4nudells

Let it snow!

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:08:00 +0000

We're enjoying a snowy day! I think this is our biggest snow of the season. There's 4-5 inches on the ground now and it's expected to continue this afternoon and overnight.

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:56:00 +0000

Nick found this hilarious website called www.yearbookyourself.com in which you scan a photo of yourself in and see what you'd look like anywhere between 1950 - 2000. Here's a little slideshow to laugh at:

Evals are OVER!

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:38:00 +0000

Andrew had his last eval on Thursday at the UMDNJ Hospital in Newark. After the developmental pediatrician observed him for an hour he said that Andrew is nowhere even close to being on the autism spectrum and believes his behaviors that we were calling "red flags" are well within normal little boy behavior. He did however diagnose him with "developmental language delay" and "developmental apraxia" both of which I'm relatively unfamiliar with but it sounds like he is expected to overcome these with continued speech therapy. I am so glad this whole process is over! The doctor requested that Andrew has a formal hearing exam due to his history of ear infections/eardrum rupture as this may be the cause of the speech and articulation problems. We will be doing that on October 14th.

In other news, we bought a new car a couple weeks ago. It's a 2007 Toyota Camry which will replace the 1989 Honda Accord. The Accord will be missed as it was the first car that I bought entirely on my own but considering it has 112,000 miles on it and the AC no longer works it will be nice for Nick to finally have something comfortable and reliable to drive around in.

My mom, Lauren, and I accompanied Andrew and his preschool class on an apple picking field trip. The kids all had a great time and we got lots of pictures. Now....what to do with 10 pounds of apples......

Preschool Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:31:00 +0000

The last 4 weeks have been filled with different evaluations for Andrew. We have done several evals for the school district with hopes that he may qualify for the language-based preschool run by the school district. This preschool is a great program that continues to work with the children with their speech, articulation, etc. We won't find out whether he is in for a few more weeks. In the meantime, Andrew started at a regular, mainstream preschool last week. He LOVES it so far! It's 2 mornings a week, Monday & Wednesday. This will be great for him since he loves to be social with other kids his age. I dropped him off for his first day on Wednesday and he barely looked back to say goodbye. Also, more great news - Andrew is POTTY TRAINED! Woo hoo! Last Saturday we just decided to go for it and put him in big boy underwear and he is a natural. He just hops right on the potty and goes as if he's always known what to do. We're so proud of him.

Lauren is sprouting right up and she adores her brother. She has to do everything that he does and she also likes to torment him by taking his toys away from him. I'm able to have a little one on one time with her when Andrew is at preschool so we'll be able to go to the park and do other fun activities while big brother is having fun at school.

We had a nice visit with my Dad a few weeks ago. He flew out for 3 days and A & L got to visit with "Grappa". Just yesterday we drove by the hotel that my dad stayed in and Andrew said "Look Mom! Grappa's house!". I got a good laugh at that.

Arriving at his first day of preschool!

Playing in his classroom

Snack time at school

Lauren having a snack at home

And this pics is one of my favorites....They climbed into the coat closet and trashed it. When I got to them they were pretending to be asleep, even making pretend snoring sounds!

Evaluations

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:09:00 +0000

I think I have mentioned before that Andrew has been in the "Early Intervention" program. It is a program for toddlers under 3 years old that have a developmental delay. In Andrew's case, we were referred by his pediatrician at his 2-year checkup because he wasn't saying 10 words clearly and consistently. He had a speech & development evaluation in February and it was recommended that he see a speech therapist and a developmental therapist one hour per week (each). He has been doing great and has made vast improvements in overall vocabulary and is now speaking in 4-5 word sentences. His speech has become less and less of a primary concern although both of his therapists have noticed a few 'red flags' and recommended that we see either a neurodevelopmental pediatrician or a pediatric neurologist for a few more evaluations. Some of the concerns are that he has very fleeting and inconsistent eye contact unless it's on his terms, he is obsessive about trains, tracks, tunnels, & bridges and manages to find everyday objects and points out how they resemble train tracks, tunnels, etc. He prefers to play alone when in a group setting (library storytime, Gymboree, etc). Any of these behaviors could very well be personality traits and nothing more than that. So to make a long story short (too late?), we will be doing a few evaluations over the next 2 months. They are primarily done through play and observation and from there we can determine if there is anything to be concerned about. My feelings are that it would be better to have this done and find out there's nothing to worry about rather than delay it and find out later down the road that we should have intervened earlier. If the evaluations conclude that he is over 33% delayed in any one area or over 25% delayed in any two areas then he will qualify for a state-funded language & development based preschool very close to our house. They maintain a very small teacher to student ratio and focus on each individual child's needs. The goal in this program is to have them caught up with their peers before they go to kindergarten. What we DO know is that Andrew is very smart & perceptive. He knows and recognizes all of the alphabet letters, colors, shapes, and counts up to 12. His favorite number is 16, even though he can't count that far. If he sees a lot of something, marbles in a jar for instance, he'll say there are 16 of them (probably because it's the biggest number he knows). He's a very happy, energetic, eager and affectionate little boy. Did I mention he's the cutest, too? So, our first evaluation will be on Tuesday of next week. I will be sure to let you all know how it goes! Here's some pictures and a video of our latest art project. I put down some heavy duty paper and gave them paint and brushes and they went to town! Note- the video starts off sideways, after 3-4 seconds it changes though!

Now THIS is how to BBQ

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:05:00 +0000

Last Saturday, Nick's boss invited all the employee's and their families to his house for a BBQ. This wasn't any old backyard BBQ. They had valet parking, it was completely catered along with an attended bar and they also hired a band. There were plenty of activites to choose from - swimming, volleyball, boat rides on his boss' private boat, or mingle with co-workers under the huge shade tent. Their house is right along the banks of the Navesink River and the view was amazing. They put together goodie bags for each of the kids their with a beach ball, bubbles, tattoos, etc. We had a great time! Here are some pictures....somehow I managed to be gone every time a photo was taken.

weddings, surgeries, and other musings

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:16:00 +0000

I now have an 18-month-old and a 2 1/2-year old! Some days I'm lucky to have gotten anything done, not to mention take a shower! Bear with me with the lapses in blog entries. Maybe some day I'll have time to bore you with daily blogs about what I did each day. So let's see....here's what has been going on the last few weeks.

Last Saturday, Nick and I headed up to Tarrytown NY for my friend Meredith's wedding. It was an 'adults only' event so Andrew & Lauren stayed behind with grandma and we enjoyed a 24 hour vacation. The wedding was in the evening at "Blue Hill at Stone Barns". It is a restaurant and organic agricultural center set in a beautiful, woodsy & rural area of Westchester County, just 20 minutes north of the city. An outdoor cocktail reception followed the ceremony and it was magical watching all the fireflies twinkle across the courtyard and over the nearby vineyards.

On Tuesday, Nick had an elective surgery on his right shoulder. He injured his shoulder 5 years ago and has had discomfort and reduced range of motion in it ever since. His arm is now in an immobilizer for the next 4 weeks. He has 5 incisions over his right shoulder and he's still in moderate pain. It's amazing all the simple things we take for granted having two arms and two hands. Right now he can't drive, tie his shoes, cut his food, etc. He'll be doing some physical therapy over the next few months and his doctor mentioned that it will likely be 4 months before he is fully recovered. We're both hoping for a quick(er)recovery!

Andrew & Lauren are just as busy as ever. Sometimes I wonder why I bother cleaning the house, they seem to follow me and undo whatever I've just done. The other day I came into the living room and found Andrew was "helping" by spraying the couch with window cleaner. I had mixed up 1 part vinegar to 1 part water and put it in an old windex bottle so the room smelled like pickles for the next few hours.

Andrew has turned mealtime into creative imagination time. Last night he wanted to eat a tunnel with his trees and snakes. A tunnel is a rolled up piece of ham, a tree is broccoli, and snakes are spaghetti. Never a boring moment 'round here!

Playing with trains is tiring!

Summer!

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:49:00 +0000

Summer is almost here and we've been a busy bunch!

A few weeks ago I picked up a used small brown table, the kind with a formica top. I got creative with it and painted it "barnhouse red" and stenciled the alphabet around the sides. Andrew and Lauren use this table for snacks and meals now and it's a great way for them to learn the alphabet & colors, too!

Andrew started peewee soccer a few weeks ago. He is probably the youngest in the class hence maybe the reason he'd rather pick the dandelions rather than kick the soccerball but at least it's a reason to be out and social with other 2 & 3 year olds.

We've also started a Gymboree class once a week for both Andrew & Lauren. They LOVE it! It's an indoor gym with all sorts of climbing equipment and they do lots of singing, bubbles, and tactile exercises. It's a 45 minute class and they're always excited to get there and they're in tears when it's time to go.

The weather has warmed up and we've had 90+ degree temps the last few days. The heat isn't that bad but when the humidity is high it makes it almost unbearable to be outside. Luckily between the beach and the "sprayground" there's always a fun way to cool off. Here are some pictures of our day at the beach (Saturday) and the sprayground (today)

Amish Country!

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:31:00 +0000

We went for a drive yesterday to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania - otherwise known as Amish Country. Oh, and by the way, it's pronounced LANK-ister. I've always thought it was Lan-CAST-er but apparently I was wrong. It was about a 200 mile trip each way from our house. We used Nick's new GPS receiver to help direct us which relieved me from map-reading duties so I was able to sit back and enjoy the scenery. Lancaster County in general is very bucolic and seemed to give us a sense that we had been transported back in time. Life just seems slower and more simple from the urban lives we're so used to. The Old Order Amish culture is very fascinating and so very different from our mainstream lives. Horse drawn carriages carrying Amish families are a common site and at one point we were the only car on the road behind 3 carriages. They do not drive cars, use electricity, watch television, or have telephones. They believe the use of these modern technologies would intrude into their home lives. Farming is a way of life for the Amish and preger to use farm equipment drawn by horses or mules. The women wear very plain dresses with white aprons and white bonnets. Their clothes are fastened with hook and eye clasps since buttons are considered decorative. They speak an English dialect called "Pennsylvania Dutch" which is English with a strong German influence. It was a very interesting and beautiful drive, meandering the roads of Lancaster County. It is one thing to just read about their culture and lives but for me to see it first-hand was quite a different experience.

In the meantime, Andrew & Lauren were in the backseat making these faces:

Along the way we stopped at the National Toy Train Museum in Strasburg, PA. Holy Cow....Andrew could have stayed all day. There were thousands of model trains all along the walls and huge working model trains that we could operate by pushing a button. He was so thrilled to be in such a wonderland of trains. We may need to upgrade his train collection from Thomas Trains to the real Lionel Model Trains someday. Next door to the museum is the Red Caboose Motel & Restaurant which is a line of 19 cabooses which have each been renovated and turned into motel rooms. Andrew loved seeing the "life-size" cabooses and even climbed up the stairs of one to have his picure taken.

We then headed for Gettysburg which was about an hour away. Along the route we hit some pretty heavy traffic. Many semi trucks were suddenly surrounding us on the highway. We noticed people with lawnchairs were camped out along the side of the road, all watching the trucks (and us) drive by. There was a lot of honking and waving and fanfare, etc. We really weren't sure how we suddenly ended up in the middle of a huge semi-truck convoy parade but that is exactly what happened. We eventually saw an advertisement for "The Make-A-Wish Truck Convoy" AKA "The World's Longest Truck Convoy". Yay. Not the traffic we were hoping for. That's when the GPS came in handy and we hit the "Reroute" option. The detour took us along some side streets of the town of Lancaster and we saw some interesting buildings/houses along the way.

We ended up at the Gettysburg National Military Park and strolled through the museum which was filled with antiques and relics from the Civil War. Overall it was a nice day and a beautiful drive. There is so much more to see that I'd love to go back sometime, maybe stay in the train motel for Andrew's sake!

Andrew & Lauren update:

Andrew finally started his speech & developmental therapy a couple weeks ago. He has speech for an hour on Mondays and developmental therapy for an hour on Wednesday. He absolutely loves it because the therapists brings fun books and activities for him so it's more like playing rather than anything. They were both quite surprised that he was qualified for the early intervention program since his speech has greatly improved since the evaluation we had a few months ago. He is quite a social little guy and is always excited to have them over and is always very chatty with them...even if we're not always sure of what he's saying.

Lauren's horrible teething a few weeks ago ended up also being an ear infection. She had her routine doctor visit and she's in the 95th percentile for height and weight. She's a big girl!

Free to a good home: 1 Teething Child

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:10:00 +0000

Lauren has 4, yes 4, teeth all coming in at once. They aren't even all the same teeth..the top two second front ones are both about to poke through, 1 bottom one and then a random molar is coming in on one side. Not fun! Needless to say, she's having a rough time and is clearly in pain. Tylenol & Motrin are our friends! Anyone want to take her until next week? We'll take her back when her teeth come in. Promise.

Andrew's latest is that he says "bess yooooo" for any sneezes. He also says it for anyone that coughs, too. He'll say it after he sneezes and then say, "I neeze" (I sneezed) It's really cute, so cute that we have resorted to pretending to sneeze just to hear him say it.

I have been looking around a bit for a preschool program for him. He's so ready to be in a little structured play environment, playing with kids his age, doing art projects, etc. I found a great preschool less than a mile from our house that I will be enrolling him for next school year. It happens to be in the rear part of a Jewish Temple although the pre-school itself is secular. Most schools here run on a school year schedule so they start in September and go through June. He'll be in the youngest class of 2.5 - 3 year olds. It's 2 mornings per week, 9 - 11:30am, which will be a great time for me to run errands, catch up on house stuff, ....or take a nap.(or whatever Lauren will let me get away with) I can't wait to get him started!

The weather is getting better each day, Spring is here! Along with the warmer weather though, the bigger bugs are out in full force. Goodbye friendly, tiny, & conservative little California ants and hello big fat NJ mafia 'kick your ass' ants. The ants are just huge. The variety we have in our yard are about 1/3 inch each with big, fat bodies. They move very quickly and are almost as bad as spiders on my 'eeewwww' list. The flies are as big around as nickels, and they bite. I think they are called horse flies? Oh well, I'll learn to live with them all in exchange for warmer weather. (although I will soon be complaining, yet again, about the stinkin' humidity)

A Visit From Tori!

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:40:00 +0000

On Tuesday morning, Tori and I got up very early to take the train into NYC in hopes that we could successfully get into the Regis & Kelly show. We arrived at the studio at 6:45am and proceeded to stand in the standby ticket line. We thought our odds were pretty good since there were only 15 people in front of us meaning that 15 ticketed people would have to not show so we could get in. Unfortunately after waiting in line for 2 hours and 15 minutes a woman came out to announce that there were no seats available. We did get a couple of surprises, however, during those 2 hours. Regis walked right past us and into the building (he smiled and waved) and Diane Sawyer got out of her black Mercedes (equipped with a driver)and she walked right towards us with a sympathetic smile and said "It's so cold out here, how do you guys do it?". I hope she didn't mind that I snapped her picture as she was walking up. I felt very papparazzi-ish. After all of that excitement we headed over for Rockefellar Plaza where they were filming the Today Show. We arrived in time to see them film the last segment on Spring fashion.

The highlight of Tori's trip was supposed to be on Thursday night in which we had 3 tickets for Legally Blonde. Unfortunately she woke up that morning feeling awful and it progressed into a terrible headache as we were preparing to leave for the city. I felt terrible for her because I know how much she was looking forward to going. Nick tried to call the ticketing office to trade our tickets for another evening but they were non-refundable/exchangeable. We were still able to use 2 of the 3 tickets because I took my mom to see it while Nick stayed back with Tori. Ironically, she woke up the next day feeling totally fine again so of the whole week to get sick that was the absolute worst 12 hours to be out of commission. The show itself was a lot of fun although I have the main chorus still stuck in my head....it goes something like "Omigod, Ohmigod you guys...." over and over

It was a nice week to spend with Tori and Andrew & Lauren had a lot of fun being with her. Maybe now (well, at least Andrew) they're old enough to remember her and know who we're talking about when we say "Tori". She went home this morning and left before Andrew & Lauren woke up. When Andrew got out of bed this morning he looked around for her and I told him that she went home. Andrew's reply was "Oh, Gosh!" in his sad voice.

Our Week in Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:00:00 +0000

It's been a crazy week but I'm way overdue for a post here. Here are some of the highlights.

Tuesday I woke up to find that not just one but BOTH kids had thrown up in their beds overnight. It was kind of alarming initially. They both went straight from their beds to the bathtub and even after 2 shampoos I couldn't get that horrible smell completely off them. They both spent the morning laying on pillows on the living room floor watching the Disney channel while I cleaned up the mess and washed all the bedding. I'm still not sure if it was food poisoning or a virus but it wasn't fun any way you look at it.

Lauren got her first haircut. I had wanted to just let it grow but Nick thought she should have a haircut. Well, guess who won? Yep, Nick did. It wasn't much, I just cut the hair in front, giving her bangs. It sure changed her look though, she suddenly has transformed into a toddler. Oh well, it keeps the hair out of her eyes and looks cute but I will miss the side swept barrette look that was so cute on her.

Tori arrived on Saturday from Washington state and will be visiting during her spring break. Nick still has to go to work while she's here but we do have some fun stuff planned for her! On Tuesday I thought I'd take her to Regis & Kelly. The guests are Diane Sawyer and some musical artist that Tori is excited about but I've never heard of. (So I guess I'm getting old - or is it because I'm so busy with 2 toddlers that I miss out on pop culture?) We don't have tickets so we have to go really early and get in the standby line so wish us luck! On Thursday we're going to see Legally Blonde on Broadway. That will be her first Broadway experience and since we'll be there at night we may as well show her Times Square. Unfortunately the weather has been very cold and overcast so we haven't wanted to spend much time outside.

Lauren is officially a full-time walker now and has been for almost a month. She's getting faster and faster in getting around and now when I hear little footsteps coming towards me in the house I'm not sure if it's Andrew or Lauren. She has also started dancing when she hears a good song. She was entertaining us last night by doing some pretty advanced dance moves involving standing on one foot, moving her shoulders up & down and swishing her hips around. We have a little performer here! She also seems to like wearing accessories. My mom put a scarf on her and wrapped it over her shoulders and around one time and it still dangled almost to the floor. She loved wearing it and kept it on for quite some time. Every now and then she'd lean forward to make sure the ends were still dangling in front by her feet.

Andrew is as cute as ever although he's begun being quite unreasonable at times. He cries at bathtime because he doesn't want to get in, then he whines throughout the bath that he wants to get out, then when we're through and the water is draining out and I'm standing there with a towel he cries because he doesn't want to get out. I guess these are the 'terrible two's'. I hate that term but at least it reminds me that this is just a stage and he'll return to his helpful cooperative self sooner or later. He's still into trains just as much as ever. He knows the names of many of the 'Thomas' trains and will never turn down an offer to play with his train tracks. He got to experience his first true train ride last week when my mom and I took the kids to the circus at Madison Square Garden. He was a trooper and did insane amounts of walking that day. We think he liked the train ride more than the circus, especially considering that he fell asleep halfway through the show. He needed to rest up for the exciting train ride home.

I'm having technical trouble with posting the slideshow so you'll have to see all the pictures below

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:48:00 +0000

My little sickos

Showing off her scarf

The Little Princess

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:47:00 +0000

He slept through this.....

Still sleeping........

Resting up for the train ride home

Post haircut

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:46:00 +0000

Brushing her 4 teeth

Andrew? Shy for the camera?

Andrew

Conan

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:55:00 +0000

On February 25th, Nick and I took the train into the city, yet again, for another live show. My favorite late night talk show, Conan O'Brien! It was a late afternoon taping and we had to be at 30 Rockefeller Plaza at 4:30pm and the show started at 5:30pm. The studio was quite smaller than they make it appear on television. The guests were Will Arnett (husband of Amy Poehler of SNL) and Flavor Flav from the old 80's rap group Public Enemy and more recently from the reality show "Flavor of Love". After the show we walked out one of the side doors and realized there were tons of paparazzi standing outside the door, waiting for someone to come through. We decided to wait for a few minutes to see who was coming out. After about 10 minutes, Flavor Flav walked out and the cameras and people quickly closed in on him, photos and autographs, etc. He was a good sport about it all, signing a few autographs and took a few pictures before he jumped into his waiting limousine. Here are a few pictures I took of the whole experience.

Recap of our Martha Stewart Show experience!

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 09:51:00 +0000

Sheesh, I didn't mean for it to take 3 weeks to post this but such is life with 2 toddlers.

Nick and I got to the train station bright and early at 5 am on Valentine's Day morning. It was about 18 degrees out but luckily the station had a little coffee shop/ticketing office in the station so we were able to wait inside for the train. We enjoyed the 70 minute train ride into Penn station and we were even able to watch the sunrise during the ride. We arrived into Penn station in Manhattan at 7:30am and had plenty time to walk the 5-6 blocks to Martha's show studio. Penn station is a sight to see in itself. It's the hub of many different trains, subway, etc. Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road trains, New Jersey Transit trains, and the New York subway system all have a stop at Penn station. It always seems busy, no matter what time of day it is. Don't dare slow down or stop to read a sign as you're sure to piss off someone behind you that can't be bothered to walk around you. It's also filled with restaurants, newstands, even an office supply store and a complete drugstore/pharmacy. All of this, by the way, is underground. When you take the escalator up to the street level, you come right out in the heart of the city. Oh, and Madison Square Garden sits right there on top of Penn station so it would be very convenient to go there for a concert or show and just go downstairs for your train ride back home. Okay, so back to the Martha experience.... We got to her building at around 8:15 and got in line behind many other couples. You couldn't help look around at the other couples and imagine how they met online. People were mingling while in line and sharing stories of how they met. Oh, and did I mention - everyone had on their red! I happened to look across the street and saw Curtis Stone, otherwise known as the "Take Home Chef" walking by! He was kind of gawking at the big line of red-shirted couples forming under the big green and yellow "Martha Stewart Show" awning. Nobody seemed to notice him, maybe I'm the only one that watches that show. It's the one that he surprises some young, cute girl in the grocery store and offers to take her back to her home and show her how to cook some fabulous meal, anyone know that show? So anyway, they opened the doors at around 9am and we all slowly filed through, showed our ID's to the ticketing people, went through a security line, then ended up in a large room with chairs and a coat check. They had fresh baked cranberry-orange muffins and bottles of Evian water for us. The walls were covered in beautiful photographs that I realized were all taken by Martha as I saw her signature in the corner of them all. 4-5 of the show staff came out and handed out a release form that we all had to sign and another piece of paper that we could write down any questions we had for Martha or her producer's. The questions would have to be handed back and pre-approved before the show and they were even coaching people on how to ask their question and changing the wording of the question as needed. I couldn't come up with any intelligient question to ask and I really didn't care to stand up with a microphone and cameras on me so I skipped it altogether. Nick wanted to ask who does Martha's dishes but his question wasn't picked. The 'warm-up' comedian guy came out (Joey) and interacted with the group and got everyone laughing and ready for the show. They then started letting people into the studio but they had some super secret & unusual order as to who went in. First it was people with stars on their ticket, then purple stripes, yellow stripes, A-Z, then #'s. We were 33 & 34 and we had to go in numerical order. I'd love to know what that was all about. Our little group of about 10 (ticket #'s 30-40) were lead by a girl with a headset microphone through a hallway and up a flight of stairs then into THE studio. It was HUGE. Apparently she has the largest television studio at 10,000 sq feet. It was incredible, there was a full sized kitchen, greenhouse, craft room, and off to the side and behind glass windows was another full working kitchen. They had the the music turned up while everyone got seated. There was one poor guy sitting near us that, for some craaazy reason, wasn't wearing red. He probably thought "oh, only the dorks are actually going to wear red, I'll just wear my old comfortable blue shirt". WRONG! One of the staff went back to the wardrobe department and got a red sweater for him to wear over his shirt. Once again we were amazed at how many cameras were rolling around and bright lights hanging from overhead. The show got started and Martha made her entrance. She had various segments - how to meet someone online, funny vintage photos, Australian olive oil, & she made a sea urchin appetizer. She also did a special segment about Paw-Paw (her Chow) and Paw-Paw's recent trip to the groomer. She had him trimmed and sent his extra fur to someone who turns the dog hair into knitting yarn. She said she was going to turn it into a fur coat for her smaller dog. Okay, well slightly creepy but if anyone's gonna do it, may as well be Martha. What I never realized is how many people are standing on a set that you don't actually see. Even if it was Martha alone on camera, there are about 20 staff standing just out of view off-camera. Some are holding her cue cards or gesturing something to her, about 5-6 people with big cameras, and the producers who just stand there and watch. During commercial breaks, Joey handed out baskets of soaps to random people (except us :-( After they completed the show they started setting up for another show that they're pre-taping, to be aired sometime over summer during the show's break. This second show was the "Ask the Producer's" show (hence the questions I told you about earlier). There's a segment where the audience asks Martha random questions, asks the producer's questions and then the producer's take turns telling us little known Martha facts. Some of them were really funny, and a few hard to believe! Martha came in second place in the Coney Island hot dog eating contest many years ago! I just can't imagine her doing that. Other little known tidbits - she suffers from insomnia and usually only sleeps 2-3 hours a night, she has been caught drinking buttermilk right out of the carton (we've all done that, right?) , she hates luverwurst, and she likes the rapper Eminem and even has his picture hanging in her office! They only filmed three segments for the second show and the other segments were to be filmed after we left. We were all given a bottle of Australian olive on our way out. Overall, we had a great time! If you missed the show but still want to see Nick and I on TV, click here and watch for us 1 minute 14 seconds into the show. (Sorry, you will have to sit through the 30 second Dulcolax constipation commercial first) Stay tuned for our trip to the Conan O'Brien show and also an Andrew & Lauren update!

NICK IS GOING TO THE MARTHA STEWART SHOW

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 04:13:00 +0000

Lauren took her first steps! FINALLY! She's been capable for a few weeks but she finally got the confidence to step forward without any help. This afternoon she took 2 steps, realized what she was doing, got startled and sat down. About 5 times this evening she stood up in the middle of the room and took 2-3 steps on her own and then sat down. HOLY MOLY, I'm about to have 2 walking toddlers. Yikes.
Andrew is doing really well and he's seeming more like a little boy rather than a toddler. On the Feb. 21st, a speech therapist and physical therapist will be coming to our home to evaluate Andrew for their services. His overall vocabulary is expanding ever so rapidly although the clarity is questionable. His doctor recommended we have the speech evaluation considering his history of ear infections when he was a baby. I don't think he has hearing issues nor do I think he's delayed. I believe he's just on the later end of "normal" but I welcome this evaluation and any tips or recommendations they may have.
Nick has been in Knoxville, TN this week and he comes home tomorrow. Luckily he's on the east edge of the state, away from the deadly tornado that hit the western part of Tennessee. He's been traveling so much that the airlines just bump him into a first class seat whenever one us available.
The weather here today was strangely warm. It has been in the 30's for weeks but today was sunny and warm, somewhere in the 70's. We took advantage of it and enjoyed the morning at the park. Tonight we're expecting heavy downpours and thunderstorms and then we'll be heading back into our freezing weather. Spring couldn't get here quick enough!
Well, Nick is SO excited to go to the Martha Stewart Show, I've never seen him this giddy. He's counting down the days. Every day without fail he sneaks in a "12 more days until Martha....." and "11 more days until Martha"... He's been taping all her shows on the DVR and he even has been talking about hosting one of those "Pampered Chef" parties. Okay, so I exaggerated a little bit. He's only slightly embarrased to be going to the show. I told him he won't be so embarrased when we win one of the trips that she gives away on the show. I got an email from her people and they've asked that everyone wear red to the show on the 14th. We don't own much in red so we'll be shopping for some red shirts or sweaters. Every time they make a change to their production schedule they email all the guests and ask us to email them back to confirm we got the message. They've already sent out an email saying we'll now have to stay until 11:45 am because they are going to film some extra segments. Okay, enough for now but don't forget to tell your friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers that Nick's going to Martha Stewart! ;-)

MORE shows to see!

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 19:22:00 +0000

In my quest to see how many different live show tickets I could request, I stumbled across The Martha Stewart Show website. On the website was an announcement that they were looking for couples that met online to join the studio audience on Valentine's Day. As you may know, Nick and I met through Match.com in 2003. So of course I filled out the request form last week and last night I received an email inviting us to the show. I don't know anything regarding what the show will be about or who the guests will be but we'll be there! Maybe she'll be giving out trips or dinners, or heck, even some chocolate will do.

So if you already think we're nuts get this - We were also given 4 tickets to the Conan O'Brien show on 2/25. I'm not sure if we hit the talkshow lottery or what but I always thought these tickets were hard to come by since the website says it could take up to 2 years to get tickets. I'm sure the novelty of it all will have worn off after seeing Regis & Kelly, Martha Stewart, AND Conan O'Brien within a month! Oh well, better take advantage of these opportunities while we're here.

Recap of our Regis & Kelly Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:20:00 +0000

We started out early. VERY EARLY. I was up at 4am and was at the train station before 5am. I met my friend Tina on the train, she had gotten on at an earlier stop. She had 2 other friends she had invited so there were 4 of us total. We rode the train an hour and fifteen minutes into Penn station in NYC. We then caught a cab up to 67th Street and Columbus Avenue where the ABC studios are. We arrived at about 6:45am and we were about the 3rd or 4th group of people to arrive. We were told to stand in a line right against the building. There was a motorized coffee coach available to us with FREE coffee, hot chocolate, french toast, bagels, donuts, brownies, anything we wanted. ABC sure treats their guests well! It was freezing out and although I had a warm coat I decided against bringing gloves and a hat because I didn't want to tote them around NYC all day. Well, I froze....next time I'll bring them for sure. We stood in the ever growing line until about 7:30 when they opened the doors and we went through a security check similar to an airport. We then go into another line where we waited until 8:45am. The show is live and it starts at 9am so I thought we would have gone in earlier. They then opened the doors to the ground floor studio and we walked single file through a bright blue narrow twisting hallway and into the room where they tape the show. A woman was handing each of us a card with a number on it as we came in. It was not at all what I expected. The room itself was much smaller than I thought and the chairs were those small moveable metal chairs with a padded seat. Gelman, the executive producer came out and gave us a quick lesson on how to clap (twice as fast as you would normally) and cheer real loud, hoot, holler, and make lots of noise when they prompt us. They allow photography during the entire show as long as you have your flash turned off. They then brought out Regis & Kelly and the show was taping! There were about 4 cameras taping at all times and unfortunately one of the big ones was right in front of us, partially blocking my view of Regis. It was hard to pay attention to what Regis & Kelly were talking about because there was so much activity between all the cameras and the producers prompting them with cue cards, etc. They talked about current events for about 10 minutes then called a viewer at home to ask her a trivia question. She got the question right which means that she picks a number between 1-150 and the audience member that is holding that card wins the same prize as the caller. She picked 19 and I was 14! The girl sitting right in front of me! Argh! So close! She won an 8 piece Waterford Crystal Dining set. The first guest was Queen Latifah. She looked absolutely amazing. She's lost quite a bit of weight and she was more beautiful in person. She was promoting her new movie called Mad Money. The next guest was Kathering Heigl from Gray's Anatomy. During commercial breaks Regis & Kelly would come right up to the audience and talk to people, sign autographs, and take pictures with people. The producers would literally be pushing them back into their seats so they were in place before the commercial was over. Unfortunately, I never got my picture taken with either of them but I did take a picture of Tina with Kelly. It was a great experience and we had a great time. I want to see what other shows we can go see now! Rachael Ray, The View, Martha, Letterman, Conan O'Brien, or Saturday Night Live are on my list!

Is it too late to say Happy New Year?

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:20:00 +0000

We've been a busy bunch lately. To summarize the last few weeks: We spent a week in the Bay Area over Christmas and had a great visit with friends & family. It never seems that we have enough time to spend proper time catching up with everyone during our California trips. It's usually spent driving long distances to meet friends for lunch then hurry hurry cause we're meeting someone else for dinner somewhere else in the Bay Area. Exhausting but always worth it. By the time we all adjusted to Pacific Standard Time we were leaving back to the East coast.
We celebrated Lauren's first birthday on Monday! Where has the time gone? So much has happened for us this year yet it has flown by. Lauren is emerging into a toddler rather than a little baby. She has two bottom teeth and her hair is starting to grow. She says "hot" but she's turned it into two syllables "ha" (short pause) then "t". She stands without holding onto anything but she hasn't taken any steps yet. She loves to torment Andrew by taking apart his train tracks or dropping his train cars on the floor. It drives him crazy and she knows it because she always does it with a little smile on her face. I guess that's what younger siblings are for!
Today a friend called to invite me to see Live with Regus & Kelli with her tomorrow (Thursday). We're getting up super early to get on the 5am train into New York City. The guests that we'll see are Queen Latifah and Katherine Heigl. Should be interesting! Maybe I'll win something!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:58:00 +0000

...how lovely are your fake branches.

I'm one of those that balked at the thought of a fake tree in the past. What good is a tree if you can't smell that wonderful tree smell throughout the house? Well after some discussion, my mom talked me into it and brought home a 7 1/2 foot fake tree. It's actually quite real looking and the best part is that it's already strung with lights. We set it up in the living room, put some ornaments on and now the hard part is keeping the kids from removing them. How do you explain to two toddlers that all these little 'toys' dangling all over the tree are only for looking?

I decided to take on the task of making curtains for the living room. Somehow I managed to make one panel a whole 2 inches longer than the other panel. Luckily a friend here has a sewing machine and she knows how to sew so she helped me fix them so we now have window coverings! It is nice not living in a fishbowl anymore! We were holding out to buy blinds but decided they are just too expensive especially for a house we don't want to stay in.

We've had a couple snows in the last couple weeks. Andrew was so excited to wake up and see a couple inches of white snow everywhere. It has since warmed up a bit so we are now getting rain.

Andrew has taken on the job description of being a 2-year-old and has really made it clear that he's an independent person with strong opinions. We have to watch him closely around Lauren because he is now quite posessive with his toys and I don't know how far he'd go to stop Lauren from playing with them. He is still very interested in trains and the train table continues to be his favorite activity.

Lauren is just a pro at getting around the house, pulling herself to standing just about anywhere she can and she would be happy to follow Andrew everywhere he goes. Both Andrew and Lauren love to sing and sometimes I'll hear Andrew singing by himself. I have yet to make out the words but the cadence sounds like the ABC's.

The pace has picked up at Nick's work and he is in Knoxville & Kalamazoo this week. He returns home on Thursday only to head out again next week.

Andrew is 2!

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:30:00 +0000

We celebrated Andrew's 2nd birthday on Saturday rather than Monday since Nick would be out of town. Nick set up the train table for Andrew on Friday night so that we could surprise him with it on Saturday morning. He woke up at 6:30 am Saturday (no, we don't sleep in anymore) and we were standing by with camera in hand to watch him find the train table and accessories. He absolutely LOVES it! He played for hours and hours and we had to tear him away from it in the afternoon so we could take him to the movies. We saw Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. It seemed like a good movie although it was a bit complex for a 2 year old. We actually walked out 3/4 of the way through because Andrew was starting to get antsy and he was talking (loudly) at times. We didn't want to ruin the movie for the rest of the crowd and quietly snuck out. Andrew was probably just in a hurry to get back to his trains. I made a carrot birthday cake and attempted to put Thomas the train on it with cream cheese frosting. It came out delicious although my artistry left much to be desired. Yesterday I took Andrew & Lauren to Chuck E Cheese to meet his friend Ryan and his mom and we had a small little birthday celebration there as well.

This morning both kids had a routine doctor appointment and overall things went well. Lauren weighs 22.5 lbs and is 30 inches long. She's in the 95th percentile for height and weight! Andrew weighs 29.2 lbs and is 34.5 inches long. He's in the 50-75the percentile. The doctor would like Andrew to have a hearing and speech evaluation especially in regards to his history of ear infections and eardrum rupture. This may be why he is a little slower to talk although she wasn't terribly concerned over it. He should be saying at least 6 words with perfect clarity and although he is saying many more than 6, his words aren't 100% clear. Lauren started crawling on hands and knees today! Up until now she has been scooting around on her belly. Yesterday she also pulled herself up on her own to the train table for the first time. A little added incentive, I guess, to get to those trains. I've attached a little slideshow of birthday pictures below

It's Cold!

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:42:00 +0000

The weather has taken a change. It is now cold, cold, cold! It hasn't snowed yet but it seems close. Our morning walks have been put on hold and we're looking for more indoor activities to keep ourselves busy. Lauren has FINALLY popped out a tooth on the bottom and I think the 2nd tooth is coming soon. Unfortunately, along with the teething she has gotten quite congested and maybe has her first cold. (although by the time Andrew was her age he had already weathered through several colds, ear infections, and 2 ruptured eardrums) I guess that's another benefit to keeping her out of daycare. She hasn't quite grasped the crawling concept yet although she gets around quite well by scooting on her belly. She gets around all over the house like a little mermaid!
Andrew will be 2 on Monday! I can't believe how fast 2 years gave gone. But then again I remind myself how many changes we've made in just 2 years. We've lived in 3 states, lived on both east and west coasts, had 2 kids, and I've been both a working mom and a stay-at-home mom. That's more change for myself than all 10 years prior! Andrew's vocabulary has picked up more speed, thank goodness. The other night he got out of the bath and told me 'It's a cold!' He says 'tee-too' for thank you, 'kying' for crying (which he'll tell us when Lauren is crying, just in case we didn't know), 'Da-iss' for Thomas the Train. He's also saying 'uh-huh' and 'oh, gosh', then covers his mouth with his hand for added emphasis.

We'll be doing a small birthday celebration on Saturday instead of the 19th because Nick is going back to Knoxville. We're going to take Andrew to see a new kids movie called "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" then probably have some balloons and cake at home. We bought him a train table which is a long table about 15 inches high - just the right height for him to roll trains along a track. We also got a Thomas train set to go with it. I'm sure he will just love it.

We are looking forward to a trip to the Bay Area 12/25 - 12/31. We'll be staying at my Dad & Steve's house in Orinda. It will be fun to see friends and family that we haven't seen in awhile and also many of our friends have not met Lauren yet.

P.S. You can put away the sunglasses now....I've changed the neon template of the blog to something a little more subdued. What do you think?

Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Alaina, Nick, Andrew, & Lauren) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:23:00 +0000

Another Halloween has come and gone. Last year we took an almost 1-year-old Andrew to a Boise church parking lot where they have what's called a "trunk-or-treat". People decorate their cars and trunks and give candy out right from their cars. He didn't really "get" the whole idea but it was fun dressing him up as a pumpkin and (ssssh!) we got to eat all his candy. This year was a little more fun since he understood that he was dressed up (as Tigger) but the concept of taking his little bag around for treats was still over his head. Lauren had no clue that she was a big orange pumpkin but she was darn cute in it. (Andrew's costume from last year ...probably the last time we'll get away with recycling his costume for her) We took the kids to the local mall which had a "mall-o-treat". Each of the stores had someone out front handing out candy and Andrew had fun collecting his loot. We couldn't get him to say "trick-or treat" though.

So, we thought we went overboard after we bought 4 big bags of candy to give out last night. We arrived home from the mall at 5 pm, it was still light out, and kids were already ringing the bell. About 5 groups came by before 6pm. A couple of the groups looked as old as 15-16 years old....and a few weren't even in costume! I was tempted to say something but figured maybe I shouldn't give them a hard time or I might wind up with paintballs or eggs on the side of my house. We did run out of candy and ended up giving out some of what Andrew had collected earlier. (of course after I pulled out all the good stuff ;-) Surprisingly, he's not really into sweets. He thinks of all of his little treats & candies that he collected as little possessions. He wants to carry them around with him but he doesn't care to open them or eat them. I'm sure next year will be different!