Friday, November 28, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for this year, most obviously is our beautiful Mo! She enjoyed every moment of her first Thanksgiving from the asparagus, to the turkey,
, and even Grandpop's beer!


We had a fabulous day with Bryan manning the cooking, Jeanna adding a few desserts, and me, as usual, the best dishwasher on the East coast! Mo enjoyed the turkey, mashed potatoes, and carrots, but really did not enjoy the corn bread stuffing. I'm thinking the added bacon was a little too strong for her tiny taste buds. No doubt, by next Thanksgiving she'll enjoy it as much as her Gram.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Bah Humbug!

I am confused.
When did the Christmas season begin, and why wasn't I notified?
Besides the fact that the holiday radio station started playing Christmas music right around Halloween, I have been bombarded by Season's Greetings banners and holiday catalogues since the beginning of the month. What really got me, though, is the number of photos I've already seen of children sitting on Santa's lap!!! I thought Santa was suppose to come on Thanksgiving?
Think back, for a minute, to Thanksgivings in the '80's way back when I was a kid. We would watch the Thanksgiving day parade in the morning and the last float would always be Santa Claus. Right? When did it all change?
I still refuse to acknowledge Christmas time until Black Friday, at the earliest. I won't decorate my house until December 1 at the earliest, and Mo will not sit on the big guy's lap for at least another week!
If that makes me a Christmas scrooge, then BAH! HUMBUG!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

A Fitting Tribute

Today I drove to my mom's house to see her and my grandmother as they prepared for my Uncle Frank's memorial service. As I mentioned before, he was a HUGE Phillies fan his entire life. My mom and her siblings were attempting to think of some way to honor him in conjunction with his love of the Phillies. I believe it was my Uncle Tom who brought up Jaime Moyer's foundation. In case you aren't a fan, Jaime Moyer is one of the pitchers for the Phillies. His foundation funds various events and non-profit groups throughout the U.S. It is through the Jaime Moyer Foundation, that Camp Erin is funded.


Camp Erin is a bereavement camp designed for children ages 6-17 who have experienced the death of a parent, friend or loved one. It is a weekend-long experience filled with traditional, fun, camp activities combined with grief education and emotional support -- facilitated by grief professionals and trained volunteers. We could think of no better way to combine Uncle Frank's two greatest loves, that of baseball and his daughter.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

God Bless you, Uncle Frank

My Uncle Frank passed away this evening after a lengthy battle with lung cancer. He was my mom's younger brother and is survived by my cousin Natasha. He also was a devoted fan of Phillies, and we all believe he held on this last month to watch the Phillies clinch the World Series.

God Bless You Uncle Frank. May you rest in peace.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Pants Off, Dance Off!

Mo is mobile! She cruises around the house, leaning on chairs, coffee tables, tv stands. Frankly, she scares the crap out of Bry and I, though she seems to have mastered the art of falling well. Usually she lands on her bottom.

With that being said, before she became mobile, I would lay out a bunch of her toys on the bathroom floor while I would shower in the morning. She was happy as a clam looking at books or banging her toys together, while I would hop in and out. I had to stop this about 3 weeks ago. Never did I think I would have to write this sentence.
I can no longer place her on the floor of the bathroom because she pulled herself up on the TOILET!

I had to try and come up with a new solution. (I know I could wake up earlier and shower before she wakes up, but seriously??? I'm figuring once I have more than one child that will be my reality. Why not enjoy this now?) Bry was the mastermind of plan B. We have the pack and play set up in the corner of our bedroom. I place Mo in pack and play, turn on Noggin, (I know t.v. is bad for babies, but thank you Nickeloden for coming up with Noggin!), add a few toys and books, and then quick hop in and shower with the door open. I've done this a few times and I'm in and out before Mo freaks out.

The set-up was complete. I dropped in the kid and rushed in the shower. In the mere 7 minutes, my kid somehow figured out how to pull off both socks, and her fleece pants. She was standing in her onesie, grabbing on to the side of the pack and play, bobbing up and down to Jack's Big Music Show!

I hope that the removal of her clothes is not an indication of her future occupation.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

NYC take two!

We survived the Big Apple!

As I previously wrote,we had tried to visit our good friends Steve & Lynsay in their home unsuccessfully last month. Click here for that trip to nowhere. Anyway, we decided this past Saturday to make the trip. This time, being a little wiser we abandoned the train idea and instead went with the car. After getting the directions, we were off, speeding up the turnpike, through the Lincoln Tunnel and oops, getting lost in Manahatten. Somehow we missed our exit and ended up going the wrong way, instead of the streets going up in number, they went down.

I should write a little disclaimer here. I have a horrible sense of direction. I like to joke that I can get lost in my closet. However, on this trip, I was not responsible for any misdirections. The blame lies squarely on the shoulders of mapquest.

Finally, we figured out how to get where we needed, through Central Park and arrived at their apartment! Lucky for us their building has a parking facility in the basement. Unfortunately, we were in the wrong lane when we first got to the building and had to do another huge circle around the streets to make it to the rear of the building for the parking lot entrance. A mere 2 hours later we had arrived!

Lynsay and Steve have a fantastic view of the city! Their place is cute, but tiny. Big for NY's standards, but small for me, especially now as I have so much stuff. Wait, really it's not all my stuff. Some is Bry's and now most of the stuff belongs to Mo. But I digress.

Lynsay and Steve adopted an adorable dog Dolly. Mo has only had one other interaction with a dog. During that former experience, she basically just crawled around the kitchen area trying to follow the dog. On this Saturday, Mo got a lot more brave. As with most babies, Mo doesn't really know the difference between nice petting and attempting to gauge out an animal's eyes. Well, Dolly didn't want any of that, and so she snapped at Mo. No blood was drawn, and honestly, it didn't even phase Mo. I took my baby on my lap, as Lynsay took hers.

I have learned Mo + Puppy = something to pull

We no longer will allow Mo to try and interact with doggies for a while.

Because of the poor weather, we hung out in their apartment for the day. We had these giant hamburgers for lunch! YUMMY burger w/avacado & cheddar cheese for me. We watched a little football and then they were nice enough to give Mo her Christmas present: BABY UGGS! Her's are brown! Aren't they so cute?

We made it home with only a few misdirections and a little traffic in the city. Mo decided that she didn't want to nap, so for the first 35 minutes of our return trip she SCREAMED...not cried...Screamed. I felt so bad, because she had been so good the whole day and I knew she was exhausted. At about exit 12 on the turnpike she finally passed out and slept until we got home.

We had a fabulous day, but whoa, driving in the city was quite stressful! I think Bry would prefer to leave it to the professionals.

We had an unpleasant surprise when we returned. Bry took the trash out and when he went under the sink for a new bag he noticed they were wet. He asked me if I knew what was going on? I had no idea. He looked under and found this:
If you look closely, you will notice the pipe has completely rotted away! I guess we're lucky that I use the dishwasher all the time. Bry called the landlord who came over the next day and fixed it.

What a weekend!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Seven Months

Our girl is 7 months old! I remember thinking on one of those early morning nursing sessions, how different she will be around Thanksgiving. She is so different and yet remains the same. She's pulling herself up...on EVERYTHING and crawling all over the place. She laughs and smiles and has a generally good disposition. She still has that look. That intense, focused look that was present the day she was born. My mom loves to tell the story about the day she was born. When they wheeled out the isolette and she was introduced to Moira in the hallway of the hospital. Mo was sleeping, but then her eyes snapped awake and she just stared at my mom. Her big blue eyes, staring my mom down. My big blued eye baby girl still has that stare. She doesn't miss a thing.
So now, she's seven months old! But,there's five months until she's one. Five months to plan her first birthday party. Five months until April Fool's day. I guess we she survive the holidays first, and then worry about all that other stuff.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Halloween

We survived our first Halloween, and if I do say so myself, Mo was adorable!

I always loved Halloween. My mom would always start thinking about our costumes in the summer. For the longest time, we would have theme costumes: Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Mickey & Minnie Mouse w/mouseketeers, Uncle Sam, Statue of Liberty & Betsy Ross, and various candy bars. Our whole family would dress-up including my mom and dad. My mom was great at taking simple pieces and creating full on costumes. We entered the townwide parade every year and I think we may have won the family group for 6 years straight.
I feel guilty this year because I bought Mo's costume. Maybe next year I'll make her something...maybe.