Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This was Bridget's first St. Patrick's Day Parade! (Last year Ken and I were at a wedding and Bridget had her first overnight visit with Mimi & Grampy.)

It was a gorgeous temperature outside and we had high hopes for parade watching since we are usually freezing but it was a torrential downpour. Ken and I played the Bridget card and stayed inside with her and a few other less courageous souls until the parade-goers came back. She still got to experience a true O'Neil Irish Patty's day though complete with the annual charitable raffle. Ken, true to form, won almost every t-shirt and a hat. He was nice and gave away most of them to the unluckier family members.

Weekend Getaway

Two weeks ago, we went away for the weekend with two other couples and their children. It's good to vacation with other families who understand wha'ts it's like to travel with kids.

Here are some pictures of Bridget enjoying the hotel pool.

Bridget Coloring

This is Bridget's new favorite thing to do and she insists that it has to be Mommy's planning calendar. I guess she wants to add her own activities to the family calendar. But she's messing up my system! ;)

I have been trying to limit this activity because of the inevitable mess but she fell off my aerobics step and kept crying "color, color, color". As soon as she saw the markers, the tears stopped.

In other news, we have been binky free for four days now! I didn't want to do "cry it out" and it was just so easy to pop the binky in and have her sleeping quietly in minutes. But now that she is 18 months and I found an alternative method in "Parenting" magazine, I bit the bullet. It has been a relatively smooth transition and when I talked to her daycare they told me that she gave up her binky there a while ago. So I guess it was just Mom and Dad who were relying on it. I mean, she did cry the first night and it took 45 minutes to get her to sleep but now she's back to normal and is actually sleeping better since she can put herself to sleep.

Lounging Around

I love that belly!
Cheese!

Poor sick Bridget. Will Dora find Star Mountain?

Lots of toys and babies to play with!

Playing with blocks and hiding her monkey in there.

Pies on Parade

For my mom's birthday, the ladies journeyed to Rockland, ME for the Historic Inns Pies on Parade tour: http://www.historicinnsofrockland.com/pies.aspx. The rest of our party wimped out because of the perceived distance or feminity of the trip but Kathleen, my mom, and I had a blast! It was cold and it was a bit of hike especially for a Sunday but we got to tour some really neat oceanside inns and eat some delicious pies ranging from chocolate to shepherd!

(above) In the sitting area of one of the inns.

(above) One of the pie stops, at the Puffin Museum.

(above) Mmm.. eating our Puffin Pies. They were fabulous and A+ for presentation!

(above) Kathleen in front of the beautiful view at one of the restaurants.

(above) Kathleen lounging in the suite at one of the B&B's.

(above) Mom and I eating Key LimeRock pie at the LimeRock inn.

(above) Kathleen and I eating our key lime pie. It was one of the first so we're not too stuffed here!

(above) Mom and Kathleen enjoying their pie!

Bridget Working the iPod

Here is my first blog video. Bridget loves to watch "Dora the Explorer" videos on the iPod Touch. She can completely navigate through the iTouch by herself now. I got a quick video showing her turning it on and starting her video. She will also switch videos, look at photos, do the scribble app and such. It's crazy - I never expected her to be this good at it this young.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here's our little lovebug. We kept missing the exact moment she smiled and said "cheese" but the pictures still came out adorable. She's all dressed up for her Valentine's Day party at daycare.

Strike a pose! She's a natural!