Connor's 1st Birthday (a month ago now)!

We kicked off the celebration by meeting my Dad for lunch. I've already posted the group shot, but here's a few others.
Me with my birthday boy:

Connor got his own birthday sundae- his first ever! He started off using his spoon like a big boy.

Darn that stuff is good. I should definitely use my hands here.

What? Is this not allowed?

Later that evening we had some friends and family over for Christmas Eve dinner and to continue Connor's birthday celebration! We had balloons, presents, and lots of MD crab dip of course!
Everyone wanted to hold the birthday boy. Here's Connor with his Grandma:

And Aunt Jackie:

And Uncle Earl:

And Daddy. How old are you Connor? What you don't know?!

Here's Connor opening Elmo, one of his favorite gifts!

Here's Mom and I with Connor and his new toy vacuum cleaner. He likes to help around the house, what can I say!

Connor with his Thomas the Train birthday cake. I made him take off his sweater to avoid the blue icing stains. Poor guy. He's clapping for himself here.


Oh technology these days. The Eichs joined us from Michigan via video chat to sing Connor "Happy Birthday!"

Thank you to everyone who sent our little guy birthday wishes or who joined us in person to celebrate - we all had such a fun day!!

Trip to MD for Christmas

I'm still playing catch-up with my holiday blog posts. We headed down to my Mom's house in MD by car the day before Connor's birthday/Christmas Eve. Before we left we let Connor open his birthday presents that had been sent to our apartment. Here he is with his new Baby Einstein alphabet books from Rob, Kate, Natalie and Noelle!

And helping us pack...

And trying out his new toddler car seat that we bought just in time for the big road trip!

On our way we stopped for lunch at my Grandpa Don's in NJ. Connor was very intrigued by the Santa that lives at my Grandpa's (that was just his size!):

I love these pictures of Connor and his Great Grandpa!

A sad passing.

Yesterday was a very sad day for the Goodman family. Lexie, my beloved childhood dog passed away. She was an old girl but her death was unexpected. She passed away at home while my Dad was at work. I truly think there is no love like the unconditional love that comes from a dog, particularly- from a big goofy yellow lab like Lexie. Knowing her, I think she's now somewhere in doggie heaven- riding around in the back of a car with her head hanging out of the window, her long blond ears waving in the wind. It was always one of her favorite things to do. We'll miss you good girl. RIP.

Connor and Lexie this past Christmas.

Couldn't help myself...

Andrew has a yellow and blue plaid shirt that he's had since high school. He wears it almost every weekend and has for as long as I've known him. It's been washed so many times that its tissue paper thin now. When I saw a similar shirt in a Connor size at Target recently I couldn't resist! These were my boys this past weekend...

The difference a year makes.

January 2008:

January 2009:

Historic Day

I'm trying to include historic events on my blog so that someday when Connor and/or I look back at this we can recall the big things that happened during certain years of his life. Today is certainly one of those days. I am feeling ultra patriotic lately- perhaps because I'm newly living in the USA again and will never, ever take for granted how Awesome it is here and how lucky I am to be an American, or perhaps its because a new President is taking office- and all the optimism and hope that comes along with that. Today I pledge to do my part to be a better American. Hooray for America!

Room with a View

We spent quite a bit of time out on our balcony in Tokyo- we had such an amazing view of the city. It's one of the things we miss most about living there. The good news- we have some really great views of NYC here in our new apartment. Because of the way the building is shaped and the location of our apartment, we have views facing north, south and west. We also once again have a balcony (these are a lot harder to come by in NYC than in Tokyo so we're really lucky to have one). We haven't spent too much time out there yet being that it's about -1,000 degrees outside but we hope to be able to soon. For now we're really enjoying just looking out the window at our favorite city in the world!!
Here's a few pictures I took this morning:

Just Chillin'

NY Childrens Museum

Last week Connor and I took a break from the unpacking to visit the NY Childrens Museum (following a grilled cheese lunch date at a local diner). The museum is on the upper west side, an area of town I hardly ever visit so it was a fun adventure for me too. The museum was awesome! Connor loved it. There was 5 floors of FUN. On one floor was a mini NYC- a post office, a grocery store, NYC buses etc. I think his favorite part was driving the NYC bus. We'll definitely be back!

Miracle on the Hudson

I'm not sure if its as big of news elsewhere in the country- its all over the news stations here. What a crazy story! I'm so glad this was one with a happy ending, it sounds like this pilot was a real hero. We heard tons of sirens from our apartment while this was going on, and here I was annoyed because it was during Connor's naptime. Oops!

New Camera

I've been having so much fun with the new camera that Andrew gave me for Christmas. I love the close ups that I am able to get of Connor! I anticipate them getting even better when I find the time to read the manual!





Here's a cute one of Connor in the NY Giants shirt my Dad had made for him for his birthday. He wore it out to our brunch with Annie and John on Sunday, the day the Giants played the Eagles. It was a hit (although not with Annie and John- die hard Eagles fans)!

Don't mind the colander, sometimes he likes to walk around with it on his head.

And the back:

So cute!

All moved in and back online!

Thank goodness!! We're all moved into our new place and (finally) hooked up to tv, phone and internet. I've never felt so disconnected before... literally!! I have lots of pictures to share, I'm going to set a goal of a post a day until I'm caught up- we'll see how I do!

Still Here.

We're still here... just behind on updates due to the craziness of the holidays and whatnot. I have many pictures and updates to share- Connor's birthday, his (2nd) 1st Christmas (the first one didn't really count), Andrew and I's first sans Connor vacation, etc. We just got back to NYC yesterday and the adventures continue. Today we survived our first visit to the ER with Connor. Nothing major- turns out we were just two overly cautious parents- darn first timers! It was actually a very good experience- and I was happy to do an ER trial run- something tells me I'll be back there again with this little one! Tomorrow is our big move into our new place- we're so excited!

Thank you to everyone for the fun calls, emails, blog posts/comments, etc. that we received for Connor's birthday. Connor is very lucky to have such wonderful family and friends in his life!

I haven't uploaded the pictures from my camera yet but these are a few cute ones my Dad sent to me.

Lastly, Happy 2009 from the Eichs!!

Connor's "birthday lunch" with my Dad and Derek (who was in from Denver for the holidays!)

A preview of Connor in his Christmas jammies! Hanging with his new Elmo!