Category: Our First Kid Is Furry

Captain Destructo …

As most of you know, Bailey has quite the personality!  She is a little bit crazy (okay, a lot crazy), goofy and incredibly sweet all rolled into one.  We love her so much and she keeps us (mostly) sane.  One morning a few weeks ago, I woke up to find this:

I was none too pleased, seeing as the laundry was clean, but I suppose I shouldn’t have left it on the floor in the first place!  I went downstairs to confront the little nugget and see what further damage she had done, and found her happily chewing on one of my sports bras.  She pranced over to me to show me her “prize” and I just didn’t have the heart to get mad at her.  She was so proud of herself!  I would love to know what goes through her mind … it cracks me up that she threw all the socks on the floor (apparently they just weren’t good enough), and why the laundry has such appeal is beyond me, but we thank God every day that Miss B makes us smile and laugh and reminds us to enjoy the simple things in life!

We also want to say congratulations to proud new parents Amanda and Nick!!  Antonia Maya made her fashionably late entrance into the world Saturday, January 17, weighing in at 7 lbs 5 oz, complete with a full head of hair.  She is a cutie and we’re looking forward to meeting her!

Our own precious angel remains overwhelmed (as do her parents) at the love and support she continues to receive!  We’re so grateful to everyone who’s been so kind to us … this is certainly a challenging time, but knowing we are not alone is so comforting.  We have another ultrasound the first week of February and cannot wait to see our little girl again.  I think I’m starting to feel her move, which is absolutely amazing and words can’t describe how special it is … the little flutters are something I treasure, and know I’ll hold close to my heart forever … we “talk” every day and I love it.  I love knowing that for the time being, she is safe with me … if only I could keep her that way forever, I would.

Waterfront Property

When it rains as heavily/consistently as it did the last couple of days, we have the unfortunate problem of flooding.  Not our basement (thank goodness!) but our neighborhood.  We live at the bottom of a small hill, on the corner of two streets.  Both sides completely flood, so we’re essentially stuck at our house when it’s really bad.  A few cars almost always get stuck in the water, which results in the street being blocked off at both ends, and cops at either end to make sure no one tries to pass through.  Luckily, Pat and I have two driveways, so can usually manage to get both our cars in one or other, depending on where the flooding is worse.  Here are a few pictures of our luxurious waterfront property:

Bailey is petrified of the water.  She apparently thinks it poses some sort of imminent danger and therefore won’t leave the yard when the water is there, which is actually quite convenient.  Generally, we do not let her outside without a leash (she has a tendancy to want to run away and explore other parts of the neighborhood).  When the water is there though, we can stand on the deck, she’ll run out back and do her business as fast as possible, while fearfully looking at the water like it might eat her.  She’s very tough.  Last night, Pat and I met up with some friends for dinner.  When we got home, it was late so Pat quickly took Miss B outside – off her leash.  Unfortunately, it was pitch dark outside and Bailey didn’t remember that the water was there and apparently couldn’t see it.  (For those of you that know B, you know nothing she does is slow.  Everything, whether it be eating, drinking or running down the stairs, is done at warp speed).  In her typical spastic manner, she tried to run away and was quite surprised when she landed in the ice cold water!  She has never swam before, but after sputtering around for little bit, she quickly learned!  She was one wet, cold dog, but Pat and I could not stop laughing. She just had this stunned look on her face … it was priceless.  Hopefully it means that she’ll become quite the swimmer this summer down the Cape and in Maine!

After drying out overnight, B had a photo shoot today for her 2008 Christmas card, it was very exciting and we got a few great shots … we’ll keep you in suspense until they’re mailed out!

In baby news, I had another appointment this week (17 weeks) and everything looks good!  MM’s heart was ticking away at 155 beats/minute.  I asked my MD about the theory that boys have heartbeats less than 150 and girls have heartbeats greater than 150, and he said there was absolutely no truth to it, so I still have no inclination whether it’s a little boy or a little girl in there, but I suppose we’ll know soon enough!  May will be here before we know it … and, we have an ultrasound scheduled for the first week in January, so will get to take another peek at our little peanut – we can’t wait!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Stay warm 🙂

Sleeping Beauty

For the record, Bailey is generally not allowed on the couch.  But if this blanket goes anywhere near the couch, she knows it’s hers and that it is okay to jump up.  It cracks us both up!  And clearly in this picture she is not pleased that I disturbed her!

In baby news, MiniMarr is 16 weeks along, and about the size of an avocado – which of course means that Pat asks how the guacamole is every time he sees me 🙂  So far the guacamole is excellent!  All my friends tell me I should start feeling him/her move in the next few weeks, which I am pretty excited about!

Weekends …

I love weekends … they are so relaxing and it’s so nice to spend quality time with the family.  I had to work Friday night, so slept during the day on Saturday, but after I woke up, Pat and I just hung out and relaxed.  It was wonderful. We had no agenda, and ended up going to dinner and a movie – an actual date!  We saw the new Bond movie (wasn’t that good) but had such a nice time anyway.  Sunday we woke up, had breakfast hung out, watched the Pats win and gave Bailey the most thorough grooming of her life.  She was bathed, brushed, furminated and all her long fur was trimmed.  She looks a little choppy, but hey, we’re not professionals!  She smells clean, and looks great!  The bath totally wore her out, and she slept most of the rest of the afternoon, it was pretty funny.  Last night, we headed up to dinner at my parents house, where B played with Mags and tuckered herself out even more – gotta love it!  She is such a well behaved dog when she’s tired/sleeping 🙂 When we got home, we discovered that we could use Netflix on Pat’s XBOX, which might be the coolest thing ever.  All you do is set up your queue and then turn on XBOX and the movies will play right on your TV.  It was so awesome!  We watched several Law and Order episodes before heading off to bed.  Technology is great, but my techie husband is even better, because I would have had NO idea that was even possible!

In baby news, the human nugget is 15 weeks today!  Every website tells you something different, but we like babycenter.com because everything relates to food … this week, “the baby measures about 4 inches long, crown to rump, and weighs in at about 2 1/2 ounces (about the size of an apple)”  It’s amazing how much he/she is growing each week!  To think I have a little apple swimming around inside of me is just crazy, but so amazing.  I don’t think we have another ultrasound until 20 weeks, so it will be even more amazing to see how much he/she will grow between now and then!  The 20 week ultrasound is also the “big reveal” to find out if we’re having a boy or a girl, but as most of you know, we don’t want to find out!  There aren’t many true surprises in life, so we’re going to wait until that moment in the delivery room when they tell us “It’s a …!”  Lucky for us, we know it’s only one of two things – at least we hope anyway 😉

Hope everyone has a good (short) week … Happy Thanksgiving!

Bar Harbor

Pat and I just returned from five glorious days in Bar Harbor, Maine.  We kicked off the week taking a trip down memory lane and stayed at the hotel where we got married last year.  It was pretty neat to be there one year later, and we had fun recapping our memories of the night … I still cannot believe it’s been a year!  Who would have thought that one year later we’d be the proud parents of Miss B and the expectant parents of minimarr!

Tuesday morning we trekked up to Maine.  The ride was just under 6 hours, but through pouring rain almost the whole time.  Not fun.  Pat did all the driving (he’s so good) and we were there safe and sound by dark.  The inn was perfect so we settled in and then headed to dinner.  The package we booked included three dinners at the Bar Harbor Inn which was incredible.  Fancier than we anticipated (the book at our hotel said no jeans.  Of course, we brought jeans only).  We decided that since it was off season we’d risk it, and luckily it wasn’t a problem!  Our only other option would have been to buy “dressy” clothes at Walmart.  I’m glad it didn’t come to that!

Our main focus of the trip was to visit Acadia National Park.  It was pretty amazing. We decided to do a self guided tour, so bought a CD and set out to explore the park.  We managed to spend two days there, so I’m glad we didn’t pay for the two-hour tour!  One of our favorite spots was called Bubble Rock.  It’s basically a huge boulder left by a glacier thousands of years ago that balances on the edge of a mountain.

We decided it was worth hiking up to, and it definitely was!  Here’s a picture of Pat pushing it off the mountain.  Despite the fact that we were told it’s been there for thousands of years and never budged, I was convinced it would fall when Pat touched it, haha!

Luckily, it didn’t budge!  Friday morning was set to be sunny, so we watched the sunrise on Cadillac Mountain.  From October 7-March 20, it’s the first place in the United States to see the sunrise!  We felt pretty special.  It was cold watching it rise, but from the summit of Cadillac Mountain we could see fishing boats in the water, and figured they were way colder than we were!

We capped off our trip with some shopping in downtown Bar Harbor.  It’s an adorable little town, with all sorts of boutiques and shops.  A lot of places were closed for the season, but there was still a pretty good selection of stores open.  Our favorite was Bark Harbor, where we bought some treats for our baby, who no doubt missed us terribly while we were gone 🙂

Saturday morning we headed home, with a stop at my parents to pick up Bailey and have dinner.  Binkie came, and Kris was home for the weekend, so we had a great time.  Lots of laughs (per usual) and just a nice relaxing family dinner! The poor dogs were tired, but still managed to get some scraps.   On Saturday alone, B went to the park with my mom, for a run with my sister, and then to the golf course with my dad, Pat and I.  Needless to say, she was exhausted.  I have never seen her so tired in my life.  It was awesome!  Her new bed from LL Bean had come while we were gone (she ate the first one, but you gotta love LL Bean; we sent them the old one, and they shipped out a new one at no extra charge.  You can’t beat it!), so we got that all ready for her, and she slept like a baby.  It was pretty funny.  All in all, it was a great week and we’ll both be sad to return to work on Wednesday!

One Year Later …

Well, today is our one year anniversary!  It’s hard to believe that this time last year we were waiting with wedding day jitters for our big moment!  I look back and wish we could do it all over again, it was such a great day!  It’s been such an amazing year, and I truly cannot believe how fast it’s gone by.  We were commenting that a year ago, Bailey wasn’t even part of our lives yet!  I have no idea what we did without her, but she certainly made our first year of marriage fun and crazy!

The hotel where we got married offers a “complimentary” stay on your one year anniversary, so we’re going to take advantage of that and then head up to Bar Harbor, Maine for the rest of the week.  Not quite the tropical paradise of our honeymoon in Playa Del Carmen, but we’re looking forward to some R&R and some quality time together!  Sadly, no dogs allowed 🙁  Miss B will be spending the week with my parents and Maggie, her favorite friend.  I’m sure they’ll have fun (the dogs anyway), but we’re going to miss the little nugget!  I’ll leave you with some pictures of the big day!