Milestones

Today is our third wedding anniversary. While I'm saddened by the results of Proposition 8 in California, and recognize the irony in celebrating my marriage on a day when so many others are losing hope that they will ever be able to celebrate their own marriages, I'm thrilled and elated and [insert litany of very positive emotions here] by Barack Obama's decisive victory.

Last night, as Charlie Gibson silently counted down the seconds to the closing of California and other West Coast states, I knew what the result was going to be. Somehow, I wasn't prepared for the overwhelming flood of emotion that would wash over me. As ABC called the presidency for Obama, I burst into tears and silently wept for at least ten minutes, trying not to wake up my Mom, who had long since fallen asleep on the couch. I finally realized that I needed to go tell Matt that it was over, and so I waddled into our room where he was working to let him know. "He won, honey," I somehow croaked out. We gave each other a big hug, then walked back out to the living room to watch the aftermath together.

And as the clock ticked over to midnight and November 4 became November 5, we watched Obama's acceptance speech, perhaps the best anniversary gift we'll ever get.

Two Year Doctor Visit

Monkey saw Dr. Cohen a few days after he turned two, and he continues to do well. He got a flu shot and had blood drawn (yuck!) but he also got some Thomas stickers, which is always a good thing. He weighed 27 lbs 4 oz, and was a half-inch shy of three feet tall.

Bonus: here's a sneak preview of Halloween!

Happy Second Birthday!

Work stresses, child care stresses, and a disfunctional internet connection at home have all contributed to making it harder and harder to keep up with all that Monkey has been up to. Fortunately, the child care stress is more or less solved (although we miss our 'Bine, and it's only been one day since her last day!), the internet connection should be fixed on Monday (fingers crossed), and work stress should dissipate once I leave for our conference in Florida in 12 short days.

Here are some photos from Monkey's two birthday parties. We had one on the 17th, for his daycare friends, at the Pru.



We also had another one, on the 19th, at home, for other friends and family. They were both lots of fun!

Haircut!

Monkey has had two haircuts in his (nearly) two years. The first one was relatively painless. We took him to Supercuts while visiting Nana in Buffalo, and he was incredibly nonchalant about it.

I don't think I posted about the second one at all, but it was like a totally different Monkey. He cried (screamed, even!), pushed away the hand of the hairstylist, wouldn't hold still...not our favorite morning activity. For weeks, he talked about how he had a haircut and he cried. We were a little concerned that he might hold a grudge against Uncle Brian, since name of the stylist who cut his hair was Brian, but apparently, he understands that different people can have the same name. :)

So needless to say, that second haircut, which was in June, was not the best nor did it last for very long, and he's been sporting quite a 'fro for a few months now (as evidenced in recent photos and videos). Don't get me wrong, for the most part, I think his curls are adorable, but he definitely has his bad hair days. But he wouldn't let anyone go near his head with scissors. The entire time we were in New Jersey, Grandma would ask if she could cut his hair. He would say yes, but as soon as he saw the scissors come out, he would change his tune.

This weekend, Matt decided to start making the case for a haircut with his clippers. Matt has been cutting his own hair (with greater and lesser degrees of success) for many years, and has his own set of clippers. He wondered if Monkey might take better to a full shearing, rather than a snip here and there. So he started showing Monkey the clippers, talking about how they buzzed, and about how Daddy was going to cut his (Daddy's) hair this weekend. And would Monkey like to have his haircut, too?

Well, here are the results:

First, he helped cut Daddy's hair.


Then, Daddy started working on his hair.

Oh my gosh, is he enjoying it, even?

And then we got to here, and for a while, Monkey wanted to run around (and worse, wanted nothing more to do with the clippers). I was terrified that we would have a half-shorn Monkey, but fortunately, he went back for more.

And here are a few shots of the finished product:

(I have no idea what this pose is....)

Totally adorable, in a very different way. And am I the only one who thinks he bears an even more striking resemblance to Uncle Zach now?

It's been a busy summer.

We had a major computer malfunction just before our August vacation, and sadly, lost about a months' worth of photos. It took quite a bit of time to get the computer back up to snuff, and I'm still not sure it's really 100%. But we bought an external hard drive, finally, and so now we have plenty of storage space for everything.

Part of what we lost were some fun photos from our 4th of July trip to New Jersey, but I do have these (admittedly low-res) photos from my camera phone, including Monkey's first "amusement park" ride, from a fair at the park near Grandma's beach house.




Monkey wasn't too sure about the ride at first, and the operator was about to stop it to take him off because he was crying, but I got him settled down, and by the time it was over, he had enjoyed it so much he didn't want to get off, and cried again.

When we got back from vacation and finally got the computer up again, it was time to start watching political conventions. Matt and I stayed up WAY too late during both the Democratic and Republican conventions, cheering and jeering.

In case you needed a hint about which convention got the cheers and which convention got the jeers, check out these Monkey videos:



(Okay, "Go Bills" isn't terribly relevant to the election, but it's awfully funny!)

I also decided that it was time to make my wedding album. (Almost three years later, with kid #1 approaching two years old, and kid #2 on the way, I'd say it was more than time!) So I've been spending a lot of time on that. In fact, once the conventions were over, I started staying up late to finish the book. But it is nearly done, and anyone who wants a look-see can e-mail me and I'll share the Shutterfly link.

We did, however, take some time to visit with Nana over Labor Day weekend, and the highlight of the weekend was our trip to Edaville USA, for a "Day Out with Thomas." Monkey loved the kiddie rides, the ride on the train (according to him, we rode on Clarabel), and spending time with Nana and his aunts. Check it out!