Almost mobile

Hold up your first finger and your thumb, like you were going to pinch something, about an inch apart. THAT is how close the baby is to crawling. She is pulling herself forward in an army crawl type thing, and she will get up on her knees, but she hasn’t mastered the crawling on the knees quite yet. But she is oh so close.

We installed a new baby gate at the top of the stairs the other day. Today I installed some baby proof outlets. We have much more baby proofing to do still. And we will probably learn what needs to be done as we go and she tries to get into stuff.

I am still catching up on laundry from vacation. Speaking of which, for those of you who can navigate to our picture page on our website, our vacation pictures are up.

Tonight the baby is doing an overnight pulse/oxygen test. She has an enlarged epiglottis, and so the doctor wants to make sure it’s not affecting her oxygen level. We probably won’t know for a few weeks, but we need to go and put the monitor on her foot now that she fell asleep, so I will say, good night!!!

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles

Well, it’s been a while since I posted. That’s because it’s been a while since I have been home! It ended up Hubby got a last minute class in Boston, and I said that the baby and I would be happy to tag along. So, a week prior to departure, we got airline tickets and 8 days ago we headed off on our first trip as 3.

The baby did pretty darn well on the airplane. Especially considering that she cut her second tooth that same day! She didn’t fuss much at all.

We flew into Hartford, CT and had dinner with my uncle and cousins that night. We stayed in Rocky Hill, CT that night and the next day we headed down to Gram’s house for a visit. The baby is the only girl great grand-daughter. And Gram is the baby’s only living great grandmother.

After eating lunch with her and spending time, we were off to Hubby’s aunt’s house. We had dinner with 2 of his Aunt’s and families. We stayed that night again in Rocky Hill. Monday morning we packed up and headed north. We stopped at the Yankee Candle Factory in Deerfield, MA. It is a LARGE store and probably billions of candles. It was pretty neat.

From there we headed over to Woburn, MA. That is where Hubby’s class was that he was teaching. After we were set up and moved into our hotel room, we took the train and headed into Boston. We met up with Hubby’s cousin Ashley at the Union Oyster House and had a very yummy dinner. (www.unionoysterhouse.com) After dinner we walked over to the North End and stopped at Mike’s Pastry. We got a box full of pastry that was delicious! (www.mikespastry.com)

The class started on Tuesday. The baby and I took that day to do nothing.

Wednesday the baby and I went to the next town over, Stoneham, to the Stone Zoo. (www.stonezoo.org) We are so spoiled with our zoo here that the Stone Zoo just paled in comparison. But it was something to do; we walked around and looked at all the animals. It was a nice day, so it was fun. From there we went to the cemetery where my grandparents on my mom’s side are buried.

That night my cousin came down from Vermont. The next morning, we three girls took the train into Boston. We spent the day shopping! (www.fanueilhallmarketplace.com) After his class was over that evening, Hubby came into town and met us for dinner. We had a delicious Italian meal on the North End. And we made another stop at Mike’s Pastry.

Friday, the baby and I took the train into Boston again and met Ashley at the Aquarium. (www.neaq.org) I have been there tons of times growing up, but I still always enjoy it. We saw them operating on a fish! The fish was out of water lying on the table! They pump water over the gills with syringes. It was pretty cool! After that we went and got some lunch before Ashley had to head off for work.

The baby and I cruised around Fanueil Hall a little bit more before taking the train back to Woburn. That night the 3 of us headed up to the Curless homestead for dinner. And after that, of course a stop at Kimball Farms. (www.kimballfarm.com)

Saturday on the way back down to CT, we stopped and had breakfast with my Aunt Doris and Cousin June and her husband Steve. We also stopped at the cemetery where my grandparents on my dad’s side are buried.

We then headed down to Waterbury, CT. Hubby’s parents had come up for a week’s vacation as well. So, after settling into our hotel and taking a nap, we headed to Gram’s apartment. Hubby’s Aunt Patty, Uncle Dave, and Aunt Bonnie were all there visiting as well. So we got to catch up with several people. We stayed there, played cards, and drank wine until late.

The next morning, we met up for breakfast and then went to the cemetery to see Hubby’s grandfather’s graves. He has 2 in the same cemetery.

After saying our goodbyes, we hit the road and drove an hour north to Bradley Field. Our trip home was pretty good as well. The second flight the baby slept really well.

We had to stop at my parent’s house to pick up the dogs, and then we finally made it home. We were all exhausted. The baby hasn’t slept enough the last week, so she will probably spend a lot of time today catching up on sleep. Or at least I hope.

I had a great time. We had short visits with many family members. I wish all the visits could have been longer, or that we could visit everyone more frequent. I really enjoyed seeing everyone again. The baby did pretty good overall considering her lack of long naps. She is now a traveler!!

8 months

The baby is 8 months old today!

It’s been a while since I last posted here. Sorry. Things have been busy. Let me try to see if I can remember every thing. The baby is in physical therapy now. She hates it. She cries the whole time. The therapist stretches her neck in several different directions, and of course it’s not what she wants to do, so she tells everyone how much she hates it.

She isn’t crawling yet. She rolls everywhere. She rolls so much it’s getting difficult just to change her diaper. You put her on the changing table and the next thing you know, she is rolling over.

She still only has 1 tooth. But it’s a beauty! It’s in all the way and she shows it off occasionally when she’s in the mood. I keep trying to feel for more teeth, but she has also figured out how to squeeze her lips shut tight! So, feeling for more teeth isn’t always easy.

We got tickets to go to Boston in a week, so we are trying to get her off her wedge pillow as fast as possible. Right now she is not napping on it. In fact, right now, she is supposed to be napping. She has been in her crib for an hour and a half, and she hasn’t slept a wink. She has been rolling all over her crib exploring every corner. And of course, now that I need to get her up in about 15 minutes, she is settling down. She did take 2 naps at day care off her pillow there. Hopefully this will be the end of our pillows! We really don’t want to have to take it with us to Boston.

Hubby spent the past week in Dallas, TX. He is on an airplane right now on his way home. He is teaching a class in Boston, and I decided it would be fun to go. So, we are taking our first official family vacation together.

The weather is getting warmer. It was in the high 70’s today. I have had the air conditioner running for the past few days. This weekend is supposed to be even warmer.

Work has been keeping me busy. Oh, and I went to Denver last weekend. I helped with the Grand Opening of the new WnW in Littleton. I drove up Friday night and stayed in a hotel overnight. I worked 12 hours on Saturday and then spent the night at a hotel again. I worked several hours on Sunday and then drove home. So, Hubby got his first taste at being a single dad.

Tonight was such a nice night that the baby and I took a nice long stroll around the block. People were out mowing lawns and pulling weeds. Then you get to our house. Uugh, it needs work. The lawn needs mowed, but the lawn guys should be here Monday. The fence needs repaired. That will have to wait till June now, since we are going to be gone. The house needs a coat of paint, but that will really have to wait.

Our cleaning lady quit on us. So, I guess either I need to get my butt back in gear or find someone else. That was kind of a bummer.

Buddy is doing well. He had his eye surgery 2 & ½ weeks ago now. He still has his eyes half sewn shut, but he is recovering nice. Thankfully he now has his cone off. That was miserable! He would wake me up at night running it into everything! I was happy to see it go!

Bristol dropped out of his agility class and will start over on May 22. Well, we are actually going to be out of town, so he will actually start May 29. But I am really looking forward to that!

Well, time to go and play with the baby before bed!

Sad Sad Day

No day is good for a funeral, especially for a baby. But, if I had to have a day for a baby’s funeral, I would have chosen today. We woke up to a very grey, foggy, rainy morning.

We took our baby to daycare, and then headed to the office before we headed out for the funeral. The church we went to was a beautiful Catholic church in the Rockrimmon area. I believe it used to be an Abbey. It was the St. Francis of Assisi Parrish.

The ceremony was beautiful. It was emotionally very tough, they brought the casket in at the beginning and it was so small. And then at the end, walking it out to the hearse, it was so hard to see it. As we were leaving we stopped to talk to our friends (the parents). I was hugging the dad and he was crying saying, ‘this wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Courtney and Thomas were supposed to play together.’ That got both Hubby and I pretty good. Thank goodness I did remember to bring a box of tissues.

We did not go to the internment. I just don’t think I could handle it. They did ask everyone to come by the house later, so that we did plan on.

After the service, we went to pick up a gift certificate for them. We found a meal fix-it place in their neighborhood, so a bunch of us got together and got them a gift certificate so that they can make the meals, or even get them delivered. It’s very similar to the Supper Solutions that I use just a different company, different name. After that we went and got some lunch and then back to the office for a little bit.

Later that afternoon we headed over to their house to give them the gift certificate. They, of course, have lots of family in town. So their house was pretty full. Plus there were other friends there. We were able to spend some time talking to our friends for the first time since this happened. We were able to get a few more answers to our questions.

We finally left their house and went to get our baby. We were so happy to see her, we just hugged her tight. It’s scary for us to think how close we may have been to that same situation.