An oldie, but a goodie

So this is old, but way too good to not post.  While going through old video clips I discovered this gem... it was a couple weeks after I had Brighton, and this is what happens when Daddy is left alone to take care of Elsa and the dogs.  It'll make you miss Topper, but still a fun time!

July 2010 (click here for pictures)

So in July we said to ourselves, "what's the point of staying at home?  Let's travel all the time!" and that is exactly what we did.

It started with a trip up to NH to visit our NH family.  We flew into Boston where I sighed nostagically and took a million pictures of the skyline.  The next morning we met Matt and Courtney at their house for an AWESOME breakfast (but what else do you expect when Matt and Courtney are cooking?).  Then we were off to the lake!  The girls loved playing in the water and seeing all their favorite people!  Not only did they have Uncle Matt, Aunt Courtney, Grammy Lou and Cappy, but Grandma made the trip up from MD, Scott and Serena came from NC, and they had all their NH relatives there too!  At the end of the night Brandon and Joe did a great job of setting off fireworks for everyone to see!

So then we were home for a couple days and figured it was time for another trip, so off we went to Pawleys Island, SC!  We had a great house and it was filled with great people- the McMorrows and the Collicki's made the trip to SC as well, and our 3 couples turned into 3 couples and 4 kids!  Again the girls loved being around the Daley's (and adopted Daley's for the week!) and everyone had the best time!  Elsa even got the chance to ride some waves (with some major help from Uncle Joe!)

We got back from South Carolina on Colby's birthday and celebrated all over again!  But after that, our July was pretty uneventful.  Before we knew it- it was August!!!

June 2010 (click here for pictures)

If you know me (which you should), you know that I believe summer starts June 1st.  So we started June with a lot of playing in the sprinkler.  Of course this inspired Brandon and Joe's favorite game of "spray your daughter in the face".

Then it was time for a very important event... Brighton's first Red Sox game.  It was hot, but we had a great time.  The girls even lasted the whole game!

We also took the girls for their first trip to the aquarium- which was AMAZING!  Elsa was not a little nervous about the sharks, but Brighton was ready to dive on in.  She may turn out to be our little daredevil.

And before we knew it, our little girl was standing up on her own.  Only a few months before walking!

May 2010 (click here for pictures)

May started with an excellent trip to New Jersey for Mother's Day!  It was beautiful weather so we took a trip to the beach and to Spring Lake to see the ducks. 

We had a great time walking around with our 4 generations of lovely ladies.  Of course Brandon loved being the sole man in the crowd.

When we got back from New Jersey it was time for Trevor's 2nd birthday and then a fantastic trip to Gettysburg.  But, this was all just getting us ready for the VERY special arrival of the McMorrow family for Memorial Day! 

It was finally getting warm enough for playing in the sprinkler in the front yard and walking around the Inner Harbor at night.  And everyone knows the Stano's love summertime!!!

April 2010 (click here for pictures)

April started off with Grandma overload!  Not only did we have Grandma present as always, but both Grammy Lou and Grandma Nene were in town.  We got so lucky!

We started by taking the girls to DC and a trip around the Smithsonian (which was packed and I hate crowds, so we left quickly).  But then we spent some time playing on the Mall and enjoying the beautiful weather. 

Next it was time to celebrate Easter with an Easter Egg Hunt and family dinner over at the Collicki house.

We had a great time with our guests and were so sad to see them go.    But then we had our next guests- the lovely Rixham family stopped by on their way down South and we got to meet them for lunch.  John promptly called Elsa his girlfriend (even though he was more interested in the dog!)

The highlight of April was the Thomas the Train exhibit at the B&O Railroad Museum.  We went with Nicole and Trevor Atkinson and Elsa had the best time.  They ran around the museum, played on the moonbounce, and took a ride on the small kids train set up.  And they were adorable while doing it!

Meanwhile, watch the video below if you want to her the most beautiful singing voice you've ever heard.  She gets it from her Mother...

March 2010 (click for pictures)

 

March started out crazy (as usual) for the Stano family... we took a super quick trip up to Boston for the Louis wedding, and Brighton went on her first flight!  Thankfully we had Laura and Joe to help us out on the plane, we got to see the lovely McMorrow and Kerrigan families, and Uncle Matt and Aunt Courtney helped us babysit while we enjoyed the wedding.  Unfortunately, we all got sick.  So there may not be many more 24-hour trips in and out of Boston in our future (as much as we love and miss it!!!).

But a short week later we were VERY excited to celebrate Elsa's 2nd birthday.  All her favorite friends came over for a birthday brunch, and she got more presents from her Pop-Pop, Mema, and Grandma.  She did still doesn't understand that she doesn't get presents everyday. 

Meanwhile, Brighton was turning into a big girl and started eating solids.  We don't really have this problem in the Stano family, but this girl really eats EVERYTHING.  Including the green vegetables.  Who does that?

Finally, the end of the month was here, and we took Elsa to an easter egg hunt at Pleasant Plains Elementary School with the Collicki family.  At first we were really stressed out because all the kids were twice the size as ours, but then we found the section for the little kids.  At first we found bad because Elsa only found 6 pieces of candy, but then we heard other parents saying to their kids, "3 whole pieces of candy!  You are so lucky!" and "Wow!  2 pieces of candy, that will last you weeks!".  Apparently to some parents the health of your children is more important than competition.  And to those parents, we say "happy to beat you."

February 2010 (click for pictures)

And the theme for February was snow, snow, and more snow.  We were all just hanging out, minding our business, when suddenly, there was another blizzard.  We watched the snow pile up until it was almost as tall as Elsa. 

So we went out and did more sledding (which, at this point, Elsa was a pro). 

After that, the theme of February was the Traveling Stanos (as usual).  We took the girls to DC to see Disney on Ice on Valentine's Day when originally we were going to Baltimore the week before (in the blizzard).  Then a week later, it was off to NYC for the night to celebrate Brandon's birthday!  The extra special surprise- seeing tons of great people.  Not only was Aunt Courtney also in NYC, but we got to see NY residents such as the Valentine/Figliozi fam and the Simon family (both expectant parents at the time)!

Then back to Baltimore at the end of February to get ready for Elsa's 2nd birthday bash!

January 2010 (click for pictures)

Oh January, the good... and the bad.

January started off great in the Stano house.  Why?  Because there were more Stanos!  We had a lovely visit from Grammy Lou, Cappy, Uncle Matt, and Aunt Courtney to celebrate a belated Christmas.  Unfortunately, this coincided with the most embarrassing Patriots loss to the Ravens, EVER.  Not that we were all decked out in Patriots jerseys or cared about the game or anything...

But then it got good again because we got to see one of our favorite Boston families... the McMorrows!  We also got to introduce Brighton to her new best friend forever, Tess McMorrow.  They hit it off immediately. 

Meanwhile, Brighton was getting so big and smiling all the time.  She quickly became such a happy baby and Elsa was showing off as an amazing big sister more and more each day.  But as January went on, so did the inevitable... going back to work.  And by the end of January Elsa and Brighton were back in daycare and I was working.  I am so grateful I got 3 months to spend with my two little ladies.

December 2009 (click for pictures)

It was a lovely December in the Stano house... I was on maternity leave with my two little girls, it was almost Christmastime, and it was freezing outside.  So clearly our only option was to shop everyday!  We hit every mall in the area- including almost daily visits to the train set up at Kenilworth.

I spent a lot of time taking pictures of the girls hoping for the perfect one for our holiday cards.  Unfortunately, we got a lot more pictures of the girls looking angry/scared then happy and peaceful.  Despite appearances, Brighton was an adorable baby and loved to cuddle.  Elsa was a great big sister and was turning into my little buddy.  At one point I said to Brandon, "I talk to Elsa more than I talk to anyone else, she gives great hugs, and she makes me laugh.  Is she my best friend?"

We had a lot of fun as we got closer to Christmas, buying a tree in the snow (not as fun as it sounds) and getting everything we needed to celebrate (which meant a lot of cookies). 

Before Christmas we had our first blizzard (yes, how many times in Maryland do you use the term "first" blizzard?).  But just a great opportunity to go sledding in the yard!

And then it was Christmas.  Elsa had a great time opening presents and spending time with her grandparents.  Brighton had just started to smile and was turning into a happy baby.

December came to an end with a trip to DC to take the girls to the Smithsonian (never to young to learn about Natural History, what I always say!) and then to the Collicki's house to celebrate New Years Eve family style!  Which means minimal drinks, lots of finger-foods, and being exhausted by 9pm.  However, Elsa, Colby, and the Beck twins had another idea...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Click here for Baby Brighton pictures!

Welcome Baby Brighton!

It's official- we are now a family of four! Brighton Sawyer Stano was born at 2:07pm on Monday, November 9th. After remarking how much smaller she was then Elsa, we were told she weighes 8 lb 5oz (Elsa was 8 lb 6 oz so technically we were right).
We spent Monday night in the hospital and came home Tuesday night- thanks to some great babysitting services from our friends and family. We were nervous to see how Elsa would react to a new baby in the house, but she was unbelievable! There are plenty of times when she's rambunctious and accidentally leans on Brighton, but for the most part she smothers her with kisses, rubs her head, and tries to "shhhh" her when she's crying. She also calls her "BT" which is our new favorite nickname. Overall she's been awesome.
Brighton has also been a great baby- basically sleeping and eating non stop. Brandon has been great letting me sleep when she sleeps and feed her every five seconds, and in doing so he's had a great 2 weeks hanging out with Elsa. We're all going to be very sad that he has to go to work tomorrow!

Click here for Pawley's Island Pictures!

Pawleys Island

We just got back from another successful trip to Pawleys Island, SC! The group was complete with Maggie and Paul flying in from Boston, and Laura, Joe and Colby driving down with us from Bmore. Laura and I drove down with Colby and Elsa, which could have been more fun, but after 2 days and a cozy stay in a Super 8, we met Maggie and Paul at Katinka II for a week of doing absolutely nothing but relaxing on the beach, chasing babies, eating well, and more chasing babies.
We're already getting excited for next year!
Click link above for pics!

Click here for Disney pictures

DisneyWorld!

Okay, I know I've been slacking and so I'm skipping over some major pictures here, but the Disney pictures are just too good to not send out. So here's a recap of our fantastic trip to Orlando. It's a little long- read only if you're intereted.

Day 1: Friday, May 22nd. I had the day off so I packed and played with Elsa while Brandon worked. Mom and I picked him up around 4:30pm and went straight to the airport. Naturally Elsa always sleeps up to the point that we get on the plane, and this time was no exception. We boarded with no issue, took off on time (which is a first for Airtran) and landed right on time (also a first). While we were walking through the airport one of the cleaning crew employees gave Elsa a Mickey Mouse balloon- which she didn't really get but we appreciated it! I had arranged a car to pick us up at the airport (fancy- but cheaper than a rental all weekend), and off we went to the hotel.

Day 2: Saturday, May 23rd. Woke up early- correction- Elsa woke us up early and we got dressed and decided to head over to downtown Disney for breakfast thinking there would be a million dining options there. Unfortunately, it was just McDonalds but that works for us. We came back to the hotel and decided to see how much Elsa liked the pool. She LOVED it! She especially enjoyed jumping in and out, and showed us that by doing it repeatedly.
After the pool we went back to the room, showered, got dressed, and took off for Animal Kingdom. Since I'm super friendly in DisneyWorld I noticed that the woman selling our tickets was from Baltimore (it says so on their name tags). Turns out she graduated from Towson High School in 1965! Practically classmates!
So Animal Kingdom is where we realized a few things.
a. Orland is hot in May
b. We no longer have a baby and we now have a kid. A kid who decides that she's not interested in riding in a stroller and would prefer to walk through a crowded theme park. But it was still very funny. Elsa couldn't have cared less during the safari and the majority of the rides (even took a nice nap during a few), but she loved the petting zoo. We had to drag her away from the goats and she probably ruined a good amount of family pictures for other guests because she refused to move. But she would look up at their camera and smile at least.
So after Animal Kingdom we decided to go to Epcot. We were starving by this point and spent the first part of our time there hanging out in Morocco while Elsa slept. After that we went on a few rides, and were thoroughly enjoying Spaceship Earth when we came out to realize that it was pouring. Torrential downpour. There was nothing we could do but try to make our way back to the hotel (which means monorail to monorail to another Disney resort to a bus to downtown Disney to our hotel). So we were soaking wet and tired by the time we got to downtown Disney. But Elsa was perfect and dry in her fantastic stroller (courtesy of Aunt Laura and Uncle Joe).

Day 3: Sunday, May 24th.
We had plans to meet up with the Lucas family Sunday night at Epcot for the fireworks. Since we had a parkhopper pass, we had the brillian idea that we'd relax in the morning, go to Magic Kingdom in the afternoon, and just run over to Epcot at night. But, after the immense amount of rain the night before, I was nervous that if we went to the park too late our time would be cut short and we'd miss out on stuff. So, instead of relaxing we woke up and immediately got ready to go to Magic Kingdom. It seemed that it was even hotter than the day before, but we still had a lot of fun going on the rides with Elsa. Elsa, on the other hand, seemed generally unimpressed. She also didn't hesitate to remind us how much she enjoyed walking around, eating by herself, and refusing any help from us at all.
After hours and hours at Magic Kingdom we made our way over to Epcot to try to do some of the rides we missed the day before. Unfortunately, it did start to rain again, but fortunately not nearly as hard as it had the day before. We were able to meet up with the Lucas family (which was SO much fun) and learned that Elsa also loved playing in the rain. I'm sure there were a lot of parents questioning our parenting skills as Elsa was lying in puddles in the outdoor cantina in Mexico, but I'll never see them again. The rain stopped and we were able to enjoy the fireworks and make it back to our hotel. The Stano family had successfully stayed at theme parks for over 12 hours in one day.

Day 4: Monday, May 25th. We were sad we had to leave, but also were totally exhausted. We had a fun morning playing at the pool, one last lunch at downtown Disney, and then back to the plane to fly home. Elsa was a little cranky (downright miserable) for the first half of the flight until she finally fell asleep and stayed asleep until well after we got home. A huge thanks to Mom who cooked us dinner when we got home since we would never have been able to do it! And a HUGE thanks to Laura and Joe for the awesome stroller and helping Mom dog-sit. We are lucky to have great friends/family.

Favorite quotes from the week that we weren't supposed to hear:
1. While Brandon was standing in line getting food, I was walking around with Elsa and she tripped and fell on to the carpet. Before pushing herself back up she crawled a few feet, at which point the woman standing by Brandon in line goes, "ugh, what kind of parent let's their child do that? That's disgusting." Brandon looked up to see with pride that it was us.
2. In line at the Haunted Mansion the woman behind us said to her husband, "I think the girl ahead of us is pregnant again, but I don't want to ask her", to which he replied, "well, it's a lose-lose. If she's not than she's just fat, but if she is then it sucks she's about to have 2 kids." Then they laughed. I had to laugh a little too.
3. Becky Lucas overhead a couple talking about her son, Patrick, as she was walking through a crowd. The one person said, "oh what a cute baby" (which he is, by the way) and the man, yes, the man, said, "aww, even my ovaries are aching!".

The link to the pictures is above!

Walking!

So Friday Elsa turned one, Saturday she had a party, and Sunday she realized she better get moving! All of the sudden she is fully capable of walking!

Click HERE for Elsa's 10 and 11 Month Pictures

So I skipped a month...

Hi All,

I know I missed Elsa's 10 month update, but you now get double the dose in pics and videos to make up for it!

Since we got back from San Francisco, we had a great Christmas with the Daley family. Elsa didn't quite understand what to do with her presents, but luckily she's actually using them all!

After Christmas we celebrated New Years with the Collins-Sawicki family (party animals!) and then saw the fireworks which were rescheduled for the next night in the Inner Harbor. Even though it was cold and loud, Elsa seemed to enjoy herself!



We also got to play outside in the park near the house. On the warm days we took Elsa to the playground and on the cold days we took her sledding.

We also took her to Great-Grandma's house in New Jersey (when she wasn't there) and walked along the beach.
Then we retuned two weeks later to Atlantic City for Brandon's 30th Birthday! Elsa is definitely a little traveler.



Besides that, she is standing on her own but has yet to take a couple of step (with the exception of at daycare). We think walking will be anyday, which is equally scary and exciting!

We can't believe she'll be a year old in just a few weeks!!!

Might as well JUMP!

Elsa channels David Lee Roth... down to the high pitched singing.