My Sleeping Son

There are few things as sweet as the face of your otherwise wild and crazy son when he is asleep. Xander just looks so cute when he's sleeping - his mouth a little open, sometimes snoring. I took this picture this morning before I woke him up for school:

Aww! The trickier pictures are the ones I try to take at night. I need something to steady the camera, and enough light coming in so that I don't have to use the flash. Over the weekend, I went in to check on Xander and give him one last kiss before I went to bed. He looked ridiculously adorable, wearing my eye shade. I brought in a kitchen chair to prop the camera on, then had to contend with Stuart who jumped on the chair making it shake and kept putting his head in front of the camera. Finally, I was able to get one good shot:

When I then bent over my sleeping babe and gave him a kiss, he woke up and asked me what I was doing. I told him just giving him a kiss before I went to bed. He said, "At this time of night? Don't do that again." And he went back to sleep. LOL!

Check out this great MSN Video: 'Star Wars,' 'A-Team' mash-up

Check out this great MSN Video: 'Star Wars,' 'A-Team' mash-up

Flashback: Wildwood State Park

So I have these pictures of little me at some kind of beach with my cousins, my brother, and two of my aunts (and Uncle Tony minus his head). I checked with my mom and with one of the aunts to see if they knew which beach we were at. Aunt Di wasn't too helpful in this area - still love you though! - but Mom is pretty sure these pics were taken at Wildwood State Park.

I looked online and Wildwood State Park is in Stony Brook, NY. The beach - which looks similar to pictures I saw online - is on Long Island Sound. The controversy, however, is the beach composition. In one picture it's very sandy, in the others is pebbly. After looking at some images of Wildwood State Park on Google, I'm still not sure. They have both kinds of beach pictures on there, so maybe the beach is a mixture and it just depends where in the park you go. That's the theory I'll be operating under, anyway, when I scrap these pics.

Of course my faulty memory supplies me with nothing. (Stupid brain!) So, like I often do with this kind of subject matter, I'll just put together my best guess and go with that. And if anyone knows how I can make my brain cough up the info I want when I want it, please let me know! :)

Valentine Weekend

Valentine weekend was not good to me. I suffered from sinus congestion all weekend, and spent most of my time on the couch reading or napping and just generally feeling miserable. Not exactly the romantic weekend I'd been looking forward to!


But it wasn't all bad. Xander took a cute picture of Joe and I when I was still feeling partially normal. We exchanged our gifts on Friday night, since we had nothing to watch and had gotten each other movies. I got Joe Zombieland (he loved it), and he got me Season 1 of both Roswell and Pee Wee's Playhouse - he has been since regretting Pee Wee because that's all Xander has watched all weekend. LOL! Xander got some Legos and a Batman toy, so he was happy.

We all exchanged cards on Sunday, and then Xander made extra ones all by himself. He's getting pretty good at making hearts! He kept telling me, "I did the best job I could!" I reassured him that he did a great job. Especially yesterday, when he cleaned both his room and the living room. (Can someone tell me how I can get him to stop using the floor as his wastebasket? It's so frustrating!!)

All things considered, not a bad weekend. Hopefully I'll start feeling better soon!

New Video Uploaded!

Just wanted to let you know I've added a new video, so scroll down and check it out!

Snow Day!

A big storm was predicted for yesterday, with estimates of up to a foot of accumulation. Xander and I were both hoping for a snow day, and we got our wish. What we didn't get was a whole lot of snow.

It snowed all day. Not too heavy, but persistent. But there was nothing on my car to show for all of that. There was enough for Xander to go out and play, though. He spent most of his outside time sledding down the driveway and possibly setting himself up for future knee surgeries, LOL!

My job was just to take pictures and video. I like a job that easy! Xander did lots of sledding stunts for my amusement, and got to work out a ton of energy running up and down the driveway. Afterwards, he was immobile for at least an hour. :)

So, it was nice to be home for the day. We had hot cocoa, played some games, watched some movies. My favorite thing about snow days? Xander's big red cheeks after he's been playing outside for a while!

Play Dough...So Fun, and Yet So Messy

I have a love-hate relationship with Play Dough. Love the smell. Love watching Xander have fun with it. Hate the little bits of dough that inevitably get ground into my carpet. Moon Sand is pretty bad, too, but easier to clean up with the vacuum.

Xander hauled out his Play Dough hair salon on Saturday, and was sad to realize he had no dough to put in it. The canisters he'd had long ago dried up into brightly colored rocks. He tried using his Moon Sand, but when you compress that stuff it's not inclined to go through little spaces. Being the kind and generous mom I am (ha!) I picked up a Play Dough four pack when I went shopping yesterday. (I had no idea this stuff was so cheap!)

So for a good portion of the day yesterday Xander futzed around with the dough, making crazy hair styles and then chopping them up. Sure, I'm going to have to pick little chunks of blue and pink Play Dough out of the living room carpet, but I guess you just can't put a price on creativity!

Solitaire, Anyone?

Xander loves to play games. Pretty much any kind of game, any time! He's even been playing computer Solitaire, after having watched me do it. He's getting better - now he knows you have to alternate colors, at least. He still has trouble seeing when he can move cards around.

His favorite computer game is probably still Heroes (he plays this better than me, I'm sad to say), though Pajama Sam had a good run as well. I'm always glad when Xander finds new ways to engage his brain in solving problems, be they computer puzzles or card games.

Harrington Saturday

The Brunos and Harringtons spent most of the day Saturday together, the first time we'd gotten together since Halloween. Andy and Angie just recently moved from their apartment into a house, so it was exciting to go and check out the new place. It's really nice inside!

First off we got the tour. The house still has that nice, fresh paint smell that always makes a place feel so new. Lots of hardwood floors, a guest bedroom, and a full-on basement are just some of the nice features. Joe really liked the new fridge, which has a little shelf you can access through a mini door on the front. Cool!

Xander was beside himself to get to play with Josh...and Josh's cool toys! We didn't see much of the boys while we were there (8 hours!) because they stayed in Josh's room unless it was time for food. They played, watched TV and got in trouble for jumping around on the bed. Predictably, Xander cried his heart out when it was time to leave - and it was almost 10pm by that time!

Angie and I played a game of Scrabble while Joe and Andy did a little running around town. I won, but not by much. It was a tough game! We wouldn't let the men folk come back unless they stopped at Dunkin Donuts for some donuts and hot cocoa (wow, they have good hot cocoa there!).

We watched the new Star Trek movie together, which we'd all seen already but love enough to keep rewatching, and some Comedy Central stuff. It was a really fun day! But long...I was dragging by the time we got home and Joe was worse since he'd worked the night before.

I do wish we could get together a bit more often. Xander and Josh seem to have such a good time playing together, and they're interested in a lot of the same kind of things - superheroes, Star Wars, wrestling, SpongeBob. Still, I guess it makes these visits more fun when it's not a regular thing.