Thursday, July 21, 2011

My First Blog

      In an attempt to better document life in our family, I am starting a blog.  I wish I had done it two years ago, and captured my pregnancy and McKenna's birth and first ten months of life, but I didn't.  With the complete insanity of our lives for the past two years, I really hardly had time to shower or watch Glee (I think I still have four unwatched episodes on my DVR) or even breathe.  All I did was work and pack and unpack and sometimes see my husband, so blogging didn't make it to the top of the priority list, and well, wishing doesn't change anything, so enough of that.  Instead, I will be proactive and try to take better notes of our life from now on.  I don't know that anyone will really want to read it, but that's ok.  Its for us, really, and if anyone else wants to use it to keep tabs on us and our crazy, wonderful life, then that's fine too.
       Our sweet baby girl is almost 11 months old.  Its unbelievable.  I spent the day today planning her birthday party- ocean theme.  We just got back from our first family vacation in Cape Cod, and she loved the beach.  And her favorite video as a baby has been Baby Neptune.  So, ocean theme it is.  And I have to say, it is so much fun.  I am loving every minute of it.  I have ordered the most adorable pink ocean-themed decorations and today I found all of our plates and napkins and a bunch of things for the kids' favors.  Its going to be adorable, if I do say so myself. I just can't believe that she is almost a year old.
        Her first year certainly hasn't been typical.  She has endured living in two different states and constant drives back and forth, a daddy who works crazy hours in hospitals in various states and studies like mad and couldn't be home with us during the week due to finishing his Master's in NY, a mommy who left home at 6:30am every day (sometimes dragging her out the door with me at 6 when dropping her off at Alicia's for the day), and spending her days with her two wonderful Grandmas and Miss Alicia while I was at work, (not that that was a hardship!).  And besides all of that insanity, which would be a lot for any baby, she has persevered through being hospitalized twice (for a total of about eight days) for her Flu/Kawasaki Disease disaster, being poked and prodded countless times (seriously, countless, we lost track) for IV attempts/injections/blood draws, dealing with monthly several-hour-long follow up visits at Yale and Boston Childrens' Hospital, and suffering through twice daily Lovenox injections (and the constant bleeding and leg bruising as a result) for the past five months.  I cannot imagine going through all that she has been through in her brief little life.           
       And yet through it all, she continues to smile and play and be a diva and learn new things, like standing without holding onto anything for 5-6 seconds at a time, exploring the stairs, crawling at the speed of light, saying Hello ("ayo") and "dadadadadada" and singing Old MacDonald Has a Farm ("Ee-Oh").  She loves to eat pretty much everything, except avocado (which she shouts at).  She loves chunks of banana and nectarine and pear and melon and green beans and cheese.  She gets mad when we feed her baby-food with a spoon because, frankly, she wants to do it herself.  She weighs about 21 pounds now.  (And each of her adorably kissable cheeks and thighs weigh about four pounds).  She now sleeps almost twelve hours every night, and sometimes she takes two naps (when she isn't too busy doing other things and refusing to waste time sleeping).  She squeals and giggles in swings and is fantastic at rearranging bookcases and shelves.  She can tear up a napkin like nobody's business.  She lets you know in no uncertain terms how she is feeling at any given moment, and she is ridiculously expressive.  Recently she has decided she is "shy" when new people are around.  She might be an actress.  Her initials are MGM, after all...  She is strong and brave and intense and resilient and smart and wonderful and absolutely adored.  Strangers stop us all the time to tell us how adorable she is, and we cannot disagree.  I mean, look at her:




      And so, despite swearing forever that we would not overdo a one-year old's birthday party, we probably are.  I have ordered custom invitations.  We are inviting a gazillion people.  I just bought 19 sand pails to hold kids' favors. 
      We have a lot to celebrate.  And I don't think anyone would blame us.  Not one bit. 

2 comments:

  1. So glad you are finally blogging! Can you believe they are almost 1 already?

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  2. Yay a blog!! I'm a blog-a-holic, I'm obsessed with reading them so I hope you update often! :) Although I've never done it, there is a great website to turn your blog into a book for memories!

    http://www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook

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