Grossman family west

With Superbowl XLVI now only a couple of days away, GFW’s favorite team, the New England Patriots, have been hard at work for the past two weeks preparing for the big game. It may surprise you to learn that GFW has been hard at work, as well. Just like our Pats, the family team in San Francisco has been learning some new plays in preparation for the big game. Although he’s the smallest of the bunch, Ezra has mastered a critical move which will surely thrust him into a key role for Superbowl Sunday. We call this play “Raiding the Fridge.” Check out the new video in the photo gallery!

Ezra has been crawling all over the place, and he’s quite verbose (even making a few animal sounds). We share this exciting news in an effort to distract you from the fact that we’re almost a month late in posting his 10 month photoshoot. What? What’s that you say? You say that you’re posting Ezra’s 10 month photoshoot?!?! Indeed, we are! Enjoy!

I can't believe it took Daddy nearly a MONTH to post this!

We were fortunate enough to spend a lot of time traveling this holiday season: first San Diego for Thanksgiving (pictures already posted) and then Boston for Hanukkah and New Year’s. We will post pictures (hopefully soon) from our Boston trip, but we did want to share a single photo of our family with some very close pals (Dad’s friends from college with their families), taken in The Berkshires on New Years Day, 2012. To everyone, family and friends, with whom we were fortunate enough to visit these past couple of weeks—thank you so much for spending time with us! We miss you and look forward to seeing you again soon.

(photo credit goes to Noa Clare, pictured second from the right in the picture, whose blog you can find here)

The crew on New Years, 2012, in Lenox, MA

Many of our avid GWF readers surely recall having their own school photos. Among our generation, though, you are probably lucky if you still have your hands on any of them (despite the joy that your spouse might get at flipping through them). More likely, your parents threw them away last time they “cleaned up” or moved…

Well, today’s technology may afford a more long-lasting solution and so, it is with great pleasure, that we present to you (hopefully to be stored digitally in perpetuity–or at least long enough for a future spouse to enjoy), Avi’s very first (pre-)school photos!

Avi's Preschool Class, 2011

Avi's First (Pre-)School Photo

The holiday season is upon us and we started off with a fantastic trip to visit Gigi, Grandpa, Aunt Robin, and many others in San Diego. We packed up our bags and flew down South, having a blast while we were there. It was very classic Thanksgiving, exactly as you’d expect: a delicious turkey meal, lots of quality time with family, strolls on the beach, some posing with parrots, train rides, and, of course, a trip to the world-famous San Diego zoo. Our entire family had a blast and we were able to capture some wonderful Thanksgiving memories, which we share with you now in the Photo Gallery.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a lot of fun in November, and we’re not just talking about a great week in San Diego visiting Gigi, Grandpa, and Auntie Robin for Thanksgiving—more on that later. We’re talking about regular, in San Francisco, hanging-out-with-friends-and-family fun. Birthday parties, zoo, music class, playing at the house… We had enough good times that we thought it merited a short photo album, which we have just posted into the Photo Gallery for you to enjoy!

We're camouflaged like zebras

Our little Ezra is now well into his 10th month and he is having a blast. He’s crawling everywhere, eating all kinds of new food (and non-food, like grass and leaves and anything else he can find), and interacting with his big brother some more. He even recently played a prank on Avi where he dressed up in the same outfit!
We have posted his 9 month photoshoot pictures in the Photo Gallery for you to enjoy!

Surprise!

We are proud parents once again, this time thanks to Ezra’s newfound musical talents. He appears to be naturally gifted on the kazoo, a talent he did not get from either mom or dad. Of course, everyone knows that the mastering the kazoo is the first step towards becoming a world-famous jazz trumpet player (and a large first step, at that), so we have documented Ezra’s progress in a short video clip, now posted in the Photo Gallery.

Note the Similarity in the Cheeks

With that phrase, Avi greeted us this mid-November morning. And why not? Halloween in San Francisco was a blast this year, as usual, and happy memories continue to linger. We celebrated the holiday with family, neighbors, and friends with our typical trip to the pumpkin patch (after being rained out last year), carving (or decorating) of our jack-o-lanterns, costumes (for kids and parents alike), parties (parents only!), and, for the first time ever in the history of Grossman Family West (!)—actual trick-or-treating!

In past years, we would sit on our stoop, in costume, and hand out candy to many dozens of trick-or-treaters, young and old, while sharing music and pizza with our wonderful neighbors and watching our next-door neighbor (a professional!) perform his fire juggling routine a few times over the course of the evening. That all happened this year, too, but ALSO, for the first time ever, Avi and Daddy walked up and down one and a half blocks and did our own trick-or-treating door-to-door—with HUGE success! Avi was excellent with both his “Trick Treat!” and his quick “Fank you!” after receiving a treat.

We’ve captured the entire week a new photo album, now in the photo gallery. Can’t wait until next year! Happy Halloween!

Boo!

Our boys can get pretty dirty, almost like it’s their job. They are so proficient at it, that we sometimes feel like bad parents (especially Daddy, since the boys seem to get 10x as dirty in any given hour when Daddy is “watching” them vs when Mommy is watching them). We won’t enumerate all of the creative ways that our boys have found to cake themselves in dirt and grime (and more) in this blog post, though let’s just say that nothing is off limits when little boys are left to self-monitor. And so we don’t leave them to self-monitor very often.

Mostly to make ourselves feel better (and in case CPS is watching), we have added a small photo album to the Photo Gallery that proves that they have bathed at least once. Also, we think it’s cute.

Now can we go back outside and play in the dirt??