Bags under Eyes

So we are settling in and when I mean settling in, I mean that the chair in our family room has imprints of my butt in it.  I've filled up my gas tank three times since Rory was born and have generally been living in a rotation of about 3 outfits... all of which consist of yoga pants.

Rory is doing great though.  He's staying awake more during the day and sleeping more at night.  I can get at least one 4 hour stretch a night before he wakes up for something to eat, then head back to bed.  He is really starting to like getting a bath, not making a peep and just relaxing in the warm water.  He cries almost every time you change his diaper.  He loves to be held (what baby doesn't) but makes doing the cooking, cleaning, and playing with Maeve difficult sometimes.  Rory had his 2 month check up 2 weeks ago and has grown leaps and bounds especially as he hadn't gained that much weight by 1 month.  He now weighs over 11 lbs and is more than a 1 lb heavier than Maeve was at 2 months.  They are about the same in height and head size.

Maeve has been a pistol as usual lately.  She's either absolutely adorable or I'm ready to pull my hair out dealing with the meltdowns.  She's been pretty great with Rory.  She is much more of a helper than ignoring him, but can of course be smothering.  Her vocabulary is hysterical these days.  She's constantly repeating some funny or ironic phrase that she has heard at school or on some tv show.  We are struggling a bit with potty training her.  I'm about to attempt the 3 day potty training where I let her run around the house naked for 3 days but I've been a bit hesitant since that sounds terrible and like I'll be scrubbing my floors and carpets all day but something has to give.  I've resorted to rewarding with M&Ms and bought a potty for the floor, which grosses me out but she seems to do better on.  She understands the potty and even goes at least once or twice a day but it is a battle getting her to sit on it.  It has to be her decision or I force her kicking and screaming.  More to come but my goal is to have her trained by the time I go back to work, which is in a week and half.  She has also been terrible in going to bed for nap and bed all of a sudden as well.  Hoping its just a phase with the new baby, the potty training, and brighter evenings as we head into Summer.

So I am back to work a week from Thursday.  I'm not looking forward to getting ready in the morning and getting kid out the door but it will be nice to be in a routine and seeing everyone from work.  I thoroughly enjoy the time I get to have off with the kids and while I wish I had summers off every year, I know that I need to work for the mental stimulation.  I just don't do enough when I'm not working.  Regardless, it has been fun and Rory really is a very good baby, just need to get him sleeping more at night/waking up less. As you are see from pictures below, he has Ryan's coloring so far.  His skin in a little darker like mine, but he has the reddish/blond hair and beautiful blue eyes.  They still could change but I'm hoping they stay. Here is a bunch of pictures from 1 - 2 months.  You can see how he has beefed up!

It's like he sucked a lemon!

 Jennifer dropped off a boatload of clothes for Rory from Luke and Aidan and with it came Halloween costumes.  I've been watching Orange is the New Black lately and her face reminds me alittle of Crazy Eyes.

Whenever we are walking or biking in the village, we have to make a stop to see the kittens at the Rescue Adoption place.  

 I see our similar noses and round heads, but not much else...  He does have a big ole smile like I do:)

Trying to capture one good picture of two kids is HARD!  I'm impressed with any families that have perfect family pictures and with the photographers, who can capture these shots!

With the time off, we've taken advantage of lots of family time by going to Strong Museum and the Science Museum, taking lots of walks, playground trips, and picnic lunches in the yard.  Here was Ryan and Maeve building a motorcycle out of foam blocks at the Science Museum.  A couple more days left until back to work so I plan on enjoying them.  

3 + 1 = Family

I'm very pleased to introduce Rory James Daley.  He arrived on March 26th at 7:27 PM, weighing in at 7lbs and 14oz.  He took his time arriving but then once he decided it was time to make an entrance, he did it with a fury.  I know we didn't know what we were having and there is that 50/50 chance that it was a boy, but I was truly shocked when the doctor handed him over to me and told me it was a "he".  I practically lost my breath as I was so surprised.  I put it at a 95% probability it was a girl just because the pregnancy was very similar with Maeve.  However we are very quickly adjusting to life as a family of four.  On Tuesday, Ryan was back at work and Maeve was at school so Rory and I got to spend our first couple of days together.  It's so funny being so busy with work to having days fly by just sitting in the chair with my feet up holding a sleeping baby.  I'm going to enjoy the next 11 weeks.  He currently has blondish red hair and has blue/gray eyes.   We will see if they stay that way.    

 A couple things I've learned thus far...
- Adding one additional person has doubled my laundry (the math just doesn't make sense)
- Changing diapers on boys are much more difficult than girls (I've had two unfortunate incidents thus far and one of them included Rory peeing on his face a little - the kid is quick)
- I am so blessed to have such generous family and friends.  I had a couple outfits, mainly gender neutral, that would work if we did have that elusive boy.  It has only been a week and this kid's closet is stocked.  It's amazing how quickly things shift from pink to blue.

 

I was going in to get induced on Wednesday so Tuesday I tried to wrap up work as quickly as possible to grab Maeve and spend some quality time with her before she went from only child to big sister.  I picked her up from school and we stopped at Mary Claire's for a cupcake.  She wasn't too keen on sharing with me and pretty much ate most of it herself.  She left me some of the cake part since the frosting is her favorite.  

Maeve has been adjusting pretty well to her brother and having to share her mom.  She gets that he has to eat often and after every noise he makes, she asks "What's he saying?"  She's been dealing with terrible two's as well, screaming, hitting, and not listening.  We are trying to be as understanding as possible, but she got sent to bed last night right after her tub for hitting.  The majority of the time is she is pretty good.  Last weekend she got up and just said that she had to clean the walls.  She grabbed some toilet paper and a stool and started wiping down the walls.  I hope her need to help clean our house continues FOREVER.  She continues to just be a sponge.  She's started reading books to us; some from memory and others by just narrating to the pictures.  She definitely is entertaining and loves a crowd.  Jon and Al were over the other night and it was the Maeve Show during dinner.  At one point, I called her a ham and she just cracked up over that.  She kept saying "I'm a ham" and bursting into giggles.

Ryan brought her into the hospital the day after Rory was born and she did great.  She wanted to hold him but was quick to say put him back in his crib.  She was more interested in the hospital bed and the cartoons on tv, but she was interested in him and very sweet.  She will greet him with a "Hey Cutie".  I hope this love continues.

Counting Down

So our house is clean and orderly, laundry is caught up, some meals are prepared, and we are just waiting...
Waiting for our new arrival to join us.  I'm scheduled to be induced on Wednesday, which is partly because I'm ready to have this baby and partly because the sooner I can have this baby, the sooner I can start my break from work.  The doctor won't let me go more than a week past my due date so it was just easier to schedule, particularly since I had a relatively easy induction with Maeve since I went past my due date with her too.

It really has been crazy busy, for both Ryan and I, and we are both looking forward to the perfect little excuse for us to pause and just relish in the quality family time ahead of us.  Plus, I wouldn't mind being able to sleep in my back or stomach again and to partake in a beer or glass of wine.  I'm constantly counting my blessings at how I or the baby haven't had any health issues, but this 2nd pregnancy was definitely more tiring than the first.  I'm guessing it's some combination of being a couple years older and having a 2 year old to keep up with.  I've pretty much given up tub duty since Ryan's traveling has stopped.  Bending over a bath tub to wash Maeve sounds like I'm climbing Mt. Everest, as does flipping over in bed from side to side.

As for Maeve, she's constantly keeping us moving.  Unfortunately, one of her teacher's, Miss Denise, resigned a week ago.  She was Maeve's favorite and it breaks my heart as each day since she's been gone, Maeve has brought her up.  We've tried to tell her the truth, but you can tell it doesn't set in.  Fortunately, Miss Denise's daughter Amanda is our babysitter so we are hoping to schedule a playdate soon so Maeve can get in some Miss Denise time.

Other than that, just keeping busy.  I'll keep you all posted regarding Baby #2...

Ready for Spring

As much as I do enjoy winter and beautiful white snow, I'm getting alittle tired of bitter cold and squeezing into my warmest puffy coat with this growing belly.  But I digress, a lot continues to happen around here but most of it revolves around keeping up with Maeve and counting down until Baby #2 arrives.  I've been having issues with my laptop which is why no blogging has happened lately.  So no pictures for now, but working on it.

Sp to catch up... We had a wonderful Christmas, spending lots of time with family and friends.  Unfortunately, we had a lot of one-off things happen that caused some headaches: Ryan got into a car accident in my car so I was without it for about 2 1/2 weeks (fortunately he was not hurt), everyone in the house was dealing with colds, we had a roof leak that came through the family room ceiling, a frozen pipe during the bitter cold streak (but nothing burst), etc, etc, etc.  We started waking up each day just asking what was going to happen today.  Fortunately, nothing tragic or major and we are happy to move into 2014 with optimism for another good year.

Lately we've all been so tired with work and this cold weather that when we are home, we aren't doing much.  Ryan's been on a travel bender so has been out of town about half of the time the last 6 weeks.  He took yesterday off so they could have a Maeve/Daddy day, which was great.  Maeve wouldn't stop talking all week leading up to it.  They went to the Science Museum and I went and met them for lunch.  Then they both took naps and played the rest of the day... a perfect day.

Our little girl continues to be downright funny most days.  I was talking to her teacher the other day, who confirmed my belief that she is a woman in a 2 year old body.  She talks like an adult, which is probably a reflection of how Ryan & I talk to her.  She often tries to quiz us on letters, numbers, and colors when she's in the tub just like how we quiz her.  When she does have her bad moments, it's typically a meltdown after we turn off the tv or tell her it's time for bed.  She fully transitioned from her crib to a twin bed in her new bedroom a couple weeks ago and has done pretty well.  It's a bit of a battle as she was so, so easy to put to bed before and we didn't have to worry about her climbing out of the crib and exploring during the night.  Now she wants to go in her "big girl bed" but it usually includes extending the bedtime routine with requests for milk, another story... you name it.  But she's been in there for over a month now and doing pretty well.  She's scared me a couple times by coming into our room and startling me awake but she hasn't fallen down the stairs or anything like that so all is well.  She did fall out of bed one night and fortunately she went back to sleep and didn't fall out again, but we might need more pillows to block her in.

Her imagination just blows my mind.  Every day she's coming up to us in the middle of playing with some animal (a lion, bear, a fox, you name it) that is over there or around the corner.  She isn't scared just animated and very serious about how we have to run or stop it.  She's like a sponge in terms of her vocabulary.  She remembers lines from tv shows and memorizes books we read.  She'll recall them at the funniest times.  Needless to say, we laugh alot... it's a fun, but exhausting age.

Baby Daley #2 is due to arrive in less than three weeks.  The doctor told me last week to make sure my bags are packed... baby is head down and low.  Maeve was the same way and I had to get induced so not banking on an early arrival, but happy we made it through Ryan's busy travel so that he will be there for baby's birth.  I'm definitely counting down the days... I'm dealing with some hand/ankle swelling and a sore back and am pretty exhausted at end of the work day and especially the work week.  Looking forward to how this arrival will change things around here...

Airplane, ER visit and an accident

We've had an eventful couple of weeks lately with a handful of trips for work and the holiday season upon us.  I had some meetings in Baltimore the week of Thanksgiving so ended up flying down there on Sunday afternoon with Maeve.  Ryan drove down to meet us on Tuesday night after work.  So Maeve got a couple extra days of time spent with her grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.  I was pretty nervous about trip because she was pretty terrible when we flew to Chicago in March, but the girl continues to surprise me. She was excellent and really taking everything in.  Plus stickers and snacks worked wonders.

 Thanksgiving in Baltimore was alot of fun.   I'm starting to realize that the decibel level in our house will continue to rise with each additional kid.  With that many people, it was madness at times, but very fun.  It was highly enjoyable to have a couple days off as well.  Ryan and I got to take Maeve to the aquarium, which was fun for all.  We ended up driving home Friday night to avoid traffic and drive while Maeve was sleeping the majority of the time.  Ended up the right move and we had 2 full days to relax and get house back to normal.

Unfortunately that ended abruptly on Sunday night.  No changes from our normal routine: nap, play, dinner, tub but on Maeve's return trip from the tub she was running from bottom of stairs over to Ryan on the couch and tripped and bumped her head on the coffee table.  Since the cut was pretty deep and on her face, we headed to emergency room to get it checked out just in case she needed stitches.  Fortunately, she didn't and just got steri strips but nothing like alittle excitement on a Sunday night for us.

 Pre-emergency room, we did pop over to a children's holiday party that M&T hosts for employees and their families.  Here was Maeve on Santa's lap.  A little hesitant to say the least, but we made it through with no tears.  We met the reindeer, rode a couple rides and capped it off with an ice cream sundae.

 Last, but not least, we got some pictures done by my friend Mandi (courtesy of her company ATP designs that can be found on facebook or by reaching out to me).  Too bad we had terrible weather and a little one not really feeling smiling outside in frigid, windy weather.  But Mandi was still able to get a couple good pictures out of the 10 minutes we ended up being outside.

The rest of our weeks have been busy with decorating for the holidays, baking cookies, buying/wrapping presents, as well as spending time with our house guests.  Our friends Tim, Courtney, and their son George have been visiting from Denver for the last week or so staying with us.  It's been fun catching up and great to see George and Maeve play together since Ryan and Tim have been friends since grade school.  George is 9 months so not too much direct play, but Maeve has been sharing toys and generally very nice to him so good sign for new baby I'm hoping.  We've been getting snow pretty much daily and it's been cold so we've been spending lots of time indoors.  Maeve had a sleepover with Aunt Michelle on Friday night as we had a holiday party.  I ended up taking advantage of babysitter and ended up getting a couple of hours of shopping in to wrap up.  Unfortunately, I forgot one stop so Ryan headed back out in afternoon but ended up getting into an accident on way home.  He wasn't hurt thank goodness, but a car coming in opposite direction crossed yellow line and spun out in front of him.  There ended up being 3 cars in accident and a man getting his mail got clipped but no major injuries just damage all around.  All cars got towed so we're waiting until Monday to figure out timing of how long it will take for my car to get fixed.  Nothing like a little excitement to add to madness of the holiday season.  Hopefully I'll see most of you over the next couple weeks, but if not, have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful time with your family and friends!

Where does the time go...

No excuses, I'm a bad blogger.  It's been months with no update.  Rather than bore you with every detail I can actually remember, I'll let pictures do most of the talking.

 The summer wrapped up with us heading to the Erie County Fair, celebrating Maeve's 2nd birthday, and taking lots of walks and bike rides to the farmers market and to get ice cream.  You'll notice in many of these pictures that Maeve's hair is growing like crazy and on most days is a big, hot mess by the end of the day.

 Our time at the fair was more about eating and visiting with the livestock.  We didn't do any rides or games but she didn't seem to mind that in the least.  We had to walk through animals buildings twice so she could see them all.

 We celebrated Maeve's birthday with a small party and she loved all of the attention.  We did a Mickey themed party due to her love of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and had a perfect day.  Big surprise, but she loved eating cake and getting presents.  On her actual birthday we were very low key and just played with her new toys and having some more cake. Along with the theme, she got a Minnie soccer ball and Minnie & Daisy airplane.

 Cake was from Rich's and was delicious.

  We've been keeping busy with special occasions.  Here she was rocking out her sunglasses on our way to our friend Levon's 1st birthday.  And she got a special day/sleepover with a visit to the zoo with Nana, Aunt Elizabeth, and her cousins Drew & Evan.

Maeve is officially on the first day of school schedule and moved up to the 2 year old classroom in early September.  She is now a Purple Dino in Miss Anne's & Miss Denise's classroom.  Big changes include no binkys during nap time and learning to potty train at school.  This was a "hot mess" morning with her hair as she wouldn't let me put in a ponytail or clip.  We are attempting to grow her bangs out and train her hair but without her cooperation, it can be difficult. 

A trip to the park on a wet day.  I think she looks so old in the green pants picture.  And celebrating Ryan's birthday with Nana and Papa.  I just grabbed a couple desserts from Butterwood that we all could share.  

With the weather getting colder, we've been pulling out some bins of clothes that have gotten passed down from our bigger cousins.  Maeve's favorite by far is a purple Dora the Explorer bathrobe.  She loves to put it on after the tub and come down to show off.  She does look adorable and it's very soft so I completely understand her love. To the right is Maeve accessorizing before we headed out to run some errands.  

Halloween was pretty low key this year as Ryan was traveling for work and the weather was pretty wet.  It was warm so we took advantage of one of last days in the 60s and got our butterfly dress on and rode the bike to our friends' house to trick or treat.  I didn't get a picture of the Runfolas but they looked great and Maeve was so excited for the candy that each of them gave her.  Next we made it to O'Connors to see Kane & Brady.  Everyone was so excited to get started trick or treating and I expect next year will be more eventful.  We rode home and started handing out candy instead of hitting anymore houses.

 Ryan got home the next day so we got our dress back on and Ryan got his Halloween costume from his work party on and had a dance party with Maeve.  Ryan is dressed as Jake & Finn from Adventure Time cartoon, which I had no idea existed, but he looks silly and Maeve thought was hysterical.

And last, but certainly not least, here is a glimpse of Baby Daley #2.  He or She is due on March 27th and we are very excited for it's arrival.  I've had a very similar pregnancy experience thus far as I did with Maeve so here's hoping it continues.  No sickness, just tired most of the time.  I think that is partly/mostly due to Maeve and try to keep up with a 2 year old.    No promises but will try to be better with pictures going forward!

God Bless America

So attempting to remember the last two weeks, cancel that, MONTH is the biggest incentive to start to blog more frequently.  I started this post awhile ago but been caught up in the typical summer craziness.  I know I've had fun and Maeve continues to do hysterical and dramatic things, but I'm stretching myself trying to recollect everything.

Before I start going down memory lane, this post has been attempted on three different times... first right after the 4th of July, second while I was on a train from Philadelphia to New York City between meetings in late July, and now third back at home in early August.

So I took my first US train ride and I loved it.  I don't travel often enough to be an expert, but once a month or so for work and I've had some pretty bad experiences lately so it was a nice change of pace.  I was able to charge my iPhone, use wifi to check work emails, no next door neighbor and the trains in general just seem so efficiently run.  I get to pick our vacation next year and it might have to include some train rides, maybe across Europe.

So back to our happenings...The days surrounding 4th of July were jam packed and full of quality time with friends and family.  We ended up having some friends over on the 3rd for a BBQ.  I've been wanting to try to make home made sliders and do a burger bar after a guy at work had one and it sounded delicious!  I'm a huge fan of cheeseburgers as well.  Making burgers from scratch is surprisingly easy, it's just all about the right combination of meat, seasonings, and something to bind everything together and hold in the juices.  The only major problem was that it was sooo humid and ended up raining halfway through party.  We don't have air conditioning so once everyone moved inside, the house turned into a hot box.  But rain subsided, we moved into the garage and started to cool off alittle.  The actual 4th was very low key with dinner at Kassi & Kyle's and Maeve & I headed home before dark so no fireworks... maybe next year. 

The following week was alittle chaotic because I was in NYC for 2 days and Ryan left for the West Coast for a 5 day work trip.  Fortunately for us, my parents and the Harris's were all coming in town late in the week to kick off their 2 week vacation at cottages on the lake in Angola.  My mom came in a couple days early to watch Maeve so work trips ended up being pretty seemless. 

So the rest of July has been filled with family out at the lake, usual work, and trying to catch up with friends who were in town from Denver with their 5 month old son.  Tim and Ryan have been friends since grade school and moved to Denver about 5 years ago.  I love how the two of them pick right up where they left off, even if it's been a while since they've seen each other.  Unfortunately for me and Maeve, she got a skin rash from a virus in the middle of their visit and we were quarantined for a couple days away from all babies.  So I was home last Thursday & Friday trying to work from home since Maeve couldn't be in school.  The last weekend with my family in town was shaping up to be great.  I took off Friday and we headed out to the lake in the morning to catch up with everyone and play and then the Harris's minus Margot, Alicia, and Maeve & I headed to Wanakah for alittle pool time.  We headed home for a nap and then back out to the lake for dinner.  I was hoping for a repeat on Saturday but Maeve spiked a fever Friday night and slept all of about 4 hours so Saturday we ended up at the doctors and back home to rest.  She ended up taking a 5 hour nap during day and then back to bed early.  Fever was finally gone on Monday but what is with these summer illnesses??  So unfortunately we missed saying good-byes to everyone but hopefully it won't be long until we see everyone again.

Other than that we are just back in normal routine.  Our girl has possibly entered her terrible two stage (even though she is not yet two) as the littlest things seem to set her off into a meltdown.  And when I say meltdown, it is a literal meltdown.  Her tiny body just slithers to the floor to assume her kicking or sliding or fetal position.  I'm trying my best to ignore, which is working pretty well because just as I'm about to break and grab her, she usually breaks and comes to get me, almost effortlessly doing a 180 and turning back into a sweet little girl.  I keep telling myself to stay strong - patience is a virtue and anything else that will give me sanity when dealing with a screaming child. Otherwise, she's pretty great.  She is talking non-stop and I can decipher about 80% of it.  She's a sponge who loves to stop and ask us all sorts of things, like hold up foam letters and numbers in the tub and ask which ones they are, or what all the different clothing is for her doll.  She's so quick to point out airplanes, helicopters, diggers, clouds, the moon... so observant that I'd love to see the world through her eyes even for a day.  She loves telling Ryan and I both to "Sit here" usually right next to her or "Come on Mom" "Come on Dad - let's go to the park".  Which translates into each of us getting a stroller or shopping cart and pushing it around the house in circles in a train, following her.  She has officially renamed her baby doll to Margot.  Her teachers thought she had seen Despicable Me since there is a girl named Margot in it, but little did they know she has a mild obsession with her new baby cousin. She's enthralled with being in the car not in her seat.  She wants to explore and press the hazards button.  She told me today that she wants to drive and sit on my lap, which didn't go over well when I told her no because she just wasn't ready to comprehend laws and police.  Everything in the world also belongs to her, according to her everything is "Maeve's truck" to everything we pass on road, "Maeve's phone", etc - she's all about ownership these days.

So pictures to come and sorry for delay... take what you can get because I'm obviously very behind.