Things to come:

*Christmas cards are sent.  I need to give the one going farthest away (Colorado) some time to get there, and then I can share the amazing Shutterfly card that we made this year.

*I have the weirdest toddler on Earth.  She actually WANTS to wear a hat and mittens. 

*This weekend begins the Christmas festivities in our house.  I plan to document with lots of pictures. 

*Working on the 2010 recap… hope to have that posted soon. 

Please friends, don't be fooled

I know that I totally have seasonal ADD.  Just last night I was prattling on about cards and photos and I am serously dying to get our Christmas decorating going (10 more days... just 10 more days).  At the same time I'm sitting here sipping tropical Juicy Juice (don't tell Kayla) spiked with just a hint of rum.  Despite the fact that I seem to long for summer while looking on to the days and weeks ahead, don't think that the significance of tomorrow is lost on me.  It most certainly isn't. 

I have so very much in my life to be thankful for; it seems trite to try to sum it all up in a blog post but I am going to try anyway. 

I am thankful for my home.  I am thankful for all the love that is contained within these walls and the joy of those who live here.  I am thankful that I come home every day to arms that are ready to hug and a little angel who exclaims "mommy, mommy, mommy!  Mine, mine, mine!" when I come through the door.  I am thankful that we are healthy and fed and truly we want for very little.  I am thankful that we both have steady jobs and have had very little turmoil during these tough times when so many have had to go without.

I am thankful for my family; the family I was born into, the family I gained when my dad and step mom married and the family I married into.  Together, they form a support system I don't know what we'd do without.  They are happy to babysit when we need a break.  They keep me fed and sane when I am on my own with a toddler for the first time.  They are here every weekend to play, to go to the park or walk for ice cream.    I have parents and sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents and nephews who I adore and I am thankful that Kayla will grow up in such a large, loving family. 

I am so thankful for these two.  Without them I'd be wandering, lost and lonely.  They really do complete me, and I am ever so grateful that I have them.

So tomorrow while I am eating turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes to my heart's content, I am going to be thinking of these things, and more.  I hope all of you have something to be thankful for too.  Happy Thanksgiving all.  

Looking forward to the little things about the season...

This time of year is so much fun for me. There’s so much anticipation and joy for all the things to come; decorating, baking, meals together with family… I really adore it all. I always have, and now that Kayla is a part of it all everything seems new again. Knowing that she probably doesn’t remember last Christmas means that this year it will be a new experience all over again. She’s so much more aware and interactive than she was last year at not quite 6 months old.


One of the silly things I always look forward to is sending and receiving Christmas cards. I love getting cards from friends and family in the mail and putting them on the front door. It’s one of the few times that I actually look at the inside of our front door. Even more than that I love going on a search for the perfect card to send out, and now taking the perfect photo for our cards.

Last year we went the route of a traditional card with a wallet-sized photo inside. They were nice, but somehow I can’t imagine finding the time to address and sign cards and write Kayla’s name and age on the back of each photo again this year. This time around I am definitely going with a photo card from Shutterfly. Now my hardest decision becomes which one?

I love the simplicity of this one:

Just as I love the whimsy of these two:

Be sure to check out all the holiday card, invitation and new year’s card collections too and tell me what your favorite is!

Been caught slacking...

Almost a month since I last wrote... where to start...

Well, after Halloween we had a few busy weeks.  The first week of November was relatively normal but ended with Shaun and I at Lincoln Financial Field to see the Eagles take on the Colts.  What a great game it was!  It was a little bit more fun for me than Shaun, but we both enjoyed some good cheesesteaks and yummy beers while we were there.  I did my best not to brag too much that we came away with the win that night.  ;-) 

The next day Shaun left for Oklahoma City for the week.  I wasn't sure I could keep it all together here, but truthfully the week went really fast.  I have my parents and in-laws to thank for helping so much to keep me fed and sane... but really I almost enjoyed it.  Being home with Kayla that Thursday (Veteran's Day) and Friday was a nice treat. 

Trying to figure out whose toys are in the basket...

Last week was a little crazy for me since I was on the road for work on Wednesday - Friday.  I had to drive to King of Prussia and back for training on the software that I am our administrator of.  I hate training (so boring!) but I try not to undervalue time NOT spent at my desk.  I am dreading finding out what my inbox looks like right now, but that's a bridge I will cross tomorrow morning. 

This weekend we got to take my mom to lunch for her birthday, which was great.  Today I cleaned the house... not so great, but I feel like I actually accomplished something.  Every day life is really all that's happening here, and I'm 100% OK with that. 

The holiday season is just about ready to kick off and I am so excited.  I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving with our families.  Then it's just 1 week until we start our Christmas preparations.  The weekend after that is our 4th anniversary and hopefully when we'll get our Christmas shopping done.  We're pretty focused on just getting stuff for Kayla this year; the Wii was our gift to one another.  I know me and I will still get something small for Shaun to open on Christmas morning, even if it's just stocking stuffers.  But I'm getting ahead of myself... turkey first.  You must respect the Turkey. 

Trick or Treat!

Kayla was definitely the cutest duck on the block this year!

She rode around with these goulish characters

It was cold but she was a real trooper! 

I found out that she knows some more words I hadn't heard her say - I'll be updating the post below!

At 15 months:

Kayla can find her:

• Fingers/Hands
• Toes/Feet/"tootsies"
• Nose
• Ears
• Mouth (moves her jaw up and down)
• Tongue (sticks it out)
• Teeth (grins)
• Belly and belly button

And she can say:

• Baby
• Ball
• Bear
• Belly
• Belly Button (sounds like baby)
• Book
• Bubbles
• Bye Bye
• Car
• Cow
• Cracker
• Dada/Daddy
• Duck
• Green beans (guh buh)
• Hi
• Mama/Mommy
• Moo
• Outside
• Puppy
• Quack
• Squirrel
• Waffle
• Woof

She also says the phrases:

• Uh oh
• Oh no
• I don't know
• I did it

She loves "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Old MacDonald" and "If You're Happy and You Know It."  She adores being read to.  It seems like she's picking up more and more every day.  When we hold her up to our family photo wall, she can point to all of her grandparents, herself and Shaun and I when we ask her to.  It's so funny that apparently she's a mouse at daycare because at home she is a whirlwind.  I'm totally loving it though. 

I just crossed three things off our baby bucket list.  I'm a little surprised at myself that I have nothing to add to it right now - but I'm sure more will come as she gets older and is able to do more.  I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.  I'm still enjoying her being little.

Fall is here

This weekend was truly divine.  I love the days when the air turns cool enough to merit long sleeves all the time even though the sun shines so bright during the day.  I love the amazing colors. 

I love mums and jack o'lanterns and funny little pumpkins on my front porch.

And I love the treats. 

This weekend it was roasted pumpkin seeds and cake pops a la Bakerella (I can't believe it took me so long to really pay attention to her and try these things out!).  I made cinnamon french toast for breakfast and Shaun made an amazing chicken and gnocchi soup for dinner.  Delish.   

My mom and I took Kayla to the park on Saturday.  We met some friendly dogs and Kayla chased the ducks.

Then we carved and colored our pumpkins for the front porch.

My camera got quite the workout this weekend too.  I'm finding myself becoming more and more comfortable with my camera in my hands - capturing the moments as they happen.  I'm finding that I'm grabbing a few more "wow" shots among the usual so-so stuff, and that makes me happy.  Sometimes I really have to debate with myself when chosing shots for my Project 365 blog.  It's a nice feeling. 
We're quickly coming into my favorite time of year.  Halloween is right around the corner and then it's on to Thanksgiving - from then to New Years I am in full out holiday nerd mode.  We're slowly but surely starting to establish our little family traditions and it's so much fun.  This is exactly what I'd hoped having a family of my own would be like.

Late to the Party

So as usual, I’m falling behind again.  On picture taking.  On blogging.  On everything that’s going on in the world.  Driving around each day I see maple trees that have already gone scarlet and started dropping their leaves – an ever present reminder that if I don’t get out soon, I am going to miss photographing another spectacular fall.  So I’m going to spill out the details of the last few days in order to prepare to write about the fun stuff we plan to do this weekend (pumpkins, cake pops, fall pictures and whatever else we can fit in!). 

Backing up to last weekend, we went to our friend Addison’s first birthday party on Saturday.  What an event!  Adam and Kristen have a great playroom for the little monsters, and Kayla loves playing there.  Miss Addison is up on her feet and unstoppable – cute as a button and growing so fast!  She totally dove into her smash cake too.  Yum!  It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a year since Kristen and I were having lunch together when Kayla was just a few weeks old and Addison was still an inside baby. 

Then things turned iffy on Sunday.  Kayla started acting fussy early in the day, and woke up from her nap with a fever.  We kept it pretty well in check with medicine, but it was obvious that she wasn’t right.  I put her to bed early on Sunday night, deciding to play the next day or two by ear.  Monday morning she woke up burning hot – I could feel it before I even laid my hands on her.  So it was ibuprofen and into bed with me for a morning of rest and Nick Jr.  It was always very evident by the ebbs and flows of her energy level and number of smiles how the medicine was working for her.  She happily munched on her breakfast while I talked to a nurse from our doctor’s office, deciding not to bring her in right away as long as the medicine was keeping the fever under control.  She ate her lunch and took a nap without a fuss.  The nurse called back while she was asleep to see how she was doing.  Have I mentioned how much I like our pediatrician and the office he works in?  Although our 15 month appointment was a bit of a disaster (not really their fault), they really do care about their patients.  Since there wasn’t an obvious cause for the fever and Kayla seemed better, we skipped taking her in. 

Tuesday had Kayla back at daycare and me back at work.  She was sluggish and quiet, but got through the day.  I was exhausted, but I managed too.  Life was mostly back to normal.  Until Wednesday when the rash broke out.  We got a call from daycare and apparently Kayla had a case of Roseola.  Thankfully by the time the rash shows up its no longer super contagious, and it didn’t seem to bother her, so she was allowed to stay.    The rash was still pretty obvious at bath time last night, but by this morning had really faded.  She’s still fussy and we’ve had some rough mornings, but I think the worst is definitely over with. 

So there’s the big update of what’s happening in our world.  Hopefully I’ll have another one with some pictures from the weekend! 

15 month checkup

Well that was a disaster. Normally Kayla reserves the tears for when the needles come out. Not today. From the second the doctor touched her she cried. And cried. Then for a change of pace, she cried some more.

On the up side, her growth is right on track (21 lbs, 12 oz and 30.5") and she's hitting all of her milestones. She got 3 shots and mommy got 1 (flu shot), so we are all set for winter.

She is slumbering peacefully in my arms right now. Hopefully we will be all clear to go to the zoo when she wakes up.

Still here, still busy!

It seems like the days are really getting away from me now.  Fall is here, and the sights and sounds of the season are everywhere!  We went shopping for pumpkins today, and now have three really nice ones adorning our front porch along with the incredibly priced mum I bought at the produce market.  I'm looking forward into digging into the biggest pumpkin and roasting the seeds.  We want them to last until Halloween though, so that will have to wait a couple of weeks. 

Kayla turned 15 months old on Thursday.  I didn't hop on the scale with her this week, but we will get the word from the doctor on how she's doing in a few days.  We'll be headed there Monday morning and then hopefully to the zoo on Monday afternoon.  The zoo should be an adventure - Kayla loves animals, and she's starting to warm up to people when she's in unfamiliar situations.  She likes to smile and wave and say "hi" to people now.  She's also saying "bye."  Particularly once she puts her Baby Stella diaper bag over her arm and struts out of the living room. 

We are now almost 36 hours removed from our last nursing session.  I was very proud to hit each milestone with that - getting started, being able to pump while working full time, surviving a major supply drop and being able to provide for her the entire first year.  I didn't mind continuing to nurse her morning and night, but it just felt like a good time to move on.  She's now used to coming back downstairs after PJ's for her bedtime snack, and she didn't fuss at all this morning when Shaun got her out of her crib and we waited until around 8 am to give her breakfast.  So far the transition seems to be a non event.  I hope that continues. 

Monday is a bank holiday and teacher inservice day at Kayla's daycare, so we are going to enjoy the rest of our long weekend.  I'll check in again soon!