Christmas 2012

Christmas 2012 was spent with both sets of grandparents in Massachusetts.  We spent a few days in Newburyport and then Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning in Concord and then back to Newburyport that evening.  After 2 more nights in Newburyport we spent the rest of the week in Concord and just made it home.  It was a crazy week and we are glad to be home.  Emma's first Christmas coincided with her first tooth which broke through on December 23rd.  Her next tooth is close behind it.  Needless to say she was a little fussy this week as well.  What better way to show a babies first Christmas than with pictures so here they are.

Daddy teaching Emma how to frost cookies for Santa

Trying herself but yes some did get in her hair

Her finished cookie

Showing off her Christmas PJ's before her nap Christmas Eve morning

I kind of love this picture

Airplane with Grandma to show off the reindeer butt

In her Christmas Eve dress with Grandma and Aunt Sarah and her teething ring

The book says it all ... bedtime on Christmas Eve

Christmas morning with her bows (her favorite things all day) and Grandma

Hanging out with Grandpa

Playing with her new toys with daddy while Wembley supervises

What the rest of the family was doing

Christmas Day #2 with Aunt Sarah seeing what Santa left in her stocking

Showing off some of the goodies

Modeling her new hat from Grandma

Wembley and Lola had some goodies from Santa too

Emma is lost in all her toys and gifts :)

The last night we had a good snow storm.  Wembley was supervising while they shoveled and moved cars around.

First Fever

Oops I just found this post from a few weeks ago that I wrote but never posted so here it is...

I think it is appropriate that her first fever post follows her first daycare post as that is likely where she got it.  She has had a few colds that don't even stop her in the past but never had a fever.  Even after all her shots she has gone fever free.  Until today.  I knew this day would come sooner or later.  She had a little runny nose yesterday which we didn't think much of.  This morning she wasn't as perky as usual but seemed ok.  I put her down for her morning nap and 3 hours later she was still sleeping which is unusual.  She stirred a little so I went to get her thinking we were going to Gymboree.  When I picked her up she was really warm and I took her temp which was 101.8.  Now I have treated many babies with fevers but it is different when it is your own and you just feel so bad for them.  We have spent the day loaded up with Tylenol or Motrin and the temp has gone down but never below 100.4.  She spent the next 7 hours in my arms either napping or just being held as she cried and was fussy whenever I put her down until bed time.  Hopefully tomorrow is a better day.

And the follow up is the next day was better and by the end of the week she was doing great.

Day Care

Emma had her first day at day care yesterday.  Gary's work has a transitional day care we can use occasionally.  They give you 40 days for the baby's first year and then 20 days a year after that.  I had to go to an appointment in the morning so I dropped her off around 9am.  In order to get there on time I got up at 6am to shower, get her up, nurse her, change her, walk the dog, eat and take the subway into the city.  It was a long day before I even made it there.  Once I got her settled in at daycare and nursed her again it was about 9:45am.  I give props to any working moms who have to do all of that on a daily basis.  Sarah and I enjoyed a nice lunch mid day and then I decided that while I was there I would get my hair cut which I hadn't done in about 5-6 months.  Emma however didn't have as easy of a day as me.  She didn't really nap there and still doesn't like to take the bottle but did manage to take a few ounces mid day.  I made sure to only leave her for one feeding so she would be ok.  When I finally got there to pick her up around 3pm she was clinging to the daycare worker half asleep in the rocking chair.  She took a great nap in the subway on the way home and when we walked the dog.  Overall though the care providers were extremely nice and she seemed to like them.  The facility is nice and I think Gary enjoyed that he could sneak downstairs in the morning and during his lunch to say hi to her.  There is still something strange though about dropping your baby off at a day care in Times Square.  I think we are going to go a little more often now to get her used to it as I think it is good for her.  Maybe she will also start drinking better from a bottle so mom can have a few more days out.  It also gives me time to get things done in the city and probably in the near future go for some job interviews if I ever send out my resume.  I think next time we might just go for an afternoon though.

Thanksgiving

So I have been so busy lately I have had no time to post.  I had intended to write posts about Emma's first snow fall and her dislike for broccoli.  Well that didn't happen so here is the quick recap.  We had our first snow fall a few weeks ago.  Wembley loved it and Emma didn't really notice. :)  I will say it made me realize that it will be harder to get around as pushing a stroller through the snow is a bit of a challenge so I chose to wear her in the Ergo.  It worked well but once the ground gets slippery that will prove to be more of a challenge.  As for broccoli, well Emma is starting to make is quite clear when she doesn't like things as she did when we tried to feed her broccoli.  I even tried mixing it in with carrots which she liked but she wasn't fooled.  Oh well on to the next food.

Now back to Thanksgiving.  We hosted Thanksgiving this year which is why I haven't had time to post.  Between cleaning the house to prepare for our guests and preparing the food all while taking care of Emma I haven't had a free second.  Last week I think I was just burned out and took the week to relax a little.  My parent's came in to the city Tuesday evening and came out Wednesday morning to hang out with me and Emma.  While Emma napped my dad stayed home with her and my mom and I went all over the area buying pies and cookies and of course wine.  Everything else had been delivered Tuesday evening (I love Fresh Direct).  Wednesday afternoon we headed to Brooklyn where Sarah hosted us all for a nice evening.  Thursday was spent cooking and eating as any good Thanksgiving is. Friday I went in and met Sarah, my mom and dad and we had lunch and walked around the city.  We spent a lot of Thanksgivings at my Grandparent's house in Westchester and I always remember going into the city the day after Thanksgiving so it brought back memories.  Saturday my mom, Sarah and I went to see Nice Work If You Can Get It on Broadway with Matthew Broderick.  I was a good show and after Gary brought Emma into the city and my dad met us as well for dinner.  Emma and I took the train to Penn Station the next day to see my parents before they headed home.  Overall it was a fun week but very exhausting for all of us.  I don't have any pictures to share from the week unfortunately.

Family Photo Shoot

Over the weekend we went out to try and get a good family portrait.  We took a few pictures of each other and then set up the tripod to get some of all of us.  A little editing on the computer later and I think we got a few good shots.  We will likely use one or more of them as a Christmas Card picture so I am not releasing our favorites yet but here are a few that are in the top 30 or so but aren't going to be used for the card.  For those of you who like to order my pictures from Shutterfly (Mom, Hermine) they won't be on the site until after the holidays but check back then. :)

Wembley is looking at us trying to figure out what we want him to do

As he heard the camera click he spun around.  I love his ears in this picture.

I was playing with the colors in lightroom here taking out all the background color

Emma looking happy

Gary teaching Emma how to look annoyed at the camera.  I love how they have the same expression here.

Happy Emma again

Hurricane Sandy

Well Emma has officially been through her first hurricane.  As it was heading towards NY we made the decision that we would stay with my parents while Gary held down the fort at home.  While we didn't get hit head on in MA we certainly felt the impact of the storm with the winds and rain.  I can only imagine that Gary was feeling it much more but was also sitting at home thankful that he didn't have to go out and walk the dog. :)  Luckily the area where we live was relatively spared by the storm.  Sure there are trees down and you can tell something went on but we never lost power and many of the stores in the area are business as usual just 2 days later.  Unfortunately many parts of NY were not as lucky and are still trying to recover.  The subway has been shut down for several days which led to a long and horrible commute by bus today for Gary now that the stock market has reopened.  We made it home Wednesday (2 days after the storm) and overall it was a relatively easy drive.  I wanted to fill up the tank before getting home since gas might be hard to get and really expensive in the near future for a while.  After stopping at 2 gas stations without power I managed to find one that was open and thankfully had no line.  I filled up and hopefully it will last for a while as we don't drive much as it is and I will drive even less now that there is a gas shortage.  10 miles down the road I started to see gas stations with really long lines and was thankful that my tank was now on full.  The average gas line in our area is taking people 2-3 hours to get gas and they are only allowed 10 gallons at most places.  Here are a few pictures of the storm aftermath in our neighborhood and spending time with Grandpa in our extended stay in MA.

Reaching for Grandpa's Hand

Just Hanging Out

A limb fell on this car just down the street from our house.

This is a street just behind where we live and where we walk everyday with Wembley.  At least their house was ok and most of the damage was to the garage.

Further down the same road

Cut up tree limbs lining the side of the road

Halloween

Emma's first Halloween is fairly uneventful.  We made it home from MA and I dressed Emma in her duck costume and we went to walk Wembley around the neighborhood.  He is lucky that it was a quick turn around or I would have remembered that I wanted to put him in his costume as well.  I guess he was spared this year.  After we dropped Wembley off at home I met up with Mona, Andrew and Roya and we walked down Austin St. with our girls in their costumes and looked at all the other kids running around.  Emma and I then went home and off to bed she went.  Friday we are meeting with our mom's group in costumes so I would expect another post with costumes coming soon.

Costumes are fun

A "Sitting Duck" :)

The Duck and Ladybug head out for a walk

My little duck in her stroller

Baby Shower Fun

Last weekend Emma, Wembley and I packed up the car and headed to Massachusetts for what was supposed to be a long weekend to celebrate Jean and the future baby boy Rothman.  As we hadn't seen my parents in a while we headed up Thursday so we could spend the day Friday with my parents in Newburyport.  Emma is starting to get a little stranger anxiety but after an initial cry when seeing her grandpa again for the first time she quickly adjusted and loved hanging out with him.  Friday my mom and I spent some time together and took Emma to get bagels in the morning.  She had some quality grandma time in the afternoon while I took the opportunity to run a few errands alone which I never get to do.  Friday night Mona, Andrew and Roya joined us at my parent's house.  Saturday morning we got the girls ready, got a few naps in and hit the road for Somerville.  Lauri was nice enough to host the shower and this was the first time that all 6 of "the girls" from college were together in I think about 3 years.  Katherine (our old roommate) was also there bringing her 10 month old Charlie so all together we had 7 adults and 3.5 kids.  Charlie and Roya enjoyed playing together while they both crawled over Emma who isn't quite as mobile as them yet.  She enjoyed watching them though.  Overall it was a great afternoon with some very cute baby boy clothes and onesie decorating.  That evening we had a low key night at my parent's house eating pizza and Ryan even came to visit.  Sunday Mona and family headed out but I decided to stay a few more days due to the fact that Hurricane Sandy was making her way straight towards NY.

Pumpkin Patch

So the bad news on my computer is that the hard drive is failing.  The good news is that 2 1/2 years ago when we got the computer we got the apple care plan for 3 years so the new hard drive is covered.  I managed to get Emma's pictures off but nothing else.  I am hoping I can rescue all my pictures once I get my computer back.  They told me 5-10 days so until then I am still without a computer and can't update with pictures from my camera.  For now I will have a few sneak peak pictures here and there from my phone.

This weekend in an effort to enjoy fall Gary, Sarah and I ventured out to the Queens Farm Museum to check out the pumpkin patch and corn maze (otherwise known as the Maize Maze).  It was a beautiful day with temps in the high 70's.  The farm museum is a free working farm just a few miles from our house which is great.  During the fall they create a large corn maze every year and have a "pick your own pumpkin" patch.  There are also hay rides and animal feedings.  You can also milk a cow which we ended up not doing although Sarah definitely wanted to.  I think if I didn't have Emma in the carrier I would have been all for it too.  I had opted to leave the stroller in the car which I think was the right decision with the crowd of people.

We bought tickets for the corn maze and stood in line waiting to go in while drinking our apple cider that Sarah got us.  While waiting we made fun of the adults who came out looking so proud of themselves for having just completed the maze (just wait).  The guy in charge gave us some very complicated directions that we didn't understand at all and then sent us on our way.  He said the average time to complete is 35-45 minutes.  We though that seemed long.  As we entered we were given a big flag so they can locate us from above if we get lost and into the maze we went.  Once inside we realized what we had to do.  Basically there are 9 mailboxes with puzzle pieces throughout the maze which when put together show you the map and how to get out.  There are also trivia questions along the way.  I am happy to tell you that we found all 9 puzzle pieces and made our way out of the maze in just about 40 minutes.  I will say that we walked out of that maze very proud of what we had done. :)

After the corn maze we went to the pumpkin patch.  Unfortunately it was actually a bunch of pumpkins in a field that weren't really on the vine anymore so you aren't really picking them.  The line to buy the pumpkins was about an hour long so we decided to just take some pictures with the pumpkins and pass on getting one there that day.  All in all it was a good day and I can't wait to go again when Emma is a little older and she can enjoy more of it.

I will have to add more pictures once my computer is back up and running because I took some good ones.

UPDATE!!!!  Here are the pictures from my real camera.

Waiting in line for the corn maze

After completing the maze

We are so cool

Looking out over the maze

Looking down a path.  The watched the flags so they could find you.

Family shot in the pumpkin patch

My pumpkin with the pumpkins

Emma and Daddy

Gymboree

In an effort to keep my sanity this winter we decided to sign up for Gymboree.  They have many different levels of classes one being 0-6 months and the next 6-10 months.  I didn't really think there would be a point in going until she was around 6 months so she would be more mobile and get more out of it.  Low and behold she will be 6 months next week so we went to check it out.  We went to Play and Learn 2 with Mona and Roya who have been going for a little while.  Emma had a great time.  She is still young for many of the activities but they are designed to encourage her to learn to crawl and I really think she will get there.  By the end of the class she seemed to be learning to move her hands forward.  Besides can you really go wrong when there is a class with music and bubbles?  With 5 classes we can go to a week plus a bunch of open gym times too it will give us lots of opportunities to get out of the house this winter.  Here are a few pictures from our first 2 classes that I managed to get from the phone (computer is still not working).

Playing with Roya

Looking through the tunnel

Climbing (being pushed up) the steps

Proud of herself at the top of the steps

Under the Parachute