santa visit

they both were totally ok with santa. MR was in 'omg-i-can't-believe-i'm-meeting-santa' mode. Fiona had no idea what was going on. but if MR is ok with it, fiona is ok with it.

lulu.

lulu is our 'elf on the shelf'. MaryRyan gave him the name. he working like a charm :)

9 month check up for fiona

stats: 17lbs, 27.5 inches. she got a great check up. all good for ms. fiona. she is crawling all over the place. mama's, dada's and just beginning to hear some rasp-berries. no teeth yet! she is still sleeping great and loves to snuggle. very laid back lady. laughs soooo much. it's the greatest.

our helper.

halloween 2011.

MaryRyan loves loves loves halloween. we were a little unsure at first because she didn't want to put on her costume for school. we even made a ladybug costume for teddy! but she didn't go for it. As soon as I picked her up from school all she talked about was how excited she was to go home and get in her costume. she and brian went out trick-or-treating and they hit up a ton of houses. she LOVED it!!!!! fiona is wearing MR's old pumpkin costume. she got tired out from all the excitement and was fast asleep by 6pm.

can you tell they're sisters?

MaryRyan

Fiona!

same jacket. same car seat. same place...just 2.5 years later!

october 2011

3 year check up.

'at work' - playing at school with claire

loves to dance

nightly feeding with fiona

fiona and teddy!

MR had her 3 year check up on friday. she got a great report. she is 33 lbs (75 %) and 39.5 inches (95 %). she is really into 'helping out' with fiona. she has to help feed, bathe, you name it, she wants to be a part of it. Teddy is still her best friend. she let's fiona play with him, sometimes, which in her mind is a very big deal! she loves school and her new classmates. according to her teachers she is quite the flirt. she loves to chat up a storm, but she is also very shy if she doesn't know you. she has been like that since birth and will probably always be like that. it amazes us on how much she picks up. she imitates the way we talk, our mannerisms. it's pretty crazy!

on her way..

Fiona is bound and dertimned to crawl. She is getting sick and tired of MR taking all of her toys away so i'm pretty sure that is her motivation. she is up on all fours rocking so i'm thinking it should be soon.

hail!

happy household with all the wins the redskins are scoring! Maybe we'll have to make a trip to DC to see them :)

bumps and bruises.

I'm sure most of you know that MR fell at school and busted her chin. She was a champ and actually enjoyed her visit to the ER. Her teachers at school can't go over how tough and brave she is. She really is a tough cookie. MR has these super long legs so when she goes through growth spurts she falls and trips A LOT! She's been like that since she was standing up as a baby. So I really wasn't surprised when I got the call from school that she had fallen and hurt herself. I'm sure this isn't the last time we'll be getting those calls, unfortunately.

I started back to work full time on Sept. 7th and Fiona started at Berkley (where MR goes) full time as well. To say it's been adjustment is an understatement. I'm hopeful that in a month it will feel like second nature but it's been quite balancing act. As crazy as this year has been for us we have been rolling with the punches and counting our blessings :)

Fiona started sitting up a couple of weeks ago and rolls rolls and rolls! i'm afraid to admit she fell of the bed..twice! eek i know. i swear this girl will be crawling soon. she is out of control!

xoxo, cath

summer 2011

finally i know!

more ma pics.

here are more pics from our june MA visit.

4 month check up

Fiona had her 4 month check up yesterday. She screamed bloody murder the entire time :) She is 13.12 lbs and 25 inches long. Same weight as MR at this point but a full inch taller! Fiona has turned into the happiest, sweetest and cutest baby. She rolled from her back to her tummy last week and is grabbing onto toys. She smiles and giggles but definitely has a feisty temper!

more ma pics.

MA trip

We visited MA last week. It was a lot of fun. MR had a blast!

big weekend!

we welcomed a new nephew on saturday night. A baby boy, Declan. Congrats Auntie Beth!

we spent saturday at the pool and MR loves the pool. swimming lessons start on friday. my goal is to have her floating by the end of the summer. fingers crossed.

fiona rolled over from her tummy onto her back. she is soooo close to rolling from her back to her tummy. she has also found her voice in the past couple of days. it's like she loves to hear herself talk b/c that is all she does. it's an constant 'ooh and ahh' sound. this morning she woke up at 6:15 and talked to herself for about a half hour and fell back asleep till 7:30. happy sunday for mom and dad!

MR and i spent the day together out and about. she has been begging me for a haircut so i took her. it's been awhile since she and i have spent so much time alone together and we had blast.

good good weekend all around!

laughs and giggles.

guaranteed to make you smile!

home.

we are finally home. it feels good to be in our house again. we had a great time in MD visiting my family...well up until i ended up in the ER which turned out to be a kidney infection and pneumonia. talk about bad luck! but despite that it was still a nice trip. brian was able to come spend the weekend with us again and flew back with us. it made it a LOT easier!

MD trip

i'm assuming most of you know but we recently had a house fire. only our garage burned down but it was an electrical fire so we have not been able to live there. after 2 miserable nights in a hotel i decided to pack up the girls and head to MD. we'll probably be here until the 23rd. we are up at my sister's for a few days. MR has been having a ball playing with all her cousins. She and Henry are pretty close in age so they have been inseparable. so all in all it was a nice excuse to come visit my family. i've missed them! it was also good for MR to be somewhere she feels comfortable. she was all out of sorts so i was so worried about her. but she seems to be warming up to life at aunt aimee's and uncle mark's! we'll be heading back to my parents later this week. on a good note we are making serious progress with fiona'ls sleeping. she slept for 11 hours last night. woo hoo. thank you babwise!! MR was sleeping 11 hours by 10 weeks so way to go fiona! brian and i like to refer to babywise as short term pain for long term gain. it is SOOO worth it.

p.s. the house pictures are are shots of aimee and mark's new house they just built. it's beautiful!

we're growing up!

MR is officially potty trained!! we had potty training boot camp this weekend and it went great. no more diapers..yahoo!

2 month check up.

fiona had her 2 month check up last friday. she is 9 lbs 11 oz and 22 inches long. she got a good report. we are keeping her on the meds since it seems to be relieving her reflux. some days i can definitely tell it bothers her (she cries and becomes very fussy after spitting up), but hopefully she'll grow out of it sooner rather than later. got her shots and as with MR, i cried harder than her! as i mentioned in a previous post, fiona has a witching hour. MR never had one as a baby. some days she is fine and some days she is pretty miserable. it's like clockwork. as soon as it strikes 4:30 she is a different baby. the dr says babies usually grow out of it by 3-4 months. GREAT!! it's a good thing she is cute :)

easter sunday.

discovering that there is candy inside the eggs!

found an egg!

smiles.

i've been getting some requests for some smile shots. she just started to really smile over the past week so i'll be sure to post some more. she's also doing pretty good with tummy time. she can hold her head up so well. she's becoming so much more alert and interactive. lots of 'ahhs' and 'oohs'.

7 weeks.

7 weeks! we seem to have gotten the acid reflux under control, thanks to some changes in her meds. this is a huge relief for me since she was spitting up everything she ate which caused her fussiness, etc. she is definitely improving on sleep. her naps during the day are getting more consistent and i'm happy to report she slept for 6 consecutive hours last night. hooray! keeping my fingers crossed this keeps up.

i had her at the doctors this week b/c it seemed like her cold got worse. thankfully she checked out fine but a bonus was i got to weight her. she is 8 lb 10 oz. excellent!

fiona definitely has a witching hour which is usually between 4-9pm. makes the evenings pretty eventful! thankfully MR can be reasoned with when things get crazy which is a huge help. i tell her every night how thankful i am for her. she seriously is the best big sister ever!

and last but not least, she is smiling! yay!

pj day.

yesterday was PJ day at MR's school. i'm afraid i've been slacking with trying to keep up with everything going on at her school so I totally forgot it was pj day. when she showed up and all the kids were in pjs but her she looked pretty sad. the poor girl loves to be in her pj's so i brought her back some. i had fiona in tow and had her in pjs too. MR thought it was the coolest! she sat proudly by her little sister while all her friends gathered around. they kept saying 'mary ryan's little sister'. so i guess my forgetfulness was worth it this time b/c i think it made MR's day to be able to show off her new little sis AND wear pjs all day long. can't get any better than that for a 2 year old!

MR loves her dad.

MaryRyan and Brian have been spending some serious quality time together. MR has been enjoying her breakfast dates at McDonald's. I asked her what she wanted for dinner tonight and she said 'Old McDonald's".

This has been a challenging week. Fiona has acid reflux so she has a rash b/c of all the spit up and she has this raspy/horse voice. It is clearly making her uncomfortable b/c we have had several sleepless nights. She's on some meds so hopefully she'll feel better soon. MaryRyan continues to be such a good girl. She is loving her big girl bed. I have been worried about her waking up at night to Fiona's cries but everytime i peek in on her she is snoring like a log. A girl after my own heart!

Brian and I have been tag teaming so he and MR are bffs. Today, after breakfast at McDonald's, he took her to get her haircut and to get some new shoes. Fiona and I took a well needed nap. I asked her what she wanted since she has been such a good girl for staying in her bed and she said she wanted a hair cut. well ok then..a hair cut it is!

tummy time.

big girl bed.

off she goes..with teddy of course

sitting pretty and proud

giving teddy a pep talk about their new sleeping arrangements

she has to turn off the light - NOT mom or dad..as if!

night night!

last night MaryRyan spent the first night in her big girl bed. we've been talking about it a lot with her so she was pretty excited. we were a bit nervous that she wouldn't be into it but she fell right asleep. around 1am we awoke to a huge bang which was her falling out. she hit the floor pretty hard so i was convinced this would be the end to it. but she didn't even remember the incident this morning. she got out of bed at 6am and brian told her no way - she stays in bed until we come in. she went back and and fell back asleep and she was sitting pretty when we came in to get her. she was so proud of herself!

1 month!

hard to believe it's already been a month. fiona has been doing great. i got on the scale with her yesterday and she is 8 lbs! she is starting to coo and gurgle which is the cutest! MR has been doing great with her. she loves loves to hold her and her face when she does, is truly priceless. i need to get it on video. she is such a proud big sister! she adds an extra 'n' to fiona's name so she calls her 'fee-nona'. hope you like these pictures of MR and fiona b/c you'll be seeing a lot of them!