Strangely I was not as camera happy as I tend to be this trip, but I got a few cute pics.  After returning from our vacation to paradise we got to spend some great time with our families celebrating Thanksgiving.  Here are some of the highlights.

Tans and palm trees

I know that most of you come here to keep updated on Ethan, but I figure every once in awhile you might be a little interested in what we are up to as well.  The week before Thanksgiving James and I took a much anticipated and greatly needed vacation to Curacao, which is a small island off the coast of Venezuela that is actually a Dutch colony.  Our parents kindly agreed to watch Ethan for the week so that James and I could get away, just us, and we had a wonderful time.

We stayed at Breezes Curacao all-inclusive resort and we had a wonderful time.  We spent all week relaxing, laying out on the beach, reading, SCUBA diving and SLEEPING.  Oh the sleep.  Every morning when we finally aroused we would discuss how we should try to get up earlier to enjoy the beach longer, but then we realized, what is the ONE thing we have not had nearly enough of the past 15 months? Sleep….and so we slept.  It was glorious.

The SCUBA diving was great too.  One of the nice things about this resort is that there is great shore diving right off the resort and you get one free shore dive per day, including your equipment.  James and I are both novice divers but after a quick refresher course we both felt more comfortable and ultimately ended up diving just the two of us, which was really fun! Between our diving and snorkeling we saw schools of cuttlefish, an octopus trying desperately to remain hidden, several moray eels, a gigantic crab, lots of neat little feeder shrimp, and schools of other reef fish.  It was awesome.

All in all we had a wonderful time.  Here are a few more pics from our trip, or you can see all of them by clicking here.

On the floating bridge in Willemstad

We thought this summed it up quite nicely

I’m usually behind the camera but every once in awhile I get James to take a few pics of us.  These were some cute ones.

Snuggling with my boys, Ethan and Henry

Smoochin on my big boy

Before

I finally bit the bullet and brought Ethan to have his beautiful curls cut off his head, in exchange for an official “big boy” haircut.  What no one tells you is that getting a 15 month old to sit still while someone waves scissors at the back of their head is next to impossible and requires emotional endurance, determination of spirit and more than a little physical restraint.  But, after many screams Ethan came out looking like a little boy!

Before the fight begins

After - my baby is a little boy!

Nonno Gian and Mimi Carmen came through New Jersey on their way back from Geneva, after an extended stay when Nonno Sandro was diagnosed with bladder cancer.  Sadly, after several months of fighting, Nonno Sandro passed away on October 11.  He was an amazing man who lived a rewarding and full life.  I had the pleasure of spending time with him during two visits to Geneva and enjoyed a few long conversations.  He will always be missed.

Running through the leaves with mommy

We were thankful that we were able to welcome Nonno Gian and Mimi Carmen back to the USA and we enjoyed a nice evening together.  They hadn’t seen Ethan in about 4 months and they marveled at how much he had changed!

As you probably know, I am very active in a couple of online communities.  Some of the women on one of my boards decided to have a playdate in PA, a fairly easy drive from me, so Ethan and I hopped in the car and drove to Nina’s house and met up with several wonderful women from my PAL/SM board and all of their babies!  What a treat to get to meet, in person, women who I have been “talking” to online for over two years!  We put the babies in their Halloween costumes, it was extraordinarily cute.

Cute babies in costume are not always happy

This is such a FUN age.  He is such a little comedian.  He is GO GO GO all the time.  Running around the house.  Going from toy to toy to toy.  He has his own complete little language – we understand some of what he is saying, but he is always talking about SOMETHING.  He loves to be tickled.  He loves to snuggle.  He loves to kiss.  He loves to be chased.  He pretty much loves any sort of interaction and will do anything to get it.  Even stick his entire hand in his mouth until he gags violently because he knows it brings me running.  Such the prankster.  Here are just a few pics of Ethan playing around over the past few weeks.

Colleen, Vanessa and I celebrating Vanessa's birthday

People are always asking me, “how do you like New Jersey?”  Often while wrinkling up their nose because, of course, it is NEW JERSEY.  But I have to answer honestly, I like it a lot.  I know there are areas of NJ that aren’t so nice, but I think you could say that of all the states.  But, the best part of our new home has been the friends that I’ve made here.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would have so many friends so quickly, and have made such close friends.  Yet, I have.  Its wonderful to be able to wake up each day, check my calendar and go to any number of playdates hosted by my mom’s group, or call up a friend on the phone and say, “what’s your plan today” and then head over to their house, or they bring their child to mine, or we meet up someplace where the kids can run around.  People also ask me how I like being a stay at home mom, and I can honestly say that I LOVE it – but I attribute that 100% to my friends and my mom’s group.  Because I have things to do EVERY DAY.  We don’t sit around the house, we are always going places and hanging out with people.  And its wonderful.  So today I wanted to say thank you to my wonderful friends here – all of you, you know who you are.

Happy Halloween!!

Today was such a fun day.  This morning we had a party with all the parents and kids from my mom’s group – 40 adults and around 20 kids…..yes, it was beautiful chaos.   The kids were so adorable.  Ethan sacked out about an hour into the party but enjoyed running (yes RUNNING!) when he woke up.  We went and trick or treated around our neighborhood and I’m pretty sure he stole the show with his precious frog costume.

This time last year we were moving into our new home and Ethan was just 3 months old.  He is such a different person just one year later.

This time of year is actually interesting to reflect on…..you see, on October 30 James and I were married…5 years ago.  FIVE years ago!?!?!  How did that happen??  Tonight we were talking and so much has happened in those five years, and yet it has sort of been a breeze.  I feel so lucky that the early part of our marriage has gone so smoothly.

But there have been some sad times.  This isn’t exactly a secret, but its not something I have necessarily widely told people before, but 2 years ago, on our anniversary, we also had a very early miscarriage.  And so October 30 turns out to be a very important day in our lives for many ways: the day we were married, the day we moved to NJ and our son turned 3 months, 15 months, and…yes…the day we officially lost our first pregnancy.  But – we have Ethan, and I can’t imagine our life without him.  And so I look back on all the amazing things that have occurred in the five years since I married the love of my life, and I can’t imagine things turning out any differently.  So…Happy Halloween and Happy Anniversary my sweetheart.  I love you James.