Last saturday nioght I got the phone call that I have been dreading for some time now...My Grandmother past away. Carol Bales was an amazing mother, grandmother and great grandmother to everyone in her life. She was one of those people that would give the shirt off her back to help you, she always found the good in people...even in those that treated her wrong.
She was and will always remain an amazing woman. She will live through her family and friends and those that had the pleasure of meeting her and through each new generation.
Because of this loss, I made the trip up to Rochester on Sunday morning at around 4am, then drove the 8 hours from Rochester to Ft. Wayne with Mom and Victoria. This was a trip to remember. Mom and I made this trip each year as I was growing up to go see the grandparents and the rest of our family. Needless to say this trip was bitter sweet. it was great to be on the road trip again with mom, only this time I was also the mom. Yes, i took lots of pictures and have lots of great memories to pass on and share as Victoria gets older. I hope to someday make the trip again when she is old enough to remember.
It was great to see family again. I learned a lot of things while I was there. I learned that our family is growing. Congratulation to Loni and Lisa who are expecting their first child sometime in february of 2008. For the first time in 20 years, I met my father. Yes, it was awkward and no, I don;t want to have to go through that again. He's alive and looking old, that's all i wanted to know. I also had the chance to meet my half sister, her husband and their daughter. I guess interesting is the only thing I can come up with.
Aunt Nancy and Uncle Dave are enjoying a full house again. Olivia and her younger sister, Rachel are keeping both Aunt Nancy and Uncle Dave very busy and young at heart. I don;t know how they keep up with either of the girls, I tried...I needed a nap afterwards.
It was good to be there, I got to spend some much needed time with family and some quiet time with my grandfather. There were many stories of fishing and family that he shared...
price of ticket: $355
price of hotel: $90
Spedning time with family: Priceless
For everything else...well, you know the rest!
Here I am back in Rochester and on a mission. I know that mom has tons of family pictures lying around the house, my missions, to collect each and every one of them and put them somewhere safe and write on them. Who they are, what year they were taken and so on. I want to be able to come here one day and tell future generations all about those that came beofre us. Who they are, what they did, what thy were like...yeah, lots to do and little time to do it.
Victoria is doing well. She is very excited with each new person she meets. We had family over last night to meet her for the first time. She did great. It was ...pass the baby around the room. She just smiled and laughed, but at the end of the night, it was mom she wanted and I her. We had some bonding time this morning after her 6am bottle. we went back to sleep together. I wrapped her up in the bedspread and snuggled her in my arm and took a nap with her. She woke me up around 9am for another bottle. How did she wake me up you might ask???? well, she rolled towards me and slapped me in the face, not hard, but just enough to tell me to get up...i guess because I didn't move fast enough, she sqeeled...loud, then tried to hit me again. Violent child, isn't she. I guess it's revenge for all the time i did washermachine with her and made her throwup. Guess I won't be doing that again any time soon...yeah, right, who am I kidding, I love doing that. I get to watch her laugh and be happy...as she pukes all over me with joy!
Ain't parenthood grand!
Friday, June 29, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
P-I-G
For the first time ever, Victoria not only tried, but ate the whole container of carrots. It's one of those gerber containers that has a lid, very cool. i couldn't believe it. She ate the whole thing then wanted more. PIG. and she smiled the whole way through!
As for the trip to St. Mary's, all went well. She swallod all the vanilla flavored barium, then wanted more (odd child), then they had her swallow some water to see if it would go back up...of course it did..it's water. Not a lot...just a little. I went to lunch with a friend of mine that day and Victoria made her noise again and the comment was made that it doesn't sound like indigestion or any other type of stomach thing, but a respitory thing. So at this point I wait to see what the pediatrician has to say, but the appt isn't until next month.
Other than that...nothing is going on, well besides trying to feed beanie. how can something so small eat so much, where do they put it?
As for the trip to St. Mary's, all went well. She swallod all the vanilla flavored barium, then wanted more (odd child), then they had her swallow some water to see if it would go back up...of course it did..it's water. Not a lot...just a little. I went to lunch with a friend of mine that day and Victoria made her noise again and the comment was made that it doesn't sound like indigestion or any other type of stomach thing, but a respitory thing. So at this point I wait to see what the pediatrician has to say, but the appt isn't until next month.
Other than that...nothing is going on, well besides trying to feed beanie. how can something so small eat so much, where do they put it?
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Father's Day
Today was Michael's first official father's Day. Why official? Cause this time last year, we knew that we were pregnant. So I got him a card, of course it wasn't gender specific, but it was a father's day card nontheless.
Victoria picked out some work socks and 350 thread count all cotton sheets for the bed. Michael is always wanting them for our bed, but they never go on sale...Victoria paid...with diapers and formula.
sszxxscffffddddddddddddddddddddff ( Victoria wanted to say hello and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!)
Victoria and I spent saturday wrapping up the gifts for Michael. I had this brilliant idea to put watercolored paint on her foot and hand to make prints all over the paper. That was great. Michael decided to keep one of the foot prints as it came out very clear. I also traced her hand over my hand...that was rough. Getting a 5 month old to hold her hand still long enough to get the marker all the way around it. She even signed her own card...yup, she held the marker and everything. She had a great time!
All in all, it was a great day. Michael even got to take nap. As for me, I went shopping. Rag shop is going out of business, so I went shopping. Great deals are to be had by all. I decided to make a cape for the final release of Harry Potter year 7. Yes, that's right folks, I am a Harry Potter fan and I will be attending the midnight release of the final book in July. I can't wait!!!!
The rest of the day was spent cleaning and fixing up the house. It was kind of a mess, but it's all better now. Tomorrow at 8:30am Victoria and I will be heading to St. Mary's hospital. No, nothing serious, she is going in for a barium swollow and an upper gi. While we were shopping on thursday, she made sounds like she was gasping for air for over 3 minutes. I called the pediatrician and they got me in 20 minutes later. She hasn't made the noise since....go figure.
Other than that, life is good.
Victoria picked out some work socks and 350 thread count all cotton sheets for the bed. Michael is always wanting them for our bed, but they never go on sale...Victoria paid...with diapers and formula.
sszxxscffffddddddddddddddddddddff ( Victoria wanted to say hello and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!)
Victoria and I spent saturday wrapping up the gifts for Michael. I had this brilliant idea to put watercolored paint on her foot and hand to make prints all over the paper. That was great. Michael decided to keep one of the foot prints as it came out very clear. I also traced her hand over my hand...that was rough. Getting a 5 month old to hold her hand still long enough to get the marker all the way around it. She even signed her own card...yup, she held the marker and everything. She had a great time!
All in all, it was a great day. Michael even got to take nap. As for me, I went shopping. Rag shop is going out of business, so I went shopping. Great deals are to be had by all. I decided to make a cape for the final release of Harry Potter year 7. Yes, that's right folks, I am a Harry Potter fan and I will be attending the midnight release of the final book in July. I can't wait!!!!
The rest of the day was spent cleaning and fixing up the house. It was kind of a mess, but it's all better now. Tomorrow at 8:30am Victoria and I will be heading to St. Mary's hospital. No, nothing serious, she is going in for a barium swollow and an upper gi. While we were shopping on thursday, she made sounds like she was gasping for air for over 3 minutes. I called the pediatrician and they got me in 20 minutes later. She hasn't made the noise since....go figure.
Other than that, life is good.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Public Information
Yup...after all that hard work you went through to create an account to see our blog...I've decided not to make it private.
I did a search for Victoria and found 2 websites...both of which we know the owners. Very cool, so for now, this blog will remain open for public viewing.
Thank you for your patience and for taking the time to sign up...it means a lot to us to know that no matter what, you are willing to stick with us and read about our adventures!
I did a search for Victoria and found 2 websites...both of which we know the owners. Very cool, so for now, this blog will remain open for public viewing.
Thank you for your patience and for taking the time to sign up...it means a lot to us to know that no matter what, you are willing to stick with us and read about our adventures!
If you can read this...
Then you got the e-mail that I sent out. Michael and I decided to make our blog private. Here is the article that prompted it:
Baby Pics on the Net: Public or Private?
Wed May 30, 2007 4:28PM EDT
See Comments (244)
A friend of mine, a new mom who is very tech savvy and comfortable socializing and sharing info on the web, recently raised a good question for young parents. Like lots of first-time parents, she put images and videos of her child with her name on the web for friends and family to see. She used Flickr and Yahoo! Video, which makes it easy to send links that people can click on and be brought immediately to a public photo or video gallery.
But when she did a search on her daughter's name, she was surprised to immediately find links to the images. It made her stop and think about how they handle their child's images on the web before she is old enough to have any say in how she is presented online. For now, she has taken the most prominent links down, and she and her husband have decided not to use their daughter's full name on anything they post in the future. Friends of theirs take an even more cautious stance: they will not put any images of their children on the web before they are old enough to say whether they want them there or not.
Either way, it's an interesting dilemma for parents who have come of age at ease with sharing images and writings about themselves on MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and other social-networking sites. But when it comes to children, parents need to weigh their kids' right to privacy with the desire to share their joy with the world.
When Richard M. Smith, an Internet security consultant based in Boston, searched on his grandson's name, he was surprised to come upon a page of Flickr photos of the baby set up by his son-in-law. "Seems like a problem," he wrote in an email message. Because Smith is concerned about safety as well as privacy, he notes that putting full names of family members online is not a good idea, especially when there are tools that allow people to search on names of adults and come up with home addresses.
If you've set up a family web site, Smith notes that you can use a ROBOTS.TXT file to tell search engines to go away so the site does not show up on search index pages.
The simpler solution, he said, is to choose web-based photo-sharing options that allow you to keep the sharing between family and friends and not in the public domain. With that in mind, here are a few ways to share in a less public way:
Privacy settings: Flickr now has a "hide your photos from public searches" feature in the "my account" section of the site. You can also change privacy settings to restrict those who view your photos to friends and/or family. If you do this, you'll need to invite some friends and family to sign up on Flickr, which may take a little explaining for some less tech-savvy family members. (Note: You can not make uploaded videos to Yahoo! Video private.)
Private photo and video sharing sharing: All the major photo web sites have sharing features, though many require the viewers to register with the sites to see the photos. Shutterfly does not, which is one of the reasons why I like it. To share videos with family members and friends, try Motionbox, which has a private setting, and One True Media, which allows you to share videos on a personal TiVo channel.
Family social networking sites: Some charge subscriptions, some are free. A few free ones worth checking out are Famoodle, FamilyRoutes, and Kincafe. For a scrapbooking approach, try Smilebox.
Those are a few ideas for sharing photos and videos of your family with the people you want to see them and not necessarily anyone who finds them on the web. If this is something you've given some thought to, too, please share in the comments below how you share images of your little ones with an eye toward privacy and safety.
We may decide at some point to make this public again, i gues it all depends on how much it affects the people that read this. I also decided to do this to stop some of the unwanted comments that I have gotten in the past, although the more I think about it, the more i realize that if you are going to post in someones blog and tell them what a bad parent they are then you shouls be bold enough to leave your name...and your blog, that way I can return the favor. It was said on another blog, it was great, so I am going to repeat it...If you don't like what I have to say then stop reading this blog.
i am not a bad parent...i love my daughter...i just don;t like being watched while I am eating dinner with my husband and our sleeping child...if that makes me a bad parent, then I was a bad parent long before Victoria was born.
Baby Pics on the Net: Public or Private?
Wed May 30, 2007 4:28PM EDT
See Comments (244)
A friend of mine, a new mom who is very tech savvy and comfortable socializing and sharing info on the web, recently raised a good question for young parents. Like lots of first-time parents, she put images and videos of her child with her name on the web for friends and family to see. She used Flickr and Yahoo! Video, which makes it easy to send links that people can click on and be brought immediately to a public photo or video gallery.
But when she did a search on her daughter's name, she was surprised to immediately find links to the images. It made her stop and think about how they handle their child's images on the web before she is old enough to have any say in how she is presented online. For now, she has taken the most prominent links down, and she and her husband have decided not to use their daughter's full name on anything they post in the future. Friends of theirs take an even more cautious stance: they will not put any images of their children on the web before they are old enough to say whether they want them there or not.
Either way, it's an interesting dilemma for parents who have come of age at ease with sharing images and writings about themselves on MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and other social-networking sites. But when it comes to children, parents need to weigh their kids' right to privacy with the desire to share their joy with the world.
When Richard M. Smith, an Internet security consultant based in Boston, searched on his grandson's name, he was surprised to come upon a page of Flickr photos of the baby set up by his son-in-law. "Seems like a problem," he wrote in an email message. Because Smith is concerned about safety as well as privacy, he notes that putting full names of family members online is not a good idea, especially when there are tools that allow people to search on names of adults and come up with home addresses.
If you've set up a family web site, Smith notes that you can use a ROBOTS.TXT file to tell search engines to go away so the site does not show up on search index pages.
The simpler solution, he said, is to choose web-based photo-sharing options that allow you to keep the sharing between family and friends and not in the public domain. With that in mind, here are a few ways to share in a less public way:
Privacy settings: Flickr now has a "hide your photos from public searches" feature in the "my account" section of the site. You can also change privacy settings to restrict those who view your photos to friends and/or family. If you do this, you'll need to invite some friends and family to sign up on Flickr, which may take a little explaining for some less tech-savvy family members. (Note: You can not make uploaded videos to Yahoo! Video private.)
Private photo and video sharing sharing: All the major photo web sites have sharing features, though many require the viewers to register with the sites to see the photos. Shutterfly does not, which is one of the reasons why I like it. To share videos with family members and friends, try Motionbox, which has a private setting, and One True Media, which allows you to share videos on a personal TiVo channel.
Family social networking sites: Some charge subscriptions, some are free. A few free ones worth checking out are Famoodle, FamilyRoutes, and Kincafe. For a scrapbooking approach, try Smilebox.
Those are a few ideas for sharing photos and videos of your family with the people you want to see them and not necessarily anyone who finds them on the web. If this is something you've given some thought to, too, please share in the comments below how you share images of your little ones with an eye toward privacy and safety.
We may decide at some point to make this public again, i gues it all depends on how much it affects the people that read this. I also decided to do this to stop some of the unwanted comments that I have gotten in the past, although the more I think about it, the more i realize that if you are going to post in someones blog and tell them what a bad parent they are then you shouls be bold enough to leave your name...and your blog, that way I can return the favor. It was said on another blog, it was great, so I am going to repeat it...If you don't like what I have to say then stop reading this blog.
i am not a bad parent...i love my daughter...i just don;t like being watched while I am eating dinner with my husband and our sleeping child...if that makes me a bad parent, then I was a bad parent long before Victoria was born.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Home we go...
Yep, she got her own seat. You have no idea how invaluable a car seat is until you can't have it. The first few flights that we have taken, there wasn't room for the car seat. not this time.
The flight crew for delta did the best that they could to make sure that Victoria could have her own seat. I have never beem so happy to be able to use the carseat in my life.
Victoria once again did great on both flights. She cried twice before the flight heading home took off, but once we started moving, she was out cold.
The trip out to California as wonderful, but like all of our other trips, it was too short. Great Grandpa and Grandma Romano were thrilled to meet Victoria for the first time. She was captivated by both of them. Victoria meet her Aunt Sarah and her soon to be Uncle Sam, Uncle Matt, Grandpa and Noni, Great Aunt Pam and Great Uncle John, Great Uncle Tony and Great Aunt Barbara and all of her wonderful cousins.
Her feet never touched the ground...so to speak. It was wonderfult o watch everyone interact with her.
Victoria was wonderful during Gina and Travis' wedding. She even laughed at all the right times. Both the wedding and the reception were wonderful and I am greateful that we were not only invited, but able to attend.
Victoria had no problem adjusting to the time change. She went to bed at her normal time when we landed in California and then when we got home today. Must be nice. Here I am ready for bed...and that's after the 5 hour nap I had this morning when we got home. God getting older sucks. For now it's back to the routine. Laundry, walks, naps...lots of naps...for me, not her!
Enjoy the pictures from the trip.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
up up and away
Oh so much to say. Nana came down over the holiday weekend for a visit. To say that it was nice to have her here would be an understatement. it was great. We took a family vacation up to Universal Studios for a few days. The first day mom stayed in the hotel with Victoria so that Michael and I could go act like kids again. Yeah, no prompting needed that day. Even the dog was amazed at how fast we got up and out the door.
The second day (saturday) mom came with us as it was our last day there. If you haven't had the pleasure of baby-swap, let me tell you....that rocks. Basically, the person with the baby goes to a special area and when you get off the ride, you go there...change places and the first person gets to go on the ride without having to go through the line again. How nice that ws. I got to ride all the great rollercoasters twice in a row. Once with Michael, then with mom. Victoria had a great time. There was so much for her to look at. She wore herself out. There is one show...posidens adventure. It's a walk-through "ride". I had Victoria in the baby bijorne. She did better then some of the adults that were there. She never cried, just smiled and laughed through the whole thing.
Tomorrow we are getting on a plane for the second time this year to go out to California. Victoria is going to get to meet the rest of her family. Her aunts and uncles and Great grandparents. How exciting for all of us. There is even a wedding over the weekend. Can't wait.
I also got my motherhood charm. Mom found one for me. I love it. it's a heart with a parent and child in it. I can't tell you how long I've waited to have one. I wear it with pride, along with all the baby spit up and stinky diapers that happen to land on me.
I have also started baby yoga and pilates every other day with Victoria. While mom and I were out shopping, i found this great vd at Target, so I thought i would give it a try. I love it. It gets me up and moving and stretching and I can still interact with Victoria. There is even a section on there for her with tummy time and stretching and at then end...a baby message. WOW! She sleeps great the days that we do yoga.
Beanie may be crawling soon. She likes to hold herself up on her arms and kick her feet, though should would rather be standing than sitting or learning to crawl. i hope she crawls first...I think I need the baby steps more than she does.
I guess that's all until we get back from California. Until then...
The second day (saturday) mom came with us as it was our last day there. If you haven't had the pleasure of baby-swap, let me tell you....that rocks. Basically, the person with the baby goes to a special area and when you get off the ride, you go there...change places and the first person gets to go on the ride without having to go through the line again. How nice that ws. I got to ride all the great rollercoasters twice in a row. Once with Michael, then with mom. Victoria had a great time. There was so much for her to look at. She wore herself out. There is one show...posidens adventure. It's a walk-through "ride". I had Victoria in the baby bijorne. She did better then some of the adults that were there. She never cried, just smiled and laughed through the whole thing.
Tomorrow we are getting on a plane for the second time this year to go out to California. Victoria is going to get to meet the rest of her family. Her aunts and uncles and Great grandparents. How exciting for all of us. There is even a wedding over the weekend. Can't wait.
I also got my motherhood charm. Mom found one for me. I love it. it's a heart with a parent and child in it. I can't tell you how long I've waited to have one. I wear it with pride, along with all the baby spit up and stinky diapers that happen to land on me.
I have also started baby yoga and pilates every other day with Victoria. While mom and I were out shopping, i found this great vd at Target, so I thought i would give it a try. I love it. It gets me up and moving and stretching and I can still interact with Victoria. There is even a section on there for her with tummy time and stretching and at then end...a baby message. WOW! She sleeps great the days that we do yoga.
Beanie may be crawling soon. She likes to hold herself up on her arms and kick her feet, though should would rather be standing than sitting or learning to crawl. i hope she crawls first...I think I need the baby steps more than she does.
I guess that's all until we get back from California. Until then...
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