Trip Tales IV of IV: Boston and Silly Aunty Keri

Aunty Keri. A little something to share before I tell you about my brief but busy stay in Boston. Aunty Keri was at my home when I was still inside my Mom. She had to fly back to the East for work but stayed a little longer in hope I'd come out. Remember, I was a week late so it was a waiting game for her. Finally, she had to leave and of course with her luck and all, she missed me by 31 minutes. Imagine how heartbreaking it was for her?

All this was repaired when we finally met. Aunty Keri is funny. Boston is neat. She lives in a cool place called North End. There were many places to eat and so little time. I got to meet my "possible" future Uncle Robert (Aunty Lis' beau) and even catch a glimpse of Ashley Olsen (she was no bigger than my Mom's pinky) but still very pretty. Alright, time for photos.



Silly Aunt Keri making "Uncle" Robert nervous as I ride his neck and pull his hair. We were in a restaurant called Bella Vista; one of my Mom's favorite place to eat.



Aunty Keri entertaining me



Wheee!



Aunty Keri wanted to be competitive and cover my "I heart NY" by getting me the Boston sweater.



Sorry Aunty Keri, I think NY still rocks too!

Sucking on Silly Aunty Keri's nose

EEEW says she! Her nose was dribbling with my salvia



Birds, birds and birds! They're the newest discovery I've come to love (as well as TREEEEEEES!)



We ate at Antico's on Salem St in North End. My Mom put this thing on my head and everyone thought it was hilarious. I guess I thought so too and left it on for awhile.



My sweet revenge on my Ma :)



The Boston gang and us in my Mom's world favorite cafe called Caffe Vittoria. She had two Tiramisus, coffee with some Italian medicine.

My trip ended great. I enjoyed meeting the Kulchinsky family, seeing Aunty Kim, Keri as well as Uncle Jody and Robert. I had loads of fun on my trip which seemed to go by really fast. 10 days is not enough but I confess, it is GREAT to be back home on my own bed once again.

Thanks to my Grandparent East for bringing all of us over and for making this great trip happen.

hugs!
xoelkxo

Trip Tales III of IV: Life on the Farm with Aunty Kim

I had a slight detour on my visit with Aunty Kim. I did not expect that I'd be staying on a farm, a horse farm that is. Let me say, I really loved my stay there. I did a lot of things in two short days and wish I had more time there! We spent the night at Aunt Kim's huge apartment right above the stables. I got to sit on a horse, be licked all over by a cute hyperactive dog called Tira and ride on a nifty 4X4 ATV around the vast farm.

We rode over to the farm from Staten Island and the ride itself was comical. Aunty Kim, Mom, Tira and I all crammed up (with my confining car seat mind you) in Aunt Kim's truck. Tira kept trying to sample my face with her tongue and Mom had to keep one of her knees up to protect me. Aunt Kim tried driving and telling Tira to stop licking me at the same time. This spectacle was an ongoing event from the beginning to the end. I'm happy to say, I survived and I think my Mom did too and she did look a bit frazzled when we arrived at the farm.

Anyway, enough yakking and here are the pictures of my stay on the beautiful Stone House Farm in Chester, NY.



View from my bedroom at sunset, we slept at a nice apartment right above the stables.



Meeting a horse for the first time, the horse belongs to Aunty Kim. His name is Finn. Aunty Kim also has another horse called Oisin.



Watching horses through the fence. I was captivated with their tail's constant movement to swat flies away from their bums.



Me on the ATV with Aunty Kim, we're watching Tira playing with the ball. Aunty Kim took me for a bumpy ride to show us the farm, it was 200+ acres and gorgeous!



I got to drive a little bit! I can tell everyone that I "drove" at the age of 7 months. Awesome huh?



A funny picture of Finn kissing Aunty Kim. Finn kissed me too!!



Me trying to pet a 5 months old Belgian horse named Elijah, he was huge.



I got to sit on a horse but not really ride one. I liked the horse's mane, it was thick and strong-- much more sturdy than my Ma's hair



I got to sit and pretend that I was driving a tractor that was mega-sized!



Proof of me "mastering" the huge tractor, see, I'm all by myself.



Aunty Kim and I by the stables. The sunset was beautiful and I wish I could've stayed there some more. Perhaps someday.



Life on the farm rocks, simply put.

Elk

Trip Tales II of IV: Meeting the Kulchinsky Clan

Remember when I told you I needed to balance out my other side by meeting Dad's family? Well, I sure had it balanced and while meeting nearly everyone, I loved it! Mainly because of the attention I got, and boy, was I spoiled?!



Me with Grandpa Harold and Grandma Paula

My Grandparents invited everyone to come over to their home so they could meet me and I them. I did not expect that I'd not only get to meet them, I also got many and lots of presents and attention. Everyone wanted to hold me, talk to me and in return, I gave them the biggest smile I could ever bestow on anyone. I think I nearly charmed them all off of their feet.



Me charming everyone with my dance; Uncle Jody assists me while Cousin Lynn, Ellen and Adrienne cheers me on.

There was a special person I got to meet and am so happy I've met. He's my Great Grandfather. Great Grandpa Meyer is a perfect man to hug and squeeze his cheeks, he did not mind my strong hand grasps at all, in fact he found it funny. He is special to my Parents. My name starts with an E in honor of my Great Grandmother Esther, who passed away two years ago and it was good to meet the man who had a huge part in Great Grandma Esther's life.



Great Grandpa Meyer and I

I also got to meet my other Uncle named Jody, I only have three Uncles and way too many Aunts so it was really good to have some dosage of testosterone. What I'll remember from that day is the constant chatting, all those food (I couldn't have most of them) and again, the undying attention I had there. I decided to reward them by showing that I could crawl like an army. I crawled to Great Grandpa and everyone watched with excitement. I was such a show-off too, ha ha.



Crawling to Great Grandpa

I also was allowed to chew on a delicious stick called pickles. It was really good and felt great since I was teething at the moment. I had a tooth coming out of my lower gum (and another one came at the very next day) and may I say, it smarts! Anyway, I think I would've chewed on it all day if it wasn't taken away from me (it kept falling to the floor and everyone was worried that I'd upset my stomach with all the "ackity" but seems like it didn't).



Merrily eating pickles with Great Grandpa



Still eating pickles with Great Aunt Shelly

The party was really nice, amusing and highly entertaining. I'm glad I came all the way over to the East to meet a lot more relatives that care about me. I know I'm a lucky lad.



Here's me with almost all the members of the Kulchinsky Clan, from left to right: Anne, Cousin Paul, Great Aunt Shelly, Cousin Sharon, Mom, Grandpa Harold, Dad, Cousin Ellen (way in back with red shirt), Great Grandpa Meyer holding me, Uncle Jody, Cousin Lynn, Cousin Adrienne, Great Uncle Vic, Grandma Paula, Cousin Larry and Cousin Don.

I also had fun getting to know my Grandparents and Uncle Jody (with his nice girlfriend named Anne) some more and too bad I don't get to see them as often as I'd like. Hopefully I can fly over there sometimes soon (for more pickles and spoiled attention!).



Here's me with Dad's family from left to right: Uncle Jody, Grandpa Harold, Great Grandpa Meyer, Dad, Grandma Paula, Great Aunt Shelly and Mom



Had to share this funny picture. Grandma Paula is holding me and I'm sticking my tongue out. Actually, the reason I was doing this is because I had a tooth bugging me and little did they know that it was about to come out in a day or two.

I really enjoyed my stay there at my Grandparent East's home. There's one more picture I'd like to share. It's a picture of me taking a bath in the same bathtub that my Dad bathed in when he was a baby too.



I look a lot like him don't I? That's definitely a plus!

I hope to see my Eastern side family sometimes soon, it was totally worth the trip over there.

Eitan over and out, for now!

Trip Tales I of IV: New York City

My visit in New York in three adjectives: Fun, Fascinating and Fabulous.

But first, let me start with my first flight ever. I think I did great because my Parents were super relaxed when we got off the plane. It was a long ride indeed however, I slept and was my adorable self on the plane. I do remember the start of the flight being loud and fast but it was so comforting that I fell asleep from it.



Mom and Me in front of my 1st plane ever



sleeping peacefully on the plane

When we finally arrived, I was shocked with the humidity and heat (as well as so many smelly smokers) but I could feel the electrifying effects of NYC. My Grandparent East (Dad's parents) picked us up and it was good to see them again. The last time I saw them, I was around 2 weeks old! I think they were surprised on how much I've grown and I keep seeing them telling everyone that I was such a good boy.

During my stay there, I discovered something. I discovered that playing with a squiggly long edible pasta called spaghetti was the best thing invented, like... ever! It was so soothing that I instantly met Mr. Sandman for a long and long restful sleep, despite the "jet lag" I was supposed to have.



Sleeping after playing with spaghetti; secret ingredient: paci + warm spags = ZZZZZZZZZ

I'm happy to say, Grandma Paula, Dad and Mom joined me to my expedition into Manhattan. What. A. City. It was so busy, loud, noisy and like I said, electrifying! I truly, absolutely and whole-heartedly enjoyed the sights I've seen there.



Dad, Grandma Paula and Me in Times Square

At first we rode this big and loud (some scary rattling sounds as if something was falling apart) orange Ferry. Dad said he loves the Ferry because it was symbolic of his childhood. We had to take that big orange Ferry from an island called Staten Island (whatever that means!) into Manhattan. I got to see the Statue of Liberty, my Parents told me that it is a very important symbol of America.



Here I am with Dad on the Ferry. Can you see an orange big ferry in the back? Look way further, that's the symbolic green Statue of Liberty

In Manhattan, I saw special places such as the former Twin Towers site, Wall Street, Times Square and Union Square. I confess that the Manhattan Subway is nothing like the one I have at home called BART. I think BART is conservative bordering on the side of boredom meanwhile the NYC Subway was funky, artistic and fun.



Us two in the Subway, can you tell that it was hot? My Mom's all yucky and sweaty and me? The same!

There is this store we went into and I had LOADS, LOADS and LOADS of fun in there. It was filled with toys, colorful toys, bright and zany toys, fun, funny and funnier toys (you get the picture) and it was in a store called "Toys r' Us". There were 4 floors and an actual Ferris Wheel inside the store! Mom let me grab all the toys I wanted to touch. I actually tried claiming them with my drool but we still left the store empty handed, dang! But anyway, We stayed there for a long time. I even climbed the Empire Building made of Legos and met a real sized T-Rex that roared loudly (and scared the beejesus out of me!).



Here I am playing with toys with Mom, Grandma Paula watches



T-Rex roaring behind me... scary.

After a long and hot day, Mom, Dad, Granny P and I went to some veggie freak place called Zen Palate. My Parents had to eat there because it was one of their favorite restaruant in Manhattan. I don't remember the place because I was fast asleep through the whole thing. Can't ya blame me? NYC is tiring but in a fun, fascinating and fabulous way!



Me sleeping at Zen Palate: please excuse the little bird, I really did not mean it.

I'll stop here for now because I have an entirely another tale to share.

Elk

I'm home

I am thoroughly exhausted with two mean teeth pushing out of my bottom gum to boost. The trip was great and I will be blogging all about it soon with tons and tons of pictures. Just wanted to say I'm home safe and very happy to be home.

Eitan

buh bye... for now :)

I'm going to NY!! ANNND Boston too!

I'm gonna see my grandma, grandpa of the east, my great grandpa too! I will get to meet more of the Kulchinsky family, I cannot wait. I think I have had plenty dosage of the Cassidy and need some relative balance.

I'll also get to see Aunty Kim and Keri, wheeeeeee! Dad says he cannot wait to eat pizza while Ma says Italian at North End (what a weird name).

Anyway, I'll be unable to blog until we come back on Aug 15th. When I do, you bet I'll overload you guys with pictures.

As of now, I'm almost 7 months old and I act like one. I can do army crawl, I pull myself up (it's a tricky maneuver), I wave hello/buh bye as well as get to eat some real food! I still find the jar food yucky and prefer table food, like my friend Lochlan.

Alright, I'll stop for now. Here's a picture of me eating bananas, the only jar food I'll actually eat. The point of this picture is, look at my hair! I got some more tuffs, much more manly than those fuzzes I had earlier.



Anyhoo, happy vacationing, wish me luck on my first flight ever.

VaVaroom, watch out East Coast, here I come!
Eitan