somethings got to give...

Between the craziness at work with Jan out and 5 events in the next two weeks, and the extra at home with Trav's broken hand (just 3 more weeks, just 3 more weeks) plus a baby that is verging on walking, and exerting her independence more... something's got to give. Unfortunately the past few days, and today as well, that something is blogging. Hopefully I'll be back in the swing of things soon.

In the meantime, a quicky, so as to not fall too far behind.
Thanksgiving was good. We headed to my parent's... and it snowed!! First snow of the season.

Gwen wore a sweater my mom knit! So talented (my mom, not Gwen). :-)

Then she got to ride on her Papa's shoulders, which she enjoyed.

Finally we all sat down to eat a great dinner. Gwen loved her turkey, roasted carrots, and steamed apple.

The rest of us loved the turkey and fixings as well. It was a really nice day.


And to by myself some good graces... two short videos. Gwen waving and talking.

She is apparently the class greeter at daycare and will wave to anyone who comes in the room! And she now says "Hi Daisy." In fact, that is her favorite thing to say... and she will say it all the time!

And on that adorable note... I'm off to get more work done.

*gobble gobble*

Happy Thanksgiving

from our little turkeys!

Hope its a day filled with blessings for your families. 

xoxo, 

the New Day household

crazy days

Enjoyed my day home snuggling with my baby... though it was definitely tiring, seeing as she napped a grand total of 30 minutes all day! She's in bed now and I hope she sleeps well because she needs it (as do I!). Took her into the doc today. Its a throat infection, a virus, so no antibiotics... just TLC, treat the cold symptoms, and a little bit of Children's Benadryl before bed to help break up the stuff that makes it hard for her to breath at night.

Also, she's whopping 15 lbs 9 oz this month! Over a pound up from last month. 

Trav's doc appointment went okay as well. It is broken, but now it's been set and casted. He goes back in 3-4 weeks to see if they can remove the cast. He's definitely sore, but its manageable.

Tomorrow my brother comes up from DC, and I'm driving him halfway to my parent's... where we'll meet my dad for lunch. Its "pass the parcel" with a live package! It will be fun.
Then we're at Thanksgiving already. I can't believe it. We're heading to my parent's place, just for the day.

All in all, much better day then yesterday. And 5 days ahead to recover.

What are your holiday plans?

a day

Almost 8 and I'm sitting here waiting for Travis to get home. He's at the ER seeing if his hand is broken... long story, one I don't want to share right now. 

Babe came home sick today with a fever, so my already short week got VERY short (Trav brought her home today, I'm home with her tomorrow, already had the rest of the week off). She has a doctor appointment Wednesday morning, her normal 9 month appt... hopefully she'll be feeling better then. She's been fighting a cold and not sleeping well because of it for days. Hopefully this is it coming to a head before going away.

Don't have much else to share right now. It was a long day anyway thanks to a work event... and it was made longer still by my tummy being tight thinking about my sick and injured lovelies. Hopefully things look up tomorrow. For now I'm going to go read a book and drink some hot tea and just try to relax.

let's go Lehigh...

post where-in I freak the F out!

Jan isn't coming back, no matter what happens with her mom, until at least the end of the year. At least.

::cue freak out::

Jan does so much. And she means so much, to me and all my coworkers. I just can't imagine her not being here, long-term. Its hard enough trying to wrap my head around her gone for a week or so, let alone the rest of the year, and beyond.

Not to mention, it means a steep learning curve on a lot of things that she normally does... which can be left for a little while, but not for the long-term. I'm not the only one picking up the slack, but I'm super nervous about the new stuff I will have to do. And frankly, if she does decide not to come back, I'm concerned that they will decide not to hire someone new in her stead. Money is tight (here and everywhere), and sometimes it seems that thriftiness outweighs other considerations. I can't do it. I can't do all of my stuff, plus most of hers... and I know that's what will end up being the case.

My heart breaks for Jan and everything she's going through... but I really, really hope that come the end of the year, she decides that she misses work. I really hope she comes back to us. For now though, I panic.



------

On a completely unrelated note:
This past weekend Brandy, the photographer, lent me her double pump (as she's done with it for the foreseeable future). Holy hell, what a difference. My pumping time is so much faster now! Thanks goodness too, considering the above. I can relax more too, and my supply seems to have recovered.

Who would have thought, all those years ago when I picked my wedding photographer, what a great thing it would turn into?!  :-)



------

Weekend ahead and I'm so ready for it. Happier posts to come, I'm sure.

I can't believe its already Thursday and that the day is almost over. Its been very busy with Jan out, and I'm sure it will continue to be.

To play catch up. Sunday we had Gwen's 9 month photo shoot. Brandy got some great pictures! Here are a few of my favorites: 

(I freakin adore the one of Gwen and Trav smiling at each other...)


You can view them all here: 9 month photos
Password is our last name in all lowercase.

Monday was the big work event, and thankfully it went great. I got all gussied up for the occasion:

My coworkers and I managed to fill Jan's shoes adequately. It definitely wasn't the same without her though.

Trav did okay with babers, though she was in the process of getting a cold, so she didn't want to go down for him easily. We had two rough nights, but with the boogie sucker, baby Vicks, and a humidifier, we've been doing better the past two nights (last night she went 1ish - 5ish). Poor girl, I hate hearing her being all stuffed up.

Anyway, hopefully the cute baby pictures will be a good enough bribe that you wouldn't be disappointed in this post's completely lack of content. I'm a little wiped right now and having trouble coming up with anything good to say. Maybe I'll do better tomorrow. And on that note, I'm outta here.

Ta-ta.

9 months

My Sweet Gwenivere,
9 months old... you've officially been out here as long as you grew in me (in fact exactly as long, since you are 39 weeks old today). Every hour, day, week, month that I spent dreaming of you, well now I've gotten to live with you that long too. And let me tell you, it was even better then I thought it could be.

This month you met my longest, best, forever friend Heather... not once, but twice! Yay Auntie Babs. You guys hit it off just like I knew you would too.  ;-)  And thanks to you, Auntie Babs now thinks that maybe kids would be a good idea after all. Of course she thinks that! You are fun, happy, smiley, and sweet.

Mornings are your sweetest times too. Lately you haven't been sleeping that great... you'll wake a few times in the night, and often you don't want to stay asleep in your crib once you wake around 5:15 in the morning. So you come to bed with us, and we all snooze together. When you've gotten good sleep, you wake up so happy. You crawl all over us, pat our faces, "talk" up a storm, and are just so happy to be awake!


Also this month, your first Halloween. This is the first of mama's trio of favorite holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas). I was so excited to share it with you, though this year you were too little for the full trick-or-treating experience. But we did dress you up and show you off to the neighbors. So far, I don't know that you are too impressed with this holiday. You aren't a fan of pumpkins, and wondered what all the fuss was when we dressed you up (I wear cute clothes everyday guys!), but I hope that you'll grow to love this holiday as much as I do in the years to come. I can't wait to see what you want to be next year.

I can't believe how big you are getting. You are still so much my baby, but you are getting to be such a big girl too. You crawl at quite a clip, and pull up on all the furniture. You've started letting go for a few seconds, and will walk along the furniture as well. Its only a matter of time before you don't need me to hold your hands to stand anymore, and that is both exciting and sad. I hope you'll let me hold your hands for years and years to come.

You are also eating more and more foods all the time. In addition to all the veggies and fruits you already loved, you now eat chicken, and had a pancake for the first time the other day. You get a kick out of food and I love sharing Cheerios with you.

Thankfully you are also still breastfeeding like a champ. Sometimes you are just too distracted and you don't want to eat well... but when we get somewhere quiet, you snuggle right in. I love our quiet moments together.

Gwen, I love all our moments together; even the frustrating ones. Even the middle of the night, too tired to keep my eyes open, won't-you-just-go-back-to-sleep ones. Especially the squealing, laughing, chase me down the hall and catch me while I crawl, moments. I love being with you. I love that you love me so wholeheartedly; and I love that I love you back with equal abandon.

You are my silly monkey, my little troublemaker, and I love you.

Yours,
Mama

chopped

(A Day in Pictures.)

11" chopped to donate. A few more lost during the cut itself!

Its a little poofy here, but I like it.

Added some hair gel... that's better.

Gwenie playing in the leaves.

And playing with her pop.

It was so gorgeous out by my parents, I couldn't resist a few more pictures.

say goodbye....

to this hair:

Because tomorrow its getting chopped off! ::gulp::

thankful on thursday

Its the end of the day and I'm just getting around to popping in here. Its crazy busy at work with our biggest event coming up on Monday, and our events planner out indefinitely due to her mom quickly loosing a battle with cancer. Its a horrible situation, and while it sucks not having her here to help, it sucks more going through what she's going through. She already lost her father to cancer a few years back, and she herself had surgery to remove a cancerous mass last year... now her mom. Some families simply seem to get more then their fair share.

So here are just a few of the things I'm thankful for:

1. ...that my family has their health. 
2. ...my sweet, caring husband; who loves me no matter what.
3. ...my beautiful daughter who lights up my life. And who clearly loves me so much that she needs extra snuggle time with me at night.  ;-) 
4. ...that she slept from 11 - 4 last night, then went back down until 5:55. She's also been going down to bed easily lately, which is nice. ::knocks on wood::
5. ...my snuggly, cuddly pup. She's the sweetest thing. 
6. ...that I just had to send an embarrassing email to my boss and our contact at the event site, asking about a room where I can pump, because it means that we are still breastfeeding almost 9 months out!
7. ...that my boss responded quickly, without batting an eye, and offered me his and his wife's room at the hotel there to use! Sometimes my boss is really wonderful. 
8. ...that my supply, after taking a dip, seems to be recovering with the help of some fenugreek, blessed thistle, and an extra pumping session in the evenings. 
9. ...also for my freezer stash, so that while my supply was down, we didn't have to stress about having enough milk for Gwen's daycare bottles.
10. ...that Thanksgiving, a great day surrounded by family and full of good food/cheer/laughter, is right around the corner. Can you believe it?!

There are dozens more things that I am thankful for, but I'll stop there for now. So much more to do before the end of the day!

respecting the turkey... but still being prepared!

I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is just over 2 weeks away. That’s crazy to me. This whole year has flown by, and even Travis (who normally isn’t fazed by such things) sent me an email the other day saying, if Thanksgiving is right around the corner, then so is Christmas. ::gulp::

I made myself feel a little better by putting together my list of people to buy for, and a few ideas for each person. We’re really trying to keep things simple this year, and keep our list small. We mostly want to focus on Gwen’s first Christmas, and making it a nice one. I actually already crossed some people off of our list too, which really makes me feel better.

The other worry, of course, is Christmas cards. I swear our list grows longer and longer every year, even though I try to trim it down. So getting a great card is always a big thing for me... and my favorite, of course, is a good photo card (I know, big surprise there, right?!). Here are a few that I love from Shutterfly:

(I love these both. They are very clean, simply, lovely. But can I really just pick one picture?! Anyone who's seen one of my picture heavy posts would probably guess no!)

I love this one too. Cute, right? And three pictures.   :-)

I’ve used shutterfly for a ton of things in the past… lots of prints of course, but also a mug for Travis for father's day, and a number of photobooks. Their stuff always looks great, so hence my running to them for cards. But this year I’m also running to them for calendars.

We have two grandmothers, and a work bubbie, who all would LOVE a gift featuring their favorite baby (who am I kidding, I'll probably get one for myself too). I can't wait to see all the great photo stuff.

Do you want 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly? (And really, who wouldn't.) Click HERE to go to Shutterfly for information on how you can get 50 free cards this holiday season.

wonderfully full

Request reminder: 
Can you please follow my blog? (Button over there ------> in the Read Me section.)  There is a super awesome, great giveaway I would love to host, but I need more followers to be able to do so. Please help a girl out.  :-)


The next few weekends (and weeks) are full up. It's all pretty fun, exciting stuff (Locks of Love, 9 month pictures, biggest work event of the year, Lehigh Lafayette, Harry Potter movie date, and Thanksgiving of course)... but its just a lot of stuff. I actually wrote in big letters in my day planner NO PLANS! right across the weekend following Thanksgiving. I think we'll all be ready for a lazy weekend at home by then, and I'll definitely be ready for some time with just my husband and babe.

This past weekend was no exception to that pattern of busyness. My best girl, Babs, came down on Friday evening and stayed until after dinner last night. It was wonderful to get to spend so much time with her... and I loved watching her and Gwen interact.

Saturday we all hopped in the car and headed to a local restaurant for the 1st birthday party of Gwen's boyfriends, the twins (Dom and Stephen). I can't believe those little cuties are one already... and boy does it push home the fact that Gwen's first birthday will be here before we know it.

It was a lot of fun though... incredible food, and always great to see those boys and their wonderful parents. We didn't get many pictures... but Trav snapped this one:

Those boys were sweet, and couldn't get over "how small that baby is."

That night, my crafty Babs whipped up a special project... matching scarves for Gwen and I! This is mine:

And Gwenie's is the same, but smaller.  :-) 

Sunday two other girlfriends joined us for a big late lunch at my place. Cas and Sebz were the other two ladies that rounded out (the female portion of) our group of best girls in high school. Now we have three other girls in the mix:

(The third is sleeping snuggled under that pink blanket!)
It was great to see everyone and play catch up. Its been too long. 

After everyone else took off, I got an exhausted Gwen to take a nap (she wouldn't with everything else going on... even when we stole away upstairs, she just wanted to be with all the people!), and we took care of the rest of our night routine. Babs left around 9 to head back to her parents... I didn't even have to be sad, since she's returning in about a month to visit for Christmas. I can't remember the last time I got to see her three months in a row... so this is definitely something special.

Also special... that daylight savings time didn't mess with Gwen's schedule too much! No 4 o'clock awake for the day, thankfully! Sleep wasn't bad this weekend. It was a little worse last night, but I think that was because of the messed up napping during the day. Hopefully tonight will be a good one. But before I get to the sleep part, I have to get through the work part. For the first time since maternity leave I have one of my events that I have to stay extra late for. This will be Trav's first night doing the whole evening alone. I'm 100% sure that all will be fine, and I think its good for them to have extra time together. But I'll be happier tomorrow when I get my evenings back.

Now, to get back to work and get this evening over with! Luckily I'm energized and ready to tackle this week, thanks to my amazingly full and wonderful weekend. Hope yours was full too!

my godbaby!

I'm going to be a Godmother (of the non-fairy variety) come this May!!

Ro is pregnant with #2!
(She is actually due on Trav's birthday... which he loves.)



I'm so excited for her and Pat!!

They just had a perfect ultrasound this morning, so the news can be spread. This beautiful family of three is growing:

I couldn't be more excited, and I couldn't wait to share.