Halloween is tomorrow and we couldn't be more excited. We have a baby lion in our house celebrating his first Halloween!

I'm really looking forward to seeing Jake's face when we have trick-or-treaters tomorrow night. We've lived in our Connecticut town for 2 years now but haven't had a fair weathered Halloween yet. Two years ago we had a freak snow storm in October and last year we were still without power after Hurricane Sandy. The weather for tomorrow night looks great and we are stocked with a couple hundred pieces of candy.

Michael and I are both planning to leave work a little early tomorrow night to enjoy some time with Jake.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

A Day in the Life

Our life lately has been jam packed. From the moment I wake up until my head hits the pillow, I'm on super drive. This little blog is a way for  me to remember all of the intricacies of our every day life and share them with the people I love.  I thought it would be fun to document a run down of a typical day.

5:30/5:45. Jake wakes up to nurse. We are trying hard to break him of this early morning habit, but at this point he has been about 11 hours without eating and, well friends, you don't get those rolls by skipping meals.

6:30. Michael leaves for work. Jake wakes up for the day around 6:45. I rush to get him changed and dressed for the day. Our babysitter arrives at 7:00 and I am out the door at 7:10. I usually get some morning snuggles and smiles before leaving, which makes the morning chaos well worth it.

7:45. I arrive to work. Check emails, get ready for my clinic.

8:30. Pump #1

9:00 - 12 noon. Individual patients in 30 or 60 minute appointment slots. This part of my day flies by. Working with veterans is incredibly rewarding. I am lucky that I get to make a difference in their lives by helping them overcome anxiety, PTSD, depression, stress, coping with chronic disease, and life adjustment. It truly is privilege.

12 noon. Pump #2 followed by lunch and emails.

1:00 - 3:00. Supervision. Part of my role as a staff psychologist is as a core member of our internship and postdoctoral training committee. That means I spend about 20% of my time supervising predoctoral interns and postdoctoral residents in their clinical research, and interprofessonial goals in Health Psychology. Clinical supervision is where I really come alive and it is hands down the best part of my job.

3:00. Pump #3 while returning emails and phone calls. I pray that anyone on the other line confuses the WOOSH sound of the pump with a photo copying machine.

3:30 - 4:30. Research and end of day emails.

4:30. Despite the fact that my work to-do keeps increasing, I scramble out the door at 4:30 in order to make it home to that cute face! The babysitter leaves around 5:15 after giving a brief report of Jake's day.

5:30. Short walk. This Fall weather has been incredible for nighttime walks. Jake and I stroll around the neighborhood for about 15 minutes. I chat with him about the day and he usually talks back with a lot of "gee, gee" and "aa, aas."

5:45. Dinnertime. Tonight it was chicken and avocado. Jake went back for seconds and had a blast getting avocado all over his face. Parenthood has chilled me out. This mess would have been anxiety provoking in years past, but I have learned to embrace the chaos and laugh along with my giggling boy.

6:00 - 6:30. Tub, nursing, lullaby and bed. Jake is usually asleep in his crib by 6:30.

7:00 - 8:30. Dinner, treadmill (if not totally exhausted, this happens about 3x a week), DVR'd General Hospital, Bones, or Grey's Anatomy. GH is particularly awesome right now. Robin is ALIVE and Nicholas just found her locked up in his lab on Cassadine Island. Don't judge. We all have our trash tv and mine just happens to be a soap opera that originated in the '80s.

9:00 - 9:30 Final pump of the day followed by bed. I always try to be in bed by 9 or 9:30 which seems to really help my energy levels for the next day. Jake is a great sleeper, but I still wake up to his rustling a few times a night and awaken for the day at 5:30. Sleep is not something I am usually willing to compromise on and I have found that I really can't run on fewer than 7 hours a night.

Sweet dreams. I'll be up at 5:30 to do it all again tomorrow :)

7 months

7 months and Jake is on the move! He is very strong, can stand with some support and will go from his belly to sitting with  no problem. Between rolling, schooching, and reaching, he can span a room in a matter of minutes. He hasn't figured out the coordination required for crawling yet, but we think that it will happen any day now. We lowered his crib because he is able to pull himself up onto his knees!

In the verbal department, Jake is starting to mimmic our sounds. He clicks his tongue and when I click back, we seem to have a very important conversation. His first consonants are "gee" and "gaaa." I'm on the look out for "ma ma" and "da da" but they haven't arrived quite yet. He is very vocal and responds to voices and also singing.

He's started eating a wider variety of foods and likes pretty much everything :) Don't worry, buddy, the countdown to birthday cake is down to 5 months now!

Under Construction

This little blog of mine has recently been revamped. Do you like the new header? It only took me 2 hours and a crazy amount of patience + Picmonkey (a free photo editing tool). My friend Meghan over at House Built of Walls also just gave her blog a new look. Snazzy, right?!

It's 7 pm on a Sunday night. Little monkey is in bed and Michael and I are enjoying a glass of red wine and some DVR'd TV. We both have off tomorrow for Columbus Day and we have big plans for pumpkin picking. Pretty much a perfect weekend.

Wedding Season Recap

Hi friends! (okay, friend....hi Meg :))

We've had a very busy wedding 2013 wedding season this year.  Let's start off in May when our brand new little family headed up to Portsmouth, NH to celebrate the wedding of good friends Pete and Kara. At just 8 weeks post-partum, this was our first major road trip with Jake. My parents made the trek from NJ so that we could party hard with our friends.

 

 

Next up, I had the honor of being a bridesmaid in my good friend, Sarah's NJ wedding. It was a beautiful day in June with a beautiful bride.

 

 

Another NJ wedding brought us to Princeton to celebrate Chris and Pryia. It was another wonderful day and we had the opportunity to visit my parents and brother while visiting.

 

 

We rounded out the wedding season at my cousin's wedding outside of Boston, MA.

 

 

I'm exhausted just writng this recap! We had tons of fun and traveled a lot, but I am certainly happy we have a few weekends this Fall where we can count on staying home. On the to-do list: apple picking and hayrides for sure.

 



6 months

Jake turned 6 months old on September 11th! I used to think that the crazy, red-eyed, sleep deprived moms that would stop me in Starbucks were delusional when they offered the advice, 'Enjoy it....time goes so fast!' Turns out they were right. And now I'm that crazy woman when I see a mom and newborn out and about.

Jake's hit some major milestones this month. He is officially a side sleeper, which is pretty cute. And he continues to be a pretty fantastic sleeper, albeit still a fairly awful napper. He has started solids and so far really loves: cereal (any kind), sweet potatoes, squash, apple sauce, pears, and bananna. He will actually eat pretty much anything as long as it has some bannana in it. We're moving on to the meats and eventually some dairy soon. He's eating 2x per day, breakfast and dinner. Boy, that kid can eat!

He's very vocal and is babbling a lot now. He is learning how to get our attention with differnet sounds and behaviors. He is very into his environment and doesn't like to miss out on anything. He is also sitting very well independently. I bet he is crawling soon!