Monday Monday

We had such a good time on Saturday night. We were able to meet up with a ton of Tony’s fraternity brothers. I had fun hanging out with the other ladies who were there as well. It made me long for our annual Thanksgiving Dinner… guess we’ll have to get on planning that!

Here’s a couple pictures from Sat. night with Monkeybus. It was great to see them up on stage again. Thanks for a fun night guys!! (And thank you to my Mom and Dad who watched the baby so we could go out!)

I have to post this picture. It was from this morning. I went in to check on Tommy and this is how he was sleeping in his crib. Seriously adorable!!!

New Blog Name

Yes - you've come to Bobbi's World... only... its not going to be called Bobbi's World anymore. I've decided to change the name of my blog... change a bit of the page...and just try something a bit different. I hope you like it!

Get On The Bus

I am SO EXCITED for Saturday night. It’s the Monkeybus Reunion @ Bootleggers in Woodlyn, PA!!! Thanks to my folks, we’ll be able to see Bus for a couple hours and enjoy a late night trip back down memory lane. (Not use to those late nights anymore, I’ll have to take an afternoon nap!) A few of the original members left a couple of years ago… so Tony and I (and our friends) have been patiently waiting to see if they’d get back together some day. Well we need wait, no longer! I can’t wait to see the guys up on stage again. The current line-up for Bus is playing during the first set, but the “Old School” gang will be around and will play sets two and three. It’s been so long since I’ve seen Bus not to mention seeing the inside of Bootleggers. Lots of fun memories from my heydays at that bar. (Michelle & Jane – remember when we saw Vanilla Ice!! Hahaha) Anyway, its going to be a great time…so if you’re a local and you haven’t got anything to do… come see Monkeybus. Here’s their website in case anyone’s interested in going: http://www.monkeybus.com/

I’ve been struggling with trying to figure out exactly how much cereal & 1st foods to feed Tommy during his AM and PM feedings. Those wonderful people at Similac must have been reading my mind because they sent me a package in the mail, which included a chart on feedings! Fabulous!!! It says that between the age of 4 to 6 months, Tommy should be getting two tablespoons of cereal, and two tablespoons of 1st foods twice a day. Thank You Similac!!!!! You are “brilliant!” Tommy absolutely loves to eat his 1st foods. So far, all he’s had were different kinds of fruits. While he enjoys applesauce and peaches, pears seem to be his favorite. That’s actually no great surprise to me since that’s one of the cravings I had – a lot – while I was preggers. He’s not really a big fan of the bananas though, not that I can blame him. I dipped my pinky in to try the bananas one day because so many people have said it is delicious. To me it tasted like liquified banana bread, and I did not enjoy it at all! Yuk. I think I’m going to start Tommy on the veggies next week, and we’ll see how that goes.

Tommy and I were watching the VH1 classics channel on Tuesday. Usually I’ll put it on for a little background music while I’m doing things around the kitchen and Tommy’s in his jumper. Well… there we were watching/listening to the Monterey Pop Festival from 1967 when I looked to see what was coming on next. And to my great surprise it was – STYX – In concert!!!! It was the 2006 concert with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra, and it was awesome. I just luv luv luv Styx, Tommy was enjoying the music too, which made it even better. It was a great coincidence that truly made my day. I taped it so now Tony, Tommy, and I can enjoy it over and over and over again! Oh how I luv my DVR.

Handouts Anyone??

I’m looking for some handouts for a new “venture” I am beginning this fall. I don’t want to give too much info away just yet but…If you are getting rid of kids’ toys – around toddler / pre-school age – please save them for me! I’m looking for age appropriate toys (the more educational or creative the better), books, puzzles, puppets, blocks (or large legos), and furniture (i.e. tables and chairs, bookshelf, beanbag chairs or the like, bins, etc). So if you are in the Philadelphia / S. Jersey area and want to get rid of these things please let me know.
Thank you so much for your help!!!

E-A-G-L.... oh forget it.

It’s that time of year again. And while I’m not a huge football fan, I will watch a game or two if it happens to be on my tv…and there’s nothing else better to do. Tony enjoys it though, so for the game this past week we had dressed up our little guy. We only watched about 5 minutes of the game… it cut into our nighttime routine, but he looked so cute all decked up in his Eagles gear. Don’t worry my “Cheesehead” relatives…I’ll be sure to dress him in Packers gear too. MMMM – the only reason I like football season is for this ice cream. I remember eating like whole tubs of this in about two sittings while I was pregnant. Ahhhhh the memories. I miss the time when I ate anything I wanted and didn’t care about the calories! Hahaha. I am seriously in love with these pajamas. It was part of a group of 6-9 mos clothes Carrie’s BFF Kelli gave me for Tommy. Thank You Kel!!!! They are made by Old Navy, and I can’t wait to get my hands on more of them. I think Old Navy’s kids clothes are so adorable. I also have some cute outfits, hats, and cute little sandals from Old Navy, but its time to pack them away with all the rest of Tommy’s smaller sized clothing. My baby is growing up so fast. Doesn't it look like he's doing the Twist in the second picture. Last but not least – a little something for the Mav. My trusty sidekick and Tommy’s little buddy. He is too cute. He follows us around the house, kisses Tommy to cheer him up when he’s crying, and still comes to bed with me at night. I have a feeling that in a couple of years, my faithful pup will be crawling into bed with Tommy.

PS... this is my 100th Post!! Wow! Fun!

Not A Big Fan O' The Baseball

This is pretty much how my son looked all weekend. We don’t know if he has a food allergy, or he is teething, or he is still not feeling like himself…no matter what the case, he was not a happy little man this weekend. On Friday, my sister Carrie came up from Virginia Beach. She spent the night at our house so that she could spend a little time with her nephew. I felt bad that he was not well for her visit. As per usual, my silly sister did manage to get quite a few laughs out of Tommy in between his fits of crying and projectile spit up. On Saturday, we decided to try and take Tommy to his first Phillies game. We didn’t even last one inning. Tommy was terrified of the cheering crowd, and it was so hot & humid out that he was once again spitting up. Here is a picture of me covering his ears while we attempted to calm him down. After about a half hour of trying to sooth his fears, we decided taking him home was best. Sunday was the worst day yet. Not only did Tommy spend most of it crying but I counted 3 outfit changes, and 5 projectile spit ups before noon!! I can’t remember the last time I was so exhausted from a weekend. I managed to get a laugh out of him too… so here it is. Ain’t he cute. You can almost hear him gurgling with laughter. I did manage to get out of the house for a surprise baby shower for my cousin’s wife Suzin. They are adopting a little girl from China, and are set to go and get her in October. I am sooooooo excited to meet the newest member of the family – and I can’t believe Suz was actually surprised. I thought for sure she’d figure it out! She's going to kill me for puting this picture up. Lastly… here’s a “shout out” to one of my other cousins – also known as my blog stalker hahaha – Alina. Told you I would!!! (Here's Tommy sitting in his new chair...such a big boy!)

My New Great Chocolate Love

I have been transfixed on the new commercials from Starbucks about their new line of chocolates (they teamed up with Hershey to create them). So, when I was at the grocery store the other day, I picked up a box of their tasting squares. It is filled with small squares of chocolate in three flavors, Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, and Mocha Dark Chocolate. I had a feeling I would like the Mocha Dark Chocolate, but I had no idea just how MUCH I would like the Mocha Dark Chocolate. It’s FABULOUS!!! For anyone who likes to munch on chocolate covered coffee beans… or just thinks chocolate and coffee are a great combination – this is the ultimate treat for you!!! There is a little invitation on the box that says: “The cacao pod and coffee bean come from distant lands and they have the power to take you away. Care to join us in a little excursion?” To that, I give a great big “YES!” The tiny bits of coffee beans found inside are just big enough to be flavorful, but not overpowering…it’s a pleasant sort of little crunch. It was hard for me to slowly eat the little squares and really savor the taste because all I wanted to do was shove them into my mouth all at once and enjoy the lovely combination of coffee and chocolate. I just had to pass on the info on this delicious new treat from Starbucks. I can’t wait to get my hands on more. (The Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate were good too, but I was blown away by the Mocha Dark Chocolate). Pick up a bar (or two), you won’t regret it!

September 11th

In Remembrance Of Our Past

In Hope For Our Future

Check Out AskBaby.com

I’ve found a great new resource for information about baby stuff, milestones, and other information: http://www.askbaby.com/

And here are some more pictures. I just can't help myself.

Eating His Ring-A-Links.

Believe it or not, he had been crying for the last half hour, we tried everything else and figured why not. He immediately started to smile.

Right before he peed on Mommy.

This picture kills me... Lady's man indeed.

He reminds me of my cousin Jason when he makes this face, though I can't figure out why.

He reminds me of my dad in this picture. He makes so many different faces...I love to try and capture them all.

Hurricane Hanna???

We shut ourselves in over the weekend because the weather people kept warning us of Hurricane Hanna and how destructive it was going to be. Thankfully, all it turned out to be was rain with a bit of wind. Tommy took a nap during part of the ‘Hurricane’ storm on Saturday, so Tony and I sat outside underneath the covered pergola as it rained. I enjoyed sitting outside with Tony and watching the storm, it felt romantic.
Anyway, I’ve been in a bad mood. I caught some 24 hour bug that I am now thankfully almost over. In addition, my lil boy has been having stomach problems. All he has been doing is crying, and all he wants is to be held. He’s been constipated and super gassy since the weekend, so I’ve been administering Mylicon and Infant Tylenol with regularity. He seems to be a little better today, so with any luck what he has is working its way out of his system (lots of yucky poo diapers to contend with – yikes!). Sometimes, I wish I could read his mind so I would know exactly what is wrong and how to make him feel better. Hopefully it will all be a distant memory by the weekend. (This is his sick face, poor little guy).

Tommy’s progressing well with eating his cereal. I think the texture of it was something he definitely had to get use too, but now he’s getting much better with it. I just got done feeding him his morning cereal, and for the first time he was opening his mouth so I could shovel it in! I was so excited I called Tony at work to tell him the good news! (I also took a couple pictures…not bad one handed!) I’ve been working on getting him to sit up. I’ll sit in front of him, and hold his arms while he is laying on his back. Then I’ll gently pull him up into a sitting position. He’d rather stand than sit, and has been doing a sort of inchworm thing to get out of sitting, but we’re working on it. I’m also trying to encourage more belly time. When I lay him on his belly, he will do a “swimming” motion, but so far has not felt the need to push himself up. Instead, he gets frustrated and spits up. I know we’ve got a ways to go before he is up and crawling around.

Raining Tears

I’m sitting here watching the rain start to fall and am reminded of the old saying: rain is the teardrops of God. It seems fitting this weekend as I am reminded of just how lucky I am to have Tommy, and how precious life is. A friend is grieving for the loss of her best friend’s child, and while I cannot fully understand the pain – the tragedy of the situation wounds my heart. I hope little Brian has found peace in heaven, and I hope his loved ones can find someway to be happy again. They are in my thoughts and my prayers.

Visit Daddy At Work Day

Tommy and I drove up to Princeton yesterday to meet Tony for lunch and to "Visit Daddy At Work." It was a long drive, thankfully I had some good tunes on to help pass the time. Tommy (as per usual) passed out the minute we were on the road. He's a good little rider. Tony's coworkers were happy to see our Tommy. It was cute to watch Tony carry Tommy around and introduce him to everyone - such a proud Papa. We had a quick lunch at On The Border (Mexican Food - one of my favorites!), then dropped Tony off and headed back home. It was nice to see where Tony spends his days, and to understand how far he drives everyday.

I was telling a friend of mine over the phone the other day, that I would like to start "visiting" people at least once every two weeks. I know there are a few of us lucky enough to be home with our kids during the week, so it would be nice to set up play dates - at least while the weather is nice. It'll be hard enough to get out during the winter... so I feel like I should try to get out with Tommy as much as possible now.

Here are a couple videos we took of Tommy this week. I can't get enough of him.

This one is of Tommy and Maverick. Mav just loves his baby.

This next one is kinda dark...so I'll explain. Tony was holding Tommy while I rolled a ball to him. Once the ball reached them, Tony would help Tommy "kick" the ball. You can hear Tommy laughing, its adorable. We've found ourselves doing whatever we can over the last couple of days just to get him to laugh more. The sound of Tommy laughing brightens our hearts.

Here's Tommy and his ball - he likes the bright colors.

Night Time Routine

This is what Tommy is doing this morning while I write up this blog. How cute is he?! I think he looks like my mom's side of the family in this picture. Such a happy little fellow.

We're working on perfecting a night time routine that will suit both our needs and that of Tommy. For example... if we finish up our nightly rituals and have Tommy to bed by 9:30...he tends to wake up about 4 or 4:30 AM for breakfast. Since I am a bit of a bear in the morning, especially when awoken suddenly (and without a few moments for a cup of coffee), we thought it best to push back his bed time to 10:30. However, Tony usually ends up falling asleep on the couch while Tommy naps (I am in bed by 10)...so the feedings tend to be closer to 11 by the time Tony wakes up and wake Tommy up too. (If we let Tommy sleep through that last bottle he wakes up at 2 or 3 AM starving...and it is really hard for me to function at that hour!).

Well the 10:30/11PM feeding worked for a while, until recently. We have been playing with Tommy at night after everyone enjoys dinner time (around 7), then giving him a bath, changing his diaper, getting him into his pjs, then giving that last bottle before bed. We're trying also to feed him, then read to him before he falls asleep as we've come to understand that it is a bad habit to let him fall asleep with a bottle in his mouth. Anyway - the last two mornings he has slept until 7! Not that I'm complaining. I wake up feeling refreshed at 6:45 and have that 15 mins to get myself together (and start my coffee!!). But... I feel bad for Tony. He has to get up quite early for work, him staying up every night until 10:30 or 11 has been rough. So we're thinking about trying the 9:30 PM sleeping time again. We're hoping that Tommy will eventually go to bed around 9 and wake up in the morning between 6:30 and 7AM, so that we can have just a half hour or so to hang out and watch tv or something together before we too head off to bed at night. I know we'll get there eventually.

Last night was fun. It started with Tommy's dinner bottle at 6:30. I finished giving him his bottle, but I don't think he believed me when I told him he drank it all, because he started grunting at me and staring at the empty bottle. I ended up giving him some cereal and juice around 7.

Then, Tony was playing with Tommy on the couch. Tommy was grunting back and forth with Tony. It was hilarious. I had to video tape it because it was just too cute.

A little later we gave Tommy a bath & he was not pleased. He cried the whole time, while kicking his feet and shaking his fists at me. He looked adorable once clean and wrapped up in his alligator towel. He didn't take an evening nap (instead we had a bit of a dance to the 80s music channel on our tv), so by the time we gave him his bedtime bottle he was falling asleep...it took both Tony and I to entertain him and keep him awake during the feeding. He fell asleep as Tony walked him up to his bedroom to go to sleep. As quickly as the nights go by, and as exhausted as I feel when my head finally hits my pillow, I really enjoy them. I wouldn't trade the busy busy nights (and days) for anything - I'm so happy to have my little family.

Our Stay-cation Vacation Super Fun Long Weekend

All I can do is laugh at myself. I had this great post all written out. It was in two parts, looked great, read exactly as I wanted too… but in the middle of saving it (I waiting until the end to save it of course) my lovely computer froze…thus preventing it from being saved, and it was coincidentally lost forever. (Word didn’t get a chance to do that temporary saving thing it does sometimes.) I don’t know if I could duplicate it – or even if I want too. I feel like I did my Freshman year of college when – true story – my ten page paper for my politics class was lost when my then boyfriend’s computer crashed. It was very early in the morning, just as I was getting ready to print it out. As I felt then, I do not have the time or energy to re-write it. Hahaha. Life is funny. (Just goes to show I should have saved it while I went along writing it… will I ever learn my lesson? Lol).

So… instead I’ll just post some pictures with blurbs to explain.

I will take a moment and let everyone know I changed my email address. If you did not receive an email from me, please check your spam/junk folder… its probably there. Just in case: it begins with the first initial of my first name, followed by my last name, followed by the three numbers that make up my birth date AT gmail.com. I don’t want to write it out on here because you never know if those spam blasters and forward senders are reading this.

Tony took off on Thursday and Friday, and since going away on vacation this weekend was not a part of our plan, we had us a Stay-cation – get it?? We spent most of the extended long weekend visiting with friends and family, doing projects around the house, watching movies, and relaxing with our Tommy. Of course we also took pictures… lots and lots of pictures (its what we do):

Time For Ourselves: Well it’s the end of an era. I finally did it – I cut my hair!! After many many many years of having long hair, I got it chopped off. I went in wanting to just cut it to my shoulders, but ended up with more of a “Posh Spice” look after the stylist was done with me. It’s so different that its taking me some time to get use too, but I love it. It was time for a change. Tony also did something for himself. He was finally able to go out golfing…which was the first and last time of this season. He also had a well-deserved Guys Night Out where they went to a local bar for some beer and crabs. (I was slightly jealous about the crabs! Yum!) Special Visitors: On Thursday we had a very special visit from a family that attended the preschool where I use to work. Leia and Luke along with their parents stopped by. It was great to see the kids again, and to spend some time getting to know their parents a little better. We hope to see them again soon. Birthdays and Family Time: We celebrated my Dad’s upcoming 60th birthday by going out to breakfast with my folks. I had the most delicious spinach, egg, and cheddar cheese omelet. We also celebrated our friend Meredith’s 30th birthday with a BBQ at her and Brent’s new house. It was great to see them, Nicole, Blair, and Mer’s friends. They’re a great group of people & we had a wonderful time. Josefa (Tony’s Mom) was also able to stop by for a visit over the weekend. Tommy showed her how he eats his cereal (like a big boy), and how much fun he has in his stationary bouncer.
House projects: We did some reorganizing in the kitchen, making room for some of the new foods, bowls, and bigger bottles Tommy will be using, while putting away things we used during his first couple of months. We also set up Tommy’s doorway jumper. So now, while I am typing up my blog entries…Tommy has something to do other than sit on my lap or nap in his portable swing. Lastly, we completed a project I had wanted to do since Tommy was born. We printed out some black and white photographs of Tommy, framed them, then hung them up on his bedroom wall. It turned out exactly as I had hoped, thanks to Tony’s handiwork. Funny and Entertaining Weekend Activities: While Tony and I watched, Tommy decided to inchworm his way out of his vibrating chair. He looked really uncomfortable, but oh so funny with his back arched. We snapped a picture before setting him right, but he was not pleased about being strapped into his chair correctly. We think he might have actually been comfortable sprawled halfway out of his chair! Tony and I saw several movies…a couple that were ok, a couple that we’d seen several times before, and one that was excellent! If you haven’t seen it yet – rent Vantage Point! It was fantastic! I might actually watch it again today when Tommy takes a nap. We ended our weekend last night by changing Tommy’s diaper and putting him into his pajamas together. Even Mav was upstairs with us. Just before Tommy and I sat down to read his bedtime story, Tony was playing with him and calling him Tarzan. Well Tommy let out the loudest belly laugh we’ve ever heard, several times! It was a cute way to end what was a fantastic Stay-cation long weekend.