Grandma and Grandpa to the Rescue

As I mentioned in my last post, Tommy had to spend two weeks in Seattle for Microsoft new employee training, so Jack and I were on our own.  After the first week of being a single working mom with a sick baby (and gaining an enormous respect for all the those single moms out there), I was definitely ready for some help.  Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa drove in from Boerne to save the day! 

They arrived on Friday in the afternoon.  Jack and I had spent the day at home because, as I mentioned previously, I had to pick him up on Thursday with a fever and the babies aren't allowed to return to daycare until they have been fever-free for 24 hours. Luckily for Grandma and Grandpa, he was feeling fine again.  For dinner, my dad grilled some yummy pork chops and my mom made my favorite twice baked potatoes.  It was wonderful to have a nice dinner for a change! 

On Saturday, we had a relaxing morning at home with migas for breakfast, then headed to the Frisco Farmer's Market.  Yes, we were probably a little late, but we were not very impressed with the selection.  We did end up buying some peaches, blueberries and a canteloupe, so it wasn't a total loss.

After heading home for a baby nap, we set out on a birthday shopping trip - for me!  We found a couple of great buys and the Banana Republic sale and of course, a few cute things for Jack at Baby Gap, but didn't find "the present."  On Saturday night, we had a great dinner at Mattito's with my mom's cousin Terrie and her husband Boyd.  Here are a couple of photos - the first is Jack with Terrie, followed by Jack with Dad at the restaurant.  You'll notice that there are no photos of Mom or I from the weekend - guess who took all the pictures?!  Boo!

After dinner, we headed back to our house for Mom's homemade cherry chocolate cake and Dad's homemade ice cream complete with candles and singing.  It was great!

Unfortunately, my mom ate something on Saturday night that didn't agree with her and spent most of Sunday morning either in bed or in the bathroom.  After some blueberry pancakes, Dad, Jack and I headed to the pool.  Grandpa and Jack had a great time paddling around the pool.  Even when Grandpa dunked him, he still seemed to prefer paddling around with him to sitting in his floatie.  We may have a swimmer on our hands!

After our outing to the pool, Mom was feeling better and we ventured out shopping again.  We spent a lot of time at Bed Bath and Beyond looking at bedspreads.  We didn't end up buying anything, but I think I have a much better idea of what I want now.  Finally, we stopped by Toys R Us and bicked up a teether and walking toy for Jack.  Here he is studying his new toy.  When he's on the carpet, he really likes to stand up and push it around, too.

Dad grilled some salmon for dinner.  All of the good food made me realize that Tommy and I really do need to eat better, so we have signed up for e-mealz.com.  The website provides a menu and grocery list for 5 meals for 2 each week.  We started this week and it was wonderful to come home each night knowing that we would have a good, easy meal and we wouldn't have to worry about what we were eating.  Thanks so much, Dad for the suggestion!

I had an early work meeting on Monday morning, so Grandma and Grandpa hung around the house for a little while, took Jack to daycare, and headed back to Boerne.  They were such a big help, I can't thank them enough for coming to take care of Jack and I for a few days while Tommy was out of town.  I'm so glad we're back in Texas and only a few hours away!

8 Months

It seems like I just wrote the entry for Jack's 7 month birthday, and now he's 8 months old already!    Based on his latest doctor's visit (which I'll discuss later), he weighs 18 pounds and 12 ounces.  Such a big boy!  Here he is at 8 months and 1 day:

And at 6 months, 4 months, 2 months and 2 days old:

Here's what he's been up to since last month:

• Mobility is probably the area in which he's developed most this month.  He's now a crawling expert and crawls all over the house.  He pulls himself up on everything he can.  His preferred position is definitely standing up.  As he crawls, he's started to try to push up on one of his feet like he would rather be walking.  My dad was visiting last week and didn't think it would be too long until we had a walker on our hands.  We'll see.  For now, he loves to hold on to our hands and wobble-step all over.  His newest skill is the ability to sit down from a standing position.  This may not seem like a big deal, but he would pull himself up to standing and not be able to get down again.  This caused him much frustration and his first forehead bruise at daycare when he couldn't figure out how to sit down, and decided it was best just to let go and face plant.  Poor guy!
• Based on Dr. Berkun's instructions, we're waiting until his 9 month pediatrician visit to try any dairy or meats, but we continue to add different fruits and veggies to his repertoire.  This week, he tried peaches and blueberries for the first time - peaches were delicious, he was a little uncertain about the blueberries.  By far his most interesting new taste sensation was Grandpa's mushy peas with mint.  My dad made them for dinner for us one night and we were interested to see what Jack thought.  Much to my surprise, after a brief squinty face, he seemed to really enjoy them, maybe even more than Mom did! :) 
• We had one (or two) not so good firsts in the past few weeks.  Jack made his first sick visits to the doctor. :(  Of course, they just had to fall in the 2 weeks in which Tommy was out of town for training in Seattle.  The first time, daycare called me early in the day to say that Jack had fallen and had a bruise on his forehead.  I figure this won't be the last time he falls and bumps his head while learning to walk.  A few hours later, I got the call that he had a fever of 101.3 and I needed to come pick him up.  I called the pediatrician (thanks to the John for the recommendation) who said to bring him in.  Even with a  fever, he didn't seem to be feeling too bad, and Dr. Nguyen said it must just be a virus.  The fever was gone the next day and he was back to his old, smiley self, other than a little congestion.  Here's a photo I took on my I-phone to try to show Tommy the bruise.  Yes, I know it's upside down, but I think it looks kind of artistic:
  
  
  A week later, daycare called again, Jack had a fever of 101.7 and I needed to come get him again.  This time, he was definitely not feeling well.  When I picked him up at daycare and held him, he just sunk into my chest and whimpered.  Poor little man!  I brought him home and all he wanted to do was sleep, he didn't have an appetite and his fever was over 102!  Tylenol didn't seem to be bringing it down, so I got some ibuprofen, gave him a lukewarm bath and put him to sleep in the pack and play in our bedroom.  Here's the poor little guy after his bath, wrapped in a blanket so he would stop shivering:
  
  
  The next morning, his fever was back up to 102.4 and he was obviously feeling awful, so back to the doctor we went.  This time, the diagnosis was not good - strep throat!  Dr. Nguyen sent us home with a prescription for amoxycillin, a nebulizer we rented for a week and a couple of precriptions to use when we give him breathing treatments that will hopefully help the congestion.  The fever has been down for a couple of days now, his appetite seems to be back, and I think he's well enough to return to daycare tomorrow.  Tommy got back on Saturday  We're so glad he's home!
• I'm not sure these last 2 really count as firsts yet, but he's starting to babble incessantly, and sometimes, we could swear we hear a "Ma" or "Dad" in there, but nothing for sure.  Finally, I was downstairs cleaning and he pulled himself up on the stair railings to watch me.  I waved and said "Hi, Jack!" and he got really excited and waved back.  He flaps his hands a lot when he gets excited lately, so it could just be that, but he really did look like he was waving!

If you've made it through this post, you must really be interested in Jack.  It was longer than I'd planned, but I like to have everything documented so I'll remember it later.  Stay tuned soon to hear all about Grandma and Grandpa's visit last weekend!

Another Year Older (and Wiser?)

Last weekend, I turned 32 years old.  I've always loved my birthday, and never really cared about the number.  As it gets higher, that may change, but as of today, I'm still willing to announce it on my blog, so that says something. :)

When I was younger, I always imagined what my adult life would be like.  I think I saw myself married right after college, and I probably saw myself staying home with my kids - that was what I knew.  Obviously, that's not exactly the way it turned out.  I made the choices that were right for me and I can say that I absolutely love my life.  Sure, being a working mom is hard sometimes, but I have an amazing, supportive husband and a son that continually astounds me and fills me with so much joy each and every day.  I have a great family, a job I enjoy (most of the time), a beautiful new house, and two adorable dogs.  Who could ask for more?  Certainly not me.

My birthday was on a Friday this year, and Tom and Greta just happened to be stopping through on their way home from dog trials and visiting Tiffany out in California.  We had a nice, relaxing night.  Greta and I headed to a local sushi restaurant, Sake Toro, to pick some sushi, sashimi and rolls, and have a glass of wine while we perused the menu.  We brought the sushi home to the guys and I had a great night visiting, opening cards and presents, and eating the yummy ice cream cake my hubby brought home.

On Saturday, we were so glad that Brandi and Lincoln could come over while Ryan was officiating an out of town wedding.  Everyone had a great time.  Poppy hung out with his grandsons, who seemed to love the stairs (babyproofing is in our VERY near future): 

Jack enjoyed his newfound freedom and crawled all around the house:

Lincoln and Albert made sure we were safe from any strangers who might be trying to get in the house:

Poppy and Gigi took the boys for a walk:

Jack drank some of Gigi's water:

Then drank his bottle - that is one thirsty boy!

Here's a great shot of Poppy and Gigi with their 2 grandsons:

Finally, to celebrate my birthday, Tom and Greta were nice enough to stay with Jack so Tommy and I could go to a movie!  We saw Toy Story, which was really cute (I cried) and the new fancy Gold Class Cinemas in Allen.  Before we arrived at the theater, we purchased our tickets online and chose our seats.  When we arrived, we were escorted to a table in the lounge area where we ordered drinks and our meal, which they would bring to us in the theater.  When the movie started, we were escorted to our giant, comfy recliner seats, and given pillows and blankets.  They timed our food perfectly to coincide with the movie, apps first, them meal.  We ordered fried calamari, a steak sandwich (for Tommy) and a Cuban sandwich (for me).  The food was decent, not amazing, but definitely a step above your traditional movie food.  I'm not sure if we'd pay to see every movie this way, but it was a wonderful, fun special occasion experience!  Here's a pic of the happy couple before the movie:

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes and for making my day so special.  I really am a lucky gal!

Pool Party!

It was really wonderful to have a 4-day weekend for the 4th of July and we tried to take advantage of every moment.  On Monday, our friends Tom and Jen had a pool party at their house.  It was the first time I'd gotten to see the beautiful pool, barbeque and gazebo that they had built while we were in Connecticut.  It is gorgeous!  As always, Tom and Jen were great hosts - Tom grilled some yummy California tri-tip on the grill and Jen made some watermelon margaritas and all kinds of appetizers.  Jack and I took a swim in the pool, while Tommy hung out under the gazebo with all of his former FedEx Kinkos buddies.  Uncle Austin and Jack spent some time together relaxing:

I took a few photos of the group around the pool and under the gazebo, but they really don't do the area justice:

And of course, what blog entry would be complete without a couple of pictures of our little guy.  Notice the fingers always in the mouth?  Yep, definitely teething...

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend - I know we did!

Baby's First 4th of July

As this was Jack's first Fourth of July, Daddy, Nana and I wanted to be sure we captured the day in pictures, including a few with the beautiful red, white and blue bouquet that Nana brought us.  Here are a couple of my favorites:

(Num num flag, num num)

(It's harder than you think to balance and wave this flag)

Early in the afternoon, we were so excited to have Aunt Brandi, Uncle Ryan, and Cousin Lincoln head to Frisco to spend the day with us.  Here, Jack is welcoming Lincoln to his new house:

And a couple of family pictures in front of the house (thank you so much to Nana for taking these - I wish you were in a few photos!):

We all suited up and headed to the neighborhood pool for a little swim.  Both of the cousins are little water babies and really enjoyed floating and paddling around.

After swimming, we headed home for some yummy Rudy's barbeque and naps for a couple of little boys.  There were no fireworks for us this Fourth of July, but maybe next year.  We had a wonderful day!

"Uncle" Jeff and Sarah Visit

On the 4th of July weekend, we were so glad that Jeff and his fiance Sarah were able to drive up from Houston to visit.  Tommy and Jeff have been friends since middle school and Jeff and I got to be really close friends when he lived a few apartments down from me during college.  He's one of a select group of friends to earn the honorary "uncle" title to Jack.  He recently got engaged to Sarah and we couldn't be more thrilled.  Sarah is great!  They make a wonderful couple and seem genuinely happy together and in love.  Congrats, guys!

Anyway, I digress.  Jeff and Sarah arrived on Friday night.  Tommy and I made some appetizers and sangria for everyone to munch on when they arrived.  As it turns out, we are terrible hosts.  We had made both mushrooms stuffed with sausage and bacon bites, forgetting that Sarah doesn't eat pork.  Oops!  She did say she really enjoyed the sangria and queso :)

Late Saturday morning, we met Austin at the Original Pancake House for breakfast.  We spent a lazy afternoon at home hanging out, watching some World Cup on TV, and playing a little Rock Band.  Tommy's mom arrived late in the afternoon.  After spending a few days in Ft. Worth with Brandi, Ryan and Lincoln, she came to Frisco to visit and watch Jack for the night.  Tommy, Jeff, Sarah and I headed down to our old stomping grounds and met Austin and Greg at a new restaurant, Victor Tangos for dinner.  We were all very impressed.  The drinks were interesting and delicious. The food was served family style and we liked pretty much every dish, from the ahi tuna nachos, to the chicken and waffles.  Here we all are at dinner:

After dinner, we headed to Barcadia, a bar with lots of old time arcade games and other games.  Tommy and Jeff spent much of the night competing on the giant Connect 4 board (literally as tall as me!).  I left early got home around 11.  At the time, I felt like kind of a party pooper, but I felt pretty smart the next morning when all those who had been out until 3am were really struggling!  Here's a picture of Uncle Jeff and Sarah with Jack:

Thanks so much for coming to visit, Jeff and Sarah!  It was wonderful to see you and we hope you'll come again very soon.  Hopefully, we'll make it down to Houston soon, too!

Happy First Father's Day Tommy!

I loved Tommy, my boyfriend, when we were dating.  I loved him even more as my husband when we got married.  If possible, I love him even more today as the father of our child.  I love watching Tommy and Jack together, how their faces light up when they see each other, how Tommy carries Jack on his shoulders and hangs him upside-down while he laughs hysterically.  I can't wait to see them grow up together as father and son.

We celebrated a nice first father's day.  Tommy's mom and Robert were still in town, so we all made a trip to the neighborhood pool (sorry, no pictures).  Jack loved swimming just as much as he did the first time.  He kicks his feet, splashes his hands, giggles and has a great time.  After the pool, Austin brought over some Rudy's barbeque and  after everyone left we spent a quiet night hanging out as a family of three.

Here are a couple of pictures of Daddy and his boy from the weekend:

Happy first father's day to a wonderful husband and an amazing dad.  I love you, Tommy!

Our 6th Anniversary

As I said in the previous post, Tommy and I woke up bright and early on the morning of our anniversary to support my friend in a 5K walk for breast cancer.  Neither one of us even remembered it was our anniversary until the middle of the afternoon.  How sad is that?!  We didn't have presents because we decided that our present to each other would be something for the new house (I'm hoping it will be a table for our eat-in kitchen!).  Needless to say, that day passed pleasantly, but uneventfully.

Fortunately for us, Tommy's Mom and Robert headed to Dallas the following weekend and offered to babysit Jack so we could have a nice anniversary dinner date.  Here are a couple of pictures of our little family before we headed out:

While Jack had fun with Nana and Papa, Tommy and I headed to downtown Dallas to Craft, Tom Colicchio's restaurant at the W Hotel.  I'm a big Top Chef fan (and its the only reality show Tommy will tolerate), so we had always wanted to try Craft when we lived near NYC.  Luckily for us, there is also a Craft in Dallas!

Our meal was delicious.  I told them it was our anniversary when I made the reservation, so we had complimentary champagne waiting at our table.  We started out with a Romaine and White Anchovy Salad (aka caesar :) ) and a beet and roquefort salad with 3 types of beets, walnuts and candied ginger.  Our main courses were braised beef shortribs and a Wagyu beef filet.  We also ordered sides of portobello mushrooms and gnocchi.  Everything was served family style, so we both got to try a little bit of everything.  We finished off our meal with an ice cream and sorbet tasting.  10 flavors, ranging from peanut brittle to buttermilk tangerine to elderflower - a fun and delicious way to end our meal!

I must admit that everything at the W (except Craft) felt just a little too trendy for Tommy and I, who are obviously old and uncool now :), so were ready to head somewhere a little more low key afterwards.  Since we were so close to his neighborhood, we met Greg for a drink at Neighborhood Services, a new restaurant and bar near where we used to live. 

We headed home after a great night to find a little boy who had stayed up way past his bedtime and did not want to go to bed.  Thank you so much, Nana and Papa for watching our little stinker.  Tommy and I really appreciate that we were able to spend a night together to celebrate 6 amazing years of marriage - and many more to come!!

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure

I met Kristin the day I started at Deloitte in Houston, where both of us started our careers on September 10, 2001.  She moved to Dallas about a year before I did and we worked on the same client for several years before I moved to Connecticut.  She's become one of my best friends at Deloitte and we've shared many late nights working and our fair share of evenings at the local wine bar commiserating about work and life in general.

Almost a year ago, Kristin found a lump in her breast and was diagnosed with breast cancer at the young age of 30.  Over the past year, she's undergone a lumpectomy, chemo, and radiation, all while continuing to work full time at an extremely demanding job.  She's  faced it all with amazing strength, bravery and even humor (those of you who know Kristin would expect nothing less!).  She's finished with her treatments now and, so far, so good.  I'm so proud of her!

Needless to say, when we found out Kristin had formed a team to walk in this year's Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, North Texas, Tommy and I knew we wanted to be there to support her.  So, early in the morning on our 6th anniversary, Tommy, Jack and I headed out for Jack's first 5K!   I brought my camera, but it got lost in my bag in the bottom of Jack's stroller, so I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of the day.  I took the picture below off of the Komen website.  As you can see, the turnout was great, despite the heat, to support a great cause.  The second photo of is of our team that I got from Kristin - she has so many great friends who came out to support her.

I'm so glad we were back in Dallas in time to join Kristin and her other teammates for this great event.  She's been such an inspiration to me (and so many others) over the past year, it was the very least we could do.

7 Months

Well, he's still got a few weeks left until he's 8 months old, so I guess I'm not too late yet.  A few weeks ago, I was thinking that I wouldn't really have any big  milestones to document this month.  That all changed this week!  Maybe its being around kids that are a few months older than him at daycare everyday, but it seems like he's developed so much so quickly.  Here are some of the big milestones that he's hit since my 6 month post:

• He's eating all kinds of fruits and veggies.  We started with the orange veggies - carrots, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash.  He loved those, so we moved on to the green veggies - green beans and peas.  Apparently, Jack is very much like his Dad, green veggies are not his favorite.  The first few times he ate them, he would make a horrible face, scream a high pitched scream and try to take the food out of his mouth with his hands.  Just recently, he's decided that the green veggies may not be so bad, but they were definitely a struggle at first.  Just a couple of weeks ago, we finally moved on to fruits - avocado, apple and banana so far.  All of those have been yummy!
• Last weekend, we bought him his first puffs.  For those who aren't familiar, puffs are kind of like Cheerios, but made especially for babies learning to eat, they dissolve really quickly in their mouth.  Their texture was very suprising the first time he put one in his mouth, but he's gotten to like them pretty well.  He's even learned to feed them to himself - if they don't get to sticky and get stuck to the palm of his hand!
• He's crawling!  Last Saturday was the first time he put it all together and made his first moves across the floor.  That day, it took him probably 10 minutes to crawl about 5 feet, but its amazing how fast he's progressed since then.  He's not too speedy yet, but he can crawl across a room to get something he wants, alternating between army crawling with his belly on the floor, and regular crawling.  I guess I'd better start the babyproofing ASAP!  Here, I tried to upload my first video of Jack crawling on Monday evening.  Hopefully it works!
• Yesterday, I walked into Jack's room to find him standing up in his crib for the first time.  I shouldn't have been surprised given how much he's always liked to stand, but it kind of took me off guard.  You can bet the next thing we did was to lower his crib mattress to its lowest position.  Yikes!
• He has his first tooth!  FINALLY!  The lower left front tooth!  We have been saying for months now that he must be teething - he's been drooly, fussy and rubbing his face.  I'd often use it as an excuse when he would wake up in the middle of the night, but funny enough, last night he didn't wake up at all! :)

We didn't have a pediatrician appointment this month, but with our extraordinarily accurate bathroom scale, we've determined that he weighs about 19 pounds - he's almost 3 times what he weighed at birth - can you believe that?!

This month, I did manage to get a picture of Jack at a date fairly close to his 7 month birthday:

And here is at 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 month and 3 days old:

He's growing so fast!!