social butterfly

avi has always been quite the talkative fellow.  even as an infant, he made the funniest noises that had us all in stitches wondering what the heck he was actually saying.  that shy, reluctant quality you see in some children is almost non-existent in avi.  even around new people, if you give him a few minutes to warm up, he's not too bashful.  during the months of february, march and april we had a number of visitors and did a little visiting ourselves...i figured it would be fun to take all of those visits/visitors and compress 'em into one blog entry!  between seeing new and old friends, there was one constant - avi enjoyed each and every encounter!  

the first pic is with tally, his wife laura and avi...they were visiting from cleveland and avi is trying to encourage them to add another addition to the 2nd generation of “three amigo’s”.  addison (shawn and greta’s son) and avi are waiting!  tally, shawn and i have known each other and been best buds since middle school.  as luck would have it, we all went to virginia tech and while we were there, we pretty much did everything together - hence the cheesy “three amigo’s” nickname!  seeing as captain tally and laura live in cleveland, we don’t get to see them as often as we like, but as long as his folks stay in richmond, we are assured a visit or two each year!!

our next stop is with the raika’s.  ana and kamran are dear friends and the four of us have much in common: harshna and ana went to dental school together and kamran and i were the significant others for those four years.  over those four years kamran, matt (who we will visit later on in this blog entry) and i formed a pretty exclusive club - the anti-dentites of richmond. anytime ana, harshna and niloo (another of harshna’s former dental classmates and matt's wife) get together, its molar this, impression that...blah, blah, blah (btw, soo should be mentioned here, but her husband is also one of “them” so peter is not in our club).  i digress. we stopped by to visit with them and grab a little lunch!  it was great to meet their newest addition to the family!  and they have definitely addressed the issue of having enough friends for avi to play with - in fact, with three boys, we often wonder how ana and kamran manage!  we seem to have our hands full with one and to see how well they do with three is amazing!!  it was great to see how avi interacted with them and the boys were quite accommodating in sharing their toys during our get-together.  hopefully, when the time comes, our little man will be as hospitable!

 

 

about a week later, we were thrilled to see brett, tiff and brady as they stopped by to visit for dinner.  little brady was just so happy to be out of the car that he could hardly contain himself (pic below)...actually, he was a joy over the course of the entire evening and eventually he just zonked out!  what i found most humorous - he looks very similar to 

his dad from back in the day after a long night of bar hopping in b-burg!  notice the head slouch with a slight lean left - text book luhring.  now, i will caution you, if he is like his dad, don’t wake young brady prematurely.  otherwise, YDARB will awaken!  ydarb is brady’s grumpy, grouchy alternate personality.  in brett’s case, well, we met tterb one night after some serious partying at top of the stairs following a vt game...perhaps my slightly loud, occasional snoring prompted tterb to shake, kick and yell at me...oh, i hope poor brady doesn’t have a ydarb hiding inside!

the following week avi gets another visitor in vanessa, one of harshna’s former co-workers.  she was also driving through richmond and wanted to visit with the little man...unfortunately, avi was a little p-o’d that his teddy bear was also in the pic...he wanted the spot light in between two beautiful ladies all to himself.  gotta admit, i’d be p-o’d as well.

next on avi’s social schedule - nova!  first stop was matt and niloo’s house (same matt from the anti-dentite club of richmond)!  arya and avi have met before, but avi was only a few months old.  so you can appreciate his level of excitement upon meeting up with his buddy.  not too different than matt and i, arya towers over avi in the pics below, but i have the little guy on some special height-enhancing vitamins - he is already in the 60th percentile for his age and his current height - there is still hope!

 
 

later on that day, we headed over to the kalb’s house for a quick play-date with kadyn.  she was sweet as ever and didn’t know what to make of avi.  he made himself right at home, playing with her toys, using her high chair during lunch and snuggling up to her parents!  

avi - hey those are some cool blocks!

kk - uh, okay, you can....

avi - hey, neat phone!

kk - sure, feel free to...

avi - your mom’s camera is awesome! take a pic of me!!

kk - wait a sec...

avi - COOL HIGH CHAIR...

kk - hang on, that is off limits...

ten days later, we were back in nova.  this time, we spent some time with the bhavsar's!

we were treated with some fantastic cooking from chef sonal!  she truly is an extraordinary cook and her passion for the culinary arts is evident in the tasty treats we enjoyed all weekend!  its only a matter of time before she puts her passion (and talent) on display for the masses.  and if that day never comes, as long as we get an invite to dinner at her house every so often, i’m not complaining!!  yummy stuff!  between avi and i, we tore through dinner and found ourselves in a food coma shortly after!  thanks for the hospitality neil and sonal!!  and if you haven't visited her blog, you must: http://live2eatdc.blogspot.com/

 

and our final visitors were the cintron family...a few years ago, we were saddened to see norberto and suki leave richmond.  they lived a few blocks from us and we really enjoyed hanging out with them often (pre-parenthood!).  norberto and i were on the same soccer team and the first time i met this dude, he was pimpin in his 2 door geo like it was gods gift to automobiles.  naturally, it made me laugh and i thought, i gotta get to know this cat.  it sucks when you meet a couple and they are just good people and we enjoy each others company and then life/career takes you to another place.  fortunately we have kept in touch and interestingly enough, soon after moving to new york, we both had children and this was our first opportunity to get our families together since the dramatic life changes!  their children were beautiful and well-behaved!  avi fit right in!  suki coordinated a dinner meeting at carrabba’s in the southside and a number of their richmond friends were able to join in the brief reunion!  hopefully, we will see them again soon!

 

alright kids, that brings us up to April of 2008 - we are getting a little closer!  more blog updates coming soon!

april 25th