Guitars and Big Girl Chair

Brendan has wanted to learn how to play the guitar ever since I have known him (and probably longer).  I not exactly sure what prevented him from doing it all these years…but now that Pixie is in the picture, it has been a priority for him to learn how to play…you know so that he can teach Pixie! Last week Brendan bought a guitar! It is beautiful and classic looking.   He also found this awesome instructional “game” for the Play Station…where you plug in a real guitar and learn how to play.  It is pretty cool, it teaches you how to tune,  what the keys are, etc.   It has been fun watching Brendan learn.  He picks it up so super fast!   I thought it important to document this so that Bridget would believe that he learned this for her.

 Brendan and the bean

 ...wait dad you cannot use me to play guitar!

 Not that you can tell but she is wearing a Tom Petty Shirt.

Bridget has decided to hold her head up all by herself!  It is a happy/sad moment…I no longer have a newborn!  Brendan was getting tired of carrying her magical chair up and down the stairs (he works from home on Mondays and Pixie stays home with him…office downstairs/ bottles and crib upstairs).   Brendan took these shots of her first time sitting up all by herself!   We are so proud of her! PS Auntie Lauren this is what you bought her!

Hang on...I am trying to figure this out....

got it! love it!

Car 54 where are you....

This is what Keri and I would say to each other when we could not find each other in a store or when it had been too long since we talked (like a whole 2 days!)...

We are back! We have been having such a great time being at home.  Things have been going great.  I am going to try to post everything that has happened within the last three months….here goes! Please have  bit of grace if there are missing words,etc...you are dealing with a woman that is a bit tired.

You may need click on the older posts button to get all of these posts! Just to start it off...here is one of my favorite current pictures of the bean. 

 It is true she loves drummers, even if dad has not played the drums for her yet

Happy Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day I thought I would get creative and make sugar cookies and a Valentine card with Pixie on it.  Here are some pictures from the "shoot"...clearly I need lessons!

 The flower is bigger than her head!!

Pixie turns 3 months!

Bridget turned 3 months Sunday! (Feb 12th)  I cannot believe that she is already 3 months.  She is starting to grab things….not all the way yet but she will hold on to a blanket or her soft monkey rattle while she is sitting in her chair.  She can almost hold her head up…still bobbles a bit but she is super strong.   She has found her voice especially when crying. = )

Things she loves: Her daddy’s voice, Grandpa James doing the monkey dance, Jamberry book, the fun land chair as Jack and Joel call it, kicking arms and legs

Things she is learning to do:  hold her head up, hold on to things (not by reflex), use her voice, putting her hand in her mouth to sooth (since she is not taking a pacifier I am not stopping this)

Favorite moment: When she wakes up from sleeping she will bury her face into my neck.  Then when I put her on the changing table she will give the biggest smile ever! 

Dad’s favorite saying:  Bean, bean, bean, bean and there is nothing to fuss about

Mom’s favorite sayings:  I am right here and I know

Names we call her:  Bridget, Bridge, Pixie, Milk Monster and Bean

 She is getting so big! The shirt she is wearing is a Pixies (for all of my friends the Pixies are one of Brendan's favorite bands) onesie that she got from Uncle Sydney and Karen.

We are so close to holding our head up!  Maybe in the four month picture you will not see my hand!

She loves to blow bubbles with her spit...classy!

Here is the comparison from last month (below)

Daddy Time!

Thankfully Brendan was able to stay home until December 21^st.  It was so much fun playing house with him.  We make an awesome team!  Brendan had to do a ton of heavy lifting when we got home because I was pretty much not able to do anything due to the c-section.  Unfortunately, his claim that he would never change a diaper…ended about 30 seconds after Bridget was born! Pixie is a daddy’s girl!  There was a time in the hospital when she was crying and I could not get her to stop.  I woke Brendan up and he said her name…she stopped crying!  Brendan and Pixie have chat sessions now…where he lays her on his legs and they chat about nothing and everything…she will make noises.  Seeing him with her makes me love him even more! I have an amazing husband!

 This picture is so happy...we are in Hawaii taking to Brendan on speaker phone and she totally was smiling because he was talking to her...

 Pixie getting ready for the bath but mom was not all the way ready so dad covered her up until mom could get her act together!

Return to work...

That is right…I did it! After many tears, I returned to work.  I never in a million years thought I would be the woman that A)did not want to return to work and B)would cry over it (many times)….but I am! Thankfully I went back to the most supportive environment a woman could return to and my nanny is my sister Destiny.   

Destiny was born to be a mom.  I say this as a high compliment.   So leaving Bridget with Destiny was not even a concern.  I am so grateful that Bridget gets to stay at her house, does not have to be woken up to go to daycare and is with someone that loves her probably as much as I do! 

This is Auntie Destiny (or as we call her Desily because Jack could not say Destiny) with Pixie when Pixie was a month old

When I got to work there was a note on my desk from my friend Janice that said today is going to be one of the hardest days you will go through, it will get easier.  Jane (my boss) basically told me to leave when I needed to leave.   Although there was emotional understanding, people also understood my needs and just let me dive into work to distract myself from being away from Bridget.

The first week was hard.  Bridget went through a eating and sleeping strike!  Thankfully after the first day the eating strike was over and by Friday the sleep strike was over.  Thank goodness Destiny has the patience to stick it out!  What a trooper. 

Sleep strike over!!  

 Day 1 without mom...Destiny sent me pictures to tell me she was ok

Day 2 with out mom...note the drool!

I keep telling myself that this is an adjustment….and it is getting better. 

What to do at 6a?!...visit Grandparents!

Before Bridget, I would call Keri and Pat crazy because they would do things before 11a.  Now, I am confused on why a baby store (Babies R Us) that caters to MOMs does not open before 9a!  Seriously,  us moms have been up for at least 3 hours if  not 4!  And then to keep it open until 9p…really, at 9p there is still hope for your evening that your child might sleep through the night!  Seriously, if anything, open the store up at 4a because then you would get moms shopping that have just given up and need somewhere to go.  Gol! Rant over.

On Saturday, Bridget decided to wake up at 5:30a.  I was trying to be a good wife and let Brendan sleep since it had been a rough week and really feel that at least one of us should get some sleep.  So…in all of my brilliant wisdom…I thought there are only two people I know in the world that would be up at this God forsaken hour…my dad and James (Brendan’s dad)….since James had just come over on Friday I decided my dad was the lucky winner of the early visit.   Bridget and I jumped in the car and headed to my dad’s house.  (Granted by the time we got there it was 8:30a because we had to feed, change and take a bath...not in that order but you get it).  I felt bad because I knew my mom (Cathy) likes to sleep in so I did not want to call in advance.  When I got there…just as expected my dad was in his garage fixing some sort of car part…I think it was the exhaust but do not quote me.  We hung around until mom woke up (well dad work her up) and then headed back home.  

Bridget loves Grandpa LeRoy’s voice…whenever he would talk she would look around for him…It was super sweet! 

 Sorry these are blurry but Grandpa was rocking her.

 She was talking up a storm to my dad

 This is right before the melt down...they look like they are up to something.

 Grandma Cathy soothing the bean

Hawaii or bust

That is right…we flew to Hawaii and survived!  I decided that before I went back to work I wanted one more time with Keri and the boys.  We went one week before I had to go back to work.   It was exactly what I needed.   Keri helped me get her to nap outside of my arms (I know I am a total first time mom! Don’t judge!). Brendan was flying out to CA the same day so thankfully Brendan was able to help us get through our first security check and get us to the door.

Wait to get on the plane

It was so fun to see Joel and Jackson interact with her!  From previous visits I knew that Jackson would be all about her (and he was) but on this visit it was fun to see Joel excited to see her.   One of the best things about the trip was every morning we were greeted by two excited boys that wanted nothing more than to say good morning and interact with Pixie.  It melted my heart!

Joel with Pixie...he is supposed to be doing his homework

Both Jackson and Joel were so super helpful with taking care of Pixie.  If we were in the car and she started to fuss they would first announce it and then do everything they could to stop it from shaking the owl on her car seat, talking to her, singing to her, etc.   They also would help me change her by getting the diapers and wipes. (the first time I changed her diaper Jackson told me it was inappropriate for him to see her without a diaper…he got over it…it was so funny!)   Joel especially was very quick to make suggestions to me about Pixie like when he thought she should sit in the bouncy chair or when she should take a nap.  It was awesome.

I purposely packed outfits that would match the costumes the boys had so one day we had puma day where everyone wore puma gear and another day we had superman day.  Here are the pictures we took on superman day.  The tutu that Bridget is wearing was too big for her so when I lifted her from the chair to the couch her tutu fell off and Joel and Jack thought it was the funniest thing.

 We must have said something to make them wave at the camera...

 This just cracks me up....He is such a proud good cousin!

And we were officially over after this!

Keri and I walked the lagoon almost every day.  It was great sister time where it was just the two of us (plus a sleeping Bridget) for 2.5 miles.  It made me long for every day to be like that.   She was super supportive of my first time mom anxieties and validated that I was not a crazy person. 

 Walking home from the Lagoon

 Mom and Bridget hanging out in the water

Our first girl picture together!

Oh right...everyone asks me how the flight was.  It was fine...long but fine.  Pat had warned me that Bridget would more than likely have a blowout and she did on both the flight there and back but I was prepared for it. THANK YOU PAT!

Snow Day

Bridget experienced her first snow the week before we left for Hawaii.  We both got a little stir crazy so after two days of being cooped up in the house.  I threw Bridget in a snugly outfit and we went outside to touch the snow and breathe fresh air.   I put Pixie’s hand in the snow and she seemed pretty bored with it so we went inside.  

 This is just outside our front door on the patio

 Cooped up,non-wearing makeup mom and Pixie

 The bean after touching the snow...so not interested!

The snow storm brought lots of work for Brendan. We had one tree fall the first day on the bottom side of our hill and then 2 trees fall on the top part of our hill.  The best part is that they all landed in the street blocking people from getting around the neighborhood….which really, no one was driving anyway!  Thankfully James (Brendan’s Dad) had bought super powerful chain saw and came over to help. 

 This is the trees on the top of the hill.  I did not get a picture of the tree at the bottom of the hill...As Brendan would say...Fun Times!

Pixie turns 2 months!

Seriously!  How is it possible that she is two months?  Everyone told me that time flies when you have kids but I guess you really do not appreciate that statement until you have kids.  Well we are officially socially smiling and it is the best! 

Things she loves:  Reading, her changing table monkey---seriously if she is upset just put her on the changing table and she looks at the monkey and all is well with life,  her vibrating chair (AKA Fun land chair), Mommy and daddy holding her, moving her left arm    

Things she is learning to do:  hopefully sucking on a pacifier (she kind of takes it), using her voice, kicking her legs, following the your voice when you move…she will turn her head to noise.

Names we call her:  Bean, Bridget, Baby Girl, Bridge, Pixie

Here is the comparison below!