We Made It! (and a random post)

So we had an awesome time in D.C. We were only there for one day but we did quite a bit. In the morning, we met up with Reinventing Motherhood. We did a museum and then lunch.

We had the same due date though the babies are 2 weeks apart (Lexi was a week early, O.G. was a week late). Lexi is adorable! And their son Tyler is another cutie pie. After Cam got over his shyness, he was thrilled to hang out with big boys (Ty and his friend). Even Mary who was very hesitant about meeting "e friends" had a good time.





Later, we attempted to go to the Botanical Gardens which lasted all of 10 minutes, the place was unbelievably crowded. So we walked around a bit until we met up with one of Mary's friends at another museum (museums are free in D.C. which is an added bonus). Cam was way more into it as it was all animals and dinosaurs. Mary wanted us all to go to dinner but I convinced her that she and her friend should go alone. That worked out as I took the kids back to the hotel and we ordered room service. Mary took advantage and stayed out until almost midnight. Hey, you're still a mama with a bedtime. Hahahaha.

D.C. was great. We definitely think we'll have to take a longer trip at some point since it's a great place to take the kids and not super far from Boston.



Yesterday we left D.C. and yet again hit traffic everywhere we could and everywhere we couldn't. Needless to say, we made it to Savannah where we planned to stay the night.

This morning, my plan was to wait in line at the Lady & Sons (Paula Deen from the Food Network's restaurant) to get a lunch reservation. They start taking names at 9:30 a.m. It was a few blocks away and I planned to leave the hotel at 9. I looked out the window of the hotel at 8:45 and saw a line wrapping around a building and knew it must be the restaurant.



Before leaving, I learned that the power was out in the hotel. Little did I know, it was out in most of Savannah. Needless to say, I did get a reservation but the restaurant wasn't able to open due to the power outage. We finally found a place that had power so we could eat breakfast (at close to 11:00) and then headed out to Orlando.

We arrived here around 6:00. The ride felt like a breeze since it was only about 5 hours and with little (though of course some) traffic. We are staying at a resort in Orlando that is AWESOME. It's basically like an apartment, it's fairly new and we have a great master suite with a hot tub and Cam has his own room and most importantly t.v. LOL. The kid has done nothing but watch t.v. this trip but whatever, it's vacation. I just saw the Disney fireworks from our balcony. Tomorrow we'll head down to see Mary's family and meet our new niece (or rather 2 since we have never met Lily who turns 1 tomorrow) Gracie Rose who was born a few days ago.

Found it!

My sis doesn't take very good pics' and what is Cam doing?


Jane, tell us the way...and why didn't we invest in the traffic receiver?


angry that I made him use the headphones




our driver

This cracked me up. I had to bribe Cam with 4 orange tic tacs to lend O.G. his DVD but it was worth it :-) O.G. + Baby Einstein = Heart


O.G.'s first hotel stay

Hanging in D.C.

We arrived in D.C. at about 8:30 last night - it was a LONG day. The kids did amazingly well especially O.G. who I was very worried about. He generally hates the car so taking such a long drive was risky. But he did great. Aside from whining quite a bit, Cam did great too.

Of course, all was not great. What was to be an 8 hour trip (we figured 9 with stops) turned into 12. The traffic was insane getting through NY and on the Jersey turnpike. Then when we thought we were finally in D.C., we hit more traffic. Needless to say, we made it. We stayed the night and will stay tonight with some sightseeing today. We are going to be meeting up with Reinventing Motherhood (see sidebar) so we can arrange Lexi and O.G.'s marriage ;-)

Well, I was just going to upload some pics' but I don't have my USB cord. I'll definitely have to invest in another memory card.

Happy Christmas!

Cam probably enjoyed it the most. For me, I'm just happy it's over :-) I do enjoy Christmas with the trees and lights and songs but this year just seemed extra stressful. With trying not to raise 2 spoiled brats, I also hate the materialism of the holiday. But it was fun and now it's over :-)







Last night we had a lot of fun going to church and to a party at my aunt's. O.G. also had his acting debut in the part of baby Jesus at our church. He did GREAT. He's a good baby in general but I was worried with the late start time (7:00) and sometimes lately he does get freaked out by strangers. But he laid in the manger and let the Rev carry him around. It was SO cute. Mary also got to act as Mary. They wanted us both involved but somebody needed to watch Cam and I'm so not into being in front of so many people. It will definitely be a lasting memory and something cool to tell him about when he's older.






Tomorrow we're off on the road trip from hell, I mean a fun family vacation ;-) We'll be away for about 2 weeks and we're driving (I know, we're crazy) to Florida with stops in D.C. and Savannah. Once in Florida we're staying at a resort townhouse but will meet up with Mary's fam throughout the trip. We're staying close to them but not too close which is key to my sanity.

I hope everyone had a happy Christmas!

Bits and Pieces

I've been a bad blogger. There's just not enough hours in the day, I feel like I'm constantly rushing. Here's my week in review and some more random bits...

Monday: The chimney sweep man cleaned our chimneys so "Santa wouldn't get dirty"

Tuesday: Cam was home after not behaving at school on Monday in our attempts to get him to behave at school and in general

Wednesday: Cam's school had an odd potluck. I brought a fruit bowl and cookies.

Thursday: Mary went to D.C. on a train for business stuff

Friday: School was cancelled even though the snow didn't start until 1:30. I brought both kids to the mall, everyone home from school was there.
We lost a member of our pet family: Superman, Cam's fish. BoBo (the cat) ate him. Yes, he ate him, all I found was part of his tail. Poor guy. He was such a cool fish.

Saturday: Cam turned 4

In other news, O.G.'s 2 bottom teeth came in (last weekend), now we wait for them to grow. At least the screaming in pain part seems to be over. He turned 5 months (today). He sits in a high chair (an early Christmas gift from my dad). He's SO cute. On Wednesday night (Christmas Eve) he has the starring role at our church, he will play baby Jesus.

And some random pics :-)




This was from his cousin (my nephew) Seamus Jr. When he opened it, he screamed, "I always wanted one of these!". Kids are so funny.

Friday Fun

Cam loves this video and we have to watch it at least once/day so I figured I'd post. He's usually very cute when he tries to get the baby to smile which was why I decided to record it though this time he took a different approach...



Cam is home since he went in on Wednesday (his normal day off) for a field trip. The weather was also brutal this morning which ice and rain so I didn't want the kids in the car. The rain seems to finally be clearing up now after days of nasty rain and ice. I hope it is a good weekend!

Holiday Card Dilemma

So we have been trying to put together holiday cards and I just can't decide. Here's some possibilities...






Our original idea was to do a "Super Holiday" one but the Superman pics' just didn't come out very good. It is SO hard to get them both smiling and looking at the camera. Oh well...any votes? We'll probably end up trying to do some more pics' tonight but I need to order ASAP.

Pre-kids I had invisioned these PERFECT holiday cards. I didn't factor in trying to get kids to smile and look at the camera and not drool all over themselves :-)

BUSY Weekend

The weekend was a whirlwind. Friday night we went to Mary's work party. With the economy the way it is, they decided to not do a nice shin dig and instead had a potluck at the office. One word: LAME! I was actually looking forward to a nice holiday party that I could get dressed up for and have a night without the kids.
Anywho, it was odd and really only Mary should have gone but she begged me to go with the kids. Cam was ridiclously shy until he started acting like a maniac towards the end. The baby was fussy since he didn't nap all day. So it was odd to say the least. One of Mary's students was drunk and seemed to be hitting on her and kept scaring both Cam and O.G. That made things even more awkward.

I survived and then had more FUN things on Saturday. *sad sarcastically* Cam's pre-school was involved with a craft fair so I helped at the table. It was a waste of 3 hours but luckily went by pretty quickly. There was an entire $11 in sales when I was there. Afterwards, I headed home and we headed out to pick up our tree. It is now up and I would say by far the worst tree we've ever picked out. I'm not sure what we were thinking but it has so many gaps. We picked it out in about 5 minutes so that was probably our problem. The room it's in is also very hot and dry.

Saturday also involved me watching the kids while Mary watched the SEC Championship game (college football). That was a little bit crazy as all Cam wanted to do was decorate and wouldn't stop touching all the ornaments and glass things. He was VERY excited since I gave him one of those little fake trees to decorate on his own. It looks totally insane but it's all his work and he loves it.

Sunday was another busy day that started with church. We some how agreed to let O.G. act as baby Jesus in their nativity scene on Christmas Eve. This will make us very late for my aunt's annual party but how I could pass up the chance for our donor baby with 2 mommies to be baby Jesus. ha! The only cooler thing would be if he was a girl baby :-)

We then headed to an open house. We're not exactly looking to buy but occasionally check out houses. There's also rumor that the feds are going to drop rates to 4-5% which would make buying a house a great deal with the already lower prices. The house was very similar to our house in Maine and brand new which was nice. However, it was kind of small and with not much of a yard. After that, we rushed home as Cam had a birthday party to attend.

That was at his gymnastics place so he had to change out of church clothes. He was SO funny and thrilled that all his friends were at gymnastics. I kept explaining to him what it was, he kept thinking it was his regular class. When we pulled up, some of his friends were arriving and he kept yelling "Look, There's E!...Look, there's D!". Apparently, me telling him that all his pre-school friends were going to be there didn't set in until he actually saw them. Needless to say, he had a blast.

Afterwards, I got home in time to watch the Pats' game. Mary took Cam to Target to pick up a gift for a gift drive. This year, we're donating to the Home for Little Wanderers (see side bar). The Home is great because they're involved with 2 causes very dear to us - foster children and GLBT youth. They actually have a home for GLBT foster kids which I think is great. So we got 2 gift certificates for general donation and then are filling one of the GLBT wish lists. We purchased a digital camera (with all the accesorries: memory card, case, etc) for one of the GLBT kids. It was nice to be able to do since we are doing well financially.

So that was the weekend - now the week is flying by too. I still have much to do to prepare for Christmas and Cam's birthday (on the 20th).

O.G. in da crib

We also put O.G. in his crib. Initially I planned on having him in our room (in his bassinet) for a few weeks. Then I had a baby and that all changed. I like having him near and since I have to get up so often in the night, it's just easier having him right there. Well, I wouldn't say I was exactly ready to put him in his own room in his crib but kind of. Mostly, I was sick of Mary b*tching about him being in our room.

Well, the first night went fine except for the fact that I decided to sleep on a blow up mattress in his room. His room also seems to be freezing. I'm not sure if it's his humidifier or what. He has wearable blanket things but he never seems warm enough. I also wish the bumpers weren't a potential SIDS risk. His new favorite thing is to put his pacifier through the slots of the crib. First, he finds this quite funny and laughs about it. Then the reality sets in that his pacifier is on the floor and he can't get it so he cries about it. He also likes to put his hands and feet through the openings which seems dangerous to me. Needless to say, I was up at 11:30 p.m., 1:30 p.m., and then at 5 a.m. I just put him in the bed with us. Interrupted sleep just doesn't work for me and seems to be a form of torture.

Mary is also VERY busy at work which just sucks for me. She's exhausted when she gets home and I need a second pair of hands. She wants to be done with work when she gets home but guess what? It's time to be a mom. I feel like at times we're finding some sort of balance and then it goes out the window. This week it seems to have gone out the window.

In other non-ranting news, O.G. continues to try food. Of course I initially thought I'd make my own baby food but where would I find the time for that. Instead, I try to buy organic stuff and make sure the ingredients are pure and not preservative crap. Last night he tried peas. He made funny faces at first so I didn't think he liked it. Then he screamed when the spoon wasn't in his mouth - meaning: he likes them. He also likes rice cereal (or rather loves it) and sweet potatoes. He's not a fan of the bananas which surprised me. Mr. Food (CAM) eats anything that's left over. LOL. I even picked him up his own baby food bananas at the store today, I had promised since he liked them so much.

Turkey and SUGAR

Note to self: never attempt to brine a turkey. Other than that, everything went well and the turkey did turn out very good. It was my first turkey making experience so I was very nervous. And woh, making a Thanksgiving meal is a lot of work. Of course, it was the one day that Cam slept in (only 'til 8 but still, he's usually up at about 6) but I had planned on putting the turkey in at 6:30 a.m.

Once my dad arrived, I handed off the carving and I also wanted to enjoy my "Thanksgiving Mimosa" - champagne and apple cider. Yum. Mary was weary of the combo but is now obsessed. We ate early around 12:30 and then my dad and older brother stuck around for a while. Mary got to nap and I made the mistake of skipping Cam's nap. I felt bad since I know he loves seeing my fam.

Later, we went to my aunt's for dessert. It was also my cousin's birthday so we celebrated that and hung out with a bunch of extended family. The plan was to go to Lasallette. However, O.G. had plans of screaming bloody murder so we decided to head home. Cam had a minor flip out and then passed out. We put him to bed when we got home since it was already passed his bed time. He woke up screaming about 5 times. The first time he needed water and then it was basically just to drive us crazy.

I believe this was all because of the ridiculous amount of sweets he had. His method was basically to get different things from different people and once you go around extended family, it's all over because you're terrible parents if you don't let the kid eat whatever he wants. Needless to say, he won't be have sweets for quite some time.

Speaking of, I'm off to enjoy some pecan pie :-)



this is what happens when I have my dad take pics


Cam wouldn't participate


Cam and my lil' cousin Griffin

Turkey Bites

This week has gone by way too fast. I'm so not ready for it to be Thanksgiving tomorrow. My dad and older brother are coming over. I'm cooking a turkey for the first time and well, I'm scared. I decided to brine it and well, I was freaked out. Note that I was vegetarian for 12 years and only gave it up during my pregnancy. Anywho, I was screaming because I was freaked out that I was touching this poor dead turkey. Cameron came up to me later and said, "did that turkey bite you?". LOL.

Well, I'm off to peel potatoes. Have a happy and safe one :-)



(On Monday, he weighed in at 14 pounds, 12 ounces and is 26 inches long)

Retail Therapy

Today we went to my new favorite store - Hanna Andersson We received a gift for O.G. of clothes from their that were way too big. However, I should never be allowed in the store again. I'm still dreaming about things I could've and should've bought. I'm terribly addicted to kid's clothes.

When we got home I did a photo shoot with his new stuff...





What he loves best? Being naked!



I know, I'm becoming one of those bloggers that only posts pics' of their kids but come on, they're wicked cute ;-)

Happy 1/3 O.G.!

O.G. is 4 months today, I can't believe it.



Here he is very proud of his new skill of pulling his socks off. Apparently it's a lot of fun to pull them off and put them in your mouth. In other development, he's been rolling over for a few weeks or so. I try not to be so crazy about developmental stuff so I rarely know exact dates of things. He is STILL teething and we patiently (or not so patiently) wait for his tooth (or teeth) to arrive. He LOVES Cam and think he's the funniest person on the planet. He hates sleep and still refuses to take a regular nap. So I've turned to my friend - T.V. ;-) He LOVES Baby Einstein videos, we got a complete set as a gift so it gives Mommy a few minutes to actually eat and clean.

His 4 month appointment is on Monday. I'm very interested to know how much he weighs...any guesses? We always try to guess and last night at gymnastics had a few of the parents putting guesses in too.

Cars, Carbon Monoxide, & Jesus

On Friday, we bought a sweet new car - Mazda CX9...



Of course, my photog isn't this professional so obviously one I got online...in fact, my actual car is a reddish/maroon color but you get the jist *isn't it sweet?*

It has a 3rd row and a lot of room. We felt bad buying a gas guzzler but the amount we drive now is slim to none and the 3rd row was key. We've had a very hard time squeezing a 3rd child into our cars and just couldn't go the way of a minivan. So now we have room for Cam to bring a friend (or 3) but can still maintain our cool mom status ;-) And it has leather, a sunroof and Bose sound system :-)

Saturday, we had intentions of going to a Prop 8 rally in Boston but the weather didn't cooperate. I was pretty bummed since I was looking forward to our first family protest but dragging 2 little ones out in the rain would have made us look like bad mothers opposed to good gay mothers ;-) Cam was bummed since he said that he loves a protest. LOL. He's all about loving everything lately.

Saturday night, we had a scare and yet another interruption of my sleep when our carbon monoxide alarm went off. It started at about 12:30 a.m. and after the fire department came, it was finally resolved at about 2 a.m. Turns out the alarm was faulty but you never know with these things. It's not like a fire alarm going off and clearly not seeing fire. In between, I was all freaked out since the baby was soundly sleeping which is pretty rare lately. We were also nervous that the fire men were going to wake up the children, O.G. decided to hold off until they left and Cam *thank god* didn't wake up at all. Though he was bummed the next morning that he didn't see the fire fighters as he's obsessed ever since going on a field trip to the fire station.

And yesterday, we found a church - FINALLY! We've on the church search so we were happy to finally attend a service that fit us. It's a United Church of Christ (UCC) which we were leaning towards. However, in our church search we did try a Unitarian Universalist(UU). As much as the UU people were friendly, we just didn't find the experience to be churchy enough for us. This service was great and there are tons of kids and many with same sex parents. Yay! People were very friendly and we hit it off with another of the two moms that has a 3 year old son. Yay!!! I really want Cam to be around other kids that have same sex parents.

My Lil' Piggies

The week is flying by, it seems like it was just the weekend. In O.G. news, we gave him some rice cereal which he LOVES. The boy is such a little piggy like his big bro. I'm not sure how we're going to afford food for them when they hit the teens.

Anywho, here's some cute pics...




Cam was very cute feeding him except for the fact that he wouldn't stop. LOL. He said, "it's fun to feed a baby".

He is currently at gymnastics, Mary brought him which was sweet. It was bring a friend week so he was bringing his friend A from pre-school. Oh well, off to clean something while the baby is content. Pats play tonight - I prefer Sunday day games but I'll still be flipping back and forth between Survivor and the game.

Go Pats!

Not Equality for All

Well, it started off as a happy election day. Obama won and I was happy that equality in the U.S. had taken a step forward. But then yesterday, it took two steps back when I learned of all the anti-gay ammendments that passed. California's Prop 8 passed - unbelievable. In addition, Florida and Arizona banned gay marriage even when the same ammendment failed in Arizona only two years ago. Ridiclous.

And in Arkansas, gay people can no longer adopt or even foster. I'm sure everyone that voted for that is going to start taking in foster kids, OLDER ones. Yeah, right...f'ng bastards! Yes, I'm angry and bitter. It was fueled even more when I attended last night's pre-school board meeting consisting of clueless co-op straight parents. They act so open and aware but they are totally not. All isn't well just because Obama was elected.

Aside from being angry about another blow to gay rights, I had a good day. Wednesday is Cam's day off of pre-school which I've come to enjoy.

Mary stayed home for a few hours in the morning which was a big surprise and nice. We had a little Fall photo shoot. Later, when I put the pics' on the computer for me and Cam to look at, he got angry when I said he looked cute. He said he wasn't cute that baby was. Then I said, well, you look handsome. He said I'm not handsome. I said, well, what are you? His response, "I'm AWESOME!". That kid is a nut.

Anywho, the pics are quite cute...





Baby O.G. was more interested in eating leaves.

Vote for O...

G. ;-)


With his future Economic Advisor...


But for this year...

Life With Georgia

Georgia is scared of Cam since he's a little too active for her. I keep telling him that she'll bite him but I think he's just going to have to go through that one to learn. He's used to Chloe who lets him do absolutely anything to her and when she gets fed up, she runs away. He's constantly trying to put clothes on her and wrap her up in blankets, Miss Georgia doesn't go for this kind of attention.

On the othehand, she seems to be in love with the baby. She's always trying to sit next to him. It makes me a little nervous but it is quite cute.



I brought her in the car with me to pick up Cam from pre-school. Well, she decided she would sit in the baby's carseat - WITH the baby! I finally convinced her that it wasn't a good idea.

A Halloween Weekend

The weekend was, well, exhausting!!! Mary's mom got into town on Thursday night. I knew it would be chaos because well, Jayne my MIL is chaos. In the midst of trying to clean the house and prepare for Halloween, I totally forgot about another factor - the Georgia factor. Jayne was bringing back our psycho little dog. So far that is going as well as it could, Chloe (our Aussie) is definitely thrilled to have her little pal back.

Friday went fairly well. We all went to Cam's pre-school in the a.m. All the kids were in costume and it was ridiculously cute. All but 2 girls were some version of a princess - ADORABLE! Though of course it makes me want a daughter even more. After we took a lot of pics' and left Cam there, the rest of us headed to breakfast.
Afterwards, I got to go home with the baby while Mary went shopping with her mom :-) And in the evening on Halloween, we made cookies and went out trick-or-treating.

Pics' of our Halloween Zoo...

Cam as a gorilla - I tried to push him towards the monkey costume but he insisted on the "Goreela"


O.G. as a giraffe


the side profile is priceless...


Our attempt at a family photo...

apparently Cam and O.G. spotted some trick-or-treaters

Cam was thrilled the next morning to find that "The Great Pumpkin" came or as Cam exclaimed early in the morning, "look what my pumpkin left me". "The Great Pumpkin" takes all the candy and leaves prizes...he or rather she left a stuffed animal, a book, and a toothbrush. And this toothbrush is great because it's electric like Mom's and Mommy's toothbrushes.

We were all going to head to Salem (location of the witch trials back in the day) but the baby was fussy. The best decision I made all weekend was to stay home. I napped a bit with the baby and took a walk to get a chai. It was nice. Later in the afternoon, when everyone was home, I went out with Cam in an effort to exhaust him. Jayne also completely tunes out the children and talks and talks and talks. Hello, he's 3, he wants attention from his grandma. He's also used to my mom who gives him all the attention in the world and will color and play cars with him. Jayne, not so much, or rather not at all. Her and Mary were also trying to watch the Florida college football game which was ridiculous since they were ahead by about 35 points. Needless to say, Cam and I had fun running to the playground, running around the playground, and running back. I even went to one that was further from our house. I thought he would be worn out but he was NOT. I think that was the longest Saturday of my life.

So today the plan was to go to brunch. Luckily, Mary agreed with me and we decided not to go since we'd have to wait until 10 and well a restaurant with Mary's mom and our children - not fun. Cam was also up at about 5 a.m. with the stupid time change - I've always hated the time change but it's even worse with small children.

We ended up going into the city with 2 cars. Jayne's friend Jim was meeting her. They are currently at a hotel until Thursday which is great. I do like Mary's mom but I can only handle her in small doses. Anywho, in the city we walked around and eventually Mary and her mom left to pick up Jim. I stayed with the boys. I managed to take Cam to the playground and then we got some hotdogs for a picnic by the ducks. He also had blast feeding them. And aside from me having to tell him things over and over, he was fairly well behaved.

Now Mary's mom is at a hotel. We have plans to meet them for dinner tomorrow but I may not make it. Her friend Jim is even worse as he's never had any children or pets - so weird to live your whole life not taking care of anything or anyone. Though from being around Jayne, you'd never know she has 6 children! Maybe she spent all her kid energy raising them????