this weekend - daxon's weekend

daxon met a ton of new people this weekend and was very busy with lots of travels and visits.  wednesday night, daxon slept from 10-3:20, then again from 3:45-7:15.  at 7:15, i got him up and dressed, and finished packing the car.  we hit the road at 7:50.  daxon was awake when we left, but fell asleep about 15 minutes into the trip once we got past the traffic on the turnpike.  he slept almost the entire trip (about an hour), but woke up right before the hershey exit (about 15 minutes from my parents').  as soon as he woke up he wasn't happy, so i was "swerving" the car to get him to calm down.  it kind of worked, but he still was fussy, so i plugged my phone in and turned on the white noise app.  it worked for a bit, but by the time we got to my parents' house he'd had enough.  as soon as i got him out of the car, though, he calmed back down.  i nursed him and then handed him over to jeff (who goes by fritz to the grandkids) so that my mom and i could head to the spa.  i called to check in on them before i left the spa for my haircut, and fritz said they were doing great.  daxon is his 8th grandkid, so i knew he was in good hands.  jeff and my mom went out to the theater thursday night, so daxon and i stayed in.  he fell asleep on me downstairs, so i carefully carried him up to my sister's old room, where i'd set up his pack and play, and he sletp that night from 8p-5a, then again from 5:45-7:30.

on friday, he and i took a little trip over to a local bakery where my friend mel works.  we picked up some breakfast and some dessert for our dinner at aunt callie and uncle anthony's, then headed back home to get organized for getting things ready for the shower.  he took one nap from 9-10, but then was up for most of the rest of the day.  my friend nicole came to visit with her son anthony, and he kind of napped for a little while they were there.

this picture melts my heart.

after they left, i kicked it into high gear with cooking and baking for the shower.  he was kind of fussy, so i plopped him in my sling - he stayed calm and i was able to keep getting stuff done.  i worked until my mom and jeff got home, and then jeff took him for a bit so my mom and i could keep working.

matt got home around 6:30, gave him a bottle, and then the 3 of us headed up to aunt callie and uncle anthony's for dinner.
 

daxon didn't nap there at all, and then started getting really fussy.  i tried to nurse him but i think he was just way too overstimulated, so we finally packed him up and headed home around 10:30.  he fell asleep in the car, but then kind of woke up when we got home and took him out of his car seat.  i knew he wasn't hungry, and didn't want to just comfort nurse him, so i rocked him for a bit in the rocking chair in callie's room.  he still seemed pretty awake, so i thought i'd swaddle him to try to get him to calm down.  i swaddled him in the pack and play and he closed his eyes.  i left him and watched him there for a couple minutes, and he didn't stir, so i just walked out and shut the door.  he slept till 7am (11:30p-7a).

on saturday, we got up in the morning and gave him a bath in the kitchen sink (matt was supposed to bring the tub but forgot it).

around 11 matt took daxon over to his parents' for a visit while we finished getting ready for the shower and hosted.  daxon got to visit with his pop and nunu, and uncle dan came over, too.  matt's aunt tana and uncle jim came to meet him, too.  he apparently napped most of the time, though.

they came back to my parents' house around 5 after the shower ended.  he got to meet his aunt melissa, aunt heather, aunt ashley, and uncle john, as well as all of his cousins.  so fun!

they took off after a bit, and he spent some quality time snuggling with aunt callie before we all decided to move the party to callie and anthony's.  matt convinced me to let daxon stay with my parents, so we put him to bed around 7:30 and headed over.  i had a bottle pumped already in case he woke up, but he stayed asleep the entire time we were gone.  he woke up right when we got home around midnight, so i gave him the bottle (since i'd had a couple glasses of wine), then i pump-and-dumped (if i hadn't been engorged, i would have just waited till his next feeding).  he woke up again at 5, and by then i was safe to nurse him, so he nursed and went back to sleep from 5:30-7:30.

on sunday, matt got up with him at 7:30 so i could sleep a bit longer.  i woke up right before 9, and daxon was napping with gigi.

around, 10:15, after matt and i got both cars packed up, we all went to church.  he was quite hungry by the time we got to church, but i had a bottle with me, so i gave him that and he slept through the entire service once he finished eating.  after church, we went to visit grampa (my dad).

he zonked out while we were there, so we loaded him up into the car and hit the road.  he slept the entire way home. sunday night he slept 9:15-6:15!  but then last night he was up once at 4, slept 4:30-5:30, then again 6-7.  hopefully he falls back into his routine again, though we are approaching a big growth spurt, so we may have some rough nights ahead of us.

so we learned that daxon seems to be a pretty easy traveler, which is awesome.  out next hurdle will be having someone other than me put him to bed.

this weekend - mommy's weekend

we had a nice long weekend in hershey this past weekend.  daxon and i went home thursday morning and matt joined us friday night.  we all came home on sunday.  we had a lot going on, with lots of visits and events happening.  it was a busy weekend for everyone, so i thought i'd break this into 2 posts - the events in one, and daxon's visits and how he handled it in another.  so here's my perspective of our weekend.

we hit the road around 7:50 thursday morning.  my goal had been to leave by 8, with a time of 8:30 as our absolute last acceptable time to leave.  when we were pulling out of the driveway at 7:50 i was thrilled!  we got to my parents' house around 9:30.  i had time to set up his pack and play in my sister's old room and quickly nurse him before mom and i left to go to meet my sister at the spa.

we do a day at the spa at the hotel hershey every year, just the 3 of us.  we usually have one treatment plus lunch.  this year, we all got massages.  initially i had a hard time relaxing (it was my first time leaving daxon for more than 20-30 minutes), but i just kept reminding myself that he was with fritz (my stepdad goes by fritz rather than pop, grampa, etc) and he was fine.  eventually i gave in to the massage and it felt wonderful.  afterwards, we relaxed in the "quiet" room with muffins and hot cocoa for about an hour before our lunch.  i quickly pumped, too.  lunch was good, and dessert was even better (i mean, it's hershey...).  after we finished lunch, we changed back into our clothes.  i had a haircut scheduled for 3:15.  yes, i still get my haircut in hershey.  i have tried 4 different salons in philly but can't find one that i love as much as steele.  it is absolutely because of the staff (i graduated with one of the owners, my stylist is one of my close friends from high school, and another stylist is like a pseudo-little-sister to me), so i always love going back and catching up with everyone.  i had rachel chop 2 inches off my hair because it had grown out of control (thanks, hormones!).  afterwards, i rushed home to snuggle my baby.  it was nice to be away and have some me time, but i did miss him!  that night my mom and jeff went out to see a play, and daxon and i stayed home and hung out.

on friday, mom and i spent the day getting stuff ready for callie's shower.  my friend nicole came over with her son, anthony, and they brought me lunch (yay for cheeseburger subs from jo-jos!!).  we visited for a couple hours before they left and i kept working on shower stuff.  matt got home around 6:30 and the 3 of us went over to my sister's house for dinner and to see their new house.

saturday mom and jeff and i were busy busy getting everything finished for the shower.  we still had a lot of cooking to do, and had to finish the decorating.  we got it all done by the skin of our teeth, but it was done and it looked great (if i do say so myself)!  we had a lovely shower.  callie got lots of great stuff, and it was fun to catch up with family and some of her friends, who i haven't seen in over 2 years.

bubble bath baby shower punch

popcorn bar - honey peanut butter, chili lime, ranch, and cinnamon sugar

diaper cake by callie's mother-in-law

i didn't take a picutre with all the food out, but we had brie and apple cresent bites, mini fruit pizzas, balsamic pork tenderloin, and guacamole bruschetta

diaper centerpiece

callie's college roommates

anthony's family

we had people bring books to help build baby's library

our stepsisters, melissa and ashley

beautiful mama-to-be!

after the shower, callie's friends stuck around for a little birthday party, as callie not only is having a baby, but she also turns 30 this year!  it's a big year for my baby sister - new house, move to hershey (from baltimore), new baby, turning 30, and she plans to go back to school in the fall to pursue her masters in disease epidemiology (yeah, she clearly got the brains in the family).  i am so proud of her and so excited for this next new chapter in her life!  i can't wait for our babies to grow up and be best friends!  after a bit at my parents', the party moved over to callie and anthony's so that her friends could see the new house.  matt convinced me to leave daxon with my parents and we joined everyone there for a few hours.  i had some wine, which meant i had to pump and dump when we got home (that was a bitter pill to swallow).

sunday morning, we went to church.  matt and i keep talking about trying to find a church near us, but we still plan to have daxon baptized at my church at home, so i wanted to bring him there to meet pastor cindy.  after church we went to visit my dad for a few hours, and finally around 3, we hit the road and came home. 

it was a long weekend, and we were busy, but we had so much fun.  in our next installment, i'll tell you all about daxon's visits and how he did with sleeping and stuff.  for the most part, he handled the whole weekend really well! 

family christmas

on saturday, matt and i hosted our entire families at our house to celebrate the holidays.  as of december 13, i am no longer allowed to travel more than an hour away from the hospital, which means that being home for the holidays is not an option.  so we decided to host everyone at our house in one big shot, rather than spread it out and host 3 separate smaller parties (matt's family, my mom and jeff's family, and my dad).  we ended up having 21 people at the house, which was a lot, but it worked out pretty well.  i delegated a lot of the food out to everyone (and actually assigned dishes, rather than having people show up with whatever), so i didn't really have that much cooking to do.  i made pulled pork (in the crock pot, yay) and a vegetable lasagna for the vegetarians in the family (and by made a lasagna, i mean i used our points at the grocery store to get a free party-size stouffer's lasagna, and threw that in the oven).  but we had a ton of other food from everyone else, and it worked out really well.  we exchanged our gifts with our families.  we got more stuff for baby, plus some great stuff for us, as well.  my mother-in-law was the only one taking pictures, so that's why there's hardly any pictures of my family. 

Matt's nephew Gabe and niece Avery (3rd from left) with my brother-in-law's girlfriend's daughters, Alexa and Christina

My sister, my dad, and me

Gigi and Fritz (my mom and Jeff) with my nephew Brody

My brother-in-law Dan and his girlfriend/one of my high school besties Tina

My brother-in-law Mike with his girlfriend, Jody, and 2 kids, Gabe and Avery

Matt and his brothers, Dan and Mike

The boys - Gabe, Mike, Dan, and Matt

Pretty Aves

Me and Matt opening gifts - this is a t-shirt his brother Dan got for baby

Me and Sissy - one clearly pregnant, one pregnant but you can't tell at all

my sister and anthony spent the night, and we just hung out, watching movies and talking.  sunday morning, i made eggnog pancakes, and after callie and anthony left, matt and i lounged around watching football.  i opened our car seat and put together our stroller, and washed the new baby stuff so i could get it put away.  but for the most part, it was a lazy day and it was exactly what i needed.  even though i didn't cook much for the christmas party, i was still busy and didn't sit much all day saturday until after everyone left, so i was still pretty tired.

thanksgiving weekend

whew!  it's been a busy couple of weeks, topped off with this cold that i've been fighting now for 2 weeks, and i'm way behind on some blog updates!  so first up, thanksgiving!

our thanksgiving weekend was a whirlwind of activity.  we got to hershey on wednesday night and after dinner and much debate, matt and i decided to meet up with his brother and his girlfriend out for a drink.  i can't believe i even made it out, since we didn't even head out till 10, but i knew we were only going to houlihan's, which is only open till 11, so i knew that a) it wouldn't be loud and crowded and b) i knew we wouldn't be out late (or long).  so we met up with them for one drink, then headed back home and went to bed.

thursday morning we woke up and i cooked up a batch of my aunt em's praline sweet potatoes.  thankgiving just isn't thanksgiving without them, so when we don't go to michigan for thankgiving with my family, i make them for thanksgiving with matt's family.  around noon, we headed over to the place that matt's family rents for thanksgiving. they've rented this place the past several years because the family has just gotten too big for someone to host at their home - it ends up being around 40 people!  it's basically a potluck, so everyone brings a dish to contribute to the meal.  we stayed there till about 6 or so.  it was great to catch up with the family, and my dad actually came down to eat with us, too.  i finally got to a point where i was absolutely exhausted, so matt and i packed up what was left of our sweet potatoes and went back to my mom's.

on friday, matt and jeff went to play golf, and my mom and i went out to run a few errands.  we went to jo-ann fabrics to get some orange fabric that my mom needed, and then did some grocery shopping for my bridal shower.  we stayed away from the black friday shopping, as is our tradition - i can honestly say i've never ever done black friday shopping, and i have no intention to start now.  blech.  friday night, we went back over to matt's parents' for dinner, and then over to my friend nicole's for drinks and so i could finally meet her boyfriend (who i love, yay!).   we left there around 11, and went straight to bed.

saturday was a pretty lazy day.  we hung around, watching football and movies.  saturday night was my high school reunion.  15 years, what?!  it was held at troeg's brewery, and despite my concerns, it was actually a really fun night.  only about 15 people showed up, but it was a lot of my girlfriends and a bunch of guys that i actually didn't hang out with high school but do now thanks to them being friends with matt and his brothers, so it was a nice intimate little group and everyone got along really well.  we attempted to take a nice class picture, but were having a hard time getting some people under control....

me and 2 of  my besties, abriel and nicole

sunday was my baby shower, so i'll come back to that in another post...

my week according to instagram

didn't take too many photos this week, unfortunately.  and i doubt i will this week, either.  the weather is supposed to be completely craptastic all week long.  yesterday we got hammered with rain and we're pretty much looking at sporadic rain for the entire week.  gross.

we were pleasantly surprised by the weather on saturday, since we thought it was going to rain all weekend long.  it ended up being sunny and about 78-degrees, so we were able to get some work done outside.  first, though, we had a contractor come by to give us an estimate on some work we want to have done in the front of the house.  last year, we had this company come by and rip out some shrubs and then build a retaining wall (see that project here).  but once that was done, we hated how the new wall looked up against the old flagstone steps, so now we're having them come back out to tear out the old steps and rebuild to match the wall.  we also had them give us an estimate on replacing the concrete patio with pavers. we also had him give us a quote on rebuilding the retaining wall around the tree in our front yard.  right now it's just stone (flagstone, i guess?) but it's falling apart and growing mold - it looks disgusting.  so we wanted to have them take that down and replace it with one to match the one in the front of the house.  mike from deleone landscaping came out and gave us a really great quote, but our budget will not allow for the entire project to be done at once.  so we will probably just do the steps and patio this year, and then the other retaining wall next year. 

anyway, once mike left, we did some weeding around the other gardens and i cleaned all of the patio furniture while matt trimmed the rhododendron bushes.  then we cleaned the house inside.  padfoot is still absolutely terrified of the vacuum, so i always have to lock her in the blue room while i'm sweeping, otherwise, she hides behind the fridge and i can't get her out for hours.  after i finished, she and i sat up in the window seat for a bit, enjoying the lovely weather. 

sunday we woke up (late!  10am!  thank you, padfoot!) and it was pouring out.  we had plans to meet my dad, sister, and her husband in wilmington for a birthday lunch (mine and callie's was in march, my dad's is on wednesday).  we ate lunch at iron hill brewery and then my dad, matt, and i went to see 21 jump street.  callie and anthony ended up leaving after lunch because they leave for hawaii on wednesday and needed to get laundry and some packing done.  you guys, you have to see 21 jump street.  it was hysterical.  i definitely was not expecting it to be that good.  we laughed through the entire thing.

anyway, here are the (very) few photos i took this week.  enjoy!

top l-r: ready for summer, cat grass love

bottom l-r: window seated, purple rain

hope you guys all had a great weekend and survived the rain/snow!  

my week according to instagram

it was a pretty great week!  matt and i went to snow patrol on tuesday night.  i have a post coming with my review, i promise!  work was pretty calm, which was nice after the insanity of the past few weeks.  and then saturday, matt and i drove down to baltimore to go to the fell's point brew fest with my sister and her husband and their friend allen.  we had a great time - too good, i was in bed by 7:30pm!  loser!  we drove back today and i did the grocery shopping then came home to make quinoa muffins and avocado egg salad.  here are a few pictures i took throughout the week (mostly tuesday night and saturday at the brew fest).

hope you guys all had a great weekend!