Babies Are Busting Out All Over!

Jun 21, 2006

Did I tell you I'm going to be a grandpa? Yes, a Grand Pa! Dani is due to deliver a grandson on or around November 5th. That's a mere 137 days from today and the excitement is building. Dani and Erik visited us this weekend - to celebrate Father's Day with the grandpa-to-be. She now looks officially pregnant and feels the the baby moving around on a regular basis (although we, on the outside, can't yet feel him). A couple of weeks ago the sonogram showed what seems to be a nice-looking face and some other features that indicated the gender of little critter.


Take a look at our future grandson!


Here's my beautiful daughter at four-and-a-half months pregnant.


Don't press too hard.


That's my daughter and grandson.

We had a very busy weekend. Dani and Erik had not been here for a long time. Instead, we've made the trip up to Clifton Park (near Saratoga Springs) to see them. One reason for the one-way visits -- they have to bring their two cocker spaniels and that's not easy.


Dani and Erik in front of our neighborhood coffee shop.

Talk about babies - my niece Jessica just had her second (as readers of this blog will already know), named for his great-grandpa: Ben Weinstein (my dad). Ben was on display this weekend at his older sister's third birthday party. Can it be that Jordan is already three? To the oft-asked question, "where does the time go?" I can only reply - "it goes! Faster and faster."

We drove out to Babylon with Dani and Erik to Jessie and Ed's home. The joint was jumping and crawling with little kids and new babies. And the guest of honor, 3-year old Jordan, was having a blast.


An impromptu partial-family portrait in Jess'n Eddie's backyard.


My great-nephew Luke takes a picture of me while I take a picture of him.


Dani plants a kiss on the head of Ben Mosher - the lastest addition.


Lee with Jessica (l.) and Corey.


Happy birthday dear Jordan.


A birthday cupcake for the birthday girl. Yum!


Jordan and her cousin Olivia.


This is Olivia - she has Marlo's fabulous smile!


Inge and her son, Malte (Marlo's husband).


Uncle Matt's "special birthday picture" of niece Jordan.


The Mosher family (minus Baby Ben, who was sleeping).


The place was crawling with babies! -- a whole new generation.

Back at home, we hung out, went out for pizza at a neighborhood joint and just enjoyed our daughter's company (and Erik's). The big topic of conversation was not just the impending grandson coming our way. There was still another baby, just born a day or so before: Lizzy (daughter of Peter, Stacey's brother) had given birth to a baby boy: Jordan (another Jordan??) Cassius Hatosy. It seems the Weinstein, Mosher, Lorenz, Press and Hatosy families are doing their part to make the world a more crowded place. But, that's LIFE!


Mom and daughter (and baby) back home and taking it easy.


Here's Lizzy and Shawn's new baby.(Sent via phone camera).


Lizzy and Jordan.

Celebrating Dottie's Birthday - Part II

We left Brian at home and Ellen and we drove over to Kathy's friend Marcia's house. That's where the surprise was to be set. When we arrived we saw Kathy and a bunch of friends busily setting up food and drink and getting things ready.


A nice spread for Dottie's surprise party.


Kathy and friend/helper Suzie.


Kathy greets some friends: Juan and his two daughters, Ixchel and Ixulim.

Guests soon started to arrive. Two young Guatemalan girls, students of Kathy, arrived with their parents, Juan and Eluvia. The two families have become good friends.They and their daughters were decked out in Guatemalan traditional clothing. Later, they would perform a tradtional dance in honor of Dottie.


Some more friends: Deborah, Kathy, Marcia and Nora.


And we were there too -- Matt and Stacey.


Nora and Kathy watching the festivities.

Dottie was to arrive at any moment and we all moved into the living room - getting into position to gently surprise her. Rick, Kathy's husband, had gone to Dottie's apartment to bring her over and we posted a lookout near the door to keep watch for their approach.


Getting ready to surprise the guest of honor.

When Dottie walked in and saw us gathered there, she was genuinely shocked. After a few moments, tears of joy welled up in her eyes and it took a few minutes for her to compose herself.


What do you think? Surprised?


Happy, surprised and a bit overwhelmed.


I can't believe Stacey is here!


Eluvia gives Dottie a big, warm embrace.


The tears quickly turned to happiness and smiles.


Rick and Kathy ... lots of fun watching Mom having fun.


Dottie peruses Reuben's sushi photos.


Dottie looked beautiful. She's a very young 88!


Eluvia and Juan perform a dance for Dottie.

After the dance, Kathy's homemade cake was brought out, wishes made and candles extinguished. We sang happy birthday, enjoyed the cake and watched as Dottie opened her presents. The afternoon was a great success: delicious food and drink, good people and lots of good talk. We were all there to celebrate the birthday of a grand woman and I felt a lot of love and respect emanating from that house.


Make a wish and blow out the candles.


Happy Birthday Dottie! We love you!

To see all the photos...just click HERE!

Celebrating Dottie's Birthday

We were on the move again recently ... this time to Arlington, Virginia and a long-postponed visit with my cousin Dottie. Kathy, her daughter, lives down there and Dottie moved to be close to her about a year ago. Since then we visited only once and that was soon after she moved.

The occasion this time was a surprise party for Dottie that Kathy organized. It was her 88th birthday - a great reason to celebrate. We stayed with our friends, Ellen and Brian, who also live in Arlington and whom we had also not seen since our trip to France last fall. We stuck our bikes on the back of our Honda van and took a long and rainy drive south, arriving at the Egan home about 5 p.m. on Friday. We had dinner with our friends, chatted and hung out for a while and then hit the sleeping sack, very tired. Since the birthday party was not till 2:30 the next day, we planned to bike into Washington Saturday morning for breakfast with Ellen and Brian.


Ellen applies sunscreen before starting out on our bike ride to breakfast in Washington. We love their house and they've just added a lovely screened room that overlooks a lush back yard. Beautiful!

One great thing about Arlington and Washington - is the bounty of recreational possibilities. There are well-maintained bike/ped paths galore, a multitude of parks and great natural beauty everywhere. We pedaled across the Chain Bridge to get to the northern side of the Potomac and the bike path that would take us into Georgetown. The path runs along a canal that was used to carry goods and products from Washington to the hinterlands out "west". Among its investors was George Washington. But before it could really get going, the railroad came along and put the venture into bankruptcy. Today, the old towpath serves walkers, joggers, bikers and nature lovers and the canal is filled with ducks, geese and turtles instead of flat-bottomed barges. It's quite idyllic to ride along this pretty canal and then end up several miles later in the lovely and very gentrified village of Georgetown with its hilly streets and quaint old townhouses, shops and many, many restaurants.


Brian is passed by another biker as we ride along the bike path to Georgetown.


There goes Mother Goose and family.


Ellen and Stacey bring up the rear.


We stopped to watch the action.


I'll take the low road and you take the high road ... and I had to shlep my bike up 100 steps at the end of the ride!

We've always loved Georgetown - what's not to love? It's elegant and old and has great old buildings. Of course, it's terribly crowded - overflowing with residents and visitors and their cars! (why don't they just get out of the cars and WALK??) And it's oh-so-fashionable with its uber-trendy stores and eating places. In that regard it can be as pretentious as Soho in Manhattan. So there. I answered my own question -- that's what's not to love about Georgetown.


Entering Georgetown - a remnant of its past - the canal and the old industrial warehouses - now trendy shops and such.

We leaned our bikes against a wall and sat down at a busy outdoor cafe on a back alley down near the canal. After our repast, we biked back to get ready for Dottie's surprise bash. We've done this ride many times before - it's always fun to hang with Ellen and Brian and we've shared many nice times together over the years. These are great old friends.

In my next installment: Dottie's Birthday Bash - stay tuned.


Stacey waits to be served in Georgetown.


Our friend, Brian, checks the menu.


Hanging out in their new screened porch.

In my next installment: Dottie's Birthday Bash - stay tuned.

Duba Comes To Town

My sister's in town. This is the first time in several years so it was an exciting event for the 2/3's of the family that lives here in New York. The occasion? Kris returned to the States from Germany where he's working (singing, not dancing) in the Lion King - the German version in Hamburg. Thus, the perfect occasion for a family reunion! The only ones missing? Dani and Erik, upstate New York and Michael in Los Angeles.

Duba had just undergone a replacement of both knees. This was just two months ago. And yet here she was, walking, climbing stairs, touring New York City - no cane; no walker. Based on her remarkable recovery, her surgeon wants to make her the poster child for knee replacement!

Stacey and I picked up my sister at LaGuardia on Sunday morning. Kris, staying at his NYC digs in Harlem, met us there and the four of us drove out to the South Shore of Long Island for brunch at Lee and Alexis's place in Bay Shore. Duba had not seen their new house (nor had she seen our Brownstone in Brooklyn), not to mention all the new kids that the Weinstein offspring have been producing.


Stacey, Lee and Kris enjoy some old photos that we discovered in a box in our basement.


Kris plays one of the hyenas in the Lion King....see??


My sister and sister-in-law. Not bad, eh?

Alexis had prepared a wonderful spread and pretty soon one of the families arrived, kids in tow: the Mosher family: Jessica and Ed and (almost) 3-year old Jordan and the new little baby boy: Benjamin Mosher.


Here come the Moshers!


Mom looks on as Aunt Stacey squeezes a very cute Jordan.


Please Uncle Matt, no photos. Yeah, right!


A kiss for a long distant cousin.


Hi Ben! Whassup?


Jessie, Kris and the newest addition, Ben.


Once more.


Sweet Benjamin.


Aunt Duba gets to know her niece Jordan.


This is my new brother!

We hung out at Lex and Lee's, having a grand time, talking, walking and playing, grownups and kids. But the day was getting on and we still had another stop: the Lorenz household. They had been at their beach house on Fire Island but were returning home to Islip and we were meeting them there at five. Off we went - Duba had not seen the twins, Luke and Olivia for many years.


Luke on his karate punching bag (or some such thing). These kids turn six this summer....wow! was that fast!


Marlo and Kris on the deck.


Malte - just back from Fire Island.


Stacey, Alexis and Marlo enjoying something.....what's so funny?


Just Alexis.


Luke and Kris ... Play ball!


And this, of course, is the beautiful Olivia.

We said our farwell to the Long Island branch of the family. It had been a long day. But driving back west to Brooklyn, we stopped for a spicy dinner at Planet Thailand in Williamsburg. Then we dropped Kris off at a subway in Manhattan and headed home to Underhill Avenue and .... sleep.