who am I?

time well spent

jackson, olivia and i headed up to visit my entire family on my mom's side in NY....a very over due trip, but since getting married, money and kids have made it hard until now to fit a visit in.  better late than never, right.  we had a wonderful time, just low key, family time.  cooking out, day trips to apple orchards, farms, parks and a whole bunch of pool time (margarita time for aunt kathy and i) and getting to catch up with some childhood friends (miss you kate, sigh). ohyah...and of course, shopping!!  it was amazing to see my children playing with my cousins!  my uncle joey was 15 when i was born, i was 16/17 when his daughter erin was born and now...baby erin is 14 the same year olivia was born....coming full circle! so wonderful.  my great aunt kay finally got to meet jackson and olivia, a true blessing.  she is so amazing...she still rocks in the kitchen at the age of 85!!  i credit her with my love of cooking and baking...i think we made our first batch of cookies when i was maybe 4 or 5.  

thank you to my whole family.....for opening your homes and your hearts to my family.  we are so very grateful for the time we shared with everyone and all the help everyone enlisted in,  to make this time possible!! xox

funny how fast it goes by, i thought 10days would be plenty enough time(bordering on obscene for aunt kathy and fam), but it went so well, yet swiftly.....it was the best.

aunt joanie and littlemama

uncle joey with olivia

aunt kay and olivia

the entire O'Brien family- minus brian & aunt kay....

Brian teaching jman all about dirt bikes...a took him for a ride too!

jackson feeding the animals at Jones Farm

Family dinner night-clockwise:  aunt kay, aunt 'joanie', me, olivia, erin, aunt kathy, gran, nathan, patrick and uncle joey.

the ladies gearing up for a full day of fun shopping at woodbury common....a must do for any visit north!!  littlemama got to come as well, notice her in the background in her seat..ready to hit it

school's in session

jackson started his first day of school today....he is getting so big.  I dropped him off in Ms.S and Ms K's 3's class...and it hit me, deja'vu.  as i was walking out of jman's new classroom , i was directly looking at his one from last year.  it was like standing in a time machine for one brief second.  the classroom was the same, but the children looked so small, surely jackson did not look as young, right? wrong, just then his old teacher saw me and i had to ask.."are these kids at the younger end of the age group"...her answer, "nope, just the same as last, some older some younger...just like littleman....then i asked, "did jackson look that little, she said with a wink, YES!!!"  wow....i am a mush, but it made me sad.  jackson had a wonderful first day..loves his class, teachers (one of them is his teacher from his toddler class, yay!) and all the new children he shares it with.

back in the grind

we are back from yankee town and getting settled into the groove of everyday life again.....a full post coming soon to see a snipit of our trip.  sorry for the blog confusion, i had to block my blog while on vacay due to some disrespectful comments left in a post.....oh well, not everyone respects boundaries and i had to adjust my security.  

Off to the OC...

tomorrow morning jackson, olivia and I are off to the OC......no, not cali, but rather orange county, new york. my entire family is up there and we have not been back since the winter after nathan and i got married!! none of my family has had the opportunity to meet jackson or olivia, so this is going to be a real treat ( on so many levels, wink)....wait til they get a load of littleman, they won't know what has hit them, hehe. along with it being our first trip back in quite some time, it will be the first ever plane ride for both kids......and i get the honors of being their escort solo!! i hope it goes by fast and smooth. fingers crossed and many prayers said........i apologize in advance to anyone who is on the continental fight north tomorrow for any craziness that ensues.
i remember, back in the day, looking forward to a nice flight somewhere fun, book in hand, the opportunity to catch up on some mindless reading and then looking at those who are boarding the plane and seeing it...... that mom, kids in tow, one screaming, one running around and the mom looking like, "please god, deliver me from evil", and all i could think was....."oh great, those brats and that crazed woman are probably going to be seated next to me...so much for peace!" a little ironic that now i may be one of those moms....just praying we can all get there in one piece and hope that we do not make others any crazier than we are.....karma baby.
wish us luck....happy travels

sitting pretty

its official, olivia is now able to sit up all on her own!! today on the dot, littlemama finally stopped weeble-wobbling and sat just perfectly stable.....ohh, how fast it all goes by.

olivia sitting up....6 months and amost 3 weeks

jackson and olivia sitting pretty...jackson is trying to imitate how littlemiss is sitting, hehe

little digger

so do you think we need to get littleman a sandbox?? see below

while nathan and i were doing yard work and filling in holes, jackson had fun with some of the sand pits by digging in them...not exactly what we were trying to do (make play spots), but it worked for him...i think it could have made for a great jeff foxworthy joke!! (wink)

littlemama mess

fresh blueberries+ learning to blow raspberries= big mess for mommy

we have expanded on our solid foods and trying our best to feed at least once a day if not twice, but olivia finds it more amusing to see how much she can get on me than in her belly. i must say, it does put a smile on my face to see her giggle after she blows razzes!! jackson never did this so this is a new adventure. olivia is really finding her personality as well as new noises every day. first it was growling, then it was fake- gasping for air, then she realized that if she coughed, she got our attention and once she knew that, she coughed until she was blue (not literally) but you get my drift....now she found raspberries, the cutest by far (less, when combined with food, hehe). jackson finds this noise the funniest by far and it cracks us up when he runs in saying, "mommy, sissy is making that tootie-noise again". i am enjoying every day with her and taking as much in as i can of each phase as i know, it too will pass. i just love this little monkey girl!!

bonding time with my boy

i have been making special time this summer just for jackson and i to share....it is truly hard to juggle your time between two children and there just never seems to be enough of me to go around! i do not know how people with more children do it. i am spread thin with just my two. jackson really needed this time with me, one on one...i can see his eyes light up when he knows it going to be just us and these shared moments have improved his behavior as well ( he had been acting out this summer, just to nathan and i...mr. sassy boy as he has been called)....we have done the usual park time, playdates to the pool, a trip to the planetarium and MOSH, movie day with good friends at the five points theatre ( they have been offering children's movies every tuesday) and visits to friends houses to round it out. i have really enjoyed these moments with my littleman, it brings me right back to that time when it was just him! he is getting so big and i can see that this time will pass fast and he will want friends over mom time...so i put these adventures in a special place in my heart!

happy half birthday!

look how far we have come in just 6 short months...

olivia- birth day, 4lbs 14oz

olivia-6months, 15 lbs 4 oz

feels like yesterday, nathan and I juggling life at the hospital and passing in the wind. i cannot believe we have shared half of a year with olivia already.....she has managed to bring more happiness, joy and smiles then we could have ever imagined. we love you olivia, you are a true blessing!