Beth’s Photo Blog

I know no one reads these, and I know I haven’t written in over a year, but it only seems right that I should include a post about Benjamin Joseph Pifalo, my son, who is now 7 months old. I was just reading Evie’s half birthday post, and I feel so bad that I never even thought to write about Ben here… but mostly that’s because facebook has taken over the long blog with the short and sweet status update. Anyway, what to say about Ben?? He’s awesome, basically… he has a smile that lights up a whole room, and he shares it freely. He’s cute as a button, and will put ANYTHING in his mouth. He loves to be tickled, and has a wonderful giggle/laugh when he is. He think patty cake is the best game ever, and that Evie is the best person on the planet. Oh how she can make him laugh! Doesn’t matter that she’s putting her full weight onto him, he just laughs and laughs and laughs. He’ll grab anything within reach, and has been know to fling my glasses right off my face while he’s eating. He sits up so well now, and he has found new joy in taking out every toy within a bin placed nearby. Oh and does he JUMP! Jump jump jump, if he’s in the mood, with such a look of concentration on his face. Basically, he’s my best sweet boy, and I love him to pieces. Not the best eater, but that’s ok. He just takes a bit to accept change, Mike says, and I think that’s probably it.

As for me, I’ve been a stay at home mom for the past year, as Harte-Hanks decided to let me go almost exactly a year ago. And it’s been a great year, and I have to say I’m not sad they did. I never would have been able to spend this time with my two children otherwise.

So – sending this out to the wide world, although I know that I’ll probably be the only one that ever reads it.

Cheers!
B

A friend of mine said to me recently – you should blog!  I explained that I did – and she foofed off my twice a year entries in terms of updating Evie’s life.  So I thought I’d give this a whirl, see if I liked putting my random streams of consiousness out on the web for all to see.

How to start, though, that is the question.  Hmmm…  Well, Mike and I got to attend a Red Sox game at Fenway part this past Saturday night.  They lost, but I have to say, going to a game when the weather is perfect,  and the view of the field is one of the best I’ve ever had, is one of the best nights one could hope for.  The  sky was dotted with huge white clouds that turned a very deep pink as the sun set.  Then, once the clouds had blown away, the full moon rose over the park.  I tried to take a picture of the moon, and the park, and the sky – but it didn’t turn out as I had hoped.  Still, I have the memory.

The night was so fun that the 2 hour trek home didn’t even spoil it.  Oy, the T after a game – it is not pretty.  If only I felt more comfortable getting around the city on foot, I think I would have walked half way home to avoid it.  But fear of getting lost always haunts me whereever I go, so onto the T we went.  And it’s not actually the T ride that’s the issue, it’s the press of people attempting to get past the stiles that is the most unpleasant.  Still, Mike and I had a wonderful time – our first night out alone in quite some time.  Hopefully we continue the trend of getting out every once in a while, it’s nice to be able to spend time together without a little person wiggling her way into the middle of things from time to time.

B

As I said, it’s been a while.  Since I last wrote there are 3 new babies in our lives…  Gavin, Evie’s cousin; Rebecca, Kerry’s newest daughter; and Megan, Bridget’s newest daughter.  Birth days, respectively are Feb. 18th, July 2nd and July 21.  Wow.  Evie’s going to be talking about babies for some time to come.

Which brings me to other new developments – talking being one of them.  Cheese, eat, BABY, Daddy, Mommy, Tucker are her favorite things to say.  She also loves to take a Baaaa(th).  She’s walking, and learning to run (oh please please honey, don’t hit your head on the *instert object*….  oops! too late)  I can’t believe 16 months has gone by.  Where has the time gone?  She’s a full fledged toddler now, with a personality to boot.  No has also been a favored word, but more exciting, she’s now saying Yes also!  Yes, I want milk.  Yes, time to eat…  the communciation is definitely getting easier.  But other things, of course, are more difficult.  Take eating in a restaurant, for example.  This just doesn’t happen.  But it’s a worthy sacrifice for a few years.  I’ll take the hugs and kisses instead.

As for me, not much has changed.  I’m working at Harte-Hanks still, although many of my closest friends have left or been let go.  It’s sad and frusterating at the same time. 

First family vacation is coming up – the three of us go to Bar Harbor / Acadia National Park in September.  I can’t wait.  Evie and I have done a couple of test runs in our child carrier options, and the Kelty back pack is definitely the one coming with us.  Hopefully we’ll be able to get some more hiking in around NH this fall also.  I swear, climbing those 8 flights of stairs twice a day is actually making a difference.

Love to all.  Check out MIke’s altered prose blog – he’s written some short fiction there, and it’s good.

-Beth

Happy New Year all!  2007 was, for me, one of the best ever.  How many years can you say you’ve had the most beautiful baby in all the world?  Not many…. 

Evie is now 9 months old and movin’ and groovin’ any way she can.  She crawls at high speed, and has now also begun to pull herself up on anything nearby – her dad, the dog, the couch, the coffee table – whatever works!  She also is still very much a talker -and has even said her first word – which is, of course, Tucker (due to the fact that it is yelled so often by both myself and Mike).  She says it more like two words, though – sounds like Tuck-errr.  Very cute.

 First Christmas went extremely well – she did not get the cold that Mike and I had (thank goodness! they were awful…) and so was in good spirits the entire two days.  She loved all her presents, people, commotion – and was so much fun to watch.  Mike and I got a video camera for each other for Christmas, so hopefully there will be some footage to share soon.  The 360 degree spin is my absolute favorite.

 What else?  Not much.  Evie and I are off on a trip to visit a friend in NM at the end of the month, so hopefully that will go well.  Leah’s due on 2/19 so we have a new addition to the family to look forward to as well. Yay!  We can’t wait to meet Evie’s cousin Gavin….

Back to work for me.  Love to all of you.  Will put up some new pics etc soon.

-Beth

Evie is 6 months old today! Happy Half Birthday Evie! I hope to take some picture of her tonight and include them here soon…

I was just reading over some of the first blogs of right before and after she was born. Boy did Mike guess the birth story WAY wrong! But in one thing he was right; all turned out fine in the end. Also, 6 months later and I can hardly remember what life felt like those first few weeks. All I know is that every day with Evie is a joy beyond measure as she continues to grow, learn, and entertain us all…. her new talents include sitting up without assistance, getting up on all fours from her tummy, and eating eating eating. She does love that cereal! For some reason though, rolling only comes easist from back to front – she is still working on going from belly to back consistantly. And she loves anything to do with standing, jumping or yelling. Oh my does she love using those newly found vocal cords.

Basically, she is the best baby ever. Well, except when she eats with her fingers in her mouth. Messy!

As for Mike and I – work is fine; same old same old. We are in the process of doing some work on the house, though – we’ll put up pictures for that soon also. New siding, replacement windows, fence and deck will all be going up in the next few weeks. I can’t wait!

But really, I just wanted to pause today, on Evie’s half birthday, and marvel at how quickly and wonderfully the past six months have gone. I love my new life; I have never been happier, and I know that it is only going to get better! Love to all …. Beth

So I’ve finally posted some new pictures of the Superbaby – she’s about 12 weeks old here. It’s incredible how time has flown since she was born – I’ve now been back at work for two weeks, and she is over 3 months old…. Working is going fine for me, and having other folks aside from her Mom is going okay for Evie (although I admit I’m still getting used to it). The last month she and I spend together at home was fabulous – we had both figured each other out, and were enjoying each other unbelievably. We actually spend Memorial Day weekend up in Bar Harbor Maine, and the trip was also fabulous. She is such a good baby! She only cries when she’s tired or hungry, and she smiles all the time. Her newest trick is to actually reach out and grab a toy that’s dangled in front of her – she wowed us all yesterday on Father’s Day with her new ability. And with that comes the realization that time is going to continue to fly by this first year, and I hope to enjoy every minute that I get to spend with her. Weekends go by so fast…

We’ve been home with Evie for two weeks now, and life continues to feel strange. One day just blends into the next as my life has become a series of cat naps regardless of the time of day. Every once in a while I get more than two hours of sleep at a time, and then I feel pretty good for a while. I try to complete a small project each day during one of Evie’s nap times – today I’ll be washing the kitchen floor. She and I have also been enjoying the weather when we can by taking walks around the neighborhood. Every time I manage to get out of the house feels good to me.

We’ve had a series of wonderful visitors to come and help out the past two weeks. I can’t imagine going through this new period in my life without the company and help I’ve received since we’ve been home. Just the relief to be able to take a nap knowing that someone is here to comfort Evie should the need arise is wonderful for my peace of mind. I’ll be trying to mother Evie a bit more on my own going forward, though – I know I need to get the hang of it! And my hope is that living with Evie will get easier as time goes by… I’ll get the hang of feeding her, and maybe she’ll sleep more through the night. It’s become easier to understand her different cries at this point, though, which does help. Also what helps is the realization that she is going to cry sometimes regardless of anything that Mike or I do – but that she will eventually stop crying as well. And then take a nap from the effort of it all …

But she is certainly healthy – we went for her two week checkup last week and she is back up to her birth weight, which is exactly where she should be. She does have a bit of a diaper rash, but hopefully that will go away soon. As for her other stats – she is 41% for height and head circumference, and 85% for height. She’s definitely a long baby! But cute as a button, and we love her.

So it has been a week and a day so far, and we’ve been home since last Friday. So far, overall, so good. Evie is thriving, having gained 7 oz. back since we took her home from the hospital. She and I are getting used to the *** feeding regimin – today especially she can’t seem to get enough to eat. I admit it concerns me that I have enough to feed her, but everything I read indicates that the more she nurses, the better off we’ll both be. Hopefully it’s true. Overall, I never thought that I would place so much time and worry and energy on the health of my chest. Very strange and nerve racking, really. But since feeding her is pretty much the focus of my existance at this point, it’s difficult to concentrate on anything else. Right now I’m just hoping she’ll get back to a 3 hour feeding schedule soon rather than this hourly schedule she’s set for herself today.

Other than eating, Evie spends some time sleeping, some time crying, and some time… well, that’s pretty much it. She’s awake and not crying every once in a while, and those times are pretty magical. She is really good at lifting her head up and looking over your shoulder – better at that than I ever thought a week old baby could be. She also likes to be held and rocked in the rocker we’ve put in the living room. In the past week we’ve had equal amounts of good nights where I get to sleep more than 3 hours, and bad nights when that’s about all I get. Last night was a good one; tonight I’m not quite sure at all how it will go. Right now Mike is rocking her in the chair in the hopes she’ll fall into a deep enough sleep to last for longer than 20 minutes.
As for myself, I find this new life where I am sheltered in our house a strange one. I can’t drive a car for another week or so, but we have visitors come by pretty much daily. So I don’t feel entirely cut off, but then I also think about a time where I’m comfortable enough to take Evie out on my own, and maybe get back to a bit of living beyond the sleeping/eating schedule that is currently being set by my tiny daughter. Mike’s been great, though, helping in so many ways to make this time easier for me. We’re both tired, but we both know that it will only get better as time passes. I think we’re both just glad to finally be home after what seemed to be a marathon stay at the hospital.

So my due date has come and gone… not really surprising considering that my mom went 3 weeks late with both Leah and I. Thankfully they don’t let you go that long now a days. I keep hoping that something will happen this weekend – I am not really looking forward to the process of giving birth, but I think I am ready to get going, get through it, and get it over with. But even as I type this I still expect that the next few days will be filled with waiting.

I’m still feeling fine and sleeping fairly well. I don’t quite think the same can be said for Mike – considering his note from yesterday – I had no idea that he was getting nervous. In fact, I’ve told my friends and family that he seems to be handling all this quite well – which I still believe. He’s there for me when I need him, and still tries to make me laugh even when another person would have given up trying.

As for the baby? Well, I think he or she is dropping – things feel differently in my lower abdomen at times. And it may even be that I’ve had a few contractions over the past few days, but they are sporadic and most likely just the practice kind. It makes me a bit more hopeful, though, that we won’t actually have to have the baby induced.

In the meantime, my plan is to just keep myself busy and hopefully a bit distracted so that I don’t have to think or focus on the task ahead. I’ll just deal with that when the time comes.

So I’ve just logged in for the first time today, and noticed that Mike put the picture of my belly out on the site – I would just like to say that is NOT the one I would have chosen… Mainly because he did take one of me where my head/face was showing as well (imagine that, a belly WITH a face) Not to happy with the headless picture, honey…

Other thoughts for me at this point? Mostly that the baby will never be coming out. My most recent Dr’s appointment pretty much confirmed that, although they did say that they would induce me before the 23rd of this month. So altoghter that means, at the most, 2 and a half more weeks of backaches, not being able to turn over in bed without some major effort, and a general dislike of bending over to pick anything up off the floor.

I’m feeling pretty good, though. Still sleeping fairly well, and getting around without too much difficulty. Overall I think at this point I wish that the little person inside me would show as much interest in meeting Mike and I as we are in meeting her/him…. even if that means I have to give up sleep for many months to come.