Craft Day!

Marie and Ava (11 months) are friends of ours who we met in Mommy & Baby Yoga back when Gwen was only 3 months old!  Yoga was cancelled during the summer months and even though we absolultely LOVED it, many of us chose not to continue in the fall, just because the babies have become too mobile - yoga doesn't work well when you're chasing down babies the entire time.  We're happy to have kept in touch and have regular playdates with Marie and Ava.

We had the girls over yesterday for a craft day that was mostly Halloween inspired.  We decided to have the girls finger paint pumpkins.  Sounds like fun, right?

Marie with Ava & Gwen painting pumpkins

Cue the crying.  Somebody was overtired.  Either that, or Reason # 23,985 she takes after daddy and hates getting dirty!  This picture breaks my heart and cracks me up at the same time.  Marie told me that Ava has always been empathetic, she gets so upset when other babies cry, and you can really see that in her face here:

Not sure if Gwen understood that the whole point of the project was to get the paint on her pumpkin, and not her hair.

Time to regroup.  I put Gwen down for a nap while Marie, Ava and I painted letters that I picked up for the girls' rooms at Michaels.

I think they came out pretty cute!  Ava's room has a bee theme, and Gwen's accent color is purple:

I found this project online and thought it was adorable!  While we were feeding the girls in the highchair, we were able to get their footprints on black construction paper, which we turned into spooky ghosts!!!

Footprint ghost framed on our living room console

Here are the girls in their Halloween inspired outfits, admiring all of their hard work:

They are so cute together, so loveable!  Look at their little feet in this picture <3 :)

Thanks for hanging out Marie and Ava!!

Happy Baby Pose

My little babe is famous!  The studio where we took our Mommy & Baby Yoga classes just updated their website and used a pic of Gwen for the homepage.  Once you click the link, just wait a few seconds, and you'll see Gwen's pic!

B Yoga Center
Here is a screen shot, and the photo that they used:

I'm such a proud momma :)

five months

My baby girl is 5 months old today!  

I've seen a lot of changes in her recently, and it makes me so excited for what's to come. We've gotten to the point where I feel like we just understand each other, we're in a groove and I love not just being a mom, but being her mom.  I'm sure every mom thinks this, but we seriously lucked out.  The girl is so mellow and content.  Here are a few recent pics of my little g.  

We've SO been enjoying the warmer weather! 

Here is a pic of (nakey)Gwen's first ride on the hammock with daddy, she loved it!

Here are a few shots from today at Yoga and a playdate afterwards:

Chillin in her new shades in Brody's wagon

Grammy K, Playdates, & Sleep!

Mom was here during the beginning of the week and she was so excited to spend some time with little G.  We walked around Salem on Tuesday and went to lunch at Tavern in the Square.  Gwen was a champ and even took a little cat nap during our walk.
The babe has been nursing a lot less these days (she's down to about 5x/day as opposed to 10-12 in the beginning), which makes it a lot easier to take her out for longer periods of time.  It's been such a luxury for me to be able to spend some extra time with her and not have to rush back home (or into the backseat of the car) to feed her.

Here's a pic of G waiting for grammy to arrive, wearing the sweater from her and grandpa k 

We went to our nursing group per usual on Wednesday.  I never have any pics because moms are always feeding their babies during it, and well, it would just be weird if I pulled out my phone and started taking pics.  We've been going to this group almost every week since Gwen was about 5 weeks old.  There are always some new faces, but a lot of people I've seen on a very consistent basis and it's so cool to see all of the changes in these babies in such a short period of time.  Gwen loves tummy time during group because she's so entertained checking out all of the other babies.
Afterwards, we were invited to one of the other moms' houses for a snack.  Small world - it turns out I know her husband, he was one of my gym members at work!


On Thursday, after Yoga (there's only one class left, which I'm pretty bummed about), we hung out with a great group of mommas and babes.  I was debating whether or not I should sign up for this yoga class initially because it's about 30 minutes from our house, but I have to say that I'm very glad that I did!  The yoga itself has been a lot of fun, but I'm so happy to have met an awesome group of women and we plan on continuing to get together even after the classes have ended.  The girls - Ava, Callie, and Gwen - and the little stud, Brody(not pictured) are all very close in age too, which is a lot of fun.

Milestone:  I haven't mentioned it yet, partly because I don't want to jinx it, but Gwen has been pretty much sleeping through the night!  We put her to bed around 7:30 or 8pm and she sleeps until about 2:30 or 3am.  I know, you're probably thinking how is that sleeping through the night?! Technically, anything longer than 5hrs for a breastfed baby is considered sleeping through the night.  So really, I'm still getting up once a night before she wakes up for good around 7:30am or so, but I'll take it!

Week in Pictures

We went on a playdate with some moms from a group I joined on Meetup.  It was nice to get the kids together who are so close in age.  It was also great to be able to chat and share stories with other new moms!

The pediatrician told us to set up Gwen's highchair so she can get used to watching us eat.  She said that eventually Gwen will be trying to grab our food and that's how we'll know she's getting ready to start solids.  As of now, she just sits quietly and does her little pimp lean.

After Yoga, we went to a toy store and then grabbed some coffee with fellow Yogi Ava and her mom, Marie.  I bought a Taggie for Gwen because I heard that they're like crack for babies with all those little tags.  

We bought a Jumperoo for the little peanut.  Her feet don't touch the ground yet, but we've improvised by putting a pillow on the floor and it seems to keep her pretty entertained!

I started using Instagram this week.  If you have an iphone, it's a free download and it's like twitter, but with pictures.  I'm totally addicted.  When you download it, find me on there and follow me: lsilverio (I know, really creative).  I'm constantly posting pics of little Punky (that's what I've started calling her lately.  That, and Buggy)

she fell asleep on me like this <3 <3

On Saturday, we went to a 1st birthday party for the little girl whose parents bought my in-laws' old house.  Justin's parents have become friends with them, and they invited us because we've been wanting to get the babies together for a while.  What a fun family!  It was pretty cool going back there and seeing the changes they made to the house.

I'm trying to find a pic that I have of Justin and me standing in front of this fireplace about 8 years ago. It'd be cool to compare the 2 pics, I'll update the post if I find it!

Gwen loves her papa!

As we were getting ready to leave the party, I looked down at Gwen and saw that a bird had pooped on her (lol)!!  Oh well, they say it's good luck right?!

Girl Time & Polish Easter Fun!

It has been a busy couple of weeks!  Last week, Jess and Andrea came up from Long Island for a visit.  We were so happy to have them, our girl time was long overdue!

Tuesday night was a milestone for me, I went out to dinner with the girls and left Gwen at home with Justin.  He said he had a pretty easy time putting her to bed, and I had a fun night out with Jess and Andrea.  I did my best to try and limit the baby talk (I swear).  On Wednesday, the 4 of us girls went into Boston for lunch and did some shopping around the Pru.  Gwen was a champ, I think she's going to love shopping with me when she gets a bit older.  Jess and Andrea left on Thursday afternoon and Gram & Grandpa K arrived on Thursday evening.


On Friday, we spent the day condo hunting for my parents.  They're looking to become part time Massholes so they're able to see Gwen a lot more and come and go as they please (not that we don't love having them stay here with us!).  They were so close to putting in an offer, until we found out that someone beat them to it!  Oh well, the hunt continues.

Last Sunday was Gwen's first easter and the Easter Bunnies (G&G K) left quite the spread for her!!

We had a yummy Polish Easter feast - Thanks to my mom for bringing (and cooking) the kielbasa and perogies!

Congrats to Janelle, who won the egg wars!  No one wanted to crush Gwen's egg.  How could they, with this face?  It was a pretty good defense on her part. Well played, little G.

A few more Easter pics:

The past week was pretty standard, except for one big milestone - Baby girl rolled over from back to front!!  We had just come home from Yoga on Thursday and I put her down on the living room floor.  Without any hesitation she just rolled over! I was so excited :) :) :)  She hasn't done it again since then, but I'm sure she'll be rolling all over the place before we know it.

Yay Friday!

The Friday before a long weekend is always the best kind! The past week has been a busy one.  On Saturday, Aunt Kristen came over to visit with Gwen for the day (this pic is from a while ago, but I forgot to take one while she was here).
















Justin went over Rob & Stevie's to bottle beer that we all made (first attempt) a few weeks ago.  It has been fermenting, and will be ready to drink this weekend!  Pics of the process and end result to come...


We went to an art festival on Sunday where we met a bunch of great local artists.  I carried Gwen in the Moby - it was the longest I've had her in the Moby wrap and I really enjoyed it.  She stayed awake most of the time, just looking around at all of the people and artwork.










On Monday, we met up with Stevie, Morgan, and Rena Lynn at a playground near their house.  The weather was supposed to be warm so we wanted to take advantage.  Turns out it was chilly at the playground so we didn't stay for too long, but here's a pic of the girls helping me push Gwen in her stroller.

After that, we went to a local cafe for some coffee and treats.  Gwen had a lot of fun hanging out with the girls!



It was so nice out by the time we got home, that we decided to take a little nap on the porch :)

Tuesday was a grocery shopping kind of day, nothing much to report.  We were supposed to go to the zoo on Wednesday with some moms and kids from a group I found on meetup.com.  The trip ended up getting cancelled because of rain (bummer), so we met some other moms and their kids out for coffee and breakfast.  There was a good range of babies and toddlers, and Gwen met a friend who is 3 days older than she is.  The moms were very nice, and we're looking forward to more get togethers.  Later that afternoon, we went to our breastfeeding group.  When we first started going, Gwen would mostly sleep through the meetings.  Now, she's awake and looking all around at the other babies and moms.  She has the best tummy times during these groups because she loves looking around and smiling at everyone.  


On Thursday, Gwen and I went to our 2nd week of Mommy & Baby Yoga.  I felt like I got a better workout from this class because I knew what to expect, and it really seemed like Gwen was enjoying it.



  










Nana and Papa S stopped over for dinner on Thursday night, and they came bearing gifts for Gwen's first Easter, here she is modeling one of the headbands they gave her:






















Now we're just hanging out and playing until daddy gets home.
Enjoy the weekend!! :)