Baby Giganto

So I just came from Curran's 2 Year Well Check and she still remains a big girl. With a REALLY big head. She got 2 shots too, which she wasn't very happy about. Here stats are as follows:

Head: Off the charts. Which means her head is not on the growth curve. Which means she has a bigger head than 100% of babies her age.

Weight: 29 lbs, 1oz. That's the 75th percentile.

Height: 95th percentile. Cant remember the exact length, but loooooong.

Since one child being in pain at the pediatrician's office is never enough fun, I decided to double my fun and get Brayden's stitches taken out too. Nothing says a good time like 2 toddlers screaming bloody murder in front of strangers.

Her birthday clambake was lots of fun, although she was MISERABLE that day. As I have mentioned before she seems like she is eternally constipated. After she hadn't shat in 2 days I decided to start her on Miralax last week. My niece Em is on it for similar issues. Well I gave her too much. Instead of turning her pebbles into mush, I turned her pebbles into the water shits. So she had a red little tweet and butt that day. Instead of playing outside with everyone else she wanted to stay inside and watch Em's Barbie movie.

She continues to be absolutely hilarious. On Sunday I was changing her diaper and her little tweet was all red. She was crying and screaming, so I blew on her little red patch for her. She immediately stopped crying and looked like she was in a trance. When I stopped blowing and started to put on her diaper she said - "Thank you, Mommy!"

Pics from the partay below:

Having a mental breakdown when we sang her happy birthday:


My sweet boy who just cannot understand why April 7th is 6 months after Curran's birthday:



Brayden ate her "2":



Pissed as she's opening presents with Aunt Meg:

Torturing the Dog

Here's the birthday princess trying to get Tank Wank in a celebretory mood. He was having none of it.

Two Years Ago...

I was getting ready to have the worst night sleep of my life. I was due to check into the hospital the next morning at 530 am to have my scheduled c-section to deliver Curran. I honestly cannot believe that it's been 2 years since I had a baby. Curran Kathleen was delivered at 7:56am on September 22, 2007. I cannot believe how lucky I am to have a boy and a girl - it is such a wonderful gift. The things that make the 2 of them so different make me love them even more. Here are some pictures of my sweet baby girl from the past 2 years:


Probably at 2 weeks or so here with big bro in his Browns jersey:




Four months here, for her baptism pics. We haven't been to church since:







Our little lady at one year old!

All sass at about a year and a half:

A couple of things that continue to surprise me every day about her:

• She sleeps like a rock. I am not joking, she has not made a peep in the night for over a year. Sounds like I am bragging but she is absolutely comatose come bedtime.
• The amount of milk this child drinks. I am not a big milk drinker, nor is Steve or Brayden, but she wants nothing else. Today I gave her a cup of juice because she hasn't shit in 2 days and she threw it at me.
• How much she talks! Her new thing is, if I am tickling her or kissing her too much she says - "Easy mommy, easy!".
• She is fiercely independent and can be very mean. She doesn't like when you even look at her the wrong way - yikes.

We love our little Mibot girl!!

On to other more current things....we had a wonderful time at the OSU tailgate. Beautiful weather, and we took Braydo for the first time. He did pretty well at the tailgate, but once we got to the stadium the wheels came off the bus and we had to go. The kid is 3 and a half and still has a very hard time when he doesn't get a good 1.5 hour to 3 hour nap in the afternoons. So he freaked at the game and we had to leave, but no worries, a fun time was certainly had at the tailgate.

Dad and Braydo:

Me, Lissa and her sister Kate:

After the game, we drove to Catawba. We are anxious too eek out the last few nice days of summer with our boat. Well, disaster struck. Brayden was running around with a blanket over his head, fell and caught the skin right over his eye on the TV cabinet. It split wide open,and bled like crazy. I HATE going to ERs, Urgent Cares, more than anything. It's such a long wait and I want to make sure its totally necessary before we go.

My dad was up with us and summed it up quite nicely - "if you were a hillbilly you could probably just put a band-aid on it and let it go, but since he looks like Powder and would probably scar pretty badly, you should take him up to the urgent care." So off we went. The urgent care is right across the street from the Jet Express in Port Clinton. Can you imagine the madness that they must see? He ended up with three stitches and was a very tough dude. I love him so much -

Watching Your Language

So Steve and I definitely can have potty mouths. Up until now, the kids really haven't picked up on it. On Sunday, before we left for the home opener Steve ran out and got me my diet from McDonalds for the morning caffeine fix. He took Braydo with him. When Steve got home he told me what a goat rodeo the trip had been because McDs gave him regular coke rather than diet, and he didn't realize it until he was half way home. The sweet husband that he is, he ran back to McDs to get the right kind. But he was none too pleased. He gave me the brief overview, but Brayden gave me the much more entertaining version this morning in line at McDs for my morning Diet Coke. The conversation went like this:

Brayden: So yesterday Daddy took us to Dunkin Donuts!

Me: Yea, dude, I know Daddy told me all about it.

Brayden: But daddy was really mad. We had to come back to McDonalds after we went to Dunkin Donuts because McDonalds fucked up your diet cokes.

Me: Speechless, Mortified and trying as hard as I could not to laugh.

So I called Steve and asked him what the hell he said to him in the car the day before. Steve admitted that's what he said when Brayden asked why they were going back. We are just chalking this up to a lapse in parenting, given the early morning hour, excitement over the Browns opener, and a resolve to improve our language. Yikes - and of course this is just when he starts preschool. I am praying by the minute that none of this is repeated in front of others...I would die. I threatened him with a very severe puniushment if he ever says it again, so hopefully that will do the trick. Very embrassing. But not so secretly hilarious.

Browns game was yesterday and of course resulted in a loss. No worries - a great time was had by all during the tailgating festivties. We cooked like eggs in the stadium though. I am pretty sure I have a future case of basal cell carcinoma from yesterday's roast. See pics below:

Lissa, Me, the Grizzlers and Chris Bellamy:



The Wanks and the Grizzlers



Me and Uncle Chris:



Me, Matt Graves and Lissa. I need to get a BQ jersey fo sho!!



Because we're not playing with a full deck, Steve and I decided it would be a good idea to take the kids out to Outback for dinner after we got home from the game. Brayden found my camera in my purse and took this picture of Curran loving the sauce from the Bloomin' Onion. And yes I felt 10x more disgusting today after consuming that and all the rest of the nastiness from the tailgate yesterday. I am in major rotgut mode.

First Half of September

Lots of fun this Labor Day - another shitshow at Put in Bay. Typical night of shots, liquor soaked cherries, and mayhem. I ran into some Steelers fans wearing jerseys all around the Bay and made it my mission of the night to throw things at them. See, when you are at PIB you run into the same people at bar after bar. By the end of the night I was throwing plastic forks and knives at them. Bastards - go find your own island.

There was a fight that night in our crew, which is always fun. No one was injured but it was sure fun to watch. I love Put in Bay - I am so happy that I get to spend so much time there.

Back home on the Ferry:



Me with the Cleveland Browns Stadium poster at Frosty's. I am pathetic but its is so much fun to have hope at the beginning of the season:



Me and Steve:



The boat is up and in working condition, we used it lots this weekend. IT IS AWESOME. I freaking love it up there.

Preschool continues to ramp up for Curran, Brayden is going 8:30-11:30 every day now. He really likes it and is such a big boy. It is a transition though, after months of staying dry through the night, he's wet the bed twice in the past week. I tried to get him to put a Pull Up on, but he wants none of it. I guess I am hoping its just a phase. Curran will be at her full schedule this coming week, going 930-1130 on Thursdays and Fridays.

Sunday marks the day of all days - Browns home opener!!!! I am so excited, I have several new pieces of Browns paraphernalia to celebrate. We will be down on Sunday at 830 am sharp. I am sure the Browns will be terrible this year, but am way excited nonetheless. Check back for pictures next week of our Sunday Tailgate!!!

Onto a more somber note, today is 9/11. I refuse to be one of those people who act like this is just another day. Of all the dates of remembrance, September 11th means the most to me. I guess it's probably because I lived through the fear of that day. I remember working on the 32nd floor of a building here in Cleveland and thinking - oh my God, how bad must it have been in those towers for all those people to choose to jump rather than stay where they were?

On the year anniversary in 2002, Colleen and I went to the memorial mass downtown, and I will tell you what, it was the most moving thing I ever was ever witness too. Fireman, cops, bagpipers - there wasn't an empty seat at St. John's Cathedral - standing room only. I've been to NYC since, and even gone on a tour given by a survivor. It's an unbelievable experience.

No shame in my game - I would have run for the hills if I was a cop or a fireman on that day. So many people gave their lives for so many and that is such an amazing sacrifice. I remember thinking I would never stop crying after that day. I think it cheats those who died that day - whether they were just going to work or going to save lives of people they would never know - for us not to acknowledge them at least every year on 9/11. So from me - I thank you and marvel and what you did that day and will always remember what you gave us.