Thanksgiving Week 2007

A Weekend of Firsts

Last weekend we all went to D.C. for our very first college football game. I hadn't been to a game before - BU canned their football team the year after the Doc started. We went to see Colgate (Ben's alma mater) play Georgetown. I was pretty excited to see my first college football game because I love football. I envisioned a large stadium, lots of people in school colors out to show their school spirit, and a huge marching band.

The whole ride to Georgetown the Doc kept telling me that they were I-AA teams. I couldn't figure out why he was saying that over and over and then we arrived at the "stadium". I saw some people on what resembled a soccer field with cheap bleachers and some goal posts. I looked at the Doc and said "Is that it?" The Doc said (in a duh sort of tone) "It's I-AA...that's what I kept telling you". So I was expecting to be at a USC game or something...whatever.


Needless to say it was still fun (besides the cold $3 hot dogs) and the best part was that Colgate won! David had fun and cheered when they scored a touchdown.


That night we went to our first Korean restaurant. It was really good. It's an all you can eat buffet and the meat is cooked right at your table on a small grill. I even tried my very first piece of sushi! Ben told me that if I wanted to try it - this would be the perfect opportunity since it was part of the buffet price. It was surprisingly not fishy and it was definitely not as scary as I made it out to be. I actually stared at the piece of sushi trying to psych myself out for it.



It was a fun weekend and considering that Maddie and David went without naps for a good part of the weekend they were in pretty good spirits. We just have to start working on their sharing skills!

This is NOT my kid:

David loves to Swiffer. I do not love to Swiffer. I think there must have been a mix up at the hospital and my REAL son is somewhere right now sitting on his behind drinking a YooHoo and eating nachos.

Daddy's Boy

He is Daddy's boy alright. I am sure he'll be playing Halo by his second birthday!

Yeah the Pats RULE!!

David says TOUCHDOWN! What a great game!

Unhappy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Last year I borrowed a pumpkin costume and dressed up David and he cried and cried. He finally stopped long enough for me to take a cute picture of him:


This year he cried and cried and didn't stop! I never got around to buying candy this year so David and I just hung out. I had the costume so I figured I could at least get some cute pictures...Oh well! Thankfully the costume was given to me so it's not like my money was wasted!





After I took the costume off - he stopped crying immediately.

The Doc's Birthday Present:

Is going to be a little brother or sister for David! Yes we're nuts. We're knocked up again. Today was our first appointment and our first chance to see the little bean. The OB said that the baby is measuring perfect for our due date of: 5/31/08.

Of course the chances of having the baby on the Doc's birthday is about 4% (at least I think that is what I heard somewhere). Today we are 9 weeks and 2 days along which means only 215 days to go! Then three weeks later we move back to the home of the World Series Champions!



On a side note David is short but not stout as he is in the 18th percentile (29.8in) for height and 26th for weight (22lbs). Our Ped said that David is healthy and happy and right on schedule for his milestones...even though the Doc seems to think he is slow (you know because he isn't reading Marcel Proust yet). So that is our news and we're really excited!

After watching David with Cameron earlier this month I knew he would be OK. He was so cute with the new baby he patted his head and looked at me and smiled. He said "Oh"! Then he proceeded to gently bounce him in the chair. However, that could all change when the new baby doesn't leave at the end of the night!

Kitty!

David finally got the best of Trot today. He was able to sneak up and touch his nose before Trot bolted - he's such a wimp.


Here is another cute picture I took today of him playing with his building blocks.


Tomorrow we are going to David's 15 month check up - I know right in just 12 days he will be 15 months old. Crazy! It just means that we are that much closer to moving back to New England. I will post his stats tomorrow - but I am pretty sure you could say he's short and stout!

Stephie at the World Series...

My friend Stephie is at Fenway Park getting ready to watch game 2 of the World Series. Lucky!

Go Sox...I told the Doc I may have to divorce him so I can marry Josh Beckett!

Come on Sox!

We have our rally caps on!

Check out David in his new Sox tee (from Maddie's Nonnie) doing his TD signal!

Brusha, Brusha, Brusha

David loves to brush his own teeth! I have to sing the "Ipana Toothpaste" song (you know the one from Grease) in order for him to do it but it works!!


Our friend Rob (who is currently in Dental School) will be so proud!

TIRED!

So I know it's now Tuesday but I am still recovering from the past weekend in NH. We got to spend the day on Saturday with our friends and meet the newest member of the clan Cam. I couldn't get over the "infant" cry - it is so different from the toddler whine!

Cameron (one of the few times with his eyes open)


David had so much fun at the Stack's. He was able to run around in the back yard and play with Brady. It was so cute to watch David follow Brady around. He also got to enjoy the really sweet playroom that they have set up right off their living room. Check out the new toy David just fell in love with. It was a lucky find for Erica at a yard sale. I think we'll be looking into something like this he seems to like sitting in chairs!


David was also able to spend some time with his Auntie Kristin. She was kind enough to watch him for us a couple times over the weekend so we could run errands and have "adult" time. She was even kinder to us when at 1am we realized we didn't have our house key. We had to wake her up from a sound sleep by ringing the doorbell a number of times and banging on her window!! Thankfully she heard us right away and let us in! What a great SIL! The best part was being able to sleep in a little because she got him when he woke up and played with him!


On Sunday we headed to the North Shore for Ben & Robyn's baby shower. The drive was nostalgic for me since I went to college out that way. We had a great time and got to watch the Patriots kick some Dallas behind! Unfortunately since the game was on at 4:15pm we didn't leave MA until the game was over - arriving in Philly at 1:20am.

David decided that he didn't really want to sleep which meant that I couldn't sleep. I am paying for it now...I am SO tired! Oh well...it was worth it because we had so much fun seeing everyone. Only 247 days until we move back home!

The Mountain Climber

Time to purchase ourselves a gate...

Daddy's Helper

With the big move 254 days from now - the Doc has been working hard to get the house in order. Our stairs are almost finished and now he is working on patching up some sheetrock. Since the stairs were attached to the wall we had some holes in our bathroom that needed some repair. Little did I know that I married Bob Vila. The Doc is turning into quite the handyman. If this whole cardiology thing doesn't pan out well he may just have a future in carpentry!

David was very interested in helping out his Daddy.



Even Drew wanted in on the action

Here is David watching Daddy fill the hole.

L'eggo My Eggo

David loves Eggo Waffles. I bought the Eggo Mini Waffles because they were four small waffles instead of one large one. Check out these pictures to see how much he enjoyed them:

David's First Trip to the Zoo

MIL was in town for the weekend and since it was so freakin' nice outside we decided to take David to the Zoo. The Philadelphia Zoo is the first zoo in America. It's small but one of the highlights is the "Bank of America Big Cat Falls" - it's their newly renovated exhibit with Lions, Tigers, a Jaguar, Pumas and a Leopard.

Here is David checking out the Pumas.


We got to see some really big turtles eating their lunch.





And David had a fun time watching the various water features they had at the zoo. This is the water fall they had in the Big Cat Falls exhibit.



It was a fun weekend and we finished it off with a trip to Perkins this morning! Mmmmm Pancakes!

First Happy Meal:

After the obnoxious ride home on the El (mechanical problems) today from work and the fact the Daddy is working tonight there was NO WAY I was cooking dinner. I had to run to Target for a new shower curtain (our old one was growing stuff) so afterwards David and I stopped at McDonald's.

Check out David eating his very first Happy Meal:

Playing Outside

Last Sunday we took David to the baseball field by our house to run around. He had a lot of fun but it was obvious he wasn't used to the grass. He stumbled a lot but according to the tee-shirt he's just doing his own stunts!

Microsoft

A little less than 2 years ago, Microsoft created this product called the XBOX 360 and rushed it out to market before any other game system so that they could be first and more people would buy it. They decided to skip the whole quality control step of manufacturing, and the result was a defective system. Some estimates say that 33% (yes, that's one in three) will break and need to be replaced. When the box finally goes bad, three red lights flash in a ring. This has fondly become known to the lay public as the "Red Ring of Death".

Here is my story with the RROD.

August 20th - I decide to play Halo 2 to relax and blow some stuff up. The game system freezes. I turn it off, and turn it back on, and am overjoyed to see the RROD. I go online and go through their troubleshooting system, which has some enlightening suggestions to fix defective hardware (it's the unplug it and plug it back in type of advice).

That done, I call customer support. There I get to talk to Max. Let me correct that - I get to have Max talk to me. He tells me to unplug it and plug it back in again. After loudly stating "technical support" and all the variations thereof into what Microsoft thinks is a "voice recognition" program, I eventually get to talk to the Indian guy that speaks a deliteful version of english that makes it so we can barely communicate. After going through the whole process, he informs me that their server is down in an homage to the XBOX system, and that I should call back tomorrow.

August 21st - I call back. I unplug the system and plug it in again. Much to my surprise, it still doesn't work. Eventually, Indian guy gets on the phone and sends me a prepaid box to stick my broken xbox in to mail to them.

August 24th - I get the prepaid box, put my functionally challenged XBOX in it, and take it to UPS.

August 30th - My XBox arrives at the texas border, to be sent across the border where an outsourced repair worker opens it up to take a look.

September 3rd - they decided it's broken

September 13th - they decided to send me a new one. Microsoft does this endearing thing where instead of sending you a new one, they superglue some pieces together from old ones and then put a brand new manufacturing date. According to this, mine was manufactured the week my original one broke. Why it took ten days to ship it? They had to give it a little extra love

September 18th - the XBOX arrives. I plug it in. I turn it on. RROD

I call Max back. He is delightful as always, and suggests I unplug it and plug it back in. Then I get through to Steve. Here's a question - if you were an indian guy and were going to make up an american sounding name, wouldn't you pick something interesting, like "My name is Captain America"?

He informs me that he is sorry that my XBOX is broken (their screen prompts tell them to always apologize at the begining of the conversation, because it will make us feel better, and, of course, it works perfectly). I inform him that I'm glad that I have had the privilege of seeing another XBOX system, and look forward to another one weeks from now.

Actually, that wasn't how it went at all. Why the F%CK can't they check their F%CKING systems before they F%CKING send them out, and if they F%CKING send out a defective one, why the F%CK do I have to F%CKING wait for them to F%CKING get the second F%CKING broken one back and dick around with it again before they F%CKING send me a third, likely F%CKING broken one?

The best part - they have a policy that they keep sending you "refurbished" machines unless your third one breaks. As you could easily google online if you wanted to waste your time too, my experience is far from abnormal.

Please - Friends don't let their friends buy XBOX 360's.

Interesting Choice of Words:

So David has been slow to say any real words. He says mama and dada and sometimes we'll hear a kee (kitty) but we aren't convinced he really understands what he says. He knows the words milk, up, mama, dada, kitty, keys but he doesn't say them.

When David is a cranky butt the Doc will show him all the pictures we have hanging and say the words on them. Recently he repeated one of those words and now says it all the time. We finally caught it on film!