my goofy daddy

Brookside Gardens

2012-01-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

During my time off last week, I went with my parents and the kids to Brookside Gardens. It was lovely! They had the neatest train sets and a beautiful little indoor garden. It was a warm and pleasant break from the cold.

Christmas #2

2012-01-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

The second half of Christmas started out with a Christmas Eve service with my family. Santa stopped at their place too - oh how lucky we are!

My family

Power tools! Emmett had a tool Christmas and he loved it.

Doll clothes! And the chest was built by my G-pa and uncle for my mom - how special.

Poor Abby, she got a Gary the Bear saddle from Emmett.

It was nice to enjoy Grandpa's corn during our Christmas dinner.

Great-Grandma spent the afternoon with us.

Emmett's impression of Abby the Cat.

Christmas #1

2012-01-04T09:00:00.000-05:00

Our Christmas festivities started out with Kevin's family. We met up at the Gaylord Hotel at the National Harbor. We walked around a bit...it was a nice place! After that we spent some good quality family time together. Santa made an early stop at his parent's house and the kids were very excited.

Cousins

2012-01-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

We went to MA for Thanksgiving and the cousins had some good quality time together.

The Thinker

2012-01-02T08:45:00.003-05:00

...made a stinker.

Aria's Drawing

2011-11-17T19:15:00.004-05:00

Aria drew this picture in a journal she created at school. She showed it to me this evening. I love the fish bones and the cat's happy face...it makes me smile. It's so fun to see her drawing skills develop over the years.

Fall Fun at the Cottage

2011-11-09T20:45:00.004-05:00

Leaf time!

This is Abby, my parent's new cat. The kids love her and she loves the kids.

We made our yearly batch of apple sauce.

Apples, apples and more apples.

This is Emmett's finger, he is such a boy.

Hey Aria - your boat is upside down. Haha!

Emmett, Grammy and Pop Pop

Halloween 2011

2011-11-09T20:18:00.005-05:00

What's fall without a visit to the farm?
Coloring pumpkins.

Emmett was a dragon and actually liked wearing his costume...he is a bit particular about things.

Aria was Silvermist. Which is one of Tinkerbells many friends. This was all her idea.

Taking a little taste of the goods.

Emmett was very focused and finished the entire tootsie roll pop...with more than 3 licks, I might add.

school pictures!

2011-10-04T14:12:00.006-04:00

We got the kids' school picture proofs today. I know I'm biased, but I can't stop smiling whenever I look at them. :-)

This last one I KNOW was all Aria's idea.

Aria lost her first tooth!

2011-09-30T15:38:00.003-04:00

After about 2 weeks, Aria got tired of having a loose tooth, so she pulled it out herself at school yesterday. She was so excited when she woke up the next morning, and the tooth fairy left a note, and a WHOLE QUARTER!

Pee pee in the potty!

2011-09-28T11:29:00.004-04:00

Emmett's been increasingly interested in the potty these days. For the past month he's been using the "little potty" the same time as big sister does before bath in the evenings. He's usually successful about half the time. After he goes, we all join in a "Pee pee in the potty!" song and dance. He loves it! Aria loves to get into it too, which I think get the most reaction from Emmett since he really looks up to her.

This morning was a first. He woke up with a dry diaper! We asked him to use the potty and after some encouragement, he was sitting up on the "big potty" and going! Yahoo! Go Emmett!

* Sorry for the lack of updates...more will come soon!

Emmett turned 2 (7/16/11)

2011-07-27T21:54:00.007-04:00

Emmett is 2!

This is typical Emmett. Squashing the ants.

For his b-day we kept it low key and just had family over (including cousin Felipe, yay!) He had a robot theme party.

Everyone loves a balloon!

Each kid got a little remote control robot.

Emmett did a great job blowing out his candles. So great that we lit them again so he had a second chance!

No cake for Emmett, he only likes the M&Ms (and thank goodness because we found out that he's allergic to egg whites)!

Robot Cake

Cousins. It's his party, he can cry if he wants to.

Brother & Sister

2011-06-28T18:53:00.003-04:00

As Emmett gets older we are finding the kids playing together more. They still constantly fight over toys and bug each other, but they have moments when they play so nice together. Each time I feel like getting the camera to show them they DID get along at some point :-)

coloring on the deck

ipad movie watching at the cottage

couch fort building

done making a mess and now they are ready for school!

playing at the cottage

Happy Birthday Tante Pia

2011-05-28T20:00:00.001-04:00

We hope you have a wonderful day!

Easter

2011-05-06T08:00:00.002-04:00

We went to Grammy and Pop pop's cottage for Easter weekend. It was rainy and yucky on Sat so we did an egg hunt inside, but Sunday was beautiful!

Visiting Aunt Jennine

2011-05-05T18:34:00.005-04:00

Before the Easter weekend we went to Philly to visit Aunt Jennine! First we went to the zoo. Our favorite exhibit was the Naked Molerats! They're gross! After spending the night, we went to the Touch Museum in the morning. We had a great time there too. Thanks Jennine for the fun visit!

Walking to the Zoo

Naked Molerat

Shopping at the Touch Museum

Enjoying a lunch and lollipop break

Water play! Thank goodness for the spare clothes in the diaper bag :-)

HAHA!

Planes and Rockets

2011-04-26T21:45:00.003-04:00

When Aria spent the weekend with her Grandparents and Felipe/family, we picked something a little special to do with Emmett. He loooooves planes and helicopters, so how perfect is going to the Air and Space museum? He held up for 1.5 hrs running around the entire place. He really got into it.

I guess a plane with teeth is a little scary :-)

Is it a plane or a rocket?

2011-04-25T22:20:00.004-04:00

Earlier this month, cousin Felipe and family came down for a visit and stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's. Aria had some special bonding time when she stayed 2 nights with all of them, but without us. They both are growing up so much and it's fun to see them play together. One of the mornings when both Aria and Felipe where awake before the adults, they went downstairs to play together :-) So cute!

Cousins!

It's hard to take a picture of 3 moving targets.
Fort time!

Some weightlifting with Grandpa.
"Look at my big muscles!"

Aquarium

2011-04-25T21:59:00.004-04:00

For a (late) Christmas present to Kevin's parents we took them to the aquarium last month. We all had a great time viewing the fish, wildlife and seeing the dolphin show!

Our favorite exhibit was the Jellies!

Outside

2011-03-25T22:00:00.005-04:00

The weather has been so great the past couple weeks and we've spent a lot of time playing outside. To bad it got really cold again, but hopefully soon we'll have nice weather again.

6 Eyes!

2011-03-25T21:32:00.004-04:00

It had been a little less than a year of wearing glasses when Aria was "upgraded" to bifocals. She quickly adjusted and is doing great with them. This past time she went to the eye doc they said she had almost no crossing looking at a distance. They prescribed bifocals to help with the crossing that happens when she looks up close. We are also continuing to patch 2 hours a day. So, the progress is good.

A side note: The glasses she has on are "new". Thanks to Kevin and his foresight to pay for the frame replacement plan. 2 weeks before the plan ran out, the frames needed a second replacement :-)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T00:01:00.000-05:00

Great Wolf Lodge - Water Park!

2011-01-29T13:41:00.004-05:00

Emmett was not so sure at first, but he eventually warmed up.

Aria's favorite thing was the wave pool.

Aria's one happy little girl!

Emmett enjoyed putting his hands in the fountains.

Emmett was so cute all wrapped up. He sat there so still.

All clean and almost dry!

Great Wolf Lodge

2011-01-29T13:21:00.005-05:00

Last week we took a mini vacation just the four of us to Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, VA. We went to the indoor water park, arcade, kids playroom and ran around the hotel. We all had a fun time!

Hug the bear!

Aria LOVED the arcade.

Emmett didn't know what to think when it started snowing in the lobby of the hotel.

It was a long day! We knew Emmett was ready for bed when he started laying down in the middle of the floor.

Emmett is 17 months old!

2010-12-17T08:00:00.005-05:00

Time is just flying by with this little guy. It's been a while since I wrote an update of his "doings." Here's a summary below:

Sleeping: He goes to bed at 7:30PM ish and we get him at 7AM. Half the time he sleeps straight through, but the other half he cries out 1 to 2 times. I usually just go in there and re-adjust him, find his paci and turn on his "bug" sounds. 2 min max of disruption...you won't hear me complaining! I'm getting pretty good at sleep walking.

Pacifier: Just this month we started limiting the paci to just sleeping. It's going ok, but if he catches sight of one, he lets you know he misses it!

Eating: He loves his fruits and veggies. Until this last month he wouldn't touch meat and I discovered he'd eat it if it was ground and mixed with rice. He still won't touch eggs, chunks of meat, beans, tofu, pancakes, and waffles. He LOVES yogurt, cheese, bread crusts (which is nice because Aria doesn't like them), beets, carrots, zucchini, blueberries, sweet potatoes, pears, grapes and strawberries.

Words: He currently routinely says "up", "buh" (ball, bug, box), "ba-ba" (fire, butterfly, diaper) "Pop Pop", "Dadda", "Ma-ma", "Ya-ya" (Aria), "ella" (our elf-on-the-shelf), "gabba" (Yo Gabba Gabba). His most favorite word has been "yep" with the accent on the P - he also says "yesh". He'll wake up from his nap sometimes, just saying "Yep, yep, yup, yesh, yup..."

Separation: We've been taking him to the toddler/twos room during church and he has had a hard time adjusting to us leaving. The past week Emmett showed signs of being more comfortable with it all and Kevin left with no problem. Before then he would cry so hard, so we've just been taking turns hanging out with him. Other than with the grandparents, we haven't left him alone.

School: Next month he starts school. Kevin will be easing him into the 3 hours of school slowly. Eventually when Kevin gets a full-time job, Emmett will stay until 4. Emmett loves the school because he drops Aria off everyday with Daddy. He also already knows his teacher (same one Aria had at his age). Kevin took him to a Parent/infant class with the same teacher in the spring. After dropping off Aria, Kevin has been taking him down to the class to spend a little bit of time to check things out before they head home. He seems excited about all the "work"/learning materials.

Physical Activity: Emmett started walking at about 14mo. He is a mover but enjoys a rest. We love that he can just "hang out" and listen to books, snuggle, sit on the couch and watch a little bit of TV next to sister.

Sister: Emmett has caught on that anything he plays with Aria will come up and "remove" it from him since she wants to play with that same thing coincidentally. When she approaches him, he drops what he is holding and walks away. We keep telling Aria that someday she will regret doing that. She loves her brother, even though she doesn't show it to his face. She is so proud and will talk about him to everyone at school and she loves it when he comes into the classroom during drop off to stay for a couple minutes.

Emmett definitely has his cranky moments like the rest of us, but he a cool little guy and fun to be around.

1st Snow Day!

2010-12-16T20:49:00.002-05:00

Halloween 2010

2010-11-02T20:47:00.005-04:00

I made these cookies for a dessert potluck at work. We had a lot of fun with them. The next day I put a couple in a strawberry/spinach salad for another potluck...hehe. The spooky witch fingers were a hit and tasted yummy!

And now, introducing...

ANGELINA BALLERINA

A JEDI MOM
(the costume was a combination of my robe, mobi wrap [baby carrier], and a lightsaber made from a spice bottle...it was all Kevin)

GOOFYDADDY

MR. BONES

just in time for the Sound of Music's 45th anniversary!

2010-10-28T13:12:00.003-04:00

Remember the summer?

2010-10-20T20:48:00.007-04:00

Aria's 4!

2010-10-11T22:06:00.007-04:00

For Aria's actual b-day we took her out for pizza and ice cream just the 4 of us. We hardly ever go out to eat, so this was special for her.

Our little walker!

Aria "helped" me make her birthday cake for her party...well, she cleaned up the batter!

We had her party at a park with a pavilion and playground. There were about 15 kids. We got them to decorate pinwheels, Aria's G-ma did face painting, we passed out foam bug wings and they played on the playground. It was a lot of fun!

Aunt Jennine made it to the party too!

Instead of gifts we asked people to donate canned foods to a local food pantry. Everyone was so generous! We're excited to drop it off this coming weekend. (Kevin will have to carry it, it's sooo heavy!)

* Somehow Aria's puzzle got put in the basket...I found it today and took it out (Thanks T&J - she loves the kitty!)

Baby Steps

2010-09-16T21:56:00.002-04:00

We laugh because he's taking a lot of steps but not going very far. This stage is so fun, he's changing so much daily.

Emmett takes a couple steps!

2010-09-09T22:06:00.001-04:00

We Love Cousin Felipe

2010-09-09T21:14:00.005-04:00

And he loves us :-)

We had a great time traveling to MA recently to visit with family. We spent a whole day playing with Felipe. The kids had a great time together.

Emmett's 13 months old

2010-08-19T21:43:00.008-04:00

Emmett is a growing boy! Last time I documented his doings he was 8 months. He had his 1 year check up and everything went well. He got some super powered creme to treat his eczema, which works great. He checked out 24% length-for-age, 31% weight-for age and 70% head! Basically he's a smaller guy with a big CUTE noggin :-)

Emmett is continuing to enjoy his time home with Daddy. He's been a good napper. Over the past month he's transitioned to 1 nap a day getting about 2-3 hours sleep in the afternoon (noon-3:00ish). During that time Kevin tries to get as much work done as he can. Since Emmett has been sleeping a little less than before, Kevin catches up on work early mornings and sometimes the evenings now. We put in the paperwork to sign Emmett up at Aria's school for next January when he's 18 months old.

Emmett's continuing to eat well. I lasted the whole year providing milk for him (YAY me)! One week ago was the last time a pumped. So he is drinking whole milk and happy with it. He drinks about 2 cups a day. He's down to a bottle in the morning and a bottle after dinner. The rest of the time he's happy with getting his liquids from a straw sippy. He hasn't picked up how to use a regular sippy...this probably is the result of him still not holding his own bottle (his sister didn't hold her bottles either). He just doesn't get the whole tipping thing. He LOVES getting additional dairy by yogurt and cheese. He's done great with finger foods. He gobbles up whole wheat Ritz as fast as his sister and he really likes strawberries/peaches/pears. He dislikes bananas. If he doesn't like something he is very vocal about it...although if I feed him his favorites first he seems to be a little more adventurous about newer foods that remain on his tray. I can usually get him to eat meat, beans or tofu by flavoring it with dressing or soy sauce -- whatever works! (This is the opposite of his sister, plain Jane.)

His nights are ok. He still is great about staying in his crib for 11.5 hours (no eating or having to take him out) He still wakes a couple times a night half the time. He usually cries or yells out and I sleep walk to his room, find his pacifier and plug him! I'm blaming it on his huge molars that are growing in as slow as they possibly could. He's been pretty healthy over the last few months so I can't blame it on that.

He now has 9 teeth that are fully grown in (including one bottom molar). He's still drooling A LOT and he's working on the next couple molars.

We are still using cloth diapers about 60% of the time. We're sticking with disposables at night and for convenience during the day for trips out of the house.

Emmett has perfected his crawl and is quite speedy! He's cruising more this last month. He's still not very sturdy on his feet, but he's getting stronger everyday.

Emmett surprises me when he repeats words. For example, he's repeated "apple" and "elmo". He still doesn't use these words day to day. His favorite word is "da-da" and he's getting better with "ma-ma". He also has a couple words for Aria's name - "ra-ra" and "ar-ra". I think more words will be coming very soon. We haven't done much with signing but early on he picked up the sign for "more" and he continues to use it.

Emmett's getting better at clapping, waving and blowing kisses everyday. Instead of not doing it because he can't, I'm pretty sure he chooses not do it. Kevin said he'd been waving pretty consistently to cars on the trip back from dropping Aria off in the morning. Emmett has pointing down now.

Just last week Emmett pointed out a dog in a book and then we asked him "where's the doggy" and he turned a couple pages back and found the dog again. It shocked us. Little smarty pants.

Overall he's a pretty happy boy, but when he's cranky...he's really cranky. He still adores his sister even though she never lets him play with anything without her playing with it first, including his own toys! That will probably change as he gets more mobile and vocal. We love this little guy.

Aria loves combing his curls down/forward after his bath and when it dries it pretty much stays that way...she's discovered a nice look on him, I think!

Big Sister!

Emmett's One

2010-07-24T21:14:00.006-04:00

Emmett turned 1 on the 16th! We had a small party with family. Uncle David, Tia Maria, and cousin Felipe made it down from MA too! We had a nice time and Emmett seemed to enjoy himself.

Yearly picture next to Emmett's Tree

The cousins and their lovies - Doogan, Fante & Gary

Happy Bithday to me, the mommy!

2010-07-11T21:49:00.003-04:00

We went to the farm this morning and picked fruit, played and had a picnic. Then we went out for ice-cream this evening. It was a nice day full of family time.

This last picture cracks me up!

Dress-Up

2010-07-09T20:18:00.003-04:00

This is what happened when Kevin had to work this evening and I played with the kids. Aria got into her dress-up and naturally little brother got dressed up too! Hey - at least we didn't put bows in his hair :-) Unfortunately this is the best picture I've gotten of the two of them together.

Evening Playtime

2010-07-08T20:00:00.000-04:00

We have a pretty standard routine every weekday. I pick Aria up on my way home from work at 4. When we get home we get settled, play and start dinner. We eat at 5:30 and then we have some more time to play before bath at 7. I live for this family time and enjoy my children so much :-)

Aria loves playing dress-up!

Emmett takes a break from chasing after Aria.

We lock them up when they misbehave. Just kidding! But don't they look so sad in this picture...haha.

Who knew that sitting in a box could be so much fun!

Emmett's 1st Haircut

2010-07-08T14:00:00.001-04:00

Daddy got out the clippers and cleaned up the sides...

Before

Curls

After

Meet Gary

2010-07-07T21:06:00.002-04:00

If you remember back earlier this year Aria lost Doogan, the bear, at the mall and he was thankfully returned to us by the mall security. While we impatiently waited for the call from mall security, Kevin got online and found a Doogan on e-bay and ordered him. So Doogan was returned and the new bear showed up in the mail a couple days later.

Just recently Emmett has been crazy for Doogan. Aria and I came up with the idea of giving the extra bear to him. Emmett LOVES his bear almost as much as Aria loves Doogan. He even named him Gary! ...well he made a sound like "ggaarrrieeee" and the bear was named.

2010-07-07T07:55:00.001-04:00

Emmett gets excited when Aria comes down the hall!

good guess, or incredibly smart?

2010-07-02T12:32:00.004-04:00

I'd like to think the latter, but I'm skeptical. Here's what happened: I was looking through a guitar catalog, and happened to be on the Martin guitars spread.

my guitar is larger one on the far right (foreground).

Aria looked over, and pointed directly to my guitar, and said "Look daddy! There's your guitar!" I was shocked at first, but then she was on my right, so that was the first guitar she saw probably. So I tested her. I turned to the Gibson guitars spread and asked, "Which is my other guitar?" without a thought, Aria pointed right to my Les Paul!

my Les Paul is the fifth from the right of the group of guitars on the far right.

On a side note, Emmett now claps when we say bye to him. Either he's happy we're leaving, or he thinks that's how you say goodbye. Backwards boy also claps his feet when we ask him to clap his hands!

Emmett!

2010-06-26T12:15:00.003-04:00

Emmett is starting to really try to say things like daddy, mommy, bottle, ball, cat. He definitely knows what those things are, it's just a matter of time until he can say them a little better!

Today, he pulled himself up to stand for the first time! Then he didn't quite know what to do from there!

Emmett crawls - for real!

2010-06-16T21:53:00.003-04:00

Emmett is 11 months today! Just to mark the day he decided to crawl, a real crawl, not a scoot. The scoot is still his favorite mode of transportation, but I think we'll be seeing more and more of the crawl :-) Go Emmett!

To the pool with Mom

2010-06-11T09:45:00.005-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, after work, I promised Aria I would take her to the pool. Kevin has been spending a lot of time with Emmett in the afternoons lately (and all day too). So, I thought I would put on my multi-tasking mom hat and take both kids to the "little kid" pool. (Aria didn't like me calling it a baby pool.) We had a blast! Since Aria's had her lessons she's more confident in the water. She is great with holding her breath and spitting the water out when it gets in her mouth. (This was not true a few months ago.) She even grabbed the noodle and started floating on her back! I was always right there by the edge with an eye on her, but over all I felt pretty safe about the whole thing. Emmett enjoyed himself too. He took a little dip and splashed around. He even picked up some ladies...haha. There were two 3yrs old girls that came up and started talking to him and showing him their watering can/squirt fish.

Memorial Weekend

2010-06-09T22:12:00.002-04:00

Aunt Jennine reading bed time stories

Happy Emmett

Really happy Emmett - he loves being tossed in the air!
Aria enjoyed playing in the hammock, but Emmett wasn't so sure about it.
I just want to nibble those cheeks!

Slip and Slide

2010-05-25T06:14:00.004-04:00

A while ago a neighbor set up a slip and slide in their yard. Aria loved it...

Emmett's quick scoot

2010-05-25T05:49:00.004-04:00

We've seen him get up on his knees for a second, but he falls down to his belly and continues his scoot. I'd say he's getting pretty good at it though! He's definitely got some speed.

OBX pics

2010-05-14T11:00:00.005-04:00

We had a lot of fun down in Duck, NC - here are some pics from the week:

family pic after our friends' wedding

Emmett's favorite pastime — sticking his fingers in my mouth

"This is an excellent vintage of milk."

This cloud showed up immediately after a storm on Saturday. Pretty cool looking.

Sunset over the sound at the rehearsal dinner

Still collecting sticks after all these years!

2010-05-14T10:57:00.000-04:00

A day of milestones...

2010-05-12T21:47:00.003-04:00

Today Emmett had a busy day. He started waving, clapping, he imitated da-da and ma-ma, and army crawled/scooted! We've been working with him on those things, but he just hasn't been to interested until today. He's 10 mo in 4 days. Good job, buddy!

I tried to catch some of it on video...

CLAPPING

WAVING

SCOOTING

Aria hasn't fallen out of bed!

2010-04-12T08:29:00.002-04:00

Aria requested that we take the rail off her twin bed. We were hesitant at first, but just as we followed Aria's requests for no diapers as night, we followed through with this. She knows better than anyone when she's ready! So Friday night the rail was removed and there hasn't been any issues. I did put a comforter on the floor just in case. I told her if she made it a week without falling out of bed, I would remove it. I was having flash backs when she first slept in the bed (a couple days before the rail arrived) and she fell out of it :-) Oops.

At 3.5 she's sleeping in a ~~big girl bed~~ grown up bed! She's growing up so fast!

Ready. Set. Go!

2010-04-07T21:30:00.005-04:00

Ready. Set.
Go!
Emmett says, "Gooooo, big sister!"

Aria spent the weekend at her grandparents a while back. We came on that Sunday to pick her up. It was beautiful that day so we went outside a bit to enjoy it. Aria ran up and down the driveway like 30 times! She's so silly.

edit: that's Doogan in my hand, not a raw chicken. and my head is bald because that weekend I shaved it for the Fairfax County Police Association's St. Baldrick's event

Aria has glasses!

2010-03-22T20:21:00.003-04:00

"Look at my new glasses! I have to wear them all the time and so far I'm excited about that."

"They are pink with hearts on them!"

"I need glasses to see things up close and the doctor said it might help my eyes from crossing too. He even said that my eyes could get better and I might not need them when I grow up. But for now, I like having glasses like my mommy does."

I Eat My Toes

2010-03-20T11:57:00.006-04:00

Aria's going to swim school

2010-03-17T07:28:00.003-04:00

3 weeks ago, I (her mommy) started Aria with swim lessons. I found a local "swim school" that is fantastic, reasonably priced, and the teacher is sooooo friendly. It's important for her to be comfortable/safe with water because she's going to be around it a bunch starting in the spring with our trip to OBX, then visits to my parent's cottage on a river and then pool time during the summer. I would say that she HAD an unhealthy fear of the water. She didn't even like me pouring water on her hair to wash it. And for some reason she thought water was just like air and she would constantly inhale it. With a lot of time and effort, I believe Aria is on her way to becoming my little water bug!

Aria spent a couple visits to the pool sitting on the steps playing with her toys. This got her comfortable with the pool and gave her a chance to meet Coach Dan. Last week she started her official lessons and she is doing great! Coach Dan is perfect with her and she really likes him. He gave us some great tips for bath time play that really has helped us out and has gotten Aria adjusted to the water quite fast. In only 3 weeks, she is blowing bubbles, holding her breath for a couple seconds under water, and laying on her back in the water. Yesterday, it didn't take any convincing to take "rides" with Coach Dan to leave the steps. I'm SO proud of her!

It really is great to see how extra time and effort spent on your child really can make so much of a difference in their lives.

"I love the water!"

"Let's go for a ride, Coach Dan!"

"Look, I can hold my breath under water!"

"All done, until next time!"

Emmett is 8 months old today!

2010-03-16T19:59:00.003-04:00

Emmett is a growing boy! Last time I documented his doings he was 5 months. I can't believe it's been 3 more months!

Emmett is continuing to enjoy his time home with Daddy. He's been a good napper getting about 3.5 hours total a day between the hours of 9-11 and 1-3. During that time Kevin tries to get as much work done as he can.

Emmett's continuing to eat well. We tried to slowly introduce formula (to lighten the load on mommy), but discovered after a little while that something disagreed with him. He even started to flat out reject it - I don't blame him if it is what was making him sick. I thankfully could still provide for him and put in just a little more effort to increase my supply. (4 more months!!!! I can do this!) He takes about 25oz of my milk and we've introduced solids. He looooooves his food. At 6 months he started on veggies/fruits after he got the hang of cereal. I've been steaming and pureeing all kinds of food from broccoli to beets (16 different foods so far) and of course the standards. He seems to like green beans, beets, sweet potatoes, and peaches the best.

His nights are ok. He still is great about staying in his crib for about 11 hours (no eating or having to take him out) He's done a handful more nights of 11.5 hrs straight since 5 months, but the rest of the time he wakes a few times a night. He usually cries or yells out and I sleep walk to his room, find his pacifier and plug him! He's had a couple head colds in the past 3 months and that has been the main cause of the disturbed sleep.

He now has 3 teeth that are fully grown in on the bottom. He's drooling A LOT so I wouldn't be surprised if we see that 4th soon. He goes through a million bibs a day.

Shortly after starting the solids, we got solid poos! YAY. This is exciting because using cloth diapers becomes sooooo much easier. We're using them about 60% of the time. We're sticking with disposables at night.

Emmett is officially a roller. He's rolling every which way and back. This just happened 1.5 weeks ago! It took him a little while, but that just seems his style. He's laid back and in no rush. He's getting more sturdy sitting up everyday. He can sit op for 5 minutes, but will eventually flop over. You have to be there to catch him because he doesn't do it slowly!

Emmett loves to make noises. He is constantly making happy grunts and groans. He also started a new trick of pursing his lips and blowing. Kevin noticed he did it yesterday (probably by accident), but he's worked with him since to continue to do it. Emmett might be able to blow out his 1 year b-day candle!

Overall he's a pretty happy boy. He loves being tickled on his collar bone and he laughs when he feels Daddy's spiky hair on his little hands! He is still entertained by watching his big sister. She has to just stand there and do nothing to get a smile. He's just such a fun addition to our family :-)

Spring is coming!

2010-03-13T15:26:00.006-05:00

We had a nice suprise in our yard this past week - the crocus flowers bloomed! Kevin was taking Emmett for a walk when Aria and I got home from work/school, so we waited for them out on the driveway. Me in my haze didn't even notice them! Aria yelled out, "Oooooo mommy, look at that!" We spent a little time admiring them.

the goofy before the storm

2010-03-09T10:13:00.004-05:00

Emmett was in a goofy mood last week so I got a couple pictures. A day later, he was snotty and had a fever. We had a fun weekend! :-P

Everyone in our house (except me) had some degree of sickness. Luckily, Aria hasn't had anything but a runny nose. Emmett had sinus issues as well and a fever that spiked at 102.6 on Sunday, but was down to 99.8 Monday morning. Dana had a head cold too. They're all feeling better, but a houseful of sick crabby people is no fun! The weather was nice, so they got to go out and get some fresh air.

saturday funny

2010-03-06T10:30:00.001-05:00

I saw Shutter Island last night. A very good movie, but it seemed familiar to me.

*possible spoiler alert*

that's because it's pretty much the same plot (really the exact opposite) as a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode from the sixth season called "Frame of Mind."

*end of possible spoiler (but only if you know that Star Trek episode or look it up on Wikipedia*

When I realized that this morning, it kinda ruined the movie for me. When I told Dana, she responded:

"Well they're running out of ideas."

Aria, hearing our conversation, replied:

"Yeah, they're running out of Quesadillas."

We could not stop laughing! It was just one of those many many moments we wished we had a camera rolling in this house!

Doogan!

2010-03-02T20:30:00.000-05:00

a little bit of drama over the weekend: Aria's favorite stuffed animal Doogan got lost in the mall! We re-traced our steps about 5 times, but he was nowhere to be found! We had taken pictures while at the mall, and were able to narrow down where he could have fallen out of the stroller. Still no Doogan! It was getting late, and Emmett had to eat soon (we didn't come prepared because it was supposed to be a quick trip), so we went to the mall security office and gave a description of poor old Doogan.

It was kinda funny, because Aria had no idea what we were doing while frantically running around the mall looking for her Doogan. Finally, we had to tell her. I dreaded this moment. She got a little upset, but amazingly, she handled it pretty well! We knew that if we didn't get a call on Sunday, he was gone for good, so we found a brand new Doogan on Ebay that night and bought him. Dana sewed a ribbon on Aria's stuffed ducky, and he became a Doogan stand-in for the night.

Dana left her cell in the car Sunday afternoon, and checked her messages Monday morning. Mall security had Doogan! I couldn't wait to get him after I dropped Aria off at school—I didn't tell her because that would have made the drop-off SO much more difficult! When Aria got home that afternoon, we took a video of the reunion:

I'm so sorry Emmett...

2010-02-24T08:04:00.003-05:00

... but you've been getting the blog shaft from Daddy. You'll understand someday, that 2 kids doesn't mean twice the work, it means 3 times the work (at least)! I used to blog about your big sister lots, but then you came along and I just want to relax and watch TV once we get you both down for the night. Well, first I have to clean up all the messes you guys have made, and the dinner mess, and your bottles, and Mommy's pump parts. THEN I get to relax on the couch for 90 minutes before I have to wake mommy up (she never makes it past 9:30), and go upstairs and get ready for bed so I'm well rested for you 2 in the morning!

Hey in my defense, I didn't start blogging about Aria until after her first birthday! So you, Mr. Emmett, have already gotten more face time on the blog than big sister did at your age! I will try my hardest to post more about you and your development, as well as big sister of course (and also post about my sanity dealing with both of you)!
Oh and more photos, cause who wants to read a boring all text post like this?!?!

love ya buddy frog,
-Daddy

I just noticed that this blog had over 100 posts in from 2007 & 2008, then only 56 in 2009. also, Dana has been posting a lot more. Her percentage of posts went from about 20% in 2007 & 2008 to over 50% this past year! I don't want to change the blog or domain name, so I better pick up the posting! :-)

Shaving my head for a cause

2010-02-23T08:04:00.001-05:00

so yeah i normally cut my hair pretty close (been using the clippers with no attachments recently), but i'm letting it grow out a bit so i can have it shaved off for a good cause. I'm shaving my head for the tenth annual St. Baldrick's Day in solidarity with children who have cancer and typically lose their hair during cancer treatment. i will be posting pics before and after :-)
my page on stbaldricks site

Worldwide, more than 160,000 children are diagnosed with cancer each year. While advances have saved many children, childhood cancer still claims the lives of more children in the US than any other disease - more than diabetes, asthma, congenital anomalies, cystic fibrosis and AIDS - combined!

Please make a donation on my behalf to support childhood cancer research so that all children diagnosed with cancer will have a better chance for a cure. Funds raised by the St. Baldrick's Foundation will be used to fund childhood cancer research - to help speed the day when every child with cancer will be guaranteed a healthy future.

P90X done! (for now)

2010-02-22T10:45:00.000-05:00

I let myself go. not too bad, but enough to make me get larger pants than I wanted. for the past 9 years, my weight has been around 200 lbs. well, I had been thinking about exercising again, but the exercise bike and the one 20 lb barbell had gotten boring. I can't get a gym membership, cause I wouldn't be able to get the motivation to wake up early and drive to the gym. Plus, even though I know my way around the gym, without someone telling me what to do I'd end up doing the same 5 or 6 exercises, and then eventually get bored with that as well.

All last Summer, I kept seeing my good friend Neil's Facebook status updates about P90X. I had never heard of P90X, so I went to the official website to find out about it. I also bugged Neil about it. I was skeptical of the results that they show on the website, so I wanted to wait until I knew someone who got good results. When Neil was done he posted his results here. I was amazed at just how well this program worked!

So I went all in and bought the P90X program, the chin-up b ar, the weights (bowflex selecttech dumbbells), and the recovery drink (yum). I was excited! Emmett had already been born, and I was going to wait a little until we figured out the new routine with 2 kids. Once everything arrived though, I was like a kid who found the Christmas presents early! I started early August, only to realize 9 days into it that lack of sleep does not help at all. I kinda burnt out. :-\

By early November, Emmett was in a good sleeping routine, and I was ready to start waking up at 4:45am every morning for the next 90 days. I know, but as long as I went to bed by 10:30, I was ready to go! This program is amazing. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's made it a little tough to keep watching what I was eating, but I redid week 7 and that got me back on track. below are my before and after pictures!

27 lbs lost, my waist went from 35/36 to 31/32!

The best part of all this, is my photos and status updates on Facebook have gotten SO many interested/re-interested in P90X. TEN of my friends have either bought P90X or re-started because of my results! I'll be starting the 90 days again in a couple weeks, cause it is so much fun!

Getting Creative with Snow

2010-02-11T20:21:00.003-05:00

edit: I may need to change the blog name to goofymommy! goofydaddy needs to get back to blogging about being a stay-at-home dad more...

SNOW!

2010-02-07T21:42:00.003-05:00

Last week Aria had school cancelled and THANKFULLY my mom stuck around to entertain Aria for the day. They had lots of fun. When they played outside, they made a cute snowman. Which is now buried under 2.5ft of snow we just had.

2.5 ft of snow - "Blizzard of 2010", "Shovelganza", "Snowtorious B-I-G"

Thank goodness Kevin's been working out. I think I would have broke if I tried to shovel us out. Don't you love the dry pavement? The sun hits our house just perfect and our neighbors on the other side of the street are jealous, haha.

I ran to the store on Friday night to get a couple baby things. I happened upon this stroller and got a great price. What do you do with a stroller for two when you have 2.5ft of snow outside? Ride it around the house of course! The past 2 days we spent a couple hours with this activity. It solved all our cranky problems :-)

Aria feeds Emmett

2010-01-20T06:29:00.006-05:00

It's so cute how she talks to him like we do when we feed him. :-)

Emmett "sits up" and eats!

2010-01-10T22:05:00.002-05:00

Emmett is still uninterested in rolling over yet, but who needs that when there are other things to accomplish. Emmett is starting to hold himself up in the sitting position. He flops over pretty easily, but it's a start. He also tried his first real food, other than baby rice cereal. Yum Carrots!

"Look at me! I can sit...for a little while at least."

I assure you, he did get some in his mouth.

Happy T-day, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2010-01-10T21:32:00.011-05:00

Oops! I'm just a tad late. Time has really flown by the last couple months. Thanksgiving was nice. We had a fantastic time with family at our house for Christmas. Then we went to Kevin's parents house for New Years and spent time with his brother's family from out-of-town. It was a lot of fun seeing Aria (and Emmett) interact with their one and only cousin, Felipe.

Our family on our after-the-turkey walk

Aria and Emmett in their Christmas best

Santa was good to the kids

Baby New Year (aka Emmett)

Happy New Year!

Felipe and Aria playing

Poor Doogan

2009-12-17T10:23:00.002-05:00

Here's a conversation Aria and I had yesterday morning after Emmett slept 11.5 hours:

goofydaddy: hey Aria, guess what?
Aria: what?
goofydaddy: Emmett didn't wake up at all last night! Mommy got to sleep lots!
Aria: WOW! ...I don't sleep lots.
goofydaddy: oh? you wake up in the middle of the night?
Aria: yeah.
goofydaddy: we don't hear you on the monitor, what do you do when you wake up in the middle of the night?
Aria: I twirl Doogan's ribbon! (she throws in a quick twirl to illustrate and giggles)

I kinda believed her, but now I really do, because she woke up last night at 3am screaming for me. When I went in, I asked what was wrong. She started laughing that nervous laugh she does when all is not quite right, and held her hand out. It was too dark to see, and then she said "Doogan's ribbon fell off! I need a better sleep buddy!" I hugged her, we laughed a bit, I took the ribbon, gave her another stuffed animal, and she hugged it along with Doogan and went back to sleep.

This morning, Dana tied another bow from some ribbon we have, and I showed it to Aria when she woke up. she got a kick out of seeing it, and understood when I said that I didn't know how to attach it to Doogan. Occasionally throughout the morning, Aria would go to twirl Doogan's ribbon out of habit, and when she would only feel the little string that's still attached, she would laugh hysterically, and remind me that "when mommy picks me up from school, she's going to put Doogan's new ribbon on."

Poor Doogan! he's been through a lot!

Emmett is 5 months old today!

2009-12-16T21:05:00.008-05:00

Emmett is a growing boy! I'm documenting some things that are happening below so we don't have to remember...I barely remember yesterday!

He's been home with Daddy for just over a month now while I've been working. I'm usually on the road before the kids wake up. Things are going well and Emmett's been relatively easy to take care of in the morning while Kevin gets Aria ready for school and drops her off. He's not only a goofydaddy, he's a super daddy because he manages to get up early to do his p90x workouts and work 20hrs part-time during naps and in the evening. I pick Aria up by 4:00 so I can get home and spend time with them both before bedtime around 7:30.

Emmett's eating well - thankfully I can provide for him with very little supplementing with formula. He takes 4 bottles that total about 30oz!

He's starting to sleep better and better at night. Since about 3 months he's been great about staying in his crib for about 11 hours (no eating or having to take him out), but there was a lot of waking and needing the pacifier between 1AM-7AM. Recently he's got into the groove of two good naps in the morning/afternoon and has been able to stay awake from 3PM-7:30! I think this is the reason the nights are starting to go better - he's just so exhausted! Last night he slept 11.5 hrs straight with minimal stirring for the very first time. YAY BUDDY!

He currently has 2 teeth that are about halfway in on the bottom. He's drooling A LOT again so I wouldn't be suprised if we see more in the near future.

At about 3 months we started mixing cloth diapers in and it's been going well. Now our routine is to use Nature Babycare diapers until we get a major blowout and then we start using the cloth for the next day or two. We always use the paper diapers at night. We are waiting until things are a little more solid to use cloth continuously like we did for Aria starting at 8 months until 18 months (when she went to school).

Emmett is stubborn in the rolling department. We've caught him rolling to his side a couple times. He even got stuck on his side a week ago! He just likes his back and is content to stay there for now. When we put him on his stomach he quickly moves his arms to his sides and balances on is tummy. He's so silly!

We let him try some cereal/milk a couple times last week and he lapped it up ok. We aren't too serious about spoon feeding yet. I'm hoping to give it more attention over the holidays.

Overall he's a pretty happy boy. He loves watching me shake my head like a muppet - it gets a smile every time! For a while I was the only one to get giggles out of him, but Daddy is falling into his goofydaddy role again and Emmett is responding nicely. He is so entertained by watching his big sister. We all definitely love having him around :-)

His arms are on the way to his sides!

Aria sings an aria!

2009-12-13T22:13:00.005-05:00

I was going through some old pictures and came across this video. Kevin and I cracked up and watched it about 10 times. The video is from this past Easter 2009 (you can even see my Emmett belly).

For your viewing pleasure...

update: here's what she's singing...
...on tree
We're bangin on Pop-Pop's tree
we need a lot of help
Mommmmmy we're bangin on the treeeeeeee
Mommy... bang... inon... tha... tree
we'rebanginonthatree.

Following in his sister's...teeth marks!

2009-11-18T21:14:00.005-05:00

We've had a drooly, cranky boy on our hands the past week and this weekend we discovered why. Emmett's getting his 1st tooth! He's right on par with his sister at 4 months.

I won't say how many pictures I took to get this one. Haha! :-)

Goofydaddy update: as you can see if you click the picture and zoom up, the second tooth is trying to push through as well. this photo was taken 4 days after the first tooth finally cut through.

We love these guys!

2009-11-10T20:25:00.003-05:00

Lean on me!

Aria picked these jammies out to wear so she could match her baby brother!

Back to work

2009-11-09T20:35:00.004-05:00

The end of last week I returned to work. After being home for almost 4 months I was starting to get used to it. But, I have to do what I have to do for my family. I'm pretty lucky to have a husband that has volunteered to stay home again (AND work part-time)! It makes it SOOOO much easier to go back.

Things are going pretty well at work. It was a little funny getting into work last week to find out my computer wouldn't start up. It made me nervous, but thankfully I was given a new computer and was back up and running! My computer apparently took the break from work literally.

Aria's starting to readjust to me not being around in the mornings again. Tonight when I put her to bed she sweetly said to me, "when I wake up in the morning you will have cereal with me?" So sweet, but it almost gave me a little knot in my throat! Kevin said she's been real good the past couple mornings with him. Usually when I'm around, she's all about Mommy and doesn't do well with Daddy's directions. I am happy that she's listening to Daddy without me there. And she is continuing to be very patient while Kevin takes care of Emmett's needs.

Emmett seems to care less if I'm here or not. Haha. With Aria around Kevin really hasn't spent a whole lot of time with Emmett while I was home. It's fun for me to see Kevin really starting to connect with him during the days alone with him.

Halloween 09

2009-10-31T22:01:00.006-04:00

Last weekend we went to Grandma & Grandpa's house and Aria went trick-or-treating inside. What's behind this door?

Silly daddy (crazy toothbrush-hand-guy) behind this door. Oh! He has stickers!
Emmett slept through it all.
Aria is looking at the loot with Grandpa.

Yesterday we did pumpkins. Aria spent at least 30 min painting this pumpkin.

Now on to the real deal. She loved the mess!

The final product...Mommy and Daddy got creative!

By this evening we had 3 ladybugs in the house, including Doogan!

Family picture before Aria headed out.

She had a great time! She enjoyed playing with her friend Trinity the most. Her family came over for dinner and trick-or-treating. They were so funny together.

story time!

2009-10-30T07:35:00.002-04:00

Aria decided to tell a story based on the many little disney princess books she got for her birthday. Her are the translated stories...

Story one:
"Once upon a time, there was that girl in that castle. The Beast was joining him and her in dining room castle. And one day, the king said, wicked king said, 'Don't get that mirror broke!' The mirror said 'Buenos Dias'."

Story two:
"Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Princess King. And one day, she told the mirror, and she said 'now listen here guy!' said 'Hello', and 'how how ho.'

She combined parts from Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, The Lorax, and Bear's New Friend, not to mention spanish class at school.

Giggles!

2009-10-24T20:55:00.003-04:00

Emmett has a new trick. He can giggle now!

It all just tuckered him out. This was only a little while later. He passed out!

gruvulous glove

2009-10-21T21:42:00.006-04:00

While I was nursing Emmett this afternoon, I had Aria* up at the table painting to keep her occupied. I could see her, but I couldn't tell exactly what she was doing. I heard her talking about needing more paint and some babble about the gruvulous glove (from the Lorax)**.

This isn't the exact picture of the gruvulous glove, but it's close. Basically it's a green glove.

Aria's interpretation of the gruvulous glove

Her beautiful painting

*Aria has been home with me all week because she got head lice from school. It hasn't been fun, but we are getting through it. I am enjoying the time with her since I'm going back to work in two weeks. I've had help, but I've also had lot of time alone with her and Emmett and I'm getting the hang of juggling both of them.

** Kevin's favorite book to read at Aria's bedtime is the Lorax. Aria always picks up on little details about everything. There is one single line that talks about the Once-Ler's "gruvulous glove" and it stuck in her little head. The line goes like this..."And he hides what you've paid him away in his snuvv, his strange, secret hole in his gruvulous glove."

Emmett's 3 months old! (I'm sneaking him into the post again)

Emmett

2009-10-13T21:25:00.006-04:00

A friend recently came over to take pictures of Emmett and she did a wonderful job. Here are a couple of the shots! THANKS BRYN!

Aria is 3!

2009-10-07T13:51:00.007-04:00

Happy Third Birthday, Aria!

Last weekend she had a party with some friends at a moonbounce place. She had a GREAT time.

We had a friend make these beautiful cupcakes.

Aria and her best bud, Trinity had fun playing with the balloons in the wind before we headed home.

Aria was so wired from the excitement of the day (and sugar). She and Aunt Jennine had so much fun playing in the closet. They were hiding from the monsters (Grammy and Daddy).

The fun continues today on her actual birthday. Grandma and Grandpa are here and we'll have a mini celebration after she gets home from school.

Our Packrat

2009-09-23T10:00:00.004-04:00

Aria has always liked to collect things. Since Emmett has arrived, she has taken it to a new level. She has become a packrat! We've documented a couple of her masterpieces below. She does this at least once a day and it's a pain to clean up! Most of the objects consist of Emmett's blankets and toys which she's taken possession of.

I had to sneak in a recent picture of Emmett. Note that he's using his blanket. Generally, as soon as I pick him up, Aria grabs it and stashes it in one of her piles.

It happened.

2009-09-22T21:14:00.007-04:00

Aria's most favorite lovey is Doogan the bear. She's loved him since she was 6 months old. It happened...he finally lost his ribbon on his neck. She twirls and plays with his ribbon constantly - in bed, in the car...all the time. A quick surgery took place and he's as good as new! I was nervous that Aria would reject the new ribbon, but she approves! This is not the first surgery for Doogan either. He's had a tagectomy, an accidental tracheotomy, and a restuffing.

The old ribbon in its tattered glory

Doogan with his shiny new ribbon!

1st Day of Preschool

2009-09-03T09:23:00.002-04:00

Today Aria started in her new preschool class (no more toddler class). We went to an orientation yesterday and it went great. She was a little apprehensive about the new classroom at first, but as soon as we started exploring she quickly got excited. Her favorite thing so far is the "magnet work*". This morning she told us that when she got to school that was the first thing she was going to do. Kevin dropped her off and she was good. And the very first thing she did...magnet work!

*At her montessori school they call all the learning activities "work". It cracks me up.

Aria and Emmett

2009-09-02T14:36:00.000-04:00

Aria loves her baby brother, and we like to think he loves her. He definitely likes to hold her hand, and kick her when she gets too close to his feet!

Aria has been a big help, she gets diapers ready (sometimes pulling the tabs completely off), and throws away dirty diapers (though the "ba-splosions" as she calls them get thrown away by mommy or daddy). Aria says Emmett is "crying for his big sister Aria" whenever he is cranky.

Emmett kept leaning into Aria and grabbing at her. She thought it was funny.

"Baby brother is HEAVY!"

Emmett coming up with a devious plan...

Mommy's Free!

2009-08-31T22:21:00.004-04:00

Finally, after two weeks of trying and TRYING to get Emmett to take a bottle we had success tonight. This was encouraging after a long day of hardly any sleep (only 2hrs). He was so fussy and just wouldn't stay asleep! This is not usual for him. I even pulled out every type of pacifier I could find to see if that would settle him down. He kept the paci in his mouth for more than 10 secs today as well! I think this was the training for the main event this evening. He took a whole 6.5 oz of mommy's milk provided by daddy via the bottle :-)

Oh the possibilities this brings me. It was really making me worry that he wasn't taking the bottle. Yay Emmett - this made up for the bad day!

A preschooler's nightmare

2009-08-24T12:41:00.003-04:00

Aria woke up this morning screaming. Kevin entered the room and asked what her nightmare was about. Aria responded:

"We were getting eggs and they kept taking them out of our hands and putting them in the hole. We couldn't buy the eggs."

Weekend Outings

2009-08-17T21:09:00.008-04:00

The last three weekends we’ve tried our best to make sure to get out with both kids. It’s been tricky, but we’ve had a lot of fun. Three weekends ago we went to Cabin John Park where Aria rode the train and played in the park.

Mommy's turn!

Daddy's turn!

The next weekend we ventured out to Great Country Farm to play and pick peaches/blackberries. Aria was excellent at finding the ripe blackberries (and only eating half of what she picked).

This past weekend we went to Reston’s Farmers Market to walk around and we picked up some fresh veggies!

Emmett mostly sleeps when we are out. He definitely likes all the motion.

I have been approaching these outings like a challenge. Each one had it's difficult times, but we need this training to get the hang of it! In no time we’ll be old pros.

Also, Emmett and I took a little adventure together last week to meet up with my Grandma for a birthday lunch. He was so good and everything went well (minus the weird waiter that kissed Emmett – poor thing was only 4 weeks old and he could do without the cooties).

4 generations

2 week checkup for Emmett and new shoes for Aria

2009-07-31T15:34:00.004-04:00

Emmett had his 2 week appt today, and he's doing just great (like we needed a Dr's opinion). His weights have been:
8lbs 5oz at birth,
7lbs 13oz a day and a half later,
8lbs 2oz at his 4 day appt
9lbs 4oz today at 15 days old
His height matched percentage-wise, so I'd say he's growing at a nice rate!

Earlier this week, Grandma came to visit and help out. She and I picked Aria up from school on Wednesday and went to the mall to get her new shoes. She has finally outgrown her size 7 shoes (thanks Paige). Aria was very attached to her pink shoes, so we found a very similar pair. it was a bit difficult to get her out of the old ones and measured, but once the new shoes were on, she was happy and hopping (we showed her the air pockets in the heel, and told her they helped her jump).

and of course, what trip would be complete without a ride on the carousel or train?
Thanks Grandma! Aria can't wait to see you and Grandpa again on Sunday!

One Lovely Blog Award

2009-07-31T11:38:00.001-04:00

Thanks for the award Martina (her blog is here)! ooh so perty:

The rules of the “One Lovely Blog Award” are:
Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 15 (yeah right) other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.* Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
*I don't discover blogs.

so I'm not even gonna go listing the blogs here, they're over on the right side banner. all 7 of em. those are the only blogs i ever go to.

2.0 has officially launched!

2009-07-27T22:35:00.001-04:00

and I'll start with Emmett's birth story.

Dana had her weekly appt on Emmett's due date, the 14th. nothing new, same dilation and effacement as the previous 3 weeks. well on wednesday the 15th, at around 3pm Dana started having more painful contractions, but very irregular. she'd have one rough one, then nothing for 10 minutes, then a slight one, then a rough one 8 minutes later, etc...

well at about Aria's bedtime (8pm), I had to put Aria to bed because Dana was having strong contractions, and they were starting to be more regular and about 7-8 minutes apart. She would write down the time on a little notepad (we're saving it to put in Emmett's baby book). Dana's mom had been staying with us so we could go to the hospital on a moment's notice. therefore, Dana got ready to go to the hospital while I finished with Aria.

then we waited. we didn't want to be the people who called the medical advice line too early, so we just kept writing down times for the contractions and waited. Aria's birth was different because Dana's water broke, and she was put on a pitocin drip, so we never really experienced natural labor. This was a completely new experience, thanks Emmett! (absolutely zero sarcasm there)

Dana called the advice line at about 10:45 because the contractions were getting stronger and closer together, about 6-7 minutes apart. the advice nurse told Dana that she would call the OB/GYN on call and would call us back. since the hospital is about 20 minutes away from us, we decided to head there before the callback.

we checked into the hospital at about 11:30pm, and found out in triage that Dana was fully effaced and 5cm dilated. So we went to an LDR room and got ready! by the time we had gotten situated and Dana was all hooked up, the Dr on call came by and Dana had dilated 6/7cm. contractions were really bad at this point, so Dana asked for the epidural. once that was administered, everyone left, expecting us to sleep for a bit while things progressed. "see you in 2 hours." was what the nurse and Dr said.

well apparently, our nurse's nickname had become "speedyCat" because all her recent patients had delivered fairly fast. it was an ongoing joke among the nursing staff. at around 1:45 (only about 20 minutes after everyone left us so we could nap), Dana asked me to get the nurse because she was feeling some pressure. the nurse checked Dana and said she was fully dilated and ready to push! by the time the Dr came in and everyone was setup in the room, Dana had begun pushing. it was 2:18am. Emmett came out at 2:24am, I cut the cord with tears in my eyes (exactly the same feeling as when Aria was born), and we held him with joy in our hearts.

can you tell they're related?

2009-07-22T11:01:00.001-04:00

it amazes us how similar Emmett and Aria look (well DUH)!

It's been only 5 days?

2009-07-21T22:41:00.007-04:00

I can't believe it's been only 5 days with Emmett! We are all doing well. Each night we've been getting a little more sleep (last night was a whole 4 hours). This weekend we had my family over and they really took care of us. My mom cleaned, cooked and so much more. My dad washed our cars! And then my sister made us some food and played with Aria. Emmett was passed around too, which gave me a little break. You guys are a blessing to us! Kevin's parents also came over to meet Emmett and spent a night. They helped us get through the first morning of getting Aria ready for school and out the door with our new addition in the mix. Having all the family around has been helpful for Aria to adjust because she got a little extra attention from everyone. Today was our first solo day and we did ok! We are getting the hang of this. It helps that Emmett is a pretty even tempered kid so far. He's a great eater and a pretty good sleeper (for a newborn). Here are some pictures from the last couple days...

This is the tree my parents planted for Emmett—we'll take a picture of him with it every year.

Grammy and Aria are weeding around Aria's tree.

Aria "reading" to baby brother. Notice she even shared her Doogan with him.

5 days old

I have to update this dang ol' blog's header!!!

2009-07-16T13:08:00.001-04:00

Welcome to my goofy daddy 2.0!
here's some more pics of Emmett!

More pics!

2009-07-16T03:52:00.000-04:00

8lbs 5oz, 21.25"

Emmett Matthew Zak!

2009-07-16T02:47:00.000-04:00

More info to come...

Miller Time?

2009-07-14T19:09:00.006-04:00

We have a joke on my side of the family (my parents and sister) and we call it "Miller Time". The norm for our family is to be late...and that's Miller Time. My dad and sister severely suffer from this. I on the other hand have done pretty well, on my own without my family's influence to keep a new on time tradition :-) ...until now. Today is my due date and no baby. It's clear this little guy is made up of my family's genes. There is an end (rather beginning) in sight. Next Wednesday at 6:30AM I will be induced. HOPEFULLY he won't suffer from extreme Miller Time and come at least a little earlier than that!

to whom it may concern...

2009-07-09T10:25:00.005-04:00

Dear baby brother,
We are anxiously awaiting your arrival. Mommy wants you out of her body, as you are wreaking havoc on her ribs, bladder, and skin. We know it's five days early, but you're ready! Aria's ready to play with you! Loads of people want to meet you!

But there's one thing—we're still not sure how to spell your name. It'll either be spelled like this

or this

what do you think? Emmett or Emmitt?

Oh and please don't pee on me.

Love, Daddy, Mommy, and big sister Aria

Weekend at Grammy's...

2009-07-05T20:56:00.008-04:00

and Pop Pop's cottage.

Aria spent her first weekend without both Mom and Dad. We dropped her off at her grandparent's house on Friday morning and they all drove up together to the cottage. She had a weekend of playing in the sand, fishing, and more fun in the sun. We were all a little nervous about how it would go, but it worked out fine. Aria didn't miss us one bit and everyone enjoyed themselves! She's such a big girl now.

Aria on Pop Pop's boat - look how happy she is!

Meanwhile...Kevin and I had a really nice, quiet weekend of catching up on chores (cleaning/laundry/weeding/you name it), watching movies, sleeping/relaxing, hanging out with friends, and even car shopping (this will be a future post). It was great working on my nesting activities without interruption :-)

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH Mom and Dad!!!

Here I am ready to pop!!! We're waiting on baby...

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T18:56:00.006-04:00

Happy Father's Day to Goofy Daddy! You are a good daddy and we love you! Also Happy Father's Day to my Dad who we missed today since my parents were out-of-town. We went to dinner with Kevin's parents this afternoon and it was a lovely time. Before they left to go home, we took a couple pictures.

Aria shared lots of smooches with Daddy and Grandpa