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365 Pictures

I love pictures. Babies grow up fast.

I think I take wayyy too many pictures. Every now and then I upload them all and look at them/make photo books/order prints I'll probably never get around to hanging up. I was looking at pictures the other night because I uploaded them and my memory card was full. I realized just how quickly D is growing up. He changes so much SO quickly. Since I see him every day I don't really notice until I look at a slideshow on my computer. I decided that since he does change so much every day, I'm going to do a 365 project of him. I'm going to take a picture of him every day (hopefully) and post it. February 5 (superbowl Sunday) is day 1. When I finish I will have a pretty incredible photo book too!

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In today's picture the poor little guy is sick... we're headed to the doc in the morning for his first sick visit :(

I'm a lucky girl.

Luck... this word means so much. Every now and then I need to take a step back and reflect on everything that has happened over the past week, month, year, 5 years, etc. If you asked me on May 31, 2003, my high school graduation, where I saw myself in 7 years, the only thing that would have remained true would be living an amazing life in DC. I thought I would be a politician, not an accountant. I thought I would be married, and living the night life of your average 20 something year old. I thought I would have conquered the world by now.

Instead, I live in a townhouse in the suburbs with my little black dog, incredible fiance, and adorable little boy. My weekends consist of playtime in the basement, walks with the dog (when there isn't cold and snow to deal with), and catching up on the plethora of TV that I now watch. The night out on the town is a rarity these days, but honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. The support of my friends and family outweighs anything and everything else. Being one of the first to have a baby is insanely life changing. It's really taught me who my friends are. There are DEFINITELY people that lost interest now that we aren't bar hopping every Thursday/Friday/Saturday night. At first it was so hard to feel left out, but now that I'm settled, I realized that I've had my fair share of nights out and mornings in because I'm too sick to go out. And that just leads up to where I am now, a new phase of my life. And my few nights out and sick mornings in are just that much better.

I also have so much to look forward to, and that makes such a difference to any one's day to day morale. No one likes waking up, sitting in traffic, going to work, then sitting in some more traffic. But right now, while I sit at work on this dreary Saturday, I can honestly say I don't mind. I have SO much to look forward to...

a wedding, some new business prospects, a wedding haha. Not only is the wedding going to be an AMAZING party, but this (perfect) ring on my finger symbolizes a lifetime of happiness, never being alone, always having someone there for me, and a family full of babies and puppies... every little girls dream. It's weird, I always knew deep down that Pat and I were in love and would get married, but this ring makes it real and absolute. He loves me and made the commitment by spending way too much on a silly piece of jewelry, just to make me happy. I watched other friends get engaged, congratulated them, was excited for them, wanted what they had so bad. Despite thinking it was silly, he knew I wanted it, and cared enough to make it happen... and got a limo and took me to one of my favorite restaurants!!!!!

I'm done rambling now. Thank you to those of you that have stuck by me through all the laughing, crying, panicking, stressing, and life changing that this past year has brought me. I couldn't have done it without you. Thanks for trekking out to the suburbs to see my little family, calling me to make sure I'm still alive when you haven't heard from me, and simply sticking by me. Most importantly, thank you for the 3 am drunk dial last night... it's good to know at 3 am that you drank too much, are thinking about me, and wish we could trade places at that moment so you could drink all night, and then I can be hung over lol.

Social Networking

I have mixed feelings about social networking. Basically, I LOVE reading about and following other people, but I'm awful with keeping up with my own. Pat's even worse... for some crazy reason, he hates Facebook. Which is completely opposite to me, because I love everything about Facebook. He doesn't seem to understand the whole social networking revolution, which is exactly what this is. He's going to wake up one day and have no idea. I don't think he's ever read this blog even though it's focused on Dylan. I think my problem is that I don't think I really have anything interesting to say, haha. We hang out at home, go to a ton of sporting events, and try new restaurants... that's how I'd summarize our little life.

Kimmy seems to have a new found love for twitter, and I'm going to follow her and Mary, and the bandwagon and attempt to do the same. Maybe this will force me to do more interesting things (and you'll know because I'll "check in" on facebook... and actually write about them!

That's all for now, hopefully there will be more to come, for real this time.

Caps games and pumpkin patches

After a ton of debate and stressful worrying that I was going to forever destroy Dylan's hearing, we decided to take him to a Caps game with us. He loved all of the National's games, so we figured it was worth a shot. Armed with some giant noise eliminating headphones that we assumed there was no chance Dylan would keep on his head, we headed to the game. He ended up LOVING it! He wore the headphones for most of the game, we made sure they were on when it looked like there was any chance of the Caps scoring (I didn't want the horn to scare him).





Dylan's second hockey game was even more fun! Mary invited us to the game and we sat in box seats that she got for the evening. After a delicious dinner at Elephant and Castle, we headed to our amazing seats! Dylan definitely had more fun at this game being able to see everything MUCH closer up.

Yay Caps! Trying to clap because everyone else is

Is it wrong to put tattoos on a baby? haha

So much red!!


Dylan's already got his game face down

Daddy's distracting him, but a great view of the tattoos
... If only he knew what was on his face!

Wide eyed and loving life.



With Halloween coming up, we had to take advantage of the great photo op that pumpkin's create! We happened to have a pumpkin costume lying around, and since he is going to be a dinosaur for Halloween, we had to put it to good use!! We took Dylan to the Burke Center Nursery to play with pumpkins and buy some yummy treats. Dylan loved the pumpkins, and all the dirt and grass on the ground. He plays in the pumpkins touching and banging on them all, trying to get the attention of everyone around him. I think he already knows he's cute and wants to make sure everyone else acknowledges! haha, here's a few of the tons of pics we took!


Angry face... he was not pleased that he was picked up!
and he's not letting go of the pumpkin he chose!!

Moving.

Over this past weekend we packed up a baby, a puppy, and an overfilled two bedroom apartment in Arlington and moved it to a townhouse in Springfield. Moving has to be one of the most annoying and frustrating, not to mention exhausting, activities ever. Luckily we had help from family and some friends, there's no way we could have done it on our own. The townhouse is really cute, though it definitely has its flaws. The carpets are kinda old and the basement is tiled. The owner is STILL doing work on it even though he made us start the lease on 10/1, which is annoying, but the rent is way less expensive then a lot of comparable places, so I'm trying not to complain too much. I've also realized that the only thing worse than packing and moving is unpacking and reorganizing all of our stuff. I feel like this is a never ending project. I really want everything put away so I can start decorating. Anyway, we don't have internet until the 12th (stupid fios) so that's probably when I will post some pictures!!

Dylan's first Road Trip

So for some crazy reason we decided that it was a good idea to drive to New Hampshire with an infant. We got even crazier and decided to leave at 10 pm on a Wednesday night! Pat drove until about the Maryland House (rest stop) and then I had to take over. Luckily Lauren was a trooper and stayed up with me because I drove until we got there, at 7:30 am. I guess I'm getting used to those long nights up with Dylan! Anyway, we had a blast visiting Jenny (Pat's other sister), Brian, and meeting their little one Jordan!! We took day trips to the beach, Boston, and Brian's mom's lake house. Here are some pictures of the trip.

In other news, Dylan had his first haircut!! We took him to cartoon cuts, they did an amazing job!!

The Before Picture