Jake's Second Birthday Extravaganza

Pictures from Jake's Second Birthday, featuring ELMO!

We all had to get an official party portrait with our party hats on. From top left corner: myself (making a rare appearance on the blog), Grandpa Jim, Ralphie, Papa Ralph, the birthday boy, Mema Mary, Aunt Barb, Grandma Mary Ellen, and Steve.


Personalized place settings:
































Jake rocks out on his Rooney Doodle guitar. We're down with the Doodlebops, but we're pretty mad that Disney Channel isn't showing them at 10am anymore. Our morning schedule is all messed up! :(


Jake practices playing one of the two guitars he got for his birthday with Grandpa Jim.


Jake on the refinished rocking chair that used to be mine when I was a baby - looks pretty good for being almost 22 years old, huh? ;)

Easter 2008

Easter was pretty low-key this year after everything we were going through following the loss of Papa Joe, but we still managed to gather at Mema Mary and Papa Ralph's for a nice dinner and an Easter egg hunt for Jake. Our little guy looked very dapper in his linen suit and was spoiled with no less than FOUR Easter baskets! (One from Grandma & Grandpa, one from Mommy & Daddy, one from Mema & Papa, and one from Aunt Barb)

Here is Jake in his new linen suit and tie in our front yard before we left for church:


An easter basket still life


Kissing dada at home after opening his baskets


Then we were off to Mema and Papa's for more easter baskets and candy. Here's my favorite little Mr. Chocolate Mouth. This picture makes me want to nibble his little cheeks!


Jake got some kiddie plastic golf clubs in his Easter basket from Aunt Barb and he loved them! Ralph showed him some techniques.


How can I have an Easter post without having a picture like this? (Aunt Barb, say the word and I'll go ahead and post your Bunny ears picture too :) )


Jake had so much fun searching for eggs that we snuck more out of his basket and tossed them around the yard so the game went on longer for him.


Back inside, my little computer-programmer-in-training went to work trying to Google pictures of geckos and elephants - his two favorite things right now.


Right as the sun was going down, I dashed outside with Ralph and my sister-in-law Laura and Jake to get some yummy pictures in the delicious sunlight. (Laura, remind me to shoot you an email with all of your gorgeous new headshots :) )


We had a beautiful Easter and Jake got more candy than any toddler ever needs. He still asks for it daily, pronouncing 'chocolate' in a way that sounds like he's saying: "Got you!" (pronounced: gah-chew!)

Our 15 minutes of fame...

Hey look! We got into the local paper on Jake's birthday! They attributed a gramatically incorrect quote to me, and also mis-spelled my name, but that's par for the course...

UPDATE: Oh goodness... it seems there's a video too. If you blink, you'll miss me, but there is a clip of me at about 1:20 seconds into the video titled Palisades, Part 2.

Stinkin Blogger!

Can someone please tell me why I can't upload any stinkin pictures on Blogger right now? ARGH! I have a dozen-ish great pictures from Easter that, despite all my efforts, won't stinkin upload!!! ARRRRRGGGHHHH!

Happy Second Birthday!

Happy Birthday to our sweet little boy. What a wonderful two years it has been! You make us laugh and smile every day, you amaze us with your capacity to learn, your excitement for life and your ability to show love. We love you so much Jake and hope you have a wonderful day!

(Yes, pictures will be coming shortly. I have a LOT of catching up to do on here....)

Papa Joe

Thank you all so much for you kind words. I am still somewhat in shock and don't know how to process this yet. How do you sum up 83 years of an incredible man's life in one blog post? I woke up this morning and could hardly remember what I posted yesterday. It was the longest day of my life. And the shortest day of his, now that I think about it...

The house is so quiet without him, and not at all in a good way. No more buzz of a loud television for a man who had damaged his hearing as an engineer for the bomber squadron in the war. No more hum of the oxygen machine that kept him breathing, after years of breathing in fumes from being a house painter. No more booming voice that had selflessly rushed into burning houses and buildings to save people in his days of being a fireman.

Whenever you lose someone, you lose part of yourself. I have lost all four of my grandparents, and both of Ralph's grandfathers, and those days stay with me forever. My heart aches for Grandpa Valentine, Grandpop Guie, Gram Valentine, Grandmom Guie, Papa Paul and now Papa Joe. A part of me died with each of them. My heart grows and heals each day I spend Jake, and I see him growing the hearts of my mother and father and of my mother-in-law and my father-in-law. As life goes on, we grow a little and we die a little, but we just keep going.

I take comfort in knowing that they are all together in Heaven, and that someday I will be there with them too, in a better place. On Good Friday, Papa went Home, and was reunited with his wife Josephine. I think of all of the loved ones on the other side - young and old - and I think of the great celebration they are having in Heaven today.

Farewell Papa Joe

This is not an easy post to write. It's a post I knew would be coming, but I never expected it to happen so soon.

For those of you who didn't know, for the last ten months we have been living with Ralph's grandfather, in his home here in New York. He's lived in this house since 1951. His health was failing since our wedding in 2004, and we moved in to try to give him some company, help out in any way we could, and to be able to spend some time with him before he would one day pass away. We assumed that day would not be coming anytime soon.



We lost Papa Joe this morning at 6:50 am. He was such a good man who had fought so long. His heart was so weak, his lungs were so full of fluid, and he had been gasping for air for months now, even with oxygen round the clock. This morning he simply took his last breath. He was Ralph's grandfather, but I considered him my own grandfather. I loved him and respected him. He was a kind and giving man, a war veteran, a devoted husband and a man of God. He loved Jake so much and I am so glad he got to see his only great-grandson every day for the last 10 months.

Our Florida Trip

Okay y'all, climb in and put on your seatbelts - it's time to take a ride in the "Way Back Machine!" Okay, I'm exaggerating a little, but I've been meaning to go through the pictures from our trip to Florida since the end of February - it's even on my to-do list! - but we have been so very busy lately that it just seemed to slip through the cracks at the end of each day. Well, tonight (tonight being 1 am) I finally went through and edited all the images and I'm excited to finally post most of them. I have some more to add from my point and shoot... maybe I'll do that tomorrow after our playdate :)

Anyway, here are the pictures, because I know that's the only reason half of you show up to read the blog anyway (right, dear husband?) ;)

We took a trip to Butterfly World, and Jake was in sensory overload!


We saw, literally, a bazillion butterflies! Some even landed on us!


And we saw colorful birds up close:


And we fed the fish:


There were geckos everywhere around Ralph's grandmother's home:




Jake loved playing in and around the pool. I liked seeing him in his oh-so-adorable floaty muscleman swim outfit! :)


He got so worn out at the pool one day that he fell asleep on the porch - mid-snack!


As we were packing to leave, he insisted on wearing my sun hat in the crib:


And here is one more adorable one of him on the plane, wearing his headphones and watching cartoons: (I'll spare you the details of the airsickness that came after this picture was taken - you can thank me later....)



We had a fun time and hope to make it a regular trip - it is the off-season for me (a good time to take a vacation), and Ralph has some clients he visits in the area, so it's a good reason to go. Thanks again to Mema Peggy for letting us stay at her place, and to Mema Mary who showed us a great time! :)

THRILLED! ...well, not really...

Jake was equally as thrilled with meeting the Easter Bunny as he was with meeting Santa Claus. HA!


And here is one with our new buddy Nicky from our new playgroup. I'm glad to be getting out and meeting local moms and toddlers. We could both benefit from some socialization. Staying at home all the time makes us both cranky. ;)



I have NEVER been able to get a good picture when taking Jake to get a posed picture - two strikes with Mall holiday pictures and one awful picture from daycare last year (trying to see if I ever scanned or posted that one....). Again, something to be said for a professional photographer capturing your child candidly in their own environment... just sayin' ;)

My animated happy boy

A very typical scene any day this week in my office / Jake's playroom / our upstairs living room.



P.S. - I wish I always exposed my images this well! This is 100% straight outta the camera, no Photoshop, no actions, no tweaks whatsoever. (I do sharpen just a tad for the internet - but that's IT!) For the photonerds like me: ISO 400, 50mm focal length, f/1.4, 1/60 sec, all natural light (no flash).

I caved.

I'm sorry, I can only take a SCREAMING, crying, sniffling, sad toddler for so many hours. Then I pull out the unaltered, pristine, in-tact binkie. Crap. All my hard work gone.... But after four hours of trying, someone is FINALLY asleep. That Dr. Ferber guy is a hack anyway. (lol)

When things get a little too quiet...

...then I know I'm about to discover something like this...


Jake took snacking matters into his own hands after he was refused a third bag of Veggie Tales Fruit Snacks. This is actually a chocolate bar that was intended for Papa Joe, but I accidentally forgot to give it to him and brought it upstairs with our groceries. And yes, Jake gnawed right through the paper and the aluminum foil to get to the chocolate. So much for the "I'm avoiding giving Jake any nuts until he's at least 2 or 3" thing....

The End of the Binkie Era

Jake LOVES his binkie/pacifier/Nuk. LOVES it. Has a serious attachment to it. Must have three to five of them in his crib every night and at each nap. He had been a full-time binkie addict for his first year and a half, but last summer I got him down to binkies only while he was in the crib (and during meltdown emergencies in public, when mommy is driving in traffic, the occaisional diaper change bribe, etc). I've half-heartedly attempted to break him of the binkie habit a few times in the past, but I made the decision that once his second birthday came, that was it. No more. The end.

Well, 'the end' came early. On friday, I cut the tips off of all his binkies as step one of the binkie phase-out. When you cut the tip, the binkie becomes much less satisfying. We had one in his crib for a while with a tip cut off, and he would never use it. If you accidentally gave that one to him when you were bribing him into a diaper change, he would toss it back at you. (Nice, huh?)

So he was frustrating me on Friday (demanding to have the binkie when it wasn't nap time, insisting on the binkie during all diaper changes, wanting to go in his crib just to be with binkie, etc.) when I finally snapped and cut them all. When I tried to put him down for a nap with the altered pacifiers, he flipped out. "Oh, NO! NO NO NO!!!," he yelled from his crib. He was hysterical, so I took him out with me in my office and he just kept picking up each binkie and examining its' wounds. "Oh no! Oh no! No! No!"


So I just took a deep breath and grabbed my camera. :) He eventually left all the binkies on the floor and went along with my idea to do some coloring instead.

Friday's nap took a while, but he finally stopped crying long enough to fall asleep. Friday at bedtime, the same thing happened, but we did give him one altered binkie. Saturday he refused a nap at all, and then last night he went to bed after some serious crying (no binkies at all). Today's nap took a while, but he finally went down. I am hoping tonight will be a little smoother, and then same the next night and so on. So I guess he's been clean and off the binkie since Friday night.

What's funny is that now, since there is no binkie in his mouth at night, he babbles before falling asleep! And calls our names, over and over. Which breaks our hearts, but we keep hearing about the Ferber Method ("let them cry it out") and it seems like the 'right' thing to do. I don't wanna be one of those parents that has to bribe my kids to do anything, or cave in whenever they cry. Okay, so I HAVE been that parent, but I'm trying not to be that way all the time. We discipline Jake, we give him time outs, and we set limits. When he's mean, we make him say sorry. We try to teach him right from wrong. okay... end of tangent...

So we'll be the ones up late tonight cursing because we have to get up early on Monday and there's a screaming toddler in the next room. We'll be second guessing ourselves around 11 pm. And I just found ONE binkie that's still in tact. Just in case ;)

Jake the Ring Bearer!

I'm sorry for making everyone wait, but the pictures of Jake in his tuxedo are finally here! I'd post more now, but I'm off to a Bridal Show in New Rochelle to try to drum up some more business... More Jake-specific images coming soon, now that I'm finally done editing down all 2725 pictures from the wedding. No, seriously.