Growing up

Stella turned 22 months this week. I took this picture of her yesterday in the car on the way home from playgroup. She looks like such a big girl and I can barely see my baby in her at all. I have such mixed emotions when I think of her growing up. It is wonderful to see her learn new things and say new words each day but....my baby! Anyway, Happy 22 months Stella B! We love you so much and you are gonna be the best big sister!

Pictures from the Halloween Party

Here's Stella at the Halloween party we went to this weekend. So was so cute in her Buffalo Bills cheerleader outfit!

"Papa", and counting to 10

Stella has started doing some really surprising things lately. Surprising in that I have no idea where she would have learned them. First, it appears she is now calling me "papa". It's very cute but I don't know where she would have learned that! Also, she can count to 10 if we alternate numbers with her. For example, if I go "one...", she'll say "two", and she can do it all the way until 10! She only does it if you get her at the right time and she doesn't exactly say the numbers clearly but it's still pretty amazing, mostly because I have no idea where she would have learned it!

We also had lots of fun at a Halloween party at our local YMCA this weekend. I'll try and post some pictures later!

A simple day to remember

As the arrival of baby boy McGann draws closer I find myself with many mixed feelings. Fear and trepidation about that whole labor and delivery situation. Excitement to meet the final member of the McGann Family. Happiness that our house will continue to be filled with baby giggles for a little longer. A little bit of saddness that Stella will soon have to share us with someone else and though I know a sibling is the best thing for her in the long run it is the end of an era so to speak.

The past few weeks she has really outdone herself in being a challenge.....or just being a little snot A LOT! She has had a cold for what feels like forever and she has just been a real pain the arse. Many mornings I have found myself in a panic and saying.....OH NO!!!! How am I gonna handle 2 when I can't handle her! From getting dressed and putting a ponytail in to getting in the car to getting out to eating and well.....you get the idea. Everything you could imagine has been a fight usually leaving us both in tears! I have said to Brian many times...what happened to that nice little girl we had only a few weeks ago?

Well....I am happy to say that I caught a glimpse of her today and I can only hope she is back to stay for a while. This morning Stella and I had one of those simple mornings that I hope I remember forever. We had modest plans of buying hair ribbons at Wal-mart and going to see Miss. Amy sing songs at the Hightstown library. As she clutched my hand in the parking lot at Wal-mart I knew we were off to a good start. Really is there any sweeter feeling than that of a little hand in yours?! She trailed behind me 5 feet all through Wal-mart pointing to flowers and saying 'what's this' over and over. As I hunted for ribbons to match her Bills Cheerleader halloween costume she chatted about the nearby spools of thread and rearranged the display only slightly. She never left my side and seemed truly thrlled when I asked her opinion on the ribbons hue and width. Our choices made, we headed off to the library.

What I like about seeing Miss Amy in Hightstown is that it usually draws a smaller crowd. She is hugely popular in this area and easily packs the local mall and some of the larger libraries get so full I get nervous. Stella and I stopped to look at the waterfall on our way and she managed to find her new friend the moon which was barely visible high in the sky. She amazes me time and time again with these little things. As we prepared to cross the water on the bridge I tried to explain in WAY too many words that this bridge makes me nervous and I needed to hold her hand. She stared at me for a minute and I thought for sure a tantrum was brewing but instead she stuck out her hand for me to take. I smiled so big as we crossed I am sure I looked like the village idiot but I didn't care. Miss Amy sang and Stella danced and jumped and put a scarf on my head and seemed to have a great time but mostly she sat on my lap and tried to cuddle in as close as my big tummy will let her and I relished every second and hugged her every possible moment I could. Remember this day I thought to myself, remember how this feels, it is a joy you can't put into words. After Miss Amy I decided to stop at Wendy's for lunch and Stella helped pull the hi-chair to the table and giggled and chatted through the whole meal. I have no clue what she was saying but I agreed wholheartedly and that seemed to be all she needed. As I covered her with stickers from the kids meal and sang you are my sunshine to her she smiled and smiled and even cheered at the end. I thought again....remember this day!

She is napping now and I hear her breathing steady after 40 mins of talking to her crib friends. Do you think she was telling them about her special morning with Mommy? I can only hope so.

It might seem silly to blog about a simple morning like this one but many years from now I think I will be glad I did because it was truly a special day to remember. Stella I love you so much!

TWO YEARS OLD!

Yesterday I took pictures of Ryan King because he is almost TWO YEARS OLD! How this can even be is beyond me. Ryan is Stella's first playmate and Ryan's mom, Lauren, is likely the reason I made it through Stella's first 9 months without totally losing my mind. He was born just over a month before Stella and we had weekly dates to give us a reason to shower and the kids someone new to drool on. Ahhh, those were good days. TeeHee. Here are a few cute pics from their session and our family dinner at our new favorites spot....Dairy Queen. The best part of dinner was when Ryan yelled Steeeelllllaaaaa over and over with his arms in the air. Brando would have loved it!

Ryan 23+ months!

Ryan with Mommy and Daddy!

So sweet!

Stella and Ryan playing ring around the Sayen Gardens Gazebo.

Waiting for grub at DQ

Eating as if Cheerios are the best thing EVER!

Hugs bye bye!

Windsor Farms Pumpkin Patch

Today we made our annual trip to the Windsor Farms' Pumpkin Patch! Annual in that we did it last year too...Anyway, it was a lot of fun but oddly Stella was sick last year too. She still has this cold that has been hanging on for 3 weeks now. We had fun despite that and the fact that there were almost no pumpkins at all to choose from. As you can see, the best Stella could find was some freakish, mutant pumpkin like object.

The first photo is Stella showing how tall she was last year and then the same photo this year. She's grown almost a foot!!!

Bad Stella!

So, I hate to say it, but Stella has been an absolute pill lately. Just really uncooperative and unpleasant. So strange because she was such a joy for the last couple of months. The fact that she's had a cold for like 3 weeks undoubtedly has something to do with it...but maybe she knows that change is coming with the arrival of Baby Boy? We've been wondering if that's what it is. Regardless, we're hoping it doesn't last long. She's obviously still the light of our lives and we do have lots of fun and laughs with her, but it's not without its challenges.

Tonight we went out for our nightly "peeeee" after dinner ("play"), where we made sure to take the "keeeee" ("key", Stella loves the mailbox key) and looked for the "mooooo" ("moon"...she's fascinated by the moon). I pretty much let her walk where ever she wants, but she knows to take my hand if she's anywhere near the street or parking lot. She's great about it, and will hold up her hand without me even prompting. Anyway, today she wandered towards the busy street that runs past our complex. I told her she had to hold my hand and she ignored me. I told her again, and she collapsed into hysterics. I picked her up and calmly explained that this was a very dangerous intersection and she needed to hold my hand if she wanted to walk there. So I put her down and told her to hold my hand, but got the same response. So I scooped her up and back home we went. I know Jen has countless similar stories from the last couple of weeks. As with all things with her, we know it's just a phase, and we just hope it's not a sign of how she's going to deal with having a baby brother.

All that being said, we can't get enough of her, crabby or not. Her are some more wonderful pictures that mommy took today...

False alarm...no, not that...

So we had a very scary but ultimately very funny false alarm last night. Sometime around 3 or so, I think, Jen woke me up in a panic. She was clearly extremely frightened by something, but I couldn't hear what she was saying as I had my ear plugs in (I love my wife too much to go into details as to why I wear ear plugs to bed). Anyway, I took out my ear plugs but I was so groggy that all I really heard Jen say was "smell smoke fire?". I think I said "what?!" and I heard her say "I smell smoke is something on fire?". I then smelled it too which got me up and out of bed very quickly. For some reason I went to the baby's room and I could smell it in there too. I thought maybe it was a night light that we have in there that was overheated, but I felt it and it was fine. I told Jen that it seemed to be coming from the baby's room but she said she smelled it most in our room. Oddly, I didn't smell it in the landing between the rooms. We were walking around our room sniffing like idiots, totally freaked out and sure something was burning but we didn't know it, when it finally hit Jen as to what it was. Last night was the first night that we had the heat on, and it was making that "first night you have the heat on" smell. We both got a very good laugh out of it and Jen said she couldn't get back to sleep because she was laughing too hard...

Anyway, I also wanted to mention a few of the really odd but very funny things Stella is doing lately. We've written about her crib friend, Bear-y, before. She loves that thing...sometimes when we're reading books to her before bed she'll be holding Bear-y, and she'll sniff the silky lining part. Like really sniff deep...think Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet. And then sometimes she'll put it up to our nose to sniff too...very funny...She also does something so strange that we can't figure out. She has a set of little block like toys that her Grandma bought home from her trip to Germany. They are in a meshy bag, and whenever she takes them out, she always takes the bag and runs into the bathroom with it and leaves it in there, then runs back to play with the blocks. Wha?! So odd! But very cute. Anyway, she seems to be getting over this cold she's had but it's hung on for over a week now! Hopefully it is in its final days...

Not much to report

Is it Monday? I am all outta wack. This weekend was weird. I had a cold that finally let go but poor Stella is still in the midst of coughing, drooling, nose running fun! We had grand plans of fall hayrides and what not but decided to stay close to home instead.

To complicate things I had photo jobs both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was a 1 year old that I had shot as a newborn so it was fun to see how big she was. Sunday was a four day old little guy that was just amazing and beautiful. He has a 15 month old brother who I shot 4 times last year so I was thrilled to hear a new baby was on the way and she already booked me for January.

SO, with that I am now on maternity leave! YAY! Well, sort of. I still have tons of editing and a wedding album to create and tonight I met with a bride and groom but then I can really take a little time to relax before baby boy comes.

Saturday night we went to DeLorenzo's for tomato pie with Patti and Steve Gerber and their little guy Stevie. Patti and I and the kids see each other in playgroup all the time so it was nice to get the husbands together for a change. Here is a bad shot of the the kids with evil red eye.

I did take Stella out yesterday to go and find some mums. She needed the air and Brian needed the break. I managed to buy 6 mums and as I put them in the car thought to myself....there are gonna be spiders in the car now. Sure enough on the way home from the store today a medium sized spider with huge hairy legs and a thick body came crawling across the dashboard. I quite honestly screamed and cried so much for the 15 minute drive home that my throat still hurts. Poor Stella was so confused. The real bummer is that Brian can't find it so I can never get in the CRV again. I told him to sell it. sigh. Fortunately the weather is still nice for walking! I was thinking today that this is my favorite time of year and then as I spotted ANOTHER HUGE spider under the trash can in the kitchen I remembered that it is spider season. ugh.

Here is a cute shot of Stella at the mum farm. I cropped out the sign that says buy a mum get a spider for free.

This last shot is from Friday. Stella has a little music class that she loves and after class we had a bagel and oatmeal cookie for lunch and sat outside enjoying the cooler temps.

Fun coupl'a days!

Stella and I have had a fun couple of days! We love it when our friends that work in education have days off and we get to play!

Yesterday we met up with Lauren and Ryan at Barnes and Noble for Toddler Storytime. Not sure we would bother to repeat that one but the kids had fun walking around the kids section pulling books off the shelves. It is hard for a toddler to focus on a story being read to them 15 feet away with 20 other toddlers and their moms running around. TeeHee. It was a nice idea though and they had fun. We had lunch at Friday's after that and Ryan and Stella were having a grand old time laughing and talking and not eating. They REALLY were laughing and talking and not eating! It was sooooo great to see Lauren and I am always comforted by the fact I have a friend in NJ I can really relax with. She also bought me sangria flavored gum! YAY! That is a good friend! Here are a couple pics of our cute kids!

I stole this one from Lauren's blog....Stella was all huggy at the store with me. She isn't like that too much so I appreciated this pic all the more.

Another treat was Jon coming to hang out. He came yesterday afternoon and stayed till after lunch today. First I made him help me hang a curtain and assemble a bookcase THEN He and Brian got to have fun playing boxing on Wii. Stella finally stopped being coy with him and they had a blast playing today. We dragged him to library to look for potty books and then went for lunch before he headed back to the city. Uncle Jonny was a total hit with SB and she even cried and pointed out the window as I pulled away from the train station. So sweet! Here are a few pics from our visit with Jon.

Not sure why this shot looks like this. something weird with the camera. Funky no?