Our Christmas Holiday - 2009

My blogging went on a temporary hiatus as I lost my camera about a month back and had no way to put pics with Roman's random antics. Luckily, hubby saved the day with a new camera for Christmas - and a beaut at that! My Panasonic Lumix was the perfect gift to get me back on my p's and q's for 2010. (Does anyone know what that exactly means, anyway? P's and Q's, and why I should want to be on them? Oh well, I digress....

The big gift this year was definitely going to have to be something with trains, as my previous post eluded to Roman's new obsession with all things Thomas being almost more intense than his previous love of airplanes (though no mutually exclusive, of course). So we found a great Thomas the Train set called "Thomas and the Airport". It included trains, but also a helicopter pad, airplane runway, and even firetruck and ambulance. We figured that would hold him til he could decide whether he'd be a conductor or aviator.

After the train tracks were spotted, we opened a few more gifts (mainly trains for the set) and spent the morning playing with trains. By noon, Grandma Pat and Uncle John had shown up and round two of the gifts were done.

As he has for the last few years,

Maurice's Uncle John came down for a visit this Christmas and spent the better part of a week. Roman and Uncle John hit it off well, and the two were laughing in stitches in no time. Grandma followed the Thomas theme with books and pajamas and even a Thomas sheet set, all of which were a hit. The book became an instant classic which she had to read to him countless times before his nap.

And Nana and Da scored big with videos of Roman's fave show WordWorld. If you have little ones and have not yet gotten a glimpse of this PBS show, its well worth a look. I don't proport that all TV is okay for kids, but this one gets it right in my book. Its his 30min a day guilty pleasure. (Unless he's at Nana's, in which case he can guilt her into any amount of time he wants!)
Granny Ann knew the best way to Roman's heart was with his fave thing next to Thomas....letters. She got him these great letter puzzles, which he quickly devoured. (And unfortunately, quickly lost some letters to. Good thing she got two of each!

But the gift of the night came from Auntie Rhonda and Charles IV, who sent Roman a mat made of capital letters. If you have not yet seen my son's obsession with letters, words and pretty much anything of spelling, you won't get how excited he was. And I wish I had caught his reaction on tape. But the pics are worth a thousand words anyway.

After gifts, Roman took an nap and the ladies retired to the kitchen to start dinner. The menu wasn't intense, but it was filling. Roasted Cornish Hens, Caramelized Butternut Squash, Brussel Sprouts w Pancetta, Horseradish Scallopped Potatoes, Bacon wrapped Green Beans and Garlic Rolls. The food coma was almost immediate....but we did hold off long enough for Key Lime Pie and Carrot Cake :)

It was a rare occasion to have my Grandmother travel to Atlanta and made all the more special by having her on hand to see her Great Grandson open his gifts. After dinner, we took some pics to commemorate the event and everyone dispersed.

That next afternoon, we traveled to Conyers to Nana's house to see everyone again and get more time with Granny Ann. Roman stayed with them while Uncle John, Maurice and I went to see Up in the Air w/George Clooney (highly recommend, BTW). After we got back, Roman took a few more pics with Granny before she left the following day.

Getting a little stir-crazy and feeling the first temperatures above 40 degrees (and with Mama wanting to try out her new camera outdoors), we ventured to the park by our house to get some fresh air. This is our favorite park bc its usually pretty empty in the afternoon's when the kids leave from school, and they have playgrounds for each age range, so he can be the master of his domain. We hung out and Mama got to try her new camera angles, though I resigned myself to realizing that I still need PictureMommy to get great shots. Oh well....I can get there one day.

While I was glancing at these pictures and preparing this upload, I watched some of last year's videos and looked at pictures from his first Christmas and realized just how quickly time flies. And how fragile and delicate moments in life can be. I love the holidays, especially Christmas, if for no other reason than it presents to us a great opportunity to reflect, refresh and recommit our lives. In putting my little one to bed this Christmas season, each night I thanked God for the greatest gift He could have ever given me, and asked that he afford me another day to see His glory in this earth. I hope he does the same for you this Christmas season and blesses you with joy unspeakable joy in 2010. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all!

With love from the Bosticks!

All Aboard the Choo-Choo Train

Auntie Rhonda started Roman on his most recent craze – trains – when she bought him the heavily-rotated “Choo-Choo Soul” CD/DVD a year back. I never thought anything would surpass his love of airplanes, but I think trains may have actually done that as of late.

So it was a no-brainer when my co-worker called to tell me that the North Atlanta Trade Center was hosting their annual Train Expo, less than 5 miles from my house, no less. We went immediately after his afternoon nap and the trip did not disappoint.

I know there are people who have fetishes and preferences of all kinds, but it is always a little intimidating to me when I meet people like this. I mean, folks who have tattoos and brands of the object of their affection – in this case, trains. I saw grown men with tattoos of diesel engines and couples with matching conductor outfits right down to the striped overalls (which ALL look like Osh Kosh B’Gosh, no matter how old the person is who is wearing them).

But overall it was a great showcase of some pretty amazing trains. Model trains that ran through microscopic copies of rural towns to a small village set up with 2 ft long train cars. The favorite of the afternoon for the Bostick Family – an entire city made of Legos’, including a mechanical drawbridge and replica of the Georgia Dome. Yup – you heard me, the GA DOME!

The large-scale train set up was a hit too, mainly bc it was placed on the ground and Roman could watch without us holding him (a plus for all involved) and also bc the models were so large, I think he could have actually ridden them. Trust me, he tried a few times to get over that fence.

After we watched all types of trains and brought yet ANOTHER wooden Thomas, which will undoubtedly be lost between the cracks of the sofa or the underside of Mommy’s seat in the car, we headed home with a new found appreciation for trains and their fans.

A Family Affair - The Bostick Photo Shoot

A Family Affair

Late last month, I finally got my act together and scheduled family pictures for the Bostick’s. Now, I know, most of you have seen hubby, Roman and I in multiple pictures I have taken over the last 19 months of Roman’s life, but I wanted something that was done a little more formally than with my 3 year old, dying digital cam. And I have a soft spot in my heart for well done pictures of a child – they are the easiest way to remember what I imagine are some of the best moments of your life as time moves by so fast.

So the idea of getting pictures done was initially easier than the actual feat. I perused websites and made calls and found that I was not the only one with the “bright idea” to try and schedule a sitting so close to the holidays. Either too expensive, too late or too exotic (one site had a baby dressed in full makeup and peacock feathers…..uh, yeah) I was almost going to give up when I got a recommendation from within one of my mommy groups for a woman who also had a toddler close to Roman’s age. They described her as “local, reasonably priced and very accommodating”. Three better phrases had not been uttered. Even better – it turned out the mommy/photog in question was the parent of one of Roman’s new classmates. Doesn’t get better than that! (Uh, yes, I know I have yet to post the blog about Roman’s new school…..don’t judge me, I’m a busy momma!)

Picture Mommy let me schedule a sitting, and then reschedule when the weather was crap all day, and ended up giving us a 2 hour session that I could not have been happier with. We picked a place that we thought would showcase Roman, which 2 months ago I would have said was Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport, but as of late has been….the train tracks. Yes, we have abandoned our love for 747’s for a new love of double T – Thomas the Train, that is. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t love a good airplane still (hence the tee) but given his preference nowadays, it looks like Amtrak over Airtran apparently.

Picture Mommy met us at a local, deserted track….or so we thought. We lucked up on finding a train sitting idle and got a few great pics there while Roman marveled at the much bigger version of his choo-choo friend. At some point, the train seemed to be “talking” to us, and made a couple of incriminating puffs, so we abandoned it and settled on the closed tracks, which suited Roman just fine.

Daddy joined us and we got to play around on all the things Roman had heard about but never seen up close – the trail switches, signals and more.

From there we headed to a park but never quite made it. We got caught up in the beauty that is Emory’s campus and spent our last hour enjoying green grass and silly faces.

I have to say that I was so impressed with Picture Mommy's professionalism, patience (if you know me, then you know how fast I move…and Roman makes me look sedentary!) and sense of fun. The pics were ready that evening and printed shortly thereafter. I couldn’t have been more thrilled.

Hopefully you enjoy our family pics – I am keeping some of the best for a possible holiday card, if I can ever get my act together. In the meantime, if you should be in the Atlanta area and need a great family photographer, I highly recommend Ms. Picture Mommy and her camera services. Nothing short of a great time!

Name that photo!

Its a weekend evening and I have no time for a blog, but I HAD to share this school picture Roman took last week.

I could not stop laughing when I saw this adorable, but clearly "ham-tastic" photo my son took. My take was that he looked like a Vegas lounge singer looking to break in to a verse of Love Boat. Hubby thinks he's a stand up comedian starting his set. You decide it, but anyway you slice it, its funny!

A "Family" Affair

So Maurice and I both come from pretty small families, which means Roman also has a pretty small, immediate family. Save for my brother (who lives in DC) and brother-in-law’s families, its not a big group when it comes to cousins for him. Which is why I love that, in addition to his biological cousins, two of my best friends have little boys that Roman will grow up being close with even though they aren't nearby.

The first is my girlfriend Rhonda, who’s son Charles is 6 months older than Roman. Charles has been, for a while, a measuring stick of sorts for Roman, who wears Charles' hand-me-downs, reads his book recommendations, watches his DVD favorites (Choo-Choo Soul is still a classic!) and generally lives by the advice that Charles’ mother and I hash out during our daily morning drive-talks. Charles turned 2 this September 7th, same b-day as the hubby, so I scheduled a trip to fly up to DC for his birthday bonanza to ensure the two have time together.

We flew in the day before to spend some QT with my brother’s kids, who each adore Roman and have had the chance to see him some in the last year due to travel both ways by us and them. (See pic from our house a few months back when they visited). They know Roman loves airplanes (by now, who DOESN’T?) and brought him a great plane that even makes noise and lights up. No explaination needed on his excitement.

Then we were off to the party that Saturday afternoon, but clearly unprepared for the “fun house” Charles’ mother had prepared for us. Why, you ask? B/c Rhonda’s Aunt Gail owns not one, not two, but THREE bounce houses! Yeah, this is the woman you want on your block as a kid. Roman was hesitant at first but took to the toys like a champ.

Later, it was time to cut cake and sing to Charles, but as you can….someone did NOT like their birthday hat.

Roman and Ethan had a blast on the push toys, with Roman trying to maneuver around his big cousin, who loved being the “bigger boy” for once.

The trip didn’t last long bc we had to head up to NY to see the newest addition to our “extended” family. BFF Janpeg and hubby Nic just had a bounding baby boy named Jackson James Steele this past August (the 6th, to be exact) and I could not wait to get up there and introduce Roman to his “little brother”. Instead of flying to NY, we decided to ride the evening train from Union Station, assuming Roman would sleep the whole way on the 8pm departure. Uhhh, not sure what we were smoking, but 3 ½ hours later, Maurice and I were delirious from lack of sleep and Roman was calling every passing train Thomas. When Uncle Nic scooped us from Penn Station, Roman proceeded to mark the trip back to the house in Long Island by reciting the letters he saw on all the shiny buildings. There is no video footage of this due to our sheer exhaustion and utter amazement at his lack of sleep. He outlasted both of us and finally was knocked out at 11:30pm….and up the next morning at, you guessed it, 7:15am.

As Godparents to Roman, Peg and Nic have been at all walks of his life, including his christening and b-day party, which was the last time they saw him. He’s grown a bunch since then, but being able to share the time with them and their new bundle of joy was priceless. That is, for me. Roman, on the other hand, took a little *ahem* getting use to for baby Jackson, especially when Mommy was carrying baby and not Roman. I have never seen such jealousy!

But after a day, he was ready to be the bigger man and even let me take Jackson out of his carseat and hold him (while he hovered nearby to make sure I didn’t run off and leave him!) Isn't he just the cutest thing you've ever seen? In his usual newborn stage, I didn't get many pics with his eyes open, but these few were classic! Baby Jackson is a little too small for he and Roman to take pics together, but all the girls agree that the day when we can get all 3 of the boys in a photoshoot will be unforgettable!

I can't wait to watch them grow together, learn together and to share such precious memories with two of the most important people in my life. I wasn't blessed to have sisters of my own to share the experience of motherhood with...but my girlfriends (and their babies) suit me just fine!