Summer in New York Continued

While visiting in New York we were happily surprised to hear that Mike was coming up from North Carolina with the kids, so we had the unexpected good luck of getting to see all of them this trip.

Liam meets some of his cousins - Samantha and Michael

We were up in Saratoga Springs for a conference that James was attending and as luck would have it we managed to meet up for a dinner with a couple more of Liam's cousins as well as Dawn.  

Here's Liam hanging out with Isabelle and Connor.  Both were so eager to read to him and entertain him.  It was pretty cute to see.

This is a noteworthy photography because it marks the very first time Liam was in a swimming pool which we had access to during our time in Saratoga

Family photo in the park - Saratoga Springs

Back in New York Liam spent some more time meeting family and friends.  We stayed with James' parents in Brooklyn for the most part, and it is in their apartment that Liam practiced and perfected his crawl.  He also had his first opportunity to play piano.  (I hope to put a clip up at some point!)

Here he is with his Aunt Christy at his cousin's (of some sort) Christening party

Liam was finally in a good enough mood for Matt to get to hold him.  Matt should have met him when he was a newborn, but since Liam came a week late Matt had already left.  This photo is from brunch at  Dizzy's with Karen and Matt.

At yet another brunch in Park Slope Liam got to meet Sandy and David.  We are all excited about the gift of an automatic bubble blower for Liam!  

Liam hanging out with grandpa Jim

Liam examining Grandma Cathy's necklace 

Liam was absolutely enamored with Grandma Cathy.  She has such adorable songs that she sings to him and he finds her animated facial expressions and enthusiastic sounds to be so funny.  His face would light up every time he saw her! 

The Rest of Summer in Many Parts

Oh goodness!  Letting 7 weeks slip by without posting has left me feeling overwhelmed at where to get started.  So much seems to have happened in the same span of time that I feel like I'm already confusing events and when they occurred.  So before things get even more mixed up in my head or completely forgotten, I am going to attempt the impossible - to trace through and pull out the highlights of our 7 weeks of traveling this July and August.

In these short few weeks Liam has become an expert crawler, a proficient pull-myself-up-on-anything-er, an enthusiastic assisted walker (holding onto your fingers of course), and a much better solid food eater.  He has experienced and enjoyed swimming in pools, and even tolerated being in the sea.  He has squished sand between his toes and sat patiently in an inordinate amount of restaurants.  Together we explored Brooklyn, Manhattan, Saratoga, Riviera Maya in Mexico and Bennington and Brattleboro in Vermont.  He also attended his very first wedding and went from first time flyer to frequent flyer!  He has also had first hand experience with rabbits, cats, dogs and even cows.  It certainly has been a lot to take in - for all of us.  He has now had a chance to meet more of his family including his only great-grandparent - Nana, as well as meeting numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends.  It's no wonder we returned home to Lugano exhausted!

I'll have to divvy up the photos, so here are the first few:

Liam's first Trans-Atlantic flight - He's looking rather comfortable and chipper for a 6 month old on an 8 hour plane ride!

Liam did really well on most of the flights.  It wasn't till our final flight coming home that we had any difficulty with him and traveling.  To be fair, our flight out of JFK was delayed 3 hours and so that used up his "good" time and left him overtired and unable to sleep well.  It also meant that we missed our Lugano connection from Zurich and had to hang out in the Zurich airport for an extra 4 hours.  On the up side, we discovered that Zurich airport has a pretty fancy nursery area with lots of space, changing tables and toys for little ones.

This isn't a great photo, but it shows everyone out for James' birthday on the day we arrived in New York.  I can't believe we managed to keep Liam and ourselves awake till after 9pm that night!

Karen and Liam reunited for the first time since his birth

In our few days staying in Manhattan Karen came and hung out with us and as we walked the upper east and west sides it was a pretty common sentiment that I must be the nanny and Karen the mother of this little guy.  This feeling was confirmed when we were together with a couple in an elevator and though my hands were on the stroller they directed their question of "how old is he?" to Karen.  She looked at me and I replied: "6 months" to which they responded, once again to Karen: "what's his name?"  To which I once again replied: "Liam".  So I'm sure they just think that she's such a busy upper east side mom she can't remember such minor details!

TASIS in Manhattan!  Getting together with Jen, Dan and Courtney for dumplings in Little Korea!

We had great fun seeing Swiss friends in NYC.  Besides our meet up with the people above we also had a chance to meet up with Sarah.  

Our little family in the big apple

Liam, meet Barley.  Barley, meet Liam

Liam's first introduction to pets was with sweet Barley, Karen's rabbit.  Lucky for Barley he was quicker than Liam because all Liam wanted to to was catch his ears or tail and bit them!