oliver sees NY

our dear friends, steve and marynan, came to NY for their anniversary this past week. we were lucky enough to get to meet them for brunch when they first got here, and then oliver and i got to spend the day with them on wednesday seeing NY! we took one of those bus tours with them and it was a lot of fun. i wouldn't necessarily recommend doing it with a baby (or child for that matter) but oliver was awesome! it was a 5.5 hour trip and there were a few times we got off the bus, but they were very brief and you were moving even then, which made it hard to find times to change and feed him. he didn't fuss really at all though, thank god! part of the tour even included a ferry ride out to the statue of liberty! we didn't get out but it took us right up to it and paused for a bit before taking us back. so oliver has now been on every mode of transportation possible i think: train, plane, automobile, and boat! and he's only 3 months! what will i do to impress him the rest of his life???


oliver chillaxin' with the maberrys!




they are both listening very intently to the tour guide talk about strawberry fields


oliver wasn't so sure about the boat, but he cheered up quickly.


standing on the bow (i think that's the right term!)


and here she is, lady liberty







we had such a good time, thanks again aunt marynan and uncle steve! hope you enjoyed your visit! xoxo

oliver's first halloween!

sunday was oliver's first halloween. i thought about his costume for weeks! i originally wanted him to be a bear (because i call him ollie-bear), but i had a really hard time finding one. so then i decided, this might be the only time i get to pick his costume, i'm going to pick something i love. giraffe it is! he looked so cute! it was a really hot costume, so i was really glad it was cold out. he had a little party at his kindermusik class on saturday, then on sunday we met up with one of my mom's groups, then went to a friend's house. apparently halloween is a HUGE deal in our neighborhood. they have this big parade, and all the stores give out candy, and the houses decorate, some even open up with a haunted house, etc. so it was a mad house! we didn't even watch the parade because it was so crowded and cold. but we had a good time!













then, yesterday, oliver turned 3 months old!!! i can't believe it. lately we've been hanging out with some younger babies and it's crazy seeing how much they really do change by 3 months. and oliver (always the overachiever) cut his first 2 teeth last night! hopefully i can get some pictures of them soon!









here's the comparison from 1-3 months:

jamie's birthday!

this past thursday was jamie's 33rd birthday! i had been asking him for months what he wanted to do for it and he never had an answer for me. finally he said "just go out to eat i guess". i asked if he wanted to invite friends, he said sure. i asked where he wanted to eat, he didn't know. this went on and on until the weekend before his birthday when he finally decided on bark, a hot dog place he loves. he still wouldn't give me any definitive answers though. he hadn't asked anyone yet, etc. finally the day before his birthday he decided he wanted to go with some friends to eat at this food truck on the lower east side. (i know that doesn't sound exciting but apparently the guys that own this food truck won some contest on the food network and now they travel around.) so we decided to go to bark on sunday. he was still going to be coming home between work and dinner though, so we could have a mini celebration then, which is a good thing since i had already ordered the cookie cake!
anyway, it was a pretty low-key birthday and i decided to get him a bike lock (my mom got him lights for his bike), but i wanted to do something to make it special. i decided to write up 33 reasons why i love him. i made them on little note cards and i had planned to hang them around the house for him to see when he got up the morning of his birthday, but i ended up just setting them up on the table. please don't judge me, they are not cute or perfect by ANY means, i had only 1 nap to make them in, but they got the job done and jamie was really surprised.








i got oliver a special shirt for daddy's birthday. i don't know if you can read it, but it says "my dad is outta this world".


jamie's first card from oliver






the delicious cookie cake. i wish this was a scratch a sniff picture because it smelled soooo good! something made me think of cookie cakes a few weeks ago, i was thinking how they were all the rage for a while and now you never hear about them. i asked jamie if he liked them and he said yes. i decided to try to get one for his birthday. it just so happens there is a TCBY/mrs. field's in the target shopping center near our house. however, that does not make this an easy process! let's not forget this is new york! i had to walk there (it's a mile away) with a baby, and then carry said baby AND this 16inch heavy cake home! it was quite a feat and i was very proud of myself to get it home without smudging the icing, or dropping the baby or the cake!


i had been telling oliver how delicious cookie cakes are, and letting him smell it so he was excited!

happy birthday jamie! hope you had a good one. xoxo

apple picking

for the past 3 years we've gone apple picking each fall. i love it. i love fall and i love fallish food and the colors and everything. so this year, i was determined to take oliver apple picking. it turns out there are several places to go around here (and when i say around i mean an hour or so drive). we decided on a place called sun high orchards. i read about it online and saw that in addition to apples and pumpkins they have a market and a petting zoo! it's in new jersey and it's supposed to only be about 40 minutes away. we got there in pretty good time and really enjoyed ourselves, however, the trip home basically canceled out the joy. it took us over 4 hours to get back into the city! this was the second time we've gone to jersey and both times it has taken this long to get back. so we've decided we are not going to new jersey ever again. sorry jersey.

here are some photos of the good times:















notice the pig's name is oliver!






oliver meet oliver














i know this isn't a very good picture, but it's the only one we have of all of us




oliver was not amused!






i was really wanting a picture of him in the pumpkin patch, he hated every minute!