Charles, Lina & Gabriel!

Hello!

Little Ones

September 2008

Hannah, Michelle & soon to be Jake!

Sand & Sun

Alice with a leaf

Beach Fun

Weddings

Riis Park

Alice reads Popular Science!

Alice & Veronica Upstate August 2008

Alice loves Fine Chinese Cuisine

Last night we went out to Danny's Szechuan Garden in Howard Beach, Alice loved it! She ate steak, fried rice and mini corn. Danny took this picture.

Rosebud

Andrew, Alice & Rosebud



Rosebud has been in our family for about forty years. Two generations have enjoyed riding on her back.

Michelle & Veronica

The Pier

The Bay Ridge Pier is one of our favorite places to walk with Alice. There is a wonderful mix of people in this neighborhood.

Fun With Balls!

Alice is growing so strong. It's difficult to change her diaper without her attempting to crawl away. I keep toys on the changing table to distract her. It usually works for a minute, just enough time to finish the job. Her newest joy comes from these plastic primary colored balls we picked up at BabiesRus. Periodically during the day I put all the balls into a red canvas box, Alice is posing in it for this picture. Once we put Alice into her play area she crawls right over and pulls them all out. It's very amusing!

May Days

May flew by this year. Alice's top four teeth have broken through. This image was photographed at Owl Head Park, in Brooklyn, Andrew and I took Alice out for her first picnic!

I've been working quite a bit for Pink and the DCA, that has been wonderful! Our lease is almost up and I hope we can find a bigger place that won't tap us financially. Everything is going well.

Water has been on my mind lately. The NYC Water Board raised the water tax 14.5% this year, the year before that it was 11.5. It takes effect in July. Still, New York City has the tastiest, cleanest water I've ever tasted. ABC did an interesting piece on Tap verses Bottled recently. I've always preferred NYC tap to bottled water.

A Visit with Penny AKA Grandma Dorney

Seven Months!

That's my girl!!!

The Orchid Show in Da' Bronx

Last Friday we took a trip to the Orchid show at The New York Botanical Garden in The Bronx. It was magnificent! I only wish we had investigated stroller rules before we left the apartment; Andrew had to run back to the car for her carrier. It took a little longer going there than we expected (we missed the exit and had to loop around). Overall, we had a really nice time, Alice was an angel. The flowers were the perfect distraction for her. It was exciting to get out and have an outing as a family. Now that the weather is getting warmer I plan on taking more advantage of the outdoors.

Social Graces???

Do advertisers and corporations have any moral responsibility to their audiences? I’m talking about the three new Cheetos commercials, which blew me away with the mean spiritedness and maliciousness of the protagonists asking me to eat Cheetos and join the Orange Underground. How did the advertising company think viewers would react to a commercial that promotes being mean and doing inappropriate and hurtful things? Like putting Cheetos up someone’s nose; destroying someone’s clean laundry with Cheetos; and smearing Cheetos around someone’s clean office.

These commercials are not clever, subversive or funny; there’s just annoying, like a hormonally-charged junior-high-school student with no social graces who sits next to you on the subway, farts, laughs, and runs out of the car screaming.

There’s an article in Slate calling the Cheetos ads delightfully creepy. I found nothing creepy about them. The Slate article quotes one of the advertising executives explaining the commercials as geared towards non-prudish, edgy, prankster adults. I don’t find screwing with people for its own sake to be amusing or clever. Not even when I was eleven. This ad campaign really turned me off to Cheetos, and I used to be a big fan. I’ll avoid them from now on. Especially since UTZ has a tasty version of the same snacks, in both crunchy and puffed versions.

Six Months!

Today Alice is six months. I can’t believe time has gone by so quickly. She has two front teeth protruding out of her cute little gums. My sister gave her the temporary nickname “Fangs”.

St. Patty's Day in Rockaway, NYC