The Bailey Planet

Natalie's pre-game Super Bowl interview

2012-02-04T06:12:00.000-08:00

In light of a VERY funny set of interviews that the Boston Globe did with kindergarteners regarding the upcoming Patriots-Giants Super Bowl in Indianapolis this Sunday, I decided to conduct an interview of my own with Natalie. Interestingly, it wasn't nearly as funny as the kindergarteners interview, but only because she actually KNOWS football! That's my girl....

http://www.boston.com/community/moms/specials/Super_Bowl_through_a_kindergartners_eyes/?p1=Well_Community_bottom_links

There's a video and a slide show... the kid who's thirsty is the best!

Here's how my interview with Natalie went:

Do you know who Tom Brady is? Yes.
Do you know what he does? Yes.
Can you tell me what he does? Um... He does this: "GAGA!"
How old is Tom Brady? 100!
Do you know what the Super Bowl is? It's where you play the Giants!
Do you know where it's being played? At the Super Bowl!
Who's your favorite Patriots Player? Tom Brady.
What's his position, do you know? Is he a pitcher, a quarterback, or a point guard? Quarterback!
Do you know what a touchdown is? It's when they score!
Do you like the Red Sox better or the Patriots? The Patriots!
What do football players wear? Blue and white!

The Amazing Natalie's score prediction: Tom Brady: 9; Eli Manning 8. We aren't sure whether that is the score of the game, or just what Tom and Eli will score... stay tuned!

Christmas vacation to Plymouth

2012-01-30T18:29:00.000-08:00

OK, it wasn't a huge vacation, just one extra day, but always so much fun!

The kids opened gifts from KK and Grammi and Bean on Christmas night. As if they didn't get enough!

Grammi and Bean got Natalie a Zhu Zhu pet, which was a big hit. AND she got a super cool personalized Dora book, which tells of great adventures of Dora and her friends Natalie, Grant, Gaby and Julia! (Gaby and Julia are her friends from school!)

The day after Christmas, the Fitch's joined us for the big holiday dinner. Look at GoGo, such a good sport sitting at the kids table! GoGo left not long after Christmas for his semester at sea with Mass Maritime Academy. You can follow his voyage here! http://www.maritime.edu/seaterm/ As of the end of January, they have already been to Costa Rica, Ecuador, and through the Panama Canal!

If there is music playing, little buddy is dancing. He always gets the gold star at Maureen's when Sheila comes for singing and dancing time. He is the FUNNIEST and CUTEST dancer! Here he is in Grammi and Bean's kitchen, dancing with daddy!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-29T18:44:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas! It's Christmas! Both kids were not as into it as I thought they would be... but it was still way fun. I really should say NATALIE wasn't as into it as I thought she would be. I thought for sure at 4 and a half, she would be psyched. But it was pretty typical for her- it took her 10 minutes to get through the stocking, and then after about 2 gifts, she was ready to be done and just wanted to play with the two things she had already opened!

Natalie painted Van Gogh's Starry Night for us at school and gave it to us for Christmas! It was my favorite gift, by far.

And that's saying something because I got a sweet pair of red, white, and blue inov8s. These shoes are the bomb, FLite 195s. I actually prefer the 230s but you can't get those in these awesome colors!

We are really dorks. If you think CrossFit won't change your life, think again. Inov8 shoes and this big thing! Todd was thrilled with this fermentation pot that he got from my parents! I think that was his favorite gift. He's already got a big batch of sauerkraut in there! I was hoping that by getting a fermentation pot, that meant I would be getting some ... ahem... fermented beverages! Alas, I was sorely mistaken.

Little buddy got a Hess truck that has a little speed racer on top of it from Nana and Pop Pop. He was so happy, it's still one of his favorite presents. You can see here, he had little interest in much else. He loves laying on the ground and racing his cars around (look like someone else you know Cory Swales???)

Speaking of Uncle Coco and Aunt Brie, they got him this Big Book of Things that Go. I mean, you would have thought they gave him a ... well, a book of things that go! He couldn't get enough of this. We have to read this on a daily basis. Please note the chaos that is our living room.

Time to stop and have a Christmas morning breakfast break! Keeping it real with eggs and bacon.

Grant had to immediately get back to his reading. He couldn't put this classic down!

Natalie finally came back to opening presents, and had a great Christmas! We asked her what her favorite gift was (right after everything was opened) and she said it was the Strawberry Shortcake Berry Cafe set she got from Nana and Pop Pop. They did better than Santa did this year! Above, she's opening their gift.

Yep. He's STILL reading the book. Check this out guys, it's a digger! (Or as he says, a 'deeeger!') Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve 2011

2012-01-29T18:16:00.001-08:00

On our way back from church, we break out the reindeer dust. You don't want Santa, Rudolph and the gang to bypass your house just because they couldn't see it, now do ya??? No way. So you sprinkle some reindeer dust on the ground and the reflection of the moon on the glitter lights the way to our house. Here's Natalie taking a toss...

Santa Grantie ran around the house in his holiday gear, and boy was he cute!

After dinner and bath, the kids got in their jammies and Daddy read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Grant lasted about 1 sentence, and darted for the play room. Natalie really likes the story though. Here, they are saying, "And laying a finger aside of his nose..."

Naturally, we have to leave Santa a note, as well as some egg nog and a cookie. We heard Santa might want to try paleo, so we didn't want to leave too many cookies for him. Natalie's note says, "Santa, We've been good. Love, Natalie and Grant." Please note the beautiful bubble letters that my daughter did, despite the fact that I had no idea she could do so.

And when I woke up in the middle of the night to see if Santa had been there... he HAD!

Chippy, the Elf on the Shelf

2012-01-01T12:01:00.000-08:00

Santa sent us one of his special elves this holiday season. We named him Chippy, and every night, he flies back to the north pole to report Santa about how good or bad Natalie and Grant have been. Then he flies back, and lands in a new spot every night. One morning, we caught him with his girlfriend, Barbie...

Santa Photo 2011

2012-01-01T11:58:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from Grant, Santa, and Natalie!

GG's 100th Birthday Party

2011-12-23T19:08:00.000-08:00

My Grandma, Frances Swales, turned 100 on December 7. 100 years old. Can you imagine the things she's seen in her lifetime?

Todd, the kids and I flew to Cincinnati on Saturday the 3rd. Well, we tried to anyway- our flight was supposed to leave at 8 am. There was a problem with the engine, so we never boarded, but instead, they announced they were flying in a part from (ironically) Cincinnati, and then we would be taking the plane that brought the part BACK to Cincinnati. Since the 8 am flight was the only one of the day, they kind of had to get us there. A bunch of people got on the non stop to Columbus, but we had a car waiting for us in Cincinnati so we decided to wait. We didn't take off until 12:30, and didn't get to Cincinnati until about 2:30, about a half hour before the party started. We all changed clothes in the bathroom (ah, memories of my childhood!) and quickly got our rental car. The kids were surprisingly VERY well behaved, and slept most of the flight. Of course, Grant woke up with conjunctivitus ... UGH. It seems like it's never ending with him lately.

Above is a picture of the whole family- minus my cousin Patti. My grandparents had two children, my dad and my Aunt Martha, who passed away in 2002. She had 3 kids, Mike, Patti, and David. And then of course, there's us!

Here is Grandma with me and the kids. This is the first time she has ever met Grant. She met Natalie once back in 2008. The party was really fun! There was a great big cake, and ice cream for everyone. Brie's mom Darlene made this great poster of Grandma that everyone signed, wishing her a happy birthday.

After the party, mom, dad, Cory, Brie and the four of us went out to LaRosa's for some dinner. The kids were totally spent, and there was a long wait, but thankfully, Cory and Brie's hotel room was right next door. So we took the kids over there for about 20-30 minutes and watched some TV and played trucks. It totally did the trick. Since it was also Cory's birthday, mom and dad got him a cake. Here we are posing with the cake... which would later slide down dad's jacket when he tried to pick it up. No more post-party alcoholic beverages for you!

We all got a great night sleep and since our flight didn't leave until 4 pm on Sunday, we got to go visit with GG again. I love the picture below- it really looks like Grant and GG are having a lengthy conversation!

Grandma even got a letter from President Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama, wishing her a happy 100th birthday - very cool!!!

After our visit with GG, we went back to the farm to eat a quick lunch and let the kids take a quick (around an hour) nap. While Todd and my dad went out to get some lunch for us, Natalie, Grant, Nana and I walked around the farm and went over to Mount Pleasant Cemetery, which is next door to my grandparents house.

Here the kids are running around outside, right before I put their coats on them.

Coats required, it was chilly. Hey, let's head over to the cemetery!

The conversation about the above picture went something like this: Me: "Natalie, please do not dance on the graves of deceased people! It's disrespectful!" My mom: "Oh it's okay, that's so-and-so's grave and she's not dead yet!" Oh, fantastic!

A few minutes later, Ben came by on his ATV (he lives across the street, his grandpa is my dad's cousin, I think). He came over to drop off some vennison sausage, and Grant and Natalie got to sit on the ATV for a few minutes. Ben was so sweet to let them sit there. He even let them rev the engine! Thought Grant might have a heart attack!

After nap, we headed to the airport and had an uneventful flight home, thankfully. Wish I could say that I stayed put for a few days... but the next weekend, I went to Atlanta for my friend Sally's baby shower. She is having a baby girl, Maley Marie, in January! I was only there for about 48 hours, but it was so good to see my friends Sally and Jen!!!!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-19T18:52:00.000-08:00

Where is the time going???

So this year, I had it all planned out. We were going to have our holiday card pictures taken at JC Penney on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The cards would be in the mail by December 3. But then the day before we were scheduled to have our pictures taken, Grant came down with a stomach bug. Even our trip to Florida, where we were scheduled to leave on Monday before Thanksgiving, was in jeopardy.

But he recovered quickly, or so we thought! We made it to Florida Monday afternoon, but by Monday night, Grant was sick again. On top of it, he and I both came down with a cold. But thankfully no one else got the stomach bug. Natalie and Daddy did a little swimming in the chilly pool (I think it was 74 degrees).

Little buddy didn't want anything to do with the pool, so he and Nana got to watch the garbage men pick up the trash, and they were so nice and even honked the horn for him!

Unfortunately this year, there weren't a lot of fish off the dock, even with the big light that my parents have to attract the bait. We checked every night, which Natalie loved to do. One night we saw a few fish, but nothing like what we saw last year.

Todd, Cory, Dad and Britt (Brie's sister) did a little golfing too. You can't go to Florida, where temps were in the mid to upper 70s, and not golf!

Todd and I also ran our first ever official 5K. Cory ran the 1 mile and Brie did the 10K on Thanksgiving morning. The night before, we went out for a little Mexican. You know, to carb up. HA.

Unfortunately, when we got back, Grant had been sick again. UGH. We didn't get any pics of the 5K, because there's no where to put your camera, but Todd and I both set PRs, and I ran mine in about 29 minutes. It was hard to tell because you start so far back of the starting line. Last year, they kept the clock going, but this year, they didn't, so we figured it was about a minute after they shot the gun that we actually started the race. The clock said 30:03 when I crossed the finish line, so subtract a minute and that was about 29 minutes. Not too bad!

We took some nice family pictures on the dock too- one of all of us, and one of the four of us.

Next up was a trip to the beach one sunny morning. Of course, poor Grant is also teething his 2-year molars. So he chomps on his fingers a lot. And his fingers were sandy. Plus he hates bare feet in the sand. Plus his sister stole his trowel, which was his only source of fun at the beach. So after about 10 minutes, Grant and I went home. But Natalie and Daddy enjoyed some time on the beach!

Above is the one picture I snapped of Grant and Daddy before Grant and I left. Below is Natalie buried in the sand. She thought this was really funny.

Mommy not only missed out on going to the beach, but she also missed out on going out on Pop Pop's boat. Grant decided he didn't want to have anything to do with the life jacket this year. And since it's a law that kids have to wear one, well... we just didn't go. But Natalie and Daddy had fun with Nana and Pop Pop!

Pop Pop even let her drive the boat!!!!! She took this very seriously, of course.

Finally by the weekend after Thanksgiving, Grant was feeling a lot better, so we went over to the Pfaelzer's house on the beach and got to play in their heated pool and had a cookout! The Pfaelzer's lived next door to my parents since I was 5, and only recently did Mrs. Pfaelzer move to the beach. Emma, Kriss and baby Coco live there (for now!) too!

Above, the guys swimming with their little ladies. Natalie swam with just floaties and the assistance of a noodle, but eventually, she accidentally started swimming without the noodle. She started panicking, but I was encouraging her by saying, "You're doing it!" and she got excited and started doggy paddling.

I love the picture above. Hey Ladies. My name is Grant and I like long walks on the beach and fluffy puppies.

Little buddy didn't want to swim, but he liked hanging in the lounge chair with Pop Pop before the sun set. He was funny- he whined the first 20 minutes we were there until we put his shoes on him, then he was perfectly normal and happy. He hates not having shoes and socks on.

The next day, which was our last full day in Florida, it rained, was windy and kind of cool. So the four of us went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, the home of Winter, the dolphin who does not have a fin. They made a movie about him called A Dolphin Tale, starring Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd and Harry Connick, Jr. A doctor made a prosthetic fin for him, although in real life, he just swims around without it. Here's Natalie and Grant checking him and his buddy Panama.

A little later, Winter was showing off for the camera. That Winter is such a ham!

I know the picture below is blurry, but Todd and I thought this was HILARIOUS! Run away from the shark Grant! Run away!!!!!!!!

Until next year Florida, happy Thanksgiving!

Shout Out

2011-12-05T05:17:00.000-08:00

I just want to give a shout out to Delta Air Lines, who dealt with our annoying peanut allergy so nicely this past weekend, even though we are all non-revs and aren't supposed to ask for special treatment. On the way to Cincinnati for my grandma's 100th birthday party (more on that later...), they chose not to serve peanuts to everyone on the plane. I mean, this was after a 4 hour delay that made us a half hour late to my Grandma's party, so the least they could do was not kill my kid, but I digress... On the flight back, they didn't serve peanuts AND they made a special announcement on the PA that my little guy had a severe allergy! I kind of felt like a celebrity. That plus the Woodford Reserve made that flight a lot less stressful. Good times.

Grant at 2 years

2011-11-18T20:22:00.000-08:00

Here is an update on what my little sweet boy is like at 2 years old. First, I'll give you the stats. Grant went for his 2 year check up on 11/2, just a few days after his 2nd birthday. He was 34.75 inches tall (60th percentile), weighted 29 pounds (64th percentile) and his head is 50.5 centimeters. I love my big boy!

Second, we learned that Grant has a severe peanut allergy (which we kind of already knew of course) and a mild allergy to pistachios. Boooooo. This is not cool AT. ALL. However, not totally unexpected because of the Labor Day weekend reaction he had, plus Grant's cousins Gordon and Ryan both have peanut allergies! I pretty much knew from the moment I found out I was having a boy that he would have some kind of peanut issue. Of course, it's never fun when his pediatrician says, "Yeah, his allergy is off the charts!" Um, great.

Third, let's remember what Grant is like at 2 years old. The kid is a talking machine! I always tell Todd that Grant isn't as clear as Natalie was with her words at this age, but he certainly has as many words as she did! He must have close to 100 words, if not more. He speaks in 4 and 5 word sentences. He is OBSESSED with anything that has wheels. Trucks, cars, trains, front loaders, cranes, tractors, back hoes, dump trucks, firetrucks, you name it. He knows them by name. At dinner, he will eat and then say, "I finished! I watch TV? I watch trucks?" Of course, this sounds more like, "I finisss. I watt TV? I watt twucks?" But we know what he means!

He's a pretty good eater too. Last night he ate 1.5 grilled cheese sandwiches, and tonight, about 2 hot dogs and a bunch of mandarin oranges and some dried apple rings. He still loves his milk! He asks for it every morning and says, "Peas" when he wants it (mostly when prompted though). Some other things that are kind of unique that he likes to eat are: cooked carrots (sometimes), peppers (orange, red, yellow), cucumber slices, any kind of fruit, and his latest favorite... ketchup. He LOVES sweets, just like his sister, but obviously now that we know he has a peanut allergy, we have to watch this a little closer.

He's still a good sleeper. We put him down around 7:30 every night and he sleeps until 5 something, when Todd goes in, gives him a small cup of water, changes his diaper and puts him back to bed. He loves teddy bears and loves to sleep with Blue Bear, his taggy blankie, and his blue blanket.

He's a sweet boy too. Maureen says he is always SO good with the babies at her house. He hardly ever touches them, but he kneels down and is sweet to them, and he doesn't even mind it when baby Liam follows him around. He tolerates his sister, although I feel this year that is going to change! He's almost always sweet with mommy and daddy, although lately he will whine for the other parent when one doesn't give him what he wants! It's pretty funny.

We love you little buddy!!!!! (And we love the haircut we got you not long after this picture was taken!)

Halloween 2011

2011-11-18T19:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween! OK, I'm a little late, but better late than never, right???

This year, Natalie went dressed as an Auburn cheerleader. She decided at the first house that she didn't want her props- her megaphone or her shakers/pom poms. Grant only made it about 4 or 5 houses and Todd had to take him home. He didn't get it, didn't care for candy, and was only excited about the fact that it was dark outside!

We went over to our friend Chris' parents house to pick up our friends Chris and Tiffany, and their kids Jackson and Samantha. Sammi was a princess, and Jackson was Buzz Lightyear! Here are 3 out of 4 of the kids waiting to go trick or treating!

Here you can see Natalie waiting patiently at a door for someone to answer and give her candy. Grant has already turned around and is ready to take off and fly around the neighborhood so he can save a few damsels in distress.

See? Here he is, saving this lady, ahem, Mommy, from the cold, fall night! Let's go Mommy!!!

Finally Daddy had to take him home. Daddy tried his best to get in on the Halloween act! At least he put forth an effort, which is more than Mommy can say. Mommy was only concerned about staying warm. That being said, I realize neither of my kids have coats on. Neither wanted them on! I figured Grant was only out for a few minutes, and if Natalie wanted a coat, she was big enough to ask for it. She finally did, with about 3 houses to go!

Here's Natalie with Jackson and Sammi (and Tiffany!) at this awesome lady's house- she gave out Matchbox cars and candy! Natalie was sweet enough to get a car for her brother, sinc he had already gone home. We just love going trick or treating with our friends the Kelley's!

Grant's 2nd Birthday Party

2011-11-18T19:19:00.000-08:00

My little buddy turned 2 on October 30. Sniff sniff. For his birthday weekend, we went down to Grammi and Bean's house for a little family birthday party. We got there Saturday right before lunch, and while the kids took a nap, Bean made us some cocktails. This is what ensued:

After the kids woke up, we snapped a few pictures of Natalie and Grant on the stairs in their Halloween costumes. Natalie is an Auburn cheerleader, and Grant is Superman! Here he is attempting to fly!

Then we took a nice Bailey family picture on the stairs. Natalie grabbed her props for this one!

After a delicious dinner, we got to enjoy some yummy birthday cake that KK made for Grant! It's Lightning McQueen!!! Can you believe she made this? It's so awesome! Wish I had talent like this. Good thing I married into a talented family!

I love the picture below of Grant and his Godmother Nauni.

We sung happy birthday to Grant, and of course, we only have a really long video and no pictures, but we did snap a few of him devouring his cake. Double fisting!!!

Here is a kind of blurry picture of most of the family (minus Nauni, who's taking the picture!) at Grant's birthday feast! Little buddy was so cute and really loved his cake and ice cream.

After dinner, we opened presents! Grant really loves this Lightning McQueen car that Seth got him. Forget the other presents dad, I wanna play with LMQ!!! The kid has a one track mind, and there's gotta be at least 4 wheels going on that track!

Mommy, Daddy and Sis got him a big loader. He loves loaders, dump trucks, and tractors. It's the funniest thing. I've never seen anything quite like it!

It was a great 2nd birthday celebration with our wonderful Bailey relatives, who showered baby boy with love, cake and presents! I hope someday he realizes what a lucky boy he is!

Little girls and lipstick

2011-11-13T18:43:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when you let little girls put on their own makeup...

Auburn-Florida Game

2011-11-13T18:38:00.000-08:00

War Eagle baby! Todd and I were lucky enough to have my mom come up and watch the kids for about 48 hours while we went down to Auburn for the Auburn-Florida game. My besties and I try to do this at least once a year, although this year, we actually went twice, if you consider we all went to the National Championship game back in January.

Me and Ayala on our way to the potty with Jordan Hare in the background. The bathroom was at the Livestock Arena. Man, only in the south...

Nice pic of Jordan Hare, and oh, did I mention we are reigning National Champions?

Here we are putting up the tent for the tailgate. This pic isn't as funny unless you know Todd, Lee and Braxton were just sitting around beneath the other tent, having a drink and watching us work. Thanks guys.

I can't believe I'm putting this picture on this blog, because really, this just isn't me. First of all, I hardly drink beer anymore. Second of all, I most certainly don't shotgun. Well, at least not in the last 15 years anyway. But I got called out by the Gator fans, so what's a girl to do? It was only me and Sherpa representing Auburn and all of the other girls were too chicken to do it. The Crossfitting competitor in me couldn't let it go. I came in first of the three girls (the other two girls were Gators), but third to last overall, ha ha.

A bunch of us didn't go to the game. Kim and Rick, Ayala and Lee, and Sherpa, Todd and I decided to go downtown and watch it at the new bar/restaurant that is located where Buffalo's used to be, not too far from Toomers. This is what our poor, sad trees look like after that crazy Bama fan poisoned them. Not so good. The restaurant was kind of lame, but the waitress was nice, and they had TVs, and it wasn't crazy packed. And... we won! 17-7! We worked those silly Gators!

The good thing about being where we were is that we go to go roll Toomer's ONE. LAST. TIME. For having just beat the Gators, I was pretty sad. Look how pretty it looks! Not quite like '94 (what a game!) but I'll take it.

Toomer's Drugstore really needs to be open for post game lemonade!

One last pic before we went back to the hotel for our 3 hours of sleep. We had an early morning flight out of Atlanta (hour time change, 2 hour drive, had to return the car, etc.) But here we are, 2010 National Champions baby! This year, not so much. But it was fun while it lasted.

Pumpkin carving on a warm fall day

2011-11-13T17:37:00.000-08:00

Natalie and Daddy carved a pumpkin together on a nice, warm fall day in early October. Grant wasn't at all interested. So I had to chase him around the yard. Here they are, getting ready to start the pumpkin! (Note: Natalie had a super cool green fairy band-aid on her leg that Grammi had given her after getting a bug bite at their house).

Here is Grant, wondering if he can break loose from this joint. It was really warm out, so he had fun just running around and playing with his firetruck and remote controlled car.

He just really liked playing with the remote control. Never mind actually using it to make the car drive and spin around. Natalie did a great job of helping daddy scoop out the pumpkin guts!

Todd was trying to get Grant interested in pumpkin carving, but he didn't want any part of anything he couldn't remote control.

I would like to tell you that this is the finished product, below. However, it was getting late, so after cutting the top off and scooping out the guts, they put the project on hold for dinner, bath and bedtime. Within a few days, the pumpkin rotted, so Todd had to go buy and carve a second pumpkin!

Scenes from September

2011-11-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

Here's a little more of what we did in September. First, I turned 35. Booo.... But I was lucky enough to have my parents come up for a visit that weekend! And I got to eat cake, so of course, that always makes for a good birthday...

While my parents were here, we all (minus the kids) went to the Sox-Rays game. The Sox won, and it was a little chilly but we all had a good time anyway! Here we are up on the Budweiser Pavillion. I like the guy to the right making that creepy face...

One of Todd's co-workers went to Afghanistan for work for a few months. He brought back presents for everyone, including this interesting hat, which we put on Grant!

Lastly, I caught this cute moment between Todd and Natalie while they were working on putting together a fairy mobile at the dinner table. They looked so cute working on it together!

Trip to the Cape

2011-11-09T18:27:00.000-08:00

Every year, Todd and I make a point to join our friends Cooch and Karen at the Cucci family beach house in Wellfleet for a fun weekend away from the kids. This year, it happened to coincide with my eye surgery, and this turned out to be a VERY good thing, since I could barely keep my eyes open all weekend. (Warning: Unattractive sunglasses featured below!)

KK so graciously watched the kids for us while we went to my recovery weekend away. This is how I spent Saturday. With a shirt over my head. Note the sunglasses on TOP of the shirt. Dude, I'm really white. More trips to the beach next summer, please!

This is how Todd spent his Saturday. Practicing handstands on the beach in Wellfleet! We spent the day at the beach, drinking cold beverages, as prescribed by my eye doctor.

We ate a nice dinner outside on Saturday evening. Lobstahs, steamers, corn on the cob, yum. This is me, in my awesome granny glasses trying a steamer for the first time. Not bad, but kinda chewy.

Hail hail the gangs all here! It took everything I had to keep my eyes open in this picture. Mmm, non paleo corn on the cob! After dinner, we enjoyed the bonfire, some smores, some more drinks, and then I promptly enjoyed 12 hours of sleep! That is the first time in YEARS that I have slept that much. It was really good for my eyes.

Sunday, we went after breakfast to pick up the kids at KK's house. We spent the day there as Todd did some outdoor chores for KK as a thanks for watching the kids. I kept my eyes closed. In the evening, we ate outside. The kids were thrilled to eat outside, especially Natalie. Then we made smores in KK's firepit. I thought Natalie would go wild for the smores, but not so much. She hasn't been a huge chocolate fan lately. Look how big my kiddos look in the picture below with cousin Seth! So cute in their jammies...

Update on my eyes

2011-11-07T05:50:00.000-08:00

This post is for Rob, who asked in the comments section of my last post about this how my eyes were doing.

Well, it's been over 2 months and they are GREAT!!! I don't have any pain at all, and my vision is perfect. I have another follow up next week, so I'll be sure to post more on how I'm doing, even if it's just a quick blurb. As you know, I didn't have Lasik- I had advanced surface ablation, which is a little different with the same out come. I had a slight astigmatism, and slightly weakened corneas, so this was determined to be the best procedure for me based on these things. The recover was kind of tough for a few days, as I felt like scratching my eyeballs out, but it only lasted a few days, and a few adult beverages took the edge off and I slept for 12 hours straight. The best thing you can do for your eyes is SLEEP. So if anyone plans on doing this, and has ASA rather than Lasik, I recommend you either a) get a babysitter if you have kids or dogs, or b) make sure your spouse has a handle on the kids/dogs. But about 5 days after the surgery, they took out the hard contact lenses, and that made a BIG difference. Every day got a little better, and a week after surgery, I would say I was pretty close to 100%. For a few weeks, I was having a bit of trouble with halos (and I think almost everyone gets those) but I have been taking my eye drops and vitamin C religiously, so that has helped. With it now being dark when I go to CrossFit in the morning, or dark when I drive to the chiropractor at night, I've noticed a huge improvement. The moon still ocassionally halos, but that's about it. It doesn't affect my driving, because even if the "red light" haloed, I could still see that it was red! People, houses, street signs, etc. did not have halos. Just bright lights, and only when you look directly at them.

When I last went to the doctor, I was 20/16, and could even read a few letters on the 20/12 line. I had to go searching for it, but I was previously -2.00 prescription in one eye, and -1.75 in another. I think I was about 20/90 and 20/80, or pretty close to that.

Grant loves ribs

2011-09-25T14:46:00.001-07:00

This post reminds me of my Uncle Harry, and how he can perfectly imitate the "It's McRib time at McDonalds! CHOMP" commercial!

Laser Eye Surgery

2011-09-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

I FINALLY had laser eye surgery!

Long story... After 7 and a half years, I left Dewberry for a position as the Flood Hazard Mapping Coordinator for the state of Massachusetts. However, before I left, I had about $1700 in my flexible health spending account that had to be used before I left, otherwise it would have been taken from me. NOT COOL. Thankfully, the hubs purchased a "Buy With Me" for laser eye surgery with Dr. Leibole at Newton Wellesley Eye Care and Laser Surgery. Dude was AWESOME. I mean - I have never quite had the level of customer service ANYWHERE that I have with this place. His office was amazing, and I thoroughly recommend them!

Here I am saying goodbye to my glasses for the last time!

The surgery was really quick, maybe 2 hours tops from the time I got there to the time I left. So afterward, we went to Morse Tavern for a Pumpkinhead Ale! I asked Dr. Leibole about taking Advil or Tylenol, and he said neither of those would do much for me, given I had exposed nerve endings in my eyes! So I said, "How about whiskey!?!" And he said, "That is probably the best thing for you!" Sweet.

It was difficult for me to even keep my eyes open after the surgery. I had this one beer, an appetizer with Todd, and went home and slept for a few hours!

When you sleep, you have to wear these awesome eye patches. They are hard plastic, with terribly sticky tape that never comes off of your face. Plus, you have to take about a million eye drops for many weeks after the surgery. I was in a good amount of annoyance/irritation after the surgery- not so much pain as it was just generally irritating to the eyes. I compared it to a cat licking my eyeballs. Ewwww...

First day of school 2011

2011-09-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

Natalie is going to FACE Children's Center again this year, for pre-kindergarten. She is in the Butterfly class this year, and is in the purple Butterfly subclass. She loves it! Grant is still going to Maureen's, but he loves that too. We did sign him up to go to FACE next year though.

Here is their first day of school series of pictures. Grant had a big sippy cup of milk, that we had to take away for the pictures. So most of the pics are of him with his hands in the air, reaching for the cup that we had just taken away.

Tropical Storm Irene

2011-09-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

This Florida girl was just thrilled that we got a tropical storm this far north! It was a hurricane at landfall, I think, but by the time it got up here to eastern Mass, it was a tropical storm.

This was the day before, courtesy the NHC. Todd and I actually did some preparation for this because I had been through Hurricane Opal in 1995, which wasn't so awful of a storm by the time it reached Auburn, Alabama, but I still didn't have power for a whole week. And for a single, college-age girl, wasn't the worst thing ever, but as a mom of two little ones, I was freaked out by the possibility of not having power for an extended period of time. We had to elevate some of our appliances in the basement (the freezer, and the dehumidifier), and Todd had to go put out plastic on the ground under the only spot around the house that has a gutter... which hadn't been cleaned in years. But that stopped the small flood that had started in our fieldstone basement. :-)

During the storm. Sorry about the bounce of the flash off of the window.

After the storm I went out and took some pictures. We had a lot of branches/limbs/leaves down in the driveway.

Same with the backyard. Much larger branches were down back there toward the far end of the property, out by the fence.

Part of our fence came down, I think due to a branch coming down on it. Not sure though.

Even the tomato plants were not immune to Irene's "fierce" winds. In the end, we never really lost power. We lost it for about an hour in the middle of the night, AFTER the storm was long gone. Go figure!

Robb Wolf seminar, aka: Todd's man crush

2011-09-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

Todd got to meet (or... um.... meat) his paleo idol, Robb Wolf at an all-day seminar in Boston in August. I allowed Todd to spend his own money as a birthday present, albeit a little late, to see Robb in one of his last ever live speaking events.

Seriously, he looks deleriously happy in this picture!

Todd said about this picture: "We're like brothers!" Or... since Todd is about a foot taller than Robb, maybe not! If you ever want to know more about eating Paleo (meat, veggies, eggs, seeds/nuts, fruit), you should check out Robb's website www.robbwolf.com He is a paleo GURU, with great podcasts, blogposts, testimonials, etc.

Some big shoes to fill

2011-09-25T11:19:00.001-07:00

If Grant is half the man his daddy is someday, I will be just thrilled. He has some really big shoes to fill! Hopefully he'll be big enough to fill them!

Uncle Steve and the fam visit Massachusetts

2011-09-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately last year at Christmas, a big snowstorm cancelled Uncle Steve, Aunt Jeanne, Megan, Hannah, and Ryan's visit from Maryland. So we haven't seen them in a WHOLE year! So we were all really excited to see them in August...

First, since there are just TOO many Bailey cousins now, and they're mostly all ... well, like GoGo and Ryan, massively tall.... we had to move to a more spacious location for the group photo. I took about 10 pictures and this was the best one, ha ha. Yes, Natalie is in her pajamas. I know 20 years from now I'm going to be mad about that.

Then we went in the backyard and snapped a few pics of Bean with his beautiful granddaughters. Natalie and Madison are giving some sass.

Next up was Grammi and her baby boys. Ryan is a sophomore in high school, if you can believe that. He's almost Todd's height (6'4"). GoGo is starting at Mass Maritime Academy and playing football there this fall. Seth is my big goofball Godson, and one of Natalie's favorite people in the world. Please note: This is the first time EVER that Ryan has held a baby.

We like to get outdoors when we're down at Grammi and Bean's house. Neither kid wanted to ride the trike, and I didn't want to carry it, so I just hopped on here.

We also like to go to the pond. Or rather, Daddy and Natalie like to go to the pond. It's too cold for Mommy and Grant doesn't like sand or cold water. He gets that from me. I just have to say here... look at my nearly-40-year-old husband's hot bod! CrossFit rocks.

Big Boy was having a blast with Daddy and Uncle Steve. His face cracks me up in this picture. I think Uncle Steve thought he might be getting some cake here...

Natalie also is VERY into makeup and nails these days. She is such a girlie girl, or at least moreso than I was at that age. I love it! Here, cousin Megan did her nails and I did some of her makeup, which you can see in the picture below.

I'm pretty sure I can never let her out of the house when she is a teenager. I absolutely love this picture of us.

Seng and Sopheap's wedding

2011-09-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

I went to my first ever Cambodian wedding reception in July. It was WAAAY fun. Seng has been a co-worker of mine (albeit now in a different office since I'm in Boston and she's in Fairfax, where I used to work) for almost 8 years. Girl knows her stuff too, wicked smaht lady! AND... she knows how to throw a fun reception!

All of my favorite Dewb peeps were there. In fact, over 300 people were at this reception! I went down by myself, because we have too many things planned this year to try to get another one of our family members to watch our kids for a whole weekend. I got to stay with one of my favorite couples- Katie and Jeff. We had hit up a local winery in the afternoon prior to the wedding reception. PLUS... it's Cambodian tradition to have a bottle of Hennessy for each table (in addition to the unlimited Heinekin!). Well, the following pictures are what you get when one table challenges another to see who will finish the bottle of Hennessy first...

Above: Me and Brett Hurm, my birthday twin. I seriously have no idea what is going on here. But my arms look good, don't they?

I have no words.

This is the bride... Seng flanked by Robyn and Greg.

Seng is naturally pretty anyway, but she looked like a porcelain doll... and her hubby wasn't too shabby either!

This was flat out troublesome.

Brett helped lead our table to victory in the Hennessy Challenge. We're actually considering a rematch sometime later this year or next.

Cambodian tradition is to present each of the tables with gifts from the bride and groom. We got cool scarves, which Katie and Jeff showed off on the metro ride back to Vienna. Jeff snazzed his up with a little head gear.

Congrats to Seng and Sopheap!!!

Trip to the Beach

2011-08-15T18:50:00.000-07:00

Don't get excited... we just went to the local beach in Natick on Dug Pond. It's actually a really nice little beach, with a concession stand, lifeguards and plenty of space.

Grant didn't care for the sand. He kept asking for his shoes! "Shoes! Shoes!" He didn't like walking in the sand. He wasn't so sure about the water either but he eventually got used to it. He also had his trucks and he found a big stick! Look at those dimples!!!!

Natalie was like a little fish! She can't swim yet but the water was shallow enough that she could just splash and play without mommy or daddy being super close by. She just had a blast. She had a great time with daddy building sand castles and a big giant puddle/lake! (See above!)

Right before we left, we had to get the kids cleaned of all of the sand they had accumulated. Daddy wanted Grant to get in the water, despite his objections. Once he was in he was fine, and Daddy was bouncing him around. Then of course, Natalie wanted to be a part of it. The kids did really great and we had such a fun time! We can't wait to go back, but the rest of our summer has been so busy and it got cooler (yes, I'm not taking my kids to the beach when it's only 80 degrees! I'm such a Floridian!)

Trip into Boston

2011-08-07T18:47:00.000-07:00

We took the kids on the train into Boston for the day a few weeks ago. We like to do this about once a summer, and we make a big deal out of it, and the kids were crazy for it! First we went across the street to Station 5 Grill for some breakfast. We were there when they opened at 7 am, ha ha. Little buddy ate some pancakes with his daddy.

Next up, we went to West Natick station to pick up an 8:20 train to Boston. They thought this was SO cool. Grant loves anything with wheels, and probably the fact that it was going fast. Natalie is crazy about trains, so it was probably the highlight of the day!

Next we walked around the Garden for a little bit, and then took the Blue Line over to Aquarium so we could get on the commuter boat that takes you from Long Wharf over to Charlestown. It's only about 10 minutes long, it comes every half hour, and it only costs $1.70! You really can't beat it. We rode up front so Natalie could see out.

Once we got over to Charlestown, we didn't have enough time to go over and see Old Ironsides, so we just walked around the wharf area. We found this giant anchor and attempted to take a family photo on it. Three out of four Bailey family members participated!

After we caught the boat back to Long Wharf, we grabbed a quick pizza before heading back to Back Bay so we could catch our train back home. We were home before 1:30, and Todd said, "It's only 1:30 and I feel like we've done a full day of activities already!" It was a good, fun family outing!

Random Summer Photos

2011-08-02T17:42:00.000-07:00

This has been a busy summer! Here is a summary in 8 pictures of some of the highlights...

We've done a little swimming in the kiddie pool (yes, Mommy too). It hasn't been too awful hot this summer, but we've been able to get out a few times. Grant, NOT a big fan of the pool, or water in general. I think he likes it when the water is warm, because he doesn't have any issues in the tub. But a cold pool, not such a fan!

We've been to the gazebo a few times, and this year, Grant runs around more than Natalie!

We ate pasta at TGI Friday's and smashed it all over our face.

This is what happened after Daddy told her to stop smashing pasta on her face.

We've had MORE fun with the Wilmington crew! Second generation friends Caroline, Natalie, and Annabel, being SO silly, as usual!

We've attended some Red Sox games (Orioles, Cleveland). I think I'm 2-1 this season. They just lost to Cleveland last night (August 1) when we saw them. This is Todd at the Sox-O's game on July 10th.

We went to Org Day at Todd's work again! We went last year but last year it was in June. This year, it was on a nice warm day in July. Natalie got her face painted- ready for battle in a pink tutu skirt!

The big guy (ahem, Grant) didn't make it out of the parking lot. He was out COLD. Must have been a good time! I think he liked the playground at Daddy's work the best!

It's been a good summer and we've had a lot of fun!

4th of July

2011-07-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

Hmm... a little behind here.

We had another fun filled day in Natick enjoying the annual Kiwanis pancake breakfast and the Natick 4th of July parade! Just like Natalie in 2009, Grant ate his weight in pancakes. We had to steal a plate full of them because he wasn't finished when the parade was starting, so you can see in the picture below, he has his mouth full of pancake! We scored some good seats along East Central too, right on the street.

I'm beginning to wonder if there will ever be a photo of Grant without his sippy cup of milk.

Natalie waving to Sparky, the Wayland Fire Deparment Fire Dog. And look, he's waving back at her!

Oh wait! THERE'S a picture of Grant without his cup! He clearly has no interest in being photographed of course, so Natalie is yanking him back in the picture. Get back here little brother!

Oh well, if Grant won't participate, then we'll just get a cute one of Natalie, Pink Bear, and Daddy.

Natalie once again, was very into the parade this year. I was actually a little surprised that Grant sat still for a good portion of the beginning of the parade (perhaps it was the milk and the pancakes), but Natalie really enjoyed the whole thing. She danced to the bands, hugged Tigger, and was wowed by the dancers, gymnasts, and jugglers!

Unfortunately, this might be the last year of the Natick 4th of July parade (yes, ever). They are having trouble finding someone to organize/run the parade. We hope that they find someone soon because we really have a great time every year!

Wilmington Crew Party in Ipswich

2011-06-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

The Catanzanos were in in town from California, so of course, that is reason to have a big party at the Morris house in Ipswich. Naturally, I didn't get any pictures of Greg and Jan, but Cameron and Kiera made it into the first picture below!

Grant has decided he likes to climb stairs. So he climbed all the way to the top, but you can see that Mommy was waaaay too nervous about that, so I followed him up there. Then later, we went down the slide together, but he didn't really care for that. No laughter, no smiles.

But these girls were ALL smiles. Natalie and Annabel are like BFF every time they get together. It is SO funny. I swear they were separated at birth. They are both total goofballs and just laugh all the time.

Grant decided he wanted to go talk guy talk with the guys- Rybo, Joe, Cooch, and Daddy. Here he was saying, "Is this the cooler with all the beer in it?" Sorry big guy... another 19.5 years.

Later in the night, things got a little crazy. Apparently Karen was sitting on Cooch's lap and she got up to go get something, and he tipped backwards. Everyone was laughing and the girls must have heard this because Natalie asked me no fewer than 15 times why everyone was laughing and "what was so funny outside Mommy?"

We decided, when the kids finally went to bed that Natalie could sleep in Annabel's room on the air mattress on the floor. Of course, Annabel wanted to sleep down there too, and it's plenty big, so Natalie got to have her first sleep over with a friend. How long did this last? Well, til about 1:30 am! The girls didn't get settled in bed until after 9 because Ipswich (or somewhere?) was having fireworks and they were really loud and the girls were questioning us about them. (Us: Me and Andrea) Then of course, they were giggling, and throwing their bears in the air, and talking... UNTIL 10:30 PM!!!!

They were so funny though. One time, I heard Annabel say something about a fart. Natalie isn't really familar with that terminology (we call them toots!) so Natalie said, "What's a fart?" And Annabel said, "It's when gas comes out of your butt!" And of course, this was really funny to them. Then later, Natalie felt the need to explain what a word meant also, so she chose the word, "Infection." She said, "Do you know what an infection is?" And Annabel says, "No." Then Natalie says, "It's where a boo boo gets red and germs get inside!" Infection??? Really? What the heck led up to these conversations???

Finally at 10:30, I had to go in and ask the girls to play the silent game. Whoever could be quiet the longest wins. At one point, I did hear Annabel say something, to which Natalie responded, "No, let's just go to sleep!" Natalie certainly loves her sleep.

But of course, I heard some whimpering at around 1 am, just as all of the adults left the party. So I went in and Natalie said she had to go to the bathroom. So I took her potty, and then as I was opening the door to let her back in, Andrea said something in the kitchen and Annabel immediately woke up! So then, the giggling commences, and after about another 30 minutes, we had to move Natalie into our room. SO FUNNY. It was a good attempt at a first sleepover, but we know how little girls can be. Maybe next summer we can try it again!

Natalie's 4th birthday party

2011-06-30T17:18:00.000-07:00

Whaaaat a day!

In the morning, we had a little Father's Day/Bean's birthday party celebration. We were so excited to have BOTH sets of grandparents here! PLUS... CocoBrie came up from Florida too! They picked a nice weekend- it rained on Friday but we had really nice weather both Saturday and Sunday, something they aren't used to this time of year.

Bean's birthday is on June 15, so we always have a little celebration for him. Seth helped him blow out his candles and open up his cards and gifts!

Then after nap time, Natalie woke up around 2 for her friend/kid birthday party. We invited Addison from FACE/Gymnastics, Gaby (BFF from Maureen's), Sarah (BFF from Teddy Bears class at FACE), Logan and Grace, Jackson and Sami and of course, our resident big kid Seth who was a big help when it came to the breaking of the pinata.

Natalie was trying to swing with only one arm, and had a few good whacks.

All the kids got some good hits in, especially Logan and of course, Seth. You should have seen them scramble once it finally broke open. Natalie immediately found a lollipop and asked Daddy if she could tear into it.

Here's Addison, Sarah, Gaby, Natalie, Sami, and crazy little Jackson, the ham!

We also played a game of pin the tail on the My Little Pony. Grace had my favorite "stick" (they were stickers) of the day... way out in left field. This is typically where I put mine, and it's funny everytime.

Next up was cake and ice cream. Natalie wanted a Funfetti cake this year, with funfetti icing. The girls had a good time lined up eating their cake and ice cream (with Sarah's mom Karen!)

Little Buddy got up from his nap toward the end of the party. He didn't even realize what was going on- he just wanted to push his favorite firetruck around. Coco Brie sat outside and watched him while Natalie opened a few presents after all of the kids had left.

Happy 4th birthday Natalie! We hope you had a great day and we love you very much!

Natalie's 4 year stats

2011-06-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

More on her 4th birthday in a minute... first we need the stats! Natalie had her 4 year appointment and is 40" tall (60th percentile) and weighs 38 pounds (75th percentile). I don't know where the weight comes from (probably milk!) because she eats like a bird. She tells us she eats well at school and at Maureen's but we aren't really sure she's telling the truth.

Natalie had a fantastic year at FACE Children's Center. In her final "progress report," her teachers said, "Natalie is a kindhearted little girl. She quietly joined our Teddy Bear class last year and has emerged into an outgoing and playful friend. She has made friends not only in our class, but with children in the other classes as well, very popular!"

"Natalie is always respectful in group or circle time. She will listen quietly while a story is read and waits patiently when directions are being given. She can proudly recite her colors, shapes, and counting. She is also a very good singer!" (This is mommy's favorite part, ha ha ha!)

"Natalie runs around the playground or the back field with quick agility. She just always looks happy. Her smile has brightened our days. It has been a pleasure working with Natalie and it will be fun to watch her grow in the next year!"

Natalie is still a great sleeper and can still nap for 3 or more hours in an afternoon. She goes to bed every night around 8 pm and gets up around 6 am. It's difficult to wake her sometimes (kinda like her mama!), but generally if you just open her door while you're getting Grant ready, she will come around. She loves going to gymnastics and is really looking forward to starting CrossFit Kids at some point. She is still an incredibly smart little girl with an amazing vocabulary. I did a little interview with her the other day and this is how it went:

What is your favorite color: Green
What is your favorite food: Macaroni and Cheese
Where is your favorite vacation place? Florida at Nana and Pop Pop's
Who is your best friend: Gaby and Sarah (although this changes daily but these two are definitely besties)

We just found out that Natalie is actually going to skip over the Chipmunks class at FACE and will be a Butterfly next year with her friends Gaby and Addison, along with about 6-7 other kids from her Teddy Bears class. She was excited because the Butterfly's are the "Big kids." We are so proud of her!

Sami and Jackson's 3rd birthday party

2011-06-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

Natalie was VERY excited to get an invitation to Jackson and Sami's 3rd birthday party at Playtown Express in Hopkinton. We had gone there for Logan's birthday party in December, and she most definitely remembered the big slide and all of the fun things to play on. She was even more fearless this time, which is SO funny because her brother is totally afraid of things like this! (Big slides, swings, jumpy houses, no thanks mom!)

Seriously, this slide is so fast, this is about all you capture. But I think you get the idea! She pretty much LOVED this once again. She and I were going down the slide, laughing our butts off, running around, climbing the stairs and doing it all over again! It was so much fun!

Big boy wanted to do a little grocery shopping with Sami. She didn't want to play house with him, ha ha ha ha.

This is my new favorite picture of Natalie. I mean, have you ever seen so much JOY on a child's face????

A very unsure big boy with his daddy. Once he went down the "roller coaster," he didn't cry, but he got up and walked away. That was fine dad, but that was enough!

Sami and Jackson had TWO CAKES (which makes perfect sense to me, anyone who has two kids knows that you NEED two cakes for two totally different kids who like different things). To say the least, Natalie was very excited that there were two cakes. Even Grant got in on the cake action... they were so cute, sitting like such big kids at the table with daddy!

Gym Show 2011

2011-06-27T17:32:00.000-07:00

Natalie has been going to Planet Gymnastics for about a year now and really loves it. She was recently promoted (starting this fall) to GymStars II. But to wrap up the 2010-2011 year, they have a big final show called Gym Show and all of the kids get to participate. Naturally, the GymStars I, being the smallest of the independent (ie: without a parent) students, were the cutest of all! They practiced really hard on their routine for weeks!

The theme this year was a "Planet Gymnastics Hoedown!"

Natalie scanned the crowd before she found us and gave us a big wave. Her friend Lili is on her left (your right). First, they did a dance/gymnastics routine to the song "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash. Then some of the older kids did their routines (along with some of the girls from the cheerleading squad they have there). Then the GymStars I group came back out and did an obstacle course showing off some of the moves they had learned during the year. I didn't get any pictures of that since I videoed the whole thing!

Natalie and all of the other kids got to come out and watch the teachers do a really cool routine full of flips and handsprings and all kinds of crazy cool stuff! They were really impressive!

At the end, everyone receives a medal for their participation during the year and during the Gym Show. Normally I'm not such a huge fan of giving all the kids medals, but gymnastics isn't exactly a "team" sport, so I was okay with it. There aren't winners and losers in gymnastics, it's just exercise and skill!

Uh oh! That's a pretty big reward, I think I'm going to have to turn them in! I know where these ganstas live!

Playground time

2011-06-05T18:03:00.000-07:00

Boy, for early June, the weather has just been absolutely beautiful around here! So of course, that means we have to hit up the park that we know. Sorry I don't have any pictures of Natalie. I was the one with the camera, and I was in charge of following Grant around, so I only got pictures of him!

He met this dog and kept calling him "Sky" after our neighbors dog of the same name. He loves dogs, but he never touches them. It's kind of funny.

Grant also started using actual playground equipment for the first time that I've seen. Mommy was supervising very closely, but he climbed up all by himself. We went down the slide together.

When we were all hanging out in the clubhouse, we saw an awesome dust devil develop over the softball field. This is a great pic- but it looked even better just before this. I'm such a weather weenie!

Gordon's Graduation Party

2011-06-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

After gymnastics on Saturday, we all went to Wilmington for Gordon's high school graduation party. I can't believe he's graduated from high school! Seriously, thanks for making me feel really old and uncool.
Not too long after Grammi, Bean, and the South Yarmouth Bailey's arrived, Seth found a couple of small garden snakes. Do you see now why I love my mother-in-law so much? Isn't she so cool??? Not only did she actually pick up a snake, but then she pretended to eat it!

Big boy and the even bigger graduation boy.

Natalie rediscovered Uncle Gordie's back hoe. She looked so pretty in her dress with her big cousin Seth.

Grant was a TOTAL MESS. Who brought the homeless child? His face is all beat up from various run-in's with the playground equipment and curbs. He was digging in the dirt and was totally messy, and he got his lunch all over him because we forgot his bib. I think he's ready for Mass Maritime though!

Natalie asked GoGo if we could cut the cake. He totally stopped what he was doing (hanging out with his friends outside) and came in to cut the cake just so his little cousin could have a piece. Wasn't that super nice?

Congrats GoGo! Helen had a picture of him when he was little put on the cake. I totally see the resemblence between GoGo and Grant in this picture!

Ahem... the ubiquitous cake-on-the-face picture. Love that girl!

Natalie's birthday

2011-06-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

This is an e-mail I got from Todd earlier today...

I asked Natalie what she wanted for her birthday.

She said she wanted a puppy! Ha ha. She was so cute. She said, not a puppy at our neighbors but one at our house that is furry and wags its tail. I told her no. I said they are a lot of work and we are not home enough to take care of it. I asked her if there is anything else she might want. She said she wants a real robot that walks and talks to her.

Grant's 18 month statistics (at 19 months old)

2011-06-02T11:13:00.000-07:00

We're kind of slackers with the doctor's appointments- Grant was a whole month behind! Todd took him for his 18 month appointment yesterday morning (before he sliced his forehead open!) and he weighed in at 27 pounds (up 2 pounds since his 15 month appointment) which is 60th percentile. He is 34" tall (up 1 and 1/4" since his 15 month appointment) and that is 85th percentile. His head grew 1/2 a cm and is now at 49.5 cm, which is also 85th percentile. He got a couple of vaccines and now he's good to go until he turns 2!

OK, pardon their sweatiness here as it was 90 degrees outside and we don't have central air (not necessary today as it's a beautiful 70 degrees, breezy, and I have the windows open!) But this picture cracked me up. Natalie put the shamrocks on Grant's head and he didn't even bother trying to take them off! They looked so cute together!

Big Boy gets a Boo Boo

2011-06-02T06:11:00.000-07:00

Grant had a rough day yesterday (6/1). First, he had his 18 month well visit with Dr. Meisheid (more on that in another post!) where he had to get a couple of vaccination shots. Then he was at Miss Carrie's house (who lives in the neighborhood near Maureen) and he tried to climb the curb (I'm guessing) and he missed, splitting open an area on his forehead about 1/2-1" long. Back to Dr. Meisheid's office he goes! You can see it in the picture below. He has a nice little bruise with it too, poor little guy. They didn't do stitches, but they did do the "super glue" stuff. Hopefully he won't have that bad of a scar!

Seth's first communion

2011-05-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

We took a trip down to the Cape to see our nephew/my Godson Seth make his first communion. The weather was supposed to be rainy and gray but we got some sunshine at just the right time! Natalie and I took a quick walk when we were at Grammi and Bean's house while Grant took a morning nap.

I snapped this pic below of Natalie being silly in church. I know you're not supposed to be silly in church, but the kids were all singing The Butterfly Song and Natalie was dancing.

Then we went outside in the beautiful sunshine and took some pictures. Here we are with the first communion boy! I liked this picture because you can see Natalie is actually making an attempt at praying, just like her big cousin Seth.

And of course, it wouldn't be a party without CAKE! Seth got to make the first cut. You can see Natalie looking longingly at the cake. Andrew H. looks bored, ha ha! A good time was had by all! Congratulations Seth!!!!

Addison's 4th birthday party

2011-05-17T16:57:00.000-07:00

Natalie got invited to Addison's 4th birthday party at Snip It's in Framingham. Addison goes to FACE preschool with Natalie, although because her birthday is before June 1, she is a Chipmunk this year while Natalie is a Teddy Bear. Addison also goes to Planet Gymnastics with Natalie on Saturday morning, and both girls are in Mr. Gary's class.

The party was SO cute. They start off by doing an arts and crafts project, and then while they're doing that, the girls go up one by one and get their hair done, their make up done, and their nails painted. They also get to pick a princess dress to wear and then they get "interviewed" and get to do a fashion show at the end, before they have cake.

Here is Natalie with two of her friends from FACE and some other girls. Addison, the birthday girl is in the black and white dress. Gaby, her BFF is in the blue shirt.

Natalie was hilarious. I have this great series of pictures of Natalie excited to get her hair done, then eventually grimacing, and then nearly in tears because the tugging on her hair for the french braid was so painful. Such is the price of beauty, kid.

I captured this picture of the girls being SO sweet and admiring themselves in the mirror, checking out their hair and makeup.

Natalie had a blast in the princess dress (green, naturally) with her wand (that she got to keep and she loves. She even had to bring it into the bathroom tonight, over a week after the party!) She was also VERY excited that she got a lollipop in her goodie bag! The kid is easy to please!

Cinco de WOD'o

2011-05-17T05:28:00.000-07:00

This sort of post usually goes on my other blog http://baileyfitnessblog.blogspot.com/, but it was SO funny that I had to share it with the masses.

On Cinco de Mayo, Todd and I got a babysitter so we both could go to CrossFit New England and do the 5:30 pm WOD together. Well, he normally goes to 6:30 pm class, and I usually go to 5:30 AM class, so this was a fun change. The kicker was, we all had to wear Mexican wrestling masks.

Here I am doing a pull up in said mask.

Here is Todd working on his snatch. Notice how he does a nice job of keeping his knees out over his feet. And he looks pretty awesome doing it in Mexican wrestling mask.

Same movement, different Bailey, not as much weight, cooler mask.

John Doole did the entire WOD not only in his mask, but also in a suit, and with a bottle of beer in his jacket pocket! That thing is gonna have to be dry cleaned...

After we worked on the snatch, we all went outside and did a team prowler push. In our masks. First, Ben told us the women would be doing 90# pushes and the men would be doing 135# pushes. Then he changed it up, and the women were at the top of the hill pushing downhill and the men were doing the opposite so he kept it at 135#. The first round I did okay, I ran the whole way. The second round I started walking because the thing was so darn heavy. Thankfully the ground was damp, so that helped move it along a bit.

Todd and I outside CFNE after the WOD. Notice the sweat...

After we worked out, we all got cleaned up and went out to Margarita's near the Natick/Framingham line. You can see, we are NOT eating or drinking paleo here... This is me with Alysia, Liz, and Trupti.

And here's Todd (with hair, without hat) with Chad (without hair, with hat) and Trosen (without hair, without hat). Chad is making the funniest face here, so I had to add it to this blog. We had a blast at Margarita's and it was nice to not only get to work out with my husband, but to hang out with him afterwards... I love babysitters!!!!

Easter at Aunt Betty's

2011-05-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind with the Easter post... we forgot our camera when we went to see Aunt Betty down in Plymouth, but she sent us all of the pictures we took with her camera so I had to wait for those. So we went into the living room first thing Easter morning, and by golly... the Easter Bunny had been there! Natalie got a little bit of chocolate, but mostly toys. And we all know that the Easter Bunny doesn't leave chocolate for little kids. He was quite happy that that big Bunny left him some Hot Wheels though! And it took approximately 3.4 seconds for Natalie to rip into her chocolate.

Big boy's two favorite things in life; milk and Hot Wheels.

We took a good family shot, after church, but right before Natalie started crying. Pretty cute even though we were facing the sun! Natalie looked so cute in her little dress that KK made her! It's my favorite!

Natalie had a great time doing the Easter Egg hunt. Each of the eggs had one M&M in them, so she was really motivated to collect them all. Grant walked around, picked up an egg or two, and placed them right back down on the ground. Maybe next year!

Oh and no, she did not wear these tennis shoes to church! Just for the egg hunt, ha ha. Aunt Betty made a fabulous Easter dinner of lobster and scallops (well, Todd made the scallops for me since I don't like the messiness of lobster). Deee-lish! Now THAT is the way to do Easter dinner in Massachusetts!

Opening Day 2011

2011-05-16T05:57:00.000-07:00

What the heck happened to this post blogspot? I swear I completed it, I've read it at least twice on the blog, and then suddenly, all I have is pictures???

Anyhoo... this year, Todd was away for the Red Sox home opener, but we had already purchased the tickets from our friend Jenny. He told me, "So I guess I'll just sell them..." And I said, "Whoa wait, are you crazy? I'm going to Opening Day vs. the Yankees. Sorry honey!" Am I mean wife or WHAT? Seriously though, I would not have been mad if he had gone with someone else. But who to take? Well, my dad and brother were both going to the Gator's spring football game the following day, so they were both out. So I decided to take my uber crazy Red Sox fan friend Fred Knight. Seriously, the guy is crazy for the Sox.

We're both members of Red Sox Nation, so we got to go before the game (but after a delicious beverage at Boston Beer Works) to the Monstah seats to check out batting practice. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, especially for early April when you never know what the weather might be. It was so awesome to take mega fan Fred down to the awesome Globe seats (we sit in the Globe section). He was walking right next to me, and suddenly he wasn't there anymore. I stopped to turn around and he was a few rows back, standing in awe with his mouth wide open. I know Fred. I still feel that way when I sit in those seats!

A-Rod scratching his butt. Really A-Rod? Really! How's Cameron Diaz doing?

Seriously, there is no one on this planet I dislike more than A-Rod. I at least respect Jeter. I don't like him, but I respect him. A-Rod continued to lose points with me on Opening Day. I *might* have had a few beers in me when I saw A-Rod scanning the crowd for chicks (because you KNOW he does that). As he scanned past me, I blew him some raspberries (which I just found out, ironically, is also called the Bronx Cheer!). He saw me, I know he did, but he turned his head back to the field. Not a moment later, he scanned back and as his eyes met mine again, he blew raspeberries BACK AT ME! Oh A-Rod. Don't you know it's totally acceptable for ME to make fun of you, but that you can't do it back to me? Why? Because you're yucky A-Rod, that's why. I asked Fred if A-Rod really just blew raspberries at me (you know, in case I'm imagining things) and he said, "I do believe he did!"

Papelbon death stare.

In the end, it was a great day. Pedroia homered and was 3 for 5. The Sox beat the Yankees 9-6. Good times were had by all!

Me and Fred, post game, down by the dugout (which was only 3 rows in front of us anyway!)

Beautiful spring

2011-05-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

We have really had a beautiful spring up here! Several weekends, we've gone out to the "park that we know." Natalie named it this last year, because it's the one that we frequent the most. Today it was SUPER packed, with several softball games going on, tons of kids on the playground, and a bunch of kids kicking soccer balls around.

Maybe Pop Pop can come up and show Natalie how to shoot some hoops... Here she is working on her dribbling.

"I got next!" Big boy, maybe you'd be better suited for the little hoop to your right...

Grant and his trucks... the kid is obsessed. He's such a boy, I can't even tell you. Natalie and I were reading the names of the people who had purchased bricks. It was such a pretty day, and we had so much fun at the park. By the afternoon, I was wiped and had to go take a 2 hour nap!

2011 Boston Marathon

2011-05-01T17:34:00.000-07:00

Hooray for Marathon Monday!

Mel, one of the coaches from CFNE, lives right on Route 135 and had a big Boston Marathon party at her house, so we went over there- she doesn't live too far away, and you can't beat the views! The weather was just perfect this year, we had our coats on when we first got there, but took them off as it got warmer. The runners would probably have said that it was actually a little *too* warm.

Here the kids were playing with sidewalk chalk that they stole from some of the other CFNE kids. Grant also was playing with the little boy behind him's trucks. Forget the trucks we brough for him to play with. He wanted someone else's.

Some of the fastest female marathoners in the world right there. Natalie wasn't that impressed, but mommy sure was.

Here come the super fast men! I still wonder how the heck they keep that pace. This year the guy who won set a record- just slightly over 2 hours!!!!

But the real fun begins when the rest of the pack runs by. Some people are dressed up, which is always fun. This year, we cheered on 4 members of CFNE who were running - and this guy Craig actually stopped in front of us, did a burpee, and kept running! Now that's talent!

Grant at 18 months

2011-04-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

Little buddy is almost 18 months old, so I wanted to give you an update on what he's been doing lately.

First, he's running all over the place. He still looks a little like Frankenstein, but he's super cute. Sometimes he walks with both hands behind his back with his buddah belly sticking out, and his head cocked to one side and he is just SO cute. Gosh, I just want to eat him up sometimes.

Second, his vocabulary is really coming along. He likes to make the sound of whatever you are talking about. So if we're talking about cars, he repeatedly says, "Vroom vroom!" (or "Voom voom" as he says it). If he hears the neighbors dog barking, he says, "Woof woof!" He wears dinosaur jammies to bed, and when he sees them, he says, "Rooooooaarr!" ("What sound does the dinosaur make Grant?") He'll repeat what you say a lot too. Even if he doesn't get the words right, he'll say something in the same pitch and tone that you did, which makes it sound like he's repeating you. The other day we were singing "The Right Stuff" by New Kids on the Block (that's Grant's theme song) and we did the "Oh oh oh oh oh" parts and he finished it off with, "The Right Stuff!" plain as day! He also says, "Social" when drinking his milk. This one cracks me up... and I can picture him some day saying that at his fraternity house with a Beast Light in his hand. Yikes.

Third, he is just ALL BOY. I mean, your sterotypical little boy. It cracks me up. In no way did we push him toward this, he just LOVES cars, trucks, wheels, eating, running around, getting into things... you know, typical boy stuff. Although he's also very into pushing his sister's pink stroller, so that is pretty funny too. But he definitely likes to get into trouble. His latest thing is pulling the dish towels down off of the bar on the oven. I'll get upset with him and he'll look up at me and laugh. SUCH a troublemaker! He loves to throw little pieces of food off of his tray when he's eating, and does the same thing. Scrunches up his nose and laughs. NOT COOL little buddy.

He's recently started sleeping through the night during the week and sometimes on the weekends. But he's always been a pretty decent sleeper. Even if he wakes around 6 am, Todd gives him a small cup of milk and changes his diaper (usually he finishes this cup of milk before the changing is done!) and puts him back in his crib and he goes back to sleep! I admit we have been pretty blessed with two kids who sleep pretty great.

I can't believe he's almost 18 months old. We love you Grant!

Challenges of Parenthood Part II

2011-04-13T11:55:00.000-07:00

When you become a parent, your alone time becomes quite precious. So every evening, after the kids are in bed, I love having dinner with Todd and getting some things done around the house, blogging, updating pictures of the kids, or just watching the Red Sox on TV. Just about every night, I have about a million things to do, and never enough hours to do it.

Monday night, I was unable to do any of these things.

Every night, Natalie likes to turn off her own light. It's a part of our routine, and she's just now tall enough to reach it. So Monday night, she turns off the light like she normally does and takes the 2-3 steps toward her bed... and while doing so, trips over her own feet or the carpet, or who knows what and does a face plant into the side of her bed. It sounded like it hurt, but it was pitch black in her room and my eyes hadn't "adjusted" yet.

So when we see this, we immediately think... oh she broke off the top half of her tooth! Because you can (kind of) see that the two on either side are higher than the lower left front tooth. So we searched everywhere and couldn't find it. We assumed she swallowed it.

She also got this nasty bruise on her chin. Poor kid. So off she goes with Daddy to the dentist on Tuesday for the first time (I know, I know... I shouldn't keep putting this off but it's hard to find a pediatric dentist that takes my insurance!) She was very brave at the dentist. She only cried once when they sprayed water in her mouth. She had no problems with the x rays. The x rays revealed that she actually DIDN'T knock out the top half of her tooth! Instead, like a nail (the tooth) and a hammer (the bed), the tooth was pushed down into the gums. OUCH! Thankfully they didn't see any damage to the root, so for now the tooth will stay where it is. We go back in 2 weeks, and they said she will have to eat soft foods between now and then and try to mainly eat with her back teeth since she has a bruised gum area in the front there. We go back again in another 2 months, and hopefully we'll get the all clear. Eventually her adult tooth will push the baby tooth out in a few years. She was very proud that she got to go to the dentist!

So you see my friends, I was just mentally worn out after her accident Monday evening. I didn't even eat dinner and went to bed not too long after she did. Parenthood will wear you out on all levels!

Perfect example of the challenges of parenthood

2011-04-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

Oh the things you do for your kids...

Today I spent the better part of an afternoon driving around Natick hunting down Natalie's beloved Pink Bear. Anytime she gets upset, she goes, "I want Pink Bear!" Pink Bear is to Natalie what Croco is to me.

So I remember her having Pink Bear at CrossFit this morning - there are only two classes so Todd had to bring the kids and we had to do the "switch" this morning. She had him with her there. I think I remember her having him in the car on the way to 7-11. I thought she had him when we went in, but then I didn't remember her taking him out of 7-11. So when I couldn't find him before her nap, my heart sunk. I felt sure he was back at 7-11. So I took off for 7-11. They didn't have it. I went to CFNE, and couldn't find it in the parking lot. I went back to 7-11. I searched the entire house. I had just cleaned upstairs, so I knew it wasn't up there. Or wait... was it? The last place I checked.... the cabinet door part of her armoire. She had been in there earlier in the day, and he was on the bottom shelf. Whew. Crisis averted.

Then, after nap time, Grant woke up cranky. We gave him milk and a snack and he kept putting his head on the floor, which is a sure sign he doesn't feel well. I looked at his ears, and his right ear had a ton of pus coming out of it. Ew. Time to head off to the ER. Thankfully it only took an hour, but it was a long hour, as he screamed and cried the entire time. They said he actually can't burst his eardrums because technically having tubes in your ears means you already have burst eardrums. But if wax clogs up one or both of the tubes, then you might get an ear infection behind the drum. Which I'm pretty sure he has. The one ear and tube that had the pus was doing it's job... draining. But he wasn't complaining about that one. Only the left one. So after a heavy dose of Motrin, and two 'scripts for antibiotics (oral and ear drops) we went home, and he was a much happier camper.

But mommy was exhausted.

Zzzzzzzz....

2011-03-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

Right in the middle of lunch. Right in the middle of a big Natalie tantrum. This happened. This is what happens when little buddy doesn't get his morning nap.

A warm day in March

2011-03-23T19:12:00.000-07:00

Even though most of March has been cool, we did have a nice warm day on St. Patrick's Day. So after Todd and I went to J.J. McKay's, we went to pick up the kids and when we got home, I took both kids out to the backyard to run around.

Grant loved running around the concrete patio, but had no interest in the grass.

Natalie had fun rolling this ball down the slide and trying to get it to land in the green bucket.

After talking to the neighbors dog, she found a walking stick. Doesn't she look sweet and pretty here?

Little buddy decided to brave the grass. See, it's not so bad, is it?

Would you like some tea with that wine?

2011-03-23T19:08:00.000-07:00

This is what happened when Grant decided that a little toy teacup was supposed to be in my wine glass.

Booooooooo.

St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

I know, you think we aren't cool anymore... but Todd and I went out for about an hour and a half on St. Patrick's Day for a few Guinness at J.J. McKay's in Wayland.

Todd enjoying a Guinness.

I love me some Guinness, but I also had to have a shot of Bailey's. I mean, after all, it IS my last name.

Here's the scene at J.J. McKay's at around 4 pm. It was actually pretty packed. Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Bailey's!

Gaby's 4th birthday party

2011-03-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

Natalie's BFF, Gaby, just celebrated her 4th birthday. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend because I had to WORK on a Sunday. It was actually to make up for days that I missed while we were all out sick with the stomach bug. Thankfully my work is flexible, but sadly, I missed the party.

First, the kids got to paint. Most of them chose wooden star boxes to paint. Natalie painted hers so pretty and we are using it to store her hair pretties.

Not surprising, it has a green top.

Then she got a sparkly dolphin tattoo. I actually thought it was really pretty, but later in the week, she asked me to wash it off, ha ha. That is probably a good thing.

Even Grant had a good time at the party. Todd got some great video of him walking around with all of the big kids. He seemed so proud of himself. Someone even mentioned to Todd that they were impressed that Natalie was so good with her little brother. She was very affectionate when they were there, apparently.

All of the kids got together for a picture. Most of the kids don't look pleased in this picture, although Gaby is super cute, and at least they are all facing forward, which really, is far better than the rest of the pictures. The little girl to Natalie's right is Addison. She is in Gaby's class at FACE, but is also in Natalie's gymnastics class at Planet Gymnastics.

Happy birthday Gaby!

Nice weekend at the Wayside Inn

2011-03-23T18:49:00.000-07:00

Todd got a good deal on Buy With Me for a 1 night stay at the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, MA that we had to use by the end of March, so we left the kids with Todd's sister and niece and enjoyed a night away. It came with a $25 voucher toward the spa next door (which was only good for facials or massages, of which they were totally booked up) but I got a nice manicure anyway.

Todd said it looked like I had gorilla hands here.

The Buy With Me deal also came with $25 toward dinner at the Wayside Inn. Yum-O. Oddly enough, I didn't take any picutres of dinner, but I think that's because we had been drinking quite a bit since mid afternoon. The Wayside Inn is the oldest operating inn in America, although we actually stayed at the Wayside Carriage House Inn (there are only a few rooms at the regular Inn and it books up well in advance).

For dinner, we took the "shuttle" over to the actual Wayside Inn. Here I am in front of the place. The bar is on the lower right, and it even has a room that is a historic rendition of what the house might have looked like on the inside back in the 1700s. That is on the lower level to the left of me.

This is the bar. Todd barely fit in here. But the guy made awesome drinks before dinner.

We enjoyed our evening, and on Sunday morning we slept in! Yeah, until 9. Then we went to Mel's Diner in Wayland for Philly Cheesesteak omelets that were out of this world. I should have taken a picture of those. Then we went to pick up the kids at their Aunt Helen's house. After they ate lunch, Uncle Gordie took them outside because they both had been interested in checking out his new backhoe.

Natalie got in first, and was getting the biggest kick out of it. She thought it was SO COOL.

Look at little Grant. He loves anything with wheels, so this was right up his alley! Thanks for letting us play in your backhoe Uncle Gordie!

We have a walker!

2011-03-07T08:12:00.000-08:00

Boy am I good. Grant took 2 steps toward me on 2/25, just a few days shy of his 16 month birthday. He took them in the kitchen, between his Exersaucer and the garbage can (I only wrote that so years from now I would remember exactly where it happened!).

Over the course of that weekend (but before our big sickness outbreak), he progressively took a few more steps here and there. Then this past weekend, he just took off in the kitchen, walking from the oven over around the island (on the refrigerator side) and then over to the sliding glass door. And I got it ALL on video! Sweet!

Now even since then, he has just taken off. He's probably doing about 60/40 walking to crawling ratio. I would say we definitely have a toddler! Sniff sniff... not a baby any longer!

NO MORE SICKNESS!!!

2011-03-02T18:24:00.000-08:00

Be very thankful I do not have any pictures to post.

The worst night of our lives as a family occured on Monday night. I know, I know, you're thinking that I'm being dramatic here, but really, I honestly thought about calling 9-1-1 so someone would be able to take care of my sick children for me.

Yes, we got sick... AGAIN. This time was the worst. So I told you all about how Grant got a stomach bug on Sunday morning. Todd and I thought we did a pretty good job about keeping the kids apart, but of course, both of US were hanging with Grant on Sunday (and then later, Natalie...). So he was actually great for the rest of Sunday, and all of Monday. No problems. Then Monday evening, Todd went to CrossFit and Natalie started complaining that her stomach hurt during dinner and then during her bath. She didn't even want me to read her any books or sing any songs, so I knew she didn't feel well. Then as I was saying good night, she thought she was going to be sick. Thankfully, she made it to the bathroom! Excellent! (If you are a parent, you have to understand how thrilled I was about this).

So then she falls asleep. Todd gets home and announces that he has been sick at CrossFit. Uh oh. Come to think of it, I'm not feeling so great either. By 10 pm, it wasn't pretty. The only one who wasn't being sick was Grant. Oh but that didn't last long! Somewhere around midnight, Grant got sick too. Just once for the entire night. It was bad though, and required a sheet change and a bath.

Meanwhile, Todd and I were also sick all night! It's very hard to take care of your sick children if you are too busy being sick yourself. When Grant got sick, after Todd gave him a bath, Todd had to leave to be sick. I was laying on the floor trying not to be sick myself, and Grant opened up one of his drawers and then put all of his weight on it, smashing his chubby little fingers in the drawer. I was too sick to even keep a close eye on him to make sure he didn't hurt himself. I couldn't even do my job as a parent. So I did what any sick person does... called my mom! She said no, it is not appropriate to call 9-1-1. Was this not an emergency?? I guess not. Finally by about 3 am, everyone was done being sick. It was really the longest 8 hours of my life. And I'm pretty sure Todd would agree. My very Paleo husband ate Rice Krispies and coffee ice cream for dinner later that night. Yikes!

Day two... everyone is feeling much better, and we've done a lot of cleaning today. Clorox wipes and Lysol are my favorites!

Carole's birthday weekend

2011-03-02T17:48:00.000-08:00

Thankfully, we were all healthy to enjoy a fun weekend at Todd's parents house for Carole's birthday!

A delicious meal was served to all members of the Bailey clan except for the Maryland Bailey's. Also, Aunt Betty wasn't present because she was busy stuck in the Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake! She made it out alive and we are all very grateful. Many others didn't.

KK also made a delicious angel food cake (I had 2 pieces, yes I did!). Three of her four babies helped her blow out the candles.

This is the face Natalie was making when we weren't getting her ice cream fast enough. Sassy girl.

After dinner, my babies wanted to tickle the ivories with Grami. Grant decided he didn't like that song anymore so he wanted to turn the page. Together, they all actually sounded pretty good.

Bean shared some of his ice cream with the other big guy. Such a nice Grampi! We had a great time at Grami's birthday party and we were happy to celebrate it with her for once. Usually they go to Florida in the beginning of February and we miss it! But not this year! Happy Birthday Grami!

Grant's 15 month statistics (at 16 months)

2011-02-28T10:12:00.000-08:00

We were a little slack in getting an appointment for Grant at 15 months. So it happened at 16 months. And here are the statistics: Height: 32 and 3/4" (85th percentile). He grew 2" in four months. Weight: 25 pounds (50th percentile). He put on 2.5 pounds in four months. Head circumference: 49 cm (90th percentile). His head grew 1.5 cm in four months.

He's also no longer going to be taking "infants" Tylenol and Motrin. He's moving up to the big boy stuff!

Additionally, he got two shots this morning. His MMR (gulp!) and his second pneumococcal vaccine.

I was concerned that he wasn't talking as much as Natalie... of course, even before he was born, I KNEW I was going to be worried about this! At 16 months, he still only says "Da Da", "Wassat?" (What's that?), "Shit" (no, seriously, he says this. If you try to ask him to say "shoe," he actually says "shit!"), and a couple of other random words that he's said in the past. I've heard him say "Pop Pop" once or twice, which is about the same number of times he's said "Ma ma." My dad would be so excited if he heard this! Once Grant said the word, "Purple." Very strange. If you ask him what the cow says, he says, "Booooo!" He just can't seem to get that M sound yet! He understands a lot of what we say, for the most part. If we say, "Where's Grant?" He will cover his eyes and laugh as he peeks out from behind them. We are trying to work on some sign language with him, and he can do "more" and "all done" but doesn't really use them unless we do it first. So we think- is he really all done? Or is he just mimicking what I'm doing??? Also, admittedly, the poor guy is totally second born. We don't do near the amount of work with him that we should do. Life gets in the way. (More to the point... a feisty 3 year old gets in the way!)

Dr. Meisheid thinks Grant is developing just fine. Since he's working on his walking, she said he probably wouldn't be progressing as much verbally. Once he starts walking, we might notice him picking up some more words.

Speaking of walking, this past Friday (2/25/11), Grant took his first real steps! He took 2 big steps toward me before falling on his bum. Since then, he's taken 2 or 3 here and there. He understands when I say, "Walk Grant, use your feet!" He also understands "no hands!" because this is something we've been working on lately. He's a great cruiser along the furniture, and lately we say, "No hands!" and he lets go and can stand by himself for 10 seconds or so. (A good long time in a baby's world!)

You might remember, I did say that he would start walking at 16 months... and as I recall during Natalie's physical therapy days, they consider it "first steps" if they take 3 steps in a row!

I may have mentioned that Grant also has eczema. Poor little guy. There's not much you can do about it, other than give him hydrocortizone. She said it should get better in the summer, and I recall it was significantly less last summer.

Also of note... his ears and tubes look great!

Where is spring???

2011-02-28T08:39:00.000-08:00

Please for the love of everything that is holy... BRING ON SPRING! We are tired of being sick. Grant had a stomach bug this past weekend - of which poor Todd caught the brunt of on Sunday morning, if you know what I mean! Poor honey... he's such a good Daddy. Although he did tell me he let out some choice words around Grant after he threw up all over him. Good thing G is too young to repeat such things!

Grant was very grumpy Sunday morning, even after his morning nap (which has been hit or miss lately, but he was out cold within minutes). When he woke up from his morning nap, he only wanted his cup of milk. I didn't want a repeat of what had happened earlier in the morning, so I gave him about 2-3 ounces of water. After it was gone, he cried and cried. I felt so bad for the little guy, but I wanted to wait and make sure it STAYED DOWN. Then Todd took Natalie on a walk just to get her out of the house. Poor G whined and cried the whole time they were gone. Finally when they got back, it had been an hour and he had kept the water down, so I decided to try some banana. He scarfed down almost a whole banana (and only didn't finish it because I was afraid it would come back up!), and then I gave him a little more water, which he also promptly finished. He was MUCH happier after all of that. He went back down for his afternoon nap without any problems.

After nap, he woke up hungry again. We gave him some pedialyte and he was very happy with that and was just content to chew on the top to his cup for about an hour before dinner. For dinner, he ate a half a banana, a few bites of "Cream of Rice" which he didn't really like, two big bowls of applesauce, and a few bites of a piece of bread. Plus we gave him a "half and half" on the doctor's advice - half a sippy cup of pedialyte and half milk. He was back to his old chipper self after dinner!

So far today (Monday), he's been great!

Natalie's surgery

2011-02-17T08:50:00.000-08:00

Natalie had surgery yesterday at Newton Wellesley Hospital to have tubes put in her ears again and to have her adenoids removed. Everyone declared her their favorite patient because she was so cute and funny with the doctors and nurses. And so agreeable! (Wait, really???) They gave her some Tylenol and she took it without complaining and even with a smile on her face. She played quietly and said funny things before the surgery. And Todd said she went under very easily. Then, after surgery... she woke up. And she was not happy. She screamed and cried, and woke up even worse than she had the last time she had tubes put in. Because she had the adenoids removed, they put an IV in her (after she went under with the anesthesia) and so when she woke up, she did not care for that. She kept saying, "I don't want this bandaid anymore!" They had to wait for the IV bag to empty before they could take it out. They called it the hospitals version of Gatorade. In the meantime, she got some apple juice and got to eat two red popsicles. Todd said afterwards that she looked like The Joker, ha ha. When Todd went to get the car, she started complaining that her tummy hurt. She let out THE biggest burp ever in the hospital. I mean, so loud and long that it brought other doctors and nurses over to see what had just happened. I was holding her and I was sure she was going to throw up. But did that make her belly feel better? Not really.

Finally we got to go home. She was just worn out. She laid on the couch for a bit. Todd made her some lunch- some Elmo noodles, but she didn't even want any of that. She just asked to go to bed. So Todd took her upstairs and she crashed for about 2 and a half hours. When she woke up, she ate the rest of her Elmo noodles, a popsicle and some ice cream! Plus the rest of her apple juice and milk.

This morning she was her usual self, but really hates having the drops put in her ears that prevent infection. She thinks they feel weird and funny, so she doesn't care for that at all. Hopefully this is the LAST surgery we have this year. So far we've had THREE, and it's not even March yet!!!!

Sickness be gone!

2011-02-15T07:37:00.000-08:00

I am so tired of being sick, or having someone in my house who is sick. Seriously. Winter, GO AWAY! I need to open the windows and let all of the sickness out.

Grant had his tubes put in on January 5th. I went to Arizona the following weekend and came back with a cold. The kids came down with it too, and Natalie got an ear infection from it. From that, we were told, "Natalie is getting tubes AGAIN, and having her adenoids removed on February 16." OK, great. She did antibiotics for 10 days. She completed it on February 1, and by February 5th, had another cold which she promptly gave to her brother. Grant has been a SNOT MACHINE. I really can't believe such a little thing can produce so much snot. And of course, other than a little Motrin or Tylenol, you can't give kids anything for their symptoms. So they suffer. On February 11, Natalie comes down with another ear infection. Which is perfect timing (!!!) since Todd had a little surgical procedure himself on the 11th, and was unable to do anything with the kids (ie, picking them up, cooking dinner, giving baths, etc.). On about the same day, I start feeling crummy... so make that 4 people in the house who are not well. But someone has to feed the kids, and Todd can't do it, so in my misery, I have to play single mom all weekend. (Shout out to my single mom friends, you guys are the best!!!) Grant is grumpy and snotting all over the place, neither kid is napping very well, and Natalie has an ear infection and can't take Motrin because she is having surgery on the 16th and Motrin thins the blood. We have really found Motrin to be the most effective with both kids, but had to resort to Tylenol with Natalie, which doesn't last as long (4 hour cycles as opposed to 6 hours with Motrin). So she's back on antibiotics, and seems to be doing much better with her cold. In fact, she's hardly coughing or producing snot at all. Grant might be turning the corner too... he seemed MUCH better this morning after having a fever last night.

Hopefully Natalie's surgery on Wednesday will go off without a hitch. Within 6 weeks, 3 out of the 4 members of our family will have had surgery. I'm praying I stay healthy!

Grant using a spoon!

2011-02-06T18:27:00.000-08:00

Todd decided, very bravely, to hand the spoon full of applesauce over to our son... gulp... and he actually did a pretty good job!

And I swear we keep the heat on in our house. Natalie is still in her hat and coat because we had just gotten home from gymnastics and a lunch date with her friend Addison and Addison's mom Jodi. Isn't Grant such a big boy?

Grant getting a new haircut... from his daddy...

2011-02-06T18:10:00.000-08:00

It wasn't pretty. I'm not gonna lie. Todd has since cleaned it up, and it does look better now. And he no longer looks like Baby Bieber, so that is good. At one point, Todd took a huge chunk out of the side of his hair above his left ear. I think next time we'll go to Grammi's and have her do it. She has 30+ years experience in cutting children's hair for free, ha ha!

Before:

During:

After:

New Camera - finally!

2011-02-06T18:02:00.000-08:00

We finally got a new camera! A little Samsung HZ30W if that means anything to you. It means nothing to me, except I now have HD videos, whoo hoo!

So what have we been doing? Not much. My kids still look the same. See? Still as sweet and as goofy as ever!

This is how New England celebrates the Super Bowl

2011-02-06T17:52:00.001-08:00

'Nuff said.

UPDATED - A Long Winter

2011-01-27T17:34:00.000-08:00

Please enjoy this series of pictures (again, taken from my phone) of snow actually swalling whole our patio table and chairs over the course of about 3 or 4 snowstorms.... Is it spring yet??? I've added a 4th picture on 2/2/11...

Kids update/camera update

2011-01-23T14:22:00.000-08:00

No, we do not have a new camera. Yes, we are looking for one. I've narrowed it down to a couple, and need to get Todd's seal of approval on it. However, he has jury duty this week, so he won't be around a computer except for in the evening, and I highly doubt he'll want to look at cameras after an exhausting day of sitting around, doing nothing, and waiting to be called for jury selection.

So, the kids are sick, still, and in different ways. Grant has a run of the mill cold and is generally grumpy, and Natalie actually has... get this... an ear infection! Last night Todd and I were enjoying a bottle of wine and the flick "The Town" (great movie by the way, Ben Affleck has totally redeemed himself in my book after The Town and Gone Baby, Gone, which is one of my favorite movies). Toward the end of the movie we hear a little voice on the monitor, "Daddy? Daddy?" A certain little girl's right ear was hurting her. We haven't had an ear infection in about a year and a half. So after some Motrin, some songs and backrubs, she announced that her ear no longer hurt! (I had left the room and she said, "Daddy, tell mommy it doesn't hurt anymore!" Isn't she cute to think of me?). This morning, Todd took her to the doctor and sure enough, it's pink in her right ear. She's already had the first of the antibiotics and is well on her way to recovery. Or at least I hope, because really, one or the other kid has been sick pretty much since the end of October. We've had a few good days here and there, but mostly, it's been craptastic, to use my friend Chad's word to describe nasty weather.

I mentioned Todd has jury duty this week. That really throws a wrench in our schedule because now I have to drive the kids to and from daycare and preschool (depending on the day), as well as get in my 40 hours of work, even though I can't be in the office for 8 hours each day due to the hour long commute and Grant's daycare hours of 7-5. I can be here for about 7.5 hours, but not 8. And I write "here" because I'm typing up this quick blog at work- I'm workin' on a Sunday!

So anyway, that's about all for now. Todd said we were going to get a camera "sooner, rather than later." I think we are just waiting for payday...

Pats-Jets game

2011-01-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

Todd and I went to the Patriots-Jets divisional playoff game yesterday and had a good time, until the end of the game. We got kicked out of one parking lot and had to go tailgate somewhere else after a power hungry parking lot owner got in Rybo's face over him not being perfectly parked between the lines in a parking spot. (The funniest part of this story is that he called Rybo A.J. Foyt!) Then we almost got kicked out of the game when some dumb Jets fans started mouthing off to my boys. Even my normally cool and level headed husband was all riled up. Thankfully Rybo's brother Shaun actually works security at the stadium and flashed his badge, so all we had to do was move. In the end, the Jets beat the Pats, and my week of attending epic football games came to a screeching halt. Blah. But it was fun to be out with friends in the 20 something degree sunshine, tailgating New England style. (Picture courtesy of my BlackBerry). War Dam Patriots!!

Only 4 more weeks until pitchers and catchers report!

MA MA!

2011-01-17T18:50:00.000-08:00

At 14 months, we finally have a baby who said, "ma ma." Music to his mama's ears!

The night before I went out to Arizona (January 7th), we were all sitting at the table eating dinner and he just blurted it out! He said it again tonight (the 17th) when he was in his crib but that's really been it. He is also starting to let go when standing at a table. He can stand by himself for a few seconds (5 or so) and then falls to his cute little bum.

Both Grant and Natalie have colds, but Natalie's seems to be worse than Grant's (for now). She has a sore throat, snot, chills, a fever, and is very, very snuggly. All sure signs she isn't feeling well. She's in good spirits for the most part though, so that is good.

That's your latest kid update. Now back to you in the studio.

No camera

2011-01-17T18:40:00.001-08:00

I wish that said "new camera" but alas, we do not have a camera right now. I hope to have one by Valentine's Day but until then, you will have to just enjoy my picture-less blog.

Scroll down and read the Auburn National Championship post to see why...

National Champion Auburn Tigers

2011-01-17T18:23:00.000-08:00

So my girlies and I have been long talking about what we were going to do if Auburn were to go to the National Championship game in Glendale, Arizona. The talk sort of started around the Georgia game. I also talked to Todd about it. I think the conversation was very one sided and went something like this: "If Auburn goes to the National Championship game, it's not even up for discussion. I'm going."

And then Auburn beat Georgia. And they had an amazing come-from-behind win to beat Bama. And then we just had to get through the whole Cam Newton mess (his father solicited funds from school to get his son Cam to play there... definitely a no-no in the NCAA, but there was no evidence that Cam had any idea his dad was doing it. But let's face it... he HAD to have known, right?). And then there was the SEC Championship game, where we had to get through Steve Spurrier and South Carolina for the second time this season. None of these are small roadblocks. But then, the night of the SEC Championship game, as we blew South Carolina out of the water 56-17, my friends Melissa, Stacie, and Kara began e-mailing me their flight itineraries. It was on. And it was going to be epic.

Here we are, the lovely ZTA sisters from Auburn, Kelly, me, Kara, Melissa, and Stacie at Bungalow Bar and Grill in the Waterfront in Scottsdale. Sunday started off with drinks at about 11 am. We were all blowing 0.08's in my new breathalyzer by noon. Thankfully we all could walk over to the Auburn Pep Rally which was being held nearby. We couldn't get it because it was so packed, but we found a nearby bar (shocking!) and had a drink.

Here is a cute pic of Melissa and Kara. Just because they're cute.

Sunday evening, we went out for dinner at Cien Agaves in the Old Town Scottsdale area. YUM. While there, we met these two guys, Kyle and Brent.

Meet Kyle. Ayala is popping a cap in his ass.

Meet Brent. He sells boobies for a living (I wish I was kidding about this).

These two guys bought ALL of our dinner and our drinks. At one point in the evening, our table looked something like this.

The bill was about $400 between the two of them. YIKES! And the funniest thing was that eventually, Christie, Hope, and Lisa showed up and scared them away. I think they felt a little intimidated.

So after our very free dinner, we went over to the Rusty Spur for some live music and ran into a couple of our sorority sisters Rebecca and Nicole! We closed the place down, and stopped by In-N-Out Burger on the way home. I don't get what all the hype is, but then again, I didn't eat a Burger. I will say their Diet Coke was really good, but the fries were nothing to write home about.

Thankfully we didn't have to get up too early Monday morning. Ayala and I were both coming down with colds, so after some grease, some nasal spray, and some Tylenol Cold, I was good to go. We stopped by Target and the liquor store for some sundries, and headed out to Glendale. It was SUCH a beautiful day!

Here's Ayala, getting her drink on. This is right before the cops came and made her pour it out.

So we had to move on from this nice people watching spot. We were trying to find the Orange parking lot where the RV's were so we could go to Flounder's awesome tailgate, but the dumb security guys kept pointing us in the wrong direction, so we landed here.

Not too bad, getting some Vitamin D and not having to wear a coat, while enjoying a tasty beverage... now that's what I call livin'.

Kara and Stacie went to the bathroom, so Ayala and I played with her super cool new camera. This is my new favorite picture of all time (sorry kids!). Jump up for joy if you love Auburn!

Seriously, does this picture kick ass or what? I've never had that much energy in my life. Soon it was game time. We almost peed our pants when we got to our seats and saw how awesome they were. During the pregame ceremonies, a bald eagle flew. It wasn't Nova, the Auburn University eagle, but we knew it would do just fine. They tried to say it was for "both teams" but we knew better. Melissa took the next few pictures since someone spilled a beer all over my camera and ruined it. I got no pictures after halftime.

Here's my girlies. Damn we look good decked out in orange and blue.

Before the game, Nick Fairley, our best defensive player was hanging around our end zone. We love Nick Fairley.

Almost as much as we love Cam Newton. Cam had a pretty good game- not great, but it was decent. It turned out to be a defensive battle between two very awesome offensive teams. Who'da thunk it? We were getting toward the end of the game and Oregon scored a touchdown and a 2 point conversion, to tie it at 19-19. Yikes!

And after Michael Dyer had a couple of amazing runs, we were down to the 1 yard line with 2 seconds to go in the game, and Wes Byrum came in to kick a field goal to end the game with an Auburn WIN!!!

We won the National Championship! We won the National Championship! The place went crazy!!!

I have supported Gene Chizik ever since he was hired, unlike some Auburn fans who booed him when he got off the plane in Auburn for the first time (well... as head coach anyway). His father was my dad's boss, and I remember my dad always liked Gene Chizik Sr. He passed away a few years ago, and I know he would be so proud of his son today. Here is Chizik with the coveted crystal football.

National Champions. ALL IN!!!

New Year's Eve playdate

2011-01-13T12:11:00.000-08:00

We were hoping to get together with the Morris family for New Year's Eve, but they already had plans, and our sitter was unavailable, so they came over for a daytime playdate. I've mentioned this before, but Annabel is about a year older than Natalie, and Evan is only about 3 months older than Grant. And the kids all had a blast together, totally destroying the playroom! We love it when our friends come over, and we can wait to go to their NEW house for the next playdate! (We feel bad they've come to us for the last two!)

Natalie and Annabel watched Frosty the Snowman. Annabel is the cutest thing. She teared up during the scene where Frosty melted. That really got me thinking... is Natalie JUST like me (and let's face it... Todd too!) and just not sensitive to that kind of stuff at all? Or is she still too young to realize what happened to Frosty? Yikes! Meanwhile, Evan is running circles around Grant! It's unbelievable how much older Evan looked than Grant, and he's only 3 months older. All because he was walking! They are still a little young to "play together" but they played near each other!

For a few minutes, Evan got interested in Frosty the Snowman. I titled this next one, "Yo Grant, for real, you're missing this!"

Christmas Day 2010

2011-01-13T10:37:00.000-08:00

Naturally, we had to wake our kids up Christmas morning. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it on here (I know I talk about it a lot on Facebook), but my kids can sleep super late for a 3.5 year old and a 14 month old. I'm TRULY blessed. Are they healthy? Yeah, but can they SLEEP LATE??? In all seriousness, they have slept until 9 am before. So Todd and I got up at 6 and got ready for the day. We saw that Santa had been there and had left us lots of goodies. I also had to run out and get the biggest, baddest Diet Coke around, and have a slice of sour cream coffee cake that I had made two days before.

Of course, Natalie was more excited about the donut she got to eat for breakfast than for the presents! Here is the "before" scene:

See the Weebles treehouse? That was a present from Santa, to Grant. However, Natalie has since claimed it as her own. It was her favorite present... and it wasn't even for her!!!! Grant doesn't know any better, and he preferred his trucks over anything else. Here are some pictures of the kids on Christmas morning. Natalie was much better about ripping off wrapping paper this year. I did the unwrapping for Grant.

Grant got a bunch of toys that had wheels on it. He's obsessed with wheels. He will just sit there and spin them and spin them around. Not in a weird way, because they only hold his attention for a few minutes, but he just loves wheels.

After opening about 4 or 5 presents, Natalie decided she'd had enough and it was time for breakfast. So we ate. And after breakfast, we packed up the rest of the presents, which then took us 3 days to open, and went down to Plymouth to Grami and Bean's house.

At Grami and Bean's house, Grant got to wear Bean's "Grandpa" Santa hat (which here, could probably pass for "Grant"!) He looked so cute!

Here he goes again with the wheels...

And of course, Christmas with small children wouldn't be complete without the ubiquitous "box that we had more fun with than any of the presents we got" picture! Seth and Natalie made a little fort, and they would hide in here. Please pardon my daughter's appearance. We didn't feel like brushing her hair because it was so messy. Sometimes, we'd rather her look like this than to try to tame the beast.

Christmas Eve 2010

2010-12-31T20:53:00.000-08:00

Now that I have kids, I am actually pretty thankful that we get to stay at home. Santa knows if you travel, so it's not like he would forget us, but it's just hard to bring it all back home if you're flying on a plane. So it's so nice to stay home! So, we went to church at 4, and then went to Uno's for dinner. Don't laugh, nothing is open Christmas Eve. We managed to stay Paleo, amazingly. It was actually a pretty good meal. After dinner, we went home to get ready for Santa's visit. Natalie had to throw some Reindeer Dust on the snow so that it would sparkle in the moonlight and the reindeer would see our house and know to stop. Todd caught this awesome picture of her throwing it.

Grant meanwhile, just wanted to play. He sat on the couch with me and just laughed and fell over. He thought it was the funniest thing. Both kids were crazy jacked up and we hadn't even given them any sugar.

So then they had to sit in Daddy's lap while he read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Natalie LOVED it. It's a fun little book that has little moving parts that move when you turn the page. So it makes it look like a moving picture book and that things are happening in the picture (this is Todd's description of it!)

Natalie was into it... Grant, not so much. He just kept trying to climb on Daddy and get over to his sister to annoy her.

So he got banished to the Exersaucer while Daddy finished the book. Merry Christmas!

Cookie Baking

2010-12-31T20:42:00.000-08:00

Unlike last year, when I was on maternity leave and had lots of time on my hands to do a ton of baking, I just didn't have time to get 'er done this year. But I didn't want the holidays to go by without doing some my baking with my best girl. We made some slice and bake Frosty the Snowman cookies because she has an obsession this year with Frosty. No kidding, she knows all the words to the TV show. And most of the words to Frosty Returns (starring John Goodman as the voice of Frosty! Hysterical.)

We also made some plain sugar cookies to take down to Plymouth to decorate. We also made these amazing chocolate cookies from scratch and then melt and Andes mint candy on top of it once it is fresh out of the oven and put some green sprinkles on them. YUM. These went fast in Plymouth. I think Bean ate his weight in chocolate mint cookies!

Official Santa Photo 2010

2010-12-20T08:50:00.000-08:00

Without further ado....

Just about every picture we have these days has Grant with his fingers in his mouth or in front of his face. Poor guy, he's getting his 1 year molars. And it feels like he's been getting them for weeks! Natalie had the funniest look on her face- and we must have snapped 5-7 photos and in every photo, she had the funniest look on her face! So cute! Both kids were very good with Santa (it helped to watch other kids hop onto his lap, totally unafraid). Afterwards, we celebrated with some Friendly's! (Salads and ice tea for Mommy and Daddy though. See, you CAN do Paleo almost anywhere!)

Kids Official Christmas picture

2010-12-10T14:04:00.000-08:00

I didn't put this one on the Christmas card that I'm sending out, so I wanted to share it here on the blog (and Facebook, and myfamily...). Happy Holidays from the Bailey kids!

Fun times at Logan's birthday party

2010-12-06T06:59:00.000-08:00

Since Todd and I started CrossFit, we've met some pretty cool people. I met Chad in my Elements class, and he and his wife Liz are super awesome. The kids got invited to their son Logan's 3rd birthday party, which was at PlayTown Express in Hopkinton. We are definitely going back there at some point! (Probably on a cold, windy weekend in January). Natalie and Grant just had a blast.

Grant discovered the Cozy Coupe and didn't want to get out. In fact, he screamed when you took him out (uh oh, here we go!) until you could find him something else cool to play with, preferrably something with wheels. He played with trucks, and rode on the Step 2 Up and Down Roller Coaster (google it if you aren't familiar with it).

I'm sensing a reoccuring theme here with Natalie: Daredevil! This slide was pretty steep, and the first time she went, she wanted me to go with her. I might have gone a few more times, because it was really, really fun, but she went all on her own (over, and over, and over again!).

Grant and Daddy had fun too. This is after G had his bottle, a slice of pizza, and about a half a cupcake. He's a happy guy after he eats!

I love the chaos that is kids birthday parties. Just food and messes everywhere, lots of screaming and movement. Natalie is in the pink shirt with the green party hat on. She had been waiting all day for her cupcake and quickly devoured it. She wanted another, so I gave her half of Grant's (he never seems to care one way or the other). Thanks for a fun party Logan!!!

Trip to Florida - part 2

2010-11-29T07:42:00.001-08:00

The second in a two part series, the Bailey family enjoys the rest of their Florida vacation!

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we all got to go out in the boat with Nana and Pop Pop. We drove up to Clearwater and went to Frenchy's for dinner.

The weather was really nice, if maybe a bit cool with the breeze off of the cooler water. But Natalie had a blast running around the boat and yelling, "Faster Pop Pop!" See? She really IS a dare devil!

Grant, on the other hand, was not as enthusiastic. He didn't hate it, but he definitely wasn't sure of the life jacket. And he didn't like the breeze in his face, so he sat behind the "windshield" with Daddy. Here they are coming back from dinner. The next morning, Pop Pop and Natalie were on the porch and they saw a big fishing boat and Pop Pop asked Natalie what the boat was doing and she replied, "Going to Frenchy's!" Of course!!!

The day before Thanksgiving, Uncle Coco, Aunt Brie, and Auntie Britt suprised us and showed up a day early! So we all went to Largo Central Park and played on the playground and threw a football around without our shoes on. Aaaaahhh, I love Florida! Of course, Grant was too little to play, but he had a fun time on the towel (we discovered he does not like grass!) with his toys and Uncle Coco!

Thanksgiving morning, Grant caught a comfy nap on Pop Pop. He was out for over a half hour! He woke up all sweaty though, ha ha. Todd, Coco, Brie and I all went to run the Turkey Trot. I'm happy to say that I DID achieve my goal of a sub-9 mile, and ran the 1 mile in 8:49! I also enjoyed a big, fat Diet Coke from McDonalds (they are so much better in the south) after the race, as well as 3 donuts and a hot whiskey!

After all of that running, I deserved this big plate of food. Ok, we know it's not Paleo, but if you're eating Paleo on Thanksgiving, a day of mashed potatoes, broccoli cassarole, noodles, blueberry salad, and pie, you are CRAZY!!!

Trip to Florida - Part 1

2010-11-29T07:42:00.000-08:00

For some reason, these "trips to Florida" posts are always in a series!

We left for Florida last Sunday to enjoy a week in the sun and 82 degree weather. Whew! Natalie started sweating as soon as she got off the plane! Thankfully, I hadn't packed away her shorts and short sleeved shirts yet (Grant on the other hand, didn't own any shorts that fit! But he did have a few short sleeved polo shirts). We got to visit the Lowery Park Zoo on Monday and really had a blast. More than I thought we would! Both kids were very well behaved and Natalie was all jacked up over the animals and the rides!

Oh the rides! Natalie is such a dare devil. I honestly can't believe it. She always seems a little leery, but never really even hesitates to jump on bigger, scarier rides.

Such as this roller coaster.

The funniest part of this picture (other than Todd's dramatic face) is the little hand that is sticking up to the left of Todd. She isn't even afraid to go hands free!!!!

We also rode the carousel. She liked that the zebra went up and down as the carousel went around and around. Geez, I seriously need a tan!!!

Lowery Park Zoo is much cooler than it used to be. They have this great manatee tank that also has some fish and some sea turtles in it. The manatees were so awesome. But Natalie took a liking to this turtle that came right up to the big glass window and hung out while Natalie got up close and personal.

On the way home, she conked out while watching a DVD. The DVD player was leaning on her face, she was out cold. Must have been a good day at the zoo!!!

Grant's first haircut

2010-11-29T07:31:00.000-08:00

Big boy was starting to look a bit like Tom Brady (shagtastic!), so we decided to get his haircut before we went to Florida. He was SO well behaved! He moved around a lot - he wanted to see the lady cutting his hair, while she was cutting his hair, so it isn't the most even of haircuts, but at least he looks nice and trim! He might be the sweetest kid ever!

A busy weekend

2010-11-18T12:11:00.000-08:00

We had a pretty busy weekend, as usual. It sort of started on Thursday when Todd was home with the kids all day for Veteran's Day. I don't get that day off, so I had to work. But it looks like they had a good time.

On Saturday after gymnastics, it was such a beautiful day, we headed to the park. Natalie and Daddy played while Grant and I hung out on a picnic blanket. As you can see, Grant is showing his support for Cam Newton from all the way up here in Massachusetts! Grant says, "I support you Cam Newton! I sure hope you didn't do anything wrong, because I look up to you and love to watch you run around on the TV! I hope you play for the Patriots some day!"

After our trip to the park, Natalie didn't want to get up in her chair to eat lunch (after repeatedly asking her), so she had to go down for a nap without lunch. This was another massive tantrum, that wasn't finished by the time Grant had to go upstairs for his bottle of milk and his nap. She heard Todd coming up the stairs, so she opened her door and followed him into Grant's room. She laid down on the floor and promptly fell asleep! And she was seriously snoring like crazy. I got some video of it- it's on smugmug.

Last but not least, Todd and I celebrated 5 blissful (!!!) years of marriage on the 12th! We went out to dinner at a Brazilian Steakhouse in Woburn - and yes, we ate Paleo! Lots of meat, house salad, and sides of veggies, along with iced tea and Pellegrino. They even brought out fried bananas! YUM! We didn't touch the other sides (although they looked good- rice, bread, beans, etc.) There IS a bottle of wine on the table, but that was unopened, quite sadly!

Happy 5th anniversary honey!

Kid update

2010-11-18T11:26:00.000-08:00

I always feel like if I don't have pictures to post, what I have to say just isn't worthy. Okay, that is just crazy talk. My kids lives are totally worthy, to all 5 of my blog readers!

Natalie had her first progress report at preschool and it was a glowing review! She is polite and listens to her teachers. She loves playing on the playground with her friends (doing make believe/pretend) and really enjoys arts and crafts. The only black mark was her occasional tantrum that she throws when Todd comes to pick her up. It's usually when she is having a good time playing on the playground with her friends, and doesn't want to go home because she is having so much fun. As embarrassing as those tamtrums are for Todd, I guess there are worse problems to have! As the teacher wrote in the report, "It's so good to see she is so happy here!"

Grant is moving all around now. He's a pretty speedy crawler, and he has started to pull himself to a stand. Todd has seen him take a step or two ("cruising"). But not really.

We have seen some great progress in Grant's eating too! I mean, he's always been a good eater. I've never seen him turn away from a food. He eats EVERYTHING. In stark contrast to his sister, who eats NOTHING. However, we were having some issues with textures, which he seems to be pretty much over. Lumpy, crunchy, you name it, he'll eat it. He will sometimes take too big of a bite and start gagging on it, but it's not because of the texture. His other issue was that he didn't want to be the one to feed himself. He wanted YOU to do it. He would cry and get upset if there was yummy looking food on his tray but you weren't giving it to him! I would just get up and walk away but the crying would escalate and... well... I'm an enabler, so I would go give it to him. Last night something must have clicked, because he just started picking up green beans and eating them! Todd said he ate about 12 (this is after I gave him about 12, then had to leave to go to the chiropractor). The thing is, he CAN do it. He was just choosing not to. I hope this trend continues!

Beast of the East

2010-11-07T18:13:00.000-08:00

Todd, the kids and I went to watch some of the Beast of the East competition at CFNE this weekend. I seriously doubt I'll ever be good enough to do something like this - those competitors were amazing! But I have no doubts that I have the cutest family in the world!

Grant's 1 year statistics

2010-11-01T12:35:00.000-07:00

The big fella went to the doctor for his 1 year checkup today. The numbers are in: He's 31" tall (85th percentile), he weighs 22 lbs (45th percentile), and his head circumference is 47.5 cm (18.7 inches, 80th percentile). That's a big boy!

So a few things were going on... One, he's had crazy bad eczema for as long as I can remember. But what happens this week/weekend? Somehow, it randomly dissapears! Just in time for his doctor's appointment. OK, so the doctor must think I'm crazy! (Or Todd is crazy since he took him to the appointment!). We also had to ask about switching to real milk, rather than formula, since he should be weaned off of the formula starting about now. Todd gave him some milk on Sunday and he drank it right up, so I don't think we'll have any problems there. We are also trying to give him "real" food but he seems to still have a problem with gagging. He's making chewing motions and he likes the taste of things, he just can't get the idea of swallowing. Dr. Meisheid said we just needed to KEEP giving it to him. Last night he ate three tiny pieces of grilled chicken and did fine with it. Obviously, the smaller they are, the less of a problem he's having. But most of what we give him is pretty small.

Lastly, he recently had an ear infection so Dr. Meisheid checked that too. She said the infection is gone but there is still fluid in his ears, so she said this is the classic set up for get an ear infection, get some antibiotics, it goes away briefly, and 3 weeks later we are back at the doctor's for another ear infection (and then she eventually writes us a referral to an ENT for tubes!). We were concerned about traveling for Thanksgiving, so Dr. Meisheid said for him to come back the Friday before we leave and she would check him again.

Oh one more thing, he got his chicken pox vaccine and his first flu shot vaccine. He needs to get the follow up for that one in a few weeks. They don't do the MMR until 15 months, whew. Natalie got her measles shot at 12 months and was SO sick. I'm glad that one is delayed!