Hot Fun In The Summer Time!!!

Just a whole mess of fabulous pictures from San Diego. I should caption all these, but I just can't face it!

See Ya!

Finley and I are off to San Diego - woooohoooooooooo!

I leave you with these pictures of mind boggling cuteness - wherever you are Papa D - we love you!

Summer Videos

These were taken a couple weeks ago. Also she is also saying "bottle" "bah-oh" and yesterday she started saying "more" "mow". Other words - Noooooooo with the "o" like in nose, Uh-oh, open, again, and UP all day long!


Dolls were harmed in the making of this video.

Rain Rain Go Away!

It has been a few days of rain or overcast weather like today where the sun doesn't shine but it doesn't rain enough so I still have to water all the plants! The kiddie pool isn't as fun without The Sun! Craig is gone on tour for a really long time (at least we get to see him, and The Sun, in San Diego soon). What Finley is up to: she is running which is amazing - two months of walking and now she is running. She can crawl up and down the stairs all by herself (yes we still keep the gates locked - sheesh), she is obsessed with things that go "click" - stroller, carrier and car seat. She can say "MY" meaning "mine" and it is the first word that she knows without us intentionally teaching her - where'd she get it? Gym day care, I'm guessing. Yes, I still hoof it to the gym regularly. Her top four teeth are in so everyone is sleeping better for the moment. I think she understands everything I say which always amazes me. She loves all food though i am getting hip to giving her the vegetables first.


Driving to The City wears us out!

Veggie Experiment

I have wanted to sign up for a CSA for a really long time and had no luck until now! Hopping around these blogs I found this site. The Cascade Farm (and farm school!-cool!) are only a few miles away and had a couple spots left for the 2008 season. So, we're in and for 20 weeks we go every Thursday and pick up a box of veggies. Actually they have scales and the harvest all laid out so you can pick out your own. One of the great aspects for me is you don't really know what you're going to get so you have to be creative and get out of your culinary comfort zone. The internet makes it very easy to find recipies for virtually anything. The first few weeks are spring vegetables - we had kale which is SO good for you and we never - ever cook with. I made an Irish dish called Colcannon which is basically potatoes with kale and leeks - you could also add a lot of water and/or milk and make soup. I have added kale to my stir fry and yesterday we had collards with our salmon and brown rice. The farm itself is a fun place and will be more so when Finley gets older. You can walk the whole farm if you want and they have tons of animals. So, thank you to the blog-o-sphere for making our wish come true!

Peek-a -ZOO!

The two local little family trips we had planned this summer were the Bronx Zoo (to brush up on Finley's nearly perfect gorilla impersonation) and Rye Playland. So, one down - we made it to the Zoo today! She especially loved the gorillas and the gopher house and once again, we find all this stuff is much more fun with a baby to share it with. She was so excited she was literally turning in circles because she didn't know where to go first. The only bummer was I forgot the fricken sling (again!) and the camera - tragic, these were taken with the phones.

The Bug Carousel - she didn't know quite what to make of it - we were on a praying mantis - cool! I am in full cheese mode.


One of Craig's favorites - the FROGS!


These were fox ears you could try on the hear like they do - Finley's like "huh?"


The fun but sticky and slimy business of feeding the goats.


Picture of the day - The Gopher Girls! We get our own sitcom like the Golden Girls and the Gilmore Girls.

Happy Father's Day Papa D!

He wasn't home to reap the benefits returning from the road after being gone for a week - after baby was asleep and I was too wiped to be much fun. He did get a steak, some chocolate pudding and two back to back mind numbing movies, I think. Anyway, she loves him like crazy.

Current Events

Getting dunked till she's delirious in the kiddie pool which is more fun than I ever remember it being.


What's on her reading table... I am seriously teaching her to say O-BA-MA! and to recognize his face. Does that make me a strange/bad parent?


Craig came thisclose to me posting a picture of him and Finley screaming through the screen door in their swim suits (aka his SPEEDO!)

Finley Lee Lewis

Here is some current video of her in action. It features a couple plastic things we purchased on our first ever visit to Toys-R-Us which my friend Melissa pointed out is a pretty big deal. She was pissed I didn't invite her so she could film me entering the giant Maw of Satan. $150 and a poopy diaper later we left - though I will say we REALLY needed the sand and water table we got AND the electric blower upper for the pool that we REALLY REALLY needed. I am dying for her to wake up so we can get our backyard summer groove on - it's 90 degrees today!!

The Logistical Olympics!

We knew that once we got back to work it would be difficult trying to juggle everything. This week we get a little taste of what's to come - try to keep up... Wednesday started with a last minute call to work on Thursday down in the City. Craig is working in the studio and I have to ask for help which is not my favorite thing to do. I call Melissa's mom Diane and beg to bring Finley over for a couple hours while I go get my nails done (SO important - blech.) Thankyouthankyouthankyou to Jack and Diane! Next it is bed for her, shower, clean up, pack for both of us for two days in the city and work (which is always extra packing and attention to detail - flesh colored underthings, jeans, shoes, curling iron, blah blah) Wake up at 6, pack the car, get the baby, change her diaper but keep her in her pajamas. Drive 2 hair raising (we'll make no! we'll be late no we'll just make it) hours in bad traffic over the GW Bridge to Weehawken, NJ to the house of my dear friend Marni who has a nanny who has a daughter in town to take care of Finley. We are late so, change her into her clothes, get ready and RUN for the bus at the end of the block which gets lets out on 42nd Street, get the subway to 23rd Street - though, shit! it is an express which lets me out at 14th street, RUN up to 22nd and 5th. Wait in the longest elevator ride in Manhattan and walk in the door at 10 sharp, maybe 10:01. Work runs long (yay! more money!) and it's back to the pavement, subway, bus back to Weehawken by 3pm! Whew. The good thing is they have a big ole' house and we get the third floor and always sleep great there. The next day is much of the same - to work by 9am down on Bank and the West side highway. Here is a really great thing about my job - sometimes you finish early. This was a job that was 9-5 and it turned out to be 9-11!! Of course you karmically(sp?) pay that back on other jobs that are ridiculously hard or wrong in other ways. SO I stopped by the apartment - took a NAP! and then went to see on opening day - Sex in The City - which was a lot of fun and a super decadent and girly thing to do. I had a blast - had the biggest popcorn they would sell me - the bucket! Back to reality - 5pm Bus, car, sleeping baby, 2 hour drive home. All the while BTW I am feeling awful with a pulled back for days now and allergies. The drive home was ugly with increasing FEVER and chills. Till finally home and sleeping baby no longer sleepy up till 11:30! Ugly. It is no fun when the baby won't sleep, really no fun when the baby won't sleep and you, yourself are sleepy but can't go to sleep yet, and a punishment from GOD when the baby won't sleep and you are sleepy and SICK. Tomorrow we try a new babysitter (thanks anyway, Pops and Lisa - we SO appreciate you) - I leave in the morning till Tuesday for Cleveland. Craig gets back in the evening and flies solo with the baby till I return (he'll get his-heeeheeeheeehaaahaaahaaa.)

Do I have your sympathies? I can hear Craig's voice in my head "You wanted a baby!" Now she is taking her morning nap, I feel better (I think the sickness was a reaction to the allergy medication and other crap I took for the muscle pain), sorry for the blog vomit.

Your reward for reading that...

OWWWWW!

Teething sucks! Poor baby.

The Party

No video, sorry. The camera was on the highest setting somehow and the files are too large to blog without a lot of hassle.

She had such a great time!


Dylan, Luke and Cole sitting out on the bridge to FrogLand. Luke and Bill caught a giant crawdad and a couple frogs.


Presents!


The Hamburgers, The Geigers, The Micolis, and GrandPops and Bebe


One hand strawberry one hand dress and a mouth full of cake


Hanging out with the Hamburger Boys in a Volvo



The good women of Dutchess County shucking the corn.


CAAKKEEE!
L

Happy First Birthday FINLEY JOYOUS!

We are so happy you are here and are our most beloved Bubba!

LABOR!

This time last year I was checked into my birth center and being induced. In approximately 6 hours my water will break and I will officially be in labor. This process will continue for an additional 36 hours! I still can't believe it. Here is the roller coaster of emotion I remember having - excitement!!, fear, anticipation, discomfort, alarm (meconium in my fluid?), pain, More pain, MORE pain, despair, unbelievable pain, resignation, not much (good drugs!), FEAR, determination, ANGER (WHY can't I have the big drugs until I reach 4 centimeters???), more determination, Incandescent Pain for 7 more hours, hope, elation (YES! 6!! centimeters, now GIVE me my good big drugs!) NO PAIN - Hallelujah!! Craig and Gracie are now dancing around the room, happiness!, JOY (she'll be here any minute now!), More Fear (why is her heartbeat decelerating??), more determination, relief, Amazement, JOY, L-O-V-E!

Why Did The Turtle Cross The Road?

Or not cross the road? Or sit by the side of the road to catch some rays? Who knows, but it definitely wasn't so WE could come along and harass him, but that's just what we did. To our credit, we were only trying to help him (Save Him!!!) get back to the woods and not get squished by traffic. He wasn't having any of it, and rightly so - how annoying we humans can be. By the way, we now know you should NOT handle Snapping turtles, they can actually excrete musk from their sides when irritated, and/or snap off your fingers!!

This wasn't the turtle from my childhood - check out those claws!!


Finley, the only smart one actually trying to get AWAY

7 Years of Maowage (a collaborative post)

Happy Seventh Anniversary to Us!

We celebrated by leaving the babe with Pop and Lisa for a nice brunch and a walk in the park. The reality is that we are rusty with going out and it didn't really play out as planned. We decided to walk across the park for brunch stopping first at our former Gristedes market, now a Dean and Deluca's. Cami got a very fancy bag of veggie chips. 4$. 4 Dollars!! That's almost as much as a gallon of gas. Well I guess they are both fuel. It seems we must have invaded the country that makes chips.

We walked across the park getting into a squabble along the way. When we got to the west side, all the brunch places had big lines; New York, Sunday, everyone has the same idea, duh. Starving and irritated, we ended up at a classic brunch place, the Three Star Diner. Essentially the Walden high-school cafeteria; it hasn't improved with age.

Back to the park, it rained, we bought umbrellas and sat under a tree. There was a parade finishing up along 5th Avenue and we pretended it was for us. In the end we love each other and that is what is important - it doesn't matter how we celebrate is it as long as we remember it and carry the love with us wherever we go. And Craig has promised hot dogs next year - or a knish, my choice.

Making the number "7" under an amazing tree in Central Park that will forever now be our seven tree.

My First Mother's Day

Craig got home from the tour in the middle of the night then we woke up and drove down to the city to be with Craig's brother Christian, sister-in-law Susan, nephew Max and Pop and Lisa for brunch which was fun and delicious. It was great to see Finley with her cousin Max - she sat right on his lap and kept chasing him around and grabbing him when she could.



I don't have it in me to write extensively on the topic, but I will say that it is everything I had hoped being the mother of Finley - and of course a whole lot more. Thank you to all who helped me celebrate - Happiness to all Mamas!
Looking at my Mommy Locket which I love.

I am crazy about this baby!

Hoo!

Craig and Finley listening for you-know-hoo!


That's right!! Two BIG ones who have made our backyard their home. We thought they were coyotes from the big crazy sounds they make. Owls!! We are lucky lucky lucky!!

Party Month!

May is a big month for us with our anniversary, my birthday, and now Mother's Day and best of all Finley's birthday! What May also brings are the Geiger boys Luke and Cole - it's their b-days too and if that wasn't enough they also had baby Jake's christening last weekend. Craig was out rockin' the free world, but Finley and I went and had a great time.


Melissa's dad, Jack - a big sweetie who knows how to woo a wee baby.

Finley checking out the hymnal.

The next day at Cole's Birthday party!

I love these kind of moments - all the adults scrambling to make it special!

The party had a "Mickey" theme and this photo captures nicely how I feel about that mouse, though I did try to be a good sport.

Kitties, Thieves and Money!