Melissa's Baby Shower

In just 7 short weeks (give or take some days) Jake's new BFF will enter this world...but first, we had to shower the parents-to-be with some gifts for baby Ben!!



The shower was held at the Grand Concourse...the room was the perfect size, the food was yummy and the mama-to-be looked great!

I have to rave about the cake...if you're in Pittsburgh and find yourself in need of a fabulous cake, you need to check out Creative Cakes by Gwen. She is amazing...not only are her cakes beautiful, they are SO yummy (there were some non-cake eaters who were raving about how good it is!)

I didn't get a picture of them, but for favors, we did customized candy bar wrappers over Twix bars (Melissa's favorite) I ordered them from a local designer, who also does invitations, birth announcements, Christmas cards, etc....check out her website!! She does a great job and is very easy to work with!!

After the shower, we went back to Dennis's grandfather's house to oooh and ahhh over her gifts once again...she got a lot of great stuff and some adorable clothes! Jake was greatly entertained by Melissa's friend, Monica...she got so many laughs out of him!

He also spent some quality time with Melissa's mom, Wilma, and got a ride on Melissa's non-injured leg :)

A Busy Sunday

We had no plans on Sunday, which was fabulous! Our friend Hannah had stayed with us Saturday night after Melissa's shower (see next post!) and Sunday we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go into Oakland for some walks in the sunshine and of course, Dave and Andy's! For those of you not familiar, Dave & Andy's is only the BEST ice cream you will ever have. Seriously...you'll never want to have ice cream from anywhere else ever again.

I have to share my excitement about our trip there...I always get chocolate chip cookie dough, it's my staple. But-Hannah was ordering Birthday Cake (also a tasty treat) and I almost switched my order, until I happened to glance into the tub of cookie dough ice cream; inside of the magical tub was the BIGGEST clump of cookie dough I have ever seen! It was seriously probably the equivalent of 2 or 3 cookies (only it was dough, so that's even BETTER than real cookies!) So of course, I switched back to the cookie dough and asked the girl specifically to dish out that huge chunk for me. Heaven on a cone, let me tell you!

So we enjoyed walking around Oakland, reminsicing about the "good old days", getting very nostalgic about it all. After that, we just relaxed around the house, Brian got a bit of yard work done and then it was time for dinner. At Jake's pediatrician appointment last week, the dr said that we could offer him water in a sippy cup whenever we were comfortable doing it, so we figured why not? We weren't expecting much, we really just wanted to get him introduced to the sippy & figured he'd play around with it while we finished eating dinner. Wrong! Brian helped him hold it at first:

But pretty soon, he was holding it up all by himself!

He got frustrated when he didn't hold it up far enough and no water came out, so we'd tip it back for him and he'd get some more out of it. By the end of dinner, he had downed 1.5 ounces of water! I hope this keeps up, because I have never been a big fan of water, so maybe Jake will continue to enjoy it.

By the end of the day, sheer exhaustion had set in....an exhaustion so overwhelming that even being stripped down naked didn't wake him. ahhh...the life of a baby.

6 month check up

Jake had his 6 month check up last night, everything went well! The doctor gave him an A+ overall, we're so proud. Here were his stats:

Weight: 17 lbs, 9 oz (50th percentile)

Height: 27 inches (75th percentile)

So our suspicions were confirmed...he's a tall baby! (taking after his daddy, no doubt) He had dropped 10% for weight, but the dr wasn't concerned at all and said that he did gain weight and that's really all they look for. He screamed during the shots of course (and mommy sobbed) but once they were over, he returned to happy baby.

And don't worry...we got the most important information of all during the visit...Brian and the dr began discussing skiing and the doctor happily informed Brian that he can start taking Jake when he turns 3 (which happens to be during ski season, lucky us!) I guess I have 2.5 years to learn to suck it up being in the cold so that I can see my baby hit the slopes!!

Uncle of the Year

My brother is really going for the title of "Uncle of the Year". While at my parents house on Saturday, my mom & I were doing a few things upstairs & left Nate in charge of Jake downstairs on the couch. In the 15 minutes that we were gone, these were the frantic cries for help that were heard from Uncle Nate:

Nate: EMMY!!!! (screamed really loudly like something terrible had happened, so I go flying down the stairs)

Me: What?? (when I see that nothing is visibly wrong)

Nate: He's trying to eat his feet, is that ok?

Me: um...yes, it's fine.

*a few minutes later*

Nate: EMMY!!!

Me: What now?

Nate: He keeps kicking his legs, what's wrong with him?

Me: nothing is wrong with him, he just likes to do that.

Nate: Oh, ok...will you take him anyway?

And the best one wasn't a conversation, more of a frantic plea....Jake proceeded to spit up on Nate (it wasn't even that much, he should see what it looks like sometimes!) and Nate began to yell "Take him! Take him! Emmy, stop laughing & take him, he just threw up on me!!!"

Welcome to Unclehood, Nate :) I can't make fun too much though; for having never been around babies, Nate does a fabulous job of holding Jake & being a wonderful uncle to him (just don't ask him change a diaper...or handle spit up, apparently....)

Just for fun, here is a picture of the first time that Nate got to hold Jake:

Brace yourself: cuteness overload ahead

Warning: this story may make your heart melt.

Jake has a girlfriend at school, her name is Lindsey & she's a little over a year old. Lindsey introduced herself to Jake on his very first day of school by welcoming him with a big sloppy kiss and doing the same thing every day since.

Jake wasn't in school on Friday or Monday, then Lindsey wasn't there on Tuesday, so Wednesday was their big reunion. Brian brought Jake in and set him down on the floor with a teacher; Lindsey soon spotted him, dropped what she was doing, threw her arms in the air & yelled "BABY!" while running across the room toward him. She then did her usual greeting of a hug and a sloppy kiss...after the teacher untangled Lindsey from Jake, Lindsey then sat down across from Jake and (are you ready for this?) held his little hands. (go ahead...awwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!) The teacher started singing "row, row, row your boat" and Lindsey continued to hold Jake's hands & move him back & forth in their little love boat.

Recipe-Bruschetta Chicken Bake

Bruschetta Chicken Bake

1 can diced tomatoes
1 package (6 oz) Stove Top Stuffing Mix (chicken flavored)
1/2 cup water
2 cloves garlic
1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cut into bite sized pieces)
1 tsp basil
1 cup mozzarella cheese

-Preheat oven to 400
-in a large bowl, stir tomatoes, water, garlic and stuffing mix until stuffing is moistened.
-Place chicken in a 13x9 baking dish; sprinkle with basil
-Top with stuffing mix and cheese
-Bake for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through

Book Review: "Veil of Roses"

Veil of Roses (Laura Fitzgerald)

One of the best books I've read in awhile...it's about a twenty-something girl who moves to America from Iran and the book follows her journey to the states to find herself and love. It sounds cheesy, but it was an easy read and it was much more light-hearted than I expected it to be.

Up next: Our July book club selection, The Beach House (Jane Greene)

Like father, like son

And just for fun, I wanted to show off the handsome men in my life, dressed alike:

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming....

As promised in the last post, here are the pictures of Jake's first time swimming. We bought him a little inflatable baby boat that worked out very well ($9.99 at BRU, if anyone needs one!) and he seemed very content to just float around the pool in it!

When he wasn't in his boat, Aunt Amy was giving him swim lessons (he would pull his legs up & his little feet would stick up out of the water, he looked like a chubby little frog!)

While Gracie has been swimming before, we can't really say that she loved it, so we weren't going to put her in the pool this time. She started out sunbathing on the pool deck, but quickly became overwhelmed with jealousy that everyone was in the pool except for her, she couldn't stand it! She started crying & trying to jump into the pool...eventually she got back in, then wanted to get back in, then wanted out, then in...you get the picture....here she is, sporting the "drowned rat" look:

Since the first day of swimming was such a success (and it was even hotter outside the next day) we decided to go again...this time, Jake lasted about 15 minutes, then passed out in his little boat! He ended up sleeping for an hour & a half, just relaxed as could be, floating around!

Summer Vacation

We took a trip to visit the in-laws over the weekend; I'm classifying it as a vacation for a few reasons:


-we took vacation days to make it a long weekend
-I ate whatever I wanted
-Nana took Jake every morning so that we could sleep in (it was glorious)
-we went swimming (see next post for details on Jake's first swim lesson)
-I FINALLY saw "Sex & The City" (LOVED it! and I love Brian for taking me to see it, totally against his will...though I caught him laughing quite a few times....)


We had a great time and Jake had a few adventures and quite a few visitors. Aunt Reen & Cousin Sarah came over Friday night...Jake loved hanging out with them because they happened to be there just in time to feed him dinner.



Brian's BFF Ed and his fiancee Sarah came over to visit as well, Jake enjoyed snuggling with Sarah before bedtime.



The highlight of the weekend for Jake was probably getting his first taste of sweet potatoes. After a funny look on his face during the first bite, he then gobbled it down. He probably would have finished the whole jar had I let him, but being the slightly paranoid mommy that I am, I didn't want to overdo it at first. I hope he keeps up these great eating habits!!

TAG....

...I'm it!

I've never been tagged before, so I feel honored to have been tagged by Michelle (this is also forcing me to learn how to link people's names in my blog!) Here's what it said:

So, the criteria was as follows:Name five things that you can't live without. It can't be a person, it has to be something material that actually makes your life easier. It can't be something in general, it must be exact. Also, it can't be the obvious like a cell phone or computer.

1. Everyone is saying this, but it's so true...my DVR. We just got DVR in January, but I don't know how I lived without it for that long! It came just in time with the baby too, because I have no idea what I would have done at 3am while nursing him if it weren't for all of the episodes of Sex and the City, The Office, Dawson's Creek, etc...that I had saved to provide me with mindless entertainment in the middle of the night.

2. Thomas Whole Wheat Bagels; I eat one every single morning for breakfast at work, providing me with not only a filling breakfast, but also a nice time to leisurely start my morning by eating, checking email, blogs, etc.... Did you know that each bagel contains a full day's worth of whole grains and 10 grams of protein? (I won't get into the carbs & calories, I think the grain & protein sound better)

3. Coffee; it has gone from something that I couldn't stand a few years ago (unless it was in the form of some type of latte, laced with syrup & sugar) to something that is in my morning routine now. I guess that's what happens when you have a baby & need to find a way to get through a day on very little sleep!! I don't think I'll ever be a hard core coffee drinker though, I still have to taint mine with flavored creamer & sugar.

4. Dyson; you know that something is a good product when your husband (who couldn't care less about any other household cleaning products) is madly in love with it. I love the suction power, the attachments and in a twisted way, I love the see-through canister because I love seeing how much dirt & hair gets collected off of my floors (it fills me with a sense of achievement)

5. John Freida's Secret Weapon Flawless Finishing Cream; without this, my hair would be a gigantic poof ball every time I left the house. (remember that episode of "Friends" where they went to Barbados, what happened to Monica's hair? Yeah, that's what mine would look like....)

I'm going to tag Jenn and Amber.

On the road again...

Jake is becoming quite the traveler...this past weekend was his 2nd trip to Virginia to stay with Uncle Dennis & Aunt Melissa. We were going down for the weekend for a wedding and it just so happened to be about 15 minutes from where they live...worked out very well for us! We stayed at Hotel de la Martini & the place came with babysitters for us. We went down Friday morning (which was the 4th of July) but the weather was not very cooperative for many outdoor activites, but we still had fun eating the standard Independence Day food of burgers/hot dogs/corn on the cob, followed by a night of board games! Our good friend from Pitt, Hannah, stopped by for a visit as well!

The wedding was gorgeous and we had a great time! It was my friend Jon from high school, so I got to see some friends that I normally only get to see either at weddings or over Christmas, so it's always good to get caught up. Here is the whole Washpa crew, plus significant others/fiancees/spouses:

While we had a good time, it was HOT. I actually broke a sweat (and for those of you who know me well, you know that this is a very rare occurence!) I tried to stay as cool as possible, but the band was awesome and the music was too good to not dance! Fortunately, they had some very yummy lemonade on tap!

The night was also a big accomplishment for Brian & I...it was our first night away from Jake (well, both of us together away from him-we've each been away from him separately at night, but never both of us at the same time) All in all, I have to say that I did a pretty good job...I only called Melissa once to check in! (and I waited until after the ceremony!) When I called to check in, she reported that so far he had pooped out of his diaper and onto his outfit & was getting ready to have a bottle :) She got some good practice in for the arrival of her little one in September! I was proud of myself that I got through the night without tears (though I did miss getting to tuck him in for bedtime) and it was nice to have some time to ourselves.

Happy 4th of July!

We took a road trip for the holiday weekend (details in next posting) but Jake just wanted to say Happy Independence Day and show off his "little firecracker" shirt ($1 bin at Target, such a good find!) unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of him prior to spitting up all over it, but you get the idea:




And this is one of my favorite pictures of Gracie, so of course, I had to show it off too (we call this one "Patriotic Puppy"):

Recipe-Taco Soup

This was in the Rachel Ray cookbook that my parents got me for Mother's Day, I chnaged a few things just a bit...it was really easy to make and very yummy! (makes about 2 servings)

Taco Soup

1/2 cup mild salsa
1 cup shredded cooked chicken (I used a can)
1.5 cups chicken broth or stock
crushed tortilla chips
shredded cheddar cheese

-In a medium pot, combine chicken and salsa, then add chicken stock or broth and a small handful of cheese (season with pepper if desired)
-bring quickly to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes
-sprinkle cheese and crushed tortilla chips on top and serve!