we are here!

Sorry we've seemingly disappeared!!  Samantha and I flew to Chicago on Wednesday to spend some time with my dad and the rest of my family.  We have been busy busy and hardly had a chance to stop and sit at the computer, let alone post an entry!  We spent Wednesday with my dad and then at my friends house with her family before she left Thursday for her honeymoon.  (They got married back in June but are taking their honeymoon now.)  Thursday was basically a lazy day.  Friday we went downtown with my Aunt Pam and met up with my younger brother Brad and his girlfriend, Katie.  Yesterday we had our church Christmas program featuring me as Mary and Samantha as baby Jesus!!  We did pretty good if I do say so myself.  Today we had church and then an "open house" at my aunt's which, unfortunately, only one person showed up to, lol!!  Oh well.

I will do my very best to post some more for the remainder of our trip.  (We are here until Saturday)  I have been taking tons of pictures as well so I will try to get some of those up too.

hi dad!

In the past few months, the vast majority of my immediate family have gotten iPhones.  I have one along with my dad, aunt, and even my 80 something year old grandma has one!!  Since my family is all back in Illinois and Chris and I live in Virginia, facetime has become a somewhat frequent occurrence.  They all love seeing Samantha and how much she's grown, and we of course love seeing them as well.  Tonight, we got to facetime with my dad, Samantha's grandpa (or babu as he wants to be called - we'll see if that sticks).  It's always great to see them and although Samantha doesn't really understand it, I know she loves looking at the phone and giving a big gummy grin to whoever is checking her out.

Sam's first day in "court"

Today Chris, Samantha, and I traveled into Washington DC to visit American University.  Chris's younger sister Margaret is here with Quinnipiac University's Mock Trial team.  Since DC is less than an hour from our house, there was no question about whether or not we would be there to watch.  I've never seen a mock trial competition, but Chris and I watch a lot of court TV shows so I was pretty excited.  We ended up staying for the whole trial and thankfully Samantha was pretty well behaved.  Margaret was a prosecutor for the defense and she did a great job.  In the end, the defended was found not guilty of murder, however he was found guilty of manslaughter and driving under the influence.  So I guess they did their job okay.  I had a really good time and I would definitely love to see her compete again.

Hello Fall

Today we took Miss Samantha for her first trip to a pumpkin patch.  We chose to go to Lyman Orchards since it's right around the corner from my in-law's house.  We spent Friday and yesterday searching for the perfect fall outfit since it was 80°+ here today and our fall looking things are all long sleeved.  I didn't find anything spectacular but we did find this adorable little dress.  Then I borrowed a headband from my niece Leah for her to wear.  Too cute!!  Samantha really enjoyed the pumpkins and she did great sitting amongst them.  It was a great day!


We were joined by Samantha's cousins Joey, Leah, and Aiden.  We first played in the pumpkin patch and then went inside the store and got some apples, apple pie, apple cider, and apple cider donuts.  We had apple pie for dessert tonight which was delicious and the apple cider during dinner.  Tomorrow morning we'll enjoy the donuts with some apple cider and then get on the road to head back to Virginia!!

we are here!

We made it!  We left Virginia yesterday at 3:00 pm, only an hour later than scheduled.  Granted we DID leave the house at 2:07, only 7 minutes late.  But, we had to stop at Target to pick up our new contacts and then we got Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  As we pulled out of the Target parking lot and got the GPS up and running, I saw that we should pull into Chris' parents house around 8:30.  Sounds nice, right?  We got on the road and maybe 20 minutes in traffic suddenly came to a halt.  That stop quickly added another hour to our arrival time.  Okay, not so bad.  This is also the point where Samantha started crying.  I quickly hopped into the back of the car and found out the problem...the sun was coming in through the back seat and shining right in her face.  We have a shade on the side window but it clips up top so there was no way to attach it in the back.  Chris had a jacket back there, so I resorted to holding it up across the windows!!  My arms got sore rather quickly so then I cupped my hands and put them over her face.  Oh, the things we do for our babies.  Thankfully she then fell asleep and I was able to relax for a little bit.  We hit a little back up in Pennsylvania and then got it really bad again going to cross over the George Washington bridge into Manhattan.  What a horrible bridge.  Traffic sucks and it now costs $12 to go over.  TWELVE DOLLARS!!!  Crazy.  By cheating a little, we cut about an hour of "stuck in traffic" time and got over on the lower level.  Traffic in New York and Connecticut was smooth sailing and we arrived at his parents in Wallingford at 11:30.  Only three extra hours.  Oy!  We quickly ate dinner and then headed to bed.  So part one of the ride officially went well.

Today however is a completely different story.  Samantha decided that napping was not in the game plan.  I got her almost to sleep twice and then attempted to put her down either in the crib or travel swing and she would instantly wake up.  So, she didn't have a nap all morning.  Couple this with any of Chris' six brothers and sisters (plus their respective husbands/wives/significant others) plus nieces and nephews coming in and out and poking and prodding at Samantha, and well, you can imagine how the afternoon went.  I finally decided to put her in the Ergo and just walk around.  Thank goodness for the Ergo.  She ended up falling asleep for a little while which was nice, but even when she woke up she was still really cranky.  So overall, it was a really long day and I am praying tomorrow goes better.  We'll hope she gets a good night sleep and tomorrow is a new day.  Keep your fingers crossed!

and we're off

Chris, Samantha and I are headed to Connecticut for the Columbus weekend to visit Chris's family. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the trip goes smoothly and we all arrive in one piece. Samantha has only been to Connecticut once and that trip is certainly one I'll never forget.

Back in June or July my sister-in-law Eileen posted on facebook that she was going to the Britney Spears concert in Hartford the first week of August. I jokingly said that I wanted to come too and much to my surprise, Chris actually said I could go. So began my trip planning. Chris works a rotating schedule and has crazy days off, so him coming up with us was out of the question. I decided to leave around 9:00am on Monday morning. The first 45 minutes was smooth sailing: Sam was sleeping, I was listening to my favorite talk show, and I was getting excited for the concert the next day. Then Sam woke up...and started SCREAMING. I had hardly crossed the border into Maryland when we had to pull over so I could attempt to calm her down. We stopped for almost an hour while I just walked back and forth over and over again. As soon as I would attempt to put her back in her car seat, cue the screaming. I finally gave up and just continued on my way. To make a long story short, we finally arrived around 4:30pm.

I had the concert Tuesday night and then Wednesday we had planned a family get together since the majority of his family hadn't yet met her. I was supposed to leave Thursday morning. Of course by Thursday, I was NOT ready to attempt the drive again so I decided to stay until Friday. Friday morning, I got up bright and early at 4:30 and headed out. Thankfully, Samantha slept straight through until Baltimore and hardly made a peep the remaining hour and a half until we got home.

This trip, we were hoping to have similar results. We were going to leave last night around 6:00pm after Chris got home from work. Chris is a seasonal employee at H&R block and each year they need to take classes to remain up to date with the current tax information. Class this week was to be on Monday and Wednesday. However, when he showed up for class on Monday, the instructor said class would also be held on Friday. What?! So right now, Chris is at class and once he gets home he's going to wash the car (really? As if the car isn't going to get dirty on the drive up there!) and then we'll head out about 2:00. Naps have been hit or miss lately so I'm not really sure what to expect. But at least there will be two of us, so hopefully the trip goes a little more smoothly.

Kerry & Ben come to visit

We had special visitors yesterday!  Chris's sister Kerry and her husband Ben came to visit us from Connecticut.  This was especially exciting since besides a cousin up in Maryland and a distant cousin about 10 minutes away, we have absolutely no family here in Virginia.  I grew up in Chicago and Chris grew up in Connecticut and our respective families are pretty much all still there.

Kerry and Ben have only met Samantha once, back in August when I went up to Connecticut for the Britney Spears concert.  (Which was a TON of fun, by the way)  Samantha was slightly grumpy since we're in the midst of transitioning to her sleeping in the pack and play at night after an incident of her falling out of the bed while we coslept.  However, she pretty much immediately took to Ben...and I think Ben liked her too.  Ben enjoyed barking at Samantha, and she just though it was great and was always ready to give a big smile!!  Unfortunately she cried when Kerry held her, but what can I say, she loves her mommy!

Chris, Samantha, and I are headed up to Connecticut on Friday for the Columbus Day weekend where most of Chris's family will get to see Samantha for the second time.  It's unfortunate that our families live so far away but it certainly makes the time we do get to spend together that much more special.