Are you happy now, Mom?

My mom has been complaining about me not posting anything for a while, so to make her happy, here are the latest pictures. Two Fridays ago, I took Joey for his 2nd birthday pictures (yes, it's TOTALLY CRAZY that he will be two this Friday!), and then this past Friday, we had family pictures taken. Here's the results...enjoy!

This is what tired looks like...

This was taken last night after a long night of green beer...or milk, whichever you prefer!

This was about 5 minutes ago after dinner. Joey is eating his cookie by taking the creme center off with his finger. He enjoyed today's warm weather by taking in just a little too much fresh air!

A Winter of Joeys

Ok, so I haven't posted in a while, and I'm getting complaints about "No Pinch" (yes, Mom, I'm talking about you!)

I'm actually incredibly exhausted, but I got some pictures downloaded (FINALLY!) so I figured I'd post them before I go to bed.

Enjoy!

12/28/08: Joey eating his first whole apple. He actually went into the fridge, grabbed the apple off the shelf and started eating it. He had never eaten anything more than peeled apple slices! It was pretty funny, and turned into one of my favorite pictures!

12/31/08: Mommy's work from home day turns into Joey needing to make some important business calls on his cell. E*trade, anyone? (BTW: this was totally unposed - he just has a weird obsession with electronics)

1/1/09: Shakeira and Joey's first sleepover. Anytime Joey gets to brush his teeth, he is happy. The only thing that would have made it funnier would be if they battled over standing on the toilet - that IS Joey's spot, after all!

1/28/09: Late January snowstorm, helping Daddy outside. We're starting him early with the shoveling. Actually, he would cry when we took the shovel away!

2/17/09: Not really sure what Joey ate, but we were just impressed he made THAT much of a mess on his face!

3/2/09: The first of our March snowstorms. Joey and Mommy went outside to watch the snowplow as Daddy moved the cars. Joey stayed outside with Daddy afterwards so Joey could play in the snow. This was after he fell face first into a snow bank. He no like.

3/7/09: The most recent picture I've taken of Joey. He looked like such a little man in his big boy clothes. Oh where, oh where has my little boy gone??

He's got rhythm, he's got music

I don't think the sound works, which is too bad because it's pretty stinkin' cute... This is Joey dancing along to Dancing with the Stars. The quality is crap, but it's from my cell phone, so I have a good excuse!

If this continues, though, we're going to have to consider dance lessons. He DEFINITELY gets his lack of rhythm from his father ;-)

Why no pinch?

Ok - so after my last post, I went back to YouTube to find my all time favorite commercial EVER! Yup, it's still there...yup, still makes me laugh. It's a good day :-)



What's even better is that it's a series...





There are others with different animals, but not nearly as good as Gil the Crab.

BEST DAY EVER!

My dad was yelling at me the other day for not posting lately..."Do you not blog anymore??"

I just haven't been in the mood...and haven't really had anything to say!

Today, however, I found my reason...



This was the highlight of the Super Bowl for me. Sure, it was a good game, but I had no vested interest, so I was just as interested in the commercials. This one was my absolute favorite, because it's how I feel every day I have to go to work! Best part is that I just found out it was on YouTube today and that I could watch it on demand!!

The other highlight, I will have to share at a later time, when I get the video off my mother's camera. Just imagine Joey and the Boss...it was AWESOME!

Merry Christmas!

The little Christmas elf wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas!!

You don't know what you've got til it's gone...

Let's just say, it's been an interesting couple of weeks!

Things were going as they always do this time of year...saying I'm going to start decorating for Christmas, but procrastinating...saying I'm going to get all my Christmas shopping done, but procrastinating. All was normal. But then, December 10th came.

It started out as every other Wednesday does. Brian had gotten up for work early, Joey was sleeping and I was late getting out of bed, so I was running late for work. I finally had myself ready to go, Joey had his coat on, but still in his PJs, so he couldn't walk to the car on his own (it was pouring down rain). I had him in my arms, turned and tried to move him to my other arm when I stumbled back off the doormat, lost my footing, and fell flat on my back in the dirt in front of our front steps. Joey was confused (he was laying on top of me with his feet up in the air and his head near the ground), but fine. I, on the other hand, was not. For one, I was soaking wet (my pants are still quite impressive to look at). Secondly, I could not move my right foot. Lucky for me, I have a toddler who likes to run when he's outside, so he took off and I had to hobble over and grab him before he ran into the street.

I called my dad, who quickly came over to find me sitting in my underwear (I told you, my pants were WET!! Seriously...the only part of them that were dry were the top of my thighs), sobbing because my ankle hurt SO BAD! He called Mom, who came home from where she was, and I called Brian, who came home from work. Mom and Dad took Joey to their house, while Brian and I went to the doctor. Several x-rays and 24 hours later, the doctor's office finally called back and said my ankle was sprained, I would need to keep it rested (easy to do when you can't put any weight on it!!), and probably get some crutches to get around. We went to my office so I could pick up my laptop and work from home the rest of the week, because 1) I couldn't drive - it was my right ankle, and 2) there was supposed to be a bad ice storm the next day (Friday). Little did we know just how bad it would be...

Brian had to work Friday (he had taken Thursday off to help me at home), so my parents were going to pick Joey and I up Friday morning so they could watch him while I worked. I was woken up that morning, though, by the beeping sound of the baby monitor in our bedroom. It only makes that sound when the base unit in Joey's room is not on. I looked at the clock - no time. I looked out the window - no lights anywhere. I woke Brian up to grab our cell phones (so we could have an alarm clock and get him up in time for work). When he came back, I saw it was only 3:30 AM. I set the alarm on my phone and went back to sleep.

When I got him up shortly after 6, the power was still out and it was starting to get cold in the house. I called my parents around 6:45 to see if they could come get us before we froze. I packed some clothes to wear that day and off we went when they picked us up shortly after 7. It was bad everywhere, it turned out. We watched the news as slowly the power outage numbers began to rise. By the evening, over 400,000 homes and businesses were without power across the state. My parents had power, so we knew we would have a warm place to stay, but we still wanted to be home. We kept calling home, but it wouldn't ring - only voicemail (we have our phone through cable and only cordless phones, so with no power the phones won't ring, they just go straight to voicemail). Between Brian and I, we must have called home 25 times a day, but alas, just voicemail.

By Monday, I had to go back to work, but had to be driven, so Mom dropped me off that morning, while Brian picked me up when he was done with work. We stopped at home to at least get some different clothes, but hoping the power was back on. Instead, we found a note on our front door saying that the maintenance team for our complex had been in and shut off the water so that pipes would not freeze and/or burst. Great - that means they are getting us ready for the long haul without power.

Tuesday, I called PSNH (the power company) to have them tell me that the circuit we are on was down completely and they could not determine when it would be fixed...Lovely. Later that day, PSNH came out with a list on their website stating when they expected towns to have their power restored. Milford was the next day - YIPPEE!!!

On Wednesday, we had our first real snowstorm of the season. We probably got 4-5 inches of snow, but it was slick, so I worked from home so that Mom wouldn't have to take Joey out to bring me to work. I thought to myself, I hope this doesn't interfere with getting our power back. Don't worry, it did! PSNH came out with an updated ETR list (estimated time of restoration) - Milford was now Friday! Sorry Mom, Dad, Murphy and Zippy - You're stuck with us for a week, at least!! What was even better about hearing this news was that another, much bigger storm was heading our way from the west coast, promising much more snow than we had gotten that day.

Friday morning, I again decided to work from home because of the snow - even though it wasn't supposed to start until the afternoon, I didn't want anyone to have to come get me if the weather was bad. I got up around 8 to turn my laptop on when I saw I had a text from Brian - at 6:59, he texted and said "the phone rang!!!!!" I immediately called home and confirmed, Yes, Virginia! There is power at our house! Very excited about the thought of going home, but soon realized that it may not be the best idea to go home in the middle of a storm. Brian works late on Fridays and we had no food in the house (we had to empty our fridge and freezer), so we decided to stay until Saturday, when the snow stopped.

Interestingly enough, the snow never really stopped! It snowed all day Saturday - much lighter and not really accumulating, but still snowing. We got home Saturday night around 10pm and still had flurries all the way home. We woke up this morning around 9 to more snow. The car was covered. The road was covered. Wasn't this next storm not supposed to start until the afternoon???

But that's where we stand now, home with power, snowing like crazy with no signs of stopping (I am hearing "Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!" in my head as I type), and the thought of having to go to work tomorrow. I will be working from home (my parents will be coming by in the morning to pick Joey and I up in the 4 wheel drive pick-up), but Brian will have to drive from client to client. That will be fun! At least it will be a White Christmas, even if we don't have a Christmas tree (no time or energy to get one now!)

I took a couple pictures before I started this post, just so all my non-New England friends and family can see what they are missing :-)

Outside our front door - you can't tell what is road and what is yard!

This one is hard to tell, but I thought it looked cool with the snow falling. This is from our dining room window - a neighbor's picnic table covered in snow and a branch laying on the snow, while still attached to the tree!

The view from the french doors in our dining room out to the back yard. There are steps out there somewhere!

Our poor "little" pine tree out back. That branch is usually above my head - easily 6 feet up. Between the snow on the ground and the snow and ice on the branches, it's about 6 inches off the ground!

P.S. - Teresa, these are for you! Trust me - YOU DON'T MISS THE SNOW!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

My first attempt at video on YouTube...

We'll see if this works!

This is Big D, showing off his new sounds - enjoy! Don't mind the bathroom conversation in the background...

I'll take the Caesarean, please...with extra fentanyl on the side!

On Monday, I became an Auntie for the 6th time. My sister-in-law, Anna, had her 3rd (and, supposedly, final) child, a baby boy she named Declan. Her first two girls, Shakeira and Taliyah, were very excited about him coming (not that they can truly understand what it means at their young 3 years and 20 months, respectively).

The sperm donor (as Brian and I "affectionately" call the no-good father) decided not to hang around for the birth of his third child, so Anna had to go it alone. Alone, that is, until she asked me to be with her when he was born. My initial thought, "eewwww", hopefully didn't show on my face when she asked me a couple months ago and I said yes - I would do that for her if that's what she wanted. Little did I know, it would be an emotional roller coaster (and very messy)!

She was set to be induced on Monday (heaven forbid he be born in November and have a birthstone that didn't "go" with the rest of them), so I took the day off from work and headed up to Rye Sunday night. We all stayed at my in-laws, so they would keep the girls while Anna was in the hospital, and I could drive Anna to the hospital Monday morning.

The alarm on my cell phone went off at 5:30 AM (I didn't actually get up until 6:20) and got dressed for my job as coach. Brian and I went to childbirth class before Joey was born, but he was breach and I had a scheduled c-section, so this whole "labor" thing was nothing I had experienced in anything but videos in class.

Off to the hospital at 7:00, the rest of the day was a lot of hurry up and wait (my favorite kind of day!). The rest, instead of making you read my long and winding play-by-play, I can show you in pictures. Relax! Nothing graphic, I promise!

9:08 am - Anna's 27th trip to the bathroom since we got there (ok, probably only the 3rd, but it felt like more!) Pitocin was started a little before 8, so we were waiting for some action.

9:31 am - Anna's chewing ice, and I'm bored. I decide to start taking pictures because there was nothing good on TV.

9:32 am - See? I was bored...being the baby daddy is not as fun as you might think! Here's the fetal monitor. The printout has the baby's heart rate on the left and Anna's contractions on the right.

10:01 am - Still waiting for something to happen, Anna decides to look exactly like her sister Jennifer. Scared me a little, after I saw this picture, how much they look alike!

1:17 pm - Pitocin had been upped a few times and contractions had started to get stronger and more painful. This picture was after the epidural was put in by a cute young Asian doctor. As you can see, Anna is saying "am I still having contractions? I can't tell..."

3:41 pm - FINALLY! After almost 8 hours of waiting around, the doctor finally says it's time to go!

4:19pm - Declan at 15 minutes old, weighing in at 8 lbs, 11 oz and 21 1/4" long. I called him Cheese Boy (he was still a little icky), but I don't think Nurse Shannon liked that (or me) very much!

4:38 pm - Mommy and baby bonding time.

6:34pm - Big D's first bath - he did NOT like getting his hair scrubbed!

6:43 pm - All clean and flexing those muscles! He looks just like his big sister Shakeira!

6:48 pm - Baby/Auntie Vicki bonding time...he had a pretty good grasp at a couple hours old!

6:51pm - Declan showing Auntie Vicki the love!

6:53 pm - Ok, now that is the real love - thumbing his nose at me! Something his grandfather taught him, no doubt...

7:08 pm - BEEBEE! BEEBEE! Taliyah and Shakeira getting their first looks at their new baby brother. I think they approve!

7:09 pm - Is this a happy big sister or what?!