We had a pretty busy summer. Not only did we go to C'ville, but we also went on our trip to the Poconos, Ocean City and the Cottage. Each trip was not long enough, but fun.
The Poconos trip was originally supposed to include all the Muskoxen, but it ended up just being us and Keith and Shade' with a few days with Kate and Vince, too. The photo above was from my favorite part, the Boulder Field at Hickory Run State Park. It was quite literally one of the most striking things I have ever seen. Mostly, we just chilled.
The trip to OC was more spur of the moment. We ended up staying not too far away from where I always stayed as a kid. Not a whole lot has changed, so we hit a few spots: Trimpers, Marty's Playland, Assateauge and of course, the beach. Not too many photos because I mostly just wanted to enjoy the moment and I just didn't feel like it!
Our annual trip to the Cottage was later than usual this year, but we got to visit with Brendan's brother and his family who were up from Texas. The kids had a ball. In addition to all our regular activities, we went on a Safari and to Nelson's Ledges (shown above).
All in all, it's been a good few months.Labels: bridget, lists, trips, vacation
I was making cookies for Bridget to take to daycare tomorrow to celebrate her birthday (a day early since she won't be there on the actual day), now I am making brownies. Why you ask? Because cookies need 2 1/4 cups of flour. I put in 5 quarter cups, put in the first batch and thought they might be a little bigger then usual. It wasn't until I checked on them 6 minutes in that I realized I was a cup short on the flour. They were the grossest looking things. So now, brownies from a box that required no advanced measuring skills. GAH!Labels: bridget, FAIL, house
Just look at her:
She will be two at the end of the month, and she is DEFINITELY not a baby anymore. She likes:
I am planning a very girlish, Lola themed party.
We also got the house cleaned today. Holy crap. It feels so decadent. And we'll continue getting it cleaned every two weeks. Already I feel like it was a totally fabulous decision. I feel compelled to keep it clean now, too. Bonus: it smells like lemons in here.
My garden is not doing as well as it could. Not enough sun. But nothing is totally dead, so that's more than some people expected. It's just taking its time.
Labels: bridget, garden, house, lists
I had some time this morning, so I pulled out the two dolls that my mother had saved from when I was a kid. One is an Annie doll that my aunt made and the other a doll that my grandmother made to look a little like me. She has blonde hair, and once had blue eyes (they've faded to look greenish-yellow). At one point, my cousins and I all had matching dolls. They all had Annie dolls and ones from our grandmother made to look like them. I wonder if they all still have theirs.
Annie got a change of clothing, just because her outfit never really stayed snapped. And the blonde doll got some mending in the armpits and a new outfit. Her original baby outfit has these old school bloomers that have a plastic lining. I guess so the cloth diaper wouldn't leak through.
I think Bridget thinks they are pretty neat. She's also got one of Brendan's old Cabbage Patch kids to round out her vintage doll collection.Labels: bridget, nostalgia
I planted a small (4' x 4') garden on Friday afternoon. Right now I've got some lettuce, arugula, parsley, broccoli plants and radishes, carrots, peas and scallion seeds. In the summer I'll be adding tomatoes, a pepper, bush beans and basil. Rotating back to cool weather plants in the fall. We'll see how it goes. It's small in scale for sure. Brendan was worried I was going to become one of those "Tomato People" who bring in bagfuls to work in August because they got overzealous. I'm only planning on one cherry tomato plant and one regular plant. That should be close to perfect.
We always had a garden when I was a kid: tomatoes, corn, zucchini, cucumber and beans usually. I did not like having to pick up rocks before dad tilled, or weed in the summer (and since Brendan made me an awesome raised bed -- rocks were not a problem and hopefully weeds won't be much of an issue either). But I did love eating raw vegetables while standing in the garden. I am hoping some of that will rub off on Bridget, because right now she does not have a good relationship with vegetables at all.Labels: bridget, garden, house, house outside
We got Bridget a bed this afternoon (from IKEA of course).
We thought we were being all slick and wouldn't have to get a new mattress with a toddler bed. No such luck. Her crib mattress is about 10 inches too short. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a toddler bed? So it's back to IKEA for Brendan for a new mattress and some sheets.
And we also planned to keep the crib together and just move it to the guest room. That plan was also foiled. The crib wouldn't fit through the doorway. So now it's in pieces. I hope this transition goes OK.
Did I mention Brendan's going out of town tomorrow evening?Labels: bridget, problems, sleep
This pretty much sums up how we all felt last night and today.
And tomorrow we head back up to Baltimore!Labels: bridget, family, trips, vacation
Monday was a lazy day with the kids going to school and Pat and Steph working. We just hung around the house, but still had some fun:
And got some work done:
Labels: bridget, family, trips, vacation
Yesterday we went to Mission San José.
and did some kite flying.
Pictures are being updated daily (so far) in the latest San Antonio album.
Bridget also has a new album, but it is currently only populated with pictures of her from this trip.Labels: bridget, family, trips, vacation
There are some new (to you) pictures up in the gallery from around Christmastime.
The kiddo
Christmas-ishLabels: bridget, christmas, lists
Christmas was great. Bridget had so much fun. And so did the rest of us. Now that I have a new flash (thanks Santa), we'll be able to take better indoor pictures like this one:
Labels: bridget, christmas
Children's toys should always come in a square package, with no open sides. It would make wrapping so much easier!Labels: bridget, christmas
Since we didn't have anything going on yesterday, I thought it might be nice to take Bridget to a train garden. I just assumed that it was a common thing everywhere. Apparently not. It seems like it might be a Maryland/Baltimore thing. I could not find a single one in Virginia. I just thought it was something Volunteer Fire Departments did. Not so much. We'll have to hit up the AVFD when we go to my parents' next weekend.Labels: bridget, christmas, family, nostalgia
- My book club meets the second Monday of every month. When did I show up? The second Tuesday. The poor host's husband answered the door and was all confused. I just thought I was the first one there. She was very sweet -- and I wasn't too terribly embarrassed.
- Christmas is so much more fun now that there's Bridget. She loved picking out a tree (she tried to hug all the little trees). She's entranced by the Christmas lights. I could tell that she was a little confused when we brought the tree inside and started putting the lights on it, but once we plugged them in she said, "Oooooh!" It was perfect.
- At the grocery store some time this week, I almost broke down crying: they were playing The Marvelous Toy over the sound system. I am such a sap. My brother and I used to make Dad play us that song when we were little.
Labels: bridget, christmas, lists
We got a call from the hospital today that their last audit showed that they had made an error (DUH), and we don't owe them anything. Glad we got that settled.
It only took a few months, and lots and lots of phone calls.Labels: bridget, hospital, problems
We've been busy lately. Photos are in the gallery (or will be very soon) of:
Labels: bridget, family, football, lists, trips
We owe the hospital for Bridget's birth because they charged me for a semi-private room on the 27th of May. How is that even possible considering that she wasn't born until 6:08am on the 28th?!? Why am I still even discussing this -- she's 15 months old! ARG.Labels: bridget, hospital
We've been through this already. I thought we had gotten everything squared away. Brendan wrote letters and letters to the insurance company and had everything squared away with the NICU doctors (I thought).
Yesterday we got YET ANOTHER BILL FROM THE HOSPITAL. I have no idea what they think they are charging us for. They will be hearing from me.Labels: bridget, hospital
Brendan posted all our pictures from this year's trip to the lake. You have two choices:
- All the pictures.
- Or, just the ones of the child
Labels: bridget, lake, trips, vacation
Bridget loves the lake. She just walked right in and wanted to keep on going.
Labels: bridget, lake, trips, vacation
It's almost vacation time. We try and make it up to the cottage every year around the 4th of July. Last year was pretty much the only exception to that rule. I'm pretty excited about watching Bridget experience it all this year. Last August, she didn't really know what was going on. This year should be good. If the sand in her hair yesterday when we picked her up from daycare is any indication, the sand on the beach should give her no problem. I hope she likes smooth rocks just as much. A lot of things have changed at nearby Geneva-on-the-Lake but a lot of the important things (Eddie's) are the same.
I'm just ready for a vacation. Life hasn't been particularly hard or anything as of late; I'm just itching to get away. It's that time of year. For my entire life vacation has always been around this time. We'd get out of school and very soon after (two weeks later at the longest) we'd go to Ocean City. My parents' and brothers at home still go around this time. (Probably always will!) I know Dad is counting down the days.
Here's hoping that our 8 hour car ride goes well. There's no indication that it won't, but you never know...Labels: bridget, lake, trips, vacation
[UPDATE 19April2007: Just for you, Pops]
Labels: bridget, nostalgia
Bridget is now sleeping like a champion (at least at night, but naps are getting there). We have our little routine and then she goes in the crib, lays down and cries just a little (but is done before I'm even out of the room). There's no more sitting up and sleeping; it's so regular. I've had a whole week of sleeping for seven hours in a row. In the evenings, I almost don't know what to do with myself. It's so weird. But for ten months I've been tending to a little baby. She's not such a baby anymore and it makes me just a little bit sad. I am glad to be sleeping again (because I love sleep), but it's strange not having her need me.Labels: bored, bridget, sleep
I've been terrible at posting lately, I know. Things have been a little bit crazy around here at the Kelly household.
As you can see, Bridget is getting perilously close to walking. Not only is she pushing around her walker, but lately she's taken to forgetting that she's holding onto something and just standing there on her own, until of course she realizes that she's not holding onto anything and she promptly plops down on the floor. She had a pretty nasty cold this week that has almost finished running its course. I can't complain, really. It wasn't too bad, and it's only the second time that she's been sick. You could probably even call it the first time because the other was more likely a reaction to booster shots. Breast feeding really must be doing its magic.
Bettis is currently recovering from surgery on both his hip and his knee (on the same leg). He's doing OK. Right now he's pretty well sedated on pain medication and sleeping in a Pamper's box. Of course that means that he's not really making it to the special litter box we have set up for him. Something tells me we're in for a long week. I'm not really sure how things are going to go with me working since his recovery suite is in the office. It'll all work out, I'm sure.Labels: bridget, cats, recovery, sick
Merry Christmas to everyone.
Bridget had no idea what was going on, but the rest of us enjoyed it. We spent Saturday with my mother, Sunday with Jessica's family, then Christmas day with just the three of us sitting around the house for some much needed rest. Bridget even took a couple of long naps (long=more than 45 minutes normally), each lasting about an hour-and-a-half. We consider this to be the "Christmas Miracle."
The naps gave us time to make and enjoy a partial Irish Breakfast (everything except for the puddings and beans, see picture below). That's not ham, it's a rasher (Irish bacon), and it's awesome. I even made the brown bread that morning.
You can also check out the disaster that used to be our living room:
Tons of pictures from all the visits and yesterday morning can be found in the Christmas 2006 gallery. Bridget has her own Christmas gallery, with a lot of extra pictures.
Hope everyone else had a good holiday. I, unfortunately, must work today.Labels: bridget, christmas, family
Bridget and I went Christmas shopping the other day. It was so annoying. Generally, I like shopping; however, shopping during the holiday season drives me insane. Take the toy store for example. There was a little train that was running around in a circle on a track and was playing "Jingle Bells" over and over and over. Plus there was another train making noise running around on the floor. And Christmas music playing in the store. I could not wait to get out of there. Fortunately, we went right when the mall opened and since it's a weekday, it wasn't too crowded. Most of the other stroller-pushing mothers were there waiting to get their kids photos with Santa.Labels: bridget, christmas, shopping
It's a good thing we got a new computer because the Dell died today. It's also a good thing that we've moved just about all the files that we needed because it was the hard drive that went. There might have been a few things that got lost -- but the vast majority of it got saved. The new Mac is pretty awesome by the way. There have been several kinks in the setup, but it's nothing that we can't live with. Now, we really have no choice.
However, in my hurry to get out of work (more on that later), I forgot to bring home some software that I needed that did get lost. It will just have to wait until Monday when I'm back in the office. I think I can hold out until then.
***I was in a hurry because today was Bridget's first day at daycare. She's going to a nice home daycare just 5 minutes from the house. Today, she had the full attention of Mrs. Marie. It was a little bit nutso trying to get out of the house this morning. Of course I couldn't bring myself to get up at 5:20am, and slept in just a little (5:40. Woo Hoo!). Then the milk for her bottles wasn't totally defrosted and so we were late getting showers. And of course it was pouring down rain and it was the first day of school for all the neighborhood kids. But we made it. If a little late. That meant leaving work a little earlier than normal to make sure that we picked Bridget up at the right time. We ended up being a little bit early, but that's better than being a little bit late.
She did well, it seems, and so did I. I got a little teary as we were pulling away in the morning, but earlier everything had been so rushed that I didn't have too much time to think about it. I ended up feeling a little guilty that I didn't feel terrible and guilty about it. How messed up is that?
Now, we just need her to fall asleep for the night. She's a little overtired and fighting us ever so slightly. It'll be my shift again soon.
Labels: bridget
