Here are the halloween costume pictures!! As you can see, we opted for the store-bought ease. We've known that Abe was going to be Yoda basically since he was born. His wrinkly newborn face always seemed to resemble the old jedi(I guess most mothers could say that about their newborns....although, maybe we are the only one's who openly embrace the idea).

Trey's costume is another story. For any of you that know anything about Dora the Explorer, I was intending on making a "Swiper" costume("Sewing for dummies" style). However, due to equal parts procrastination and having absolutely no time anyway, I only achieved the initial cutting-the-pieces-of-fabric chore. My sewing machine still sits covered in dust(and good intentions) in the closet. So, no big deal...we let Trey pick out his costume and of course he loves the ever-popular, ever-commercialized(not to say I don't love him) Elmo (I was cookie monster when I was his age, so we'll just say he's carrying on the Sesame tradition) . So far the thing has been more fun for him to carry around than to wear. He was excited to climb inside at first and then, I think the bizzare notion of being inside of Elmo started to sink in. He couldn't evacuate soon enough, so I stuffed it with some blankets to make him less flimsy(note the last picture of Trey handing Elmo the frisbee). In one of the pictures, you can see how interested Vegas(our dog) is in the costume.


My brother and his lovely, new wife Sarah haven't been represented on here yet, so I thought I'd put one of them with Abe(and their dog, Marley)



There are some other random pictures on here of everyday goings-on. There is a picture at the mall where we attempt to let Trey play on the figures without having heart attacks when he falls.

In one picture, Abe is learning the basics of drumming with Nonna and then there is another one where Trey, Abe and Vegas reveled in the blanket I laid down on the floor(what a novel idea! Why didn't I think of covering this hard pergo sooner?)


Well, that is all for now. I want to take this opportunity to apologize for my rampant use of Elipses ( ). It's my favorite way to talk, I suppose (in tangents...there I go again!!) and I'm sure not the easiest way to read. Anyhow, I'm not saying it's going to stop (you'll just have to fish through them :)).

the life and times

Mike is home today for our undeserved hurricane day. The day is so nice, I couldn't make it any prettier. Currently, he is feeding Abe some baby food out of a jar...of course, I pushed for the real stuff like moms often do("why don't you just mash up a real banana?") To this question, I got the typical dad resistance("dad's do jar food" translated "dad's do the easiest thing"). As long as he's feeding him, i'm not complaining. I'm putting some pictures on here from our recent trip to VA. As you can see, we stayed pretty busy. We went to our first family pumpkin patch...Yaay!
Trey was like a little robot repeating the word, "punkink", "PUNKINK". Besides the abundance of pumpkin picture opps, he got to pet some smelly, confused goats, which he calls "boats". I tried to just shut my mind and let him experience them despite their poop-covered noses. As you can see, our attempt to get a posed picture by the pumpkin turned into toddler chaos(Note Trey planning his escape and Abe looking desperate and disheveled, missing sock and all). I'd say the big hit of the day was the hayride...sludging through the mucky muck and getting to see all of the cartoon characters that Trey knows of..."Elmo, Dora, Cookie Monster" etc.... Anyway, it took us a week to get caught up to speed from the trip, which is why it takes me a lifetime to post on here. I won't even go into the monumentally horrendous ordeal of a plane ride. For any of you who haved braved the "friendly skies" with your toddler in tow, you know how trying it can be...I honestly felt like I was drowning and gasping for air for 2 and a half hours. Only this week, did 2 teeth sprout on the bottom of Trey's mouth, explaining the mystifying travel behavior last week. Ok, well, Mike has got the "day-off" itch right now and is hinting loudly that he wants to spend our time away from all things computer, so I'm off for now. Look forward to halloween costume pictures in the future!!

Elmo told me to do it!

Hello to all... Well, this past weekend, Mike and I took Trey to see Elmo and the cast of Sesame Street do their thing at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Here are some photos of the stage and a very enthralled Trey. I'm so torn when we go to these things. I sort of want to watch the characters(which must seem so bizarre and real to a child), but I am compelled to keep checking Trey's face to see what he finds neat or terrifying or boring. When the show started, Trey couldn't have been more excited and of course I got my share of goosebumps(I don't know why I always get so emotional at these kinds of things...I guess it's the kind of things I couldn't wait to do with my own kids, so I get kind of caught up in the moment). During one of the songs, the ever-famous, giant, purple "count" came down into the audience. We were on the very end so we could have reached out and given the beloved Sesame veteran a high-5 or tripped him if we were so inclined to ruin the fun. When Trey saw that he was coming close, he got a look which was somewhat hard to read. It said, "Yesss!!! He's coming over here to me!" and amazingly enough, it could have also said, "get away, you evil vampire!" It's like he didn't know weather or not to let the "stranger anxiety" of a toddler kick in...after all, he does come to our house every day at 10 a.m. We actually left about 10 minutes early because the novelty of it had well worn off for Trey(He was actually saying "go? go?"). Well, today is library day again. Our adventure there starts at 10(for Abe) and 11(for Trey). Yesterday was the "long day" with Mike at night class, so we went to the pool for a while and in the evening went down to the delicious PF Changs. After that, we went and played at the play area in the mall where Trey wanted to "spin"(aka make himself so dizzy he can't stand up anymore) on top of a very high climbing figure(a big newsreporter's hat). Once my heart stopped coding, I let him run around and say his "goodbyes" before we left. There are a couple of other pictures I put on here. One is of a damp checkbook which Trey dutifully put in the "kink"(his word for sink). I've been asking him to put his dirty cups in there when he finishes his milk and he loves doing it, so I guess I probably should expect to find more than just cups from time to time. After we found it floating in the greasy pan, Mike said "the funny thing is, you probably thanked him for doing it". After hearing the "klunk" in the "kink", I probably did tell him what a good boy he was for putting things away. All laundry sorters will appreciate the other picture posted here....it is a testament of the mystery of socks. Where do they go? This image is of the "hopefully-they-will-turn-up-in-a-later-load" unmatched socks. I bet there is some kind of thrifty craft which would put these leftovers to use, but I've already tried the sock puppet thing.

Wellllll, the week has begun again. Hard to believe. We went to library again today. It's funny that Trey is interested in everything except what the lady teaching is doing....if there is an elmo stroller, he's gonna get in it, if there is a huge stack of chairs, he's will crawl under them(and scrape his belly in the process). If there is a newborn there while her big brother goes to library class, he will rock her awake. There were a few things he was interested in like the colorful felt circle cut-outs that they use to teach red, blue, green and yellow. He liked giving it back to her and hearing her say "thank you". Funny. Abe liked his class too, although he's a little easier to manage(since he's still mostly stationary if you don't consider rolling mobile). He gave the teacher a big smile when she welcomed him to class. I love when he's charming. He also made a friend at class today(and so did I). Hayden and his mommy, Kim, are going to go swimming with us on Thursday. Well, i'm going to go get a frustrated and awake Abe now. One of the pictures is from the pool(when we were getting ready to go) and the others are post-haircut and in the car(note the elmo "blanky" book). I also just liked Abe's smile in this picture. Ok...Abe is now wailing....gotta go.