It’s been a busy couple of weeks in PhamsterWorld. I think the girls would sum them up as funfunfun, and Dave and I would sum them up as simply exhausting. Before getting into our recap, let’s pause for a moment to celebrate Hayden’s latest milestone. Yes, the little bubba is now a movin’ and groovin’ 8-month-old who says “dadada,” but not much else yet.
With all her locomoting, she hasn’t been gaining as much weight as we’d like – she’s now at just over 15 lbs, which keeps her in the 5th percentile for her age. She’s crawling/ trying to climb all over the place and gets very antsy if we leave her in the exersaucer or high chair for too long. Her favorite places to crawl to are under our coffee table and behind the recliner.
In other news, Maddy had her first real experience in the snow 2 weeks ago when we met up with my old college roommates (Amy and Joanne) and their families at Lake Tahoe. Pictures here. She loved building a snowman with Dave, and gave sledding a try but got tired of that after 2 runs down the hill in our backyard. Most of all, she loved making friends with Amy’s boys Nathan and Chase.
After that, my dad came for a brief visit and Maddy and Hayden got some good grandpa time in. Last weekend, we also had one of our super-fun playdates with Syd and Sierra and Lily at Burton Park in San Carlos.
Sorry we Phamsters have been so quiet on the blogging front lately, we’ve been busy busy. I can’t possibly remember everything I’ve been wanting to post about, but I’ll try.
Two weeks ago, the Noonans came all the way out from Rhode Island to visit us and it was so great to see them. I just love my Auntie Leigh, Uncle Jim and my boyfriend Blakey. I miss them so much now that they’re gone and ask mommy about them all the time.
While they were here, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Pastorino’s and Lemos farms in Half Moon Bay. We had close encounters with all kinds of fish and farm animals. I especially liked meeting the penquins and going on hay rides.
Everything was so much fun until poor Blake had a too-close-for-comfort encounter with the H1N1 virus. After that, he spent the next 5 days cooped up and miserable in our house.
That was no fun because mommy and daddy wouldn’t let me play with him hardly at all and kept telling me to give him space and not wipe my runny nose all over him to make things worse. I think we heard “Catch your cough/sneeze!” about a gazillion times from the grownups. I guess it was all for the best, because so far Hayden and I seem to have steered clear of that nasty nasty flu and now Blakey is all better.
In other news, I’ve enjoyed cheering for the Yankees in the playoffs and wear my Yankees hat for every game.
I also squeezed in a visit to Ardenwood farm with all the cool Yahoo! kids – Gavin, Sydney, Sierra, Lilly, and Sienna. I wasn’t too fond of the peacocks I saw there, but I was so excited about these little pine cone-like things I found on the ground. Mommy let me bring them home and I’ve been carrying them around in a disposable diaper wipes container ever since.
Oh, and I did a great job of singing Happy Birthday to my mommy on Sunday. Daddy helped me make her a really neat card with a drawing of our family – we even put Hayden’s mohawk and everything on there!
I’ve also been Skyping a lot with my Ba Ngoai (Gramma Anne), who’s working in Afganistan right now. We keep reminding her to stay safe.
Finally starting to recover from our fun visit to New York. Here are our photos and videos from the trip (as usual, I was blatantly negligent at taking photos of the grown-ups):
And, here’s my hopefully-not-too-long recap of the vacation:
Day 1, Tuesday, 9/1 – Woke at 5am. Maddy scared of cab driver, but fascinated by airport. Got 2 extra seats on flight to MN and 1 extra on flight to Albany, yay! Hayden did great sleeping and eating on flights, no crying.
Arrived in Albany around 6pm, went to Dave’s mom’s where Maddy was treated to a dinner of chicken nuggets and fries set up in front of the TV with cartoons on. And that was just the beginning of the spoiling, hmmm…
Cousins came over and Maddy was initially pretty overwhelmed by the chaos ensued by TJ (4), Kiara (3) and Lewis (6).
Day 2, Wednesday – Settled in to a much quieter house. Maddy enjoyed exploring ALL of TJ’s toys (especially the electronic and tool varieties) while he was at school.
Day 3, Thursday – Visited with Mrs. DiPietro (Grandma Di). Maddy took her sweet time to warm up, but LOVED the tinkerbell cell phone, My Little Pony, and cool bag she was given (as well as the animal crackers – more spoiling).
Day 4, Friday – Visited Mrs. Di at work and played on super-fancy playground with TJ. Loved huge slides, and enjoyed tour of the gorgeous new elementary school.
Went back to grandma’s house and got to visit with family friend Barbara and all the cousins again – ate yummy pizza from The Fountain and enjoyed more chaos.
Left for 2-hour car ride to Syracuse with Dave, Jimmy and Maddy (who napped). Went to Faris’ house (Dave’s college roommate), where Maddy got to know Emelie (21 mos) and Jacob (4), and their cool kitchen toys, and had more yummy pizza before crashing.
Day 5, Saturday – Took way too long getting ready to go to Kristin’s beautiful house (my high-school friend, who I hadn’t seen in WAY too long), where Maddy was taken very good care of by sweet boys Atticus (6) and Thadius (4). Great to see Kristin and her family again, wish we had had more time to catch up.
Went to campus to meet up with Jimmy, Faris, Greg and Karen for the SU vs. Minn. football game. Maddy so excited that she COULD NOT sit still. After meeting Otto the Orange (school mascot), she passed out and spent last 45 minutes sleeping on my shoulder. Game was great until the end when The ‘Cuse sadly let it slip through their fingers.
After game, walked down to Marshall St., where Jimmy won an admirer for life by buying Maddy Otto doll, then back to Faris’ house for some delicious BBQ and a great night during which the girls crushed the boys in Taboo.
Day 6, Sunday – Back to Albany, where I was so happy to see Hayden again (and be done with pumping for a bit) and get more sleep. Rather than sleep, Dave for some reason opted to go to casino and loose money.
Day 7, Monday – Low-key day, hung around the house and visited with Lisa D. and her new man.
Day 8, Tuesday – Fun going apple picking with Malcolm at Bowman Orchards. Maddy loved seeing animals and picking apples – mostly dropping them in the bag. She also didn’t mind getting some homemade ice cream, cider and apple donuts.
Day 9, Wednesday – Off to Springfield Mass. to visit with old roommate Leigh, her son Blake, sister Lynn, and niece Addi. Maddy wasn’t so sure what to make of Lynn’s dog, but had a blast at the cool playground across the street – especially on the big slides, rock-climbing wall, monkey bars and swings.
Day 10, Thursday – Last full day was sad, consisted mostly of packing and some goodbye visits with the DiPietro’s.
Day 11, Friday – Up at 5am again to head back to the airport.
Thanks for all the love and hospitality from our favorite New Yorkers…until next time!
