Hodgepodge

Since David is burning the candle at both ends trying to get through finals- I'm here alone with my thoughts tonight. And since I'm doing my best to avoid doing the dishes, folding the laundry, and starting to pack for Utah I might as well send some of my random thoughts out into the universe.

First, I can't believe how fast my little boy is growing up. I know every parent says this but GEEZ! In the past two weeks he's gained 2 lbs, grown 2 teeth, gotten taller, started crawling for real, started pulling to a standing position, gotten a fat lip and a bruised shin from pulling to a standing position while I'm not looking, started to laugh at his own "jokes", outsmarted or outclimbed every attempt I've made at keeping him away from stuff like the radiators and the cat food, and doubled his food intake-DOUBLED!! Now I know why people are crazy enough to have a 2nd kid...you're so in love with how much cuter they keep getting and how proud you are of them for learning, but you also miss that itty bitty little ball of immobile baby so much you can hardly stand it!

Second, I'm really excited for our trip to Utah. In addition to satisfying all those food cravings I mentioned earlier, we've already got plans to go ice skating, laser tagging, sledding, and skiing. Did you know that ice skating at Rockefeller Center costs $30 bucks a pop! Bless Provo and its endless bargain date options!

Third- we met some really interesting people yesterday while waiting to have our temple recommend interviews with the stake president. The girl who sat next to me is here working as a costume designer for Law and Order. The girl next to her told us that she works for the United Nations and is married to Sierra Leone's biggest rock star, Daddy Saj who is seriously like Michael Jackson there (no kidding- look him up on google or wikipedia). So now they live in our stake, hang out with Wyclef Jean, and help the former President of Sierra Leone write his autobiography. The guy next to them was a dentist. Ever since we got home last night, I can't get the Sesame Street song "Who are the People in Your Neighborhood?" out of my head.

And finally, for a couple years now I've been decrying the Facebook phenomenon and refusing to have anything to do with it. Much to my chagrin, David set up an account a while ago which he mostly uses to keep in touch with his mission friends since they don't have a very good website running-although he's definitely gotten sucked in a lot more than he originally planned. Now I have a confession to make. Sometimes I sneak around in David's account and look people up when I'm bored. It's weird and I'm so ashamed. It's like a car wreck though. I can't help it. And then I can't help feeling a wee bit jealous that everybody else is on there being so witty in thwarting the infamous "is" status, and racking up 4 million friends. And then I start wondering how many friends I would have if I joined... And that's when I throw up in my mouth a little and come to my senses and realize why I must stand firm in my decision not to enroll in a virtual high school. At least not until I come up with enough witty statuses and artsy profile pictures to make me the most popular girl there...

But for now, I'll just stick to my blog and my hopes that my posts will get tons of comments so everyone will know that others love me and find me interesting, while I continue to feel sorry for all those Facebookers who need so much social validation =)

We'll be home for Christmas!

I just realized that we leave for Utah in less than 2 weeks and I don't think we've told everyone we're coming! We've been feeling a little homesick lately, so when we found out that David has a month long break before the next semester starts we decided we'd much rather spend it at home with family. So we'll be there from the 18th until January 15th. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

Here are the things I'm most excited about:

#1 Having a whole month to spend time with family and friends. I miss everyone like crazy and Rhys adores everybody there- he will be so happy to get smothered with love and attention! My mom and sister and I already have more things planned than we probably have time for!

#2 Enjoying all the holiday trimmings without having to worry about how to do it in this tiny little place on a tight budget.

#3 Seeing A Christmas Carol at the Hale. My wonderful friend Jeremy (who is playing Fred this year) hooked us up with tickets to see a matinee of the show a couple days before Christmas. Now, anyone who knows me well knows that I usually suffer from severe CTADD (community theater attention deficit disorder). But he talked us into seeing this show a few years ago, and I LOVED it! Plus, with Jeremy in the cast, I would rather see it than anything Broadway has to offer =) God bless him, everyone!

#4 Eating out as much as possible! We already have a running list of all the places we want to eat at...Have I mentioned that we've been sorely disappointed in the New York fare? We have NO fast food chains near us, only 2 places (pizza and subs) near enough and "cheap" enough to eat at if I don't feel like making dinner, and the ethnic food near us is TERRIBLE! We spent $40 to share two tiny Indian entrees and it was so gross I couldn't even finish it (Bombay House is now at the top of the "places to eat while in Utah" list). It's pretty lame- we were really looking forward to endless variety and awesome ethnic food here. Maybe it's more like that in Midtown or if we were willing to spend $60 bucks a pop at the trendy restaurants around here. But from what we've seen so far, the Cougareat has more selection and less chance of food poisoning than anything in the Upper West Side. So Bangkok Grill, Brick Oven, and Cafe Rio here I come!

The list goes on and on (both the reasons i'm excited list AND the places to eat list) but I'll stop there.

We hope to get a chance to see everyone while we're there- so let us know which restaurant you want to join us at and we'll make it a date!

Hooray for teeth!

Tonight I was feeling Rhys's gumline (don't ask me why, because I just realized I don't have an answer for that) and I felt something sharp! At first I freaked out thinking he'd put something horrible in his mouth and then I realized it was a tooth! YAY!! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! It's too small to even get a picture of it to post with this but I couldn't go to bed without sharing the news!

I just remembered while typing this that last Thanksgiving Day was the first time David saw him move in my tummy. Now I'm all emotional dang it. This little boy has brought so much love and happiness into our lives. What an honor it is to watch him grow. We have a lot to be thankful for.

I know this picture has nothing to do with the post, but everyone enjoys posts more when they have pictures,especially of cute babies being harassed by floating hands...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Day at the Museum

Last Saturday, we decided to blow off chores and do something New York-ish. Since it was rainy and blustery we decided on the American Museum of Natural History (you might recognize it from such films as Night at the Museum). Another couple from our ward went with us, which ended up being a really good thing since they knew what they were doing. The place is enormous! And such a weirdly laid out maze that if they hadn't been with us, I think we might still be trying to find our way out of the Hall of North American Sea Birds!

Our favorite exhibit was the dinosaurs. They were displayed in gigantic halls with stark white walls and floors, pristine glass, and shiny metal accents. The juxtaposition between ancient and modern was really striking.



Another thing that stuck out to us was how different they made the place look for the movie. They cut together different parts of the museum to create a whole new interior. For example, the lobby in the movie is a combination of the 1st floor lobby, with the ceiling from the rotunda on the floor above it, and the desk from the subway entrance lobby in the basement. The Easter Island head is in a completely different, incredibly hard to get to spot, and of course the T-Rex is actually in the exhibit I just described above. So even though you still see a lot of the things they used in the movie, you don't really feel like you're in the same place which I think would have been a bummer if we hadn't already been told that in advance.


Rhys loved everything (as usual) except for when I took him to see a T-Rex jaw bone up close. When I leaned forward to let him touch the teeth, he acted terrified for the first time in his life. He wimpered and clung to me really tight. I gave him a second, showed him how fun it was for me to touch them, and then tried again. This time he burst into tears and started shaking and heaving and twisted around to bury his face in my shoulder! I was so surprised I didn't know how to react. This kid has never shown fear about ANY new experience. I took him away and got him calmed down, then David took him back again and he seemed ok and eventually reached out and touched it. We're still not sure what caused it. It wasn't bigger than him, and it wasn't even attached to a head or body. It was only the lower right half of the jaw mounted on a wall, so there wasn't even any context he could have picked up on (even if he was usually afraid of big things, or animals, or whatever-which he isn't). The only thing I can think of is that he's starting to get a little clingy with me lately, and it was really crowded in there, so maybe he felt like I was going to pass him off to a stranger or something? Anyway, he got over it, and so did I and everything else went really smoothly.

We only saw about 1/10 of the exhibits, but we hit all the main ones. Since we went near the end of the day with little kids, we were pretty glad we knew the New York insider tip about the "suggested donation" fee. Most of the museums here are completely funded by the state. However, they still ask for an exorbitant suggested donation, which they pass off to unwitting tourists as an admission fee. So if you don't know any better, they'll just ring you up at the ticket counter for $15-20 bucks/person. In actuality, you can pay whatever you want and most New Yorkers go with $1/person. We had to laugh when we looked at our receipt which actually showed a $30 charge minus a $28 discount.

Anyway, it was really fun and we're glad we postponed those piles of laundry and dishes!

Help! I need some "Mommy Advice"!

I need some help from all you experienced parents. Rhys just out-grew his bouncy chair. This morning he flipped his top half over the edge and got stuck dangling head down, with his lower half still strapped in. He wasn't super upset since he loves hanging upside down, but he didn't like the feeling of being stuck there. He just recently started sitting up on his own, so I guess this is the trade off!? Thankfully I was right next to him with my back turned, so I heard him do it. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if I'd been in the next room, or distracted or something! I swear, if one more person tells me they get easier as they get older I'm going to freak out.

My problem now is this: putting him in the bouncy chair in the morning is the only way I can keep him entertained, in sight, and immobile while I shower and get ready. He doesn't like being left in his play yard since it's also his bed (he feels like he's being made to take a nap when he's not tired). So what do I do? I've already thought about getting a walker with wheels that lock, but I'm wondering if any of you have found other solutions... please share any tid-bits of wisdom you have!

The Masons and The Mouse

David's sister Sharon is working at Disney World this semester and was able to get us in free, as well as get us an amazing discount on a resort. When we found incredibly cheap airfare, we figured we'd be dumb NOT to go, right?? So we planned it for the only free time David has this semester which happened to fall right over Halloween weekend. I was pretty happy about that since Rhys isn't old enough yet to appreciate a traditional Halloween, and it wasn't going to feel the same anyway this year without our family. We donned mouse ears instead of costumes and spent Halloween day in the Magic Kingdom (I also drew a Jack Skellington face on Rhys's orange onesie- it was pretty darn cute).

David's brother Matt flew out from Utah to join us since we had a bed to spare. We were really happy to spend time with some family again, especially Rhys. He had so much fun with his Aunt and Uncle that it made me really sad again about living so far from everyone! I think it settled our resolve to find a way to go back to Utah for the summers...we'll see!

All in all, it was an awesome vacation. Rhys loved every minute of it, and was able to go on almost everything with us (plus since we had Sharon and Matt, we were able to do ride swap for the big rides so we didn't miss out on anything). His favorite rides were Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan, Finding Nemo, and the African Safari, and he loved Fantasmic, the Indiana Jones stunt show, and anything else with fire and explosions. He also learned to growl somewhere along the way (I'm looking at you Sharon) and hasn't stopped doing it since. When I go in to get him from a nap, he growls. When we meet a new friend at the store or the park, he growls. It's actually pretty cute, but we'll see how long the novelty lasts.

Thanks to Sharon for the awesome hookup, and thanks to both her and Matt for making it so much fun for all of us (and for giving David and I some time to ourselves- the hot tub was HEAVEN!!)

Tag Hag

My cousin Cami tagged me on her blog so here it is...

What is your husband's name? Am I supposed to call him something other than "Stable Boy?"

How long have you been married? "Four years, 2 months, 23 days. Actually 24 days if you're counting leap years." That's the response David gave just now when I asked him this question. Either marriage is really dragging for him, or I married a gigantic nerd...you be the judge.

How long did you date? We were "unofficially" engaged after about 2 weeks, and "officially engaged after 2 months. We got married almost exactly 5 months from the day we met.

How old is he? Dont' tell him I told you...29!!!

Who eats sweets? Both of us. It's actually becoming a big problem. One of his classmates leaned over to him at lunch the other day and said, "You have a real sweet tooth, don't you?" He was doing some testing at an elementary school and apparently he got noticeably excited when he saw the lunch ladies putting cookies on the trays...

Who said "I Love You" first? He did. I spent the weekend at his family's house about 2 weeks after we met. We'd already been talking about a future together and we'd both been wanting to say it for about a week, but his family's reaction to me was kind of the "final test" before we could fully commit (he'd already met my family and they were chomping at the bit to make him part of the clan). Anyway, I passed with flying colors --as a lot of you probably know, I fit into his family like I was born into it. The last morning we were there, he hid in the closet of the room I was staying in to scare me. When I walked in to get my purse, he jumped out and I screamed my head off. He hugged me and we laughed and laughed, and then he put his hands on the sides of my face, looked at me with a big smile and said "I love you!" Yay for memories!!

Who is taller? He's about 4 inches taller- which is PERFECT for me! I don't have to crank my neck to kiss him without shoes on, but I can still wear almost any heels I want to.

Who can sing best? David REALLY appreciates music and loves to listen to me sing. We'll leave it at that :)

Who is smarter? Hahahahahahahahahahaha....me.

Who does the laundry? Both of us used to. Now that we have to do it in the basement of our building, he does it for safety and childcare purposes (someone has to stay in the apartment with Rhys since we usually do it after he's asleep). It's really cute- our laundry bag is hot pink! I help fold and put away though ;)

Who pays the bills? Hahahahahahahahahahaha...me.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Currently David. I like to be on the side closest to the bathroom so I don't have as far to go in the middle of the night.

Who mows the lawn? the New York City public landscaping people...

Who cooks dinner? the New York City foodmaking people... But I sure think about making it quite often and I do give it the good ol' college try now and then. David cooks for us whenever he's home and has italian ingredients.

Who drives? the New York City transportation people...

Who is the first to admit they are wrong? the New York City...ok I'll stop now. We're both pretty good at admitting we're wrong when we know we're wrong. David just knows he's wrong a lot more often. (editor's note: David would like the record to reflect that after a year of hearing that, he started keeping track and is actually right 94% of the time)

Who kissed who first? A couple of days before our first kiss, we got really close to kissing. But I told David that it was important to me to take things slow. He agreed to take things at whatever pace I was comfortable with. On our first "official" date he took me to a rugby game- BYU vs. UVSC (at the beginning of the week he asked me out for Friday night, but we ended up spending every day together until then...so I'm really not as easy as it sounds when I say it was our first date). During the game it started to snow, you know the really beautiful sparkly fluffy snow that Utah is famous for? So of course, we had to cuddle to keep warm. The game was pretty close the whole time, but finally BYU pulled ahead and scored the winning try. We yelled and cheered and hugged and then he pulled me close and kissed me! Of course, by this time the snowflakes had "bedazzled" my eyelashes and I was all cute and pink so you really can't blame the boy. After I was good and kissed, he pulled away and said "Ok, we can go back to your pace now." So if you've ever wondered if I knew how much of a smart a** he was before I married him, now you know.

Who asked who out first? David for sure. I was DONE with guys who weren't man enough to really pursue me and lay their hearts on the line. With David, I never had to wonder for a second if he was interested, if he was going to call, or if I was the only girl in his life.

Who wears the pants? Honey, if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy (at any rate, anyone that knows David knows how he feels about wearing pants).

How did you meet? At the mall. I worked in a tie store and he came in with his friend Joe looking for Italian ties. Later I saw them sitting outside the store pretending not to watch me and I knew one of them must think I was cute. After about a half hour, he came in and told me he was there to look at some more ties. After all my other customers cleared out, he said "Actually, I was lying about being interested in the ties. I really came back in to hit on you." I laughed and said, "Ok, go ahead." This flustered him, so he made up some joke about writing his line down on his hand so he wouldn't mess it up. Then he looked me in the eye and said "I think you're beautiful and I'd like to take you on a date so I can get to know you better." Like i said, I was DONE with lame-o non-committal guys so his upfront approach impressed the heck out of me. We talked for a few more minutes (in which he jokingly told me that he was already in love with me and that he wanted to marry me right then- finally a guy who could speak the words "love" and "marry" without having a seizure!) Anyway, as he walked away I had a really strong impression that he was the man I would marry.

Yay! That was actually a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. Now I tag the following people:

Heidi- because I know how much it will annoy you AND because you said you didn't have anything interesting to blog about...be careful what you wish for (or at least what you tell me...ahaha)

Amanda- because I love reading your answers to these kinds of things. They make me very happy I know you :)

Wendy- because I don't think you really read my blog so now I've devised a trap for you! And if you do read it, then you'll have to start a blog too in order to avoid the awful curses that fall upon tag chain breakers

Lisa- because David and I just realized you and John are part of our first date story (unlike David who was busy making moves on the sidelines, John was actually playing in that game), and we don't know anything about how you guys met!

Swing Kid

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous for the past week, so we've been taking advantage of it by heading to the park every afternoon. Rhys has decided that his favorite playground activity is swinging. He'd stay in that thing for hours if I let him- and sometimes I'm pretty tempted when I remember that every toy he has at home holds his attention for 15 minutes or less.
He likes me to push him as high and as fast as I dare because he loves to feel the wind in his face. He's my little daredevil! The kid next to him is a year old and his dad said he hated the swings until just a couple months ago. He was pretty impressed with my 5 1/2 month old thrill seeker.

I'm a pretty lucky mom that I get to experience these moments with him. I look around the park while we're there and see that most of the kids are with nannies. I'm so grateful that I get to spend my time with this little boy...he's pretty fun to be around.

Come and Knock on Our Door... (a photo tour of our new world)

Welcome to Bancroft Hall! (it's the one closest to you on the left)

This is our new home sweet home...

Yay- you made it past the security desk and into the lobby. Hop in an elevator and come on up!

Here's our living room and dining nook. Too bad you couldn't wait 'til next week when I'll have some super cute curtains up.

Through here, you can see our bedroom- looking eerily similar to our previous one...even though the apartment was furnished I found a way to bring my beloved bedroom set! (maybe you I Spy fans can find a baby somewhere in there).

Take one step back and you find yourself in our "den" with Rhys's room to the right. He apologizes for not cleaning it up in time for you to get a closer look.

Direct your eyes upward and you'll catch a glimpse of one of my favorite features in this place...the coiffeured ceiling. Love it!

A quick 180 will assure you that we were quite serious when we said the refrigerator is in the living room. Come with us to the next stop and you'll see why...

Here's our kitchen...ette in all its glory. I'd invite you in, but only one of us can fit. What's that you ask? The rest of it? It's in the living room, remember? What's even funnier- in my gigantic townhome kitchen complete with dishwasher, garbage disposal, microwave, side-by-side fridge w/ icemaker and attached laundry room- I always complained about the ugly outdated cupboards and countertops. Well, I've got some pretty good looking cupboards and countertops now.

Now that you've seen our place, Rhys can't wait to show you around the neighborhood- let's go!

This is a beautiful Catholic church and rectory just a few doors down from us- one of our favorite nearby landmarks!

A little further up the street is Riverside Chapel and behind it is a gorgeous park that runs along the Hudson.

This is why our neighborhood is called Morningside Heights. The area you can see below us is Harlem. Or as we like to call it, New Obamaville.

This is one of the ways you get down into Morningside Park. It has beautiful trails, rock structures, great playgrounds, ponds, and lots of birds and squirrels! We saw a jet black squirrel there the other day. On another note, don't drink out of the Hudson river.

Keep going- we're almost to the bottom!

One of those ponds we were telling you about...

Hey look, a pre-school group strolling along in front of us. You may have asked yourself previously the best way to wrangle preschool kids. Well, here's the answer...chain them together like a dog-sled team.

Finally, we'll take a quick peek at David's world. This is Teacher's College (the name of the education grad program) and it's where he spends most of his time away from home. That's not as bad as it sounds since it's close enough that he can actually look into our neighbor's windows from several of his classes. It always reminds me of Hogwarts for some reason...

And finally, we'll cut through the Columbia main campus on our way home. This is just one of about 17 or 18 of the libraries on campus (you might recognize this one from movies like Spiderman and Hitch).

Wow- that was some tour! Rhys is ready for a nap...hopefully you're not asleep already. Next time we'll venture more than 2 blocks from our house. Thanks for visiting us.

Hopefully this has inspired you to pay us an actual visit, although you may now be asking yourself "Where the heck would I sleep?"

Derek Jeter, Eat Your Heart Out!

So, the words I dread hearing the most in this life are "Hey, let's go to a baseball game!" I think a dejected Homer Simpson said it best while watching a game sober for the first time, "I never realized how boring this game is."

But can you really say no when your husband comes to you all doe-eyed and says "Honey, wouldn't it be great to be able to say that Rhys's first sporting event was one of the last Yankees games ever played in the original Yankee Stadium? You know, the one where guys like Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gherig, and Mickey Mantle played (just to name a few)?" Even if you think to yourself, "I thought that Babe Ruth was just a candy bar..." or "I would rather watch an entire day of professional golf than spend an evening watching a bunch of big-bottomed men stand around scratching and spitting," you can't really say no.

So we spent $60 on scalped $10 tickets to the sold out 4th to last game (not to mention the $20 they squeezed out of my death grip for 2 hot dogs and a soda) and we took Rhys to a Yankees game..

All sarcasm aside though, it ended up being a really fun family outing. As I've mentioned before, New Yorkers are super nice and can't get enough of our cute little boy- which apparently holds true even when they're sloshed on Miller Lite (at $8.50 a can!), we got to see the requisite marriage proposal over the jumbo-tron, David got to speak Italian with a grandfather who was here visiting his family seated behind us, Rhys absolutely loved all the excitement, lights, and noise, AND since he fell asleep after 4 innings we got to leave before my athletic ADD kicked in. And I guess 20 years from now, I will think it's pretty cool to say I saw a Yankees game in the original stadium (but seriously, who the heck is Derek Jeter anyway?)

David and Rhys couldn't wait to hear "Play ball!"

Historic Yankee Stadium with the Bronx skyline behind, and the new stadium on the left side.

Rhys got to see Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and Ken Griffey Jr. play- he was more interested in the bright lights and all the nice people!

"Derek Jeter, eat your heart out!"

By the bottom of the 4th, it was all over (for Rhys anyway). The Yankees won 9-2, but we were all tucked in bed by then!

Waffles with Adam and Eve

So, yesterday was a pretty nice Sunday for us full of interesting moments and lots of opportunities for free food. Getting home from church took 45 minutes longer than usual since two Harlem motorists got into an accident and decided to blame it on our bus driver for cutting them off (which is even funnier when you consider that cutting people off is almost a requirement of NYC driving). They decided it would be a good idea to block the bus from leaving by standing in front of it Tiananmen Square style. We were finally rescued by another bus and left our driver reading a newspaper behind the wheel while the two angry motorists continued to stand in front of the bus yelling at him, each other, and any unwitting passerby who tried to step in and mediate.

After that, we got to enjoy some southwest fare at a social given by a really nice Texan couple in our building, and then it was on to a new ward member waffle social at our Bishop's home. For a while now, we've been trying to figure out why our Bishop looks so familiar to us. We'd finally contented ourselves that he was a Mitt Romney look-a-like. Over waffles with strawberries and whip cream, however, we finally figured it out. For those of you reading this who are endowed members of our church...remember the temple video with the dark haired Adam? Guess who our new Bishop is... A few minutes later, his wife volunteered to hold Rhys while I finished my waffle. As I talked to her, I couldn't help but feel like I knew her from somewhere too. Then it hit me. Remember the dark haired Eve? Yep, you guessed it... So that's how we ended up being served waffles by Adam and Eve on our 3rd Sunday in Manhattan.

So with that and the fact that our ward posts "bouncers" at the door to keep out the street hustlers...church here is turning out to be pretty cool.

Take time to look up...

Tonight, we had to make a trip downtown in the rain to pick up something for our computer. This was the view waiting for us as we emerged from the subway on 8th Ave and 33rd St. It was gorgeous. All the tourists were huddled together in the rain trying to get a good picture, while the veteran New Yorkers walked on by under their umbrellas and never even glanced up. I felt sad that something so beautiful and majestic had become so commonplace for them. I hope we never get so used to living here that we forget to look up!

The other nice surprise we had this week was getting to stroll through Central Park. We made a trip to Bed, Bath, and Beyond near the Lincoln Center and realized we were just a few blocks from the park. We walked through it for over an hour and couldn't believe how beautiful and varied it is. There are so many different "areas" to see, and each one of them has its own charm. You really feel like your walking through a movie set.

As we strolled through "The Mall" we passed a Bulgarian Olympic athlete and his coach, a Broadway understudy practicing a song as she hurried by, and a flock of little birds taking a bath in a rain puddle! We felt like we were in a scene from Enchanted.

There are bridges and lakes like this all over the place! They are so beautiful! The city skyline behind the trees looks like a movie backdrop that might blow over any minute. It's really hard to make your mind believe the two scenes actually co-exist.

The zoo was closed by the time we got there, but we still caught a glimpse of the sea lions having an after-dinner frolic.

In addition to resolving not to travel through life with our heads down, we're also going to be sure to carry a camera with us from now on since we keep getting surprised by wonderful views like this while we're out running errands (as you may have guessed, the pictures in this post weren't technically taken by us...but if we'd had a camera, our pictures would have looked pretty much the same ;)

"Please sir, can I have some more?"

So for the past week and a half, Rhys has been hungry all the time, and I mean ALL the time. We're talking nursing every hour all day long and not sleeping well at all. I figured it was just a normal growth spurt, I should feed him on demand and my supply would increase in a few days...no problem, right? Wrong. After the 8th day I realized the kid is just not getting enough from me. At his 4 month checkup, his doctor told me I could start him on a bowl of rice cereal a day, but I really wanted to hold out until after six months. Apparently, 8 days of feeling like a 24-hour dairy cow was enough to change my oh-so-noble convictions. Although seeing the "end result" of this wonderful solid-food experience about 10 minutes ago might be enough to change them back...you're welcome to thank me for not including a photo of that little milestone :)

David turns 29! Woah!

We decided there would be no better way to spend David's first birthday in New York City than to pay a visit to Lady Liberty. We had a blast. Rhys loved riding on the ferry and flirting with all the tourists in line with us. David spent most of the time thinking about when Cobra launched an airstrike over the statue and G.I. Joe saved the day.

Ever since 9-11 they don't let you go up to the crown but you can still tour the museum inside and walk around the pedestal (however, the view from there is mostly of the city skyline across the water since you can really only see up the good lady's skirt!) Still worth a trip to the island just so you can say you did it, but she's much more impressive from the ferry as you approach. All in all, it was a nice way to christen our first week in NYC.

We made it!

After lots of planning, packing, unpacking, and STRESS-- we finally made it to New York City. Rhys slept through the entire flight and cab ride into the city, while Pandora (who was on a double dose of valium) yowled incessantly. Our little apartment is adorable and we've just about got it the way we like it.

We've had some major and some minor adjustments already. The technology, space, weather, and convenience of New York leave something to be desired but we've been overwhelmed by the outpouring of kindness, service, and friendship of the people here. We get stopped on the street several times a day by passersby wanting to admire Rhys, strangers on the bus have paid our fare when we lacked the right method of payment and refused compensation, carried our gigantic stroller down the aisles for us, and given up their seats so we could sit with the baby! The owner of the hardware store down the street opened his doors to us after closing and gave us every kind of allen wrench he had free of charge since we weren't sure which we needed to put our bed together, and just asked us to bring back what we didn't use the next day. It's amazing what a sense of community and friendship there can be in a place where no one has any idea who you are!

More news and pictures to come. No pictures yet as we're still experiencing technical difficulties with our computer :(

Dinos and Daffodils

Last Saturday, we joined David's family for a day at Thanksgiving Point to celebrate Helen's 50th birthday! We had cake, toured the Dino Museum, and finished off the day by walking through the amazing gardens. We made it to waterfalls right as the sun was setting! It was beautiful! Rhys loved getting toted around in his carrier on Dad's tummy all day and was very glad to see Grandma and Grandpa and all his Aunts and Uncles again.

Family time at the world's largest man-made waterfall


Who you calling 4-eyes?

Rhys-zilla vs. the Mighty Megalodon
Cuddle time with Uncle Paul (who nicknamed Rhys "Stinko-Man")
Being carried, fed, fanned, and entertained sure wears a guy out!
Yes, that is actually one big blob of drool...

At last...the Masons are blogging!

Well, we hope this will appease all of you who have been begging us to branch out from our "email only" convictions!

Heather still refuses to join Facebook (especially since David came home yesterday saying "So on Facebook today, some old high school buddies invited me to be friends again, and you can see who's invited them to be friends! But a couple people wanna be friends with me and I don't wanna be friends with them...do you think I really have to be their friend? I can't believe so-and-so is friends with so-and-so...")

Since Heather's head almost exploded after that and she had nightmares that night about being back in high school- we hope that a baby step into blogging will be a close 2nd to joining the Facebook phenomenon...