yikes... where to begin?

So it's been a really long time, a REALLY long time.  Can't say I have any excuses besides work at work, work at home, chasing a mobile 1 year old, throw in a couple of trips out of town, and any free time being taken up with trying to plow through the six month supply of magazines on my nightstand.  So I'll make the attempt of updating what's been going on.

So after we got home from Delaware, I transitioned to a new role at work and had a quick trip to Philadelphia.  It was only 1 night away, but it was the first time in a long time that I stayed in a hotel room by myself.  It was strangely nice to shower and get ready in the morning without rushing.  Plus I got to go the Phillies baseball game and enjoy an evening out among adults.  This mini-independence transitioned nicely into my upcoming girls trip to Hilton Head.

Now this was my 3rd (or 4th?) trip down to Hilton Head with my sister-in-laws and a handful of amazing ladies.  It's become an annual trip but I won't include any details, but just know it was 4 amazing days of sun, fun, and drinks. It was a perfectly relaxing break.  Yes - Ryan was Father of the Month in August.  He got to spend plenty of quality time with his girl and provide me a mini-break.  I was excited to get back and of course missed them both, but mentally it was a wonderful break from reality.  They don't happen often, but that's why you can enjoy them so much!

Little Miss Maeve also turned 1 not long after I got back.  We had a small party with just family and a couple close friends on the Friday before her birthday.  I decided to do a candy bar/sweet shoppe theme for my sweet little girl.  I didn't want to go crazy, but thought this would be really easy.  I bought a bunch of candy from BJ's and ordered cupcakes from the Cupcake Orchard in Orchard Park...  Dessert and favors done.  I ordered food and Michelle came over to assist in all last minute prep.  I can't thank her enough.  Now for the actual party, Maeve didn't get much of what was going on but loved having lots of people to play with and certainly enjoyed her first cupcake treat.

The next morning after the party, we loaded into our car and headed up to Canada for another mini-vacation with the Vukelics and Daleys.  This is an annual event that Ryan and I both look forward to so much.  It's a paradise... as soon as we cross the border, our phones turn off and we spend 4-5 days with no internet or phone and just peace and quiet... well as much quiet as 8 children in one house will allow!  Maeve did pretty great in the car and was a sleeping like a champ, 2 naps a day and 10 - 11 hours a night.  Either we all just tired her out or she just needed some clean fresh air.

Since we got back from Canada, we've just fallen back into the work routine.  Both Ryan and I have been very busy and balancing the routine.  Maeve's been getting so big.  She's officially a little person to me.  I savor the limited times she'll snuggle.  She's really too big to be held in my arms laying down, but she'll still rest her head on my shoulder and lounge in my lap, which will do.  She's talking/babbling all the time.  I've heard Daddy, Mommy, This, and That.  It sounds silly but I'll mention something or give her a book or something and she'll hold it and say "This?" almost like she asking if that's what I meant.  She's walking and climbing everywhere.  I'm ready to move her adorable rocking chair into the basement as she climbs up on it and stands all the time.  We are working on making her sit, but even in the tub she just loves to stand and check everything out.  She loves to get up on the couch and run along it, sometimes bouncing off of the cushions.  Teeth #5- 8 are all popped through, which could explain her recent crying in the middle of the night.  She'll usually fall back asleep, but has had a couple of nights where she's up and won't go back into her crib or needs to be held.  We are so lucky that she's a good sleeper so these nights, while not often, are exhausting.  We just got back from her 1 year appointment and she's perfectly average in height and weight, 50th - 60th percentiles.  She had to get three shots and you can tell how different the 12 month appointment is from even 9 month.  She knows what's going on and isn't afraid to let loose.  The shots are probably the worse 3 seconds in my life.  I know the nurses need the help, but holding your kid's arms down so she can get pricked with needles is downright cruel to me.  No wonder Ryan never volunteers!  She still fits fine in all 12 months clothes, 12 - 18 month is just alittle too big.  Our big girl has fully transitioned to whole milk and is really only eating non-baby food.  Her favorites include: blueberries, cheese, ravioli's, yogurt, sweet potatos, buttered toast and macaroni and cheese. She tried eggplant one night and just loved it, which blew my mind.  It's funny how tastes change... one day she loves something, one day she's spitting it out all over the place.  As far as toys, she loves exploring through the cabinet with all of the tupperware and LOVES to read her books.  Her favorites include Happy Hippo, Angry Duck and some short books on Ring Around the Rosie and Humpty Dumpty.  Aunt Michelle taught her to do "So Big" so she's certainly getting more active and entertaining.

I just downloaded almost 600 pictures from the past 2 months so pictures to come...

Lots to catch up on

So alot has been going on, hence no recent posts. 

As a follow-up from sharing Ryan's and my goals to do 5 fun things over the next couple of months, we were both able to cross off one thing on our lists a couple of weeks ago.  Ryan drove down to Louisville for a music fest with Greg and was able to meet up with one of his College of Charleston boys.  He's been wanting to go to one and I'm so happy the weekend worked out.  From what I hear the boys had a blast; lots of music and not alot of sleep.  They left on Friday morning and got back Sunday night. Ryan was exhausted and his feet were killing him from standing in his flip flops the whole weekend. 

 That same weekend I went to the Italian Festival with Michelle and Maeve.  We made a mini-day of it and went to the mall and outlets, then finished with lunch at the festival.  It was blazing hot so we just did a quick loop, but got to try a bunch of things and I was happy I went.   Maeve really didn't want to sleep that whole morning while we were running around so she was pretty wiped by the time we got to festival.  However she still wouldn't fall asleep until later in the afternoon.  She was a sweaty mess!

One bonus of Ryan being away for the weekend was that I got to eat the cannoli I took home all by myself.  Obviously you can see that I couldn't help myself from digging in before taking a picture.  I put it in the fridge until I was ready to eat and have to say it tasted even more delicious served very chilled with a glass of milk. 

Ryan had a couple people in town for meetings and thought it might be a good opportunity to get Maeve back in the office to see people.  Here she is next to the giant Labatt bear that greets you as you walk into the bar... yes, there is a full fledged bar in his office.  I even tried the new low calorie beer, Labatt 52.  I was always a fan of the low carb, Labatt Select, so would definitely recommend, but I recognize that I'm biased. 

On the 20th we wrapped up with work and hopped in the car to head down to Baltimore.  The Wallace Family vacation had officially begun.  Saturday we headed down the rest of the way to Bethany Beach, Delaware for a week of family, fun, and the sun.  We had three houses to spread out the 13 adults and 9 children, which worked out perfectly.  Ryan, Maeve, and I had a pretty relaxing time. We really didn't try the beach due to the heat and Maeve's need to eat sand, but we were there for alittle bit.  She took 2 solid naps (1 1/2 - 2 hours each) a day so between eating and napping, we had short breaks which we usually went to the pool or for a walk.  Ryan was able to play tennis almost everyday and I swam some laps in their lap pool and we both played alittle golf.  I have a ton of pictures on my camera so will have to add those separately.  These are only pictures from my phone. 

Maeve enjoying the swings and some pictures of her in the back of the car right after we left the beach.  She got soaked with some waves and had sand EVERYWHERE.  I felt bad using wipes, but she had sand in every crevice.  She thought it was so interesting to sit naked in back of truck and just watch all of the people walking on by.  I couldn't get her to move from her spot to put a diaper on for about 15 minutes. 

One night Ryan and I got to grab dinner and we went to this great spot, Off the Hook.  It was right on the way from our place to the beach.  We sat outside and the food was amazing!  I had slow roasted pork dumplings for an appetizer and soft shell crab for entree.  I haven't had crab yet this year and it was perfectly cooked.  Ryan's food was equally as good, but no pictures of his.  He had fried oysters and ahi tuna.  It was a great night. 

We made it back to Buffalo on Saturday morning.  We got on the road early and made it back by 2pm.  I really can't complain about Maeve in the car.  Michelle sat in the back seat with her and helped keep her busy with toys, bottles, and snacks as needed.  There were no screaming bouts and she slept about half the time. 

So back to reality for us.  Laundry is done and I got grocery shopping out of the way.  Maeve was pretty excited to be back her house with all of her toys.  She is a full fledged walker these days.  She started taking a couple steps here or there in late June/early July.  Maybe 4-5 steps at a time by mid-July.  Once we were on vacation, she was walking everywhere.  She climbs the stairs now as well and is truly fully mobile.  She's exploring and getting into drawers so I've been slowly rearranging things in the kitchen and now closing the bathroom doors and she's very interested in the toilet.  She's morphing into this adorable person with a funny personality.  She loves to scrunch up her nose and laugh.  Ryan can usually get her going the most with tickles or peek a boo.  She's been an eating machine as well.  She's now eating lunches at school.  Her favorite appears to be grilled cheese so we certainly have that in common.  Breakfast usually includes some version of toast or english muffin with blueberries, raspberries, bananas or yogurt.  I typically feed her first and cook for Ryan and I after she goes to bed so she's not eating exactly what we eat yet (more so on the weekends), but she like anything with chicken.  She had some pizza last weekend and ate that up as well. 

We've hit August, which the next three months are usually my favorite time of the year.  Warm days, cool nights and some more vacation time and seeing our girl turn 1! 

Summer Checkpoint

So the summer has already been flying by.  We've been keeping ourselves busy with walks, pool time, parties with family and friends, just relaxing on the patio, and even a trip to the zoo.  Since it's been a hot, hot summer we joined the village pool, which is literally across the street from our house.  We've only gone twice so far, but it's so convenient for a quick 30 minute cool down.  The baby pool has a gradual entry and fountains so Maeve has been practicing her standing and walking and splashing.  Ryan even got to spend some time on the diving boards with the teenagers the other night. 

Ryan and I are each trying to accomplish 5 things over the summer/fall timeframe, as in something fun to do or something we've always wanted to try or just something we can all do together as a family.  They are a mix of small things and bigger things like trips. We started it after Ryan was talking to a co-worker who does something similar.  We realized that weekends can be so crazy trying to catch up on everything you couldn't get done during the week, plus trying to balance spending as much time with the munchkin as we can so we needed extra motivation.  Now we've technically only crossed one thing off my list - going to the zoo, but Ryan is going to a music festival this weekend in Kentucky so he'll cross one off on his list.  We've been making plans to hopefully accomplish all of the others so I'll keep you posted if we succeed.

Silly girl pre-pool 

Zoo trip, where we got to see the elephants playing in the water.  Obviously more fun for us, than Maeve.  She couldn't stop staring at all of the people.  My favorite part had to be the gorillas.  We were just standing in front of the window checking them out when a baby came running over in front of us to play, then the Mom came barreling over after and started pounding on the window right in front of me.  I jumped, but it was endearing to see a protective Momma. 

Last weekend, we got to have a visit with my girlfriend Stacey and her son Tyler, who turns 2 in October.  We walked to the Farmers Market, but couldn't stay long as some dark clouds were approaching.  So we got to spend more time playing at Stacey's.  Tyler has alot of fun toys that Maeve hasn't played with before so she was pretty chill just wanting to sit and play.  Look at what a difference less than a year makes.  Tyler is a full head taller and he's got some lucious locks of hair.  I can see these two being fast friends some day.

Just hanging out at Tim Hortons.  Maeve's top 2 teeth have popped through and she seems to be more herself. She was still sleeping well at night, but alittle more whiney and clingy.  Now she's back to her silly self. 

Catching up...

So it has been a bit since last post.  No excuses, just busy and little free time.  These pictures may be alittle out of order, but help explain all of the fun and random things that have been keeping this crew busy.

We got to celebrate my cousin Brian's son, Kane's, birthday with a fun party.  Not only was my friend Kimmy in town, but the weather was perfect for outside fun with family and friends.  Maeve was in her glory with new toy and plenty of people/kids to watch.  Brian & Jeanne have a great water table (which is why Maeve is stripped down to diaper in pics) and toy car that Maeve just LOVED!  I already have decided to buy a water table soon for her birthday present.  Even though her bday isn't until late August, she really just loved it and those two toys kept her entertained for a solid 3 hours.  I'm sold.   She had me amazed as she was able to move herself around the yard with her feet.  She is close to walking, but still... she easily scooted the car and herself at least 10 - 15 feet around the yard.  Love that silly smile - that's usually the smile I'm greeted with when I get home from work or pick her up at daycare.

 Maeve and her cousin Brady being silly.  They are about 7 months apart so kind of a big difference now in terms of playing together, but it won't be long before hopefully they are good buds like Brian & I were/are

  

 A couple people have asked me recently how daycare is going so I'll provide alittle update.  I can only speak to my experience and completely realize everyone has a different story.  So far, we are both really happy with our daycare.  There isn't a day that goes by that my heart breaks a little bit that I miss out on a large part of her day, but I realize working is my choice and what I do for myself and my family.  Right now the pros outweigh the cons yet I'll continue to reassess.  Maeve seriously loves school though which makes it much easier on us!  It was tough to tell in the beginning, but now that she is so expressive, I can tell how excited she gets when I'm getting her out of the car after we arrive in the morning.  She lights up once we are outside her door and she can peak through the window and usually see one of her teachers or kids in her class.  At the end of they day, I can usually hear her babbling away with one of her teachers when I approach the door and she just lights up when she sees me.  I think it's wonderful that they provide a notebook on her day with a little write-up and keeping me up to date on her naps, eating schedule, and even diaper changes.  All of the teachers are willing to answer questions and I love to see what the kids in her class are doing at certain ages.  It helps to prepare me for what's to come.  There are 3 kids that are within 2 months of Maeve.  Also, to make up for my lack of craftiness, her teachers do such fun projects with her on a daily/weeklly.  They use paint, bubbles, and a water table on hot days.  They take walks on every possible day and stay active by climbing through a tunnel.  There is always some music on and I love that all of the teachers know her name, even from other classrooms.  One particularly nice, young teacher calls her Maevealicious, which I think it super cute.  Here was the adorable gift they made for all of the dads for Father's Day... a glass beer mug with Maeve's picture on it (they even picked one with her hair styled as a mohawk because they know how much Ryan likes it that way).  It's filled with tissue paper, butterscotch candies, and cotton balls to make it look like beer.  So cute and unexpected.  In terms of illnesses, I don't feel like Maeve's sick all of the time.  She has gotten some colds, but no fevers so far, so thankful for that!  

As I think I've mentioned previously, my girlfriend from work, Stephanie, is super talented and crafty.  For my baby shower, she did two onesies with a green flag and  MTB.  If you know Stephanie, she bleeds M&T green.  Maeve finally fits in her onesies so I wanted to show off Stephanie's great work. 

 This past weekend, we had some visitors and running around to do.  Maeve is still taking about 2 naps a day, with sometimes a cat nap on her way home from school.  However on Saturday, she just refused to take a morning nap.  My friend Jeanne and Brady were out for a walk by the house right before lunch so we were hanging out with them and I could tell Maeve was finally getting tired.  So once they left we came in to eat and the girl was literally falling asleep sitting up in her chair while eating.  So we finished lunch early and I went to change her diaper quickly and put her up to bed and this is her passed out on floor.  She's NEVER done this before, but it was super cute.  No worries I did take her to her bed and didn't just leave her on the floor.

 Random sleepy-eyed picture from some morning before work.  She was eating some raspberries and oatmeal that morning.  We are continuing to experiment with food and she's doing great so far with trying new stuff and eating on her own with her hands.  Only things so far she's been avoiding have been a black bean/corn/zucchini mix and a chicken coconut curry so stronger flavors may been too strong for now.  She has formed a strong LOVE of cheese (not surprising since she is my daughter).  Tonight she ate almost an entire mozzarella cheese stick, about a 1/4 of a diced avocado, and some chicken soup stage 3 food. 

 Ahh, so we had a slug problem.  Slugs you ask?  Yes - I'll talk about something else other than my kid and food.  I may have mentioned this would be a random blog.  So Ryan is really doing a great job with our landscaping, however he had been noticing some holes in the leaves of a couple plants.  Based on his mom's (our resident gardening consultant) expertise we realized we had a slug problem.  Once you start look in the mulch, I could see a bunch of them hiding under the leaves.  We used an upside down frisbee filled with some beer (none of the good stuff of course!) and placed in the beds.  As you can see below, we've been able to catch about 100 slugs over a couple nights.  The smell or sugars in the beer attract the slugs and they just climb right in and drown themselves.  So gross looking, but the beer works so easy solution to a random problem.  You can see above the frisbee two more guys climbing over to it.

Last week at work I had an offsite with my department where we did a wine tour in the Lockport, NY area.  I never realized how many cute vineyards are so close to us.  Each place was so unique, ranging from country quaint feel to modern, upscale, "you'd think you were in Napa".  I was mixed on the wine, as some places were great, others not so much, but it really was a fun thing to do for a couple hours.  We stopped at 5 wineries to do some tastings.  I bought wine from 3 of the 5 based on the tastings.  Many specialize in sweet wines that I'm not a huge fan of, but I was able to try to drier red wines that really were good. It was a beautful day for alittle wine.

 Back to my kid... Our normal weekends include walks to Tim Hortons for coffee on Saturday and/or Sunday mornings.  We've had some beautiful weather lately so here is our big girl at the start of a walk. She's usually so quiet as she's taking everything in and too busy following every car and person that passes her by and watching all the trees and birds and squirrals. 

  Ryan usually pushes, which just provides more opportunities for me to snap pictures.   This was on our way home... alittle tuckered out. The day of the walk we made it down to the farmers market in the village for first time this year.  I wanted to buy a couple more herbs and check the produce.

We ended up buying some beets, one of Ryan's favorites.  I don't buy them that often because I don't eat them myself and they take alittle longer than just throwing together a salad or steaming some broccoli.  I cooked both the beets (boiled and then cooled and sliced) and the beet greens (sauteed with garlic, red pepper, onion, etc).  I hope to have a couple more trips to farmers market this summer and experiment some more!

Last pic for today... what a ham!!

And we're spent...

So we survived the Crosby/Finnerty wedding!  Just barely though ... because both Ryan and I got 9 hours of sound sleep, but we are still dragging.  It was such a fun weekend, but when we've previously had downtime to lounge on the couch and take naps, we've got a precious little face staring at us and wanting us to play, play, and play.  Tim & Courtney got into town on Thursday and were staying with us so added more fun.  Maeve's really loving the guys lately so alittle more love for Tim this trip, but I'm sure that will change quickly. 

Of course I don't have any pictures from delicious rehersal dinner at Chef's because I cleaned my plate of chicken parm and meatballs before I remembered.  As well as the wedding on Saturday... the pictures I took on my phone were all blurry.  Regardless, the wedding was awesome!  The reception was at Country Club of Buffalo.  It's been three years since Ryan and I were there for our own reception, many wonderful memories, yet we were so excited that it wasn't our wedding so we could relax and enjoy ourselves just alittle more :)  My favorite parts of the wedding were the happy couple, the band (it was PHENOMENAL!), the cannoli's, and of course the people.  There's nothing better than weddings where you are surrounded by your friends and family!  Everyone was dancing the night away and really enjoyed themselves... which of course made for a late night and headaches the next day.  On Sunday the party continued at Greg & Jenn's for a pool party.  No pictures again because I had Maeve in the pool most of the time, while Ryan was jumping off the diving board with the other kiddies.  It will hopefully be a dull and quiet week...  Congrats again Mr & Mrs Finnerty!

9 Months Old

So we had Maeve's 9 month well visit last night and our girl is healthy and happy.  We did have to wait alittle bit and I only brought some puffs and a bottle, so she was hungry and tired from the evening activity.  Only 1 shot last night and she was a champ.  As soon as I picked her up, she was fine.  I'm sensing the shots will be tougher next visit.  We got home to eat, bath, and bed but she was up early, before I had a chance to shower so that is always interesting.  I try to set her up in our bedroom with toys, laundry basket, her blanket, but it takes about 10 seconds before she realizes I've disappeared into the bathroom before she comes to find me.  Then I have 2 handprints on the shower door telling me it's time to get out and play with her.  I think I've finally mastered the 2 minute shower.  Ryan is traveling this week on West Coast so no help in the morning this week. 

The growing girl... here are her stats: Weight = 19lbs, 6oz or 55th percentile.  Height = 27 1/2 inches or 41st percentile.  Head size is 41st percentile as well. 

As far as likes/dislikes at 9 months... she is loving her leap frog activity table and push lion on wheels.  Really anything that she can stand up.  She continues her love of her blankie.  She takes every nap and goes to bed everynight with it touching her.  She's pretty much sleeping on her belly, unless she is absolutely exhausted and will pass out with her hands above her head.  I put her in crib on her back, but usually she turns over right away.  Bedtime is a pretty good routine: bath, lotion, jammies, playtime, bottle/blanket/pacifier, then either hold her for a bit or just lay her down awake.  She's usually rubbing her eyes so we know it's only a matter of time.  I'm usually giving her breakfast in the morning when Ryan comes downstairs and she can always hear his steps down the stairs and turns her head so she can greet him with a smile. It's pretty cute.  She continues to love watching the washing machine/dryer and playing with her colorful cups and animal puzzle pieces.  I've gotten rid of most of the 6-9 months clothing so she's pretty much in just 9 months or 6-12 month clothing.  Food continues on a slow pace.  I've just bought some stage 3 foods that are alittle chunkier and she really liked the multi-grain cereal with mixed berries. 

Couple Random Pics

Uploaded some phone pictures from last 2 weeks that were cute. 

Maeve playing again with the mini laptop my mom bought.  She smiles at the songs and loves to open and close the screen, which will say Hello & Goodbye each time. 

We stopped at our friends pool on Memorial Day for a dip.  It was steamy outside so after Maeve's nap in afternoon we walked over to Greg & Jenn's AMAZING pool to cool off.  Maeve was alittle hesitant at first, but once her daddy started throwing her into the air, she was cracking up.  Look at those chunky little thighs!

So Maeve is really moving all over the place.  I was sitting in a chair in family room talking to Alicia on the phone when Maeve crawled right over and was just dying laughing at me talking out loud.  She's definitely pulling herself up on everything and walking along furniture.  Even her teacher commented this week that she's getting adventurous and only using one hand to stand and hold herself up.  We head to doctor tonight for 9 month appointment so I'll be sure to update with stats.