My Baby is TWO!!!!

Ripley turned 2 today! My little baby is turning into such a little girl now! This morning we opened a few presents with her before Matt went to work and then we had a playdate at the Ultimate Playzone, which is one of those places that has a bunch of bounce houses the kids can go inside and jump around in. It also includes slides, a big doll house and a pirate ship. She had so much fun and we had a good turn out filled with all of her friends from the MOMS Club we're in. Tonight we'll open more gifts and have cake with Matt, then on Saturday we're having a bbq to celebrate even more. Also, our best friends from Chicago (Lauren & Evan) are coming to visit for the weekend, so excited!!!

Pics from the party:

Pics from Lauren & Evan visiting:

25 Random Things About Myself....

If you have a Facebook account, you will be familiar with this, but for those of you who don't, I thought I would share. Facebook started this chain type message, that really seemed to take off. The instructions were to write a list of 25 random things about yourself and pass it around, then others would do the same about themselves. So here's mine, for those who don't have FB:

1. I'm a strong believer in "everything happens for a reason".

2. I love to laugh and am happy my husband makes me do so on a daily basis.

3. Being a Mom is the best "job" I've ever had. I feel very fortunate I'm able to stay at home with Ripley, eventhough it can by difficult at times.

4. I love that we moved away from Chicago and have experienced other places to live, but would like to return to Chicago later in life.

5. I miss our Florida house. I miss my Florida friends, but do not actually miss Florida.

6. Living in Austin, TX for 6 months was way too short, I would like to return there at some point.

7. My Mom died 3 years ago and it makes me sad that she has never met Ripley or seen me as Mom.

8. I am happy to say, unlike other married Moms I know, I do not feel like a single parent. Matt helps out all the time with Ripley. It's a huge help, he's a great Dad.

9. My birth name is Kathleen, this is what I introduce myself as and its what my family calls me. Matt only refers to me as Kat. And to friends, I go by both names.

10. I am afraid of hospitals, needles and blood.

11. I think people do not take marriage as serious as they should and often marry for the wrong reasons. I am happy I waited until later in life to marry the right person for the right reasons.

12. I watch too much television.

13. I LOVE cheese!! All types, the sharper, the better.

14. My favorite drink is a Kettle One vodka martini, extra dirty with blue cheese stuffed olives. YUM!

15. I am not a morning person and can be pretty unfriendly until coffee is made, at least to my husband.

16. I would like to volunteer my time this year, probably doing something with kids.

17. I do not like to clean and because of this, I often wish my house was cleaner than it is.

18. I am a procrastinator.

19. I like really HOT showers, especially after a good workout.

20. I am a very social & outgoing person. I cannot be stuck in the house for long or I will go nutty.

21. I have met or seen the following celebs in random public places: Madonna, John Cusack, David Schwimmer, PINK, Carey Hart, Forrest Whitaker, Bono, Tony Hawk, Sal Masekela (if you consider him a celeb)

22. My brother Ryan is gay. We are best friends and I am happy he is out and my family is supportive.

23. I wish we lived close to family. Its hard not being able to share Ripley with our loved ones.

24. I am a dog lover and can easily spend an hour or 2 at a dog park, just watching the dogs play.

25. When I was about 5, I broke my arm playing Wonder Woman and Super Man with my brother Marty. He instructed me to jump off the couch, over the coffee table and into his arms. I managed to make the jump, over the coffee table and into his arms, but he failed to make the catch and instead fell on top of me.

A Friend's Loss

On Sunday, my friend's daugther died. She was only 8 years old. This is a friend who lives here, her name is Tricia, she's in the MOMs Club I'm in and someone I see on a regular, who I really like. Her daughter, Carman, had something called Aicardi Syndrome, its a rare genetic disorder that only occurs in girls (boys die in utero). Some common symptoms of the disorder include regular siezures, impaired sight and brain defects. Most of these children do not live into their teens, so Tricia knew she would be surviving her daughter, but of course that doesn't make it any easier. Carman was blind, she had siezures often and went to a special school. She had been pretty healthy, but this past weekend took a turn for the worse, very fast. They brought her into the hospital thinking she had the flu, but was having back to back seizures and at the hospital ended up having a stroke. It's all very sad. The Moms club was told on Sunday she was at the hospital and in critical condition and then on Monday morning we found out she had passed. Tonight they are having a viewing for her, so I'm going to that. And on Saturday is the memorial service for her. I had planned to go to it, but they asked for volunteers to help watch their children, since they aren't bringing them to the memorial. Tricia has 2 other children who are younger and her sister Gina who is also in our group who I'm friends with, has 3 children. So instead of going to the memorial I volunteered to help watch the kids, plus 4 dogs and help with food at the reception afterwards.

You know, I consider myself a pretty strong person, been through a lot and feel I can handle what comes my way (for the most part), but if I had to deal with losing Ripley I think I might just crack. I feel horrible for Tricia and her family. And going to the viewing tonight is going to be tough, going to anything like this is hard, but when it's for a child and now I'm a Mom, ugh. Just wanted to share with you what's going on and to remind us all to be happy for our health and our children's health, etc...xoxo

Ripley Update

Ripley will be 2 years old in April, I can't believe it! She is no longer a baby and becoming a little girl practically. GASP! She has a ton of energy, still loves people, is very happy and loves to smile. Oh yeah, and she loves music and likes to dance! If a song stops, she will say "more, more!". She loves to watch music videos or anyone dancing on TV. She says "bye" to everything these days. This morning, I was in bed with my laptop and Matt brought her in, she told us she was hungry and said bye and waved to my laptop. It made us laugh. Her 2 favorite games: 1) chase the dog and take his bed away from him (poor Amingo!) and 2) go to one of the only unlocked cabinets in the kitchen (which has all our cannned goods) and take them out one by one and line them up on the edge of the kitchen table or any table for that matter. She gets so excited to do this, it seems so strange, but hey, if it will keep her entertained for more than 2 minutes, I'm all for it!

Right now we're not involved in any classes at the moment, but we did join a gym (a perk of matt's job), so I've been going to work out and am able to take Ripley with me, since they have childcare. The best part is - she LOVES going! The first time I dropped her off, I wasn't sure how she would react, she definitely tried to leave at first and call for me, but then that was it. I left and when I picked her up, she came running towards me. They said she did really well - no crying. Then the next time I went to pick her up, she was standing around this play kitchen with 2 other little girls, who were all playing with the plastic fake food, it was so cute. She looked up and saw me and all she did was wave and continued to play. She had friends and already wanted nothing to do with Mommy, no fair! Now everytime we pull into the parking lot, she gets excited. It's been such a great thing, for us both. I get a break from Mommy duties and do something good for myself and she gets a break from me and gets to be around other kids in a fun environment. It's a win -win.

We are still very much involved in the MOMS Club in my area. Now that its not warm enough to play outside, we've doing more playdates in each other's homes, trips to the library, breakfast at Panera, etc...everyday there is something schedule on the calendar. Of couse, we don't attend everything, but depending on the time and day, we try and go to 2-3 activities a week. It's been really nice to get to know the Moms in the group and their children. Staying at home, its a must you have a support group and for me, these Ladies are it!Below are some recent pictures taken of Ripley, she's getting so big! She is tall for her age, in the 90 percentile. She obviously gets that from Matt. So now she has his height, eyelashes & feet : ) A few pictures below...this was after it snowed, she was looking out her bedroom window taking it all in.

A Long Overdue Update

So it seems I have been slacking on updating my blog, huh? It's February and my last blog post was in November! My only excuse is that I joined Facebook and now I use that to keep in touch with many of you. I also update my pics there too, but I realize that's not the same, so I will do my best to keep it updated. Afterall, I don't want to let my fans down : )

So things with the Demaray household are going well. Despite the horrible economy and many lay offs in the game industry (and every industry for that matter), thankfully Matt still has a job he loves. His company hasn't been affected so far and are still hiring, so that's a good sign. Keep your fingers crossed for him!

As most of you know by now, we did some traveling over the holidays. We went to Arizona to visit with Matt's family for Christmas through New Year's. The flight was long (6 hrs) and it was a little more difficult this time around, with Ripley being older and so much more active. I decided to hit up the dollar store before our trip to get some toys to keep her occupied on the flight, stuff she's never seen before, etc...on the way there, she did great. Didn't even have to break out my entire bag of tricks! But on the way home, it was a different story.

During the trip, she ended up getting bad ear infections in each ear, so we got her on antibiotics before our trip home, but it still ended up effecting her (or is it affecting? I always get those 2 mixed up). Our flight had an hour connection in between on the way home and unfortunately the only time she slept during the return trip was in the airport between the 2 flights! Yay, for us! Or should I say Yay for me! Since she wasn't feeling that great, she decided that Mommy's lap was the only lap she wanted to be on for the ENTIRE trip. That was rough, especially since she would get so close to falling asleep and then boom, she decided taking a nap just wasn't for her. Oh and did I mention the puking episode? Yeah, well with the long flight and all (& no real food served on the flights) we had to resort to tons of snacks and McDonald's chicken nuggets to feed her. Well, apparently she had WAY too much and needed to get rid of it. Don't forget, she is on my lap! Oh, so fun, but guess what? I caught some of it, so no worries! Haha. So not pretty. Oh and if you remember one of our previous trips I blogged about - the one where I was fully prepared with an "emergancy outfit", but didn't need to use it and then on the way home I happen to forgot to pack the emergancy outfit and definitely needed it? Well, I did the exact same thing this time too! I don't know what's with that return flight that I decide not to bring the extra outift, I should know better by now! So this time, thankfully we had hoodie with us, so we stripped her from her shirt and zipped up the hoodie and it worked out, since she didn't end up getting much on her pants. As for me, I was lucky to only have it on my hands and such, so that was that.

After we finally arrived in Baltimore, we had to deal with baggage taking forever, them changing the claim number on us and then us taking the shuttle to get our car (at night and in 20 degree weather) to realize we forgot to write down what letter & number of aisle we were in!! Thankfully, there was another person on the shuttle who arrived the same day as us and it helped us figure out which lot we were in and after some riding around in the bus, finally found it. About 5 minutes after us pulling out of the parking lot, Ripley was OUT. Poor little lady, she was a trooper!

So after all that being said, the trials & tribulations of travel was well worth to spend the holidays with Family. We got to meet our new nephew, Jax, for the first time and Ripley got to have fun playing with her cousin, Ava (who is 4). Seeing the 2 of time together, running around holding hands, was priceless! Also, besides getting to see Matt's sis, brother in law and Matt's Dad and Pam (who all live in AZ), we also got to spend time with Matt's Mom, who lives in Naperville, IL. She came out for the trip too, so that was an extra bonus, having us all together. The only people who weren't there from Matt's family, was his brother Jake and his wife Kelly. They were both greatly missed! Below are some pic's from our visit (after returning from our trip, I realized most pictures were taken of the kids and not adults. me and my sis in law didn't get even ONE pic together and me, matt and ripley didn't get a family pic either. bummer):

Matt's new job...

For some of you, this might be new news, so sorry if I haven't had a chance to tell you myself. It all happened pretty fast. Matt was unhappy at his job (for a few reasons). So when he was approached by this other company, he decided to do an hour meet n greet during his lunch to get more info about the company and the game they're working on...after the meeting he was intrigued and decided to go back for a full on interview. After he came back from the interivew, he was super excited about the game, company and the people he met, especially the guy that would be his new boss. So shortly afterwards he got an offer and the rest is history!

So now he's into week #4 into the new job and LOVING it. After his first day, he came home saying it was the best first day he had ever had. Then after the first week, the same comment. And now if you ask him, I am sure he would say it has been a great month. The things that were issues at the other company, aren't issues at the new company and he is LOVING his new boss. In fact, I am starting to sense a little bro-mance going on! lol. I got a chance to meet his boss and all he did was rave about Matt, so I guess it goes both ways. So, long story short (never) he loves his new job and I have a feeling we'll be sticking around Baltimore for possibly the next 2 years.

p.s. the new company is called Firaxis.

Happy Halloween!

This was the first year Ripley went Trick or Treating and she had a blast! She got the hang of it really quick and had so much fun walking from door to door with with her bucket of candy. She was non-stop smiles, it was awesome to watch. Here are a few pics below, Matt and I made her costume. And to think, I don't even know how to sew!

Jumping for Joy!

Today we got wonderful news in the mail. National City Bank, our second mortgage company, has decided to release the loan we owe them from the sale of our FL home. This is HUGE for us. We no longer owe money on a house we don't own, not to mention on a house we already lost a lot of money on! I cried out of pure happiness after I read the letter. It's finally over. Yippee!!

Pumpkin Patch Time

Well, it's officially Fall (has been for a while) and we're loving it. Maryland is such a beautiful state, I will definitely be encouraging people to visit next year in October, I just can't get over it! All the trees and hills and colors, it's amazing. So far we've been to a couple farms with pumpkin patches and activities for children. Ripley's had a lot of fun, as you can see from some of these pic's.

Ripley Update

Ripley will be 18 months old on Oct. 15th, she's a toddler now! We no longer have a "baby" :( Despite being sad she is growing so fast, she is becoming more and more fun! She got a late start on walking, but is managing to get around quite well now. No more crawling. And she is starting to talk more too. Still does a ton of babble which sounds like a completely different language and is fun to imitate, but she's starting to pick up more sounds and words and is FINALLY saying Momma, which took forever, unlike Dadda.

Speaking of Dadda, she is so in love with him, its adorable to watch. How excited she gets when he comes home from work and how often she just wants him to hold her and how she loves to give him hugs & kisses on a regular. Totally cute. She's defintiely becoming a Daddy's girl, which I'm actually OK with. We get to spend so much time together, its nice to see her having such a strong bond with Matt too.

So what else? She's in a music class now, which involves a lot of singing, some movement, playing with instruments, etc...she loves it. And we've become pretty involved with the MOMS club I joined, which is helping us stay busy throughout the week. We do anyhthing from playdates at people's homes, to library visits to hanging at a park. It's been such a great way for us to meet other stay at home moms and children for Ripley to be around. So things are good. Here she is below playing in the grocery store at the library. Doesn't she look so big in these pics!?

Maryland, an expensive place to live!

Ok, time to vent. Why is Maryland so expensive? From utilities, to food, to registering your car, it's all so expensive. A driver's license costs $45.00. Matt had to pay $90 since he drives a car and a motorcycle. Then you have to pay to get your car inspected, which costs 59-79, depending on where you take it. And to get my Maryland plates, it cost me $278! Man, does all of that add up!

We got spoiled living in Austin, that's for sure. It's a lot more affordable than East Cost livin, plus NO STATE TAX, which was also the case in FL, so when you go back to paying state tax, it hurts a bit. Oh well, that's my main complaint. Otherwise, we really like the area we're in. It's pretty, very family friendly and we've met a lot of great people so far. So I guess things could be worse : )

Even more GREEN...

After buying recycle able grocery bags, I started to get the "itch", the green itch! I decided I wanted to become more educated in this whole going green campaign you see every where. So what did I do? I bought a book appropriately titled "The Green Book". Easy enough, right? Well, it turns out, it IS pretty easy. To go green, I mean. This book clues you in to little things you can do in your everyday life to make it better for the environment. Our environment now and our environment for our kids, their kids, and so on.

So you think I'm a tree hugger now, right? Well, no I'm not. To tell you the truth, I haven't even started to recycle yet at our home (I know, I know), but I'm getting the info I need and bins, etc....so hopefully soon we'll be in recycle mode. There are other things I'm doing and since they're so easy, I thought I would share a few with you:

1) Turn off the water while you brush your teeth.
2) Don't ask for ATM receipts.
3) Take shorter showers.
4) Unplug cell phone chargers once phone is charged.
5) Recycle.

There are a ton others, but I won't go on and on and on....so check out the book (or any green book for that matter) and start making a change. Even if they're small little changes, cause they make a difference (wow, can I be any cheesier?).

Our House is SOLD!!!

Well, I'm excited to report....we finally sold our house in Florida!!!! It only took us 11 months. A house that is in great condition, move-in ready, professionally painted, in a good neighborhood, with a bigger lot than most of the other homes, took us 11 months to sell. What a pain! So stressful dealing with the banks and all the damn paperwork and collection calls, not to mention paying for utilities and the yard to be kept up for a house we don't even live in. As you can imagine, it was a nightmare.

So were obviously super happy and feel like a weight has been lifted from our shoulders, but unfortunately the entire weight hasn't been lifted just yet. We still owe the 2nd mortgage company the remaining portion of their loan. So now we have to deal with that part of this mess, but at least we're moving in the right direction.
Woo-hoo!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is Mom's birthday, so I thought I would post a picture in rememberance of her. Though, in this picture we are in the "happiest place on earth" you wouldn't know it from this shot. But I love it anyway. We miss you Mom!

Ripley's 1st Kiss

A few days ago we had a pool playdate with Berkeley who lives down the street. We wanted to get a picture of Berkeley & Ripley together, so his Mom told him to go over and give Ripley a kiss and surprisingly enough, he did! And we got it on camera...isn't this the most adorable picture you've ever seen?

A Greener Me

In the attempts to become more "green", today I decided to buy some reusable grocery bags from our favorite store.....Wegman's. With the amount of times I'm at the grocery store in one week (way more than anyone possibly should be), I accumulate a lot of plastic bags. So I decided to do my part and purchase the bags I normally walk right past, while thinking to myself "maybe I should get some of those". To my surprise, they're only a $1.00 (I excepted them to be more expensive) and they actually do hold a lot of groceries. So I bought 4 and am quite happy with myself, hence this post you're reading. Now if I could just remember to bring them with me when I go to the store, then I would really be doing my part : ) Ah, baby steps.

p.s. I got this picture from google. lol.

Trip No. 2 - Chicago

Above: Sarah and I at her shower.

So less than a week after we returned from Naples, Ripley and I were off again on another trip, this time to Chicago to surprise my very good friend, Sarah, for her bachelorette party and bridal shower weekend. As always with visiting Chicago, our trip was jam-packed with places to go and people to see. Friday during the day I took Ripley downtown to the law firm I used to work at so I could say hello to some old friends and have everyone meet Ripley. It was great to see everyone again. I haven't been back since I moved which will be 3 years in Sept....Wow. So it was crazy to walk the halls again, but so nice to see friendly faces.

That night was Sarah's bach. party, which was OH so much fun! We surprised her with me at Lauren's house before the festivities began. I just walked out with Ripley in my arms and she saw me and ran over and we both started to hug and cry. It was great moment. It was so good to see her and all my other girlfriends, all 5 of us back together for the weekend = a lot of laughs & a lot of drinking. All I can say is we are not 21 anymore, but its fun to act like we are sometimes : ) Can't wait for the wedding next month...I'll be flying solo without hubby or baby, watch out!

Above: we took a ton of pictures us trying to get everyone to look at the same camera without having a terrible expression on their face or closing their eyes and this is the best shot that came out. As you can see, we still need to work on it. ha!

On Saturday Matt's Mom came to the city and we spent the day with Ripley walking around, having lunch and going to the park. The weather was awesome and so was the company. Ripley misses you, Mema!

And last, but not least..Sunday, after Sarah's bridal shower, Ripley and I headed to the south burbs to visit family, which was such a nice end to our trip. Ripley had a blast with all the attention she got from everyone. And as always, it was so nice to be around family. It makes me sad we can't see each other more often. And I hated that Matt missed out on it all, unfortunately he was stuck working during this trip. Hopefully our next Chicago trip will be all 3 of us.

Below: Ripley attacking poor little Evan with some hugs & kisses that were definitely not very well received. Sorry Ev, "what my baby wants, my baby gets!" - ha, what movie?

Trip No. 1 - Naples, FL

Ripley and I went to Florida to visit family. This was the first time my Dad's side of the family got to meet Ripley, so that was fun. We went to my Dad's pool a couple times, but to my surprise, Ripley was a little clingy in the pool with me. My Dad got her a blow up floaty device and everything, but she wanted nothing to do with it. She wouldn't sit in it and if we put it by her, she pushed it away. So Joanne (Step-Mom) and I took turns holding her instead.

Funny/gross story from our travels: During the flight on the way home, Ripley went #2 in a very big way. I got a strong whiff of something oh so wrong and see Ripley's face turning red and doing the grunt thing and start to prepare myself for the joys of changing her on the airplane. So after the grunting ends, I lean over to get her out of her car seat and notice "it" is actually seeping out of her diaper up onto her shirt & pants and also on the car seat, NAST. Next I realize I forgot to pack an extra onsie and have nothing to change her into. Ugh. I had one available for the ride there, but didn't ended up needing it and on the way home I forgot to pack it and of course that was the time I needed it. Go figure. So I take her in the bathroom and start to change her on top of the toilet cover and as I'm doing this the cover comes lose and is now moving around while I'm trying to handle her with one hand and wipe her with the other. At this point she starts to cry a little while she is sliding around with legs up in the air and after many, many, many wipes she is finally clean and before I can get the new diaper into place she starts to pee all over the seat, changing cover, herself, etc....what a mess! I was in there FOREVER....the flight attendants asked me if I was OK at one point. So after I clean up mess #2, I had to try and salvage her shirt by cleaning it in the sink, otherwise she was only going to be in her diaper, since her pants were anything but salvageable. Thankfully, I brought a blanket with and after putting her now wet shirt back on her, I wrapped her bottom half in the blanket so it wasn't obvious she just pooped herself, even though I am sure the smell probably made most of the plane well aware it and for the rest of the flight she sat in her car seat wrapped in the blanket with a slight stench still lurking from the part of the car seat that was too hard to clean during the flight. Oh the joys of changing your child on an airplane! Since we travel so much, I have done this many times, but never has it been such an event, so I thought I would share with everyone : )

Some pictures from our trip below....sorry no kodak moments from her pooping extravaganza!

3 days & counting....

The Sex & the City Movie opens this Friday and ever since I moved to Maryland, I've been on the prowl to find some Ladies to go see it with. Thankfully, my mission has been successful and on Saturday I'll be going with 2 thirty-somethings, like myself. I can't wait! I have done my best not to watch any spoilers, cause I really want to see it without already knowing the whole movie. My guess is I may be disappointed, because I think I have built it up too much, but hopefully it will live up to my expectations (man, I need a life!).

Carrie & Big are supposed to get married and in the previews, they try and act like maybe they don't. Well, if they don't....I will be pissed. I mean COME ON already. If you weren't going to marry Mr. Big, then you should have never let Aidan go!!! I loved Aidan. Aidan was my favorite, but at the same time, its hard to resist Big and that smile. Ahhh, cosmo anyone?

Movie Review (no spoilers): Ok, so I saw the movie and I'm happy to say I was not disappointed. It was really good. I felt like they covered a lot of ground with each character. Of course I do have some critiques, but can't discuss them now until some of you have seen the movie. Also, be forewarned, it's an emotional movie....and not just at one part, there are several possible tear-jerking moments. The movie made me miss my girlfriends so much! You take away the fashion, the city and the sex and you're left with 4 woman that share really true friendships for life. Each woman having their own personality to bring to the table. Not many are able to say they have that, but thankfully I am one of the lucky ones. Miss you all! xoxo

BFF's Forever

Well we already know Lauren and I are BFF's forever, but now so are our kids. Or will they end up in love and married instead? One can only hope! Lauren and Evan came to visit last weekend and we had such an amazing time. Her and I got to spend a lot of quality time together and with the kids, it made it even better. Ripley was all about Evan and Evan....well he was all about his balloon, his pimp cane (a stick that makes noise and has a giraffe on the end of it) or anything NOT Ripley. Lol.

Ripley is loud & proud (she likes to yell when she's excited, which is often) and unfortunately, that made Evan cry (she did the same to Max, my other "nephew"). But thankfully by the 2nd day it seemed Evan got used to her screeching and was able to handle her, for the most part. We got a lot of cute pictures of them together, although we didn't get any of Lauren and I together. I guess that's what happens when you have kids. Plus, I am trying to recover from a bad haircut, so there's my excuse :)