New Game!

When Lily was born one of the gifts that she received was a cool little toy from Gordon's Uncle and Aunt, Nelson and Jeanette, and their two kids, Emma and Evan. The toy has four holes at the top where you can put these hard plastic balls. Then there's a hammer so you can push the balls through the holes into a series of ramps. The ball eventually comes out the front. The balls have been among Lily's favorite toys as long as she could grab and hold things. She loves carrying them around, banging them against each other (and anything else she can find) and watching them roll around on the hard wood floors. Up to now she has been too young to really get the "game" part of the contraption. Well just last week she and I were playing on the floor and I decided to try engaging her in the whole process. Mostly I just get bored and need ways to entertain myself. Anyway, I put the ball on top, hammered it through the hole. She watched it come out, picked it up and put it back on top for me to hit again. Sounds mundane - but it was very exciting for me. It's the first time we've really played a game like that together. She was enthralled with it and became annoyed if I slacked on my hammering duties! A few days later she was using her hand to push the balls through all by herself. Thanks for the great toy Nelson and Jeanette!

Fall in Somerville

Gordon just purchased a new Nikon SLR digital camera. He's really excited about it and has been taking a lot of shots as he plays around with it and gets to know the camera better. Yesterday we went out for a "Friday after Thanksgiving" walk to get Anna's Taqueria for lunch and just enjoy the New England Fall scenery. There is a bike path right by our house that leads directly to Davis Square. It's a great place to walk - Lily loves waving at all of the doggies and other kids she sees on the path. In the Fall the bike path is extra pretty because of all the trees. Most of the leaves have turned yellow and orange and there is this really pretty yellowish glow that seems to envelop you when the light is just right. Gordon tried to capture the effect - I think these came out pretty great. He's got a photography class coming up in January - so check back for more fun pictures as he learns the ropes!

Thanksgiving

Every year we spend Thanksgiving at my Mom's cousin's house. Gail and Bev graciously open their house and host a lovely dinner for about 22 people. This year we had a 28 pound turkey, the usual assortment of stuffings (everyone has a favorite recipe), sweet potatoes done a few ways, squash, carrots & turnips, ham, corn, pumpkin bread, biscuits, the list goes on! While sitting around the table we realized that Gail and Bev have been hosting for about 16 years now - how time does fly!

Of course this year was Lily's first year at our gathering. She had a spot at the head of the table in Casey's old high chair (thanks for sharing Casey!). She thoroughly enjoyed all the new foods and loved being able to see everyone as we all ate. Her cousin Victoria (shown with Lily below) took special care of her all day. My Grandmother was able to be there with us too - we are so thankful for her presence.

We are very thankful to have such wonderful family to celebrate the holidays with. Oh, and today is also Lily's 11 month birthday - happy "birthday" Lily!

Halloween

Thanks to Grandma Masterson Lily's had her Halloween costume since February! The costume fits her name very well, but not so much her temperament. She's definitely not a delicate little thing, but she still made an adorable flower anyway :) We weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves since Lily's a bit too young for traditional trick or treating. Our building isn't very approachable for trick-or-treaters - 6 units with a main entrance set back pretty far from the sidewalk. So we decided to take our candy outside and go sit on the wall in front. After giving out some candy there we then decided to wander around our street for a bit. Turns out Halloween is well celebrated here with lots of people out on their front stoops passing out candy. We got to meet a number of our neighbors and had a great time. Next year Lily will be the one leading US around!

Lily and the Great Pumpkin (Pile)

Well Fall is finally in the air here in New England. Some might say "it's about time" as we've had a pretty mild, sometimes hot and muggy, September. The first weekend of October brought some nice fall weather as well as our friends Julie, and Al and their son, Calvin all the way from sunny CA. We met up with them at Arena Farms in Concord, MA. It's a wonderful location with two BIG piles of pumpkins, goats, chickens, sheep, squash, apples, mums - everything you need to celebrate a New England fall. Here are some of our favorite pictures from the outing. Highlights included: Lily and Calvin's first meeting (they're only 6 weeks apart!), Lily's first caramel apple (she approved enthusiastically), watching someone else purchase a 97 pound pumpkin and procuring our own (much lighter) decorations for our front porch.
Sadly, Arena Farms has been sold to Concord Academy so we will not be able to visit their great pumpkin pile next year.

Apples are GOOD!

It seems somewhat amazing to us that in a quick 4 months your baby's eating habits go from the messy and entertaining first meal to this!! One day you've got an infant who isn't quite sure what to do when a spoon is placed in her mouth and then whammo - you can give her an apple and she's pretty competent with it. Of cousre Gordon had to bite off the skin first and Lily is mostly gumming it - but she does use her bottom two teeth (her only teeth!) to scrape off some meat here and there.

And we think she's a pretty cute apple-eater!

Mr Jones and Cape Cod

I've written about our friends Lindsay and Dave before - they have a daughter, Amber, who is only 2.5 weeks older than Lily. They live in Manhattan now, but still have a house on the Cape in Wellfleet. Way back when Lindsay and I were in college I used to enjoy following Lindsay around to music shows. She was always much more into it, so I took advantage of her "inside scoop" and enthusiasm and tagged along when I could. Her favorite band is the Counting Crows and we saw them at least once together during those MIT days. Lindsay has seen the Crows more times than she can count in many many cities and countries. Well they went back on tour this summer with a stop at McCoy Stadium (home of the PawSox!) in Pawtucket, RI. So Lindsay and I took the opportunity to hand off the girls to their Dads and pretend we are still in college. The concert was a total throwback with Live and Collective Soul opening. The Counting Crows were great and it was so nice for us to get out and play like adults (kids?) again.

After the show, Lindsay and I drove out to Wellfleet to meet our guys and girls. We spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out, talking, eating and playing. Lily and Amber got to know each other better - Amber taught Lily to stand and Lily thanked her by stealing all of her toys every chance she got. We got in a quick trip to the beach where Lily added sand to her repertoire of "things I like to eat". We got a lot of great shots of the girls together - here are just a few of the best ones. We hope Lindsay, Dave and Amber head back to our neck of the woods soon so "play dates" can be a regular occurrence. We miss them!

Lily's First Hair Cut

In preparation for our BIG trip to Hawaii for Justin and Shawna's wedding I took Lily to get her first haircut. As anyone reading this blog is aware, Lily has had tons of hair since day one. So here I am - with a 7-month old - at the salon. Thankfully we live very close to a great salon in Ball Square called Amal Niccoli. Our friend Dory introduced me to them a few years back. Deanna is really great and cuts kids hair for only $5 + their age. From my perspective - a total steal. I wouldn't even know what to DO with a pair of scissors. Never mind the issue of keeping her still while I did it! So we trotted on down to the salon and Lily did great. Deanna did a fantastic job and another salon employee was nice enough to take pictures for us. Now I need to find someone to teach me how to french braid.....

BaBa's 70th Bday

This year is a pretty special year for birthdays - it all started off with Gordon's Dad's 70th birthday. We celebrated in July by getting the whole family together at Gabe and Que's place in Southern NJ. We started off the weekend with a birthday cake at the house and continued the festivities with a trip to the Boardwalk in Ocean City and a fancy family dinner at a local Italian restaurant. Everyone had a great time. BaBa, MaMa and GooMa were so happy to have all of "their girls" around them. Lily enjoyed hanging out with her cousins and especially liked playing on their rocking horse! We enjoyed seeing Valora and Sera - as everyone always says - they grow too fast. We have a feeling that these three Wong girls are going to be a force to be reckoned with some day. Here are some of our favorite shots from the weekend. We really love the family portrait - everyone looks so great!

 

6 months old!

It's hard to believe that Lily is 6 months old now - everyone tells you time goes by so fast and the babies grow quicker than you want them to. But it's hard to believe - because time is both fast and slow at the same time. Some days seem to last forever, but then you blink and suddenly she's sitting up and playing and you wonder what happened to your baby! Anyway - here are some pictures of Lily just after her 6 month birthday doing the things that she loves best and showcasing her new skills!

June Wedding: Jennifer & David

My extended family is a little complicated to describe, but here goes nothing. My Mom is an only child, but has a number of cousins. Her mother had 10 siblings. My Mom's cousins are sort of like sisters to her and therefore like Aunts to me. For many years we have been very close with my Mom's cousin Gail (pictured below with my Mom), who shares a house with Bev. Gail and Bev are very much part of our immediate family and have done so much for us over the years. They host Thanksgiving dinner every year for a large group of us and have graciously offered their house to host my bridal shower, wedding brunch and baby shower as well as my Mom's 50th birthday party.

So in early June we had the honor of being guests at the wedding of Bev's daughter, Jennifer, and David. My Mom and Gail were the "matrons" of honor and looked fabulous! Sadly we didn't get a good picture of the bride and groom (we always have a hard time photographing in churches!). But here are some pics of my Mom in her bridesmaid duds and Lily enjoying her first wedding.