My Freshman & Senior

It’s funny how the little moments of life are often the ones that become the big moments… The times when your heart feels so heavy with nostalgia that you can barely catch your breath.

I had one of those the other day.  While I was sipping (or more appropriately, chugging) my coffee, while I was singing a song with the kids on the way to school, while I was glancing in the rear view mirror… I had one of those moments.  It was nothing special, but everything special all at once.  And I realized how fleeting these moments are.

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Two car seats, too little sleep, two silly & hilarious little passengers… and it’s all going too fast. Way too fast.

Here’s where we are for the moment… Mitchell and Makenzie are both at the same school.  They spend their days a short walk down the hall from each other.  Mitchell is a one-year-old freshman and Makenzie is a three-year-old senior at their school… but don’t blink.  In just a few days my baby girl will turn four, and in just a few weeks my baby boy will officially be a sophomore.  Crazy!  And then they won’t be a freshman and a senior together until they are in high school around the year 2030.  We will have had at least 2 more Presidents.  There will have been another 13 Super Bowl champs, and Denny & I will be well past our 20th wedding anniversary.  But don’t blink.  I’m sure that will be here in no time.

So for today, I’ll savor this sweet moment of having a freshman and a senior.  Here’s what they are doing.

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My little freshman still loves to wake up well before the sun rises and play, play and play some more.  It’s early but it’s honestly one of my most favorite one-on-one times with him.

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Early bird!

He loves all things sports, and he even gets to sleep on his cot in the ball pit in the freshman room!   How cool is that?!?

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Loving Bills day!

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He LOVES this. 🙂

My little freshman is very active and even more affectionate.  He’s working on learning words and he’s working on keeping up with his big sister.

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He will follow her to the ends of the earth.

He melts our heart on a daily basis and we couldn’t love him more!

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Makenzie, my senior, is turning into a beautiful big girl!

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First day of pre-school – September 2016!

She loves all things creative and can spend hours coloring and drawing.  She is really proud that she can now spell & write her name.

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Makenzie’s dragon. Perhaps it’s a Nile red dragon?!

Makenzie is an awesome big sister and loves to drop off Mitchell and pick him up in his classroom every day.  She usually gets so excited to see him that she sprints to his classroom to see what he did each day.

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They are usually buddies and enjoy most things together BUT on occasion they can annoy each other as only siblings can do.

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A particularly cranky day at Target. Even a trip down the toy aisle couldn’t distract Makenzie from the annoyance of a little bro who kept pinching her.

 

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A better day & a trip to Olcott Beach before the end of summer.

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Denny and I both had a time when our older siblings were seniors while we were freshman, which makes it pretty cool that our kids get to experience this.  Melissa and I spent one year at the same high school and then another year of overlap at OU and these were two of my favorite years of life because it was when I realized that she was a best friend.

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Makenzie sometimes asks if she can keep him forever. I can only hope that she does.

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Off & running!

I hope Makenzie & Mitchell someday look back and appreciate these days together at Childrens Kastle.  My freshman and senior will soon be all grown up, but until then, I’m going to savor the millions of little moments because I know they won’t last forever.

XOXO

Erin

11 Months – How’d that happen?

One sticker left… wow!  What a bittersweet feeling!

And it feels like it was just yesterday that I was saying the same thing about my pregnancy picky stickies.   We were just weeks away from meeting our Beanette… How was this post a whole year ago?

In just about a week and a half our Makenzie Ruth will be a one-year old girl!  I’m pretty behind with this post so I’ll keep it short and sweet…

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Happy 11 month baby girl!    I love love love when she’s fresh out of the tub and in her snuggly jammies. 🙂

This month seems like it’s gone faster than the others.  Maybe because we spent 10 of the days relaxing and enjoying vacation or maybe because it’s the countdown to our little pumpkin’s 1st Birthday.

Either way she’s been busy:

  • Almost walking – she takes a lot of steps on her own but still likes to hold onto Mommy or Daddy’s hands (we like it too)
  • Babbling a lot more – her newest word is “uh oh”
  • Eating real food for every meal – no more baby food, this girl can chow down
  • Barely drinking from bottles – Our big girl is down to just 2 bottles a day
  • Playing, playing and more playing!   She loves to explore everything!
  • And last but not least (drumroll)… She’s so excited for her upcoming birthday she’s not sleeping.  Wah wah.  We’ve hit a serious parenting plateau and the only thing we see for miles is the land of sleepless nights.  Stay tuned with this, we’re trying to get her back to being a good sleeper.

But if there’s anyone we don’t mind cuddling with in the wee hours of the night, it’s Makenzie Ruth.  She’s so sweet and fun and we can’t imagine our world without her.  It’s going to be a fun 1st Birthday celebration.  Stay tuned!

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Kenz-o is about to turn O-N-E, join the countdown on Facebook!

Mommy McBlog

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What a great (and very Pink) Year it’s been…

Last year on the Saturday before Mother’s Day we found out if we were having a Boy or Girl!!   The year has flown by and has been full of happy (pink-filled) memories.  But it was such a fun day it was worth looking back.   Here’s the recap:

Sunday, May 13, 2012

The Power of Pronouns

I’m very much an English geek. It has always been my favorite subject in school and my someday dream job is to be a professional blogger. But this weekend made me realize how much I LOVE pronouns.

She ~~ Her ~~ Shes ~~ Hers

What beautiful words!! These are music to our ears!

Let me take you back to Saturday morning…

Denny and I had the long-awaited ITSA party to find out if It’s A Boy or It’s a Girl! It was hands down one of the most amazing weekends we have had in years.

I was wide awake by 6 AM! I could barely sleep because I was so excited to find out about the little person joining our family. I was 99% certain it was a boy but I wanted to see the blue balloons to be sure. I thought Denny was 99% certain it was a boy too, but at the last minute he came downstairs in a PINK shirt with a blue vest. Pink shirt?!? I was shocked, but he said he had a last-minute feeling it could be a girl.

Denny and I were so fortunate to have a lot of friends and family join us for the big reveal. By 11 AM, the excitement was out of control, and our neighbor Theresa brought over the box (she was kind enough to pick it up from the florist).

Here it is, YAY!!!

Our friends and family were really anxious and almost everyone dressed in either pink or blue.  It was so great to see that everyone was excited as us.  Check out this spirit!

        

By noon we were ready for the reveal.  Our hearts were racing as we realized it was time to find out if we were having a boy or girl!  I’ll let the pictures tell this part of it…

“Ready to do this?”
“Hold my hand, I’m nervous”

PINK?!?!

So Shocked, So Happy…

So Emotional!

We’re having a Little Girl!

Everyone was beyond thrilled!  The rest of the day was a blur filled with phone calls, texts, and a trip to Babies R Us.

It is still sinking in for Denny and me, but on a walk tonight we discussed what this means to our friends and family.  It’s fun to see where she fits in our little world.
Baby Girl McGee will be the first grand-daughter to both sets of our parents  (Denny’s Mom never thought she would have a granddaughter, and already promised to buy her diamond studs when we get her ears pierced)
She will be the first girl to be born to a Quilty cousin in about 10 years (this ends the streak of about 9 boys).  She will be the first girl to be born on the Synk side since me (but in fairness, my cousin PJ was the only other birth)
When it comes to my college roomies, she will be girl #4 out of 4 babies total.  Apparently none of us will ever have a boy.
On our half of the street, there has not been a new baby boy in about 16 years (the few boys that live near us moved here later in life)
So there you have it… One AMAZING weekend!
Now it’s time to Think Pink!

It’s A…

…Recap of one year ago today!

It was the Friday before Mother’s Day and we were SO EXCITED to get an answer to the Big Question… Boy or Girl!  We were having a Gender Reveal Party on Saturday (Mother’s Day Eve) and we would find out the truth about Baby McGee alongside some of our closest friends and family.  It ended up being one of the BEST weekends in McGee history, and I still get giddy thinking about that day.  I definitely think it’s worth the stroll down memory lane.  And stay tuned this weekend, I’ll re-post about the day we found out Team Pink or Team Blue.   You obviously know the verdict, but it’s fun to get all sentimental and sappy once in a while (sniff, sniff, get out the tissues).

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Friday, May 11, 2012

In Just One Day…

We will officially find out if we are becoming parents to a boy or girl!  This week has been a mix of emotions– lots of excitement about how our life is changing, an ounce of trepidation about how or if we will ever find all the time and money to be great parents, and a bit of tiredness (let’s be real, all this party planning can be tiring for a mama-to-be).  We only want a healthy baby but the reality of this is starting to sink in.    Tomorrow our life will change.
 

We will find out if…

Denny will have a daughter to someday walk down the aisle,
OR
If I will have a son to teach about how to treat your mom.
 

We will find out if…

Denny will have a son to take outside and show him the essentials of baseball,
OR
If I will have a daughter to take to dance lessons, cheerleading tryouts and Prom dress shopping.
 

It is incredibly exciting yet very surreal!  It will be a great day regardless if the box is filled with pink or blue balloons.  We want to savor it and remember every minute of this because I’m pretty sure the next 18 years will fly by, and before we know it we will be spending our Saturdays in May at Graduation ceremonies, college Parents weekends and perhaps even weddings (speaking of, do we need to start saving for that too?)
Have a great weekend everyone, and an especially Hapy Mother’s Day weekend to all those amazing women out there that we love, that we miss, and that we admire for their compassion, endless energy, and amazing courage.  XOXO Mamas!

What a difference a year makes…

::   This weekend makes me think about how lucky we are   ::

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Exactly one year ago tonight we were in the emergency room of Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital finding out we lost our baby.  We were seven weeks pregnant during the 2011 fall back weekend when something went wrong.  It was without a doubt one of the toughest and literally one of the longest nights of our lives.

Fortunately we visited the same hospital again. but this time for different reasons….

Exactly one month ago tonight, we were again at Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital in the midst of labor awaiting the birth of our sweet baby girl.  She arrived in the wee hours of October 4th!  It was another long night, but a wonderful night.  And it was wonderful enough to make us realize that the heartache we felt on a cold night 11 months prior was part of our journey to turn us into a family of three.

I can’t believe it’s been a year since we said goodbye to what we thought would be our first baby, but I especially can’t believe it’s been a month since we said Hello to Makenzie!  How did time go so fast?  I’m certain we’ll need the extra hour of sleep tonight, but I’m pretty sure we won’t be too heartbroken if we spend it wide awake with good company.

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Welcome to the World Makenzie Ruth!

She Is Here!

Our sweet baby girl, Makenzie Ruth McGee, has arrived and our world will never ever be the same!

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(Part of the reason I write this blog is to remember the little parts of life that often get washed away with time, so for this post I’m going to document the night of Makenzie’s arrival with all the details that made her entrance into the world so incredible… that is if I can recap it all without being a weepy mess over my laptop)

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Wednesday was one day past our due date.  It was also a huge day because we were headed to the hospital that evening to be induced.  In preparation for a sleepless night, Denny was napping upstairs and I was downstairs watching the Kardashians (don’t judge please).  At 2:14 PM I felt a contraction much stronger than I has been feeling the past 2 days and I immediately knew our little girl was ready to arrive.  The next contractions came at 2:19, and then 2:24 and then 2:28.  Thanks to the recently downloaded contraction app on my phone we knew we were officially in labor!!

By 5:15 PM Denny and I were pulling up to Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital (yes, he was a gentleman and dropped me off, and while I waited I had a killer contraction which caused a group of what appeared to be high-profile drug reps awkwardly stare at me as I hunched over the flower beds).   As I recovered from the contraction and we walked through the lobby, the tears started for me… this was it, we were going to meet our daughter!  The nurses whisked us in, and before we knew it we were listening to our little girl’s healthy and steady heartbeat on the monitor.  It was a relief to know we made it to a safe place and it would only be a matter of time until we held her.

The next 11 hours and 29 minutes were a blur — countless contractions, 2 epidurals, 10 centimeters, and an exciting countdown to meet our girl.  We were told to rest but neither of us could close our eyes for a second.  I remember laying in bed trying to memorize every detail of the room, every scent, and every moment of the night.  Denny held my hand and supported me during every second of the night.

Auntie Melissa documented the progress

8 then 9 centimeters

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Finally at 3:44 AM, a perfect, beautiful, sweet, eight-pound, three-ounce baby girl arrived with ten fingers, ten toes and gorgeous dark hair!  Dr. Susan laid her on my chest and Denny and I fell madly in love with her.  It was the most incredible, surreal, overwhelming, amazing and beautiful experience of our life.

PERFECT!

Just like that, we were parents, and we were a family of three.  Despite worrying for months how we would decide on her name, Denny and I looked at her and knew her name within moments – Makenzie Ruth McGee.

The morning went by in a blink.  Makenzie met her Auntie Melissa, her Nana and Papa and spent some time in the nursery.  Here are some more pictures below!

Pretty girl!

Meeting Aunt Melissa!

Nana with Makenzie

Papa with Makenzie

The famous Quilty It’s A Girl sign! It was used for both Melissa and me when we were born.

We feel SO incredibly blessed to have welcomed such a sweet and healthy baby girl into this world.  We continue to be overwhelmed with love and support from our friends and family and can’t thank everyone enough for sharing our joy (even is we haven’t yet had the chance to call you back or return your e-mail).

The past seven days have been wonderful and I promise I’ll document more of the first week of her life shortly.  Have a great night and if you happen to be awake at 3:44 AM tonight think of our sweet baby girl and send her a Happy 1st Week Birthday wish!

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40 Week Bumpdate

It’s October 2, 2012

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We Made It!  Forty Weeks and our Little Girl’s Due Date!! 

Our final sticker!   And check out the Bump, whoa!

Turns out our little girl is a little trickster and doesn’t seem interested in arriving just yet.  In the meantime, I finished my last day of work yesterday so now we are patiently waiting.

It’s so exciting but yet hard to really comprehend all that is about to happen.  Part of it is bittersweet because I’ll really miss being pregnant and feeling her move all day (and who doesn’t miss the chance to wear stretchy-waisted pants), but I know meeting her in person will be the most amazing day of our lives.

Based on our Doctor’s appointment yesterday it looks likely that we will try an attempt at being induced tomorrow.  We will be sure to keep the world updated when our little pumpkin arrives.

Stay tuned!  🙂

Pictures of the Week *The Week You Were Born*

Dear Beanette,

We are SO SO Incredibly excited to meet you!!  I thought it might be fun to do a little post about what’s happening in the world during the week you will be born (here’s hoping you arrive this week).  Someday you can look back at it and laugh about the terrible trends… meanwhile, your Dad and I will look back and get teary about how fast you have grown up.

(As a bonus, if you have wi-fi access you can read up on pop culture so you can make small talk with the other babes in the nursery)

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So, here’s what happening in the world:

  • 2012 is the year of the Dragon (ironically, your Mom went to a high school that had a dragon as a mascot)

  • The OU Bobcat football team is doing AWESOME!  They are undefeated right now at 5-0!  Your Dad and I met because we both went there and we even had our wedding there.  No pressure, but we would LOVE it if you decided to be a Bobcat someday.

  • The US experienced what your Dad refers to as the Ryder Cup meltdown today.  It was an ugly day on the golf course for the Americans.  I’m sure your arrival will brighten his week and he’ll forget about this golf course massacre.
  • The Steelers are 1-2 and are still getting warmed up for the year.  If you arrive before Sunday you can watch the Steelers take on the Eagles with us.  Maybe you’ll bring them good luck!

  • We also love hockey in the McGee house as you’ll some find out, but the NHL is in a lock-out currently (bummer!).  We’ll take you to a Sabres game eventually.
  • The Office is in the midst of their final season.  Maybe sometime you’ll watch these shows in syndication on Nick at Nite.

  • Obama is President currently and but Romney is running against him (kind of boring, right? Don’t worry, we don’t get too into politics in the McGee house)
  • ‘We are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ is at the top of the pop charts.  Justin Bieber has had a few hits this year too, but he’s way too old for you so please don’t catch Bieber Fever.
  • Brightly colored skinny jeans are pretty trendy right now, but luckily your Dad and I try to avoid any clothes with the word “Skinny” in them so you won’t ever uncover pictures of us in these.

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There it is, fall 2012 pop culture in a nutshell, just for you!  Please hurry and pick your Birthday soon!  We really can’t wait to meet you.

Lots of Love, xoxo

Your Mom & Dad

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Operation: Let’s Get This Party Started

Today marks 39 weeks and 4 days!

Beanette’s room is still ready, the bags are still packed (we surprisingly haven’t even eaten any of the “Dad/visitor” snacks), our kind neighbors are ready to Lexi-sit, car seats are installed (in both cars), house is relatively clean, and I finally feel like I’m at a good place that I can be done with work if she arrives.

Hooray, it’s Go Time!

Since we are getting anxious for the big arrival, and since it is football season, it seemed appropriate to hunker down, come up with a game plan and go for the Victory (aka the arrival of our little baby girl)!

Introducing: Operation Let’s Get This Party Started!!

Team Roster:

  • Captain: Little Miss Beanette McGee!!
  • Quarterback – Denny
  • Tight End (because I wish I had one) – Me
  • Offensive Line – Nurses
  • Kicker – anesthesiologist

Referees:

  • Dr. Susan and Dr. B

Cheerleaders:

  • Mom & Dad Quilty (sorry to put you on the cheer squad, Dad)
  • Mom and Dad McGee
  • Melissa
  • Neighbors, friends & family
  • Lexi (she wants to be at the top of the pyramid)

Today we brought out the starting line and implemented our early game plan… long walk at mall, long walk in the hood, spicy taco dinner and some jumping jacks (perhaps tomorrow we’ll do Beanette jacks).

At the end of the first quarter we’re still tied at 0-0.   We’re feeling good and moving the chains down the field.  If we keep up this momentum, we want to move into the red zone aka the maternity ward in the coming plays (although playing football in a hospital gown might get tricky – I’d hate to expose my non-tight end).

For now, we’re going to huddle up and take a breather (and a cookie break).   We need to rest up because tomorrow’s game plan entails some big plays — more walking, spicy chili dinner and maybe a bumpy ride screen pass.

If our Team Captain decides she’s ready for a big play and wants to get in the game, we’ll keep you posted!!

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It’s A… Watermelon!!

Today I got my weekly e-mail from The Bump.com and it told me that our little girl is the size of a…. Watermelon!

Yep, she’s That big!  (Enter profuse sweating & heart palpitations)

O-U-C-H!

But on the bright side, we made it to 39 WEEKS!

Crazy, right?  How did that happen, and who the heck approved our License to be parents?  I sure hope we are ready!

I still feel pretty good and we are quite excited and a little nervous & anxious.  Our Doctor’s appointment yesterday revealed that our little girl is quite cozy, but Dr. B said that doesn’t mean anything.  Our little watermelon is in complete control and can make her appearance at any time.

SO just in case we don’t make it to 40 weeks, I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane from seedling to watermelon, courtesy of Picky Sticky:

8 Weeks, and Hey I still have a waist!

12 Weeks and Safe Zone! Hooray!

16 Weeks… and I remember thinking I had a bump then.

20 Weeks, Halfway there!

24 Weeks, and counting!

28 Weeks aka Where’s Waldo?

32 Weeks

36 Weeks, one month to go!

There you have it… I’m no gardener, but our little watermelon sure has managed to thrive!  We are seven days away from her official due date (which means nothing to 95% of babies) but we’ll keep you posted once she picks her birthday.

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Have a great week!

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