Old Friends and New Ones

Katy, Meghan, and I have been friends for about... gulp... 25 years now. We've stayed friends through different schools, different states, marriages, kids, and everything else that life has thrown at us. We drift apart for a while and then when we talk it's like no time has passed. Meg now lives in Chicago so it's been a long time since we have all seen each other, over 5 years to be exact. So when she decided to come East to visit there was no option, come hell or high water we would get together. And it was so much fun!!! Just like no time had elapsed... we might have been sitting on Katy's bed in middle school giggling over some boy. I hope it's not another 5 years before we can do it again!!!!

And our three munchkins played so well together. Linds is exactly 9 months older than J who is 9 months older than Riley so they're all in the terrible twos and threes but they did really well for never having played together.

**It was REALLY hard to get the three of them to stay still!**
I hope that someday they can appreciate the power of friendship that has kept their moms so close for so long! Love you guys!!!!

Grandpa Gary's Mini Vacation

Jumpin J is a very lucky boy because 3 of his 4 grandparents (not counting his greats) live about an hour or less from our house. The one exception to this is Grandpa Gary, Mommy's dad, who lives in Colorado. He usually only makes it out here to see us at Christmas time unless there is a family function so we were very excited when he announced that he was coming to visit for a few days.

He flew in on Saturday and spent the night with Uncle Andrew and Auntie Kim. And then Uncle Andrew brought him to our house on Sunday and he just left this morning. Jumpin' J and Grandpa had a great time reading, playing trains, playing animals, watching Peter Pan, and just hanging out. And Grandpa got to go with J and I to our WMM Halloween Party and Parade so J got all dressed up and off we went. A very entertaining time for all I think ;)

It was sad to see him have to leave again so soon but he'll be back in a couple months for Christmas and by then we'll know whether Jumpin' J has a baby brother or sister.... see you then Grandpa Gary!

Pasta Sauce

Tonight Daddy and Mommy helped Jumpin' J make his first pasta sauce. He did a great job putting the spices in and stirring. And he loved eating the raw onions!


He's going to be a great cook!!

Befy

When Uncle Andrew came home from the hospital almost 29 years ago he brought Jumpin' J's mom home a doll who was promptly named Bethy. This doll lived in Mommy's bed and traveled the world with her, and even went to college with her for a time.

Before J was born Bethy lived in his room but when he took over Bethy had to go live in the closet with the stuffed mooses. Recently Bethy has become "Befy" and is Jumpin' J's new best friend.

He plays with her in his room, reads to her, puts her to bed, wants to have her nap with him, and in general loves her! He even wants to sleep in her bed with her but he's a little too big.

Susie's Kisses

One of the miracles of afternoon sunlight is that Grandma Susie's Kisses show up on the wall!

The whole foyer and into the dining room are covered with them. The other day Jumpin' J ran up to one and said Susie's Kisses, it made my heart melt!

Miss you Grandma Susie but you live on forever in our hearts and your prisms.

Dinner and a Movie

You feel it coming... another blog about someone other than Jumpin' J.... this one is about my loving and soooo-wonderful-I-can't-even-believe-it husband! He is so great I can't help but write about it for all the world to read!!!!!

He is the biggest lover of surprises that you could possibly imagine. Admittedly I hate them so it makes him all the more determined to make them wonderful! And I have to say that he's had some really great ones over the years, from the surprise cruise, to getting engaged on the cruise, to my baby shower, to my 30th birthday. But for how great all of them were this one was by far the best.

He took me into Boston for the evening and we went to a fantastic 5 course meal at The Melting Pot where we started with spinach and artichoke cheese fondue, continued with cesear salads, mixed in a little lemon sorbet with strawberry sauce, dined on spicey "Moho" fondue with lobster, shrimp, and filet mignon among other appetizing choices, and then topped it off with their signature yin yang chocolate fondue for dessert where we both agreed that the oreo covered marshmallows were to die for! It was almost two hours of pure pleasure for my stomach.

Then to top off the evening we headed back towards the Loews movie theater. We used to be very big movie goers but now that we have Jumpin' J we just don't get out that much so I was excited to just hold his hand in the dark theater and maybe smooch a little. But.....

Turns out we were off to see the new production of one of my all time favorite movies, Dirty Dancing. We had some of the best seats in the house, third row of the balcony center stage!!!! And the show was awesome! It stayed pretty true to the movie and my heart pounded at all the right places while watching the drama of Baby and Johnny on stage. It was great to sit there with Sean and squeeze his hand at all the good parts!!!

And just to really prove what a wonderful fabulous and understanding husband I have let me tell you that he even bought me a ridiculous $10 magnet in the shape of a watermelon that says "I carried a watermelon" on it! I am one lucky lady to have such a great hubby and I didn't even have to carry a watermelon to get him to notice me! Biology notes on the other hand are another story all together...... Happy Valentine's Day!

Huggies

Jumpin' J is a hugging maniac. He gives everything "huggies"! And I know it melts both his daddy's and my hearts when he gives us hugs!! He is a special little boy!!!

Super Secret Project

Here is the tiniest hint of the
super dooper secret project
that Jumpin' J and I are working on
for his Daddy for Christmas.
We have had a blast
and we know that Daddy will love it!!

Rare Sighting

A rare sighting of the Snuggle Bug that lives at our house, he only comes out in the dark..

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Jumpin' J turns 1 1/2 years old today. I can't believe how fast the time has flown by. He's 28 pounds and 33 inches tall according to our fabulous Dr. DeAngelis! Here are some of his favorite things...

• crackers
• Little People
• apes
• the tubby
• his toothbrush and toothpaste
• books
• trains
• cars
• balls
• reading
• Little Gym class
• phones
• Daddee
• the school bus
• big kids
• his friends
• roaring like a Dinosaur

And last but not least, his Mummee!

Pot Pie and a Guy's Weekend

This weekend I went to NH to do some girls stuff and left Jumpin' J and Daddy home to hold down the fort. From all reports they had a great weekend together. And since J's favorite word these days is Dadee I'm sure he got to say it alot. They made chicken soup, went to gym class, played ball, played "Weee", cleaned the car, practiced with utensils, said cold and played in the freezer aisle in the grocery store and more. And when I went to upload the Halloween pictures I found that Jumpin' J apparently had Chicken Pot Pie this weekend! I don't think it gets much better than pot pie and a guy's weekend!

Ticka Ticka

Jumpin' J was the best little dinosaur he knew how to be on Friday night.

He rode around the neighborhood in his wagon with a couple of his girlfriends.

He got out of the wagon at each house and got his pumpkin out and carried it to the door where he rang the "button" and said "ticka ticka" and got his prize! He would also roar when he wanted to so that some people really got to see how scary a dinosaur he was!

Little Gym Halloween Party

Jumpin' J got to go to the special Little Gym Halloween party where he got to play with all kinds of fun stuff!

He also saw some of his friends like Darcy and Andrew.

He really didn't want to leave and would have stayed all night if he had his choice!

He was happy with the really cool spider ring they gave him to take home! Spiders are very cool in our house these days.

Another Generation

When I was about Jumpin' J's age my grandpa (Pops to J) made me a rocking horse. There are many pictures of both me and Uncle Andrew riding that thing into the ground. Last night Grandma Laurie was in her basement and came back up with THE HORSE!



It was still in great condition so we cleaned it up. And this morning J's face was awesome when he discovered it in her living room. Yet another generation learning the pleasures of the rocking horse!

It's Great to be a Mom

Every day is a special day now that I am a mom. These days the feeling just keeps getting stronger. It amazes me that I am lucky enough to be Jumpin' J's mom. I look at him and he is such a little person now with his own thoughts and ideas. Here are some of the things that warm my heart!

* His smile first thing in the morning
* Climbing in my lap with a book for me to read
* Feeling his little arms on my leg to give me a hug
* Hugging my arm with his thumb in his mouth
* Snuggling in my lap
* Seeing him sitting in my grandma's rocking chair reading a book that's bigger than he is
* Watching him drive trucks all over both of us, especially when he drives it on his own head
* His laugh
* Saying something silly, like Snuffleupagus, and watching him giggle
* Climbing onto my tummy to jump up and down on it
* His proud and amazed face when he does something new
* His little giggle when he's "hiding" from me
* How he likes to climb under my legs
* His little voice
* His loud voice
* How he loves bugs
* His look of concentration when examining things
* Always saying "cracker" if you ask him what he wants to eat
* When he gets tired and puts his thumb in his mouth
* Opening his mouth wide to plant a big slobbery kiss
* Watching his face light up when his Daddy gets home from work
* Turning into limp spaghetti when I try to pick him up when he doesn't want me to
* His face turns so red when he gets mad
* Having him come "get" me and pick him up and watch him laugh
* Watching him run on his sturdy little legs
* How he recognizes the Red Sox and Patriots symbols and puts his hands up to wait for you to say "Yeah Red Sox" or "Touchdown Patriots"
* When you ask him what a kitty says he just squinches up his whole face
* How he sees things he recognizes and reacts and then I have to figure out where he saw them
* How every day is a new and exciting adventure

All this and more is why I love being Jumpin' J's mom. I am one lucky lady!!

Mini Merry Go Round

While at the mall this evening with our lovely neighbors the kids conned me into paying for a ride on the mini merry-go-round. The smiles on Jumpin' J and the girls' faces made it worth the two dollars I spent!

Giving Kisses

Jumpin' J has jumped from giving Daddy and I kisses to giving everyone and everything kisses. This morning he kept putting an old hat on my old baby doll and then giving her kisses. Yes, the love for Bethy has passed to the next generation ;)



Here he is giving kisses to the singing duck at Grandma Laurie's house, man he loves that duck! Last weekend he even laid a big wet one on my clients' dog, Noodle, and got a doggie slurp in return ;)

When he lays one on you watch out because it's a big open mouth right on your face! Feel the love!!! And if you're really lucky he'll give you Eskimo kisses too which are too cute!

Like Mother Like Son

One of Grandma Laurie's favorite stories about me is about my ability to seek out sprinklers in the neighborhood when I was not much older than Jumpin' J is now. As the story goes she found me in a neighbor's yard in my soaking wet clothes jumping through the sprinkler. I promptly got in trouble for running through the neighbor's sprinkler with my clothes on. Apparently the only part of that statement that soaked into my brain was the "clothes on" part because not much later she found me in another neighbor's yard running through their sprinkler butt-naked with my clothes in a small pile on the neighbor's porch. Alas for most of my life this story has been brought out at embarrassing times so that as an adult I had forgotten the fun in the story, sprinklers!!!

Yesterday we went to visit Grandma Laurie and like the sprinkler seeking missile that his mom was J found the set of sprinklers that were on right next to the car. At first it was just running through the puddles. Then it was crouching down to touch the fountain from the broken sprinkler.



And then it was all out play, running from one sprinkler to another to catch the water.



He showed Grandma Laurie how to blow bubbles.



And finally he showed us how to swim in the puddle.



I will never forget the look of pure joy on his face when he looked up at me from his spot squatting next to the sprinkler with the water sparkling on his face and in his hair. How great it is to be a kid. I was laughing so hard my belly hurt; it was awesome!

Reflecting on the story about my own sprinkler adventures I can only imagine what joy I must have found in the neighbor's sprinkler and can only wonder how my mom kept from laughing out loud when she tried to discipline me...

Sooo Big

Last night we were reading a book with Big Bird and Elmo in it and every time he saw Elmo he raised his arms. For his birthday Auntie Donna bought J an Elmo book called So Big and he connected that Elmo with the one we were reading about. It amazes me to see the connections he is making!

Sometimes in the AM I have to do some work on the computer. Jumpin' J loves to read his books and I can hear him perfectly so I can work for a little while and he just plays in his room and occasionally brings me a book to read him. This morning he was a little quiet so I went to check on him and this is what I found....



He had climbed up into Grandma Susie's rocking chair and was reading his favorite book, Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. When I went in he promptly showed me Goldbug, the little bug hidden on every page of the book. What a big boy!!

My 30th Birthday

I really don't feel 30 so it's hard to believe that it's true but it was an awesome day!!! Jumpin' J and his dad went out in the morning to play together and let me sleep in. They went to a good breakfast place to bring back breakfast and they visited one of our local farmstands and brought me back a dozen giant sunflowers that are gorgeous!!!



We all hung out and then had homemade chicken pot pie and corn on the cob from the farmstand for lunch. J ate about 1/2 of the chicken pot pie all by himself, he was seriously diggin' it! Then at about 4 Grandma Laurie showed up to surprise me. J's dad had asked her to come to stay with J so that he and I could go out! And go out we did!!!!!

First he dropped me off at the door of the Chestnut Hill Mall and handed me a wad of cash ($10 for each yr) and told me I had 1 hour to spend it all in Ann Taylor Loft. It was sooooo much fun. I don't usually by myself a lot of stuff and especially full price stuff but I managed to spend all the money he gave me and then some (thanks Aunt Sandi!!). He helped too and found a super cute dress for me to wear to my cousin's wedding next month.

After the shopping spree J's dad and I went to Oishii to eat sushi. This teeny tiny restaurant has some of the best sushi I've ever eaten here in the US. We had to wait a while since they only have about 15 seats in the whole place but fortunately it wasn't too bad since it was a Tuesday. The Jeffrey roll was my favorite!

And finally we met up with Laura, BK, Andrew, and Kim at Finale for dessert! It was great to see them all and celebrate my 30th with them. All in all it was a fabulous day and I couldn't have asked for anything more!!!!!! Thanks Jumpin' J and Daddy!!!