Steven's Blunders

That picture has nothing to do with the stories I'm about to embark on - but isn't it cute! So we went to see Wicked today (which for those who don't know it is the prequel to The Wizard of Oz) and it was amazing! I would totally recommend it to anyone who can get tickets. And in fact getting tickets is what spawned this next story about my husband.

So Steven is quite a smart guy - very good with words and very rarely does he get himself into situations that are uncomfortable or embarrassing....but when he does they are always hilarious!
This time it involves getting Wicked tickets.

Blunder #1: So - we found two good tickets on Ebay and decided we had to go since this show has been all the rage for at least two years. So we splurged and waited for them to show up in the mail. We waited...and waited...and waited. Finally after 8 days we were getting concerned, especially since they were supposed to be shipped overnight. So Steven starts to contact our seller. He sends several messages through Ebay to no avail. He then searches through receipts and finds his email address and starts to email him regularly. We get no response. This goes on for several days. As time passes the emails begin to take a harsher tone until finally he emails him and says, "If you are a thief, I'm going to get my money back. If you are a idiotic moron who doesn't check his account, you should be more careful." At this point I am standing behind him going, "Sweetie you probably shouldn't call him a moron." To which the rhetorician replies, "I didn't call him a moron, I choose my words very carefully, I said IF you're a moron." Either way he sends the email. He even searches for this guy on google and finds out that he is a very respected government official of a huge cooperation! Not only that, he was on the 9-11 commission! On this site he finds his cell phone number and actually attempts to call him. Luckily for us, he doesn't answer. Not on the first, second, third,.....or sixth time. A couple days later Steven gets an email from his email account apologizing. The emailer (our buyer's son...who is actually a III no less) informs us that his father has been in a severe skiing accident and that he is in the hospital and now is the first time that he could get into his father's Ebay account. Um....silence.....

Blunder #2: We were walking into our local NYC drugstore looking for dental floss. We spend quite a long time debating over the best type and looking through the numerous brands and styles. We settle on our type and Steven heads to the register. I call him back laughing because after all that, the wrong style was under the label and therefore he had the wrong one. He picks up the right one and heads to the check out counter. He stares at the cashier who appears to be looking over his shoulder (he assumes that she is looking at me still laughing..but I am in fact no longer there or even laughing). He stares harder to which she replies, "Why you lookin at me like that?" Steven says, "Excuse me." She repeats herself saying, "Why you looking at me funny?" Finally my husband, the rhetoric teacher, says, "Why are you looking over my shoulder." She doesn't reply, rings up the floss, and he walks away. As I look at him in confusion over the interaction at the register, I ask him what was wrong. Yea...she had a lazy eye. And go figure, next time we went there...guess who checked him out!

Here are some cute pics of our friend Mary and Steven to treat yourself to after that long post!

Snow in the City :)

Last night, my friend Beth and I planned to go see Allison Krauss at Carnegie Hall. Our husbands kindly stayed with our kids and we rushed through dinner and made it to the door 15 minutes before the show....to see poster boards that had been printed, stating, "Allison Krauss will not appear in concert tonight due to illness." After a sad moment and a crazy long line with some funny New York women we got our money back with the plans to spend it on a good dessert and a glass of wine. So we turned our evening of music into an evening of great conversation.


Waking up this morning we saw 6-9 inches of snow outside our window. So I promptly...in my snow ritual...first woke my husband, then called my mom, and after breakfast made plans with our friends to venture out into the wonderland! So we suited up-all of us in our long johns..(where the heck is that name from?)

And out we went!



Steven Edward was less than impressed. In fact once we brought him back inside he was near inconsolable, BUT....I am okay with the fact that I took him out for me, not him.




I even must admit that there were a few times a snowball "accidentally" hit his father and shattered in his face. The result was a confused wet look.


Overall it was a great day. A day full of family, snow, sledding, snowball fights, and we can't forget...Hot Chocolate.

The Breedlove Visit!

There is nothing to make you tired like a trip from your in-laws...or at least my in-laws. I think they are in better shape than I was at 17, and my father-in-law relaxes by constant motion. We ate great food, saw good acting, went ice skating, and even squeezed in a visit to a museum. Overall it was a great time.



They won a weekend at the New York Athletic Club at a silent auction and we were able to join them there for dinner on Friday and brunch on Saturday. It is a crazy nice place on the south end of Central Park. From their room you could see the entirety of Central Park and the view was amazing. It was the type of place where you were required to wear a coat and tie to dinner and for brunch a coat was "not required but always appropriate." In fact there is one elevator (of the 6) that is just for people in "casual clothes or work-out attire" and it led you to the back door...because you obviously can't leave through the front door in jeans or tennis shoes! Imagine!

Then we went to see Mama Mia on Saturday and went out to a great Italian restaraunt that night! What an amazing day and by the end I hit my pillow hard.


Then Sunday we went to church and then went ice skating in Central Park. This was the one stipulation I had in moving to NYC for the year. I had informed my husband that I was willing to move as long as he took me ice skating in the park....check.

Then this morning we made our way to the Natural History Museum and some NYC pizza for our Grand Finale. And what a finale it was.

Meanwhile-when I get home and fall into bed, my husband works each night on a paper that is due in 2 hours...I think he is about done :)

Go-rilla Crawler

So, I thought it was funny to compare his old crawling.....to his current crawling. Now he does this only hands and feet crawl with his bum sticking way up in the air, similar to a gorilla. Enjoy!

What a Great Day!

Today was one of the best birthdays I have had in a really long time. So many people called, emailed, and sent cards or gifts. It was truly a day where I felt loved. In fact, one of my good friends, Teena (you like that shout out!), was able to wish me Happy Birthday in three different ways!

So we started by having banana pancakes and bacon....what a great combo. When then had a relaxing morning where we looked at houses online and sipped coffee! After our son's nap we headed down to the East Village for a tour of a new neighborhood. Here is a short picture tutorial.



This is a flip book version of me pushing this bizarre piece of art in a circle. It is one of the major landmarks in the East Village. In fact, Steven went up and tried to push it and couldn't move it! Look at me go!


These are two interesting sights we saw on a walk through the Village. They are Coyote Ugly (which was a featured bar in the film Coyote Ugly) and St. Mark's-In-The-Bowery-Church which was built in 1799.


We ate at an AMAZING Italian restaurant in the Village called Gnocco (which upon entering we found out is a traditional appetizer which was excellent). All of the employees spoke Italian to one another and our waiter had only been in the country 9 months! I ate one of the best Italian dishes I've ever had and Steven Edward had a grand time banging on the table. He also became an expert at drinking from a straw.


Overall it was one of the best birthday's I can remember. Who says you can't take your son on a date (I may have another opinion on that next year)? Once I'm done publishing this post, I'm going to eat a Caravel Ice Cream Cake (which my husband hunted down in Manhattan!), drink a glass of wine (that my husband bought with his Christmas money for me), and enjoy my flowers (which my husband brought home this morning). What a great life I lead (not to mention my amazing husband!)!

Ticker Tape Parade

In honor of the Giants Superbowl victory a ticker tape parade was held in Lower Manhattan on Broadway. We decided to face the crowds and be a part of the madness....well....we didn't see much. In fact I saw more on my camera after the parade than I actually saw during the parade. I am a little too short to see much in such situations. Especially when the entire crowd stands on their toes and holds their cameras above their heads! When they actually came to our area the crowd much have grown a couple inches!

Here is a close up from a video that I got while the float with Eli Manning and the trophy made their way past us.....if you look closely you can see the trophy and Eli is supposedly (according to my husband who had to watch on TV because of classes) wearing a dark shirt/sweatshirt/jacket of some type.



Here is an actual picture of Eli...taken by my friend Colleen who is a good 6 inches taller than me...man when it comes to pictures and kitchen cabinets you guys really have an advantage!

And this is a video of the actual ticker tape coming down. If you're like me you may be asking, "what is ticker tape?" Well it is the paper that updates come through on Wall Street on. So they shred it and use it as confetti! This is a very old tradition. We were standing just off Broadway about 50 yards from Wall Street!

Enough Said...

Good thing I bought a T-shirt! Superbowl 42 MVP

January with Steven Edward

This month our son has changed a lot! He will be 10 months in 2 days and his personality is seeping into every possible part of his being. He is an adventurer and an explorer and likes to get into any and everything!

• He is pulling up on everything imaginable. This included his crib. The first time he did it he was so proud of himself he just stood there and talked for about 30 minutes. It was the second time and each time afterward that he realized he was now trapped in.
• He really started pulling up for the first time in the beginning of January and is now attempting to walk around a bit while holding furniture (a very little bit).
  
• His watching at the window that happened in December is now standing, and banging the window, while he watches cars and people.
  

He has gotten his fourth tooth (although they are not evenly distributed, thus making him look like a pirate) and we can see several more attempting to surface.

• He has tons of new "words." He says mama, dada, baba, gaga, wawa, makes a clicking sound with his tongue and the roof of his mouth (we think that it is Khoisan), and makes a "motor boat" sound. He has even starting squealing like a stuffed pig occasionally. We tell ourselves that this is probably a masculine sound in other countries that we don't know here in the US.
• His favorite new game is to play with things while standing. This entails him standing on an object (most likely a kitchen chair), then bending down and picking up a toy (usually a stackable bucket or a block) and bringing it up to the chair with him. He usually at this point just bangs. In fact there are little dints in our dorm room chairs where the corner of blocks have hit them repeatedly.

• He also really loves to talk loudly and is generally just louder overall. He only really does this at our apartment. If we go other places he is too busy observing his surroundings to actually make noise.
• He does understand the word no, but definitely does not always obey.
  
• He has learned to throw things....nice. This was learned in an attempt to teach him to roll a ball back and forth. He didn't quite pick up on the rolling, but learned to throw it back to us. Unfortunately for us his aim isn't quite the best. In fact every time he throws he instinctively closes his eyes at the off chance the ball comes back and hits him in the head - which sometimes it does.
• He has also learned to put a ball or an object in a bucket on command.
• He can give his father a "five." Granted it's not a high five and he doesn't actually understand to only do it once...but we're working.
  
• He loves peek-a-boo. I will pop out from behind a corner and he will laugh so hard he starts to jump up and down slightly. He will eventually be filled with enough anticipation that he comes to chase me around the corner because he can't wait any longer.
• He also loves to be chased. He will cackle as you chase after him crawling on the floor.
• His hair is growing like crazy! It is getting long enough to flip out in certain places. I'm quite afraid that one morning he will wake up and look like a frat boy with shaggy flippy hair - or worse yet...he'll wake up and look like Thomas!

The cutest thing about him right now is his desire for affirmation. Every time he does something new he looks to me with a huge smile on his face waiting for me to praise him. He is so aware of our love and presence and always desires to please us. It is enough to keep me happy even on the loneliest days. It is amazing how much he loves having me around all the time and even when I doubt staying at home, I know that it is an amazing gift to him that I could never take away.