Weekend Trip = Pictures

We went to a family bar mitzvah in Atlantic City and I took full advantage of it as a photo opportunity.  Well, as much as I could.  For some reason, they don't let you take pictures at synagogue on Saturday mornings.  I don't get it either.  The theme of the party that night was football jerseys and jeans with a tailgating cocktail hour.  It was as fun as it sounds.

They must only make Roethlisberger jerseys for Pittsburgh fans, because 98% of the people wearing Steelers' jerseys had the #7.

Being at a bar mitzvah brought back a lot of memories about going through the bar mitzvah circuit in seventh grade, when there were weekends where we'd have up to three bar mitzvahs to go to.  I used to wonder why only the kids would play the games with the band or dj.  But now I understand what open bar truly means.  I realized that when Charlie has his bar mitzvah, my 9-year-old niece Francesca will be 21 years old.  To put how far away that is in perspective, Francesca overheard Nilda and my brother-in-law talking about a girl who hit puberty, and Francesca asked, "Who'd she hit?  Who'd she hit?"

Charlie loves hotel rooms. Not really.  Here he is before he realizes that he can't nap outside of his own crib.

We had the afternoon free so we took Charlie to the pool for the very first time.  We thought he'd be scared or not like the cold water, but he loved it.  It's like one big bath for him to splash in.  I took him out and he wanted to go back in, which I know because he kept grunting when I took him out.  Or maybe he was just pooping. 

For the record, that is the most conservative swimsuit Nilda owns at the moment. Charlie got to sit in a restaurant high chair for the first time and played with Uncle Daddy. 

On Sunday, we took Charlie to the boardwalk for the first time.  Man, I wish that place was a tenth as cool as Vegas.  Charlie was cautiously intrigued by the ocean. 

 Charlie's hair is coming in.  Unfortunately, so is his gut.  Just like Daddy!  

• Andrew and I were in the pool throwing the kids around.  It was like two walruses fighting on the beach. 
• Now that he's getting better at rolling over, he can keep himself awake for longer. This will make things harder until he can stand up. Then we're fucked. 
• Nilda's life presently consists of waiting until she can watch the next episode of Downton Abbey.  That show is worse than heroin. 
• This year's interns make me feel old.  They've never seen The Neverending Story, they call the original Double Dare "old school," and some of them were born in 1990. That's just weird.
• We've started to let Charlie watch a little Sesame Street some mornings and he loves it. It's actually a really good show, which you forget as an adult.  They had an episode about bullying featuring the big bad wolf.  They had Mark Ruffalo teaching what "empathy" means and Eva Longoria teaching what "exquisite" means.  I'm hopeful the show will teach Charlie how to wake up after 6:00 am.
• God damn, Mad Men has been amazing this season.
• I'm beginning to be concerned that Charlie will have only child syndrome.  As the website you are presently viewing confirms, he is getting way too much attention for his own good.
• Charlie does not have the moves like Jagger.  Here's a video of Charlie listening to music. At first we were concerned that he was having some kind of seizure, but now we think he's trying to sing and dance. The first and only time Nilda tried to teach me to dance, she cried, saying "My poor children."  The prophecy comes true: