Byb Bye Ippy

My sister, Kipling, has lived with us for the past three months and this week she leaves to return to New York City where she is a senior at Columbia University. Our time with her has gone by too fast and we will all be saddened to see her go.

For me, it was a pleasure just to spend time with my sister. When i left for college, she was only 8yrs old and I only knew her as my little sister. After 3-months, she is now more friend than sibling. Who knew that we had the same taste in "great music", loved trashy history channel specials about aliens and ancient Egyptians and shared a passion for mocking people?

For Crystal, Kipling was always there in whatever way was most needed. From providing a break from Joseph's no-so-controlled chaos to simply being a friendly face on a rainy day, she always seemed to know just where to help.

As for Joseph, Kipling is his "Ippy"...the person that takes him on walks every night, the person that allows him to jump on her bed even at the most ungodly of hours, the person that gives him snacks (i.e. - teddy grahams) for breakfast and the person who introduced him to milk shakes. In other words - the coolest, most awesome person in the world. While we will all miss Kipling, I have no doubt Joseph will miss his special friend the most.

Kipling, you have become a part of our family in every sense of the world. Our home is now your home. You will always have a warm bed, big smiles and one crazy little guy waiting for you. We hope you return very soon.

Middle of Nowhere

Ok, Ok....I should have posted this a looooooong time ago. We have been home from our trip to the Great North for like 3 weeks now, but we are busy people!!! We have facebooking and reality TV show watching to do at night (I mean Project Runway, Top Chef and the Rachel Zoe Project have all started in the last week - WE ARE BUSY!!!).

So yes, three weeks ago we were in the middle of nowhere at my parents' mountain house. And by middle of nowhere, I really mean middle of nowhere. My cell phone didn't work for a week and there is no high speed internet service providers available. It was pretty much like living in the middle ages (or 1995).

Despite the state of Vermont's inability to welcome in the new millennium, we still had a pretty good time. We had a big family picnic over the weekend. Joseph got to spend lots of time with family he rarely sees. The best part was playing with his second cousin (my cousin's little girl), Renee, who is just a few weeks younger than him.

They had a particularly fun time putting random stuff down the hole for the corn-hole game and trying to pull them out.

They also both got to meet Great Aunt Janice for the first time. She came all the way from Arizona to meet them!

And my cousin Carrie and her husband Justin drove from Connecticut to visit. They look ready for babies of their own, don't you think????

Joseph tried out everyone's cell phone at the party (of course, none of them worked in the middle of nowhere). Great Grandma Conrad's was a particular favorite.

It was a great picnic and we were lucky to not have snow over the weekend. There are like 2 weeks a year when it doesn't snow in Vermont and we just picked the right one (I am only slightly exaggerating).

We spent the rest of the week doing very outdoorsy, Vermonty things (ok when I say "we" I mean Joseph, Grandma & Grandpa did outdoorsy things. I took naps and watched TV). Joseph loved his morning hikes with Grandpa through the woods. They looked for wild animals and picked berries and flowers and did very "big boy" things together.

Grandpa always takes his hiking stick with him on their walks and Joseph wanted his very own. Grandpa found the perfect sized stick to make into a hiking stick for Joseph. He knew exactly how to use it.

We also had dinner at Grandma & Grandpa's neighbors house. He has a very energetic lab named Happy. Joseph was pretty fond of Happy, particularly when Happy was willing to eat the dinner Joseph didn't want to eat. It was a good night for Happy.

And it was a good trip for us as well. We relaxed and spent time with people we love. Joseph loved all the special attention he got from Grandma & Grandpa (and all of his other family). We were very happy to get home though too. After 2 weeks of being away from Daddy, Joseph wouldn't let Richard out of his sight the whole weekend. We would literally scream every time Rich was not visible. Next time Daddy will have to make the trip with us.

New York! New York!

We are back from our 2-week extravaganza up north. It was an action packed 2 weeks...ok not really...but we did get a lot of cute pictures of Joseph being his usual friendly, happy, hyperactive self as he explored new places and got to know a lot of people he doesn't get to see very often.

Given the enormous amount of pictures we (mostly my mom) took, I am going to separate this into two posts. Part I below detailing Joseph's exciting adventures in NY. Part II with lots of pictures from my parents' mountain house in Vermont to follow.

While in NY, Joseph got to visit Grandpa at his office. He enjoyed climbing on his chair.



And the inevitable climb from the chair to the desk:


Joseph unwillingly posed for a picture with Mommy and Daddy before heading to Mommy's 10 year high school reunion (Which was ultra-exciting - note sarcasm - and involved a drunk classmate jumping into the Hudson River and being taken away by the police.) Please ignore my triple chin - it's a rare opportunity to get a picture of our whole family so vanity is being put aside.


Joseph LOVED climbing the stairs at great Aunt Kathy and Uncle Larry's house. He did pause in his climb to make some faces at Uncle Larry.

More fun with great Aunt Kathy & Uncle Larry:

Joseph also got to meet a new friend! One my best friend's from high school, Kristyn, had a little boy just a week after Joseph was born. Who would have suspected as we ran crazy around Rome, Italy together in April 1999 on a school trip that 10 years later our little boys would be running crazy around a playground together (or that we would even be close to responsible enough to be Mommy's to these precious little guys!) Kristyn, didn't you get a tattoo on that trip???

Joseph loved playing at great Grandma & Grandpa Conrad's house. They have a big backyard with a creek in the back - perfect for little boys to get in lots of trouble and really, really muddy!

They also have birds...Joseph enjoyed chasing Dirty Face around the living room. Dirty Face didn't enjoy it so much.

Joseph also visited with Honorary Aunt Jo (honorary because she's not actually blood rated - just my mom's BFF for the last 30 years). Joseph is super excited for Aunt Jo to become a grandma in October when her daughter was a baby boy! Yay - another fun buddy for playing with with on future visits!

Perhaps, Joseph's two most favorite things in NY were some new toys he discovered.

First, the Little Tikes car. Apparently, my parent's neighbors didn't realize they could have gotten some decent money for this thing on Craigs List and instead left it abandoned when they moved out. Score for Joseph!!!! He had lots of fun climbing in and out, standing on the seat and driving with the steering wheel. Amazing, this thing kept him entertained for 15 minute stretches - a major length of time for Joseph to focus on just one thing.

Second, a riding horse! Great Grandma & Grandpa Conrad bought this sweet little pony for Joseph and he was pretty into it. On this particular ride, Joseph got pretty aggressive with his poor little pony's head: