Thankful Thursdays

This week I'm thankful for my mother-in-law, Jessica. 




Yep, that's right, ladies! I love my MIL. She's probably the most selfless, caring, thoughtful person that I know and I strive to be like her! She's also an awesome cook and so creative! She's been an enormous help this past year with Conrad; despite having children 30 years ago, she is so knowledgable about current baby/child raising! She takes the time to research about foods, illnesses, allergies, toys, products, you name it! After Conrad was born, my mother spent about a month with us and then when she left, Jessica came.




I don't know of that many girls who could stand (or want) their MIL around for a month or more, but I definitely appreciated the help and support. Thanks, Jessica for being the best MIL!

 

Happy 1st Birthday, Conrad!

So this is a little late, but for Conrad's 1st birthday we had A Very Hungry Caterpillar theme!

I had been pinning, saving pictures, trolling etsy,  plotting, and planning Conrad's first birthday party since he was born! When he was about 8 months old I settled on the theme "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" as that was a book we always read to him and...well, let's face it, he was a little roly-poly just like a caterpillar! 

I loved the idea of basing the menu around the food items in the book - how fun (and easy!) is that?! Menu already planned! 

I made a caterpillar banner with the help of my mom and dad with paper strung together with burlap string and printed out the month by month pictures of Conrad.

 

Apples, oranges, plums, pears, and strawberries (complete with dipping sauces!) just like the book!

For the one slice of salami and once slice of cheese, we of course, did a meet platter, and incorporated the pickle.

I did a salad for the "one nice green leaf' and of course cupcakes, cake, and ice cream! There was also watermelon, lollipops, and pie...just like the book! It was all very easy and perfect for a party.

With simple print out tent cards and cupcake toppers, we carried the theme throughout.

The piece de la resistance was the cupcake caterpillar! My mother-in-law (so creative!) made the head with the eyes and antenna out of fondant and licorice and I made the cupcake body. She also made gluten-free cupcakes on the side (Sean can't have gluten).

And what birthday party is complete without the stats poster! I created this on my own rather than order from etsy to save money. My parents helped cut out the fruit shapes on the sides.

My one etsy splurge was Conrad's custom shirt and bib (I am NOT a seamstress) and I'm glad I did. He was so cute!

Happy Birthday My Little Caterpillar! 

Feels Like Fall

When we bought our house one of the biggest things that attracted us to it was the huge yard and the abundance of trees. They provide great shade in the summer, privacy from our neighbors, beauty to look at...and lots of leaves to rake. I'm talking TONS of leaves. My husband and brother in law spent an entire Saturday blowing and raking leaves and it looks like they only did about a quarter of what needed to be done.

And we discovered that our little man LOVES his backyard and "helping" rake. We of course had taken him in the backyard tons of times to swing and carry him around but now that he can walk on his own he loves trampling around in the leaves.

What a good little helper!

 The Land of the Leaves!

Love dressing up in fall layers!

Fall play time at the park!

Love this weather, the leaves, and our fun times!

Happy 11 Months Conrad!

This past Saturday (September 7th) was Conrad's 11 month birthday! I can't believe our little munchkin is almost a year old!! In less than a month, we'll be celebrating his first birthday!

 

Dear Conrad,

You are a little tornado! You love to "talk" (you've learned to say "all done" now and still are "dada"-ing like there's no tomorrow). And boy do you explore everything. We've now had to put safety latches on the drawers and cabinets, and make good use of the baby gates because you are crawling and furniture walking up a storm.

You are pretty much on a no-baby-food diet (unless it's the pouches) and only like to eat if you are feeding yourself. Some new favorites are eggs, peas, yogurt, and waffles. And then there's the good ol' favorites like sweet potatoes, bananas, rice chex, and pasta. You are loving your sippy-cup more and more every day and we are starting to think about slowly weaning you off your beloved bottle. I'm scared.

Believe it or not, you've been sleeping from 7:30 to 7:00am lately! However, you have had a cold for the past two weeks and that could be why you are so sleepy. And you are SUPER CLINGY around me. Grandma says that sometimes babies get separation anxiety when they are about to reach a milestone like walking so I'm praying that's it and that you're not spoiled (because, bad mommy, I pick you up when you cry for me).

You LOVE snuggling and our favorite routine is when you wake up you come into bed with us with your bottle and we cuddle and play before we have to go to work. Those are the best and most precious moments of our days.

While we are excited for what the future holds for you and for your first birthday party, it's all come so fast and makes me sad. Don't grow up too quick, my litte boo-boo!

Love,

Mommy

Weekend Through the Iphone

This past weekend was soooo nice because we were in town with no plans! This is a rare occasion in the Mc household so we took every advantage of it - did a lot of cleaning and organizing and even went to the local Reston Wine Festival with some good friends. And since Sean's friend was going out on Saturday night, he agreed to be DD for us girls and babies during the day; and then my girlfriend and her son had a sleepover with Conrad and me! We had lots of girl talk and the boys had a fun time playing. Sunday was spent doing more cleaning and organizing and...FOOTBALL of course. Even though the Redskins weren't playing, Sean was holed away in his mancave watching all the other games. Fall has definitely arrived!

Happy 10 Months, Conrad!

So, me being a bad busy mom, I have only now gotten around to uploading Conrad's 10 month pictures. We didn't do 9 month pictures as we did the professional ones that same day and then I never got around to it. Woops. 

That being said, I can't believe my baby is 10 MONTHS OLD! When in the what did that happen? I seriously blinked and he was 10 months.

Just for comparison, here's Conrad at 1 month!

Dear Conrad,

These last 2 months have been the most amazing time yet with you. Your personality is really shining through and I love that you're HAPPY now. The first several months were hard what with your GERD, ear infections, teething, hand-foot-mouth disease (yes! it's a real thing and made you miserable) but we just knew there was a happy, energetic baby in there some there despite all of that. And boy was there!

You love to dance to music and now wave your arms around when you hear a beat. You learned to wave and are a hit in public places (attention: single uncle, use this to your advantage!) and can be a big flirt...you get that from Daddy obviously. You can stand on your own without holding on to anything and are SO proud of yourself when you do. And you are mimicking a lot now! When we tickle you, now you reach out to us and wiggle your fingers saying "thinckle, thinckle". 

"Dada" and "Mama" are now in your vocabulary...although it's the latter only when you're crying but I'll take what I can get. You still like to fuss if all the attention's not on you...again, obviously from Daddy :) You love to flip through your books and "read" as well as take everything out of boxes, bags, drawers, baskets, etc.

At your 9 month check up you were 29 inches, 23 lbs, and HC was 46...all 75th %. Big boy here...because of:

FOOD FOOD FOOD! "Num num num" is constantly heard in this household. You are getting better every day about trying new things. Things we never thought you'd like. Broccoli, for instance! What the what? You still like sweet things best though.

We love you so much, are so proud of you, and are so excited for your next 10 months (but don't grow up too fast!). 

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

PS: You also get about 1 billion kisses a day. We are trying to get them all in now while you aren't embarrassed. Although who would be embarrassed by these cool parents?

Beach Baby!

So it's taken a while for me to post about our JULY vacation as I lost the cable to my camera so I couldn't post pictures. In any case, here's some snapshots of our vacay and Conrad's first trip to the beach. As I mentioned here, vacationing with a baby is WAY different than without. And to reiterate (and trust me, this is not sucking up just pure gratefulness!), thank goodness for my MIL - she was so helpful!

Every year Sean's family goes to Emerald Isle/Topsail Island down in NC. It's been their family tradition for years (his whole dad's side comes down from NY) and I've been lucky enough to be able to participate the last 8 years!

On the way down, we stopped at Grady's BBQ in Dudley, North Carolina. It was a slight...20 minute...30 minute...detour but was well worth it! It's a long-standing family owned BBQ place with amazing food. And it's all smoked and grilled right out back. Sean even met the owner and got a tour of the kitchen (he's a little BBQ obsessed).

Conrad was not so big of a beach fan. In fact, when we first tried to put his feet in the sand, he looked at us as if to say, "um, what the hell is this...you're joking, right?" BUT after a while, he got used to it and dug some holes and flung sand around with his little plastic shovel. Oh, and tried to eat a lot of it. The ocean however?? NO WAY. He started to fuss whenever we stuck his toes near it. Oh well. Next year, maybe?

Hanging out under the umbrella was a fun time for Conrad too! We got one of those little tent things but he didn't use it at all...maybe better use it next year (that thing was NOT cheap!!).

The pool on the other hand was GREAT. We loved us some pool time. Before Conrad came into this world, I always thought the people who spent all day at the pool while at the beach were nuts. Turns out they probably just had little kids with them. And it was easier access to the beer. Loads of beer. Wait, that was last year (well, year before last that is, considering I was pregnant last year). This go-round? No time for that. You have to be on your toes with this one!!

I  can't wait until next year when he's a little bigger and can enjoy the beach even more!

Sunday Not Funday

So like all good things, our vacation had to come to an end last week. It went by WAAAAAYY too fast. And let me tell you - beach trips with baby are VERY different than beach trips without. It was prettyrelaxing, thanks in large part to my amazing mother-in-law, and taking care of a baby at the beach is better than working all day and coming home to take care of baby; however, still not the same. I'll post some pictures after I upload them.

Knowing you have to work on Mondays do not make Sundays very fun. Especially on days like today where Sean was gone practically the whole day to a Nats game so I was alone with Conrad ALL DAY - I don't know how you stay at home moms do it, IT'S HARD. And did I mention he has been teething and a straight up B-RAT the past week? I LOVE LOVE LOVE my kid so much but sometimes he drives me straight up the wall. I feel like sometimes the only way he's happy is if he's eating. Hence, these pictures:

Mmm...Bananas!

 

Nom Nom Nom

Trying some watermelon

 
 

Yummmm!

Feed me and I'm happy!

It's a tough job but someone's got to do it