PART 3

Kendra and Taylor had a BEAUTIFUL wedding and Sunny was invited to attend their ceremony and wore this…Thank You Bono Family for the adorable dress!

I wish I had pictures from their wedding, but sadly my camera died (no shock there) but when I get some pictures I'll post them.

On our final day in Cape Cod, Sunny, Matt, and I got in our car ( with good solid sturdy brakes) and headed back down the north east toward Brooklyn.

On our way back we stopped in Mystic, Connecticut. Yep! The home of Mystic Pizza( like the movie)! Lucky for us there was a sailboat parade, lots of families, and plenty of places to shop and eat.

We had to grab a slice of pizza, how could we not?

 Then we watched some of the boats pass us by, and had lunch at a beautiful restaurant on the water.

Do you see Sunny's new teeth? It took us all day to get back to Brooklyn, but that's ok, we loved our detours.

In other news, yesterday Sunny and I went to meet Lissa and the twins in The Hampton's. They are staying at a beautiful summer home complete with an awesome pool. The kids played until they all took a 2 hour nap and then…right back in the pool!

I feel very blessed to have this summertime with my girl. I know I will start work again soon, but there has been something almost magical about our summer together and it keeps getting better.

Tomorrow Nana comes to town! We are so excited to see her and cuddle with her, and listen to her comments as she walks around the city. Nana is never at a loss for words and Sunny thinks she's great! Can't wait to see you tomorrow Nana!!!

PART 2

On Friday morning Matt and I got up at 4:00am to start our decent upon Cape Cod. We were a joyful bunch, in the car by 5am. It was nice to have some alone time, with Sunny sleeping in the back.

We stopped for coffee in Connecticut, my favorite state in the union. If Matt really loved me he would tell me that we are moving there in 5 years and I would smile every single day. Whose Starbucks looks like this?

Connecticut's that's who!

The day looked so promising. Sunny slept for the whole ride with the exception of the last 50 miles, I had been offered a short term freelance assignment, and the ride was going smoothly.

Then it suddenly and without warning,  we had the day from hell.

The brakes went out on the car as we were taking our first drive around  Cape Cod. We ended up putting the car in the shop, getting a rental car, and not being able to check into the hotel until 4:00pm! HELLO! It was 10am, what are we supposed to do with a 7 month old, and a rental car? 

Sigh. We headed to lunch and let Sunny eat clam chowder, which she LOVED. 

This is the view from the window in the restaurant.

Then I received an email letting me know my new freelance assignment fell through. Still trying to make the most of our family fun day we headed to the beach which we had to pay to use and park at, and change into our swim suits in the rental car ( did I mention it was a compact?) I'm sad to say that many beach goers got a full view of our bottoms getting dressed in the tiny car

…once we got there the water was FREEZING ICE COLD, Sunny refused to set foot in the ocean water. 

The "Sandy Shore Beach" turned out to be all rocks and a small strip of sand and about 50 people crammed in like sardines sharing the sandy shore. 

And then, because God loves a good laugh, not 5 minutes in to our beach day the sky opened up and it started to poor! 

We walked ran to the car and I called the hotel demanding that they take us early!

ME: I have a 7 month old, whose sitting in a sandy wet diaper, a rental car, and NO patience.

HOTEL: Miss check in is at 4:00pm

ME: We will be there to check in, in 5 minutes I suggest you find a room.

HOTEL: You're welcome to sit in the hotel lobby sitting room.

We get to the hotel, they give us a room, I open the door, people are set up, unpacked, and sitting in "our" room. Seriously? 

We finally get an empty room, a moment I am still so thankful for, and have about 2 hours before our car will be ready for pick up. Most people would rest, take a nap, or read a book…we took our daughter swimming….because we are supposed to be having fun! 

Doesn't she look like she's having fun? Right…thats's why we only stayed for about 20 minutes. We were heading to the rehearsal dinner that started at 7 on the other side of the island.

Just when I took a deep breath, started to read my book, and get Sunny settled for a nap…

MATT: The computer says it's 4:30, is it 4:30?

ME: I have no idea. What time does the car have to be picked up?

MATT: 5:30, but we have to leave here at 5 and then go straight to the rehearsal dinner.

ME: Oh, well the hotel clock says it's 3:30, we have time…wait what time does your cell say?

MATT: Steph, it's 4:30?! Get dressed.

ME: What? I'm not even showered. No way, no way!

Then picture us running around like crazy people dressing ourselves, Sunny, and packing her dinner, and PJ's for the night.

On the way to the rehearsal dinner we are driving along re-counting our crazy day when the following happens…

ME: OMG that bird is huge.

MATT: Yeah. Is it…is it ok?

ME: Ummm…..

BOOM! THUD! GIANT HAWK WITH CLAWS CRASHES INTO OUR WINDSHIELD. Matt keeps driving, I gasp and sort of shallow vomit. Yes, that is how our family fun day ended, and really what else could go wrong? We hit a HAWK!

I will say that Friday night ended on a high note. Our friends are so happy and were so excited to marry each other. They had a beautiful rehearsal dinner and wedding.( I will post wedding picks later in part 3.)

I'm most proud that at the end of an unbelievably stressful day Matt and I did not fight, we did not bicker either, we did instead remained friendly, laughed a lot, and made the best of it. Seems to me we are always making the best of everything and I'm very grateful for that too.

This past weekend was SO big I'm going to have to post it in parts. 

PART 1

On Thursday Sunny and I high tailed it out of town to the great state of Pennsylvania, to have an extended play date with Jenn and Ethan.

Let me just say that the town of their lake house is so cute and so adorable that I nearly drove off the road looking at the cute little signs and pointing out little stores and sidewalk nick-knacks to Sunny.

Jenn laid blankets outside on the sprawling lawn in the shade and we drank and talked and dined while they played with each other. Ethan has gotten to be such a big boy, it's incredible. Ethan and Sunny are about 12 hours apart in age. Sunny says "Da-Da" and Ethan says "Ma-Ma" and when they are together that's all they say alternating turns talking. Ethan is crawling and cruising I swear by now he is probably walking. He is so strong and so tall and so adorable and we love him very much. Ethan and Sunny seem to be the best of friends. They were holding hands, biting each others feet, and giggling at each other all the day long.

When evening fell Sunny and I left Jenn and Ethan to head on home because Friday morning we had to leave for Cape Cod for a friends wedding…

Sunny and I are going on a road trip today.

We're joining Jenn and lil' Ethan at their lake home in Pennsylvania. It's about 70 miles from Brooklyn and since someone in this house has to make the doughnuts, Matt will not be joining us.

No more kiddie pool for her! We're leaving Brooklyn in search of some grass, ponds, and lakes. We're going to see ducks, and a real dog ( that's not a pitbull). Sunny, Mama's gonna take you to the country!

In a rare moment of indulgence I went to have my hair blown out yesterday. The salon I frequent is on my block.

I live on the type of block you might see in any Spike Lee Joint. We know everyone and everyone knows us, Indira, my hair dresser is no exception. When our nanny would take Sunny for a walk Indira would take it upon herself to call me and tell me that my Nanny was doing a "good job." I should also mention that Indira and her sister moonlight as my cleaning ladies occasionally, therefore they now seem to know everything about my life, house, and baby.

In any case while Indira was blow drying my hair Matt stopped by with Sunny, I'm still unclear as to why. When he came home just 2 hours before I purposefully left Sunny with him, and there he was standing outside of the door way with Sunny strapped into her stroller. Her presence cased a flurry of Oh's and Ah's, which resulted in Sunny sitting in the lap of a Indira's sister and the door being shut on Matt.

I don't know why what happened next surprised me, it shouldn't have, but it did. When I was turned back around to see my Sunshine girl in the lap of a virtual stranger there she was sucking on a candy cane. CANDY CANE! And no, it wasn't home made. It was in fact processed sugar and peppermint and guess who LOVED it? I didn't know what to say, or how to say it. I think a small squeak came from my mouth and then, "I don't give her sugar." Indira laughed,"that's not sugar, that's mint." Oh, ok…

How, you may ask, does one take candy from a baby? It's not easy, in fact it resulted in crying, but it had to be done. I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures on my cell phone first though.

My December baby loves her candy canes. I have visions of her at the Christmas tree stealing peppermint sticks and taunting me with them. Oh, Sunny!

Today Sunny and I ventured over to our neighborhood park, affectionately titled Sunset Park.

I'm not sure why they call it that, they should call it Neversetfootinthis Park.

On our journey to the park we saw a dead rat, don't worry there will be no photo of this.

We waited for 15 minutes for an open swing. While waiting we witnessed a Mother slap her child 3 times on the leg, as hard as she could, for reasons I'm still unclear on. The poor little girl was screaming and all I could think was, if you don't want her, I will take her. Why someone would publicly humiliate their child is beyond me.

I decided not to say anything but instead praised Sunny for every little thing that she did. "Yes Gracie, that is very nice sitting! You hold on so well!" etc etc. 

On the way home we stopped at the drug store were we saw a 2 year old little boy who was extremely over weight and eating a candy bar. His Mother paid for her purchase with loose change, which caused Sunny and I to wait another 10 minutes while she counted out pennies, nickels, and dimes. The best part of this story is that she gave the woman 3 cents too much and said "You can keep the change." REALLY?

There are many days that I am grateful to live in Brooklyn. Mostly it is beautiful and lively and cultured. Today is not one of those days. Today is the kind of day that as a parent you think, we're moving to Jersey.

This afternoon at the grocery store a woman with a tiny baby approached Sunny and I. She complimented Sunny calling her a beautiful little boy.

Boy…she's a GIRL!!!!!

I forgave the mistake, not correcting her, but then she went on and on saying "what a BIG boy you are! Oh, so healthy!" BIG? BOY? My poor Sunshine girl.

I understand that very often people  have to take a guess when your child is sitting comfortably in a  onesie that has yellow ducks patterned on it, with no distinguishing hair accessories or pink or blue markings to indicate his or her sex. But for the love of God, I'm starting to get a complex.

She doesn't have a lot of hair, but she's working on it. What she does have is a smile that can light up a room, deep dimples, and big brown eyes.

Sunny you are perfect and beautiful and the next person who calls you a boy is going to get an earful. Love, Your Mama

Our trip to Stew Leonard's was a successful one. Minnie and Oreo the resident dairy cows have gotten so big. It's kind of neat to see the cows growing at the same rate as Sunny.

Sunny is trying to wave hi and bye to everything…it sort of looks like she's rolling her wrist round and round, but I love the effort she puts into it. She waved to the chicken's, ducks, cows, and singing banana's inside the farm.

We discovered this weekend that Sunny loves ice cream. It was an accidental discovery as we had some soft serve frozen yogurt and Sunny got a lick…then she put her entire face in it, lunging forward with both hands out.

On Saturday we met up with our new play group. Governor's Island is a really cool but haunted place. The ferry trip from Lower Manhattan is great, it was Sunny's first time on a boat of any kind and she enjoyed it… thought you probably can't tell in the pic below.

We had a picnic in the shade and then walked around the perimeter  of the island. It sort of looks like at one point lots of people lived there and then they were all asked to leave in a hurry. There are a few huge yellow houses among the apartment buildings and I asked Matt if maybe we could live in one of those, given they could end up being huge real estate at some point…apparently nothing there is for sale, oh well.

We have an exciting week ahead of us. Sunny and I will be going to visit Jenn and Ethan at their lake home in Pennsylvania and we're also taking a road trip to Nantucket for a friends wedding! 

It's a very busy summer but we wouldn't have it any other way.

My brother Christopher, brother-in-law-to-be JC, and their FABULOUS and helpful friend Nikki gave my blog a makeover!!! What do ya'll think? Pretty right?

I don't write computer code, nor do I feel the need to learn how to but Miss Nikki, Chris, and JC do! I emailed them a few days ago and asked for polka dots and boy did they deliver!

Thank you friends!!! I truly couldn't live without my brother. He is creative, handsome, perfect, adorable, smart, can do ANYTHING, and picks AWESOME fiances ( who makes sure Chris does what I ask him to do)  and has  FANTASTIC friends like Nikki!

Ya'll just whipped this blog right into shape, and I'm so grateful.

This weekend we will be heading out with our play group to Governor's Island. We'll take a ferry over, picnic with our new friends, and yes Matt is joining us. We love meeting new friends, and I think all of the ladies are thrilled that the guys are meeting each other too.

We also have swim lessons this weekend. Lucky for us we got a little extra practice yesterday when we met up with our new friends Jill and little Fia & Courtney and little Teddy, at a public pool here in Brooklyn. Fia and Sunny are less than excited about swim lessons at the Y, but were happy to splash and play with each other in the city pool….go figure.

In other news, today we will be making an excursion over to Stew Leonard's Farm. If you haven't been there before and happen to live in the NY/Conn. area it's an awesome grocery store, butcher, family farm, and natural foods market.

http://www.stewleonards.com/