Our Love Story

I am hopping on the bandwagon and linking up with Becky at from Mrs. to Mama to tell you our love story this Valentine’s day.

1. How long have you and your significant other been together? We have been together since April 20th 2002 (he asked me to be his girlfriend on AIM lol oooh the good old days), so 10 years this April! Wow!!! Alex just turned 28 last week and when we met he was only 18. It is amazing how much we have grown together.

                **dying over these pictures!!! the first one is us when Alex is 18 and had just graduated and I was 17**

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?} Alex and I shared mutual friends that were a couple. I was looking for someone to go to the prom with and Melissa decided to set me up with Alex. He asked me to prom (on AIM of course) on April 11th 2002. We decided we should probably hang out before the prom to get to know each other and my the 20th we were officially a couple.

The prom we got set up for in 2002

My senior prom 2003

    Alex graduated in 2002 and went to college at Penn State Hazelton. I only wanted to follow him so PSUH was the only school I applied to. I graduated in 2003 and went to the same college as him, we both still lived at home and commuted. In 2004 Alex moved to State College and that December we got engaged (as a commitment to one another because we were going to be living together the next year) and a year later I moved down as well and we have lived together ever since. Crazy to think we have been living together 7 years already. Our first apartment was a 600 square foot studio apartment so you best bet we got a chance to work out all of the kinks in our relationship real quick. We lived two more years in State College in a larger apartment that was further from campus and all the hustle and bustle; sometimes I’d give anything to go back to those days, we had a lot of fun living there!

My college graduation 2007

3. If married, how long have you been married? We will be married 4 years this upcoming May.

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? We got married at the church I grew up in and our reception was at a local golf course. It was a medium sized wedding; lots of family and a few of our really close friends.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share! HAHA yes we do and my family always makes fun of me for it. I have no idea when or where we came up with this but we both call eac hother “Pook” and have forever. When I am talking to Alex at work and I say “pook” Liam will say “ooooh its Dada, Hiiii Dada”.

At the Philadelphia Zoo in 2004

Orioles game in Baltimore in 2005

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey. I love that he would rather stay home and watch Lost then go our to a bar on the weekend (and drink tea and have cookies). I love that he is an extremely dedicated Dad, he would do anything for his kids and will totally be one of those Dads beating down the door to get his kid the hottest/most hard to find toy of the season. I love that I can be totally completely honest with him and he would never judge me on some of the crazy things I am thinking, most of the time he is even agreeing with me. I love that we really are two peas in a pod.

My high school graduation in 2003

7. Tell us how he proposed? We wanted to get engaged because we were moving in together in a few months and it was a commitment to ourselves that we would get married once we graduated college. I had always wanted a Christmas time engagement because I love the season so much, so I knew it was coming. He proposed at his house on Christmas Eve with a hand painted sign that said “Will you marry me?” clearly I said yes!

The Christmas we got engaged 2004

New Years 2004

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals? Neither..we actually don’t do Valentines day and never have. Not because we think it is a dumb Hallmark holiday or anything but because last Wednesday was his birthday and next Wednesday is my birthday and Valentines Day sits right in between the two. We usually do cards and I will make a nicer dinner but that is about it plus I hate flowers! If you are going to spend that much money at least buy me a vegetable plant that I can plant in the ground and get eventually eat something from!

Vacation in 2005 in Atlantic City

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch? Don’t get me wrong I would give a lot to be at the beach having dinner right now but that isn’t very realistic so we settle for a pop in a movie and relax date very often, like every weekend often BUT we love it!

Dinner on the beach in 2007

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere? I would love to travel anywhere with him! We have been on a few vacations together but I would love to go somewhere together that neither one of us have been so we can experience it together.

Christmas 2008 … we took a pictures with our cats … HAHA a true sign we needed a baby

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day. Nothing much….Liam and I made some sugar cookies to give to everyone and I made up little gift bags for the kiddos and got Alex a card from them. We talked about doing take out for dinner but haven’t decided yet.

My 21st birthday and Christmas 2007

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day? Nope since my birthday is next week I am asking for stuff then  

This is one of my favorite pictures from vacation in 2004, we’ve gone through a lot of phases …. look at the hair on us!

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love. If I am being 100% honest it would be to live together before you get married, I know I know SO against being politically correct but it helped us so much and Alex agrees we talked about this last week actually. Also to be honest and talk about something that is bothering you instead of holding it in only to eventually explode, so much better to put it on the table and sort it out then and there. Also never go to bed mad (stay up and fight), we just talked about this tonight that in the 10 years we have been together we went to bed once mad at each other, once! Oh and neither one of us remembers what we were mad about. And lastly, don’t take life too seriously. There are days when both kids are screaming, the house is a disaster of scattered toys, dishes, stray goldfish and the cats are probably puking or something and all we do is look at each other and laugh.

Horrible quality of this pictures, pre digital camera days, but the look on my face just sums it up … roll with it.

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.

Hands down, no doubt my favorite picture … it is true love all around, through and through.

 

and just for fun lets throw some side by side

Sensory Bin…weekend fun!

One of the blogs I follow is always posting really fun sensory bin activities. I got the concept of what made up a sensory bin but really had no idea what its teaching power was. Someone linked me to this post to explain it further:

Maria Montessori developed the Sensorial Materials to help 2-6 year old children educate and refine their senses to recognize similarities and differences, and make decisions based on sensory characteristics. She based her materials on objects used at that time in research on human perception. The Sensorial materials include the Cylinder Blocks, Pink Tower, Red Rods, Broad Stair, Geometric Solids, Color Boxes, Smell and Sound cylinders, Baric Tablets, Constructive Triangle Boxes, Fabric Box, Thermal Cylinders, and others found in virtually all Montessori preschools.

Your 2-6 year old child’s brain is where the action is! Early childhood is all about opening new brain nerve pathways and developing the best possible brain architecture. Your child’s senses send electrical impulses racing to his brain, where they open nerve pathways and are interpreted as sensations of touch, smell, sight, taste, and sound. When a young child uses Montessori and other sensory activities, she experiences the relative sensory characteristics of objects. She focuses her attention and makes comparisons and decisions based on sensory information. These purposeful mental activities develop the efficient, powerful brain architecture your child will use the rest of her life. They are why children in Montessori preschools learn to read, write, use mathematics, and develop critical thinking skills at young ages in a very natural, unforced way. These skills are the byproducts of strong brain development and learning to focus attention. For young children, it’s all about the brain.

So on Friday we headed out to Target (what Liam calls the “big ball store” because they have two big red balls outside the doors) to pick our some fun stuff for our first sensory bin. We got lentils as our base because they were the least expensive, some sandbox toys, a small scoop, little frogs, balls, ect.

Let’s just say the sensory bin was a hit! Liam wanted to play with it all weekend long. He loved filling the scoop and cup and saying “full” then spilling it our and saying “empty”.

What surprised me the most was how much Lucy liked it! She had so much fun digging her hands in the lentils and pulling out the smaller toys. Every time she saw Liam playing she would literally try throwing herself towards the bin to play too …. story of this child's life, all she wants to do is play with Liam.

 

Lucy is doing so much better….but now Liam and I are sick, just can’t catch a break this year with colds. What I have learned is that little boys are just like grown men when it comes to having a cold…overly dramatic Miss Lucy was such a trooper when she was sick and was still smiling up a storm…Mr. Liam on the other hand is hanging on my leg saying “Maaama, oh Maaama” in his little pitiful voice. Poor boy, I hope he is feeling better soon.

Lucy got in some quality naps this weekend on her Dada’s lap.

Two of her favorite things: the exersaucer and Sophie!

Oooh Lucy

On Friday morning I noticed that Lucy was coughing a little bit. I chalked it up to the insane amount of drooling she had been doing. Saturday and Sunday she had a little runny nose and the same cough; still thought it was probably just her teeth which are so swollen and bulging. She had been sleeping fairly well (not coughing or anything at night) and still eating so we didn’t think much of it. Monday she woke up and the poor kiddo was coughing a lot, watery eyes, a little congested and just not herself. After a bout of inconsolable crying I decided to call the doctor. I took her in at 11 and the doctor knew after listening to her for a minute that she had bronchiolitis. Although in true Lucy form she was smiling and laughing at the doctor the entire time she was being examined. She is one tough cookie.

All day yesterday Liam was running around telling everybody “DeeDee sick, DeeDee sick”, sweet boy he was concerned for his little sister and gave her some attention yesterday which I am sure made Lucy want to get sick more often because her big brother was actually acknowledging her.

So she got put on a nebulizer four times a day for the next week. She loves it, this morning she was helping me hold the mask close to her while watching her favorite Baby Einstein movie. Surprisingly she actually slept really well last night and is napping good right now, so at least she is getting some quality rest and hopefully will be on the mend soon.

Liam’s Big Big Boy Bed

This is where Liam is sleeping tonight….

We had this mattress upstairs since Christmas when my brother was in for him to sleep on one night. Liam LOVED the mattress, we didn’t feel like storing it so Liam ended up with with a big big bed.

The kiddo is turning into a teenager in the sense that he loves him some sleep. He napped just as well today as he has in his toddler bed and went to bed tonight just as easy too. He loves having some more room and even more room for blankets. Since I took the picture we put his little side railing on, we just hadn’t gotten to it when I took the picture right when we got it all set up.

Liam was excited to lay with DeeDee for a rest and Lucy was excited to roll away from him.

Last night we had a family first, we went out to eat as a family of four for the first time. Liam and Lucy were so good! We were so lucky to have a great first dinner out.

 

Happy 4 Months Lucy

Dear Lucy,

      Today you are four months old! One quarter of your first year, poof, has already gone by. This month you have changed a lot, in many different ways. In all reality this month has been pretty rough. You decided sleep was something you didn’t want to do and fuss was something you wanted to do a lot of. Your new nickname this month was Drama Mama.  Here’s to hoping you turn a corner this month!

     You are now rolling all.the.time! Honestly as I am lowering you to the ground you are already in the rolling process. You started doing this two days after you turned three months old. You have gotten SO strong on your belly and try so hard to crawl. You just want to play with Liam so bad. If you have any kind of support behind your feet you do crawl. Last night I had my leg behind you just enough for you to push up (hips off the ground) and shoot yourself forward.

     Earlier this week I put you in the infamous doorway jumper and you loved it! Your brother was known to be a wild man in the doorway jumper but girl, he had nothing on you at this age! You were jumping like he was a month into using it your first time. You were spinning, jumping, and smiling the entire time.  I am so glad we found something you like that can entertain you for a few minutes.

    You love the exersaucer, your black and white blocks, and Freddie the Firefly. Your fingers are in your mouth all.day.long! Poor girl you can soak through a bib in 30 minutes! You also love to chew on your bibs and Freddie’s wings. When sitting you are always grabbing for your toes and try to “tripod sit” by yourself; hence why Dada is holding your arm in your monthly rocking chair picture, you wouldn’t stop trying to grab your piggy's!

    You are on no set eating schedule, you are the ultimate “grazer” and have 3-4 ounces here and there though out the entire day; totally 28-30 ounces per day.  In the last week we let you try cereal for the first time, a little early but that’s okay. You loved it! You downed a whole little bowl like you’d been eating it for months. Hopefully soon we will move onto some fruits and veggies!

    You basically take a short 15 minute nap in the morning and then a two hour nap in the afternoon but that is it as far as naps go. You go up for a bath around 7 then a bottle at 7:15 and usually in bed (your own bed!) by 7:30. Around 8:30 you usually start crying and we give you a little more to eat and you are asleep until 11. I feed you at 11 and most nights again at 3 and then you wake between 5 and 7. The biggest news this month is that you are now in your crib at night, still napping downstairs in your swing. You are still swaddled for your long nap and night time, Still only like your paci when you are sleeping, you never want it while awake. You LOVE bath time but also love to jump in the infant tub, you use the other side as a spring board to push off of; makes bath time a hard one man job and such a mess however you think it is quite funny!!

   You are wearing a size 2 diaper, mostly 3-6 or 6 month clothes but you have room to grow into the 6 months ones. You weight 15 pounds! (Your appointment is on Friday so I will have more stats then)

I feel like the two month and four month pictures should be swapped but I guess its because the two month picture is closer making you look a lot bigger then you actually were then.