We've been Elfed!

Who said the Parks's couldn't dance?

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1387641887

In No Particular Order

Here are a few new pictures. Ok, so technically the Halloween pictures are not new. But they are new to you :)

Oh so that's Croup!

Last Wednesday Mary Catherine started barking like a seal (a cute little baby girl seal) around 3:00am. By 8:00pm the same day she was admitted to Anne Arundel Medical Center with a serious case of Croup.

After lots of nebulizer treatments, a few steroid shots and lots of hugs and kisses from Mommy and Daddy she was back to her wonderful little self.

The picture below was taken the morning after she came home from the hospital. She was not very thrilled with me but cute nonetheless.

Needless to say, Chris and I are relieved our Peanut is back to normal. We are also proudly displaying our newest Parenting Badge: "Overnight Stay in the Hospital".

Happy Hanukkah!

Playing catch up

It has been a while since I have posted. Like everyone else out there we have been busy with the early bustle of the holidays.

Here is a quick recap of the past few weeks:

* Mary got tooth number two. It is a big top tooth.

* Chris's company moved (from Rockville to Rockville, just a new fancy building). This meant no downtime for him this past weekend. If you see him and he is looking a little weary cut him some slack. Mary and I will see to it that he gets at least one "sleep in" morning this weekend.

* We've had a few appointments with Pediatric Cardiologists regarding MC's heart murmur. I'll make a very long story short. We all have a valve in her heart that is supposed to close permanently soon after birth. Mary's did not. It is called a PDA. When she was a newborn she went to the Children's Hospital annex in Annapolis, got lots of pictures taken of her heart and we were told to come back when she turned one. It was their hope (and ours) that the valve would have closed sometime during the year. Unfortunately hers remains open and will need to be closed. Letting the valve remain open allows too much blood flow to her lungs which would force her lungs to work harder than normal. It also leaves her susceptible to a viral infection in the heart called endocarditis. The procedure Mary will have done is called a Cardiac Catheterization. The doctors insist we call it a "procedure" and not surgery. We like this and are playing along.

She will have a small blocking device inserted into the open valve. It will be inserted via her femoral artery in her leg. This is much less invasive than the surgery that this condition used to require.

The doctor performing the procedure has the most experience on the east coast and was a pioneer of the procedure.
As of now the procedure is scheduled for Jan.4th. We will keep everyone posted.



* Mary had her first day at her new daycare today. She is going one day a week to see Miss Peggy and spending the rest of the weekdays home with Nana. We feel very lucky that Peggy had an opening available. She is Mary's best friend Kennedy's sitter and it will be so nice for the girls to get to play together during the week.
After Nana returns home to NH after Mary's procedure (see, I am trying so hard to not say surgery) Mary will go to Miss Peggy's full time.


* Mary got her third tooth....she now has a pair of front top teeth. They are marvelous!

* MC got her picture taken with Santa on Saturday. She may only be 13 months old but boy oh boy does she know who Santa is! She sat right there on his lap and gave him her best cheesecake smile. We are pretty sure her name is going to show up on Santa's "Nice" list.

* We are going with the Lyles's this weekend to cut down our Christmas trees! I am very excited about this. We have lots of boxes marked "Christmas" scattered around the living room. I can't wait to start decorating.


* MC is not walking. Crawling and cruising are getting the job done. Chris and I tried to convince her to give it a whirl last night. She took about 1/2 a step towards Chris then plopped down on the floor. In the meantime she has become a little dare devil around the house. She enjoys the following (with supervision, of course):
- Crawling up and down the stairs
- Standing up in her Anywhere Chair, spread her arms out straight and toss her head back.
- Stand on the door of the dishwasher to "help" unload the dishes.
- Her biggest "trick" to date is climbing over the arm of her kid size Anywhere Chair onto
the neighboring love seat. This cracks her up every time.


* I am making a promise to you (yes, you. Probably the only person that reads this thing) to post more pictures. I have a lot of excuses, none of them good ones.

Free Rice!

You've just got to check out this site.....

http://www.freerice.com

During a little "down time" here at work I managed to donate 600 grains!

TOOTH!!!!

The Tooth Fairy finally found her way to our house!

Mary Catherine is now the proud owner of one lower front tooth. We have no pictures of the blessed event because:

1. MC is currently very under the weather. She is fighting through a reaction to her Chicken Pox vaccine. She is grumpy, feverish and in NO mood to be photographed.

2. While you can feel the tooth with a freshly washed finger, the little guy is barely visible to the naked eye.

Happy Halloween

I use the term "happy" very loosely. Mary didn't have the best of days. I am almost certain her first tooth broke the surface today. She has another tooth very close to popping through as well. All of the tooth trauma has made the peanut cranky and very rashy.

While in the tub to help said rashes she stood up briefly and quickly fell and banged her mouth on the side of the tub. Oh the horror! There was blood and everything!!

She is resting comfortably in her crib with her three "honey bunnies", cookie monster, pooh bear and a fistful of binkies.

My poor baby. Keep your fingers crossed tomorrow is a better day for Miss Mary.

About the picture below.........while MC doesn't usually have a binky in the tub, tonight was that kind of night. Thanks to her Mom Mom she had just the right binky for the occasion.

Here is a picture of Mary Catherine one year ago today. My goodness what a difference a year makes.

You will have to trust me when I tell you she was having a good time in this picture. She was seven days old and in between a nap, a feeding and a diaper change.

Our Little One Year Old

Here are some new-ish pictures of the peanut enjoying her new chair. I could watch her ignore me and the camera all day.

Let's Party!

Here are some pictures from Mary Catherine's party last weekend. They are in no particular order and are a bit belated due to some technical difficulties.

She had a wonderful, albeit very tiring day. She partied pretty hard and was sleeping soundly in her crib by 6:00pm. We didn't hear from her again until 8:00 am the next morning. Sure sign of a good birthday, right?

Thanks to everyone that made it to the party. Our little pumpkin had a wonderful birthday.

Sweeeeep!

The Parks' are heading to Boston (business for Chris, family visit for MC and me) in a few weeks. First stop is the Yawkey Way Souvenir store at Fenway Park. We promised Mary Catherine a new baseball hat if they won the World Series.

Go Sox!........(and Pats! 52 to 7??????)

My Friend Mumble

Mary Catherine has a new friend! When she was just itsy-bitsy her Great Aunt June sent her a giant stuffed penguin named Mumble from the Disney movie Happy Feet. He is from Build-a-Bear and from what I can figure out without actually having seen the movie, he is a main character. She has always been fond of the little (err, big) guy but it seems their friendship is now in full bloom.

She insists on dragging Mumble all around the house. Her main mode of locomotion is still crawling so you can imagine how cute she looks pulling a 2 ft tall penguin behind her. After noticing her new affinity for the furry friend, her Nana laminated a newspaper picture of Mumble. MC now carries the picture around, showing off her buddy to anyone that is interested.

1 year olds are quirky.....and wonderful!

12 Month Check Up

Yesterday was Mary Catherine's 12 Month Check Up. I scheduled the appt for her actual birthday as it made a great excuse to leave work early and celebrate with our Peanut.

Four shots later and we were leaving the doctors office with a teary eyed birthday girl. A little nap and a few nibbles of strawberry shortcake and Operation First Birthday was back on track.

Other than the aforementioned shots, the appointment went well. Here are her stats:

Birth
7 lbs 2 oz
17.5" long

One Year
20 lbs 5 oz
28" long

She is just under the 50 percentile for little girls her age.

As I put Mary Catherine to bed last night I was feeling a little nostalgic. I told her all about her first day of life one year ago and how amazed I am at what a perfect little person she has become. She looked at me, said "Eeeooow, eeooow", grabbed a fistful of pacifiers, rolled over and fell asleep. I suspect the toddler years are going to be very fun :)

Happy Birthday Mary Catherine

Mary, this is the silly outfit the doctors made Daddy wear on your birthday. He looks very serious, doesn't he? Please note the clock behind Dad's head. It reads 11:20 am. You were born at 12:06 pm. Yeah, he got ready a little early.

This is a VERY nervous Mommy. I was SO excited to meet you. I was not so excited about the looming surgery. This is the room they put ladies in whose babies have no interest in coming out on their own. You were Frank Breech (upside down with your toes near your ears) for the last ten weeks before you were born. You requested an escape hatch and we obliged. Just the first of many outrageous requests I'm sure.

Mommy and Daddy are so happy you have joined our lives. It has been an amazing year. Thank you for being our special little Princess Mary.

Go SOX!

This picture is about six months old. Proof that Mary Catherine is NOT a Johnny-Come-Lately Red Sox fan.

Teeth!!! Well not exactly

Mary Catherine is just two days shy of her 1st birthday and still toothless. For those of you that aren't knee-deep in parenthood - this is not exactly the norm. Most kiddos her age are working on their sixth, seventh or even eighth tooth. Not our little princess.

The reason for this boring, picture-less post is to confirm to all of her family and friends that MC does in fact have teeth. They are just waiting for the right time to make their grand entrance. I can confirm this with much confidence as two teeth were spotted under hers gums during an early morning snuggle fest in Mom & Dad's bed. There we are watching CBS's Sunday Morning (this is a big deal in our house), MC using Chris and I as her personal jungle gym when she gave us a rare peek inside her little mouth. There they were, two teeth (one bottom, one top) JUST under the surface.

Stay tuned...............

Ok, don't hold your breath. We have had our fair share of false alarms but I think this time is the real thing...I can feel it!

365 Days Ago....

Exactly one year ago today was my last day of work before going on Maternity Leave. I took Monday off and went into the hospital on Tuesday am. I remember thinking it was silly to take Monday off seeing how I was still feeling good and MC was showing no signs of coming out on her own.
HA! Had I only realized that would be the last time for a long time that I could sleep in, take a long shower and have a meal in a restaurant without worrying about food throwing, high chairs, and diaper blowouts.
Silly, silly Kate..........

Busy Weekend

The Parks' had a very busy weekend. Saturday afternoon Chris helped our next door neighbors build a fence for their backyard. On Sunday we got up early and drove to Thurmont, Maryland for Colorfest. It is a fall festival and craft fair. We had a great time in the chilly weather, eating and shopping our way through the festival.

We met up with Mom Mom, Aunt Marilyn and Aunt Randi at the festival. We look forward to seeing them soon for Mary Catherine's birthday.

Mom Mom and Mary Catherine at Color Fest

Nana and Kate

MC and Aunt Marilyn enjoying a turkey leg

Mary and Mom helped supervise the fence building project

Chris is now an expert at installing fence posts (and digging up the boulders in the way)

Our neighbor Erik - the proud owner of a new fence

Fall has arrived in Maryland!

Ahhhhh, Fall weather is finally here! When I came home on Friday afternoon MC was outside playing with Nana and her best friend Kennedy. I ran in the house and grabbed our new camera.

Here are a couple pictures of Mary Catherine and Kennedy enjoying the cooler weather.

"What does the kitty say?"

Go ahead, ask Mary Catherine what the kitty says. She will be happy to tell you, "eeooww, eeooww".

I became aware of this new "trick" last night while we were reading the Dr. Seuss book Are You My Mother. I pointed to a kitten on the page and Mary Catherine looked right at me and said "eeooww, eeooww".

I am one proud momma.

Our little movie star...

Happy Fall

Today is the first full day of Autumn....YAY!

This is hands down my favorite season. I am fairly certain it is Chris's favorite too as Fall brings Football, Halloween candy and this year his 30th birthday!!!

I hope the weather turns chilly soon. I would love to bring Mary Catherine, Chris and my mom to an apple orchard to pick apples. In my book it isn't truly Fall until you have enjoyed an apple straight from the tree followed up by some warm spiced cider and some of Nana's apple pie.

Our little peanut has a rotten cold that kept her (and us) up last night. She is truly her mother's daughter as she would not think of suffering silently.

And were back...........

Chris, Mary Catherine and I have been busy little bees lately. Chris and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary earlier this month. It seems like just yesterday we were dancing the night away at the Beach Club.

Mary Catherine will be eleven months in a few days. She is pulling up on everything but has shown no signs of first steps. She is so thrilled to see the world from a new vantage point. One of her favorite things to do is to stand at the kitchen window and watch George (our pug) on the deck.

Nana has been in town for a few weeks and Mary Catherine has been having a BLAST! Today they went out to lunch in Annapolis with the our friend Stephanie and her daughter Kennedy. Just about every afternoon they feed the ducks in the pond behind our house and take a walk around the neighborhood. Chris, MC and I are truly blessed to have Nana share all of this time with us.

Here are some of the latest pictures of our Peanut....

Right on Track

Mary Catherine's check up went great. She now weighs 18 lbs and is 28.5 inches long. This puts her in the 50% percentile for both height and weight for baby girls her age.

We think she is 100% fabulous!

Her developmental skills appear to be right in line with that of a nine month old. She does wave hello and bye-bye and even tries to say bye-bye when you catch her in the right mood.

The doctor said her heart murmur is not audible. This is great news. Mary Catherine will have a follow up around her first birthday just to make sure the murmur is gone for good.

TGIF

Mary Catherine has here nine month well baby visit tomorrow at 8:30 am. We are looking forward to see how much our little peanut has grown. We will be sure to post her stats tomorrow.
Right now she is in 12-18 month clothing and probably will be through the fall. I have noticed since she has started crawling she is getting a little slimmer and her pants are more loose around the waist.
Speaking of clothes - oh my goodness what a chore it is to get her dressed these days! She manages to wiggle her way out of our clutches with the skill of an olympic gymnast. She thinks this is very funny.

Welcome

Welcome to the Parks' Family new and improved blog!

We hope to use the blog to keep in touch with all of our friends and family. Let's face it, this thing will mostly be used as a vehicle to show off cute pictures of Mary Catherine.

Like this one......