January Wrap-Up

I sort of forgot about blogging throughout January. We didn't really do much. We've all been sick and busy and haven't really felt like taking pictures of anything.

We spent Christmas at home in Nashville (which you should know already since you are a diligent and dedicated reader of our blog, even if I'm not a diligent and dedicated writer) so we made a trip to Florida for New Years. We celebrated New Years Eve in our car somewhere in southern Alabama, surrounded by cotton fields, miles away from champagne and fireworks. That was still better than last year when we went to bed at 9:30, exhausted in the early months of parenthood. But we no longer live for ourselves; we live for Ira and to spread the joy of Ira throughout the world. We spread the joy of Ira in Pensacola so that everyone could have an Ira-tacular new year.




Here's Ira making his great-grandmother, Big Holley, very happy. Ira didn't get to see Big Holley on our last trip to Pensacola because she was in the hospital, but she's out now and better than ever. We were super excited to see her and get to spend time with her.



Even though Christmas was over, Ira still got to open presents everywhere he went. Here he is with Poppy and me getting ready to unwrap a gift.



We ate our good luck collards and Hoppin' Johns at G.G.'s house. Ira and Uncle Mike discussed their resolutions while we waited for dinner.



Aunt Jo held Ira while we watched some legal-in-Florida fizzle and pop fireworks.



Fizzle. Pop.



You'd never know it wasn't Christmas. We had a little party at Nana and Papa's house to celebrate Christmas and spread a bit of Ira-tasticness.



We even drove all the way to Holt to spread some Ira joy. Cousins Holley and Jacob played with Ira at Aunt Trisha's house.



We walked down to the park near Poppy and Nonny's house, which resulted in some very cute pictures. That's why I'm including so many more pictures of the park than anywhere else.



Ira and Nonny play in the dirt.



"Ma-ma!"



We took Ira to the park in his pajamas. You got a problem with that?

Like Hitchcock but less deadly

Kirsten and Ira are still on vacation, I had a half day, and the weather was nicer than it's been in weeks so we did our favorite thing - hung out with some animals. Looking back over the blog, it seems like all we do is travel to petting zoos. Well, yesterday we went to a real zoo not a petting zoo, though we did get up close and personal with a few birds. Two birds, to be exact. Watch this.



Some birds on shoulder from Jesse Morros on Vimeo.

Ira is crying at the beginning of the video, but that's some other kid screaming at the end.

We saw some other animals, too, and they weren't nearly as frightening as the those crazy lorikeets.



Like the nice, gentle giraffes.



And the fish that can't attack you or try to eat your hoodie because they can't breathe out of the water.



And these butterflies that are made of silk. Silk never hurt anyone.



You can't see the snake or lizard or whatever is in this case. I just thought the silhouette looked cool.



And, of course, we can't go more than a month without rubbing some goats.



Here's Ira with some kind of weird African duck-like thing that looks like a duck but isn't called a duck.

I forgot to mention . . .

There are a lot more holiday pictures at Picasa.

From Holidays, 2008

Christmas Adventures

This Christmas was a bit of a change for us; we stayed in Nashville, by ourselves, and had a small, quiet celebration. Kirsten couldn't wait for Christmas morning so Ira woke up to presents on the 24th. He didn't seem to mind.












After opening his presents, we went to the Loveless Cafe for Christmas Eve breakfast. Since everyone else in town had the same idea, it turned into Christmas Eve brunch. Ira really enjoyed the famous Loveless biscuits.



And so did Daddy.







The night of Christmas, we drove around looking at Christmas lights, something I heard is called a Twinkle Tour. The twinkliest twinkles on the Twinkle Tour were definitely at the home of the Possum, George Jones.







Don't forget it's still Hanukkah.

Happy Holidays

I've added new holiday themed pictures to our albums at Picasa. If you head over there you'll find pictures of Ira in the snow and our trip to the Opryland Hotel to check out Christmas lights, and I'll add more as soon as I can. I'll post more Christmas presents soon (maybe tomorrow), but tonight let's focus on Hanukkah.



We didn't feel like making latkes at home so we went to Noshville, the best pun in Nashville, to get our fill of fried potato-y goodness.



Here's Ira with our menorah. He liked the menorah, but he LOVED dreidel. Just watch these videos.



Ira and the Dreidel from Jesse Morros on Vimeo.


More dreidel with Ira from Jesse Morros on Vimeo.

Happy Hanukkah! We love all of you and hope you had a great Festival of Lights!

I know I just posted yesterday, and usually I'd wait another 3 weeks or more to post again, but I wanted to share a video and some pictures. We played around with the Photobooth on our laptop and opened a wellspring of cuteness.

First, a video of Ira showing off.

Ira Knows His Body Parts from Jesse Morros on Vimeo.

When we took these next few pictures, Ira got really upset. He didn't like looking at these crazy versions of himself.









After those, you might need a nice, normal picture of Ira in his PJs.

Thanksgiving

There are twelve days until Christmas so it's probably time to get my Thanksgiving pictures up. We went to Asheville, NC with my mom and had a great time. It was nice to get out of Nashville and spend some time in an awesome town like Asheville.



It was nice to see Ira spend time with my mom. Here they are reading together.



We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Grovewood Cafe, next to the Grove Park Inn. Pear and Gorgonzola Salad, Butternut Squash Risotto, and a dessert buffet.



This was in the Grove Arcade, downtown. Apparently everything is named Grove-something in Asheville. This guitar guy stopped playing fancy classical music and started playing kid songs for Ira.




A florist in the Arcade gave Ira a flower. He liked the way it smelled . . .



. . . and wanted Kirsten to smell it, too.

Other than the risotto, the highlight of the trip was the Biltmore Estate. We had to spread our visit out over two days because it was so busy.



This is at the farm on the estate. They had all sorts of kid-oriented things to do. Like playing dress up . . .




. . .croquet . . .



. . . and tea parties.



There was also a petting zoo, and you know how much we love petting zoos.









We even took Ira to the winery. Places like that can be a little stuffy, but Ira and Big G found a way to have a little fun.



We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the house so this is the best you'll get. It's really too bad that you can't see Kirsten carrying sleeping Ira all over the largest house in the US.