SYDNEY'S 2ND BIRTHDAY

Sun, 31 May 2009 22:40:17 -0400

I can't believe my daughter is two. She is growing so fast. To celebrate, we decided to take her to the Bronx Zoo for her birthday since she is so in love with animals. We had a great time. Luckily some of our friends joined us.

Afterwards, we went to a special church function and unbeknownst to us, they had prepared a cake and activities for Sydney and the other children. It was like we had thrown her a huge party. She had a great time.

Click the above picture for documentation of the day.

SPRINGTIME IN JERSEY

Sun, 31 May 2009 22:40:11 -0400

We think Spring is here, finally, although some days it's still hard to tell. But there are some days when there is no question. In this post are pics of our community garden plot, rooftop garden and Sydney playing at the playground. The gardens have become my biggest hobby--Suzie calls them my obsession. I keep telling her that when she's eating caprese salad with fresh tomatoes and basil from our garden it will be her obsession. Oh, and Sydney LOVES the playground. We go everyday. I mean, we have no backyard and she's an aggressive, energetic two year old--what else are we going to do. You'll notice from the pics that she's pretty much fearless... and strong. Keeps me smiling.

SYD'S MAKE-UP FORAY

Sun, 31 May 2009 00:03:16 -0400

Sydney loves all things girly. To prove my point, I'm including shots from a make over Sydney gave herself, recently. She put a lot of thought and time into this. You go girl!

CATCH-UP!

Sat, 30 May 2009 23:08:49 -0400

So, it has been a really long time since I updated this blog. So, in this one post I included pictures of my Birthday party, Sydney's potty-training (hilarious), and a Sunday afternoon excursion out to Liberty State Park to enjoy the Spring weather. Spring has been a slow one here, but we've managed to eek out some fun, nonetheless.

Click on the photo above for a link to the other pictures.

SANTA MONICA TRIP

Tue, 3 Feb 2009 12:08:39 -0500

Today was my day off and because it was warm, sunny, and beautiful in Southern Cali, we headed off to Santa Monica to spend the day. We are worn out but happy. The day was fantastic. It included bike riding, playing on playgrounds, walking the beach, and eating on the pier. We took some video and photos and ended up with several that I think are pretty awesome. Click on the pic above to enjoy them!

MINSKY'S

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:58:42 -0500

So, I'm in LA doing a brand new show called Minsky's. It's about a 30s Burlesque theatre and its owner, Billy Minsky. Bob Martin, Charles Strouse and Susan Birkenhead wrote the piece and Casey Nicholaw is directing and choreographing it. It's pretty fantastic and I'm really lucky to be part of it. It's funny, creative, a little racy and fun. We're giving it an "out-of-town" tryout here at the Ahmanson Theatre and hopefully afterwards it will go back to Broadway. It's a tough time for theatre but this show has great promise--we'll see.

Anyway, I'm alone for the first two weeks while we're teching the show. Sue and Syd are in Utah at Grandma's because I'm at work about 12 hours a day. They're coming down at the end of next week--I can't wait for them to get here. It's a pretty sad case, but I'm a wreck without them.

Anyway, click on the pick above and you'll be able to see a couple pics of the show from our tech rehearsals yesterday. And you'll see a couple pics we took of Syd right around New Years.

Hope you're all well!

Love, Laughter, and Lights

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 09:10:53 -0500

Our families are far away this Holiday Season, but we are blessed enough to have great friends here in New Jersey who are "family". If you click the pic above you'll see a posting of several activities from our Christmas Holidays. We had a great Charlie Brown Christmas party at the Herrick's home up in Innwood. (Sadly, we forgot our camera, so we don't have any pictures.) We also visited the Sheens up in Sleepy Hollow for a fantastic dinner in their beautiful home and an historical tour of the Van Cortlandt Estate--Christmas traditions from the 1800s, with Winterfest dancing, play-making, and hot apple cider. (Now we know why we use evergreen bows and oranges at Christmas.) We had a few friends over for Christmas Eve and the Livingstons even slept over. We made way too much food and noted that we are blessed. (Most people in history past have worked to keep from starving and we, even in this economically unstable time, can throw together an abundant feast without even meaning to.) And we had a lovely, lazy Christmas day in which Syd got a lot of gifts from her Grandparents, parents, cousins, friends, and Santa and still doesn't even know why. But she likes them--a lot. She also made great progress with Scout, her dog friend. (In the past, she hasn't like Scout much but having him over helped change that. Instead of fearing him, she now just is annoyed.)

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that you continue to enjoy the Holiday Season!

HAD TO SHARE

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 08:58:54 -0500

Just had to quickly share a couple pics of our happy worker bee (who can't leave Mom alone long enough to even wash the dishes) and our Gene Wilder look-a-like. She woke up from her nap with the best hair EVER and a smile to match. Click on the pic above to check it out.

MACY'S CHRISTMAS

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:47:13 -0500

We love Macy's. They're doing their best to sell as much as they can, but they're also doing a pretty great job of preserving great traditions. Their Santa Land is AWESOME! We went a week or so back and had a great time. Sydney didn't even cry as I feared she might. We didn't have to wait long in line, and Santa was fantastic--the Elves were a bit too efficient--but Santa was lovely. We chatted with him for a second or two and he made sure we all had a chance to tell him what we want. We didn't seem to get a picture that had all of us looking in the same direction at the same time, but oh, well. And we couldn't afford to buy the one Macy's took.

After visiting Santa, we spent some time playing with toys, looking at the Christmas tree display, and eating, of course.

This Holiday Season seems to be smashing down upon us so quickly--not enough time to really enjoy it. But we hope you are able to take a minute or two and enjoy the festivities and also contemplate our Savior's Birth.

If you'd like to see a picture of one of the most charming Santa's you'll ever see click on the pic above. Also, leave us a comment or email.
Merry Christmas to ALL! We hope visions of sugar-plums are dancing in your heads!!

HAPPY HAT!

Tue, 2 Dec 2008 11:32:16 -0500

So, Sydney is 18 months old and CRAZY! Crazy like a wolf. She obviously inherited this from her mother who encourages it at every turn. I was not there for this event (so Suzie is behind the camera) but having heard about it I thought I should share.

It goes something like this... Sydney is 18 months old. Sydney loves to be naked. Occasionally, we'll let her fulfill that inner need. Apparently, she also likes to dress up. The other night as Syd was prancing about in all her glory Suzie found this really odd hat and stuck it on Syd to see what it looked like. Syd immediately took to the hat and began prancing around and showing it off. Suzie began laughing. This encouraged my daughter to demonstrate more and pretty soon we have an uninterrupted Laugh Fest with Sydney screaming and laughing followed by Suzie laughing and taking pictures followed by another hearty response from my daughter. This went on for quite some time, or at least that's what I've been told.

I'm jealous. Wish I'd been there. Instead, I was off somewhere trying to make a buck. I wish I could get paid for staying home with my little one.

I also thought I'd take the opportunity and use this entry to catch you up on this little 18 month old's progress too... she is nuts. She's still shy around strangers and hesitant about nursery at church, but she really loves people and kids. She's very cute with our neighbor's 11 month old. She's like a big sister. At times, I think she might be Obsessive Compulsive in that she likes to organize things over and over. At restaurants she loves to gather all the salt and pepper shakers she can and move them all to one spot. Then she returns them all to the beginning spot. Back and forth. She can do this forever. She also likes to mimic Mom and Dad. If we are cleaning, she grabs a rag and joins right in. If the chairs to the table aren't in the right spots, then she puts them in their spots. She likes the playground, especially walking UP the slides. She loves shoes. She'll wear shoes around the house all the time--hers or her mother's or even her dad's. But the singing and dancing is the best. She hears music and those arms start doing this crazy snake dance and then it progresses all the way down her body until she's stomping her feet and turning in circles. She knows how to do a front attitude, an arabesque, and a grande plie. The singing is awesome, too. Most of the time it is this quiet little hum, but if Mom or Dad are practicing, Syd joins right in--not to be outdone. I also love the way she has developed this "talking over you" thing. When we're in the car, especially if there are other passengers and we're all talking, Syd has to talk over us--yep, her own conversation as loud as you can imagine. And she's added that to her book reading. She's always loved reading books and will randomly throughout the day grab a couple of her books, bring them to you, and sit on your lap expectantly. This has developed, however, into her bringing several books and reading loudly from one while you read from another.

I could go on and on, but there you have it--a little taste of Syd. Scrumptious isn't it?! Maybe I'm just whipped!

Thanksgiving Day

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:17:36 -0500

We had a great Thanksgiving. We invited as many people as we could fit into our condo and still have enough room for food. Everyone brought something fantastic and very tasty. I tell ya, it was definitely one of the best dinners we've ever had with desert appropriate sweet potatoes, cornbread and sausage stuffing, Indian food, and our perfectly brined turkey and first-time successful gravy and I haven't even touched on the vegetables, appetizers, or deserts. I wish we could have had everyone over.

Without getting too personal over the internet, we just want to express our gratitude at this special time of year for all our friends and family. And most likely, if you're reading this, you're one of those. We hope you had a great Thanksgiving and that the rest of your season celebrations are top notch.

Click on the pic above to see the rest of our Holiday's photos. And leave a comment!

OUR TRIP TO BOSTON

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:53:08 -0500

Our friends, Patrick and Lindsay, invited us to go to Boston with them. Lindsay was presenting at a Theatre Education Conference and was taking Patrick. They told us they'd pay our way in gas if we'd drive them up there and keep Patrick entertained. It was a quick but fun trip. We ate great food--lobster and Clam Chowder, saw historical sights, visited Harvard, did a little shopping, fed some ducks and pigeons and squirrels, for that matter. But the best part was staying in Beacon Hill--very hip. We felt cool walking down our cobblestone alley to our little apartment only minutes from the Boston Commons and all the downtown action.

On our way home, we took a little detour to the town of Salem to entertain our own Witch Hunt. We found two great things. One was the Old Witch House--a home built in 1642-- and kitty corner to the witches residency was a fantastic second hand store where we all grabbed something fancy and very cheap.

We are glad we made the trip. Living only four hours away from Boston you'd think we would have made the trip sooner. We should have. So, in counting our blessings at this time of year, we are thankful for our Livingston friends for getting us out of our house and taking us to Boston.