Valentine's Day- A Retrospective

Happy Valentine's Day! This year is my 7th Valentines Day with Kevin, and my 2nd with James. Since I met them, love has rocked my world. Tonight I'm cooking a huge Cuban dinner for Kevin, and this weekend we're going to dinner and drinks in the Brooklyn neighborhood we lived in when we got married. And for your Valentine's Day gift, we're posting a Things My Wife Complains About this afternoon.

Our 1st Valentine's Day in 2007

Kevin and I had been dating about 6 and half months. He took me to the fancy Fellini's Restaurant in Charlottesville, VA for Valentine's Day dinner. Also got flowers the week before for our 6 month anniversary. I didn't take any pictures (what?) but I took him to my 2L Barristers Ball three days later and we took tons of photos.

6-month flowers

At Vivace restaurant before the dance, February 2007

Barristers Ball at the Omni Hotel 2007

Our 2nd Valentine's Day in 2008
Kevin and I had been engaged for 2 and half months, and we were living in Charlottesville together. I don't remember if we specifically did something for Valentines Day, but 4 days before Valentines we went to my 3L Barristers Ball. The following weekend, on the 16th, my parents hosted a little engagement party for me and Kevin in Charlottesville.

At our place before Barristers Ball

Dancing! 2/10

Dancing?

 

Our engagement party at our place in 2008, 2/16

Our 3rd Valentine's Day in 2009
Kevin and I were engaged and living together in Brooklyn, NY, with under 4 months until our wedding. Brady, James W. and I celebrated Kevin's Sunday birthday on the Saturday of Valentine's Day, with dinner at a Peruvian restaurant and drinks at Kevin's favorite Brooklyn bar. The four of us kept it sexy.

Brooklyn Heights Promenade, Valentine's Day 2009

Peruvian dinner at Coco Roco in Brooklyn

Brady, James W., and Kevin at the Brooklyn Inn

Our 4th Valentine's Day in 2010
Our first married Valentine's Day! I threw a huge multi-day celebration for Kevin's 30th birthday over the relevant weekend, so we celebrated Valentine's Day the next weekend. We were still living in Brooklyn, but we celebrated in Manhattan with Mexican restaurant El Centro for dinner and the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center.

Celebrating Kevin's 30th birthday, February 13th

Chelsea Market, February 15th

At the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center, February 19th

Our 5th Valentine's Day in 2011
By now, we had moved to Long Island and we were expecting our first baby in 2 months. We went out for dinner at Bob's Restaurant in Long Island when I was 31 weeks huge.

 Kevin's 31st birthday in Manhattan, 30-31 weeks pregnant with James

31 weeks along on February 14, 2011

Our 6th Valentine's Day in 2012
Our first Valentine's Day as parents! Which means, you have to figure out who wants to spend their Valentines Day babysitting for you if you want to go out together. Michele very generously came over to watch James. Kevin and I went out for dinner at Sushi Ya in Long Island for Valentine's Day, because  sushi is one of my favorites.  James was particularly happy about Michele's visit because he loves her, and she was his first ever Valentine's Day date.

James's first Valentine's Day at 9 almost 10 months!

Getting James ready for bed before leaving for our date


James and Michele ❤

Snow Storm Nemo 2013

I'm not sure who named the storm Nemo or why, but Nemo wasn't too rough on us. We got 1 - 1.5 feet of snow here, and in a big surprise we didn't lose power. Even better, even though almost everyone on Cape Cod lost power, somehow none of our family did.

   

James watching Kevin shovel from the window

The biggest problem we had was that the Long Island railroad stopped running unannounced at 2 PM, and that meant Kevin had to cancel his birthday plans with his friends. (Originally, I was supposed to go too, but the snowstorm limited our babysitting options so I was going to let him go on without me.) I felt awful for him. He works really hard and conscientiously at his job, and he's such a wonderful husband, father, and friend. He should be celebrated constantly-- but especially on his birthday. We're going out by ourselves next weekend, but I know he's disappointed about not going out with his friends.

Kevin shoveling the driveway

In unrelated news, Flickr is getting pretty creepy lately so I'm going to have to make all my photos private. This means that there will be a lot of images in old posts that show up blank while I'm fixing the HTML. Please be patient.

Blizzard of the Century? 2013

It already started snowing here. The predictions from our area are anywhere from 2-38 inches depending on which weather source you believe. Our family in Cape Cod is also expected to get about 3 feet of snow, in what might be a historically bad blizzard. As usual, we're all nervous about losing power. Luckily, Kevin only has a half day because of the winter storm warning. James and I are eager to have him home safe.

Bundle up!

James watching the snow fall this morning.

 

And drive carefully!

Visiting Lukas and Sarah in Queens 2013

On Sunday before the Super Bowl, Kevin, James, and I ventured out to Queens to have a BBQ brunch with Sarah and Lukas. We went to John Brown's Smokehouse in Long Island City, and wow, I have never seen such huge BBQ portions! The pulled pork sandwich was the size of my head. And for some unknown reason they gave us an extra one we didn't order? So now we have a lifetime supply of BBQ in our refrigerator. The best by far was the burnt ends. It's delicious. If you go there, just get that and the cornbread, which is actually a magical corn pudding. Definitely skip the mac and cheese.

 

A collage in honor of BBQ- the men look especially serious about it.

James is a little better in the car these days, and a little better in restaurants, so we felt brave. The main problem is that he doesn't really like back-to-back restraints such as the car seat followed by a high chair or a stroller. As a reward for James's somewhat adequate behavior during brunch, Lukas insisted we take him to the new Gantry Plaza State Park. It's a perfect little park for toddlers because the ground is all rubber and the equipment is accessible and safe for toddlers. There's a really great view of Manhattan as well.

Sarah spins James in the teacups

James is a big fan of both the cups and Sarah

Lukas climbs the rope pyramid to get a better view of the skyline

Writing in the snow!

ANHM 2013

Back when I was 23 weeks pregnant with James, Kevin and I did a staycation* babymoon** to Manhattan. We spent part of the day at the American Natural History Museum enjoying the marine exhibit on the 1st floor and the dinosaur exhibit on the 4th floor.  We mused about when we'd be able to bring James back to enjoy the exhibit. We figured he'd be somewhere between 3 and 5 years old, and that it was a long ways away.  In a phenomenon we've noticed in many other parents though, we are eager to give James experiences even before he'll be appreciative of them and way before he'll remember any of them. Also, we get bored.

James, ignoring the whale at ANHM

So when I noticed he was obsessed with Curious George books, one of which was a dinosaur book, I decided, yes! Let's go back to ANHM! It was... interesting. Much like I did, 2-years prior, James had a lot of complaints about the trip. I decided the trip was a huge success if by success you mean that it took an hour to get out the door after James woke up from his nap, an hour and half to get there, a freezing cold walk from the car, 55 minutes of trying to get James to look at the whale and the dinosaurs while he tried instead to pick little pieces of trash off the museum floor. Success!

Pointing out the allosaurus

James is pretty psyched that the prehistoric crocodile is on his level

Still getting used to holding hands

Feeling a dinosaur foot

Ignoring the mastodon

Posing near triceratops

*staycation is a post-recession made-up word indicating that you take time off work and do "fun things" close to home to save money on your vacation

**babymoon is a pre-recession made-up word indicating another excuse for a fancy vacation away from home preferable somewhere warm and beachy at a time when you are constantly uncomfortable and look scary in a bathing suit

GW Alumni Event- January 2013

Christina, Rachel, and I recently braved a college alumni event. The three of us attended the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University, and when we saw that this event was free, we thought, eh, why not?

You are invited to join your fellow Elliott School alumni in New York for a reception and discussion with Dean Michael Brown on "U.S. Foreign Policy: The Next Four Years." Dean Brown will provide updates on GW and the Elliott School of International Affairs and examine the extraordinary foreign policy challenges facing the United States, as it heads into another Obama Administration.

The Dean is a very accomplished man, but the lecture topic was a very tall order for a short cocktail-type event. It might have been the topic for a multi-day symposium. In any case, we enjoyed the cocktail reception, most of the lecture, and the post-lecture dessert reception. We'd definitely try another alumnae event in the future.

Christina and Rachel at the Cocktail Reception

The three of us!

Dean's Lecture

Enjoying the lecture


New friends after the lecture

Afterwards, we got sushi at Haru. It was pretty good and the sushi for 2 platter was enough for all 3 of us. Fantastic!

James at 21 Months 2013

I've already lost count of how many words James says, but it's in the neighborhood of 60-80 words. What's fun is that he's now stringing some words together. Last time we were on the Cape, he said,"kick ball" as he kicked the ball across the living room. Next, he started saying, "no, Dada," whenever he disapproved of something Kevin was doing.  Around the same time he started saying, "no touch," right before touching something he was not supposed to touch. When I say, "ow!" James comes over, pats my head and ruffles my hair and says, "sorry, Mama." Sometimes he even follows this up with a kiss or a hug. He also says, "please," and "thank you," to get what he wants from me. I'm a total sucker for his "please," which he pronounces "pleeth."

Run down the hall in this super cute outfit from Grandma

He just had his well-baby appointment and he's doing great. He's 35.5" tall (above average), and he weighs 28 pounds (average). He's got all but two of his teeth in (2-year molars) and despite him constantly begging for milk the pediatrician says there will be no more "growth spurts," just regular slow and steady growth. Unfortunately the pediatrician didn't have a suggested plan for the 4 am wake-ups either.

Milk makes him very happy

He thinks he's building a train

He loves his oversize legos

Headstands

Self-portrait on grandma's phone

Loves his veggies!

Inauguration 2013

Happy Inauguration from a very tired Clou family! (James has been waking up at 4:30 a.m. lately, but who's counting?)

Sworn in!

Grandma Kathy- January 2013

We had a wonderful weekend thanks to Grandma Kathy. She got here Friday night before James went to bed, and put him to sleep herself after playing with him for a while.

James welcomes Gaga

Saturday afternoon she went to meet our new best friend baby Ben. He was even wearing the little brown sweater Grandma Kathy knit for him. Look how adorable Ben is in his little sweater! Jon and Kevin were even able to grab a beer thanks to her.

Saturday afternoon with Ben and Jon

She babysat for us in the evening so that Kevin and I could have date night. The last time Kevin and I got a date night alone in Manhattan was in July! So we decided to go big and go to Comedy Cellar, and Kevin conscientiously looked into their reservations policy (that they didn't accept any for some portion of the tickets), but when we got there early they were sold out. We were too happy to be out to worry about it and decided it was time for make-your-own Greenwich Village bar crawl. We made it to the Slaughtered Lamb, Down the Hatch, and Vol de Nuit, before meeting up with our friends Nick and Emily at the Four-Faced Liar. I forgot to take any photos because we were having too much fun, but here's a recent photo of Nick and Emily off their Facebook.

Nick and Emily, December 2012

Grandma generously got up with James Sunday morning and then napped with him in the late morning. As a result of all her love and affection, he now calls her "Gaga" presumably after the queen of dance music. Either that, or it's his best attempt at "Grandma." Probably the former.

While they napped, Kevin and I sat in our living room marveling that it was daytime and we were both in the same room without James. We were giddy with freedom. When they got up we braved bringing James to lunch at a pizzeria and then took him to the park.

Sunday lunch at Village Pizzeria

Kevin and James at the top of the slide at the park

When I got back from the park, I thought it would be a good time to build Aunt Mary's Christmas present to James, a little kitchen set that didn't look that complicated. It was. It involved screws and a Phillips head, and it was very complicated. Kevin was happy we didn't involve him-- until we did. On the bright side, James really likes opening and closing the little microwave door and the little oven door. Over and over again. He also stole a bunch of paperwork from my office trash and jammed it in the microwave, so that's fun.

Sunday afternoon at the factory

 

Kitchen and shopping cart set- complete!

Great Grandma Daisy- January 2013

It's expensive to go over the bridges to New Jersey so on the way from DC we stopped for a quick visit at Great grandma Daisy's. She had some Christmas presents for James and she made us lunch. We're luck to have her.

James and his great-grandmother Daisy

Helping great-grandma with the dishes.

Hiding? Stealing the blinds?

Standoff.