Little Hobo

September 9th, 2013

Just like his furry sister, Mute, and furry brother, Sark, Xander enjoys the comforts of a good cardboard box... kinda like a little hobo...

Sark did a drive-by and was pretty jealous, and stealthy since he shows in the photo as a kitty blur...

MMWAHAHAHAHA - the box is mine!

Once Xander realized Mama was taking pictures, it was time to try and steal the camera and get some extreme close ups taken...

Then run around back and forth in front of Mama, daring her to photograph anything and get it in focus...

Mama loves when the photo comes out where Xander is in full focus and the rest of the world is a blur... it just shows how fast this little man can be...

That's all for this photo session... more extreme close up will be in Xander's future tho, guaranteed.

Dada's Shoes

September 5th, 2013

Before falling asleep at the door, Xander picked out a pair of shoes he thought he should wear to Rosh Hashanah lunch... Dada's shoes!  So cute!

Asleep at the Door

September 5th, 2013

This year our annual Rosh Hashanah lunch with the family fell on Thursday September the 5th.  Dada went to work for a little bit, then came home early to pick up Mama and Xander for lunch.  While Mama was getting ready, Xander was playing on his own downstairs.  Eventually, Xander realized that he hadn't seen Mama in a little while, so he went to find her.  When he found the bedroom door closed and heard what sounded like Mama's hair dryer running, he commenced the usually tactics of trying to get her to let him in or get her to come out - bang on the door, repeatedly.

As Mama got ready (and chose to ignore the banging this time in the interest of time), she noticed the banging subsided and was replaced with a similar sound, one everyone in this house is familiar with... the sound of Xander banging his head on the door.  This is something Xander has done from a very young age to help comfort himself and fall asleep.  He has yet to fully outgrow it, and as such, used it to comfort himself when he knew his Mama wouldn't come out until she was done getting ready.  Eventually the banging stopped and Mama went to investigate.  This is what we found.  Another episode of the cutest kid ever...

Retake Montlake

August 31st, 2013

After a full season of Husky games played at Century Link, it was time for Husky Stadium to reopen, newly remodeled, for the home opener.

We had to ask a couple different people to get one usable photo, but here's a shot of Mama and Dada at the main gate.

Husky Marching Band, keeping it real as always...

Mama really likes when they put the purple puppy eyes on the screen between plays...

New scoreboard and graphics - interesting font choices, but easy to read...

The view of the water is still magnificent...

Pretty nice view of the action on the big screen, eh?

Oh, did you want to see that hand off close up?

Touchdown Washington!!!

Way to Retake Montlake, boys!

Mama's Sweatshirt

August 31st, 2013

Xander has a couple of obsessions.  One of them centers around one of his Mama's sweatshirts.  Mama has had the sweatshirt for about a year now and every time Xander finds the sweatshirt and it is not on his Mama, he hands it to her and asks her to put it on.  Otherwise, he likes to hold on to it for himself.  When he sees it hanging in the closet, he must have it.  Recently he used a stool to pull it off the high hanger in the closet all by himself!

Dada thought it would be fun to put Xander in the sweatshirt and see what happened...

This shot reminds us of the blue towel shot, just a little...

Xander looks a little drunk in this one, but he doesn't allow hoods to stay on for very long so we were lucky to get any photos at all...

After a breakdown and a bit of crying, we got the sweatshirt off.  Xander took it and, as per the usual, rolled it up into a bit of a pillow and lay on the floor with it...

Not for long tho, it was time to bring the sweatshirt downstairs...

Blow by the Muters...

And head towards the toy box where the laundry basket with toys was already waiting... remember we told you the boy in the toy box could get cuter...

And of course, no happy moment would be complete without his Ra Ra....

Sadly, shortly after these photos were taken the Benezra family suffered a loss at the hands of Sark Benezra... the sweatshirt was left unattended for a short period and Sark got ahold of it... needless to say we won't be posting pictures of what the sweatshirt looks like now because it makes Mama too sad, but we learned another lesson about fabric items the hard way.  Xander now uses the remnants of the sweatshirt in his crib as a bit of a pillow.  Curse you, Nike, for not selling the same sweatshirt two seasons in a row!

New York, New York

August 27th, 2013

After our visit in Connecticut, it was time to make our way to the JFK airport and then home.  It was a detour, but we figured why not make the most of our time - instead of spending hours at the airport, let's grab lunch in Manhattan!

First we parked in a lot near the restaurant and Times Square - probably the most we've ever paid to park anywhere for so short a period of time.  Then we headed to Times Square.  Mama and Dada had been there before Xander was born, but this was Xander's first time...

Not the right time of year to see the ball drop, but we did catch a glimpse of the dropped ball...

Then Mama got in her photo op with Xander too...

After a brisk walk back towards parking, we were only a little early for our reservation at Bar Americain.  We wanted to try Bobby Flay's food and were so excited - unfortunately the food was not as good as we'd hoped and even if it didn't take as much as it did for us to get there, even if it was down the street from us, Mama doesn't think she'd go back.  But still, it was a fun experience and fun adventure.  Totally worth it!

Visiting Dolores

August 26th, 2013

Our original plan, while in Connecticut, was to visit Great Uncle Rick Monday afternoon, then have dinner with Mama's close friend Dolores and her husband Ray.  Unfortunately, Ray took ill and was in the hospital at the time of our visit.  We were sad for Ray and his family and of course that we might not be able to visit with them while we were in town.  We really wanted Dolores to have the chance to meet Xander.  So, we were able to nail down a window of time where we could stop by the hospital and visit with Dolores after visiting with Great Uncle Rick.

Here she was, going through so much and spending all her time at the hospital, but Dolores still managed to find a way to give Xander a present.  She got him a play set so he can dress up like a doctor in a white jacket with all kinds of pockets for doctor tools.  The best part about the gift itself was that it is embroidered with the logo of the hospital where Ray was - Griffin Hospital.  That is the very hospital where Mama, Mama's Mama and Mama's Mama's Mama were born!

Dolores couldn't let us worry about her, she isn't wired that way.  We tried to help her out by bringing her some snacks, but she took us to the cafeteria to make sure we ate lunch - she knew we'd been traveling that day and should be hungry.  Dolores is great at taking care of people, it shows.

We really enjoyed our visit, despite the circumstances, and wish we could have spent more time with Dolores and seen Ray.  We're just grateful that now Ray is getting better everyday!

Xander was really melting down on this visit, and by the end of it we had to cut the visit off just to get Xander home to the hotel for a nap.  Dolores was so understanding about it, of course, it's like she's had kids and Grandkids or something...

Visiting with Great Uncle Rick

August 26th, 2013

In the morning, while Mama and Dada were getting ready, Xander started his day in a good mood with is friend Scout.

It helped that Mama hid Scout in her backpack for most of this trip so when he was on meltdown overload before our visit with Great Uncle Rick, Scout could calm him down a bit... see, happiness!

After working out some scheduling kinks, Mama and Dada took Xander to go meet his Great Uncle Rick - his Mama's Mama's Brother.

Rick lives in an assisted living facility for the mentally retarded.  He has lived in similar facilities for most of his life.  We don't get to visit Rick that often since he lives so far away, but we were pretty sure he'd be excited to see us and to meet Xander.  When we got to his house, Rick was just getting back from an activity and it was chow time, so we joined him in the dining room.

Then Xander wanted a snack too, so he had some milk.

Mmmmm!  Milk!

Later, while Xander was discovering the ceiling fan and shaking his head around, Great Uncle Rick saw him and burst out laughing.  It was probably the highlight of the visit, tied with some great hugs we all got from Rick.

Here's Xander, beaming with excitement that he found the ceiling fan, and it was on and spinning fast!

We weren't able to stay with Great Uncle Rick for much of the day, but we were able to visit with him, give him some paper and pens (he's always asking for those item) and by the end of the visit he was calling for Xander when he would run out of the room.  We made some great memories and hope Great Uncle Rick had as much fun visiting with us as we did with him!

Visit with the Brelsfords

August 25th, 2013

We left New Jersey the morning after Josh and Kelly's wedding.  We'd had so much fun that night, and by the time we got home and packed up, very little sleep was had by all (for the second night in a row). Despite the sleepiness, we had a plan and we were going to stick to it.  How often will we be in the NJ/NY/CT area anyway?

First, we stopped at Dunkin' Doughnuts because A) we don't have them back home and B) they are supposed to be awesome and 3) we heard the coffee was legit.  As it turns out, the doughnuts were nothing special, but the coffee was phenomenal.  Too bad that was the only one we had... but next time we're in the area, we know what Mama will be drinking.

That was just a quick stop on our long journey.  First, from New Jersey we drove towards NY/CT further into NJ to meet up for brunch with Dada's friends and business associates Ed and Phil.  Ed brought his fiance and son and Phil brought his wife and two children - it was a fine looking table to say the least.  It took about 2 hours to get there, then another 2 hours of brunch before getting back on the road for another 2 hour drive.

This time we met up with Dada's friend and business associate, Scott, at his home in New York.  We met his wife and twin boys and got the tour of his relatively new digs.  We weren't able to stay long, but it's always nice spending time with good people.

Another 2 hours on the road and we were finally at Great Aunt Marge's house.  She had arranged for her daughters, Dina and Lori (Mama's cousins) and all of their family to be at the house.  Aunt Marge also sent her man, Ron, to pick up food and most importantly, Great Grandma Brelsford.

First Great Grandma was concerned when Xander tried to stand up on the chair.  She made sure he was safe though...

Then it was time for the ever popular goldfish cracker snack...

Then Xander wanted to use a fold up chair as a toy and spent some time taking it from the kitchen to the living area.  We all found it pretty entertaining... and loud...

After Xander moved his chair around a bit, he discovered the fish game that one of the girls had left out.  His favorite part of the game?  The fishing poles of course.  And what does he do with them?  Nothing related to the game, obviously...

Dina and her family had to leave a little early to get her girls to bed.  It was the Sunday before school was starting and they needed to keep up with their school bedtimes.  Before they left we managed to get this family photo of them.

It was difficult to get a photo of both Xander and Gram looking at the camera.  Grandma doesn't love posing for photos and doesn't tend to look at the lens... but that's alright because Xander doesn't either :)

Before we drove away, we got a quick photo of Lori, Xander, Mama and Marge.  Unfortunately it had been a long trip so far and a very long day so Xander was beyond ready for bed and Mama and Dada were pretty darn tired too.  Overall we always wish we had more time with family, but we were grateful for the visit.  Thanks to Great Aunt Marge for putting everything together and letting us enjoy some family time at her place.  Till next time!