Friday, September 28, 2007

Dog Show

Today was a fun day. Gabe is showing a new bitch (dog lingo) named El Sea (get it, she's a Portuguese Water Dog), and Maddie, Aibha, Siobhan and I went to watch. The drive was a little longer than I had anticipated and in the middle of nowhere. But it was beautiful. It's always amazing to me that you can drive about 30 miles outside of DC and totally be in the country-we're talking few homes, lots of beautiful land, fences for miles-kind of country. It was great. Siobhan, the girls and I showed up just in time to see Gabe in the ring and win the puppy class with El Sea. Before you get too excited, he won because he was the only one in the ring, but I'm sure he also won because of his handling skills :) He didn't win "best of breed" so he was done pretty quickly. He had to head back to work and Siobhan, the girls and I stayed for a little while and walked around and looked at some of the other dogs that were being shown. Then we headed back to Alexandria. The girls were tired and a little cranky at that point, but they did well and Maddie was sound asleep for her nap when we pulled up at home. Gabe has dog shows for the rest of the weekend and depending on how I feel, Maddie and I may brave going out there one more time. We'll see. We don't have any other real plans for the weekend-hopefully just some time together and time to relax. We'll see...

Thursday, September 27, 2007

How Many...

times a day can this child get hurt???? I will say that it's tough on the Mom when the baby becomes a walker because they get hurt sooooooooooooooooo much more often! Maddie had a big fall yesterday and now has a bump/bruise/scrape on the top of her forehead. I was scared after she fell, so I called the doctor and they told me to just watch her-but she's been fine since it happened, so no worries. Phew! Today we are going to see Siobhan and Aibha at Open Gym at Gymboree. That will be fun because the girl's haven't seen eachother in a couple of weeks and neither have the moms :) The pictures I've put up are just of Maddie and the past week or so. I can't believe her birthday is so close. Yesterday we went and got stuff for her party in Virginia. It should be fun and maybe Maddie's older friends, Ella & Aibha, can show her how to blow out a candle! Oh, and tonight, The Office, is back on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's an hour long (9-10pm) and I'm really excited. Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy are back on tonight too...very busy TV watching schedule :)

still just 2 teeth

Mad and Tuck...

doing what they do best...

she climbs on him and he doesn't care!


Favorite morning pasttime (tossing newspapers around)

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Tuesday

Hello,
This morning was really cute with Maddie. She just LOVES the dogs and it's fun to watch. She likes to take the pillows off the couch and put them on the ground and pretend to go "nigh-nigh" on them. The dogs were laying right next to her and Tucker was licking her head and Zora was licking her foot :) It made her pause from all her movement and smile. Very cute to watch. I'm really noticing how she's becoming so much more like a kid than a baby. She'll be 1 very soon and her personality (comedian) is shining through. I can see the ways she's getting smarter too. Like, my flip-flops were off yesterday and she went and picked them up, brought them over to me and tried to put them on my feet. It's that whole thing where she understands but she can't talk yet. She says "Dada" all the time and says it to Gabe, but also to the dogs, garbage can, paper, etc. She says "nigh-nigh" when tired, but that can get confused with "num-num" which she says when she's hungry for food (not a bottle). She's learned to clap and loves to do it when music comes on. As her mom, I find the way she thinks and learns to be so interesting-probably more than most of you reading this, but I wanted to chronicle it so that I can remember it. When you're having a baby everyone tells you that it "will fly by" and I'm finding that to be so true. I'm really nostalgic lately for what last year at this time was like. I was VERY pregnant and so excited to meet her and so sick of being pregnant. But, a year later, I miss those feelings...

Friday, September 21, 2007

Home from Las Vegas



Okay, so we landed late last night and picked the baby up and came home and crashed. But, the highlight of our trip to Vegas is in the above video. Yesterday, on our final day in Vegas I wanted to go play my Wheel of Fortune slot machine over at the Venetian. Well, I played for a couple rounds and then we decided to get some breakfast. When we were done, the machine called to me. I went back and put $10 in. I played for a while and all of the sudden, I hit the jackpot!!! I won 1800 quarters or $450!!! It was awesome. Gabe and I were so happy and we left so that we didn't blow our winnings. Best trip ever!!! In Vegas, we also went to dinner at Tom Collichio's restaurant (the guy from TopChef) called Craftsteak, where I had the best lobster ever. We went to see Penn & Teller's magic show and took pic's with them and got autographs after the show. We went to the trade show for pet stuff (the main reason we went to Vegas) and we gambled. As we were leaving the hotel (The Wynn-which I HIGHLY recommend) John O'Hurley (Elaine's boss on Seinfeld) passed us as we waited for our bags in the foyer of the Wynn's Tower Suites! So much fun. We just had a really good time and while I really missed Maddie, it was a nice break. Today, we are back to the grind :)

Monday, September 17, 2007

Video & Recap of our weekend



Gabe and I were away on Saturday and Saturday night. We went to a beautiful wedding about an hour away and Maddie stayed with Sandy and Carlos. She did great-which is good, because we leave at 4:30am tomorrow morning for Vegas and they will be watching her again. We are headed there for a trade show and to have some fun. I'm writing this while trying to upload a new short video of Maddie from this morning. I spent a lot of time on Friday trying to upload a much longer video, but it took forever and then timed out! Frustrating. So, Siobhan, I'm trying :) Today, I have a lot to do. Laundry, take a walk (it FINALLY feels like Fall here :), play, clean, get the house ready for our house-sitters, pack, etc.
Back to the wedding. It was really amazing. Gabe's good friend since high school got married at her Dad's 300+ acre estate in Easton, MD. It was awesome. It was the first Jewish wedding I've ever attended, and I really enjoyed the ceremony. There was great food, a cocktail hour that included a sushi bar as well as passed hors d'oeuvres, then onto the reception. There were white flip flops available for every woman to wear instead of their heels (Thank God), a candy bar where you could choose any candy to take home with you, a live band that were sooooo good and lots of dancing. We had a blast.
Yeah, the video worked!! I have another one of her eating that I may try to put up too!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Wednesday 9-12-07

Hello All,
Well, I remember this day last year very well. I was 9 months pregnant and driving to visit Alexa and her new baby Ella when I got the call. My brother Dan and his wife Jen had a baby boy and named him Logan. I remember crying tears of happiness on the drive (very emotional when preggers) and just being so happy for them to have had a healthy little boy. It felt exciting and reminded me once again, that many women I know had had babies and in less than a month I would too. So, happy 1st birthday to my nephew Logan John!!! Today, Maddie, Gabe and I are going to the memorial service for their family friend who passed away over the weekend. Then it's home to do laundry while Maddie naps and hopefully finish the movie I started yesterday called "Desk Set." Lizzy loves classic movies and I always want to watch them, but I want to know ahead of time if they will be good. Well, she made me an extensive list and I've started ordering them through Netflix and I'm halfway through my first one. Lizzy, so far I LOVE it. Good choice. That's all for now. We're getting ready around here to leave Maddie on Saturday for the night (we are going to a wedding an hour away and staying there) and then we come home for 2 days and leave her again (we're going to Vegas for a trade show from next Tues-Thurs) so there seems to be a lot to do to get ready. I'm not so happy to be leaving her-in fact I'm sad, but I keep telling myself she won't remember this. Plus, it should all be very fun. Enjoy your day...

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Season Opener

Hello All,
Hope you've had a great weekend. Sorry it's taken me so long to blog, but for some reason this week got really busy. Now we can relax. The pic above, is me today, tailgating with Gabe before the Redskins Season Opener. It was fun. I'm trying to hold up the chip I was eating to show you that it's in the shape of Idaho. I thought it was funny. Redskins won in overtime and normally I wouldn't care that much, but I've made a decision to try and not hate football so much. So, to help me not hate it, I'm trying to pay attention to it more. However, due to the +90 degree heat and humidity today, I spent a lot of time indoors in air conditioning. I now have a slight sunburn and feel pretty dehydrated. I tried to drink a bunch of water and only had a couple of beers, but it was way too hot for me. The point is that I spent a lot of time thinking about how hot I was feeling (and what ways I could alleviate that uncomfortable-ness) that I had a hard time understanding a lot of what happened in the game. Gabe understands and has admitted that I'm "kind of" a trooper. Guess that's better than nothing :)
So, looking at the week ahead. A close friend of Gabe's family passed away yesterday morning and so I know we will have his memorial service to attend-just not sure when. We also have to get ready to go out of town to a wedding next weekend-Maddie is staying with Carlos and Sandy overnight, so I need to get a few things ready for that as well. Elisabeth's birthday is tomorrow and Logan's is Wednesday and Jen's is next Sunday! Lot's of September birthday's in my family. I'm finishing up with my physical therapy this week (only 3 more sessions!!!) and then they discharge me until/unless I need more help for my neck. But, that brings to mind that another thing I need to do this week is find out where I can get acupuncture for my neck issue. I'm really interested in trying it out. Lot's of people swear by it. So, that's the week so far. We will also be doing Gymboree and seeing Siobhan and Aibha (our buddies). Sounds pretty full. I promise to blog many more times this week...

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Check this out...

Here's Maddie walking this afternoon! Enjoy.

Worth a thousand words....



Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Sick!

Hello All,
We had a very uneventful Labor day because all 3 of us are SICK! Maddie has been fighting this for a week or so, and now Gabe and I have it. Yesterday was the worst. We were both bed and couch bound, low energy, nauseous, coughing, runny nosed...you get the picture. We were supposed to do a BBQ at Sandy and Carlos' house, but that plan didn't work out. We took lots of Dayquil and then Nyquil to help us feel better today. Gabe went to work and I'm home with the baby, and our plan is to take it easy. Bummed because it's Gymboree today, but we won't go and make everyone else sick too! We may venture out to the grocery store, but that's looking like that's all we'll do today. Sorry there's not much going on for me to blog about. Hope you all had a fun Labor day and I'll write when there's more to say. Oh, and many of you know (either because I've talked to you on the phone or I've seen you in person) but Maddie is walking. She's been walking for about 2 weeks or so-but she's really gotten the hang of it (and chooses it generally over crawling) for the past week. It's really cute because she's small and still looks so much like a baby-I think it surprises people.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Sunday, 9/2/07

Hello,
Well, I'm barely awake. I had the luxury of sleeping in (7:14am) while Gabe got the baby, fed her, walked dogs, fed dogs, unloaded the dishwasher and made coffee!!! Yesterday afternoon we had some friends over for a BBQ and to hang out since we hadn't seen them in a while. Zach, Faith and Alex all came and we had Cherry Cola Ribs and TONS of other food. It was a lot of fun. We found out that Zach and Faith are pregnant and due in March-which was really exciting as they have been trying for a while. It was great news because now maybe we will see more of them. It's hard with a lot of Gabe's friends, because we are the only one's with a child. With my friends it's different-everyone seems to have at least one :) Not sure why; probably girls vs. guys. Many of Gabe's friends aren't even married-so we both understand why we don't see them all that often. Although, Gabe's excited because he and Alex are going golfing when I get home from church. They spent a lot of time yesterday re-gripping Gabe's clubs and now he can't wait to try them out. As for me, I'm off to church, then home with the baby. Later, Sandy will take her and I'm going shopping for a dress for the wedding we're going to in 2 weeks. It's a really fancy wedding (I've heard) and Siobhan lent me a dress (thank you) but Gabe didn't think it was fancy enough-so the hunt is on. It's too hard to shop for and try on dresses with Maddie with me because now that she's a walker, she only will be happy in the stroller if it's moving-otherwise she figures, "let me out! I wanna walk!" She is getting so coordinated at walking and I love her determination. She falls (a lot) but she always gets up again-I hope this will be her take on life :) Happy Labor Day (tomorrow) for those of you that work and those of us who've gone through labor :) :)