Sleepy Monster

After making the banana baby food, I cleaned up and was planning on going on a walk with AJ and Timber.  But AJ had a different plan in mind.  While I was getting dressed for our walk, I put AJ on our bed to rest for a few minutes so I could have my two hands free.  I then went into our master bathroom to brush my teeth and as I'm brushing my teeth I look over at AJ and he had stopped moving.  (He was playing around with Mr. Teddy while I was getting ready.)  I didn't think he had fallen asleep - I thought that maybe I had just caught him in a moment of rest from playing with Mr. Teddy.  But to my surprise when I walked over to the bed, he was fast asleep holding on to Mr. Teddy's bowtie.  He looked absolutely adorable so of course I had to document with pictures.

Timber joined in on the napfest

Bananas!

Bananas are one of the best foods to start your baby with when introducing solids.  So with that in mind, Michael went out to the store and bought about 20lbs of bananas (no joke!) for us to puree and make into baby food.  I decided to make the second batch of bananas while AJ was awake and I sat him in his bumbo seat next to where I was preparing the bananas on the counter.  He was touching the bananas and trying to help mommy.  It was too cute!

Hmmm... these bananas look yummy!

Just trying to help Momma out

Hi Mom!

The set up

Happy Thanksgiving!

AJ's first Thanksgiving was a quiet one with just the immediate family and Great Gram.  Nonetheless, we had a nice and relaxing day full of family, food and fun!

The family

The turkey

It was my little man's first Thanksgiving

Katie playing around with AJ as I was changing him

Katie loves her little cousin, even if he is a boy! haha

Quality time with Babcia

'Look Cioci, Mommy is letting me use my hands to eat with!'

Finger lickin' good!

Allie-Cat

Quality time with Dziadzi

Allie loves playing with AJ

'Stop taking pictures, Cioci Kimmy!'

10 Day Challenge - Day 10

Day 10 - One Picture of Myself

[Picture courtesy of Studio 1923]

10 Day Challenge - Day 9

Day 9 - Two Songs

1.  I Want You by Savage Garden.  I remember Kimmy and I sitting in our front spot near NFA in the mornings trying to learn all of the lyrics to this song my freshman year of high school.  At the time, I didn't realize the song was by Savage Garden (aka Darren Hayes).  Who knew that this song would start my love for the band and would make me want to follow Darren through his solo career?!

2.  The Best Thing by Ray LaMontagne.  I originally fell in love with this song when I was searching for wedding songs.  It immediately made me think of Michael because he is 'the best thing' to happen to me.  And now that I have my little AJ - he is the other best thing to happen to me.

Sweet Potatoes

We've been feeding AJ pears for the past few days and he has absolutely loved them.  He's been eating about 5 cubes at each sitting and thankfully, he hasn't had any adverse reaction to them.  So now it's time to try some sweet potatoes.  By these pictures you might think he doesn't like them, but don't let his expressions in these pictures fool you.  He gobbled those sweet potatoes right up and wanted more!!

10 Day Challenge - Day 8

Day 8 - Three Films

1.  Life as a House.  This is probably my all-time favorite movie.  It has such a good message in it.

2.  The Notebook.  I'm a sap for love stories and this one gets me every. single. time. 

3.  Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  This movie mainly takes place in Hawaii on the island of Oahu at Turtle Bay Resort.  And seeing that resort in the movie convinced me and Michael enough to go there on our honeymoon.  It was everything we had expected and more!

10 Day Challenge - Day 7

Day 7 - Four Books

1.  Australia: Images of a Timeless Land by Peter Lik.  This is the book that made me want to get into photography.

2.  The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks.  I love almost every book by Nicholas Sparks, but the love story in this particular book is so so sweet.

3.  8,789 Words of Wisdom.  It's a book with a ton of quotes and sayings in it.  And if you know me, you know I love that type of stuff.

4.  Any of the PostSecret books.  People's secrets fascinate me. 

More Tummy Time!

I love putting AJ on tummy time and just watching him.  He usually always looks into the camera and I am able to snap some cute pics!

Freshly Bathed

I haven't taken a bath picture of AJ in quite some time.  I whipped out my camera today after he just got out of the bath, and even though he wasn't loving the camera, I still got a quick pic of him!

10 Day Challenge - Day 6

Day 6 - Five Foods

1.  My mom's meatloaf.  It's pretty amazing and I have the recipe.  I consider myself lucky. 

2.  A good steak.  Nothing can beat a steak with sauteed onions and mushrooms.  Yummy!

3.  Chocolate.  It's my downfall.  I'm aware of it and trying to work on my problem!

4.  Almond cake with buttercream frosting.  The Cake Lady in New London makes an awesome almond cake with yummy frosting (she made our wedding cake), but so does my sister.  They are both equally as good!

5.  Lobster.  When I was a kid we would try to have lobster at least once a year in the summer.  We would cook them outside so the house wouldn't smell and we would sit out at the picnic table with some butter and enjoy the feast.  We definitely need to continue this tradition with our kids - it's a New England summer thing. 

10 Day Challenge - Day 5

Day 5 - Six Places

1.  Home.  Nothing beats being with my family in our cozy little house.

2.  Vermont.  Michael and I took our first trip as a couple up to Vermont.  We visited a bunch of breweries and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  Vermont will always hold a special place in my heart. 

3.  Any place in Australia.  I studied abroad for a semester in Brisbane and traveled all over the country.  I hope to bring my family to Australia one day so they can experience the awesomeness of kangaroos, the Great Barrier Reef and the gorgeous scenery. 

4.  Orlando, Florida - more specifically Walt Disney World.  We were fortunate enough to visit there almost every other year as children and it definitely brings back lots of memories.  I love how you can be a kid no matter what age you are.  I cannot wait to bring my family there next year!

5.  Mom and Dad's House.  I must agree with my sister (if you happen to be a reader of her blog as well) -my Mom and Dad's house will always be 'home'.  The comfort I feel as I walk through the doors there is like none other.  

6.  Hawaii.  Going along with the theme of turquoise waters and palm trees - I love Hawaii.  It was our honeymoon destination and I would love to go back there for a second honeymoon for our 10 year anniversary.  Let's start planning!  ;)

10 Day Challenge - Day 4

Day 4 - Seven Wants

I want...

1.  A Canon 7D camera.  I love my Rebel XSi, but the 7D would be amazing! Santa, perhaps?!

2.  My house to be spic and span clean everyday without me having to clean it. 

3.  My child(ren) to know they are so loved and will be supported by us no matter what they choose to do. 

4.  Doctor's to find a cure for my Momma's skin disease. 

5.  To become crafty and more artistic.

6.  To take more pictures.  This would involve my husband actually enjoying being in front of the camera,            which I don't think is going to ever happen!

7.  To live to be old enough to see my kids have kids, and their kids have kids, and so on. I don't ever want to leave my family. 

Sleepy Time

Day 2 of pears went great!  For his morning feeding he had 4 cubes and for his afternoon feeding he had 5 cubes - which is quite the difference from day 1 where he had 1 and 2 cubes, respectively!  I think my little boy likes him some pears! haha    

As I was preparing his 4th and 5th cubes of pears for his afternoon feeding today, Cioci Kimmy noticed he was starting to fall asleep in the high chair.  He was awake enough to eat a bit more so I proceeded to feed him almost all of the pears, but then he legit fell asleep on me in the high chair.  I even have proof. 

Sorry for the poor quality - it was taken with my phone.

How adorable is he?!  After some convincing from Cioci Kimmy, I let him stay in the chair and he slept for about 35 minutes.  My poor little guy was tired! 

The Thinker

I happened to catch AJ in this pose tonight while he was watching me clean.

Pears!

At AJ's 4 month doctor appointment, Dr. Long mentioned that we could start him on solids.  He suggested starting with the four p's - pears, prunes, plums and a'p'ricots - which also happen to be the foods that won't constipate the baby.  So, Michael and I decided pears would be the best out of that group and off we went to the store to buy some yummy pears.  When we got home, Michael boiled, puree'd and put the puree into ice cube trays to freeze and waa-lah, homemade pear baby food was made!

This morning, I decided to start with only one frozen cube of pears to see how AJ would react to it.  I microwaved the pears, added a little bit of breastmilk and cereal and then fed it to him.  He seemed to really like it and kept wanting more.  So for his afternoon feeding, I prepared two cubes of pears with the cereal and breastmilk, and well, AJ was in his glory!  He would fuss in between spoonfuls because I wasn't getting the food to him fast enough!  We'll continue on with just pears this week to make sure he doesn't have any allergic reaction to them, but maybe we'll venture to sweet potatoes next week!

Right before his morning feeding... not so sure about this!

Mmmm... yummy pears.

Give me more, Momma!

Taking in all he can during his afternoon feeding.

What a face!

Helping Momma

Full of pears and happy!

10 Day Challenge - Day 3

Day 3 - Eight Fears

(In no order of importance)

1.  Losing a child.  I don't think I would be able to move on from it.

2.  Not being able to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight.

3.  Losing any of my immediate family.

4.  The dark.

5.  Someone breaking into our house when one of us is home. 

6.  Dying at a young age and leaving my family behind. 

7.  Losing my memory when I get older. 

8.  Becoming a burden to my family. 

10 Day Challenge - Day 2

Day 2 - Nine Loves

Aside from the obvious loves in life - my hubby, my child, my animals, family and friends...

1.  Traveling. My semester in Australia kick started my love for traveling and I haven't looked back.  Seeing the world will never get old.  It's a little bit harder to travel nowadays, but I hope to share my love of travel with my little one when he gets a bit older. 

2.  Darren Hayes.  He's an amazing singer and a songwriter.  I used to get teased a lot for liking him because he's not the normal rock'n'roll kinda guy, but that never stopped me.  I dare you to pick up one of his albums and really listen to his songs.  You won't regret it. 

3.  Photography.  I always said if accounting didn't work out for me that I would love to become a photographer.  And even though accounting did work out for me (kind of - not as of late!), I've been able develop my photography skills on the side and even schedule some awesome sessions.  I can't wait to see what the future holds for me (and my sister) in the photography world. 

4.  Goofy and anything Disney.  My sister and I were very fortunate as young kids to go down to Disney World every other year with our parents.  From these experiences, I've grown to love the character Goofy and to this day, anything related to Goofy makes me smile and takes me back to my childhood.  I will add that it's pretty cool that the Goofy character was introduced on my birthday - May 25th - approximately 50 years before I was born in 1932.

5.  Rainbow-colored anything.  I love bright colors and I've always loved anything that had a rainbow theme color to it.  As I've grown up, the rainbow has become associated with homesexuality, but that hasn't changed my opinion on it.  I love it!

6.  Palm trees and turquoise waters.  This is my happy place.  An ideal vacation would involve going to a place with these two things.  And these things also inspired my bridal shower.  I love everything about them.  

7.  Music.  I think as a dancer this is a given.  You almost always need music to dance, which is why I love a good beat.  But I'm also a sucker for song lyrics.  The beat is usually what catches my ear in the first place, but then if it has good lyrics - I'm in love. 

8.   Dancing.  I've been dancing for over 26 years now and I can't imagine life without it.  Right now, the only dance-type thing I'm doing is zumba, but don't worry - you can sometimes catch me doing a jig in my living room or kitchen with AJ in tow.  We love to dance together!

9.  Beer.  I don't love beer because it is alcohol.  I love beer because it has brought Michael and I closer.  It is something we both enjoy and it has brought us on many adventures together. 

California Love!

Peter and Alicia are my in-law's family and are such nice folk!  They live in San Diego, California but were in town celebrating an early Thanksgiving and wanted to meet our sweet little AJ.  Who could resist a face that cute?!  

Alicia enjoying a cuddle from AJ

10 Day Challenge - Day 1

I've been challenged by my sister to take up the 10 Day Challenge for my blog.  So... here I go...

Day 1 - 10 Secrets

1.  If it wasn't for my family living in CT, I would not hesitate to pack all of our belongings up and move somewhere else.  And that somewhere else would be some place where it's warm.  It would most definitely have to have palm trees and turquoise waters.  Hawaii or Australia, perhaps?!

2.  I wish I was as crafty as my mom and sister.  I bet if I really put my mind to it, I could be - but at this point in my life, I really don't know where I would find the time to learn something new.  So for now, my craftiness consists of my photographic efforts.  But I do need my mom to teach me how to sew within the next year!

3.  While I was pregnant, I knew deep down that I was having a boy.  It absolutely scared the bejeezus out of me because we haven't had a boy in the family in a really long time and I had no idea what to do with a boy.  But all signs led me to believe I was having a boy.  And I was right, which just goes to show that I should really trust my gut feeling about things. 

4.  I miss accounting.  I never thought I would utter those words, but it's true.  When CCR and I parted ways, I was happy to have a break from the auditing/accounting world because I was burnt out.  But now that I've had some time away, I kinda miss being an accounting geek. 

5.  I sometimes feel as though I never really got the full college friend experience.  I was an RA for 4 out of my 5 years (grad year included) and I lived in an alcohol-free dorm my freshman year - needless to say, not many people wanted to be my friend!  haha  Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed college and met a lot of great people, but I always wonder if I wasn't an RA - if I would have had a closer-knit group of college friends that I would keep in touch with today.  

6.  I drink about 100 ounces of water a day.  If I don't, I feel like the day has been a complete failure.

7.  If I could wallpaper my house in pictures of family, friends and other memories we've shared, I would.  I absolutely love pictures and how they bring you back to the place you where when they were taken.  This way, our family would always be surrounded by love and would never forget a memory.

8.  I am a packrat.  I have tried countless times not to be one, but deep down, I am one.  I always think that maybe I'll use that thing (whatever it may be) one more time down the road so I keep it.  But I usually never do and I just end up holding onto it for no reason.  I'm completely jealous of those people that can throw things away easily.  I sometimes wish I was that type of person.  

9.  I have come to love the month of October.  Pumpkin spiced coffee at Dunkin' Donuts.  Pumpkin beer.  Halloween.  The colors orange, purple, green and black together.  The leaves changing color.  And yes, I would miss all of this if I moved to a tropical location, but it wouldn't stop me because I would then be surrounded by palm trees and turquoise waters - and nothing beats that!

10.  I love being a mom.  Plain and simple - it's the best job in the entire world.  Even when my son wakes up at 4am and wants to eat and mommy is super tired, it doesn't matter.  Being a mom is hands down the greatest. thing. ever. 

Playing with Daddy

AJ and Daddy don't get to spend a lot of time together during the week because Daddy has to go to work to maky money to buy AJ toys.  So when Daddy was playing with AJ on a quiet Saturday morning, you can bet I was going to document the fun time!

Bumbo Time!

I try to switch up AJ's activities during the day so he doesn't get too bored.  This evening I put him in the bumbo for a little bit and he seemed to enjoy his sitting up view.

You again, doggy?!

Smiles for Momma!

Just sittin' around

Doing his gangsta lean that Timber taught him.