Miles of Smiles!

Top: Hannah, Joey, Charles
Middle - Sisters!: Helen, Sarah, and Genevieve
Bottom: Timothy, Jessica, Ceci and Harvey




















I adored this night with family. I cherish this memory!

All Together!

December 27, 2007
9 grandchildren
3 daughters
3 sons-in-law
1 grandma

missing - grandpa, son and grandson.

16 out of 19 ain't bad... actually it was such a miracle to get us all together. Joe cooked up the best ever batch of gumbo. Tim and Matthew recited poetry. Carols were sung. We even played a ridiculously fun game that involved a conducting-by-numbers whistle choir. grandpa was recovering from knee replacement and Damian and Eugene were out in California for Christmas. It was a no-tree year.

Foot Notes

The Extensor hallucis longus is a thin muscle, situated between the Tibialis anterior and the Extensor digitorum longus that functions to extend the big toe, dorsiflex the foot, and assists with foot inversion. Wow! That's a pretty important tendon. I met with Dr. Wapner, the great foot and ankle surgeon, on Friday and he scheduled me right away to have my EHL tendon repaired at Pennsylvania Hospital (founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1751) on Wednesday.

Laura(to Dr. Wapner) : So I guess I won't be going to Texas on Monday...

Dear Joe and Harvey stayed in PA with me to help me get through this ordeal. I told them they should just go without me (I've been getting kinda grouchy lately) and that I could stay at my mom's post-op. (Of course, I really didn't want us to be split up on Christmas!)

We had a beautiful Christmas morning with all the presents that Santa brought. Harvey loved tearing off the wrapping paper - one little piece at a time! Joe gave me a Scrabble game to help stave off boredom. Harvey liked his new car book with wheels on it. He has been showing his Curious George doll (his new best friend - poor Frosty and Paddington got the shaft) how to play the piano on his new toy keyboard which, by the way is a perfect fifth sharp. How is H supposed to develop perfect pitch when these tone-deaf toy manufacturers keep messing up the notes?

Joe is organizing the closet we just had fixed. What a mess. Why do we have two tunnels, two strollers, etc.? Stuff really piles up with a kid in the house!

Meanwhile, I am catching up on reading Doctor Zhivago for book club and adjusting to slowing things down. I have been busy getting so much stuff ready - bills, paperwork, Fontainebleau Bulletin, etc. Somehow this whole "getting ready" business reminds me of week 40 of pregnancy. Ahh memories!!

I promise to have pictures up later.

Feeling Festive

Okay, so obviously the picture wasn't taken in the last few days. I was so so proud of my flowering plant that lived into the month of November. Now of course we are dealing with rainy yucky weather; the kind where I don't feel like schlepping around in it with Harvey (who LOVES going with me on errands). Today he was very upset when I left without him - but it was just so miserable out!

It has been a rather festive weekend. Yesterday we had 20 piano students over and they all played Christmas Carols and duets. Everyone gathered around the piano for a hearty round of Jingle Bells, and then we ate fabulous Sant Ambroeus cookies from Madison Avenue and polished off a batch of my crystallized ginger cookies. Last night was the Aberwyck Christmas party and Harvey was quite the hit with all the senior residents. After a couple glasses of GLOGG, I played the piano and everyone sang about a zillion carols. Usually Joe is the one who heads up the entertainment, but he had to work last night. Today we all slept until 9:30 AM! I love Sundays around here lately. I have come to the point where I just don't want any commitments on Sundays. I love the down time. The New York Times, leisurely coffee, listening to records (Joe just fixed the turntable - Hurray!), Harvey being Harvey, etc. Today we got some good headway on the Christmas Cards. Joe calls it the "Christmas Card Sweat Shop". We also did a lot of around-the-house chores like putting up pictures and organizing closets. I even managed to polish the silver for the first time since before H was born. (It had gotten pretty nasty!) The icing on the cake was when we put some Christmas lights up in the living room. We decided not to get a tree this year for numerous reasons (I'll explain later) and so it hasn't really felt like Christmas, but putting the lights up gave me a festive feeling. Now all I have to do is find the Bing Crosby Christmas Album...

Good Cheer

Finally! A picture without "the boy". I have been on a massive quest lately to catalogue pictures and purge the icky ones (i.e. the ones with double chins and alien eye as Joe calls it). I stumbled upon this one from Christmas at Rosemary's in 2005 and HAD to blog it.

christmas is coming and we have no picture!

harvey LOVES the tree! He squeeled with joy when he saw it. He went up to the tree and touched the yellow light bulb. then he went for the wise man ornament, removed it and put it with his toys. next he removed the wooden bird house. then he went over to the bookcase and proceeded to read his books. it was very cute. i tried to take pictures for the christmas card and they were dumb. we just can't seem to get a good christmas picture because harvey keeps falling down and getting scratched and bruised; either that or he has runny nostrils...bah humbug!

Our little Angel

Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree

Harvey is now in San Antonio. It is so warm that he doesn't need to wear footed sleepers - a onesie will do! He was remarkably good for the airplane rides. He hardly ever cried or needed a diaper change. He sucked his binky the whole time. He was the envy of all of the other parents toting trying tots! Yesterday he met Aunt Teresa and Aunt Genevieve - that puts the Aunt Count at 6. He slept for 5 hours in the pack-n-play that Aunt Chita bought for him, woke up at 3 AM, nursed, and proceeded to "talk" to himself. It was the funniest thing - it sounded like he was speaking in about 27 different languages. Finally he went to sleep. Tonight we did a four step Cradle Cap removal process to get him all gussied up for dinner at Rosemary and Jimmy's. Tomorrow is his 3 month birthday. He is 12 pounds and 3 ounces. Happy Birthday Pooka!

Harvey with his babysitter Jan