New Adventures, New Pictures

We've had an eventful two weeks. We made the trip home to Ellwood City to visit the proud parents and grandparents, and found it wonderful to bring four generations together for the first time in five years. Thatch and Ellie even got a taste of their proud heritage, and spent Saturday morning walking through the Strip District. A piece of cappicola even fell into Ellie's sling from her Mom's Primanti's sandwich. Mmmm, cappicola.

Last weekend we all travelled back to Bedford to meet grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. We all enjoyed the fresh country air, and are looking forward to coming back in a few weeks for apple-pickin' and fresh cider.

We're now back in Del Ray for at least the next two weeks. Here are few pictures (courtesy again of Sandy Marks, the Del Ray baby paparazzi).

Frustration and Joy

The past two weeks have been filled with wide shifts in frustration and joy at the newly-expanded Kotuby household. For the first few nights, Becky and I are reasonably certain that they collude in their crib nightly to piss Dad off, with great success. After the midnight feeding, Thatch would take his turn of staying awake until the 3a.m. session. By the time that feeding was done at 4, Ellie would take the reins and close out the night at 6. Mom and Dad would finally get some rest when the sun came up, with some gratuitiuos sleep until the kids' breakfast at 9. Two whole hours, 120 minutes ....whoop di doo.

What evidence do we have of their malevolent collusion? We picked up on this conversation between Thatch an Ellie last night at around 9p.m. "I'll keep the old man up first, and you take the second shift." Gotta love those NSA-sanctioned baby monitors.


After Dad spent two sleepless nights rocking babies to sleep while searching the internet for methods of Hari Kari and ways to deny paternity in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the twins finally decided that he had had enough. Two nights in a row they ate magnificantly and immediately fell asleep, allowing Mom and Dad a whole 6 hours of slumber. Victory....or so it seemed. Last night the collusion began again, and Mom and Dad are sleepy today.

Now, in the middle of the afternoon, Dad can hear Mom downstairs trying to feed Ellie, and shouting "wake up!" They love to sleep during the day. Little monsters.

Here's a new picture of "Dad and his Irish Half Pint" -- A fresh keg of homebrewed Guinness on tap in the basement is the only way we are getting by these days. Thatch will have to wait at least another 2 months to enjoy a homebrew with his Dad. House rules.

In the meantime, the adventures continue. Gramdma and Grandpa Grisetti visted this weekend, and we took the kids to Pat Troy's Irish Pub for dinner. Thatch had his daiper changed at the bar, and I assured him that, if the apple falls relatively close to the tree, this will the be the first of many times he's naked in a bar. We then went for a long walk through the Old Town Art festival. It was overheard from an anonymous passer-by looking into the stroller that "there is the best work of art I've seen all day." I need to invite that guy over for a midnight feeding to adjust his opinion........