More Thanksgiving...

After Turkey Day itself had passed, we spent the rest of the weekend visiting family in the area, using Grandma Chris's house in Patchogue as our home base. Grandma Chris has two orange stripey cats. One is large and loves attention, and the other is small and hides in the closet. And doesn't ever come out. I don't think Aiden even saw Daisy, the shy (smart?) one, the whole time we were there, but he sure did love Twilly. Mause became a distant memory once he discovered Twilly. Luckily Twilly is the Ghandi of the feline realm, a firm believer in tolerance, patience and non-violence, so no blood was shed.

The highlight of the kitty madness was when we tried to get Aiden to feed Twilly a handful of kitty "treats" which he predictably stuck into his own mouth and proceeded to crunch on. Fish-flavored Friskies toddler breath...mmmm..... I'm sure we will win parents of the year for just shrugging and going with the theory that there probably wasn't anything poisonous in the Friskies...

What do you mean, I can't whack this kitty?

Here, kitty, kitty...

This was the nicest "pat" we achieved. Unfortunately Aiden's idea of "gentle" is still a lot like a football tackle.

Here we are at the small park on the bay near Grandma Chris's house. Remember these spinning torture devices? In case you haven't tried one in a decade, they still make you feel nauseated in about 10 seconds.

Um, have you noticed that I fell here?


Wheeeeeee!

Next we headed over to Bay Shore to spend some time with Carrie, James and William. William has a great play room in their newly finished basement, with the coolest tunnel fort we'd ever seen. It's probably a good thing that the adults would get stuck in the tunnels if we tried to play too.

Hey, William! Are you in there?


I might be in here... who's asking?




We had to hand it to Carrie and James, they've got William totally trained to Swiffer the floors already... and he does it with a smile!

Next stop was James and Dorothy's, to hang out for an hour or two and see their 7-month old little girl, Elizabeth. Last time we saw Elizabeth she was only a few weeks old, so a lot has changed! Elizabeth is already crawling and pulling herself up on the furniture- she'll catch up with Aiden in no time at this rate.

James and Elizabeth

Would you like to come in?

Whoops, it's past Aiden's bedtime...

Next, on to Grandpa Deegan's in Amity Harbor to spend the day. Uncle Dan joined us and we hung out and chatted while Aiden ate and played and took a 3 hour nap (thank god!). Grandpa Deegan has a really cool old merry-go-round horse in his living room, which Aiden got to ride. I think he was confused because most of the horseys he has been on rock and he couldn't get this one to behave.

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Olives with Uncle Dan

Giddy'ap, I said! What's wrong with you?!?

Our final event of the weekend was a christening for Andy's cousin Katie & her husband Randy's new little boy Brady. Brady Patrick (can you tell the Deegans are Irish?) was a perfect little gentleman the whole day and did not fuss at all. The rest of the kids, big and small, ran around like mad people at the reception, which was held at Duggan's Pub in Floral Park. We hadn't seen everyone from this side of the family in over a year, so some folks got to meet Aiden for the first time as well as Brady.

Katie, Randy and Brady Patrick

Elizabeth telling Dan his fortune...


Ronnie and Charlie

Tickle torture at Duggan's Pub

I did not edit or stage this picture; it just came out like this (yes, totally hilarious). Possible caption: "Help, Da-doo!! Crazy Unlce Dan is trying to turn me into a Yankees fan!"

Thanksgiving Day

I know it's well past Thanksgiving by now, but hopefully everyone had a great Turkey Day! We completed a whirlwind family tour of Long Island (& environs) in 4 frenzied but enjoyable days. For the first leg, we left Friday morning and drove down to Nanuet, NY to stay the night and visit with Uncle Kenny, Jeannie & Ian. There we met the new star of the family (move over, Aiden!), Mause the Yorkshire Terrier. Mause (pronounced like the rodent) was recently adopted by Uncle Kenny - he is 5 years old but is no larger than a loaf of fruitcake. It took Aiden about 10 seconds to decide that Mause was the best thing he'd ever seen, and to chase him madly around the kitchen and living room. For his part, Mause was very tolerant and easily evaded the small zombie toddling around after him. I thought only chiuhuahuas were as small as this little guy, but apparently tiny "Yorkies" are extremely popular... I just heard a story on NPR about how Yorkshire Terriers are now so expensive that burglers are breaking into pet stores and even homes to steal them! Watch out Mauser!

We woke up on Thanksgiving morning and it was about 55 degrees (we haven't seen that in Vermont in 2 months) so we went for a walk around Kenny's neighborhood. Aiden was excited to see leaves again since ours at home have shriveled and been covered with snow.

Later that day we headed over to New Jersey (sounds like a long trip but it's only a half hour) to Aunt Mary and Uncle Mike's house for Thanksgiving Dinner. Aunt Mary had laid out a crazy spread of toys for Aiden to play with- everyone was impressed that she had saved a whole plastic grocery cart from the 1980s, filled with plastic representatives of every food group! Some of us "older kids" were more excited (i.e. nostalgic) about the toys than Aiden was, I think, but they definitely kept him occupied.

As usual, there was an incredible spread of food and everyone had a great time. Celebrations with the Kulis Family always involve a Lithuanian favorite, kielbasa. However, we're not talking about your typical smoked kielbasa made by Hillshire Farms. We're talking "fresh" kielbasa - it's garlicky, it's grey, and you burp up the flavor for a good week if you eat a healthy portion. I realize that doesn't sound very appetizing, but it really is delicious. I can't believe I keep neglecting to get a picture of the big pot of kielbasa, but it looks something like the pictures below, only much greyer when cooked. Next time...

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More pictures from the day are below, mostly courtesy of Chris, since my camera batteries ran out.

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Hannah, Uncle Kenny, and Jeannie relaxing

Enjoying the day

Playing with the "pet shop"

Douglas and Michelle

3 generations enjoying Wii bowling


Everyone loves Mause!

Allison, Mause and Jeannie

Our final stop of the day was the Field House in Brightwaters, NY to see Grandma Rising, Aunt Sandy, Uncle Brandt, Carrie, James, and William. It was about as low-key a Thanksgiving as I've ever seen at the Field House, which was exactly what Aiden needed at that point in a very busy day. William and Aiden ran around playing with Grandma's fun toys (like the mirror that laughs at you when you look in it, or the hammer that makes a shattering glass sound, both big hits) and we enjoyed some good conversation and a second turkey dinner.

Aiden trying to escape from a photo with Grandma

Ahhh!! The white stuff is back!

We got about two inches of snow here last week, so I guess it's officially winter in Vermont, no matter what the calendar says. Andy and I were not that happy about the snow, but Aiden loved it. We had a feeling he might like sledding (given that he likes to be swung around in circles, hung upside-down, and generally tortured) and we were right. I have a feeling we're going to be doing a lot of this over the next 5 months...



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What do you do with a drunken sailor?

After months of speculating whether Aiden would be crawling to his first high school reunion, our little fussa has finally gotten some footpower! His style is a cross between a zombie in a bad horror film, a drunken sailor, and Frankenstein, but he's walking...

Actually he has improved tremendously in the last week, and these videos don't do him justice, but we wanted to share them all the same. I'ts a whole new world now... (at least for the parents!)

Some more pics of Aiden practicing at Shelburne Bay Park and South Hero State Park...

Nothing in November

So far, nothing blogworthy has happened in early November (nor do we anticipate anything blogworthy, really, until Thanksgiving). But that won't stop me from posting mindless drivel about our daily grind. So we did yard work last weekend, raked leaves, put some perennial gardens to bed for the winter, pruned shrubs, etc., etc. Aiden enjoyed some mad wagon rides around the yard (his appetite for whip-lashing motion, hanging upside down, and thrill riding in general is insatiable). "Hold on tight!" we always say, and he starts shrieking and giggling just in anticipation of whatever thrill he knows he's about to get. He especially likes it when Dadoo stalks behind me as I carry Aiden upstairs, and then rushes up from behind to "scare" me. That is the absolute best. Tickle torture is another favorite- thanks to Uncle Dan we learned that squeezing Aiden's legs right above the knee will cause him to lose all bodily control and start shrieking like a demon. Fun stuff.

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Aiden cut his first two molars this week, so sleeping has been a bit of a challenge, but so far not too bad. Putting a black olive on each of your fingers and eating them off one by one seems to miraculously cure teething pain, in case anyone's interested.

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Let's see, what else... oh yeah, we had a pair of Pine Grosbeaks that came to our feeders on Saturday (a first for our house and a lifer for me!). Very exciting. Other than that we're just moving from day to day, leaving for work in the semi-darkness and now coming home from work in complete darkness, trying not to get depressed!