Happy Birthday Benee and Natalie!!

Happy Birthday to my OLDER sister Benee! Here she is with Reagan on June 22nd, 2008. When we were younger, no one could believe we were sisters since we didn't look very much alike. Benee was shorter than I was, so people also thought she was younger. When people saw us together (Benee, Camille and me), they'd ask who was the oldest and we loved to say, "Guess!" They never got it right. Sometimes they said Camille was the oldest, but usually they said I looked oldest and Benee looked like the youngest. Now that she's 35, I'm pretty sure she loves looking so young! Happy Birthday Benee! I love you and wish I could be there to help you celebrate!

Happy Birthday to my friend Natalie! Here she is on July 1st, 2008. Natalie and I were roommates in college and people often thought we were sisters :) What a compliment it was for me to receive! No matter how long we go without speaking, we're always able to pick up where we left off ... that's how you know you have a long-lasting friendship. Happy Birthday Natalie ~ I love you like a sister!

Isn't it funny that my sister-looking friend and my friend-looking sister have the same exact birthday???

Avery is officially crawling!

Well, Avery has been scouching, rolling, wriggling like a worm, etc. in efforts to move around the room for a while now. She's been crawling a few steps here and there, but today seemed to be the first day when she really figured out she could move a good distance on her hands and knees. So I walked into the playroom with a nectarine and she knew it looked so good that she just had to have some. I then took the following video:

Please excuse the naked baby ... I had just changed her messy diaper which had gotten on her clothes and I knew I was taking her upstairs to get her pajamas on.



As I was typing this post, just after I took the video, Avery pulled herself up into the standing position all by herself on the back of my chair!!! I turned around and was shocked to see her STANDING UP! Wow, two milestones in one day - now that's an over-achiever! All just 3 days shy of turning 9 months old :)

Matheou Family from Argentina

Last night we went into the city to meet up with Alejandro, Isabel, Nicholas and Lourdes Matheou who were visiting from Argentina. John has now known Alejandro for about 14 years and although they only see each other once every year or sometimes every two years, he still considers him one of his best friends. John used to run the international equity desk, so he traded several different foreign markets. He used to trade several Latin American markets which is how he met Alejandro. They used to spend hours on the phone with each other each day and they quickly became good friends. Twelve years ago, when Alejandro married Isabel, John flew down to Buenos Aires Argentina to be there. Now Alejandro has a successful career with Merrill Lynch's Private Banking division, so he comes to NYC once a year on business. This year, Merrill Lynch invited the families to come as well. The first part of the trip was spent in Orlando, then they put them up in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan.

* * *

The first time I met this wonderful family was 3 years ago when I was pregnant with Reagan. I couldn't find the pictures from the time we spent together, but we had a great time. John and I met them in the city for dinner one night which was possible because they brought Alejandro's mother with them and she watched the kids. The next day, we picked them up and took them shopping at the outlet stores that are just north of us called Woodbury Commons. Isabel was learning English so a lot of our conversation had to be translated by the men. Nicholas was 5 and Lourdes was 3 at the time. The next time I saw them was 1 year later when Reagan was 6 months old and Alejandro only brought Isabel on the trip with him. We drove into the city with Reagan so we could show her off to Alejandro. Here are some pictures from that day:

Alejandro and Reagan June 9th, 2006 ~ Alejandro immediately started referring to Reagan as his "future daughter-in-law"!

Alejandro, Reagan and Amanda - June 9th, 2006

Alejandro gave John this soccer jersey, so he put it on for the picture. He was on his way to see the World Cup in Germany because a few of his clients played soccer for Argentina.

We didn't even park the car ... we pulled up outside the hotel, visited for about 30 minutes, then got back into the car and drove home. We got ourselves ready, then got Reagan settled with John's mother, then went back into the city to meet them for a nice dinner at Aquavit that night. Isabel's English had improved a lot, so I had a wonderful time getting to know her better over dinner.

June 9th, 2006

Last year, we did not see them ... I'm not sure if they came to NY or not last summer. If they did, it must have been during the 2 weeks that we spent in Salt Lake, since there's no way we wouldn't have seen them if they were here.

* * *

Back to the present ... We drove into the city and parked the car near their hotel, the Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue. We got out the double stroller because I figured we'd walk around until we found a good kid-friendly restaurant to have dinner. What we didn't realize was that the Matheou family had already selected a restaurant: Dave & Busters. On Saturday night, Merrill Lynch rented out the place for these international families that were in town and they had such a great time, that they really wanted to go back. The only problem was that we had just parked our car and it was too far to walk, since it was in the middle of Times Square. So, we hailed 2 taxis and all jumped in. I have no idea if we broke the law, but John and Alejandro just held Reagan and Avery tightly on their laps, since we had no car seats. I wonder what local New Yorkers do when they take their babies and kids in cabs?

I just had to take a picture of Reagan's first cab ride!

It was shocking to see Nicholas (8) and Lourdes (6), both 3 years older than the last time we saw them! They are such sweet, beautiful children and it was fun to watch Reagan interact with them.

Lourdes grabbed Reagan and started hugging her ~ so sweet!

Alejandro and Isabel kept saying that Reagan looked exactly the same as Lourdes did when she was Reagan's age. They also refer to Lourdes as Lulu.

Isabel and her handsome son Nicholas

Avery was very excited to be part of the party!

Here I am with my girls, waiting for dinner to come (VERY slow service!)

Alejandro, John and Avery

This picture really captivates Alejandro's personality ... he's a happy guy with a great sense of humor. He's always cracking jokes and giving people a hard time. If you know my husband John, you'll realize that he has a very similar personality, which is why they get along so well.

Of course, Reagan wouldn't touch the meal that SHE ordered, so she started grabbing fries from Lulu's plate. Lulu then started offering her all the condiments from her burger (tomatoes, pickles, onions, & lettuce). Reagan just kept taking her fries.

As usual, I kept telling Reagan she couldn't go play with all the games until she ate something for dinner. I finally ordered her a second dish, buttered noodles, which she ate. Getting food in this girl can sometimes be a very exhausting ordeal!

We finally joined Lulu and Nicholas on the games and Reagan couldn't put the coins in fast enough. I took this picture and that's when I realized she still had noodles in her mouth ... this little girl often stores her food in her cheeks like a chipmunk! I often have to tell her to swallow her food, or she'll let it just sit in her mouth, all chewed up. Isn't that gross? Ahh, the joys of raising a 2 year old!

I gave Avery to John so I could play games with Reagan ... Avery took a nice little nap in John's arms while he and Alejandro caught up.

The kids still had Dave & Busters cards with credit on them left over from their Merrill Lynch night, so they were having a great time earning lots of tickets. They had so many tickets at the end of the night, I could hardly believe it! They turned in the tickets for all kinds of stuffed animals and other various toys. When I turned in Reagan's tickets (that were acquired with the card I bought for $20), we only had about 180 points. The only thing we could buy with such a small amount was candy, so Reagan chose a "baby bottle sucker." The Matheous ended up with thousands of points, so they gave Reagan a whole bag of toys and stuffed animals.

By the end of the night, the restaurant section was rather dead and deserted, so the kids started playing with their new toys on the floor. Alejandro continued to call Reagan his "future daughter-in-law"!

Lulu figured it was appropriate to give the baby a bottle, so Avery got to have her first taste of candy! And yes, I'm the horrible mother who opted to take a picture of the situation, rather than stop it :)

As everyone started to get extremely tired, we asked someone to take this group shot. Then we left D&B, got into 2 cabs, and headed back to the hotel. We had checked our double stroller with the Bell Captain at the Waldorf, so we sat around talking in the lobby while it was being retrieved. I had never been inside this beautiful hotel, so it was neat to see what it looked like, especially because of all its hisory. Lulu insisted on holding Avery:

We then said our goodbyes and strapped the girls into the stoller.
This picture didn't turn out very well, but both girls were laughing as we were walking to the car on Park Avenue ... the MetLife building was a few blocks away and it just seemed like a good time to take a picture. Since we don't make it into the city very often, I was trying to enjoy every aspect of our night.
During our evening with Alejandro and Isabel, it came up (AGAIN) that they love to ski and would really like to meet us in Utah for a ski trip. We talked about how wonderful it would be for them to meet us in Salt Lake over New Years Eve this year. I truly hope that we can make this happen, since we would love to see them again soon. They are a wonderful family and our only complaint about them is that they live too far away.

Sommer BBQ

No, I didn't spell "summer" wrong ... I went to a BBQ at the Sommer residence yesterday :) One of the moms in my mommy group, Claudia Sommer, invited us to a family BBQ. Claudia's from Germany and is living here in NJ for a few years while her husband Achim is on a rotation for BMW. They have a son named Paul who is Reagan's age and Claudia gave birth to twins in January, Philipp and Fiona.


Here are some other friends from our mommy group: Corin, Christine, Ashleigh and Claudia. Look at Claudia: does she look like she gave birth to twins 6 months ago? She has a flatter stomach than I do and both her babies weighed more than Avery did at birth! Fiona was 6 lbs 14 oz and Philipp was 7 lbs 11 oz ... Avery was only 6 lbs. 10 oz! Anyway, I can't imagine having two babies that size in my belly and then shrinking right back down to size. She's amazing!


The weather wasn't very cooperative, so the party had to be held indoors ... a few times, the thunder was so loud that it sounded as if lightning had struck the house next door. It was a pretty crazy thunderstorm.

Here are two daughters of another German couple holding the twins ... these girls were so great with the babies. The twins are just gorgeous!

Fiona and Claudia ~ Philipp and Achim

I can't believe I didn't get a picture of their 2 1/2 year old son Paul. Unfortunately, we had to leave early, but I wish we could have stayed for the duration of the BBQ :( Thanks for having us over Claudia!!

Trampoline!!!

Time to jump! That's right, we now have a trampoline! As I said in a previous post, my sister Camille got a trampoline and we had so much fun on it when we were in Salt Lake. Reagan also loved it and John was ready to buy one as soon as we got back to NJ. Of course, as time passed, he felt less and less of a need to go buy one, so we never did. Then my friend Nicole called me to say her neighbor was trying to get rid of hers and she was looking for someone who wanted one! What are the odds? So I went to check it out on Friday and here's what it looked like:
It was in Michele Griffin's backyard and she kept asking her kids to clean it off. After no luck, she finally threatened to get rid of it and they were fine with that. She was so frustrated with them (her exact words were, "they're lazy and spoiled!"), that she wanted it gone as soon as possible. So today, I sent John over with his tools to take it apart and bring it home. Nicole's husband Chris was nice enough to help John with the manual labor on a hot sunny day. Much appreciation goes out to the Heid family for all their help in getting us a FREE trampoline!!

John brought it home and immediately started putting it back together. While the kids were napping, I was helping him. Trampolines have come a LONG way since the ones I jumped on when I was a kid ... no more metal springs to pinch your fingers or fall on. The "springs" for this tramp are just large pieces of elastic that are attached to the frame with a hook. Then pads go over them and a red cover. We got all the springs hooked to the frame, when John realized it was on upside down! Whoops! See the red hanging below in the above picture? That should be on top, hence John's frustrated look!

Once we put it on the right way, we scrubbed it down (it was pretty dirty) and it looked as good as new! Once Reagan was awake, we took her outside and she was ecstatic ... especially because it was her favorite color, RED!

Reagan wanted to help out with the cleaning of it

Running around in the yard with Dawson

It was killing Verdell that he couldn't be a part of all the fun ... he wanted to be on the trampoline with us SO badly! He sure needs a haircut, don't you think? The poor dog can barely see!

So ... we told Reagan the trampoline needed to dry before she could jump on it. It was time to go inside and eat dinner, then she could jump after she ate. As usual, Reagan put up a HUGE fight to eat dinner tonight. This girl is such a horrible eater and it's more frustrating than you can imagine. She threw a big temper-tantrum, went into time-out, and still refused to eat. All along we told her she couldn't go outside to jump unless she ate. She still wouldn't eat. Finally, as the sun was setting, she realized she was running out of time to jump, so she ate. I rushed outside with her and took the following videos.

As you can see, we haven't put up the safety nets around the side yet ... John was hesitant to let her get on without the nets, but I assured him she'd stay in the middle. As you can see in this video, she just about fell off. I stopped videoing right then, but rest assured, she did NOT fall off! John hasn't even seen this video yet, so I'm sure his heart will drop when he watches it ~ sorry honey!

This is such a sweet video. Reagan asks me to come jump with her ~ does it get any better than that??? These are the parenting moments that help me forget about the frustrating times (like force-feeding my child dinner!)

It was such a beautiful night out. There was a nice cool breeze and relatively no humidity. It was great to be outside, enjoying our backyard. Reagan and I lay on our backs and watched the clouds move. Then we watched the fireflies come out ~ something I love about NJ! There are no fireflies in Utah, so I saw my first one 4 years ago. We decided to go inside and get John and Avery to join us with some popsicles. I had a frozen lemonade that soon turned into Reagan's.

Avery LOVES frozen treats! She finished Reagan's discarded popsicle (I buy the Edy's fruit bars) and wanted more when it was gone. Sorry for her disheveled look here ... it was just before bath time!

Brutus was also dying to be a part of all the fun

See Avery's smile? This is how she always looks when she's near her big sister Reagan. It's the sweetest thing to watch ... every time Reagan walks into the room, Avery goes nuts! She kicks her legs, flaps her arms and starts making noise. Avery truly adores her big sister and Reagan is so great with her.

We finally called it a night because the mosquitoes came out, as well as the bats. Yes, bats. They were flying above us and started getting closer and closer, so we rushed inside. It was a really great day :)

Balloon Festival

Last night, Maribel and I took Reagan and Joaquin to the Balloon Festival in Readington, NJ (about an hour and a half away). I was really looking forward to it this year, since John and I took Reagan last year and she loved it. Last year, Reagan was 20 months old and she loved watching the balloons. In fact, every time I was on the computer, she requested to watch the balloon videos I took that day. I thought it would be fun to post one of those videos, to take a walk down memory lane ... it's shocking to see Reagan look so little and so young! Enjoy this video:

Balloon Festival 2007

Back to 2008 ... I really wanted to make it a family outing again this year, but John felt strongly that he should stay home with his mother this weekend ... she underwent 5 chemotherapy treatments this week and the doctors told him she would feel weak, tired, and possibly "drunk" over the weekend. John wanted to monitor her, since a fall could cause serious internal bleeding. I admire John's constant consideration for his mother and her needs, but I also missed him and Avery. At least I had the wonderful company of his cousin Maribel. We had a great time chatting on the drive there and back ... thanks for driving, Maribel!!

Amanda and Reagan, waiting for the "mass ascension" of the balloons

The festival takes place in Readington, a very small town with this small airport. The tents for food and other merchants are set up on the runway, then everyone sits on the grass (if you can call it that) to watch the balloons go up. When we first arrived, we checked out all the food, then decided on cheeseburgers ... turned out to be one of the best burgers I've ever had!

Reagan, Maribel and Joaquin

Reagan - just as the balloons were starting to go up

There were so many beautiful balloons ... aside from the traditionally shaped balloons, there were many that were unique. This "Noah's Ark" balloon was pretty extravagant!

Last year, the balloons went up and then floated off into the distance. This year was so much better because they went in the opposite direction ... this meant they went directly over our heads which was so cool! Here's some video of this year ... the noise is from all the balloons above us.

Balloon Festival 2008

Maribel and Joaquin


The American flag was there last year, but the Darth Vader one was new



These bees were there last year too, but this year they were sporting PINK RIBBONS (Breast Cancer Awareness), so they immediately made me think of my mom :)

Isn't she a little beauty? She's learning how to pose for the camera!

Another big hit with Reagan and Joaquin, the Energizer Bunny ... the sunset was absolutely gorgeous! It turned into such a beautiful night.

After all the balloons had taken flight, we walked around and stopped at this area with big blow up slides and bouncy things, etc. The tickets were expensive ($4 each!), so I bought 1 and walked Reagan up to each one. As soon as it was her turn, she chickened out and wouldn't go. She finally went into this little tent where balloons were blowing everywhere. All the kids inside were running around, screaming and having a great time, so it turned out to be perfect. I doubt I'd ever spend $4 on something like that again, but oh well. She enjoyed it.

After this, we made one last stop at the "Best Darn Kettle Corn" tent and bought a big bag for the drive home. Man, that stuff is addictive! Joaquin fell asleep as soon as we hit the road and Reagan chatted with us the whole way home. It really was a wonderful evening and I'm already looking forward to next year's festival!