January, 2008 | The Angel Forever

Monthly Archives January 2008

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Bithday party fun & future request

Posted on January 10, 2008 11:28 am by TheAngelForever

Saturday morning NHL was invited to a birthday party for one of his classmates. The party was going to be at a local place that is similar to Chuck E Cheese. He had not been there in over 2 years when Laura had her son’s party there. On that day he was very overwhelmed by the place. Thanks to this we were a bit afraid of how he would react. We made sure to talk very positively about the place and let him no that there would NOT be a costume (please see recent Chuck E Cheese "fun" here and here).

Wow, were we surprised! From the moment he walked into the place he was ready to go. He was so excited to go on all of the rides (except the roller coaster), climb with Daddy, and play games. It was funny watching NHL grabbing his friend to go on everything with him. He also proved that he is my boy. He loved the fast moving ride that went forward and then backward. The party included unlimited rides for two hours, 50 game points, and one of the extra exhibits (NHL wanted to feed the "parrots"). Here are some photos from the fun:

The real test of the day came when we had to try to remove him from the party. He did not want to leave after almost three hours. NHL has also asked to go back with us and has requested to have his 5th birthday party at this location as well. I guess we need to start thinking about this even though it is seven months away!

Categories:
birthday fun looking back nhl

Wordless Wednesday – A Baby & His Daddy

Posted on January 9, 2008 1:02 pm by TheAngelForever

Categories:
jl jsl photos Wordless Wednesday

Baby review of applesauce

Posted on January 8, 2008 5:33 pm by TheAngelForever

While we were visiting my in-laws I decided to try some natural applesauce with JSL. He is 7 1/2 month old and we have been increasing his food repertoire. He had only been given bananas, veggies, and several cereals up to this point.

JL and I both recalled NHL’s reaction the first time he had apple sauce. Here it is from March 30, 2004 when he was 7 1/2 months old:

As you can see he was not really a fan. When we tasted it, we agreed it was pretty tart for a little guy who had never really had much flavor.

So fast forward to January 1, 2008 when JSL is the same age and trying some natural apple sauce that Bubbe had in her house. Note – thanks to NHL’s reaction we had our camera ready for this:

Pretty obvious that this little money did not like this either.

*sigh*

When we mixed it with a little oatmeal he was able to eat it without the agonizing look from the second photo on the top. In addition to this he stopped gagging. Since that time he has been gobbling up applesauce that we have at home with his oatmeal for dinner.

Thank goodness NHL also changed his mine. He loves to go apple picking and eat anything and everything with apples in it.

Categories:
brothers jsl looking back milestone nhl photos

Visit to Bubbe & Grandpa – Day 3 & trip home

Posted on January 7, 2008 6:49 pm by TheAngelForever

Tuesday morning we were ~~told~~ ~~begged~~ asked to let Bubbe and Grandpa sleep in to at least 9. Both boys slept a little later than normal (so 7-ish or so). JSL nursed and then we all went to watch television and check e-mail and things on the computer in the room NHL was sleeping in.

JSL was really tired from being very restless all night (teething is evil I tell you). He and I went back to rest for a little while. When we got back up everyone was getting ready for breakfast. Bubbe was making pancakes for everyone. JSL was content at first just eating his Gerber Graduate Wagon Wheels and things:

This did not last. Soon after this JSL was very vocal about wanting more. JL and I decided trying pancake in small pieces could not hurt. He had a few bites of JL’s and LOVED it. He was quite upset when it was all gone. Bubbe was great and whipped up another batch so JSL could have his own. The little monkey ate the entire thing. Here is a study of JSL eating his first pancake:

After pancake time we all got dressed. Here is JSL learning how to be a boy with JL:

We were all pretty tired and decided to stay in during the day. JL working on my father-in-laws computer and the boys and I just played and rested. Lunch was left over Greek and Chinese – very fun combo.

Then at about 3:30 JL’s friend and his fiance came over to visit for a little while. G & L have been engaged for quite some time. Just before we left an envelope was in our mailbox from them. We had already received a holiday card, so I guessed maybe it was a wedding invitation. Sure enough it was. However, this was not just a wedding invitation, it was amazing. All 4 of us were invited to be their guests for a week long event around their wedding in SC late this year and it included transportation and accommodations!!!

We had to congratulate them, thank them and ask some questions. JL and I both wanted to make sure they were positive about the kids coming. They said they were. We found out from talking with them that there are only 30 or so people invited to this destination wedding. We were beyond honored. G later e-mailed JL and said he forgot to ask him a question. He wanted JL to be in the wedding party. G was JL’s best man in our wedding. There are a ton of things going on with the wedding. The actual ceremony is going to be early in the day on Halloween. We just have to figure out how many days we will be going for, but we are going to be there for G & L on their special day.

When G & L left it was time to think about dinner. JSL was attacking me for milk, so we went to nurse in another room. This is the result:

My mother-in-law was making her delicious chicken cutlets, lentil/tomato soup, potato kugel, and challah. Everything was delicious! Soon after this the boys went to sleep and we said goodbye and thank you to my father-in-law (he had to leave VERY early for work).

The next morning we woke up and I started to pack our things up. To complicate matters it was snowing outside, but nothing to even coat the ground. My thought was to get on the road at 10:00 to avoid rush hour traffic. This did not happen. We finally hit the road at 11:00. We made great time to the halfway point in our trip. Stopping to stretch and check out a store (Disney Store) at the outlets there was good, but man it was windy. Rather than eat lunch there, we went over to Pizza Uno nearby. BIG MISTAKE!! We were finally back on the road two hours after we stopped.

Driving was not bad, we made great time and pulled up to our house to see there was no way we could get into the driveway. After we were plowed out from the initial storm, another 4-5 inches of snow fell and the city had plowed us in. JL got out and helped to get a path to head in.

All-in-all it was a very nice visit with Bubbe and Grandpa. I never had an allergic reaction to their dog Lacey, which is a first. A few things were said that bothered me, but such is life. JSL never wanted to be held by them much thanks to being so grumpy from teething, plus he has only seen them 4 other times (when he was born, his bris, NHL’s B-day, and Great-grandma’s B-day).

Sorry this took so long to finish. I was busy trying out a new photo editing program. I used it to make the collages up above.

Categories:
allergies family food glorious food jsl milestone photos road trip sleep teething

Visit to Bubbe & Grandpa – Day 2

Posted on January 4, 2008 1:01 am by TheAngelForever

Monday morning we woke up and went to have breakfast. My father-in-law went to get bagels and made anyone eggs that wanted them. I had a lox in my eggs and it was very good. While waiting to eat I decided to call my father to find out how much snow we got at home. As I previously noted in part one, when we left we were only supposed to get 3-5 inches. My father answered the phone with the following:

We got at least 9 inches!

I thought he was kidding and did not believe him. UGH! Now what were we supposed to do? There was no way that our neighbors should shovel what we later found out was 11 inches of heavy, wet snow. I made a bunch of calls to neighbors, my father, and our friends to try to find someone to plow us out. JL then decided to call his boss. He owns several rental properties near us. He called us back as I was still in the process of calling people. He said he would plow us out. The nicest part – he said there was no charge! Thanks to him and our neighbor’s doing the walkway and sidewalk we were in good shape. The problem – storm two was heading their way AGAIN with 3-5 more inches the next day. YUCK!!!!

Once this was taken care of we all took turns showering and eventually made it out to lunch. JL and I insisted that we have lunch at the amazing Greek restaurant that is located there. We have no good Greek places here that are close enough with good parking, so this is very important to us. We had an amazing lunch and took leftovers back for the next day. After this we stopped back at the house quickly to put food away and head over to Radio Shack and Trader Joe’s again. Yes, we had to head there again. I wanted to get some gifts for people that were helping us out with the snow removal.

Next we decided to head back home for a little while before going to Chuck E Cheese (wanted to change diapers and nurse JSL). NHL wanted to take Bubbe and Grandpa there to play. We were not too sure about this since he has been very skittish there in the past (thanks to the costumes). Unfortunately, he did not do well this time. We used a coupon and had 100 tokens and barely used any. NHL was very upset that this Chuck E Cheese was not the same as the one at home. *sigh* He started to flip out quickly and we finally left. Here are some photos from the few things that we did while there.

After we got back from Chuck E Cheese JSL fell asleep from all of the fun and excitement. Not to worry it did not last long. Soon after this he was up and eating dinner with everyone else.

After the "fun" at Chuck E Cheese we went back home and ordered Chinese Food for New Years Eve. My in-law’s friend S came over and once the kids were in bed we started to watch a movie. JL and I were left at about 11:00 and we were not able to finish the movie. JSL kept waking up crying. The poor little guy just could not catch a break.

JL and I watched the ball drop and then we were up for a while after taking care of JSL and listening to illegal fireworks that were shaking the house.

Day 3 and the return trip home coming soon.