The Kotuby Family Blog

SUMMER '08

Go ahead and laugh flopsy. So I'm a few months late of my goal. But on the bright side, I've got the whole summer behind me, and alot of pictures to choose from. Becky had on her "list of things to do" for the past month "choose pictures for the blog." She never did it, so here I am, flying solo. For sure, I will overlook the best pictures, and only post the bad ones (as I am constantly accused of by "the critic"). Spielberg I am not, but here's Summer of 08, through Daddy's eyes.

The big news is that we moved. We did our patriotic duty to prop-up the local housing market, and give Wall Street a great big "mortgage-backed security" to deal about. Even though it was only three blocks down the street, we still felt like playing the theme song ot the Jeffersons as we made a right onto Mt. Vernon Avenue, and an almost-immediate left onto Del Ray Avenue in the moving van. We be movin' on up, Weezie. For some reason, I love these two recent pictures of the kids in the new house.

We also took the first joint Kotuby-Grisetti vacation to the beach. Fourteen of us one one big house, not to mention the dog. Lots of sun, lots of booze, and a family clammin' expedition into the Pamlico Sound off the back of the house made for good food and good fun. New brother-in-law Mark is a scallop cleaning machine!!!!!

Karaoke at the "Froggy Dog."

You Should've heard Pap do Kenny Roger's "The Gambler."

Looking forward ot next year already. Other than the above, I'm omitting any beach pictures where certain people may be jiggly in certain places and other people may be hairy in other places, and showing only the kids. You're welcome.

Thatchie stuffing his face with Watermelon, under the watchfiul eyes off "Grammie Bart."

And Ellie and "Grammie Tuby" are feeding the "Sea Turtles"

But I love this picture. Lets leave the kids with "Pap Tuby," or as we like to call him "Captain Ahab." At the beach, he is never seen without a fishing rod and a piece of bloody mullet on a hook. Here kids, while I fish, play in the tackle box. Rusty hooks and lead-based sinkers are fun!

And, of course, the monkeys turned the big number TWO. I've decided that its inherently impossible for there to be "Terrible Twos" with twins. Assuming that there is a maximum threshold of "terribleness," we've been there, stayed there, and made ourselves at home there. It can't be any worse. Right, Ellie?

We spent the Birthday Weekend at our little camp in the mountains. The kids had fun picking "Blackbees" with Pap and Grammie, and messing in their cake afterwards. Below are some of the best pictures of Thatch yet.

And, just last night, I completed the circle of life. I taught my son the "Curly Shuffle," as we spent the evening watching the stooges. Good lessons to learn there (e.g. eye-poking, pies in the face, etc.). Nyuk, Nyuk. I'll try to post video. Who am I kidding; don't hold your breath for that one. Just stop by the house sometime and we'll show you.

SPRINGTIME!!!

So, looking back on our sorry-excuse-for-a-blog, we generally post 5 times a year. The kids are walking, talking, digging worms and leaving even less time to "Blog" (still can't get used to using that word as a verb). So were scaling back further here at kotubyfamily.blogspot.com; we're downsizing, cutting-back, laying off our tech department, and committing ourselves to the less-than-spectacular but entirely attainable objective of posting new pictures every season. Anything more will be gravy.

Here's SPRINGTIME. In Alexandria, the grass is growing, the worms are plentiful (before dad plants his garden), and we have a new play-fort in our backyard.

This picture kind of reminds me of those old-fashined shots of miners or steamfitters, black-faced and ready to head to work, shovels and lunch-boxes in hand......Here's the contingent of Del Ray Worm-Diggers Union, Local No. 340, clocking-in for a day's work. . . . .

Someone call child services--looks like we have a child-labor violation.

Worms rule!! Del Ray has a gourmet cheese shop and wine bar, a gourmet meat market, and a new Italian Trattoria is opening less than a block away. I think we need a bait shop now, too.

Its Almost Christmas, But . . . . .

I forgot to post a picture of Peter Pan and Tinkerbell on Halloween. Given that they looked so darn cool in the neato costumes that Grandma made, we thought that later is better than never. Dad even made Thatch a cardboard sword that he used to beat his sister with, and later eat. Mom tried to convice Dad to dress-up as Captain Hook and march with the kids in the Del Ray parade, but she didn't pour enough Captain Morgan for that to fly. Better luck next year.......

This Picture Needed Its Own Post

thx Sandy!

Thatchy, Thatchy, Where Art Thou?

Finding great pictures of our little boy isn't that tough. Finding him on a minute-by-minute basis is much more difficult. While Ellie is usually bossing Dad into submission or carrying on an in-depth conversation with the dog, Thatch is left to his own devices. That usually means crawling onto the kitchen table to snag a banana, falling down a full flight of stairs, or plunging his face into the dog's water-bowl with a mouthful of dogfood -- all with a big, toothy grin and flopsy red hair These days, the most common questions asked of Ellie is, "where's your brother?"

The Many Faces of Ellie Bellie

Deadpan cranky yet cuddly-sweet, charismatically talkative yet horribly bossy; in the immortal words of the Dead Milkmen, she's our little "punk rock girl."

Picture Archive: May 2007

In honor of Mother's Day, this month is entitled "we love our Mom." Here we are hangin' in the back yard, and then out front. . . . .

Picture Archive: April 2007

In order to catch up with Thatch and Ellie, we're going to drop a series of posts with our best pictures, sorted by month. Here's April 2007. As you can see, we went fishing at the Delaware shore, to a parade, and other fun stuff.

No News, Just a Few Cute Pics of the Kids and Mom

A Series of Belated Posts: #3 Mmmmm....Food, and Other Recent Musings

Finally, real food. Kind of. For six months we've been languishing with nothing but breast milk, day in and day out. Sure, it changes a bit when Mom and Dad go out for Thai food or El Salvadorian, but its basically the same stuff. Then, one day, I get a spoon shoved into my mouth and it contains sweet, sweet. . . . . rice mixed with breast milk????

But Dad's eating Brasciole and pesto gnocchis tonight with a glass of cabernet? Oh, wow, one week later its breast milk mixed with oatmeal. Notice the sarcasm? We hear barley's next, but Dad assures me that such a "divine grain" is better consumed in liquid form, whatever that means.