Daddy's Work...

This past week I had both kids every day due to our day care provider taking a much needed vacation. I must admit I was dreading it a little bit (am a horrible mother or what?), trying to keep Audrey busy every day but much to my relief it actually turned out to be a great week. It was good timing too as I go back to work in 2 weeks (ugh) so it was nice to get some qt time in with both kids. We did some fun activities each day: Monday we went to the pond, Tuesday we stayed in our pj's all day because it rained, Wednesday we went blueberry picking, Thursday we had a play date with my friend Nicole and her 2 kids. Friday, we saved the best for last, we went and visited Charlie at work. Every day Audrey wakes up and asks where Daddy is and I always say he is at work. She finally answers her own question now and says "daddy work". So I thought it would be fun if she got to go see where "daddy work". Charlie is working on a project for Brandeis University in Waltham right now which isn't too far away. I think Audrey enjoyed it, though she liked running around more then the crane and equipment I think. Oh well, at least now on Monday maybe she will know where Daddy really is when she wakes up and he isn't here... I am dreading her having to get used to "mommy work" too, that is going to be interesting as I have been home for a long time...

Swim Lessons...

I have been wanting to sign Audrey up for swim lessons for awhile now, and finally did it for the Summer Session at a local athletic club. I have felt bad that she is 2 and just now doing them, but it is what it is, and honestly after going to the class I feel much better about not doing it much younger. My goal was to just get her used to the water, as in getting splashed and heaven forbid going under. She is fine at the pond and the ocean where she can wade in at her own pace and not go under, but a pool is a different story. We are on our 3rd week and while we haven't achieved my goals, she is doing ok. She hasn't had a major freak out, which I had expected when she gets dunked under. Charlie and I have been switching off who goes in the water with her and this week was Charlie's turn so I decided to take some pictures from the sideline...

Blueberry Picking...

I took the kids blueberry picking today which was kind of fun. I decided last night that it might be a good activity and we desperately needed to get out of the house today after being cooped up yesterday due to the pouring rain. I had never been and can honestly say I didn't even know what a blueberry bush looked like. Audrey was really excited for the first 5 minutes then was all done and went and wandered around and sat in the stroller. Not surprising. I would have gotten a smaller picking basket if I had known: a) that Audrey would only pick 2 blueberries and that I would have to pick the rest and b) that she would eat them as fast as I picked them so I felt like I was picking forever. Oh well, we now have tons of blueberries and I am looking forward to making some muffins and maybe some pancakes for breakfast for the rest of the week.

Beach Time, Finally...

Well, we made it to the beach today, for the 3rd Sunday in a row I am happy to say! It looks like summer has FINALLY arrived in Boston and I couldn't be happier. Going to the beach is one of my favorites things about living out here, I wish we could do it more often. We found a new beach this summer (new to us I should say), Duxbury Beach, and we have enjoyed going there so far. It is a large beach on the ocean that reminds me of the Cape, that gets packed as we have found out, but we get there early enough that is isn't an issue. Of course "laying" on the beach takes on a whole new meaning with a 2 year old and a 2 month old. Audrey doesn't sit (surprise right?) but seems to be really enjoying the "beach" and "ocean". Today the tide was out and she really enjoyed running around the shallow water and the large beach that emerged. Chase is a little different then Audrey when she was his age. She just slept the entire time in her car seat. Chase seems to wake up as soon as we get there, eat, then hopefully takes a short nap in the shade like he did today. Anyways, it is looking like I might actually go back to work with a tan. I was a little doubtful there for awhile...

Two Months...

So Chase is 2 months already, really unbelievable! Time has just flown... He is doing wonderful and continues to be such a sweet baby. He started smiling a couple of weeks ago and I forgot how much fun it is once they start. He lays on his changing table and smiles and chats up a storm and it melts my heart. He is definitely awake more and very alert, though he still loves his naps (preferably on me, which is good some days and frustrating others). I brought out the play mat for the first time yesterday (horrible right?) and he loves it! And so does Audrey, surprise... He laid there for awhile yesterday which was nice. I am kind of laughing when I think back to what I did during the day with Audrey at this age. I don't think I really left the house except to go on a walk unless I really had too. Chase goes everywhere with me, and is a great shopper as long as I keep him moving... He is not sleeping thru the night as Audrey was at this age (I know it is horrible to compare them, but this is one thing I feel is ok), but I can't complain too much as he only gets up one time during the night. Actually the early morning, usually around 3:30 or 4 am. Then Audrey gets up at 5 or 5:30 now, that is the killer but I digress... We had his 2 month appointment today, complete with shots which I just hate. I actually forgot just how much I hate them, listening to him scream like that, ugh... He is keeping on track with his weight and height, weighing in at 14 lbs 4 oz (95th percentile) and measuring 24 in (85th percentile). I'm happy and blessed to have a healthy and happy baby boy...

Hold Me...

Audrey has started to get interested in holding Chase. It is actually quite funny. She grabs the Boppy (because you must have this in order to hold a baby right?), reaches her arms out and says "carry" (who knows)... This lasts about 30 seconds and then she says "done" and starts to push him away. Charlie actually got a couple pictures of them the other night and low and behold she looked at the camera and smiled...

Making Daddy Proud...

For those of you that don't know, Charlie LOVES to wash cars. He gets this from his father, who also LOVES to wash cars. I don't mean taking them to the car wash, I mean washing them by hand in the driveway. I take it for granted and complain because he does it almost every weekend, but I will say my car is always clean. And the neighbors are jealous which is funny. Anyways, Charlie of course decided to wash the cars on the 4th. Well Audrey decided to help this time and it was really cute. She got a brush and the bucket and washed my car and then his. She constantly would stop and ask for "more bubbles" which consisted of filling the bucket with more water to make more soap bubbles. The best was two neighbors came over and wanted to help, so Charlie had 3 kids "washing" his truck. If only they could mow the lawn, soon enough I guess...

Smile Baby...

I have been having a hard time getting a good picture of Chase by himself for some reason. He looks cute constantly and every time I snap a shot it looks horrible! So the other night Charlie was holding him and I finally got what I think are some good pix of him. See any resemblance???

Braintree Celebrates the 4th...

Our town celebrates the 4th of July every year on the Saturday before the actual 4th, which was this past weekend. I have to say they do a really good job with all of the festivities. There is a parade, a bunch of activities and rides at the high school and of course fire works at night. Little did we know when we bought our house that our neighborhood is prime location for all of the festivities which is really nice. Basically everyone has bbq's and parties that day as it is a short walk to the parade route and you can see the fireworks from most places in the neighborhood (most importantly from our deck).

We threw the kids in the wagon and headed down to the parade around noon. An important thing to note is that is was really nice out for the parade, like the sun was out and I thought that Audrey was going to get burnt. We haven't seen the sun in a LONG time here in Boston so this was a big deal. I wasn't sure what the kids would think of the parade but after a rocky start (both started shaking and crying with opening fire trucks with blaring sirens went by) they seemed to like it. Well audrey loved it, she danced and clapped and waved the entire parade. Chase was his normal self and hung for awhile until he decided it was a good time for a nap. After the parade we headed home and put Audrey down for a nap. She woke up late so we missed some of the neighborhood activities but we caught a few later in the evening. We decided to see how late she would stay up and if she could make it to the fireworks at 10 pm then great. Well she made it to the time of the fireworks but unfortunately they got cancelled due to weather and fog. The crazy thing is last year the weather was the exact same, super foggy, and they did the fireworks and you couldn't see any of them. It was really sad so I was glad they opted the postpone until the next night. We sat on our deck with neighbors and watched then and they were great. Audrey slept thru them in her bed and Chase slept thru them on the deck in my arms....

Happy 4th of July to all!

Fun With the Tirado's...

So many of you know how in love with Melissa & Rene Tirado I am. We were lucky enough to have them photograph our wedding what seems like years ago (its almost been 5 years, can you believe it??) and we fell in love with everything about them. They are amazing photographers yes but also amazing people. I started what I hope to be a yearly tradition last year with them. We had them photograph Audrey for her 1 year photos and we were certainly not disappointed. They came out fabulous and totally captured her personality. This year, it was a photo session for two: Audrey's 2 year photos, and Chase's "please get some pictures of this poor kid on the wall" photos. I took the 2 kids to the Tirado's studio and spent the morning there. It was a ton of fun! I was a little nervous about how Audrey would react as she hates when I take pictures of her. It turns out she is a little prima dona and LOVED having her picture taken! She ran around their studio for a good hour or so, laughing most of the time. They did manage to get some photos of Chase in as well, which was a little difficult as Audrey ran over whenever I put him down. I am thrilled with the photos, they again TOTALLY capture Audrey's personality and there are some great ones of Chase and of the 2 of them. Now the hard part, I just have to pick which ones I like best... Here is the blog post on the Tirado's blog of our session for a peek at the photos...