Spring is Here

Spring we hope is finally here to stay. Thankfully all (well, almost all) the snow is gone. We took the day to do some yard work, raking up all the dog residue from the winter on and my goodness is was a mine field out there.

AJ as usual wanted to help out as much as he could. He loved raking and shoveling the last little bit of snow left on our property. He liked playing in his new house, the buggy and shopping cart (all left behind by Brian's former tenants and cleaned up by mommy this morning).

Hopefully the warm weather will continue so we can spend more time outdoors.

Sunrise on my way to work earlier this week

Here is AJ with one of the many rakes he was "helping" with

Click HERE to view more pictures

The day AJ turned Two

As you all may be aware by now, Sunday was AJ's 2nd birthday. AJ had an early start to the day and the 1st thing he asked about when I went into his room was his cake, then dada, then the doggies. He was very excited to come downstairs and see all the CARS decorations. All the excitement built up and he wanted nothing to do with a nap.
Guests arrived by noon and AJ was very happy to see everyone - especially the little ones that are his same age. All the little kids enjoyed chasing Dixie around the house. Tails the Clown was a hit and the pinata and cake were also favorites of the day.
Gift opening was also an adventure as every kid wanted to be involved in some way and we had tons of little helpers helping out handing presents to me or AJ (thanks Jordan and Danny), Marina and Luna were also helping out by opening some presents for AJ.

The evening entertainment involved a very detailed neverending game of Phase 10 and AJ playing with his upgraded car (thanks Mike Gallo) as well as his piano from nonnie and many of the other toys.

Even though there was a very visible exhaustion, AJ wanted nothing to do with night night because there were still guests at the house and he never wants to miss a thing. He finally gave in after 2 minutes of crying and was fast asleep!

I hope everyone had a good time, I know AJ, Brian and I did.

Here are some pictures....
Here is dad putting the finishing touches on AJ's cake on Saturday


AJ opening up one of his favorite presents


click HERE for more pictures from Sunday!!!

Oh Poop!

I'm sure this is high on the excitement list for everybody....but AJ actually pooped in his potty tonight. I suspect it was more a case of lucky timing on my part as AJ was getting ready for his bath...but I'll take it. We secretly think he's waiting for Papa Bell to show him the ropes!

Sorry for not having a picture - maybe next time! ;o)

Chocoholics Anonymous?

Houston, we have another Chocoholic! Many of you already know that the M&M car on the NASCAR circuit is AJ's favorite. He's also now addicted to chocolate milk. AJ's latest trick is to go into the fridge and retrieve the bottle of syrup for us to make him more chocolate milk....actually this time he wanted juice and had the chocolate out for me as well. I had to fake it so he would drink his juice.

Reflecting on two years ago.....

Well, we all know time flies. People always said it was different and that time went by faster once you had kids and I never believed it. This past Saturday I realized just how true that statement made by those parents was! We went to Picture People to have his 2-yr portraits taken and I just stood there and watched in amazement as the tiny little baby two years ago was now saying he wanted a "chair" or "the car" and something that was "yellow" (I still don't know what he wanted that was yellow. He was giggling and laughing and running away from the photographer. I just had to smile but at the same time, it made me sad that he's growing so fast right in front of my eyes. It brought back memories of when he was born.

AJ will be TWO years old this coming Sunday the 25th of March. I can still vividly remember March 25th 2 years ago. Actually the 24th was more memorable :) We had to go to labor and delivery because our little man had not moved at all the entire day and I was so worried since he was already 4 days late. Well, of course AJ did not want out that night and about 5 minutes after I got hooked up to the fetal monitor he started doing the "AJ dance" and since I wasn't dilated enough we got sent home. Brian and I went to Pepe's that night for pizza. My contractions started as soon as we got to Pepe's but I was not going back to the hospital. I wanted my Pepe's and ohhh it's making me want pizza right now!!

I barely slept that night and ended up going to the couch because I kept waking up and moving around due to contractions. At 11am the morning of the 25th my doctor's office called to check up on me. I was irritated, tired, in pain and still having very irregular contractions. I was told to go in and of course I didn't want to because I was just exhausted and I just "KNEW" they were going to send me back home. I went in to the doctor's office at 1pm.

I was back home by 2:15, 4cm's dilated and on my way to the hospital. Brian and I were on the road by 2:30 and at the hospital by 3pm. AJ was born under 3 hrs later at 5:56pm on Good Friday March 25th 2005.

AJ 3/25/2005

Of all the wonderful things that have happened in my life the birth of our 1st child is one that still makes me so happy I cry. I vividly remember the look on Brian's face. The immesurable amount of love I saw on his face when he saw AJ. At that moment, that instant, I knew I just knew everything was right, everything was perfect. Our little man had arrived.

AJ on Easter Sunday ready to go home

One of my favorite pictures of Brian & AJ

Almost 2 years later, here is our AJ playing it up for the camera:

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY AJ!!!

The Bells Take Manhattan

Over the weekend we had a little getaway in NYC while AJ stayed with the Aviles'. We had some of our vacation club points to use, so we used them to stay in town at the Loews Regency. Here's what we did this weekend...

Friday, March 9th
After taking the train in from New Haven, we walked to our hotel and dropped off our bags. We went on a little adventure and took the subway over to Times Square for dinner. Not being terribly familiar with the subway system, we managed to find our way. Once we reached Times Square, we had dinner at Virgils BBQ - and ate way too much as usual. After dinner, we walked around town a little bit - stopping by the M&Ms world store and the Hershey's store. More on those on Saturday! Since we were still full from dinner, we decided to walk back to the hotel. The weather was beautiful in the city, and a great night to be out.

Saturday, March 10th
We slept in and finally ventured out for lunch. We were planning on seeing a show at 2pm, so we figured we'd get some lunch somewhere nearby. We ended up at the Starlite Deli, which was just up the street from the St. James theatre. I had a nice chicken cutlet sandwich and Millie had some turkey pastrami. By the time we were finished, the line was starting to reach us. It was almost showtime!

We had tickets to see The Producers - what a great show! Tony Danza was playing one of the main roles - and his last performance was to be on Sunday. The show was really funny and we really enjoyed it. It was pretty long, but well worth it....there was even a little surprise at the end. You'll have to see the show to find out what it is!

Since it was a little early for dinner, we decided to wander around a little bit. We went into the M&M's World store to browse as well as get AJ a picture of his M&M car. It's his favorite on the NASCAR circuit. Think 3 floors of M&M stuff...very cool. In comparison, we also went to the Hershey store across the street - we had been there before but now it seemed like a huge letdown. Only 1 floor in a relatively cramped space.

From there, we headed back in the direction of our hotel to visit 30 Rockerfeller Center and the Top of the Rock. 72 stories up and a little breezy, but you can't beat the view. We want to go back during the day next time. Sounds like a field trip to me.

We went back downtown and had dinner at Bella Napoli off Times Square. The food was good, and one of the waiters kept wanting to sing "Copa Cobana" - not sure why :o)

Sunday, March 11th
Today the clocks changed. Not that it affected our plans at all. We slept in and checked out around noon. From there we walked to Grand Central. We passed the Audi, Porsche/Maserati and Mercedes dealers along the way - drooling at the windows. After lunch in Grand Central, we boarded the 1:07 train for home. AJ was very happy to see us when he got up from his nap.

And yes, the weather was beautiful all weekend. And we did go to the Disney Store and the ESPNZone. Not that going to the Disney Store should come as a surprise to anyone.