July 4th Wrap-Up Abbey's First Solo Ride!

After Adam's big ride, we wanted Abbey to pick something. She went right back up to the train ride, but Adam was interested. So we figured what the heck and decided to let her try it. We were first in line, so I was going to put her in the front car, but some kid pushed us aside to get in. I decided not to make it an issue and put her in another seat. She didn't care, but the operator refused to take our tickets because she felt bad. Here's Abbey, ready to go... Meanwhile, Adam had convince Terry to take him for a walk and somehow he ended up convincing him he needed these dinosaurs!!! Big girl Abbey didn't even flinch being by herself and her Daddy got her to clap and say yeah! Love this picture of my big girl! We had enough tickets for them each to take one more ride. Adam was having a ball sitting in the front and showing off his new dinosaur! On our first day at the fair, we had ended our day with root beer floats. Abbey had eaten a lot of Daddy's of course and Adam wasn't interested. We tried a different root beer float stand and I got Adam a slushie. Not interested in any of it! We left, all tired and happy. (Oh and I didn't bring Adam a spare diaper so I had to go into the Sandy Creek Big M and they only had one size...so Adam rode home with a wedgie ha!). It was a great day as a family...but we realized our babies weren't babies any more. *sniff*

Adam Rides the Roller Coaster!/July 4th

OK, steel yourself but my 2 year old Adam rode a roller coaster. We saw how excited he was watching that coaster and he thought it was a dinosaur. Terry was going to ride with him, but they wouldn't allow that. Adam is taller than the 3 foot limit if you can believe it. He got on that coaster and I stood there on the platform, my heart racing and chest tight, scared to death something will happen to him, terriffied he was going to freak out. I pulled that rope as tight as I could and stood back. The operator kicked me off but I wasn't leaving the side of the ride. Todd had the camera and took like 70 photos no joke to make sure he caught the moment. Adam pulling out...with a grin on his face. Finishing the first round, I was waiting on the other side anxiously to see if he liked it....he did. Adam looking at his mother yelling his name each time he passed by. Look how happy he is and so confident. Sitting back enjoying the ride. I honestly couldn't believe he was doing it. He grew up so much in that moment, in my mind and literally. He got off the ride and ran to me, so confident and happy saying MOMMY! I can see it in my mind. Both Todd and I shared a feeling that's hard to put into words. Scared and excited and wowed that our little boy, the baby we were blessed with is growing up! He just had a ball and now my cautious son is starting to turn brave and fearless. May seem like a lot wrapped into a simple first...but it's what happened.

July 4th...Back on the Rides

After Adam's pit stop at his first Carnival game, we meet up with the Potters and have a so-so lunch at the Lacona first barn station (it was better on Saturday), the kids had their eyes on the rides of course! We took them over to the car ride Adam had tried the first time with Ethan and put them in together, which was a risk as it had no belts and we didn't know if Abbey would sit down. It was cute...at first Abbey sat in the floor of the car when we told her she had to sit and couldn't get up. She got the hang out of it :) It was cute she finally started to drive it and took it seriously. After that, back on the train ride....Adam ran right to it...love this picture. Then we got all brave and was like should we put them on a bigger ride and hemmed and hawed about it and then did it. But here's the catch...as they waited for this ride to start, they couldn't keep their eyes off the "dinosaur" roller coaster next door! It was funny, as this ride started they enjoyed it, but couldn't get over the ride next door! That's the Potters watching our kids! After this...well, the dinosaur coaster won...

July 4th... Adam's First Carnival Game!

The kids loved the County Fair so much that Saturday, we decided to back after Todd got off of work on the 4th and meet Terry and his wife. We walked through and Adam, for some reason, was immediately drawn to this game. He walked over and climbed up on the stool! So his Daddy helped him get ready to throw the balls. The more balls you got in the hole, the more your "car" would advance. The winner got there first. While Adam didn't win, he got pretty far! He wasn't in last place by far. Guess he's got better sports skills than his mama! *SIGH* My little boy is growing up!!

Q is 6!!

Last month, Quentin invited us to his SIXTH birthday party (seems like he was just born!). The Wallace house is the perfect party pad... fenced yard with a BBQ porch, sun room and fenced in-ground pool. I was a bit nervous about handling them both and it turns out I was right :). But they managed to have some fun! They put to use the kiddie pool of rubber duckies Jackie put out. Abbey especially liked it! Adam did, too but he was having a behaviorally challenged day....he kept running into the pool area and throwing things in, particularly rocks... I kept putting him in time out...but he didn't care :) It was like he couldn't help himself!! Obviously, I couldn't get many photos. The kids were everywhere...Jackie joked that I was constantly going in circles...and I was. They enjoyed the pizza, barely ate the cake and ran around A LOT! I walked them over to the steps of the pool and Abbey jumped off my lap, which I was not surprised about. But it didn't feel safe. Q is a little water boy...loves swimming. It's cute to see how much he's grown up. And what I adored about him that day is that even though he had lots of friends his age there, he would try to include Adam. He's very thoughtful and I think it's adorable. Right before we left, Adam jumped in the deep end and I fished him out. It scared the CRAP out of me! Since then, I have gotten them both vests that make them float and exposed them to water a lot so that we are comfortable and they LOVE it now. I cried and I felt a bit embarrassed about it but hey, I'm Mom it happens to all of us. Jackie did a great job planning the Cars party...just look at this cute favor bag! On our way out, they were doing a McQueen pinata and they let Adam have a whack at it and he loved it! Quentin is one of Adam's favorite people and when they get together they just run around and have a ball. I'm glad they are buddies! We joke about taking turns to bail them out as teenagers ;) because they are both very much BOYS! Q is handsome, smart and has a wacky sense of humor I love. He says what is on his mind and works hard to get his stickers at school. He is full of questions and gets quite the twinkle in his eye when he's up to something! I love watching him grow-up and look forward to his next 20 birthdays!! Jackie is a great mom and Brian is a great stepfather and they are doing a good job with that kid (so far anyhow ;).

First Official Trip to the Beach for the A-Team!

While it is true that Adam walked the shores of a beach in Maine when he was 9 months old, their adventure to Southwick Beach last Friday in Jefferson County was their first official trip to the beach.

My friend Erin invited me and my first instinct was that it was a bad idea. I mean, it's hard to help them both safely by the water. But she convinced me that with her and her sister and their combined six kids, we could handle it. We took the hour trip and when we got there, I knew it was the right thing to do. The boys immediately got out the sand stuff and Adam was happy to join in. He loved the idea right away, though it took him a bit through out the day to realize that there was merit into actually filling the bucket before destroying what little he had patience to dump :) This picture is funny because it looks like Abbey is pretty confused as to what they are up to! Abbey checking out the water...not soon after she was running that way. I don't have any pictures of it but the kids both got their vests on and I walked them to the water. They LOVED IT! Erin's sister Heather was a huge help...she walked Adam in pretty far. He was so into it, after a bit he was willing to leave me. It's pretty shallow there and little Abbey wanted to walk her self around. She would run right into the waves and her little vest would flip her onto her back and float her there and I'd pick her up and she'd immediately want to get back down it. I mean, she had NO FEAR and only love for the lake. Adam grinned ear to ear and when we went back on shore, it was long until Abbey had Erin convinced to wade back in with her.
Then she climbed in the lifeboat like she owned it. Adam spotted her and just HAD to join! I took a few quick photos then got them out of course...!! They wanted to go back in and Erin and I took them. When we had to get out, Adam was NOT happy. By then, Abbey was tired so she let me carry her! Here Adam is with his friend Daniel...Daniel was mad his mom was picking up and Adam was there to back him up...! It was an amazing afternoon. The sun made the day gorgeous, my kids had a blast and there were enough people able to help, that I wasn't worried that my kids would drown or get hurt. When I was in labor with Abbey, the "picture" I had in my head was a baby Abbey playing in the sand with Adam on the beach with his Dad. We never made it last summer because of so much going on, but they loved it as much I pictured. One of the great days to be their mom.

July 4...Morning at Mom's

In the morning of July 4th while Todd worked, I took the kids out to see Mom. She wasn't in the mood to BBQ or anything, but I stopped and got her donuts including some patriotic ones for the kids. When we got out there, Adam ran right up to see his Grandma and her flowers. Pretty Abbey posed for her Mom on the steps...love this photo! Trying out our donuts on the back deck. Yeah, Abbey loved it! Adam cracked me up, eating one sprinkle at a time and eating just some of it. Mom brought out some buckets of water and the kids had a ball! OK, I love this picture! Yes, the bucket is full of water but the best part is this is kind of out of character for him just pushing himself in that whole bucket....you can see his sense of humor was at work....! Uncle Bobby pulled himself out of bed to say hi then we were off to meet Daddy...a little late....but we were on our way!

Happy (Slightly Belated) Birthday Pam

On Monday, the same day as my brother Bobby, one of my oldest and dearest friends, Pamela Sue (Rusho) Netti turned 35 (before me YEAH!). Pam and I first met briefly in fifth grade. I was the only fifth grader in our tiny class of ten "gifted" kids after the school district divided the program in "half"...meaning west side kids now stayed on the west side. Anyhow, I went to Lanigan and one of the few faces I remember to this day from the rest of the kids is Pam. Tall, pretty, popular the girls all wanted to be her friend and the boys wanted to get her attention. And she was smart AND good at sports. I bet she doesn't remember dorky me, who was down the hall in our weird little class area.

In junior high school, i became close to a good friend of hers and started hanging out in the same "circle". Going to some of the same silly parties where you hope the boy you "like" is there. Bonfires and basements and school dances, that was our social life through our freshman year. Pam always had some boy in love with her. To THIS day, there are two guys who if I run into, they are like How's Pam, How's Pam? in kind of a puppy dog way.

Our senior year, we started to hang out a lot after my boyfriend went to college and I got my head out of my ass a little, stuck in Course 3 math together, which for that year had a "lab", we both hated it. It seemed like through out high school, we always had classes together, including Mr. Roy's tenth grade global studies that was so boring, if it weren't for her, I would have been put into a coma.

(By the way...my kids love her....we went and saw her out at Chaumont three times last summer and grumpy Abbey only let her hold her and Adam just loved how he followed her around so he could explore!)

I was scheduled for a college interview at LeMoyne College (where I went my freshman year...long story) and my mother, being my mother, was having a VERY bad spell. She told me the night before she did not think she could leave the house and drive me there. My mind went to Pam, my one friend that had a car to use that I felt comfortable enough asking. Her mom let her skip school, and she drove me there. My mom gave us lunch money and we decided to go crazy and go to Red Lobster. What was amazing that day was that at 17 years old, Pam did not ask me a ton of questions or make a single comment about my less than stable mother. She did it without much comment and we turned the day into a trip, going to dinner and feeling very grown-up. She probably didn't realize it, but she had more than earned my loyalty.

We spent a lot of time together the summer after graduation, making regular trips to her family's camp on Chaumont Bay, which is one of my MOST favorite places in the world. Vacations during college were spent mostly with Pam and the summer between our sophomore and junior years we went to some family owned resort in New Hampshire kind of like Dirty Dancing but smaller and without most of the hot staff. She was the office manager and I was the hostess, two of the few Americans working there. We slept in a CHICKEN HOUSE and Pam did my laundry in the HAND CRANK washer in the basement of the barn because I was TERRIFIED of the giant spiders that live in New Hampshire. Once again, Pam just did it. She knew how hard it was for me to be there as at the time I was very scared of arachnids. We spent the summer drinking A LOT and having a blast complaining about cleaning cabins and taking road trips. And it was the first summer I discovered my love of photography as Pam had a pretty good camera I basically used the whole summer. We drove around in her purple Geo Tracker that summer and the following summer in the Adirondacks and it was great.

Also that summer, Pam fell for her husband Greg. She married him in October of 1997 and I was so honored to be her maid of honor (and i looked pretty good in the dress!). It was one of the most beautiful receptions I had ever seen, held at the Sherwood Inn. A year later, she had her daughter Katie and then moved to Buffalo for her husband's job, juggling a one year old and commuting to help her mother through cancer treatments. Yes, she had stressed out moments. But I never heard her complain about helping her mom, only wish she could do more.

We've gone to FOUR (or was it 5) Billy Joel concerts together by the way! And she makes me laugh. We always have something to laugh about... she taught me about mascara and I did her hair to go pick up guys.

In the last decade, there have been many changes in both of our lives. After my separation, the week after, I drove out to her house and she did my laundry and I slept sitting up on her couch too upset to go to bed. She never once raised an eyebrow at what awful shape I was in, let me talk and acted like my constant tears and fears were perfectly normal and OK. And when I found the love of my life and had both my children, she was right there supporting me.

There are times where we go months without seeing each other, but every time we do it's like we never left off. Pam has been a loyal friend who always accepted me exactly for who I am. She is a strong woman who has always juggled a lot. She is always thinking of the people in her life and trying to do the right thing. Pam is an amazing mother who puts Katie first all the time.

I am so lucky that Pam in my life and that our friendship took a turn at a time when most people drift a part, we became closer. There is no doubt in my mind that until the day I die I can call up Pam and complain about my day and she will listen...that I can say let's get a drink and we'll head to a good dinner and have a glass.

We once drunkenly agreed that "Scenes from an Italian Restuarant" was our song. It really does fit us... We aren't really the sappy type so this whole post is out of character BUT I realized in the last few years I need to make sure the people I care about know it.

'A bottle of red, a bottle of white,
Whatever kind of mood you're in tonight
I'll meet you anytime you want
In our Italian Restaurant'

These photos are from the end of last November. As you can see, my kids love her.


Happy Birthday Dear Friend!!