Two Weeks Until Two!!

And just as one cold is waning, I have come down with another.  My list of things to do to prepare for MiniM.E.'s 2nd birthday is quite extensive.  Yet I think I'll take a break... write a blog post, and who knows, maybe even take a quick nap!

We had a most exciting and spontaneous weekend where I dragged my still-dragging behind (who am I kidding, I was thrilled to go) to a beer festival while my mom watched MiniM.E.  Then Sunday my mom drove us to Albany Med to visit our neighbor who just had surgery, and we left from there to drive to CT to see my cousins 6-week old baby.  Sound crazy?  It was.  We didn't even get there until 4pm.  But some socializing, baby-holding, and a dinner out later, we'd had a good time meeting BabyL. and got back in the car to drive home.  It was a ton of driving (fortunately MiniM.E. slept through most of it), but a fun adventure.

aw...

Monday and Tuesday we went to our usual activities and my mom helped with MiniM.E. while I got stuff done around the house.

And today I am fighting cold #2 and MiniM.E. is a wreck, but we managed to make our first visit of the season to Sunnyside Gardens.

MiniM.E. was happy to be out of the house and really enjoyed the train ride, the pumpkin patch and the hayride.  We'll definitely be visiting again before the end of the season.

We even recreated this photo from last year:

they look just about as happy to be sharing a wagon as last year...

So This is Winter...

...with a one-year old.  Not sure I'm loving the winter season as much as I usually do.  Not to say that I really know how much I love winter-- I haven't had a really had a wintery winter in a loooong time.  There was last winter here, in Saratoga, where we hardly had any snow (our sled and snowshoes sat lonely in the garage).  Then there was the winter in Dresden, which had freezing temps and snow for Christmas (about a month of it), but then everything melted and the rest of the winter was mild (it was just enough snow for a ski trip and some sledding).  Then before that we lived in Austin for two years (snow situation there-- pretty obvious).  SO.... long story short, I haven't had a real COLD or SNOWY winter in forever...  Maybe I don't even like winter anymore...

I was actually very excited about this winter.  Lots of snow, lots of snowshoeing, lots of sledding... maybe even some skiing or snowboarding...

BUT, I didn't realize a few key things about having a one-year-old in the winter time.

1.  You can't really bring your one-year-old out to play if it's below freezing.  Maybe you can get in a quick sprint from car to store, but that's about it.

2.  One-year-olds hate snowsuits.

3.  One-year-olds hate boots even more than snowsuits.

4.  It takes at least 15 minutes (usually more) to chase your one-year-old around the house to put on snowsuit, boots, hat, mittens, etc.

5.  One-year-olds will not walk in or on snow.

6.  One-year-olds will only last outdoors HALF the amount of time it took you to get them ready to go there.

7.  Even if you do manage to stay out longer than seven and a half minutes, chances are whatever activity you've chosen is not nearly as exciting as walking on pavement, touching the dirtiest snow in a 4 foot radius, or crying to go "home now".

8.  As soon as you've unbundled your one-year-old (which takes at least 5 minutes of chasing the one-year-old around the house while she waddles around with her snowsuit around her knees dripping dirty snow off the one boot she's swinging like a lasso) she will turn around, bang at the door and ask for "out, snow! PLEASE!"

That said, we have had some successful sledding trips, one great snowshoe adventure, and some fun playing in the yard...

BUT, next week is going to be below freezing... all week... not even an hour of above freezing temps.  I'm going to go crazy...

Looks like there will be a lot of playing inside.  We're getting to be playing inside pros.

And if we get too stir crazy, we can always visit the new baby...

An Exciting Weekend

Last weekend we went sledding.  It wasn't our first time out, but it was, by far, our most successful.

Our previous trips were always cut short.  MiniM.E. wasn't happy in her snowsuit, or her mittens fell off and she wouldn't put them back on, or she had an unexplained crying fit, or-- worst of all-- one of us dumped her off the sled, face first, into the snow.

We weren't really expecting Saturday's sledding trip to be long lived, especially since we were meeting up with two other toddlers (and their parents).  The amount of time spent sledding decreases exponentially with each added toddler...

BUT, everyone seemed to have a great time.  And with the mild weather, we were out for at least a couple hours.

Looking adorable... though quite immobile...

Someone sees the sledding hill!

Not to happy to share

...or sit alone... 

Yep, that was fun.  More please!

Everyone at the top.

Riding down with Daddy

A long day of sledding led to a visit with even more friends downtown.  At that point, MiniM.E. was pretty "done" (which she signed repeatedly), but she was a trooper.  We wore her out!

Sunday we went to a fancy 1st birthday party:

... Guess I'll have to start planning MiniM.E.'s 2nd!!

MiniM.E. wasn't too keen on all the people and another baby getting to open presents.  At least there was a dog.

Today we started off our week with an exciting visit to a new baby.  MiniM.E. definitely isn't ready for a sibling anytime soon... she was extremely jealous.  But it was fun to see Baby O.

What a cutie.  Aren't they they best when they're sleeping?

Another Busy Weekend!

This past weekend we had lots of visitors.  One of Bob's friends came from his hometown to see Phish, who were playing at SPAC.  One of my friends from high school came to town and stopped over to see MiniM.E. and after Phish was over and Bob's friend left the librarian from my old school came to visit.

We were so busy that I kind of forgot to take pictures... which happens more often than I like to admit...

It was nice for Bob to see his friend and to get to go to a couple concerts and hang out sans-baby.  It was really nice to reconnect with my friend from high school.

It was great to see K. from my old school! We tried to get together last summer, but funnily enough, when I went to Austin, she was up here in NY... We didn't get to go out at night, or do very much... but such is life with a 9-month old... We did a lot of playing, and took a walk downtown.

I did remember to take a couple pictures...

Here's a picture from... um... sometime.  It's her eating puffs in her stroller, which is super cute...

Montreal Jazz Festival

Forward to this post:  I decided that since Stretchy is not nearly so Stretchy anymore... I'm going back to MiniM.E.  It just feels right...

This past weekend we took MiniM.E. to the Montreal Jazz Festival.  We made reservations months ago... like probably when she was two months old.

As the weekend approached, I was excited anxious terrified ready to take MiniM.E. and hide under the bed and hope Bob didn't notice we were gone and would just leave without us.  We'd been to NH.  We'd been to NC.  We'd even flown on a plane.  BUT we'd never stayed in a hotel, or been someplace where I didn't know the location of the nearest Wal-Mart in case we needed more diapers/food/clothes.

What if she throws up on/ poops on all her clothes and she doesn't have anything to wear?
What if we run out of diapers and can't find a store to buy more?
What if we run out of her favorite food, puffs, and they don't make them in Canada?


To heighten my anxiety about the trip, MiniM.E. just had to learn to crawl a week before we left... Really?

What if the carpet in the hotel isn't clean?
What if she doesn't want to be in the stroller or the frame pack because she just wants to crawl?


And there were the normal concerns about any vacation with a baby...

What if she cries the whole time?
What if she doesn't want to eat?
What if I can't nurse her in public because she's too distracted?
What if she gets sick?


And worst of all:

What if we totally mess up her sleep schedule and she NEVER SLEEPS AGAIN?




I suppose it's my job to worry, but this was a little ridiculous.  Not to mention the fact that I was also having an anxiety attack about what to pack.  On all our previous trips, there had been a location for MiniM.E. to sleep, a washer and drier, and, as previously mentioned, a Wal-Mart.

It only took me three days to pack our entire house in the car.  Well, not quite, but we needed a roof carrier.... need I say more.


Fortunately, all my packing was worthwhile as MiniM.E went through just about every outfit we brought. I may have overdone the diapers, as we drove home with an entire box... but better to be safe than sorry!

AND, all my worrying was for nothing.  MiniM.E. was a fantastic traveler and everything went really well... except the entire day that I worried that MiniM.E. had Tetanus because she got the tiniest of scrapes on her foot from crawling around the hotel carpet... but I'm pretty sure she doesn't, so we're good now...

MiniM.E. loved the hotel.  There were so many new things to explore.  Fortunately, all the rooms had recently been renovated, so I was cool with letting her go to town crawling on the carpets.

Ooo... fun circles! 

If only I could learn to jump, this would be ten times better!

Eating at the makeshift baby-highchair. (Sorry Delta, for the sweet potato stains on the armrests of your chair...)

There was a lot of eating in the room

We brought most of MiniM.E.s toys... even this play table

And reading books

And some walking practice

 MiniM.E. can't walk quite yet, so there was a lot of being carted around.

On daddy...

With daddy...

In the shade...

In the sun...

and with Mommy...

As you can see, MiniM.E. didn't seem overly excited by the jazz festival... in fact, this is how she spent a lot of her time...

sooo tired

face plant sleeping

This was at an incredibly loud concert...

Fortunately, there were a couple fun things for her to do on the trip.

We swam a few times...

And got wet in some awesome fountains at the jazz festival.

Overall, I think it was a successful trip, and in the future, I will try not to stress so much... though I'm sure that I will anyway.  We had a really great time.  If being so exhausted that you nap anywhere and everywhere by the end of a trip means you had a good time, I think MiniM.E. really enjoyed herself too.