andy hudak day

Last night we went to my dad's retirement party (sans Nate) where we met lots of nice Bostonians who, to our disbelief, had nice things to say about my father. And that was before they opened the bar! We also learned that May 15, 2008 had been officially proclaimed "Andrew J. Hudak Day" by the mayor - I'm anticipating the future anniversary celebrations of Pop-Pop Day. It was nice for me to finally meet a lot of the people who I've heard about during my dad's tenure with the city and to be there while everyone talked about how much he had given to My Fair City. Since Nate was home with his Great Aunt Anne (who he's decided to call "Annie"), you instead get pictures of my dad.

tower

Nate's 18 months old today - woah! When did that happen?! We can now officially count in years.

One of Nate's favorite things these days, aside from trucks, is building towers. He's actually quite good at it and especially loves these big lego blocks (especially the ones with wheels that look like little vehicles - brrmmm brrrmmm!) So I thought I'd be maternal and take a photo of him next to his creation. But, alas, we have a problem. Nate freaks out at the sight of the camera, wanting to look at the viewer to see pictures of Thad. If Thad's around it's less of an issue, but those times are few and far between, so instead we have loads of photos of Nate screaming. Thank goodness for digital!

a full weekend

As you may have surmised, the ice cream truck woke Nate up from his nap on Saturday. To make the most of the extended afternoon hours, we headed over to the zoo. Nate informed us of the many animals that roar. First it was the tiger. Then the lion (who actually roared right in front of us!) And finally the camel. We tried to convince him that the camel doesn't roar, but he insisted. Perhaps he knows something we don't? We couldn't identify the usual camel noise, so maybe they do roar? Zoo highlights included other children roaring (more exciting than the lion), the decal of a bird stuck to the window near the boring lion, the ball in the gorilla exhibit, wheels on strollers, and airplanes flying overhead.




























For mothers day we had a delicious breakfast of crepes and fruit, a big hit for everyone, and then we headed off to the Arboretum for a stroll in the park. It was Lilac Sunday, which is a tiny bit like Lilac Festival in Rochester but on a miniscule scale (for instanced, only one fried dough vendor and two performing groups.) However, there were lilacs in bloom and the weather was wonderful. Nate really enjoyed seeing all the other people, especially those on bicycles (which he pronounces "mummin" for no apparent reason.) Nate was very excited about the dandelions, which like camels, go "roar!"

ice cream trucks

I hate the ice cream truck. It always drives by our house during naptime blaring a computer-version of "I had a little chicken who wouldn't lay an egg..." and ALWAYS wakes up Nate. Isn't there some rule against that? Can't the driver go hang around a park or something? And with the price of gas these days, I can't imagine looping around neighborhoods incurring the wrath of parents with non-napping children is all that lucrative. Aargh!

Here's another shot of one of Nate's fabulous hiding places... bet you can't find him!

an exciting day

Nate had an amazing day yesterday. It started off with a breakfast of muffins, which were a huge hit. So much so that Nate was shaking with excitement as we got breakfast together. Then we went outside to see... lots of trucks! Our street was being repaved so most of the residents of Garth Road were annoyed that we couldn't drive in and out or park on our street. But not Nate. He was overjoyed by all the trucks. There were two dump trucks, a power roller, two gradalls, and some other misc. trucks, all crammed into our teeny little block. While we were watching the trucks work we saw the two girls next door, so Nate went over for a visit and had fun playing with their amazingly complete Disney princess collection. Then we went back out to watch the trucks some more. Inside for some milk and then back to the trucks. Across the street to play with another neighbor (and his toy trucks), then back to watch the trucks. We got to know the road builders quite well over the course of the day - I was really happy because they were very sweet with Nate. They'd wave and say "hi" to him, show him their trucks, and other exciting interactions. But far and away, the highlight of the day was when they let Nate ride the power roller - wow!!! He was seriously the happiest kid in the world.

babies babies everywhere

Meet our newest cousin, Annika!















Haha - here she is (with a goofy-looking Nate)

birthday season

Grandma (aka my mother) was sick on her actual birthday (part of barf-o-rama 2008) so we had a belated celebration yesterday. Nate was particularly interested in the balloons and, to make things even more exciting, Aunt Jeannie bought some sparkly balloon stickers that Nate has been proudly sporting on his hands.