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11.4.11

weekend celebration

squeezin mamma
mmm... beets are yummy & messy!

eating my toes... tasty
playing in a box w/grandma

peek-a-boo!
 I have not uploaded photos from this weekend, above are a few randoms from the past month...

We drove to Connecticut to celebrate Caleb's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. What an incredible story. They married when Henry was 21 and Lucille was 18. Our son Samuel's middle name is Henry after his grandfather and great-grandfather. It was an intimate family celebration at Caleb's uncle's house, and the house deserves a blog post in itself. It was built in 1750 and holds so much history. We got a tour of the "compound". The home was once where Yale students had class when the British invaded New Haven Harbor. If only the walls could talk.
Back to the celebration - Caleb's aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, siblings, nieces and nephew were there for the celebration. We had dinner & dessert together and just had fun hanging out. Caleb's family hasn't seen much of Sam so he was passed from aunt, to uncle, to cousin, and back. Sam was a happy and smiley baby the whole day, until the end when he passed out in Caleb's arms.
It was great to be able to celebrate 60 years as a married couple. That's a feat seldom found these days.
Maybe I can get a few pictures up later.

Sunday we visited Calvary Christian Church, Caleb's former employer. Sam was in such a good mood and enjoyed meeting Caleb's former coworkers and parishioners. Hopefully we can visit again.

Today Sam and I went for a walk with some of my friends, Heather & Robin and with Sam's friends, Owen & Judah. Sam loves his stroller and talked away as we walked around the neighborhood. At the end of the walk I let Sam play on the playground. His favorite part was the swing and sitting in the wood-chips!! He's so fast, as soon as I put him down, he puts his fist to the ground, picks up wood-chips, sticks, leaves, dirt and puts it in his mouth... it was hard to capture on camera b/c I was worried he would choke since most of those items were of choking sizes. Oh well.

Tomorrow we head out on an adventure - Western Mass to stay with my sister-in-law for the night, Malvern, PA to visit with a college friend who had a baby girl one month after Sam was born, Washington DC to visit Shannon and Behr another college friend and her baby boy, Hershey, PA to visit Sadie - we miss her, she just moved from the North Shore, Wyomissing, PA to visit family friends, and then to the Cape to work and finally back home to Hamilton. It's going to be an eventful, whirlwind trip, but I'm looking forward to vacation after a busy work season.

This evening Caleb was working, so I made some baby food for Sam, yeah, exciting I know...
I found a recipe in a magazine, tried it one time and Sam LOVES it. It's called fruit soup.

FRUIT SOUP
approximately 1 ice-cube tray
1 ripe banana
strawberries (maybe 1-2 cupes)
pineapple (1/8-1/4 of cut up pineapple)
1/2 cup water

Put all ingredients into a pot and cook on medium high for 5-6 minutes or until all fruit is soft.
Strain fruit over a bowl, keeping the juice. Pour the fruit into a blender or food processor and add some of the juice. Add as much or little juice as you want. Pour the fruit puree into an ice-cube tray and freeze. Serve 1 or 2 cubes after a meal.
*If you have left over "juice" you can mix it with rice cereal for a delish treat. Sam loved it. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the process...

and a few obligatory pics :)
hanging out on Grandpa's reindeer skin

ooooohh... the mirror is fun!

hi Sam!

kissing the mirror.

I just LOVE this little boy!!

9.4.11

sam and the glass

so i told caleb i was against the sippy cup. no real reason, i just thought it was silly to use a sippy cup and i didn't want a bunch of plastic cups taking over our cabinets. i told him we would start sam with a regular cup.  and so i gave him a coke glass, which he found amusing... and dropped on the floor. i let him explore further... which you'll see in the pictures. ridiculous i know.
these make me smile.
thanks caleb for documenting :)
love you. and sam.


giving him water in his "coke" glass

a little love for baby sam

love how his mouth looks like the Joker!



mom, oops. i dropped it. can we get it? pretty please?

sam goes after the glass...

getting closer

he got it.



dad, dad, i got the glass!

but woops, it's stuck...





who? me?

ok, i've lost interest in the glass... let's move on to the highchair!

hi dad! do you have to document EVERYTHING?

ok. well, i guess i'll look happy.

mmm... tasty high chair.

8.4.11

weekdays

a working stay-at-home mom... is there such a thing? well, that's me.
before sam was born, i worked from a home office. last march i had the opportunity to become the controller for my company. i decided to take the position, after disclosing to my boss that i was pregnant to make sure he didn't want to change his mind. the new position required i travel to the main office on cape cod two days a week. i accepted the challenge.
caleb and i had our lives turned upside down in a matter of months...
  • we find out i'm pregnant
  • i get a new job, travel required
  • caleb's working 25-40 hrs per week at REI
  • caleb's going to school full-time for his master's degree
  • we find out our landlord is selling their house... we need to MOVE! (which was obvious with a baby on the way anyway)
there was so much more going on in the background... but i won't bore you with it. after sam was born, caleb and i knew i had to go back to work - which as a mom is struggle. i love baby sam and would LOVE to stay home with him ALL the time, but i love my job - which is a career. sure it can be stressful, difficult, hard, and so forth, but my job is so rewarding. how can i give up what i love doing? well, i can't, because i have a husband in school... so therefore, hi ho hi ho back to work i go.
since my position was a "work from a home office" type of position i was "lucky" enough to be able to work from my home office once sam was born.
now i travel to the main office every other week and i'm in the office for 3 days. the travel is difficult, but sam gets to spend time with his grandma (my mom watches him while i'm in the office), i get to work in the office, and i get a break from 24/7 sam. don't get me wrong, i LOVE him and am so  happy i'm his mom. but moms need a break... so they don't lose their marbles...
well, the rest of the time i work from a home office. i have to say, i'm lucky to not have to put sam in daycare, i'm lucky i could exclusively nurse for the first 6 months and not really worry about pumping (nursing moms know what i mean). i have a love/hate relationship with my pump. i'm so thankful for it... but ugh. just think about it... it's like "hello, my name is sara, and i'm a cow..." not exciting. not comfortable. but for sam, i do it because sam means the world to me. i love him unconditionally, most of the time ;)
so, i work from a home office, with a 6 month old. it has been difficult, challenging, rewarding, fun. sam is such a great little person. he's so happy most of the time. so no complaints in that department.
here's a quick synopsis of sam:
7am: wakes up and talks to himself for 30 minutes (i shower, eat breakfast, get ready for the day)
7:30am: go get sam and he's so happy to see me. breakfast for sam, get him ready for the day
8am: work begins, and sam hangs out on the floor or in the exersaucer (or w/caleb ie dad if he's not in class)
9am: sam goes down for a nap, literally, i put him in his crib and he goes to sleep, i continue to work
11am: sam wakes up and eats, he plays on the floor or in the exersaucer
1pm: i break for lunch; sam & i sit at the kitchen table and talk about the day
2pm: another nap for sam, i continue to work
3-5pm: sam wakes up, eats, and plays, i work
4-6pm: i take sam for a walk (no not for 2 hours, at some point from 4-6pm depending when he wakes up)
5-6pm: finish work
7pm: dinner
8pm: sam's in bed - for the night

now i know i won't have this schedule forever, but as a working from a home office stay at home mom... it works for now. and i have to take it day by day. sure life brings you curves balls, but you bring your bat and your A game and somehow at the end of the day, you've gotten it done. i'm so thankful for life right now.

disclaimer: for all three of you who read this blog... i'm terrible at keeping a babybook, so i blog, and then i can look back and see how life was. and since before this week, i hadn't posted since december, i guess i'm terrible at blogging on a regular basis too... but i'm cutting myself some slack since there are only 24  hrs in a day... and during non work time i want to spend with caleb & sam and not sit in front of a computer...

6.4.11

Swimming & Peyton's First Birthday

Saturday was an eventful day.
Sam and I went to morning "swim lessons" - basically mommy & me swimming. Sam LOVES it. This past Saturday Katharine came with us and took Sam in the pool and I got a photo op. Here are a few highlights with Sam sporting his suit from his grandpa & grandma Mac. Thanks Katharine for swimming w/Sam and letting me take a bunch of pics :)
in the pool with Katharine
reaching for the ducky

showing the teacher i can grab the ducky
excited to jump off the edge

Saturday afternoon Sam and I loaded up the car (well, I did, Sam watched) and drove out to the middle of Massachusetts and then some to visit my friend Megan and celebrate her daughter Peyton's first birthday party. It was such a good time and Sam LOVED hanging out with all the kids.


addi checking out sam and sam checking out the balloon above her head

birthday girl!
sam's favorite toy

patiently waiting for cupcakes

happy birthday peyty!
lovin me some cupcake!

mom & dad with the birthday girl - excuse the poor lighting...
big sister addi
dr. drew

party hats

lovin me some paper, #iowntkerrrifitspink
sun hat
ready to hula hoop :)
Sam was so good. he played with the toys, hung out with the kiddos and even got crawled over... which we caught on camera and yes i was the mean mom who let it happen so we could get the great film clip.