A fresh start

We're just a few days away from the new year, so I'm starting to think about my resolutions for 2013. I can't even remember what I decided to do last year, so apparently I did not follow through (unless my resolution was to continue being an awesome wife + mom, which I think I did, thank you very much). This year, I'm going to make it easy and just give myself 3 things to work on:

1. Exercise 3 days a week: I got a head start on this one and broke out my running shoes twice over vacation. Go me! Now I just need to continue the trend and make time to exercise once I get back home, which is never easy. But if I can go to the gym one day during lunch, one night after Molly goes to bed, and one time over the weekend, I'll be set. Resolution accomplished.
2. Pick up Molly early twice a month: I gave up my part time schedule, but I'm thinking I can still get some good Molly time by leaving work at 4 on days where I don't have a pressing deadline. I caught the 4:13 train a few weeks ago and it was wonderful. Life changing! I felt like we had so much more time to play and have fun and Molly was so excited to see me at daycare. Poor Jason has had to take on the lion's share of pick-ups and drop-offs since he has the shorter commute, so this resolution will be good for him, too. Speaking of resolutions that are also good for Jason...
3. Plan a fun date with my main man at least once a month: Sounds easy, right? Jason and I are pretty good about spending time together, and we definitely take advantage when the grandparents are in town. In fact, we went out to dinner last night and had a wonderful time. But I'm greedy for more! I have a list of babysitters in our neighborhood that I haven't called and that's just silly. Jason and I could be seeing more movies, playing more tennis (when it gets warm again), and trying more restaurants. Let's do this!

One of my stocking stuffers this year was a pocket planner, so I think I will use that to keep track of my resolutions. Hopefully it will help me follow through for the full year...and remind me to post updates to the blog!

Toy story

When I was growing up, my Mom was always very careful to buy Christmas gifts in twos and threes, to make sure my sisters and I had the same of every item and no one got jealous or had their feelings hurt. Yet still, our most memorable fights were all about stuff. Who had it. Who wanted it. Who ruined it. I guess these things are unavoidable.

Everyone was very thoughtful and careful this year with Molly and her Cousin Will. All of their gifts were similar. Two buses. Two laptops. Two stuffed animals. Books, books, and more books. Winnie the Pooh figurines for Molly. Matchbox cars for Will. Will is still too young to be possessive, but Little Miss Molls does. not. like. it. when Will wants to play with her things. Her little horns of jealousy have been coming out big time over the last two days. I know this is totally normal behavior, but as a parent, it is just horrifying to watch as your child tries to hold 15 stuffed animals in her skinny little arms just so no one else can play with them. Sigh.

Don't get me wrong, Molly and Will really like each other. See the pics below. They've been holding hands, following each other around, and sharing bunny crackers and orange slices with each other. Those little moments of cousin love just couldn't be cuter and make up for almost all the times where Molly has shouted "mine!" And we're lucky...they take naps at different times, so each kid has a chance to play with ALL the toys for a couple of hours each day :)

Yoda and Chewbacca. How cute is this?



The most adorable little Elf I've ever seen

 

Digging in



The pile just kept getting bigger and bigger. Good thing we're flying Southwest and can check an extra box for free!

 

Molly's favorite gift was probably her laptop. Now she can check her email and blog just like Mommy :)

 

My -- I mean Santa's -- gift to Molly. Her very own backpack!

Yes, even the adults received a few gifts. Rudolph the Red Nosed Guiness. Joe's girlfriend Kathleen knows the O'Grady boys well

Have yourself a beachy little Christmas

Because our family is starting to outgrow Marsha and Steve's house in Virginia, we decided this Christmas, we'd rent a beach house in Nags Head, NC instead. The house is called "Simply Paradise" -- all the houses around here have names -- so, Merry Christmas from paradise :) It's been nice. And we still have 4 days to go!

Here are a few pics from Christmas Eve on the beach. I'll upload some of the Christmas Day toy explosion in a separate post.

View from the porch. I promise, I'm not trying to make anyone jealous!

 

Aunt Megan, Will, and Molly. As you can see, we need layers, but it's been nice enough to walk, run, and dig, on the beach

Miss Hollywood. The funny thing is, these glasses are Steve's. He wore them to school for Breast Cancer Awareness month. Ha! Now, they're Molly's :)

Daycare's greatest hits

Every day, we get an email from Molly's school with a description of the things they did and a collection of photos from the day. I live for these emails. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the past few weeks. I think you can see that Molly loves her school.

Rock climbing

So brave

Typing away

Full participation

Smock time

Hanging with her friends

Ladybug girl

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We're definitely feeling the Christmas spirit at the O'Grady house. Jason put up the lights last week and we picked up a tree last weekend. I've got the radio permanently tuned in to 9.39 fm - The Holiday Lite - and have managed to teach Molly most of the words to "Jingle Bells." Holiday cards are in the mail. Gifts are ordered. It's been a busy December, but it's been fun. Now we're just counting the days until we leave for Nags Head, NC and Christmas with the O'Grady fam.

It wouldn't be Christmas without a hand knit hat from Baba Overbey

Lights!

Our tree - if you look closely, you'll notice a disproportionate amount of ornaments on the lower branches

An early gift -- Minnie slippers! Couldn't wait

Emmie, our "Elf on the Shelf." She's watching!

Holiday card. Photography and design by the fabulous Mr. Ford. Getting lots of compliments on this one!

Phrases of the day

Here's what 2 1/2 sounds like:

"My no want that."

"That not nice, Mommy."

"More cracker, please."

"Dank you."

"That funny."

"Toot. Biiiig toot."

"My go potty."

"More snacky, please."

"No nap!"

"My blue Thomas skibbies." (skivvies)

"One more song! One more song!"

"What doing?"

"What doing?"

"What doing, Mommy? What doing, Daddy? What doing?"

She can be a stinker, but we love her!

Well, that one hurt

Silly me. There was a mistake in my last post. I meant to say that we were on our way to see Wisconsin crush Nebraska in the Big Ten championship game. Wow. What a kick in the pants! We drove 3.5 hours and spent $70 on tickets to watch the Huskers get smoked in every way possible by our neighbors to the north. Brutal.

And yet, the weekend wasn't a complete disaster. I was totally charmed by Joe's new girlfriend, Kathleen, who managed to shrug off the agony of defeat and get us all laughing again, bantering with triumphant Wisconsin fans, and doing her signature bobble head dance. A victory would have been nice (even a close loss would have been better than what we got), but we still ended up having an okay time.

Unfortunately, the projected bowl game match ups are not exactly favorable for either Nebraska (Capital One vs Georgia) or Northwestern (Gator Bowl vs Mississippi State). But who knows. Go 'Cats!

Writing from the road

Hello from I-65! We're on our way to Indianapolis to see Nebraska crush Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game. It's funny, this year I've seen more college football games in person than I've watched on TV. Oh, the glory of living in a college town in the middle of Big Ten country.

While we're having fun in Indy with Joe and his new girlfriend Kathleen (also a Husker fan), Molls will be girling it up at home with her 2 favorite aunts. This is good practice for B, who only has about 3 and a half months to go before she has her own little shorty. Then it will be our turn to babysit!

Time to pay attention to Jason and our Spotify playlist, but I'll post again later or on the return trip.

Many thanks

I've been so busy being thankful, I haven't had time to post :) But better late than never! So, what am I thankful for? 

• I'm thankful for my lovely daughter Molly, who sleeps like an angel, runs like the wind, and only rarely throws tantrums.
• I'm thankful for my parents and Jason's parents, who love their granddaughter to pieces and make it possible for Jason and I to have the occasional, much-needed date night.
• I'm thankful that my sisters and most of my brothers-in-law are happy in love. Not sure if brother Jon is in love right now, but he's young and doesn't need to be :) Plus, he and Jake are getting hired left and right to create gig posters for shows in NYC, so thanks to all those bands for recognizing talent when they see it. 
• I'm thankful I have a pretty good job. It has it's ups and downs, but it's a good job and I'm lucky to have it. 
• Speaking of my pretty good job, I'm happy I have a generous holiday schedule and vacation policy, because these last few days off have been NICE. And it's only Saturday :) 
• I'm thankful for Jason, for so many reasons, it would be impossible to distill them into a simple bullet point. 

Of all the things Molly could be thankful for...

Not Mommy. Not Daddy. Duckies. 

Smile for the camera

Molly is getting good at this. 2012 school pics:

My favorite :)

Enjoy them while they last

Sigh. All good things must come to an end and so must my Fridays at home :(

As much as I love spending every other Friday at home with Molly, it's just not really working out with my new team at work. Every Friday that I have off, it is a struggle to find someone to cover my work. Well, I take that back. Someone always says they can do it, but I hate having to constantly ask favors of people. And then there always seems to be an important call that I have to take or an urgent email that I have to respond to...I end up doing at least a couple of hours work every Friday that I'm home. So I might as well get paid!

We have to pay for the full week at daycare anyway, whether Molly goes to school on Friday or not. And she loves her school so much, it's not like it will be hard for her to go for the full week. Some evenings when Jason gets to daycare to pick her up, she doesn't even want to leave, she's having so much fun.

I know these days are precious, but I'm feeling a little more secure now in my status as a working mom. When I first went back to work, I felt so guilty for leaving Molly behind. It didn't help that I kept getting comments from people (mostly men) along the lines of, "I don't know how you can do it...MY wife just couldn't stand being away from the kids..." yadda yadda yadda. It felt good to be able to say, "Well, I DO have a part time schedule."

Working mom...stay-at-home mom...I honestly don't think it matters. Molly is thriving. I get tons of quality time with her on weekends, in the mornings, in the evenings, holidays, vacation days, etc. I also get plenty of non-quality time where she's whining, being difficult, and refusing to eat her food. Regardless, she loves me. I know this. Two Fridays a month are not going to change it!

Congratulations to Archie and B!

Oh what a happy, fun, wonderful weekend! B and Archie were married on Saturday, and of course I forgot to take a single picture. Luckily, Susie was there to document it all. Of the 118 photos she took, here are my favorites:

B's last night out as a single lady - dinner with her bridesmaids at Untitled restaurant in Chicago (yum!)

B, Aunt Suzie, and Mom (looking stylish) at the rehearsal dinner

Good pic of Mom and Dad

The happy couple! One day to go :)

The beautiful bride

Me with B (in her flannel shirt and veil) on our way to the church

The happy couple! Officially married :)

The Greek family members like to throw $$ on the dance floor

Luckily someone from the hotel was there to sweep it all up

Sus, Aunt Suzie, and me

T and B - so pretty

Next up...Sean and Susie! Can't wait for July!

Although Molls does not appear in any of the pics, she was indeed at the wedding, running around like a wild woman with her second cousin, Ella. Poor kid was exhausted on Sunday, but I think she's back to normal now. I, however, am still recovering from the festivities. But I hope to get back to regular posting soon!

All we need is just a little patience

I really wasn't expecting potty training to be this much work! The score? After 2.5 days, Molly has 13 stickers in the first column and 3 stickers in the second. There have also been 8 accidents and countless false alarms. All in all, though, Molly's got the lead and is doing pretty well.

I have her portable potty seat set up in the family room and we've been rotating TV shows and DVDs all weekend to keep her happy while waiting on the potty. And let me tell you, there's been a lot of waiting! I wouldn't normally let her watch this much TV, but it's all for a good cause. Her new favorite is Thomas the Tank Engine, so as extra incentive, we went out and bought some Thomas skivvies (for boys, but she doesn't know the difference).

Most of the accidents have happened while we've been in the front room, skipping or playing with markers. As Jason put it, she's spent 2 years just going whenever she needs to go, so it's no wonder we've had to clean up a few puddles.

She's only had one accident today though, and it happened when she was standing next to the potty, so I feel like that's progress. Today has been less about me sticking her on the potty every 30 min to an hour and more about her doing what she wants and then telling me when she needs to go. We even braved a little excursion outside so Molly could ride her tricycle up and down the sidewalk. I felt like she was a ticking time bomb, but she told me when she had to go and we managed to make it back in time. Success!

Hopefully she can keep up the momentum for the rest of the weekend...and through the next week at daycare. I'm not totally sure she's ready to go diaper free at school, but don't want to lose out on the progress she's made. I guess we've just got to give her a chance and see what happens. Go Molly!

Wish us luck

It's time. Potty time. We're pretty sure Molly's ready. We just haven't really had a free weekend to officially devote to potty training. But this weekend, Jason is going to Nashville and Molly and I have absolutely nothing going on, so why not? I've armed myself with Hello Kitty skivvies, a bucket full of Halloween candy, and a potty poster. Let's do this!

We already have a head start - one sticker in each column. Go Molly!

Quack-y Halloween 2012

TWO ducks:

Molly loves this costume. A duck holding a duck!

Biiig weekend

Parents in town. Mom's birthday dinner. Murray, Kyle, Maggie, and Janey in town. Courtney and Claire over. Full house. Fun house. Sore throat. Homecoming weekend. Reunion weekend. Reunion tailgate. Homecoming football game. Go 'Cats! Betsy + Archie's engagement party. 10-year reunion party. Hangover. Shame spiral. Betsy's Greek baptism. Family lunch. Bears game. Bears win! Long nap. Family dinner. Sleeeeeeep....

Ha! I feel like I'm still recovering. It was a big weekend, but a very fun weekend. In addition to having Murray in town, I got to see a ton of my favorite NU friends, and I got to meet my wonderful new Kantzavalos relatives. Here are a few pics from the weekend. Engagement party pics to come!

All decked out and ready for the game! Back row: Janey, Murray, Kyle, Jason, Me.
Front: Little Maggie, Molly. 

Post-game tea party

Switching gears now, my big weekend pales in comparison with what everyone on the East Coast has been dealing with from Hurricane / Superstorm Sandy. Good luck to all of my friends and family who were, are, and will continue to be affected. We're all thinking about you!

You win some, you lose some

Oh, Wildcats...another devastating 4th quarter loss. Most people who read this blog probably know the outcome of the NU / Nebraska game, so I won't get into the details. It was a heart breaker. But at least Jason and my house guests were happy :)

Regardless of the outcome, we did have fun tailgating. I was joined by fellow NU fans, Little Jon, Susie, Sean, a couple of their friends, and Sean's dad (Joe R, not to be confused with Joe O'G). And Jason had his brother Joe, Uncle Keith, and Grandma Janet in town to help chant "Go Big Red." Molly, of course, wore purple :)

Jason got to meet one of his idols, Tom Osborne (legendary Nebraska coach and athletic director). And Joe got to ditch his Nebraska "black widow" status as he improved from 0-4 lifetime to 1-4. Now the family won't be afraid to go to games with him.

So it wasn't all bad... Here are a few highlights:

The crew. Janet, Joe, and Keith, thanks for coming to see us!

Pretzels! Molly's favorite thing about tailgating. 

Werewolves of Evanston

My mom always loves to tell the story of when she was listening to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in the car and realized my little sister Susie at age 2 was singing "a-weema-weh-a-weema-weh" in the backseat. Well, I was driving along today with Molly in the backseat and had my own weema-weh moment. Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" came on the radio and the next thing I knew, I heard her sweet little voice singing, "Aaahoooo! Aaahoooo!"

If you're not familiar with the song, or want to take a trip down memory lane, here's a little clip from The Color of Money. The song kicks in around 0:50:

His hair was perfect :)

Skip to my Lou, my darlin'

Molly is trying so hard to learn how to skip. She runs and jumps and throws her arms in the air... it's pretty funny, and also pretty cute. Check her out:

Flies in the buttermilk, shoo, fly, shoo!

Buckeyes and Babas

This weekend, Molly stayed home with her grandparents while Jason and I road tripped to Columbus for the Ohio State / Nebraska game. It was Jason's first time in Columbus, and though I know he wishes he would have seen a Husker victory, I think he still had fun seeing Ohio Stadium and meeting up with his brother, uncle, and cousins. 

Obviously, the weekend was a little bit more fun for me. I got to see my friend Chad and meet his adorable little son, Blake. I got to see the Buckeyes win. And I also got to hear Jason admit, after years of making fun of Ohio State fans' obsession with the band, that they do indeed put on a pretty impressive show. I think he'll still laugh a little bit to himself next time an OSU fan starts bragging about the band...but at least now he knows how good they are. 

Unfortunately we made the mistake of taking a cab to the game instead of driving and parking. We were worried about traffic getting out and figured we'd just grab food and drinks after the game and cab it back to the hotel after that. Big mistake! Apparently there are only a few cabs in the city of Columbus and they were all busy taking college kids to and from their dorm rooms and the bars on High Street. We wandered around in the cold from about midnight to 2:30 am, trying desperately to hail a cab without any luck. I think Jason called every taxi, car service, and limo company in town. Finally, Jason's uncle chased down a cab that had kicked out its belligerent passengers and managed to get us back to the hotel. Next time, we will make sure we have a car parked at the stadium!

 

Of course I didn't take any pics of Jason and I in Columbus, but here are a few of Molly having fun with her Grandma + Grandpa O'Grady:

Shake it up

Enjoying her desk

Making cookies

Fun times at the park

More fun at the park

Sweeping up the pine needles

Thanks to Steve and Marsha for babysitting. And thanks to Dad for the tickets!