Lately, Maureen is saying "No" a lot. Maybe saying is not the right word; perhaps singing? It's not quite a whine, but has characteristics of one. It's longer than most nos, drawn out to a comical length. But she says it with conviction - she really means NO. It is mostly uttered when we are trying to suggest a healthier food option. She can also say "Cheeto", which, thanks to Aunt Kathy, and abetted by yours truly, she discovered a couple of weeks ago. We have found an "All Natural" Cheeto in the grocery store that is not bad at all, but the very essence of Cheetos is unnatural, in my opinion. Anyway, it is very hard to keep a straight face when faced with a Mojo "NO".

Our battle against the winter funk goes on - I took a much needed sick day yesterday - I have a combo sinus thing coupled with digestive issues (I will spare you the details). Though it was much needed health-wise, I find myself behind at work and really need to step up the production today. Maureen is still suffering filling her diaper in a very offensive way. We also suspect new tooth issues as well. She's been a bit cranky, and is waking up often through the night.

While we've been sick, we've been a bit too liberal in our Elmo DVD allowances. The photos below are pretty good representations of our little zombie while Elmo's World is playing. No other show captivates her quite like the little red puppet. It will never cease to amaze me.

We have a new blanket of snow on the ground this morning. It's very pretty, but it makes me concerned about our old cars with bald tires. We've been ignoring the grim reality that we need at least one new(er) car. I've been concerned about many things lately - I've always been a worrier, but fatherhood has added another layer to my neuroses. We watched the movie Pursuit of Happiness yesterday (staring Will Smith) where a father fights poverty and bad luck in order to make a better life for him and his son. It just stresses me out. We're not anywhere near that situation, but it really makes one think. I was mostly thinking, "Why am I wasting my time watching movies when I should be out there making money to support my family so we don't wind up in line at the local shelter, waiting for an open bed." Oh well, my coffee cup is half empty and I need to start my day. Maureen is stirring and we need to get our morning routine under way. I hope this is a healthier day for all of us!

More sickies

We've been experiencing a resurgence of illness in our house recently - Kristin is just now feeling better after her bout with the vomit bug, and now Maureen is in the midst of her battle. She went to the doctor yesterday and found she has a double ear infection, a sinus infection and a virus. She woke up this morning at 1:30 a.m. throwing up some pink yogurt, yuk! Chances are I'll be sick Saturday through Sunday and back to work Monday morning. That's how it goes sometimes. Well, we hope that everyone is making it through the winter healthier than we've been. Spring is nearing (slowly).

OK, OK, I know I need more photos and less talk. I'll try to snap some shots this weekend! Ciao!

New name ideas

My sisters have suggested using names from my family; more particularly after one of two great uncles. There names were Shirley (on my father's side) and June (on my mother's side.) I somehow think we should pass on both.

Customizing the house

Now that we know we will have a baby boy in summer, we need to better adapt our house to accommodate. We've decided to make my den the new baby's room. This will work out fine - it's the closest room to ours, and there's a chance we will be able to get to him late at night before he wakes Maureen up - maybe. We never quite got my den up and running due to conflicts in interest, furnishings, priorities, etc. Our new plan is to make our downstairs office into an office/den/guest room. We've never used the office properly and we really do need a working guest room. We are almost done getting our family room done, with the hanging of our flat screen, the addition of surround sound, and setting up the closet as command central, storing all the audio/video equipment. All we need done is to have the front speakers mounted, add a repeater (the "eye" for our remote controls) and have the components in the closet positioned appropriately. We are also getting speakers in our dining room. I guess our long range projects include:
New bedroom furniture for our room (asap)
Putting a lawn in the backyard and organizing the grounds (this spring)
Renovating the upstairs bathroom (we are having window, moisture and paint issues)
Redoing the downstairs bathroom
Renovating the basement to make more living and storage space

And the answer is...

IT'S A BOY!!

Names part 2

Thanks for all of the ideas - even the silly ones.
Of course I like the direction of Maureen Josephine (MoJo):
Colleen Marie (CoMa),
Doreen Matilda (DorMat),
Marleen Teresa (MarTer),
Francine Leigh (FrancLeigh),
Eileen Scarlett (EiScar),
Kathleen Martha (K-Mart),
Kathleen Isabelle Teresa (Kath-I-Ter),
Irene Emma Katherine (IEmmaKat),
Gaeleen Ida Josephine (GIJo).

Of course there's always Oprah!

The name game

We have started considering names for Baby X, and Kristin and I often find ourselves on opposite sides of the spectrum. So far, top contenders are Francis Xavier (or FX) named after my great grandfather if it's a boy, and Annie in some form for a girl. I really like Jasper for a boy, but I think Kristin would rather divorce me than to have a boy named Jasper (divorce may be too harsh, but she would really really not want that name.) I also like Alan, or Allen. Kristin likes Oliver. Our challenge is to come up with something as hip as Mojo so the little being is not overshadowed by big sis. The monumental task will be lessened by 50% come next Friday when we have the ultrasound. For the time being, if you would like to submit boy and girl names for consideration, we will post all the options and open the forum for comments. It may not do anything but create great fun.

Our new family member

Introducing Dorothy the Goldfish. Let's hope she makes it to April!

Our Christmas Portrait

We commissioned a portrait of Mojo from our friend Anessa as a family Chritmas present this year and it turned out great. Take a look. She is available for very reasonable commissions. I can send you her contact info if you are interested.

More photos from X-mas 07

Merry Christmas 2007

I can't believe my four-day Christmas break is over and I have to go back to work. I am really bummed that I have to go back today and wish that I could just hang out with Kristin and Mo through the end of this week. Our holiday was peppered with some illness; first Kristin had the stomach bug at the top of the break, and I was a bit under the weather the second half. We managed to have a great time despite our maladies. It's all a blur now, but I will try to recap the highlights:

My sister Chrissy came in from Knoxville, and we managed to see a good deal of her. We had dinner one night at Lynn's Paradise Cafe (a quirky little joint that everyone from out of town needs to see) and that was the night that Kristin came down with the bug. Even though it was not the cause of her illness, she will never be able to eat Lynn's meatloaf again.

We hosted Christmas Eve at our house after going to Church; both sides of our immediate families were invited. Last year we had to cancel our Christmas Eve gathering because of a sewer backup in our basement. We were on the verge of canceling this year because of illness, but I did not want that label as the guy who cancels Christmas so we pushed forward. It was a good time, though we missed out on going to the zoo with my family and going to a movie with Kristin's family because we had to clean the house. Mojo got to go to the zoo, and by all accounts, was thrilled to be there. Especially because she got to ride in a double stroller with her cousin Claire. I think next year we are going to skip the party so we can make ourselves more available to relax and hang out with the family a bit more.

Christmas morning was pure joy, watching little Mo open her presents. She went ape-shi* when she opened an Elmo's World DVD, and really got into her pots, pans and plastic food toys after she was done unwrapping. That was round one. Round two came at my brother John's house when she received almost as many presents from my family. By the time round three came at her Aunt Kathy and Uncle Scott's house, sensory overload took over. She really raked in the booty. We managed to stop off at the nursing home to see Mojo's great grandfather, Doc, but the timing was not right. He was not quite up to having visitors due to equipment malfunctions, so our visit was short, yet sweet. We will need to get back over there when the timing is a little better.

The day was capped off at Kristin's Aunt Linda's house for dinner. It was all very fun and exhausting. I'm usually bummed that the build-up for Christmas never pays off once the day arrives, but this year was the exception. I think it was a very nice holiday, and I feel privileged to have such loving and caring family to spend it with. Just think, by this time next year we will have two little ones to enjoy the holidays with. I don't like to use the word blessed, but I'd say that we truly are.

Elaboration

I really have not been focused on the blog here lately. I've been a bit busy at work, we've all had some sort of illness over the last four weeks, and the holidays seem to make everything more hectic. If you've read my previous entry, you know that we are, indeed, expecting our second and final (I think) child, due in late June. I guess this blog has come full circle, and I have to start spending equal time for #2 (I think we may just stay with the name "Number Two"; it has a nice ring to it, eh?) Kristin went to the doctor on Tuesday and heard the very strong heartbeat. As we move out of the first trimester we are comfortable telling all of our friends and family our great news.

Big news.

Maureen will be a big sister at the end of June.

Rag-a-muffin no more!

This is the first glimpse of Mojo's new do, and first haircut ever. Kristin just sent me this from her phone. They went to a place called Cookie Cutters, she got to watch Elmo's World, she got to sit in a pink race car, and she smiled for an official Cookie Cutter photo on her official Cookie Cutter certificate (complete with a lock of her hair) commemorating the experience.

Dad's sick.

I have a cold.

Mommy's B-day

Having fun with the web camera

Feeling much better.

Mo was out of school all week long with a cold and fever, and a case of the grumpies to boot. We got some much needed support from both Grandpas while we were having to shuffle to and fro. Kristin had to take more time off from the Girl Scouts than planned, but we managed to make it through and Mo seems to be feeling much better.
It's been a while since my last entry, so I wanted to get you up-to-date on Mo's latest accomplishments. She can tell us what a Kitty says - it sounds more Eartha Kitt's Catwoman than Lee Merriweather's. Today she was really into taking care of baby dolls. She was feeding them bottles and covering them up with blankets. Her "Shhh" is becoming a mainstay these days, putting her finger to her mouth and gurgling whenever someone (including the cat) is sleeping, or when she sees a photo of someone sleeping. She is walking all over the place, getting into as many cabinets as she can get her hands in, taking tops on and off things, coloring with crayons, and really enjoying looking at (not grabbing-yet) all the ornaments on the Christmas tree. Her musical talents are already shining through as she sings the word "All" during "The wheels on the bus". She's really attempting to say many words and surprises us often at how good some of the word/sounds are (including responding appropriately to the question "What does a cow say?")
We got new little PC camera set up, and have an account on SKYPE. It's a little weird video-conferencing and I find it hard to concentrate on a discussion while staring at the person on the screen. Mo thought it was interesting for about a minute.
Well, it's bed time for Mojo - will see you soon!
(This was a tag-team effort between Papa Sparky and Little Mama)

Christgiving Weekend.

It's been a nice break from work. Thanksgiving weekend was transformed into Christgiving weekend so we could celebrate both holidays with Kristin's brother (Dolberry) and family, Kristin's sister (Carrie) and boyfriend (Gabe), and her cousin C-Lo and wife Annette. We exchanged presents on Saturday night around the Christgiving tree, sang Christgiving carols and even ate Christgiving Filets (always a Christgiving tradition!) Maureen was truly in the Christgiving spirit and figured out what it was all about - PRESENTS!!

She was jazzed about her Dora the Explora buggy and we have heard the song it plays over and over and over and over and over again - thanks Carrie and Gabe! She also loved her Frog, Giraffe and Llama book (Is your Mama a Llama?)

I think my present from Dolberry was the treasure of the evening - a team T-shirt from his winning softball team - The Law Office. It's currently up to $1.20 on EBay!

Saturday morning was spent with my family for brunch. It was good to get with them because we missed them on Thanksgiving Day. I did, however, manage to give Brother John a call to let him know that Alice's Restaurant just started on one of the public radio station - it's a dreadful tradition, but it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without Arlo Guthrie (in three part harmony!)

Here are some photos of the week.

Rock N Roll T-Shirt

Hello. I find that nothing helps jump start a blog better than insomnia. It's 2:50 am and I really need some sleep. I thought I would post some shots I took of Mojo over the weekend. The Rock N Roll Shirt was a present from her Aunt Chrissy - This is the sort of thing Maureen wears when her Mommy doesn't have the chance to dress her.

Update 11/7/07

We once again will have a Democrat as Governor - hurray! It's been a long, long term.

Mojo Halloween

Hello Mojo fans. We had a fun night last night tricking and/or treating with the MOJ. We went to about 8 houses on our street and stopped in for a very quick visit with Grandpa Joe and Uncle Joe. We were too late to catch Cousin Claire at Grandpa's house, but we did receive a photo of her in full Princess Leia costume, provided below. We also have a photo of Maureen's pink eyes from a couple of days ago.

Moojo updated

Maureen has pink eye, a sinus infection and an ear ache.

Moojo

Here's a preview of what's to come this Wednesday night - IF Maureen starts feeling better. She has pink eye, or, as of this morning, she has pink eyes. If it doesn't look any better, we can dress her up as Rocky Balboa (after going a few rounds with Apollo Creed).
The poor baby looked miserable this morning - Kristin is staying home from work to take her to the doctor. I'm sure daycare would not let Mojo in the doors with two swollen eyes.

Happy Friday to everyone. We got some good reports yesterday from the daycare (Parents Day Out or PDO for those in the Know) that Maureen has been very sweet to babies. And that the younger tots look up to her. I'm not sure, but I think she is running for class president.

It's getting colder here and it truly feels like autumn - the leaves are FINALLY turning. I'll probably be raking well into late November. We are having some happy hour folks over for some chili (while it lasts) beer and appetizers tonight. After a while, we'll all walk to a neighborhood Halloween party for the kids nearby. I just need to make it through the workday and the fun can begin. I'm going to stop right here before I babble any further. Have a great weekend and feel free to leave some comments (I'm running out of ideas for entries - can you tell?)

Mooooooooooo

Maureen will be a cow this Halloween. No hidden meaning here, someone gave us a costume. We even found a small, red cowbell to hang around her neck. Should be fun. We'll post photos.

Observation

We were at a party last Saturday night celebrating the birth of Katherine, daughter of friends Christopher and Anne. Maureen was there as were several, several children, many of whom were close to her age. Maureen pretty much camped out with some kids in the endless pit of toys. Now, I don't get a chance to see Mo in action with other kids her age to often - usually she's either by herself, or with much older cousins. At daycare I just drop her off and leave before the interaction starts. We've never received complaints about her playing with others. Imagine my surprise when I saw that little Mo is a toy snatcher - and not shy about it. I was both appalled and proud. My mouth said "No", but my head said, "way to go!" How do you raise a kid who's confident, but not a jerk. Seems like a fine line to me!
I hope you've had a great Monday. It's rainy here, but this rainy-day Monday is not getting me down.

Stormy weather

We all spent a little time in the basement tonight, and expect to be back down there later this evening. We're not sure if a tornado touched down, but there were some bad winds coming through the area. The sirens were howling and the TV weathermen are still jockeying for rating points. The local news drives me crazy. Just show regular programming and cut in from time to time with the "Beep, Beep, Beep" and the robot voice of the National Weather Service. Or run a crawl at the bottom of screen. Please.
We've had problems tonight with our digital cable cutting out. I'm not sure if it's a problem only with digital, but it's been a major pain in the rump.
Maureen is upstairs right now, fast asleep, but we are at the ready to jump upstairs with Ninja-like agility to whisk her back down to the basement with us.
Normally, I've never been a Run to the Basement type of guy. I would always stand in front of the window trying to see what I could see. Now, the wife is very persuasive and it's better to go with the flow instead of rocking the boat. I just read what's been written thus far to her and she laughed about my "going with the flow."
Yes. I'm grumpy tonight.

But last night was a different story. I had three home runs and a double (resulting in a run batted in) during our dartball double header at the Bonnycastle Club. I've refined my granny-style, underhanded horseshoe approach to great effect. What does all of this have to do with Maureen? Not much.

PS: one of the Newscasters asked for us to Please stop calling in to ask for regular programming. Honey, hand me the phone!

Horse feed

Here's a photo of Kristin and Maureen at my boss' cookout last Saturday night.

Artsy!!

B-A-T-H

Word of advice: do not say the word B-A-T-H in front of Maureen unless you have the time and dedication to back your words with action. She goes into crazy convulsions when you mention the word bath, kicking her legs and squealing like a teenager about Bobby Goldsboro, or David or Shawn Cassidy, or Leif Garrett, or any one of the New Kids on the Block (they're all interchangeable.) She suffers through the first 10 minutes of actual cleaning in the tub, and then is 15 minutes of water fun. She has ducks, numbers and letters that stick to the side of the bathtub, and she likes playing with the plastic cups we use to wash her hair. We've never tried bubbles, but I'm sure she would go for that as well.


Maureen is saying "Hi" quite a bit now, only in a southern drawl - more of a "Haigh". She says it mostly when she and Kristin greet me outside when I get home from work. It's funny and heartwarming at the same time.

New Pics

Fun with the laundry

Two new teeth

Maureen has two front teeth now, way ahead of the December 25 deadline. We had to seek these teeth as Mojo was not so anxious to show them off. Kristin had to lean her backwards until she was almost upside down and we had to open our mouths in order for her to mimic us to be able to see them. She definitely does not like us putting our fingers inside her mouth to root around, but honestly, do you like that? She does, however, like when we give her Baby Orajel, though we have to be swift about the application before she sucks it up off our fingers and winds up with a numb tongue.

Her birthday party last Saturday was an absolute gas for her. I've never seen her quite as excited as she was that night. It was all family with the exception of her favorite teacher Unida and her husband John, and our friend Rachel came as well with a beautiful Mylar balloon in hand (all balloons are still standing tall!) I think Maureen was able to understand that since all these important people in her life were here together at one time, it must be for her, and it must be for a good reason. She truly amazed us by being appropriately interested in her presents, and showed great enthusiasm once she saw what was inside the pretty packages. Even the clothes. I believe what put her over the top was being in the family room with a dozen balloons being batted around in a mad frenzy. If she could construct a sentence, she would have said, "This is Awesome!"

Almost an Unhappy Birthday Party

The Traditional Chocolate Cake shot

Yes, we couldn't resist giving our baby free rein on a poor, up-suspecting chocolate cupcake tonight. She was not hesitant and went at it like a pack of wolves on a baby calf. We giggled for a very long time.

She LOVES chocolate cake!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Mo is one today. Hurray!

Countdown to the big day

Good News

Bad News

Dancing lessons

Apparently Mo and her cousin Claire have been sneaking out at night to take dancing lessons. Though we are disappointed that they had to go behind our backs, we are really astonished with the results. Go to http://www.jibjab.com/starring_you/receipt/1009123 to see what they've learned.

One year ago!

Today marks the one year anniversary of this blog celebrating the life of our little girl. We have been through so much in the last year that this entry seems somewhat laughable. Thanks for reading - 6 more days until Maureen's big day!!

Posted 9-28-06 - This is an attempt to document the pending birth of our first child whom we are 99.23% sure has the name Maureen. We are not quite sure what the middle name will be, but our top three contenders remain: Josephine (named for Kristin's Grandmother, Mary Josephine, and for my father, grandfather and brother (for that matter) Joseph(s)), Elizabeth (almost everyone on Kristin's Mother's side of the family (including the men?) have Elizabeth as part of their name, including her grandmother (Ellen) Betty (short for Elizabeth), mother Karen Elizabeth, sister Kathy Elizabeth, and my sister Erin's middle name is also Elizabeth), and Caroline, named for Kristin's sister Carrie (only if born on October 3 - Carrie's birthday.) Our due date is tomorrow, Thursday, September 28; she may come this week, she may come in two weeks. We may have more of an indication after today's doctor appointment. We've had two rough nights this week. Sunday night I had the bright idea to carry out Indian Food (dot, not feather). Though we ordered medium spice, medium holds a significant heat index for non-injuns. By the time we went to bed I found myself timing Kristin's indigestion pains - they were approximately 15 minutes apart. It was good practice for me, a great deal of pain for Kristin.
Last night brought rib pains on Kristin's left side. They were so intense we had to call the doctor. We believe the baby's getting so big the cartilage in Kristin's ribs are being pushed out a bit. The pain is still there, making it hard for her to breath. It wasn't so big of a concern that we had to rush to the hospital, but she is going to the doctor today to get things checked out.
I believe we are as ready as can be expected - we have a ton of pink clothes for the little squirt. I never realized how much pink would become a part of our lives. Of course I was the one that had to know the sex of the baby. Paybacks are hell. We have her room ready to go, the color scheme is Sage Green, Navy Blue and Puke Pink (I made that name up!) We bought a funky rug to lay in front of the crib and Jezebel (the cat) has already given it a trial run and gives it two paws up. The pack and play is in our room, we have bouncy seats, a baby bjorn, excersaucers; things I never knew we needed. The only thing that is hanging over our heads is getting the baby seat base installed properly in the car, which I hear is a necessary step if you want to go home from the hospital with baby in tow. We'll get it done.
That's the set-up. Hopefully we'll keep this going. Please feel free to be a part of our blog by responding, or just check in from time to time to check on Maureen (what's her name's) progress.

Photos from Claire's B-day party

Video of the week 9/23

Bird Poop.

Maureen went to her first football game today; the disappointing loss of the Cardinals. She really liked the band when they played before the game. Once the game started though, she was on the ground playing with her toys and Cheerios. It was in the 90s and really too hot for her to be in the stands. Toward the end of the first quarter I took her under the stands to walk around in the shade. We wound up leaving during the second quarter, but I was fine watching them lose from home. Maureen hit the sack and had a two hour nap.

Kristin stayed for the whole game, and came home as red as a Red Lobster lobster. We all went to Target to get Cousin Claire a present for her party tomorrow, and now we are home chilling for the rest of the evening. Way too much excitement for one day!

TGIF

Aunt Chrissy and her friend Wayne are in town and we all had dinner a pizza joint last night. Everyone from my family was there except for Aunt Erin and future Uncle Jeff. It was Cousin Claire's actual birthday, her party is this Sunday. Maureen loves watching Claire - they had a fun game of pool, they colored, and they got to eat cheesy bread (I suspect it gave Mo stomach aches through the night.) Maureen has also taken a special liking to Aunt Mickey as well, and sat calmly in her lap for an unbelievable amount of time without any ants in her pants.
We have many plans coming up. I think we are going to take Maureen to the Cardinals game tomorrow at noon - they play Syracuse. Our back-up plan is for me to take her home when she's had enough, and Kristin will get a ride from either our friend Rachel, or her parents if need be. It will be interesting to see how long she lasts. As I mentioned, we have a birthday party this Sunday.
Right now, you can definitely see both of Mojo's teeth. She is really into Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and makes little hand gestures to the song. Especially for the "Twinkle Twinkle" and the "up above the..." parts. We are having a hard time feeding her veggies - she gravitates to the grains and some fruit. She still wants to kiss with her tongue - I guess it's ok that she goes to french kiss grandma at this stage of her life. I'll be concerned if it keeps up through high school (and so would grandma!)