My fingertips they close your eyes...Off you dream, my little child

Just when I think that Matthew can't get any cuter....we have nights like tonight. Every Wednesday while Rob is at class, Matthew and I get to have a mommy/son date night. Tonight was my favorite date night of his 11 months. He is teething and has been a little fussy lately but tonight he was such a little angel and a joy to be around. When we got home, as I was putting all our stuff away and getting changed out of my work clothes, Matthew was playing with his toys and dancing. He has this little Elmo that is holding a dog that plays songs when you press him. Matthew was jamming and finally threw the Elmo aside so that he could swing his arms. It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen him do! After his impromptu dance party, we did some crawling races down the hallway. I honestly think he is faster than me! 

You're making me go to the nail salon!?!

After some more dancing, wrestling, crawling and singing, we went for a short walk. Matthew loves his stroller and he points at everything as we walk around and I tell him what it is. Today we saw a white truck, a small puppy, a fire hydrant and lots of pumpkins on our short walk. The destination of our walk was a small nail salon a few blocks away so I could get my eyebrows shaped. 

Once we returned home from our walk, we had a Pearl Jam dance party. He was awesome. He was rocking out again: sitting, standing, crawling...everywhere he went, he would stop, look at me, and dance! It was so incredibly adorable. Then I picked him up and we danced around the living room for a few songs. At the end, we were both out of breath and laughing. It was so much fun!

After an appetizer of american cheese and wheat bread for Matthew and cheese and crackers for me, it was time for dinner. Matthew is getting more independent in his eating - he wants to do everything himself.  On Monday, I made "venus de milo" soup and we made Matthew some ground chicken and veggies separately. Tonight, I picked out some chicken, noodles and veggies from the soup and put them in his bowl and heated up a bowl of soup for myself. He seemed very excited to be eating the same dinner as Mommy and was SO proud of himself for eating like a big boy with a bowl and spoon. He's still working on the whole concept - he usually dumps out the food from the bowl and eats with one hand with a spoon in his other. But it's great practice for him and incredibly hysterical to watch. 

After dinner, Matthew had a bath and got dressed in his fleece fire engine pajamas - which make him look like such a big boy! We sat in the blue rocking chair and he had his bottle and fell asleep in my arms before we could even go and read a bedtime story. It was the perfect two and a half hours together, I would not have changed one second. 

Happy 11 Month birthday to my sweet baby boy! 


Tonight's title comes from "Around the Bend". The closest thing Pearl Jam has to a lullaby. 

New York, New York!

Matthew and Mimi at Belmont
October 15, 2011 

Christmastime is my favorite time in the city, but between the last two weekends, October is really giving December a run for its money! Last Saturday, Rob and I had a fantastic day. As a Mother's Day gift, Rob and Matthew got me two tickets to Wicked. It was the first show I ever saw on Broadway with my mom back in 2007. Since then, I have listened to the soundtrack hundreds of times and wanted to see it again. On Saturday morning, while Matthew hung out with Mimi and Papa, Rob and I headed into Manhattan. We got a pre-show glass of wine at the Palm Restaurant across the street from the Gershwin theatre and then went in and saw the amazing show! After the show, we went to Three of Cups in the East Village for a wonderful dinner before heading home to be able to see Matthew before he went to bed. The weather was awesome and it was so nice to spend some time alone with Rob (although we just talked about Matthew the whole time anyway). 

Mommy and Matthew in Central Park
October 22, 2011

This weekend we had no plans, which is very rare for us. We decided to take a family trip into NYC. It was a little brisk, but such a nice day! Matthew took his first trip on the LIRR and the subway to get to Central Park. We had packed a picnic lunch and set up by the carousel. After lunch, we got our tickets and only had to wait a few minutes to get on to the ride. Before it started moving, we put Matthew on his own horse to get some pics and then once it started moving, I hopped on a horse with Matthew. He pointed a lot at the horses, the clowns painted on the inside, other people, and anything he could possibly point at. It was a lot of fun for all of us and it was #16 on my 30 Before 30 list! 

Pointing on the carousel

After Central Park, we walked over to FAO Schwarz 

LOVING NYC!

because we wanted to buy Matthew a toy to remember his first trip into the city. Matthew missed his morning nap and passed out in his stroller before we got to the toy store. That didn't stop us though! We picked out an FAO Schwarz Stuffed Tool Box. It's about time that guy started doing some work around the house! After FAO, we walked over to Sprinkles Cupcakes on Lexington. I'm fairly obsessed with cupcakes and have seen every episode of Cupcake Wars where Candance Nelson, founder of Sprinkles cupcakes - the first cupcake bakery - is a judge. When I heard they opened a Sprinkles in NYC, I wanted to try it. It did not disappoint! We got two cupcakes to share: chocolate peanut butter and cinnamon sugar. We also got some Starbucks to go with it and sat outside for our snack. Cupcakes + pumpkin spice latte = AMAZING! Matthew woke up while we were having our snack and he had some cheerios...which to him were just as good as cupcakes. 



After a few more stops (one being Barnes and Noble on 53rd and 3rd to change Matthew...good clean bathroom with a changing table if you are ever in need of one) - we headed back to Penn Station to catch the train home. We got home and fed Matthew and he was asleep within minutes. The big city wore out the little guy! 


It was such a fantastic day - now let's listen to Frank sing about the city that never sleeps!  

A Bottle of White, A Bottle of Red...(4 down...46 to go!)

Riesling from Washington 

An update on my progress of #18 - Try a Wine from each of the 50 States...I checked off Washington and New York this weekend. Friday night, Rob and I shared a bottle of Riesling from Badger Mountain in Washington state. I was actually going to pick up a Riesling I had seen in the wine store from New Jersey, and this was next to it. It was light and refreshing and went well with our thai food.  

Rose from New York

On Saturday while out in the Hamptons for some apple picking, we stopped at the Wölffer Estate Vineyard and I enjoyed a glass of their 2010 Grandioso Rose and Rob had the 2008 Cabernet Franc. They were both great, the Rose was very light and refreshing on a warm autumn day! 

I Like to Eat, Eat, Eat, APPLES and Bananas...

Although the weather was more like late summer...we had a fantastic fall weekend! I began my day on Friday with my daily pumpkin coffee and my lovely friend Deanna surprised me with a pumpkin muffin when I got into the office. It was a great way to kick off the weekend. After work, I did a great at home workout with Matthew. He loves the purple yoga mat we use to do pushups and he crawled over to me and was imitating me doing pushups. It was incredibly adorable! I'm doing a six week program that at the end is supposed to have me doing 100 consecutive pushups...I may need to repeat some weeks, but it's going well. I'm confident that I will reach that goal and be able to check one more thing off my 30 Before 30 List! Friday night after Matthew went to bed, Rob and I got take out Thai food, a bottle of white wine, and watched Bridesmaids on BluRay. It's not very often that we get to just sit and relax for a few hours with just each other and it was very nice! 

Saturday was one of my favorite days of the year so far. I got up with Matthew when he woke and we played, read "Ten Little Ladybugs" 3 times and then I could tell he was getting sleepy and ready for a nap. We laid on the couch and napped together, something we haven't done since he was a little little guy. I love watching him sleep and hearing his peaceful breathing.

Enjoying an Empire Apple at the orchard 

After Matthew's breakfast of bananas and Cheerios, we loaded up the car and drove almost two hours out to the Milk Pail for apple picking. It was worth it! There were lots of apples, great cider and cider donuts. We had never been that far out in the Hamptons, and it really was very beautiful just driving around. We also were able to plan it well, Matthew napped most of the way out there so he was very alert and fun during the apple picking. We washed off an empire apple and gave it to him to play with/eat in his stroller. I took a little bite to get him to the good stuff, and he LOVED it. It kept him entertained the entire time we walked around. He also loved when we took him out of his stroller and let him pick out some apples. His new trick is to point to things, so he was pointing out all the good apples for us to pick. 

Showing Daddy which apple to pick 

After the orchard, we drove to the Wolffer Esate Vineyard and Rob and I each had a glass of wine. I got the 2010 Grandioso Rose and Rob got the 2008 Cabernet Franc. They were both very good and the vineyard was beautiful. We sat outside at a picnic table, gave Matthew a snack of cookies and water in his sippy cup and enjoyed the scenery. Matthew fell asleep in the car on the way home and napped until we pulled up in front of our house. Such a wonderful afternoon from start to finish! 

We got home and had some visitors from Massachusetts - Mike and Sue! We had a fun visit and played 90s Trival Pursuit. Mike took an early lead and although we put up a fight, he won the game. There was a lot of laughing as usual and lots of random 90s trivia. We heard about wedding plans, and can't wait until August to celebrate with them!

I've spent most of the day today prepping and baking the 20 pounds of apples we have. A cherry apple pie for home, a swedish apple pie for work, apple pie pork chops in the Crock Pot for dinner, and fresh apple sauce for Matthew's lunches this week. So even though it's 80 degrees, it smells like fall in here. 

Anyone who has children, or ever watched Barney should know where the title comes from! 

A Bottle of White, A Bottle of Red...

So one of my more difficult 30 Before 30 tasks is going to be # 18 - "Try a Wine from each of the 50 states". Although I have been to vineyards in Vermont, New York and Rhode Island - I'm starting fresh from when I began the list so I'll just have to go visit them again if needed. Some are going to be hard - Alaska, North Dakota...etc, but I did some research and it can be done. So if you have any leads to wine from random states, please help me out!

Cabernet Sauvignon from California 

This past weekend I was able to cross California and Oregon off the list. 2 down, 48 more to go!

Pinot Noir from Oregon

Today's title (which I may reuse just update it) is from Billy Joel.

I'd Rather Be with an Animal.

Entering the Zoo

It's my favorite season - FALL! We had a fantastic weekend visiting with Grandma and Pop. Sunday was a perfect, crisp fall day so we took a trip to the Bronx Zoo. This was on my 30 Before 30 list, so I was very excited. I think Rob and I were more excited than Matthew. I wasn't sure how he would react to the animals, but he seemed to really enjoy himself. 

Checking out the monkeys

First up was the Monkey House. Since we affectionately refer to Matthew as a monkey or monkey man sometimes - we thought it was appropriate to visit there first. He followed all the little monkeys with his eyes and also pointed to them when they were doing tricks. It was more fun watching him than the actual monkeys.

Matthew checking out the zebra with Daddy

After the monkeys, Matthew ate his lunch and then we saw a zoo worker dressed up in a lady bug costume so we tried to go over and visit the lady bug and get a picture. Matthew did not like this. At first he screamed, which I thought might be a scream of excitement. When we got together to take a photo, the crying started. Poor little guy. We put him in his stroller and walked, and he recovered quickly. We saw a polar bear, a snow leopard, some birds and some other animals before going into Africa. At this time, Rob put Matthew in the baby carrier to get a better look. I think both Daddy and Matthew enjoyed that. We saw some zebras, giraffes and niyalas. Matthew liked the zebra stripes. After Africa, we headed to the Congo and had to pay an extra fee to see the Gorillas. It was worth it though, they were pretty cool. We also saw a camel, some tigers, some bears and a lot of peacocks walking around. Matthew fell asleep sometime after the gorillas and woke up at the car. I'm not sure if all the readers are aware, but it's very hard to be a ten month old. It takes a lot of work to entertain Grandma and Pop with all his crawling, dancing, talking, laughing, playing peek a boo, and just generally being adorable. So even though Matthew napped almost half the trip to the zoo, the parts he was awake for he enjoyed and all the adults had a good time. And to top off a wonderful day, we came home and watched the Pats win on TV and enjoyed a warm dinner and wine from Oregon (more on that in a future post). What a perfect way to spend a fall day!

Today's title comes from Pearl Jam's Animal.(Video from the May 17, 2010 Boston show. This was Matthew's first concert, from his view in my belly).