second attempt at a group picture (10 weeks + 2 days)

Then, Brady came over to provide moral support to Kevin while I was away at the wedding, and he stayed for three days until the Fourth of July cookout with Briggs, Nick G and Emily.

Brady and James enjoying some True Blood together (Just kidding! Maybe?)

On Thursday, Kevin's friend from high school Nick C and his girlfriend Michelle R (yes, we saw two different Nicks and two Michele/Michelles in 10 days!) came to meet James and visit us before they head to their next adventure. They only recently got back from a year traveling South America, and their next destination is still unknown.  We had good conversation and two intense rounds of Connect Four. And Nick stayed up with Kevin through the 1-3 a.m. feeding. Bad idea for Kevin.

Nick and Michelle meet James (11 weeks + 1 day)


So much more REAL than tic tac toe

James also picked this day to start pushing out of his bouncy seat with his legs! His legs are so strong, and he seems to insist on bouncing on his legs now.  You're supposed to crawl before you walk, buddy. Oh well, Grandma Kathy tells us that Kevin skipped crawling and went straight to walking at about a year old. I crawled first, but was walking by 9 months. Is James trying to outdo us both? Personally, I think he should focus on tummy time skills, like lifting his head or rolling over, but James only screams when I put him down.

Finally, on Sunday, we ventured out of the house with James to have brunch with Lukas and Sarah. This is always a very tricky situation since James hates the car (and everything), but Luke and Sarah only live 30 minutes away so we thought we would risk it. Sarah generously offered to make brunch so we could stay in since we assume other brunch-goers do not want to hear James screaming. And oh my, what a delicious brunch she made with grits casserole, shrimp, bacon, and berry salad. We even had Bloody Marys and mimosas. Fancy.

Playing with James while he SQUEALS with delight!


Check out the spread!


Bonus baby photo from the same day (11 weeks+ 4 days)