NY Vacation - Day 4

Day 4 was another busy day and another late night.
We had some family come over for brunch, then at night we had a wedding to go to.
It was great to see my family and spend time with my niece and nephew. Next time we go to NY I'll have another niece and Ben will have another cousin. He had a great time playing with his current cousins.

and Aunt
and Grandma
and Papa

Looking forward to the next visit. Probably around Christmas time.

After brunch, we got ready for the wedding. I don't have any pictures, so you'll have to take my word that we looked good. We left Ben with Grandma and Papa to feed, change and put to bed. We weren't worried and everything Ben got to bed without a hitch.

The wedding was at FlowerField in St. James. If you know me, you know I like to eat. Well I must admit that I met my match. I ate so much food that I had to stop eating. If you are ever invited to a wedding there, go! According to the sister of the bride, the bride and groom love to eat too.

The bride and groom are friends I met while working at Babies R Us. It was a Puerto Rican Wedding. There was a lot of Latin food & music. Here's a helpful hint for you. If you ever go to a Puerto Rican /Latin wedding, take dance lessons. I've never felt whiter or felt that I had less rhythm than I did at this wedding. Add to the fact that I wasn't drinking, and that's a lot of still moves. I looked like Frankenstein out there.

The people at our table were commenting on how good the DJ was. We agreed, then told them about our wedding, how we flew the DJ into Disney from NY. Come to find out our DJ was doing this wedding! There was an MC, so we didn't notice him until late in the night.

When I say late in the night, I mean late in the night. It was about 11:45PM when we noticed him. We stayed until about 12:30 - 12:40, but then we had to go. They were still going strong.

If you don't know, I can't tell you whose wedding it was, but I can tell you to check out the music of Bridgette Angelique. She put on an excellent performance at the wedding of My Whole Life Has Changed - w/Genuwine





http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bridgetteangelique

A Visit From Grandma & Papa

On October 2nd, my parents and Uncle Carlo came down for a visit. It was the first time they'd be meeting Benjamin. I gave them instructions before they came.

1. Don't get sick! Drink some OJ, take some eukanuba, but don't be sick or you can't hold the baby.
   
2. No smoking then holding the baby. Either change your clothes or wear a Hugh Hefner smoking jacket. If you stink like smoke, then you can't hold the baby.
   
3. Please bring doughnuts.

I picked them up at the airport after work and we headed to the house, great news! They brought doughnuts and bagels! HAHA it would have been great to see them even if they hadn't brought doughnuts and bagels.

They met Benjamin and they all thought he looked like me when I was a baby. It was strange calling my parents Grandma and Papa. Instead of saying "Benjamin, this is your grandma and papa" I kept saying, "Ben, this is my mom and dad" I'm sure as time goes by that will get easier, but it was weird.

It's always too short when visitors come, but the silver lining is, when they leave, you are already closer to the next visit. To all family and friends, you are all welcome to visit anytime. We have plenty of room, just give me a call to set something up.

This wasn't Ben's first experiece with NY. If you remember, he has already been up to NY and had pix with doughnuts, bagels & NY Pizza. http://tinyurl.com/yhsgrey & http://tinyurl.com/yk9sd3u. Now NY was visiting him and we all had a great time.

Benjamin in his I Love NY gear. I bet he'll be the only one in kindergarten that can sing We Didn't Start the Fire, NY NY and Empire State of Mind, the clean version ofcourse.

The best doughnuts in the world come from Greenpoint Brooklyn. Peter Pan Bakery on Manhattan Ave. If you have a better doughnut, bring it here to me and I will judge it. If you are ever in the area, do yourself a favor and get a few. One way to do this, run the NYC marathon. The course goes right down Manhattan Ave and it might be a good pick me up for you, but don't hold me to that. It might also make you puke and breakdown in a bad part of Brooklyn.

What's in a name - Grandparent Edition

It's Friday, the end of a long work week, so I thought I'd write an easy playful post. You know, as opposed to my usual hard hitting posts such as me overflowing a toilet, going on a cruise or a poorly drawn comic strip based on my dog.

I started thinking about this recently, how do you decide what the kids will call their grandparents? There are so many variations on the names. I've heard gramps, grammy, nanny, oma, nonnie, gi-gi, grandma family name. Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head without even searching onlilne.

Growning up for me it was easy. I was a 2nd child, so my grandparents already had their names. They were Grandma Bessie & Papa Bill on my mom's side and Grandma Upstairs (she lived upstairs from us in a 3 story unit in Brooklyn) & Pop-Pop on my dad's side.

The naming convention can be different even within family trees. Allison and her brother call their grandparents Grandma and Grandpa, but their cousins call them Nana and Baba. They are the same people. How many names must they learn to answer to? It's crazy.

My niece calls my parents Papa and Bets. You'd think they would stick and we'd use those names too, but there is such a geographical distance, we can think of our own names for them. Normally I follow the school of thought "you can't give yourself a nickname" but I think I can make an exception in this case. I say let the grandparents pick their own names, but give parents (Allison and I) veto power.

Hy has already selected Poppy. We tested it out a few years ago, way before Allison was pregnant while we were living with them during construction of our house. I'm not sure what Ellen has decided upon, except that I don't think she wants Nana. For my parents I'd like to see my dad called Papa (or Pop-Pop,) but I'm leaning more towards Papa. My mother, I am so used to having grandma as a nickname for my grandma, I can't see any other name but that.

I'll keep you posted on it and who knows...Baby C might come up with his own nicknames for them. What do you guys call your grandparents?

Stop.....shower time

Allison's Baby Shower was on Saturday. She had a great time and got plenty of wonderful gifts. We'll be going through them for weeks...if we were normal people that is. However, since one of us is not normal, all the gifts will be put away before this weekend hits.

I would like to publicly thank people now. I hope none of you embarrass easily, tens of people read this blog weekly...so...well, I'm not sure how to finish that sentence...so on to the thank yous.
Aunt Kristin: You had already earned Aunt status with your bruschetta, queso and guac, but after the shower you just cemented it ;) Seriously, thanks for throwing Allison a great shower. She had a great time and at least 1 guest said it was the best baby shower she'd ever been to. If throwing the shower, making the diaper cake and the clothesline game wasn't enough, you gave us a gift too! You are going to spoil us. Thanks for everything.

Grandmas Ellen & Betty Lou: Kristin's little helpers. Thanks for helping Kristin, it was a big job and couldn't be done alone.

Great Grandma Millie, Kristin's mom Jane, Papa Tony: Thanks for helping set everything up.

Uncle Mark: Thanks for the beer and picking up chairs and balloons and all the other things Kristin asked you to do. I'm sure she drove you a little bit crazy, but Allison (and I) really appreciated it.

Dona & David: Thanks for Baby C's Mets gear and item for the time capsule. Fingers crossed David Price rookie card. We'll find out in 18 years.

Thank you to everyone else who brought juice, soda, cups, plates and anything else that was brought. Allison will send out proper thank you notes soon, but thanks to everyone who came or sent a gift to Allison or Baby C.

I wasn't allowed to stay at the shower, so I don't know what went on, but I have an idea from Victoria's excellent pictures. Here are a few of my favorites.

Good eats: Looks like salads, quiche, breads, fruit, shrimp cocktail...
Dessert table: 4 types of cake and a cookie tray...NICE
Allison says "HEY!!! I"m out of cake over here!!!" Just kidding. It's time for gifts.
This is a really cute bear outfit with ears on top. Also I think Allison looks beautiful in this picture.
Dona & David's New York Mets gear. Hopefully they will stop sucking soon so I'm not embarrassed to put Baby C in them.
Baby C's bedding. Pretty cute monkey right? There is a matching lamp in there too.
A quick break for an artistic shot. Another great photo from Victoria.
Kristin's clothesline gift. It went around the whole room, that's awesome...but I've been meaning to speak to her about the mini-m&ms. She KNOWS that I cannot have chocolate! Why do you tease me so?
This bear came from Edible Arrangements. Apparently there is quite the custody battle going on over him. Everyone thinks he's very cute.
Lastly, the party favors. They are notepads that say Allison's Baby Shower w/date and a cute baby in a tub. Hope you enjoyed this post, the shower and thanks again to all of you who helped, attended, sent a gift, send well wishes and anyone who reads my blog.