Tyler's Baptism & Telling Nonna and Pappy

Luckily, we had this trip planned to go up to New Jersey so we could tell Mom and Dad Sharpe in person that we were having a baby! Otherwise, we may not have seen them until September (for Tommy Franklin’s wedding) or November (for Meeting of the Minds) so this trip was just perfect! Since we were flying into Philly so late at night (we were supposed to arrive in Philly at 10:45pm), our plan was to head to Lehman’s apartment to hang out with him and his girlfriend, Steph, and spend the night there. We ended up not getting in until after midnight and finally arrived at Lehman’s apartment at almost 1am. They were troopers and stayed up with us for a couple of hours, but eventually we had to go to sleep. It was great to meet Steph, don’t screw it up, Lehman!

We got up early and headed to meet our friends, Gerrie, Paul and Dex for brunch. We were in for such a treat, Gerrie is a chef and went all out for an amazing brunch. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them for the morning, and Gerrie and Paul gave us lots of pointers on staying sane during the pregnancy. Gerrie also gave me “Belly Laughs” by Jenny McCarthy which is hysterical so far. And Dexter couldn’t be cuter – if I wasn’t already pregnant, I would really want to be after that morning, he is the sweetest, happiest baby and you just want to love on him all day. But of course, we had to go, so we headed to T.J.’s parents house.

On the way, we debated as how we should tell mom and dad about the pregnancy. It was Mom’s birthday yesterday, so we bought a birthday card for “Grandma” and signed it from “the baby”, but we couldn’t figure out when to give it to them. We had early dinner plans at Maggianos for the seven of us (Jay, Tracey, Mom, Dad, me, T.J. and Tyler) but we hadn’t quite worked out when we would give Mom her gifts.

When we got to Mom and Dad’s house, they were hanging at the pool with Mom Mom and Pop Pop. Mom Mom and Pop Pop were heading out that night with a lot of the Sharpes to see Mark Cucinotta’s dinner theater rendition of Dirty Dancing, so we wanted to wait to tell the 'rents after Mom Mom and Pop Pop left because we weren't sure when to tell the extended family. We had to work fast, because if I wasn’t drinking, our charade would be up quickly. Dad had already given me a dirty martini as I was getting ready (poor T.J. drank it for me) so we knew we had to do it pretty soon after we sat down for dinner.

Of course, we were in a rush to get out the door and make the dinner reservation, so T.J. had the great idea of giving Mom her presents at the restaurant. One of the gifts was a wine glass, so when Dad told T.J. just to leave the presents in the car for after dinner, T.J. thought quickly and said that he wanted to give Mom the wine glass for her to use during dinner. Giving Mom the gifts was a little awkward, it is a family style restaurant, so there were a lot of servers at and around our table, bringing the wine, bread and appetizers. Also, Mom missed seeing the card in the bag, so T.J. had to dig it out for her. The card said something like "Happy Birthday Grandma" on the front, and inside I wrote "Looking forward to meeting you on March 17, 2010 even though i love you already Nonna! Love, Grandchild #2 on the way!" :)

She was speechless and they were so excited. T.J. actually got it on video, it is too cute. Dad was crying and hugging the waiter and everything, and of course Jason and Tracey were excited for us too. It was awesome, all of us were pretty happy! Of course, soon after came the complaints about us living so far away in Flaw-rida LOL

Sunday, we got up early and headed to Tracey and Jason’s to get some pictures of Tyler before the baptism. We bought a picture frame as one of Tyler’s gifts, so I really wanted to get a great picture of TJ and Tyler for the frame. Tyler is adorable to begin with, but that day he was the happiest I’ve ever seen him, he was smiling ear to ear and just awesome. I got the greatest pictures, and couldn’t decide when the time came to pick one for the frame, so we printed them all.

Church went really well, Tyler was so good, like he knew it was his very special day and he was just perfect. T.J. did great in his Godfather role, though a practice run wouldn’t have hurt. We headed to lunch at a great Italian restaurant, and Tracey was so sweet to bring alcohol free wine for me to drink at the lunch. T.J. and I had debated about telling all of the family of the pregnancy (I was just shy of 6 weeks at this point), but it seemed like the right thing to do with so much of our family in the same spot, so we decided to wait until the end of the luncheon to start telling the family - even though a couple of T.J.'s cousins already knew (their maternal instincts must have kicked in, or they noticed that wine). Everyone was so excited for us, it was so wonderful to be able to share it with everyone in person. Overall, it was another wonderful weekend! Although I don’t recommend the alcohol-free wine, I’ll stick to club soda with lime, thank you!

Tyler's Baptism Weekend

July 17, 2009 – Tyler’s Baptism and telling Nonna and Pappy that Grandchild #2 is on the way!
Luckily, we had this trip planned to go up to New Jersey so we could tell mom and dad Sharpe in person that we were having a baby! Otherwise, we may not have seen them until September (for Tommy Franklin’s wedding) or November (for Meeting of the Minds) so this trip was just perfect!

Since we were flying into Philly so late at night (we were supposed to arrive in Philly at 10:45pm) our plan was to head to Lehman’s apartment to hang out with him and his girlfriend, Steph, and spend the night there. We ended up not getting in until after midnight and finally arrived at Lehman’s apartment at almost 1am. They were troopers and stayed up with us for a couple of hours, but eventually we had to go to sleep. It was great to meet Steph, don’t screw it up, Lehman! :)

We got up early Saturday and headed to meet our friends, Gerrie, Paul and Dex for brunch. We were in for such a treat, Gerrie is a chef and went all out for an amazing brunch. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them for the morning, and Gerrie and Paul gave us lots of pointers on staying sane during the pregnancy. And Dexter couldn’t be cuter – if I wasn’t already pregnant, I would really want to be after that morning, he is the sweetest, happiest baby and you just want to love on him all day. But of course, we had to go, so we headed to T.J.’s parents house.

On the way, we debated as how we should tell Mom and Dad about the pregnancy. It was Mom’s birthday yesterday, so we bought a birthday card for “grandma” and signed it from “the baby”, but we couldn’t figure out when to give it to them. We had early dinner plans at Maggianos for the seven of us (Jay, Tracey, Mom, Dad, me, TJ and Tyler) but we hadn’t quite worked out when we would give mom her gifts.

When we got to Mom and Dad’s house, they were hanging at the pool with Mom Mom and Pop Pop. Mom Mom and Pop Pop were heading out that night with a lot of the Sharpes to see cousin Mark’s dinner theater rendition of Dirty Dancing, so we wanted to wait to tell Mom and Dad after Mom Mom and Pop Pop left because we hadn’t decided if we should tell the extended family or not yet. But we had to work fast, because if I wasn’t drinking, our charade would be up. Dad had already given me a dirty martini as I was getting ready (poor T.J. drank it for me!) so we knew we had to do it pretty soon after we sat down for dinner.

Of course, we were in a rush to get out the door and make the dinner reservation, so TJ had the great idea of giving Mom her presents at the restaurant. One of the gifts was a wine glass, so when Dad told T.J. just to leave the presents in the car for after dinner, T.J. thought quickly and said that he wanted to give mom the wine glass for her to drink out of during dinner.
Giving mom the gifts was a little awkward, it is a family style restaurant, so there were a lot of servers at and around our table, bringing the wine, bread and appetizers, so there was a bit of commotion. Also, mom missed the card, so TJ had to dig it out for her. The card said something like "happy birthday grandma" on the front and inside i wrote "Looking forward to meeting you on March 17, 2010 even though i love you already nonna!" love your grandchild #2 on the way!" :)

She was speechless and they were so excited. TJ actually got it on video, it is too cute. Dad was crying and hugging the waiter and everything and of course Jason and Tracey were excited for us too. it was awesome! :)

Sunday, we got up early and headed to Tracey and Jason’s to get some pictures of Tyler before the baptism. We bought a picture frame as one of Tyler’s gifts, so I really wanted to get a great picture of T.J. and Tyler for the frame. Tyler is adorable to begin with, but that day he was the happiest I’ve ever seen him, he was smiling ear to ear and just awesome. I got the greatest pictures, and couldn’t decide when the time came to pick one for the frame, so we printed them all. :)

Church went really well, Tyler was so good, like he knew it was his very special day and he was just perfect. T.J. did great in his godfather role, though a practice run wouldn’t have hurt. We headed to lunch at a delicious Italian restaurant and Tracey was so sweet to bring alcohol free wine for me to drink at the lunch. T.J. and I had debated about telling all of the family of the pregnancy (I was just shy of 6 weeks at this point), but it seemed like the right thing to do with so much of our family in the same spot, so we decided to wait until the end of the luncheon to start telling the family. Everyone was so excited for us, it was so wonderful to be able to share it with everyone in person. Overall, it was another wonderful weekend! Although I don’t recommend the alcohol-free wine, I’ll stick to club soda with lime, thank you!

More Tyler Jason

Spent a great weekend up in NJ with the newest parents of the Sharpe family and their little addition. Due to Southwest f*cking up our standby list and some lousy weather up north, we ended up missing the visitor hours at the hospital on Friday night, but got plenty of time with the little guy, and Trace and Jay. We got two trips to West Jersey Hospital, and still managed to give them some time alone Saturday night. (Conveniently, the end of visiting hours happened to coincide with the beginning of the Nova-UNC game) So two trips to see baby Tyler, along with Sean, Lis, and their kids coming by for the game, gave Jen and I quite a "preview of coming attractions"... when the attractions come is still TBD, although if the inquirey level of the thre F's (family, friends, and Facebook) played any part, it would be soon. It was really special to be with Jay and Trace, watching them take care of their little swaddled package, feeding him, cuddling, even doing the glamourless stuff like burpng and changing diapers. Jason's done a great job taking care of Ty while Tracey is resting up - her labor and delivery lasted pretty long and took a lot out of her (literally!) so he's done a great job of being Mr. Mom for the first few days. They are home now, they got home on Sunday afternoon, and everything at their house is set up. Jen and I are both pretty excited to be Aunt Jen and Uncle T.J., and are already looking forward to our next trip up there. He's pretty adorable, even taking out my Godfather bias. It was definetly tough to leave the little bugger.

Nova got killed but UNC was a beast, so I feel less lousy about it now after they dismantled Michigan State. The thing was they got within 5 in the second half... "what if" they hadn't missed all those freaking 3's, etc... Ahh what can you do - thanks for the run Scottie, Dante, and Co. It was worth it. The Phils on the other hand had the magic of the 2008 WFC last all of a few at bats on Sunday. Not to worry... there's plenty of time to give the Mets time to pad this year's September collapse.

Penn State, Nova and Tyler too!

Big start to this spring... we're 12 days in and it's already been a great season. Penn State just went on a wild ride to win the NIT and beat those pesky Gators of Florida along the way. Hard to really celebrate the NIT championship, it's like pulling the Community Chest card and winning $10. Still, it's a championship in hoops for my favorite football school, so we got that going for us... which is nice.

Bigger story, the upstart Wildcats of Villanova making a run to the Final Four. They had a solid chance before the brackets were announced to make a run, but the initial reaction to their Road to Detroit was "Damn, that's gonna be tough". American (which had them down by double digits with 8 minutes left), then UCLA (which had been to the past several Final Fours), then Duke (OVER-RAT-ED!!) and finally the Pink Panthers of Pitt. It was the most difficult path taken by one of the last four teams standing, and that combination of tough opponents and buzzer-beating heroics will help them this weekend.

Remember a few years ago when the refs ROBBED Nova from a chance for the sweet 16 upset? Also remember that they've lost to the eventual national champions in three of the past four years in the tourney (Kansas, Florida, and UNC), and the current core players have played in at least 2 of those games. This team was ready for the run to Detroit, and they are more than capable of toppling the most talented team in the country. Carolina may have the better talent and more pro prospects, but that doesn't mean they are the best team. Just ask Patrick Ewing.

BUT... the big story on Action News this April 2nd is that, after a day and change in the hospital, a night of dilating and pushing, and an lunchtime c-section, Tracey and Jason are the proud parents of a healthy 20.5 in, 7.7 lbs baby boy!!! Tyler Jason Sharpe made his way into the world this afternoon (sometime before 1:36pm) and everyone is very excited he's here - especially a tuckered out Mommy and Daddy. "Uncle T.J. and Aunt Jen" can't wait to get to Philly tomorrow evening to see the little bugger, he's adorably cute (of course he is, he's my nephew!!). There's going to be PLENTY more Tyler updates, any time another "T.J. Sharpe" can grace the world with his presence, it really needs to be documented for future generations. :) More on this little guy after a weekend in Cherry Hill, Jen and I can't WAIT to see him!!