remembering paul

last week steve's cousin paul loring died.......he was a 26 year old kid......served a year in iraq......was a boston firefighter.......just got engaged.......was days away from passing papers on a house......he and his friend died while driving home from the patriots game......very sad story......

one of the stories i heard over the last couple days was about paul's time in iraq.......he was a transportation guy - drove tanks and whatnot in convoys......they were told never to stop driving for fear it would be a trap and would result in an ambush.......so this one time he was driving and there was a little kid in the road.......his superior officier told him not to stop - to run the kid over......and paul didn't do it.......he disobeyed the order and stopped the vehicle.......well apparently he did this not only once, but twice......

it was the right decision (well in my opinion).......he saved two kids' lives while in the military.......i'm not sure if he directly saved anyone's life in his two years as a firefighter, but i'm sure he would've if he had more time on this earth......maybe he had to die so those kids in iraq could live......that's a notion that i learned from a book called "the five people you meet in heaven"......regardless he was a great kid and i'm sorry casey won't get to grow up to know him......

da da

ok she finally said it......and now she's saying it all the time........
da da da da da da

my awesome birthday

ok so my "birthdays rock" post was written before my actual birthday - it was on thursday (16th).....so i was super looking forward to my birthday as i do every year.......well guess what?.......this year's day did rock....there was no one thing that made it great, just the whole day was really nice.......my parents came up as they usually do on thursdays and it was nice to see them.......went to the gym and had a good workout while they were watching casey......then they took me out for a nice lunch at which casey was very well behaved......steve cooked me one of my favorite dinners - spanish chicken & rice - a spicy fun meal featuring, yes you guessed it, both chicken and rice and um, i don't really know what else as it's normally steve's meal to make......he also got me some beautiful flowers and a night stay in newport for this coming tuesday......then the red sox had an awesome comeback from 7-0 down to win 8-7 in game 5 of the playoffs thus avoiding elimination (well technically they didn't win until after midnight, but i'm still taking birthday credit for it!)......and the best present of all was getting to spend the day with casey rather than being at work all day......i'm so happy and grateful i got laid off.......this is fantastic being able to be home with her.......something i've been thinking a lot about lately is from the movie sicko about health care in the united states versus in other countries and how bad we stack up as a nation.......there are some countries that let you stay home PAID for a year after you give birth.......that's really the way it should be.......no one should have to miss this to make their mortgage payment.......

omnivorasaurus......

if casey was a dinosaur she'd be an omnivorasaurus........our kid eats anything.......it's crazy.......we could puree anchovies and she'd probably eat them.......

here's the list of things she's all about so far.......
~ peas
~ carrots
~ butternut squash
~ sweet potatoes
~ rice cereal
~ oatmeal
~ breast milk (well obviously there i guess)
~ formula

next on the agenda, zucchini - our first homemade food.......wish us luck!

our lil political girl

so last weekend we went up to new hampshire for the weekend to do some campaign work for the obama campaign......since massachusetts is a definite democratic state, no sense in doing work for his campaign here......we had a great time......steve and casey went door-to-door on saturday while i did some office work, and i went with them door-to-door on sunday.......stayed at a nice hotel on hampton beach and watched the red sox lose game 2 in extra innings in the wee hours of the morning......
met a lot of mccain fans on sunday when i went out with steve and casey.......lots of older people who pretty openly admitted their uncomfortableness with voting for a black man.......one man told us he's on the fence because he's not sure if obama will "be for us or them" meaning for whites or blacks......very sad to see that racism still exists that openly in today's "progressive" world.......hopefully it'll be no big deal if a black man runs for office when casey's older......
only 17 more days till election day......keeping our fingers crossed!!.......

birthdays rock

ok, so i'm not one of those people that hate their birthday......in fact i'm not one of those people that are just somewhat mildly happy when their birthday rolls around......i'm crazy excited about my birthday.......it's definitely my favorite "holiday"......christmas is great too, but you have to stress out about finding the right gift for everyone else.......which by the way is a whole post really in itself, because finding the perfect gift for someone happens only once in like 5 years.......you know when you've found the perfect gift when you're more happy to give it to them than you are about opening the gifts you're going to get......but back to birthdays......i LOVE my birthday......and i married someone who loves his birthday too - in fact when he first told me he celebrates his whole birth month, i knew i found the right guy.......because i couldn't be with someone who didn't love their birthday.......it'd make me feel petty and pathetic for liking mine so much.......i really hope casey grows to be a birthday-lover too.......of course there's probably some psychological reason that it's bad i like my birthday so much - like i wasn't loved enough as a child or didn't get enough attention growing up or something like that (neither of which is the case)......but i don't care - i love my birthday, so there.......=P

off the crutches baby......

we have successfully weaned casey off two of her crutches that she seemed to have in her first 6 months on earth.......one was the swaddle.......i thought we were gonna have to teach her college roommate how to swaddle her at the rate she was going.......she was too big for one blanket so we were using two blankets to make an effective swaddle.......well the 90 degree nights plus the fact that she was starting to roll over made it impossible to keep her in the swaddle anymore.......so we went cold turkey (well pretty much) and remarkably she's doing fine without the swaddle.......

secondly, we definitely spoiled her into expecting us to walk/rock/bounce/insert-any-other-verb-here to sleep for her first 6 months......we'd put her in her crib asleep and while she'd sleep through the night, it was getting harder and harder to put her down in her crib without her waking up.......so after a week in which she didn't go to sleep until after 11 every night after hours of us trying to get her to bed, we drew the line......we tried the farbers method, which says to put them in their crib awake, but sleepy......and to go back in to check on her at 3-5-8-10-12 min intervals each time for a minute each to soothe her then leave again.......it was super hard to just let her cry for so long the first few nights, but it actually seems to be working.......she's asleep usually before the 8 minute check.......which is fantastic.......she's happier, we're happier.......life's good......

loving carrots......

is it any wonder with that hair that she'd love carrots??......they're way more liquidy than the peas - hence more mess.......but she loves 'em!.......