Santa Love!!

We took Alex to see Santa on Saturday at one of our favorite shops in the neighborhood, April Glass. He was fine with Santa as long as he was standing beside him....waved, made animal noises, and even went "Ho!" (Alex only says one or two "Ho!!"s....we can't get him to do three.) However he was less than pleased when we placed him on Santa's lap. He didn't cry. He just dropped his brows (oooooh he is my child with that look!!!) and looked rather annoyed with Sean and me for not immediately taking him. All was well once we were done with pictures and he was off jolly old St. Nick's lap. He even blew him kisses when we were leaving.

Season's Greetings

Time flies by. It seems like just yesterday I was walking down the street with my little Spiderman on Halloween. And just last weekend we were picking out our Christmas tree. Under two weeks to go until Santa arrives and I still have a lot of shopping to do!!!

Our niece Marla came to visit us in NYC with her two kids Shana and Mason. It was the coldest weather we've had yet this year, but we still did our best to show them around Manhattan. Shana stayed a few extra days so she and I got to see the Rockettes at the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Her uncle Sean took her and Alex to the Statue of Liberty.

Then it was a whirlwind trip home to WV for the Thanksgiving weekend. We were busy traveling from Burnsville, to Webster Springs, to Sutton. Alex and his cousin Elizabeth are sure cute together...Aunt Jennie had bought them matching M & Ms shirts. (You can't have just one M was her excuse to buy a shirt for Alex too.)

We are all sad to see Patrick White's career with WVU coming to a close. We watched his final game at Mountaineer Field and wished we were there in the snow and cold to see it in person. We still haven't decided whether or not we'll be making the trip to Charlotte for the bowl game.

Alex helped Sean pick out our Christmas tree. We just got a small one that we could put up on an end table.....mostly out of Alex's reach. It's decorated with all our NON-breakable ornaments. Alex seems to be enjoying the lights. Santa is going to be at one of our favorite neighborhood stores "April Glass" this weekend. We're taking Alex and hoping to get a good picture.

Happy Halloween!!

The Wine family has been enjoying the autumn weather and all the festivities that go along with fall. Alex was a super cute Spiderman for Halloween. Cousin Elizabeth played along with the super hero theme and was Wonder Woman. They sure made a cute couple!! We thought it was appropriate that Alex be Spiderman since our street in NYC is the street where the opening scene to the first Spiderman movie was filmed....where Peter Parker is chasing the school bus up the street....that's our street. We celebrated in Burnsville with our families last weekend. Then on Halloween itself, Spiderman came to see me at PS/MS 194. We walked around the neighborhood too see the other kids, but didn't go trick-or-treating. Since Alex is too little to eat candy I would have felt like I was begging other grown-ups for a handout of free candy. We're not that poor yet!!!

Last weekend we had an excellent time in WV!! We loved visiting with all our family. We spent all day with the Wines making apple butter the old fashioned way. Everyone took turns stirring the big pot over an open fire....even Alex and Elizabeth. It was quite a scene watching the hustle and bustle as the apple butter came off the fire and everyone pitched in to pour and can it. What a great experience it was. We also had a lot of fun helping our great-nephew Mason celebrate his birthday. Family fun!!!!!!!!!!

The Mountaineers seem to be playing much better. That makes us a much happier house on the weekends!!

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE THIS WEEK!!!!!!

Hanging Around the House

We haven't been doing much. Just hangin' around the house being amused by Alex. I know that all kids play with regular house-hold objects and that all parents think the things their kid does is something special. But I swear, we just sit around and laugh at him all the time. He has spend hours playing in his Pampers box. And we love it when he puts on his "helmet" (a clear tupperwear bowl) to play who we call "Space Captain Stinky!" Sean and I are easily entertained by everything Alex does. He has really started to take an interest in his books lately. He will bring them to us to read to him or simply sit and look through them by himself. He loves selecting his bedtime story books for me to read.

We took him to the doctor for his checkup. He is now 33 inches tall and weighs 28 pounds 4 ounces putting him at the 88th percentile for his age. He is a big boy.

Today was a wonderful fall day perfect weather. After we watched the Mountaineers hold on to beat Rutgers we went to the park. Alex played on the swing and the slide...his favorites. The Red Sox are 2-0 in post season play. We are watching election news closely and pulling hard for Obama. So far it's a good fall. We miss all of our family back home in WV and can't wait until we get to see them at the end of the month!!!

Smile!!!!

Now when Alex smiles he will have a mouth full of new teeth. He has doubled the number of teeth in his little mouth this month. He used to have 8, now it's 16!!! He cut all of his top teeth ( 2 molars and 2 canine teeth) within 2 days of each other. Then it took about 2 1/2 weeks for the bottom ones to come through...the last canine tooth arrived yesterday. We have been lucky that he really hasn't been fussy at all. He loves eating chicken nuggets and has fun when I brush his teeth.

Last of Summer Fun

We are back in the Big Apple and enjoying the Labor Day weekend!!! Football season is finally upon us.....GO MOUNTAINEERS!!!!! We celebrated the very last day of summer break with a trip to Coney Island. Alex loved the small waves, and once he adjusted to the sand he liked it too. We are lucky we got to see Astroland....this was its last summer although the Cyclone and Wonder Wheel are supposed to still be operating next year. It was a terrific way to say farwell to summer!!!!

My college friend Jamie came to visit on a business trip to NYC in early August. Then, we spent the last two weeks of summer enjoying our families in West Virginia. We enjoyed visiting with Jenn, Reid, and Elizabeth in their new home in Wheeling. We brought fresh seafood from NYC and had a huge seafood boil...yummy!!!!! Sandra took me to Virginia Beach for a belated birthday celebration for both of us. However, neither one of us managed to take a camera so there is no photographic evidence to prove we were actually there. Sean was nice enough to indulge my obsession with the Olympics. I loved watching the gymnastics, Michael Phelps, and the sprinters (esp Bolt). We finally took Alex and Elizabeth to the Sutton Lake for a swim....had to get them in the water before summer was over.

Now it's back to a regular schedule and school this week. We will miss the summer fun almost as much as we miss our families back in WV. We'll be home for another visit before you know it!!

Babies for Obama!!

We just finished watching the Democratic Convention and we are psyched for the big election day!!! How exciting it is to watch history in the making....yes, my dad must have rubbed off on me. Alex even enjoyed watching...he likes to clap along with the crowd, even on TV. We'll watch the Republicans next week too, but we certainly won't be voting for them. Obama all the way!!!!!

Summer Fun

Since school has been out the Wines have been busy enjoying the summer. We were "summering in West Virginia" for most of the month of July. Alex had a blast playing in his new froggie pool. Alex and I went to Ohio for a few days to visit my best friend Sandra and her family. Then I spent a wonderful few days in the mountains of North Carolina catching up with my student council friends. We headed back to the Big Apple the last week of July to visit with our friends Jeannie and Buddy who were vacationing in NYC. We gave them the walking tour of lower Manhattan and went to the Central Park Zoo. Alex was a great tourguide!!! Then Jeannie and I headed to Washington, DC to attend the big fitness convention we go to every year. Suddenly I looked at the calendar and there are only about three weeks left in the summer.....oh no!!!!!!!! We have to hurry up and have more fun before I have to head back to work!!!!

Happy Birthday Alex!!

Yes, our "little" Alex has celebrated his first birthday. Thanks to Aunt Carol and Aunt Jennie who came to take wonderful pictures....I had about 500 to look through thanks to their great photography work. The Wines and the Mortons were out in full force bringing about 30 people to Mom and Dad's for his party.

Everything was going great until he grabbed his candle before I could blow it out. Granddad Wine came to the rescue with a cup of cold water. Then he had his first lesson in color mixing....yellow and blue make green....all over his face. I know that you all will be SHOCKED (not) that we had a WVU theme....to go along with his monthly pictures of course. Grandma Sue is visiting us in NY and school is almost out!!! YEAH!!!!!!!

Let's Go Mets!!!!!

What a glorious Thursday afternoon we had this week. I went on a field trip with my school to Shea Stadium for "Weather Education Day" to see the Mets play the Nationals. OK, the "weather education" part of the day was really a bogus excuse to get kids (and teachers) out of class to go enjoy baseball. We did get to see Daryl Strawberry, who was there with the local weather team.

The best part of the day was that Sean brought Alex to the game too!!!! His first MLB game in the final year of Shea Stadium. My students were so excited to see Alex. And Alex was, of course, a complete joy for the whole day. The only down side was that the Mets managed to lose the game, boooo!!! Oh, well! I still had a great day!!

Spring Break!!

Oh I've been so slow to post new info!!! We were away in WV for spring break....just where everyone always wanted to spend spring break...central WV!!! The week started off great!!!! We took Alex to the WVU Gold-Blue scrimmage game on Saturday, April 19...his first game at Mountaineer Field. We went to watch Zach Flynt play!! Zach was in our wedding and certainly made us proud with his play. After the game we had dinner with the team in the practice facility. Alex was so funny...he was afriad of the field turf and didn't want to touch it at all. We tried really hard to get him to take some steps on his own since he had no desire to touch the turf and crawl, but he was content to just sit or stand in place.

He did decide to go ahead and take those first steps a few days later in the week. Yeah!!! First steps. My how quickly he is on his way to being a real "big boy." He had so much fun in the warm WV spring weather swinging in the swing his Granddad Wine hung in a tree for him and "driving" the tractor. Cousin Elizabeth was visiting for the week (Jennie's 2 year old) and she had fun playing with the chickens and wading in the creek......until..........it hit.................

THE SICKNESS!!!!!! Elizabeth got sick with some kind of stomach virus (Jenn calls it the "Gem Chicken Flu" and we call it "Typhoid Elizabeth.") Before the end of the week it had hit both my mom and dad, Alex (yes my baby was sick at his stomach for the first time.), Sean, me, Sean's Dad, two sisters, nephew and mom....in that order. Elizabeth was sick on Wednesday and everyone else followed on Friday, Saturday, Sunday.....on into the next week. Not quite how I envisioned ending my spring break.

So we're back in NY awaiting Alex's big first birthday.....party at the Cunningham house on Sunday....WVU theme of course to match his blanket pictures. We love days when the weather is nice enough for all of us to go to the park after school. School we'll be going on for over another month up here. We go clear til the end of June...yuk!!! But summer is right around the corner.

Alex is 10 Months!!!

Our GROWING boy is 10 months old!!!!! How big he is getting and how much fun it is to watch him explore his world!!

This past month has been full of firsts. He went to church with Grandma and Granddad Wine on Easter Sunday. He even got to participate in the Right Hand Fork Easter Egg hunt. He didn't win a prize for the most eggs, but he was the cutest baby (OK, the only baby, but still cute.)

We were so excited the WVU Mountaineers beat Duke (take that ACC) in the "big dance" to advance to the Sweet 16. Too bad they couldn't keep the winning streak going past Xavier. It was better than most people expected us to play this year. The women's team bowed out early too, but they still had a great year.

We (by we I mean me, Sean had nothing to do with this) decided to let Alex attempt to "feed" himself. I think he got the correct end of the spoon to his mouth all of 3 times, and I don't know that there was any food on it. But he certainly had fun playing with his food while I fed him with another spoon.

Yesterday we finally had a nice spring day here in NYC. It was warm and sunny. So Alex (not wanting to be "out funned" by his cousin Elizabeth) asked us to take him to the park. He was so interested to see what the other kids were doing. He climbed on the little kids play set all by himself (with mommy a step behind) and daddy would help him slide down the little slide. He really enjoyed the swing most of all. He just giggled and laughed!!! We are hoping for more warm days to play at the park.

March Madness!!!

We decided to kick the March Madness "holiday" off in style by taking Alex to his first college basketball game. What a treat it was. He got to see the WVU Mountaineers beat St. John's in overtime. And since we live in NYC how lucky little Alex was to see his first college basektball game in Madison Square Garden. He was decked out in blue and gold from head to toe....WV ball cap, WV onsie, blue and gold Nike pants, WV socks......and there's more.....WV pacifier, WV spoon for his lunch, WV sippie cup, a tiny Mountianeer, and a WV basketball....AND a WV backpack for Mom to carry it all in. You KNOW you're baby is cute when even the opposing team's fans tell you how cute he is. He was so good at the game. He watched the people around us and loved the lights in MSG. He loved the St. John's band and "danced" to anything they played. (If you consider jumping up and down dancing.) He even napped from about 10 minutes to go in the second half...but woke up just in time for overtime.

We won't press our luck with his good ballgame behavior. The Mountaineers are on their own this week when they return to the Garden for the Big East Tournament. We'll be content to watch from our living room in Sunnyside.