Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Christian was the best Valentine this year; he seriously spoiled me and I loved every minute of it. This year he did the 14 days of Valentine's.

Day 1: A Tulip delivered to my work
Day 2: I found a gift card to the movies when I went to use my GPS
Day 3: The new Lady Gaga Album
Day 4: He wrote me a poem
Day 5: Vegetarian Cookbook
Day 6: A cupcake from Kick Ass Cupcakes and it was delicious!
Day 7: A gift card to Trader Joes
Day 8: I found a bouquet of flowers in the car on my way to the gym
Day 9: He e-mailed me an Amazon gift Card (I LOVE Amazon)
Day 10: He sent me 10 E cards
Day 11: He bought me Biggest Loser Boot Camp (I had been been doing this video through Netflix and didn't want to send it back.)
Day 12: A cute purse and wallet that I had been wanting on Amazon
Day 13: A box of chocolates and the movie A time Travelers Wife
Day 14: A new lens for my camera

As you can see he was sooo good to me and so sweet to think of all those things. I felt so excited everyday wondering what thing I was going to get. He is such an amazing and thoughtful husband, I just wonder how I got so lucky!

Christian was doing so much for me and I had no idea what I was going to do for him, but I knew I had to do something special. I decided I was going to take him out for a surprise date on Saturday Night. I told him we were going to babysit for our friends, Kate and Logan and watch their little boy Soren. Kate was amazing and sent a very convincing e-mail with details about the time of the drop off and that she would be bringing pizza. Christian totally bought into it and really he had no reason not to. My friend, Julie, was set up to babysit. I gave her a card for Christian on Friday which stated the details for our date.
At 5:45 p.m. we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Soren, so you can imagine that Christian was pretty confused when at 5:45 p.m. the doorbell did ring, but Julie was at the door and not Kate & Logan. He still didn't know what was going on. She said she drove down to give him his Valentine's gift and handed him his card. He read the card and then looked at me and asked, "But what about Kate and Logan, who will watch Soren?" It was pretty funny; I let him know they were in on the surprise and they were going to be just fine.
We got ready quickly and headed to the North End where I had made reservations at a delicious Italian restaurant. Afterward we went to a murder mystery play, Shear Madness, which was hilarious. It was so nice to have a date with my hot hubby! I am so grateful for good friends that offer to watch our little guy so we can go out once in awhile.

Ready to go on our Surprise date.

For Valentine's Day, I bought both my boys bow ties for church. Don't you think they look adorable? I love my little Valentines!

TAP TAP TAP

I just finished my TAP dance class this week through the Cambridge Adult Education Center. I learned a lot and had great fun; if I were to take another class I would take one where at the end I could preform what I learned. I can officially mark this off of things to accomplish before age 30. Only one more thing on the list. I do love my tap shoes and have been tapping around the house and Berkeley loves it. I fully appreciated the tap dancers at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics so much more now that I have had this class. Tapping requires a lot of work from the brain that is for sure. I recommend it for everyone.

Play Dates

This Saturday was a big day for Berke, he got to hang out with his two younger pals. Our family got together with the Edwards Family for brunch; Berke got to play with 5 month old Ian. He isn't really sure what to do with these youngsters; I will say other than trying to walk on Ian a couple of times he did pretty well. I see a bright future for the two.

Later that afternoon we got to watch little Ms. Lina so her parents could have a date. I sort of forgot what to do with four month old babies, they just don't do much. Lina just sat and played with her toy flower happily for two hours. Meanwhile, Berke is all over the house and into everything. Berke only sat on Lina twice, other than that he thought she was pretty cute and wants her to come play again soon.

Harvard Museum of Natural History

It was a chilly 6 degrees when we woke up this morning. The January Blues have hit around our house and we just couldn't stay in and let this Boston Winter get us down another day. We bundled up in as many layers as we could and headed to the Harvard Museum of Natural History; we met up with some friends for our first offical "Family Play Date." Luckily we know so many Harvard peeps so they got us in for FREE.

(mom this picture is for you)
I guess the theme of Like Father Like Son continues.

We had a grand time looking at fossils, stuffed animals, and dead insects. Stick and leaf bugs were the coolest to me. I was not interested in all the centipede action they had going on there however.

This guy is pretty much a rock star, no wonder "Pauly D" wants to do his hair like him.

It was nice to get out of the house, even if it was only a high of 17 degrees. We stopped on our way home and got some hot chocolate and warmed our bodies up a bit. I really cannot wait for warmer weather.

I think I'm in love

Look how adorable this kid is in his glasses!
After a rough week, Berke is now only pulling his glasses off after 30 minutes. He has even gone some long stretches, so there is hope that these things might actually stay on all day in the future.

New Accessory

Berkeley got his first pair of glasses this weekend; doesn't he look studious?
There are a couple of commonly asked questions I get all the time, so let me answer them here as I am sure you are dying to know.

1. How did you know to take him to the eye doctor?
Berke has always had a little problem with his right eye, it would drift toward his nose from time to time. It started happening a lot more often around 11 months, and we noticed it mainly when he would be in his high chair. We decided to ask his doctor about this at his 1 year check up and she suggested we see an optometrist just to be safe; she felt that they would probably just watch it or maybe patch his eye. It didn't happen all the time, so we were not super worried, but we did want to get it checked out.

2. Why does he need glasses?
The optometrist informed us that Berkeley is 3xs more far sided than most babies (all babies are far sided a bit) and that because of that he was having trouble focusing on things that were close up. Sometimes when he was trying to focus, he would only use one eye, his left eye to focus, therefore his right eye would float inward. She felt glasses would be the best option because if he doesn't start using his right eye to focus on things up close he could lose vision in the eye. She didn't want to patch the left eye to make the right eye stronger because that can weaken the good eye. The glasses may correct the problem and he could not need the glasses long term, but that it is unknown at this time how long he will need to wear them.

3. How do they stay on?
After two days of battling to keep the glasses on, I would like to say they don't. But.......they supposedly stay on by wrapping around his ears so they are harder to get/fall off. They told us the first couple of days would be an adjustment (that is an understatement) and then he would get used to them (I am praying this is true). Yesterday I was pretty exhausted as he did not keep them on for more than 5 minutes and that was a stretch. He was not happy about the glasses at all. Today has been a bit better; he has gone 15-20 minute stretches most the day. It is hard because we have to constantly watch him right now, so that when/if he does pull the glasses of we are there to grab them back, clean them and put them back on.

The glasses are thick and the prescription heavy, but he does seem to be able to see out of them. I think it is just hard for him to get used to the weight and pressure on his face. He will also bump into things (as any one year old does), and it remind him they are there, then curiosity kicks in. I am hoping that every day will continue to get better for him.

Something I didn't expect was how hard this transition would be for me as a parent. I was carrying Berke around the mall yesterday in the Bjorn; he had his glasses on and was doing well for a few minutes. What I didn't expect was that everyone would be staring at him, giggling at how cute he was, doing a double take to see the baby with glasses. I wanted to yell at them; don't laugh!!
He is super cute with the glasses I will admit, but it is hard to have people stare at him. Just something I am going to have to get used to I guess.

Should I be concerned that he is still reading his books upside down?
Gotta love this adorable kid!

Hey, How's Your News?

---Christian and I got to go on a date last weekend. We went 6 years without a kid and many dates; it's amazing how much more you value date time when you do have a kid. We ventured out to Harvard Square for some dinner and a movie. AVATAR rocked! Seriously LOVED it. I had no idea what it was about except there were blue aliens and it was in 3D. Seemed weird to me, but no my friends, this is a MUST see in the theater!

After the movie we couldn't go home just yet. We stopped by a famous dessert shop, Finale, for some decedent molten cake. It was absolutely worth the $10 we paid for it!

---What has happened in Haiti is absolutely devastating. It has been hard to watch so many of my Haitian co-workers wait for news about their families. Even more difficult for me is just to see pictures of the children; something changes in a woman when she becomes a mother; I cannot imagine little Berkeley sitting on the curb not knowing where his parents are. Who would take care of him? I always struggle to understand why these horrific natural disasters happen, it is just awful. I will continue to keep the Haitians in my prayers. There are many wonderful organizations helping these people, so if you have a few extra dollars please help these people.

These types of events always make me count my blessings; I don't know why I have been given so many wonderful blessings in life. I have amazing family, a great job, health care, good health, have had excellent education, never go without food, clothes or shelter. I have a close relationship with God, my husband and my son. I take so much for granted......so much.



----On a lighter note......Christian and I are making a momentous life style change for 2010. We really want to take care of our bodies this year, both physically and spiritually. We both were eating better and attending the gym more in 2009, but we want to continue this even more for 2010. Christian is going to take on a 10K this spring and I will be doing a triathlon at the end of July. We both are very excited about the goals we have set for ourselves.

The big life change however is this......we are becoming vegetarians. I NEVER thought I would say this....EVER! We really love meat, for real, love meat. The more we learn about how animals are treated and the inner workings of the meat industry, we feel we can no longer support them. When God told us to eat meat sparingly, I cant help but fear that he knew what would happen if didn't follow this counsel. I don't think he created these animals to be treated this way for us to eat. So we are making the leap; we feel good about it. We are nervous, but hopeful and excited to try new things. I am not judging anyone who continues to eat meat, trust me, but this is something we feel strongly about for our family currently. We are not opposed to eating hunted meat (Nean, you better tell Tom when we come to Utah to have some freshly killed meat ready for us).

In Other Berkeley News:

Berke has a post birthday bash with his BFF, Lilia. They are an adorable little duo and play so well together.

He has proven to be 100% boy! He figured out this week how to open his bottom
drawer and get inside.
"Look what I can do!"

He is also finding new ways to play with his toys. He played normal for a good 2 weeks, but now he is becoming much more creative. Here I believe he is pretending to be a
rhino to flip over his Leap Frog table.

Oh yes, he also misses his granny this week. Our prayers are with granny and the family as they morn the passing of Uncle Rick who died this week due to cancer. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all!