NY, NY

Over a month later, I've finally found the time to post a few pictures of our trip to New York. Mom, Kim, and I spent 4 days in New York together to celebrate Mom's retirement. She taught in the same school system her entire life. I can't imagine the thousands of students who came through the Amherst County School system who had some exposure to my Mom. It would be so rare these days for someone to have the same job for a lifetime. I think I'm in my 4th already. I think retirement was bittersweet for my Mom. I can understand that. But I'll have to say that I'm very happy with the thought of not having to schedule visits, trips, and other things around a school calendar. And I think Mom is already enjoying the flexibility that retired life affords. The trip to New York was a nice beginning to what will hopefully be many more trips together.

Welcome to Time's Square!

Kim had never been to New York. In fact, I'm not sure Kim had ever been to a city. She was a little starstruck and I'm sure she was probably nervous about my ability to guide us around the city. I did fine, though. We got "lost" one time, but it was only when I had remember the wrong street address for our hotel. I did get us back to the exact address I had remembered - I had just remembered the wrong address. Other than that, though, no navigational problems.
Even though it was raining when we arrived at our hotel, we decided to brave the elements and went ahead and hopped on a tour bus. I had actually never done this. I've been all over New York, but always via the subway. After the tour I realized that while I knew bits of New York I never really had a good sense of how they all connected (since I normally traveled underground!). I really enjoyed getting the "big picture" of the city.

Flatiron District

Harlem

Our favorite restaurant of the trip:

Mom and Kim on the rooftop restaurant.

Dinner before a show.

We saw American Idiot first. Awesome if you like Green Day. Not your typical Broadway show, but I wasn't bored for a minute. Very high energy. Not particularly uplifting, but probably a very honest commentary on good chunk of today's twentysomethings.

We saw Memphis next. Great, traditional Broadway show. Good message. The main character was a little overacted, but otherwise phenomenal cast.

Kim wanted to see Good Morning America. Here's Kim getting a picture of the weather guy,I managed to snap Robin Roberts as she walked to her location on camera.
When we returned to our hotel one afternoon we saw squad cars and a crowd. Turns out Law and Order was filming a scene right across the street. (Not sure what that says about the location of our hotel!)

Overall a great trip! Good sightseeing, decent food, good shopping, great shows, and great company!

And Luke's 2 Year Stats...

Perfectly normal. The only notable item would be that his height is now in the 97th percentile. Wow - he's going to be a big one! A big, snuggly, teddy bear of a guy. His head measurement is back on the charts - 92nd percentile. He's growing into his noggin. Weight is around 50th percentile.

Luke Turns Two!

Weeks later, I finally have a chance to post pictures from Luke's July 23rd birthday party! Luke is my sweetheart. He's a big teddy bear of a guy. Loving, snuggly, generous, needy. He's a Mama's boy through and through. Part of me relishes this. Part of me would like for him not to break my heart with his sweet, sad cry every time I walk out of the room or insist that Steve put him in bed. One day I will miss the fact that he wants nothing more than for me to hold him while I cook dinner. Luke is two now, but still very much a baby, complete with "Elle and Nuk" which much accompany him just about everywhere. This was confirmed when the daycare called and "suggested" that he might want to hang back in the blue room for another year as the rest of the class progresses to the orange room next week. Ultimately, I had to agree and really think this is the best decision. He was the youngest by over four months last year. With the new group coming in he'll be the oldest, but only by two weeks. He never gets the chance to be the leader at home with Grayson and he won't have a chance to be a leader if he remains with his current class where he is very clearly the baby of the bunch. I think being the "big man" in charge next year will be good for little Luke. He's beginning to develop quite a bit of language. He now puts some words together occasionally. He'll repeat after me when I count to ten or repeat the alphabet. There are probably only about 5 people who understand him, so diction needs some work - but he's getting there. His new favorite past time is riding his Skuut. I'll have to say that Luke is even more adept at the Skuut than Grayson was at two so I think we're going to have our hands full here shortly. Luke also loves water. He's my water boy. And, maybe best of all - he sleeps! Luke is a breeze to put to bed at night and generally sleeps a solid 11 hours. What a blessing!

For Luke's party we just invited the family and one of Grayson's friends out to the local park. Luke gave us a scare when he fell off the picnic table onto the concrete floor and smacked the back of his head. Hard. Very hard. My doctor always says, "bumps good, dents bad." Luke definitely began to develop a bump (big one!) quickly so I was a little relieved. He wasn't himself for a while, though, staggering and not following very well with his eyes. I'm pretty sure we can classify that as Luke's first mild concussion. But he was a trooper and by the end of the party he seemed OK.

Luke super happy with his Thomas the Tank Engine cake.

On the monkey bars with Nana.

The boys in the family.

Friends in the sand pit.

Post head trauma. Nuk makes everything better.