apple.......

casey has finally added a new word to her vocabulary.......for a while we thought she was never going to say another word besides "birdie" or "ball".......aside from "dada" and "mama" (well, "mama" has become "mana" lately for some odd reason).......her newest word is apple.......it's super cute how you can actually see her working to get it out......it doesn't quite roll off the tongue yet......but she is definitely saying it.......

chicago trip

realized i neglected to add a blurb about our somewhat recent roadtrip to chicago to see jean (casey's godmother).......we drove.......16 hours each way........split it up over 2 days out and 2 days back - which was a good thing because i don't think any of us could've taken anymore time in the car per day........on the way out, we took the northern route - over the great lakes into canada......saw niagara falls for about literally 5 minutes.......stayed at a quaint little holiday inn express in hamilton, canada.......on the ride back, we went south of the great lakes and stayed over in erie, pennsylvania at a nicer, but not as homey, courtyard marriott.......it had a pool which was a nice change of pace for us all - especially since we actually checked in an hour before casey's bedtime so we had some time "to spare".......we spent 3 days with jean in chicago.......it was very nice to not be in the car, although we did make quite a few trips to the grocery store while we were there!.......it was fantastic though to have homecooked meals that i didn't have to prepare or clean up from too much and it was great seeing jean........i'm glad she and casey are going to be close even though they're not living near each other.......casey wasn't as sure about jean's cats though.......she liked to see them from a distance, but wasn't too psyched when they came to check her out........didn't really warm up to them like we thought she might over the 3 days.......jean's house is really neat - all kinds of decorations and fountains and cool little knick-knacks and it's situated on a lake which was great to be able to take casey around........it was so nice to not have to drive to a nice place to walk.........the path around the lake had 2 playgrounds so we made sure to visit each of them........one day we went to this sturbridge village like place that had some animals, mini tractors, a carousel, a train, and a hayride that casey took part in.......we forgot her stroller and kept her out a bit too late (missed naptime) but otherwise she loved it........and we survived 32 hours in the car.........now we'll have to see how camping goes next month!.......

my return to the work world......well, kind of.......

continuing my blogging procrastination.......
so i started a 10 hr/week job at stop & shop last week.......once unemployment money runs out (should be coming up within the month) we're going to need me to bring in some cash to cover bills.......we worked out that i need to bring home about $120/week........really not too bad at all.......i've already got $30 from teaching my monday morning gym class........so the 10 hrs at s&s will bring in $80 more.......only need maybe one more small gig a week or just need to readjust our spending somewhere so we're spending $10 less a week........
anyway, s&s isn't too bad.......i'm working mostly behind the service desk so it's different from in high school when i was a cashier.......feels a little "higher" in command.......not sure if that's in my head or not - not like i'm making more money than any of the cashiers in the front end.......there's a lot to keep us busy behind the desk - lottery, western union, money orders, bottle returns, product returns, cashing checks, and random things like rug doctor rentals.......it was an adjustment standing on my feet for 5 hours at a time, obviously because of the being 5+ months prego thing, but think i'm getting used to it........
in addition to the extra money, it gives my parents time with casey without me on thursdays and steve a night at home with her without me on tuesdays.......both of which are good things.......

blogging instead......

so instead of the million things i should be getting done right now (dinner, dirty dishes, dirty sippy cups, laundry, designing a flyer, reading my personal trainer textbook, etc., etc.) i've decided to blog instead.......
i'm fearing that we may have crossed the line to one nap per day land.......casey hasn't really had a second nap for about 3 days now - the last 2 days i figured it was because her schedule was off and she wasn't napping in her crib for that nap, but today's attempt was in her crib and has seemed to fail........of course her first/only nap seems to now be happening at 9:30am so by 3pm we've got a super tired casey that won't nap.......we've gotta figure this thing out........if she's going to one nap, that nap's gotta be at least around noon........tomorrow we've got our waterbabies class then supposed to be going out for coffee/breakfast afterwards, so casey won't be napping until about 11ish anyway.......guess we can try out the new later naptime and see how that works.......it's been so long now that we've had a consistent napping schedule.......i'm dreading getting us into a new routine........i'm sure it'll happen, it's just that neither casey or i handles change all that well.......=)

surprise surprise......

casey's first official word = bird (well pronounced "ber")
casey's first official two syllable word = birdie

why am i not surprised?.......thanks merlin for providing all of casey's language inspiration......=)

waterbabies......

so we took our first waterbabies class today at the ymca.......casey loved it.......there were way more people in the class than i thought there would be - about 30 sets of parent/baby i'd guess.......casey was completely in awe of everything happening around her - all the kids, all the noise, the pool itself.......we got to the class about 15 min early and she just sat on my lap the whole time taking it all in.......a couple other moms and i were commenting how bizarre it was that the kids were so anti-squirmy.......speaking of other moms - met another mom whose son is 14 months and she's due in october with her #2.......they live in hanover though so not exactly right next door to have playdates or anything, but still nice to meet and talk to someone in a similar sitaution as us.......aside from a couple things the class instructor showed us that i thought were a little advanced (having the baby sit on the wall of the pool, roll onto their belly, and slide into the pool; and similarly, climbing out of the pool using elbows, knees, and feet method) casey seemed to be right there with them on everything else.......she splashed, kicked, floated on her back and on her belly.......didn't seem to mind any of it.........and it was great to finally feel comfortable holding her in the water........until now every time casey's been in the water (pool or ocean) steve holds her.......which is what i've wanted because i haven't been comfortable enough doing it........definitely by the end of the class i was much more confident about holding her than when we started.........it was a little tricky figuring out how to get her and me out of our wet clothes and into dry ones in the locker room with 50 or so other people in there and water all over the floor........guess we'll get used to that.......oh it did lead me to do my first vertical/standing diaper change today!......anyway, it was a good class all around, can't wait for the coming weeks!........

father's day......

sending happy fathers day #2 wishes to my hubby!.......he's really a great dad.......he is so in love with casey.......i know he counts the minutes until he gets to see her again when he's at work or at a meeting.......i'm really lucky to have a hubby who wants to be involved in raising our kids and is so excited and in awe of casey.......there are a lot of dads out there that seem to buy into the stereotype that the moms deal with all things kid-related and dads are just relagated to be parent #2......he has always challenged that notion and i'm glad.......he's never resented the fact that i'm staying home with casey even though i'm sure that if roles were reversed, i'd secretly (or maybe not so secretly) hate him if he got to spend all day with her and i had to work.......in addition to being grateful for having such a great kid and being able to stay home and raise her, i am very grateful for having such a great partner, friend, and baby-daddy.......=)

steve seemed to really enjoy his day with casey......we didn't do anything particularly exciting - it rained a lot so couldn't really get outside for a hike at faxon park or anything like that.......but we had a fun day in.......casey finally started saying dada again (after a bizarre hiatus where she'd just call him mama too).......and he really liked the "super dad" plaque that casey painted for him herself (see picture below).......he's also looking forward to next year when he'll have two little ones wishing him a happy day......