Happy Old Year

Tonight as we put Jake into bed and did our little kisses and silly nightly routines (gather the binkies, give him his bottle, crawl under the crib to herd his tossed toys, kiss him through the crib bars), I realized this would be the last time in 2007 that I would kiss my little boy goodnight.

I scooped Jake back up out of the crib, asked for a hug, and held him tightly. I put him back in and held his perfect face in my hands and just spent a moment taking all of him in.

We put our hands together and prayed for a minute and I made sure that the last words I spoke in 2007 to my son were, "I love you."

I hope that each of us can pause for a moment to tell our little ones (and big ones) how much we really do love them and what a precious gift they truly are. (Yes, you, reading this right now!) Have a blessed New Year.

Christmas Fun

We were out in Pennsylvania with my family for Christmas and it was a whirlwind of cookies, pies, gifts, visitors, and fun! In the middle of it all, Jake tripped while wearing Dada's shoes and managed to get his first black eye :(

This was taken on the 23rd, but I'm trying to remember exactly which day we got "Baby's First Shiner"



By the 26th, it was looking a lot better, and the swelling had gone down...



He still had plenty of energy to play "Kissing Cousins" with Maddy...

Playing Dress-up

Jake has been imitating everything lately - and seems to love playing dress-up. Everytime I go into my jewelry box, he snags these two beaded necklaces and wears them around the house. Dada isn't thrilled about it, but he still looks darn cute, right? He's also been obsessed with wearing adult shoes lately. So obsessed that he tripped at my parents house the other day while wearing Ralph's shoes and took a nasty spill into the coffee table. Pictures of baby's first black eye coming soon...







Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

P.S. - If you're the praying type, please send a few thoughts and prayers to my friend Jennifer and her daughter Maisie, who is spending her first Christmas in the hospital.

Eating Wearing Pasta

Ralph is the chef in our house and he whipped up some delicious Shrimp Marinara last night with some wholesome whole wheat pasta. We all enjoyed eating it, and Jake also enjoyed wearing it.

Spaghetti Face:



All-New Tricks:



Messiest Baby Ever:

Somebody....

...Met Santa Today!



And doesn't he look thrilled about it! :)

Shameless Plug

Y'all baby blog visitors are gonna have to check out what I've been up to over at the Photography Blog.


When I get super busy, I get more productive. I've been churning out the blog posts left and right lately! :) As of 2 days ago, there were 61 things on the to-do list. Now I'm down to 'only' 29. I might even catch up one of these days!

RANT

So I was all giddy over finding my Passport. Oh, happy day, I can go back to the DMV and get my NY license! I was prepared for the awful DMV picture, but whatever. I haven't had a decent picture taken since the wedding day (I stopped trying - lol!).

It started snowing on the way to drop off Jake at Mema's house. I am not brave/stupid/crazy enough to try to bring a toddler to the DVM. So I schlep down there to this crappy strip mall in an otherwise nice area (downtown White Plains) to visit the DMV. Again. They turned me away last time because my current out-of-state license and social security card is not enough to get a new NY State driver's license.

The DMV turned me away today with the following documents in hand: Valid Delaware Driver's License, US Passport, Social Security Card. In NY, apparently this is not enough to be able to allow me to drive legally. The passport is in my maiden name, and there is no "proof" of the connection between maiden name and married name. (Will the ring and the wedding album suffice??) The thing that really bugs me is that I had the marriage certificate in my hands LAST NIGHT! My passport was stored with it! ARGH! I HATE the DMV almost as much as I hate moving....

So I went back home to grab the marriage certificate and the weather got worse. With the sleet and my four so-so tires on the SUV, I decided to stay home and do work instead. Plus, the Passport happens to have expired over the summer, and if I had gone back to the DMV again and they turned me away for a third time, I'd end up as one of those crazies on the news that snaps, and my neighbors would say "She seemed quiet, mostly kept to herself."

To make things worse, I realized that I was a whole lot cuter ten years ago.....

OH SWEET HAPPY DAY!!!!

Three rocking-awesome-kick-rear things happened today!!!

1. I FOUND MY PASSPORT!!!! This means that I can go to the DMV tomorrow and FINALLY get my NY driver's license!!! I have been looking for my passport and/or my birth certificate for MONTHS now and just found it at the bottom of a box along with our marriage certificate. Woo-Hoo!

2. THE 'GOOD' CAMERA IS FINALLY GETTING REPAIRED!!!! I called the camera shop where I bought the camera - turns out they can look up my receipt and my warranty info!!! I took it there today and they sent it off to be repaired!! Woo-Hoo Number 2!!

3. JAKE IS ON THE COVER OF A CATALOG!!!! A month ago, I took Jake to my father's company to see if he might be able to participate in a model shoot with some other kids for the cover of their Infant/Toddler catalog. Jake's nap schedule was totally off and he was a complete pain in the rear for the whole shoot. Along with fussing, crying, and running off the set, he actually sat down in the middle of shooting and tried to move his bowels....how lovely. I left assuming there was no way he'd be in any of the pictures, but they managed to get ONE usable shot!! And they put it on the cover!!! My dad let me know that's it's going to the presses today, so I can officially show everyone! Here's the cover below. Woo-hoo, woo-hoo, woo-hoo!!!



(Just for the record, 39 exclamation points were used in this post. I tend to get a bit excited.)

Just chillin in my crib

Sometimes Jake will wake up from his nap ("Ma! Ma! MAAAA! Daa? Maa? MAAA!") and I will go into get him, and he's just laying there chillin. I'll ask him, "do you want to come out?" And he'll shake his head "no." But he wants me to sit next to him. So I sit down on the floor outside of his crib, and we play. He'll give me one of his binkies, then try to steal it back from me, then he'll toss things out of the crib for me to retrieve. Sometimes he'll stay in there for a while after his nap. Usually it's just a few minutes and then he decides he does want to come out, but I'm glad he enjoys his crib and feels comfortable there. He seems to have no ideas about climbing out of the crib either, which surprises me! We'll see....






My talented child....

Jake's Blog....now starring... JAKE!

Ralph, who loves to bust my chops whenever he can, mentioned that this is becoming Kelly's blog, rather than Jake's blog lately. I can't disagree with him...


So tonight, while Jake was doing his millionth cute thing (playing in all of the large cardboard boxes in our dining room), I stopped what I was doing and ran upstairs for the camera. Good thing I did! I managed to snap off almost 375 pictures in 12 minutes. No, that is not a typo. The rental camera shoots 5 frames per second. Seriously. (My good camera is STILL broken, receipt is STILL missing.... ugh ugh ugh)


Cute thing I did not manage to take pictures of: Jake is really into kissing lately. In the middle of a total meltdown, he will gladly stop to give me a quick smooch when asked, and then go back to flailing and screeching. We request kisses incessantly. Our only complaint is that when he kisses Ralph or myself on the lips, he forgoes the smooch sound. Yet, when he kisses the dog, there is an audible smooch sound. So tonight, he went around kissing everything - Christmas tree, dog, chair, mommy's arm, floor, daddy's head, Christmas tree lights, dog again, toys, bouncy ball, everything! The cutest part is that he was so concentrated on making his kissie-smooch noises on everything else that he even managed to give mommy and daddy a kissie-smooch noise or two! Cutest. Thing. Ever.


He knew he had to be especially cute today after last night's public meltdown at a holiday party hosted by Ralph's friends and their impeccably well-behaved 20 month old son. Jake was that kid last night - screaming, flailing, hitting, stealing toys, making a mess with food, throwing a fit when disciplined, etc etc etc. I was the mortified mom. I had flashbacks of my own mother circa 1983, with my little brother. Let's pray Uncle Danny hasn't been passing along his trade secrets to Jake...

Cross-country visits, part 3

I'm in the Denver airport again. My flight to NY is delayed due to there being "weather in NY". Weather, huh? Uh oh. Technically speaking, isn't there "weather" pretty much everywhere, all the time? More specific details were not given at press time....

So we're blogging on free-ish internet provided by Denver International Airport and their sponsors whose ginormous ads grace the tops of my browser windows. Anywhoo...

We rejoin our story in fabulous Hollywood, California. Our friends Chrissy and Jeremy have a great apartment in the Hollywood Hills, just blocks from Hollywood Blvd. This is the view from their street... wow-zuh!


We trekked down to Hollywood Blvd, walked along the stars on the Walk of Fame, passed Groehman's Chinese Theater, then had great hamburgers, fries and onion rings (and a jug of Chardonnay) at 25 Degrees in the Roosevelt Hotel with some friends.




The next day, I went picketing with Chrissy and her writing partner Jessica (one of my 2008 brides!), who write for a major network 'Must-See-TV' comedy series. (Not sure if it's kosher to mention the name, so I'll hold off unless Chrissy gives her blessing).






Anyway, picketing is HARD WORK! It was pretty cool getting traffic to honk for hours on end in front of the FOX studios, but it was exhausting!!! And no, there weren't any Hollywood starlets passing out doughnuts and coffee. There were heavy signs, lots of pacing back and forth in the sun, and blistered ankles. I was so exhausted after picketing on Monday that we came home and I napped for the rest of the afternoon!




Chrissy made an awesome dinner that night(Jeremy you are a lucky man!) and they sent me on my way down to Orange County for my photography workshop. More on that next post!

Cross-country visits, part 2

Before I left to come out to California, my parents drove out to NY to stay the night with us and take Jake and Ruthie back home with them to Pennsylvania while I'm gone. (Thanks mom & dad!) I miss my little boy but I know he's in good hands. Plus, he loves to hang out with Grandma & Grandpa. :)

My flight out of NYC was very early - 7am! (and I am NOT a morning person). I slept some on the flights, but I was pretty tired by the time I landed in LA. I picked up my tiny plastic rental car and was off to Glendale, CA to stay with Ralph's Aunt Cathy, Uncle Bobby and the kids: Brennan, Kylie, Dylan and Gavin. We went to this really cool Christmas Parade in Montrose. Stupid me didn't bring my camera, but if I had, you would see pictures of the cutest little town in California and all of the neat floats in the parade, and the yummy churros I stuffed my mouth with. By the time the parade was over and we got home, I was exhausted. I went to bed at 8pm (Pacific Standard Time), but I had been up since 4:30 am (Eastern Standard Time) and had only about 3 hours of sleep. I slept at least 12 hours that night in the world's most cushy bed :)

We had some time before church to take a few family pictures. They have this great Spanish-style 1920's house with this amazing staircase, and the beautiful California sunlight spilling in. I knew immediately it was the spot I wanted to use for the photos.


(I haven't edited these at all and just grabbed one that looked like fun. I can't wait to see them all on my big Mac when I get home and can edit everything for real!)

Stay tuned for more California fun, including walking on the picket lines for the Screen Writers Guild Strike here in LA with my friend Chrissy!

Cross-country visits, part 1

I'm out in California right now to attend an all-day intensive photography workshop tomorrow. I figured that if I was going to come all the way out here, I might as well see some friends along the way. My first stop was a four hour layover in Denver. My sweet friend Adrienne, who is Emily and Noah's mom, lives in Denver and was kind enough to come pick me up at the airport so we could go have lunch together.


We went to a really cool Mexican restaurant and had a wonderful lunch and talked about all the miracles that made us come together as friends. You see, Adrienne and I had never met in person before! We are blog friends and I was so moved by her blogs and her faith and her family's story. It was such a blessing to finally meet one of my Blogger friends in person. Adrienne is one strong amazing woman, a great mom, and a follower of God. I'm blessed to call her my friend.


Adrienne - thanks so much again!!! :)