Merry Christmas!!!

We had a great Christmas this year... Ben loved the tree, everyone got what they asked for and Ben is healthy. Life is good.

December 1st

Winter sure has come in fast! Hard to believe just a week ago we were soaking up the sun in Aruba. We began the Christmas season with a trip to the Southampton Village Parade of Lights and Tree Lighting Ceremony. It was cold! Ben was all wrapped up, snug as a bug, wearing Julia's snowsuit and his Jets blankie. He liked the parade, but got a little impatient waiting for the tree to be lit in Agawam. We headed to LeSportsac to warm up, hopefully, Tracey and her co-workers didn't think we were crazy! Ben watched the parade with his buddy, Riley H. That's a lot of Candy canes!

So, Za za has come home to visit for some hunting in between classes ending and finals. So far so good. Here they both are with Ben in his Deerfield hunting cap...




Ben loves his real food more and more every day... pizza, crackers, everything flagels, soup, you name it, he'll eat it. We'll be at the Doctor's office on Tuesday to check on things, hope all goes well. Only 18 more days till Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello... we celebrated our family Thankgiving holiday twice... once here a week early with Glenn's family and then again on the wonderful island of Aruba, at Amazonia restaurant. Ben was thrilled when all of the wait staff started singing in Spanish to another diner. The weather in aruba was awesome as always. It is so nice to be out at midnight and not feel even a hint of coldness. Ben spent most of his time in the shade and so did I, entertaining him. Julia learned to love a virgin Strawberry daiquiri and Zachary mastered the game of roulette.







No travel problems at all, Ben was so good on the airplane in both directions. He'll never be that good again, not even a peep out of him during takeoff and landing. Our hotel was great, we had a 2 bedroom villa at the Marriott Surf Club. We all enjoyed using their lazy river and Julia loved the water slide area. We enjoyed Happy hour, too.

Most of our trip was spent reading and relaxing, I walked Ben a lot of the time. Glenn and Zachary rented ATV's and toured the undeveloped areas of Aruba. Here is a photo of how dirty they were afterward.




We had a fun night at Carlos and Charlies, with our yards of ice cold beer. I wish we could go every year.


So, here it is 30 days until Christmas, my favorite time of the year. It will be a lot of fun this year.

Seven Months old!

Well, time sure does fly... I don't know where the last month has gone. We've been back to normal now for some time, Ben was taking Diamox every 6 hours, now after the last Dr. visit on Nov 1st, we've graduated to every 12 hours. We continue to monitor his health like hawks. In other news, he now has two teeth, on the bottom and boy are they sharp. He laughs and now dances to music and sits up on his own, so developmentally, he's doing fantastic and such a joy to be around.

He has discovered his love for food... he's moved on from the basic baby food (homemade, of course) items of peaches, apples, sweet potatoes and squash to eating cherrios, buttered toast, pasta of any kind, soups of any kind! He loves to eat and is willing to try anything. We had our first Halloween, a beautiful day and night. Julia was half angel/half devil and Ben was a skunk, of course, of all days our camera broke, so now I have to get him all dressed again so I can take more than one photo. In a few days we are leaving for Aruba, cannot wait. Glenn & I love it there and hope the kids do, too. No Kukoo kanukoo this year!

Ben had a well visit this week for his second flu shot, he now weighs 21 lbs, 10oz, so we are good to go with the infant car seat on the plane! Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy 1/2 year Birthday Ben!

Ben is 6 months old today... after another whirlwind weekend at SBUM PICU we are ready for normal life. He's sleeping nicely now. I hope to be very soon. Thanks for everyone's prayers and good thoughts. He has 2 teeth now!

Welcome Fall

Here is it October 1st... hard to believe that Ben will be 6 months old next week. He continues to do Very Well... our new exciting news is that He got his first tooth on Sept 29th and is much happier now that it's come thru. He's still all over the place with eating and napping, but as long as he's happy and healthy I don't care about any particular schedule for right now. To be continued...

Julia ran really well yesterday at her track meet, coming in 2cd place twice. The 400m was really quite a challenge for her, but she did it! We are proud of her for even trying.

Two weeks until Zachary comes home... we are all looking forward to it.

What a week it's been...

Wow. His first illness. It still amazes me that it was not an illness but in fact hydrocephalus and he spent the last week in Stony Brook PICU. Talk about terrifying, but he is home now tonight and Glenn just put the boy to bed. I hope we all sleep well tonight.

September 2007

Well, I haven't posted in a while, but had a few minutes today. Ben is sick!! His first illness, and what misery it is. He's throwing up and not sleeping at all. I hope it's a 24 hour thing.

Julia started 5th grade and loves it so far. It's a lot more work than any other grade so far. She's way busy with afterschool stuff: to much, in fact.

I haven't heard from Zachary in some time (hint to son: email your mother) but we are planning on seeing him in month or so. That's it for now!

August 4 months old

Four months.... so hard to believe how fast it has gone... Things are here pretty good... Ben is growing like a weed, tipping the scale at 18lbs. He sleeps like a dream and eats great. He loves his sweet potatoes and pears. We are trying out green peas this week. Zachary is finishing up his last week at work and headed back to Bucknell on 8/19. It's time. Julia is busy with Stages summer stock. She's Polly Put the kettle on in the show Into the Woods. Here are a few summer photos:
Julia and Jarred on the way to see LI Ducks baseball game.
The Boy and His Dad... just seconds before Ben had his hand in the exact same position as Glenn so I had to get the camera. They were both very very tired.
Ben with Bob from Geneseo.

Clemens warming up in the bullpen at Camden Yards.

Ben's very first MCRA summer picnic with Kathy F. and Mommy.

All fun

This is how Al Bundy started out...


Ben looking at Krista's picture. He loves her!

Just hanging out with Mommy having coffee.

Happy 4th of July

Grampa and Ben at the July 4th parade.


Here comes Julia on the Our Lady of the Hamptons Float... she's dressed in a hot pink shirt as a Lady from the Red Hat Society.


Four rainbows in one day must be a sign from Heaven.

Happy Birthday Glenn and Steve

Beth watching the guys drink Irish car bombs. As always, we're the last to leave. Even with a New Baby.

Kim, Glenn & Beth look at photos






Jeff and Steve after much Guinness. Did you really pull down your pants? (You know who you are)

April

The night before...

Glenn and Ben (never mind me in the background)
Ben at the Stony Brook NICU. Gramma finally got to hold you.




We're coming home... after quite possibly the longest day of my life. Seven hours of fasting for a baby is not a fun day, but we got the best prize after passing the Glucose test...

Summer Fun

Ben in his new float


Ben loves watching Baby Mozart.. I think he gets his musical side from his Dad


Just hanging out in his Bumbo. Zachary wants to get one for work!


Julia finishing up her homework... doesn't she look thrilled?

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog, my first attempt at such a thing. Guess it's time to catch up with the rest of the world! I've started this blog to update friends and family on our lives, but mostly it'll be info about the kids, cause they have more exciting lives than Glenn and me!