The Wheels on the Bus Go.....

Well, the jerseys didn't help much....

....but at least we looked good cheering for the Steelers over the weekend!! :(

Happy Birthday, Ben!!

My BFF's son turned 1 over the weekend & there was a lot of celebrating to do!



The awesome cupcakes made by Melissa:



Happy Birthday Ben, we love you!!! :)

Just a few thoughts for the day....

You should always take some time each day to stop and smell the flowers.



Snuggies are best when shared with a friend.



You can't put a price tag on genius artwork.



If you offer your kid a bite of your cupcake, he will shove the whole thing in his mouth & save none for you.



And if you wait until your kid is 20 months old before you give him a juice box for the first time, he will suck it down like it's crack in a box.

FeeBall

Jake has found a new passion; he refers to it as "feeball". Like a typical guy, he parks himself on the couch, pushes a bunch of buttons on the remote, has his sippy cup in the other hand and yells "FEEBALL!!!!!"

We decided to start the season off right with some terrible towel training:



Followed by some pregame dancing:



As always, Gracie was thrilled with the festivities.

Unemployment Update

Obviously, you can probably guess that since I haven't made a post that was titled "OMG, I got the perfect job and I start tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!" I am still unemployed. I've applied to a few positions, had one interview (which I'm still waiting to hear details about that) and sent my resume to a few people with contacts at various companies. The waiting around part is frustrating at times, but Jake & I are still enjoying our time off together.

I had been randomly selected to go to an Unemployment Seminar today (with the threat of having my unemployment checks cut off if I didn't attend). Brian liked to refer to it as my "unemployment rehab" which caused me to sit there the whole time, singing Amy Winehouse to myself, making my morning even brighter. Really, the class was not as bad as I was expecting (and much shorter than I had anticipated, which was a plus) But I would like to say that while I was in that class, I received this voicemail from my BFF:

"Hey there, it's me. I know you're in your unemployment class right now and I have to say that I detected a note of sarcasm in the message you left me earlier stating that's where you would be this morning. It did not sound like you were taking it very seriously. I expect you to be in there taking lots of notes & I want them summarized and sent to me to review. While you're doing that, I'll be enjoying a mani-pedi, so uh...yea, hope you're having fun in that class!"

Thanks. I'm sure that your mani-pedi was not nearly as exciting as what was going on in my world at that moment. :-P She's lucky that I love her so much I can overlook these little comments!

Mystery Solved!

For close to a month now, Jake has been randomly saying "Dabby" a lot. Sometimes it was like he was looking for "Dabby", other times it was said in a sing-songy voice ("Dabby, Dabby, Dabby") We were starting to think that maybe he had an imaginary friend or something (can kids even have imaginary friends this young? Just curious)

The mystery was solved last week...Jake went to school on Monday and at dinner, I said something to Brian about how Jake had fun with his friends at school and Jake contributed to the conversation by saying "Dabby!!". It clicked for Brian & he said to Jake "Are you talking about Gabby, your friend at school?" and Jake said "Dabby! Nom!" Nom = Dom the Bomb!! Our little man has been talking about his school friends while at home and we had no idea. Thankfully, we're in the loop now and he can fill us in on all the good daycare gossip.

Things I Love About Pittsburgh

For no particular reason and in no particular order, here are some things that I love about the city we call home.

-Oakland (including, but not limited to, Dave & Andy's ice cream, Fuel & Fuddle, Hemingways, the Cathedral, Towers and the whole Pitt campus)
-The Steelers (who knew I'd grow to enjoy watching football?)
-The Clarks
-Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium
-The fact that for being a decent sized city, Pittsburgh really is a small world. I'm pretty sure the whole 6 degrees of separation would be more like 3 degrees here; everyone knows everyone some way or another.
-PittGirl, who sums up the way I feel about many things in Pittsburgh in a much more funny and witty way than I ever could.
-Fort Pitt Tunnels; of course I have a love-hate relationship with these tunnels and the people who drive through them. Hey drivers, do you see that ginormous sign that says "maintain speed through tunnel"? Yea, that means to GO THE SAME SPEED YOU WERE GOING BEFORE YOU ENTERED THE TUNNEL. That being said, for as annoyed as I get with the traffic sometimes, there is nothing like coming out of that tunnel & seeing the fabulous view of Pittsburgh in front of you (especially at night!)

The Snuggie Saga Continues....

As you've already noticed in a previous post, Brian is now the proud owner of a Snuggie. One by one, other members of our family became jealous........



Next thing you know, Gracie will be asking for one of these:

Look! It's Jake! No, it's Darth Vader! No, it's the Hulk!

Here is a video of Jake showing off some of his tricks....he says "Mama" in a Darth Vader type voice, then he shows off his muscles by pretending to be the Hulk.

School Nostalgia

I always feel nostalgic this time of year...there's something about the end of summer that always brings back memories of first day of school butterflies, new clothes and my personal favorite, new school supplies. During a recent trip to Target, I found myself wandering aimlessly around the school supply aisle, checking out the lunch boxes, notebooks and pencils. As if I don't already get distracted enough in Target, I just can't help myself around school supplies. (and what is it about Target that causes me to feel a compulsive need to scan the entire store anyway? Why do I go in with a list of 3 items and leave with a cart full of things?)

I have always been a dork when it comes to school supplies....remember the days of Lisa Frank and Trapper Keepers?? I loved all things Lisa Frank (I now find them blinding, but in the 80's, they were a must have)



In college, my favorite part of each semester was filling out my planner. I would sit down in class & anxiously await for the syllabus to be passed out so that I could enter all of the information into my planner (and I'm talking about a real planner...as in ones that you write things in....not an iPhone or a Crackberry or anything like that) Go ahead, laugh at my dorkiness...I embrace it!

Earlier this week, as I was sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on 376, I looked around to see many cars around me piled up to the roof with pillows, bean bags and storage boxes (no doubt filled with Ramen Noodles and Easy Mac) and I realized that it was move in day for Pitt students. ahhh...another huge wave of nostalgia. I remember feeling anxious, nervous and excited for classes to start....happy to start on my own, but sad to leave my parents....and I wondered if the students in the cars next to me were feeling the same things that day. I hope that they were, it was a great feeling.

He's All Up In a Snuggie

Brian's birthday was August 16th (go ahead, leave your belated birthday wishes in the comments section, then hang your head in shame that you forgot) All done? Great. Now are you wondering what his favorite birthday present was? It was a beautiful, thoughtful gift from my mom and dad...a Snuggie. Here he is in his Snuggie after declaring "This is the best birthday present ever!" I'm not lying.



Please note that he is demonstrating how the Snuggie enables him to drink a beer, hold the remote and remain covered and warm.

You've Got a Friend in Me

I didn't get a chance to post the pictures of Ben & Jake doing what they did best on vacation...be best buds. Sure, kids at this age don't really play "together" much, but when they did, it was too cute.

Vacation All I Ever Wanted!

This might take me a few posts, but I will try to sum up our vacation as best I can. As I mentioned in my previous post, Jake hated the ocean on the first day. HATED IT. He was ok if he didn't go *too* close and he did like the sand. We went with my BFF Melissa, her husband Dennis and their son, Ben. Ben loved the ocean from day 1...no fear!!


Fortunately, by the end of the 2nd day he was running full speed ahead into the water. And who was the one who got him in the water? That would be yours truly. Yea, that's right...the one who is normally known as "The Coddler" in our house got our kid into the big, scary ocean. Ok, that's all, I just wanted to state that for the record.



On Day 3, Brian's family came to visit. It was very nice to have some extra hands to help out with the boys & I'm sure they enjoyed seeing them on the beach :)



The rest of the week was pretty much spent chasing our little fish around the beach & in the ocean. We could not get him out of the water and he has been asking for "wa-wa" pretty much every waking minute since we came home :) I'll let the rest of the beach pictures speak for themselves.



Look at this kid...bliss.



Bye, bye Sea Isle!! :(

Some Beach Videos

The first one is of Jake's 1st day on the beach...he hated it.

The 2nd video is sometime mid week, he loved splashing in the waves (and you'll hear me tell Brian to turn the camera off at the end so that I can fit the video onto the blog...gotta love my priorities)

The 3rd video is our last day on the beach...a huge improvement for Jake over his first time in the water.

We're Baaaaaaack!

After a wonderful vacation, we are back home. It's bittersweet...it's always nice to come home to your "stuff" and sleep in your own bed...but we had such a great time, none of us wanted the week to end.

I promise to get some pictures, videos & stories up soon, but until then, I leave you with my favorite pic from the whole week and the reassurance that this little boy had the time of his life last week :)

Book Review: Target Underwear and a Vera Wang Gown

Target Underwear and a Vera Wang Gown
by Adena Halpern

Chick lit is always hit or miss for me & lately I've felt like it's been more "miss" than anything. This book is a memoir by a 30 something girl who remembers and defines her life by the fashion crazes of each moment. The author is sarcastic, witty and funny (3 of my favorite characteristics in anyone!) and I really enjoyed this book. It would make a great beach read.

18 month check-up

The latest stats are in:

Weight: 24.5 lbs (30th percentile)
Height: 32 1/4 inches (40th percentile)

Everything looked great, right on track and only 1 shot this time, so that was a bonus.

In other news, we've decided to keep sending Jake into daycare once a week to keep him familiar with everything there. He hadn't been there in over a week, so I was nervous when I went to drop him off yesterday about how he would react. Fortunately, I had nothing to worry about! He recognized the school as soon as we pulled up and practically drug me into his classroom. Once we entered, he immediately ran over to his favorite teacher and gave her a huge hug. While that was happening, his partner-in-crime, Dom The Bomb, was saying "Jake! Jake's back! Hi Jake!" and the two of them had a joyous reunion that involved a man hug. I wish I had my camera!

His teachers told me that they had been devastated when they heard the news that Jake wouldn't be there everyday. They said that one day last week, they were really missing him and during snack time, his seat at the table was empty, so they pulled out his sippy cup & dishes & set a little ceremonial place setting in his honor.

Pour one out for Jake, yo.

Pouring of sippy cup is a reenactment....not our actual home or sippy cup. Photo courtesy of google image search.

Luau Party 2009!!

I was nervous....pacing...looking at the sky. Was it going to rain? Would all of Brian's hard work on the yard be wasted if we couldn't go outside?? Would we get everything set up out there only to have it start raining partway through the party? Could I even FIT 40+ people in my house?

Fortunately, my fears were unfounded as we had great weather for the luau on Saturday! It did sprinkle a few times, but nothing major and it passed just as quickly as it started. It was breezy and not at all hot, so I was grateful for that, it made for a perfect day!

We had a few guests come early so that we could put them to work :) (and some were staying at our house, so they had no choice but to help out!) The main project of Saturday: Fruit Skewers. Here are the ladies hard at work and the fabulous final product!!



Here are some other food and decor shots:



Here is my mom modeling a grass skirt made out of some of our yard plants :)



Jake had a great day running around the yard and enjoying all of the company....here he is with my friend blogless Lisa's baby and with my dad:



He also fell head over heels in love :) He and The Boss have met a few times and there were rumors that she had been smitten with him before...but I can say without a doubt that the feeling is now mutual. I'll let these pictures speak for themselves.



Thanks to everyone who was able to make it to the party...we look forward to seeing you next year!!!

Hannah, me & Melissa


Jenn & Me


Melissa showing off her cool new shades:


Amy (Aunt "Mamee") and Sally ("Nana")