I Love Weekends...

I love weekends and I loved this weekend.

Let me show you why:

I loved walking with this kid around Columbia.

I loved making/eating/watching other people enjoy these peanut butter cup cupcakes. Yum.

I loved visiting the ginormous Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I loved watching T run up and down the stairs like he owned the place. I loved, actually, love that cheesy, toothy, chippy grin!

I loved hearing James tell me what he would name the statues around campus if he were the boss. Brace yourself, he thought this one should be named "Seafood Buffet."

I loved having a camera to smile for...even when I didn't love having my picture taken.

I loved coming home from a Relief Society meeting and finding this pot-belly picture of Talmage on the camera that Daddy had taken when they went to the park.

I loved watching my boys make a tent (then destroy it), play with toys and finally watch a movie while I made dinner.

I loved watching the little mister get more comfortable!

Uh...duh...I loved that James decided he wanted to make Ukrainian donuts for a special treat.

I love weekends, and I loved this weekend.

Now you know why.

T's First Date

I am not even slightly condoning early-age dating...but come on, how cute are these two.

Miss Eisley came over for a marathon play-date with Mr. T and they had a blast running, jumping, dancing and being crazy.

Talmage and the little Miss have a lot in common: they are both binkie junkies...

...they both have insane amounts of energy and very spicy personalities...

...they both love otter pops, cheerios and Easy Mac...

...and they're both ridiculously cute!

Here's to at least 50 first dates with Miss Eisley Girl!

Boston or Bust!

The three little Wiggy's spent Labor day weekend laboring, uh-hem, relaxing in Boston with our awesome friends from Cambridge, Christa and Rob. The weather was beautiful, despite predictions of a hurricane (Jim called it Tropical Cough Earl) and we had such a great time.

Talmage loved hanging out with these two, especially because they spoiled him rotten with attention! He would say their names (if bribed) and we loved the emphasis he put on the "b" in Rob. Jim and I pretty much kicked up our feet the whole time we were there, those two are the heroes!

The engraving on the statue is the only comment needed for the pictures above.

"Under this tree Washington first took command of the American Army"

OK, maybe one more comment from me.

How hecka cool is that?

Christa and Rob treated us to lunch at Regina's pizza in the north end of Boston. The line wrapped around the restaurant which is a real testament to Regina's incredibleness (is that even a word?) My favorite was the four cheese pizza--thin crust yumminess with ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, and some other delicious cheese and fresh basil sprinkled on top. My mouth is watering. I'm not joking. It was so dang good!

And somehow we made room in our full little tummy's for a canoli the size of T's head. I kind of think a canoli tastes like cheesecake inside a sweet toquito shell...except huge. They are so rich and creamy. Mouth-watering once again.

One thing that's so interesting about Boston is that the historical is mixed with the modern in a very unique way. In the middle of a few glass highrises, you find this lovely old brick building which just happens to be where the Boston Massacre occurred.

Speaking of history, we also visited Concord and Lexington and saw where the first battles of the Revolutionary War happened. This is the actual bridge where the war between the rebels and the redcoats officially began. I tried to imagine what it really must have felt like for the young soldiers on both sides of this bridge, staring into the faces of men who just generations before were brothers. I have so much respect for these men, and for the rebel soldiers who fought for our liberty.

Three British soldiers were killed in the battle at this bridge, and a memorial was placed there to commemorate their sacrifice. I found it very touching.

You see that man in the picture above? Well, I bet you didn't know that he is Paul Revere. Yep, that's right, he told me so. And you should have seen him waving that cane as he told of his adventures. It was awesome!

Love, love, love this girl!

On Sunday after church we went to a gorgeous cemetary near CandR's house. It was actually the first landscaped cemetary in the nation and it is just breathtakingly beautiful. I thought a lot about my friends, the Sprague's while I was there. They love going to cemetaries...they would have been in heaven over this one!

Talmage did one of two things during our trip to the cemetary. 1) Drag Rob around while chatting wildly about this, that and the other. 2) Beat on people's headstone's like they were the drums. We obviously preferred option 1, but it seems like he preferred option 2. Oh dear.

There were A LOT of famous people buried in this cemetary. Is it or is it not morbid that we took pictures with some of the headstones? Either way, we did it! We saw graves for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes (shown above), Joseph Story, Robert Shaw and Charles Sumner. James was giddy each time we saw someone he knew. It was really entertaining!

Umm...really child? Stop growing up. Do you hear me? This is not funny and this is not allowed. Love, Mom.

PS--How cute do you look in a tie. It's ridiculous.

After a super eventful weekend we boarded yet another Chinatown bus and headed back to the big city. Talmage, as always, was an excellent traveler and pretty much had his nose stuck in a book the whole way home. Thanks Christa and Rob for a fantab weekend. See you again soon!!!

Man of the Hour

HOLY HANNAH have we missed this man since leaving England! Our dear friend Dr. Martland came to visit us in NYC and we were so, so, so tickled at the opportunity to have him in our home and share a fun day with him. He and Talmage were very dear friends in the motherland, so their reunion was sweet and lovely. I've actually never seen Mr. T be so cuddly! We love you Dr. Martland...come visit again soon!!!

T minus two days (I hope) until my brand spankin new camera will be in my hands, until then we are taking pictures of very special events with Daddy's computer. How awesome are computers these days? Sheesh. Did I really just sound like a 90-year-old lady or what!

The point of these pictures was to show Talmage's super cute shirt that another one of our extremely-missed-friends, Vanessa, gave to him. It says "Future England Star in Training", although Dr. Martland said that he could put a big X through the word future. In his mind, Talmage is already a British Star!

Anyway, so the point was to show his shirt...but instead we copied each other, laughed hysterically and posed like we were on the red carpet. And by the way, the letters on his shirt are backwards in the picture. And by the way again, I'm not really picking my nose. Now T on the other hand...we're still working on that nasty habit.

When did my chubby (really, super, rolly, polly, eat-you-with-a-stick-of-butter chubby) baby become this lean, mean, crazy running, dancing, singing, talking, eating machine? Kids grow up too fast. I love this one a whole heck of a lot.

Speaking of kids and growing up. I found this jem when I was looking for the last few pictures on Jim's computer and I couldn't resist. All I gotta say is HOTT!!!

To make you smile :)

T and I were walking down the street the other day when this totally ghetto guy came up to us, looked down at the kid (in his stroller) and said, "Yo, what's up shawty."

***

Laffy Taffy joke of the day-

Q. What are the strongest days of the week?

A. Saturday and Sunday. The rest are weekdays.

***

Me (after Jim did something sneaky): Jem, you better watch it or I'm going to sue you.
Jem (pretending to be me): Jem, I'm going to hire you to sue you.
Jem (pretending to be himself, oh wait, being himself): Your honor, she's got a point. I'm pretty lame!

***

A brand new camera is making it's way to New York as we speak. Now if that doesn't make you smile, I don't know what does.

Cupcake Thievery

WANTED

For sneakily, oh-so-sneakily, stealing an oatmeal chocolate chip cupcake off of the kitchen counter and running like heck (but still very sneakily) into the living room where he stuffed the said cupcake into his mouth...and ground it into the rug...and smeared it on the hardwood floor... all before his Mother even knew what hit her. (PS--that same Mother just may have spent a good portion of the afternoon mopping that floor and cleaning that rug. Not that she's bitter or anything).

The most severe crime: making bad look so cute!

REWARD:

At least one oatmeal chocolate chip cupcake. Believe T, they're worth the effort!

Oh yeah, and here is the long-awaited first day of school pic. What cute boys I have!

On how I almost killed him

(My mom's favorite picture of the little rascal)

Monday was Jim's first day back to school. I knew the time would come when he would have to go back, but I can honestly say I was not looking forward to it. You see, since about mid-May the three of us have been basically inseparable. Where he went, I went. Where we went, the kid followed. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed having Jim's constant companionship. Not only is he sweet and funny and cute, but he is SUCH a good Daddy and did almost everything for Mr. Talmage. I knew back to school meant back to being a University-induced single parent, not a fan.

As a sidenote, I do like the idea of having a real job and real income someday, so three cheers for law school, huh?

When James left for school, Talmage cried at the door screaming "Daddy" and I just sat and stared at him, trying to remember how I used to parent when my other half wasn't around. Once I was finally able to peel T from the doorway we easily slipped into a routine. Snacks. Naps. Toys. Books. Dancing. We were having a good day (except for random moments when he would realize Daddy was gone and lead me to the front door repeating his name) and we were getting along quite nicely.

And then, disaster struck.

Our incredible building has a HUGE playroom downstairs for the children, and since our stuff is still not here we decided to go play. When lunchtime was upon us, we got in the elevator on our way back up to our apartment. Riding in an elevator is new for the peanut, and he finds it very entertaining...well, he did at least.

He was hitting the door with his hands on our way up and having a fabulous time when all of a sudden the door opened and T's hand went with it (we were on our floor, luckily). In a second, no, a fraction of a second, Talmage's hand was dragged with the door into the opening and the elevator door was stuck halfway open. All of his fingers and part of his palm were stuck in the door and he errupted in tears and shrieks of agony. I tried opening the door. I tried closing it. Nothing worked.

So, I went into mama-bear-need-to-protect-her-cub mode and went balistic. I started pressing the emergency button in the elevator and screaming "HELP" as loud as I could. You've heard of people staying cool under pressure, unfortunately I don't have that skill. When the doorman came running down the hall he started screaming unmentionable words at the sight of T's hand. It just looked awful. He got on his walkie talkie and called for back-up (we were both thinking we'd need tools to break the elevator apart). But then, the doorman (who was my hero of the day) used all his manliness and pushed the elevator as hard as he could which allowed me to pull Talmage's purple, lifeless hand from the space.

When his hand came out, it looked mangled and awful. I was sure it had multiple brakes and the doorman asked me to run to the front desk with him where we could meet the manager and others. When they saw my poor, wimpering babies hand, they said we should probably a) call an ambulance or b) go to the emergency room.

And then, a miracle occurred.

As we are discussing our options, Talmage completely stoped crying, and started moving his little hand as though nothing was wrong. Within seconds, color was back and he was using his fingers as if nothing had happened. I decided to wait it out and see if we needed to go to the hospital, and we didn't. He is 100% perfect and has no mark, no disoloration, no pain, no nothing. He was giving us all high-fives and pounds and didn't even flinch when I felt his hand for issues. He is truly a medical miracle (on many accounts) and I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father allowed him to be quickly (like, really, really quickly) healed and back to normal.

So...how about that for our first day at home together? Oh bother.