Spanish Tapas- September 2015

This is our 1000th post!

Back in September, Grandma Kathy came to visit during the week, and Kevin and I went on a date night, our second one since we moved here. This time we tried a Spanish tapas place, La Parrilla Spanish Bistro. The "tapas" were actual entree size so we accidentally ordered a lot of food.

We had a lot of serious conversation... about how many kids to have. The final decision appears to be that we are two and through. Which means I need to come over and borrow your babies for snuggling. Let me know when.

Toasting with our sangrias (mine is a mango sangria!)

After dinner, we walked around Port Jefferson which was mostly empty because it was a rainy Tuesday night. Kevin had been wanting to try Brewology because they have a lot of good beer on tap. Kevin got a Blind Bat Hell Gate and I got a Goose Island Sofie. The bar was also playing the Red Sox, though he politely feigned some disinterest, I told him to go ahead and watch. We tried to stay out as late as possible... we made it to about 9 pm. As James would say, "It was a good try."

Blind Bat Hell Gate and Goose Island Sofie

Supermoon Lunar Eclipse 2015

I always want to watch these astronomical events and then I either completely miss them because I forget, or they are at a really late time of night so I just refuse to get up (or set an alarm). Well this time the total lunar eclipse was perfect. It could be seen in North America before my bedtime. A lot of my friends and family tried to watch it without a lot of luck, but we had a good view from our house and clear skies. Kevin was not so interested, but we put lawn chairs on our front yard and sat facing the direction of our house and sort of our neighbors house (yes, we looked like weirdos) and watched until our earth completely blocked sunlight from the moon. Then I clapped for the drama.

September 27 Lunar Eclipse

This lunar eclipse was a little different because it was a supermoon. A supermoon is a full moon (or a new moon) at the time the moon is closest to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, which makes it look as big as it ever looks. There was also a lot of talk about a "blood moon" but that has to do with all lunar eclipses. When the Earth completely blocks the sun the glow on the moon looks red. I saw it in the little sliver that never seemed to go away.

Things My Wife Complains About #29 Apple Picking

It's fall, which means it's apple picking time! As someone who has long enjoyed apples, what greater pleasure could I take than paying to pick my own dirty, worm-infested apples? I'm so tired of buying clean, tasty apples that someone else picked and washed. I enjoy pork, too, but it's not like I get to slaughter my own pigs in an abbatoir, alongside hundreds of other tired families. Lame!

If you think you're about to read a snarky takedown of picking apples, guess again, because despite traveling to two different orchards, nobody in my family picked a single apple. The first orchard, to be fair, had a lot of rules. First, somebody told my wife she wasn't allowed to bring in her purse. Second, I don't remember: The gatekeepers were just generally weird and scary. So, for some reason, we bought a lot of peaches. Has anyone in our family ever eaten a peach? Possibly. Now we have approximately three hundred of them.

We knew what to expect from the next orchard, namely more not apple picking. This orchard has so many places for children to play, it's a miracle anyone ever picks apples. Here's what we did instead of picking apples: Eat apple donuts (close), drink apple cider (arguably closer), get stuck inside a plastic tube (daughter), shimmy inside the tube to retrieve the child while people gathered worriedly around one open end of said tube (wife), burst into tears after being told it made Mama very sad he said he didn't want to pose for a picture (son), stare expressionless into the distance (me).

Possible solutions!

1) Stop eating fruits and vegetables
2) Start picking less popular produce, such as potatoes
3) Go apple picking again very soon (extremely likely)

Tractor

Tractor

Ship

Ship

Train

Watch out Miranda is driving!

Before the doom

Happy pumpkin

Confused ghost

James Sick- September 2015

Looking over the blog, James only gets a bad illness once or twice a year. We have been so lucky that he has been strong and healthy, but of course it's also healthy for them to get some normal kid bugs now and again. Well we got a doozy this time. James was sick for a week before we decided that this was worse than normal and we brought him to the doctor for a second time and got him some blood tests. It's a virus, but maybe also a bacteria, so he got antibiotics. He was struggling to breathe so he also got a nebulizer with medicine to open his airway.

In the waiting room of the pediatrician

Getting a nebulizer treatment at the doctor's office

Taking lots of naps

Hated doing the nebulizer at home

After the second doctor visit he improved a lot.  He's back at school this week but he's still not eating as much as he was right before he got sick. He was enthusiastically greeted when he returned this week by his first male friend at school Dillon. (Last year it was all about his friends Sabina, Elena, and Celia.) Hopefully he'll have time to make more friends this year.

Napping with Fudgie.

His favorite part of being sick- hydrating with popsicles!

Miranda's benefits from this too.

Miranda is 17 Months 2015

Miranda is a talking explosion. She understands a lot of what we say and follows simple commands (she ignores being told no, but will happily oblige favor requests). She gives delightful smoochy kisses, and has the most absurd mean sense of humor. Nothing cracks her up more than pretending she's going to kiss you and then BITING YOUR FACE. Hey, you've been warned.

Hanging out with my little girlfriend

Doing the Draper

She currently hates rides of all kinds- not just car rides. That's right, now i can't even take her out in the stroller.

James calls this the rollercoaster. Kevin does too but for different reasons.

Eating Greek treats at the Greek Festival

Post-bath naked run, not to be confused with pre-bath naked run

Don't worry she wasn't driving while texting. She pulled over.

Takes 1 nap, 3 hours after waking. 45-90 minutes.

Helping James wash his hair.

Pretending to go nite-nite.

This is what she does when you ask her to sit for her shoes.

She is fiercely independent in a way that didn't motivate James at this age.

Must feed herself!

Stealing her brother's lunch because she hates the baby chair and prefers his food.

And this is how she scored her own seat at the table with "big girl" food.

Brushing her own teeth.

Exploring the world. (This James did do.)

Just like her brother though she loves books with a passion. She makes us read her about a 100 books a day. Maybe this is also why she says so many words already- but as mimicry. She still actively communicates with the same words as last month. I sense an explosion coming since she understands a lot and mimics a lot right now.

Reading in James's room

Read me another Dada. Please.

In short, she is little and fierce. Just like all the women in her family.

Chilling with all her favorite women.

• James at 17 months 2012

Ash Visits- September 2015

Ash visited this weekend. I was really looking forward to her visit, then I had a kind of a rough week and her visit was especially a godsend. Ash hung out for a little while and visited with my very odd children.

My kids think this is normal.

Reading to Miranda.

We started with mani-pedis. I actually hadn't even been to the local place yet since moving here, so that was a good exploratory visit for me. Then we were off to Port Jefferson where we managed to alienate everyone in listening range. Fun! We went to Village Way, a friendly little bar I'd enjoyed on my own before. Then we went to the waterfront for drinks- my favorite. This is the part where we were having so much fun we were alienating people. We also made friends while paying for parking the first and second times, because I am parking machine-challenged.

Village Way

Selfies at Wave on the waterfront

Waterfront view

Our manicure and fun drinks

We tried a sushi place in Port Jefferson, Kimi, which was pretty tasty. It was also the quietest restaurant in the history of the world... until we walked in. We followed it with ice cream, which I promptly dripped all over myself.

Ash hung out the next morning and we tried Crazy Bean which is so yumy. Here our pumpkin drinks pumpkin chai (Ash) and pumpkin mocha (me).

Our drinks

Ash is awesome as always! Thanks for visiting!!

• Ash and Janice visit July 2015
• Girls' Weekend March 2015
• Visiting Ash- February 2015

James in Soccer Woddlers 2015

James had his first soccer practice on Saturday! I was so psyched! Both before and after. They played these little cute kid games like "go get the vegetable," "water the plant (ball) with your foot," and "go around the island" to practice soccer skills. If you couldn't hear them it would have just looked like drills, ball control, dribbling, and kick practice.

Best kick ever! Seen here with coach.

Seeing him in his first soccer practice would have been awesome at any age, but you guys, these kids are 3 and 4 years old. So much cuteness and hilarity! First of all, three kids refused to even stay on the field. One thought about it, while holding firmly on to his mother's hand, and then decided against it. A few have "faking to the left" down pat, and pretended like they might stay when their mothers released them, and then immediately escaped off the field. Basically, all the kids pictured here are already winners. Especially the little girl who played in a skirt. Hey, I played field hockey in a skirt, why not soccer?

Anyway, meet the US Soccer/Football Olympic Team of 2028 or 2032:

Drills! Geting the cones that "are the color of bananas."

Control that Captain Morgan would be proud of!

More control

Dribble! The excitement!

Dribble, now with more cuteness!

Gooooooooooooooal!

Huddle up and goodbyes