Pierce Play Date aka- Jam Session

Riley got to play the drums and the guitar recently at Gibson's pad- he was so psyched and when we got home that night he was actually crying with the sad little whine of "I want Uncle Chrissssss". Anyway, here's my "stolen" pics from Auntie Liz of Riley's Jam Fest!





Riley and Gibson "post- jam" watching "do do do do do do do do doooo", aka- The Muppets!

CHEERS!

News in Photo...

Not much time for a long-winded post about the ongoings of Team Awesome...(yes, I do know that I am a long-winded typer)but all seems to well in our world for the time being after a couple of weeks of nuttiness post Jim's knee surgery (poor boys had that nasty 24 hour barf-o-rama). Clumpster doing good..although he or she is loving giving me the ol' heartburn these days and is a big fan partying till dawn after sleeping all day.

Some recent pics (the most recent not uploaded yet from the camera)...

A warm day post-Xmas at the Jenk's Aquarium with Abram, Jonah, and Auntie Erika:





The boy asked for some pigtails- who I am to argue?

Palaitis Boys (and their p's, of course) Play Date!




"Baby" John's Post-Baptism Party

Did he plan the matching brows and shirt?

During Riley's bout with bronchitis, he had to endure up to 6 "rock-concert" inhaler treatments/day and the "KISS Concert" vibe wore off him pretty quickly and he grew to be quite the pain in the tuckus when the "treatment" machine came out. Anyway, the following picture shows just how far we (including Poppy!) would go to amuse Riley through the inhaler treatments. I love it.

More pics and a lengthy update soon..it's been a busy week with getting back into the swing of the post-holiday back to work and Jim had surgery on his knee this past week! He was supposed to get it done in Feb. and an opening to get it done came about, so he's been on the the mend since Thursday with Nurse Poppy Nightingale by his side on surgery day and me and Riley for the last 2 days.

Baby Ben

The day after Christmas (And pre-post-holiday ill-fest!), Riley and I visited my friend (my ONLY friend in grad. school) Kristi and her new baby Ben. Too cute- and of course, I forgot how small they are, when they're so "new". It was great to see Kristi and meet Baby Ben- it was an interesting visit since Kristi got to see a glimpse of her future, for example, Riley throwing turkey across the room, and I got to remind myself of how much babies sleep and snuggle...ahhh, I'm looking forward to that again, as is Jim. Ben is 7 weeks old in the pics below and as you can see, Riley warmed right up to him.

Unsure...

Hmmm, this is kinda okay...maybe I'll take a peak at him!

I LOVE BABY BEN!


Next up on our baby meetin' list?? We are dying to meet Baby Dorian and of course, visit with his lovely p's, as it's been way too long!

Happy New Year!

Well, we hope you all have a great 2009! It'll be a big year for us since "the clumpster" will be arriving in the next 3 months- eek! A few pics of the holiday festivities below...which Riley LOVED, of course- I mean, c'mon, who DOESN'T Love getting presents! I just wish the post-holiday time was not "what it was" as Riley ended up with some crazy high fever virus for 2 days this past weekend and then had a 24 hour reprieve before his nagging cough (he and I have had it for a couple of weeks) turned into full-blown bronchitis in a matter of a few hours! So, he was sick as a dog (still is, but he's running a regimine of 5 different medicines as of yesterday so he's getting better, thankfully) for the last few days of 2008- looking on the bright side, it sure beats last year with our trip to the ER in the middle of the night on January 1st! Anyway, back to the well wishin'- Hope ya'll have an awesome New Year, filled with good health, good fortune, and all that warm and fuzzy stuff I'm so well known for bestowing, eh??

Happy Holidays

Jim just whisked Riley off to work for the day- Merrill always asks employees to bring in their kidlings on Xmas Eve for a day of breakfast, Santa, and other holiday-esque activities. I woke up with Riley this morning (Jim had a late night at the Court- yeah!) and he was an absolute angel for a good 1:15 hrs, until Jim got up and Riley apparently found his "evil" switch and turned it on to hyperspeed- hopefully, the car ride to Hopewell will return the sweet little guy we all know and love. My Riley-free activities will be baking 2 pies, 1 streusel cake, baked sweet taters, a batch of nut cup cookies, cleaning the bathrooms, laundry, and wrapping up some pressies. Ugh. Anyway, hope the holidays are awesome for all of you- can't wait to see MOST of you who read this thing during my break from teachin'! Wooo!

A few pics of Riley trimming the tree..he's been really amazing at NOT touching the tree, which has surprised both Jim and I.






A funny video of a frequent "post-bath" but "pre-jammie" game- we usually instigate the "hi-ya" game to redirect Riley from some irritating behavior just as trying to pinch us/kicking, etc...sometimes, he can be a real pain in the tuckus after his bath at night, but this little game seems to turn on the "sweet, giggly" Riley and all is right in his little world once again.


P.s.- Our "Frosty" watching count has got to be nearing 50 times in the last 2 weeks. I think I might have switched Riley over to at least incorporating "The Grinch" into his Frosty repertoire, but only time will tell...that, or Wall-E, which Riley got from "Santa" in Nutley last weekend.

Angry....

I've been wondering where my Christmas cards were...ya know the ones I ordered on November 30th??? Well, lo and behold, stupid head up their butts VistaPrint (a printing site I held in such high regard until this morning) had an issue with processing my order but never contacted me, so our order just was sitting in limbo (I kept checking online but the status of "processing" led me to believe that they were just busy with the holiday season, as every one is, of course)...not to be printed and sent before (or ever?)the holidays. Anyway, so ya'll will be receiving Happy New Year cards from the Cook Crew this year...

Here's the "shot" you would have received, had VistaPrint not provided me with such shitty customer service:


This pic was cute too, but the clarity was not great for a Xmas card..


Anyway, tomorrow is my last day of teachin' until the 5th! Woooo hoooo! Hopefully, I will update more frequently in my "downtime"!