Long Island

Big milestone here, people!  Nathan made his first visit to Long Island last week!  My parents took the ferry with me on Thursday to help out with the kiddos and Jackson, and Justin took the train and met us there on Friday.  We can always bet on a nice, relaxing visit and this time was no different with trips to the playground, visits with great friends, and just hanging out in Gram & Pa's backyard.  We also celebrated Justin's birthday while we were there.

Nathan's first ferry ride!

Nathan meeting Aunt Dre

Meeting Aunt Jessy

Gwen loved playing with the squirt gun.  In the second picture I was trying to spray it in her mouth hehe :)

Nathan loving the hammock, and who doesn't love that chick! (it's at least 30yrs old and still going strong)

Westhampton's annual art fair:

Happy 33, Daddy!

We had a blast and can't wait to go back!

Long Island Visit

Annie Annie came went home to LI for a wedding, so Gwen and I drove down for a long weekend visit.  We had such a great time with friends and family.


Our friend, Laura came over to visit with her 2 year old, Andrew.  Gwen was pretty excited about it, as you can see!

I decided to crash the wedding ceremony so I could go wine tasting out on the North Fork with Anne and Megan before the reception!

Someone was obsessed with riding the chick this weekend...

we love our Annie Annie

We also saw visited with Jess and Andrea over the weekend, but I'm bummed I didn't take any pics of the lovely dinner Jess made for us, or of Andrea's adorable little baby bump!!  It was so much fun catching up :)

that's all for now!

Oh, hi!

Wow, so I haven't blogged since June?!  OK, now I'm overwhelmed with topics to write about.

So I know I mentioned that I was considering weaning Gwen on my 15 month update.  We did it just before she turned 16 months.  I guess I never wrote about it because it actually ended up being not such a big deal.  It was a little sad for me, but I knew it was time.  We were down to just 1 feeding right before bed, and there were nights I was out and Justin put her to bed and she was fine without it, so I knew the transition would probably be harder on me than her.  So I just decided one night that this would be the last time (tear), and she never gave me any strong signals that she missed it.  The day after we stopped, I celebrated with some light day-drinking.  After you've gone 2+ years (pregnancy and nursing) not being able to drink, or "pumping and dumping", it was nice to be able to have a couple and not have to worry about passing the alcohol along to my sweet babe.  Lets just say that I can see how stay-at-home moms become closet alcy's HA!  Good thing I've never been much of a drinker myself, and the novelty wore off after a day or two ;)

Gwen turned 18 months on July 9th (that's right, the big half birthday).  Finally, I've been able to stop telling people her age in months.  Now I can say "she's a year and a half" and when we get a bit closer to her bday, I'll simply say "she'll be 2 in January".  I had a mom once tell me that her kid was 25 months.  Just say he's 2, woman!
And here are the stats from her visit:
Weight: 23lbs = 31%
Height: 31.5in = 46%
Head: 18in = 27%

We've spent a lot of time at spray parks, the beach, and area lakes this summer.  Gwen is terrified of the movement of the ocean, so we pretty much stay on the towels and hang out in the sand.  But, she LOVES the still water of lakes and will wade in the water forever (or until she's hungry for a snack).  We've tried to plan as many outdoor activities as possible, and let me tell you - we've been having a blast!!

Our summer in pictures:

Happy Father's Day!

Playdates:

Tuesday playgroup at the Zoo

hugs for Ava

backyard water fun playdate

lunch in Salem

Happy 4th!

6 year anniversary!

notice we're quite a bit away from those waves ;)

baby Reagan's first playgroup

Lowell Summer Music Series

at the Butterfly Place

Liquid Planet Water Park

hangin with Annie Annie

Visiting Grammy and Grampy on Long Island

Long Island Petting Zoo