Merry Christmas!

It doesn't feel much like Christmas in our house right now. Due to our resident Toddler-Terrier Team of Destruction, we elected not to get a Christmas tree this year. And due to the impending arrival of Aiden's little brother (and my corresponding *unpaid* maternity leave), we didn't buy any Christmas presents this year, for anyone, not even for Aiden. (Before anyone starts feeling bad for Aiden, please rest assured that the kid wants for nothing. I dare say, he may be a little spoiled, actually.) Also, we don't have any house guests, and most of our loved ones are 3,000 miles away, which is especially a bummer during the holiday season.

Nevertheless, we are having a lovely day. It's a white Christmas here in Virginia this year (which makes Virginia look a lot less ugly than normal), Eric's cooking a rack of lamb for dinner, I made some spinach-cheese muffins this morning, and Aiden is in such a fun mood today. Next year, we'll probably be better positioned to be more festive. And next year will include Nugget!

On that note, here are some pictures I'd like to share, beginning with an outdated 3D picture of our lil' Nugget (I've been meaning to share this one for weeks), followed by a picture of Eric shoveling our car out of the snow last weekend, and ending with a picture I took this morning of Eric and Aiden, right before they went outside for a Christmas stroll in the snow.




Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Post

Lil Helper

These are pictures of Aiden "helping" us put away groceries. His assistance included grabbing an orange and sinking his teeth into it.




The pictures are more than a week old, but I didn't have time to post them until now (my interim blog activity was devoted to making fun of our dog, see post below). And for good measure, I'm tacking on a couple recent pictures of Aiden with his mom and his dad:

Kiwi: A Profile in Photos

All Behind (Like a Fat Woman)

I'm behind on posting these pics, sorry for the delay. These were taken a while ago, and are the most up-to-date images we have so far of The Nugget.

The latest ultrasound answered the question we've been longing to know the answer to: pink decorations or blue? On second thought, I see a lot of guys wearing pink these days. Its made a comeback. Must be because of that remake of the Miami Vice movie.


So to put it a different way: should we buy dolls or a baseball bat? Meh. GiJoe action figures are technically 'dolls.' Additionally, if its a girl I'll still need to buy the baseball bat to scare off the inevitable flood of boys.



Softballs of hardballs? That doesn't work, considering all the softball leagues out there for middle-aged guys.

As you can plainly see, its a boy. Our ultrasound tech made that fact very clear through a very direct use of the mouse pointer.

Aiden is about to have a little brother! This evening Aiden was sleeping on Colleen's lap, draped over her belly. From inside, little Nugget was kicking out at his big brother. The sibling rivalry has begun already!

A Tribute

The world has lost the most awesome cat ever. Last Wednesday, my sister had to put down her 13-year-old cat, Sasha. I'm not much of a cat person, but Sasha has always been the exception to that rule. She was a tiny kitten when my sister got her, and she grew up to be a gigantic heifer -- she ultimately maxed out at a whopping 18 lbs. (In comparison, Kiwi is only about 8 lbs.) And Sasha's mass wasn't solid and sturdy; picking her up was like holding a bag of pudding. So awesome.

In addition to her physical glory, Sasha's magic included a very unique personality. She was hilarious, and I'm not just saying that because she was my "niece." Here's an example -- just try to tell me this isn't funny: Sasha figured out what the bathroom is primarily used for, and then, accordingly, she trained herself to pee in the sink. Gross, sure, but it was sooooo funny to walk into the bathroom and find a cat squatting in the sink, mid-pee, especially because this maneuver was entirely Sasha's idea. (I should add that this was a short-lived phenomenon. For whatever reason, Sasha un-trained herself from using the sink as her personal pee pot.)

The final thing I want to memorialize about Sasha is a strange quirk that maybe only my sister and I recognized (everyone else seemed to think we were crazy when we pointed this out): Sasha's head always smelled like honey. Seriously, if you put your nose up to her head, and gave it a whiff, you'd smell honey. Or, my sister and I did, anyway. (For the record, it was confirmed that Sasha's head still smelled like honey through her very last day.)

So, here's to the most awesome cat I've ever known. Sasha added a lot of joy and humor to the small universe of people who knew her, and she will be missed dearly.

Happy Halloween!

Postcards from Virginia, 2nd Installment

On Sunday, September 27, Eric and I took Aiden to the Virginia State Fair, which was located approximately 50 miles south of our house. Aiden got to see lots of farm animals and massive pumpkins, and he shared a vanilla milkshake with me. We also watched part of a lumberjack competition, a few minutes of a "stunt dog" show, and Eric and I enjoyed some really good barbecue, which was un-ironically being sold right next to all the livestock pavilions. Notwithstanding the freakish abundance of confederate paraphernalia that surrounded us, it was a delightful day.










(Seriously?! Confederate flip-flops?!)

First Birthday Update

Aiden's 1st birthday was on Thursday. We took him out for ice cream the preceding weekend, but we didn't do anything particularly noteworthy to celebrate on the actual day. We did, however, take him to the doctor for his one-year well-baby appointment. Despite being under the watchful eyes of his pediatrician, his mom, and his dad, Aiden managed to give himself an enormous bruise on his head while playing with a toy in the exam room. It was just about nap time anyway, so Aiden got REALLY upset, which made us really upset, and it made the subsequent vaccination administration much more traumatizing than it otherwise would have been. Luckily, Aiden won't remember any of this, and I have promised him that all of his future birthdays will be better than this one (well, to the extent that Eric and I have any control over them, that is).

Incidentally, the following day was Picture Day at Aiden's daycare, so the monstrous goose-egg on his head was memorialized in a formal photograph, yay! Also, you can see the bruise at the end of one of the following videos. As for a birthday update about where he's at developmentally, Aiden is now walking; he can correctly identify me as "Mom" and Eric as "Da-Da"; he weighs 25.4 lbs (which puts him in the 94th percentile for weight); and he is 32 inches tall (which puts him in the 97th percentile for height).

Here are some clips of Big Man practicing his new walking skills:

Aiden and Kiwi

Kiwi loves to lick Aiden. Eric and I both think it's gross, because dogs are gross, but Aiden thinks it's hilarious. Aiden even tries to provoke Kiwi into licking him. This is going to horrify Eric, but I captured a few seconds of the face-licking on video (only a few seconds, because Kiwi started to get too excited about having unfettered access to Aiden's face, and I had to intervene):

So Long, Farewell...

We sold The Brick yesterday. We didn't own a car for the entire five years we lived in NYC, so The Brick holds the distinction of being our very first family car. We bought it just two weeks before we moved down to the DC area. Alas, it has since outlived its usefulness to us, so off it goes to greener pastures....

*sniffle*

Postcards from California

Last weekend, Aiden and I returned to DC after spending a week in California. We didn't get to see everyone, and we didn't enough time with anyone we did see.

Below are some pictures from our whirlwind trip. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of everyone; notably absent from this collection are Ambika, Joe, and Eric's dad.

Inside Edition

Here is the first look at the newest edition to the Burt family!
These photos were taken on one of the newer ultrasound machines, which allows two-way communication. The Text in green at the bottom is the response the little one sent back. I was surprised to learn that this little one already knows how to make smiley face text characters. Hi there, little one. See you some time in February. We're all so very excited to meet you.

At The Park

Aiden and I went to the park yesterday. Here are some pictures of Aiden enjoying the baby swing.

And One More Thing...

While hanging out with Kiwi and Aiden this afternoon, I thought of one more blog post I'd like to compose about Blue, in honor of what a good boy he was.

Here is a list of all the commands that Blue dutifully obeyed:

• "sit"
• "stay"
• "come here"
• "lie down"
• "gimme the ball"
• "that's enough"
• "drop it"
• "outside"
• "high-five"

In contrast, here is a list of all the commands that Kiwi will obey:

(By the way, although rarely acknowledge them, we always love to get comments on the blog, and the comments on the In Memoriam post are especially appreciated.)

In Memoriam

We have some sad news to share with everyone. Blue got put down yesterday. I'm not going to get into the reasons for it here, but be assured that a lot of love, thought, and consideration went into the decision. We had a local vet come to the house to do the procedure, that way Blue could be in the comfort of his own home, and in the arms of his best friend, Eric. Aiden and Kiwi and I made ourselves scarce in the hours leading up to the procedure.

Blue had his issues, no doubt, but those of you who knew him know what a truly sweet soul he was. In tribute, here are a few of my favorite memories about Blue:

• His "signature move." Those of you who knew Blue might recall what I'm talking about. I don't really know how to explain it, other than to say it was really funny, and very unique.


• He was an expert at giving a "high-five" on command.


• One day when Blue and Kiwi were still puppies, and we were still living in Brooklyn, I looked out the window to see an absolutely hilarious scene. Blue was cheerily trotting across the backyard while holding Kiwi in his mouth by the scruff of her neck. It was a bold move on his part, and he was very clearly amused by his decision to do it. Kiwi had no choice but to suffer the indignity of the situation, and she was not pleased.


• During one winter while we were living in Queens, we once got a couple feet of snow overnight. It rendered the backyard a little dangerous for Kiwi; we had to carve out paths in the snow so that she wouldn't get completely buried. For Blue, however, it was so much fun. He loved the snow, and as he tromped through the backyward, all we could see was his head and his tail -- his tail looked like a periscope. The best part was that we could throw a toy out into the abyss of snow for him, and he would find it instantly. It was amazing.


• "Freak-out o'clock." Despite their sibling rivalry, Kiwi and Blue would occasionally break into little impromptu play sessions. We labelled these sessions "freak-out o'clock," because they seemed to happen spontaneously, and they involved Kiwi and Blue tearing around the house, chasing each other at top speeds. Blue acted like his ass was on fire -- he would run with his butt tucked underneath him, because he seemed to feel he could gain maximum velocity that way.

I'm going to keep the list limited to the above, otherwise this will be an endless, epic work-in-progress, and I'll never post it. I'll just close with these thoughts: Blue was a true sweetheart, and a ridiculous goofball, but the poor guy got dealt a really lousy hand in life. We were lucky to have had him in our lives for his few short years, and everyone here misses him already... even Kiwi.

Gallery Extravaganza!

A million apologies to the select few who regularly check this blog for updates. We had some tech problems, we had some drama, we had some surgery (more on that in a minute)... but I still feel inexcusably delinquent with the blog. So, to bring things up to speed, here are the two major events that should have gotten some coverage on the blog:

1. Aiden's Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Chuck visited from May 16 - June 1.



2. Aiden had surgery on June 5, for insertion of tubes in both his ears.

Yes, major events, both, and I'd love to someday spend some time crafting a blog post for each. In the meantime, I'll give the masses what they want: MOAR PIX OF AIDEN.