Flashback to early July -- my brother Adam came up to visit and we took Max out to the Bronx to visit his great-grandparents. Who also follow this blog, so they are finally seeing these photos too. Hi, Grandpa & Grandma!

Another flashback to our week at Cape Cod this past summer -- here are some cute shots of Max with Jen and her grandfather.

Up at the Cape house, Max and his great grampy had some bonding time. They both had an affinity for head bonking, Max's favorite way of showing affection (headbutting you and giggling).









and that's my dad getting in on the Max action


Max is doubtful of whatever it is Dad said (rightfully so kiddo)


Here, Max and his supercute madras overalls and Grampy decide that the sun is overrated

Continuing the long-delayed photos from our lunch with Max and my grandparents in the Bronx, here are a few more. Note Max's willingness to lunge out to grab at anyone, no matter their age or distinguished demeanor.

Back in May, my parents came up and we all went to visit my Grandparents in the Bronx, where we had a most excellent Jewish deli meal. Here are some great photos of four generations of Bellacks. Max, as usual, is more interested in squirming to escape or grabbing at anything grabbable than, you know, paying attention to the camera.




Though, every now and then you get lucky and Max is paying something resembling attention. Either that or something shiny walked behind me at just the right moment.

It was my grampy's 97th birthday back in April, and while we weren't able to be there on his actual birthday, we took Max down to Philly the weekend afterwards for a visit with Grampy. My cousin Tony and Jen were kind enough to host the family at their house (brave brave folks!)



not bad for 97, eh?

Jen introduced Max to his new favorite toy: the whisk! Here he is with my mom and cousin Tony, and his new best friend Whisky! (mmm whisky)



a very arch photo of my dad:


Grampy, Sharren and Charlie:


grabbing lunch


Grampy's a big fan of the lemon merengue pie


and Max and Grampy, hanging out:



(nice, kid. Deck the 97 year old)

On our way back up to NYC, we stopped off to visit to my maternal grandmother, Max's Great-Grandma Bartlett. She lives in an assisted living community outside Dover, DE, so we try to visit whenever we're driving down to Annapolis. Max is her third great-grandchild -- my cousin Kathy has two boys of her own. It was a really nice visit, even though Max got super-cranky for some reason. I look forward to the next trip we take so Max can prove that he's not always a crankface, and show his Great-Grandma how much he's grown.

This first video is in HD. To see the HD version, look in the lower right corner of the video player -- make sure the "HD" is white not gray, and the click the far-right icon with four arrows to play the video in full-screen.


Big smiles all around:







It was all fun and games until Max got cranky:

Today was a really good day. I finally got to take Max to meet his great-grandparents Jack and Yetta in Riverdale (the Bronx). I was going to go last week but was felled by a nastly cold/flu bug (which Jen now has, unfortunately).

Anyway, Jack and Yetta are my father's parents and like any grandparents are pretty important to me. I live in the NYC area basically because of all the fond memories I had of my parents and I coming to see them and the city regularly made it seem obvious that I'd move here after college. I even lived at their place for a few months after I graduated when I had just gotten a job and was saving up for a security deposit on my first apartment; and again for a few weeks when I moved back to the city for business school. So having Max at their apartment and spending some time with them was pretty meaningful.




The other thing that is great about visiting my grandparents is that I can start to introduce Max to Mother's Bake Shop, home of the best black and white cookie in the entire world. I grew up on these things, and God willing Max will too.

And they really are the best -- Even the New York Sun agrees.