Christmas 2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas 2011 was spent in Queensbury, NY with Mimi, Grandpa, Uncle Mark and Uncle Timmy. We spent the weekend playing (Mikey LOVES to play with Daddy's old toys), watching football and basketball, and spending quality time with family.

Mikey (33 months) on Christmas Eve

Being silly with Uncle Marky

Wrestling with Uncle Timmy


On Christmas Eve, Mikey had a special visitor come before he went to bed----SANTA! He came bearing LOTS of presents for Mikey including a new bike, a sled, chocolate and candy canes, Handy Manny talking tool box, personalized pajamas and Chuggington trains.

Mikey wouldn't go near Santa until he had his lovey to comfort him

I love my new bike!!

Warming up to Santa now

Handy Manny Talkin' Toolbox

Loving his tools and trains

Even Mommy got a present from Santa!

Hoodie-Footie pajamas---the warmest gift EVER!

On Christmas Day we went to church, ate breakfast and then opened gifts. Mikey got so excited with everything he unwrapped, he would immediately exclaim, "Open it, Mommy! Open it!". This response happened with every single gift. He really enjoyed each one.

This was definitely the "Cars Christmas" for Mikey. He got Mack (the big tractor trailer) and loads of Cars characters and a Cars pillow. He also got clothes (Nike track suit and Bruins hockey shirt), a scooter, Easy Reader books, play mat with a "town" and book from Great Grandma Ruth, books (2 special books were recorded by Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Scialabba and another from Mimi), a hockey/soccer ("hocker" as Mikey says) net complete with hockey sticks and soccer ball. I'm sure I am leaving many things out. Needless to say, Mikey was spoiled by Santa, his grandparents, his uncles and Meredith!

Santa brought A LOT of presents!!

Trying out the bike again--this time with shoes

"Town" play mat from Great Grandma Ruth

Mikey & Grandpa Fred

Grandpa, Mikey and Mimi

Daddy's present from Mark, Meredith and Timmy

Mimi and Grandpa spoiled Mommy and Daddy too by getting us floor seat tickets to the Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw concert this summer in New Jersey! We are SO EXCITED!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Prep

Mikey was a huge help to me this Christmas in preparing for the "big day". He helped us shop for gifts, pick out the most perfect Christmas tree, decorate the house and even bake cookies (complete with dough from scratch). Even though I had more sprinkles on the floor than on the cookies, I'd say that making the cookies were his favorite part.

He wanted to make "flower" cookies for Santa

Our tree:

Santa 2011

Today we visited Santa at the Burlington Mall.

Mikey looked at Santa from a distance and kept saying "Mikey's turn".

He appeared to be very excited.

Then it really was "Mikey's turn". Guess who threw himself to the ground and did everything he could to AVOID Santa?!?!?!?

This is why were are starting a new family portrait trend when visiting Santa (same thing happened last year).



Once Santa gave Mikey a candy cane and we took a few shots, Santa then was safe. Mikey high-fived him before we left.

Since we got caught up in the drama of meeting Santa, Mikey never got a chance to tell Santa what he wanted OR where he would be on Christmas Eve (Mimi & Grandpa's house).

Good thing we have "Joe" (our Elf on the Shelf) living with us until Christmas to relay all of this important information to Mr. Claus.





For those of you unfamiliar with the "Elf on the Shelf" phenomena, "Joe" is an employee of Santa who watches over Mikey all day. He reports back to Santa at night and returns in the morning to a different location. His only rule is that you are not allowed to touch him or he will lose his magical powers and therefore won't be able to communicate to Santa. Although he cannot speak to us, he listens and watches everything that we do. Mikey is enjoying finding Joe each morning. I don't think he quite grasps the whole concept yet but it is a great tradition to start!

For those of you wondering, Mikey is asking Santa for:

1) A Bruins hockey t-shirt (he gets SO excited for sports clothing!);
2) Chugginton trains;
3) Handy Manny tool set;
4) Cars 2 DVD.

Lucky for us, he requested small items. When we move to a house, I know his gifts are going to be MUCH BIGGER in size.

Merry Christmas, everyone! We hope Santa brings you everything on your list this year!

Expressive Language

Since this is Mikey's "baby book", I want to make sure that I document everything.---even those moments that may not be a huge deal but developmentally should be noted.

I brought Mikey in to work to have a PT check out his jumping since he is not yet getting 2 feet off the ground (and I know this is a 24 month old skill). Mikey met with my director on two different occasions. Over those two visits, Joanne noted that she had seen improvement in Mikey's skills and that I shouldn't be concerned. Even though he may not be jumping, all of his other movements appear to be "on track" and it is not impacting his daily functioning at home or in the community (playground, Eva's House, etc). Joanne did mention that I have someone look at M's language since he was VERY quiet during her sessions.

In Mikey's defense (related to his language) I believe that:

1) He is quite chatty with us at home--especially over the past few months. He mostly uses learned phrases for asking questions and longer sentences ("_______ are you?", "I want more ______ please!") and labels a variety of things. Mikey is not yet putting action words together or answering more abstract questions like "What did you do at Eva's House today?";

2) During Joanne's visits in the gross motor room, Mikey was totally consumed by all of the fun equipment (and he didn't have to share any of it!). When given the option to play with an adult stranger or play in a fun room, he picked playing in the fun room---therefore tuning everyone else out. He was jumping on the trampoline, going up the stairs, down the slide, crashing in the body pillows, etc. He could have cared less about who/what wanted to interact with him.....and frankly, I don't blame him;

3) In comparison to other kids his age, Mikey is definitely NOT the "talker" of the group. A lot of times we hang out with girls his age. They talk A LOT. I have noticed this for awhile but always looked at it as their strength. I categorized Mikey's strengths as his attention span and fine motor skills. Everyone has strengths and areas that they need to work on. This was how I viewed it. I knew he wasn't talking like others were but on the "Mikey scale", we were seeing improvement and therefore I wasn't overly concerned.

After our visit with Joanne, I was upset. After I was upset, I made a plan. The plan was to:

1) Get M's hearing checked. This is recommended for any child over two with a speech concern. It is purely just to rule everything out;

2) Call a speech-language pathologist and get her opinion on the situation;

3) Thanks to Eva, Mikey is allowed to attend "Eva's House Child Care" for three days a week for the month of December to work on social interaction and use of language with his peers (Eva does not think there is a problem with Mikey's language but was more than willing to help his frazzled Mommy).

This past Friday (12/16/11) Sofia (a colleague of mine) came for an informal speech-language assessment. We played lots of fun games and Mikey did lots of talking. Sofia's clinical opinion is that Mikey is on the lower side of average when it comes to his language. She feels he has all of the appropriate sounds but is just not using all of his words to communicate. He may feel pressured and want to say things perfectly and therefore is intimidated to say them until he feels completely confident. She gave us some strategies to work on and will be coming back in February for a follow-up visit. We always have the option at that point to refer Mikey to the public preschool program OR try outpatient speech services, if necessary.

For now we are taking it one day at a time and being more aware of what we say and how we communicate with Mikey. We know one day soon we will be asking ourselves, "Remember when Mikey hardly talked??".

Just another day at swim class.....

Do you recognize this man?


For those of you who don't, this is Doc Rivers--Head Coach of the Boston Celtics.

Mikey high-fived him on the way to his swim class! (The Celtics practice at our Boston Sports Club facility where we attend the gym and swim lessons.)

How cool is THAT?!?!?!?

Wonder who we will bump into next......

Radio City Christmas Spectacular

It appears we are starting a Christmas tradition with Mimi and Grandpa in which we do something "Christmas-y" in Boston around the holidays. Last year we saw the Boston Pops Holiday Show and this year we went to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular Show.

The show was great. It was completely identical to the show they do in New York City. We all had a great time watching the show and getting into the holiday spirit.

When the show was over, we ate lunch/dinner at the Rustic Kitchen, just down the street from the theatre. While we were waiting for our food to arrive, the "Pizza Man" (Alvaro) invited Mikey up to the counter to make his own pizza.

He showed him how to flatten the dough and make a circle.....

Then he added a little sauce and had him put on the cheese.....

He baked it in the oven and Mikey LOVED it!

Thanks for a great weekend, Mimi and Grandpa! We had so much fun!

Great Hill Dental Partners

As of today, December 1, 2011, Michael is a business owner and CEO of Great Hill Dental Partners, LLC! His previous employer sold the five dental offices to 14 doctors who then created the new company, Great Hill Dental. This transition has been in the works for TWO YEARS and has finally gone through. Michael has been working 7 days a week clinically and/or administratively to get the business off and running without a glitch. I couldn't be more proud of the time, effort and dedication that he has been channeling into this exciting opportunity. We know it is going to be successful and A LOT of that success has to do with him.

We also could not have come this far without the support of our family and friends who over the years have helped us get to this point. We are eternally grateful for your assistance and couldn't have done this alone.

Check out the website: www.greathilldental.com

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was spent in New Jersey this year with the Ecker family. We made the trip on Wednesday in the rain and made it in typical time. Mikey loved having a backseat companion on the trip---cousin Emily :)

Thursday started bright dark and early for us as Mikey was up and ready to start the day at 3:45 am. (Apparently he's not ready for the freedom of the "big boy" blow up mattress just yet!) We tried everything we could to get him to go back to sleep. Michael finally gave in and brought him downstairs at 4:45 and let me sleep :)

Thirty members of the Ecker family gathered at my parent's house for the holiday. This year we had four kids 3 and under. Mikey had a great time with them---especially when we played football and hide-and-seek outside. At 5:00 when we were getting ready to sit down for dinner, Mikey grabbed a roll and started chewing away......in his sleep! 13 hours later after waking up early and no nap, Mikey gave in.



I brought him upstairs, tucked him in bed and crossed my fingers that this would work out for the best. Two hours later Mikey woke up in time for dessert (who needs turkey when you are a self-proclaimed vegetarian?). Overall, it was great to spend time with my Grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins that we don't get to see often. We really have A LOT to be thankful for this year.

The day after Thanksgiving was our 5th wedding anniversary. We both can't believe how fast the time has gone! We were able to enjoy our anniversary dinner at the Manor that night while Mikey stayed home with Grandma, Bob, Auntie and Uncle Scott. As usual we ate way too much food (especially after the feast from the day before) but it is always special to go back to the place where we first celebrated our marriage together.

Saturday morning we headed to Lauren and Eric Tolska's house for the annual Thanksgiving weekend brunch with my best high school girlfriends and their families. Eric and Lauren prepared a HUGE brunch with tons of food. The kids had a great time playing outside for a majority of our time together (60 degrees in November--woo hoo!). Mikey's favorite moment was when Eric took the riding mower ("tractor") out and let everyone have a ride! It is so great to catch up with everyone and enjoy each other's company. It seems we are always celebrating the newest addition and looking forward to the next one! This year we cuddled with Emmalyn and are anxiously awaiting baby Casey who will be arriving in June!

Although we were sleep deprived most of the weekend, it was great to get away and enjoy family time over the holiday weekend. We bonded as a family on our 6 1/2 hour ride home on Sunday and were most thankful for the DVD player and the movie Cars which kept our little man happy the WHOLE drive!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Weekend Visits

November is just flying by! Over the past two weekends we have had visitors from our siblings. Mikey has gotten extremely spoiled and has had a lot of fun bonding with his Uncles, Aunt, Cousin Emily and Meredith.

Uncle Mark and Meredith were the first of our visitors. Mikey and I met everyone for dinner on Thursday night before the BC/Florida State game as they were coming in from the airport. Daddy took Meredith and Mark to the game while Mikey and I went home. On Friday Mikey was able to demonstrate his swimming skills at his lesson with Uncle Mark and Meredith cheering him on. At one point when he was swimming with his teacher, he turned to them and gave his "Miss America" wave. He was constantly looking over to make sure they were watching him at all times! Show-off! On Friday night Mikey spent some time with cousin "Em-a-lee" while the four of us went out to dinner. On Saturday we walked around the apartment complex while Uncle Mark gave Mikey a fun and FAST ride on his bicycle. That afternoon Mikey went with Daddy, Uncle Mark and Meredith to the airport and was in heaven! He was quite disappointed to see them leave and jealous that he couldn't go on the plane with them!

Auntie and Uncle Scott came to visit for Veteran's Weekend. On Friday we spent time together with Emily here at the apartment. Saturday was a lounging kind of day---especially since we have all been battling colds. Mikey wound up taking a four hour nap that afternoon! Auntie and Mommy were able to sneak away for much needed pedicures and Mikey never even knew we were gone! On Saturday night we headed into town (AKA: Boston) to grab dinner and meet up with a friend of Michael's from dental school. After dinner we walked around and stumbled upon Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. We all got a little something (Auntie finally got to wrap her mouth around those "Schweddy Balls") but someone enjoyed his ice cream a little more than the rest of us......

Thanks everyone for the visit! Michael & I really enjoyed having you come and Mikey enjoyed his special time with all of you, too.

Things I Love About Mikey Right NOW

Mikey,

Daddy and I keep saying that we want to keep you this age forever. We say this every week. Here are the things we are loving about you right this very second:

1) When you hand me something you always say "thank you, Mommy" as I should be saying "thank YOU, Mikey";

2) Whatever we are doing, you want to do it "too". When Daddy shaved his head you said "I want to shave my head, too!". When I was trying on my corduroy pants you said, "I want pink pants, too!";

3) Your favorite song to sing is the "Fire truck" song. You sing "Hurry hurry fire truck ding ding ding". If I try to sing along you say, "No, Mommy. Mikey's turn";

4) I love when you get out of the bathtub and your footprints are left behind on the mat. I need a picture to remind me how cute this is. It reminds me that even though you seem so BIG to me now, you are still my small little boy;

5) You are getting manipulative and laying on the charm to get what you want. For the most part what you want is to watch TV ("Manny" or "Chuggington" or "Trucks! Boats! Planes!"). You tend to cuddle up to me and make the cutest face EVER. If at that moment I don't give in, you then turn and ask Daddy;

6) You request "big potty" now and somehow taught yourself to pee standing up. You also need an audience and always say "Mommy sit";

7) You are quite obsessed with making sure all the doors are closed;

8) Your favorite food of the fall season is "punkin bread" and you request it daily;

9) You LOVE throwing balls, playing "hoccer", and "hockeeeey". You complete all throwing and hitting activities with the left hand even though you do everything else with your right;

10) Your favorite book of the moment is "Thank You God for Everything"--a Hallmark book recorded with Great Grandma Rinder's voice reading you the story. You are very patient in waiting for her to finish before turning the page. We never "read" this book once---each time you select this book we read it AT LEAST twice. One day we read it TEN TIMES IN A ROW! Whew!

Halloween 2011

Mikey had a busy Halloween weekend!

We started the celebration off by spending time with Mommy's work friends--Shannon, Stephie, Leah (& daughter Ruby) and Brie (and her kids Molly and Colby). We had a great time playing and catching up at Brie's house. The kids attempted to dress up---two of the three were successful. Mikey was not very cooperative with his "Cowboy" costume so I wasn't able to get a good shot. Nonetheless, we had a great visit!

Mikey, Molly and Ruby

Saturday our plans changed significantly. Instead of being out-and-about most of the day, we stayed warm and cozy at home. At night we carved our first pumpkin ("punkin") together as a family. At Eva's house this past week they really covered the Halloween topic. When we started to talk about Halloween at home Mikey would light up and enthusiastically cheer "HALLOWEEN!". When it came to the pumpkin carving, Mikey was very excited. We asked his opinion for what shape he wanted the eyes and nose and then followed up asking "happy pumpkin?" or "sad pumpkin?". Daddy drew the design and carved away!

While we were having fun inside, this is what it was doing OUTSIDE:





We woke up with 5" of fresh snow on the ground!!

Sunday we attended the Perniola Halloween party where EVERYONE dressed up. Mommy was a Cowgirl, Mikey went as Lightning McQueen (from the movie "Cars"), and Daddy was JUSTIN BEIBER. Mikey LOVED his costume. He wore it all night on Saturday, all day Sunday and to My Gym on Monday (actual Halloween).

Justin Beiber with Guy Fiore (AKA: Bob Perniola) photo---coming soon.

On the actual day of Halloween we spent the day doing regular Monday "stuff" with the exception of wearing his costume to My Gym. No trick-or-treating for us this year. Hopefully we will be in a house next year and Mikey can go all around the neighborhood!

Happy Halloween!

Head of the Charles

One of the best things about living in Boston is that there is always something to do EVERY weekend. This weekend we watched the 47th Head of the Charles Regatta from the Cambridge/Harvard area. Many people compete in these races, not just the nearby colleges and universities. Although it was cloudy, it was still a great day to be outside. In prior years we have always driven by (and caught in traffic) while the Regatta has been taking place but never actually attended the events....until this year!! It was a "first" for the three of us!

We told Mikey this morning that we were going to see the boats. He said: "row row?". So we then just started saying that we were going to see the "row rows" (my speech-language pathologist and Early Intervention friends would NOT approve!). We also added in an extra bonus for Mikey---we took the T. It would have been crazy to find a parking spot near the event so we just parked and took the train instead. It was fast, easy and perfect for Mikey!

We walked around Harvard University along the river and watched the rowing events from different points. There were multiple tents set up with food and other items for sale. A lot of people were out just enjoying the day with their kids and dogs.

Michael got some great pictures from his camera today. Enjoy!

Dressed and ready to go!

Hockey Game

For Michael's birthday, Mikey and I got him tickets to a BC hockey game. We went to dinner at this old fashioned diner in Newton called Cabot's before heading to the game. As we were walking from the parking garage to the arena, Mikey kept shouting "HOCKEY GAME! HOCKEY GAME!". When he saw the lights from the football stadium on he got confused and said "FOOTBALL?". This kid knows where he is!!

Inside, the Eagles had scored a goal as we were approaching our seats, taking the lead at a score of 2-1. Mikey was memorized. There was so much to look at and take in.




Three of his favorite things were in plain sight:

1) The hockey players/rink;

2) The band;

3) Baldwin the Eagle:




Mikey clapped and enjoyed every minute. He even got Daddy to make some purchases from the bookstore.




All in all, it was a great night out as a family!

PS: BC beat UMass Lowell 4-2 (just in case you were wondering!)