working from home

I started tutoring again last week... I will be working four days a week but just a few hours each day. It was sad to leave Mary, but I knew that she was in good hands with her daddy. Since Mary has a long morning nap and is often content to sit for hours, Danny is able to work from home and he usually can get stuff done. I walked into the house on Thursday and was met with this cute sight!




A funny thing about the Bumbo seat is that her thighs are almost too big for it. She gets stuck everytime and we have to pull it off of her. Personally, I LOVE her chubby thighs... and hands for that matter. Her thighs in action... oh, and disregard my weird face, I'm not sure what I was doing but she obviously was not entertained.




Lastly, here is Mary in her monthly picture on the brown ottoman: 5 months, followed by her 2 month, just for some comparison.

He's getting old...

Well, at least he thinks he is. Danny turned 30 on Tuesday!!! He has talked about his birthday month, week and day for awhile now... even last night he said he should have icecream after dinner because it is his "birthweek." 30 is rough, I guess... I won't know for awhile.

We're not really big on birthdays, but I tried to go all out on this one (all out for us, that is). So, I surprised Danny and picked him up from work on Monday. I walked in and told him I had a new picture of Mary....

He didn't get it. But, after I told him that Mary was with Karen (his sister, thanks for babysitting!) because we were going to the game... he was VERY excited! He loves the Pats and he has never been to this stadium. So, we get to the car and I have another surprise... buffalo chicken dip and a cold pepsi. I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner a few days before and he said buffalo chicken dip and ice cream. He's really health conscious.

Anyways, the game was awesome and we had a great time! If you haven't heard, the Pats were down all game and scored 2 touchdowns in the last two minutes to win... it was pretty exciting! Something that is very typical of us is forgetting our camera... we get into the stadium and want to take a picture only to realize we left it in the car. Luckily, our friend Veda was there and we met her at halftime so we could document the special occasion.

Lastly, a note about how I got the tickets. EBAY! I had never done it and after a long tutorial from my brother, Luke (Thanks!) and the use of his account, I won some tickets for less than face value... and was able to afford them with a little help from Danny's sister, Kim (Thanks!). It is quite the rush... I missed the first three I bid on because of user error, but I finally figured it out. I have decided that it is best for me stay away from Ebay. I ended up finding some pink baby converse for Mary and a few things for myself. Don't worry, I have yet to connect a paypal account to my name, so I won't be doing any spending as of now.

Family Picnic

We still have a lot to update on this blog. Lisa mentioned our trip to India, and I may need to post some pictures from Kathmandu at some point. But, to be honest, we don't have the energy at the moment to put all that together.

But we do have energy for a quick post of pictures from our first family picnic. We went out to downtown Boston on Friday night, right on the water, to celebrate our reunion. I got back from the other side of the world Thursday night and we thought we'd take a night out and enjoy the wonderful fall weather here in Boston (yes, we know it's not technically fall, but it sure feels like it).

We packed our dinner, brought drinks (ah, Pepsi, how I missed you), utilized the picnic bag Kathryn gave Lisa as a bridesmaid gift and went on our merry way. The only thing we forgot... a blanket. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. Nothing a park bench can't solve.

The first pic is of the 3 of us, as you can see. It doesn't do justice to the size of my "missionary beard," which has since been shaven. It was taken by some friends who were on a date at a nearby restaurant and stopped by to see us (identities will remain anonymous- you know who you are).






The last pic may be our new favorite of Mary, you really gotta love this girl. (Oh, and thanks for the hat, Meghan!)

one more first...

Mary achieved another milestone today... she found her toes... with her mouth! It seems that her new favorite thing is to try to chew her toes. I caught her on the floor, in her bumbo seat and on my mom's lap. I'm just hoping that this won't replace sucking her thumb.

a few firsts...

Mary had quite a few new experiences today. She started off by sharing for the first time today... way to go, Mary! She has no understanding that the new Bumbo seat is hers, but whatever, it's still sharing. I think little Huddy might be more excited about it than her at this point, but that is okay for now. He looks pretty cute in it, huh?!?


Mary also had her first swim today! She was pretty indifferent towards it... she never seemed upset, but not overly thrilled either. She might have been a bit stunned; could have been the cold water she was put in or her fun big cousins swimming and playing all around her. All in all, I think it was a success. Here we are with Will (Mary's cousin) right before we got in; notice his spiderman tattoos... he was pretty proud of them!




We had one last new activity today... the swing. Again, she was pretty indifferent about it. She loved it when I talked to her as she approached me in the swing... other than that, I'm not sure what she was thinking. But, once again she wasn't upset by her new experience. She just kind of rolls with the punches and I kind of hope she remains that way.

for Danny...

A LOT has happened since our last post.... we had two weddings and then we went to India for two weeks... Danny stayed for an extra 10 days and we sure are missing him! More to come on those events, but here is a preview. This is my brother, Michael, and his wonderful new wife, Kathryn, at the rehearsal dinner.



Mary in India enjoying her new friend, Anupa, and the cute elephant that she gave her.


I will post about those later, but since Danny is still in India/Nepal I want keep him posted on our little girl. We flew to Boston from India Sunday night and left for Florida on Monday morning... I decided that I might need some help getting little Mary back into the Eastern Time Zone. Mimi (my mom) has been great! Here she is getting Mary up from a nap.



Mary and I hanging out on the couch...


A few nights ago, when Mary was alive and playful in the middle of the night, she started making this new sound. She looks so cute trying to do it, but just spews spit bubbles down her chin... awesome. Anyways, here is a video of Dara (my good friend from Boston) getting her to do it...





Lastly, here is Mary in her new bumbo seat. She sat on the counter and watched Mimi prepare dinner for 30 minutes... She loved being in on the action!

Mary & the Larkin Cousins

This past weekend we celebrated the wedding of Lisa's younger brother, Michael, and Kathryn down in Florida (we'll have pictures from the celebration soon). This, of course, means that Mary got to meet Lisa's side of the family, which includes roughly 7543 people. Mary was showered with love and attention from all her cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and great-grandparents.

There were 3 people in particular that we were excited for Mary to meet: her cousins, Kate, Will and Hudson. They are the children of Luke, Lisa's older brother, and Kelley. You can read more of their exploits at their family blog, cleverly titled "Larkin Family," which no doubt could include many more funny stories (seriously, it seems like every 10 minutes they do something to crack us up).

Our goal was to get a picture with all 3 of them and Mary together. We soon found out that it was an impossible task, so we settled for whatever we could get.

Kate is 6 years old and enjoyed holding Mary the most. She's going into the 1st grade (!) next year. I expect she'll teach Mary all that she's learned over the years: coloring inside the lines, performing songs for the family in front of the fire place, etc.


Will is 4 and about as full of energy as any kid who has ever lived. If you check out their blog, you'll find that he's responsible for much of the laughter, intentionally or unintentionally. I appreciate any kid who loves baseball, even if his allegiance lies with the Rays.





Hudson is about 20 months old, which is to say he's growing rapidly. It's crazy- I saw him last Christmas and he was wobbling ever two steps. Now he won't stand still. He even talks, sort of. My favorite was watching him slam his hands on the glass door yelling "BEEP!" This, apparently, is his personal pronunciation of "beach," which for him denotes any body of water, including Mimi and Papa's pool he so obviously longed for.


If you look at the picture below and think "geez, Danny, shouldn't he be in the center of the photo"... you don't know Hudson Larkin very well.


As is our unintentional custom, we managed to forget to take pictures of Luke and Kelley with Mary. Oh well.