Working from home today

Love working from home with this little guy :)

Ben's 2nd birthday!

This weekend Adam, Eli and I drove to MA to visit my sister Tammy for Bennett's 2yr birthday party. He is a big 2 yr old, he looks like he is much older to me but he is still such a sweetie and gives hugs and kisses when you ask.

I am much like Elmyra from the Tiny Toon Adventures cartoon so I smoother babies and little kiddies, I just can't help myself! Good thing Ben still lets me do this to him and poor Elias he has no say in it because I'm his mommy!

Here is a description from Wikipedia of Elmyra if you don't know who I am referring to - Elmyra is quite young and obsessed with animals and cute things...even chasing after animals...obliviously causing great discomfort or serious injury to potential pets from her overenthusiastic affection and complete lack of even the most rudimentary knowledge of pet care
Well you get what I mean.

Here are some pics from this weekend :)



Miss Melina hamming it up! Eli in Ben's "big boy" bed


My sister makes the most creative homemade cakes, and they are SO yummy. This one was 3 layers -chocolate/banana bread/chocolate with awesome peanut butter frosting and chocolate frosting topped with cocoa krispies!



On the "to-do" list today, laundry, make banana bread, organize the basement from our electrical fire so I can get back to working out on the treadmill, and visit our friends Tab & Malley at the hospital - they just had a little boy yesterday! His name is Quinn he will be pals with Eli weather he likes it or not! hahaha...

Oh yeah and one more thing...since it is still early in the month of January I guess you can say Adam and I made a New Years resolution. We usually don't do it because we wouldn't probably keep it but this year I figured lets give it a try. So my new years resolution (which became Adam's because I enlisted him in it for support) is to get on the treadmill while watching The Biggest Loser this season.

Adam and I are notorious for watching The Biggest Loser while eating ice cream on the couch. It is so bad sometimes, here I am commenting at the t.v. while I have a bowl of ice cream in my hands! How terrible...so this Tuesday night is our first night, we plan on just getting in 45 mins. of a workout together (we have a bike on a trainer too) so that we can be showered and go to bed at a decent hour, the show is 2hrs long and goes until 10pm.

Hey it's a start...wish us luck!

Back Up & Running!

Well....after a hectic week following Christmas I am glad to say we are finally back up & running. For starters, we are so lucky to have been out of our home when the tree snapped in front of our home and caused an electrical fire. The electrician said that if any one was home using the water we would have had serious issues. So thank god that wasn't the case. Our electrical panel and a bunch of wires are completely new & replaced, within 3 days we were back in our home. Originally our house smelled like hair burning on a curling iron but that gradually went away. The pine trees in front of our home are around 60-65 ft. tall, we have 7 trees (well now 6 since) so it is a big job and will be costly to get them removed, but we think worth it at this stage. The thought of this happening ever again with another wind storm freaks us out. When we bought the house I fell in love with these trees that line the front of our property but right now my feelings have completely changed. Check them out in the pic below, you can tell the one that came down where you see the gap between the trees.

On a more happy note, our little Elias over here seems to be doing great! He loves the exersaucer which we introduced to him the week before Christmas. It can be over stimulation so we have to time it right, but for the most part he loves the new perspective of being in it. Also, Elias got a fun chair from Meme & Poppi as an Christmas gift that comes with a tray (they are called Bumbo chairs) so now we are using that when we feed him rice cereal. We started Eli on rice cereal the night before Christmas Eve. The first time we tried it while he was in his high chair & he seemed lost in that chair so this new chair he got is perfect for this stage!

Eli seems to be getting much better with the rice cereal, he is not scarfing it down just yet but we are making progress and he is getting better each day at moving the food to the back of his mouth. The first 3 times the cereal was all over his face and barely making it down the hatch. It was super cute though to watch. Here are some pics of Eli over the past few weeks, also a few pictures of him meeting Santa for the fist time on Christmas Eve.

And, because I never got around to posting pictures from Christmas Day at our house I figured I would put some up now, better late than never! I hated that our PC was out of commission there for a few days...not being able to upload pictures was killing me.







While in "picture mode" I wanted to post some of Eli meeting Grandpa (my dad) for the first time this past weekend. Also, Great Grandpa & Great Grandma got to see Eli again, we had such a nice time visiting everyone in NYC

SO first off I want to apologize, I hate being behind on my blogging, I am the first person to check my sister's blogs & everyone else's and hate when they are not updated! I also have to apologize there will be no pictures in this post as you will realize why when you read on...

Well I have lots to fill you all up on since my last post. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and enjoyed their time with their loved ones!

1. Our Xmas party on the 19th was great and lots of fun! I should watch what I wish for though...we did get that snow fall I said I loved so much that happened for our Xmas party in 2008. Except the snowfall was to begin in the middle of the day so about 6 of our guest didn't make it with the worries of the weather but we still had a turn out of 30 people. The snow didn't start until 9:30pm (thanks weather men...you had the whole state freaked out that it was starting mid afternoon and we would be snowed in forever!) so when everyone was leaving our party around 12:30-1am there was a few inches accumulation but not a 12 inches like we had expected at that time.


2. Eli slept great for my in-laws the night of our party. Go figure....he was up only once at the 3am hour and ate/got diapered and back to bed until the 6:30-7am time frame. THIS HASN'T BEEN THE CASE FOR ME!! But I do have to say I was happy he did this for them so they were able to sleep well while they had him overnight.


3. I had 2 cavities filled 2 days before Christmas Eve. I got these cavities from being preggo I think, I haven't had cavities in SO LONG but of course another lovely thing about being preggo - it can do a number on your oral health. I was really worried about not being able to eat all my favorite holiday foods & treats because I had my cavities filled so close to Xmas but wouldn't you know my mouth was back in working order by morning, thank god!


4. Our computer crashed Christmas Eve & is completely useless right now. Spy ware & virus's all over it. So frustrating. I can't even get into it. It totally screwed our plans of playing our Christmas music from Pandora on Christmas Day at our home & also all my pictures I want to put up for the blog & a blog entry had to wait. We are still working on getting our PC up & running so pictures will come soon, I promise!


5. We spent Christmas Eve at Adam's Auntie Anne's house as usual. It is Adam's Dad's side of the family and Santa always makes time to visit/bring gifts for all the good little boys & girls so Eli got to meet him for the first time! I have the cutest picture to post which I can't wait to put up soon for you all to see. Eli also got a great gift from Adam's parents on Xmas eve- it is the book - Twas' the night before Christmas with their voice over as the page turns their voice is reading the story to Eli! It is the best, I can't wait for next year for Eli to hear his Meme' & Poppi reading to him. Such a thoughtful gift :) We love it.


6. I finished baking all my treats for Xmas gift baskets I was making after we came home from Auntie Anne's Xmas Eve. I was up until 11:00pm doing that then from 11-12:30am deliriously wrapping gifts and getting things ready for Xmas day at our home with Adam. I think we were both zombies at this point. I was lying on the hardwood floor and "taking a nap" in our guest bedroom waiting for the wrapping paper while Adam was using it. I get ridiculous when I am that overtired.


7. Christmas Day we hosted at our home and it turned out really nice. We did a brunch menu and it came out great. Watching my nephew Ben & niece Melina open up their gifts was too funny! They were so excited, Eli watched from his exersaucer and was in amazement too, he loves to look at bigger kids he gets fixated on them. He can't wait to be their size it seems...Between Christmas Eve & Christmas Day Elias received so many presents we couldn't believe it. He got lots of toys, clothes,savings bonds, and a gorgeous baby's first Christmas ornament from Uncle Tommy that brought a tear to both Adam and I. The ornament is so precious, it is a baby's building block in silver that opens up with his engraved name and birth date, along with his picture in it. Being that I love Christmas and decorating our tree it was the best to have such a personalized ornament we will have for lifetime now. In the evening we went over to Adam's Grandmother's house and Eli giggled allot and was a joy to have around while opening presents there. Overall, everyone was so nice to remember Eli and we really appreciate the generosity.


8. Saturday we had a slow start, and then we spent the afternoon visiting my best friend Sarah from home and her parent's. It was the first time her parents met little Eli and he had a blast there, he was in such a good mood giggling lots for them too! Then we had dinner and left over desserts at my mom's house with the family. We then did the trek back home which is only a one hour drive, Eli slept the whole way so that was good.


9. Eli had his 4 month appointment and received 4 shots. He is 13lbs. 15oz. and is 25.5 inches long! He is in the 70th percentile for height & 25th percentile for weight. He is very healthy and seems to be doing great the doctor said. BUT little Elias is getting up WAY too many times throughout the night so we have to nip it in the bud. The doc told us we have to let him cry it out. Easier said than done. Night 1 has passed and it was rough to say the least. I cried just as much as Eli did at times.


10. We had an electrical fire in our home today. Luckily it happened while we were at work and Elias was in daycare. Our neighbor called Adam at work and told him the Fire Dept. & Police were at our home and that a tree limb snapped off from one of our huge pine trees in front of our home and hit our electrical wires. All the electrical stuff on the side of our house snapped off and there was smoke throughout the house and we nearly lost our home to an electrical fire today. It is scary to say the least, today is the coldest day we have had so far in CT and we have no heat or electricity. The claim has been started w/our home owners insurance and boy am I glad we have insurance. The tree needs to be removed all the electrical panel has to be replaced, wires are fried and melted....and top of all this we are not sure if our appliances will work until all the electrical work is completed. The work won't start until tomorrow and will take the full day, not to mention this is a holiday week so the electrical company is charging us handsomely... Thank god our home is still standing and we are all ok. We will be spending the night with Adam's parents tonight. I hope tomorrow everything will be ok to be back in our home. As I type this I haven't even been home to see or smell the damage.

Well that is all the updates for now. I know I have given information overload, sorry!! That has been our life over the past week and 1/2.....Hopefully the next post will be from home that has heat and electricity on my PC that is working and contains some much needed pictures I have been waiting to put up!

All Done!!

So the house is finally all decorated and ready for our Christmas Party this weekend. This year everything took so much extra time for a few main reasons -

1.) having a 3 1/2 month old makes it tough to get anything done

2.) Me feeling under the weather. I went from bad to worse & was out of work a few days last week as well as having a really bad fever Thurs - Friday. I ended up going to the doctors on Friday and sure enough I had bronchitis. I am MUCH better now thank god and thanks to being prescribed the Z-pack. It seems to be the only thing that cures me when I get bronchitis.

3.) Eli was under the weather too, he never got a fever or actual bronchitis but he was pretty fussy and full of mucus so EXTRA clingy. Which made me feel bad for the little guy...so him being clingy didn't bother me that much it was just that I wasn't getting anything done when I wanted it done.

Over this past week Eli is no longer just getting up 1 time in the night. He has been getting up 2 times which is frustrating. I keep thinking it is because of his congestion and all the mucus production that is going on. I hope this passes soon and he goes back to the 1 time in the middle of the night. I can deal with that.

We will be starting cereal very soon, I hope at Elias's 4 month appointment on the 28th the doctor agrees that we should introduce the cereal. I have heard once the cereal starts so does sleeping through the night. I would love for that to be the case! Getting up at the 1 am hour and the 3:30 am time frame is getting old fast! But with a face like this it is hard to be cranky about it all....


Eli's Christmas Card - I still can't get over the fact that I got him to sit up & smile all at once for this picture!


Thank you Auntie Tammy for my fun Christmas Onesie & Santa Outfit! I love you!


On another note, somehow I have been able to do some holiday baking and almost all the prep work for our party on Saturday. I have baked homemade biscotti's, surprise filled cookies (they have preserves in them- YUM!),and oreo balls. On the to-do list for baking is homemade granola & hazelnut truffles. I can't do those too early because they are for Christmas Day so I will wait until the night before Christmas Eve. I have a huge list of appetizers for our party I am making, most of it I can prep Friday night so that on Saturday all I have to do is pop it in the oven. I borrowed a warming tray from my mom which will be very use full for the party with keeping things warm.

Needless to say, I will be pumping & dumping - but I subscribe to the thought process of "If Momma ain't happy, nobody's happy". Eli will be spending the night at Adam's parents while we entertain somewhere to the tune of 30-35 guests at our home!

Princess parties, Christmas Decorating, First snow fall & a new TV! !

Well hello there!

It has been a busy week for us over here. Last Sunday Adam put our new fancy LCD TV we just bought in our living room. Since then he has been on cloud nine watching his sports & anything with animals. So now this means I have to watch more football than I really would like to. BUT I do have to admit it does look really cool to see it so clear now. On our to-do list is finding a t.v. stand we like. Right now it is sitting on our coffee table and it is getting really annoying not having anywhere to put our drinks/bowl of ice cream/feet, etc. on when we are in the living room. I would like to thank my in-laws for contributing generously towards the t.v. and my mother for giving us money for the t.v. stand as our Christmas gift this year. Thank you mom, John & Debbie! That was a very generous gift to us and it will get lots of use.

Over the course of the week I have been doing my Christmas decorating in our home mainly because I don't have time to do it all in one day like I used to. It is coming together and I will post pictures once it is all complete. The good thing is that our smaller tree that is in our picture window provides plenty of entertainment for Elias. He can't get enough of looking at the lights. I have to admit I put him right in front of that tree sometimes so I can get things done when I need to. This tree may never come down! hahaha..

Here are some pics of Eli enjoying the lights-

Then this past Saturday Eli and I made the trip up to my sisters house for my niece Melina's 5th birthday party. Melina is all into princesses at this stage in her life so the theme was princess everything. My sister did an awesome job of turning her fireplace into a castle and made a princess throne for Melina and her friends to sit in for pictures. The throne was made out of fabric from my old prom dress & one of Tammy's bridesmaid dresses. Tammy is very crafty, she even made my niece's birthday cake which looked awesome and of course it included Princess Tiana from the new Disney movie. I have never seen so many little princesses in one place, I can't get over how many little girls are into the Disney princess thing. I guess it is hard to think it when I look back on my childhood and I was the tomboy...my uniform was overalls and puma sneakers. Oh yeah and I ruined all my sister's barbies by taking the heads off and chewing on their plastic feet. Sorry Tammy!!

So here are some pictures from the party, I had to bring Eli out for this party because it is his cousin after all and the the guy to girl ratio was to his favor!

My neice Melina, I can't beleive she is 5 years old already!

My sister Tammy's FAB cake, I was very impressed, it was so yummy!

Our ride home wasn't so pleasant it was snowing but it wasn't sticking while in Mass. Once we entered CT I noticed there was some accumulation and when we got home we had a few inches on the ground. It was our official first snowfall for CT. I hope we get snow like we did last year the day before our Christmas party, it made the house look so cozy & decorated just perfectly with a fresh blanket of snow! Here are some pics of the outside of our home from last year. I am keeping my fingers crossed this year that we get snow the day before our party again!


Our home December 2008

Tree in our backyard we put lights on, I love it with snow all over it!

Living room, this year we will be adding another stocking for Eli :)

One last thing...I came down with a nasty cold this past Monday so I am feeling yucky and run down. Can't wait for this to pass. Ugh!! The good thing is so far Eli is only sneezing and his nose is a bit stuffy but not as much as mine, I hope he comes through this quickly too. Here is a picture of the little guy in his winter snow suit today, he is overall happy for being a little under the weather!

Thanksgiving 2009

Hi Everyone,

Hope your Thanksgiving was great and you enjoyed all the yummy goodness that comes along with it!

Eli's first Thanksgiving!

This year I ran the Manchester Road Race here in CT and it was so much fun. The event draws quite the crowd with over 13,000 participants. This was the first time I ran it and I have to say I would really like to make it a tradition if I can. The race is 4.8 miles and it is quite the party the whole way. Tons of support and drunken fans partying along with lots of "people watching" to do. So many people come dressed up in costumes and they run the whole course that way. My results were pretty good for not getting to train as much as I would have liked for the race.

My official time was 43:21 and I placed 3,208 out of 12,037 runners. Adam came out to support me and enjoyed a nice frosty beer at a bar while I was running. But the race did spark a little interest with him so he might join in the fun next year with me.

After the race was done we went over for a Thanksgiving day feast at Adam's parent's. I made a yummy sweet potato dish with caramelized apples on top from the Barefoot Contessa's Parties cook book & another sweet potato dish with the standard gooey marshmallows on top. After an awesome meal & dessert assortment the family sat around the fire pit enjoying some hot toddy's. The weather was perfect outside and Eli enjoyed the campfire too (please excuse my socks & shoes in this picture, I came ill prepared to be outdoors!).

Here are some pics from Thanksgiving day at Adam's parents house:

Uncle Bill & Aunt Brenda with Eli

This was Mimi's idea (Adam's grandma) to put Eli right on the table because he was fussing quite a bit and it turned out he LOVED it. He was kicking,smiling and loving all the attention he was getting while we were eating our dessert!

Then on Friday we spent the day with my family at my Aunt Lydia's house. We did the leftover Thanksgiving meal and that was equally yummy! It was so nice to spend time with my family and see my cousins and the kiddies. Adam played the drums in Rock Band, my cousin James played the guitar, and we listened to my lovely sister sing her heart out as the lead singer. It was a crazy house as you can tell and surprisingly with all this going on Eli was taking it all in just fine. I guess Tammy's voice is soothing to some people out there. Hahaha...

Mom making Eli giggle :)

Uncle Ed with Eli, every time Eli is with Ed he doesn't cry, Ed seems to have the "touch"

Cousin James & My sister Tammy hanging out with our little guy

Saturday we had tickets with Adam's family to the Uconn vs. Syracuse football game and my mom came up to watch Eli for the day. Thank you mom! We tailgated which is always very fun. It was so windy & cold out but I love going to any Uconn game - basketball or football, it brings me back to my college days and makes me so proud to be a Uconn grad. Uconn won & Eli cooperated very nicely with my mom so the whole day was success!

Now I am thinking tomorrow will be a day of preparing the house for Christmas. Every year we have an annual Christmas party which has become a tradition with our friends. The party draws in a crowd to our home of anywhere from 30-35 people. I love hosting the party with Adam and since I absolutely love decking the halls of our home for Christmas it is my favorite time of year :)

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving festivities as much as we did, boy do I need to find a way to get myself moving tomorrow and work off those extra calories I have consumed over these past 3 days! It is so hard to not snooze on the couch with this little guy sometimes. Here is Adam showing how it is done....

How Elias gets what he wants.....

Just thought I would share how Eli uses his cute little lower lip to get what he wants. He is too much this little guy!

"Our new Friday night"

Since, I have been back at work things have been kind of hectic but I dare say they are getting better each day. Also- just knowing I am working home on Mondays brings a sigh of relief to me on Friday's when I leave work.

I haven't hung out with the ladies these past 3 weeks because 2 weekends in a row we had plans & getting back in the swing of things with work was an adjusment. So last night was our first night we all got together in a couple weeks and it was fun!

Sylvia,Matt and their baby Jack came over along with Margaret, John and their baby Camilla. We had pizza and some drinks and just hung out until the wee hours of 10:15pm. My how times have changed!

This time last year we were all in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico partying like it was our job! We all knew it would be our last hurrah since baby talk had already started. Very shortly after returning from Mexico, Sylvia found out she was pregnant then I found out I was pregnant & Margaret got pregnant just a few months after that. It has been really great going through all the preggo stuff together plus we all live close by so our kiddies will be hanging out lots whether they like it or not!

I especially love this picture of Sylv's son Jack trying to work his magic on baby Cammy already! Eli has no chance at Cammy, Jack has the upper hand here being that he and Cammy are Polish. Not to mention, Margaret & Sylv's family are already arranging their marriage. But that is totally ok- Eli still has lots of options, there is a baby girl 2 houses up the road & our friend Nicole just had a baby girl so he is all set! hahaha...there are always other fish in the sea!



Here is our "responsible parent" picture of the evening.