Would you like cheesecake with that?

Ummm, yes, please! Friday night was a girls night out! We had a blast and it was so good to see everyone. It had been awhile since we had all gotten together and we just had a great time at the Cheesecake Factory, drinking oh-so-yummy martini's, eating their amazing no calorie (ha ha) cheesecake, catching up and reminiscing over college memories.  Those were some good times. :) All of us had either roomed together or lived in the same dorm or close to it, all 4 years of school, so there are countless memories. The all-nighters at the art studios, stuffing our backpacks full of beer and trying to walk really carefully past our RA's to conceal the "clink, clink, clink" sound, eating platefuls of Brick Alley nachos and Awful Awfuls at Newport Creamery, nights of Malibu Rum and White Russians, and I will still run to the bathroom if I smell Southern Comfort. Oh, and we studied in between all of that. I think those are the real benefits of college. Sure, the degree is a perk of school, but the priceless memories of those 4 years, it makes Salve's insanely high tuition-- that yes, I am still paying for-- worth it. Its been 9 years since we graduated, and now look at us- Kim is engaged (congrats, Kim!), the rest of us married, and 3 of us have.... gulp.... kids! I love that we still keep in touch and when we have nights like those, its like no time has passed! 

A Visit, Memories, and More Milestones

Yesterday was awesome -- Sadie and I got a wonderful visit from Karen, Jason, Juliana and Kevin! I was very lucky to have met Karen the very first day I moved into my freshman dorm in college. What would I have done without her?!? We have been great friends from that day on and I can honestly say that Karen saved my sanity that first year at school! And of course the subsequent years, but especially that year. Anyone who lived on the 3rd floor of Miley Hall knows the drama that I speak of! But I digress..... I hadn't seen Karen and Family since she was a bridesmaid in my wedding in October '06 because we live so far apart, so its been a long time. Juliana and Kevin have grown up sooo much in that time, so good to see them again. They are the sweetest, cutest kids ever. And now to see both of our children together.... ah well, it was just pretty darn cool, to say the least. 

Thought I'd throw up a few videos of Sadie in this post as well. One is of her laughing- she is just starting to giggle, we've heard her maybe 3 or 4 times, so here is a little snippet! Its adorable! The other is of Sadie enjoying the sound of her own voice! She is loving to vocalize now!

Yay, it's Friday!

Our week has been a hot and humid one, and nothing too eventful happened, so I thought I'd just post a few pics taken this week. The last three are from our newest form of entertainment- the web cam on my Mac. I can't believe its taken me this long to remember it was there-  it's a great way to take pictures of my little peanut buttercup! 

Trekking to Target

As a general rule of thumb, it takes at least 3 times as long to do anything than it did pre-Sadie. So much preparation for even simple trips! Like to Target and Babies R Us. Only 30 minutes away, and yet.... so far! At least it is if one of your passengers happens to be an unhappy baby. So you take all measures to make sure that doesn't happen. Diapers? Check. Wipes? Check. Change of clothes? Burp Cloth? Bottle? Milk? Check, check, check and check. Well, she isn't a big fan of her car seat. Should I bring the Baby Bjorn? Ya, good idea. Throw that in a bag. But, sometimes she hates that too, so better bring the baby sling, just in case. Oh, and grab that octopus that plays music, she loves that. And the blinking firefly. Oh what the hell, grab the duckie rattle and "you are my sunshine" light up toy too. What if she doesn't take the bottle? I should bring the boppy in case I need to nurse some where. Ok, throw that in the ever growing pile. At this point, John comes in and sees the over flowing bags and his eyes grow large as he says "are we taking all this?" But of course! Always be prepared! If a neighbor should see us coming out the house with all this stuff, they would assume we're going on vacation. Not to Warwick. But this is the attitude that always makes me the one who over packs for everything! "I might need this...." and my suitcase ends up being like 80 lbs. Anyhoo.... the trip went fine... of course..... and we got some cute stuff at Target. Like this fun little onesie!

The Fam!

Its been a great couple of days with a visit from the Fam! Mom (aka Nana), Kelley, and Paul came to visit us and we had an awesome time. Needless to say, Sadie had a LOT of attention! We had a great time visiting, hanging out, playing with the little Sweet Pea (yes, another nickname), going downtown and having yummy panini's and salads at Panera, and going to the beach- and it happened to be the first time Sadie had been to the beach! It was kind of funny, we went to Second Beach, to the exact spot almost a year earlier I had told my mom and sister that I was pregnant, and now this time, we brought a 3 month old baby! Spud Monkey was probably only half a centimeter big at the time, and now look! Pretty cool, huh? Sadie seemed to really like the beach, I think she loved the sound of the ocean. We even put her feet in and she didn't mind at all! Ah.... our little beach bum. :) 

4th of July weekend

If there is one thing I have learned about having a baby, its really hard to plan things in advance for anything, you never know how a day will go with the little cutie. Like the 4th of July. Big plans to take the Spud to see her first fireworks, maybe have a picnic, or even go out for the sushi dinner we have both been craving. (Haven't had it since before I was preggo! Ya, its definitely time.) But I think Sadie was going through a growth spurt or something because there was a fair share of crankiness and she ate a ton, so a lot of cluster feeding. So..... no fireworks or sushi was to be had. All I can say is, thank god it was a Harry Potter marathon weekend on tv this weekend! I told Sadie one day she will go to Hogwarts and learn how to cast spells, play quidditch, and if she is lucky, acquire the rare but extremely useful invisibility cloak. Good thing she doesn't really understand things quite yet and believe me! But it was still a great long weekend, even without typical 4th of July festivities. Sadie had some great milestones- first off being she laughed for the first time! I swear it was the cutest thing I ever heard! She did it twice on the changing table, but try as we might, we couldn't get her to giggle again. Its now my main goal, I really want to hear her baby laugh again! Also, she slept in her crib in her room for the first time this weekend. This is huge! She has been in a bassinet by our bed but we decided to see how it would go with starting to put her in her own room. And she slept awesome! We were shocked, but really happy. John and I, however, did NOT sleep well! Ha ha, we were perched by that baby monitor all night long! I am not sure what we thought she would do in there, but all went well. This was a big step for us, and it was very nice not to have to tip toe in the bedroom and try not to wake her, or have to go to sleep when she does because the opening and closing of the door would wake her up. I curled up in bed with a book for the first time since she was born and let me tell you, it was divine! I am a book fiend and I missed that. 

And lastly, she is really starting to get stronger. Now, when she is in the swing or bouncer, she lifts her head and shoulders a bit, as if trying to get out! We even put her in the bumbo for the first time, but I don't think she is ready just yet. Head still wobbly. But I think she will love it once she has more head control. Here is a pic of her in her bumbo:

And one more photo for good measure! A cute one of John and Sadie. :)

Ha ha ha!

Our new favorite game! This cracks me up!

3 months old!

3 days old

3 months old

Our little baby turned 3 months old today! I keep saying it, but it really is unbelievable to me that 3 months have already gone by. She's not an infant anymore. Wow, time really does fly. At this time 3 months ago, I was 2 days over my due date and having contractions. I remember when John got home from work, I told him he better eat dinner now because we were probably going to the hospital tonight, and then half way through his dinner, I told him he should probably stop eating because we needed to get to the hospital, like, NOW! I remember the quickest way to get to the hospital was blocked off so we had to go a round about route and the contractions were really coming on. I remember not being able to stand through the contractions during the elevator ride to the Birthing Center. I remember being told by the nurses, that yes, I was in active labor, they were admitting me, and would I like any pain medication? Me answering no, I'd like to go without any pain meds. I would use the jacuzzi, the birthing ball, and breathing techniques as pain coping mechanisms. How bad could it be? Then an hour and a half later desperately abandoning my steadfast "no drugs please" mantra and telling John to get the nurse to PLEASE give me an epidural. Or knock me out or something. And the subsequent panic that set in when I was told it was too late for that! I do believe profanities then became part of my pain coping mechanisms. Screw the jacuzzi and birthing ball. I also remember not thinking I was going to be able to pull this off, but after 2 hours of pushing like I never pushed before, and without going into gory details......... I met the tiny baby that lived in me for 9 months! It was an amazing experience. Labor was one of the hardest things I ever did, but we walked out of the hospital with the coolest little person ever! So worth it :) I laugh now at the carefully packed hospital bag I took so much time to put together. Do you believe that I really packed Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter dvds because, oh I don't know, I thought that I would have some downtime between contractions?! Its true.

So much has happened these last three months, its hard to sum it up. We went through some big learning curves! But it feels like now we are getting rewards, with a happy, smiling, adorable little baby. She now pretty much sleeps through the night, which is huge. She gets up around 6 or 6:30 usually, and instead of crying right away, we wake up to "ooo" "ooo" and hear her kicking around and looking around. Then when you go to say good morning, she looks at you and instantly smiles- its adorable! She notices things more and more. She is starting to like toys now too, ones that light up and make noise. I found her after her nap today "talking" to her purple octopus in her crib and when I pressed the button to make the toy play music, her face lit up with a big grin. I still look at her in amazement each day, she is just so amazing! And in honor of her 3 month birthday, little Peanut had a milestone! During tummy time, she rolled over by herself to her back! Now that she knows she can get out of tummy time, she kept doing it over and over ;) Here is a cute video of her rolling over.