Dana Deland Livesay

We welcomed Dana to the world on Monday, September 26th - just 2 days before her due date! She weighed 8lbs 3oz and measured 20 inches long. Dana picked a great time to arrive and decided to come quickly! We left for the hospital around 3:30pm, by 5:45pm we were admitted and Dana was in my arms by 9pm! While it was quick - I won't say it was easy!





Alice has been a GREAT big sister to little Dana. Without any prompting when she first saw Dana, she leaned over and gave her a very gentle kiss on the forehead! While she kept referring to her as Emma or Janet (and only sometimes Dana) she seems to understand that this will be a special person in her life. She was very excited to see Dana when we brought her home and didn't want to leave her side. I will admit that she got a little more annoyed later that night when she wanted Mommy to read books to her at the same time Mommy was feeding Dana. We'll see just how her tolerance is tested as she has to share more and more with little Dana.



Kisses!


Dana had a good first night at home. She is a decent sleeper but not a huge fan of her crib right now. That seems to be where she cries the most but we are trying to break her in slowly. She is pretty terrific. We are so happy she's here!

Big Morning!

So today was a momentous morning - Alice finally went 'peepee on the potty'! I was thrilled. We even called Dad to share the big news. Alice was pretty low key about it - I don't think she thought it was quite as thrilling as I did! I'm hopeful that this happens with a bit more regularity but we'll see.

We just drove home our new mini-van on Saturday. I love the automatic doors and all the space! Alice seems to definitely approve too! She has said on more than one occasion, "I like Momma's car". Hopefully she'll continue to like it when she has company in the middle row!!

Here is a picture from Gogo's 60th birthday party. It was a great evening! Alice had a blast with all her cousins and relatives. The balloons were a big hit, too!



Have a great week everyone.

Staying cool!

Alice and I took a quick trip to VT this past weekend. We weren't planning on heading north but Alice had Thursday and Friday off from daycare so we decided to make use of the time and head out of town! We had a nice visit - we swam in Robbie and Joanne's pool both Friday and Saturday and went apple picking on Saturday morning. The highlight of the weekend was Jane's bridal shower! Jenn and Casey had the pleasure of sporting Joanne's old suits so that they could entertain Isabel and Alice in the water. It was pretty hysterical!

Back to school blues...

Hi everyone! It's been a busy week. Alice had her first full week of daycare this week. While it's been good to get back into a routine, it's been tiring for everyone to get back to a full work week. We are headed to Anne's tonight for dinner and then we'll be bracing ourselves for hurricane Irene this weekend! Hopefully the generator that we never use still works!

Here is a pic of Alice sporting her new fleece vest!

Vacation at last!

So we had our first and only vacation of the summer over the past week. We finally had the opportunity to stay away from home for more than a long weekend and we took full advantage! We kicked things off with a visit from the Quinns and then returned to VT for Jody and Kyle's wedding weekend. The wedding was incredible! We were happy to have a few down days in VT before then heading up to Maine for a little less than a week. We had a nice evening in Brunswick before heading out to the island to spend a couple of nights with Nick, Katie, Lauren and Ryan. Alice loved having her cousins to hold hands with and chase around the house! Lauren definitely gave Alice a run for her money in the speed department. I'm not sure Alice ever caught up with Lauren's speedy little gait. All in all we had a terrific vacation!
Bedtime reading in Alice's room. We had a fun cousin sleepover in CT!
Sharing Grandma Net's chair. This was our last night in VT after a very fun visit with lots of cousin and family time!
More cousin bedtime reading!
Headed out to the island for the 1st time this summer!
Go Sox!
I love Maine!
One of the few pictures of me that I allowed... Notice we stay strictly above the shoulders.
Post nap snuggle with Grandma Sue
Fun with Dad in the water!

We can hardly believe that our school year activities start up tomorrow! As summer winds down we are bummed to see our vacation end but so excited for what awaits us... We start the 5 week countdown for baby #2 this week!

Blueberry picking!

We had a great visit with Meg and Dana last week! Meg had just gotten back from her breadloaf summer term and Dana was in VT visiting her fam. It was a perfect detour on our way to Midd for Noah and Kelly's wedding! Alice was psyched to have so many people to play with! She loves saying Dana's name and decided she preferred to call Meg "bunny" her affectionate interpretation of Meg's last name.

Alice also really enjoyed meeting Dana's sister, Lucy. Lucy was amazing with Alice when we went down to the lake. Alice hasn't had a ton of open water exposure (her kiddie pool doesn't quite compare to a real lake!) so she gets a little nervous in deeper water. I haven't been able to convince her to be very adventurous but Lucy had her feeling very comfortable by the end of the afternoon. She was dipping her head back in the water and laying back in Lucy's arms. It was very cool to see!

We also went blueberry picking that afternoon! Alice was amazing. Her focus was incredible. She didn't eat one(!) but she picked an entire little carton herself! Here are some picks!





We also had a wonderful visit with Gumma and Gogo. Unfortunately I left my camera at Dana's so I don't have snapshots of our that - but it was great!

Alice in the sprinklers!

Here is a quick clip on Alice running around in the sprinklers at the Park. Watch the high stepping!! She definitely earned style points!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA7u4FVV9Ro