Silly faces

For some reason Sean really wanted his picture taken this evening and was practicing his camera smile. It seems that I need to practice taking pictures that are in focus!!!

Trip to Orlando

Jeff and Paul went on a business trip to Orlando last week, so I decided that I should bring myself and Sean along for some fun. Kind of a mini-vacation: Florida + January = fun in the sun, right?

Well, things did not turn out exactly as we had hoped. Last Saturday night I came down with a nasty stomach bug that Sean had had the week before. I figured it would be gone by Tuesday when we left since Sean's was over in a couple of days, but it wasn't. (I am feeling much better now, but still eating mostly the BRAT diet just to play it safe.) Then Jeff got it but luckily not quite as bad. So it turned out to be a long, cold, sickly week. I would say we got our money's worth on the hotel - we spent a lot of time resting there. We had to anyway with Sean's naps and all, but we were also a little lazier than we usually are.

Anyway we did manage to have a bit of fun and remember to take a few pictures. On the day when Jeff and Paul had their meetings, Sean and I went downtown to walk around Lake Eola and play at the playground there.

We had dinner and then walked around at Universal's Citywalk one night.

We drove to Cocoa Beach one afternoon to walk around. We stopped at Ron Jon's where Jeff got some new Reefs and Sean enjoyed throwing mulch into the indoor fountain. (Sorry, forgot to take a picture of that - I remember being on my last bit of energy for the day at that point, thinking "Go ahead, do whatever you want with that mulch, I don't care!") Anyway during the car ride to the beach, Sean said "Sa? Sa?" the whole time, asking to see the sand. Then we got there and he didn't really like it because it was windy and blowing into his eyes. He wanted us to carry him and was ready to leave not long after we arrived. Then on the car ride back to Orlando, as well as the next day, he kept asking to see the sand again....

"Didn't you say this was going to be fun?"

There's a smile!

Christmas 2008

Here are some highlights from our trip to Webster for Christmas.

Sean loved zooming some old cars along the windowsill in Grandma and Grandpa Spoonhower's dining room.

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Sean received a pair of cymbals for Christmas (thanks for the idea, Ev and Erica!) and played them quite a bit.

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We went to the Museum of Play in Rochester. Here Sean and Dad are looking at a video of race cars. The noises were kind of scary for Sean but he loved sitting in the big car.

There is also a mini-Wegmans (grocery store) there. Sean made two trips around the store.

Service with a smile!

Here Sean works on some car parts in the Sesame Street area.

More wheels to turn!

They had a train to ride on, too. I think Sean enjoyed it more than this picture shows.

We rode the carousel on the way out - that was a big hit!

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We also a made a trip with Uncle Paul ("Appa!") to the House of Guitars. Sean enjoyed examining the knobs on a bunch of amps.

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There were a lot of gifts to open on Christmas day!

Here is Sean with Great Grandpa Natale.

After the family photo in front of the tree, Sean did some solo takes. He enjoyed running back and forth between the camera (which was on the timer) and the tree.

He did some silly poses too.

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On the way back home, we stopped to see Uncle Chris, Aunt Kim, Josh, and Claire. Somehow I got Sean and Josh to pose on the ottoman for a cheesy hugging photo. I'm not sure Josh enjoyed it but he played along nicely. Thank you, Josh!

Not quite as cheesy, but still darn cute!

The boys also enjoyed playing with some pots and pans.

Lightbulbs!

We finally made it back to Pyramid Hill to see the Christmas lights. It was spectacular, and of course looks totally lame in photos.

We let Sean hang out the car window for a minute as we passed a really close bunch of lights.

Oops, forgot to wait until the car stopped to take this one....

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Here's a random photo of our stockings and Christmas cards thus far. Yes, we have a faux wall in our family room. Groovy, huh? :)

In other exciting news, Dad got his first #2 catch last week! Sean pooped on the toilet! For a couple of evenings, he would sign for toilet about 3/4 of the way through dinner. We were thinking this was becoming a habit for not eating dinner (it's just so hard to sit still and eat!), but then the next night he didn't ask to go to the toilet. Anyway that was pretty exciting - it's SO nice to be able to communicate with Sean! That has been a frustrating point for us since the beginning. I can't count the number of times we looked at each other and said, "If only he could tell us why he is crying!" Now he still cries but at least it's easier to figure out why. :) Now we ask lots of yes and no questions until we can narrow it down to the "Yes!"

Also, Mom is proud to announce that Sean knows the numbers 1, 2, and 8. I think that's because he loves playing with the Rummikub tiles, so we talk about numbers a lot. He also knows the color green and is getting better at only calling green things green (at the beginning every color was green).

We are now in Webster, NY for Christmas with the Spoonhowers. I will post some pictures soon.

An Early Christmas Gift

Uncle Paul was generous enough to send Sean an awesome red Schwinn bike for Christmas! The box was under our tree for a week, and we opened it up today since we had a bit of free time. Sean was very excited.



Video:



And here is it all put together!



Thanks Uncle Paul! We will see you and the rest of the Spoons next week.