Happy Turkey Day

Thanksgiving Day was an incredible feast of Puerto Rican food! Actually, every day seemed to be a great day of Puerto Rican food thanks to Abuela... I'm sorry to say that Little Miss Hunger Strike missed out. She usually loves red beans & rice, but wouldn't TOUCH it. In fact, she wouldn't touch most of her tried-and-true foods. She even started a new thing in Buffalo, where she'd put a bit of something in her mouth, and then just leave it there! No chewing, no talking, no moving her mouth, no drinking - nothing! We tried several different approaches, and finally after about 20 minutes of having a piece of broccoli sit in her mouth, I got her to open her mouth to take a drink from her sippy so she'd swallow (I'm so smart). Well, she's smarter than Mommy apparently, because she opened her mouth to take a drink and it all just came dribbling out. What the...??? She pulled this stunt on a number of occasions, and I have NO idea why. But I digress...

A bunch of us ate our hearts out at Abuela & Abuelo's, then in the evening most of us headed over to Uncle Bing & Aunt Denise's house for yummy desserts.Thanksgiving morning, watching cartoons and having a snack amonst her "friends". Ellison was totally in love with all of Titi Marie's Hallmark snowmen that move & sing. Here's her infamous fake smile. (hee, hee). :)

Wearing a tiara that Titi Marie gave her

Titi Teresa brought Ellison some new crayons and a turkey picture to color

With Titi Ana

Daddy & Ellison with her Uncle Joe & Aunt Margaret, and their 4 granddaughters (Bianca, Natalia, Genesis, & Gabriela)

A very small sampling of the Soto men: Jon brother, Joe, with his sons, Mikey & Tato; Papi (Jon's dad); Jon; Jon's nephew, Nicholas

Margaret & Gabriela

Oh, Ellison WOULD eat these Christmas cookies by the handful, though! She's licking off the powdered sugar. About every 5 minutes she was asking, "More, please".

[November 27, 2008]

Gathering at the Ortolanos'

On Wednesday of our trip, the 3 of us met up with Daddy's friends and their families for a wonderful dinner at the Ortolanos' house. Kudos go out to Jody & Sal Ortolano, who have a newborn in addition to their 2 other kids, are still getting by on little sleep, had 3 families over for dinner and actually COOKED an incredible fancy meal along with a kids' meal! I would've been like, "Y'all wanna come over for pizza?". Thank you guys - it was a great evening!

The kids had fun in the basement, playing dress-up & video games

Ellison (in princess attire), Massimo (Max) Ortolano and Lily LoTempio

Ava Ortolano, Ellison, & Shelby LoTempio

Shelby

The kids table (minus 2 babies)

Ellison with Ava holding baby Jack Sciolino

Sal and baby Salvatore Ortolano

Tommy and Lily LoTempio

Luke LoTempio

Sal & Jon

Tommy LoTempio, Sal Ortolano, Kevin Sciolino, & Jonathan

Boy, it was funny to see the 4 of these guys all with wives and children after all of the stories we've heard!

Our tired little Mookie

Ava hugging Ellison

Ava is a sweet little mommy - she jumped right in to take care of Ellison & Shelby (whether they liked it or not) ;)

[November 26, 2008]

Snowy Day

We had the most beautiful snowfall one morning in Buffalo. It made us realize how much we miss that part of winter down in the south. Unfortunately it didn't really stick much, but it still made for a beautiful, cozy day.

Playing on the computer with Titi Marie

Reading her new books (thanks, Titi Teresa!) with Titi Marie

Checking out the snow as it started falling

Titi Marie showing her how to make handprints by fogging up the window

Watching the big flakes fall with Titi Marie & Titi Ana

With Titi Ana

[November 26, 2008]

Visit with the Kaufmans

On Tuesday evening, we went to visit our friends, Jeff & Cole Kaufman. Long-term blog readers may remember Cole from our Buffalo visit back in July 2007. He and Ellison are 11 days apart, and their due dates were the exact same day! These 2 little Scorpios (referring to Ell & Cole here) share a love of The Wiggles.

Cole with his daddy, Jeff

I love this pic of Ell - she looks so old!

Ellison was being so sweet handing the balloon to Cole.

OK, this looks bizarre, but I had to capture Ellison's first somersault (hee hee). Cole was like a pro gymnast doing somersaults like crazy, and Ellison soon found that she wanted to try it, too. It hadn't occured to us to teach her that skill yet, but she thought it was cool. It was cute watching these two.

The kiddos with their daddies.

I love this pic - the little tikes giving each other a hug.

Cole's grandma Gigi brought a cute surprise for the little ones - little matching cows (well, Cole's was blue, of course). Ellison keeps calling it, "My hippo". My child does know her animals - it does look a lot like a hippo for the record.

It was getting to be close to bedtime for the toddlers. They both plopped right on my lap and sat still as could be as I read to them. After a long while, they would each start to glare at each other, then a hand would gently "push" at the other, and then one would try to claim more lap territory than the other. A glimpse into the future of life with a sibling??? (And no, I'm not pregnant for those of you about to spread some rumors! If you think you see a tummy on me, it's all of the Puerto Rican food I scarfed down for 8 days).

[November 25, 2008]

We're Here!

We didn't take any pics upon our immediate arrival in Buffalo. It had been nearly 1 1/2 years since we saw some of Jonathan's family, so we just wanted to enjoy the moment. That, and both Jon & I were too lazy to go get the camera upstairs as people came and went. Ellison was instantly pre-occupied with Candy, her Abuela & Abuelo's little dog. I'm going to say she's a Shitzu, but I could be wrong on that. At any rate, she has those lower teeth that stick out - which Ellison was quick to pick up on. "Candy go like this (insert facial expression with Ellison sticking out her teeth)".

Chips became a quick fave snack at Abuela & Abuelo's house. Abuela & Titi Ana are hanging with Ellison during one such snack.

Ellison seeing her little cousins, Bianca & Natalia (Tato's girls), for the first time since she was 7 months old!

Ellison, Bianca, Mommy, & Natalia

Ellison loved the little table & chairs - she was always moving it all over the living room. The girls were fun playmates for Elli.

[November 25, 2008]

"Buttalo"-Bound

No, I am not being "smart" with the title (Buffalo is a great place, despite your preconceived notions) - this is where we were going according to the miss. So we left on November 24, and happened to have our layover in Detroit. It also so happened that our layover was 3 hours long. I kept wondering what we were going to do with a 2 year old for 3 hours in an airport, but I didn't have to fret for long. My parents and my brother and his family all made a long drive down to Detroit just to hang out with us for a couple hours! It worked out so great - we got to see them, we had a good lunch in the Westin hotel (which is in the airport) in a very private area where the kids could be kids, and then hung out in the nice empty lobby area of the hotel. It was so great! The perfect way to spend a layover. Thank you all for taking the time to drive all that way to see us! Okay, well, to see Ell... (we know how it is). :)

Ellison, as always, was a great little traveler for her 6th plane trip. Actually, she was awesome for the entire trip (minus her food strikes, but that's another blog). As much as we were annoyed at having to pay for a ticket for her now that she's 2, it sure was nice for her to have her own seat! She just chilled out and watched her usual: Curious George and The Wiggles.

Yay! Cousin time! Emma, Lucas, Elli, and Olivia

Getting loved up by Grandma


Andrea (my sis-in-law), Mom, and me

Ellison and her Papa (newly bearded).

Grandma & Papa with all of their grandkids

Uncle Josh with Mookie

Miss Olivia

Aunt Sissy with the kiddies

The kids (especially Ell) were absolutely fascinated with the Zen gardens. (Note to Santa). Seriously, it kept her occupied the entire time we were in the lobby. I'm sure housekeeping was thrilled with us and the pound of sand left scattered on the floor.

Since we went out of town (you'll see), I am a little behind on updating this. And I'm going to try a new layout since my blood pressure rises trying to fix and work with the old format. We'll see what happens here...
Anyways, before we left, we had the good fortune of having Daddy's nephew, Tato (real name Pedro, aka Peter) come to visit us overnight while he was in the area on business. Ellison, as she is with most men, loved having him around. For a couple of days following, she kept saying, "Where Tato?". The good thing was, this was a sneak peak into our upcoming Buffalo trip to visit Jonathan's family.

You can tell Tato has 2 girls of his own - he jumped right in with Ellison to play babydolls (or whatever else) with her. She was happy to have a "new" playmate.

Giving a "five"