March Showers

Rivers are still at their highest levels in years, folks are still trying to dry out their basements so what do we need? More rain of course! While March continues to be a seriously rainy month, all the way to the end, I got to host a different kind of shower over the weekend...an informal, day with the girls, baby shower for my friend Tamara. Her "formal" baby shower is next weekend but we took advantage of our good friend Ana Maria being in town to gather the ladies and have a fun time together.

After Mike, Dylan and I took a long morning walk to take advantage of the break in the rain, Ana Maria and Tamara came over to use our shower (Tamara's bathroom is still under renovation...running weeks late of schedule) then Ana Maria and I headed to the grocery store to get some grub. Later, 4 more ladies and 1 little girl showed up.

We didn't do anything too noteworthy. Mostly, we sat around the kitchen and talked. The group consisted of gals that all used to hand out on the stoop on Commonwealth Ave in Brighton and talk. It was reminiscent of those days, well, except for the fact that were all in very different places in our lives mentally and physically. Instead of being single city dwellers in Boston, newly establishing ourselves in the professional world, we're career women, mothers, wives, etc. As life continues for all of us, taking us further away from the "stoop days," it's really great when we can join together for special occasions and catch up with one another.

Jessica,Tamara,Sue,Me & Dylan,Karen, Madeline, Sarah and Ana Maria

So, with all the rain that we've been having and the time change, it is truly officially spring. With the extra light in the evenings and the warmer weather, I've been happy to get to commute via two wheels again. I dusted off my bike that hasn't been used since the Fall of 2008 and have been riding to work, when there's been an occasional break in the rain. Granted, that's only been a couple of days over the last several weeks, but I'm looking forward to doing that much more. I've really missed it.

The tricky part is that my usual bike route, off the roads, runs on a path that goes through wooded lowlands. As that was just a couple of days after our first bout of flooding, it was a bit of an adventure. I spun through a lot of mud and carried my bike while wading shin deep on normally raised rocks for more of the trip then I would have liked. Needless to say, I took to the streets for my other trips. Riding on the streets is not nearly as relaxing as an event, so I hope that the heavy rains stop soon and the water gets a chance to recede so that I can get back on my bike. Yay for spring!

Back to the Mountains

Last weekend we FINALLY got back to NH! Winter was packed with traveling for the holidays, returning to work (for me), back surgery for Mike and then recovery. Now that Mike's able to be a bit more active, it was time for us to get "away" for the weekend to our vacation home and take a nice mountain hike as a family.

Long before I was even entertaining the thought of getting pregnant, Mike found a hiking baby backpack at Marshall's. He has a bit of a discount store addiction and loves finding a bargain. Even though it seriously freaked me out (and made me embarrassed to admit it), I let him buy the backpack for us to have when baby did come along. So, last weekend, we gave it it's first big use.

Friday night, after I got off work, we drove up to our place in NH. Over breakfast Saturday morning, I picked out two good potential hikes for us, one about an hours drive away and the other only about 20 minutes away....both in the same direction. Since having a baby makes you plan your whole life "by ear," we would decide which one to take en route. On the road, it became apparent that Dylan was not going to fall asleep in the car (even though it was around the time he usually goes for his morning nap) and was not going to be happy in the car awake for a long period of time, so we decided on the closer destination, Mt. Pemigewasset in Franconia Notch.

The weather was absolutely perfect hiking weather, low 60s and partially sunny. We worked hard hiking up the mountain, especially me. Dylan's growing bigger by the day and it was no easy feat carrying him up that mountain. But, the backpack worked awesome so it was at least comfortable to carry him. At the base, there were a few patches of snow left in shaded areas off the path, but as we raised in altitude, there was a good base of slushy snow still working on melting away. It made for a slow ascent to the top.

About 20 minutes from the top, Dylan finally drifted off to sleep in the backpack. Once we hit the open ledge at the peak, the wind was whipping so hard that it startled him awake. So much for a good nap! We found a spot at the top blocked from the wind and sat down to eat lunch. Dylan was a little dazed from the rude awakening, but, as always, was a good sport. He had some lunch and was kept very entertained by a travel tissue pack and our hiking poles.

Lunch Time Entertainment

After lunch, a few pictures were taken at the top, we started our trek back down the mountain.

Mike and Dylan - Open Ledge, Peaks in the Background and Snow Remnants

Me, Dylan, The Tissue Pack and the View

Another Hiker Took a Family Shot (with tissue pack)

But We Still Had to Have the Self Portrait (tissue pack is in other hand)

Obviously, I'm more careful then careful when I've got my baby with me. I was worried about the snow on the trail on the way down, but it was somehow easier on the descent then the ascent. However, I apparently didn't clear one tree branch. Even though there wasn't a mark on Dylan, that branch irritated the over tired baby into a mini meltdown. Sometime during this meltdown is when he finally let go of the tissue pack (and we accidentally littered on the mountain....oops!). We tried comforting him while in the pack...that didn't work. Then we kept moving (he normally calms down when we're on the go)...that didn't work. So, it was out of the pack and into Daddy's arms. We kept moving and finally he calmed down enough to sit down and nurse. Then, he fell into a nice deep sleep. Sometimes, we have the prepared parent thing down pretty well. Saturday was one of those days. We had a back up carrying plan in hand in case he tired of the backpack. It was better suited for him napping, so we put him in that and continued on our way.

Mike and Napping Dylan

Stream with Patches of Snow

After about a half hour nap, Dylan woke to enjoy the last part of our trip and was a happy camper again. Sleep does a kid wonders!

He Loved Watching the Water (In This Picture, From a Bridge)

This trip to NH came with some great animal sightings. When driving up the road to our condo complex Friday night, we saw a small grey fox run across the road. And, after turning into our drive, we got a good view (stopped and put our headlights on him) of another grey fox. On the way up the mountain on Saturday, we saw some Moose scat and hoof prints. Then, right at the very end of our hike, we got to watch a red squirrel stripping a pine cone to get at the seeds. I'd never seen one of these little guys before. He was very cute!

Red Squirrel

After our 4 hour hike, we headed back to the condo for some dinner, rest and a little cleaning. Dylan was eager to help with the cleaning...he was seriously obsessed with the vacuum. It entertained him for a while.

Sunday, we headed back mid morning and stopped for some shopping at the outlet malls. We made it home early enough to have a relaxing evening at home. Great weekend with the family!

New Trick

What stinks about being a working parent is you miss quite a lot of the firsts. Almost every day, Mike tries to have Dylan recreate some new thing he did that day so that I can see it. And, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I get to "share" some of these things with them during my work day. I just got the cutest video of Dylan's newest trick. Pretty awesome!

This is a fun new development that has an entry spot in our baby book. Exciting to fill in the dates on those. Yay Dylan! (Said while clapping along with him!)

Irish Cuteness

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! This year, I won't be celebrating like yesteryear St. Patty's Days, but I did acknowledge the day by wearing green (both work and work out outfits) and pinched some folks that weren't.

Tonight, I plan to enjoy the nice weather with my boys and go for a post work stroll. Yay for Spring! Hopefully, the green of the day will extend to make the trees green very soon.

As Dylan does have some Irish blood, we couldn't let the holiday pass without an official outfit. There is a St. Patrick's themed onsie below the huge bib, but he was apparently too busy playing today to be patient having his picture taken. Plus, the boy always has to have a bib on....he's a drool fountain! (Teeth should be arriving any day now. We check every morning for them.)

And for some more Irish cuteness, my sister in law's dog, Kaiser, made the Boston Globe's web site's Local Irish pride list. You can view the link here, or just view the picture below. Too cute!

Have a safe, happy and fun holiday!

Big Cats, Big Progress and Big Rain

This is kind of a mish mash post since I've been ignoring this blog for the last week and have a few notable events to mention.

Last week we had some absolutely gorgeous spring weather. Mike and Dylan took advantage of it and had a very spur of the moment zoo trip with Mike's Dad. He's been doing well post surgery and was looking to get out on a walk and use his crutches a little more. So, with our new zoo pass in hand, they went to the Stoneham Zoo (near Mike's parents' house). Mike, Dylan and Bumpa (what Dylan will call Mike's Dad) had a great time roaming around the zoo.

I asked Mike for some of his favorite pictures of the day. They were all of the big cats! Those kitties were pretty active that day. In fact, the snow leopard was VERY interested in Bumpa....perhaps almost too interested. The cat stalked him as he walked by on his crutches and was eyeing him the whole time he was in sight.

Snow Leopard Giving Bumpa the Eye!!!

Jaguar
Cougar

I learned of their little outing after the fact which was probably for the best. I was pretty jealous of my father in law getting to enjoy such a nice, fun day at the zoo with Mike and Dylan while I was stuck at work. Something I'll just have to get used to, I'm sure.

Speaking of missing things while at work, I also missed the first event of a huge milestone with Dylan. Apparently, crawling (after knowing how a week and a half) was no longer challenging for him because he was ready to move on to the next step - pulling up to stand! He did this on Mike at the end of last week. Mike called me instantly. Lucky for me, Dylan was more than happy to recreate the event on me that evening. I caught it on video this weekend. So far, he's limited this new skill to our legs....surely furniture will come next.

After the wonderful sunny weather we had last week, we've had nothing but rain since Friday. A lot of it. It's really causing some problems around town and our house hasn't been excluded. Now, we don't have a water tight basement by any means, but, in 5 years of living in it, we've never had water in it like we do now. I had to wade through about 3-4 inches at the bottom of my stairs to get to my washer and dryer last night. We reassessed the damage this morning and somehow, after a night of continued rain, it's not quite as bad as last night.

Unfortunately, as I was leaving for work this morning, I discovered that our carpet tiles in the mudroom are soaking wet. So wet that our sub floor is starting to buckle. Not good. I moved out one of the new benches to keep it from getting damaged and Mike's gotten in touch with our contractor who is going to have someone come check it out. I'm crossing my fingers that it's an easy fix. The rain is expected to end tomorrow so we'll just have to wait it out and then do what we can to reverse the effects of it. Here's hoping for sunny skies soon.

Franklin Park Zoo

This weekend, Spring was in the air. Given that this is Boston and it's the beginning of March, it's likely we'll see more snow before we see our true Spring. But the weather this weekend was sunny and wonderfully mild...a great time to be outdoors. So, Mike, Dylan and I headed out to see if the wild animals were out enjoying the weather too and spent some of the day at the Franklin Park Zoo.

Wait, can we get a close up on that goat?!?

Cutest little goat I've ever seen! Though he's quickly starting to outgrow it, I still really enjoy carrying Dylan around in our front carrier. He loves it to! I love this picture that Mike took of the two of us.

A couple of the zoos in the area work in partnership with each other. It just so happens that one of the zoos is near our house (Franklin Park) and another is by Mike's parents' house, which they frequent often. Since it's a family favorite thing to do, we bought a family year pass. So, this will be the first of many trips to the zoo over the next year. If you want to come with us, let us know!

We spent a couple of leisurely hours exploring the zoo. Since it's still winter, lots of animals weren't on display. Next time we go back, we'll look forward to seeing them. There was also a lot of construction happening to improve exhibits and create new ones. There will be lots of new things to see on future visits.

Today's trip definitely had a few highlights. We just loved looking at the bachelor lion, Christopher. When we were walking towards the exhibit, we heard him doing lots of roaring. By the time we got where we could see him, he had settled down.
Though Mike and I loved watching Christopher, Dylan didn't really seem to notice him. As we walked away from the enclosure, he started to roar again. So we ran back and this time got to see him walk around and "talk." This time, Dylan definitely took notice!

Christopher Talking

We also enjoyed watching a young zebra get frisky with one of the older zebras. Dad (?) zebra didn't seem to want to play but the little guy was persistent. It was cute.
Perhaps Dylan's favorite part of the zoo was all of the wild animals surrounding us. Not the ones behind the gates but the ones standing right next to us! He just loved watching all the other kids around us. Another big excitement for him were the waterfalls in some of the interior exhibits. The water was mesmerizing! Dylan also got tons of entertainment by kicking the glass and patting the railings of the exhibits. It's the little things in life that make him happy!

8 Months Old

It literally feels like last week I was saying Dylan had just turned 6 months old and, here he is, 8 months old today! His growth must go that much quicker because I get so little time with him during the week. I truly try to relish every moment in the evenings and weekends that I get to spend with him.

We've had a great month settling in to more of what will be our normal routine. Mike and Dylan have been enjoying their time at home together and are finding lots of fun things to do. Some of Dylan's favorite things are......

Watching Bubbles

Bouncing

And Painting! He's Our Own Little Picasso

He's become a great eater and has 3 meals of "solid" food every day. He's a champ at feeding himself cheerios and really enjoys eating those while we get his rice cereal, fruits and vegetables ready for him to eat. We've started making some baby food for him which has been a lot of fun.

After threatening to crawl for a couple of weeks, Dylan abandoned attempts altogether two weeks ago when he figured out how to sit up by himself. After perfecting that skill for a week, he took up trying to move again. Since starting to crawl on Monday, he has really improved by leaps and bounds over the week. Dylan will cross the room to get toys and can even get across the slippery hardwood floors. When needing a little snuggle time, he'll even crawl over to us. So sweet!

He enjoys hearing himself babble and talk. There still aren't a ton of new distinguishable sounds coming out of his mouth, but Mike and I think we heard a "la la" sound over the last couple of days. Even though he doesn't try to mimic us, he definitely enjoys us making simple sounds to him and is studying our mouths very carefully. I expect he'll try them out for himself any day now.

What a busy month it's been. So many exciting baby developments....we're looking forward to the new adventures of month #8.