The DiLullo Daily

Alyssa Crawls!

2012-02-15T21:23:00.003-05:00

Following in her big sister's foot steps, Alyssa is officially "crawling" at 7.5 months! And just like Samantha did, her version of "crawling" is really just dragging herself across the floor. But I know, just like Samantha did, in another month she will be up on her hands and knees and all over the place! Things just got a little crazier over here!

Here's the little crawl baby in action...

Three Years Old!

2012-01-22T22:22:00.007-05:00

Someone just turned three!

To celebrate we threw a princess pizza party!

Even Alyssa joined in on the princess fun!

Samantha loved her princess cake, and didn't need any help blowing out the candles. The cake came with three disney princess cake toppers, which Samantha was so nice to share with her friends, and when her cousin Julia asked if she could take Cinderella home, Samantha said "yes." I was so proud of her. She is so good at sharing and very generous with her friends.

Some favorite birthday gifts include a microphone that plays music from The Little Mermaid, and a pink princess big wheel, both pictured here.

And Daddy gave Samantha a bride dress, so he could practice walking her down the isle.

The hoop skirt makes it hard to sit in.

Here are Samantha's stats from her 3 year check up:

Weight: 31.6 pounds (61%)

Height: 37 inches (51%)

At three years old, Samantha is loads of fun! I'm really enjoying this age, I just wish I could press pause and linger here for a while in this world where I'm surprised and overjoyed every day by this adorable little person who says the cutest things. (Like today, when the news was on she said, "Mom, this is adult TV. Don't you think I should be watching kid TV? I think you should put on a kid movie." Yes she's already learned how to be passive agressive!)

Samantha is a girly girl. She loves princesses and barbie dolls, she loves to dress up and she can't bear to be in anything but a tutu. The other day when begging her to take her tutu off and put on her pajamas she said "But I'll never get my first kiss if I'm wearing pajamas! I need to wear a tutu!" Yes, we are in big trouble, and no, I have no idea where she heard the expression "I'll never get my first kiss." I swear I"m not letting her watch PG 13 movies.

Samantha loves to sing, right now she is really into show tunes. She loves "Seasons of Love" from the Rent soundtrack, and "Master of the House" from Les Mis. She also loves "The Little Mermaid" soundtrack and yes, we are still singing Christmas songs. While jingle bells was last year's favorite, this year we've been singing a lot of The Drummer Boy and Hark The Herald Angels Sing.

Samantha still takes a nap in the afternoon, from about 2:30-4:30. Although, she does not sleep every day, some days she just plays in her room. Then at bedtime I put her down at 8 and sometimes she is good and stays in her bed and goes to sleep, but on most days we play "jack in the box." She comes out of her room, I put her back in. Sometimes I find her sleeping in the upstairs hallway, I guess to her anything is better than being in her room..it means she was able to get a little bit of control.

Oh yes, the control thing..I guess this comes with the threes. We saw it with the twos, but it's really come in full force lately. Samantha can do everything "all by myself!" She wants to brush her own teeth, get herself dressed, get herself buckled in the car, anything that Mommy would normally do for her she wants to do...which is great..Mommy just has to remember to start factoring extra time in our routine to accommodate all of these "all by myselfs."

Other than the bedtime struggles and the occasional power struggle, Samantha is an excellent kid. Her teacher laughed at her parent-teacher conference, saying she is like no kid she has ever had before. She is assertive yet sweet. Meaning, she is a go getter, she knows what she wants, but at the same time she is sweet with the other kids, she is not aggressive and has no problem sharing. I think this is a pretty good description of her. She is sweet, and she, for the most part, always does what you ask her to do. If you say "Sam it's time to clean up your toys and go upstairs." she says "okay" and starts cleaning up. She is super outgoing and loves to play. She makes a new friend everywhere we go, the grocery store, CVS, you name it. When we drop her off at school she just runs to her friends and starts playing. While the other kids in her two year old class are still clinging to their moms, I have to beg Sam to come give me a kiss goodbye.

I can't imagine my life with out Samantha in it. We spend all of our time together, she's practically my best friend (although I swear I do have adult friends!). We go shopping together and while I'm trying things on she'll say "that looks beautiful on you Mom!" We cuddle on the couch and watch movies together, we bake cupcakes together, she helps me with Alyssa, we do everything together (except on Tuesday and Thursday mornings when Sam has school. Sometimes while we are in the middle of playing barbies or whatever, I will stop and just stare at her and take in how beautiful she is. Her big blue eyes, her full lips, her high cheek bones. She really is beautiful on the inside and out. I couldn't be more pleased with her.

6 months!

2012-01-05T15:07:00.003-05:00

Alyssa is six months old! Here are her stats:

Weight: 16 lbs 10 oz. (68th percentile)

Height: 28 inches (97th percentile!)

Head Circumference: 16.5 inches

Alyssa's first six months of life were a bit chaotic. First she had jaundice and spent her first few days of life away from me under light therapy. Then she came home from the hospital on a billy blanket, and had to have in home nurse care for a few days. The she cried nonstop for three months until we finally realized that she has acid reflux and a dairy intolerance. Things got better once I gave up dairy and we got her on zantac, but then we went through the craziness of putting our house on the market and moving. The poor girl has not had a lot of peace and quiet in her short life, but finally things have calmed down, and after six months, and a lot of effort on my part, Alyssa is finally on a schedule!

She wakes up smiling around 7:30am, takes a morning nap from about 9:30-11am. The we go out for the day, because we have to get big sis out of the house. Sometimes we just go pick up big sis from school and have lunch, sometimes we take big sis to gymnastics class and we sit and play and watch, sometimes we go to playgroup, sometimes the park, sometimes just to the grocery store or other little errands, but we try to get out every day because Alyssa does so much better and is so much happier when she is distracted and out of the house!

Alyssa and Samantha both go down for an afternoon nap at 2pm, and (I'm scared to write this down because I'm worried I may jinx it!) I get to enjoy 2.5 hours of quiet while both girls nap until about 4:30. After naps we play, cook in the kitchen, and at 5:30 Alyssa eats her dinner.

Yes, she's eating now...well, kind of. She is just like her sister and so far hates solids. She turns her head and refuses the spoon when I try to feed her, but she will happily take the spoon from my hand and feed herself, although by the time the spoon reaches her mouth there is no food on it. I'm longing for the day when she masters the pincher grasp so we can end this game of throw the spoon full of mashed up food, and move onto the gerber puffs.

After dinner the girls take their bath and Alyssa is in bed at 6:30pm. She still wakes up at night, once or twice to nurse, but hey, nobody's perfect! It's just so nice to finally have some rhythm and regularity to our day. After six months of chaos we are ready for a long boring winter!

Alyssa is kind of, sort of sitting by herself. I usually stand behind her, or prop pillows up around her because she will fall after a little while of sitting on her own, but she is getting there and I expect she will master the skill by her 7 month birthday. She loves being on her tummy. Every time I put her down on her back she immediately rolls herself over onto her tummy and starts "skydiving" bobbing her head up and down, kicking her legs and putting her arms out to the side.

Alyssa is still happily nursing, and I'm still happy about that. Samantha never had a drop of formula and I planned on doing the same with Aly, but plans changed when I had to throw out my entire milk supply because it was all laden with dairy. She gets one to two bottles of formula a day, and the rest is breast milk. I plan to keep on nursing until she is a year, but I do admit that I really miss cheese. However, it was nice over the holidays to not gain five pounds from all the cookies I usually eat.

Alyssa adores her big sister. She laughs in the morning when she sees Samantha. Just the sight of her big sis after a long night with out her makes her giggle with joy. When Alyssa starts crying and I'm busy with something I shout "Sam, make you sister happy!" and Sam goes over and puts her face in Alyssa's face and makes funny noises and sounds and the crying immediately stops as Alyssa stares at Samantha, fascinated by her big sis. The feeling is mutual, Samantha loves Alyssa too. When Samantha wakes up in the morning the first thing she asks for is Alyssa. When I pick Samantha up from school the first thing she does is stick her face in Alyssa's infant carrier and gives her kisses. For now we seem to have escaped sibling rivalry, as the girls are both equally obsessed with each other.

I feel like I can finally exhale and put my feet up, as we continue to settle into our new home and new schedule, life is finally getting easier. We love our new house, we love our life here, we love our girls, and we LOVE Alyssa!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T09:20:00.002-05:00

2011 was the year of change for us. My family was forever changed with the loss of my Aunt Francine and Uncle Stan and then with the addition of our little Alyssa. Samantha went from baby to big girl as she gave up diapers and a crib in the past year. We bought a new house, sold our first home and moved for the first time (and hopefully the last!) in Samantha and Alyssa's life. It has been a roller coaster of a year, and while most of these changes were good changes, they were still difficult to maneuver through. I'm welcoming 2012 with open arms as we settle into our new life in our new home. Here's hoping this year is quiet and calm, and that the road ahead of us (for now anyway) is nice and flat!

Alyssa's First Christmas!

2011-12-27T21:15:00.007-05:00

The presents have been opened, the shopping is all done, our bellies are stuffed and all I can think about is getting into January so I can start the New Years diet and get my house back in order...but for the next few days we will continue to bask in the glow of Christmas.

We had a lovely Christmas this year! Yia Yia and Grandpa both came up from Virginia and are staying with us, now that we have so much room in our new house! We went to church on Christmas eve and then came home and put the cookies that Yia Yia and the girls had baked out by the fireplace for Santa. Pete and Sam took a good look to see if Santa had plenty of room to get down.

Then we sprinkled reindeer food outside in our backyard. Sam made the reindeer food in school with oats and glitter. We really wanted to be sure that Santa didn't skip over our house, especially for little sister Alyssa's first Christmas!

Samantha could barely contain her excitement as she crept down the stairs Christmas morning.

Santa had come!

Samantha got a new kitchen...

And a vanity...

But the only gift she really cared about, and the only thing she really wanted was a Belle dress. She started asking for one last July. And after three gifts she was done! She got what she wanted and had no interest in opening any more gifts. Good thing she has a birthday coming up, we saved the rest for her birthday party!

So Alyssa started opening her gifts. She got some stackable rings and a few tethers, as well as a couple of rattles. But her favorite gift was from Aunt Jessica, Uncle Chuck and cousin Ben..a baby einsteen toy that lights up and makes all sorts of noise.

After we all got dressed (except for Samantha, who never changed out of her Belle dress all day) we welcomed Aunt Becca and Uncle Rich and Baby Tessa, who was also celebrating her first Christmas!

Mom Mom and Pop Pop also came over bearing gifts. Including monogrammed chairs from Pottery Barn for both of the girls. Samantha loves hers and even took her afternoon nap on it!

The we broke in our new dining room and all sat down to dinner. I'd love to say that I cooked a beautiful meal, but I didn't. Yia Yia and Mom Mom really did all of the cooking while I nursed and held Alyssa and chased Samantha around the house.

After dinner the boys relaxed on our new sofa..

And the girls got into their matching jams and relaxed on their new chairs as well!

Then it was time for bed. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Samantha's First Nutcraker Ballet

2011-12-20T21:49:00.002-05:00

I still remember the first time my Mom took me to see the Nutcracker Ballet. I was probably around six. I remember my Mom told me that the Sugar Plum Fairy was the "prima ballerina" the best dancer in the show. I was mesmerized, and at the end of the show when the sugar plum fairy took her bow, I remember standing up and clapping so hard that my hands hurt.

On Saturday I took Samantha to see the Nutcracker Ballet for the first time. Belle and the Beast had to come too (the toys in Sam's hands).

(By the way..this is the mudroom of our new house, which leads out to the garage. Love having a garage!!! And first floor laundry!!)

Samantha could barely contain her excitement while waiting for the lights to dim and the show to start!

Through out the show she leaned over the railing and watched the stage, almost as mesmerized as I was so many years ago. She talked a lot, things like: "Mommy, what are they saying?" and "Where's Clara's Mommy?" and "She's wearing ballet shoes!" and "That's the Mouse King!!" Thankfully, we went to an 11am show, so there were lots of kids in the audience, and they didn't mind the talking so much. Also, thanks to Aunt Jen, we had fabulous seats and Sam had plenty of room to stand up and twirl around when she felt like it (which was often!).

And thanks to Aunt Jen's connections, after the show we got to go back stage! Here we are in front of the growing Christmas tree with Aunt Jen and her niece Katelynn.

I think I better get Samantha enrolled in ballet classes! Here's to my future little prima ballerina!

First tooth!

2011-12-10T23:22:00.002-05:00

During the craziness of moving, I stuck my finger in Alyssa's mouth and discovered that she had not one but two bottom teeth! Her front two bottom teeth have come in! The best part is, I didn't even know she was teething! Unlike the usual fussiness and sleeplessness that comes with teething, Alyssa is sleeping well and has become a pretty happy little baby! In a few more weeks, we are going to put those teeth to good use and start solids!

Home

2011-12-05T20:56:00.000-05:00

Tonight is our last night in our house. We have lived in our home for 6 and a half years. We came home from our honey moon to this house. We brought both of our girls home from the hospital to this house. We have loved our home and have been very happy here. However, about a year ago we decided that we needed more space, and we really wanted a yard for the kids to play in and a nice neighborhood with block parties and culdesacs, and quiet streets where Sam could learn to ride a bike. We started looking before the thought of Alyssa was even in our minds. During our home search we got pregnant and then had Alyssa. We started and stopped looking many times, but eventually a house came on the market that was just the right house for us and had all of the things we were looking for. We put an offer in and soon went under contract. So we put our beloved home on the market and after a lot of stress and nail biting, our house went under contract, and on December 8, we will turn the keys over to new owners. I'm so excited for all the new memories we are going to make in our new home, but I feel weird about leaving our current house. It makes me sad to think about someone else living here, painting over my nursery that my Mom and Sister and I stayed up late painting while wondering who this little guy or girl (Samantha) was in my big belly. I'm going to miss watching Sam do her loop around our house, running her circle from the family room, to the formal living room, through the front hall and into the kitchen. I wonder if she will find a new loop at the new house? I'm going to miss the swings in the back, even though I know we have a big enough yard in our new home to build a real swing set. I'm going to miss the deck trellis and the shelves and the back splash my Dad worked so hard on during several different visits over the years. It's bittersweet, moving. We've made some really nice memories here, and I'm sad to leave..but excited about what lays ahead. And no matter what, I have to remember that it doesn't matter where we are, as long as I am with Pete, Sam and Alyssa..I am home.

Please enjoy this video and memories from our first home. The password is "home"

Five Months!

2011-11-28T21:48:00.003-05:00

We have a lot to be thankful for over here at the DiLullo Daily. First off, we are thankful that after taking Alyssa to the allergist we discovered that she IS NOT allergic to anything. Now, before I get too excited, I do need to bring her back at 9 months to get tested again, as the allergist says sometimes allergies do not show up at this young of an age, but I think we now know the cause of all of Alyssa's distress. Which leads me to the next thing we are thankful for...Zantac. Alyssa's pediatrician prescribed Zantac for her to see if her discomfort is due to acid reflux. Ever since she has been on Zantac, she has been sleeping through the night and taking two, 1.5-2 hour naps a day. She's finally happy! And I'm finally getting a full nights sleep so I'm happy too!!

Alyssa is coming out of the newborn, eat, sleep, poop phase, and moving into the happy laughing playful baby phase. Pete is so excited, as up until now, he has not been able to do much with her other than change her diaper and hand her over to me to nurse. Now he can blow raspberries on her belly and make her laugh her cute little cackle laugh. And when he gets her out of her crib in the morning she greets him with big smiles, as opposed to the unpleasant screams we've become accustomed to. We are just falling in love with little Alyssa as we see her personality begin to take shape. She loves to grab her feet and suck on her toes as I change her diaper. She loves this little blue bird that hangs from her car seat, he can always make her smile. I think she may be teething, as she puts everything in her mouth and chews down on it, as well as drools up a storm. She adores her big sister. She can't take her eyes off Sammy when she's in the room, and Sam can always make her laugh..more than her Daddy and I can.

We're so thankful that Alyssa finally seems happy and comfortable...and I'm possibly seeing a bowl of ice cream in my future!!! (I think I'll wait another month before I test the waters, but I did have a piece of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving and she didn't seem to react to it!)

Sisters!

2011-11-21T22:58:00.002-05:00

Samantha is obsessed with Alyssa. She loves her. When Alyssa wakes up from a nap, Sam gets so excited and demands that I lay her down on the floor so that she can give her tons of hugs and kisses. Good thing the feeling is mutual, Alyssa loves Sammy. Her eyes are always watching her, and Sam is the only member of this family so far, that has made Alyssa belly laugh. See for yourself....

Alyssa's dedication

2011-11-16T21:36:00.004-05:00

Alyssa was dedicated at our church on Sunday, November 13. She did great! Her and Sam were both little angles while up on stage, and she did not cry at all when our pastor took her in his arms, prayed over her, and read the scripture we chose for her, 1 Timothy 4:13:

"Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity."

Alyssa's adoring God parents, Nicole and Christopher, were there to share in it all. After the service we went out to a wonderful brunch with all of the family.

Alyssa enjoyed her first celebration cake (well, not really since I couldn't eat any of it due to her dairy intolerance).

And Samantha enjoyed playing with all of her friend Ella's princesses and using them as forks.

It was a lovely day. Alyssa was as good as gold and it was so nice to take a rest from the chaos of moving and just take some time to focus on our sweet (yes, she's become very sweet lately!) baby girl.

4 Months!

2011-11-02T20:40:00.003-04:00

Alyssa is 4 months old! Sorry sweet girl, but this is the best photo I got of you on your 4 month birthday. I agree the angle is not very flattering, but I can promise you that you are very cute! Here are your stats:

Height: 27 inches (95th percentile)

Weight: 15 lbs 13 1/2 ounces (75th percentile)

Head: 16 inches

Our chunky girl is starting to thin out. I looked back and noticed that Samantha was over 16 pounds at 4 months, it's hard to believe our big 9 lb 2 oz newborn is already at 4 months being surpassed by her 7 lb 11 oz sister.

Alyssa is still having some issues with fussiness and sleeping. I have given up soy and dairy and that has helped tremendously, but every now and then I accidentally eat something with hidden dairy or soy in it and I have to deal with 3 days of a sleepless, cranky baby girl while the forbidden food works its way through her system. In desperation a bought a can of Similac Alimentum Formula, which is specifically designed for babies with a dairy and soy intolerance. I never gave Samantha a drop of formula, but after 4 months of no sleep I was willing to try anything. The formula has helped Alyssa to finally sleep through the night. That is, as long as I don't slip up and eat dairy or soy. If I slip up she's up 3 or 4 times a night. If she's dairy and soy free she can sleep from 6:30pm-5am, then she nurses and goes back to sleep until 8am. She's still having a hard time napping. Some days she naps for an hour and a half, and then on other days she naps for 40 minutes, so we still have no real schedule, but with the deletion of the dairy and soy and the addition of the formula, she's starting to sleep better.

Her pediatrician has recommended at this point that she goes to see an allergist. We have an appointment set up for next Thursday. In the mean time, he's also prescribed Zantac, to see if her colic could be from acid reflux.

Aside from the continuing colic saga, Alyssa, when she is not sleep deprived and pumped full of dairy and soy, has started to smile a lot, and on her four month birthday, she blessed us with her first laugh. It was nap time, and I was getting Sam ready for her nap. She was laying in Samantha's bed and Sam and I were making funny faces at her and she laughed out a loud! A big belly laugh! Then Sam and I continued to make funny faces at her to try to make her laugh again, but then she started crying, so I continued with naptime.

I'm hoping the appointment with the allergist goes well, and we figure out what's bothering Miss Liss, so that we can see less crying and more big smiles and laughter in the coming month.

Happy Halloween?

2011-11-01T22:08:00.001-04:00

Can you believe these photos were taken within one day of each other???!!

Happy Halloween from Cinderella and her Pumpkin!

Life in Pictures...

2011-10-08T20:55:00.003-04:00

I haven't had a lot of time for blogging lately, but let me catch you up on the last few weeks....

We had a visit from Grandpa. We drove Grandpa by our soon-to-be new house, and took him to the park that will soon be less than a mile from our home.

Alyssa tried out the swings for the first time, and probably caught syphilis while doing so.

Sam decided syphilis sounded good and copied her baby sister.

We drove down to Virginia, just me and the girls. I was so nervous about the drive, but we did fine. Alyssa slept the whole time and Sam just watched DVD's (I love my Honda Pilot BTW!) However, with all the nursing and diaper changes, and "Mommy I need to go potty now!" stops, the 5 hour drive took about 7 hours.

While visiting Yia Yia, we went to a parade near her house....

......And I got to go to my dear friend Mary's baby shower.

My high school cheering buddies and I tried to resist the urge to build a human pyramid while posing for this photo.

Samantha and her BFF Ella went on a train ride! Actually, it was the public transportation train system in our area, and we rode it a whopping four stops (a.k.a 10 min.), just because the girls really wanted to see what it was like to ride on a train.

We took the train to Ruby's Diner and the girls got mac n cheese, french fries, and ice cream cones.

Samantha has decided recently that she loves salad, and whenever I'm making one she grabs her stool from the bathroom and brings it over so that she can stand at the kitchen counter and pick at the salad while I'm cooking.

Alyssa doesn't know what to think of Sammy's new salad habit. We're just all glad that she's not crying.

And other than keeping our house spotless for all of the showings we've been having (with no offers as of yet..grrrr!) that's our life in photos over the past three weeks!

Three Months

2011-09-26T21:15:00.002-04:00

Alyssa, when you get older and you look at Samantha's baby book and see that I documented every move she made in the first three months, and then you look at yours and see that I barely wrote a thing, please know it's not because I loved you less. I would love to be able to write and blog about every little thing you do, but unfortunately, you've been a tough little girl, and I never have a free second (or hand, for that matter) to write anything down.

Alyssa has been colicky. If she's not sleeping or nursing, then she is usually crying. She also has had no sleep schedule. Unlike Samantha, who was on a schedule by 8 weeks, Alyssa is still up and down all day, like a newborn baby. I thought by three months we would be into a routine, but things are still very chaotic at the DiLullo household. After a lot of crying (from both Alyssa and I) I finally I think I have solved the problem. Alyssa has a dairy intolerance, meaning her immature system cannot digest dairy well. It all seems to make sense now. She never slept well because she was pooping every hour. She cried all of the time because she was so gassy and uncomfortable. I had a hunch this was the case, so on my own I decided to give up dairy. I did it and after about two weeks she really started to seem much better. So much better that I forgot about the whole dairy thing and ate a bowl of ice cream. The next day the fussy colicky baby that I had grown to love was back...green foamy poop and all. I kicked myself and then called the Pediatrician to tell them my discovery. They said this is very common and that most babies outgrow the dairy intolerance by 6 months.

So on I went avoiding the obvious dairy foods: milk, yogurt, cheese and ice cream. And things got a little better..but not great. She's still a terrible sleeper. She does okay at night. She has a hard time going down, I usually have to go in two or three times before she finally settles down for the night. Once she is down though, she usually only gets up once sometimes twice through out the night. However, during the day she'll only sleep for about a half hour, then she's up for an hour and then she gets fussy and has to go back down. So all day long I have to sooth her to sleep every hour and a half...which is pretty time consuming!

It wasn't until last Thursday when I ate a scone and monster baby came back, that I realized cutting dairy means actually cutting out everything that could possibly have any trace of dairy in it. I can't eat bread, baked goods and most processed foods. I can really only eat fruit, vegetables, rice and meat. So that's my diet for at least the next 9 months. The only good thing is that since I can't eat cookies, cake and ice cream I may actually loose these last 10 pounds of pregnancy weight!

I've been on my new extreme diet since Friday. It takes a while for all of the dairy to get out of my system and hers, but I'm already seeing a huge improvement! This morning she took a two hour nap! I was thrilled! We're also seeing a lot less of this face....

.....And a lot more of this one!

Yay for my smily happy Alyssa!!! I'm so sorry you were in pain for the first few months of your life and it was all my fault! I hope now that I got it all figured out we can both stop crying! Happy three months baby girl, I love you!

First Day of School!

2011-09-13T15:04:00.004-04:00

Samantha had her first day of school today! She is going to preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Last Thursday we went together as a family to tour Sammy's school and meet her teachers.

Today was her first full day of school! She started the day with a hearty breakfast on her "Samantha's Big Day!" plate, that Aunt Becca made her.

The she got dressed in the outfit we laid out the night before, a yellow "princess" skirt with a flower top and "dressy shoes" with ruffled socks.

We posed for pictures on our way out the door.

Samantha's school has the parents drop the kids off at the playground, so they get to have a little playtime, and it makes it easier for them to say goodbye to Mom and Dad. Samantha hopped right on the swing and her teacher started pushing her.

I said "bye honey, I'll pick you up when school is over."

"Okay, bye!" She said. And then started singing ABC's with her teacher. So much for separation anxiety!

Her teacher handed me a slip of paper on my way out. I read it on my way to the car and then started to cry as I drove away. I didn't think I would be emotional today. Samantha has been going to Sunday school and babysitting at the gym since she was one. She spent the summer going to a toddlers summer camp on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. We're used to spending time apart. But I think the poem got me. This was it:

We gave you a little wink and smile

as you entered our room today.

For we know how hard it is to leave

and know your child must stay.

You've been with them for a while now

And have been a loving guide.

But now, alas, the time has come

To leave them by our side.

Just know that as you drive away

and tears begin to flow

We'll love them as we would our own

and help them learn and grow.

For as parents, we know too

how quickly the years go by.

But they're making friends and having fun

with all the new things they'll try.

So please put your mind at ease

and cry those tears no more.

For we will love them and take them in

When you leave them at our door.

What a milestone! She's starting school! And we'll do this now every year until she's out on her own. I'm starting to tear up now just writing this. The days are so long, but these years go by so fast.

Two Months!

2011-09-02T21:56:00.002-04:00

Alyssa is two months old! Here are the stats from her last well visit:

Weight: 14 lbs-97th percentile

Height: 25 in.-97th percentile

She's a big girl! At the top of the charts! I'm wondering if I put out milk or just straight cream?

Alyssa has started to win our hearts with her big smiles and she loves to talk to us, although all she says right now is "cooo." Alyssa is still on no type of schedule at this point. She wakes up around 7:30 and she's back down with in an hour and then she's up and down all day long. Sometimes she sleeps for 20 minutes, sometimes 2 hours. The only thing I can count on is that after about an hour of being awake she starts to get grumpy and needs to be soothed back to sleep.

I recently cut dairy out of my diet because Alyssa seems to have some digestive issues. The Doctor says it does not sound like acid reflux, but just the normal gassiness that occurs in the immature digestive systems of newborns. However, from what I've read it sounds like it could be a dairy intolerance, so I've decided to give it a try. I guess all I have to loose is the last 12 pounds of pregnancy weight that is sticking on me like glue...well that and my favorite night time treat, ice cream!

Since Alyssa is still up and down all day and has not developed an early bed time yet, blogging has become a hard chore to keep up with. So forgive me if post come far and in between. Also, another excuse for my lack of blogging, is that recently we decided to buy a new house! We fell in love with a home a couple of weeks ago and put an offer in. The seller accepted and we close November 30! So now I'm busy getting our house ready to go on the market. Keeping our house perfect for showings and packing with two littles ones (one who does not sleep) is going to be stressful. So forgive me if blog posts start slipping away! I'll try to keep you updated on the insanity!

6 weeks

2011-08-09T21:05:00.002-04:00

Alyssa had her one month (even though she is really six weeks!) well visit today. Since school is out for summer, and a lot of kids need their physicals for sports, it was hard to schedule her one month appointment with in the first month of her life. So, here are her stats for 6 weeks:

Weight: 12 lbs 15 oz

Height: 23 inches

She is in the 95th percentile!!

Her appointment went well. The doctor said she is perfectly healthy. Based on our conversation and what she sees, she does not think that Alyssa has reflux. Instead she blamed her initial fussiness and trouble sleeping, on an inmature digestive system. Which makes sense to me, since it seems like gas is bothering her after eating, more than anything else. A lot of times she will be fast asleep, then she'll wake up crying and squirming, and then she'll burp or pass gas and go back into a deep sleep again. The doctor says this all very normal, and that it will start to correct itself after the 2 month mark (which is in just two weeks, yay!).

Alyssa is waking up more and more each day. She smiles and coos at me now. She used to never let me put her down, but now she will lay on a blanket on the floor and coo and smile and look around. She especially loves checking out her crazy sister.

Samantha is absolutly in love with "baby Alyssa" or "baylissa" as she says. She has her moments, when she wants to be carried too, or she wants me to stop nursing so that I can play with her ("Mommy, are you done nursing yet?...How 'bout now?") and whenever she sees me swaddling Alyssa she always asks if I can swaddle her too. Sometimes I oblige...

...But mostly, she loves to take care of her baby sister. Whenever Alyssa cries she runs for a pacifier and then puts it in her mouth and holds it there until Alyssa grabs it and starts sucking. It's actually very helpful! The other day I was packing up stuff to get us out the door. I put Alyssa in her car seat and then brought some things out to our car. Of course Alyssa started crying right away, and as I ran back into the house, I noticed the crying had stopped. This is what I saw when I walked in the door.

Alyssa is still not on any sort of schedule yet, but she has been sleeping much better at night. She will usually give us one long stretch, of about 6 or 7 hours, nurse and then go back to sleep for three more hours. Those are the good nights! Then there are nights like last night, when she was up at 2:30, 4;30 and 6:30 for 30-45 minutes each time. So you never know what you're going to get! She has not settled into a nap routine yet, but she always has to go to sleep within an hour and half after she wakes up in the morning (she starts to get really fussy at this time) but she will only sleep for about 30 minutes. She has been taking a good afternoon nap though. About 4 times a week or so, I can get her to nap in her crib from 2-4, the same as Samantha, which is awesome for me!!! It doesn't happen every day, but when they do both take a solid 2 hour nap at the same time it's great because I can actually get something done! Like blog, or check my email, or write a few long overdue thank you notes, or even just take a shower!

I feel very settled now. We're not in shock anymore. It's not old hat either, but we have slowly settled into the new normal that is our reality as a family of four. Of course I know that things will be much better once Alyssa gets on a schedule, but for now I feel like supermom if I'm able to get dressed, do laundry, get Sam out of the house for a bit and make dinner, all in one day. And the "supermom" days are starting to outnumber the "failure-mom" days. It also helps that Alyssa if growing more and more adorable each day, and I'm continuing to fall further in love with her...squishy cheeks, big blue eyes, moppy brown hair, 22 neck rolls and all!

First Smile!

2011-08-02T22:07:00.003-04:00

We spent my birthday weekend at the beach, with Mom Mom and Pop Pop and Nana. It was such a nice a relaxing weekend. It was great to have all of those loving arms around to take turns holding Alyssa, since she really only likes to be held. It was so nice to eat a meal with out holding a baby, and to sleep an extra hour because three adults were up with the kids and allowing me to catch an extra bit of shut eye. We also had beautiful weather and spent 3 gorgeous days soaking up the sand, surf and sun on the beach. A real treat of a weekend overall! I got some great birthday presents too, but the best present was from Alyssa. A big gummy smile! She smiled her first smile while laying on a blanket on the beach. Turns out we have another beach lover on our hands! She is definitely my daughter!

Since the beach smile on Friday, I've had about three more smiles and I've tried to catch them all on camera. The best I could get was this crappy cell phone photo this morning while she was sitting in her bouncy seat. She loves that thing! It's the only thing she will sit in for more than five minutes with out starting to scream to be held again...and that is something to smile about!

Weeks 3 and 4...

2011-07-26T15:28:00.003-04:00

Were tough!!! Halfway through week 3, Alyssa went from a normal, sleepy newborn, who did normal newborn things, to a cries all the time, fussy baby who doesn't sleep at all during the day or the night, and who will not let you put her down under any circumstances! Unlike Samantha, who as a baby, would nurse and then pass out for hours, Alyssa, would nurse and then writhe in pain and cry for hours. It seemed that she was really gassy and laying flat only exacerbated the problem. I spent my days walking around with her in my arms or in a sling. I held her while I ate my breakfast, lunch and dinner. At night I would nurse, change and burp Alyssa and then rock her until she fell asleep. Then I would lay her down in her crib, tip toe out of her room, get in my bed, close my eyes and just as I was drifting off to sleep, she would start to cry. This would go on for hours until I would finally break down and just bring her into my bed and sleep (or try to sleep) holding her. I yelled at Samantha when she did the tiniest little annoying thing, because I had pent up frustration. I felt tired, overwhelmed and like the worst Mom ever.

After a week of this nonsense, I called the doctor because something was obviously bothering her. The Doctor said it could be acid reflux. I explained that she doesn't ever spit up, but they said that you don't have to spit up to have reflux. They told me after she nurses to hold her upright for about 20 minutes with her legs long, and they also suggested putting a book under her mattress to keep her elevated. I started doing both of those things and low and behold, she finally started sleeping again! And after a night of good sleep she became a happy baby again! By the end of week four she was becoming "easy" once again. She started to quietly sit in her bouncy seat, awake, and look around. Something that would never would have happened a week ago, as if she was awake, she needed to be in arms..stat! She also started sleeping really well. Like, 6 hour stretches! Now granted, when I get up in the night with her, I'm up for about an hour, as I need to feed her and then hold her upright for a while, but I'd rather do that then be up and down several times in one night.

Alyssa has started to stare at me. After we nurse, she will just look up at me..as if she's thinking "who is this woman?!" I stare back, and talk to her. I almost thought I saw a smile the other day. I'm just looking forward to the next 4 weeks, as she wakes up a bit more and a personality begins to develop. I'm not sure if she does actually have reflux and the Doc's suggestions have done the trick, or if she was maybe just going through a growth spurt, or a fussy period for a week, but either way, I'm glad to have weeks 3 and 4 behind me.

Week 2

2011-07-12T16:21:00.003-04:00

Week Two of Alyssa's life went much better than Week One. Alyssa has started to wake up more, she's been spending a lot of time staring at me, Daddy and big sis Sam. And since she has been awake more during the day her night time sleeping habits have improved greatly! She has started to fall into a routine of being fussy from about 8:30-10:30, and then she goes to bed and sleeps until about 4am, at which point I change her and nurse her and then she goes back to sleep until 7:30. So with this new sleep schedule I have been able to get my rest, which is great, as Yia Yia is back in Virginia and I'm starting to have to learn to juggle two kids on my own.

I didn't jump head first into the "Mommy of two" pool. I'm sort of wading in. I had a lot of help again this week. Pete's Mom (Mom Mom) spent a few days over here. She did laundry, cooked dinners and helped by watching one kid while I took care of the other. I also hired a "Mother's Helper" for the summer. She's a high school girl who lives in my neighborhood and she comes over twice a week. I took my "mother's helper" to the pool and she swam with Samantha while Alyssa and I hung out in the shade. Another day she walked Samantha up to the library and Sam checked out a bunch of girly princess books while Aly and I hung out at home nursing and resting.

Samantha is settling into big sisterhood very nicely. When Alyssa cries she sweetly says "It's okay Alyssa, your okay." She sometimes grabs a pacifier and tries to shove it into her mouth, I have to intercede because she's not that gentle with the paci. She doesn't get too bothered by the crying though. She just goes about her business with no concern or care over the screaming baby. She hasn't shown signs of jealousy either. She still wants only me to do things for her, like bathe her and put her to bed, and I try to do it whenever I can. But so far I don't think she blames Alyssa for Mommy's absence at times. I try not blame Alyssa or use her as a reason that I can't do something. I'll just say something like "Daddy really wants to give you a bath tonight." Instead of the real reason, which is I need to nurse Alyssa.

Alyssa's eyes are open more through out the day and they are a beautiful deep blue. I think she is going to be a really pretty girl. I wonder if she is going to look like Samantha. I wonder if her hair will grow long and get lighter like Sam's. I wonder if she will love ballet as much as her big sister, who constantly wants to wear a tutu and dances whenever she hears music, even if it's just a commercial. I wonder a lot about this adorable little girl I'm getting to know. I can't wait to find out more about her!

Alyssa's First Week

2011-07-07T21:15:00.003-04:00

So I thought Alyssa was going to be my easy child, but right off the bat she gave us a little scare and a bit of a rough start. Day 1 was great. She slept all day, she took to nursing just fine and I don't think I heard her cry once. On the morning of Day 2 the hospital pediatrician came into my room and told me that Alyssa has Jaundice and her bilirubin count is high, so they put her in something called a bilibed to give her light therapy. She was still able to be in my hospital room with me, but I could only take her out of her bilibed every 3 hours for 30 minutes to nurse. So when she cried I had to stand over her and just pet her skin and talk to her since I couldn't pick her up. That made me sad.

Alyssa in her bilibed.

Then later on that day they tested her bilirubin again, and it had gone up instead of down, so they took her to the nursery and put her on phototherapy. She had to stay in the nursery under these intense blue lights with her eyes covered. It looked like she was in a very sad, baby tanning bed. They would bring her to me every 3 hours for 30 minutes to nurse, but other than that she had to be in the nursery under the lights and I could only look at her through that little glass window. That made me super sad! I did a lot of crying. I especially hated that no one was touching her, holding her, comforting her, except me..every 3 hours for 30 minutes. But on the flip side (that's me, always the optimist looking for the positive in every situation) I was able to get a lot of rest while I was in the hospital, since besides nursing every 3 hours for 30 minutes, I really just watched TV and read magazines. I actually didn't want to leave the hospital I enjoyed my stay there so much!

On Tuesday, Day 3, Yia Yia came into town. I was glad because at this point I needed my Mommy! While Yia Yia was sitting with me at the hospital watching "The View" they brought Alyssa in and said that her bilirubin was down and they were going to let her go off the lights for a few hours and test her again to see how she does off of phototherapy. Finally she was able to be held and loved, and Yia Yia got to meet her and hold her for the first time!

Well, her bilirubin went back up while she was off the lights. There was talk of keeping her another night, which freaked me out because they were not going to let me stay another night, as my insurance would not cover more than 2 nights in the hospital after a vaginal delivery. I couldn't imagine going home with out my baby, and my heart immediately broke for all of those women who have premature babies and have to leave them at the hospital. Just getting a glimpse of how that must feel crushed me.

Thankfully, they ended up letting us take her home! Here she is ready to leave the hospital! By the way, you may remember that this is the same outfit Samantha came home from the hospital in. I thought it was cute to take my kids home in the same outfit, but my Mom said she thinks Alyssa will complain about this later in life because she didn't have her own special going home outfit. Whatever!

I rode in the back with her, even though Pete said I was crazy to climb over Samantha's car seat and sit in the middle of the back after delivering a 9 pound baby and receiving who knows how many stitches. But I couldn't let her take her first car ride back there by herself.

When we got home Samantha ran outside to greet us. Her and Yia Yia had written "Welcome home Mommy and Alyssa" on the sidewalk with street chalk. Every time Samantha left the hospital she would cry "Can Mommy and the new baby come home with us?" So Sam was so excited to finally see me and her baby sister home.

Unfortunately it wasn't all peaches and cream, as Alyssa was sent home with a biliblanket, which she had to be on 24 hours a day. It's basically a light therapy blanket that wraps around the baby and is then, through this vacuum hose looking thingy, connected to a big box, which plugs into the wall. So once we got home we plugged our little glow worm in and then set her up in the corner, which is where she stayed for the next 24 hours. I slept on the couch and we set up a diaper changing area all within the plugs reach.

A nurse came to our home on Wednesday, Day 4, to test her bilirubin levels again. Her bilirubin had stayed the same so we were told to keep her on the blanket until 6pm, as that would be an entire 24 hours from when we first got home and put her on the blanket. We were also instructed to continue supplementing with one ounce of formula after each feeding. The Doctor said this would help to flush the Jaundice out of her system, as pooping and peeing is the best way to get it out. So as much as I hated doing it, I gave her an ounce of formula after every feeding. The only good thing about this is that big sister Sammy got to help and give Alyssa her bottles. Something she loved doing!

On Thursday, Day 4, another nurse came out to our house and tested Alyssa's bilirubin levels. Then, as if she hadn't had her fill of being poked and prodded, we took Alyssa to our pediatrician for her first appointment. We filled the pediatrician in on Alyssa's Jaundice and the last few days and during our appointment the nurse called and said that her bilirubin levels had stayed the same so we could stop the phototherapy! When we got home we happily packed up the biliblanket and finally breathed a little sigh of relief, although we were told to continue supplementing with formula for one more day.

On Friday, Day 5, I had to take Alyssa back to the pediatrician for another weight and skin color check. The nurse said she looked good and she was gaining weight so I could stop supplementing with formula. I breathed another sigh of relief, because by day 5 I had reached my limit and I think my hormones were going crazy because I was crying and blubbering all day. So after getting the good news from the nurse we took big sister Sammy to the park and Alyssa and I sat in the shade while Yia Yia and Nana pushed Sam in the swings.

On Saturday, Day 6, Alyssa had her first trip to the pool. Once again Alyssa and I sat in the shade while Daddy and Yia Yia played with big sister Sam in the pool. Between nursing, I read a magazine while Aly slept on a lounge chair...not bad!!

On Sunday, Day 7, Alyssa went to her first Independence Day BBQ at Uncle Jamie and Aunt Jen's house. Mommy enjoyed lots of good food, like potato salad, bbq chicken and loads of chips. Mommy later paid for that dinner because Alyssa was up all night with gas. So on Monday, July 4th, Aly's first Independence Day, her and Mommy stayed home in our PJ's all day while Daddy and Samantha got to go the big parade by our house. Oh well, I still think for a newborn she had a pretty busy first week of life, so I guess a day resting at home was in order!

Samantha's first outing was when she was a week old, to her Grandparent's house. At one week old Alyssa has already been to the park, the pool, multiple Doctor's appointments, a BBQ and even out to dinner one night. What a busy little bee!

Alyssa's Birth Story

2011-07-03T14:58:00.007-04:00

After the worst two weeks ever, a sinus infection and a Z pack, by Saturday, June 25th, I was finally feeling healthy again and we were all healthy and in good spirits. Pete had made plans to play golf in the morning, and Samantha and I were going to meet him at the pool when he was done. However, that morning I had some strong contractions and told Pete to keep his phone on him, just in case (since cell phones are not allowed on the golf course). Pete drove away and then came back home five minutes later, he decided to cancel golf. I said "what did you do that for?! Now you're just going to sit here and stare at me all morning and nothing is going to happen!" Sure enough, nothing did happen, so we kept to our plan and went to the pool with Samantha.

Later that evening we went over Uncle Jamie and Aunt Jen's house for dinner. Samantha played in the back yard "making piles" which meant she just carried dirt from Jamie's garden over to the patio and made a pile. She did this for a long time. I'm not sure Jamie was thrilled with this game! Anyway, we had a lovely dinner and headed home around 9pm. During the course of the evening I felt those same strong contractions, but I may have only had four or five while we were there, and at this point I had been used to contractions starting and stopping, as I have had a lot of braxton hicks over the past two weeks, so I didn't think anything of it.

After we got Sam to bed we watched TV for a bit, and I noticed the contractions were coming every 10 minutes. This went on for a couple of hours, but they weren't that painful, and as I had pretty much lost all hope of ever going into labor, I didn't get too excited and instead we went to bed.

At 4 AM a contraction woke me up. It was painful. I got up and went to the bathroom, laid back down and fell back asleep, and then another contraction woke me up. I fell back asleep again and ten minutes later another contraction woke me up. At this point I decided that I was most likely in labor. I went downstairs and turned the TV on. There isn't much on at 4:30 AM on a Sunday, so I watched an episode of "Three's Company" while timing contractions. By the time the show ended and the credits were rolling my contractions had become very strong and closer together. I went up and woke up Pete and told him we needed to get to the hospital soon. He got up, had a cup of coffee and started getting himself together and calling people to come watch Sam, while I packed my bag and changed out of my pajamas, stopping every few minutes to get on my hands and knees and breath through a contraction. By 6am we were on our way to the hospital.

My contractions were coming every 3 minutes and were painful, but I could still talk and joke around between them, and I was even sending out text messages on the way to the hospital. All of my books said not to go to the hospital until you you were no longer in a good mood and were really needing to focus during the contractions. So I said to Pete, "I think we're going too early. We're going to get to the hospital and I'm only going to be 3 or 4cm dilated." So imagine how shocked we were when we got there and they said I was 8cm! The doctor said if I wanted an epidural I had to get it now because we were going to start pushing in another hour. While the contractions were painful, they weren't unbearable, so I decided not to get the epidural. Half an hour later we were pushing, and an hour after that I was still pushing. Getting to 10cm was a piece of cake for me, the pushing, however, was excruciating! There was a lot of screaming, a lot of crying, and some begging and pleading for it all to be over. At 8:46 AM, after an hour and a half of pushing, the baby finally came out and all the pain ended. They placed her on my chest and said "It's a girl!" Pete exhaled for the first time in hours and even laughed with joy at the sight of her. I was shocked. "It's a girl?" I said. I was sure I was having a boy. My entire pregnancy was different then my pregnancy with Samantha, so I really had it in my head that I was having a boy. So I was so surprised to find out she was a girl. Then I looked at her and was surprised to see how big she was and how different she looked from Samantha when Sam when born. It was such a surreal moment, looking for the first time, at this little creature who had been growing inside me and kicking me for the past 9 months. She seemed really calm, and didn't even cry. Her eyes were open and she just laid on my chest and looked at me. It seemed like hours but I'm sure it was only a minute or two as we both stared at each other, taking one another in. They took her and weighed her, 9lbs 2oz. No wonder it took so many pushes to get this girl out!

Pete later told me that he knew she was a girl right away because as soon as he saw her face he though she looked just like Samantha. Aunt Melissa and MomMom were waiting in the hospital waiting room so Pete went out to get them and introduce them to our new little girl. They both held her and said how beautiful she was.

A little later they took Alyssa back to the nursery and brought me to hospital room, where I would be staying for the next two nights.

After some pain killers and a nap Samantha and Pete came to the hospital for lunch and Samantha got to meet her little sister for the first time. She climbed into my hospital bed with me and tickled "baby Almyssa's" feet. It was adorable and brought tears to my eyes. It was like all of a sudden we were a complete family, a family of four with two precious little girls.

And that is how Alyssa Nicole DiLullo entered the world!

Introducing....

2011-07-03T14:51:00.005-04:00

Alyssa Nicole DiLullo

Born on June 26, 2006 at 8:46 AM

Weight: 9lbs 2oz.

Length: 21 inches

The DiLullos or the Sickos?

2011-06-23T15:10:00.003-04:00

So, last we left off I had come down with a cold. Okay, well it ended up being the worse cold I have ever had in my life. My head was so congested that I felt like my face was going to explode and I had to sleep sitting up because I couldn't even lie down. I thought that maybe the cold was so terrible because I'm like, 10 months pregnant, and everything just feels terrible at this point, but when I went into my 41 week appointment yesterday my OBGYN said I have a sinus infection and prescribed an antibiotic for me. I'm on my second dose of the antibiotic and am already feeling so much better! Thank God I did not go into labor while I was that sick. I just don't think I had the strength in me to do it, and I couldn't imagine caring for a newborn feeling as awful as I did. I joked earlier that this child is going to be my "good" kid. The one who never wants to stir the pot...like by making Mommy have to go through labor while she's sick. The kid already has the personality of a Cancer, I guess he or she wasn't meant to be a Gemini after all!

So now I'm resting and hoping to get one or two good nights of sleep in before the baby comes and I'm up all night again. Tomorrow I have to go in for an ultrasound. They will check on the baby and the amniotic fluid levels, and if everything looks good they will wait to induce me until next Thursday, June 30. Of course I want the baby to come before then on it's own, but I like the sound of a June 30th birthday, and I'm really okay with waiting another week and getting some sleep under my belt after not having slept the past two weeks, between Sam's croup and my sinus infection.

So that's what is going on here. I'll post another update after my ultrasound.

Alexis and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

2011-06-17T14:52:00.003-04:00

I loved that book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" when I was growing up. I really identified with the main character, and how sometimes it just seems nothing is going your way. Well, I had a week like that here at the DiLullo Daily.

Last weekend, at 39 weeks pregnant, I set up everything and got my house completely baby ready. The infant car seat is ready, the pack and play is set up in my living room ready for naps and changes, the Rainforest Bouncy Seat was washed and set up, along with the Rainforest playmat. My house screams "insert baby here." I mean, if you walked into this house you would just assume we have a newborn living in it. So everything is ready, all we have to do now is wait.

Well, while we were waiting, Samantha came down with croup. Somehow, in 100 degree June weather, she caught a virus, which turned into a bad cold, which turned into croup. So since Saturday afternoon we have had a very sick little girl walking around the house, hacking and coughing on all of the pristine, washed baby stuff. On top of that she has been up all night, and not napping well or eating a thing. This has made for an extremely whiny Sam. I have actually never in her life, seen her this whiny, clingy and unhappy before. You can imagine hard how this must have been for me, being ready to burst at 9 months pregnant and extremely uncomfortable and irritable already. By Thursday I'd had it. I hadn't slept a full nights sleep in 5 nights and have spent my days listening to whining and crying all day long. On top of everything, I have the stress of knowing this baby is coming any day now weighing me down. So while Samantha was coming in and out of my room at 3 am I was also feeling contractions and wondering "am I going to go into labor now?" I've been running all the scenarios through my head. I got so sad at the thought of Samantha not being able to come to the hospital to visit her new sibling because she was sick. I tried to think of how I would handle my toddler who was not sleeping at night if I was trying to labor at home at 3am. I spent the week panicking and stressing that Pete and I were going to get sick too and then I'd go into labor and we would both be sick with a newborn and sick toddler. So on Thursday morning, after screaming at Samantha because she was crying too much and getting a look from Pete that said "What the hell is wrong with you?" I cried my eyes out for about an hour then packed Sam up and took her to my Mother-in-Law's house for the day so someone with a fresh set of patience could spend some time with her. When we came home I put Sam down for her nap and she finally took a nice long nap! So I did too! And when I woke up my throat was sore and my head was clogged. My fear had come true. I'm now sick with a cold!!!

On the up side, Samantha woke up today feeling much better and she ate her breakfast and lunch, the first two meals she has eaten all week. On the down side, I definitely have a cold. So now I'm uncomfortably late and sick. Yuck!

I went to the Doctor this morning because they wanted to do stress test to make sure everything is okay with the baby. They hooked me up to a fetal monitor and listened to the baby's heart rate for 20 minutes. My Mother-in-Law watched Sam for me while I was at this appointment, so I got to actually sit and read a book for 20 minutes while they were doing this test. Boy did I need that! Turns out, as usual, the baby is very happy right where it is, so the Doctor says there is no need to rush a delivery. Thank goodness as I just don't have it in me right now! For the first time I actually don't want the baby to come! I'm glad it's late and want to keep it that way for a while as I wait to get over this cold.

So I'm leaving all the baby stuff right where it is and I'll just have Pete disinfect everything while I'm in the hospital. I'm hoping that I feel better by the end of the weekend and maybe the baby can come early next week. I have another appointment next Wednesday, at which point they will do an ultrasound to be sure that the baby is still happy and not under any stress.

It's sort of a funny place for me to be. Here I am overdue, and I don't want the baby to come! It's sort of freeing in a way! Instead of waking up each morning disappointed that I'm still pregnant, I can wake up grateful! I feel like a 20 pound weight has been lifted off me as I let go of my desire to birth this baby and become comfortable with the notion of staying pregnant for another week. Maybe this horrible, no good, very bad week was exactly what I needed? Although, let's be honest. As soon as I get over this cold I'm going to be doing jumping jacks to get this kid out!

Killing Time...

2011-06-09T20:51:00.002-04:00

In these final weeks, while awaiting baby #2's arrival, Samantha and I have been squeezing in every fun thing we could possibly do together.

We went to the zoo...

And rode all the rides at the local fair...

Including Samantha's first ride on a Ferris Wheel...

...with BFF Ella, and her Mommy. Soon after this photo was taken, Samantha asked if she could switch seats with Ella's Mom, and then Ella and Samantha held hands during the entire ride..so cute!

Then Mommy watched Aunt Becca get showered with love at her baby shower on Sunday. Samantha's new cousin is due at the end of August!

These two cousins can't wait to meet!

And on Monday, Mommy's close friend from High School, Maja, came into town for a visit with her 9 month old daughter "baby" Ella.

We took these two matching bathing beauties to the swimming pool!

Now Mommy is just drinking a lot of water, and other than going to the pool, Samantha and I are hanging inside in the air conditioning, as we face 100 degree weather in these final days of my pregnancy. I'm pretty hot and uncomfortable at this point. It's enough to make a crying newborn at 3am sound like a walk in the park!

Everything is ready for baby's arrival. Now we just wait.....

First Dentist Appointment!

2011-05-23T21:34:00.002-04:00

Just look at my BIG girl getting her teeth cleaned!

Samantha wasn't supposed to get her teeth cleaned last Thursday, but I took her with me to MY dentist appointment because I thought it would be good for her to watch me get my teeth cleaned, so she could know what to expect at her first cleaning (which I planned on scheduling sometime in the near future). Anyway, she was very jealous that Mommy was getting to ride up and down in the dental chair, and drink water from a pink cup and get her teeth tickled by dental technician. She kept asking when it was going to be her turn. So after I was through, we sat her in the fun dental chair that goes up and down. As soon as Sammy sat in the chair, she turned toward the dental technician and opened her mouth wide. The tech looked at me and said "Should I go ahead and clean her teeth?" How could I say no? She was ready and willing!

Samantha has 16 and a half teeth. One of her two year molars is in and another one is halfway in. She had no cavities and did great! She really liked the dentist! And when they were through she asked if she could do it again.

I'm glad we're having another baby...because this baby girl is all grown up!

Hey Ma...no cavities!

Big Girl Room!

2011-05-20T15:52:00.002-04:00

Our BIG girl Sammy had a BIG day last Tuesday. It was the day her BIG girl bed arrived and her BIG girl room was finally complete! Samantha's big girl room had been a work in progress for some time now. I ordered her furniture and started buying linens in February. In March I went to Pottery Barn Kids and bought curtains, lamps and a side table. In April we picked out a paint color and bought our pain. And then the first weekend of May my Dad (who is the closest thing to Bob Vila that I know) came up and helped paint the room, hang the curtains and put together IKEA book cases and closet organizers. Then we waited the long two day wait for her furniture to arrive. I put Samantha down for a nap in her crib on Tuesday. I wish I would have taken a picture, but I was so excited about the furniture arriving that I didn't even have time to get emotional about our last story time rock in the nursery rocking chair..about the last time I picked up my heavy two and a half year old and placed her in her crib...about the last time I peeked back at my baby in the crib before I closed the nursery door. Instead I got her down for her nap and then waited for the furniture delivery men, who were supposed to arrive with in the hour. Once the furniture was in place I got busy making the bed and placing her books on the book shelf. When she woke up from her nap I told her there was a surprise for her. She ran to see her new room and walked into this....

There is still artwork to be hung, so please excuse all the bare walls. More personality is coming.

Samantha was so excited when she saw her new room! I thought she may take a day or two to want to sleep in there, but she wanted to sleep in her big girl bed that very night. So on Tuesday night Pete and I put her to bed, closed the door and then waited. Well...turns out transitioning into not just a big girl bed, but a whole new big girl room, takes a little time. The first night Samantha was up and down. She got out of bed several times. She begged us to stay in her room and sleep with her, she cried and said she wanted to go back to her crib. By 10:00 pm I finally got her to sleep, and then at 5:45 am she was up and in our room, ready to party. The next night she did a little better, and then even better the next night. She didn't nap for the first few days, instead she chose to play in her room. As soon as I walked out of her room she was out of the bed. I watched it all from my Summer Infant Sleek and Secure handheld video monitor (we have two cameras, one for the nursery and one for Sam's room. I love this product and highly recommend it). She went into her closet and pulled out all of her dress up clothes. She played with her night light turning it off and on. She even came downstairs at one point and said "Hi Mommy." I said "Samantha, what are you doing down her?" She replied "I wanted to be with you." Well, one week and one door knob cover later, Samantha is doing much better in her big girl room. She is back to her normal schedule, sleeping from 8pm-7am and napping from 2-4pm. She still begs us to sleep with her at night. I think she's just so excited to be in a bed that her Mommy and Daddy can fit in. But we have stayed firm to our house rule that we all sleep in our own beds.

Overall, Samantha loves her big girl room!

Now I just need to break out the Dreft laundry detergent and Sam's old newborn clothes, and get the nursery all ready for our new little one...due in just 4 weeks! Although I haven't told Samantha yet that the new baby will be sleeping in her old crib. I think I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!

Easter Vacation

2011-05-10T10:00:00.000-04:00

Well we managed to turn Easter into a two week festival of fun for Samantha. It started a week before Easter with a Saturday morning Easter Egg hunt/brunch with Samantha's best friend Ella. The girls had so much fun dancing, hulla-hooping, getting their faces painted and of course meeting the Easter bunny and hunting for eggs.

And Pregnant Mommy enjoyed eating everything in sight from the grand buffet! It was a lot of fun!

Then on Sunday we had an impromptu Easter Egg hunt with cousins Luke, Julia and baby Jake!

Five days later we were jetting off to sunny Florida for a week of family fun in the sun!

Pete and I had the idea to take Samantha on a vacation, since with a new baby arriving in June, we probably will not be getting a lot of beach and pool time together this Summer. And we thought it would be nice for her to have a week with just Mommy and Daddy before she has to learn to share our attention with her new baby sibling. A "babymoon" for Samantha, if you will. Anyway, we spent a wonderful week in Captiva Island, Florida. We rented a two bedroom condo right on the beach. We had a beautiful view of the gulf and watched the sunset from our balcony every night.

We got in Friday afternoon, and before I could even unpack her swimsuit, Samantha was asking to go swimming. Pete took her to the beach, and as I watched them play from our balcony I cooked us dinner and watched the sun slowly sink down toward the water. It was a beautiful start to a great week.

The resort hosted an Easter Egg hunt for the kids on Easter Sunday, so Samantha enjoyed her third Easter Egg hunt of the season (and by now she was onto the fact that the eggs have candy inside them!) and we got to meet the Easter bunny again. He really gets around!

After church we went to my Aunt Chrise's house, who happens to live in Florida, just 45 minutes from where were staying. We spent the day swimming in her pool. (You should have seen the tantrum Samantha threw when we made her get out of the pool so she could eat! It was a whole new side of her I have never seen before!)

And we ate a delicious meal, including my Mom's famous Easter bread.

It was so great to be on vacation, yet be able to spend time with family over the holiday.

We spent the rest of the week going to the beach and the pool. Samantha liked the beach.

She loved fishing with Daddy, who was able to fish right off the surf and was pulling up a fish every five minutes. Samantha would help Daddy release the fish back into the water.

As much as Sam liked the beach, the pool was by far her favorite.

She loved jumping off the side into Mommy's arms.

She also loved the water fountains and the ease of the zero entry. And she was a pro at making new friends. Pete and I were surprised at how outgoing she is. She just walks up to kids and says "Hi, what's your name?"

Samantha loved being on vacation. Since we have been home she keeps asking if we can go back on vacation. I wish it was that easy! We all had a great time. Pete enjoyed fishing right in our backyard. He was out on the beach with a rod and bait before I was even out of bed in the morning. Samantha loved, loved, loved swimming in the pool. I mean it looked like we were kidnapping her each day when it was time to go back to our room for a nap. And I loved spending a whole week with my family, just us three, before our lives get turned upsidown (for the better) and we welcome our fourth member of the family.

Get it together google!!!

2011-05-09T21:36:00.002-04:00

I've been trying to update my blog with pictures and a recap of our Easter Vacation, but blogger is being stupid and I'm having all of these problems uploading my photos. Please stay tuned as I sort out these technical difficulties!

Thank you!

Bump Comparison

2011-04-12T15:58:00.003-04:00

In an effort to guess the baby's gender, people have been asking me if I'm carrying differently this time around. I keep telling everyone that I think the baby is higher up this time, because I have been getting a lot of heart burn, and with Samantha I remember I always felt a lot of pressure on my cervix, like she was about to fall out at any moment. But looking at these photos I don't really see much of a difference after all. I think I was a little fatter in the face with Samantha, but you be the judge.

Both of these photos were taken at 28 weeks.

Current baby:

Samantha:

Nesting

2011-04-10T21:02:00.004-04:00

Okay, now that I've become uncomfortably pregnant and I have way less energy then I did a month ago, I'm finally into the whole nesting thing. Great timing right? So, I'm chipping away at all the little things that need to get done before baby arrives. I finally got motivated and bought a double stroller. I wanted something small enough that I could take it through the tight shopping isles at the mall, yet sturdy enough that I could run with it on the paved running trail at the park near my house. So basically I wanted something that doesn't exist, because as any Mom knows, running strollers have huge rubber tires that are very bulky, so they don't fold up too easily and they are not very compact. And compact little umbrella strollers have plastic wheels and no shock absorbency, so you can't run with them. Well, I ended up purchasing the City Mini by Baby Jogger.

It does not have the big air filled all terrain tires. So I can't take it on the beach, and I technically can't run with it. But it does have shock absorbers, and it's a pretty sturdy stroller. And since I barely run with a stroller, and when I do I run about as fast as most people walk, I think I would be okay taking it running on a paved running track here and there. What I loved about this stroller was the quick fold technology. You just grab the handles and lift and it folds in half. It's really compact for a double stroller and it folds up really small, so (and yes, I tested this before purchasing) I can even fit it into the trunk of my Honda Pilot with the third row up.

I just put the stroller together and took it for a test spin around my kitchen this evening. So far so good. I think I made the right decision, but I guess I'll have to wait until this summer to start using it before I can really validate my purchase. I'll tell you who loves the new stroller though...Samantha! She sat in it all evening and put a Raggedy Ann doll in the second seat and said that Raggedy Ann was her baby sister. Then she put a blanket on her baby sister and they both took a pretend nap in the stroller. (And since the seats recline all the way to a flat position, and the sun shades are so large, I think Samantha may be on to something. This could be a great napping stroller!) Oh, and don't think I'm hiding anything from you. We still don't know the sex of the baby but Samantha would like a little sister, so she doesn't even entertain the idea of a little brother when we talk about the baby.

In addition to finally picking out a stroller, we also bought paint for Samantha's big girl room. We haven't painted it yet, but buying the paint was the first step, and I suspect by the end of next weekend we will have a light pink bedroom in our house. Yeah, I know, light pink is so cliche for a little girls room..but Samantha kept saying that she wanted a pink room, and whenever we asked her what color we should paint the walls she insisted on pink. So I know my artsy sisters are probably rolling their eyes at their cookie cutter sis, but whatever, I want to make my daughter happy...so sue me!!

I have a ton of clothes to go through and I guess I need to wash everything and get it all put away in drawers and ready, but I have to wait for Samantha to move into her new room first, so I can rest on that one for a few more weeks. I'm just happy I got the stroller and we're kind of making headway on her room. There's nothing like running out of time to motivate you!

Thank you for all the stroller suggestions that I got from friends and family. I really did look at all of them and took all of your suggestions into consideration. In the end I went with something no one had suggested, but I think it's going to fit my needs. If not you can tell me "I told you so!"

Last Trimester!!

2011-03-31T16:16:00.002-04:00

I am 29 weeks pregnant. I'm in my last trimester, with only 11 weeks to go! Although I have only been in my third trimester for one week, I definitely am feeling very third-trimester-y. The baby has stopped kicking and is doing more rolling, an indication that he or she is starting to run out of room. I'm also having a hard time sleeping at night. I get up to pee at least once or twice a night, and then when I get back in bed the baby moves all over and keeps me up...and the worst is rolling over from one side to the other...it's like a five minute production. So I'm up a lot at night and then of course tired all day. I remember when I was 9 months pregnant with Samantha thinking "I just can't wait to have this baby so I can get some sleep again!" Hahaha!!!! What was I thinking? At least this time I know that I'm sleeping way better now than I will be in 2.5 months, so I'm trying rest and get as much zzzzz's as I can. Which means I sometimes nap when Samantha naps. Which means not a lot of things aren't getting done around here (hence no blog updates for the past three weeks).

As the due date draws near Samantha has started to act a little funny. We ordered furniture for her big girl room and cleared out our guest room in anticipation of her big girl bed's arrival next month. Samantha was at first excited about her new room, but all of a sudden I'm seeing some changes in her. She keeps asking me for a paci, even though she hasn't used a pacifier since she was three months old. She also says she wants her diaper changed on the changing table, even though she's not wearing a diaper. She may as well be wearing a diaper though, because all of a sudden she has started to have accidents. After two months of doing great she has regressed in potty training. She never wants to use the potty, she fights and screams when I try to put her on the potty and she won't go, and then she has a accident 20 minutes later. It's so frustrating because she was doing so well. And the last thing I want to do now is go back to diapers. So I'm doing a lot of laundry and hoping this is a phase that will pass. (This has only been happening for about a week, so I'm hopeful that she will get back on track soon.) Any advice on the potty training regression would be greatly appreciated!

So other than having ordered Samantha's big girl bedroom furniture, we haven't done much else to make room for baby. I need to get a double stroller, which I could also use some advice on. Since Samantha pretty much walks everywhere, I really only need a stroller for running and shopping. So I need something that can work for both of those activities. While I hear the BOB is best for running, I also hear it's not so great for shopping, but I think I'm going to find that with any running stroller. So I've decided the best thing to do is to not think about it and live in denial and take naps. So far this strategy is working for me. Maybe next month I'll get my big fat pregnant butt in gear. It sure would help if we could have some warm weather around here! It's hard to imagine June is only two months away when there is snow in our seven day forecast! But whether we are ready or not, we all are so excited to finally meet this little baby and while I need more time to get ready, I can't help but hope that time goes quickly so that I can finally see this little one's beautiful face for the first time.

Sammy Ballerina

2011-03-06T20:42:00.002-05:00

This video pretty much sums up my last week. Samantha has discovered ballet and she is obsessed. She needs to have a tutu on at all times. We have made some public appearances in tutus. We get funny looks but I've got to pick and choose my battles with this strong willed 2 year old. She is also obsessed with the Nutcracker (which also happens to be the only ballet that I could find on pay-per-view when she was demanding to watch ballet...so if anyone knows of any other good ballet movies please let me know!)

Untitled from Alexis Dilullo on Vimeo.

Potty Trained!

2011-02-20T21:24:00.002-05:00

After 3 (almost, completely, accident free) weeks in big girl pants, 2 five hour car rides, and 2 two hour car rides in big girl pants wit no accidents, I think it is safe to say that Samantha is officially potty trained! She still wears a diaper when she is sleeping, but other than that she is diaper free all day long! I'm loving the freedom! I was a bit nervous to take her out in public, but it didn't take long for me to get comfortable, especially since Samantha is so good at telling me when she has to go.

To celebrate our new independence from diapers Samantha had her first sleepover, and went to spend the night with Mom Mom and Pop Pop! Meanwhile Mommy and Daddy spent our own night away having fun. Mommy got a prenatal massage at the hotel spa, then we enjoyed a really nice dinner and both slept in until 9am this morning and ordered breakfast in bed! Yay for potty training!

I'm really going to enjoy the next 3.5 months...and then we'll be breaking out the diapers and wipes again for baby #2.

Over the Hill

2011-02-11T16:23:00.003-05:00

I'm 22 weeks pregnant. That means I'm more than halfway there! This pregnancy is just flying by. We have no names picked out, no clothes have been washed and put into drawers. Samantha is still sleeping in the new baby's room and crib. So nothing is ready for this little one! Really, the first 20 weeks, besides feeling pretty crappy and a few changes in my diet, we have barely noticed that I'm pregnant. However, now that we had our ultrasound and I'm feeling the baby move everyday things are starting to feel much more real.

Our ultrasound went great! The baby looks perfectly healthy and we got some great 4D photos of the baby's face. It's amazing, it looks like we are really looking at a live baby. I wish I had a scanner so I could share the photos with you, but I don't. So if you live nearby you have to come over and look at my fridge! This baby looks so different from Samantha. I think it looks like a boy, but Pete thinks it looks like a girl. Either way, we chose not to find out the sex, so we'll have to wait and see!

I'm feeling good. My energy is up. The only discomfort I've been experiencing is a lot of heartburn. They say that heartburn means your child will have a lot of hair. Well, I didn't have heartburn with Samantha and she had more hair than I've ever seen on any baby, so if I'm having heartburn now does that mean that I'm giving birth to a hairy ape? Or will this baby maybe be hairless? In either case, the heartburn stinks! And perhaps I just forgot what it was like to be pregnant, but I don't remember having to pee every 30 minutes with Samantha. Lately it seems I'm constantly seeking out a bathroom. I can't make it through a dinner with out getting up three times to use the restroom.

With less than 18 weeks to go before baby #2's arrival we are making small strides to prepare. Yesterday we went shopping for Samantha's "big girl bed." She was so excited, she got on all the beds in the store, jumping on them, laying on them, bossing us around "sit down here Mommy...go night night!" "No, get on this bed Mommy!" "No Daddy, you sit on the green chair!" We are going to move Samantha into a new room and keep the nursery just the way it is for baby #2. That's one of the great advantages of not finding out the sex, everything is gender neutral!

We also booked another "babymoon" but this "babymoon" is for Samantha. Pete, Sam and I are taking a trip to Florida this Spring. A week long vacation, just the three of us. With the baby coming in the beginning of the summer, we thought it would be nice for Samantha to have a week of uninterrupted beach and pool time with her Mommy and Daddy before this new little one changes all of our lives for the better.

We are so excited to meet our sweet #2! Less than 18 weeks to go!

Art is in the eye of the beholder

2011-02-01T21:41:00.002-05:00

Samantha is quite the artist. She loves to color. She colors at least twice a day, if not more than that. She also recently got into play-doh. Sometimes she mixes the play-doh colors together which drives me insane. The other day, while we were stuck inside during the umpteenth snow day we were having, Samantha mixed three different colors together into one big ball of play-doh and I literally had to calm myself down with a little pep talk about how we can always buy more play-doh, it's not that big of deal. Anyway, the other day, we were playing with play-doh and Samantha was asking me to sculpt different things. I made, per her request, a hamburger and then a face and then a cookie. Then Pete came into the room and I turned away from the play-doh, and him and I started talking about what we were going to make for dinner. All of a sudden Samantha yells: "I did it!"

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I made a choo-choo train!" She exclaimed.

I looked down and saw this, Samantha's choo-choo train:

I mean is she talented or what?!! Looks like we've got a gifted abstract artist on our hands!

Greetings From Snowville...

2011-01-28T15:12:00.003-05:00

I grew up at the beach. I remember two snowfalls in my entire life in Virginia. It just didn't ever snow there. I remember once my Dad told me that when he was a boy in Michigan they had snow on the ground all winter long. I couldn't even believe such a thing, or wrap my brain around what it would be like to have snow on the ground all winter.

Well, now I know. We have had an unbelievable winter so far. For the past month we have had a snow storm every week, sometimes two in one week, and yes, we have had snow on the ground all winter. Our Christmas lights are still up because we can't get to the extension cord which it is buried under almost 2 feet of snow.

I'm so over snow I could scream..but, at least Samantha enjoys it! Just this Wednesday we had sixteen inches dropped on us. But unlike the powdery snow we have been getting, this wet snow was perfect for building snowmen. Samantha and her Daddy set to work.

Samantha was so cute "helping" Daddy build the snowman. She kept scooping up snow with both of her hands..

..and then stumbling through the snow and patting what little was left in her hands onto the same spot on the snowman, over and over again.

Samantha wanted to use her play-doh for the eyes. Our snowman looks psychedelic.

Samantha was very proud of her snowman and she loves to wave to him from the window inside the house.

By the way, as I'm typing this, it is snowing outside...and Pete and I are booking a trip to Florida.

Totally 2!

2011-01-18T17:37:00.009-05:00

Samantha is 2 years old! I know...duh! She's been two for like 3 weeks now. But I just got around to going to her 2 year check up today (hey, you try scheduling a check up around the holidays!) and I have her 2 year stats:

Weight: 29 lbs (75th percentile)
Height: 34 inches (75th percentile)
Head circumference: 19.5 inches (didn't get the percentile on this one but I'm sure it's high as usual, since Samantha has such big brains!)

I heard that you can estimate how tall your child will grow by doubling their height at the two year appointment...which means Samantha will grow to be 68 inches, or 5'8". I think it's just an old wives tale, but 5'8" isn't a bad height to be!

Samantha is quite the conversationalist these days. I'm not sure when or how it happened, but sometime over the last two months Samantha went from saying one and two word sentences to talking....a lot! She talks all day. She narrates everything and she has these adorable little conversations with us all the time..

Like...

"Look at me Mommy! I'm washing my hands. I'm using pink soap, Mommy!"

And...

"Look Mommy, I'm combing my feet." She says as she takes a comb and brushes it over her toes.

"Wow, Sammy, you are combing your feet!"

"Haha! That's silly Mommy!"

She loves to color. She spends hours at her Melissa and Doug Easel. And she talks the whole time she is coloring.

"Mommy, I use the purple. Mommy you use blue." Then she starts demanding that I draw things.

"Mommy draw an elephant."

"Okay Sam, here's an elephant."

"Yay! An elephant! The elephant is eating dinner, Mommy."

"Oh, okay, what should I draw for his dinner?"

"Chicken!"

Samantha loves spending time with her friends and she talks about them often. At night when we say her prayers she asks to pray for Maci and Ella. Sometimes she also asks if we can pray for Elmo, and Clara and the Nutcracker (one of her favorite stories, which I'm sure we will be reading in July, along with singing Jingle Bells, her favorite song). When we say our prayers at dinner time she often reminds us to pray for the "baby in Mommy's tummy."

Samantha is super social. She loves being around other kids and has absolutely no seperation anxiety. When I take her to the daycare at the gym she runs off before I even get a chance to say goodbye to her. When we go to music class she lap hops from one Mommy to another. Sometimes I have to beg her to spend some time with me in music class.

Samantha loves to talk on the phone and will often ask if we can call certain people. She will ask to call Daddy, or Yia Yia, or Grandpa. And sometimes she asks to call her friends, which is weird because once they get on the phone with one another, besides saying hi over and over again and then bye, they don't really talk to each other, so it's a little awkward, but I indulge her if I can.

Samantha still has a love affair with Curious George. She doesn't care so much for the cartoon, but she loves the books and we read at least two Curious George books a day. Samantha sleeps with her Curious George stuffed animal every night (and her mouse and her doll too).

I've been working on Samantha's baby book lately, and looking back at those photos of my newborn baby, I find it hard to believe that it's only been two years. She went from a little, tiny, sleepy newborn, who did nothing but lay there and eat, sleep and poop, to this rambunctious, social little person who loves Curious George and coloring. What a fun ride this has been! I'm so looking forward to doing it again with Samantha's little brother or sister, and watching Samantha continue to change and grow as time marches forward. I love my sweet little girl!!!

It's Potty Time!

2011-01-17T16:08:00.003-05:00

We are unexpectedly in the midst of potty training over here at the DiLullo Daily. I mean, literally, all of a sudden, we're potty training..and I'm totally unprepared!

It all started when Samantha was about 19 months. I bought a little pink Baby Bjorn potty chair for her bathroom (pictured above). Samantha would often sit on her potty chair, sometimes with her diaper on, sometimes with it off. She would sit and look at her books, she would ask for a piece of toilet paper and "wipe" herself, and then she would wash her hands. So she had all the motions down..but nothing ever went into the potty. I never forced her to sit on the potty, it was always just there, in case she wanted to sit on it.

Two weeks ago, Samantha had just gotten out of the bathtub, and she was standing in her room naked, while I was getting her pajamas out when she got a weird panicked look on her face and she crossed her legs and held herself.

"Do you have to go potty?" I asked.

"Yes!" she answered. So onto the potty we went.

She sat down and started to read her book, "My Big Girl Potty," her usual routine. But after only 2 pages she stood up and exclaimed "I did it!" I looked in the potty and saw that it was full of pee. "You did it! You used your potty!!" Pete rushed in...we gave her hugs and kisses and told her what a big girl she was and then even though it was bedtime, we took her downstairs and gave her a cookie to celebrate.

I thought it was a one time thing. I wasn't expecting much. But then the next night she went potty again, and then again the next night, each time exclaiming "I did it!" as she stood up and turned around to look at the bowl full of pee. So after a couple days of that, I started putting her on the potty at each diaper change. I couldn't believe it, but after only a couple days of that, she started going pee on the potty every time she sat on it! And now she is sitting on the potty (and using it) when she first gets up in the morning, then again before I get her dressed, then again before we leave the house, then when we get home, then before her nap, then after her nap, then before her bath or before bed. Samantha is going pee-pee in the potty about 6 times a day!

We are no where near potty trained. Samantha still wears diapers all day, and as long as she is in a diaper she will go with out telling me first, and she will sit in a dirty diaper with out telling me it's dirty. If she is naked she will not go, or she will tell me if she has to go..but if she even has pants on and no diaper she forgets and she goes in her pants. So she seems to only make the connections when she is naked, so, I don't know if we are ready to go out and buy big girl underwear yet.

I made a potty chart and hung it in the bathroom. Every time she uses the potty she gets to put a sticker on her chart. She seems to like this. She has never pooped on the potty and she refuses to do so. If she is naked she will ask for a diaper if she needs to poop.

So that's where we are with potty training. I have not ready any books on potty training and I have no idea what I'm doing! I'm just kind of winging it here, but it seems like she's getting it so I want to continue to move forward. Moms of the world-any advice you can offer? Any good books or websites? My goal has been to have her potty trained by the time the new baby arrives (when she's 2 and a half) but how fabulous would it be if I could get her potty trained a month or two before hand so I could have a little mini break from diapers!!! I'm trying not to get too excited but I'm already dreaming of a diaper free Spring! Any help appreciated!!!

By The Way.....

2011-01-10T21:19:00.002-05:00

Guess who is going to be a big sister?!!!

Yup! I'm pregnant!

I'm almost 18 weeks, due on June 16th. I didn't mean to keep our big news a secret from all of my bloggy friends, but with all of the things going on lately, like birthdays and Holidays, I've had too many other things to write about. It's funny how different the second pregnancy is from the first. When I was pregnant with Samantha I couldn't wait to tell everyone, and it was all I wanted to talk about, because it was all I ever thought about. This pregnancy is flying by, and I'm so distracted with Samantha that I often forget that I'm even pregnant.

Once again we have decided to wait to find out the sex. My 20 week ultrasound is scheduled for 3 weeks from now and we will try our best to control ourselves from finding out. I am getting a strong boy feeling this time around. Probably because with Samantha I craved sweet foods and with this pregnancy I'm craving salty foods...but who knows!

Other than being exhausted from chasing a toddler around, and a case of plantar fasciitis, I'm feeling good....huge, but good. The above photo was taken before Christmas. I've eaten a lot of Christmas cookies since then so my bump has practically doubled in size. Thank goodness leggings and uggs are in style. I'm living in both!

So our baby girl isn't going to be a baby anymore! Writing that almost brings tears to my eyes. Samantha and her little sibling will be 2.5 years apart. She has no idea how much her life is about to change! We talk about the new baby coming, but she doesn't get it quite yet. Besides giving her as much attention and love as we can while she is still our only child, we will be spending the next few months potty training and moving Samantha into her big girl room as we make way for number 2!

Guess who turned 2?!

2011-01-07T07:30:00.007-05:00

In all the busyness of the Holidays I never got a chance to post about my sweet little baby girl turning 2. Well turn 2 she did, and to celebrate we threw her 2 fun birthday parties. The first one was 2 weeks early (can you tell there is a theme here?) on December 17 at our house. We normally have playgroup on Friday mornings. Each Mom takes a turn hosting. I decided to host this Friday morning and turn playgroup into a birthday bash for Sam, complete with an Elmo face cupcake cake!

Since she was Princess for the day, Samantha was dressed in her princess gown that Grandpa gave her. She looked so cute, but with all of her friends running around, I couldn't get her to stand still for a picture. This was the best I could do...

Apparently my camera has a fun house mirror setting??

The house was packed with people...

Even MomMom and PopPop were able to make it!

When it came time to sing "Happy Birthday" Sam was ready. She had been practicing the song. She hadn't, however, been practicing blowing out the candles...so she got a little help from her friends.

Untitled from Alexis Dilullo on Vimeo.

The kids all thought Elmo's face was delicious!

Samantha agreed!

Then it was time for present opening! Tutus were the present of the season, as Samantha received 4, including this blue one with matching hair bow...adorable!!

Other favorite presents were play doh (which she had not discovered yet, but now loves), a doll feeding set, a bunny that sings "Jesus Loves Me" and GoGo My Walking Pup.

Samantha's actual birthday was two weeks later on December 27th. Samantha woke up at Yia Yia's house and was treated to a special birthday muffin for breakfast.

Later that day we threw her a second, 2nd birthday party!

Unfortunately, due to the snow storm and a very, very poor VDOT performance, only one of Samantha's little friends was able to make it. But the two of the them enjoyed their first date and Samantha even gave him a kiss at the end of the night.

This time Samantha was prepared to blow out her candles. She had been practicing!

Untitled from Alexis Dilullo on Vimeo.

I think Samantha likes birthdays!

Our Holidays 2010

2011-01-03T20:34:00.007-05:00

My Christmas came two weeks early when Pete told me I was getting a new car for Christmas. So I said goodbye to my 2005 Hyundai Tucson, which has served me well for almost six years...

And we welcomed the newest addition to our family, a 2011 Honda Pilot!

I love the car! Until now the only luxury item I have ever had in a car is a single disc CD player. Pete loaded the Pilot, with a 6 disc CD changer,XM radio, Navigation, DVD player, ipod hook up, leather seats with the seat warmers and everything else you can think of. I feel like Puff Daddy driving this thing around!

We drove the new Pilot down to Virginia on Christmas Eve. Pete loved the amount of cargo space the car has. He said packing it up for the trip was "a pleasure." Samantha loves the new car too. She watched a DVD for the first half of the trip, then we stopped and had lunch. After lunch she napped the rest of the way!! She has not napped in the car for a long time, much less for 2 hours! I was thrilled to see her nap and know that she finds our new roomier vehicle very comfy.

Since we got in on Christmas Eve, we just took it easy, had a nice dinner and went to bed.

Samantha woke up on Christmas morning to find that Santa Claus had come!

She opened her stocking and all of her gifts with much enthusiasm. She especially loved the dancing Elmo and her dollhouse.

The present opening dragged on until about noon. Samantha had to have every toy opened and taken out of the box so that she could play with it right away, for at least 5 or 10 minutes before she moved onto the next present. She also learned a new expression "it needs batteries" which she says all the time now, any time something is not working she looks at me and says "it needs batteries, Mommy."

After the Christmas morning extravaganza we had a quick lunch and then went down for a nap. After Samantha's nap we headed over to my Cousin's house for delicious food and more Christmas fun!

Samantha loved my Cousin's dogs and kept making herself comfortable in their bed (which lucky for her new black suede dress, they have never used before)...

...and when she got tired of the bed she just laid down on the dogs themselves.

We took a sleepy Samantha home, just before it started to snow. A white Christmas at the beach, can you believe it?! We were thrilled! But it didn't stop on Christmas, it kept snowing all through the evening and the next day until there was a foot of snow on the ground. Absolutely unheard of in that area. In fact I saw on the news that the last time it snowed that much was in 1980...so needles to say, our quant white Christmas soon turned into a state of emergency. Pete, Samantha and I were snowed in my Mom's house with my Aunt and Uncle, my Mom, my Cousin Chris and his dog. I thought it was fun, we played Wii, ate tons of food, and let Samantha entertain us. I think Pete started to get a little stir crazy by the end of day 2..but we did alright. It was really cool (and a little eerie) to see snow on the beach.

And Samantha got to build her first snowman! Who would have thought that her first snowman would be at Yia Yia's house not home in Pennsylvania?

On Tuesday, once the snow cleared, we were able to get back home and after we unloaded all of the presents, we rushed over to Uncle Jamie and Aunt Jen's house to meet Samantha's future best friend Charlotte, who was born three weeks early, on Christmas Eve! We didn't get the phone call from Jamie until we were an hour and a half on our way south. We contemplated turning around, but decided we would have to just be patient and wait 4 days to meet the little lady. She was worth the wait!

A couple days later it was New Year's Eve. Samantha's B.F.F. Ella came over and the girls ran around the house in matching tutus. It was a crazy party for two!

Ella's Mommy, Julianne is five months pregnant (doesn't she look great?) so while our husbands sipped scotch and talked loudly about politics, Julianne and I set the table and us adults sat down to a nice dinner for four while the girls watched an Elmo movie in their pj's.

It was a pretty tame evening for us. Our company left after dinner, around 9pm, and Pete and I were in bed by 11. We stayed up to watch the ball drop, we wished each other a Happy New Year, kissed and then turned out the lights and went to bed. I'm pretty sure I was asleep by 12;15. Which was fine with me, who wants to start 2011 tired with a hang over?

Samantha really enjoyed this holiday season. I feel bad for her, now that the holidays are over. Although she hasn't gotten the hint yet. Even though we took our Christmas tree down and there are no longer stockings, ribbons and bows and brightly wrapped gifts all over the house, she keeps singing jingle bells and talking about Santa Claus. I'm guessing it will fade by February. Either that or we will just keep jingle bells in our nightly lullaby rotation, along with "twinkle, twinkle little star" and "hush little baby don't say word." Don't be surprised if you hear us singing jingle bells in August!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T21:46:00.003-05:00

Happy Holidays from the DiLullo Daily!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately but we have been out of town, and throwing birthday parties, and buzzing around. I'm working on a recap of all of our Holiday fun. Until then please enjoy this Holiday musical medley by Samantha DiLullo.

Jingle Bells from Alexis Dilullo on Vimeo.

We Caved

2010-12-21T21:09:00.002-05:00

So after much debate and with very little enthusiasm (on our end, not Sam's), we decided to go ahead and get a Christmas tree. Samantha has just fallen in love with Christmas (and she doesn't even know about the presents yet). She gets so excited when she sees a Christmas tree or hears Christmas music. She sings "Jingle Bells" all day long and randomly shouts out with excitement, things like "Christmas!" and "Santa Claus!" and "Reindeer!" all through out the day. The other day while listening to Christmas music in the car and dancing in her car seat, she shouted out "I'm so happy Mom!" My heart just melted! Pete and I couldn't help but want to capture a little of this excitement in our own home with a Christmas tree.

I told Samantha, one Saturday morning, that "Today, after your nap, we are going to get a Christmas Tree."

"Christmas Tree!!!" She said. "I can't wait! I can't wait!"

So, just like I promised, we went to get a Christmas tree that afternoon. Samantha was so overwhelmed with excitement she couldn't decide which one she wanted.

We finally picked one and got it home. Sam had a lot of fun helping us decorate...

She even tried to put the star on the top.

And of course, we taught her not to break the glass balls...per Yia Yia's orders.

She was so, in her own words, happy!

Now, whenever we are out and it's time to go home I just say, "Samantha, let's go home and see our Christmas tree." To which she replies "Christmas tree! I can't wait! I can't wait!"

We are having so much fun watching Samantha enjoy Christmas. I feel like a kid again, and the scrooge in me has actually gotten into the holiday spirit after all.

Dancing DiLullos!

2010-12-12T09:26:00.004-05:00

This took minutes to make and provided hours of entertainment for Samantha. She kept saying "more, more, more!" when it ended, and as she watched us danced around she would say "hi Daddy!" and "Hi Mommy!" and "Sammy dancing!"

Enjoy!

Holiday Fun!

2010-12-07T20:47:00.003-05:00

Over the four day Thanksgiving Weekend, we decided to pack up and spend some time together as a family in the winter wonderland that is Cape May over the Holidays. We spent three beautiful. cold days relaxing together and doing all kinds of Christmasy things.

We rode the choo-choo train at Congress Hall...

And we went to story time with Mrs. Clause...

We also got to see the Big Guy himself, Santa Claus! Samantha loves to talk about Santa Claus, and when she sees him from afar, on T.V. or in the form of a stuffed doll, she gets really excited. But when she sees Santa up close, in the flesh she gets really scared. She clings to me and digs her head into my shoulder and has no interest in even looking at him, much less telling him what she wants for Christmas. And her feelings about Mrs. Claus were very similar. After Mrs. Claus finished her story, Santa came out to say hello to all the kids. Of course, Samantha, who just warmed up to the idea of Mrs. Claus reading her a book, got really scared. But Santa was handing out candy! And he accidentally dropped some on the floor! So Samantha, being the cunning scaredy cat that she is, snuck over to the dropped candy and picked it up, and then as you will see in the following video, she then backed away slowly, hoping Santa wouldn't notice her. Later, when her Dad asked her what she got, I think she forgot for a second about the two frightening people in front of her and she answered him, but then she quickly remembered Mrs. Claus and gave her the eyes to make sure the crazy white haired lady didn't hear that she took candy.

Also, there was a big blue pig there too. I know...weird. But the funny thing is, Samantha LOVED the blue pig. Go figure! She's afraid of the two sweet old people with white hair who give her presents, but she loves the big blue pig. His lap she sits in. Kids are funny!

Sam fears Santa from Alexis Dilullo on Vimeo.

After our visit with Santa we did a lot of Christmas shopping, and baby it was cold outside!! Luckily I recently found this fake fur coat at children's consignment sale in size 2T. It was a riot watching her run around in this thing. She looked like a a tiny, crazy old lady toddling around the shops.

It was a fun weekend full of Holiday Fun. I even baked cookies and roasted chestnuts while we were there. Unfortunately for Samantha, that was the end of our Holiday fun as her parents are both being a couple of bah-humbugs. Since we are gong to Virginia for Christmas this year, we have been debating whether or not we should bother with the hassle of getting a Christmas tree. We sort of decided not to get one, although I'm feeling bad, like I'm depriving my child of a very joyous thing. What do you guys think? Are we being a couple of scrooges if we don't get a tree? Samantha's not going to remember...is she?

Her Second Thanksgiving...

2010-11-30T21:08:00.003-05:00

Started with a surprise morning snowfall! Aunt Millie (Nana) was over to help me with some cooking as the first flakes began to fall. Samantha sat at the window with her Nana watching the first snowfall of the season.

It only snowed for about a half hour and it didn't stick, so after that excitement was over Samantha sat and watched the parade while writing her Thanksgiving cards.

What an artist!

Then we were off to MomMom and PopPop's house for the Thanksgiving Feast!

First the children treated us to a musical performance in the parlor.

Then Daddy had the honor of carving the turkey...

And we sat down to eat!

Yummmmm!!!

After dinner the kids watched the move "The Snowman" and MomMom and PopPop gave them each a stuffed snowman of their own. While the kids watched their movie the adults cleaned up dinner and made room for pumpkin and apple pie!

Samantha loved spending time with her cousins!

Christmas Card Quandary

2010-11-15T16:17:00.006-05:00

So, it hit me the other day that Thanksgiving is just next week. What?!!! Where did the time go? Well, I guess that means I better start shopping for presents, planning Samantha's birthday party, and of course at the top of the "to do" list, the family Christmas card. Pete and I have had some great, and not-so-great Christmas cards over the years. Being from a creative family, my Dad a photographer, and my Mom a graphic designer, we always had pretty good Christmas cards growing up. So I always feel this pressure when it comes time to design my card.

This year I'm over the pressure, and doing it myself. I'm totally into outsorcing my Christmas card. Being a Mom has made me so lazy. All I want to do when Samantha is sleeping is sleep myself. That girl wears me out! I can't even clean my own house, I hire someone to do that too. This year I'm hiring my friend Arwen, who recently started her own photography business, to take a photo of us and then I'm simply going to Shutterfly and purchasing one of their zillions of holiday cards from their personalized cards and stationary collection. The only question is..which one? Should I do something like this? Just simple and pretty? Or should I do this one? You gotta love the good old holiday letter.

I think I may go crazy trying to choose one, so take a look at shutterfly's selection of Holiday Cards and Christmas cards, and tell me which one is your favorite.

Oh, and because I wrote this post, I get 50 cards for free! You can too, just click here.

Supermom!

2010-11-14T20:42:00.003-05:00

And I'm not talking about myself. Samantha is the supermom I wish I could be. She can simultaneously sweep and mop the floor, cutting her cleaning time in half.

And she does it all while happily taking care of two babies.

If only all Moms had the energy level of an almost two year old.

And, just a sidenote, isn't it funny how little girls like to do chores for fun? Samantha loves to clean, cook, fold laundry and take care of babies. If she was actually any good at doing these things I could totally run a daycare and cleaning service out of my home..but unfortunately her laundry folding skills leave much to be desired, and cleaning to her means wiping the same 5 inch area over and over again in a circular pattern with a tissue. And since she tries to feed her little babies pizza, I think she may be a bad babysitter too. Oh well!

Guess who's at the table!

2010-11-10T15:59:00.003-05:00

You may remember this post from a few months ago. Well, things certainly have changed since then! Samantha no longer eats her dinner alone every night. I was just getting too hungry to wait until almost 8pm to eat dinner. Plus, I've been going to bed at 9:30, and I felt so full and stuffed by bedtime that I had a hard time falling asleep. So I pushed the DiLullo dinner time up to 6:30. This means that Samantha and I eat dinner together, and Pete rushes in for the last 5 minutes of us sitting at the table and scarfs something down really quickly. I know, it's not ideal for him, but he travels so much that he really only has to rush home for dinner one or two nights a week. So, I guess we're still not having nightly family dinners, but we are getting there. We're trying at least!

Anyway, the big news is that Samantha has finally matured enough that she can sit at the table with the adults...thanks to some easy-wipe-up placements from Pottery Barn Kids!

Also, we've ditched the strap on high chair, and gone with the easily removable, totally wipable, cooshee booster seat.

Samantha is loving her new status as a Big Girl at the dinner table.

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T21:19:00.002-04:00

Quak Quak!!

We started training our little trick-or-treater about a week ahead of the big night. Our pre-halloween conversation sounded a lot like this:

"Samantha, what are you going to be for Halloween?"

(cute little voice answers) "a duck."

"And what does a duck say?"

(cute voice) "quak, quak"

"And what do you say when you go to someone's door with your bucket?"

(excited cute voice) "A bucket!!"

"Yes but what do you say when you go to someone's door on Halloween with your bucket?"

(cute voice) "tick a teat!"

"Yay! And then when they give you candy what do you say?"

(cute excited voice) "Candy!!!"

"Yes, what do you say when they give you candy?"

"Tank you!"

And that's the extent of our week long crash course Halloween training program.

Turns out Samantha got the hang of trick-or treating very quickly. She would go to the door, hold out her bucket and say "tick-a-teat." Then she would wait for someone to put candy in her bucket. A lot of neighbors would hold the basket down for her to pick what she wanted, but she would just stand there, frozen, holding her bucket until someone physically picked a piece of candy for her and then placed it into her bucket. Then she would pick the candy out of her bucket and start to eat it through the wrapper. Then I would remind her to say "thank you" and she would say "tank you" and run back to her wagon. It was the cutest 45 minutes of her life, I think.

Yes, 45 minutes or so...6 houses total. That's all you need, because honestly, she can't even eat half the candy and it was kind of cold, and almost bed time. But we had a blast, and I think Samantha really likes Halloween.

Samantha went trick-or-treating with her boyfriend Patrick. Check out this video of the two of these adorable little "tick-a-teaters."

Halloween from Alexis Dilullo on Vimeo.

Sick

2010-10-13T19:59:00.006-04:00

Everything seemed fine when Samantha woke up this morning. She woke up all smiles. We played with her pet hermit crab and read a book and then ate eggs for breakfast. We got dressed and left for our 10am Wednesday morning music class. In the car Samantha was quiet and stared out the window. She looked tired. I thought "hmmm?"....and then continued to drive us to music class.

During class Samantha was cranky, and then she got crankier. She did not participate like she usually does. She did not get into the middle of the circle and dance like she usually does. She did not run around with all of her friends like she usually does. She seemed "off." Then I kissed her forehead and felt heat on my lips...yup, a fever. No wonder she was so "off." We had plans to go to Samantha's BFF Ella's house after music class for play and pizza, but instead we went straight home, got into sweat pants and got comfy on the couch. Samantha asked to watch the "monkeys." Which is a Baby Einstein DVD called Baby Noah that Samantha is currently obsessed with. The DVD features a ton of animals, including monkeys, which they show for about 5 seconds yet Samantha still insist on calling the DVD "monkeys." Anyway, I set her up with her pillow pet and doll and some juice and I put on the the "monkeys" and then I went into the kitchen and started making soup. As I was cooking her soup I started to get nostalgic, thinking about all those sick days when I was a little girl, and how comforting my Mom always was to me. I remember, no matter how awful I felt, it seemed that I immediately started to feel better the minute my Mom set me up on the couch and started making some food for me. I almost started to feel a little jealous of Samantha, knowing that my sick days with Mom taking care of me are over. Now when I'm sick, I'm usually taking care of two other sick people. But I guess that's what happens when you become a Mom.

Samantha just has a cold with a low grade fever. Hopefully after some soup and rest today she'll be feeling better by tomorrow morning. Also, Pete called from work, he's sick too. Guess I better get my "Mom" face on.

Fall Festivus!

2010-10-10T21:21:00.008-04:00

We had a beautiful weekend here in sunny PA, and we spent our weekend lavishing ourselves in all things Fall.

We took Samantha to a pumpkin patch so we could pick out a pumpkin for our front porch. First we took a hayride.

Then we picked out our pumpkin. I didn't take a picture of this. I know, I can't believe it! I didn't take the classic "kid-in-a-pumpkin-patch" fall photo. What kind of mother am I?! Hopefully we'll visit another pumpkin patch before October ends and I'll get my chance.

And before we went home we gave Samantha her very first candy apple. She liked it a lot!

She is such a good girl. Even though she loved the candy apple, she still willingly shared it with Mommy.

And Mommy liked it a lot too!

On Sunday we partook in another fun Fall activity, a chili cook off. We maneuvered Sam's stroller through the swarms of people as we tasted all different types of chili and then we voted for our favorite (brown sugar was the secret ingredient). There was a kids area complete with a moon bounce (which are kind of dangerous by they way) and music. Sam got her groove on and took her egg shaking very seriously. We take a music class together on Wednesdays. I think it has really helped to develop her egg shaking talent. Take a look for yourself.

Sam shakes her egg from Alexis Dilullo on Vimeo.

Our Anniversary Vacation

2010-10-06T09:34:00.001-04:00

We are back from an amazing vacation at Zoetry Wellness Spa and Resorts in Cancun, Mexico. We left Samantha with her Grandparents for 4 nights and spent 4.5 beautiful days celebrating our 5 year anniversary.

I have often teased Pete when he laments about having to travel so much for work, that I would love to have a few hours stuck on a plane with nothing to do but read a book and sip on a drink. Well, turns out I wasn't joking. After the plane took off Pete and I ordered bloody Mary's and for 3.5 hours I sat in silence, sipping my cocktail, reading my book, uninterrupted. It was heavenly! So much so that when the plane landed I told Pete that we could go ahead and go on home now, nothing could top the last 3.5 hours I just experienced.

Of course I was wrong! That 3.5 hours was the start of paradise! Forgive me if I sound a little too excited about this vacation, but I didn't realize how much I missed quiet, relaxation, sleep, sitting still, laziness and just going to the bathroom with the door closed and no interruptions, until I got to experience it again.

Our room was wonderful. We had a beautiful ocean view patio with a private plunge pool (which we never used by the way, so don't spend your money on this upgrade) where we enjoyed our coffee every morning.

Here is our comfy bed.

And our spa like bathroom...

And our "living room." Notice the tequila shot taking station on the right. A bottle of tequila was there upon arrival along with lime slices, two shot glasses and salt which was replinished daily.

Iguanas ran around like squirrels at this place. Pete was thrilled with all of the exoctic wildlife.

On our first night there Pete released a baby turtle into the ocean.

And I did this.

See the little hut out on the water to the left of us? Every morning at 9am we did yoga there. It was beautiful to see the fish swimming under your feet and to hear the calming sound of the ocean waves while practicing our downward facing dog.

On Thursday we went snorkeling. Turns out I'm not very good at snorkeling. Don't expect me to get my scuba cert anytime soon. I basically can't get comfortable with the idea of breathing under water and after too long I start having a panic attack. So the two hour snorkeling trip was cool...but it would have been a lot cooler if it was just one hour.

On Friday Pete went fishing. I know, he just can't resist! He actually wasn't planning on doing any fishing trips, but I encouraged him to go because selfishly, I really wanted a few hours to myself to just read my book and relax. So while he was doing this...

I was doing this...

On Friday night we took a catamaran sunset cruise.

Other than that we basically did a lot of this...

and this....

And we had a few massages and spa treatments along the way.

Pete got in touch with nature..

While I did this...

By the way, we finished that complimentary bottle of tequila that was left in our room. Because what else is there to do when you have no kids, no responsibilities and nothing to do but sit at a pool all day and then go to a 5pm massage?

I was very sad to leave. I almost cried when we were saying goodbye.

But then I was super excited to get home to my baby girl. It's the first time in my life that I have been excited to get home from a paradise vacation. Because instead of having to return to an inbox full of work emails I got to return to this....(Yeah, Yia Yia was totally busted!)

homecoming from Alexis Dilullo on Vimeo.

A huge thank you goes out to Yia Yia, MomMom, PopPop, Aunt Nicole and Aunt Millie for taking such good care of Samantha while we were gone. It made the trip so much more fun knowing that she was in such good hands! It was an extremely...

Baby's First Professional Sporting Event!

2010-09-26T20:01:00.000-04:00

This week Samantha attended her first professional sporting event, the Phillies versus the Braves.

This wasn't just any baseball game. There was a special reason that we were in attendance that night. A year ago, at Gymboree, Samantha became friends with a little girl named Avery, and I, in turn, became friends with her Mommy, HIllary. One day, while watching our girls climb through tunnels together, Hillary shared with me that Avery had a twin sister, Zane. Avery was born healthy, but Zane was born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). The following passage was taken from Hillary's website, sweetbabyzane.com, explaining what SMA is:

SMA is the leading genetic killer of infants. It is a terminal, genetic disease that results in the loss of nerves in the spinal cord and the weakness of the muscles connected with those nerves. SMA impacts the ability to walk, stand, sit, eat, breathe and even swallow. The mind and spirit are no different from that of a healthy baby, but the body eventually fails. Typically, babies with SMA Type 1 have a life expectancy between one and two years. They require around-the-clock medical assistance and monitoring. Zane passed away of respirtory failure due to her disease on June 18, 2009. She was just 5 1/2 months old.

Hillary came up with the idea of working with the Phillies to raise awareness and funds for SMA research. She sold over 800 Phillies tickets, with a poriton of the proceeds going to help in the fight against SMA. Before the game started, a voice came over the loudspeaker announcing that tonight was Spinal Muscular Atrophy awareness night, and then a short video featuring HIllary, her husband Keith and their daughter Avery played on the jumbotron.

And then, my girlfriend Hillary, threw out the first pitch!! It was such a thrill to watch! She smoked it right over the plate too!

Today, Hillary and her husband Keith held a 5K race in honor of their daughter Zane, to raise funds for SMA research. I ran in the race while Samantha and Pete cheered me on from the sidelines.

I didn't win of course. I'm not much of a runner. But my friend Julianne did! She finished in 20 minutes! Here she is with her daugheter Ella (Samantha's current B.F.F.) and her 1st place plaque.

I'm in such awe of my friend Hillary and her family. They have had something truly awful happen to them, and have turned it into an inspiring story. They have made a name for their daughter Zane, and have reached millions, spreading awareness and raising funds to fight to this terrible disease. I know Zane must be so proud of her Mommy! I'm proud to call her my friend.

Happy Anniversary Pete!

2010-09-24T06:02:00.002-04:00

Wow Pete, it's been 5 years! It feels like the blink of an eye, yet I also can't believe that it's only been five years, as you and I know each other so well and I can't imagine my life with out you in it.

You are a wonderful husband! You take such good care of Samantha and I. Whatever comes our way, with you as our captain, we know everything will be alright.

Here is a little movie I made for you. It's so fun to look back over the last five years and see all the places we have been and the changes that have come our way (including some changes in my hair color and style of sunglasses).

Don't forget to turn up the volume and click on the little arrows in the corner so that you can watch in full screen. Enjoy! I love you!

Untitled from Alexis Dilullo on Vimeo.

P.S.-if anyone is wondering how we plan on celebrating our 5th anniversary, I've purposely been keeping it under wraps, but I think it's safe to tell you that Samantha is going to spend some quality time with her grandparents while Pete and I spend four days somewhere really warm sipping frozen drinks by a pool and getting massages every afternoon!!! Pictures and a recap of our first vacation with out Samantha will be coming soon. I definitely have mixed feelings about this trip. i"m super excited, yet super nervous to leave Sam for 4 days. I know she'll be fine...it's me that I'm worried about!

Opa! Happy Birthday PopPop!

2010-09-21T07:21:00.002-04:00

We spent our weekend celebrating PopPop's 60th birthday. Pete and his sisters went all out, renting a private room in one of the nicest restaurants in town. The crowd was small and intimate, just the family, which is just what PopPop wanted. We spent the evening toasting, roasting and tearing up.

Samantha was home with a sitter, but she did get to celebrate on Sunday night, as we spent the evening over at MomMom and PopPops for some lasagna and "mmmmmmm.....cake!"

And don't worry! Even though she was home with a sitter on Saturday night, she still had a great weekend. On Friday night we took her to the Greek Festival. She got in touch with her Greek routes while eating a Gyro, watching some Greek dancing and of course, riding the rides! She was actually able to ride a few of these rides by herself. What a big girl she is! We had a blast watching her enjoy herself...while we shelled out a ton of money! We just kept telling ourselves it's for the church, so it's just like tithing! Good thing the church has an ATM in the lobby. Got to hand it to those Greeks, they're smart! "No money for donation? NO PROBLEM! ATM right here!"

The Best Weekend Ever!

2010-09-13T16:31:00.009-04:00

I think Samantha may have just had the best weekend of her life. Pete had to go into the office on Saturday, so I took Samantha to the Heartstrings warehouse sale to buy some fall clothes. Samantha is quite the shopper. She was immidiately drawn to a pink sweater with horses on it.
I tried it on her and she refused to take it off. She loved it. She then ran over to the shoes and started trying them on, and pretty much threw a temper tantrum when I told her she could not have new shoes and a sweater, she had to pick one. We ended up leaving the sale, in 80 degree weather, me in my tank top and jeans, and Samantha in her new new sweater. Yes, she loves clothes and shoes. We're going to have to keep a close eye on this little shopper.

After the sale we met Pete at his office and had lunch together. Samantha had a blast running around the empty office building and coloring on all of the white boards. When it was time to leave she threw herself on the floor laid there limp, refusing to get up or move, as she did not want to leave.

When she woke up from her afternoon nap we took her to the carnival that was in town. Up until now the only ride Samantha has ever been on is the swings. Her face when these rides started going was priceless. Her smile was from ear to ear, all while shouting out "weeeeeeee" during the entire ride.

She first rode on the "choo-choo."

The she rode on the balloons, which I think may have been her favorite. Check out the video, if you listen closely you can hear her "weeeee!"

weeee from Alexis Dilullo on Vimeo.

And lastly she rode the merry-go-round.

You'll notice she rode all the rides with Daddy, as Mommy tends to get a little nauseous on rides that go round and round.

Then Sunday came, the day Pete has been waiting for all Spring and Summer. Yes, football is back. This year, however, I have found a new way to cope with the constant football watching. My Mommy friends from playgroup have started a Fantasy Football league. We have no idea what we are doing and you should have seen the debacle that was our draft, but we now have something to root for while we sit and watch football on Sunday, Monday and sometimes Thursday.

Anyway, we invited a few friends over to watch the games with us, including our friends Kevin and Stacey, who have an 18 month old son named Patrick, and our friends Julianne and Pete who have a 2 year old daughter named Ella. Samantha spent the day running around the house laughing hysterically, screaming with delight, chasing her two friends, sharing her toys, coloring, throwing balls and eating chips. After everyone left Samantha told me "I love Ella...I like Patrick." I guess she doesn't want to use the word "love" so soon with her new boyfriend.

Yup, it was a great weekend. Shopping, a carnival and hanging with friends on NFL Sunday. Could a little girl's life get any better?!

"I Like Talk!"

2010-09-07T21:49:00.004-04:00

They are short and not always grammatically correct, but Samantha is speaking in sentences these days. She especially likes to tell you the things that she, well...likes. Some sentences I hear on a day to day basis are:

"I like coaw" (translation, I like to color)

"I like Taaas" (I like Thomas, the train)

"I like shoes!" (Oh man does this girl like shoes!!!)

Hang around here long enough and you may hear other phrases such as:

"I go night-night"

"I wanna wock" (I want to walk)

"Hi Daddy...Bye Bye Daddy!"

"It's hot"

"It's blue" (while pointing to a blue crayon)

"I hava pet!" (Yes, she has a pet, thanks to MomMom and PopPop who brought Samantha home a hermit crab from the shore. She loves her new pet...which could explain the reasoning behind the next two phrases recently uttered:)

"I love MomMom, I love PopPop"

Yes, she is quite the communicator these days. I'm pretty much the only person who can understand her, but if you spend a few hours with her you start to develop an ear for her distinct dialect. My Aunt spent the weekend with us this past labor day weekend, and by Saturday afternoon she was fluent in "Samantha-ese."

I have to get her cute little voice on video so you can hear it for yourself. I'm loving hearing her sweet little phrases. I find myself excited for her to wake up from her nap so that I can hear what she is going to say next!

Another Birthday Party!

2010-09-03T06:06:00.002-04:00

We went to another fun birthday party last week, for Samantha's friend Ella, who just turned two!

Ella's party was a pool party, and here is her adorable cake. It actually wasn't a cake, it was a bunch of cupcakes close together with icing spread on top. Isn't that a cute idea?

The Birthday Girl seemed to like it!

Samantha did too!

The party favors were little Dr. Suess grab bags filled with fun things like stickers and toys and treats. Samantha appropriately choose this bag.

What fun we are having watching all of our friends turn 2!

Mmmmm.....cake!

2010-08-25T20:43:00.003-04:00

We just got back from a very fun birthday party for Samantha's friend Lucy, from play-group.

As usual, Samantha came ready to party. It doesn't take much to get her into the festive mood.

Samantha had her first experience with a moon bounce. I think she may be hooked.

***Yeah, this look of amazement says it all***

And the great thing about moon bounces is when you get out you get to try on everybody's shoes! The perfect thing for a girl with a shoe fetish! (Seriously, she really has a shoe fetish. She freaks when she sees shoes. She tries on every pair she comes across and constantly has to be wearing them. She gets angry and yells at you when you take her shoes off.)

I think Sam likes birthday parties! Let the 2nd-birthday-party-palooza begin!!

Phew...What a Week!

2010-08-22T21:08:00.006-04:00

As I said in my last post, we took advantage of our last Summer days by spending one final week at Yai Yai's, soaking up the Summer sun.

We spent the week with my Mom's dear friend Alexis (not me, her friend is also named Alexis) and her 7-year-old daughter, Taddus. Samantha adores Taddus! They have become very close since they met, one year ago. All week Samantha ran around the house screaming "Taass? Taass?" Looking for her new best friend. Taddus is my Mom's God-daughter, and she wanted to know how her and Samantha are related. I said that they are God-sisters, and she said she wanted to be cousins. Either way, even though they aren't related, these two are practically family.

Taddus spent a couple days at Horse Riding Camp, while she was visiting Virginia. Samantha and I went to see Taddus on her last day of camp and check out all of the animals.

Taddus received a ribbon for completing camp. She was so proud of her award!

They had miniature horses at the horse farm. Samantha didn't know what to make of these horses that were just her size.

I think the miniature horses confused her though, because she then tried to ride the dog...giddy up!

One day we took the girls to Botanical Gardens. They have a wonderful play area for kids complete with tree houses, slides, and water spouts...the perfect thing for a cloudy but hot summer day! Samantha had a blast!

We also took the girls to the beach and to the aquarium and out to dinner twice. They had a very fun week! I did too, as I even got to do some shopping and visit with some of my friends while Yai Yai and Aunt Alexis babysat.

On Friday we all piled into two cars and caravanned back up to my house. Yai Yai, Alexis and Taddus all spent the night. On Saturday morning poor Samantha had to say goodbye to her new BFF Taddus and to Mommy at the same time, as Alexis and Taddus headed back to their home in Boston, and my Mom and I drove up to Connecticut for my Cousin Michael's wedding. Samantha spent the rest of the weekend at home with her Daddy. I felt so bad for her when we all left. I knew she would have a wonderful time with her Dad, doing some Father/Daughter bonding, but I was worried that she would be upset having to say goodbye to Taddus and Me at the same time. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. Pete said she didn't even skip a beat after we left. She is so resilient!

I would have loved to have Pete and Samantha join us in Connecticut, but the wedding was for adults only, and since we didn't know any good Connecticut based babysitters, we decided it was best if I go on my own.

Michael and Kristin had a beautiful wedding! The venue the reception was held in was gorgeous. Everything was perfect and we had tons of fun!

On Sunday morning Kristin's parents held a brunch. We stopped in to have a cup of coffee and give the Bride and Groom one last hug before we said our goodbyes.

I drove my Mom and I home through the pouring rain on the NJ turnpike, and I probably drove a little too fast, as I was in such a hurry to get back to my little girl. Now that I'm home and pooped from our whirlwind week I really am looking forward to settling into a routine as Fall is right around the corner!

Anticipation...

2010-08-16T21:42:00.002-04:00

I love this time of year. Don't get me wrong..I love Summer! I love swimming and the beach and writing with street chalk and sweating and wearing sun dresses. But there's something about this time of year...when the backpacks and the pencils are all of a sudden in the front of every store. When the flowers are all looking a little beat, and you're already thinking about planting Fall mums. When you savor each moment at the pool because you know it's going to close in just a few short weeks. When even though its 93 degrees outside, your inside shopping for boots and jeans and sweaters. Yes, even though I've been out of school for about 10 years now..I still feel that little twinge of excitement as we get ready to welcome Fall. I still feel like the year begins in the Fall, even though I know it really begins in January. I still get excited to welcome routine back into my life after a busy summer. And after an excessively hot Summer, I'm really excited to feel the crisp cool Fall air.

I may be a little too excited about Fall, because I have been busy signing Samantha and I up for tons of classes. After a Summer of nothing, we are going full force into Fall with Gymboree, Music Together, Bible study and playgroup on our weekly calendars. I probably will be hating myself for signing us up for so many things come November...but the good news is I can always drop out anytime. I figured, this time next year Samantha will be getting ready to go to pre-school (aaahhh!), so why not spend this year doing as many fun things together as we can before she's starting school and spending every Fall from here on out with me.

However, Summer is not over yet! We are currently soaking up the sun, as much as we can, with one last trip to Virginia Beach before the September cool down begins! Pictures and stories from our trip will be coming to the DiLullo Daily when we return home!

Samantha the Party Animal!

2010-08-05T14:52:00.001-04:00

If 19-month-olds had parties, Samantha would be the life of them all. She is anything but shy. She talks your ear off and loves to dance, and I'm pretty sure I've seen her put a lamp shade on her head at some point. I captured our chatty cathy, tiny dancer in all her glory on Sunday afternoon. The video starts with her shouting "hello" which is what I hear all day long because Sam loves to pick up any object and pretend that it's a phone and then shout "hello??!!" to the imaginary person on the other end (again-she's like 1 going on 19).

Oh, and please excuse the loud T.V. noise in the back ground. That's just Pete in all of HIS Sunday afternoon glory.

Untitled from Alexis Dilullo on Vimeo.

Bye-Bye Birthday Month

2010-08-02T20:09:00.007-04:00

Well, it's August. My birthday month is over.

It's a little joke I have with Pete (who hates his January 15th, post-Christmas birthday and refuses to make a big deal of it). July isn't just any month...it's my birthday month. And since I'm a big fan of birthdays I like to celebrate all month long. Poor Pete, who hates birthdays, has been forced to celebrate mine tirelessly, every year, during the month of July. Usually it's just a countdown to the actual birthday with one or two celebratory gatherings (dinner out or at a family member's house). But on this very important 30th birthday, brithday month took on a whole new meaning! Starting two weeks before my birthday at the "Martini Mixer" birthday party Pete and my Mom threw me while we were in Virginia.

Everyone was greeted at the door with a personalized martini glass to use at the party, and keep as favor. This was the glass they gave me....don't worry, I only had them fill it up half way.

My Mom came up with a fun martini menu, all of the drinks were in honor of me. My favorite was the "thirty, flirty and dirty."

Thanks for helping to throw a great party Mom! Isn't she lovely?!

After my "Martini Mixer" Pete, Samantha and I spent a week at the shore, which was a birthday present in itself.

When I returned home the countdown was on. Birthday week had arrived and I only had a few more days left in my 20's.

On Tuesday my Mother-in-law and Aunt Millie (Sammy's other Yai-Yai) took me and Samantha to lunch.

Samantha helped me open my presents.

Friday was my actual birthday. As we do every Friday, Samantha and I went to playgroup, where our friends helped me celebrate.

After Samantha's nap we went to the pool, and Daddy met us for swim time and dinner, poolside.

On Saturday night, July 31st, the last day of birthday month, we got a sitter and went to dinner with friends. Notice how happy Pete looks? He's smiling because birthday month is almost over.

After dinner we went bowling. Something only super-cheesy, birthday-loving me would want to do on her birthday. So fun!

And that's it. So now I'm 30, and birthday month is over. We can all go back to our normal lives now. I plan on spending the month of August detoxing from all of those desserts and adult beverages.

Thank you everyone for helping me celebrate! If my 30th year is anything like my 30th birthday month, I know I'm in for a great time!

19 Months!

2010-07-27T20:18:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I meant to write this post a month ago when Sam turned 18 months, but July ended up being crazy with Independence Day and our two week vacation, so here I am a month later with Samantha's 18 month check up stats:

Height: 32.5 inches, 75th percentile

Weight: 25 lbs, 75th percentile

Head: 19 inches, 95th percentile!

What amazes me most about Samantha right now is her rapidly growing vocabulary. I used to be able to count the words she could say...not anymore. Every day she surprises us with a new word or phrase. Like the other day, she was stuck and she looked up at Pete and said "help!" Or today, when I said "Samantha, time to go upstairs" and she said while marching up the steps "bye-bye downstairs." I had no idea she could even say "downstairs" much less understand that when you go upstairs you are leaving downstairs. But my favorite surprise by far, was when we were saying our prayers. I finished the prayer and said "amen" and then Samantha said, out of the blue, "bye-bye Jesus."

Samantha is a bit of a parrot these days, so we have to watch what we say. She repeats everything! Like when I said after lunch "Samantha you're so messy!" she looked down at her yogurt covered shirt and said "mah-see." When she is not repeating us, or saying new words, she's talking complete gibberish. The girl has the gift of gab. When Pete is on a business trip and we have our after dinner "skype chat" Samantha goes on and on. I can't get a word in. Pete has to ask Samantha to let Mommy have a turn to talk. She will often walk up to me, look me dead in the eye, as serious as can be, and say "aawsh a wee jeega no. Iamassun aaanee" and then she'll laugh and walk away. I have no idea what she is saying.

Samantha loves music, and she has very discriminating taste. If she doesn't like a song that is on the radio she will cry and whine until I change it. When we get to a song she does like, she claps her hands and says "yay!" Her favorite songs right now are "If you're happy and you know it" and "head, shoulders, knees and toes," and yes, she does all of the motions to both. At the end of every song, she claps her hands and says "yay!" She's a musician's dream critic!

Samantha's favorite toys right now are balls and dolls. She loves to play with balls or just watch other people play with balls (including watching sports on T.V. which means I may be loosing all rights to the remote control at some point) and she loves to play Mommy to her baby dolls. She hugs them and feeds them. The other day I found a goldfish cracker in her doll's mouth.

Samantha is obsessed with coloring. It started in the spring with street chalk, and then when I saw how much she loved that I gave her crayons and paper. She calls all writing utensils "calk," since she was introduced to the world of coloring by chalk, and she forces you to color with her by holding out a crayon and yelling "calk....calk....calk!" until you take the crayon and start to color. However, if you choose the wrong color crayon she gets very upset, yells "nooooooo!" while tearing the crayon out of your hand and then hands you the color she wants you to color with. I think we have a temperamental artist in the making.

Samantha likes to talk on the phone. She takes my phone, holds it up to her ear and says "hewo?" And then talks some gibberish and says "bye-bye" and puts the phone down. I spend my whole day laughing at all of the cute things she does. Samantha is so enjoyable right now. I just love spending time with her! She cracks me up and brings out the little girl inside of me. I love playing dolls with her and singing songs with her and just watching her talk, talk, talk, talk, talk and talk some more.

We're Back!

2010-07-26T20:32:00.006-04:00

We are back, and with a new layout! We are home after a nice, long, two week vacation (which should explain the blogging hiatus). We spent time on the beaches of Virginia and the Jersey Shore (the family oriented, fist-pump free areas). I got to spend a few days with my two best friends from high school and their babies (however one baby was still in it's mama's tummy). I got to attend the baby shower of said Mama and shower her with gifts. I celebrated my upcoming 30th birthday with a "Martini Mixer" thrown for me by my wonderful Husband and Mother at my Mom's house. And then after all of that, Samantha and I got to relax at the beach with Pete, who took a whole week off to spend it with us. There are so many stories to tell from our trip, I'll never be able to fit them all into one post. And with a lot of catching up, laundry, grocery shopping, etc. to do, I don't have a ton of time for blogging. So I'll just share some of my favorite photos from our trip right now and will fill you in on the rest later.....

Samantha's 2nd 4th!

2010-07-06T21:14:00.002-04:00

We always go to the beach for Independence Day, but since we will be traveling for most of July, we decided this year to just stay home and relax. We had a nice three day weekend together, with NO FISHING and a lot of resting! We went to the pool, we had friends over for dinner Saturday night and went to a Fourth of July BBQ on Sunday. But the BEST thing about our first July 4th at home was that we discovered that every year there is a huge 4th of July parade right by our house! So we walked up yesterday morning, and got a good spot right in front of the judges stand.

I know, Samantha's eyes are closed. It's impossible for the three of us to get a good picture together!

Of course, Aunt Millie came with us. Samantha sees Aunt Millie at least two or three times a week (which is easy since we are neighbors) and has started to all of a sudden call her Yai Yai. So clearly, Samantha thinks of Aunt Millie as a Grandmother.

Samantha loved the parade! She especially loved all of the music.

It was really, really hot outside, so we kept dousing Samantha's head with bottled water.

Sammy got to meet a giant walking water ice.

And she caught a dum dum that was thrown into the crowd. Then she sat and enjoyed her first ever lollipop. (By-the-way: Pete was a nervous wreck watching her eat this. He kept fearing that the sucker was going to pop off the stick and then get lodged in her throat.)

The giant water ice tempted her taste buds, so we then bought her one, which she spilled all over herself.

Then she caught another dum dum and enjoyed her second ever lollipop. After proving she could eat one lollipop just fine, Pete was more relaxed watching her eat the second dum dum.

Then it was time to take this over-stimulated, over-sugared, over-heated little parade princess home for a nap.

Dinner Time

2010-06-29T15:09:00.002-04:00

I would love to say that my family eats dinner together at the table every night, but we don't. Pete doesn't get home from work until about 7 and by that time Samantha's getting into the bath tub and ready for her 7:30 bed time. So Samantha usually eats her dinner around 5:30 or 6, and while she's eating I'm cooking Pete and I's dinner, which we eat after Samantha goes to bed, at 7:30. I always make extra, and put a portion aside for Samantha to eat for dinner the next night...alone.

But things are different when Daddy is traveling (which is usually one or two nights a week). When Daddy is away, Samantha and I eat dinner together. It's never anything too exciting. Usually we eat eggs, or soup, or leftovers, but we do it together.

Last week Samantha and I were eating dinner together, and I decided that she was big enough to ditch her booster seat tray, and sit directly at the table. So we gave it a try. Just Samantha and Mommy....a table for two!

Turns out this wasn't a good idea. She's not ready. I'm still finding dried up smashed food in the rug. Back to the high chair you go, Samantha!

Moms of the world...how old were your kids when you started seating them at the table?

Visiting Ben

2010-06-22T20:55:00.004-04:00

Last week we went down to Virginia to stay at Yai Yai's house and visit (my sister) Samantha's Aunt Jessica and Sam's cousin Ben, who live in L.A. and were in town for a visit. Samantha loved hanging with her (almost 1-year-old) cousin.

We also spent a lot of time at the beach, and we did a lot of eating!

And like every visit to Yai Yai's house, we did a lot of relaxing...

Unfortunately my camera broke during our trip so I didn't get a lot of pictures. Hopefully Aunt Jessica will have more to share on her blog.

We loved our visit and (in the spirit of Father's Day) are so grateful to Pete for working so hard so that Samantha and I can take trips down to Virginia whenever we want! Hopefully we can schedule a trip out to L.A. one day soon so we can get more Ben and Samantha photos! And on that note, I apparently need a new camera so if anyone has any recommendations please send them my way.

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-20T21:13:00.002-04:00

A Dad this great deserves his own special day!

Happy Father's Day Pete! You're doing such a wonderful job! Our little girl just adores you, and there's no question that you're quite smitten yourself. As the first man who will ever love her, you're doing a great job teaching her just how special she is.

Samantha the Movie

2010-06-08T07:49:00.004-04:00

Over the past six months I have been bad about breaking out the video camera, but I have little snipits here and there of our crazy girl in action. So last night I finally downloaded them all and created a little movie for you to enjoy. It's only 2 minutes long, so don't get scared. The password is Sam, and if you click on the little arrows in the bottom right corner it will make the video full screen. Enjoy!

Sam 12-18 months from Alexis Dilullo on Vimeo.

Memorial Day Week

2010-06-03T21:35:00.004-04:00

Summer is "unofficially" here and Samantha and I have thrust ourselves full throttle into the Summer Season. Our Memorial Day week started on Wednesday with an 85 degree sunny day and a pool party and picnic at Samantha's friend Ella's house.

On Thursday Samantha's new cousin Jake Thomas was born! We went to the hospital to meet our newest family member and then Samantha, Pete and I along with Sam's Grandparents, Aunt and Uncle and two Cousins all went out to dinner to celebrate Jake. The grown ups celebrated with a toast, the kids celebrated with chocolate ice cream (all PopPop's idea, of course). Congrats to Pete's sister, Melissa on their new baby boy!

On Friday we headed down to the shore. Samantha is definitely going to give me a run for my money this year. She does not like to sit still and read books on the beach like her Mommy. She likes to run around. She especially likes walking up to random people and sitting down in their beach chairs. She's like a little beach Goldilocks, trying out all of the chairs on the beach. Every now and then I can get her occupied with sand toys and I can sit down for about 5 minutes, but before I can have a bite of a sandwich she's on the move again.

When we returned home on Monday we went back to Ella's pool for some more swimming fun and a Memorial Day bbq.

Tuesday and Wednesday brought even more beautiful sunny weather, so Samantha and I hit the pool at our gym, now that it's officially open for the Summer! Samantha loves to swim. She has no fear when it comes to the water, and I'm not sure that is such a good thing. The second I put her down she takes off running and just steps right into the pool. Thank goodness the "deep end" of the baby pool is only 2 feet. I just hope Samantha doesn't think that all pools are safe to just go ahead and jump right into.

Today we skipped the pool and opted for an old Memorial Day tradition in our area, The Horse Show. Samantha and I and two of our friends went and watched the "horsies" gallop around. We petted a few horses, and dogs and had a slice of pizza for dinner, what fun!

Samantha also "accidentally" dropped her sippy cup into a pile of horse manure so I had no choice but to buy a large lemonade (which comes in the special grown up sippy cup) so that I could share it with my thirsty little girl. Unfortunately, Samantha was not interested in sharing the cup once she got it. (Luckily I drank most of the lemonade and filled it up with water before I gave it to her, or she would be bouncing off the walls.) But she did look super cute drinking out of such a large cup.

Isn't she adorable? What a face!

Happy Summer Everyone!

A Messy Monday Afternoon

2010-05-25T08:40:00.000-04:00

I'm usually pretty meticulous when it comes to Samantha's grooming. But today was an exception. It rained this afternoon. The rain had stopped when Samantha got up from her nap, and Samantha wanted to do her new favorite post rain activity...splash in the puddles. She ran outside and stomped in every puddle she could find. When she was done, she sat down on the curb and ate a popsicle. When we came inside she looked like this:

A Hot Day

2010-05-24T19:59:00.002-04:00

Friday was a hot and humid day. So hot, that I thought the flowers needed some extra watering. When Samantha woke up from her nap, I put her in her new bathing suit. The one with the pink tutu, that the Easter Bunny brought her. When I pulled it out of the drawer Samantha's eyes got wide and she squealed with delight over the sight of all of that tulle. And when I put it on her she giggled, a kind of giggle that said "I can't believe I get to wear this!"

I took her and the camera outside and we did our usual things. Samantha stopped to smell the flowers...

and she said "cheese" as Mommy tried to take her picture.

Then she walked down to the curb and stared at the street longing to walk onto that forbidden black top.

Then we got to work watering. Samantha danced and twirled through the water as I hosed down the flower beds. Every now and then I suddenly turned away from the flowers and gave her a good surprise shower. She thought that was very funny.

There's no doubt about. This girl loves water!

And I love that crazy ballerina!