Capitol Idea!

At the tail end of my sojourn in Utah I learned that the state capital building was finally being opened to the public. So my family decided we should go see what a quarter of a billion dollars worth of restoration looks like. Turns out you really can't tell, but I'm sure when some huge earthquake happens we'll all be grateful for the seismic retrofitting we can't see. The best part was that the guide said everything was open to the public unless there was a sign specifically noting that area was off limits. Well, as you can imagine I was thrilled at the news. And luckily I was with the perfect brother-in-law to test this theory. I think he and I tried every door in the entire building. Unfortunately I was attending to my baby when he accidentally walked in on a meeting. I was so sad I wasn't there. His kids were a bit of a drag sometimes though. They kept saying things like, "Aunt Dawnell maybe you shouldn't open that door." And, "I don't think you should go in there it looks like someones office." That was their mother talking. Actually they were super fun and we all had a great time.

Del the door wiggler and his lovely wife, my sister Jil, reliving prom.

My reluctant partners in crime Ainsley and Elizabeth.

Here I am chairing a committee. The motion for Aunt Dawnell to move back to Utah passed almost unanimously.

Beckett surveying his future gubernatorial office and desk made from a tree blown over in the tornado. Possibly made by convicts.

The state bordello waiting room. Or "Gold Room". Nice design tastes 1918.

Here I am addressing the house. Beckett would not stop filibustering! I was going to make it up to sit at the speaker's desk but some 15 year old volunteer told me I couldn't. Boo!

My colleague, Representative Bircher (I) from District 14 and I are both concerned about the amount of pork attached to the current bill.

Hmm, maybe the Senator's seat are better than the representatives'....

Their chandelier is definitely better.

Here we come to Chris' arena.

And we wait for his opening argument to begin.

Beckett in the press box. As you can see he is engrossed in the heated debate below.

And finally right below the cupola so you can see all the designs up close.

It was lots of fun even if we didn't get to see where they found the worker's body the day before. I thought it was Great Wall of China style, bones being put into the walls, but it turns out he just fell off of something. Still sad though. Bummer. I don't want to end on a sad note. So here's a picture of Beckett looking cute and happy.

Don't you feel better now?

Christmas

Christmas was great. Lots of fun, lots of family. I can't describe it all, but since the only people who really read this blog were there you already know anyway. So I'll just post some pictures of Beckett eating wrapping paper which is what you all want anyway.

Here's the world traveler in his own seat on the airplane. Thank goodness for empty middle seats. And thank goodness for Jetblue's tiny water bottles, the best toy in the world next to their empty Lorna Doone cookie packages.

Um, who is this guy?

P.S. This dude legally changed his name to Santa Claus. Freaky, but you sort of have to admire that kind of committment.

Beckett is a little skeptical about his shirt. He's like, "actually all I wanted was 57 jars of baby food, a college savings fund, a real bed, clothes, toys and a house with a lawn."

I thought they meant something else when they said "Christmas cracker"....

Unwrapping presents from the cousins.I got the ribbon!!

Christmas morning

The bounty from Santa Claus. I have such mixed feelings about the lie of Santa Claus. Sometimes I don't even want Beckett to believe the hype. Why lie to your kid only to make them really really sad a few years later when you tell them you deliberately tricked them with what, in retrospect, seems a completely implausible scenario. But since he didn't know what was going on anyway I just put out some presents and let it go at that.

Holidaze

It's always great to visit family over what used to be a lengthy break between semesters. Now it's just a chance to try to squeeze in some quality time away from work. Lucky for Dawnell she was able to leave the NYC metro area a week and a half before I was. Lucky for me she made sure to lift my spirits by sharing with me fun phone pictures of Beckett. These were taken with her Razr, so not the greatest quality, but I like them because they show Beckett having lots of fun.

Here he is really happy


Another happy picture, this one with grandpa looking over his shoulder


I got this picture in my "inbox"



Utah was very very cold!


I was a little sick after Dawnell and Beckett left, so here's Beckett offering me some medicine so I'll feel better. His love (and some good medicine) did the trick.


Hi! How are you guys doing?



A gallon jug with stuff in it is the coolest super-sized rattle ever!

Old Friends and Old Lady Hair

Our friends Erin and Greg came to New York last weekend. They were some of our best friends in New York. I can even prove it. Here they are accompanying us to the Pickle Festival in October 2005.

Obviously they are lots of fun. We were so happy to go visit them. Also they have a cute baby boy Carson who's about a month older than Beckett and we wanted them to be friends. So it was quite a momentous evening. They had a great time playing at the hotel stealing remotes and toy telephones. Once again it was a battle of heft against agility. And once again, I think we have a draw.

Carson loves bread and it's really cute to see him wrinkle up his nose and make his talking noises to get some. I think he ate a whole loaf while we were there. We tried to share with Beckett but bread seems to be a food that shockingly Beckett does not like.





We also found time for a photo shoot. Erin takes beautiful pictures and I begged her to take some of Beckett. She put a couple on her blog and I'm stealing them and putting them here.

And here's our little stroller baby bundled up for the ride back to Jersey.

As you can see from the above picture Erin is beautiful and stylish. (I'm sure that pickle was in Vogue.) Therefore I wanted to impress her with my cute new haircut. So I decided to pull out the big guns--hot rollers. And as those of you with short hair cringe and can guess what's coming, keep in mind that even though it's been a few weeks since I cut my hair sometimes I still think in terms of long hair. Hot rollers were ooh la la two months ago. So I began getting ready for the night while talking to my sister on the phone. I excitedly started unrolling only to discover I have given myself OLD LADY HAIR!!!

As I screamed and assured my sister nothing was wrong with Beckett she encouraged me to take a picture so she could later laugh at my weird hair. Never one to shrink from public humiliation I complied. And here you go.

I ended up with a wet head and a headband. Disappointing.

Squash with Rice! Pears!

Shame on Dawnell and I for not sharing the joy of Beckett for a couple of weeks. Our only excuse is that I've been sick for about two weeks, Dawnell's sick of taking care of me and now she has gotten sick, and Beckett laughs at us, amused that we talk in hoarse voices. Also, before I was sick I was working pretty late, so it was all we could do to catch up on all of the TV shows on our DVR. Ah, the exciting life of parenthood.

It's a bit late now, but for Thanksgiving we went to the house of our friends the Wilsons. The most funnest (most funnest? Oh, that's a good one Chris, take a picture of that) part of spending time with them is trying to start baby fights between Beckster and Haylie. Haylie is more agile and actually moves, but Beckett's got some heft behind his punch. He's a pretty good defensive pugilist. Nobody got hurt, and I think we'll call it a draw.




The next day Dawnell, I and Beckett celebrated the 2nd biggest November holiday: Black Friday! We were unwilling to take Beckett out to brave the rabid crowds, so we rolled out of bed late and hit Target and Staples around 8:30 a.m. Staples was all sold out of what we wanted, but we were able to get some stuff at Target.

Then we went to the Outlet Malls. There we discovered that Beckett loves riding on shoulders. Sadly, he's a bit too small to ride on daddy's shoulders for too long at once.





Mommy got lots of shoes. All on clearance! Good thing Dawnell's love of a good deal is almost as big as her love of shoes.




The highlight of the past couple weeks has definitely been the video clip below. Beckett got a case of the giggles and would not stop laughing about all of the yummy food that we were feeding him. Squash with rice! Pears! Yummy!