Busy week

Happy Monthday Maya! 3 months today, kinda nuts. 1 trimester down so to speak.

We made it home from Boston Thanksgiving yesterday without any incidents - puppers and Maya asleep in the back which is really the best way to travel. Thanksgiving was great - Maya got to meet her cousins Anna and Noah who loved her and wanted to kiss and touch her, it was very sweet. Cousin Nathan, 5 months senior to Maya was very sweet as well and would reach for her when we put them down together. We also caught up with some of Brian's high school friends so they could meet her and spent the rest of the time chasing after kids and dogs, cooking, eating, cooking and eating some more and hanging out with the Hennessey gang.

This week is all about getting ready for our big trip down south - to Uruguay that is. Maya and I leave next Monday and the packing list for travel with baby seems endless. Luckily we were able to borrow a carseat and crib from cousins so I don't need to transport those. Maya is becoming ever more active however and I will need to bring her bouncy seat so that I can put her down at times. She's very close to flipping over and did yesterday although it was somewhat of a fluke. Another perhaps fluke was that she slept from 6:30pm to about 5am without interruption - who knows if that will last. It was good timing though as Brian started a new job today and the extra sleep was useful for his first day. Lots of errands to run today and the weather looks like it will cooperate - 50 degrees and sunny.

Politics, dachshunds and musical beds

Three months is right around the corner, how time flies. In that time the economy has tanked, we made history when we elected a new president, NC went blue and Congress has gone to the Dems. Somethings never change - Maureen Dowd is still trying to create Clinton drama and Sarah Palin is still all over the place (puh-lease go govern your caribou and get off my TV). Maya is getting good at doing things with her hands, mainly shoving them in her mouth - sometimes both at the same time which helps when the pacifier falls out of her mouth and it wakes her up. She gets an A in important baby skills such as holding up her head, recognizing her parents, smiling lots, staring at the pictures in books, being fascinated by her own hands and trying to creep. She gets a C- in the sleeping category. She's just not much of a sleeper. Cat napper during the day and wakes up at least 2 times a night for a bottle or to be nursed. Cause why should you sleep when you can let out a yelp and room service appears? It's almost as good as being in the womb. We're still playing musical beds at night trying to figure out the best sleeping arrangement and Maya inevitably ends up sleeping in 3 different places in a night. We're a little tired but we hear there is light at the end of the tunnel. Overall she's a very happy girl and keeps us on our toes as we try to find activities for her. Yes, it's amazing that such a young babe needs to be entertained but she lets you know when she's bored! I've gotten together several times with a co-worker who had a son 11 days before Maya was born to compare notes, have lunch and just plain get out of the house. Tomorrow we're headed to the Museum of Natural History as it is cold outside and strolling around the city is less of an option now.

We're really looking forward to Thanksgiving in Wellesley next week. It will be a full house with 4 kids (2 under 1 year of age) and 5 dachshunds to keep track of. We'll need security guards around the turkey so no puppers get any ideas as has been known to happen in Hennessey household. A dachshund will never understand that eating a bird that matches their own body weight can be a bad thing. Course - I could probably do that too when it comes to dessert, and I have already called planning that course. We put it up for a family vote but not totally unexpectedly the vote came back to do all three - pumpkin flan, coconut cupcakes with the kids and pecan squares with chocolate. Enjoy your turkey day everyone.

Just shoot me

Poor Maya had her first round of shots yesterday at the doctors office. 3 shots and one oral vaccine, 8 immunizations in all and 3 band aids. She was all happy and cooing and smiling at the doctor until - wham! She went from 0 to 60 in half a second and screamed her head off. She probably though she was being attacked. I picked her up after the first two and did the third holding her - boy was she mad!! She calmed down by the time she was dressed and back in her stroller, fell asleep on the way home and then woke up again feeling miserable. Luckily Aunt Roshni is a pediatrician (everyone should have a close friend who is a pediatrician when they have their first child) and we gave her a call to see if more Tylenol was ok. Great. A few more drops of that and Maya calmed down and slept pretty well, probably exhausted from the ordeal. Not a huge fan of medicine getting squirted in her mouth. I don't know why they bother making infant drops that are cherry or grape flavored as if they know what that is. Why don't they make them breast milk or formula flavored? Maya thought that was the weirdest tasting stuff ever and made quite the face.

Once again Maya is passing her growth markers with flying colors. Little girl weighs 13 lbs (90th percentile again) and is 23 inches long - ie she's huge! Her Tylenol dosage based on weight is for 4-11 month kids and she's only two! She's doing great. She's getting pretty good at holding up her head during tummy time and wants to crawl - she makes quite the effort moving her legs back and forth and pushing her toes into the ground but doesn't quite know what to do with her upper body. Getting her head up is one thing, coordinating her arms to push herself up is an entirely different story. One of her favorite activities has become sitting in her bouncy seat and kicking her legs to make the plastic spiders that hang over it move back and forth. She stares in amazement when they start to go and watches for a minute before kicking again. She's starting to figure out the whole cause and effect thing. Yesterday she was testing her baby einstein gym - kicking one of supports that hang overhead with all the toys to get the musical star to light up. Hilarious to watch. I bet she feels very powerful now that's learning how to make things happen. It is so much fun to watch them learn and discover the world around them.

A Williams Homecoming

Pretty amazing that Roshni, Meagan and I all had babies the same year. Even MORE amazing is that '01 Ephs Roshni, Katherine, Meagan, Elizabeth, James, 99' Eph Brian H. and honorary Ephs Joel, Heather and Brian G. all got together in Williamstown for Williams' homecoming. The weather was cold and grey (wouldn't be Williamstown otherwise) getting as low as 20 something at night (Maya wore her snowsuit) but held out enough to walk around campus and go to the football game on Saturday (we beat Wesleyan but who cares really). We had a great time catching up with everyone, somehow a year flew by since some of last saw each other in Seattle for Elizabeth and James' nuptials (when baby Henry was probably about the size of a lemon, baby Liam a ball of cells and Maya was a thought that hadn't yet materialized) which is just far too long for friends who lived together most of their college years. And now there are all these little ones in tow!! It really is nice to get back to campus every once in a while. Williams campus has changed considerably - new buildings have popped up everywhere. The coffee shop although operating under a new name in a new venue, thankfully still serves pretty much the same.

Time to plan a reunion for next year gang - who knows what (who) else will be under production ;) (you know who you are).