T H A N K y o u...

Kensington has had an amazing birthday celebration that has continued on for weeks, which has kept us quite busy with the thank you notes (again, we're only 1/3 of the way through and I am determined to get at least 15 out today if it kills me).

This little angel has so many beautiful outfits... and we can not wait for her to grown into them. With the amount of formula she's taking in, she should fit into all of her newborn clothes within 2 weeks, and her 0-3 months shortly after that (one would think that 0 months would be the same as newborn.... but it isn't).

In yesterday's, Today... Life Is Beautiful!, post you will see a picture of Kensington in a little teddy bear swing that she received from her Uncle Mark and Auntie Aggie, who have been spoiling her to death - and she loves it!

We're still looking for the creator of this beautiful afghan....

Speaking of afghans, Kensi has received another beautiful one made by Marilyn O. that came with the funniest card ever. "This blanket is for Kensi. To keep her warm and cozy in her stroller or car seat. She is allowed to chew on it, spit up on it and even spill things on it. When she wants it clean again, just pop it into the washer on gentle and put it in the dryer on low and it will be like new again." Spoken like a true grandmother :) Thanks Marilyn and Don.

And while on the subject of funny cards, these leopard print slippers were sent courtesy of Auntie Jeff in Ohio (soon to be Auntie Jeff in New Jersey... right?!?!?). The card read, "Dearest Kensington, Welcome to the world! You're a season and a half behind on Gossip Girls - We have some work to do. Here's to the latest Diva in training. Lots of Love, You're old auntie Jeff" Okay... so I may have changed the way he signed the card. Jeff - stop sucking up to Kensington. She's not going to take you in when it's time to enter the nursing home. You're own your own, buddy! You get a 'A-' on creativity.

Adam gets the Gold Star award for creativity and talent. Not only did he create an amazing Adoption Portfolio, but he hand stitched the pillow cases that we posted on our Wednesday, December 17, On again, Off again... post. In addition to that, he made Kensington four beautiful onesies (A deer, birdie, angel and "Kensington" set), which you can tell by the picture below, she fell in love with.

Lord, it's like a hard candy christmas...

Today wasn't the way I wanted to end my last 'official' day of work and start my paternity leave. As I pulled out of my road, I couldn't turn right onto the main street because our maintenance department had shut off the road because they were laying new culvert pipes (you got to give them credit... it was 7 a.m. and their day had already started). I was diverted to go around to the other side of the mountain to leave the community. No biggie. Only a 5-7 minute detour (just wait... the story gets better). Once I got out of the community, I came upon a wreck. A maroon mini-van had slammed into a silver Chrysler. I was driving slow as I saw the mother of the mini-van extract her stroller out of the back seat to bring it to her mothers (I'm guessing here) car. The police officer who was standing in the road - wearing bright orange - gets me to detour again. This took me about 10 minutes out of the way. Then, as I turned on Route 209, the township was working on a bridge and had shut down one of the lanes. Yep... you guessed it. Another 15 minute delay.

To recap this part of my day: an additional 35 minutes in PA.

Once in NJ, I hit my emergency flashers as me (and all the cars around me) came around the corner at exit 16 to see an 18 wheeler that over-turned. One lane open and 30 minutes to go the 1 mile past the accident. No sooner am I at the accident do I see a puff of black smoke up ahead of me... The fire department, EMS and police leave scene 1 to head to scene 2. A white van hit another car and the van caught on fire.

To recap this part of my day: an additional 65 minutes in NJ. 3hrs 40min to get to work. Ugh.

[work was work... except I just found out that my nutty co-workers swiped my camera when I wasn't looking and took photos of the storage room, offices, conference rooms, parking lot, name plates, etc so I wouldn't forget them over the next couple of weeks - I'm just saying, if they have this much time on their hands, they BETTER make goal]

On my way home, I was planning on stopping at Babies R Us to pick up a glider chair. Traffic is horrible so I call my co-workers to tell them to avoid Route 80. 45 minutes later I'm at my destination. There was another car fire in the parking lot in front of Lowe's in the shopping center (please tell me these are not signs of the Apocalypse). Once I got into the store, finding an associate to help me was going to become more difficult than getting into work this morning. Four guys were in the corner of the store throwing around a ball. They then saw me in the furniture department and decided to take their little game into the stockroom (umm... hello. I need help here). So I waited a few minutes and none of them came out. Nothing. Nadda. So I got to the front of the store and ask them to page someone.

Finally Collin comes out. I show him the glider chair I want and get a "It's out of stock, but I can order one for you". I go to option number 2 and get, "It's out of stock, but I can order one for you". Okay... lets try door number 3 - "It's out of stock, but I can order one for you". Now I'm looking around for the candid camera that HAS to be focusing in on me. "Can you tell me what chairs you do have in stock?" "Well, we don't have anything in. These are our displays but we can get one here in 7-10 days if you'd like" As I tell him no thanks, he informs me that he can check in the system of the other stores and see what they have. He tells me they have the one I want in East Hanover. Great. "Can you just call them and ask them to hold it for me, please." I'm glad I asked this because the system showed an error. East Hanover was also out of the glider, as was was Totowa and Whitehall stores, but after 40 minutes of calling the stores and being put on hold while they checked their storage rooms, he found one at Bridgewater. Out of that store and on to Route 206 I go.

To recap this part of my day: 45 minute delay to get to the store and 1 hour in Babies R Us and I walk out with nothing - and heading 30 miles in the opposite direction of home.

I get to Bridgewater 50 minutes later and at the exit I need, another wreck. OMG!

I finally get onto the store and finding help in this location is going to be just as bad as in the other store. The store manager comes by and I tell him (as I'm standing in front of the glider model), "I have this chair on hold. Your Flanders store called in about an hour ago." 10 minutes later, Dan comes out of the stockroom with a box. "here you go sir". "I just want to confirm that it's the espresso wood chair with the cream fabric." "Yes sir it is." I go to the front to check out and am told that the coupon that I have isn't valid until tomorrow. Thank God Dan is still there and sees that I'm about to lose it and gives me the discount. (Thanks, Dan)

Glider is in the car and I make 2 quick stops: Home Depot for a curtain rod and a light dimmer and to Macy's for a humidifier. No humidifiers at Macy's and I only pick of the light dimmer at Home Depot. Okay... I'll stop at Wal-Mart of the way home to get a rod.

It's now 9:30 pm and I'm finally headed home. I'll be home by 11 :(

I'm listening to Derek and Romaine on SiruisXM and I'm tired and cranky. Then, something amazing happens. My friends end their show with a sing-a-long. A huge smile begins to form on my face when I think, all around America there are tens of thousand of us in the LGBT world in our cars or at home singing MY FAVORITE Christmas song. Come and sing along with me:

Hey, maybe I'll dye my hair. Maybe I'll move somewhere. Maybe I'll get a car. Maybe I'll drive so far. They'll all lose track (but) Me, I'll be just...

Fine and Dandy. Lord it's like a hard candy christmas. I'm barely getting through tomorrow. But still I won't let, Sorrow bring me way down.

[Btw, I get home and find out that they gave me the wrong glider... but you know what? I'll be just "Fine and Dandy"!]

The crib is complete... for the moment.

Now we just need to pick up the dresser/changer this week.

Aww... you shouldn't have (but we're happy you did!)

Cathy, Diane and Mary Cay... you're the best.

These three wonderful women threw us a shower in NJ today. Do you see the look of sheer surprise on my face???? lmao.

As I've said before, and I will say again... Chris and I truly have the best set of friends around.

Okay.. there are a couple pics that I need to share: What is up with scary cardboard baby?!?!

You GOT TO love the diaper cake!

And the real cake:

And then there was the gift that brought on tears:

Lions and tigers and diapers... oh my!

I know I posted on my coworkers in the past, and said that they are all nut jobs. I still stand by that comment... but they are nut jobs with HUGE hearts.

Today we had our monthly staff meeting, followed by our Secret Snowflake party. I ended staying up until 2:30 last night working on Jackie's gift (if you want the back story, continue reading... if not, fast forward to the black text below)

[A couple of us went to Jackie's house back in September during lunch time and as we were leaving, I hijacked one of her lawn ornaments - a ceramic frog. At first, we were just going to put the frog in the safe at work, and when Jackie would go into it - hahahaha... her frog would be there. But then we thought... how can we keep with joke for as long as possible? I know... why don't we take pictures of the frog all around town doing different things. Oh... better yet, why don't we take the frog to Fire Island with us and get picture of it there. And so we did. Pictures of the frog on the Suffolk County police boat, on a pool table, kissing the deer... we had a blast the entire weekend with it. The fun didn't stop there. It ended up going to Indianapolis, Albany, NYC, New Hope, the Poconos... as many places as we would possibly take it until on October 30th, Teresa and Kate (yes ladies, I blame you both, broke the frog). In order to keep the joke going even longer, we snuck back over to Jackie's house and kidnapped the second frog - side, side story - we actually went to the wrong house on her street and ended up crawling on our hands and knees looking for the frog. Then, we went on their neighbors back deck and I ended up running into a tree as we snuck back to the truck to leave empty handed... it was only as we drove away did we see the correct house we were supposed to be at and ended up laughing so hard I almost wet myself. To wrap that story up, we went to the house and grabbed froggy II.

How we were going to let Jackie know was to put a scrapbook together of the 300+ pictures of the frog and give it to Jackie at the holiday party. To make the plan work, I had to volunteer to put the Secret Snowflake gathering together to ensure that one of us had Jackie as our gift's receiver. One of the 'rules' of the gift giving festivities was that the gift had to coordinate with the receivers name (i.e., If your name is Debbie Downer, you could receive Dunkin Donuts coffee and mug, or a Drama on DVD. You get the gist) Jackie's initials are J.W., so I ended up doing the cover with "Freddy the Frogs Jounrney around the World to find his was home. I came up with a corny storyline about the frog being kidnapped and having to take odd jobs to buy a plane ticket to get home. Teresa got some great pics of the frog at the airport, and almost had her camera confiscated at Newark due to the fact that she was taking pictures in a secured location. Below you find a couple of the pages that I did... all in all, I was pretty impressed with the job I did. I used the Artemia by After Five Designs Freebies and quick pages.

After the holiday party, I went back to my office and continued to work. Then my coworkers started acting strange (again). They would walk back-and-forth by my office and just give me a look. Then Cindy came in and asked if I could help her with the goal setting sheet... and when I asked 'with what part', she responded with "just come to my desk and you'll see". I knew right then and there that they were up to something and then I was escorted to the board room.

The entire crew (minus Dan because he's a boy and boys don't do showers) was there, including Megan who left us a couple of weeks ago and Carol who is still on her maternity leave. They all went above and beyond... clothing, tubs, blankets, drying station, sleeping sacks, taggies, and butt paste galore (which brought on another conversation about our outing at Fire Island). We also got our "entertain me" set, blankets, gift cards, Dora the Explorer movie and the cutest darn bibs ever!

Chris and I can not thank you all enough! We can't wait for you to baby sit.

Knock, Knock... Who's there?

Santa!!!!!!!!!

What do you get when you tell your big brother, who just had a baby boy two months ago, that he should be expecting a niece any day soon?

An adorable bassinet that will allow us to do our "nightly rotation". Chris and I are planning to put the bassinet in the guest room so one of us can have a good nights sleep in the master bedroom with Duncan and Gossip, and the other one can be taking care of the little one.

Rock a bye, baby, Rock on!

Here comes the bride...

Wow... what a night! Chris and I, along with 110 of our closest friends and family members celebrated our marriage (the one we had before Prop 8 passed), as well as the upcoming arrival of our daughter. This was the first time in 12 years that Chris and I had members of our family together...

Well, needless to say, I'm extremely exhausted (as well as extremely happy to see everyone tonight) so calling this one a short blog. Will be posting pictures and stories soon :)

Santa just came a little early...

What do you get when you tell your big sister, who's dying to become an aunt again, that when you receive her neice you will be spending several days in a hotel (with the baby) waiting for the paper work to clear?

a BEAUTIFUL bassinet / changer / pack-n-play. Look out Residence Inn... here we come!

Drop drop fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is

For the love of Jehovah. Today had to be one of the more stressful days I've lived through in awhile. Chris and I headed out to the baby stores to pick up our crib (thanks Mazhai and Fazhai) and to wrap up our registries.

First Stop - Buy Buy Baby. Chris and I walk straight to the furniture section. Chris and Leslie came here a couple weeks ago and found a lovely set, but then Chris went back to the store and found the most fairytale-ish (okay... I'll admit it, I just made up a word) set that reminded me of Belle and Beauty and the Beast. Once I saw it, I agreed that this is the one...

After realizing that only one of the boxes were going to fit in my truck, the day started to go down hill. This half-day outing to the stores has now just turned into a weekend adventure. After about 25 minutes of standing in the store, I found myself standing in the middle of the infant clothing section with tears streaming down my face.


It wasn't the fathers walking around the store pushing their strollers that look like they just aged 10 years because of the lack of sleep (i.e., Bill Clinton after being in office for 2 months - GWB didn't have this problem because he was on vacation 38% of the time he was in office)... it wasn't the crying babies who were either hungry and colicy or even the 101 employees - not Dalmatians - that kept asking, "Can I help you sir"... it was the sheer fact that I don't understand the need for a crib, a bassinet, a sleeper mobile and a vibrating pack-and-play. Does a baby really need 4 different items to sleep in?

I felt (and still kinda do) totally overwhelmed. Our forefathers didn't have all of these 'baby essentials'. They merely opened up the dresser drawer and laid down some bear/deer/rodent skin for warmth. If it was good enough for Abe Lincoln, it should be good enough for our child.

Well, I guess that will be easier said than done - Chris put the bassinet, a sleeper mobile and a vibrating pack-and-play on our registry against my objection. And the Boppy... don't even get me started. Jackie Kennedy was never caught walking around the Whitehouse with no darn Boppy and her kids (god rest JFK Jr's soul) turned out just fine.

Next Stop - Baby's 'R Us.

Let me start off by stating that the clothing line is much, much, much cuter here than at Buy Buy Baby (evil smile). Chris and I updated this registry, and I continued to feel overwhelmed, but Chris did find the cutest little outfit that will be her "coming home" garb. In addition to the pieces here, we also picked up the matching shoes, jacket, pants, t-shirt, and sweater. Let's just say, I don't think I will be getting that pair of Armani jeans I wanted anytime soon (is this what they meant by sacrifices??? because this stuff ain't funny!)




We also picked out the bedding that we will be going with. Here is the Mulberry design -