It's The Big One!

My sweet baby Elliot is one year old today. I had been a mom for 15 months when Elliot was born-a relatively short time-, but he certainly was born into a very different family than his big sister. When Delaney was born, I held her all day-literally, all day-staring at her in awe-with Elliot, I could barely catch my breath during the day-much less brush my teeth or change out of my pajamas, but I so looked forward to our quiet times at night when the house was silent and we could just snuggle in the big white chair with a comfy blanket.

This little boy makes me love being a mommy. He is wonderful. So, so wonderful. He crinkles his nose when he smiles. He likes to rest his little face against my cheek. He gives slobbery kisses and big hugs.

He reminds me of a sweet little forest creature-chewing on sticks in our backyard, digging in the dirt (and eating it too-of course), crawling and climbing, sniffing everything and rolling around in the leaves. He doesn't sit still for more than a minute and is so, so busy.

He is quietly persistent, testing his big sister, and not backing down to her. He looks for Laney everywhere-when he wakes up from his nap, he immediately crawls over to her door, stands up, and starts pounding on it.

He always goes down slides head first and seems to dive into everything head first-with total enthusiasm and curiosity.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

Happy Birthday Elliot!

Delaney, Elliot and I have had terrible, terrible colds for the past week. Delaney was sick right before her first birthday, so I guess first birthday sickness is a (bad) tradition in our house! Since I'm feeling so crummy and literally have no voice, Grandma B played hooky from work to help me with the kids which was so wonderful.


Despite his cold, Elliot thoroughly enjoyed his cupcakes-made by Grandma B and Delaney. He devoured two cupcakes and easily could've eaten another two.

In The East

Less than a week after Halloween, we headed to Long Island for Uncle Mat's wedding. The trip to Long Island was about what about what you would expect when traveling across the country with a tempermental two year old and a squirmy-can't-sit-still-for-three-mintues-almost-one-year-old---sheer hell. Dave acted as the family sherpa, lugging two awkward toddler car seats through three different airports as well as two very large diaper bags. Delaney kept us living in fear of one of her God-awful tantrums as she shouted 'off plane, off plane' on the flights. Elliot crawled around on disgusting airport floors, putting who-knows-what into his mouth and squirmed and screamed on the planes. I repeatedly swore that we were never going to travel anywhere again.


We arrived in New York tired and more than a little frazzled. But at least Dave and I were still married and hadn't given away one of our children. We roughed it through a couple of sleepless nights.

Delaney was the flower girl in Mat and Rebecca's wedding and she walked down the aisle all by herself--I was so proud of her and I still can't believe it (pictures to come!). The bride was beautiful and the groom was dashing. I managed to drink 1 1/2 glasses of wine and ate one little appetizer before Elliot became completely inconsolably tired and I took him back to his grandparent's house.


I got to meet Marty and Damien's little boy-Mason--finally! Mason liked to follow Delaney around and Elliot enjoyed some boy time. I, on the other hand, was so happy to spend time with Marty and we even managed to sneak away one night for a couple of drinks.


Both Delaney and Elliot were able to visit their Great Grandma D in the hospital. It is so special for them (and us) to have great grandparents.


Elliot managed to unhook one of Grandma D's monitors and kept trying to steal her glasses, but I have a feeling that Grandma D didn't mind so much.


On Saturday Grandma Mary and Gramps drove us to Philadelphia, where we met my parents at Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Bill's house. It was so nice to visit with Carolyn, Bill and their boys Jeffrey and Michael. Their kids are so wonderful and were so sweet to Delaney and Elliot. I hope that Carolyn and Bill will let me in on their parenting secrets (because there is a magic formula, right?!)!


On Sunday, we visited with my grandparents-Nancy and Frank, who had never met Elliot. I think that they were quite impressed with the little guy. Both Nancy and Frank were surprised that I have two blonde babies (I'm still surprised!). Frank playfully took Delaney's cup and pretended to drink from it-which she thought was funny, but not nearly as hilarious as when she gave him Elliot's sippy cup to drink from.

My parents drove us to Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoon. It was a long drive but we survived in relatively good spirits.