Snapshots of Life: Food and Family: New House and New Memories, Soccer Stud, and Auntie Erin and Baby Grant

A lot of crazy things happened during the first week that we moved into our new place. We moved on Marathon Monday, which would have been hectic any other day because most of the major roads are closed. However, this one was particularly terrible because of the bombings that occurred.

That Friday, April 19, after only living in our new home for four days (because we moved into our new home on Tuesday), our town and surrounding towns were placed in a lockdown situation. Thankfully Joseph had stopped by the grocery store the night before and had gotten a few of the basics so that we would have some food in the house. Two terrorists were on the loose in our area and the authorities wanted all civilians to stay inside their homes. We were still settling into our home and decided to make lemonade out of the lemons we were just handed. We used that day to continue unpacking and hang up curtains!

It was a somewhat creepy and ominous day, and we made sure the boys were in the same room as us at all times. Our Internet and cable weren't hooked up yet, so we had the radio on that day and were looking at our iPhones to find out as much up-to-date information as we could.

The sun was starting to go down and one of the terrorists was still on the loose. It was a little eery walking around the house, because they had tracked the guy into our area. Finally, the authorities apprehended the terrorist 1.5 miles away from our new home. We were relieved that they found him, but jostled at the same time because he was a little too close to home.

Thank you to the many people out there for their tireless search and for risking their lives to ensure the safety of others. Also, our thoughts and prayers go out to the families who were affected by the bombings. (Beth, you're our hero!!) We're grateful to live in such an amazing city with so much heart and pride.

Now onto some cute pictures and some more catch up...

Look at this little guy, just hamming it up for the camera!
He's so happy to be splashing around in his new bath tub.
No more hotel sinks for this guy. :)

Alexander and Arhan playing with a parachute
at Arhan's 3rd birthday party.

Alexander is sitting next to our old neighbor's child
Sanders and across from his sister, Lucy. We rarely give
Alexander juice, so when it is offered to him, he clutches
onto the cup like his life depended on it and guzzles it down immediately.

There's a lovely little island across the street from where we
live and Alexander LOVED running around on the grass.
Isn't the forsythia beautiful?

Our big guy, absolutely loving all of the land
to run around on.

In an attempt to get Alexander back into some type of
organized activity, we enrolled him in soccer along with
his friend Arhan. We were so excited to get him his little
indoor soccer shoes and soccer ball. Here's Alexander
dressed up in his soccer gear.

Alexander, doing some stretches with his coach.

Roshni, Arhan, Alexander, and their teammates getting their name tags.

More stretching! As you can tell, Alexander wasn't feeling it.

Time for drills! The kids had to use their feet to kick the cones into the goals.

Coach Chewy, telling Alexander what to do with the cones.

Alexander decided to expedite the process and use his hands instead.

The other coach reminded him to use his feet and not his hands....
he wasn't too happy about that.

The kids were given miniature soccer balls and told to kick them into
the goals. This was pretty cute.

Woo hoo! No hands!

Whoops...yep, here we go again.

Big man got the hang of it!

Woo hoo! He made it to the goal!

Another drill where they had to put the smaller cones on their ears.
I wasn't sure what skill they were practicing here, but Alexander
seemed to like it.

After each drill, they would go back to their spots to get the next
instruction.

"If you can hear me, grab your ears!" (This was a technique I used
to use all of the time to see who was paying attention and who wasn't.)

Time to kick the real soccer balls!

And again...Alexander decided that picking them up would be easier.

He had quite a bit of fun the first few times we went. However,
the lessons were usually around the time that he would get grumpy
and hungry, so the soccer practices began to get a little difficult for all parties.

A boy and his dog. We thought this was pretty cute
that Oscar was sitting on Alexander's lap. Alexander
usually doesn't allow Oscar to do this.

Visitors!! My dear friend Erin, whom I've known since we were freshmen in college, decided to visit us April 25-28. We have one of those friendships that although we don't see each other that often, when we do, it's like no time has passed and we pick up right where we left off. She brought her darling son Grant who was 10 months old at the time. We were so excited because it was the first time we met Grant since his entrance into the world. He is SUCH a darling little guy and is seriously the most laid back and calm child that I've ever met. What a doll!

William and Grant at music class.

Erin, Grant, and Dayse the music teacher, getting ready
to swing Grant in the sheets while singing.

Bath time!! What a darling little guy, am I right?

Alexander was quite tickled to see that Grant had gotten a bath.

Alexander loved Grant's little chubby toes.

As part of our weekend adventure, we started off by going to Southwick Zoo (one of our favorites). The kids had a lot of fun looking at all of the animals and riding the carousel.

Alexander and Joseph at the zoo.

Erin, Grant, Alexander, and Joseph, marveling at the monkeys.

Alexander, dancing around, while Joseph escorts him into the petting zoo.

Erin and Grant, on their way to the petting zoo, as well. I decided
to stay back with William because he was a little too young (only 5 months at the time).

Erin and Grant, checking out the llamas.

Erin and Grant, petting a baby goat.

Joseph and Alexander, walking up to another baby goat.

Joseph and Alexander (in front of Joseph), checking out an alligator.

Erin, Alexander, and Joseph, looking at the zebras near the fence.

Joseph and Alexander, walking through the deer forest together.

As soon as Joseph walked over to buy some food pellets, they were
swarmed with hungry deer.

Alexander got very excited to feed the deer, but dropped the food
immediately once they came over to eat from his hand.

Joseph had to help Alexander feed the deer.

Erin and Grant amongst the deer. The deer seemed quite interested in Grant.

Joseph loves feeding animals.

Alexander was very gentle with the animals...which is the opposite
of how he is with Oscar at home.

Grant, chilling out in his stroller and waiting for lunch.

Grant, hamming it up for the camera.

As soon as Alexander saw me taking pictures of Grant, he said,
"Hey mommy! Cheeeeeese!" (I swear, this child NEVER wants his picture taken.)

When I took this picture of Grant, he began saying, "Dah-dah-dah-dah!"
very enthusiastically. I think it's because his daddy takes lots of pictures
of him, and I'm sure he recognized the camera and associated it
with his daddy. Kudos, Ryan!

Oh.my.goodness...this child is too adorable!

Alexander was patiently awaiting his lunch.

Alexander, Joseph, and Erin, watching an animal show.

The stroller twins, William and Grant.

For not being able to see all of the animals, William was still a very happy baby.

Alexander and Joseph, looking at the white rhinos. These things were massive!

Grant and Erin, getting in some snuggle time.

See what I mean? These white rhinos were HUGE!!

We couldn't leave the zoo without a ride on the carousel.
Here's Joseph and Alexander on the carousel.

Erin and Grant on his first carousel ride.

The carousel in action!

As a little surprise/early birthday present for Grant, I got us tickets to see Sesame Street Live: Elmo's Super Heroes! Alexander was SO excited and we were all very surprised to see that the show held everybody's attention! We had a blast, singing and dancing, and greeting the characters that came down the aisle during the show.

Alexander, Joseph, Erin, and Grant at the Sesame Street Live show.

That next morning, we went to Alexander's soccer practice.
Here's our little guy, stretching along with his coaches.

After Alexander's soccer practice, we decided to go to the Boston Garden
and ride the Swan Boats! It was an absolutely beautiful day to walk
around the Common as well. What a perfect way to end Erin and Grant's visit.

Here we are on a swan boat in the Boston Garden.

Erin and Grant on the swan boat. I love that
chubby little finger of Grant's as he's pointing
to the ducks in the water.

Joseph and Alexander on the swan boat. (Alexander
usually refuses to look at the camera when I'm taking a picture.)

Take 2 - still not looking.

Take 3 - OK, ok mom...I'll sort of look at the camera.

Little family selfie (William was in the baby
carrier, so this is the back of his head).

Alexander on one of the Make Way for Ducklings
statues.

He was really tickled that they were wearing hats.

Grant and William, playing around the house.

Now it's time to say good bye....to all our company...
Grant and Erin, giving Alexander a good bye hug.

Thanks for visiting us, Erin and Grant!! We had such an absolute blast and really made the most of our time together. We can't wait to see you again soon! Hopefully Ryan can come along next time as well! Love you guys!!

As soon as we moved, a new mall was developed by
where we used to live and they have a Pinkberry!!!
That's one of our absolute favorite places for froyo.
Here's Alexander, enjoying his very own froyo with fruit
toppings.

Speaking of fruit...our little man William really wants to be a big boy

and thoroughly enjoyed gumming a cold piece of apple.