Shuffling off to Buffalo

Here's how Monkey felt after we arrived in Buffalo:

We were supposed to leave Thursday night and go home Tuesday night. Instead, we left Friday night (one cancellation, three rebookings, and an hour-and-a-half delay later), but we did extend our stay to Wednesday night instead.

On Monday, we went out in a major snowstorm so Monkey could have his first haircut. Here he is before:

And here are a few after shots:

You can blame Nana for the lack of shots of the haircut-in-progress. He was very good, though he did give the stylist some funny looks when he (the stylist) pulled out the trimmers.

Here's how he felt afterward:

In other news, Monkey is now regularly referring to me as Mama (yay!) and he also says bye-bye (and waves). It's really very cute. And here's his latest trick:

Giving Thanks for Monkeys

We had a very nice Thanksgiving trip to see Grandma and family. Almost last minute, we decided to fly, Wednesday night, after work. We are very glad we did, because driving that night would have been a nightmare. Plus, Mommy and Daddy had to get up in the morning to run in the Turkey Chase!

Monkey had lots of fun riding on this little car thing,

and being chased and hugged by his cousins.

For some reason, we only got pictures of him playing with Samantha, but he loved playing with Landon, too! We can't wait to see you all again soon.

Long overdue: A Very Monkey Halloween

Here are a few shots of the Monkey in his Halloween costume.

We didn't get a lot of good ones, because by the time we had a chance to take some photos, he was exhausted.

Can you tell what he is?

And here's a bonus: Monkey video!

(The credits are messed up, but I tried for over an hour to fix them, with no luck.)

Mr. Monkey goes to...Tennessee!

(I'm so behind, so many things to document. It's not fair that I have so much to say, and so much work to do!)

(Many thanks to Mark for most of the photos in this post!)

Last month, we all went to Tennessee. But we didn't make it easy on ourselves. You see, I had a conference to attend in Nashville. So Monkey and I flew to Nashville (not a direct flight from Boston, believe it or not), rented a car, and drove 3+ hours to Memphis

to spend the weekend with Tiffany and Mark.

Matt flew in to join us the next day. He flew directly to Memphis. Lucky Matt!

We had lots of fun in Memphis. Monkey met a giant teddy bear named Paddington. Or maybe he was a dog. No one's sure.

We parked at Parking Can Be Fun.

We went to the Peabody Hotel to see its most famous residents, the ducks.

These ducks live on the roof of the hotel, but spend their days in this fountain in the lobby. Every morning, the take the elevator down to the lobby and march across a red carpet to the fountain. They swim around all day, and then at the end of the day they march back across the red carpet and take the elevator back up to the roof. We didn't get to see the show, but Monkey enjoyed watching the ducks swim around.

He didn't enjoy the roof so much.

Here we are at the Rendezvous after having some yummy BBQ.

Monkey slept through lunch, so he got to eat on the trolley.

On Sunday, the three of us drove back to Nashville for my conference. Matt and Monkey spent all day together on Monday while I worked.

Then Matt drove back to Memphis on Monday night, to fly home early Tuesday morning, leaving Monkey and me to watch baseball in the hotel. (Okay, I watched while Monkey slept.) I worked again on Tuesday while Monkey was in the hotel daycare, and then he and I flew home on Wednesday (and in case you forgot, it's not a direct flight).

I'm tired just thinking about it all. Like I said, we didn't make it easy...but we sure did have fun!

Go Sox!

It's a very exciting night in the Levine-Fried household.

My apologies to those who thought there would be Monkey pictures in this post. Nope, Game 1 of the World Series is about to get underway, and I just wanted to take a moment to muse about baseball for a bit.

I feel like the World Series is an even bigger deal this year than it was in 2004. Maybe it's because that year, the really big thing was coming back from being down 3-0 to beat the Yankees. Even though coming back from being down 3-1 was a big deal, and the series against Cleveland was spectacular, it's just not quite the same as doing something no one has ever done before. The World Series in 2004 was almost an anti-climax after the emotionally draining ALCS against the Evil Empire.

It may also be because I walk past Fenway Park nearly every day. My new office is literally down the street a few blocks. The atmosphere has been so exciting on game days during the playoffs, with people milling about, excited and nervous, all decked out in Red Sox garb. It's so fun to see them all, and to wish I was one of them. I especially enjoy watching the little kids going in with their parents. I passed by a father and his son, who looked to be no older than five or six. He seemed awfully excited, but I wondered if he truly grasped how monumental an occasion it was. All I could think was that 20, 30, or more years from now, that kid is going to have an unbelievable memory.

I know this for sure: I'm going to be a tired Jen for at least the next five days!

Happy Birthday, Monkey!

It's been ages since I've had time to post, because we've had lots of adventures in the past two weeks. But today, I thought I'd share some photos of Jonah's birthday feast (the cake is coming this weekend)

and opening of a big box that arrived today.

Soon, more about our travels to Connecticut and Tennessee, including Jonah's big bear hug of a dog named Paddington and his trip to see real live ducks -- in a hotel!

Photographic evidence

Busy weekend

Nana was here.


We went to the Children's Museum, where Monkey learned to climb stairs...


...and crawl over obstacles.


He also tried really hard to pull a butterfly kite down from the ceiling.


We went on the swings. Monkey loves the swings.


Monkey drove a car.


We watched the Bills win. Finally. (Okay, Monkey was napping through most of it.)


And Monkey achieved a couple more milestones, although I don't have photos of either: his first molar starting poking through, and he pulled himself to a stand on the gate across the stairs.