Halloween 2008

Matthew had a very nice Halloween. He had all his grandparents here to see him in his costume and he went to a few of the neighbor's house to go Trick-o-Treating. We actually didn't give him any candy tho- he has such a sweet tooth that if we gave him one piece, he would throw a fit demanding more! LOL

He dressed up as...of course...Winnie the Pooh! And he was the cutest Pooh bear ever!

Here are a few pics of my precious little boy!!

Fun at the farm

Matt has been having a lot fun visiting the local farms and picking out pumpkins, looking at the animals, and roaming in the hay maze. Here are some pics from the farm:

I love this!!!

a poem that my dad got for matt in NYC:

That's My Boy by Robert Pavlinsky

As I held you in my arms, I shed a tear,
Just a little baby, not even a year.
You were everything I could have asked for and more,
So cute and adorable, right to the core.

I watched you get bigger and stronger each day,
Learning to behave, and know what to say.
Going from booties, to sneakers, to shoes,
Growing up so fast, sometimes gives me the blues.

But time doesn't wait, as you go off to school,
Just be yourself, don't worry about being cool.
I support you in whatever you decide to do,
I want nothing but the absolute best for you.

I love you with all of my heart,
I'd sacrifice anything, to do my part.
You have brought me so much happiness and joy,
I am very proud to say, THAT'S MY BOY!

Matt's First Haircut!!

So we took Matt to Snip-Its today in Nashua for his very 1st haircut! To be honest, we won't take him back there again b/c we didn't really like it there but he did pretty well once we entertained him & gave him some crackers (having us provide the entertainment kinda defeats the whole purpose of going to Snip-Its!) I think next time, we'll either try the one in Burlington or maybe just have my hairdresser do his hair instead. I did get a piece of his hair to save, but it wasn't a curly lock of hair so I was bummed about that, and they didn't give the Baby's First Haircut certificate either. =( But he looks very handsome w/his new 'do!!

The Latest in the borough

The past few wks have been really busy with 30th bday celebrations, Matthew accomplishments, and we had a doggy guest stay w/us for a week.

My 30th bday was really nice. Phil invited my gf's over for a few drinks. Its funny to see how much we've all changed over the yrs. Normally we would've wrapped things up at a nice 2am, all the while having the radio playing, the blender going, and all sorts of crazy laughs. This time around, we (I) was too tired to whip out the blender (LOL), we just sat around the table & talked about life now which is old age + dirty diapers, and by 10pm, we were all done for the night. LOL After the 10pm wrap up, Beth, Juney & I hit a few bars in Lowell. It was (finally) a nice night out with regards to weather so walking around downtown Lowell was nice. =)







We had some big Matthew accomplishments over the past 2 wks. He is officially walking and today, perhaps inspired by the olympic games, he decided to climb on top of the coffee table and (with Mommy's help) leap off, and back up, and leap off, and on & on we went. Yes, my baby is now climbing all over the tables in the house. LOL



Then we had a doggy guest stay for the week, Abby. Abby is my brother's dog, she's a beagle & she is super sweet. BUT she did pee in the house, tried escaping from the fenced yard, and helped us to discover a bees nest which swarmed & stung me- and that was within for the 3 hrs. HAHA! But once she got settled, she was fine. She was a little nervous around Matthew but she did ok with him. She loved to snuggle with me. She eventually bonded with Brady and she would either play with him, spoon with him, or use him as step stool to get to bigger/better things.



I had a really crappy start to the wk. Nothing big, just one of "those days". Today was bad weather - AGAIN - I had to talk to a super annoying person (try giving computer software tech support to someone who doesnt know what "click on this" means- who instead asks "U mean left-click or right-click??" uuummm yeeaaaahhh) so that pushed on my already short patience. Then on my way home from work, fortunately I had my window down b/c a rock flew into the window, grazed my head, and crashed into the backseat of the car. Little scary!

Which brings us to now. As most of you know, Matthew is a very independent, very mobile kid. He doesn't like to be helped, or to sit still. Tonight tho, he created his little "leaping off the coffee table" game so at least I got to actively help him do something, then, surprisingly, he sat on my lap and let me read an entire book to him!! Which totally made my day. Of course, as soon as the book was done, he was done sitting still and he went on to explore and play. He walked around the house holding Pooh bear with no hands! Yep, he held onto Pooh bear by biting Pooh bear's nose and holding onto him with his teeth.



Then he sat on the floor and played with an empty juice bottle where he amazed himself (and me too) with his understanding of how to screw the cap on & off. He's just the best!!

He's officially walking!!!

That's right my people! My little man is officially walking. Before today, he would do little walking spurts of 5-6 steps here & there but today, he's been walking all over the place!!

Ooh and because he is not very fast with the whole walking solo thing right now, he is still using his walker to chase Brady around. Yep, he is now chasing Brady with his walker thing which he thinks is just the funniest thing, and then Brady gets even more hyper than he usually is and he starts barking & running around and ugh ya..around & around it goes!

But today is the day thats going down in Matt's little history book as being his first real day of walking!!! I'll have to post pics soon.

Ooh also, we got him the twilight turtle today to see if it would help him to calm down when I put him down to bed. He was fine sleeping on his own for awhile, but out of the blue, he started to freak out- not even when I left the room, but before that- actually, right when I would say "goodnight sweetie pie, i love you" b/c he knows when I say that, that means I am leaving. So now as soon as I even start to say that, he tweaks out. And he should've gotten better by now but he's instead gotten worse. So we bought him the turtle & I'm hoping it will help. When I put him down tonight, he did tweak but only for like 2 minutes and then he was calm which is already a huge amount of progress so fingers crossed that this continues to work!!

We're moving to Memphis!!

Ok so not today but after watching a RE show on HGTV, I am seriously considering it!!
Germantown, TN to be exact.

Ok seriously, we can get 2x's the house, for about $100k less than our current place which means.... I could work less and be at home w/Matt more!

Seriously check out this house...

http://www.realtor.com/search/listingdetail.aspx?gate=google&source=a15696&ctid=92998&mxp=25&bd=4&bth=3&typ=1&supads=pup%252cpun&sid=a2c7a8f884a245b9bf7a6ca7129e5cf7&pg=5&lid=1101416876&lsn=43&srcnt=135#Detail

Ok dude, seriously...SERIOUSLY!!
http://www.realtor.com/search/listingdetail.aspx?gate=google&source=a15696&ctid=92998&mxp=25&bd=4&bth=3&typ=1&supads=pup%252cpun&sid=a2c7a8f884a245b9bf7a6ca7129e5cf7&pg=11&lid=1101463492&lsn=109&srcnt=135#Detail


And the town stats are great!
http://www.ci.germantown.tn.us/factsfigures.html

Strap on ur cowboy boots kiddies cuz we're going on a field trip to elvis land!!

Hey, Jen, if u guys have to relocate for B's work, maybe we can relocate to TN together! haha

Do I really sound that bad??

Here's just a brief background of my job description for those of you who don't know what I do, so my little story will make more sense.

I work for a very small online company in Burlington, the office is located inside my boss' house. It is just my boss and I here at the office. Because we are such a small company, I do a little bit of everything, including sales, marketing and also tech support calls (which are honestly sometimes such a pain in the u know what!!)

Our software end users are based mainly here in the states but we do have some international users as well- mostly located in Australia, Canada, and the UK. Most of the calls tho are tech support calls from the southern states.

So here is the point of my blog: Do I really sound that bad?? In the past, I've had callers ask me, based on my accent, "are you from NY?" and I thought "ugh NY? No way!" and I just shrugged it off thinking that caller obviously wasn't used to northern accents. Then about a week or so ago, I had another caller and this time she asked if I was from Jersey! Jersey?? OMG NO! I am soooo NOT from Jersey & I soooo don't sound like I am from Jersey!! What an insult! But then today, today was the worst of all. This time, a caller asked me if I was from.... u ready for this... LONG ISLAND! Could their be any more "yuck no" place to sound like your are from the Long Island?! Couldn't she have atleast just generalized it and just said NY? I mean Long Island? Nooooo!!! Now I am just mortified!! Ummmm no! I am from Boston! BOSTON!! And we Bostonians are not to be confused with Jersey and/or Long Island, NY! I mean, I really don't sound that bad right? RIGHT?? Awww gawd! Whats da mattah w/dese guys? I'm from Bawstun! I don't have time for dis. I gotta go drink my ice cawfee now and then get in the cah so I can head down da xprussway to Bawstun, maybe I'll stop at the pahk and buy some Sox geahhh. Go Sox!!

Randy Pausch passes

I normally don't really care so much about public figures on a personal level, but when Phil called me today on my way to work to tell me that Randy Pausch had passed away today, I was honestly saddened.


If you haven't heard of Randy's story, I strongly recommended reading his book "The Last Lecture" It is a truly inspiring, touching, and amazing story. Randy was a professor in the Computer Science dept at Carnegie Mellon in PA. He was a pioneer in his field with regards to virtual technology and he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given only months to live back in 2006. He very much so reminded me of my old boss, Jean Ichbiah - who was also very much a pioneer in his field of computer science and who also passed away due to terminal cancer.


For those of you who are familiar with my Myspace page, you may have noticed the quote I use in my heading that says "Its not the cards your dealt, its how you play the hand" That quote was from Randy's book. And basically, in a nutshell, his view on his cancer was that he could not change the cards he was dealt, there is nothing more he can do to change the outcome of his illness, so he decided to instead change the way he "played the hand". For his last lecture, he decided that he was not going to talk about cancer, and how sad he was, he instead talked about achieving your childhood dreams, and how he was happy to have achieved all of his dreams in his lifetime. He did the lecture and wrote the book because he wanted his 3 children to have something special to remember him by, and to also something that could allow the kids to know him on a more personal level - especially the youngest who he feared would not have any memory of him at all.


To read his book and to hear him speak at his last lecture is just beyond inspiring. I really recommend the book, I don't want to give to much more away about his story for those who want to read it.



To read more about Randy's life and obituary, please see the link below.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/148949/last_lecture_computerscience_professor_randy_pausch_dies.html

Lets see, chocolate, wine & some tylenol please. Thank you.

OMG Matthew has been a total & absolute terror all day today- I'm so exhausted!! We were supposed to go take him to get his first haircut today but I ended up cancelling it b/c he has been super SUPER cranky all day today. He has napped for all of 2 hrs all day- thats it. He is flat out exhausted. I just put him down to bed and he started screaming so bad, that his face turned beet red & was all sweaty!! So sweaty that his hair was wet! So I put him down, waited 5 minutes, went back in, tried to calm him down again but kept telling him that I was not going to pick him up, then I gave him some water and wiped his face with a cool wash cloth. He flipped out the whole time still - that was about 5 mins ago. And he is still going, but not as bad. He seems to be calming down a little bit. I have 5 more minutes to go before going back in to reassure him w/o picking him up before leaving again. Its just weird how they go thru these separation anxiety moments b/c they seem to come from no where at all. His new thing is insisted we pick him up, and he will scream & scream- totally flip out, until he gets his way. Thats definately gotta stop!!

He had his MMR shot about 2 wks ago. The nurse did warn us that in 1-3 wks after the shot, that he could suddenly become super cranky for no reason- guess this is what she was talking about. I hope it doesnt last long or else I am gonna get even fatter from consuming mounds of chocolate.

He did get another tooth in, but I don't think thats his problem. Aaaahhhh wait!! I think I hear silence. Oh thank god!!!!!!

Talk about a KYS day!!

Dont mess with Pooh!!

So while I was at work today, Phil took Matthew to Babies r Us to return a feeding booster seat that didn't work out for Matt. While they were shopping, Matthew noticed an enormous sized Pooh bear, pointed to it with delighted and said his favorite new word: "See!"

Phil brought him over to the big Pooh bear so Matthew could look at it. At another spot in the store, there was another Pooh bear display that contained smaller sized Pooh bears, Matthew immediately reached out & grabbed one. Phil took it from him and put it back on the shelf & Matthew flipped out! He threw his first "I want that!!" tempertantrum. Startled, Phil grabbed the Pooh bear back off the shelf and gave it to Matthew, who grabbed it, smiled, and gave it the biggest hug & he held on tight to that Pooh bear for the rest of the trip.

Phil decided that this Pooh bear could be Matthews "travel" bear. So we now have his sleeping Pooh bear (and several "backup" sleeping bears), his swimming Pooh bear, and now his travel Pooh bear. LOL

What it is now.

So I guess I have a lot of opinions on just life in general. Just based on my own personal experiences. My biggest thing is being positive, and happy, and that you make your life what it is. I love to laugh and just kick back and enjoy life, in fact, you could really say that I am very easily amused. I don't see that as a bad thing at all!

Its funny to think of my journey and how I got to this point.

The first part of my life was a difficult one. My parents had a very long, very nasty divorce. To say it was hard on us kids is putting it lightly. Growing up, I felt that I did not have a real home, or any calm or peaceful retreat to go to and feel safe. As a kid, not having somewhere to go to feel calm & safe, and to constantly be surrounded by arguments and fighting is pretty rough on a little one. So I used to walk around being very angry, and always unhappy, and very rebellious. There was always something wrong, everything was always so dramatic, everything was always an argument, ugh man I must have been just flat out exhausting to deal with!! I knew deep down I was a good person, with a good heart, but I was just way to bitter and miserable to let it out.

It took some good friends to sit me down & point this out to me, mixed in with some alone time & some maturity before I was able to see what they were saying. Then literally just like that, it hit me.... what my friends were trying to tell me for so long, I finally heard them, I finally could see exactly what they were talking about and I did not like what I saw!

I am not sure if these girls realize the impact they had on my life. Because of their patience, and their talks with me, and just by their examples, I was able to realize that... well... being grumpy sucks!! And, yes, the first chapter of my life sucked, but there's no reason why the next chapter in life has to be and I am the only one who has control over that and I am the only one who can change it- and because of that very crucial point - if I am not happy with life in general, I am the only one to blame! I also must include my husband in this. I met him right after I had this little revelation of mine. He was also a contributing factor because he helped me to continue going in this new positive direction.

Once I got to that point, then I was really able to put things into perspective. Health, family, good people who are good friends, those are the things that really matter in life. The ppl who spend the chunk of their time fighting, bitching, moaning, complaining, I just look at them and think of how happy I am to NOT be that way anymore and just so grateful to be where I am today. I'm not saying I don't have my bad days where I bitch about stupid things like the idiot who cut me off in traffic or the rude cashier at the store, of course I do. Everyone does. But what I am referring to today in this blog, is life in general- the big picture I guess you could say.

Now that I have learned this lesson, its really important to me to pass this on to my son. Like any parent, I want to raise him in the happiest, most positive environment possible. I want to teach him all the good things in life and hope he learns more positive things from me than negative. I know he will learn some negative habits b/c I'm not perfect but I just hope to give the best of me as much and as often as I possibly can. I want to teach him that its ok to take risks, that its ok to try but fail and then try again. That life is filled with some downs but also so many up's and to hop on the coaster & just enjoy the ride. I want to give him the support and the confidence to take on the world, but to also teach him to be sure to keep his feet on the ground. I want to teach him to trust in us as his parents and to know he can come to us with anything, and no matter what, we will always love him unconditionally. I don't have the slightest idea how to do all of this, but this outlook is my view on life, and I hope I can pass it on to him so he can grow up to be a happy young man. =)

So that's it in a nutshell. My outlook on life is to be positive, that things could always be worse. Its much easier (and healthier) to laugh and smile rather than to pout and gripe and that things are (almost always) never as bad as they seem. I am very happy to be where I am now and to think something as little as a "we need to talk" followed by some good ol' "sweet caroline" drunken karaoke with a few girlfriends could have such a positive impact on me later in life. Live, Laugh, Love ppl, that's what its all about. Cheers!!!!!

Giving the blog a try

So I am jumping on the bandwagon and starting a blog. I think it might be a good idea to jot down things here & there that I would like to preserve but would otherwise forget.

One thing I would like to start with was taking Matthew to get his first pair of walking shoes. He was too funny. Phil took pictures on his cell, hopefully I can post them soon. Matthew had fun flirting with the girl at Stride Rite, as he usually does. What was memorable about this was how he walked when he first tried on his shoes. He is used to being either barefoot or with soft-soled leather shoes such as Robeez shoes. He is not used to having any "weight" on his feet. So when he went to take his first steps in walking shoes, he lifted up his foot so high and just held it there for a minute and he had this hysterical "puzzled" look on his face. It was cute.

I guess other things I could blog about would be the random oprah thoughts I have from time to time brought on by outside influences. Maybe I should make that a separate blog from this one. I'll figure out this whole blog thing as I go... =)