Eily's first love affair...

is one I highly approve of. She has taken to spending much of her free time "reading" aloud - with or without an audience. I find her sitting in corners with piles of books mounted around her while she jibber-jabbers away at mach speed. It's pretty funny, and I finally managed to catch it on video twice over the past few days.

Here's a look at her reading in her rocking chair in her room:




And now here she is in the tub. Forget all the toys and fun stuff surrounding her, she just wants to read the bath book:





Sorry they are such poor quality; they were taken on my phone.

That's all for today! (Can you believe I posted only a few days after the last one?! Don't get too used to this, it's just a fluke!)

Milestones, mayhem, and...monkeys?

**Note** Jump to the post below for the first update of the day!

See this? See how diligent I am today? You get two posts for the price of one!

Alright, so we left off with Grandma Bev's big trip east to meet Eily. This brings us to the month of October. It shouldn't surprise you any that we headed north to New York (again) to hang out with good friends (again) and danced like crazy people (again). You know, I think this blog is getting kind of boring. I mean, after all, isn't this the same thing we did in September?

Oh wait, this time we were invited to join in the celebration of Holly and Charles' wedding day. These two crazy kids have been dating since before I worked at Professor Java's in Albany. (Yes, for those of you who didn't know, I used to be a super cool barista back in the day.) They are two of the sweetest people I know, and we felt so lucky to be a part of that day. Not to mention, the fact that it turned into a Javateer reunion!

Here we have the always gorgeous Holly and her proud papa.

And here I am making an ugly face that is only made worse by the fact that it follows the beautiful picture above. As you can see, Eily and Lovey were perfect wedding guests.

The wedding was fabulous, and I loved seeing so many of my old friends in one place. It only makes me miss Albany more, though. I know they say you can never go back, but what if you feel like you never really left in the first place?

*Sniffle*

Okay, moving on. The following weekend, Jesse went back to NY to do some boating with longtime pals Jim and Matt. Eily and I reveled in some girl time back home. On the 9th, she had her 15 month checkup with Dr. Shah. Here were the stats:

Height: 31 inches (that's over half my height!!)
Weight: 22lbs 6.5 oz (no wonder Daddy calls her "Lead-butt")

Everything else looked great, and developmentally she's above average at this point. What mommy doesn't like to hear news like that?

On the 20th, Grandma Mary arrived from MN for a visit. Eily loved spending time with her, and I'm sure it has something to do with Grandma's willingness to indulge her healthy appetite. We spent Saturday apple picking at Solebury Orchard and poking around Peddler's Village.

Eily doesn't like apples at all, can't you tell?

Riding in the hay on the way to the orchard!

I'm pretty sure Eily thought that all of these pumpkins should be hers.

On Sunday, we explored Grounds for Sculpture across the river in Trenton. I have to say, the park is beautiful. And I'm a little upset with us for not bringing out of town guests there sooner. There are something like 25 acres of carefully manicured landscape, with gorgeous sculptures strewn about. The best part? You can interact with a lot of them to create your own "art." Here's some of the creative stuff we saw/did. (WARNING: Some material may be inappropriate for young viewers!)

Monet's bridge



Eily loved that she was encouraged to bang on this sculpture - they even provided the sticks!



Real peacocks roam around the cafe area - Eily was able to get right up close to them.



"The Boating Party" - can you see the uninvited guest?



And here we have Jesse joining in the tribal dance with some naked ladies. Notice how "at home" he looks?

She's one frisky Grandma!

Jesse proves yet again, he is that guy. Creep.



He was particularly proud of how well he blended in with this one.

And finally, we have reached the end of the month. Normally, this would be nothing special, but this is October we're talking about. Like all good parents, Jesse and I dressed Eily up in a ridiculous costume, set her loose to beg at the doors of our neighbor's homes, then sent her to bed and ate her candy. Okay, not really. We let her eat the package of animal crackers she got from one house.

Here's our little monkey wishing you all a very happy autumn:

As an added bonus, I figured I'd throw in another cute pic of Eily climbing on the furniture:

And one more showing you her crazy hair when we take it out of the pigtails at night:

What happened to September?

Oh dear, I've done it now. For the first time since starting this blog, I've gone without posting even the smallest of updates at least once during the month. Sorry October, don't take it personally. You and your friend September were just far too action-packed for me to stop and smell the roses mums.

No time for excuses. Let's jump right into the updates, shall we?

**Sifts through hundreds of photos to figure out what the heck we've been up to for the past two months.**

Hmmm, I think we're going to need a bigger page to fit all this stuff. Looks like we're splitting this into two posts.

So first things first, the big indoor renovations are nearing completion here on the homefront. First, we have the long-anticipated kitchen reveal. Ta-da!

Now, in case you're all wondering, the paint beneath the cabinets is not some poor attempt at modern art. For the time being, we are sans backsplash. Being broke and lazy frugal and efficient, we opted not to paint that area. I'm sure I'll post updates ten months after the tile backsplash has been installed.

As if all that kitchen work wasn't enough, we had new windows installed in early September.

Here are the exterior and interior views (complete with the cutest little decorative accent you've ever seen).



With all the house work winding down (notice I have not said it's actually done?), we decided the best way to celebrate was to get the heck out of Dodge! Nearly every weekend in September was spent traveling. I know, I know. "What else is new?"

Rather than giving you a blow by blow account of every little thing we've done, I'll just jot down a list and (if applicable...or rather, if accessible on my hard drive at the moment) I'll include some pics.

Sept 11-12: Celebrating Liam's (a.k.a. Eily's betrothed) birthday in Virginia.



Sept 17-18: Irish2000 (I2K) in Saratoga, NY. Andy, Liam, and Jim (Papa-Daddy) made the journey with us. We met up with my dad and stepmom, good friends Jim & Natasha & wee Rory, and Kevin & Kelsey & the very brand new Miss Rayleigh. For the first year ever, the music was more of a backdrop and not so much the main event. Not because it was unenjoyable. Rather, we learned how quickly a festival can change when everyone has a baby in tow. Still, kudos to all of us for being awesome and exposing the kids to some culture!

GAAAAHHH!! Oh, it pains me to say that I have ZERO pictures from that weekend. I'm stealing some pics from Andy's facebook page, so the photography credits go to him. (Thanks Andy!)



The whole gang, Friday night

They're harder to dance with the bigger they get!

These two were filthy by the end of the show Saturday. At least they had fun!

Ah, young love.

Alright, before you all yell at me - that last one looks much worse than it actually was. See the shoe off to the right? That's me. I saw everything from there. Eily actually had her chin on Liam's shoulder, and he kissed her cheek. Fooled you, though, didn't it?

Okay, that took up more than it's allotted space. Gotta keep moving!

Sept 24: We hit up Celtic Classic in Bethlehem, where Eily danced like a wee banshee to the tunes of Enter the Haggis. It was the new drummer, Bruce's, first show with the guys. While we certainly missed James' smiling face, we were very impressed with his replacement.

Sept 26 - Oct 1: Eily's Great-grandma Bev finally got to meet the little lass. Auntie Kiki, Grandpa Rick, and Aunt Dottie and Matt all got to spend time with Eily as well. Here are some pics from Aunt Dottie:



As you can see, our little cherub certainly knows how to enjoy her food.

And that does it for September. Somewhere in the middle of all that, Jesse managed to lose one vehicle and gain another, I somehow kept my sanity while juggling the mommy/school/work schedule, and Eily continued to become more and more like a little person. Next up: October fun and Eily's 15-month stats!

The Sounds of Fall

Hello hello hello! Jesse, Eily, and I have had two weeks now to settle into our new fall routine, which means it's high time I satisfied everyone's burning questions about what our little lady is up to these days. There's a lot to report, but in the interest of time we're going to stick to the new talent I'm most interested in right now - language development!

Eily is catching onto the concept of language by leaps and bounds every day. Just this morning, she's parroted no less than five words she heard me say - diaper, thank you, locked, and a few others I can't remember at the moment. She's also become good at picking out words she knows from the middle of a sentence. So if you were to say to her, "I saw Daddy at work today," she would immediately start chanting "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" She also understands a lot more than she can say. I can tell her to close a door or ask her where her nose is, and she responds accordingly by closing the door or touching her nose. I can tell her to go get certain items, put things down, go see someone, etc. I love watching her eyes light up when she understands a request and knows how to complete the task. No matter what it is I've asked her to do, it's completion is almost always followed by a hearty round of applause for herself.

Sometimes I'm baffled by her ability to grasp some of the more abstract concepts of the words she already knows. For example, last weekend we were in the Finger Lakes of NY visiting Auntie Kiki, Uncle B, and the rest of the Kahm family. The instant Eily saw the lake, she started making the sign for water and saying "wa wa!" with much excitement. Since the time she learned the word and sign for water, she has only ever seen it in a cup or coming out of a faucet. If you think about it, a lake looks very different from either of those things, but she had no problem identifying what she was looking at without being told.

Another fun one to observe is her recognition of animals. She can look at a photo, a drawing, or even an outline of something like a dog or a cow and immediately recognize what she's looking at. With the exception of dogs and kitties, she refers to most animals by their sounds, but you can still tell that she understands what she's seeing.

Speaking of animal sounds, those are a scream. I think she's getting tired of us asking her what a cow says or what a duck says since we do it on a daily basis. But what on earth could be funnier than a one year old who refuses to say "moo" or "quack" and instead insists on imitating the actual sound the animals make? Take "quack" for example. Instead of saying "quack," she makes this gravelly "gwahgwahgwah" sound over and over again. Honestly, it sounds a lot more like a duck call than "quack quack" does. And instead of saying "woof" for a dog, she pants. That one is really funny because we never taught it to her. She just started panting every time she saw a dog, and it seems to have stuck. And I guess she's right. After all, you see dogs panting almost all the time, with only occasional barks.

One interesting thing I've noticed (and was admittedly worried about) is her resistance to make the "m" sound. But now that I'm studying speech and language pathology, I've realized it's a completely normal part of her language development. Apparently, children do not fully possess the ability to pronounce all of the different sounds of their native language until somewhere between 5-7 years old. And when they do encounter a sound they can't yet make, they tend to deal with it in a consistent manner. In Eily's case, she has a b for m substitution - her m's become b's. So most of the time she calls me "baba" instead of mama. Or if she's in a hurry, I'm just "Bab," which sounds oddly like Bob. She's starting to go "mmmmm" if she wants a kiss, and has said "mama" clearly a few times recently, so I have a feeling she'll be mastering the "m" in the near future.

And perhaps the most exciting thing of all is Eily's rekindled interest in having books read to her. I read a lot to her when she was a newborn (and had no choice). When she started developing more of her motor skills and gained mobility, though, she become completely disinterested in sitting down for a story, even at bedtime. Now, however, if I put her down for bed without a story, she immediately stands up in her crib and points across the room to her bookshelf. She'll yell at me until I pick her up and settle into the rocking chair with her on my lap. We end up reading at least three books a night, regardless of their length. She even sits still for the long ones now. During the day, she often throws books into my lap while I'm working. I'll stop and read to her until she decides she's had enough. Sometimes it's only a minute or two; other times she'll let me finish the book, then run and grab another.

I guess I'll stop before this starts getting too boring....after all, how much can one say about their daughter's small but growing vocabulary? I know I tend to geek out about this kind of thing, but honestly I find it so fascinating. So to wrap it up with something fun, I thought I'd share with you the list of words Eily is consistently saying as of today.

Hi
Daddy/Dada
ball
water
kitty/kitty cat
dog
down
Mama ("Baba")
Eily
baby
bath
eat - this is her absolute FAVORITE word...but more on that in another post
cheese
juice
wee - as in "this is fun!"

She's also mastered these signs, but tends not to say the accompanying word yet:

more
bye
please
no (head shake)
milk


And finally, here's a cute picture taken by Kiara (Auntie Kiki) this past weekend when we went apple picking. We lost count of how many apples Eily ate, but as you can see here she enjoyed every single one of them.

Sad news

Many of you may remember my post a couple of months ago about Kim Shaw, my friend from the mother's forum with cervical cancer. She was a young, single mother battling for her life in the hopes she could watch her son Barrett grow. I arrived home this weekend from an internet-free week on Cape Cod to learn that Kim passed away on Friday.

To those of you who contributed to the card drive, I would like to pass along Kim's words of thanks. Tori, the girl who collected the cards and sent out the package, received this message on her Facebook page just a week before Kim's passing:

"I got the package this week!! You are such a sweet selfless woman!!!!!!!! All the others are pretty awesome too! I am shocked and blessed at who all from the BZ Club joined in! Y'all are thought of and xoxox-ed so much, Mr. Barrett appreciates this so much too ladies! God Bless and love to all you sweethearts!! Thank you for the prayers and thoughts and appreciate many more! XOXOxoxo"

As you can see, she had a very positive attitude and was grateful for the kindness of so many people, even those she had never met. I am sure those who were lucky enough to know her will miss her greatly.

While there is comfort in knowing Kim's pain is over, her 18-month old son Barrett is now left to live his life without that special love only a mother can give. I do not know details about who will receive custody of this sweet little boy, though I am sure Kim had something arranged ahead of time knowing that this was always a possible outcome. According to her obituary, an educational fund has been set up for him. If anyone is interested in making a donation, you can send it to the educational fund for Barrett Cantu at:

Wells Fargo Bank
1101 Buchanan Drive
Burnet, TX 78611

Thank you all again for the generosity and kindness you shared with Kim and Barrett.




"Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality." --Emily Dickinson

In other news, the Fall semester starts tomorrow. Believe it or not, it may mean more frequent updates from me, since I'll be glued to a computer at almost all times. Many apologies for the lack of posts this summer, but I chose to spend the time playing with Eily as much as possible. You'll be hearing all about it soon.

A Little Bonus

In addition to the mini-update, I thought I'd offer you all a bonus entry today with the new Eily stats. She had her one year checkup last Friday, and aside from "She's perfect!" here's what Dr. Marcus had to say:

Height: 28.5 inches
Weight: 19lbs 7oz
Head circumference: 18.5 inches (big brains!!)

The poor kiddo screamed through the three shots she had to receive. She calmed down as soon as I picked her up, though, and she even managed to wave bye-bye to Dr. Marcus when he left at the end of the appointment. A huge smile of surprise hit his face when he saw how quickly Eily forgave him for giving her those three shots. Something tells me he doesn't get that kind of reaction from kids on a daily basis. I guess it's just further proof of how awesome our little Smudge is....not that I needed any, of course!

Mini update

Hello all! As usual, I'm way behind with posting. I'm sure you're all asking, "Is Eily's big First Birthday post ready yet?" Unfortunately, all writing and blog preparation has taken a back seat lately. "What could possibly be more important than her birthday?" you ask? Well, nothing, of course! But there are only so many hours in the day, and mine have been taken up by this lengthy kitchen renovation and my summer commitments at the theater.

So here's a quick snippet of what's been going on these past couple of weeks:

- Rehearsals for the production of Woody Allen's "God," which I am directing at The Playmasters.
- Sanding, staining, and polyurethaning of the kitchen floor
- The beginnings of some cabinet building in the kitchen

It doesn't look like a very long list, but those are some very time consuming items!

And the most recent news? After over a month of near-drought conditions, the skies opened yesterday and dumped water on us for the length of the day. And after over a month of resting safely in the neighbor's garage, our unopened boxes of cabinets and appliances were suddenly sitting in huge puddles of water. Yes, you read that correctly. Some (not all, thankfully!) of our cabinets got wet. We may have to replace a few pieces, but thankfully all of the huge money items are fine. We spent the better part of yesterday evening moving everything to dry land (with the help of our awesome neighbor, Mark).

So what was the reaction to the catastrophe? In true J&J style, we kind of shrugged it off and said we'd make it work. Shortly after, the window installer with whom I had set up an appointment for an estimate stopped by and we proceeded to set up the next home improvement project. So on a day that could have been a real downer, we decided to keep the ball rolling and ordered new windows to be installed in September. Life goes on, right?

Anywho, that's a pretty good idea of how things have been going around here. I'm still working on the big birthday project to share with all of you, so bear with me just another week and it will be here.

A friend in need (updated)

**UPDATE** If you would like to participate after reading this post, please email toriellen@gmail.com . The Two Big J's and little e will be out of touch for the next few days, but Tori can provide you with the address to send your cards. Thanks so much everyone! I'm so moved by your support.

I've decided to hold off on Eily's big birthday post until next week, when we are finished with traveling for at least a couple of weeks and I can devote some time to really organizing pics and videos. I promise, the wait will be well worth it!

In the meantime, I wanted to take a couple of minutes to tell you all about the mommy of one of Eily's June birthday buddies, Barrett. Barrett's mom, Kim, was diagnosed with a rare form of cervical cancer while she was pregnant. In fact, if it weren't for her pregnancy, the cancer may have gone unnoticed much longer than it did. Barrett was delivered via emergency c-section at 31 weeks (extremely early for those who aren't aware), in order to get Kim started on treatment for her cancer. Barrett is now a bouncing, active 14 month old, but Kim continues to fight for her life everyday. You can read about her battle in the blog she keeps with her aunt, Fight for Barre.

Recently, Kim was told that the medical center she has been going to for treatments will no longer be treating her because her tumors keep growing. Having lost her job just before her diagnosis, Kim has no medical insurance. Her options are very limited. And perhaps hardest of all, she is raising her amazing little boy on her own. Barrett's father has had very little interaction with his son since his birth, with only minimal visitation on a very irregular basis. I don't know how Kim does it, but she continues to put up a fight. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of courage and faith this young woman must possess to even get out bed each day.

I met Kim through a discussion board on BabyZone.com, an area for moms and moms-to-be to gather and discuss their experiences in parenting. (This is the same place I met Eily's favorite sitter, Casey, and her daughter, Ava.) While those of us in the June 09 Birthday Club have never met Kim in person, we all want to do something to help her to know she is not alone in her struggle. We are planning a card shower for her, and we are inviting anyone who is moved by her story to participate. The plan is to send Kim a box of cards to let her know that there are people out there thinking of her and hoping for her cancer to go into remission. Some of us plan to include gift cards to help her with the day to day costs of raising a little boy on her own while being unable to work. While I'm sure she will appreciate this generosity, I think even the cards alone will bring a big smile to her face.

If you would like to join us in brightening Kim's day and letting her know that even strangers are holding her in their thoughts and prayers, let me know. I can give you the address of Tori, the girl who is organizing the card shower, so you can send her your cards for Kim. Tori will be putting the box together and sending it to Kim on July 15. Thank you in advance for sharing any kind words you have to offer to Kim. You never know how much of an impact your actions can have on someone, even if it's something as simple as sending a card.


I've edited to add a picture of Kim and her sweet son, Barrett:



Thanks again to all of you who have already responded and to those who continue to offer support!

This Old House

Howdy all! I am preparing a big birthday post for Eily, but in the interim, I wanted to offer up some progress photos of the kitchen. Jesse and I (mostly Jesse) have been working our tails off to get this room finished, and while we still have a lot of work ahead of us, the end is at least now in sight! Enjoy!

In the beginning:

These were the walls - wood paneling and wall paper over plaster walls (January).



Ripping out the cabinets and sink.



Tearing down the paneling and plaster and opening up the ceiling (January - February).





Jim helps us run brand new electrical through the entire room (March).



Zak cuts a huge hole in the side of our house! (April)



Andy helps out with the drywall (May).



After 5 months, we finally have walls again!



The giant hole is replaced by the new French door.



Freshly primed walls & ceiling (June).



Paint!



(Yes, it's orange. No, it's not quite the orange we intended. Yes, we've decided to keep it!)

Remember the refrigerator that got shoved into an old pantry by the previous owners? It's gone!



This is how the floor looked on Thursday at 5 p.m.



Floor around 6p.m.



And a side by side of the floor at 5 p.m. v. the floor at 7p.m.

All we have to do now is stain and polyurethane the floor this week so we can start building the cabinets that are currently sitting in boxes in the neighbor's garage. One of these weeks soon we'll be posting the "finished product!"