Toddlers Only

We now officially have two toddlers at our house - no babies any more! Ryan turned one just less than a month ago, and he started walking two days later. We are in trouble... now he's walking everywhere! It is definitely bittersweet - I am excited to see them both grow into little people, but it's sad that they're outgrowing their baby-ness. We're only having these two, so I'm trying to soak in every minute!!



We had a great time just before Ryan's birthday, spending the weekend in Harrisonburg, VA visiting with Mark's sister and her family (and Nana) to celebrate Connor and Ryan's birthdays. We spent Saturday at an indoor water park and Sunday playing at an amazing playground near our hotel. The kids had a blast seeing one another, and the Easter Bunny paid us a visit and hid some eggs for the kids to find :)

Wednesday (April 27th) was Ryan's birthday, and I took the day off to celebrate with him. It was beautiful and sunny here, so we went to the zoo in the morning, had lunch out with Mark and came home to spend some Mommy/Ryan time, which was really nice. With how crazy things get around here, it's nice to have on-on-one time and remember how easy-going things can be with only one kid!

Lily helped make Ryan's smash cake and cupcakes for the rest of us :) Throughout the day, I kept thinking of where I was the year before and how lucky we are to have such amazing kids. I know I sound like a broken record, but I really do have to pinch myself some days to remind me that this is really my life - and there are other days where I want to pull my hair out, but I'll take the good with the bad :)



This past weekend, we took another trip to the zoo (loving the family membership!) and did the March of Dimes Walk on Sunday to support all the families out there who have not been as fortunate as we have been with our kids. It was a great turnout and definitely something we will do again in the future.


Congrats to my sister Lauren, who graduated from Nazareth College on Mother's Day. And to my brother Chris, who graduates this weekend from RPI in Albany. It's been a long road for both of them, and I know they're both relieved and excited to be moving on to the next step in their lives.

Testing the Limits

I can't believe we almost have two toddlers instead of a toddler and a baby! Ryan will be one later this month, and I am completely in denial. He loves to walk around the house with the aid of a little walker toy and is trying to talk all the time. Part of that is testing how and when we will tell him "no." I guess challenging authority will continue with these guys until they are well into their teens, but with two under the age of three, it seems as if almost every interaction has some type of challenge involved. With Ryan it has to do with climbing furniture and putting random things in his mouth (like anything he finds on the floor). With Lily, it's acting out when she's jealous of our attention being on Ryan.

I've noticed that having two kids has made me much more comfortable with my "mom" label. Not that I was uncomfortable with it when it was just Lily, but I was much more conscious of other people when it was just us and her. Now, it' not unusual to catch me singing a nursery rhyme in public (scary if you've heard my singing voice!) or give Lily ultimatums about her behavior (i.e. we'll leave the store if she doesn't behave). I never in a million years would have thought you'd catch me singing in public!

school picture March 2011

To celebrate Ryan's 1st birthday at the end of the month, we are going to get together with Mark's sister Melissa, and her family - their little guy, Connor turns one this week. The boys are just 13 days apart! We're headed to an indoor water park in Virginia that's about halfway for both of us (they live in Newport News, VA). Nana will also be joining us for the birthday fest! Ryan doesn't really understand yet, but Lily keeps talking about the pools and slides, so she's getting excited to go and see everyone! We also have plans to go to my sister's graduation over Mother's Day weekend in Rochester and my brother's graduation in Albany over Memorial Day weekend. It's going to be a busy couple of months!

Lily playing dress up at school last week

Those of you who have known me for a long time know that I am typically very good with birthdays, sending cards, etc. I don't know if it's the air in Pittsburgh or what, but I have been a complete slacker in that regard for the last six months or so. Here are some belated Christmas shots (from Mark's company Christmas party), and the New Year's card I never quite got around to sending out. My friend Lisa designed it, and she did an awesome job. I would highly recommend her if you need cards, invites, save the dates, etc. You can see her website here.





I know I mentioned Lily's love for dancing in my last post. Here is a little clip of what we get to see on a daily basis :)

Have a great week!

Happy Spring & Welcome Logan!

Lily and Ryan have a new baby cousin! Logan Brian Amen was born on Tuesday morning to Aunt Ray-Ray and Uncle Bri-Bri in Connecticut. Everyone is doing well, and his pictures are adorable. His arrival was much anticipated, and we can't wait to meet him!

We feel very lucky to have two beautiful, happy children. Having two kids definitely has its challenges, but I wouldn't change it for anything. I think the best part has been seeing them together - Ryan absolutely adores Lily, and Lily is a great big sister. There has been a lot more jealousy over toys, etc. since Ryan started moving around on his own, but for the most part, they do great together. The bad part is that my house constantly looks like it blew up...





Ryan will be one in just another month, and the time has completely flown by. We're cherishing all of the baby moments we can and trying to soak it all in. Ryan is still having some sleep issues at night, so we've been trying some different things to help with that. Some nights are good, and other nights we really learn the meaning of sleep deprivation! Ryan is working his way up to walking and talking, and has been eating more "people food" lately rather than baby food. He has several "tricks" now, including giving and blowing kisses, high fives and clapping. He babbles non-stop too! I can't wait for the conversations to start between the two of them.

Lily gets smarter and smarter each day, and we are continually surprised by the funny things that come out of her mouth! She talks to Ryan all the time, and calls him "buddy" and "Ry-guy." We're going to enroll her in some type of dance or creative movement class this fall. She LOVES to dance and constantly asks to turn on music and sing songs. Her recent favorite has been "This Old Man." So far, it appears that she's just as tone deaf as I am, but we all have fun anyway :)




We've been in Pittsburgh for almost six months now, and we're really enjoying it! The weather turned cold again over the last few days, but we had a nice week and a half of mild temperatures and sun. We were able to get outside and take walks around the neighborhood, and Lily took a special trip with Daddy to the Zoo & Aquarium. She hasn't stopped talking about it since! We're looking forward to going back soon as a family :) There is also a horse farm that backs up to our neighborhood, and we got to see the horses on our walk one afternoon - Lily asks to go see the horseys almost every time we drive into the neighborhood :)





We'll check back in soon, probably somewhere close to Ryan's birthday. Hope everyone is doing well!

Ear tubes & Road trips & Nanas - Oh my!

As always, life is crazy with two kids, full-time jobs and everyday life :)

Poor Ryan has been sick with non-stop colds and ear infections for the last several months. We took him to the ENT to be evaluated, and they recommended ear tubes like we did for Lily last spring. His surgery was this past Tuesday (on my birthday!) and it went really well. We could tell the difference right away - he was much happier, more comfortable and independent within just a few hours. He didn't even cry when he came out of anesthesia! When we went back to get him after the surgery, he was just sitting there snuggling with one of the nurses. She didn't want to give him up :) We're looking forward to more sleep at night, fewer appointments at the pediatrician and fewer doses of antibiotics!!

In recovery just after the surgery

Ryan has also (finally!) started moving around on his own. He really went from 0 to 60!! In just two weeks, he went from sitting and scooting to crawling, pulling up and cruising on the furniture! He loves trying to keep up with his big sister, and most of the time she is very patient and loves playing with him.



The kids have become veteran travelers in the car too. We took a trip home to Rochester in January to see Mark's sister and her kids while they were visiting. The drive took about 5 hours, and isn't too bad if we make a stop. Otherwise the kids get really antsy! Rochester had lots of snow while we were there, and Lily and Parker got to go sledding at Nana's house. They had a blast!!


Just last weekend, we also took a trip to Michigan to see our close friends Hillary and Quinn and their little boy, Bennett. Lily and Bennett had so much fun playing together, and Ryan tried to keep up with them too! They showed us a great time, kept us entertained and well fed! Their house in Michigan is adorable, and it was so nice to see such great friends again after much too long (2 1/2 years!). Lily keeps asking to go back to the "bounce house" we took the kids to one day. We can't wait for them to come see us in Pittsburgh soon :)










Last, but certainly not least, Nana came to see us this week. The kids were exited to see and spend time with her. It was nice to have an extra set of hands, and Mark and I actually got out of the house and went to a hockey game, which was a lot of fun! Lily stayed home with her a few days this week, and they went shopping and to the Children's Museum. I'm sure they will miss her this week!

Please send good thoughts, prayers and energy to Mark's sister and her kids - both boys are sick with the flu, and the little one has pneumonia as well. We hope they're feeling better soon!!

First Tooth & First Snow

I can't believe it's December already! We're getting ready for Christmas and enjoying the cold weather (for now!). It's been flurrying here all week, but today is our first real, sticky snow that's started to cover the ground! Lily loves watching it and tells me how pretty it is. While we were driving to daycare on Friday morning, Lily looked at me and said, "Mommy, I love the snow." I felt a little better about moving her here from North Carolina after that :)





Mark's company had a Christmas party yesterday for the kids. It was really cute! There were cookies and milk, crafts, fake tattoos and pictures with Santa. It was packed with tons of families! Lily really enjoyed it and had fun meeting Santa and Rudolph :) We actually managed to get both kids on Santa's lap without crying, though we'll have to see what the pictures look like. I think there was one where both kids had fingers in their mouths and the other one with Lily's mouth hanging open...

Ryan and Lily both went to the doctor on Friday - Mark took them all by himself! They are both healthy and doing well. Ryan is all caught up on his shots and Lily has shot up 3 inches in the last 2 months! I knew her pants were looking shorter, but I had no idea she had grown that much!! Ryan got his first tooth on Thanksgiving last week! He is doing better sleeping through the night (most nights), though he seems to like getting up at 4:45am... When he does wake up and doesn't get what he wants, he screams like a banshee - the volume is ridiculous! We're looking forward to the day when the kids get up and start watching cartoons without us so we can sleep in again :)

We put up our Christmas tree today and Lily helped decorate it - she did a great job except for the part where she kept taking ornaments off to play with them :) And only one broken ornament so far... we'll see how long we keep that record with a toddler, infant and two cats, not to mention two accident-prone adults!!




Below are some pictures of Ryan from daycare - his teacher sent home a disc of shots from the last few months. Even the little guys do lots of art projects, and apparently Ryan is a pro at fingerpainting, though only the one where he is eating orange goo was actually edible (cool whip)!

Lots of baby news today! Congrats to my cousin Chrissy and her husband Brian on the arrival of their daughter Isla, and to our friends Maria and Ian on the arrival of their daughter, Ava.

Happy Thanksgiving :)

Happy Turkey Day! Hope all of you are spending time with friends and family, enjoying the holiday. We have spent the last several Thanksgivings at Mark's sister's house in Virginia, and we miss them, but we had a good time with just our little family of four.

Lily and Ryan's cousin Parker celebrated his third birthday last weekend - Lily walked around all last Saturday singing "Happy Birthday" to Parker :)

Here are some videos from the last month or so...

Hello Pittsburgh!

So we've had some pretty big changes in the last few months! For those of you who don't know, we moved to Pittsburgh :) Mark had a great job opportunity here, and I was able to find a wonderful job as well, so we decided to take the plunge and move back into the snow and cold. So far it has been great! We miss our friends in Wilmington (and our house!), but it has been a great move for us. We got here on Labor Day in September, and we have been busy moving, unpacking, getting settled into work and daycare and exploring our new city. Pittsburgh has a lot to offer, and we plan to take advantage of all of the parks, sporting events, museums and kids' activities around!




We've had lots of visitors already and anticipate lots more over the next few months. We're happy to have seasons again and are looking forward to our first snow here, which should happen soon. We're also thrilled to be closer to our friends and family in the Northeast. The kids have been troopers through this whole process, and Nana (Mark's mom) has been a big help getting us settled here.

We found an amazing daycare for the kids, and they are both doing great there. They are both SO big!!! Lily talks constantly, and we are continually surprised by the things that come out of her mouth :) Her favorite phrases right now are "That's awesome!" and "Yummy in my tummy!" She is identifying emotions all the time and enjoys playing with her friends at school. I know I'm biased, but she is super smart :) She is really independent, but still loves to cuddle (on her terms, of course), and she is an amazing big sister. She is very loving towards Ryan and loves to help with every aspect of his care.

Ryan is 6 1/2 months old!!! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. He is sitting up on his own, and I know it won't be long before he starts crawling. It's funny how with Lily, I couldn't wait for all of her "first" things - with Ryan I want the baby phase to last forever (with the exception of the not sleeping thing!). I think if he never crawled, I would be ok with that ;) I have never met such a happy child. He smiles and laughs constantly and is in awe of his big sister. If she's anywhere in sight, his eyes never leave her. Ryan started eating cereal last weekend, and we added some veggies in this week. He seems to be enjoying it and Lily (of course) likes to help feed him. He doesn't have any teeth yet, but we're working on it!

Here are some pictures from the last few months. It's amazing how much they've changed in just a short time. We love and miss all of you and look forward to catching up now that things have settled down a bit. Our doors are always open for visitors!!

milkshake after berry picking this summer

one of our last weekends in Wilmington
just hanging around

reading with Papa

ladybug for halloween

showing ryan how to trick or treat

ryan's favorite activity - bouncing!

big blue eyes and all that blonde hair :)

lily's "turn" feeding ryan

Big week! 1 month old & ear tubes for big sister

It's been a busy week! Ryan was officially a month old on Thursday. The time has absolutely flown by!! He is growing in leaps and bounds - he has dimples and rolls everywhere in addition to his multiple chins :) He is completely fascinated by Lily and watches her intently every time she is close to him. He has been coming with me to daycare to drop off and pick up Lily most days, and he is a big hit there with both the teachers and the kids in Lily's class. When we walk in the room, the kids (ages 13 months to 2 years) all crowd around the carseat saying "baby, baby!" You can tell that Lily is a proud big sister because she is all smiles during these little show and tell sessions, plus it's fun for her that she's the only one who is allowed to touch him while all the other kids just get to look :)



On Ryan's one month birthday, Lily had a procedure to get bilateral ear tubes. We were up bright and early to go to the surgery center (we had to be there at 6:45am). Luckily, Lily's old babysitter, Katherine, was able to come over and watch Ryan for us, so both Mark and I got to be there with her that morning. We spent about an hour in the pre-op area where Lily got changed into a kid-sized, super soft hospital gown and the nurses, doctor and anesthesiologist came and talked to us beforehand. Then a nurse brought her back to the procedure room while we went to the waiting room. Luckily we were only out there for about 20 minutes before they came to take us back to Lily. Even though Lily finished a round of antibiotics less than a week earlier, the doctor said her ears were still completely filled, so it was definitely a good decision to have the tubes put in. The hardest part of the whole morning was seeing her after the surgery - she was crying and confused from coming out of the anesthesia :( After about 10 minutes of cuddling she was ready to eat some cereal and drink some juice, and as soon as we walked outside the building she was back to her normal self. It's amazing how quick the recovery is and how resilient kids are at this age! We're so glad that she'll be able to recover her hearing loss (from the fluid in her ears) and stay healthy moving forward.


We leave for Rochester on Thursday morning and we're looking forward to seeing friends and family while we're there! We should have some great pictures of Lily and Ryan with all of their cousins when we get back :) In the meantime, we're going to enjoy the long weekend and Mark's short work week. Have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend!!

Videos

Here are a few videos for your viewing pleasure :) The one of Lily in the tub is a few months old, but it is one of my all-time favorites!

Ryan had his 2 week well baby visit last week, and he is doing great. As of last Tuesday, he was 10 lbs even and 21 1/2 inches long! So obviously he is eating well and doing a great job of growing :) He doesn't go back until he hits the 2 month mark, so he will have his visit when Lily has her 2 year appointment in July. That should be an interesting afternoon!

As some of you know, poor Lily has been sick with colds, allergies and ear infections for the last several months. The ear infections have not fully cleared up since they started in late January (she is finishing up yet another round of antibiotics this week), so we started seeing an ear, nose and throat specialist about a month ago. After the last visit, the doc recommended that Lily get tubes in her ears to help with the drainage and cut down on the infections because they are starting to affect her hearing. (They say it's a lot like hearing things under water, which is important at this age because she is working on developing speech, etc.) She will be going in a week from today to get that taken care of. It's a relatively quick procedure and takes about 15 minutes to complete. The recovery period is also quick, and she'll be herself again after only a few hours. Unfortunately she has to go under for the surgery which is kind of scary, but Mark and I are both relieved that this will help her stay healthy and relieve a lot of the pain and discomfort she's had over the last 5 months.

Other than that, we have a busy couple of weeks coming up! My brother and his girlfriend will be visiting us for the next few days, and we'll be flying home to Rochester with both kids during the first week in June. This will be the first time we've been home in a year and a half, and we're looking forward to seeing everyone while we're there. Mark's sister Melissa will be there with her two boys (Connor is just 2 weeks older than Ryan!), my grandparents are coming into town, and we'll be doing Ryan's christening while we're there as well! It'll be a busy trip, but one we're really excited to make! (We'll see if we're still saying that after flying with both kids!!!)


If you're happy and you know it!


first bath in the hospital


playing with keys


tummy time

Ryan is here!

Our little man has arrived! Ryan was born on Tuesday, April 27th at 6:08pm. He was 8 lbs. 13 oz. (not so little!) and was 19.5 inches long. He has light brown hair and dark blue eyes - we think he might look a little more like me rather than a mini-Mark clone (Lily!), but I guess we'll see!

Ryan's arrival was very different than Lily's - we went to the hospital for a planned "induction" (the doc just broke my water to jumpstart labor) since my doctors were afraid I wouldn't make it to the hospital in time. My labor was just as quick (about 3 hours), but I got to have an epidural this time, which was great! Ryan is a sweet, snuggly boy and we are enjoying him. Lily has been an awesome big sister and just loves Ryan to pieces! She wants to kiss and pet him all the time and when he cries, she is always right there to comfort him. We are adjusting to life with two kids (and getting a whole lot less sleep!), but things are pretty good so far. I promise I will post more in the coming weeks while I am home, once Ryan and I get into more of a routine.

Here are some long overdue pictures!

39 weeks & 3 days - right before we left for the hospital

this was the first time they met!

Easter