Ahhh. Here's the now infamous monkey lamp. Isn't it a beauty? I believe he's doing some version of The Thinker pose. And he's wearing a suit. I still have a hard time believing that I let my almost 3 year-old talk me into this monstrosity. Someone, somewhere made some money conceiving of, constructing, shipping and selling it ... so there's that. And then last night, T opened his prayers with this, "Dear God, thank you for the monkey lamp."
My dearest Little Bit,
I don't know if you are going to keep your beautiful blue eyes, or if, like your brother's, they will turn hazel. I do know that you are just the cutest little guy a mom could want. You have just started smiling and it makes my heart burst every time I get a big, gummy grin.I have lived right across the border from Philadelphia for almost 5 years. Somehow I missed the annual New Years Day Mummers Parade. What is a Mummer, you might ask? "Mummers are costumed entertainers welcoming in the New Year. Some of the earliest mummers date back to early Egypt, pagan Rome and Greece, England, Germany, and France. Historically, Mummery has influenced customs and perpetuated many interesting traditions. Every nation had its festivals at one time or another, each marked by parades and displays of fanciful costumes. All of these cultures passed along their traditions from generation to generation, and eventually these traditions were brought to America by immigrants." I hate parades, but I would totally watch this parade. Seriously, have you ever seen a parade with a stage crew? Ry maintains they should be wearing grey instead of black to blend in with the pavement. We're going to go to this parade in a couple years when the boys are old enough to appreciate it. This band only took 8th place, but it was the first routine I saw and I literally watched it with my mouth gaping. Mummers? Awesome.
To celebrate, here are some pictures from last year. Specifically, here are some pictures from Christmas. My sister covered most of the Jersey Christmas extravaganza, but I promised pictures, and pictures you'll have.
We all got to attend T's preschool Christmas party. We walked down into the little town square and had some pastry before the big event. Here's what we look like after coming in from the cold.
And here's Dad helping with the par-tay.
How gorgeous is my sister?
Christmas dinner. We have a tiny table and a tiny kitchen. We were pretty much at capacity, but we had fun.
I love this picture because my Dad looks terrified of T and his new saw.
T in front of the Christmas tree. Right now, every time he smiles for the camera he closes his eyes.
So Ry asked him to open his eyes. His eyes are open. Ry didn't say anything about his mouth, after all.
T and his loot. He asked to open presents for days afterward.
And again, F awake and not crying! Woohoo!Yesterday young T and I had one of the most troubled days in our young relationship. If I said "black" he said "white." If I asked him to come over to get lotioned, he ran the opposite direction. If I asked him to nap, he banged a giant penguin into his night stand. If I asked him to go potty, he smirked at me as he stood on top of the toilet and watched the urine run down his jeans. On top of it all, F was especially fussy yesterday morning. It was one of those days where it was all I could do to hold it together until Ry got home (which he did, early, and bearing brisket. I love my husband).
Two days before Christmas I had my first cavity filled. I have to admit to being pretty nervous about the whole adventure. When I went in, the dentist decided that since the cavity was so shallow, she would just numb the gums around my tooth, instead of numbing the whole nerve. Then she started drilling. The smell of a tooth being drilled is one I'll never forget. As she kept drilling, I started to feel my blood pressure dropping and my vision blacking out. Luckily for me, I didn't actually pass out. That would have been embarrassing. She kept drilling, and drilling ... and drilling. Apparently, the cavity was much deeper than she thought.
I'll get a post up pretty soon about our super fun and busy Christmas. For now, here's a picture of T jamming out in front of our stockings.
Yesterday was Snowmageddon 2009. The way the weather channel was carrying on, you would think we were going to be buried for days. As it turns out, we got about a foot of snow over the better part of 24 hours. It certainly took some digging out, but panic was not called for. Today, we had to dig ourselves out of our house. Since F was awake, I decided to put him in his snowsuit and toss him in the sling while I played with T and helped Ry. 
Of course, once I got him stuffed into the snowsuit, he promptly fell asleep. I figured that taking him out would wake him.
So this is how he slept for the next 2 hours. Who needs blankets anyway?
Ry's snow day mostly consisted of a crap ton of shoveling.
Although at the end, he did get to help make part of a snowman that T promptly destroyed.
T also got snow-suited up. He wanted to get outside sooo badly, but couldn't get the patio door open. Hahahaha. It's like we planned it.
We did eventually make it outside. T cleaned off his car while I worked on the grown up vehicles.
He also made his very first snow angel. There's nothing like a 2 year old in a snow drift to make you appreciate the little things.
Like this. How, exactly does snow do this? Peanut, you're a science gal, how does this happen?
Or this? I mean seriously, it defies gravity!
