Photo Friday: Meeting Parker!

So I'm on vacation solo with james--more on that later . . .

But yesterday we went to see my cousin and meet his new baby (well, 4 months new, hehe)! I have literally been waiting to take these pictures since I planned this trip! :D

Here is the first moments of meeting . . . my cousin Dave is holding James and his girlfriend Tracy is holding Parker!

Note that james has the shovel in the above picture . . . And then Parker steals the shovel . . .

And then james steals it back . . . hehe

Parker with his Momma!

Dave and Tracy have a beautiful pool, so we got to go swimming! Here is Parker eating his Daddy's ear, haha!

Two babies in the pool!

Three Musketeers, as my sister put it, hehe:

I love this goofy Parker face!

Awww, playing together! I <3 this!

The cousins!

Photo Friday: Lost and Found From May

Well, it's been way too long since I photospammed you guys, so here we go.

I took these adorable photos of James in mid-May, and then somehow lost them and never put them on here or on FB until now!

And another lost one of him and Monty--he LOVES the cats now and they are starting to realize he is both interesting and painful incrementally.

And when Jessie was visiting we took some cute ones, too (also in the lost section):

Yep, I love my boy!

Photo Friday: Meeting Ava (AKA Biscuit)

I am thrilled to announce the birth of our newest gorgeous family member, Ava Rose, AKA Biscuit! Born today, June 10th, 5:30ish in the morning, 6 pounds 10 ozs, 20 inches long!

Parenthood suits my beautiful cousin Emily very well, doesn't it?

Of course a good birth often involves a great supportive partner, and the new Dad Trevor did an amazing job as well!

The proud grandparents were totally glowing, too (here pictured with james instead of their first granddaughter, ;)

My Aunt Sue and me were right on the same wavelength during the labor, and were texting each other with anxious excitement all day yesterday!

And my Grandma was thrilled to meet her first great-grand-daughter (3rd great-grandchild!)

My amazing cousin Emily will hopefully do a guest post and share her birth story, so I don't want to spoil the details, but suffice it to say, I have never been prouder to call her my cousin. :-)

Welcome, beautiful Ava!

Photo Friday: Almost Back to Normal!

So if you recall . . .

My pre-pregnancy weight was 131, size 6
My 40 weeks pregnant weight was 171
My just gave birth weight was 156, size 14
. . . and then I was down and up and down and up and down (but my sizes steadily fell). . .
Now at 6 months post-partum, though, I'm happy to report that I'm down to 141, size 10.

I actually have old pants (from before I was so skinny, years before getting pregnant, but still MINE) that I can wear now. I put on these size 10 jeans from college today and felt so MYSELF and comfy!!

It just feels awesome to feel more like my old self again.

Here's a comparison pic . . .

7ish weeks pregnant, 40 weeks pregnant, and today (in my jeans, ;-)!

Photo Friday: Hard at Play

Perhaps my baby did inherit a few of my personality traits! Recently, I've noticed a change in james' play behavior.

He plays HARD. He is very serious about it all of a sudden.

He loves this cup so much that I can't even let him play with it for too long or he gets in too much of a frenzy.

He loves reading and books--especially the kind he is allowed to chew on.

I actually think that he might be starting to teeth again. (After nothing happening on that front since last I spoke of it.)

So today I gave him a frozen breast milk stick to chew on in a snack cup.

He LOVED it and "ate"/melted into his clothes almost an entire ounce!

His joy of playing is beginning to extend to food. See for yourself how much fun he had with his avocado!

Anyway, the sense of busy purpose he has about himself is very much in his Mother's shoes and I couldn't be prouder of my smart busy little bee.

Photo Friday: Northampton (My First Guest Post!)

This is my first ever guest post! I asked my best/oldest friend (since we were ten) Mariclare to share a post on here about our trip almost a week ago to Northampton for Jessie's birthday!

Mariclare is an amazing photographer and painter, here is just a few samples! Check out her blog to see more of her painting and photography! And if you didn't ever see the amazing pregnancy painting she did for me, you should check that out, too.

Last Saturday, in honor of our friend Jessie's birthday, a few of us drove up to Northampton to spend the day.

Jessie, Adrienne, myself and our friend Amy try to get together once a year and spend the weekend in Northampton; this year, Amy couldn't make it, and our friend Clare joined us for the first time!

It's always good to all get together for this tradition; the way I see it, I don't have enough "girl time" in my life, and it's really fulfilling to spend time with close, long-time girlfriends.

Also this time, we had another first-timer join us and it was a BOY! And his name is James.

And he made the trip way fun.

He was like the cherry on top of an ice cream sundae!

Photo Friday: Our First Playdate

So I'm sort of late on this because it happened like last Wednesday, but I was looking through my pics of a topic to photo-spam about on this Photo Friday and I came across these adorable pictures and said: "Ah-ha!"

So my old college roommate Lauren (who I'm sorry to say I forgot to get a picture of/with) was pregnant at the same time as me and had her baby in October. We have been Facebook friends for a while now but haven't seen each other in years.

(Here's a picture of her baby, Dylan, and James:)

So I mentioned on one of her photos that I wish we could have a playdate and next thing I know I was invited to one with her, and her friend Erin and their two babies!

I had a ton of fun seeing my old friend again, meeting her friend, and hanging out with fellow Moms "in real life". I was the first in my family and among nearly all of my friends to have a baby. I have a lot of online Mom friends but basically none that I see/hang out with "in real life" on a regular basis, so this was really awesome.

(James and Finn--this one reminds me of kittens, how they look at the same things, hehe:)

We basically just hung out on Erin's couch, watched some youtube and TV, and nursed the babies. Erin said her couch was like a big boob train, hahaha.

So our first playdate was a ton of fun and I'm very excited for our next one!

Finn, 5.5 Months; Dylan, 6 Months; James, 4.5 Months