Grantism of the Day

As I (Todd) drove Grant and Natalie to school this morning, I told them to look out the window at the snow.  "Before you know it, you'll blink and all the snow will be gone and it will be summer," I said.

Grant did not like that and told me that he didn't want the winter to be gone.  After a moment, he then told me that when he grows up, he's moving to Alaska! "Why Alaska?" I asked.  "Because they don't have any policemen," he confidently replied. "And why would that be a good thing?" I prodded.  "Because I want to explore ghost towns!"

Of course, little buddy, of course...

Morning rituals and growing up!

In the morning when I drop off Natalie, we have this little routine whereby she stands inside at the window and I stand outside.  Then we draw little pictures to each other on the window with our fingers.  One morning it's a rainbow and gold, the next it is a heart and a flower and then the third morning a smiley face and star.  And we just rotate through those.  I started it in Kindergarten as a way to get me out the door but still be able to say goodbye.  Then she watches and waves from the window until I leave.  

Well, yesterday she told me she didn't want to do it. But she was in a grumpy mood at the time so I figured that was the reason.  Then this morning, I asked her whether we were doing smiley face and stars or hearts and flowers and she said, "I need to whisper something to you."  So, I bent down and she said, "I don't want my friends to make fun of me."  I told her we didn't have to do it if she wanted to stop, but she said, "No, I want to, but I don't want my friends to make fun of me."  I asked her what they said, and she said, that they said, "I saw what you were doing with your Dad."  Not too bad, but still for a 7 year old, you don't want any type of attention like that!  So, I told her she could just tell them, "Yeah, it's kind of silly.  But I just do it so that my dad doesn't feel bad."  Her face lit up and she said, "Yeah, that's a good idea... Smiley Face and Stars."  

 It was a very sweet moment.  Walking the line between two worlds.  Still holding on to being a little kid, but starting to feel the pull of growing up. I definitely took a moment to enjoy our "picture at the window" a little bit more this morning as I now know I may not have that many more left!

Natalie-ism!

Natalie: That person looked like a hippie.

Todd: Do you know what a hippie is?

Natalie: Yeah, it's a girl that acts cool. And she sometimes wears a short skirt. And they hula dance. Or sometimes just hula hoop.

Todd: Are you sure about that?

Natalie: Yes!

Official 2013 Santa Photo

Presenting the 2013 Official Santa Photo.  And when I say this was the best photo of the bunch, I really mean it.

Because this was one of the other ones we took today.

Come on, this is HILARIOUS!!!!  This is what Christmas is all about!  I kind of want to buy another funny one that they took, but I had a $5 credit which made this second download only cost $4.99.  The head down is classic.  Merry Christmas from Natalie and the Grinch!

Plymouth Thanksgiving Parade

We decided not to go to Florida for Thanksgiving this year.  With Natalie in first grade, we didn't want her to miss a bunch of school.  And since Todd got furloughed earlier this year, it just didn't make a lot of financial sense to spend a ton of money to get down to Florida for what basically amounts to a long weekend.  We're hoping to go in the spring or summer of 2014. 

Instead, we stuck close to home and were able to go to the Plymouth "America's Hometown" Thanksgiving parade.  It's billed as the nations "second best parade."  I don't know why, but that makes me laugh!

Here's Natalie and Grant waiting with Bean for the parade to start. It was a really cold day but the rain held off!  Later, KK and Seth joined us too.

The very start of the parade.  The Pilgrim's return to their hometown.

There were some really neat floats like this one above of the Mayflower.  It actually rocked back and forth which was pretty cool.

 Grant really thought all of the cars were super cool, but really?  Whoopi Goldberg? I don't get it!

 I think Natalie must have taken this picture.  Where is she???  Grant, Mommy and Daddy enjoying the parade.

Oh wait, there she is.  Natalie looking cute as one of the floats goes by.  This float was a "before and after" showing what a classroom looked like during days past, and what a classroom looks like in the present.

They have this massive turkey float that goes by, but they have to stop and pull it's head down to make sure it can get under all of the power lines!

The Budweiser Clydesdales are always a big hit.  It always surprises me how big they are!  I love the little Dalmatian too.  He's so cute in all of their commercials.

There was a nice tribute to the victims of the Marathon bombing too.  It was a huge float with the Boston skyline and this was on the back of it.

Steve Horgan, the bullpen cop from the World Series was a part of the parade too!  Here is his with his hands in the air, just like he did after David Ortiz hit a grand slam in Game 1 of the ALCS vs. Detroit. 

This was the actual picture from the game. 

And of course, last but certainly not least was the Big Man himself.  Santa Claus.  Natalie and Grant were jumping with excitement.  It was another successful parade - and I think the kids enjoyed it much more than they did in 2009 (when Grant was only about 4 weeks old!) 

Natalie-ism

Me: Do you know who this is on my hat? (Showing Natalie my new Pat Patriot winter hat.)

Natalie: Oh! It's a pirate bending over to pick up a coconut.

Nailed it.

Grant's Birthday Party with his Friends

Grant had his first ever "friend" birthday party this year.  We had it at Playtown Express in Southborough.  We booked 2 months in advance and STILL only got a Sunday evening party.  But that was about all there was if you wanted a private party. 

We had this entire place to ourselves!  We only had about 10 kids there (total including mine).  Since he's only 4, I didn't invite a ton.  Maybe next year!  When I first walked in, I thought, "Why did we book this place?" because we own a bouncy castle and Grant won't come near it.  He's afraid of the noise that the motor makes to keep in inflated.  This place is pretty much all made up of motorized bouncy castles!

But, he loved it!  Here are Grant and his buddies playing in one of the jumpy houses.  

 The boys were running back and forth on this thing (we have one of these at gymnastics) and crashing into each other.  It was hilarious.  They're such boys!  Natalie tried to get in and play with them but even though she's a lot bigger than all of them, she told us these boys were too rough!

Listen... Mommies can have fun too!

Grant gives this party two thumbs up!

Natalie had fun for a while, but got bored pretty quickly.  I probably should have invited a friend for her to play with rather than a bunch of 4-year-olds.

After about an hour and 15 minutes of play time, we had pizza, Hoodsie cups and cake from the Bistro in Westborough (formerly Bagel Bistro).  Grant got to sit in the big birthday chair and all of the kids crowded around him.  As you can see, he's not quite sure what to make of this. 

This was his cake- pretty much the same cake we got him last year, but he loves it!  I love the Bistro's cakes.  They're always yummy!

Happy birthday little buddy!

Grant's 4 Year Stats

Big boy isn't a ridiculously big boy, but he's definitely a big boy!

Today he measured 41" (up 3" in the past year) which is 3 feet, 5 inches tall.  That's 67th percentile - so, tall but not crazy tall.  He weighed 39 pounds, which was up 4 pounds from last year.  That's 76th percentile. 

2013 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox Parade

The unexpected happened this year.  The Red Sox, who had a terrible, no good, awful year in 2012 with a record of 69-93, losing 12 out of their last 13 and firing their manager, won the 2013 World Series, beating the St. Louis Cardinals in 6 games.  Given that they went 86 years without a World Series win from 1918 to 2004, we thought it would be fun (read: a chance we may never get again) to take the kids into Boston to see the parade.  It was a beautiful fall day- in fact, it was actually warm!

Here are the kids in front of the infamous Citgo sign.

Some guy saw us taking pictures of the kids and offered to take our family picture, which became our Christmas card!

We went over to the corner of Ipswich and Boylston near Fenway for the parade.  This is pretty much the same spot Todd and I were at during the 2007 parade, but this time we were across Boylston Street.  There were tons of people down there, but it wasn't a madhouse or anything.

The first duck boat always has the World Series trophy in it!  

 

Awww, Pedey!  One of the "themes" this year was "Fear the Beard" so most of the players still had their beards. I was actually going to write "playoff beards" but between Gomes, David Ross and some others, they had pretty much been growing them since spring training.  Anytime someone hit a homerun, other players would tug on their beard when they got back to the dugout.  Ouch.

Former Auburn baseball catcher David Ross - aka: The Wolf (for his streaked beard) and Will Middlebrooks behind him.  He was at Auburn when I was there (even though he left to be a Gator).  We still love him anyway, and if someone says, "War Eagle" to him- he always responds the proper way!

Natalie was so excited to see Big Papi.  All of the boys in her school have been talking about him.  Here he is with his World Series MVP trophy, holding out 3 fingers for the three World Series' he's won with the Red Sox.  Simply awesome.

One of the last floats was Koji and Junichi and their translator.  Koji was the ALCS MVP (he's the Sox closer after Andrew Bailey got hurt.  As you can see Andrew Bailey is on this float, although he's facing the other side!)

If you've ever been to a World Series parade, they're pretty short (maybe 20 minutes for the parade itself).  So it was over pretty quick and before you knew it, we were heading back to the green line.  I like this picture that Todd snapped of Grant and I walking down Yawkey Way.  Long shadows in November, but a warm day since I have my sleeves rolled up!

After we took the Green Line back to Woodland (in Newton), we drove to Wellesley to get lunch (or breakfast, as the kids and Todd had) at Maugus.  On our way home at one point, the kids were strangely quiet.  I turned around to find this!

Halloween 2013

Happy Halloween!

The best part of this year was the weather.  It was supposed to rain, but the rain held off.  And it was actually quite mild, so the kids didn't even wear jackets this year.  Plus we went north on Speen Street to a little neighborhood right on Lake Cochituate, and had a blast there.  The neighborhood is full of little kids- it's totally idyllic.  

Look!  It's a beautiful ballerina and a scary alien!

See?  Proof that we didn't even need coats outside!  Hanging with some pumpkins...

Three things about this photo.  Natalie insisted that I had to wear butterfly wings.  The things we do for our kids!  Second, after about the third home, Grant took his alien mask on and walked around like this (which was super confusing to the people who were giving out candy - uh, what is he?) and third, please note the red solo cup.  We hit up this one house that had candy for the kids, and beer or wine for the adults.  Sweet!  Now that's my idea of trick or treating!

And of course, here's a picture with Daddy.  Overall, a very successful evening!  We'll definitely be going back to this neighborhood!