The Rock Obama

Since school was cancelled on Election Day due to the threat of snow (note the word "threat"- we never got actual snow - yes, go ahead and roll those eyes all you upstate New Yorkers!), we celebrated the occasion by hosting an Inaugural Ball/Playdate here at the house with Mark, Reilly and Zoe. We all wore something special - Reilly had a clip-on tie, Nora, Zoe and Caroline wore princess dresses, I threw a feather boa around my neck, and Mark donned a sports coat. It was nice to learn that another family was as excited as we were about Barack Obama's Inauguration (or, as Nora pronounces it, "The Rock" Obama). Mark and I watched the ceremony and attempted to thoughtfully reflect on the magnitude of the event occurring before our eyes while the kids sang songs into toy microphones and tore apart the playroom around us. It was definitely an Inauguration to remember! On Wednesday night, Gracie Janove, a Sunset Park neighbor and former charge from my babysitting days, came to visit us. She was in D.C. for the Inauguration, and is winding her way down south as she begins her independent study project for college. Although we stayed close to home on Thursday, we took advantage of the great weather on Friday and took Gracie on a driving tour of the base and then a ferry ride over to Portsmouth, where we had lunch at the Old Towne Bakery, a new "find" on High Street. Nora particularly loved gazing at all of the desserts in the display case -- she is a girl after Daddy's own heart, for sure. She selected an oversized vanilla cupcake with pink and purple sprinkles on top and, predictably, licked off all the icing first and only took a few bites of the actual cupcake. It was so nice to see Gracie again and to get to know her as a 20-year-old, instead of the 3-year-old I remember. She has done such interesting, inspirational things with her life and is sure to do more. Both girls started out with the sniffles earlier this week, but poor Caroline has developed a doozy of a cold. Last night was the first night she slept through the night this week (although she started out the night by throwing up), so I'm hoping she's on the mend.

Aunt Alli's visit

We had a great time with Aunt Alli this weekend. Nora stayed up until 9:30 on Friday night just so that she could be awake to greet Aunt Alli when she got to our car...and then she was out like a light within minutes after pulling out of the airport. The girls spent early Saturday morning introducing Aunt Alli to all of their new games, including the one they made up where they stand at the top of the stairs and look back, upside down. We visited the new playground at the downtown mall for a little while (since it was FREEZING outside!) and in the early afternoon, I slipped out of the house to get my one-hour massage Christmas present from Alli and Gregory. (amazing! thanks Alli!) Despite the cold, we eventually took the girls out for some fresh air; Nora rode her bike while Caroline entertained herself by trying to pick up prickly balls with her mittened hands. Sunday was a quieter day - church and then Marg-Alli catch-up time while the girls napped. We were sad to have to say our goodbyes today ("But I don't want you to go!" Nora protested), but know we will see each other again before we know it. The day ended well with a visit from Taylor; she and Nora pretended to visit the North Pole in their box-spaceships, while Caroline played with Legos. ?!?!?! (note the warm hats because it's cold at the North Pole)

Catching up with friends

It's been nice to spend some time catching up with friends these past few days. On Sunday morning, Nora and Taylor sang in the children's Christmas concert at church. Neither one of them really knew what they were doing, but they did their best to keep up, mouthing the words they knew and doing whatever hand gestures they remembered. I didn't have the video camera with me, but managed to snag some fun candids. Afterwards, we went to a nearby Starbucks with Taylor and her parents to have a bite to eat and something to drink before the 11 am Mass. Late Sunday night, Pop Pop came to visit on his way down to FL. We had a nice time with him on Monday, especially during our afternoon walk to the playground, where we met up with our neighbor Mark and his kids Reilly and Zoe. Nora had school yesterday. This morning was gymnastics, followed by a visit to Chuck E Cheese with Alli and her girls Claire and Elise. We are going to try to see them as much as possible before they move to Rhode Island at the end of this month. While we were at Chuck E Cheese, we got a surprise phone call from Daddy. Yay! I almost missed his call amidst the bells, whistles and music around me. Nora has school tomorrow, and then Aunt Alli comes to visit us on Friday for the long weekend. We're looking forward to her visit!

Crazy weather, crazy kids

We had a fun week with Omi (I don't know what I would have done without you mom), although the weather has been crazy (we went from wearing our warmest winter jackets to no jackets at all) as have the kids (Caroline is starting to throw mini-tantrums - she even hit her head on the dining room table while throwing a fit last night - and Nora has taken to wearing boxes on her head). As proof, here are some fun pics: Omi and Caroline walking at the zoo on Monday, Nora and Taylor riding their bikes around the 'hood earlier today, Caroline climbing up onto the couch (a new trick) and Nora as an astronaut with a yellow toy box for a helmet. By the way, the spot on Caroline's forehead is the bruise leftover from Christmas Day, when she tripped on Aunt Marilyn's shag carpet and hit her head on a door frame. Ouch.

Christmas travels - Fun with family

To help me organize our 2 weeks of travel and 58 photos, I broke up our Christmas trip into 4 posts, each with their own themes. They're backwards, so you might want to scroll down to the first Jan. 3rd posting and work your way up. Enjoy!!!

"I can't move my arms down!" Poor Caroline and her puffy purple jacket. But that's exactly what she needed for all of our excursions out into the cold during our visit. Before Christmas, we ventured out on a freezing morning to visit the Staten Island Children's Museum with Omi, where Nora got to bowl and try on a scuba outfit. After Christmas, we visited the Brooklyn Children's Museum with Pop Pop, where Nora got to pretend to be the dragon in a Chinese New Year parade and an oversized butterfly in the Caribbean Day Parade. In the interim, we had a brief, but fun visit from Aunt Alli, and visited Aunt Nancy's apartment in Harlem, where we met her new roommate, Tiffany. See Nora trying to "pose" with the fashion girls by their tree.

Christmas travels - Christmas!!!

We spent Christmas Eve in Madison, NJ with the Stobers and Christmas Day in Pompton Plains, NJ with the Walshes. Caroline loved the cool rocking horse she got from cousin Mary Lee and George, and Nora loved spending Christmas Day with her cousin Frankie. She was also enthralled with the purple princess bike that Santa brought her, as well as "The Rudmann Theater" for her puppets, and Caroline was pretty psyched about her new table and chair set from Omi.

Christmas travels - Nora's Birthday

We left Kathleen and Pat's in Dundalk late Saturday afternoon and arrived in Brooklyn, NY around 9:30, just as snow was beginning to fall. We spent Sunday relaxing and hanging out with Omi, Aunt Katie and Aunt Nancy, and on Monday, Omi cooked a special sauerbraten dinner in honor of Nora's birthday. We were joined by Pop and Aunt Irene, and enjoyed an Entenmann's chocolate fudge cake for dessert while Nora donned the pink construction paper birthday crown she made with Aunt Nancy. Nora received some wonderful gifts, including a marionette Dubai-an camel from Daddy, a digital camera from Grandma and Grandpa, plastic Cinderella characters from Omi, and tickets to the show "Pinkalicious" from Pop, which we saw the Saturday after Christmas at the Bleecker Street Theater in the city. It was a surprisingly good show, and I'm still having trouble getting some of the songs out of my head! Nora had fun collecting the autographs of the cast members after the show. The autograph she wanted the most was of "the girl in the green dress," Pinkalicious' friend Allison. It reminded me of Peter Pan, when the only autograph Nora wanted was Michael's. Ah...she clearly sees the value of supporting characters who are often more interesting than the protagonists (at least, that's what my dad always told me whenever I came home crying after getting rejected for leads and getting cast in minor roles in my elementary school days).

Christmas travels - Old Friends

Before we got underway (a word I am now all too familiar with as a Navy wife), we stopped by Bernadette's to give our Christmas wishes to her, her mom, and baby Peter. Then it was off to Maryland to attend Patty's Novena party, where I caught up with all of my old co-workers from Catholic Charities, and then to Janet, Andy and Leila's house, where we stayed for two nights. Ayris drove up to Janet's with her son Aden on Friday, and the kids had a ball playing together and us moms had a nice time catching up (although I feel like I didn't get to catch up as much as I would have liked, since I now have 2 toddlers in my charge). We returned the visit and went to Ayris' house for lunch on Saturday, and then Nora, Caroline and I took off for Dundalk, where we joined the rest of the Guilford girls at Kathleen and Pat's house and had a fun reunion. Kay's husband Paul managed to snag a photo of all the old roommate and our kids -- we're quite a group, now! In the photo, from left to right, are Kay and 6 month old Audrey, Kathleen and almost 10 month old John, yours truly, and Joanna with 4 year old Daniel and 2 year old Joseph.