the life and times of lauren, andy, and mainly, our little dean beans…

happy mother’s day!

Posted on May 13th, 2012

Happy Mother’s Day! Unfortunately, I am in DC this Mother’s Day for City Year’s National Leadership Summit, so I’m not there to properly treat Lauren to the day of praise and pampering that she more than deserves. We did celebrate it last weekend with a brunch at Geri’s where I gifted all 3 moms with flowers and photo books of the kiddies.

Truth be told, every day should be Mother’s Day because we owe our very existence to our moms and for many of us, much, much more. Our moms work so hard for us, give so much, there isn’t anything we could ever to do truly repay them for their sacrifices. I should know, I am a certified “Momma’s Boy!”

Luckily, all they ask in return is as many smiles, hugs and kisses they can coax out of us. Thank you moms! Thank you Lauren for all that you do for noah and emily and me (the late night feedings, the Dr. Lauren moments when there is a boo boo, the thoughtful planning for their futures). Thank you mom for everything you have and continue to do for me, I am so lucky to have such a strong, intelligent, kind and caring mother (I feel so lucky to have grown-up making homemade costumes with you, being taken to all the museums and cultural events and always being spoiled rotten with the yummiest food). Thank you Geri for being the most amazing mother-in-law I could ever ask for (for raising Lauren to be the talented, smart, beautiful woman she is today, for sharing your culture and traditions with us and for staying with Lauren this week to help out, THANK YOU!). And thank you to all the moms out there for all that you do, every year, every day, every minute and every second of our lives!

Now for some emily and noah updates!

emily had momentarily forgotten that she was a good sleeper, but appears to be back on course now, sleeping close to 8 hours straight in the night (9pm-5am)! However, she still refuses to drink from the bottle or use a pacifier, therefore all feedings are still care of Lauren. There is a bit of a witching hour, but so far seems pretty mild (knock on wood!). She does demand that most daytime naps are actually on one of us (usually Lauren), but we forgive her because she looks so darn cute sleeping so peacefully. She is starting to make more sounds, including one I captured on video the other day which I swear sounds like “hi!” (clearly emily is a baby genius.)

As for noah, he has really taken on language comprehension. By that I mean, he understands everything so watch what you say near him! It amazes me when he suddenly says words I don’t ever remember using or gets concepts I’ve never explained to him. For example, he gets reflections now and call them “reflections!” When he was walking up the stairs with Papa the other day, he said, “Hold the bannister!” What? He is big on safety, which is great, we’ve already taught him “No walk on street, walk sidewalk.” To the point where the other day when he was walking with his friend Julia in the park he wouldn’t let her walk on the path because a park ranger had driven by in a golf cart, “No Julia, not safe, walk here!” He is also big on declarative statements, he narrates everything he does. “I walk.” “I RUNNING!” “I Hiding!” (usually in plain sight). Or telling us what to do or where to go. “Daddy sit HERE! Mommy sit on COUCH! Nonna play trains!”

noah has also started to spell, well, that is he has memorized the letters in his name, “N… O… A… H!” And he definitely recognizes letters, in that he thinks all letters spell his name. He also is big recently on the concept of “evey-thing” (everything) and “nod-ing” (nothing). When I ask what he did at school, he lately has answered with either everything or nothing with all the enthusiasm one can muster into one word. Other favorite phrases from noah: “That’s FUN-NY!!!” (followed by a fit of laughter.) “Here you go!” “I like it!” (usually about food, but also toys and other objects). And finally, I love how when he talks about trains he often says “Daddy take oranges train to waak” (work.) Orange the color is always “oranges.”

So once again, Happy Mother’s Day! As a gift to you all, here’s some cute pics:

emily a month (or so) later

Posted on May 2nd, 2012

So we have definitely graduated out of the honeymoon period. The spit-ups are picking up, the witching hour has emerged (although not too bad, yet), her hair has started to fall out in clumps, tummy time has begun (otherwise known as those painful 5-10 minutes of hysterical crying as the baby lies on her belly trying to move any which way she can, it’s kind of like when a turtle gets flipped over, but the opposite and with heart-wrenching cries for help) and the visits have started to die down. On the plus side, it still definitely feels easier than it did with noah. We don’t worry about trying 8 different ways to calm her down when we know it’s likely just hunger, a diaper change, a burp or sleepiness. And, she has started smiling! Big, heart-melting smiles that aren’t just from gas, but from the shared experience of joy and love and the evolutionary need to ensure you keep your parents sane and happy! She has also become a much better sleeper very quickly (thankfully)! She is only getting up once in the middle of the night (usually 4 or 5 am) and then is up around 6 or 7am.  Everyone says that this will most likely be short-lived, but we’ll take it while we can! It varies a little and the mornings can be tough sometimes, but overall, we really can’t complain. The biggest struggle right now is that she won’t take a pacifier and more importantly, she hasn’t been willing to drink from a bottle. I’ve tried now several times and with several different bottles and no luck, we’ll just have to keep trying until she figures it out (it is a new skill after-all!).

noah is still the biggest sweetheart with her. He always loves holding her and finds it hilarious when she accidentally touches him or coos at him. He likes to share his toys with her and offer her his food. At the same time, he has been acting up a lot more than usual. It can be the smallest thing that sets him off, like not wanting to go inside or wanting some food we don’t have and all of a sudden he is hysterically crying. It takes a lot to calm him down, usually a new distraction, in the end it is really probably just about attention and adjusting to being a family of four. Or maybe it’s just one of those phases toddlers go through, either way, it’s not too bad and it seems to be getting better. There was a week or two where every night was bad and putting him to sleep for the night became a battle, one that required me to rub his back for awhile and then sit in the room until he was out. Fortunately, he is back to going to bed fairly easily after reading a couple of books.

Last week, emily had her 1 month check-up with the doctor. She is doing very well, is very healthy and the doctor was very impressed by her sleeping and her size. She’s stayed in the 90′s for height and weight which doesn’t surprise us given that she is already wearing 3 month clothing! Here’s the stats:

Weight 11 3.6 91st percentile
Length 23 in 95th percentile
Head 37.6cm 56cm

The past 2 weeks were very busy as usual. We took a trip to the zoo with cousin Matthew (which included noah’s first spell-binding ride on a merry-go-round followed but the inevitable request for “moo-orrre!”), had a visit from our friend Jenna, and later a visit from cousin Sara & Chris (and very importantly her puppy Penny who noah loved!). Two other big things happened.

the fam at Fenway

One was an awesome trip to Fenway Park for the free open house celebrating Fenway’s 100th birthday with the whole fam and our friend Jaimee. I have been slowly planting seeds for noah’s inevitable Red Sox fanaticism and this trip to Fenway definitely sealed the deal! He loves playing catch and watching big boys play sports, so a trip to Fenway where the Red Sox play was very exciting. It was fun to be able to walk around the park freely and explore (along with 54,000 others), we couldn’t take on the long lines to get on the field or the clubhouse, but we walked all over the stands including onto the green monster and got some classic shots of the little ones in their Red Sox garb.

super stroller

The second thing was our first adventure out with the whole family sans a car. This might not seem like a big deal, but then you probably haven’t ventured out with a exuberant toddler and breastfeeding one month old. We geared up our super stroller with a rumble seat (a second seat that attaches for noah to sit in) and a piggy back (a platform for noah to stand on by where you hold the stroller), so we basically had the equivalent of one of those carts that try to sell you slippers in the mall. It was really fun, we rode the orange line (or as noah calls it “orr-AN-jess train,” orange is “oranges” for noah) to downtown and walked along the greenway (a park here in Boston, you may have heard of the Big Dig? This park is the saving grace of that project). Had lunch together and got another merry-go-round ride in! The good news, other than that we all survived in tact, was that noah loved riding on the piggy back, the bad news was that on the way back he started testing what he could do on it: “look ma, no hands!” or skateboard style pushing off with one leg or better yet, trying to sit down on it with his legs under the stroller. Oy. But we all made it home to venture out again another day!

Here’s the pics:

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