coney island, new year's day + some "drafts" of a holiday card

happy 2008, everybody! we celebrated by going to coney island after sleeping in a lot (we were all a little sickish for the holidays). turns out we slept in too much - the annual polar bear swim was totally over when we got there, and they even closed the acquarium early. so no sharks. no polar bears and no sharks. guess 08 just ain't the year for carniverous marine life. oh well. we still like the ocean (and the train ride to get there)

also: we're eventually going to make a holiday card. when we don't all look sick and corny. but if we HAD to do one today, this is what it would look like:

god bless and good luck in the year ahead!

and one last photo for good measure:

a couple pix from baby's first christmas

really, there are a lot more photos. they're just not on our camera. mom? dad? hook it up. this baby is the people's baby, and the people are waiting.

even though i happen to look like my name is frankenstein von dorkenhauser in the above pic, i had to include it bc of how ridiculously amazing and christmassy grace looks.
meeting baxter for the first time, trying to work out how to share chew toys.
deciding not to share the chew toy (check out those baby blues!!)

a christmas pic from bklyn, actually, before we left for WI. grace is the only one in a christmas outfit (that's her, blazing in santa claus red up towards the top). all these other brats just crashed the party. kidding. sort of. great things about this photo: 1. further proof that there will never be enough great shots of kids lined up on couches. 2. sebastien is the guy in blue reaching out for grace. we were in birthing class with his parents and andrea and his mom are in a new mom's group together. they aren't officially dating, but seb asked jessie to tell me to tell grace that he might like her.
still kind of frankensteinish. but at least i've concealed the drool on my shoulder and made sure that grace has worse red eye than me (she can't steal the spotlight in EVERY picture) (yes, she can.)

meeting great gramma murphy

this was really just an awesome - and way too short - moment for us all. we hope to see you again soon, (great) gramma! (notice how gingerly my dad (grandpa!) is holding grace's pacifier so she can shake hands in this first picture. he was all about doing grace favors like that the whole time we were in WI for christmas.)

photo update

is there really anything to say?