Grant's first time on a swing

Little buddy took his first ride on a swing on the swing set in our backyard.  Natalie was there to show him how easy it was. 

As you can see, he was indifferent about it.  Pretty much how he is about everything in life, except eating, sleeping, and pooping!

Channeling Albert Einstein

Natalie woke up Saturday morning and her hair looked like this.  Seriously, we didn't tease it or anything. 

I think those of us who grew up in the 80s will be a bit envious... this hair did not even require one can of Aqua Net!  I think she's ready for the next Motley Crue reunion tour!  Although below, I kind of think she looks like Albert Einstein. Don't you agree??? 

Where's Natalie?

I bet you're wondering why there aren't many pictures of Natalie lately.  Well, she has recently decided she does not want to be photographed.  So I have to capture pictures of her when she is not paying attention.  Otherwise, she yells, "NOOOO!" and runs away. 

So I wanted to take a picture of her new haircut.  This was all I could get.  It's pretty cute.  She loves going to Snip It's.  She loves getting a lollipop.  She picked a cream soda dum dum-- which happens to be my favorite.  She picked it because the wrapper had green on it, and that is her favorite color.  Kids are so funny.

The next picture is of her and Todd watching the Boston Marathon.  It runs right by our new house.  We are only a block or so from Route 135, which is where the Marathon runs.  What you see here are the front runners (pun intended!) in the men's group off in the distance a bit.  The wheel chair division goes first, then the women's, the men's, and finally, everyone else.  It's quite the circus atmosphere when everyone else runs through.    Some people dress up in funky costumes, a lot of people write their names on their arms or legs (so you can shout out, "Let's go Mike!" or "Come on Jennifer, you can do it!").  My friends who run marathons (because you KNOW I don't run!) say this really helps their morale.  Sometimes the people respond back to you (like, "Thanks!" or a nod of the head).  Then Todd and I giggle.  ("Hee hee, they spoke to us!").  Yes friends, we are dorks!  I can't wait for the kids to get older, as I think this will be really fun for them. Lord knows Todd and I think it's really funny.

Grant, in a series

Before I had kids, I didn't have any idea how hard it was to actually capture good pictures of kids.  Which made me really realize why there are so few pictures of me as a baby/little kid.  Chances are, the kid is not going to cooperate (not necessarily on purpose) and you're going to take about 10 bad pictures before you get 1 good picture.  Back then, our parents used (gasp!) point and click cameras that had (get this...) FILM!  Film wasn't cheap to develop, so most pictures went to waste.  Thank goodness for digital cameras and the "delete" button!  Let me demonstrate, using my sweet boy Grant as an example...

Picture 1:  Hand in the mouth.

 

Picture 2:  Eyes are closed.

Picture 3:  The drunk look

Picture 4: Partially sticking his tongue out.  And he looks startled.

Picture 5: Hand back in the mouth.

Picture 6: Getting better...  Come on little guy, give us a smile!

Picture 7:  Hey, this isn't too bad!  Finally a decent picture!

Picture 8:  BONUS!  There's my dimple!

Sleep Sweet Sleepyheads

I just love it when my kids are asleep -- and not just for the obvious reason.  Grant is so peaceful and sweet. 

Natalie, my wild child when awake, is the same in her slumber.  This is what we often come in to find in the mornings.

Pillows, covers, and sheets are so overrated!!!!  Apparently keeping your entire body in the bed is too!

First Tooth!

Grant got his first tooth!  I almost cried when I felt it.  My baby is growing so fast!  I have felt a hard lump in the area where his two bottom front teeth are for several days now, but yesterday morning, it had broken through.  It's his bottom right front tooth.  Todd and I tried so hard to get a picture of it this morning, but the camera wasn't cooperating.  Oh, and neither was Grant... every time I went to hold his mouth open, he would push his tongue out right over the tooth. 

Okay, I captured a picture, but it was hard.  He has been getting VERY grumpy in the evenings, maybe due to being tired, or maybe due to the teeth that are coming in.  Who knows.  But last night he was crying (for about 20 minutes, ugh!) so I thought that was a great opportunity to snap some pictures!  Oh you're so mean mommy!  Funny... when I look at the picture on my computer, I can see the tooth plain as day.  But now that I've uploaded it to the blog, I can't see it at all.  Trust me, it's there!  Oh well, maybe I can snap a few more during this evening's grumpy time. :-)

Tired little guy

Little man fell asleep in his jumperoo, just like this:

And he fell asleep on Todd's lap as we were singing happy birthday to him on his birthday!

Little guy has just been worn out lately!  The older he gets, the more he's getting on a schedule, and he can't be up past 7:30, or he's exhausted and grumpy (or falls asleep on the spot!).  I love my little guy!

Sox-Rays game

Todd and I got to enjoy a rare night out for his birthday Saturday night.  As you know, his birthday was actually Friday.  But Saturday afternoon, we dropped the kids off at Helen's for the NIGHT (my first night away from Grant!) and went down to Boston Beer Works to meet up with Les and Ingrid.  Les and Todd were friends when Todd lived in NYC (they both worked for the BOP).  Now we all live in Massachusetts!  Anyway, we got to see a rare event at Fenway.  The game from the night before was postponed due to rain, but it was tied 1-1 in the 9th inning.  Since the umps wouldn't allow them to start the next game without finishing the first, they played innings 9-11 before the Rays won the game.  Then, there was about 30-45 minutes between games.  The second game didn't start until after 9.  AND... they stopped selling beer after the 1st inning!!!!!  WHAT????? 

We were sitting in my coworkers Matt and Greg's seats in right field, in the bleachers.  It is a good seat... since there isn't a bad seat at Fenway to begin with.  But we were pretty miserable since it was in the 30s and raining.  It wasn't raining too bad, but just enough to make us pretty miserable. 

But there's always Dunkin' Donuts hot chocolate to keep us warm!  And despite 2 run homers from Pedroia and Youk, and a solo shot from Marco Scutaro... the Sox still lost 6-5.   

Happy Birthday Todd!

Happy birthday to my wonderful, funny, smart, amazing, goofy husband and help-mate, Todd! 

My babies

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my babies????

I just love these kids.  They are so fun.  Grant loves his big sister.  He laughs at her so much... and every time she comes in the room, he is all smiles.  Don't they look alike in the picture below?

Lastly, Grant is pushing himself up pretty well these days.  I'm hoping he at least rolls over before Natalie did (around 7 months!).  Both kids seem(ed) content when they were babies.  Like if Natalie were sitting, there wasn't much that could motivate her to reach for toys or start to crawl.  She was just really happy sitting in one spot and looking at the world around with her and playing with her own feet.  Grant seems that way too.  If you lay him on his belly, he usually just lays his head down and is content to lay there and suck on his hand!  But sometimes he does push up...

He can push himself higher than this, but I thought he looked so cute here.  I just want to kiss those cheeks!

Todd's shoulder surgery

Todd's shoulder surgery was a success!  Thanks to Maureen who took the kids at 5:30 am since we had to be at the outpatient center at 6 am (yawn!).  And thanks to all of the prayers and well wishes.  Todd's surgery actually started closer to 7 am and went until about 9:15. 

It took a little longer than they expected (although I expected that.  When does it ever take exactly the amount of time they say it will???).  They shaved off a bit of his shoulder blade, which got rid of the bone spur he had, cleaned out the bursitis, and checked on the small tear he has in his labrum.  They decided there wasn't much they could do about that.  Apparently, he also had some worn down cartilage, and by removing the end part of the collarbone, it allows soft scar tissue to form so that he doesn't have bone rubbing on bone again.  NICE.

This is my favorite pic.  It makes me laugh (but grateful) that they "autograph" the shoulder they are going to work on.  Just in case.  You hear stories all the time about doctors removing the wrong limb or some other awful procedure mishap.  So here are Dr. Tierney's initals on Todd's shoulder!  Say bye bye shoulder!

Todd was a little woozy coming off the general anesthetic, but he wasn't nearly as loopy as when I went with him in 2004 to get his endoscopy.  He was talking all kinds of crazy nonsense then!  This time, he was alert and awake and eating graham crackers and apple juice.  Just like pre-school.

We finally got home around 11 after dropping his prescription off at CVS.  I ran out to get ice and pick up the prescription and when I got back, he was asleep.  But after he woke up from his nap, he said he felt great.  He watched movies the rest of the day and had to wait for the nerve block to wear off before he finally could feel his shoulder.  But between the pain meds and the large ice packs he has on his shoulder, he is doing okay.  He says it's sore, but isn't awful.  I hope in a few weeks, he is finally pain free!  It's about time!

Prayer requests

My wonderful, sweet hubby is having surgery on his shoulder tomorrow.  They think the surgery will take somewhere between 4-6 hours.  The surgery includes a distal clavicle resection (cutting off the end of the collar bone or clavicle) and subacromial decompression (cutting off the tip of the shoulder blade). Hopefully, it can all be done arthroscopically. Todd has been having a lot of pain in his shoulder for a few years now, so hopefully this will do the trick!  (It had darn well better, since they are cutting off about 1/3 of his collarbone!).  Prayers for me are also welcome, since Todd will not be able to lift the kids for about 6 weeks.  This means lots of work for Mommy!

Also, I need some prayers for my Uncle Dave.  He had a valve in his heart replaced yesterday and the surgery went well.  But he need some prayers for a speedy recovery!

Lastly, one of the blogs I read (Toddler Planet) by a woman in the DC area who is an astrophysicist and a mom (no kidding... I've never known any astrophysicists!!!) just got told that she has a recurrence of breast cancer.  http://toddlerplanet.wordpress.com/  I don't know this woman, but she is a mom, just like me.  I can't even imagine what she must be going through, or how scared her little boys and husband must be.  She is having surgery today to remove some tumors from her lymph nodes.  So send lots of prayers her way!  Her name is Susan Niebur. 

I will keep you posted about how Todd is doing tomorrow!

Natalie's Boo Boo

So, last week when she was at daycare waiting for lunch to be served,  Natalie fell off of her little chair, foward and onto the table, where she split her eyebrow open.  Maureen called Todd to let him know, and he took Natalie to the doctor to get it looked at.  Thankfully, he did not call Mommy until AFTER the whole event was over.  Smart Daddy.

So they used this special skin glue on her face to close the wound.  I hadn't heard of this before, but I really like the concept.  No stitches?   Boy, this would have saved me a lot of agony when I was 4 and had to get stitches in a similar place on my face (right next to my right eye). 

In the picture below, you can barely see it, but there is a bit of purple glue still holding on strong to the end of her eyebrow (toward her temple) of her left eye.  Don't mind the orange Skittle mess on the rest of her face.  Someone had a little too much fun with her Easter candy!

The Easter Bunny came to our house!

The Easter Bunny came!  The Easter Bunny came!  But can mommy eat the delicious treats he brought?  NO!  Mommy has been dairy free lately to try and see if we can clear up Grant's eczema.  It seems to be working ... a little bit.  The crazy bad eczema on his face is gone, but now it is really bad on his arms, near his elbows (but on the top part of his arm).  I'm going to give it another week, and see if the arms clear up.  We also bought the California Baby eczema cream and that seems to work wonders on his face.  I think it might not be working on his arms because I put it on his arms, and then put his arms into long sleeved shirts.  Now that it's a little warmer, perhaps it will clear up.

Anyway!  On to Easter...

We did give Natalie some candy for Easter, because after all... it's Easter!  But we didn't want her tons of candy, so we gave her little gifts instead.  Of course, you KNOW that Santa and the Easter Bunny talk, right?  The Easter Bunny taps into Santa's naughty or nice database to make sure he can deliver goodies to the kids on Easter.  Natalie must have been pretty good between Christmas and Easter, because she got a basket full of fun things.  I think the Easter Bunny was very pleased with her potty training.

After church and the finding and opening of the Easter basket, we went to Wilmington.  Natalie had about 4 pieces of chocolate while she was playing with those little capsules that, when you put them in water, they grow to little sponge-like animals.  In the car on the way there, she had a bit of a sugar crash.  This kid NEVER sleeps in the car, and I mean NEVER.  So this was funny enough to take a picture of!

When we got to Wilmington, we took some Easter pictures outside before Natalie's nap.  Here is the Bailey gang under the Birch tree at Todd's sister Helen's house.

Next up, we took a picture of the kids.  In the back, we have Lauren, Gordon, and Madison, holding little Buddy G.  In the front, we have Natalie, Deven (Gordie's sister Janelle's daughter), and Seth.  I thought Natalie looked cute in this picture.

After pictures, little man Grant was hanging out with Daddy.  He looked so cute in this picture I couldn't resist.  Poor little guy seems tired, but so content to hang out with Daddy.  He'd better get some good Daddy-holding time in now, before Todd has his shoulder surgery later this week!

We had quite the tasty meal this Easter, made up of ham, potatoes, rolls, cesar salad, green bean casserole, maple carrots, and other fine goodies.  After dinner, we finally woke Natalie up (seriously, she could sleep forever if we let her) and went outside to do the annual Easter Egg hunt.  This year's eggs were full of money or Skittles.  Natalie has decided that she likes skittles.  Here is a picture of Natalie and Seth, inspecting Seth's loot.

Lastly, we can't forget that my BIG nephew/Godson Seth turned 7 (yes, I said 7!) on the 5th!  So at Helen's, we enjoyed some cake, cookies, and brownies to celebrate his birthday.  Candy AND cake on Easter????  This girl was over the moon!!!  Notice the various colors of chocolate cake and skittles across her face.   NICE!  Happy Easter everyone!

Fun at Endicott Park in Danvers

This weekend was just too beautiful not to be outside.  It was in the mid-upper 70s all weekend.  Just perfect.  So we met up with the Morris family at Endicott Park in Danvers and the girls- Annabel and Natalie - played on the playground. 

They were so cute!  The boys (Mike and Todd) hung out in the play clubhouse for a while, enjoying the shade with Grant and Evan.  Evan is about 2.5 months older than Grant.  Afterward, we went to check out the horses, but on the way, we ran into some birds that looked like pheasants, but might have been just young turkeys (Todd called them teenagers, ha ha). 

After our animal sightings, we went to have a picnic on the grassy area in the sun.  The weather was so nice, but it was actually WARM, and even I was sweating!  The Bailey's enjoyed hummus and pita, cheese and crackers, a fruit cup, salsa and garlic chips.  After lunch, Annabel shared one of her blue raspberry Dum Dum lollipops with Natalie, who was over the moon about it.  By the time she finished it in the car ride home, her entire mouth was blue, including lips, teeth and tongue.  She had it on her cheeks, hands, and even in her hair.  Awesome!  On a good note, Natalie went potty at the park and didn't have any accidents all morning!  She hasn't had any accidents in weeks, but I just wanted to point out that she spent all morning at the park and didn't have to go!