Miller Family Blog

The House That Is 7 Blocks Away

Well, seeing as it's been one month to the day since I last blogged, I thought now would be good a time as any to update everyone on The Millers.

First of all, we hope you all had a happy and healthy Holiday season. I bet a bunch of you would be willing to jump on the "I can't believe it's 2005 already?!" bandwagon with me huh? My bandwagon is actually a little more detailed because it is officially called the "I can't Believe It's 2005 And I am 24 Years Old With Two Children Under 16 Months Old and I Just Bought A Home So Now I Am Forced To Feel Guilty Everytime I Make a Needless Target Run" Bandwagon. See, I told you mine was a little more complex. Oh, and more about the house later!!

Oh ok fine; I'll talk about the house now!

THE MILLER FAMILY'S FUTURE HOME!

My Dad and I (oh and Emily... we had to get her approval first you know) went to an Open House about 3 weeks ago up the block. To break it down for you, I will tell you that right now, my parents and Vin and myself live right by 4th street. I just bought a house on the corner of my current block and 11th street. In case you need help with the math, that's 7 blocks away. And these aren't city blocks we are talking. They are short little nothing blocks. 7 of them. Not even a main road seperating us. 7 blocks. If we stand on the sidewalks to our respective houses, we can probably wave to each other. That was the best part! That sealed the deal right there (well not for Vinny, but for myself... 7 blocks was key). Ok so geting back on track, the house was adorable! It's a 3 bed/1 bath Ranch with a nice backyard and a huge, two level deck. There is a full basement too. It is pretty much in move-in condition which was a big plus for us as well. So after the quick Open House visit, I went back at night with Vinny and we made an offer. I still kid Vin that he made an offer on a house after seeing it for 5 minutes in the dark. Apparently, the current homeowner (an older woman moving to Senior Housing) is eager to get out so things started rolling right away. Today, three weeks after we first saw the house, we have had the engineer come in (who told us unfortunatly for himself, he couldn't find anything wrong with the house), met with our lawyer, signed our contracts and have a closing date set for February 15th. This is by far the biggest Valentine's gift I ever got!

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ANDREW'S CHRISTENING

Other big news was that today (January 9th) was Andrew's Christening. We had beautiful weather and Andrew had a really great day; lots of family, friends, monetary gifts (what? Did I type that? How did that get in there?). He was all decked out in his white tux complete with cummerbund and bowtie. Oh and his new St. Michael medal (given to him by his Godparents: Matt and Pam). I think he looked part "guido" actually. Something about that gold chain dangling on the white jacket's collar; very Tony Soprano. Andrew was Baptised at the 11:30am mass with one other baby; a little girl named Abigail. The ceremony took about an hour (and it was presided over by the same Priest who married myself and Vinny and did Emily's Christening) and afterwards, we went to Rose Marie's restaurant for a family party. I think it's safe to say a good time was had by all. Emily would definitely tell you she had a good time; she got to eat cookies before dinner and skip her nap altogether. That, in toddler-hood, equals a good day.

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ANDREW'S PEDIATRICIAN APPOINTMENT

Just this past week, Andrew went to see Dr. Gunsberger for a well-baby check-up. He weighs close to 16 pounds (90th%) and is 24" long (50th%). The doctor said he's a big boy! (You'd be too if you were taking cereal in your bottles although if you still drink a bottle, I'd have to start my questioning there). He got some routine vaccinations and overall, looks great! I did mention that he has a "lazy eye" and the doctor noted it when he was doing the eye exam. He said if it doesn't clear up by 6 months, he will have to wear an eye patch. Now don't start poking fun and making Pirate jokes- Vinny and I are already way ahead of you. :) I actually started singing in the exam room "yo ho ho ho a pirate's life for me". Am I the meanest Mom or what?! Vinny has taken to calling him "Boostrap Miller". I walked out of the appointment with my healthy baby, 9 bottles of FREE formula (score!) and a free TV guide for this week (complete with a line-up of all of my new Reality shows). I was a happy camper.

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PRINCESS ESMERELDA

Emily. What a gem. She should be a one-man variety act for sure! She is hands-down the funniest kid I've ever met (although maybe I'm biased because I'm her Mom but I digress....) She has become such an intelligent little person lately and it's a lot of fun! She really is picking up lots of different words everyday so communicating what she wants is getting easier and easier. Some fun facts in the world of Emily include:

1. She's finally getting good with her manners (she says "Pwease" for everything but we are still working on "thank you".)

2. She really understands her videos and their content now. Whereas she used to stare blankly at the screen, she knows which parts are coming next. For example, she has a Grover video that we love but there is one section where "Super Grover" crashes into the trees over and over again. Everytime it comes on, Emily runs over to me. That, and the part where that big, ugly elephant (his head is too small... has anyone else noticed this?) comes trapsing across the screen (in a tutu no less. And it's a male elephant. What's that all about?) and the whole screen shakes. But that elephant scares even me so I'm kinda with Em on that one.

3. Oh oh oh: she knows how to work my VCR- like really work it- it's not just a fluke! She pushes in her video, she knows which button is "power" and she takes a seat on her couch. It's the funniest when I'll be listening to a program in the morning and all of a sudden I hear Sesame or Barney credits rolling and I'm like "that is not the program we just had on!" Ah- my little Einstein.

4. Emily is very much into utensils now. I'm so proud of her when she really tries but sometimes the OCD Gina gets a little anxiety attack or two as I watch yogurt being flung on my floor (on accident, of course). She loves to feed herself anything and everything off a spoon, so she's been eating lots of yogurt, applesauce-like fruits, pastina, rice..... she really tries but is it bad of me that sometimes I just have to step in and take control?

5. She gives real hugs! Real, affectionate, arms wrapped around your neck hugs. Well not to everyone. Just to her Mommy. ;)

6. And some random notes: Emmie's current "schedule" (and if you know me, you know I'm all about the schedule) is usually: in bed around 8pm, awake around 8:30am and a two to three hour nap starting around noon. She's still like clockwork for the most part. As far as food goes, she's been getting a little picky because of this newfound utensil freedom. Things she does eat on a regular basis include:

breakfast: pancakes (with or without syrup & strawberry jelly!), Belgian waffles, French toast, scrambled eggs with cheese, fruit cups, yogurt (we love the fun-flavored Trix ones), cold cereals in milk (like Frosted Flakes or Fruity Pebbles), cereal bars or Nutrigrain muffin bars. With breakfast is always a side of fruit; mandarin oranges, peaches (she actually says "peashes" now), pears, apples, pineapple, bananas... Her most favorite type of peaches are the ones that come flavored in strawberry-banana syrup.

lunch: grilled cheese (sometimes with a slice of ham stuck in there but she usually finds it and spits it out), soups, peanut butter and jelly... a new item she likes are the mini hot dogs (like cocktail franks). She gobbles them up when I cut them into dime-sized pieces. Oh and she just LOVES black beans! I am kind of excited about this because she's not a big meat eater so at least I know the beans are full of protein.

dinner: sometimes what we are having... she always has veggies on the side: carrots, peas, corn, green beans, black beans. Pastina is still a favorite. She likes cheese-filled tortellinis and raviolis in sauce, with meatballs. She LOVES meatloaf if it's smothered in gravy. She will eat almost any side we eat like noodles, mashed potatoes, rice, corn casserole, etc.

snacks: Oh man does this kid snack alot! She always asking for a snack! She just loves her mini Goldfish crackers. She also still eats Veggie & Fruit puffs, Gerber fruit juice snacks, raisins, yogurt-covered raisins, cheese, cookies, fruit, veggie crackers, blah blah blah.....

drinks: milk (she always asks for her "mil"), orange juice, cranberry, apple, strawberry~banana juices, sometimes she gets watered-down Kool Aid as a treat, sometimes plain water. She also loves yogurt drinks so sometimes as a snack I make her a "shake": milk and a flavored yogurt drink.

** Ok I know some of you are like "why do I care what her kid eats at every meal of the day?" but I know the girls on my board will enjoy reading it. ;) **

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THE FUTURE CHEFS OF AMERICA

My brother Andrew and I started Pastry classes this weekend! We signed up for a 13-week Pastry Arts course at the Culinary Academy in Syosset. It's a program that meets every Saturday from 8:30am-5:30pm and at the end of the 13 weeks, we are Certified Pastry Chefs. Wait it gets funnier- we wear uniforms! The black and white checked pants, aprons...all the way down to the chef's hat! They also gave us a "toolbox" (hey, $2300 tuition has to pay for something right?!) filled with all of our knifes and baking utensils; pastry bags, flower tips, bowl scrapers, measuring cups, etc. When Andrew and I were walking into the commercial kitchen yesterday decked out in our uniforms with the big yellow toolbox in hand, I told him I felt like a mad scientist entering our laboratory. ;)

So we get to class yesterday and we have to fill out index cards. The first question was "on a scale of 1-10, what is your baking skill level"? Ummm is it wrong to put "10" on your first day of class? I put a 9, just to knock myself down a peg. Every week is a new topic so yesterday was the easiest; cookie week. We got about 15 cookie recipes and with our partner, the whole class had to knock out as many as they could. I was assigned to the mini black and white cookies; they had to be the size of quarters. They came out delish but were a PITA to frost. I mean, it was fun for like the first ten cookies but then I was getting a wee bit bored. It was a lot of work... trust me! 8 hours of baking is WORK, I don't care what anyone says! Oh and the best part; you get to bring in big boxes and/or containers and take your baking home! So we actually walked in with all of our cookies last night to give out to the family. Of course Emily's eyes lit up when she saw "keys" ("cookies") and I was so excited to have my own little taste tester that I let her take a bite out of maybe 5 different kinds. Well, that just ended with me cleaning puke off of my couches last night so remind me to not allow her to sample "cheesecake week" ok? Next week is "breads" and we are taking class with a professional bread baker. I'll update on that sometimes in the next week or two.

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So I think I touched on all topics going on over here. We've been busy with the Hokidays (as I am sure EvErYoNe was!) but now that it's the middle of January, we are looking forward to relaxing a bit and finalizing plans for our new house. I'm sure I'll be back with a post or two when it comes times to decorate!

posted by Gina M @ 9:15 PM