Happy 4th birthday, Cade!!!!!!

Happy 4th birthday, my sweet love Cade.

I love you more than life. I love your smile, your Machiavellian laugh, your long blond locks, your even longer eye-lashes, your runway model walk, your clinging monkey hugs, your school drop-off neck-locks, your frustrating habits, which I will not mention here, and the way you climb on my lap when you are tired. I love the way you stand up to kids twice your size, not letting anyone take advantage of you or keep you down.

I love the way you do whatever Jackson does and say whatever Jackson says, because you love him and you copy him. I love that you are learning how to make him laugh, except I would prefer that you not do it when it is time for you to both be asleep in your beds.

I love that you have your own opinion and the confidence to do your own thing. I love you when you are good and when you are bad. I love the way you touch the same spot on my neck since you were 6 mos old, I love that you find comfort through doing that. I love the way you climb into my bed in the morning and say, "nuggle time, Mama," and when I try and get up for the day you grab me and say, "one more minute, Mama."

I love you to the moon and back. I love you I love you I love you.

Happy birthday, little man.

Xoxo, Mama

jamestown, we miss you

Jamestown July 4th - by guest blogger Jon Milott

Jamestown 2012 was so much fun we're going back! We packed a lot into one week, including: Jackson teaching himself to swim (with some patient advice from aunt Nikki), fun with Papi, spiral slice hotdogs, Cade's third birthday, Mattapoisett 5mile race (Ev beat Jon by 1 sec), Bebe's BBQ, 4th of July fireworks, boogie boarding, smooching mama, bike lessons from Uncle D and fun!  

 

back to reality

What? How did that happen?

We went to Rhode Island last week for the best week ever and basically I feel like the way Cade looks in this picture.

That picture makes me think of a Chevy Chase vacation movie.

Made it to Wednesday with no camp and no school. Just me and the boys.

PS Jackson learned to swim to the bottom of the pool underwater, holding his breath! #soproud!

Jamestown, we miss you.

I'm still unpacking/recovering/adjusting back to Brooklyn life since our sunny week in Jamestown, Rhode Island (followed by an exciting and thankfully not bad Irene).

In the middle of uploading 1000 pictures. Yes, 1000. That's a lot of editing. But 'til then, here are a few favorites.

Cade bonded with Bebe:

If Jackson could have surgically attached himself to Sammy's side, he would have been happy to do so.

Anywhere Sammy goes, there too goes Jackson:

Jackson, Sammy and Cade = happy happy joy joy.

Uncle Darin caught two mice, but I don't have pictures of that.

sand painting

Jackson and Sammy played with colored sand this summer in Rhode Island. Imagine if we turned around and they had made this:

(A Tibetan Buddhist sand painting of a mandala).

ha ha

We tried again to get a family picture this summer in Rhode Island.

Some things never change.

2010:

2009:

worth a thousand words

While we were in Rhode Island, we tried our hardest to get a picture of all three boys. Which is surprisingly difficult. Someone is inevitably crying, blinking, or putting something in their mouth.

We walked down to the harbor and told the boys to sit on the edge of the pier. Which was good for a minute til we told Sammy to make sure that Cade didn't fall in the water. He became very concerned. It was the sweetest and funniest thing. To the point that he was gripping and grabbing Cade - as you can see in that last picture. Around his neck. I laugh every time I look at that picture.

cue horror music now

From guest blogger Uncle Darin, an account of one night from our family vacation in Rhode Island:

So I decided to sleep on the couch downstairs. Since, in our small family, two separate houses and nineteen bedrooms is not nearly enough room for each adult to secure a bed. Actually I had a bed but my bunkmate [Jackson) had already turned in for the night, and my alarm was set for 5:45 am. Not wanting to awaken my fine nephew early, I retreated to the couch, CNN and a budlight.

I awoke 2 minutes before my alarm went off. It was one of those deepest of sleeps, interrupted by instant eye opening full awake-ness at 5:43 am. I open my eyes and there is Jackson standing at the foot of the couch staring intensely at me. I stopped breathing and within a moment my heart started beating again. It was like a bad scene out of "The Sixth Sense", but instead of dead people "I see Jackson".

Thanks, Uncle Darin. Hopefully something like that will never happen again.

rhode island

There are HUNDREDS of pictures from Rhode Island and it is taking me a LONG time to edit them. Jon and I usually take 50 pictures to get that one good picture that is perfect, or almost perfect. People think we are crazy for taking so many pictures but trust me, if you just keep clicking, then you have a better chance of getting a good shot. The only trouble is editing out the bad 49 ones. Especially when Cade looks equally cute in 37 of them.

So, more soon. In the meantime, here's a small batch.

chickens

On their way to feed the chickens:




Our neighbor in Rhode Island had a yard full of chickens, to the great delight of Sammy and Jackson.

The fresh eggs were delicious!

old-timey fire engines!

When we were in Rhode Island, we went to the Jamestown Memorial Fire Museum, right up the street from our house. Jackson was so psyched, especially when the firemen gave him a hat and then helped him climb on top of the 1894 Lafrance Steam Fire Engine. When Jon was putting him to bed that night, he asked Jackson what his favorite part of the day was. Jackson was so tired but managed to say, "Old-timey."

a letter to my cousin

Dear Sammy,

I miss you like you wouldn't believe. I can't stop talking about you, and I must say your name about 50 times a day. I don't think I ever had as much fun in my life as our week in Rhode Island. It's too bad no one else understood my excitement, and got mad at me when I woke up at 5:00 am to start playing with you! Geesh. They wanted to sleep instead. The nerve of them. Anywhoo, just wanted to tell you again how much I miss you and want to see you again. In fact, I was just telling Mama that I want to go see you RIGHT NOW. And when she says we can't, I just say, YES!!! RIGHT NOW!!! I don't understand why we can't just get in the car and go see you, like, right now.

Much love,
Jackson