Exceptionally Nice Weekend

Nothing out of the ordinary, but a really special weekend with family and friends.
On Saturday Ray's sister Susie stopped over with his Mom, and Jillian and Rudy were along too.  And they had some extra special news for us, but first I have to tell you a little story about Jayden and Jillian.  A few months back Jillian had a miscarriage, and at that time Jayden went into a whole long story about babies and the 'waiting place' (I've posted about this so you might remember).  Anyway, soon after Jill lost her baby we found out her sister Jackie was expecting.  It was Christmas time and we were talking about how many babies there would be here next Christmas with all the cousins having babies this year, and Jayden said to me, "There will be five babies."  I corrected him and said, "No, there will be four babies, there will be Sophie, and Eóghan, and Baby Ray, and then Jackie's baby, that makes four."  Jayden said, "No, there will be five babies, there will be our three babies and Jackie and Jill's babies."  I reminded him that Jillian's baby went to Heaven before it was born and he said, "I know, but it's coming back again.  She's going to have the baby in October.  It will be here in time for Christmas."
I had told this story to my sister-in-law Susie. 
Well, during their visit on Saturday morning Susie leans over and says to me, "You're not going to believe this. Remember what Jayden told you about Jill?  Well, she's expecting and her due date is September 28th!" 
I don't know what this connection is that Jayden has with people who have passed and those that are about to arrive, but there is definitely something there.


Jackie and Scott are expecting their baby in mid-May, and Jill and Rudy are expecting in September, how wonderful for these sisters to be having babies so close in age, and how wonderful for all the cousins!  They all grew up together and now their children will be growing up together.  Sweet.


Erik & Lori stopped by too with Sophie & Mia, and Brian & Flora stopped in with Baby Ray so Ray's Mom could have a chance to see all the kids.


Here's Ray's Mom ~ Helena ~ with her great-grandchildren:

Later in the afternoon a few of Brian & Flora's friends stopped by for a visit and they brought along some gifts for Baby Ray.
Saturday evening we went out to a delicious dinner with my sister Diane & Steve.  It was really a nice day.


Sunday morning Ray drove into Manhattan to pick up a coffee table he bought at a thrift store there one day during the week on his lunch hour, and Erik went along to help him.  It's a big round coffee table with a marble top.  Erik says from the workmanship he would estimate it to be about a hundred years old.    I've been wanting something new because Jayden and Mia are getting kind of big for the little IKEA table they've been using, and I figure with more little ones about, we'll be needing to fit a few more chairs around the "kids" table soon!  I usually don't let Ray pick out furniture by himself but I am extremely happy with his purchase!
Lori and the girls joined us later in the day for pizza, and Mia & Jayden said they were both happy with the table too!

Now, take a look at this big girl standing on her own, almost ready to walk on her own!  Sophie already transfers, and uses anything she can get her hands on to steady herself as she takes a few steps here and there:

And, of course, I have to show you her shoes!

And I have to show you this little man, Eóghan is like a water faucet, drooling all the time!

Not only is he soaking wet, but we are all soaking wet too!  He finally cut one tooth through.  And here's a brave soul sticking her finger in his mouth!

It was really another nice day at home!

And today a lot of family had the day off for Presidents' Day!  So it was another day of leisure, and more family visits!

Mia and I made Wanda's Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies:

('Can't thank Wanda enough for this recipe, it is a favorite of both Mia and myself!  Katie and Jayden love them too!  Wanda has the recipe posted on the sidebar of her beautiful blog along with many of her other delicious recipes, if you are interested you can go HERE, just scroll down a little.)

And my niece Erin stopped in for a visit, unfortunately George did not have the day off, but he was able to join us later after work:

He loves Wanda's cookies now too and has asked me to give him the recipe.
And he made us the most delicious chocolate peanut butter cupcakes!  Everything was made from scratch, icing and all:

George is a wonderful baker and he is always making us so many delicious desserts that add to our holidays and celebrations!  I hear he's a wonderful cook too, but I've haven't tasted one of his dinners yet.


Another day to be grateful for!
(Doesn't Katie look like the cat that swallowed the canary?  I wonder what was so amusing?!  Maybe some antic of Jayden's.)

And, our weather has been sunny and bright (although turning a little colder again now), and we have two Winter Crocuses poking their heads up through the brown grass out front:

'Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend too!  And hope you all had a Happy Presidents' Day!

My Comfort In Blogging/And Yearning For Another Voice

You'd never know it from the way I jabber on and on, talking a mile a minute, but I'm really not at all comfortable with my speaking voice. I have a heavy New York accent, and that coupled with the fact that I have an uncontrollable vocal tic at times really makes me self-conscious.  I feel so comfortable blogging because when blogging/writing, the voice inside my head is not so deep, not so loud, and it definitely does not have a heavy New York accent. There is something so reassuring knowing that the blog world cannot hear me.

I've been reading lots of articles online about professional speech teachers and coaches, and I've been reading about the many people who have used their help in ridding themselves of accents. And I've found a lot of tips for my particular problem, such as focusing on pronouncing r's (instead of saying the word matter as 'matta' I have to make sure to pronounce it as 'maht-ur'). I have to remind myself that all "r" sounds are pronounced as "ur" or "er".
And I have to remember NOT to add a "w" or "u" sound to everything (I say the word 'off' like "awf", when I really should be be adding an "h" sound like the rest of America does, such as "ohf"). My pronunciations are more like the movie "My Cousin Vinny" (saying things like 'yutes' instead of 'youths'),  I sound like the character Mona (played by Marisa Tomei) and I think it's true that certain not-so-nice assumptions are sometimes made about you when you speak like the characters from "My Cousin Vinny".


So I have a goal, and that goal is to be able to speak "standard American English" so that I can sound like I am from anywhere, and not just from Queens, New York.
There is a college speech instructor I read about who says that the Brooklyn/Queens accent is really a mixture of at least twenty-eight dialects spoken here over the last two centuries, such as Irish, Italians, Germans, Africans, and Eastern Europeans speaking Russian, Polish, and Yiddish, and each immigrant group shaped the accent in different ways. And the result is a native tongue full of dropped g's (such as readin' and writin'), dropped r's (such as mutha and fatha), mangled th's (tanks a lot), muffled t's (a boddle a milk), and many other unique inflections. This professor also says that many New Yorkers speak too fast and condense many words into as few as possible (D'ju eat? No, d'ju?) She also says that professionally and socially, people who speak in this way are unfortunately looked down upon as inferior.


I've also been reading that there are certain phrases that peg me as a 'New Yorker' such as saying "I was waiting ON line" instead of saying "I was waiting IN line", or saying 'sneakers' instead of 'tennis shoes', or calling a big sandwich a 'hero' instead of a 'sub'.


I asked my daughter-in-law Lori to help (she's a speech therapist) but she said that accent reduction is a specialty, so I'm going to try and wing it on my own.  I've read that it takes lots of discipline and lots of practice.  I'm going to go over my consonant and vowel sounds daily, I'm going to practice words and phrases each day, and I'm going to try to remember to take a breath before I speak, I'm going to try and speak more slowly, and I'm going to try to enunciate each word properly (seriously, this is like learning to talk all over again!  Or like learning a new language!  But I read a tip that said if I can train myself to pronounce at least a few of the key words in a sentence correctly that will be enough) .   Wish me luck!

How's That Old Song Go? You'll Find That Life Is Still Worthwhile If You Just Smile

You'd never know that this little guy isn't feeling well again because he's all smiles.

Eóghan's really such a good baby!  Poor thing has been up so much at night coughing, but he still maintains his good disposition.


And here's a little guy that I got to smile twice yesterday!

Baby Ray is such a good little guy too!


This next photo Brian & Flora will be using for the invitation to his Baptism next month:

Ray did such a nice job on the invitations.  


They've asked me to address envelopes so between tending to my sick little man here, and addressing envelopes, and due to a few other things going on in the family, I won't be posting or visiting for a few days.


'Hope everyone has a great week!
Love and Prayers,
Eileen

Magic Sleep Suit

Eóghan used to fall asleep anywhere:

And he used to sleep through the night in a little cradle/bassinet that sat alongside his Mommy's bed.


But then he started to become very fussy when he got tired and he'd fight sleep all the time.  And because he was growing leaps and bounds, it was also about time to transfer him from tiny cradle to big crib at night, and he was having none of that either!  He stopped sleeping through the night.


But Ray came to the rescue when he found this Magic Sleep Suit:

It really is a magic sleep suit!  It works like a charm!  When Eóghan gets fussy during the day, I just say to him, "Do you want to put on your 'night-night' suit?"  And immediately he calms down.  I slip him into the suit, he smiles, he closes his eyes, and it's off to dreamland!
It's the same thing at bedtime, either Ray or I put him in the suit and he goes right to sleep.  Katie said he's doing much better in the crib at night now, he will stay for longer periods, and even if he wakes up, she soothes him a little and puts him back into the crib, and off to sleep he goes again.

I don't know what it is about this suit, but whatever it is, it works!  I highly recommend it!

But I don't recommend it for big boys or clowns!

It's Just Who She Is

I never really talk in-depth about family members on my blog as I don't want to intrude on their privacy, and I won't go in-depth now.


But, suffice it to say that I think my daughter-in-law, Lori, is a very good Mom.

We kid her about being over-protective at times, and we tease her about how 'germ conscious' she is, but really, those aren't such bad traits to have.  She's doing a wonderful job raising our two granddaughters Mia and Sophie.


That's one reason I love her.  Another reason is how happy she makes our son Erik.


And here's another reason I love her:


The family was over for Super Bowl Sunday, and Ray wanted to get a picture with all the grandkids, and Lori also mentioned that Mia needed a picture of their little family for a school project.  So she, Erik, Mia, and Sophie got settled on the loveseat to pose.  And with that, Jayden came and stuck his head in the way.


The rest of us all thought he was just being a scootch and said, "No, Jayden!" ~ "Move!" ~ "Get out of the way!" ~  "They just want their family in this picture." ~ things along that nature.  Jayden stepped aside and huffed, "Well, I'm their family too."


And, right away Lori said, "Awww!  Of course you're our family!"
So then we all softened a little and told him as soon as we got a picture for Mia for school he could get in the picture too.  But, of course, once all the picture-taking was done we forgot.  Erik got up and walked away, and we all went about our business.  Everyone except Lori that is.
  
She pulled Jayden over to her and said, "Wait!  Now I want a picture with the rest of my family."  

(This picture isn't the greatest, but I wanted to show how happy Jayden was to be included!)

(And look at Sophie's little face!  So adorable!)

(Jayden's not smiling as big in this one but I love how Mia is looking toward Jayden.)

(And I love how inclusive Lori is with Jayden in every situation.)

It's just who she is.

Super Bowl Sunday

Ray of course was very happy with Super Bowl Sunday as his team, the Giants, won!
He made sure we all had team shirts to wear while cheering the Giants on:

And while I was happy for him to see his team win the Super Bowl (I'm not a big football fan), I was more excited about another type of bowl:

Sunday morning some of us went bowling and it was lots of fun!

It was Mia's first time bowling and she was thrilled!

Jayden enjoyed himself too:

And this little man enjoyed himself too, but I think it will be a few years before he can lift a bowling ball.

And then it was back to the house where other family members joined us for pizza and to root the Giants on to victory!

(Eóghan looking for lunch!)

(I told you he was the baby that ate the baby!)

(Poor Baby Ray!  He's looking a little concerned here!)

The Peanut...

...and The Pillsbury Dough Boy!

(Poor Eóghan has such a rash from teething.  He's drooling all the time.  His cheeks are so red and raw, but never a complaint from him! We took him to the doctor today and got some cream, so hopefully it will clear up soon.)

(Here's our little cheerleader!)

It was a very fun day all around!

Oh I Think It Will Be Fun...

...to watch these two grow up together!

Katie was home from work yesterday, and Lori stopped by for a visit with Sophie after they dropped Mia at school.

It was a fun afternoon.

And Sophie was wearing another pair of shoes that I found to fit her feet!

I just love her little lace socks!

And I've always loved baby feet, but I especially love Sophie's little round feet!  (As you can tell, I've blogged about them twice already!)

And here's my 'little professor':

Look at him with his hands folded!  He does that a lot, and he has the cutest little expressions on his face all the time.  His Daddy tells me to stop referring to him as a nerd (I promise, I have never called him a 'nerd', I just think he looks like a professor!)

Doesn't he look like he's thinking, "Hmmmm, well, Grandma, I could tell you how to solve the problems of the world, if only I could talk..."

I can't wait for him to get in the mix of things!  Already Jayden and Mia are crazy about him.  I'm sure Sophie, Eóghan, and Baby Ray will be like the Three Musketeers!