Welcome home, Uncle Dill!!!

Yippeeee! Uncle Dill has finally returned to Connecticut after 5 months traveling all around the world. We didn't have any concrete plans for the weekend and thought it would be nice to travel up to Connecticut to visit the family (and a surprise visit from Pawel too!). It's been way too long since we'd been (July) up for some quality time together and were eager to see everyone. As soon as we told Uncle Phil about our plans, he quickly found some fun event happenings we could all enjoy together. The car ride up there was wonderful. The boys were really well behaved. Matty fell asleep around 8:00 with no real fuss and Tyler was awake the whole time but just enjoying himself and all his treats in the back seat. Once it got dark, he was pretty quiet except for the occasional comment like "whoa, look at all the cars on the road" or "Mommy, can I have something else to eat?". I think he was both high on all the sugar and excited to see Phil, but he was being so good that neither Adam nor I cared that he was still awake.

Saturday morning was a lot of fun. The kiddos woke up early around 6:30 and by 7:00 we couldn't hold them downstairs any longer. They went up to play and within minutes both Uncle Phil and Wujek Pawel came out and joined the fun. Every once in a while Uncle Phil kept trying to sneak in an extra hug. It was obvious they missed each other, too cute! Phil surprised us by having lots of really neat gifts to open from all his travels and it was so fun to just be hanging out again. We went to a fall festival at tractor supply company. I wasn't so sure what to expect but it was quite extensive. There was a huge slide, pumpkin painting, face painting, baseball, tons of food, and perfect 80 degree weather. We all had lunch there and eventually returned home for some much needed rest. That evening we had a special steak dinner with Adam's Dziadzus and then after the boys went to sleep, we saw some more pictures from the trip.

Sunday morning came a little later and the timing worked out perfectly that we could join everyone for 8:30 mass. The boys were so good at church that even I was impressed. We then had a brunch and relaxing time before heading out to the Unionville Fall festival. The highlight was the obstacle course at the elementary school that was a rain forest theme and a perfect activity for T. I was even able to meet Adam's phys. ed. teacher that inspired him to do what he's doing now. Really cool. I wish we could have stayed longer but after an hour it was time to say our good byes and head home. The visit was one of the best we've ever had. Everyone was happy to just be together, there were some fun activities for us to do, and every meal made at home was completely safe. What a welcome relief. The gesture and effort meant the world to me and only makes us want to return soon!

Happy 11 Months, Matty!

I can't believe September is almost over and the month of your birth is right around the corner. We've finally adjusted to life at home without Daddy. We miss him dearly but have a nice routine going for us. We spend our Wednesday mornings at Kindermusik where you crawl around the room, lunge towards some of the kiddos (turns out you're very social), play some instruments, and eat anything you can put in your mouth. I wasn't sure I was going to do Kindermusick with you because it's at 9:15 (exactly when you usually go down for morning nap), but I'm glad we're doing it because it seems like both you and Tyler love it. This month also brought along another bittersweet milestone; I am starting to ween you from nursing. Every week I've dropped another feeding and we're currently down to feeding in the morning and evening. I will probably keep this up for another two weeks and then just do the evening one until your first birthday. You've done a very good job transitioning from nursing to sippy cups, however, I can tell you still really like to nurse because the few times we still do it, you do it for a much longer time now. These will be moments I'll really miss with you. Something about it has always been a particularly special bond between just you and me. It's our time and something that no one else can give and it's those quiet moments I'll always treasure. You are getting better and better at feeding yourself although you continue to create quite the puddle of food around your chair. You are significantly better at crawling up the stairs and are always proud of yourself when you've done it. You've tried to dive face first down the stairs (thank God it hasn't happened) and think it's funny when I yell at you. You continue to put yourself in these risky situations which can sometimes create such challenges for me. You seem to enjoy playing soccer and basketball and even took some of your first solo steps at Grammy's house the other day!!! We've been trying to get you to do some walking on your own because you enjoy it so much. The problem is you enjoy it so much and are still not stable so you lunge forward and fall and laugh and want to do it all over again! You are currently wearing 12-18 month bottoms and 18-24 month tops and still have this adorable little ticklish, squishy belly. You have 6 teeth and give us the biggest grins all the time. And, I can't believe we've already sent out your first birthday party invitations. It's going to be a great celebration. We love you, Matty. To the moon and beyond.

When I grow up

It was a Jack and Jill morning for us. Tyler, Matty, and I were driving to school and out of nowhere Tyler says "when I grow up I want to be just like Mommy and I want to get married to Grammy." He was sitting back there smiling and in dreamland thinking about all of it. I just smiled and told him that Grammy and I love him very much. Oh the sweetness at this age. This is the stuff I wish I could bottle up and save for the inevitable days when his Mommy and family is the most embarrassing thing in the world. In the meantime, I'm going to keep enjoying him wanting to be like me and marry Grammy! Maybe some morning he'll even want to marry me?!

Welcome Fall

While Matty was taking his morning nap, Tyler and I were sitting on the couch trying to think of a fun way to celebrate the first day of fall. It was a gorgeous day and we both really wanted to do something outside. And then we finally came up with the idea of taking a walk on the rail trail, spy lots of changing leaves, and have a picnic. We even brought Ty's big blue dump truck to make things a bit more exciting. And one of the highlights of the walk was Daddy being able to meet us there for a few minutes. It was great being together enjoying the beautiful first day of fall.

Our little pumpkin

We decided to have a pumpkin photo shoot for Matty's birthday invitations after he woke up from his nap. It was just one of those days. For whatever reason both boys woke up from their afternoon naps in a grumpy, whiny kind of mood. We drove to a local farmers market that always has lots and lots of pumpkins and seasonal decorations. I had all these visions of adorable, smile-filled pictures of our little pumpkin roaming the pumpkin fields enjoying his explorations as we snapped away. Our experience couldn't have been much more the complete opposite. Typically, it's very easy to make Matty smile for pictures. Not today. The posted pictures are in opposite order (but I didn't feel like correcting it). Honestly, I think we took about 30 pictures and the only two that he's smiling in are the top two pictures posted. Matty was just not having it and we quickly pushed the eject button. As soon as we got one with him smiling, we rushed the kids to the car and drove home. We put some of their favorite music, enjoyed "quiet time" in the car, and looked at each other and laughed...

First Solo School Day

This is the day I have been anticipating all summer long. We've been talking about it and talking about it and talking about it for so long that it was hard to believe the day finally arrived. Ty woke up in a great mood and once again got ready really fast and was eager to go. He loved putting on his "real backpack" as he calls it and remembered his teddy bear name tag. "Mommy, I'm ready to go. Mommy let's go to Jack and Jill!" He was in such a good mood that he even posed for the pictures.

We arrived at school early enough that we were the first ones there and able to quickly review the epi-pen, benedryl procedures with this teachers. It was also nice because it gave Tyler a few minutes to play by himself and get comfortable in the room. We waited for some of the other students to arrive and then as we were playing in the kitchen he looked at me very sweetly and asked "Mommy, when are you going to leave?" If that wasn't a perfect segway then I don't know what is. "Well sweetheart, it's time. I love you so much, have lots of fun, learn something new, and make Mommy proud. I'll be back soon to pick you up." I gave him a big squeeze and that was it. He didn't cry and I didn't turn around to see if he was okay because it seemed like he kept on playing in the kitchen. And I knew myself well enough that if I turned around it was me that was going to start to cry in front of him. Matty and I walked out the door into the car and I pulled away. And then the waterfall came....I cried such bittersweet tears. I've been so badly wanting this moment to be smooth and happy for him and although it had only been a few minutes, Tyler seemed really comfortable and ready for school. I, on the other hand, was having a serious Mommy moment. He's only three but it's so hard to believe everything that' s happened in the last three years and that he's grown up so fast that he's able to be on his own in school learning and making friends without his Mommy. I was so proud, so happy, and so sad all in one big crying, blubbering moment. Matty and I drove home and he went down for a nap without any problems. I then iced the cupcakes, cleaned the kitchen, did the laundry, checked my email, and still had about 30 minutes to do "nothing" and all I could think about was Tyler and how much I missed him. The house seemed so quiet. I kept picturing what he might be up to and how he was behaving. Matty woke up in time and we rushed back to school because I couldn't wait to hear about his day. We waited patiently in line and when he and I made eye contact his face lit up. He waved and waited for his teachers to call his name and then ran to give me a huge hug! It was the best! The whole way home he told me about things they did. He made a shaker and then they had a marching band out to the playground. I asked if anything made him happy or sad. And his sad response was about a boy that swatted him away when he tried to play with him at the mountain with trucks and his happy thing was that another boy wanted to play with him. Whoa...I thought. I tried getting some more details but it was difficult to figure out exactly what happened but still I thought, I'm not sure if I'm ready for this. Who wouldn't want to play with my Tyler? The bottom line was that Tyler was sitting in the back seat so happy with a huge grin on his face and was thrilled to be telling me about his first day of school. I would say it was a success and things went much, much smoother than I ever anticipated! Of course, I stuck to my promise and we had a cupcake celebration as soon as we got home.

Tyler loved decorating the cupcakes himself and went a little overboard with all the sprinkles. I thought, hey, how often do we have the very first solo school day of his life??!! He deserves all the sprinkles he wants!

He ate his cupcake right up and was enjoying the celebration. Matty kept giggling and the three of us had a special time just being together. My heart was bursting with joy and pride!

1st Annual FAAN Walk

We woke up to a cold, very rainy day and were sad to find the weather forecast to be accurate. In spite of the weather, we packed all the necessary gear and our cheery moods and drove towards Philly anyway. Most of the drive was miserable outside but all the boys in the car seemed happy and eager for the new experience. We arrived and were happy to find it was only drizzling a bit and within a few minutes of waiting in the registration line the rain stopped! And the great news is that besides a few drops here and there it never actually started to rain again. THANK YOU!


We got officially registered and were given shirts for the whole family.

Even Matty had his shirt on the entire walk. This picture is right before everyone congregated for the welcoming speeches.

We had about 30 minutes before the walk started and used the time to explore all the different vendors with exciting new products free of most of the common allergens. In the picture below, Tyler was so excited and showing us how much he was enjoying the new chocolate brownie cookie from the Divvies Company. It really was delicious and we got about 16 samples to take along for the walk (and some actually made their way into the freezer for those spur-of-the-moment celebrations when we need something safe). What seemed like every few minutes Adam made his way back to that table to retrieve a few more samples all for Tyler, of course!

We did a 3-mile loop around Cooper River Park. There was a small path for everyone to walk on but it was slow going for a lot of the walk because there were around 600-700 walkers for a two-person wide path. Some times we'd do some off-roading, splash in the puddles, and go around some of the slower groups.

Tyler finally wanted to get out of the stroller and walk for the last long stretch because there were so many big puddles and we let him do some good splashing through all of them. He would run from puddle to puddle and then slow down for a minute and run as soon as he spotted another puddle. It was so fun watching him enjoy himself and we didn't care at all because we knew there were some clean, dry jeans waiting for him in the car.

All in all, it was such a successful morning. There really is comfort in numbers. It was one of the very few times that all the people gathered could really understand and empathize with our situation and us with theirs. We may be registered as different teams but we're all in it together and want nothing more than to find a cure. There is power in numbers and with so many of us walking towards a common goal, we are stepping closer towards our goal. This morning gave me both comfort in knowing we're not alone and energy to keep fighting this nasty thing we fight every single bite of every single meal of every single day. I love you T-Cat! This morning was about you and about our family fighting together every step of the way.

Teddy Bear Party

I can't believe the day has actually arrived; Tyler's first day of Jack and Jill Preschool. His teacher, Mrs. Fessler, has a teddy bear party for all the students and it's a great "soft start" to the school. The class is split into two groups and the first group came the first hour and Tyler's group came the second hour and I was allowed to stay with him. He woke up in a great mood and we had the teddy bear dance in his room and he kept asking "is it time to go to school?". I figured that was a good sign. The morning process was so smooth today because he kept wanting to get to Jack and Jill and wasn't dilly dallying like most mornings. Ty picked out his shirt because it had a little teddy bear on the front (I thought that was so cute) and he looked so handsome. The three of us headed over to Grammy's house to put Matty down for a nap and then hang out for a few minutes before heading to school. When the time came, I asked "does anyone want to go to a teddy bear party?" and he very quickly jumped up and kept saying "I do, I do, I do" and then started doing to the teddy bear dance again with Grammy. We put his backpack on went outside to get a few pictures before we left. I was getting so sentimental/emotional because it's where I always got my pictures taken on the first day of school and now here I am taking my son to Jack and Jill (where I once went too!). His backpack was adorable and although he's still a little guy and only going to school twice a week, he still looked so much more grown up to me...I just couldn't believe it. Where does the time go???

He was the first one at school and was able to pick out his crayon and put it in the basket and then played while we waited for all the students to arrive. During the organized activities, Tyler sat right in front of the teacher and followed along so well and eagerly. They read "Brown Bear" and then acted it out for all the parents. They sang songs and learned how to stand in line and wash their hands. Honey Bear visited the group and they even got to eat Teddy Grahman snacks (Tyler asked for 3 extra helpings!). When it was time to leave he was soooo sad and all day long kept asking when he was going to go back to school. As trying as it can be to get through those moments, I am so glad to see how much he enjoyed himself. He was extremely well behaved, answered questions, was polite, and listened to all the directions. I was so proud of him and couldn't believe it all was really happening. I have a really good feeling about the school year and it's obvious he's feeling really good about it too. My wish is for it to be everything Tyler is hoping and dreaming it will be. I wish for him to become more independent, confident, learn some fun things, and meet some new friends. I especially wish for him to stay healthy and safe because it will be the first time we're all learning how to deal with food/snack time outside the home on a regular basis. I just want him to feel normal, have a normal experience, and learn that his allergies will never limit him from doing what he enjoys. I will pray hard every day for him to stay safe and for me to trust other adults' capabilities and desires to keep him as safe as I want him to be. Happy learning Ty!

I love you anyway

So, Matty. My dear, cute, sweet, smiling Matty. I love you to pieces. BUT, for about an hour today you really wore me out. I kept thinking of the end of one of the "Olivia" books where the mom says "you really wear me out, but i love you anyway" as she's saying goodnight. That's pretty much how I felt when I was putting you down for your afternoon nap today.

I was trying to put Tyler down for his nap and you were just being a stinker. Probably 5-6 times in a row, you crawled over to the bench pulled the nightlight out and then were trying to play with the outlets. Of course, I yelled loudly the first time and moved you away. Then I went back to reading to Tyler and you did it all over again. And then the games began. Since I try hard not to yell unless you are in danger or it's something really bad, you seemed to enjoy getting that kind of reaction out of me. Yeah, not funny. And poor Tyler was just trying to read a book and take a nap. We finally got him down for his nap and you and I went downstairs for a while. And I swear you're a magnet for danger. You thought it would be fun to go head first down the back porch steps and got so upset when I wouldn't let you. You kept crawling over cushions so you could face plant onto the carpet and the list goes on and on and on. The scary part is that when I really yell, you seem to think it's funny and start laughing and then do it all over again. Again, not funny! Not yet sure what to do but need to work on my approach...so while you're napping (or running around your crib) I'm going to vent on my blog and then lay down on the bed and not move for the next half an hour to get energized for round two this afternoon! Matty, you wear me out, but I LOVE YOU anyway!!!

Labor Monday

We woke up to to a beautiful, almost fall-like morning. We didn't have any plans for the day and decided it would be fun to take a hike up Governor Dick and have a picnic. Tyler jumped on the idea and seemed really excited about it. So as soon as Matty woke up from his nap, we all head out to the site. The first few moments went well as we got ourselves going. And then the whining started. And then the whining and the crying started. And then the whining and crying and begging to be picked up started. Long story short, it wasn't quite the relaxing, fun, family bonding experience we were hoping for.
I don't think we even made it half way up when we decided we needed to take a break have our picnic. This picture cracks me up because T did not want to have his picture taken and you can see him hiding his face. I'm just glad you can't hear him whining about it as well.

After getting a burst of energy from the break, Tyler was all psyched up and kept asking to start hiking again. Honestly, within about one minute of hiking he started whining and crying and begging all over again. Adam and I gave each other the look and quickly decided it was time to get back to the car before we all lost it. When it's all said and done, we learned a few things and one of them is Tyler likes hikes and enjoys being outside but still really wants to be carried (and it doesn't help that he sees Daddy carrying Matty). Things calmed down but I did feel bad for anyone else within a half mile radius of our family because if they were hoping for some peaceful time on a nature hike then we ruined it for them. You win some, you loose some. Fortunately, we had a great night with Grammy and Baca at the house enjoying some quality time together. We may not have had a perfect day but we definitely had a real day together and that's all I can ask for.

Jes is Getting Married!

It was a beautiful, perfect day for Jes and Ryan as we all gathered to celebrate their marriage. I've never been to the Felicita Resort, but the setting was gorgeous and seemed so appropriate for the two of them. The picture below is when we all got our first glimpse of the blushing bride.
The wind was blowing and the sun was shining as the two of them said their vows.

I have to laugh at the following several pictures because my wonderful mother decided it was a perfect opportunity for a photo shoot and as much as I grumbled my way through it, I'm glad we have some pictures of the two of us. It so rarely ever happens anymore.

This picture is a bit out of order, but love seeing the newly married couple leave the ceremony all happy only spreads the love to the rest of us....

Who would have predicted this outcome...Ryan actually smothered the cake all over Jes' face! Awesome!

It was so much fun hanging out with all the girls! I'll always have memories of all of us running around the dance floor with hands in the air, yelling and laughing, and having a blissful time celebrating the big day.