JC Penny Portrait studio

Let me preface this story with this: I love Chris' mom dearly.
With that being said, she purchased the gayest (Not that there's anything wrong with that) light blue sailor suits ever made for little boys and brought them to New Jersey during this latest visit. We hid them from Chris until the day of the photo shoot. As I'm dressing Matthew, I have him standing on the toilet lid while I was combing and spraying his hair and I was not watching what he was playing with. When I turned him around to fix his bangs he had grabbed my eyeliner from the vanity and smeared it all down his face.
Determined that I was not going to have any sort of fits this date, I calmly said, "Matthew,sweetie, sit still while Mommy removes this eye liner".
At that precise moment, Chris opens the bathroom door to see his eldest dressed in this extremely feminine outfit with makeup all over his face and hair spray in his hair. The look of distress that overcame him was absolutely priceless. Like in those old Saturday Night Live commercials for the fake drug "homocil" that you take to combat the ill feeling in your stomach when you realize your son is gay (again, I reiterate... Not that there's anything wrong with that.




Anyway, Matthew and William took very cute pictures in their matching sailor suits and were both very good and sweet and surprisingly cooperative during the process. I'm quite proud.




Matthew seemed to like the outfit all except for the shoes. We had to get those old style white leather soled non bendable shoes that make you march instead of walk because they decrease the natural rocking motion of the foot. It's a wonder any of us learned to walk in those things.

Kentucky Derby

So last night was the Kentucky Derby. I love horse racing, I used to love going to the Fairgrounds in New Orleans for my birthday and play all day.

Anyway, my mother in law is up visiting and we decided we'd like to bet, so I went online to figure out how to do off track betting. This sounds easy. I finally got a hold of a company and was very hesitant to give my credit card info and sign up. I kept calling them asking questions about how hacker safe are they and do they charge me for any transactions and do they take a percentage of my winnings. They were laughing at me and assured me that everything was free and safe. I wondered how they made any money if everything was free and the man chuckled and said "We make money when you lose".

So the next step was to get a prepaid VISA so I could deposit betting money into my book (like bookie, bookmaker etc...). I go through all this bull, time consuming, and I finally have it all ready to go, I call to place the bets, we are only minutes away from the starting bell of the race and the phone rings. It's the fraud prevention unit from our credit card company. Chris answered the phone and apparently I opened an account in Israel and they were trying to charge our card $54.00 over and over again.

Chris explained to the man that his insane wife and mother were drunk on Mint Julips and were trying to bet on the stinking Kentucky Derby. Chris and agent shared a hearty laugh and he removed all charges from my card.

Incidentally, I would have won. I was going to bet "Eight Bells" to win, place and show. Eight Bells came in second (Place), but sadly was euthanized immediately after the race on the race track because she broke both ankles as soon as she crossed the finish line. It was a very somber end to an otherwise fun and happy day.

So, the moral of the story is ... Next year, I'm just going to go to the Kentucky Derby myself.

So spring has sprung. Matthew has decided that outside is great. He got his first skinned knee. He was really cute too. He fell down, cried for just a minute, asked me to kiss his knee, and continued playing.
Such a trooper.
William is starting to sit up and it is a whole new world. Matthew is not very pleased with this new accomplishment and pushes Will down frequently. Will also is grabbing for more toys, another annoyance for Matthew. He is adjusting to his developing brother.
We planted flowers, I planted 2 trees in large terracotta planters and 3 bulbs in another planter. To keep Matthew occupied during this process, he got his very own "build your own sunflower" kit. It comes with dirt, sunflower seeds, and a trowel (a small kids sized one). Side note, I did not realize sunflowers grow from the sunflower seeds you eat. It was interesting to me.
Anyway, as I was planting my bulbs, Matthew was trowling his dirt and shoving his seeds into the dirt. I looked up a few minutes later and saw to my surprise Mathew eating dirt. The kid sized trowel does look very similar to a fork, but to eat dirt. I give the kid steak, he throws it on the floor, but give him a trowl and some dirt, and he's in business.
Oh well...

Guess William or Matthew

Can anyone guess who's who?







In the top picture, William is on the bottom, Matthew is on top and has the duck.



In the Christening gown picture, Matthew is on the white background, William is on the red.
In the last, Matthew is eating carrots and William has the spoon.

We had William's Christening in late February. It was very nice. He wore the same gown Matthew wore. It is beautiful. The little bonnet barely fit his big head though. We shoved it on for a few pictures then took it off for fear of squeezing his brains out in the middle of mass.
Everything was great except Will's Godmother was not able to make it due to school and work. We totally understand, but she was missed :) We love you Elizabeth!

Here's some pictures:

sledding

In late February, we had a pretty decent snow and decided Matthew should sled. At first he was totally apprehensive, but as time went on and he got used to Chris pulling him around in the sled, he braved down a small hill. He loved it!
William felt so left out, we thought he should give it a try too. The outcome was priceless. Here are some pictures. Just look at Will's face. So funny, but Matthew was really protective and held on tight.





So then Chris had to use the snow blower to clear the driveway and Matthew had to participate. I was terrified of limb loss, but all went well. Chris was just happy Matthew was interested in something more manly than the vacuum cleaner.

March is birthday month, AKA March Madness. Chris and Matthew have back to back birthdays so we do a whole lot of celebrating. Since we had just done Will's Christening, we decided not to do a big party. Chris' mom came in town and I made a cake. Yes, I really made it and I iced it too, which is why it looks they way it does, but it was made with love and that is all that really counts.









William loves balloons. He is absolutely fascinated by them. He looks like a drunk lunatic with his party hat sliding off his head, like he spent the night partying with the balloon in the French Quarter.




Matthew loves singing "Happy Birthday" but it comes out "Ha bur da to yew" He sings it frequently.

We had a great time.