Happy Anniversary!

It's been 5 years now since I married my best friend. Jessica called this morning to wish us a happy anniversary. She said the weather down in Maryland today is just like it was the day we got married- the air is crisp, the sun is shining- it's a perfect fall day. Our wedding day really was perfect in every way.

It's hard to believe that 5 short years later, we have two amazing kids, a house, etc.- we're like real grown ups now! I love the life we've built together and I could not ask for more.

Happy Anniversary to the very best man I know!

6 Week Checkup

Today I had my 6 week postpartum checkup. Crazy to think that its already been 6 weeks since Leyla came into our life! I feel like just in the last week or so everything really came together. Some small victories: she's on a great schedule now (I follow the E-A-S-Y method: Eat, Activity, Sleep, You as described in one of my favorite parenting books "The Baby Whisperer," Mom-to-be friends, check it out!), she's sleeping great at night (in her own room!), I've been able to time up naptime so that both kids are down at the same time each day (score!), she's eating every 3.5-4 hours, we had friends over for dinner for the first time last weekend (first trial run at entertaining while simultaneously parenting two kids- I think it went well), Leyla and I drove into NYC for our first "city playdate" last week and we have our first non-family sitter coming this weekend so that Andrew and I can go out to dinner for our anniversary- whew! The thing I love most about Leyla right now (besides her snuggliness, if that's even a word) is her social smiles- she's smiling constantly! You give her one bit of attention and she just eats it up. Yesterday she, Connor and I were playing on the floor and she started grinning at him. Connor said (unprompted) "Mommy I love baby Leyla!" So sweet!

At the doctor's office this morning she was snoozing until the nurses started oohing and ahhing over her which is when she woke up to flash them this sweet face (gotta love the iphone to capture moments like this.)

We are just lovin' this baby girl!

Boo Fest

I'm trying to play catch up with my blog posts. I feel like there's been so much going on lately! Monday was Connor's "Boo Fest" Halloween party at his school. Rather than have the kids wear their costumes to school the kids each decorated a t-shirt for their Halloween parade (Connor will get to wear his real costume in the town Halloween parade on Sunday!)

All the kids in their shirts.

Here they come!

Connor played the triangle.

The spectators (mostly just us Moms but one other class came out to watch too).

Afterwards everyone returned to the classroom for some pumpkin muffins.


Yum.

I had tucked Leyla (fast asleep) in the corner of the classroom and when I went to check on her found her (still asleep) like this. Poor girl, nobody puts Baby in the corner! Unless of course she's the second child ;)

Connor's Field Trip to the Apple Orchard

Let me start by saying how much I love Connor's school (almost as much as he does!) It's just such a fun place and the kids get to do so many fun things. The parents get to participate a lot too, I feel like I'm there at least once a week doing something. I like that I already know all the kids (14!) in his class and most of their parents too. Every couple weeks the kids get to go on a field trip. Parents are welcome to join too which I always do. The school is located in town so the kids can walk to almost all of them. Field trips include an apple orchard, the Nature Center, the fire station, the post office, the library, and Baskin Robbins (can't wait for that one!). The kids get visits from outsiders too- recently it was "fire safety" week so a big firetruck came to visit and all the kids got to climb aboard. There was also a recent visit by a small animal petting zoo! The most recent field trip was to an apple orchard (which was really just someone's house with tons and tons of apple trees on the property). We both had lots of fun and came home with so many apples.

Picking away.

Connor saying "Mommy- I'm having SO much fun!!" (one of his favorite things to say)- my boy loves life!

He was really into using the "big rake" (as he called it) to get the apples.

The prize.

As usual Leyla was really into it.

Afterwards the kids got to see an apple cider making demonstration!


This was two weeks ago and we're still eating the apples!

Pictures

Just some misc. pictures from the last week.


She makes this face a lot and it always makes me laugh. I think she sort of looks like a baby turtle (Future Terp!) I thought the same thing about Connor when he was a baby!

Connor playing with his cars. I had to take a picture because I noticed that among his faves are the Tokyo police car and ambulance, the NYC police car and taxi and the suburban school bus. How crazy that so far he's spent one year of his life in each these places! What a life!

Speaking of toys, Leyla really loves the mobile in her crib. It belongs to Tracey who let me borrow it when she heard my nursery theme. Thanks Tracey!

Can you guess the theme? Ha. I may have gotten slightly carried away...

These little suede booties were Connor's. A friend from Tokyo gave them to me. I always thought they would be more fitting for a girl, and now they are Leyla's! I love to play with her little feet.

Little girl's first winter coat (which I got from Baby Gap for $10 and was so excited about.) I love getting to shop in both the boy and girl sections of the store!

Connor looking ultra handsome on school picture day last week. Stacy gave him this argyle sweater as a gift while we were home in MD. She said it looked like something he would wear, which is funny- because he actually owned it in a smaller size. I was so sad when he outgrew it last year. Thanks again Stacy! On picture day I gave him a bath in the morning rather than the night before so his hair wouldn't be all funky after going to bed with wet hair. This might be the first time his hair has ever looked normal so I should probably do this more often.

Our driveway. New England in the fall is no joke. You can't help but be in a great mood when you're outside these days.

Today while Connor and I were getting the mail a firetruck with its lights on went down our street (super exciting for one of us!). We don't get to see many emergency vehicles in action these days!

I still love to take pictures of him in his carseat. He just looks so big in there these days. Ahh my sweet boy.

And lastly, my sweet little girl... 6 weeks old today!!

Happiness

is this snuggly little baby!

Leyla's MD Roadshow, Part 2

Saturday night (last weekend) Jessica and Chad had their annual Oyster Roast party at their house. Perfect opportunity to swing by with Leyla and meet the whole gang. Jessica is expecting baby #2 in April by the way!

Jessica, Stacy, Leyla and I. These girls have been my best friends for so long and we always laugh so much when we get together. Wish I got to see them more often :(

Jessica's brother and sister, my 2nd family growing up. I was so happy to see them.

Stacy with Jessica's son Carter. He's so darn cute.

Sara held Leyla for the majority of the party. This picture of her made me laugh.

The next morning before we left Jackie stopped over to meet the little miss as well! It was so nice to see her and Connor was excited to see "Aunt Jackie."

The drive back from MD was not so fun. It's always hairy driving back to the NY area on Sunday afternoons but this was extreme. There was an accident on 95 (before we even hit the turnpike!) where traffic was completely stopped for 1.5 hours. Leyla was due to eat and cried/screamed pretty much the whole time. Unfortunately there was nowhere that I could pull off, we were just totally stuck. Andrew happened to call us from Tokyo during this time and he got a mighty earful from me, oops. Once traffic finally started moving again I was able to stop to feed her and all was well again although there was still tons of traffic and we moved very slowly. Around 8pm I found a McDonald's with one of those big play places, perfect for Connor to blow off some steam in while I nursed Leyla again (might I add that he was a rockstar the whole trip- he never really complained!) We finally pulled into our driveway around 10pm, the drive took us just under 9 hours (it should have been 5 not counting the stops to feed). Lesson learned- there will probably be no more road trips to MD on my own, at least not while I'm still nursing!

Leyla's MD Roadshow, Part 1

Andrew just returned home last night after being gone for nine days- whew! SO glad he's back but I must say that I think we did really well on our own. Before he left we decided that I'd go down to MD with the kids for the weekend, just to have an extra set of hands for two nights. While the drive down was long (8 hours- which included having to stop twice on the Jersey turnpike to nurse and a brief stop at my Grandpa's in NJ), it was well worth the great weekend we had. The kids were so well behaved. Leyla didn't make a peep the whole way down (the drive back was another story but that's for another post) and Connor only complained when I stopped to feed Leyla because he was in such a hurry to get to Grandma's house. Our conversations while I was nursing Leyla were as follows:

Connor: Mommy put baby Yay-ya back in her seat now please and let's go!
Me: Connor I need to feed her so she won't be hungry, it won't be much longer.
Connor: Hurry Mommy, I want to go to Grandmas, let's go!
Me: I'm almost done.
Connor (now crying): No you aren't almost done! You still need to burp her! Don't burp that baby, lets GO! Please Mommy!! I want to go to Grandma's!

So much pressure.

On the way down we stopped at my Grandpa Don's (my Dad's Dad) in New Jersey. I was so happy that I got to introduce him to Leyla while she's still such a little peanut! So great to see you Grandpa D!

Grandpa Don and Connor. For whatever reason Connor was really protesting having his picture taken. I promised him I'd let him take the next picture of Grandpa Don if he'd sit in one for me.

Connor's picture, it made me laugh. Just barely got Grandpa Don in it!

At my Mom's house with my Grandma Alice and my Mom. I was later thinking just how neat it is that Leyla got to meet both of her Great Grandparents this weekend. What a lucky little girl. In order for me to meet my Great Grand-kids someday, Connor or Leyla will have to be Grandparents, how crazy is that to think about?

Grandma Alice with her great grand-daughter. Boy does she love Leyla (and Connor too). While I was there we looked through her recent photo albums together. My Mom prints out all the pictures from my blog and Grandma puts them in her photo album. I thought it was so great.

My Dad came over to visit on Saturday. He spent some time with Leyla and then we took Connor and Leyla to the playground. Then Dad and I went out to lunch by ourselves while the kids napped back at my Mom's. A great visit. Here's Leyla and her Gramps (he's was a big fan of the little miss).

Proud Grandparents.

My Dad made these awesome shirts for the kids.

And that was just Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. More pictures from the weekend to come!

Little Smiles!

During a diaper change today there was a camera sitting close by so I managed to capture a few little smiles!




Ok enough already Mom!!!

And for comparison purposes, here was Connor's first smile caught on film ;)

Cheers to happy babies!