Pic Update

It's been a while since I've posted pictures so here are some favorites from the last month or so:

First Family Picture at the New House:


Happy boy playing on the slide at our friends' engagement party:





During our last visit to my parents' house we had some friends and their kids over. This is the first group shot of the kiddos together. Ages range from 6 weeks to almost 3 years.




Pics from our stop in DC:





Henry was clearly excited about touching the Moon Rock:




Fourth of July in Ridgewood:

Henry wasn't so sure about the fireworks at first...

He calmed down and seemed to enjoy the fireworks once we moved up onto the porch.
View of the fireworks from the Seavers' front porch....can't beat it!

Getting back on schedule...

I've been a terrible blogger for the last month or so...aye aye aye. I'm not sure where the time goes because I feel so behind on so many things...I am in the process of uploading nearly 300 photos that I hadn't done yet, Henry's birthday invites haven't gone out, my side of the bed is a series of piles of stuff that can probably be tossed or put away, etc etc etc. But here I am now so...

Since our last entry we've started getting things done in the new house....nothing big but Henry's room is almost done being painted, our room has its first coat, we bought new electric outlet plate covers, new airvent covers, interviewed two contractors for kitchen/bathroom work, etc. I am really anxious just get everything done so we can get settled but I know it's going to take some time, especially with wanting to wait until the contractors are done with what they are doing, Eddie's work schedule, Henry's schedule, etc.

Eddie and I both traded in our outdated phones for smartphones last week. I didn't think I really wanted/needed one but after having it I've got to say that I am really liking it. I love that I can snap photos or shoot a video and then post it immediately to Facebook. Makes it pretty convenient to keep people up to date with what we're doing. I need to figure out how to upload those photos to the computer so I can load them here as well.

Henry continues to grow and develop at an almost alarming rate. He's become a pro at climbing up steps (but not down), points at things he wants, is very expressive and is just a general fun kid to be around....despite his recent napping protests. He'll be turning 11 months old tomorrow, which just amazes me. I can't believe that he's going to be a year old soon. Time really does fly.

Yesterday we went to Adma's Farm in a neighboring town. I had seen it online in the fall when we were looking for a pumpkin patch to go to and when we got up yesterday it was a BEAUTIFUL and mild day so I figured it was a good day for an adventure. The farm has a greenhouse and lots of plants that we didn't see this time because we spent so much time looking at the animals. Henry thought the goats and sheep were hilarious. He was also very interested in the chickens until the roosters started going nuts and cockledoodledooing. It was fun to take him there and to see him react to the animals. It makes me excited for future trips to zoos.

Tomorrow morning Karen, Ellen and I are running a 5K at a local small airport. It's on their runway so it will be a nice flat course! I haven't run since the 5K on the 4th of July so I'm not really looking forward to it!

I'm going to get this up and posted and will do a separate catch-up photo entry this weekend once I weed through the ones I uploaded. Thank you, readers, for your patience with my unpredictable posting schedule lately!

We're Still Here!

Thanks for your patience as we have had a very busy time since the last entry! Here are some bullet points to catch you up:

-I survived helping with four orientation sessions at CNU. The students and staff really came together to put together a fantastic experience for the incoming students and their parents. I am glad that I really got to be there. It was a little difficult to leave on my last day as my contract is up and even though I'm going to see most of the people fairly regularly working at CNU has been a great experience for me both personally and professionally. So for all of your CNU-ers that might be reading this...I miss you already!

-Eddie flew down to spend time with Henry and I. He had the chance to play golf, play kickball, see friends and relax a little. He even got recruited to help with parking for one of the orientation sessions!

-Henry had a super time with Ding Dong and Grandad. He went swimming, went on walks, worked on perfecting his coffee table cruising, ate meatloaf, practiced the piano and so much more. I think they all really enjoyed the time together and I'm glad that we were able to do it.

-On July 3rd Eddie, Henry and I packed up the car and headed back north. We stopped in Fredericksburg along the way to have lunch with a good friend from high school/college that I haven't seen in five years. She, her husband and little boy drove to meet us and it was a fun lunch. It's still kind of weird to me that we're old enough to have kids! After lunch we continued to DC where we had planned on meeting friends for the dress rehearsal of the Capitol Fourth concert. My family had done this for many years and so we thought it would be fun to do ourselves. (Great way to see the same concert without the crazy crowd!) When we got into DC we were able to walk around The Mall a little and then headed into the Air & Space museum to cool off. Good thing we did because a HUGE storm blew through town. Thankfully the storm let up before the museum closed so we were able to head back to the Capitol to meet up with our friends. We were sad to find out that they had closed the rehearsal to the public, probably to keep the lawn from getting too muddy. The rehearsal went on but it was too hard to hear from the closest we could get so we decided to head back to Jersey. We got in at 12:45 and were in bed a little before 2.

-July 4th started early (especially after an early morning return!) and included the Seavers Siblings running the Glen Rock 5K. We all did really well! It was fun to all run even if we weren't together (due to some runners being faster than others!). After the run we headed back to the house to get ready for the parade. The Seavers' house is right on the parade route so we just had to walk out the front door and grab a spot on the lawn to enjoy. Henry loved the parade and got especially excited when the different bands marched by. (This made me quite happy!) We spent the rest of the day hanging out, eating, etc. before the fireworks, which are conveniently shot off right across the street. The Seavers' lawn is the perfect location and was full of friends and family for the show. Henry had skipped his afternoon nap and was quite tired by the time the fireworks started but he was awake for them. He was NOT a fan of them at first when we had him on the lawn but we moved onto the covered porch and he started to actually enjoy them.

-House Update: I was able to get in to see the work that Eddie and his family did while I was away. It was neat to see the lack of wallpaper and start to really visualize what things may look like when things are done. We have some contractors coming in to look at the bathrooms and kitchen so we can get estimates on some updates we would like to do before we actually move in.

-Henry Updates: Henry continues to learn new things and be a great little kiddo. He's getting to be pretty good at cruising along tables, sofas, etc. He has started pointing at just about everything with his cute little pointer finger. It's really hard to believe that his first birthday is right around the corner!

Here's one of my new favorite photos of him:

Captains Ahoy

The reason for the delay in posts is because I am down in Newport News at CNU for Setting Sail, their freshman orientation program. It's my last official act as a CNU employee on my extended contract. It's been really great to be back on campus, working with some incredible staff and students and feeling back "at home" in the office. It's not that I don't miss my co-workers and the students when I'm in New Jersey (because I do) but being here really drives home how many great relationships I was able to form in the five years that I worked here. I always say that I love that I can walk into almost any office on campus and have a "friend" there. It's been nice to see a lot of those people again.

The days are long but it's so much fun to see everyone coming together to put out a great orientation program and to see the incoming students start to really get excited about coming to CNU in the fall.

This orientation has been the easiest for me by far because I was doing behind the scenes works (mainly on our online registration and information system) and just got to show up and do a small part of a big picture. I commented to my boss that this year is also much easier than last year because I'm not 7 months pregnant!

Right now I'm up in the office using the internet since I don't pick it up in the residence hall room where I am staying. There is a social event in the building tonight for the students so currently the Cupid Shuffle is blasting and there are a bunch of students dancing downstairs.

Henry has been hanging out with my parents while I am here on campus. I got to go home for dinner on Tuesday so I could see him a little bit. He had a big smile when I walked in and was in a good mood so it was a nice way to spend a little part of the day. I will get to head home tomorrow afternoon for the night. Eddie flies in on Friday so it will be nice to have us all together again before I have to head back for week 2 of orientation sessions.

I'm going to head off now but just wanted to check in so that my readers could know that I was okay and the blog wasn't dead (since you know it's two days past when I usually post...haha).

Cape Cod and New Tricks

Eddie, Henry and I packed ourselves up and headed up to Cape Cod on Friday. (This is the 7th summer that Eddie and I have gone up!) Thursday night's weather forecast said that it would be sunny and 70 while we were there....however, it was overcast and much cooler than 70 on Friday and then all cloudy and some sprinkles/rain and cold on Saturday. But as I said, a rainy day on the Cape is better than a sunny day many other places! Even with the yucky weather we made the most out of it.

We checked into our hotel on Friday afternoon after an easy drive that was a little over four hours. We had stayed at this one a few years ago and remembered that our room had had a great view. Our room this year had the same view and Henry enjoyed looking out the window at all of the swans, ducks, geese and other birds.

We got back in the car to head to the first Chatham A's game of the season. It was an away game but we went anyways to cheer on our team. Henry was so excited to be at the game on Friday that he showed off a new trick!


We left after the 7th inning stretch so that we could get Henry back to the hotel and to bed at a reasonable hour. That night Henry was very upset to be in his pack and play for bed. Eddie and I let him cry for a while to see if he would calm himself down. All of a sudden Eddie said "Oh my gosh....look!" I looked over and there was sad Henry's little face poking up from the pack and play wall...he had pulled himself up to stand in it! He's gotten mobile in the last few days. I snapped this video this morning so you can see how good he's getting at this.


Don't worry we've already started the "TV Is a No-No" policy. We are clearly entering a new world of fun with Henry. :-)

Back to Cape Cod... Saturday was cloudy, cool and sprinkled on and off. We did, however, manage to check out the Cape Cod Maritime History festival in Hyannis, which included some roving pirates, a bagpiper and a neat craft/arts tent. After we did that we walked around downtown a little and then went to the Cape Cod Beer Brewery tour. It wasn't so much a tour as a "stand in the small warehouse where their whole operation is". There were a lot of people there but we learned some fun facts about their operation and got to same some really fresh beer. It was tasty and a nice indoor activity on a less than great weather day.

Later that day we headed into Chatham to walk around downtown, eat at our favorite restaurant and catch the home opener for the As. We ended up doing two of those three things.....when we drove past our favorite restaurant (Nick's Pizza) on the way downtown it had a closed sign on the door. We double-backed and sure enough...empty! The outside had been updated on the building and it looked like the inside was being redone. Since the sign is still up out front we are really hoping that maybe the owners are just updating and will reopen. I'm not going to lie...I got a little choked up when we saw it was closed. We've been going there each summer before As games and love it. It would be so sad if Henry never got to eat there!

Instead of Nick's we ate at the Red Nun, which is the restaurant/bar right next to the ball field. Henry got to color on the paper table covering with crayons while we had a beer and chicken fingers.

The weather was terrible for an opening day baseball game and the crowd (or lack thereof) showed for it. It was cold and sprinkled/rained the whole game. We stuck it out until about the 4th or 5th inning and then got in the car. The outfield goes out into a hill that meets up with a road in town so we drove up to the road and parked to watch the rest of the game. Henry had a bottle and zonked out while we watched the game. The neatest part for me was hearing the Monomoy Theater's rehearsal for their first summer show "Man of La Mancha" from the outfield. They must have been really belting it out because I could hear a lot of it.

Chatham ended up losing the game sadly but I just read on Facebook that they won tonight so things are looking up!

We headed back to the hotel after the game, got Henry settled in bed and hit the hay ourselves. The next morning Henry decided that 5:30 would be a good time to get up and be very talkative and cute. He played in bed with us and we finally got him to go back to sleep for a little bit. When he got back up around 8:15 we packed up the car and headed out. We had a quick stop for gas and Dunkin Donuts (which are the Starbucks of New England....on every corner!) and made it back to Ridgewood in time for a delicious veal parmesan Sunday afternoon dinner.

I am very glad that we are heading back up to the Cape in July for a little bit longer. I'm looking forward to better weather (fingers crossed) and more exploring with Henry.

Stay tuned for a big update later this week... :-) (No...not baby #2...think 4bd/2bth!)

Take Out The Trash Day

Ellen, Kevin and I had a great adventure last night on the eastside of Ridgewood. We had our first experience with "picking"....checking out what people had left out for curbside bulk refuse collection. We never dreamed we would have the kind of success that we did.

Here is a photo of what we picked up...

Manly kitchen (complete with grill) and picnic table:


Awesome push-along (for now) tricycle by Radio Flyer:


Four construction truck toys, including a battery-operated excavator (far left) that has a scoop and arm controlled by levers:


Lawn Mower:


Art easel with white board on one side and chalkboard on the other:


Wooden dresser:


Kevin also picked up a three drawer dresser for his girlfriend. It is already loaded in his car, which makes it difficult for photos. But it's pretty nice!

(The toys and table were in need of some cleaning, which I did this afternoon. I'll probably get new knobs/drawer pulls for the dresser to update it a little. A little elbow grease and time is a small price to pay for the items!)

Besides being a success in terms of getting quality items, we had a good time (probably laughed way more than we should have) doing it. I'm looking forward to heading out the west-side of town next week!

Bebe

Eddie, Henry and I traveled to Easton, PA on Saturday for the baby shower for Sean and Andrea. They are my fraternity brothers (Andrea is my little brother!) and friends from JMU. They are incredibly cute with each other and are expecting their little Bebe (nickname for fetus) at the end of August. Andrea asked that we come down a little early to take some photos of them to document the "bump".

The drive to Easton was very easy and very pretty. (I think we'll be going back when Henry's a little bit older to visit the Crayola Factory, which is located there.) The weather was warm and cloudy. This actually worked out well for photos to diffuse the noon sun. We went to the Delaware Canal State Park, which was a great place for photos. I am really pleased with how they turned out and am thrilled for the two of them to welcome their little bundle of joy!

Here are some of my favorites from the shoot: