Three Ohhhh!

That's right, I turned the big 3-0 on Friday.  Gwen and I had a low key day - we went to the library for a playgroup and ran some errands.  When Justin got home, he surprised me with flowers and ice cream cake (my fav), and we ordered a pizza (also my fav).

On Saturday we went to the Harpoon Brewery with our good friends Rob and Stevie for a tour and tasting.  Afterwards, we went out to dinner at Morton's Steakhouse in Boston and then stayed at the Marriott right on the waterfront.  We had a great view of Boston and the harbor from our room.

3 September birthdays = 3 delicious desserts (and the sang to us!)

                                

the view of Boston from our room

view of the waterfront and WTC

This was a huge milestone for me, being my first overnight away from Gwen.  She stayed over Justin's parents house.  They were completely thrilled but it was hard for me to let her go when we dropped her off.  After we left I missed her, but I'm really comfortable leaving her with her Nana and Papa so I think I did pretty well.
The toughest part logistically was the fact that I've never been away from her for more than one feeding at a time, and she doesn't get a bottle very often, so I really didn't have a great idea of how much milk to leave - so I left all that I had - and she ended up going through it all!  So now to build the supply back up for a wedding we're going to in 2 weeks!
We had such a great night and we always have fun spending time with Rob and Stevie.   What an awesome feeling seeing my babe again on Sunday, though :)

Salem Playdate

I don't think I've mentioned this on the blog yet, but mom and dad bought a condo about 40 min away from us in the beautiful, vacation-y, coastal town of Salem, MA a couple of months ago.  They're not moving up here permanently, just using it as a place to visit as often as they'd like without always having to ask us first.  Now they can see Gweny whenever they want!  And [bonus] we get to use the condo whenever we want!

Gwen and I invited some of our Yoga friends up to Salem for the day yesterday and we all had so much fun!  We met at the condo before going out to lunch at Tavern in the Square, and then walking around downtown for a while.  It was a beautiful day, so we decided to lay out the blankets on the common across from the condo so the babies could play together.  Below are some pics of our day.

Cece, Ava, Rosa, Callie, & Gwen

lunch at Tavern in the Square

perfect day for a walk in the commons

Gwen smiling up at mommy :)

Disastrous Day at the Park [& Mom of the Year award]

The weather was beautiful today, so we gathered the "kids" for a nice day at the park.  Sounds like fun right?

Anyone who knows Jackson, knows that he has a great heart, but unfortunately other dogs just aren't his "thing".  There are a couple of dogs that he gets along with (ok, one, and that's only because she lived with us when he was just a pup), but the combination of him being restrained on a leash, and meeting a new dog face to face is just never a good thing.  I do realize that this is not his fault, but ours for not socializing him properly, and it doesn't help that he's my first dog and I was always paranoid about him meeting other dogs (which I'm sure he sensed).  Regardless, we're still able to take him out with us to certain places.  I've taken him and Gwen to this same park by myself a bunch of times, and he's fine walking by other [leashed] dogs. 

Anyway, back to our relaxing day in the park.  We find a nice grassy area, lay out our blanket, and start taking out toys for Gwen to play with.  Almost as soon as we sit down, out of the corner of my eye, I see an all too familiar scene: an unleashed dog headed our way (this seriously happens to me way too often).  For the sake of drama, I'll leave out the fact that this dog is what looked like a yellow lab puppy - and not at all mean looking.  At this moment, I'm much more relaxed than times past because Justin is with us and I only have to worry about getting the baby up off the ground, and not being caught in the middle of a dog fight.  Right away, as Jackson sees the dog running toward him, he snaps into nervous aggression, and tries lunging at the other dog while growling.  Caught off guard, Justin pulls him back, which makes Jackson even more aggressive.  The other dog keeps at it, so Justin puts his hand down to try and separate them - bad idea, because his hand was at face level with the dogs and winded up getting bitten by our lovely dog.  Oh Jackson, we love you, but why do you make things so difficult?  So the other dog owner finally gets his dog away and apologizes for not having him on a leash.  Seriously, there are signs all over the place.  We don't take him to off leash parks for this reason.

So we try to compose ourselves after this ordeal, and start playing with Gwen again.  Here comes my Mom of the Year award moment...

Jackson is walking around on the blanket, and Gwen reaches out to pet him, as she normally does.  But this time, she's reaching right.to.his.butt.hole!  As I see what is about to unfold, I lunge forward to grab her right hand, but somehow my aim was WAY off and I end up jabbing her with my thumbnail and knocking her to the ground.  She immediately starts crying and I'm thinking that I completely poked her eye out.  After scooping her up and examining her, I realize that I hit her in the left eyebrow because I see the mark where I jabbed her.  Thankfully she was fine after a minute (and didn't seem to hold a grudge).

From beginning to end, we were probably at the park for 15 minutes before we decided to cut our losses and head out.

eight months

Big updates for this month: 

Gwen has started pulling herself up to stand with very little help from us.  She grabs onto her jumper or crib and lifts her butt off the ground.  She needs a little boost from us but she's just starting to learn to walk her hands up to support herself as she stands.  When she first started sitting, that's all she wanted to do, and now she's that way with standing.  She gets so excited and proud of herself after she has pulled herself up.

I love it when I hear my babe chatting away!  She's been saying mamamamama a lot, and has started saying dada more too.  Even though we realize that she probably has no idea what she's saying, I think she sees that we get excited when she says it so she keeps doing it.  As much as I love hearing her talk, sometimes she can be a little bit loud.  Usually, it's when she's around other babies, or (a bit more inconveniently) when we're at restaurants. When she gets excited, she expresses it by SCREECHING.  To the point where her face turns red and she starts coughing after a while.  Today, we caught her doing it in order to get Jackson's attention.  It's funny and cute, slash concerning - just because I have no idea how to get her to stop doing it when the timing is inappropriate.  In the beginning we thought it was hysterical, especially when she'd do it at home so we'd laugh and mimic her.  We realize now that that's probably not the best idea.  It's like when you invite your adorable new puppy in your bed, and then a year later it's not so cute anymore when he's all sprawled out and kicking you in the throat in the middle of the night.  Sooner or later, her screeching probably won't be as cute.  ;)

Seriously, how can you discourage this face?

This is brand new, like as in today: She just started feeding herself with a spoon!  See the big girl in action in the video below.

In other news: Gwen now weighs just under 18 lbs, and is officially heavier than Jackson!