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Happy Birthday to me!

Well, guys, it's my birthday today. Your birthday wishes have been much appreciated, although Big Boy - I think yours were more out of self-interest so you could help me open presents, blow out candles, and eat cake.

It's been really fun this year with you being more aware of what birthdays are. You sang "Happy Birthday" to me yesterday, and this morning (prompted by Daddy) gave me a big hug and sloppy wet kiss. You also told me what you wanted on your birthday cake next time it's your birthday: a dump truck, a cement mixer, an excavator, a man, and another man (exactly what was on your cake this past year!).

Baby D - your birthday wishes have been glowing smiles, intermixed with the fussiness of teething. So nice, but very wet and drooly.

So, thank you, my little loves. You make my life a pleasure everyday!

I love you,
Your Momma!

I missed Wordless Wednesday.

So here's Family Friday (like that? I just made it up!).

This is my Grandma, Tina - your Great-grandmother. She passed away 6 years ago this summer. We think she was 96 when she died... she kept her age secret for such a long time, even lying on her driver's license to hide it! Her birth certificate was destroyed in a fire, so as far as I know, we don't have her real age pinned down. In fact, her father (a widower raising 8 children on his own in the early 1900's!) assigned all the kids birthdays in different months, no matter when they were born, because of the fire that destroyed the birth certificates.

She was a very strong-willed woman, and there are some great stories about her life - in particular regarding her marriage to my grandfather. I remember hearing stories about Grandpa stealing her shoes so she could not go out with another guy on a date (before they were married)- and she stole his watch for some reason that I can't remember. They eloped (unheard of in the 1920's) because my grandfather was not Catholic, and therefore their relationship was "doomed" from the start in the Catholic church's eyes.

A lot of her "sayings" are family classics. My older cousins heard a lot more of her sayings that my brother and I did, but we share most of these in common. Her elbows were the pointiest things ever when she nudged us with them and said, "Don't snitch!" I think she meant "snatch" - she always said that after one of us grabbed something from the other. But we got her meaning quite well. "When you eat breakfast with the Queen, will you drink milk out of your cereal bowl like that?" um, no, Grandma, I doubt they'd even serve cereal at Windsor Palace. "Is he rich?" she would ask whenever my girl cousins or I were dating someone new. "It's better to marry for money than love." "When you marry Prince Andrew..." I think my cousins got one of the older princes... maybe Charles? And she called everyone "George." At least everyone under the age of 20. And then there was the famous "Lick" - a combination of my dad's and his sister's names. When she said "Lick," whichever was the closest to her came running.I think I inherited a lot from her. While I wish I had her chin and high cheekbones, I can credit her for a lot of my "crafty" ways. She and her sisters owned a craft shop in the little town of Wellsville, NY, where they lived most of their life. Her father apparently sang opera around the house constantly - maybe that's where I get it from?

I have so many memories of her... we went up to visit Grandma and Grandpa every summer in New York, and we also saw them at Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as once each fall as they stopped by our house on the way to spending the winter in Florida and back up to New York in the spring. We even went down to Florida a couple times in the winter over the years.

Since I still have so many memories (and soooo many pictures), I think I'm going to keep up with this Family Friday. Wordless Wednesday would never be "Wordless" for me with all these memories I want to share with you guys. This has been a lot of fun, too. I hope you guys enjoy these pictures and the memories. I'll add dates for these when I get the actual pictures down out of storage again...

Love you!

Momma

I'm sorry, Big Boy.

I didn't know that lentils were a member of the pea family. Well, I did know that they are legumes, and I know that peas are also legumes. But I thought lentils were closer to beans than peas. You reacted like you ate a pea. I'm so sorry, my little love. I didn't mean to hurt you. I was just trying to get some protein into you since you couldn't eat the meat sauce with beef in it. We got some medicine into you quickly, though, so the vomiting, hives and wheezing were very short lived. Thank God.

I pray that you quickly grow out of these allergies, Big Boy. It hurts me to see you have a reaction - I just wish I could whisk it all away from you. I love you so much.

Wordless Wednesday - Retro Style!

I'm borrowing a friend's idea about her Wordless Wednesday posts... she always posts a family picture from back in the day - like, way back. I'm going to start doing that here, too, so I can share pictures of your ancestors with you guys.

This picture is from about 1920, we think. It's a family shot in a bowling alley - see the pins and bowling ball at the front? On the top row, third from the right, is Charles Griepp - he is my Grandma B's father. He was a policeman. I don't know much else about him... On the second row from the top, at the far right, is Grampa Ziegler (that is how the back of the picture is labeled - I don't know his first name yet). He is my Grandma B's maternal grandfather. That makes him your Great-Great-Great Grandfather!

Also in the picture, on the top row to the right of Grandpa Griepp, is Aunt Gennivive (Grandpa Griepp's sister) and her husband, Uncle Dobb (Henry Dobb, aka "Dobber" as it says on the back of the picture). Uncle George Ziegler and his two children are possibly in the picture on the bottom row, 4th from the right.

Wow! Not much of a "Wordless" Wednesday. But I'm excited to start sharing these with you.

Love,

Your Momma

Written May 1

OK, I may have been a bit premature about saying I felt a tooth. I promise I did!!! But we took you to the doctor for your 4 month check up yesterday, Baby D, and he said there is no tooth yet. I still feel it, though. Hmph. A mom always knows best, right?

So you weigh 15 pounds on the nose, and you’re 26 inches long! Such a big boy! Your weight is in the 50% for your age, and your length is in the 75%. You’re healthy and developing well. All things I knew, of course!

My new favorite thing is your laugh. It is so cute, and still pretty sporadic. But I can usually get a laugh out of you a couple times a day. You laugh pretty hard when I kiss your belly. I’ll have to see if I can get it on tape… there’s no way to describe how it sounds. You laugh through your nose right now, so it kind of sounds like an old man chuckling to me. It’s adorable!

You and the Bog Boy are already becoming close friends. He likes to try to make you laugh, too, and unfortunately, he thinks it’s hilarious when you startle. I try to keep him from doing that, though. You love sitting and watching him. I can’t wait until you two can play together all day!

Love you both!
Your Momma

Written April 17

Before you were born, Baby D, we (well, I) started thinking about a nickname for you. Yes, before you were born. See, we don’t like any of the ways your name can be shortened – except for one, and it’s not an obvious choice. Remember this post? Well, Daddy didn’t like Buddy specifically for you, because he calls both you and Big Boy “Buddy” interchangeably.

Big Boy, you got your nickname in several ways. First of all, you were a Big Boy. Literally. Just a big ol’ chunk of love and baby fat. Your head was perfectly round because of your cheeks. Absolutely adorable! People just started asking how the Big Boy was doing. And at the same time, a commercial came out for a credit card that cemented the name…. A man was trying to access his credit card info by phone, and he had to supply his password over the phone – he tried mumbling it into the phone since he was sitting in a packed train car… “big boy….” But the automatic voice system asked him to repeat it, and he yelled into the phone, “BIG BOY!” making all the people around him look at him. It was just one of those commercials that make you laugh. And the way he said it… that’s how we said “Big Boy” for the longest time.

Your other nickname, at least from me, is Honey Bear. That kind of evolved over time. I started calling you “honey,” but I’m not a “honey” kind of person. It even is hard for me to say that to your Daddy, and he is my “Honey.” That changed into “honey bun,” but your Daddy didn’t really like that (he would look at me weird each time I said it), and it reminded me too much of “Honey Bunches of Oats” – in fact, sometimes, I would say “honey bunch.” I just wasn’t feeling it. But for some reason, I felt like saying “honey….” something. I’m not sure why. So I guess I kept at it, and I don’t know when “Honey Bear” started, but it has stuck. And I love it.

Baby D, I don’t think of you as “Baby D” anymore. I just can’t wait until I find out who you are!

Love you both – your Momma