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One of the highlights of any Corbo-family birthday is my Grandpa's poem. Here's this year's edition:

"Neva" by Rocco Corbo
When Schooling was finished for Thad, your spouse,
You decided to sell your Brighton, New York house.
Since you sold your house you have one regret,
Giving up your food shopping at the Rochester market.
Put your furnishings in storage, you Nate and Thad
Moved to West Roxbury to be with your mom and dad.
When Thad found employment you went on the run,
Bought a house a few miles away in Arlington.
Did some minor repairs before moving in,
Set up your furnishings, a new life to begin.
When you moved out of the the home of your parents and Jean
You also took Nate, they thought that was mean.
Now settled in your home, relax this fine day
God bless you, I love you, have a happy birthday!
with love,
Grandpa

And now for something completely different, a flashback to warmer, dryer days...

pockets

Nate found his pockets...

not me

I promise, I wasn't the one who put Elmo's head in the oven. I swear!

new england tour rewind

As you have probably realized by now, it's been a hectic summer. So it's not a big surprise that I just realized I had these photos from our visit to Maine earlier this month with Uncle Bob, Krista, Zvonie, Freya, and Annika. The weather was mixed, but that gave us the opportunity to go swimming and also have a fire in the evening. And what's a visit to Maine without blueberry picking and a pie?

Nate has a big crush on Annika. He spent a while laying on the floor with her and trying to hug and kiss her. It got a little out of control when he gave her a hug by laying on her. She's a big girl, but is still only 5 months old, so the poor thing can't fend off the overwhelming affection. Then, shortly after our trip, we were playing at Annika and Freya's house and Nate climbed into Annika's little bouncy chair, right on top of her. We've now had more than a few talks about gentle hugging and Nate regularly says, "Annika squished."

insulation

So far, the majority of the work we've done on our new house is stuff nobody will ever see or notice. Here's a good example - the spruced up insulation under our back room. Isn't this a sexy project?

please!

We've been working with Nate on saying "please" (and "thank you," but we haven't gotten anywhere with that one!) He doesn't say it on his own - I hear that may take years - but if you ask him to ask for something nicely he will oblige. It started out as a simple "please" and then morphed to "please please please!" We apparently must consistently reply, "okay" to Nate's pleas, because as of a few days ago, it's now become "please please please! okay!"

busy busy

If you're interested, I just uploaded the rest of our VT trip photos (I put them under 8/21 with the other pictures).

As you may have noticed, it's been a hectic summer for us. The move went surprisingly smoothly, but the aftermath has given us a lot to do. Thad and I both really enjoy house projects, but we've been up to our ears in them recently. We have a handful of things that we have to finish up before the weather changes (for instance, we have no insulation in the attic and, up until last weekend, we had only a little underneath our family room addition). Nate spent Labor Day weekend (sans Labor Day) with Grandma and Pop-Pop while Thad literally exhausted ourselves doing house projects. And the best part is that nobody will ever notice the difference because we added insulation, reglazed a window, fixed up a closet, and some other misc. hidden projects. Work's also been crazy for both Thad and I, so our time's been at a premium. It looks like the next few weeks will be more of the same, but things should be back to normal next month (keep your fingers crossed!)

In the meantime, Nate's been busy expanding his musical repertoire, counting, and yelling letter names. He sometimes combines his interests and sings something like the Alphabet Song. He has become an avid reader and spends a lot of time on the couch with his books and copies of Babybug and Animal Baby. Thad and I think this is very cool because it's a great learning tool and gives us a little free time to do important things like make cappuccino. Grandma Shirley gave Nate a copy of Hop on Pop that he absolutely loves and he'll run around yelling "Stop! You must not hop on pop!" Although sometimes he leaves out the word "not," which is amusing. His other favorite Hop on Pop quote is "No, Pat, no!" which is also amusing because our next door neighbor is named Pat and I can't imagine what she thinks Nate is talking about.

More babies - very exciting! Welcome Will!