Welcome to the Family!

Matt and I were thrilled to death to hear the big news the other week, that his little bro Steve popped the question to his girlfriend, Erin. So we had to go out to celebrate and finally were able to schedule a date last Friday night. We went to Maxie's Southern Comfort, home of the Maxirita (which incidentally I highly recommend), as well as their famous sweet potato fries. Matt & Genevieve had been looking forward to dinner all day.

Thinking of sweet potato fries makes them both drool a little

The happy couple!

The wedding is planned for next October - exact date TBD - and all three of us have been asked to stand up. Matt as best man, me as brides' maid, and Genevieve as likely the cutest flower girl in the history of weddings. Cannot wait to see her in that poufy little dress!! Oh yeah, and see Steve & Erin get married too. We are so happy to add Erin to the family - congrats you crazy kids!!

Meanwhile it's been life as usual here in Tosa. The warm front that graced us for a few days has definitely moved on and on Monday in came the typical November weather: gray, cloudy, and windy with a bite in the air. Since I try to take Ralphie for a walk at least 5 days a week that meant we were getting bundled up on Monday. I realize a snowsuit seems excessive without any actual snow, but it was really cold! It must have done the job...after our walk we went to go swing at the park and when I went to take her out of the swing (because I was starting to get chilled) she threw a fit.

Who has to pee?

Ha ha! Not even the constricting nature of this get up can stop me from playing with electronics!


Wearing mama's hat


Dahhhhhhhling, don't I look mahhhhhhhhhvelous?

Which brings me to the topic of temper. As in, Genevieve has found hers. On the one hand her second molar is breaking through which looks incredibly painful and must drive her absolutely insane. On the other hand she is clearly a drama queen and the big crocodile tears are flowing about every 10 minutes here at casa del Maio (yeah yeah, can't imagine where she gets it, ha ha very funny). If you take away something she wants, she rolls out the crocs and combines them with jelly legs and arches herself backwards. Completely typical but a little wearing. On the up-side her vocabulary is growing every day: when she's in the mood her lexicon includes dada, ball, hi, bye, hat, cup (bop), baby, mommy (joy!), up, puppy, and best of all, please. When she sees something she wants she points and says "peese" but the other day she saw that I was getting her some goldfish crackers to snack on and pointed at them screaming, "PEESE! PEESE! PEESE!". Yeah, message received. She can also identify her foot, her belly button, her nose, ears, and eyes. Will the genius ever end??

This weekend we're going to hang out with the Bansemar family and get some snuggle time with baby Alana, then it's off to Rochester for Thanksgiving. Turkey, gravy, potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and pie? Might be even better than sweet potato fries...