Goodbye 2015!

Happy New Year's Eve! 2015 was good to us; we had a rough 2014, but 2015 brought our baby home, brought health, happiness, good fortune, and so much to be thankful for. We may be ringing in the new  year with coughs and colds, but we are all together and that's all that matters. Cheers to a wonderful 2016!!

xo,
Mary

January

 February

 March

 April

 May

 June

July

 August

 September

 October

 November

 December

Trains, family, and fire trucks!

We could not have had a more Christmas-y weekend if we tried. Except for the unusually warm weather, we had all sorts of Christmas fun. Shopping is done, wrapping is slowly getting "wrapped up" (couldn't resist :)), and compared to last year, this Christmas is already a million times better. I'll write a post later this week about last year and today just focus on this past weekend!

I realized I never blogged about a little part time job I started this fall; I am pretty sure everyone who reads this blog knows that both Gianni and I rowed on the crew team in school. We loved it, our niece rowed as well, and we have stayed in touch with our former coaches. This fall, the head coach contacted me and asked if I was interested in coaching the freshman boys. You all know me; the thought of me coaching 14-15 year old boys made us laugh... I am not loud, can be a pushover, and wasn't sure how it would go. But the varsity coaches believed it would all work out, I took the job, and to my surprise, it was great. I love crew and the group of boys I coached were great kids. The freshman girls coach volunteers at the New England Train Museum in Thomaston and invited us on their annual Christmas train ride with Santa on Friday night. The ride wasn't until 7pm and was 90 minutes long so we weren't sure how Gabriella would do but we decided to go for it and are so happy we did. She was great; she ate cookies, got passed around to everyone, sat on Santa's lap, stole some elf's jingle bells, and slept the whole way home.

On Saturday we went to see our niece in the Nutcracker. She has been dancing for years and every year she is in the show. I was trying to remember and I think the very first year we saw her in the Nutcracker, she was young and had a small role as one of the children in the opening party scene. This year she was Clara and we were so proud of her! She looked beautiful and did such a great job. It was really fun to watch her in that role because not only was she dancing, but she had to act as well. After the show, the cast goes to the lobby for pictures and so many little girls were asking for her autograph. It was adorable!

Sunday we drove to see Sandy, Thierry, and Ben and kicked off Christmas week with a brunch to celebrate my Dad's  birthday. Ben is getting so big (I am pretty sure he and Gabriella weigh almost the same!) and is the cutest baby! He is sitting in his bumbo chair and high chair, rolling everywhere, and has started eating cereal. I was feeding Gabriella her lunch and Ben's mouth was opening up to try and get whatever was on her spoon. I can't wait to have them together on Christmas!

We stretched the weekend out by taking a trip to see great- Nana (or Super-Nana as she's called by our cousins!!) on Monday. It was a quick trip for lunch because we drove during Gabriella's naps but it was so nice to see her. Gabriella crawled all over and had a wonderful time. We were able to catch up and visit with Nana and one of my aunts and had a great day.

And finally, Gianni joined our town's volunteer fire department! He had fire training in the Navy and has been looking to get involved with volunteer work over the past couple of years. Because it's a volunteer company, you go to calls when you are able and attend trainings on Monday evenings. He'll attend a weekend fire school in 2016 to become an official firefighter but for now can go to all calls and help as directed. We brought Gabriella to see the trucks and she was very intrigued!

Happy Christmas week!!

xo,
Mary

Five on Friday!

Happy Friday!!! One week until Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

1. Christmas shopping status

My big goal was to be completely, 100% done with all of our Christmas shopping by today. I didn't quite get there. I will say that we are about 95% done, with just some odds and ends to pick up and a couple of things to finish putting together. Unfortunately my car needed some work done that took longer than expected so that put a wrench in my plans for this week. But I should be able to finish up this weekend!  I was feeling extra on top of things when I wrapped a bunch of presents that we have ready to go, only to realize that wrapped gifts are a magnet for toddlers and cats... so to our family that receives gifts with little tiny pinhole bite marks, sorry :)

2."What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine"

Yesterday we had a friend and her two children over for a play date. My friend's son is 2 and her daughter is 5 months. This is the first time they have come over to our house to play and Gabriella acted a little possessive over her things. Okay, I have to be honest. She acted crazy. You know when you are watching something happen in front of you and you have this flash forward in your mind of what may happen next? Well this is what flashed in my mind...

 I jest, I jest. But I have never seen her act the way she did. She wanted every.single.thing. that my friend's 2 year old touched and then moved on to the innocent baby; stealing her pacifier (which Gabriella doesn't use... unless it belongs to another child), trying to grab her blanket, her face, everything. At one point when the 2 year old turned away to protect the banana he was eating from my crazed 14 month old, she actually collapsed herself to the ground, face down, bum up, and did a fake "eh heh" cry, occasionally looking up to see if anyone was going to give in. She doesn't act that way at other people's houses or places like the library so maybe it was just that there were other kids in our house. I have no idea. We have more playdates coming up so we'll see if it was an off day for her or if we've entered a new phase of toddlerhood!

3.Happy Birthday Dad!
Yesterday was my Dad's birthday and we wish him the happiest of birthdays! Mom and Dad came over for pizza and cake and Gabriella loved playing with Grampy and Nana before bed. We are going to Sandy and Thierry's on Sunday for a pre-Christmas/birthday brunch so the fun will continue through the weekend. Happy Birthday Dad!

Helping Nana and Grampy blow out the candles!

4.Ho, ho, ho
All December we have been saying to Gabriella, "What does Santa say?" "Ho ho ho". And this morning, Gianni asked her what Santa says, and she replied ho ho ho. It was as cute as ever! Of course she won't do it on camera, but this was as close as we got :)

5.Photo round-up
And to end, here are some photos from our week. We've been stuck in the house with my car being worked on so we have a bit of cabin fever and are looking forward to a bunch of fun things planned this weekend!

Using her triangle crayons to color a birthday card

Studying the phone

And one last thing! If you have little kids (or are bored at work :)), check out Google's Santa's Village. If you google "Santa" it will come up right away, or just click here... Santa's Village. Gabriella loved watching the "elf band" and was clapping along to the music!

Have a great weekend!!
xo,
Mary

Birth to Three

Today was one of Gabriella's last birth to three visits. We had assumed that she would be enrolled in these services until she was 3 but much to our surprise, she has caught up developmentally enough where she doesn't qualify anymore! Her prematurity automatically qualified her when she was discharged from the hospital but that only is used as a qualifier for 1 year. The therapists evaluate the child yearly and Gabriella is no longer delayed enough to get services. This was amazing news for us; when she first started they talked to us about watching for cerebral palsy because she had some tightness in her hips and now that is no longer a concern. She is slightly delayed with speech but in Connecticut, speech alone doesn't keep you in the Birth to 3 program. In January, she will have 2 final visits, the first will be her exit evaluation and the second will be with a speech and language pathologist who will evaluate Gabriella and give us her opinion on whether or not we should enroll her in speech therapy.

We are so thankful for the services we did receive this year. Our physical therapist Chris was so kind and wonderful with Gabriella. She taught us so much about how to play with her, which toys were best for her development, and was so encouraging.  She would get so excited when Gabriella hit little milestones, like picking a toy up, or passing a toy from one hand to the other. Chris was patient when Gabriella wasn't in the mood to participate and even though we only saw her twice a month, Gabriella lights up when she comes in the house. There are some people in this world who are born to work with special kids and she is certainly one of them.

She is a very experience PT and she is certain that Gabriella will be walking without assistance by her due date (January 16). Today she stood Gabriella in front of the fridge, back to the fridge, and sat down in front of her. Gabriella stood there, slightly leaning back against the fridge for support, for several minutes! And then she tried to take a step towards Chris! She didn't quite succeed but her will and determination will certainly make it happen soon.  Chris also gave us the tip of using a dish towel or small blanket to help Gabriella walk instead of holding her hands. We put the rolled up towel under her armpits and hold the two ends behind her. This allows Gabriella to use her hands and arms to balance and is a bit more secure (so we don't have to worry about popping her arm out of the socket if she were to lift her feet suddenly).

Realizing that Birth to 3 is coming to an end is another reminder of how lucky and blessed we are. It is simply amazing to think about how much has changed over a year!

xo,
Mary

Eating apple squash muffins

Hurricane Gabs

"Is this mine?" 

Pushing her doll in her old rocker

Not amused

Look at how little she was?? This photo was from February!