Matty's Muses from Manch

Holiday Mystery...

2010-12-14T21:11:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Matty received a Christmas card in the mail...it was postmarked Manchester NH and had no return address. All the card said was "hoping this helps Matty have a Merry Christmas" and inside was a Toys R Us gift card for $60!!!! We have NO idea who sent this and would like to thank them in person!!!! If anyone has a clue to help us out, please let us know!!! Whoever the mystery "Santa" is, THANKS!!!!!

Happy Happy Boy

2010-11-15T20:54:00.003-05:00

Im not sure what happened, but I wrote this blog weeks ago...oops

Well, it's been a week and Matty couldn't be happier to be "cast free"! It came off last Monday and ever since then, I feel like he's happier now (and better behaved) as he ever has been! I think he is so relieved to not have that heavy plaster cast holding him back! That thing was heavy and yes, we kept it...and we did find a Cheerio inside it when it came off! His walking is getting better ever day but he does still have a bit of a limp and turns his foot out when he walks. The doctor said that's pretty normal and his limp should go away soon. It's funny, he walks like the cast is still on! We took advantage of his good mood this weekend and decided to attempt going out to dinner again. The last time we tried, we jumped ship before our food even got served and instead had everything packed up and ate at home. He just wouldn't sit still in a restaurant high chair and wanted to get down and move around. We were hoping that was just a phase caused by the cast and luckily for us, it was! This past Saturday night we went to PF Changs in Boston for a nice dinner....we decided to go to Boston because a new PINKBERRY just opened on Newbury Street, so we had to go!!! We had a blast walking through the park before dinner and came across a huge pile of leaves that Matty had so much fun playing in for about a half an hour. Both Andrew and I were taking a million pictures of him and of course, got maybe 2 or 3 good ones! Dinner was good and we discovered Matty loves Hot and Sour soup! He ate almost an entire bowl of hit (feeding himself and ruining a white undershirt in the process!). Sunday we went to the playground for a while and ended up again playing in the leaves for a long time...this time getting a couple of nice pictures and a semi-family portrait!

We are looking forward to more fun times without he happy little guy and love to watch him play and be so happy!

Halloween Fun

2010-11-04T20:23:00.007-04:00

Matty enjoyed his second Halloween and despite the cold and the cast, didn't let anything stop him from enjoying trick or treating early in the day when we went around a neighborhood close to home.

Later on we headed to a nearby town to go with our friends "The Renos" and their 2 girls (one was a shark and one was dressed as sushi! Very creative and I wish I had some pictures of them!) We went with the Renos last year and thought it would be fun to do it again...Matty had a different thought...Unfortunately he got pretty frustrated and wanted to walk up to the door and choose his candy like the other kids and due to stairs, long driveways and walkways and lots and lots of kids, he just couldn't do it comfortably...he didn't want to be held and didn't' want to go in the wagon (which we thought would be a great vehicle for him!) and ultimately ended up melting down. We had to abandon the tricks and treats and carried the screaming little monkey back to the Renos, packed up and headed home. Once we got home, Matty was pretty calm and enjoyed looking through his "loot" and tried a root beer dum dum lolipop. He didn't' eat much of it, taking after his parents who both hate root beer flavored candy.

After checking it all out, he ate some dinner and went to bed with no trouble, until he woke up at 3am and NEVER went back to sleep...and neither did we! We are thinking he is just sick and tired of the cast and is just ready to have it off! We are looking forward to that too.

Monday afternoon can't come soon enough for us and we are hoping the monkey will be as good as new!

Haircuts...

2010-10-31T10:13:00.011-04:00

Believe it or not, Matty has actually gotten 4 haircuts so far. His hair grows wicked quick, which is good because the last time we got his haircut (about a month ago), he basically got a buzz cut! It's growing in nicely now but took us a while to get used to it. We always go to the same barber shop (where Andrew has gotten his haircut for the past 5 years) and the last time the woman said she remembered him and would do the same thing as the previous time. Too bad she forgot because she took the clippers and went straight across his head! Oh well!

As far as him dealing with the haircut....well, the first time he was okay with minimal crying and each time since has gotten progressively worse! I guess that's one good thing about his hair being so short now, we won't have to go back for a while!

Here's a few pictures of before and after shots:

Before the first haircut

After the first haircut!

Before his third haircut...I can't remember or find pictures of his second...oh well

After

Before his last haircut

After

Oct Update

2010-10-30T13:47:00.020-04:00

Matty is coming along nicely with the cast...I think he forgets he even has it sometimes as he is walking and getting round like it's not even there! He does get frustrated some times as he can't climb as well as he used to and can't move as fast but it really doesn't seem to be slowing him down. One more week and he gets it off, hopefully good as new!

We went for his 18 month check up this past week and got a clean bill of health from Dr. Eric. Matty is in the 30th percentile for everything...weight, height, head circumference. They used his weight from the week before when we were there for his leg, this week would have been quite different, I'm sure the cast weighs at least 5 pounds! Dr. Eric was happy with all of his developmental milestones, even his language. We've been a little worried as he doesn't have a ton of words for an 18 month old (dad, dog, cat, duck, ball, bye) but doesn't talk that much. Since he has and uses about 20 or so signs, Dr Eric said hat is perfect as he is communicating and choosing his form of communication...he also said the signing will help his vocabulary and we should see an explosion of word soon. I can't wait!
Here is a picture of him signing "milk"...and yes, he has milk sprayed all over him from his straw!

Halloween is tomorrow and Matty has already attended a Halloween party last week at Nini Bambini (his second annual one). A woman I work with made his Halloween costume and was nice enough to adjust it for his cast. We decided to dress Matty as an "Imagination Mover" from the Disney show. Although he doesn't tell us, we know this is one of his favorite shows and loves to watch it every morning as he is snacking on his Cheerios and milk in our bed before we all get up for the day (thank goodness for DVR, we have about 10 episodes to choose from at any time!). I can't lie, Andrew and I love the show too! The music is very catchy and the writing is very clever. Anyway, Mover Matty is ready again to get dressed up in his costume and head out for trick or treating tomorrow! It's supposed to be cold but we'll all bundle up and keep him warm in his wagon.

A few nights ago we carved our pumpkins, roasted the seeds for a snack and tried to take some pictures outside with them. I guess it was too dark out but Matty had fun playing with the seeds and the inside of the pumpkins!

And finally...there couldn't be a more beautiful fall tree and we are lucky enough to have it right in front of our house! It's too bad the whole thing is bare now but for about 2 weeks, we saw this every time we looked outside!

Good reason to Blog...

2010-10-22T11:14:00.004-04:00

Just to prove our blog is not DEAD, I thought I would post about our latest adventure with the little daredevil monkey we call Matty. Our little guy is now the proud owner of a blue full leg cast! While at the playground last Monday after going down the slide, he started to cry and had a hard time standing up. He got over it quickly and remained in a relatively good mood unless he was putting weight on his left leg. So, we went to the emergency room and after 4 hours, no dinner for any of us and way past Matty's bedtime, the dr. said his x-rays were fine and sent us home saying it was probably just a sprain or strain in his knee and if he isn't better in a few days to follow up with an orthopedic or our pediatrician. On Wednesday, he still wasn't putting any weight on the leg so we went to his doctor and got more X-rays to find out there was a small hairline crack in the bone right below his knee. They called this a "toddler fracture" and not uncommon but the best treatment being a cast for almost 3 weeks, he gets it off Mon Nov 8th. The casting process was a fun one with the little guy screaming so hard and loud that I think the whole building heard him, he just didn't want to be held down! The dr and cast tech were finally done and Matty just passed out in my arms, waking up after we got home a while later and being very confused as to what the heck was on his leg! Yesterday was his first full day with the cast and he is doing fine, figuring out a new way to crawl, climb stairs and even walk a little bit! He is definitely a resilient little guy! We did go out yesterday and buy him some "lounge wear" as none of his pants will fit over the cast so it's sweatpants for him for the next few weeks. We also bought him a few new toys to keep him busy since he normally is running around and climbing on everything and anything that moves and has wheels. His new toys are more for him to sit quietly playing with and I think we made the right choice with the Magnadoodle, he loves it! We also got him a few new videos to watch as we (Andrew and I) are getting kind of sick of the 1 or 2 he wants to watch constantly. Lately his favorite is Signing Times, which has been great as he has over 20 signs he currently uses. My favorite is whenever he sees a baby, he wraps his arms around himself and just shakes back and forth, it's really cute! Since he loves the Signing Times so much, I ordered him 2 more from the series, hopefully they will be here soon to help keep him occupied! So, the next few weeks should be fun and interesting...I'm just so proud of how he is handling this, we really are lucky that he has such a good disposition and seems to be handling this all in stride right now!

The picture is him crawling yesterday morning for the first time! We'll get some more pictures posted soon (I guess that means about 2 months based on the last post!)

Beach Photos

2010-08-18T13:50:00.010-04:00

A few weeks ago while on vacation, we went to the beach in The Hamptons. Here are some pictures of our adventure, Matty loved the water!!!!

We are wondering if he really likes the way it tastes or if he's just using it as a teething device....
Either way it still makes him happy.

Long time, no post

2010-08-08T10:58:00.009-04:00

It's been a whirlwind summer already and with a promise to family and friends, we are back up to blogging and posting some pictures. These are a few of Matty enjoying his summer...and growing up to be a big boy!

Memorial Day Hike

2010-06-15T20:48:00.007-04:00

This is a bit overdue but here are a few pictures of us taking a our first of hopefully many hikes this year! On Memorial Day, we went up north to Rattlesnake Mountain near Holderness NH, which is right on Squam Lake, which is actually where the movie "On Golden Pond" was filmed! The hike is relatively easy and I was pretty sure we could handle it with Matty since this was a hike we did while I was pregnant and could handle it fine. I carried Matty up in our new "ergo baby" carrier, which he seemed to like. We all enjoyed the views from the top and spent some time relaxing in the sun, enjoying some snacks before heading back down. Andrew carried him down and he started to fall asleep halfway down (Matty, not Andrew!) and slept in the carrier for about a half hour. We then hit the road to The Yankee Smokehouse, once of Andrew's favorite places to visit ever since he worked at Camp Birchmont in Wolfeboro NH. We all enjoyed some BBQ and a nice ride through the lakes region. All in all, it was a great day!

Happy Birthday Andrew/Daddy!!!!

2010-06-15T20:20:00.001-04:00

First Steps

2010-05-30T20:34:00.001-04:00

Matty has taken a few steps a couple of times, no more than 4 or 5 steps in between Andrew and me. We were at the park today and he was practicing his new skill...

Photo booth

2010-05-22T12:21:00.001-04:00

Matty loves the new lap top...and loves taking pictures with the built in camera!

Mother's Day and Polly's Pancake Parlor

2010-05-11T20:32:00.007-04:00

I celebrated my 2nd Mother's Day by waking up at 4:45 am to a sick baby and getting vomited on 5 minutes before I had to leave for work an hour later...poor little guy had been fighting some sort of stomach virus for a couple of days. Over those few days he ran a temp of 101.9, threw up several times and had just been overall really really cranky. He's doing better now, no temp and no more throwing up but he is still pretty cranky, needy and clingy...whenever he has gotten like this in the past we always say "maybe he's teething" and of course, after 13 months (Yes, he turns 13 months tomorrow!) he still has no teeth. However, we are thinking (I know, we've said this before) that maybe, maybe there are some teeth coming! His top gums have white bumps and looks like possibly the 2 "fangs" are ready to come through...that would be a pretty funny sight! We'll have to see!
Despite the "fun" morning and having to work, the rest of the day was great. Matty was feeling better after a long nap and some motrin, so I got out of work at noon and we headed up north to Polly's Pancake Parlor for our first pancake experience of the year. It was pretty cold and actually snowed a bit but still fun. The pancakes were just as good as ever and Matty enjoyed his banana pancake...he actually ate more than he as in a few days. Matty and I both napped on the way home which is always nice to do! I'm sure we will be heading to Polly's a few more times this summer!

NY Trip part 2...Pictures!

2010-05-04T20:18:00.011-04:00

Grammy and Matty hanging before the show

Matty looking sly...

The Sheep Meadow!

Two seconds later and the hat came off!

Mmmmm....someone loves ice cream sandwiches on a hot day!

The infamous Donut Plant...it took us 45 minutes to get there, but it was worth it! Mmm..coconut creme and carrot cake donuts...

Sweet Cousin Daniel and Andrew on the rooftop in Harlem...no, they didn't plan matching outfits, it just happened...

Matty loving the swing on the roof!

Weekend in NY

2010-05-01T22:34:00.005-04:00

Andrew, Matty and I are currently in NYC, blogging on the lap top! We arrived yesterday and immediately went to Steppingstone park in Great Neck. It was a beautiful day and after 5 hours in the car, we needed some fresh air and Matty needed to crawl around. He also had the opportunity to try out his two new hats, both of which stayed on for a total of 2 minutes before he ripped them off and almost threw them into the Long Island sound!

After a nice time at the park, we went to dinner at Shish Kebab and had yummy gyro salads, always a favorite when we make it to the island. Then we hit up Ralph's Italian ices for the best Italian ices I've ever had! Who has ever had chocolate chip cookie dough Italian ice? Seriously, the best. We then had a nice night back at 225 Shoreward where Matty decided to sleep ALL NIGHT, without waking up once! This is a rare occurrence and would be nice if I could actually enjoy it but I tend to wake up every hour or so and worry about him...I'm sure Ill get over that sometime soon!

Today we headed into the city to meet up with my parents who had tickets to see South Pacific (a Christmas gift from us!). It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm and a nice breeze. We enjoyed walking around the city but someone didn't like the subway very much...Matty had a bit of a melt down, poor little guy. While my parents were at the show, we went to Central Park, to the "sheep meadow"...the big field outside Tavern on The Green where I just found out today there used to be a sheep farm. Of course, all day long I kept hearing Andrew say "sheet metal"...I knew we were going to Central Park but I had no idea where he was taking us! The "sheep meadow" was packed! It was pretty fun people watching (and celebrity scouting...I saw none) and Matty's aunts, uncle and cousins came to meet us for some fun and ice cream. Matty had his first ice cream sandwich...he loved it!

We then met up with my parents again (they loved the show!) and headed to dinner at Citrus and then to PINKBERRY! Yes, we were in the city for more than 24 hours before out first Pinkberry experience! We shopped a bit at Fairway and then headed back on the subway (fun again for Matty!). My parents hit the road and we are now settled in at Andrew's sister's apartment. tomorrow looks to be more fun and yummy eats as we are going to attempt to head out early in the morning to see the Donut Plant, a donut joint our friends Ingrid and Josh rave about. Let's hope the 5 borough bike race through the city tomorrow doesn't stop us!

***More pictures from the trip to be added soon!

Birthday Boy!

2010-04-29T22:34:00.004-04:00

my test to see if I can upload pictures to the blog..I think I figured it out!

The first of many....

2010-04-29T21:55:00.002-04:00

Well, we have a laptop!!! We are the proud owners of a Mac book, pretty exciting. It's great to have the Internet at our fingertips again. And I'm pretty excited to have something to update my iPhone with as well as Skype, which I am sure we will be using to chat with family in the near future. In addition, we will hopefully be using the new computer to keep the blog going! I'm pretty disappointed in us for slacking with it because as I have looked back, it was a great way to document Matty's first year of life. Unfortunately we didn't document the second half as well as the first but there will be much more exciting things to come so here's to "the first of many"!!!

So...no pictures on the computer yet so I can't upload pictures but I can give a quick update on our lives...Matty turned one 3 weeks ago! Oh my god, where did the year go? We had a birthday party for him and had a great time celebrating with friends and family. Matty is cruising all over the place but has yet to take his first steps not holding onto anything, but we are pretty sure that time will be coming soon. He is very active and in 10 seconds of being on the floor, can tear up the house to look like a tornado hit it! One of his favorite things to do is climb the stairs, so we have been on a search for the perfect baby gate. I think we have bought (and returned) about 10 gates so far! We finally have the right one that works with our staircase and banister (which is what made it difficult!) but have only gotten the bottom of the stairs installed...it might be another month before the top is up. Right now, we do have one but it isn't one that you can open or close so we have to climb over it each time we are going up or down, I guess that will get old after a while.

Still no teeth...12 1/2 months and no teeth! Our pediatrician isn't worried...he said they will come when they are ready. Matty does fine without them and gums everything pretty well. There really isn't anything he doesn't eat. His current favorites are bananas, grapes, strawberries and peas. He is a pretty big fan of peanut butter and jelly too. One might think with all he eats he would be a bigger kid but he is still a little peanut! At his doctor's appointment this week, he was 20.8 lbs (13th percentile) and 29 1/2 inches (38th percentile)..he still fits into some of his 6-9 month pants! He is in the big kid room at daycare now too where he is playing either inside or outside most of the day but takes a 2 hour nap from 11-1 every day! Amazing! the kid who never used to nap more than 30 minutes at a time now naps 2 hours a day most days! He's sleeping pretty well at night too. He still wakes up once during the night, usually between 2-4am, I know I could probably wean him off of it but right now I don't mind.

There are so many other fun things going on with Matty that's it's hard to write about them all, but with the new laptop, I am going to try!

Where did March go???

2010-04-04T20:43:00.006-04:00

Did we really not blog at all in March??? Okay, well here's a quick one and a commitment to get back to blogging once we buy a new computer...which should hopefully be soon! In the meantime, Matty is almost one!!! And we are getting excited about celebrating his birthday with lots of friends and family next weekend. A few recent pictures...

Enjoying Sat morning music class...

First Passover and a giant matzoh

Matty had his first haircut!!! He's a little apprehensive...

But ended up happy...

A laptop(hopefully a Mac)is in our future and blogging will once again become a regular thing for both of us!!!

It's been a long time....

2010-02-16T16:58:00.007-05:00

It's been a long time and in order to keep Denise from saying that our blog is dead, I'll fill you in on what's going up here in Manch... Matty has been growing before our eyes..He's now 10 months old and is moving all over the place. He started crawling just after new years..Now he's unstoppable...He cruises from room to room and is seems very proud of his accomplishments. In addition he has now figured out how to stand up and hold on to things..This has caused him to get himself into everything on every table surface. Alas the babyproofing has begun to take shape at our house. He especially loves the dishwasher (hopefully this isn't his career aspiration).... He also grew out of his tummy tub and has graduated to a big boy duck tub....He loves the new tub and his bath toys..He plays and splashes and seems to love his bath time... We have been working on trying to get Matty to be a better napper. He has been sleeping better at night but still isn't a great napper...Slowly he has become more agreeable to napping in his crib as seen here. We also enrolled Matty in saturday morning music classes at Nini Bambini. He really loves the music and crawling around with his friends. There are instruments to bang (although he is more interested in chewing or climbing on them)... Finally, Matty asked me to show a picture of his new spongegbob pajamas.....

Post Holiday Post

2010-01-05T21:12:00.013-05:00

The holidays are over and we are busy getting back into a routine...and one that included getting Matty back on a sleep schedule! Since Thanksgiving he has been having trouble staying asleep in his crib so we did what lots of new parents do, we brought him in bed with us. He slept, we slept...life was good...but then he started waking up every few hours even while in our bed and not being able to put himself back to sleep, we had a lot of sleepless nights again. Knowing this wasn't fair for him (or us) we started sleep training again last week and after 3 long nights of letting him "cry it out" (we still went in to soothe him every 5-10 minutes) he is a champion sleeper again (knock on wood!). He is actually loving his crib now and we hear him in there playing quite often. The other day, he went down for a nap and fell asleep sitting up and then leaned over his stuffed sheep! So cute...

The holidays were nice, quick but nice. Matty enjoyed his first Hanukkah...we lit the menorah each night and each opened a gift. Matty loved ripping the paper off and often found the paper more fun than his gifts! We celebrated his first Christmas (what a lucky boy celebrating both holidays!) at my parents house and had a great time eating, drinking, opening gifts, playing games and laughing a lot. Again Matty seemed to enjoy ripping the paper off everything!

And of course, we have all been enjoying the snow! We have had our share of it already and I'm sure there is more to come! I think we have had 3 or 4 big storms already! Our friends, The "renos" gave us a sled that we brought Matty out in the other day...it was cold but he seemed to like the sledding!

We can't believe the little guy is almost 9 months old already! I can't believe how fast the time has gone and how quickly he has grown up. He is looking like such a big boy lately! Still no teeth and not quite crawling (he is up on all fours and creeping backwards but not frontwards yet)but has been pulling himself up and so active! He is eating so well too, up to three meals a day and still likes and eats everything we give him! Here's a couple of pictures of him in the middle of some of his new favorite activities: He loves it when Andrew holds him upside down and if you get him near a bookcase, forget it...he pulls everything out!

Finally...we had his portraits done the weekend after Thanksgiving and used some of the shots for our holiday card and gifts for our family. There are 20 shots all together (including the naked tushie with the santa hat in the previous post...that was a joke) and one of these days I'll get around to posting them on here but in the meantime here are a few of my favorites:

Matty Claus

2009-12-22T20:58:00.002-05:00

Wishing everyone a Happy Holiday!!!!!

100 and Counting!!!

2009-12-10T21:41:00.003-05:00

Wishing my Grandfather Jack a happy 100th birthday today.....

What a milestone......

Grandpa was lucky enough to have Williard Scott on the Today show wish him a happy birthday this morning!!!!!

Early December Update

2009-12-06T14:53:00.006-05:00

Yeah...so I'm a slacker...If it wasn't for Denise..None of you would know what's going on in our lives.. Anyway..

The weekend before thanksgiving we headed down to our friends Ingrid and Josh's house for a gourmet "14 course" tasting dinner cooked by Josh. It was great fun and included delights such as dehydrated bacon with caramel sauce, tobacco creams, and caramel popcorn drinks... for a more detailed review of the meal check out this link...http://ri100mi.com/2009/11/24/if-josh-tells-me-to-eat-leaves/

On Wednesday morning we headed down to Long Island for thanskgiving.. Denise and I had the day so we hit the road before the traffic. We made a nice pit stop in Manchester, CT and got to meet our friends Karyn and Stephen's new little guy Justin.

The weekend itself was a whirlwind with lots of family and friends. Matty was a great little boy in the car by himself in the backseat as we had to take two cars.
He met some of his new family members and also got to watch his first thanksgiving parade.

Thanksgiving dinner was a whirlwind of activity and Matty tried his first piece of turkey (he didn't seem too thrilled by the taste based on his face). Otherwise we had a great day... Denise had to leave early friday morning to head back to NH for work. Matty and I spent the day with family and then headed into the city for the big post thanksgiving bash at my sisters. Matty had a lot of fun playing with his cousins...

He even got to have story time from his aunt rachie...

Matty and I drove home saturday afternoon to get home in time to meet Denise coming home from work.. That didn't quite work out due to a lot of traffic on the Mass Pike... Matty was a great passenger though and managed to make it through the four 1/2 hour trip without many tears...

Now we are back to our routines and getting into winter/holiday mode...Just today I brought down the tree,decorations, lights and menorah from our attic..I'm pretty sure Denise will spend this evening decorating the tree...

This coming thursday is my grandfather Jacks 100th birthday.... Be sure to tune into the Today show between 8:30-9:00 to see Willard Scott announce his birthday!!!
We will be heading down to Long Island this weekend once again to celebrate this milestone. Yet again Matty will be meeting some of his relatives for the very first time..

In other news...It was bound to happen eventually but winter is finally here...Matty experienced his first snowstorm (albeit a little one) but he got to hold his first snowball and seemed to be mesmerized by the snow.. perhaps when there is more snow we will try out his sled!!!!!

Here he is in his first winter wonderland...

Happy 7 Month Birthday!

2009-11-18T15:18:00.008-05:00

Yes, little Matty turned 7 months last Thursday! So hard to believe and incredible to see him grow over that time! Each day brings more fun, challenges and surprises and even when it's tough, we love every minute of it, especially when he is as smiley as he is!

We took him to his 6 month check up this past Monday (we always seem to be a month off, oh well) and he got his regular shots plus the seasonal flu and H1N1 shot. Just like at 2 and 4 months, he took them like a champ and only cried for a bit. He did pout like I've never seen him do before and we all laughed because he looked so darn cute. I guess the laughing encouraged him and I am seeing the pout more and more often lately!

His check up went great and again Dr Eric said he is doing terrific and we are doing great as parents. Always nice to hear :-). He weighed in at a whopping 18.4 lbs (50th percentile) and 25 inches long (15th percentile! I think the measurement may have been off as he was extremely squirmy when the nurse was trying to measure him) and I forgot his head measurement but also in the 50th percentile. We talked about his eating solids and Dr Eric said we could try him on some different proteins and textures like cottage cheese or smashed chick peas so I think we might get a little more adventurous in the next few weeks with his eating.

Dr Eric also said his development looks great. I was a bit concerned as he has only really rolled over from back to belly a few times (the first being a few weeks ago and both Andrew and I saw him do it, it was a proud parent moment!) But despite not rolling, he sits up on his own great and has for about a month now. He is able to get from sitting to his tummy and almost get up on his hands and knees, although like rolling he doesn't seem to be too interested in making the move to the crawling just yet. We are fine with that since we haven't done any baby proofing of the house and we know its only a matter of time!

On the teething front...there is still none to speak of! I feel like he's been "teething" since about 3 1/2 months. He shoves everything in his mouth, drools like a dog and seems to be in a lot of teething pain, especially at night. He's been waking up screaming a few times a night lately and letting him cry it out isn't really working. We give him teething tabs which are homeopathic tabs that dissolve in his mouth and are like "baby crack"...we think he might be addicted. Everyday we wake up I feel inside his mouth and I'm convinced one of those pearly whites are going to break right through, but not yet!

Speaking of sitting up on his own, whenever we are at the store, we've been putting him in the shopping cart sitting up like a big boy, he loves it and loves all the attention he gets! Last week I was out shopping at Babies R Us and had him in there and all of a sudden I looked down and he was fast asleep! He looked so cute sleeping sitting up, I had to take a picture (or two). I couldn't push him around like that so I picked him up and carried him for a while and then went to the section with all the rocking chairs and sat with him asleep on me for about 20 minutes. He never sleeps like that on me anymore so I enjoyed every minute of it!

Next up is the holidays! We are traveling to Long Island next week to celebrate Thanksgiving with Andrew's family and Matty will finally get to meet some of his relatives he has never met before. Unfortunately I have to come back to NH on Friday as I do work in retail and as long as I do, I will never have the Friday after Thanksgiving off! Andrew and Matty are staying in NY and coming home on Saturday. Its going to be so weird being in the house and not having them here! I suppose I can look forward to a night of uninterrupted sleep but I will miss them! Of course I could always take him to work with me, he already has his own nametag for when he comes to visit at work!

Avocado Face

2009-11-01T13:34:00.006-05:00

Wow, 2 blogs in two days...I'm on a roll! Since Matty has been eating solids for well over a month now, I thought I would blog about all the wonderful things that go along with this new milestone! We started him at about 5 1/2 months with just rice cereal, which he was okay with but boy is it bland! We tasted it too, yuck. We waited the recommended 4 days of the cereal and moved onto bananas. He liked these too but I guess I didn't realize that rice cereal + bananas each for 4 days would equal one bound up little boy. Fortunately, it never seemed to bother him and fortunately for me, he finally pooped while I was at work and Andrew was home with him. Andrew was kind enough to email me a picture of it at work though! I'll skip posting the picture here but it was a doozy!. After the bananas we did apples and then pears which seems to be his favorite. We also switched to oatmeal instead of rice cereal and he seems to like it more and has 2 grams of fiber! Next we went to veggies...sweet potatoes, butternut squash, avocado, and peas. We haven't found something he doesn't like yet although the peas didn't seem to agree with him! We only gave them to him once and that night he woke up crying, I went in after 10 minutes (yes, we did the "cry it out" wait ten minutes before going in, its working and all 3 of us are happy and well rested) and put my hand on his chest, it was wet, so I turned the light on and my little monkey was covered in green vomit! Yuck, I know! It was like The Exorcist! A little bit of a scare for all 3 of us but after we got him in dry jammies and calmed him down, he was fine. No fever, no more crying. I don't know if he is allergic or they just didn't agree with him but we didn't try them again the next day. Maybe we will try again in a month or so, I still have 2 ice cube trays full of pureed peas so lets hope he ends up being okay with them! I have been making all his fruits and veggies...so easy and fun to do too. I knew the "magic bullet" would come in handy someday! We are going to increase him to 2 meals a day now as he has been drinking soooo much milk at daycare and I can't keep up with him unless I pumped 5 times a day at work, which just isn't possible. We want to start some new fruits so I think mango and blueberries are on the horizon soon!

The upside to the pea incident is that his sleep suit was also covered in green vomit so he went without it that night and we decided what a great time to wean him off it! We did swaddle him that night with one arm out, then a few nights with both arms out and now he is sleeping in just a sleep sack and doing great! I didn't think it would be that easy but I think we got lucky.

Here is the smiley boy in his high chair waiting for his dinner!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T14:01:00.005-04:00

Matty is enjoying his first Halloween today and will be going trick or treating for the second time later on this evening. The city of Manchester traditionally has their trick or treating the Sunday before Halloween. I had to work but Andrew had fun going around with Matty in his monkey costume (what else?). Tonight we are going to our friends in a nearby town and trick or treating on the real holiday. We are looking forward to the tradition and more good picture ops!

One Big Update

2009-09-20T20:28:00.012-04:00

It's been a while so this might be long, but guaranteed to be full of Matty, Matty, Matty! We've been settling into our new home and enjoying the extra space and luxuries we never had before such as a bath tub, king sized bed and backyard with a grill. I've been back to work for over a month now and Andrew has been in school for almost 3 weeks. Matty has been in daycare for almost 4 weeks and so far so good! He did get his first cold/cough/virus the second week which left all 3 off us pretty miserable for a while as Matty didn't really sleep well during that time at all, and in turn neither did we. Even now that he is better, sleep is still hit or miss as he is teething too. Some nights he sleeps 7 or even 8 hours straight and some he wakes up every 2 hours, and there is no rhyme or reasons as to why (or at least what we can figure out!). He is also amazingly growing in front of our eyes! He went for his fourth month appointment a few weeks ago (even though he turned 5 months 3 days later!) and did fine again with his shots...only cried a minute or two. He was up to 15.14 lbs (46th percentile) and 25 inches (50th percentile). Dr. Eric said he was doing great and said we could start him on solids if we wanted. I was thinking we would wait until 6 months but he has been showing signs of being interested in eating as he watches us eat and shoves his hands into anything we are eating so we decided to start a little at this time. His first was a little rice cereal we gave him the past few days which he took fine and seemed to enjoy the whole process. Tonight we tried some bananas and he really seemed to like it! Lots of smiles and opening his mouth up for more. It's pretty fun to see his face experience something new but yes...very messy! We are looking forward to making some applesauce from the awesome apples we picked today and trying that at the end of the week and then probably some sweet potatoes, avocado and butternut squash. I have a feeling the kitchen floor will be very colorful! Here's some pictures of him trying the cereal the first time. We were just sitting him up in the bumbo but got a chance to go out and buy a new high chair yesterday, which he looks like such a big boy when he's in it!

We've also been doing a whole nighttime routine with him every night before he goes to sleep which includes a bath and stories read by his daddy (Goodnight Moon every night!). We never really had a good bathing system as our old place only had a shower so we put the baby tub on the bottom of the shower and bathed him that way. We both usually ended up soaking wet! When we moved, we were so excited about having a bathtub. The tub is great for us, however it is very deep and has high sides and glass doors, so very difficult to put the tub in and use. So I decided to get a Tummy Tub. The place where I go to moms group, Nini Bambini, sells these and I thought they sounded great, and we can just put it right on the floor of the bathroom. They are designed to make babies feel like they are in the womb because they kind of sit in a fetal position and the water comes up to their chin. It took him a few times to get comfortable with it but now he loves it. He sits and splashes and plays. I know they say you can use it until 2 years old but I can't imagine that! I'm sure we will transition to the regular tub by then! Here are some pictures of him enjoying his tummy tub!

And lastly, we are enjoying the change of seasons. It was a great summer and some say not long enough but I guess since I was off, it felt long enough for me. I am loving the cool mornings and evenings and crisp fall air. The leaves are just starting to change in NH and it's starting to look beautiful. Today we went apple picking for the first time and enjoyed the beautiful day. It's also fun to start dressing Matty for the new season. Instead of just one piece rompers, he's been wearing jeans, overalls, sweaters, fleeces, etc...he just looks so cute! Here's a picture of him all bundled up in his bear sweatshirt when it was 50 degrees yesterday morning! And a picture of him sitting up in a baby sled our friends gave us...he doesn't know what it's for yet but yes, snow will be just around the corner!

RIP Johnny Castle...

2009-09-15T09:33:00.003-04:00

Nobody puts Baby in the corner....

Back to School

2009-09-01T18:03:00.004-04:00

Although I've had inservice days yesterday and today (Mon and Tues), tomorrow marks my first day of the 2009-2010 school year at Nashua High School North...

I am looking forward to meeting the 93 sophomores who I will have the pleasure of spending 90 minutes a day with, for the next 90 days...

This year I am lucky enough to have my own classroom and won't have to be one of those traveling teachers....

Go Titans!!!!!

The New Digs!!!

2009-08-25T10:49:00.014-04:00

Well it's been almost a month since we moved into our new house...We are about 95% done unpacking and decorating (still a few more boxes etc.)...I guess it's time now that we put up some pictures.....

Here's the front...

And the living room

And the kitchen..

The kitchen from the other side...

The backyard....

Matty's Bedroom...

Another of Matty's Room..

Our Bedroom....

Our new king size bed!!!

(YEAH I PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE MADE THE BED FOR THE PICTURE!!!!)

Upstairs bathroom....

And a few of the basement (used as a guestroom, playroom and office/den)

Yikes..A month!!!!

2009-08-17T07:46:00.002-04:00

Wow...We are really blogging slackers aren't we??? I guess it's more me than Denise as its been a really long time since I blogged....Anyway it's been a busy busy month.... Since the last blog we became homeowners and have moved to our new digs..Pictures to follow soon, I promise.....Packing, moving and unpacking was a royal pain, it always is, but even more so with a 3 month old....We had a big yard sale a couple of weekends before we moved and made over 300 dollars, not bad, and we got rid of a lot of crap...

We are now all moved in and settled in to the new place. We are very happy and comfortable here (Central AC is the best!!!!)... Matty seems to be enjoying it to...
As for the rest of our summer since our last post...We took another trip to see the families in New York..We spent a night in Great Neck with my parents..Then we headed out to the Hamptons for a couple of days and shacked up in the pool house....Then we headed up to Denise's parents for a couple of days and took Matty to his first horserace at the Saratoga racetrack...

Now we are back in town, and today marks Denise's first day back at work since Matty was born....This week it's Matty and me hanging out until he starts Day care next week. School starts for me in two weeks, hopefully we'll all be in a routine by then..

Things that we promise:
Pictures of our new home
Pictures of our trip
Pictures of Matty

Soon come...

Photoshop...

2009-07-16T17:31:00.001-04:00

Courtesy of our friend Curtis...

Baby Merlin's Magic Sleep Suit!

2009-07-15T20:59:00.004-04:00

Ever since Matty was days old, we have swaddled him for sleep. He has always loved it and slept pretty well. We tried the regular receiving blankets of various sizes but never got it tight enough that he didn't bust out. We then found the Kiddopotamus...a cool blanket/pocket thing with Velcro closures. It looks a little like a straight jacket, but it always worked like a charm. In the past week he has seemed to outgrow the Kiddapotamus and either got his arms or legs or both out of it in the middle of the night (hence the difficulty sleeping lately!). I tried some other swaddles we had collected and nothing kept him in tight...he always seemed to get out or wake himself up flailing his arms and legs if we didn't swaddle him. So we bought the next size of the Kiddapotamus, thinking this will solve the problem...he's too small for them! For some crazy reason, they only make a "small" and a "large"...what happened to the medium??? Anyway...I was at my mom's group yesterday and someone suggested the Baby Merlin's Magic Sleep Suit. It's kind of like a light weight snow suit that prevents a baby (who has gotten too big to swaddle) from moving their arms and legs around a lot and waking them up...just like the little kid from The Christmas Story! The place where I go to the mom's group (Nini Bambini) sells these and let me take one home on a trial basis to see if Matty would like it. We put him in it last night and after Andrew and I laughed at the poor kid for about 20 minutes, he fell right asleep and slept 5 hours, woke up to eat and them slept another 3 (this was after him sleeping in his swing in the living room for 3 hours so a good night of sleep overall). I'm going to try it out on him again tonight and see if it works again. Honestly, I'm excited that this is helping him sleep but I really just love the way he looks in it!!!

Happy 3 Month Birthday Matty!!

2009-07-14T18:20:00.012-04:00

This past Sunday was Matty's 3 month birthday...and he went through a major growth spurt to prove it! He seemed to grow right in front of our eyes! He also did all those other wonderful things that go along with a growth spurt, including waking every two hours at night to eat, sleeping a lot during the day and being a real cranky pants when awake. Luckily he is past most of that although he is still waking a lot during the night...I must have jinxed myself since last week I was just saying how lucky we were to have such a good sleeper! On average he was sleeping 5 hours straight at night and even had a few 6 and 7 hour nights! Now we are lucky if he sleeps 3!

Here's a few of my favorite pictures of him lately, including his 13th week picture on his chair...unfortunately, he never seems happy when I want to take his picture in it!

All swaddled up for the night...too bad I don't have a picture of him busting out of it 2 hours later!

In his bumbo, and dressed in overalls for his Grammy!

Cool dude...

Bruce Springsteen impression...can you tell his dad likes to dress him up in strange outfits?

Sitting up in his co-sleeper (we propped him up, he didn't do it on his own!)

Where has the time gone???

2009-07-08T15:03:00.012-04:00

So my last post was Matty's 2 month check up and this Monday is his 3 month birthday...where has the time gone???? So much has happened and so many "firsts" for us all...here is a quick rundown...

1. Andrew finished his first year of teaching!!! Yeah!!! Now he is off for the summer and enjoying the time with Matty and Me.

2. Matty made his first road trip with us last week when we traveled to NY to visit family. First we stayed at my parents house where Matty met Willie, my parents dog for the first time, and got his first lesson in which way the ceiling fan goes...clockwise or counter clockwise. We then went to Long Island to visit Andrew's family and met many family friends for the first time including his Great Grandfather who will turn 100 this years! Next we headed to the Hamptons where he met his cousins, Max, Dani and Alex for the first time.

3. While on vacation, Matty saw his first fireworks...he was fine until the finale.
4. Also on vacation (while sunning ourselves in the Hamptons),Matty swam in a pool for the first time and went to the beach for the first time. He seemed to really enjoy both...takes after both mom and dad.

5. Matty went to the movies for the first time when we went to see UP! at the drive in...great idea with a baby! He also went to the movies for the second time when we saw The Hangover...he laughed a lot (no, he really slept a lot)...who said you can't do anything now that you have a baby?

6. Matty experienced the first real "big celebrity death" of his life...and 2 weeks later, aren't we all just a little sick of hearing about it?

7. And the biggest first (since becoming parents...) Andrew and I are first time home owners! We recently bought a townhouse and are moving at the end of this month! We are so excited to have more room, a backyard and a bathtub to look forward to with our family! Not to mention not having to trudge up 3 flights of stairs! So the rest of the month is all going to be about packing and moving(hopefully with a little summer fun beach time thrown in a bit).

Here's a few recent pictures of our recent adventures with the little one:

Swinging away on the 4th of July...he had a very patriotic outfit on.

Matty and Daddy...toes in the sand.

What a little sneak...busting out of his swaddle.

Taking a picture of him each week on his chair hasn't really been working...I think this might have been 9 or 10 weeks.

Modeling his "baby legs"...the coolest thing instead of pants, like giant leg warmers for babies. These will be great when he starts crawling, and they make diaper change so easy.

Ready for the pool!

In the pool!

At the beach in Bridgehampton. I think Matty was looking around for famous people.

2 month check up!

2009-06-17T21:45:00.004-04:00
Today was Matty's 2 month doctor appointment which meant...shots! 3 of them...poor little guy. He took them like a champ and only cried for about 5 minutes or so and then fell asleep for about 2 hours. They say the shots can either make them really sleepy or sometimes really cranky...guess which one showed up tonight? Mr Cranky Pants. He's finally asleep and calmed down, all swaddled up in his swing. I'm hoping he stays calm and sleeps well through the night, he definitely seems out of sorts.

On a positive note...he's up to 12 lbs! Dr Eric (Doogie Howser MD) said he is doing great and told us we were doing great as parents, which is always nice to hear! His weight is in the 53rd percentile and he is 23 inches long which is 47th percentile. Such a big boy!

Dr Eric was pretty impressed on how well he can hold his head up too...I told him Matty loves his "tummy time" and we do a lot of it every day. Here's a couple of pictures of him demonstrating his great head control in the bumbo seat*

*(okay...to be fair, the chair has a pretty high back and supports his head! He wouldn't be sitting up so well in any other chair!)

9 week picture...and Happy Birthday Andrew!

2009-06-15T21:57:00.005-04:00
Today is Andrew's birthday! We celebrated with some yummy pasta and salad for dinner and an "icebox" cake for dessert. Tomorrow is the real celebration when we head to the Verizon Arena here in Manchester to see Fleetwood Mac...I got the tickets for Andrew for his birthday. He is a big fan, I am not but I'll go along for the ride! Matty won't be attending his first concert and instead our friend Meghan is coming over to babysit (thanks Meghan!!!). We have reservations for dinner at a new restaurant in Manchester, Mint Bistro as well. Looking forward to a fun night out!

Here's a few of Matty's 9 week pictures...along with his way of saying Happy Birthday to his daddy!

8 week picture

2009-06-09T21:54:00.004-04:00
2 days late...and I missed the 7th week so I'll make up for it by posting 3 pictures of Matty in his chair!

Blog? What blog???

2009-06-08T22:03:00.011-04:00
I know...we have been blogging slackers lately (especially Andrew...I think he forgot how to blog!). I can't really say that anything has been going on other than Matty, Matty and Matty! Yes, he consumes our lives and we just love it. Hard to believe he is 8 weeks old already! Here's just a couple of things he is up to lately...

Smiling, laughing and overall melting our hearts with his new facial expressions. Sometimes he does it on his own and sometimes we have to make faces or noises (he especially likes the "muhah" kissing noise)to get him to do it. Lucky for us we caught a few on camera.

Holding his head up...he's a pretty strong little guy and enjoys his tummy time. He is holding his head up longer and higher every day.

Showing us his naked tush...yes, I am posting naked pictures of my baby. I'm sorry, I can't help it...he is just too damn cute when he is naked.

Going out to eat with Sweet Cousins Daniel and Audrey...well he would have been happy through the whole experience except his dad made him wear this stupid hat

Big yawns....I can't believe the hearty yawns this little guys has. I always thought big hearty yawns are something learned, and often quite exaggerated but he was born with it!

One year ago today....

2009-05-25T22:02:00.012-04:00
We got married! Hard to believe it has been a year already since this:

We decided to celebrate our anniversary by getting out and enjoying as many things about where we live as possible. We started the day at Polly's Pancake Parlor where they have possibly the best pancakes ever. It is 100 miles from home so the pancakes better be worth it...they are! Today, of course, was Matty's first trip to Pollys and he enjoyed every minute of it. Here's a picture of Matty riding Trot Trot (With Andrew's help).

Next, we headed to The Flume...a nice 2 mile hike through the woods and a hands on viewing of the largest gorge in NH. It was such a perfect day for a hike and Matty enjoyed his ride in the Moby Wrap. We are looking forward to more hikes in the future with our little guy!

We then headed for Kittery Maine to Chauncey Creek Pier for lobster. I decided to skip the actual lobster so that I wouldn't get lobster guts and goo all over Matty if he needed something so I got the lobster roll instead. Andrew, however, got the full lobster and even shared in with Matty.

The best part of our day was when we got home and were relaxing on the couch with Matty. He started to smile and giggle like we have never seen before and was entertaining us for several minutes...Andrew was able to catch this quick picture...he just melts our hearts!

Now it's time to end the day with a piece of our wedding cake that has been in the freezer for a year! We'll see how the carrot cake held up!

6 weeks old...

2009-05-25T21:59:00.002-04:00
Ooops...forgot to post this yesterday...Matty's 6 week picture on his chair. I took 4 pictures and this is the best one, he wasn't having it yesterday but he sure is getting big!!!

Weekly photo...

2009-05-17T22:28:00.006-04:00
We got this very cute chair for Matty from his Aunt Rachel (thanks Rach!) and took a couple of pictures of him on it the first day we got it when he was only 12 days old...

Our plan was to take a picture of him every week on the chair to see how much he is growing. Fast forward 3 weeks later and we realized we haven't done this since the first picture! So here's my attempt to stay committed to doing this, I am going to take a picture every Sunday and post on our blog! Here's the one from today...he definitely has grown!

I just realized he is wearing the same onesie in both pictures too...that wasn't planned but maybe we'll keep doing it...until he outgrows it!

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T22:44:00.004-04:00
Happy Mother's Day to our mom's...

and the newest mom...

Muses from Matty....

2009-05-06T22:42:00.006-04:00
Just a quick update on our life with a newborn...Matty has been developing into quite a personality and is a whole lot of fun, except for his newly developed "cranky period" which I saw once during his first few weeks of life but is going on 4 nights strait now. Around 11 each night, he is wide awake, cranky, and cries almost non stop. This has lasted until 3am one night, but usually subsides around 1am. They (all those books) say that this could be colic...not sure if it is or not but we are getting creative with ways to handle it and keep him happy and us sane. He's lucky he is so damn cute because even during those crying bouts, he is irresistible. Let's hope the batteries on the calming vibration chair don't run out too soon!

Matty also had his first bottle last night. We wanted him to get introduced to it early enough that he will be good with the bottle and still breastfeeding, as he will be in daycare after I go back to work. Andrew also likes the idea of feeding him too and having a little daddy bonding time. Here's a picture from our first attempt, he did really well! Now I just have to figure out a schedule of pumping and feeding him.

We are getting into a bit of a routine now and always looking for reasons to get out of the house. Yesterday Matty and I went to a Mommy and Me class that the hospital where we delivered runs. There was about 9 moms there with their babies and we all just sat around in bean bag chairs talking, asking questions and sharing advice. I wasn't sure I would like this kind of thing but actually it was great and I can see myself going every week. I met a mom who has a son that was born 2 days after Matty...his name is Andrew and her husband's name is Matthew! We got a kick out of that one!

No pictures from Mommy and Me but here's a few more recent pictures just for fun!

Little Squid...

2009-05-04T13:51:00.002-04:00

For anyone who doesn't know...Andrew's nickname in college (and still his nickname to several of our friends) was Squid. Last year when we were in St John for our wedding, I saw this shirt and decided I needed to buy it for our future child some day...pink was the only choice of color! Oh well, we had a boy and had to subject him to the pink shirt...I think he pulled it off well!

First doctor appointment

2009-04-29T22:14:00.006-04:00
Today was Matthew's first check up and the results are...he is doing fabulous! Our pediatrician's name is Dr.Schessler but tells everyone to call him Dr Eric and he looks a little like Doogie Howser, so we refer to him as Doogie (not to his face though). We like him a lot and he is very patient and willing to answer all the silly questions we, as new parents, have. He was very impressed on how Matthew has been doing in his first weeks of life. Matty was born at 7 lbs 4 ozs but left the hospital at 6lbs 7 ozs, which is a loss of more than 10% of his birth weight, so was a little bit of a concern in the very beginning. We were hoping he was back up to his birth weight today at his check up and not only was he back up...he was 1 lb over! 8 lbs 4 oz today! He is in the 30th percentile for weight and head measurement and 50th percentile for length as he is up to 21 3/4 inches from 20 inches at birth. Overall, he his doing great and best of all...no shots today! We can look forward to his 2 month check up for his next shots! Here's some pictures of him at his first doctors appointment:

Waiting for Doogie to come weigh him....

Getting his heart rate checked...he didn't cry at all...

Andrew getting him dressed again, notice they are wearing matching stripes...

All done, and his eyes are open!!!!

2 weeks old!

2009-04-26T21:48:00.005-04:00
The past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind and I can't believe April is almost over and it is Spring! Well, actually after the weather this weekend, it feels more like summer! We have been enjoying our new lives and our fantastic little boy! Matthew has been the center of attention for the past week and a half since we have been home, greeting lots of family and friends who have come over to visit and help out...and he seems to be enjoying all of it and taking it all in...hmmm...must take after his father the way as he loves to be the center of attention! I have been feeling better and slowly recovering...thank god my mom was here last week to help out when Andrew went back to work, even though she was waiting on me hand and foot...she loved every minute of it because she got lots of Matty and Grammy time!

Before yesterday I had only been out of the house twice for doctor's appointments, but yesterday Matthew's Aunts Rachel and Vicki (Andrew's sisters) came to visit from NYC and we all ventured out for lunch. Today was another big outing as we went grocery shopping, ran some errands and stopped for ice cream. Matty loves his car seat and sat in and slept the whole time. I was happy to get outside as I have been having some cabin fever but the stairs (we live on the third floor) have been difficult, so I just take it slowly and make Andrew carry all the groceries and the baby in his car seat. Andrew is off from work this week for spring break so we have lots of plans to try to get out of the house at least once a day. All in all, it has been a terrific yet tiring two weeks! Here's some of our favorite pictures...hard to pick since we have about 300 of them!

I swear he is smiling at me in this picture....

Big yawn!!!

Nap time with Daddy...

I just realized we don't have many pictures of him with his eyes open...I'll work on getting some!

Saturday Afternoon Update

2009-04-18T15:47:00.002-04:00
The three of us have been settling in at home after 5 days in the hospital...Matthew has been wonderful and cooperative so far as we try to establish routines and figure out what works best... Sleeping has been at a minimum but we all got in a 4 hour stretch earlier this morning...

For those of you who didn't know...Denise wound up having a C-Section at 3 in the morning last sunday. She never dialated past three centimeters and because her water broke late friday night, it was time for the little guy to come out. As a result she is experiencing some discomfort due to the surgery. She is supposed to take it easy for the next few weeks as she heals. Tomorrow, her mom, Joyce is coming to spend the week with Denise and Matthew as I have to go back to work on monday...Friday is my last day of school for a week as I have my spring break.

As I type this the little peanut is having his lunch (breastmilk). Denise snapped a picture of him in his breastmilk food coma...

Matthew Ryan Bergang

2009-04-16T17:10:00.003-04:00
Our bundle of joy arrived on April 12th, 2009 at 3:04 AM.
He was 7 pounds, 4 ounces and 20 inches long.

We spent a few days in the hospital and now are at home getting into a routine....More to come soon....

Here is getting ready for his first journey in the car from the hospital.

Peekaru...

2009-04-08T16:25:00.002-04:00
Something fun for the baby once it gets cold....

I think I might have to order one! Peekaru

Mmmmm....fondue

2009-04-07T10:24:00.006-04:00

The past few Saturday nights, Andrew and I have been heading out to dinner for "date nights". Knowing that our time for this will be very limited in the future, we have been picking restaurants that we know are not going to be "baby friendly". Luckily, a bunch of our favorite restaurants in Manchester should be pretty easy to bring a baby along but we know there will be a few that won't be. This past Saturday, we went to Burlington MA and had a great dinner at The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant that is actually a chain. Considering I was worried that Andrew would burn himself because the hot pot and heating element is part of the table (he actually didn't), this would definitely not be a place I would bring an infant! The place was great and a lot of fun. Our hostess and waitress were so nice and kept trying to accommodate us...apparently a 9 month pregnant woman was amusing to them and they all were taking bets in the kitchen as to whether or not I was going to go into labor right there at the restaurant! It was also pretty amusing since the tables had the heating element and hot plate, they were marble and didn't move...and didn't leave a ton of room between the edge of the table and my pregnant belly...so a little uncomfortable, but like I said, they were trying to be so accommodating and kept coming over and telling me to move to the side, put my feet up, etc...it was pretty funny! As for the food...we started with the cheese course....as you can see, Andrew barely could wait for the cheese to cool down, I do think he burned his mouth...check out the string hanging from his chin...that stayed put the entire dinner!

Then the entree...this was fun as you get to cook your own meat in different flavored broths and then use all these different dipping sauces. There were a bunch of veggies too and the mushrooms were the best poached in the broth.

The finale was the chocolate fondue...we choose the Yin/Yan which was white chocolate and milk chocolate. It looked cool but tasted even better. I loved the strawberries and rice krispie treats dipped in the chocolate but the cheesecake was a little much!

All in all, a great meal...looks like we will have one more Saturday night for date night this week!

12 days and counting!!!

2009-03-31T08:59:00.006-04:00
Wow...I can't believe my due date is only 12 days away! Luckily we are feeling ready and prepared. There is only a few minor things we still want to do before the big day arrives, besides sleep as much as possible! We still have a few more decorations to put up in he nursery but here are some updated pictures now that the room is filling up with more stuff!

The wonderful ladies I work with threw me a baby shower at work a few weeks back and we got lots of great stuff...and people have been so generous with gifts! Sweet Cousin Daniel and Sweet Cousin Audrey (The Verosmans) came to visit last week (and drove through a freak snow storm to do so!) and brought with them a fabulous DiaperCake! It's too pretty to take apart and use! Luckily the diapers are a bigger size so we can continue to admire the diaper cake before we need to use the diapers.

12 more days...here's to hoping they go by quick...we are anxious to meet baby donovan!!!

Baby Class

2009-03-14T10:56:00.005-04:00
Last night Denise and I went to baby class. This was is entitled "your baby-the first few days" or something like that... It was somewhat informative, although sitting in a class for two hours on a friday night is not the most ideal situation. Each couple was given a doll and we were able to practice giving the doll sponge baths and changing the diaper....

I think Denise is relieved that at least I won't do something like this now....

P.S...I don't know who this baby is..I just found the picture on google images....it seemed to serve the purpose perfectly@@@

Happy Birthday to....

2009-03-11T16:19:00.003-04:00
OUR BLOG!!!

Yes, we started our blog a year ago today...sorta as a joke. We were out to dinner celebrating our 3 year anniversary of our first date (which makes today our 4th anniversary! We are heading out to dinner to celebrate a little later)and we were joking around about starting a blog...a few hours later Andrew figured out how to do it and our blog was born. Little did we think that we would still be blogging a year later! Here's to many more interesting tidbits from our somewhat boring lives in the granite state!

Happy First Birthday Matilda!!!!

2009-03-09T20:36:00.004-04:00

Donovan is looking forward to meeting his/her cousins!!!!

Baby Donovan's Nursery

2009-03-04T16:08:00.008-05:00
Here's a few pictures of the nursery, almost done. We still need to decorate and put some stuff up on the walls but the painting and furniture are done! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Bergang for the beautiful crib and dressers and thanks to Grammy and Gramps Foster for the softest, most comfortable chair and ottoman ever!!!!

The Time of Our Lives....

2009-02-28T12:05:00.006-05:00
This past Thursday night we went in to Boston for the stage production of Dirty Dancing. This was a Christmas present that Andrew had gotten me and I couldn't have been more excited about seeing the live version of one of the most fabulously cheesy movies of all times. The stage production did not disappoint and if the movie is a 10 in cheese factor, the live version was a 17. Talk about hamming it up for all the best lines! "I carried a watermelon", "Spaghetti arms", and of course every one's favorite..."Nobody puts Baby in the corner". Each one delivered to the fullest and got a great reaction from the audience. We thoroughly enjoyed it and whispered all of our favorite lines to each other through the whole thing. As far as a professional stage production goes, it seems to need a little work before it hits Broadway in the fall...the music was good and a strong part of the play however the dancing wasn't as great as it should be...maybe it's because we happened to catch the understudy for Baby. The guy playing Johnny was no Patrick Swayze (but who is?) and his English accent was a bit distracting. But other than that...a great time to be had by all...I had to stop myself from buying a Kellerman's tee-shirt in the lobby on the way out! Here's few pictures from the night...unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of the "lift" during the finale...I got caught by an usher with my iPhone out!

Pale Daffodil

2009-02-28T11:42:00.007-05:00
Part of vacation was getting the nursery ready...because of the snow storm last Sunday we didn't get to painting until yesterday as our fearless helper Jon came up from MA to help out Andrew in the painting department (now if he could only help Andrew figure out how to get the paint out of his hair!). He was a great help (thanks Jon!)and Andrew was good to go adding on the last coat of paint last night, even after the furniture was delivered! Here's a few "middle pictures"...I forgot to take some "before" pictures but I'll definetly be adding the "after" pictures soon!

Vacation... Sorta

2009-02-22T14:42:00.002-05:00

So.....Denise and I are on vacation this week...However, we wont' be spending it on some warm tropical island. Instead we are using this week for our final preparations for baby "Donovan's" arrival.... We will be painting the nursery (with Jon's help), having the furniture delivered, installing the bases for the car seats among dozens of other things that are on our "to do" list. Hopefully we will have some time to sleep and relax as well. Tonight is the Academy Awards, which Denise refers to her as her "super bowl"...As she says, the pre-game (read red-carpet) begins at six....

Stay tuned for updates on our progress this week...I'm sure you are all dying to know what we are upto...

Kitty Condo

2009-02-19T18:37:00.004-05:00

Since my cats (yes, mine..not ours, Andrew will never accept ownership even if he lives under the same roof as them)are getting displaced from the spare room to make room for baby donaovan's nursery, I thought I would get them a kitty condo to hang out in the kitchen. As you can see, Mimi is pretty comfortable and is purring away on her new perch...Cozmo, on the other hand, doesn't seem that interested...They had better get used to it because on Sunday they will officially be kicked out of the spare room as we are starting painting and decorating!

Gettin' Ready...

2009-02-10T09:45:00.003-05:00

We've been doing a lot of things lately to get ready for baby donovan's arrival (which according to my last dr's visit, I shouldn't be surprised if it's a few weeks early...the baby is measuring in the 67th percentile!). This past weekend we spent the whole day on Sunday re-hauling the apartment to make it "baby ready". We're not done yet but made a nice dent (16 garbage bags of old clothes to donate!) We were trying to find a place to buy and move into a few months ago but never found something that would work for us in such a short time so we decided to stay in our current apt. It's a great place that we both love but has a couple of downfalls for a baby. No bathtub, we are on the third floor (lots of stairs!) and only 2 bedrooms....the cats will now be living in the kitchen, bathroom and hallway! The upside is it's cheap! and our neighbors who smoked a carton of cigarettes a day recently moved. So, I guess we will stay for a while. So after this weekend, the second bedroom(soon to be the nursery) is ready to be painted and decorated and filled with baby stuff. Thanks to Andrew and his cleaning frenzy, we also have a very clean apartment to bring the baby home to. We both have a weeks vacation coming up at the end of the the month to finish the overhaul...that and we plan on sleeping in every day because we know it will be many many years before we can do that again!

Truckin Along....

2009-02-03T20:11:00.003-05:00
Well there's not much to report here....It's been a while so I figured I'd just do a quick update.....

We are continuing with our childbirth classes which meet every wednesday night...Last week was supposed to be our tour of the Maternity Ward at the Elliot Hospital but that was cancelled because of the snowstorm....

Last Saturday I attended "Boot Camp for New Dads"....It was a three hour "Dads only" session...Somewhat hokey but also informative...The parting gift was a sporty new t-shirt that says "I survived Boot Camp for New Dads"....I'll wear it proudly...

We spent part of saturday and sunday at Target and Babies-R-Us checking out baby stuff...we picked out a travel system and furniture as well. We also registered for a ton of stuff for baby Donavan...

We took a little road trip last saturday...First we hit the Regal Cinemas and saw "Frost/Nixon" which I liked more than Denise did. Then we hit up the Tilton Outlets and did some shopping...We then headed up to Meredith to hit the Bootleggers shoe store so Denise could pick up a new pair of shoes and then headed over to the Yankee Smokehouse for some good bar-b-que. On the way back we stopped at Target in Concord and opened up our baby registry....

As far as the homefront is concerned...not much to report...Denise is trucking along at 31 weeks...(wow time flies)... I just finished up the first semester and recently started the second one. I have three new classes, which equals 85 new kids....It's been fun getting to know them....

Otherwise the snow continues to pile up...It's been a snowy winter(although not as bad as last winter)...The snow days at school are adding up and with two more months of winter who knows how many more we'll have (we are already at 5!!!!)

Random pictures from my iphone...

2009-01-24T09:31:00.013-05:00
I love that my iphone takes pretty good pictures, better than a regular cell phone. I also love that I know how to download them onto my computer so now I don't have to wait for Andrew to do so with the regular camera! Here's some random shots from my iphone over the past few months:

My car buried after a recent snow storm...do we live in Alaska or something???

Andrew being nice to his 7 month pregnant wife and digging my car out.

The best soup in the world from the best Thai restaurant...Duk Boa in Brookline MA, yes I am a little obsessed.

Andrew eating the second best soup in the world, a big bowl of Pho from the Golden Bowl in Manchester. Hey, we like our Asian soups.

YoBerry...a Boston knockoff of the Pinkberry frozen yogurt craze. We were happy to find this as it's similar but not as good as Pinkberry. Their motto is "so good cuz it's so hood"...not sure what that means but it's pretty funny!

A couple of shots of one of the managers I work with at Target with his bird on Target's "National take your bird to work day". I made that up. Seriously, Curtis was bringing one of his 2 birds (MaGee) to get her nails clipped and brought her in for all of us to see and hear...she's a talker!
The second one was taken right after Curtis promised me she wouldn't poop in my office. At least it only got on his shirt.

My cats, Cozmo and Mimi and my parents dog, Willie...okay Andrew, you can stop sneezing now....

Off to the Movies!

2009-01-13T09:10:00.003-05:00
It seems like we have been heading out to the movie theaters a lot lately. Maybe it's because we know in 3 months we won't have the opportunity to do so as often (3 months!!!) or maybe there are finally some good quality movies in the theaters, probably because award season is here (kicked off by The Golden Globes on Sunday night, yes...I watched the whole thing)or because half of the country (like here) is cold and snowy and the only thing to do is to go to the movies. Whatever the reason, we have been enjoying ourselves. Unfortunately, NH lacks a good independent movie theater so catching some of the more obscure movies is usually a challenge and involves us going to Boston for the day...which I don't really mind because we always go my favorite Thai restaurant for dinner after (Dok Bua in Brookline). A few weeks ago we saw Milk in Boston. Yes, Sean Penn will probably win an award for his performance and being a "bio-pic", was a fascinating story however....I was a little bored and disappointed that there wasn't more with Josh Brolin's character who shoots Milk and the Mayor of San Fransisco in the end(I'm not giving anything away...it's a true story!) and then only gets 5 years in prison because his lawyers got him off on "the Twinkie defense"...claiming that his over indulgence of Twinkies led him to kill..now that's a fascinating story!
We do have an independent theater not far from us in Concord that we have been to a few times. It's new and they are still working out the kinks...and usually runs 2 different movies but for 4 or 5 weeks at a time so not much variety. Our main complaint is that they don't really turn the lights in the theater! They dim them but they don't turn them off. The first time we were there, Andrew went to the lobby and said something..they said "that's just the way they do it"..seriously, you could read a book in there! Anyway...we went there a few weeks ago and saw Slumdog Millionaire, which we both loved and thought was one of the best movies of the year. Great story, good eye candy and fascinating characters.
This past weekend we had the opportunity to see The Reader in our local digital, stadium seating, 5 minutes from our house, theater. Seriously the comfort and quality do make a difference. The Reader was good...I liked it more than Andrew but defiantly a great performance from Kate Winslet and a good story...who doesn't like a good holocaust film???
Coming up for us...Andrew has talked me into seeing Gran Torino...I'm not a big Clint Eastwood fan but I'm hearing good things about it and it's playing at our local theater with comfy seats. I think Andrew has also talked me into seeing The Wrestler and I am looking forward to Revolution Road...Jack and Rose from Titanic back together again!!! Seriously, it does look really good.

Top Ten (or 12) List for 2008 (or the things that impacted our lives)

2008-12-31T21:46:00.007-05:00
Everyone seems to do a top ten list on their blogs...
We jumped on that bandwagon so here goes
in no particular order:

1) 5-25-08 our wedding day. We got married on trunk bay on the beautiful virgin island of St. John with our families present. We spent 12 sun-soaked days living it up island style.

2) 8-05-08. The day Denise took not ONE but TWO pregnancy tests. Both were postitive but she just needed to be sure....Hence baby Donavan became a part of our lives and will present him/herself to the world sometime around April 12th, 2009.

3) The acquistion of our 42-inch Pioneer Elite Plasma HDTV from The Tahl's as an engagement gift. TV watching has never been quite so good as it is on this TV.

4) Denise's new I-Phone. She received this as a birthday gift sometime in November and hasn't quite taken her hands off of it since then. But truth be told...It is really quite awesome.

5) Our discovery of Pinkberry. Now every trip to New York involves at least one stop to take care of our addiction. We recently discovered one in Flushing which is much closer to Great Neck. Unfortunately we learned that Pinkberry doesn't travel well so we only get to enjoy it on our NY Visits.

6) The birth of our blog on with this simple post on March 11, 2008. It all started as a joke and here we are still blogging away. Who thought we could write so much about our boring lives.

7) Our addiction to Facebook. Yes it's sad and true but the truth is...We are both truly addicted. Face it, you all are too.

8) My new job as a 10th grade social studies teacher at Nashua High School North. It certainly has been an exciting, exhausting, challenging, yet fun year so far.

9) Plenty of great movies including Wall-E, Once, The Visitor and Slumdog Millionaire.

10) Our discovery of Zach Deputy. He opened for The Ryan Montbleau Band when we saw them in March. We instantly fell in love. Hopefully he'll be playing more shows around here soon.

11) Frank Pepe's Pizza. The Manchester, CT outpost of this New Haven landmark has become a favorite lunch/dinner stop of ours on our drives to/from New York. It is right off the highway and has some of the best pizza we've ever tasted. The four hour drive doesn't seem so bad anymore.

12) Finally, our 44th President. Yes, we are both thrilled that Barack Obama won. We certainly feel that we did our part to help him win here in the Granite State. . We really enjoyed making phone calls and canvassing the neighborhoods of Manchester.

2009 certainly will be an exciting and eventful year for us. We'll be sure to keep you all posted on everything that happens.

Happy New Year!!!!

2008-12-31T21:11:00.003-05:00

A few hours early but who knows if we (or at least I) will be awake when it officially turns to 2009...we are spending a quiet night at home to celebrate the new year as opposed to traveling in the snow to ring in the new year with live music and a few hundred other people like we have done the past 3 years. One of our favorite bands, The Assembly of Dust, has always put on a great show in Boston or like last year, Keene. However this year they are playing in North Hampton MA...a bit too far and especially in this weather so we nixed the idea of going. We also decided that we are probably getting to old to be out until 2 or 3 in the morning...and we figure we should start getting used to staying in and hunkering down! Only 4 more months before our lives change forever! And we are getting very excited about it! So Chinese food for dinner, Andrew making carrot cake cupcakes (I think he shredded part of his finger with the carrots) and a bottle of champagne (I might have a little glass...), we are all set to enjoy a quiet New Year...Happy New Year to everyone and here's to a great 2009!!!

Christmas with the Fosters

2008-12-26T21:19:00.004-05:00
First off...we'd like to wish everyone who reads our blog a merry christmas, happy hanukkah, or whatever it is you celebrate this time of year....

Denise and I just got back from Ballston Spa, NY where we spent Christmas with her parents... We had a great time...relaxing, eating, sleeping, opening presents, and doing not much at all.

We arrived on wednesday evening after an awful drive through rain, fog, and more rain. Joyce cooked us a delicious dinner (Rachael Ray's Christmas pasta, salad, and garlic bread). We then played a rousing game of trivial pursuit and retired to bed.

Christmas day started with breakfast and then consisted of opening gifts, eating candy (including Joyce's famous chocolate fudge wreath) see picture:

The afternoon was spent playing with our new toys (including Joyce's new I-pod), sleeping, watching "A Christmas Story", and eating more junk........ There were a few catnaps that took place as well...

Christmas dinner greatly resembled a thanksgiving feast (turkey with all the trimmings)...After dinner Denise and I took a walk and then drove around unsuccessfully to look at christmas lights. When we returned Joyce, Denise and I played a rousing game of Seinfeld Scene it.

We got up today and had breakfast and hit the road. We had a quick trip back and then Denise had to go to work...

All in all it was a great relaxing XMAS.....

Yet another ultrasound picture....

2008-12-18T19:27:00.003-05:00
Well, because baby Donovan (just a nickname, not any name we really picked out) is so stubborn and wouldn't move the right way for the doctor when I went for an ultrsound last month, I had to go back again today so they could got all the imaging shots they need for the 2nd trimester screening. And wouldn't you know it, he/she was being just as stubborn today as well! I may have to go back a third time as today the baby moved in the exact opposite direction the tech needed it to move! Stubborn and doesn't listen...hmmm...could this be a precursor of what is to come? Or does the baby just take after it's parents? Anyway, the upside is that I always get to go home with some new pictures...Here's baby Donovan sucking his/her thumb!

"224,000 without power in NH but...."

2008-12-16T09:58:00.009-05:00

224,000 was the number on Saturday due to the "ICE STORM OF 2008". I don't know what the number is today but I am hoping for all those people out there in the dark that it is a lot lower! We were so lucky never to have lost power and had no idea how bad it really was, even in our own backyard. The storm started Thursday night and we were both home safe and sound watching the ice form on the power lines. Friday morning, we woke up at 5am to check it all out and Andrew found out he had no school. I, of course, still had to go to work so I headed out a bit early in case the roads were bad. It was raining but about 40 degrees, so no chance of ice on the roads. I made it to work fine and noticed that about a block away from us, the neighborhood was completely dark. Target had power and ended up being a busy day since thousands of people had no power, and no school and no work...so the holiday shopping season saw a benefit from the storm! Saturday night, Andrew and I went out to dinner and then hit the town for his favorite holiday activity...driving around looking at Christmas lights. I don't know what it is about the lights, but the more obnoxious the decorations, the more he laughs and laughs. Our goal is to find the most obnoxious in Manchester and we think we may have done so...The ironic thing is this is all going on while 224,000 people still have no power in NH!!!! Could there be a connection? If these houses turned off just half of their lights, would it be easier for the power to be restored in the rest of the state? I know, probably not but it makes you wonder...Anyway while driving around about 3 blocks away from us, we noticed there were not a lot of decorations...then we realized these blocks had no power, still after 48 hours. We had no idea and because we never lost power, had no idea that houses so close to use were effected for so long. I'm not sure if they have power back on now but we certainly felt lucky! Here's to hoping that all power throughout NH and New England is restored soon!
***These are all pictures from the same house in Manchester. Also the same house in the background of our new blog picture***

***Also seen around Manchester: A blow up snowman the size of a house****

***I couldn't believe this when I saw it but it's the leg lamp from The Christmas Story! "Fra-gil-e...must be Italian!"

Ninety-Nine

2008-12-12T20:53:00.002-05:00
No...not bottles of beer on the wall....

Wednesday (Dec 10th) was my grandfather Jack's 99th birthday....
One more to go...
I am pretty sure he's not reading this but
anway..
Happy Birthday Gramps.... Here's to 99 more!!!!

Blogging Slacker

2008-12-12T19:56:00.002-05:00
So it's been a while since I last blogged...I'm an official blogging slacker. We had a nice thanksgiving in NY. It was great seeing family and friends (although in a whirlwindish kind of way) Denise headed back to NH on friday morning to do the Black (green) friday thing at Target. I stayed in NY and sat through a bad movie (Quantam of Solace) and then went to the annual post-thanksgiving bash at the Tahl Mahal. The drive back to NH on that sunday was awful. Rain, traffic, more rain, more traffic and then up here in the granite state ice and snow. It took well over 6 hours to do a normally 4 hour drive. Now we are back to the grind. Denise is busy with the usual holiday stuff and at school I'm contending with progress reports and the pre vacation student zaniness. Otherwise Denise at 24 weeks and baby Donavan is doing just fine....

Some of the events of the past few weeks will be elaborated upon soon..
Until then..be assured I won't be a slacker anymore....

Nobody puts Baby in the corner...

2008-11-23T18:00:00.003-05:00
The latest ultrasound pic of baby bergang...at least now it actually looks like a baby!

20 weeks down and 20 more to go!

Weekend in the country...

2008-11-16T20:49:00.003-05:00

We decided to take off for the weekend and hole up in Andrew's parent's country house in Cold Spring NY this past weekend. It was rainy, foggy and not so pleasant outside so a great weekend to build a fire and stay indoors the whole time. We got there late Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon and enjoyed being free from phones, computers and t.v. The majority of Saturday was spent with me plowing through the book "Twilight", which I decided I have heard so much about I might as well read it. I finished it today before we left...and looking forward to seeing the movie when it opens this weekend as well as starting the next book in the series! Andrew spent the majority of the day tending to the fire...which he did a pretty good job at! I swear, we are going to have to buy a house with a fireplace some day! We did leave the house Saturday night for dinner at a Mexican restaurant and to see the movie Changeling...the fajitas were better than the movie. Our weekend was complete with a stop at our favorite pizza place in CT, Frank Pepe's and then groceries from Trader Joe's on the way home. All in all, a nice relaxing weekend and we are ready for another week of work!

And so it begins..

2008-11-12T20:23:00.003-05:00
Tonight marks the beginning of yet another season of Top Chef... This show has become a favorite here at the Bergang household... This season should be interesting as the show takes place in New York...

Looking forward to seeing Tom, Padma(a fellow clark alum) and the rest of the gang...
Denise and I will making our bets on who will be the winner soon.

YES WE DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-11-05T18:31:00.007-05:00

Needless to say I am proud to be an American today...
What lays ahead is unknown but the outlook is certainly brighter than it's been for a long, long time....

Most importantly, I am happy that Denise and I will be bringing a child into the world when we have a president whom I am proud of...

Keeping our fingers crossed...

2008-11-03T19:45:00.005-05:00
Hoping for a victory for these guys tomorrow....

YEAH RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You Betcha!

2008-10-22T21:40:00.002-04:00
This is quite possibly the funniest thing I have seen pop up on the internet in a while. Roll the mouse over everything and keep clicking to check it all out!!!

Palin as President

Birthday weekend getaway (leef peeping style)

2008-10-19T19:45:00.014-04:00
Last weekend was Denise's birthday and we took a little trip to celebrate. Seeing that it was Columbus Day weekend and the peak of the fall foliage season we decided to head North to the white mountains.

We left sunday morning and headed north...First off..When was the last time you saw this at a gas station?

We then headed to Squam Lake to hike up Rattlesnake... It is a somewhat short but rewarding hike....It was, however, very crowded.

After the hike we headed to the Wentworth Inn.
On the way we saw some really cool handpainted Obama signs.

The Wentworth Inn was a nice place. We had a nice room with a fireplace. The Inn's room rate included a four course dinner which was actually really good.

The following morning we ate breakfast at the Inn (also included)and decided, since we were so close, that we'd drive up the Mount Washington Auto Road.
If you've never done this, it is something you should do, it's quite an adventure...
Definitely not for the faint of heart.

The view from the top wasn't so wonderful as it was freezing cold and overcast... But we had fun nonetheless...

Here is Denise at the roof of the Northeast...

Our Drive back to Manchester was a scenic one. We took the Kancamagus Highway which was a beautiful drive.

This drive included us seeing a big black bear run right across the road in front of our car as well as us passing a dead moose on the side of the road.

Helping out in NH

2008-10-13T19:18:00.002-04:00
"Hello my name is Denise and I'm calling from Barack Obama's headquarters in Manchester...."

Denise and I have been spending some time of late campaigning for Obama here in the Granite State. New Hampshire has been a traditionally "purple" state and we are doing our part to change that(Right now the polls are definitely in our favor!!)
We have been going one night a week to make phone calls and spent a few hours on saturday knocking on people's doors. It has been a rewarding experience and we have met some great people in the process. Keeping our fingers crossed for November 4th.

It's a baby!!!!

2008-10-10T10:44:00.004-04:00

Well...we think it is! Not sure what it really looks like now but it's exciting! In case you haven't heard...we are having a baby and I am due April 12th! This was taken last Tuesday at my first ultrasound. Hopefully we will get a better picture at the next one! But no, we are not going to find out if it's a boy or girl! We are currently accepting any suggestions for names since we can't seem to agree on any!!!

The VP Debate

2008-10-03T17:09:00.002-04:00
Sarah Palin's performance all laid out in a pretty little flowchart :)

Goin' Phishin....

2008-10-02T09:52:00.007-04:00

Well, maybe...Phish just announced their first show in almost 5 years for next March in Hampton VA. Some people may know, but for those who don't (even though Andrew loves to tell this...) I was (and still am) a "phish phan" and saw 62 shows over a 10 year period in about 15 different states. I used to take time off from work every summer (and sometimes long weekends)to travel around from place to place to see 5 or 6 shows in a week. I followed everything the band did, what they played each night, collecting "bootlegs" of the shows (and later downloading them off the Internet)...some would have said I was obsessed...and I guess I did devote a lot of time (and money) during my 20's to Phish. 4 years later and I still love the music, and I still love seeing live shows. Now, shows that I go see are a bit different as they are usually closer to home and only 200 people there, instead of 20,000 at a phish show but it's still one of my favorite things to do. But, what to do now? I always thought that when (and if) Phish got back together, they would play there first show in Boston, NYC or even Vermont...all very convenient places, close to home, close to family...not Hampton VA! And next March is not looking like a very "convenient" time for us to travel! We'll see if I make it to the "phish reunion" tour and if Andrew makes it to his first phish show!

Wedding part 2

2008-09-24T20:30:00.002-04:00
This past weekend, we traveled to Long Island NY for a luncheon thrown in our honor by Andrew's parents to celebrate our nuptials. We have been planning this for a while and couldn't believe it came so quickly. Friends and family from all over (and as far as California!) joined us for an afternoon of good Italian food, lots of wine and great conversation. It was a terrific way to celebrate as there were only 9 people at our wedding. The four hours blew past and felt like a whirl wind of hugging, kissing and accepting lots and lots of congratulations. I can't imagine what a real wedding would be like! It was just a perfect way for all of our friends and family to come together and celebrate! The only downside is that my brother and his family couldn't make it from Arizona, although they were there to celebrate with us in St John back in May. At some point we are sure my brother and his family will meet Andrew's sister and her family, who couldn't be in St John because baby Alex was born just a few weeks later! With all the craziness of the afternoon, neither one of us took any pictures with our camera but we posed for many! As soon as we get some, they will be on here. Thanks to all who came and helped us celebrate!!!

Something to make your blood boil

2008-09-17T17:46:00.003-04:00
Sent to me my father...

How can it be that there are so many people who would vote for this guy?
Let's keep our fingers crossed..

"Same old River..."

2008-09-14T16:36:00.012-04:00
Every summer for the past 3 years we head up north and rent a canoe for the day and float along the Pemigiwasset. This summer, we almost didn't make it as every day off we had together (with no other commitments) it was either raining or had just finished raining for 3 days and the river would be like a class 5 rapid (anyone who knows about our experience a few years ago white water rafting knows why we avoid the river when it's really high...). But last Sunday, we had the day off and no plans...we woke up and it was a beautiful late summer day. We called our friend Earl

at Pemi-Barker River adventures and set it up to take a canoe out on our favorite 14 mile trip. Earl is great and has a pretty cool set up. He drops you off at one end of the river and sets a time to pick you up however many hours later you want. Other times we have done the trip we have taken hours... stopping to swim along the way in the clear river water or to have lunch on a beach along the side. This trip was a quick ones as we started later in the day than we wanted and the river was so quick, we barely needed to paddle and the weather turned crappy the further north we drove, although it did clear up and became beautiful again towards the end. We even missed our favorite beach to stop and have lunch so we ended up eating in the boat while floating in circles. Here's some pictures of us on this trip and a few more from other years...

Andrew ruined the nice picture...

Why do I let him lead? It's amazing we made it back...

First signs of Fall...

Picture from last year, our beach we missed this year...

A couple of years ago, we went with Jon, Carolyn and their dog Abby...oh hi Abby...yes, Earl is so cool, he had life jackets for dogs...

Yes We Can!!!!

2008-09-14T10:34:00.009-04:00
On saturday morning Barack Obama spoke in Manchester at a public rally. I decided that this was something I needed to attend. He was not expected to speak until 10:30but they were opening up the gates at 8:30... I walked down to the park at 7:45 and when I arrived at the park the line was already blocks long. I found the end of the line and began chatting it up with the people around me. It was like going to a concert. People selling buttons, shirts, etc.. While we stood on line we watched literally thousands of people trying to find the end of the line. At 8:30 the line finally started to move... It took about 40 minutes to get into the park. This involved going through security that rivaled any airport in the days after 9/11...Metal Detectors, No bottles, no food... cell phones and cameras open and turned on etc...
Getting there that early ensured me a spot pretty close to the stage...
Here is the stage pre-speech...

Here is a picture of the crowd 7,000+ strong

At around 10:15 there were a number of introductory speeches including Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter and Governor John Lynch. Finally at around 10:40 Obama's bus (and entourage of security vehicles arrived) The crowd (which was estimated between 7-8 thousand people) went absolutely nuts...

The man of the hour had arrived....
Obama gave a great speech that lasted about 35-40 minutes... The crowd had some much energy and reacted to everything he said...
here he is...

Needless to say...Hearing Obama speak in person was amazing... It's one thing to see him on TV but to see it in person was special.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed....

P.S... If you are so inclined..and have 35 minutes to spare..here is a youtube video of the speech I saw..Such powerful words.....

Dave and Nina's Wedding

2008-09-06T09:46:00.006-04:00
Ok....
So it's been almost two weeks now but I thought I'd start catching up on things.
We were in Milwaukee for my best friend Dave's wedding.
Dave and Nina got married at a country club in Milwaukee.
There was a whole weekend of festivities starting with the rehearsal dinner at a very cool place called Historic Turner Hall.
Here are the bride and groom at the rehearsal dinner

The wedding was the following day (Sunday). It was a beautiful afternoon and a beautiful setting. The ceremony took place outside on the golf course....
Here I am during the procession...

The bride and groom after the "I do's"

The party moved inside and it became a wild one (even though it was a completely vegetarian wedding)...complete with not one, but two rousing, wild and crazy horas..
Here I am with Nina (the bride) during one of them

Denise also did a great job of taking pictures of me during my finest moments..
Check out my face..Yikes....

We had a great time and wish Dave and Nina a lifetime of happiness....

A quick update

2008-09-02T19:57:00.003-04:00
Well it's certainly been a busy couple of weeks.
Just a quick recap with more detailed updates to follow.
We returned from Milwaukee last monday and I immediately had to go to work...
School started on wednesday for me...It was a short two day week but an exhausting one...Ninety-three tenth graders will do that to you....

On friday we headed north to Vermont for Daniel and Audrey's wedding.
The rehearsal dinner was friday evening.
Saturday Denise and I took Rachel for a quick spin upto Burlington, then we spent the afternoon setting up the tent for the wedding.
The wedding was great (more on that later)
we had breakfast sunday morning and headed home.
We had a nice visit with cousin Brooke and her boyfriend Andrew.
Monday was spent catching up on our lives and getting ready for the weekly grind.

More to follow....

Happy 3rd Birthday Griffin!!!

2008-09-01T12:10:00.002-04:00

Airport fun

2008-08-29T09:01:00.004-04:00

What to do in a Milwaulkee airport at 5:30am? Make friends with the news stand cashier and convince her to take pictures of us with cheese head hats...

It's a bird, it's a plane...it's an art museum?

2008-08-29T08:46:00.008-04:00

Milwaukee is known for it's beer, cheese, beer, and art?. Well anyway it has a really cool art museum, which I never really had a chance to go inside but has a very cool architectual structue that looks like a bird and a couple of times a day, actually opens and closes it's wings. On Sunday afternoon a few of us walked to the museum to watch the giant bird try to take flight. There's not really much else to say, so I'll just post the pictures...

"It's Miller time!"

2008-08-29T08:34:00.006-04:00

So we arrived in Milwaulkee at 9am and found out our room would not be ready at the hotel until the afternoon...hmmm...what to do? Hit the Miller factory for the first tour of the day! Andrew and I joined his parents, Peter and Joan, for a free 1 hour commercial...I mean, tour of the famous Miller beer factory. We learned all about the producing, packaging, shipping and selling of the famous beer and some interesting (I am being nice) history. The tour concluded with a stop at the Miller tavern where each person was given at least 3 mugs of different Miller beers and little bags of pretzels to absorb the alcohol...did I mention this was all at 10:30 in the morning? Andrew got a nice buzz on and Peter enjoyed his first mug of beer ever!

America's Dairyland (at least that's what their license plates says)

2008-08-25T22:09:00.003-04:00

Denise and I just returned from a fun, action-packed weekend in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to attend (and participate) in Dave and Nina's Nuptials...There is plenty to report on from the weekend so check back soon....

HAIRCUT

2008-08-18T21:05:00.001-04:00

Someone needs one bad....

"Let's go Cats!"

2008-08-18T20:49:00.012-04:00

(knowing how much Andrew hates cats, I think that's the first and last time I will ever hear him yell that)

This past weekend we checked out the local minor league baseball team the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. The stadium is great, fairly new and within walking distance of our place so we didn't have to worry about parking (which is the main complaint of the stadium...no parking lot). We had a great time people watching, enjoying a snowcone and watching some ball (and watching out for balls...we were sitting in prime foul ball teritiory). The evening was capped off by a fireworks display that rivaled Manchester's fourth of July spectatular (okay..you've seen one fireworks, you've seen them all). All in all, it was a good night.

They were out of blue snowcones...I had grape and Andrew had cherry

Prince of Thieves...

2008-08-15T20:03:00.004-04:00
This summer I worked at a camp as a one-on-one aide and was able to participate in some of the activies including Archery and B-B shooting...

As you can see I am a natural Robin Hood...

I didn't include a picture of me with the b-b gun because the image of me holding a gun even frightens myself....

Happy Birthday Dani

2008-08-15T19:58:00.002-04:00
Happy 2nd Birthday to our neice Dani....

Chauncey Revisited (The Sequel)

2008-08-15T19:41:00.004-04:00
Yeah so it took me a week to download these pictures...
Last saturday Denise and I went back for round two of lobsters with Jon and Carolyn...
It was a beautiful evening for outdoor creekside dining.
This time we dined in style...We brought a tablecloth and had bread & cheese while we waited for our food. We ate lobsters (and a lobster roll for Carolyn), corn on the cob, onion rings, and Jon's delicious Pasta Pesto Salad...

Here is Jon and I with our lobsters..

And as Jon said when he pulled he ripped apart the tail and pulled out this huge piece of lobster meat... "It's worth the drive just for this!!!"

The evening was capped off with a stroll around Portsmouth, NH that included an Ice Cream (Well technically frozen yogurt) stop.

All in all is was a great evening!!!!

conversations from the blogging world...

2008-08-15T18:56:00.002-04:00
"Hey, it's your turn to blog"

"No, it's your turn"

"No, I did the last one about raspberries"

"I don't have anything to blog about"

"Me neither"

"Our lives are boring..."

"Yeah...blogging is so last month"

Let's hope something exciting happens soon....

Matty's Muses from Manch

Holiday Mystery...

Happy Happy Boy

Halloween Fun

Haircuts...

Oct Update

Good reason to Blog...

Beach Photos

CORN FACE

Long time, no post

Memorial Day Hike

Happy Birthday Andrew/Daddy!!!!

First Steps

Photo booth

Mother's Day and Polly's Pancake Parlor

NY Trip part 2...Pictures!

Weekend in NY

Birthday Boy!

The first of many....

Where did March go???

It's been a long time....

Post Holiday Post

Matty Claus

100 and Counting!!!

Early December Update

Happy 7 Month Birthday!

Avocado Face

Happy Halloween!

One Big Update

RIP Johnny Castle...

Back to School

The New Digs!!!

Yikes..A month!!!!

Photoshop...

Baby Merlin's Magic Sleep Suit!

Happy 3 Month Birthday Matty!!

Where has the time gone???

2 month check up!

9 week picture...and Happy Birthday Andrew!

8 week picture

Blog? What blog???

One year ago today....

6 weeks old...

Weekly photo...

Happy Mother's Day!

Muses from Matty....

Little Squid...

First doctor appointment

2 weeks old!

Saturday Afternoon Update

Matthew Ryan Bergang

Peekaru...

Mmmmm....fondue

12 days and counting!!!

Baby Class

Happy Birthday to....

Happy First Birthday Matilda!!!!

Baby Donovan's Nursery

The Time of Our Lives....

Pale Daffodil

Vacation... Sorta

Kitty Condo

Gettin' Ready...

Truckin Along....

Random pictures from my iphone...

Off to the Movies!

Top Ten (or 12) List for 2008 (or the things that impacted our lives)

Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas with the Fosters

Yet another ultrasound picture....

"224,000 without power in NH but...."

Ninety-Nine

Blogging Slacker

Nobody puts Baby in the corner...

Weekend in the country...

And so it begins..

YES WE DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keeping our fingers crossed...

You Betcha!

Birthday weekend getaway (leef peeping style)