CeCe Pants

cece fianlly made it to her 9 month appointment! her last appointment was cancelled due to the level 3 snow emergency. 

this adorable babe is 10 months and 7 days today. she's gained about half a pound since her last well visit, so as you can see, shes right on track with hadley. teeny tiny.

she's crawling like crazy, of course, and walking along furniture, between furniture, and now squatting on her two feet. in no time miss caroline will be standing unassisted. way to go, girlfriend.

cece's favorite foods are ritz crackers, grillers, yogurt, applesauce, and anything off mom or dad's plates. and she is really looking forward to peanut butter soon.

our little lady does not enjoy the snow, or cold. she hates socks, shoes, coats, and cold. bummer for her, living in ohio. she is looking forward to spring soon.

but aren't we all?!?! it. is. cold. 

xoxo, al

aquapocalypse 2014

for those of you who are wondering what the heck is up in toledo, this is a pretty good link to fill you in on our state of emergency. 

this weekend, while many toledoans were heading off to find cleaner water with friends or family, we headed straight to the lake. 

lake erie, the source of our water, is less than 30 minutes from our house. we have frequented there in the 2.5 years we've been in toledo during snow, sleet, rain, wind, sun, ice, and now, ALGAE!

joseph and i are known for exploring, adventuring and checking out all things interesting, and the scary water here is no exception. we'd seen a few photos on the news or social media, and wanted to see for ourselves what exactly was out there in lake erie, from where toledo pulls our water.

joseph was brave enough to get down and dirty to check this algae out. it was nasty. it looks very thick, like odwalla superfood. in hand, you can see that at this spot, it has no thick layer on the top to stick to his hands, but the water clearly (hahah!) is appalling. 

  we have seen the water in many seasons, but this is by far the nastiest season yet. 

in case you were wondering where CeCe was all this time...as for hadley, her photos show her at her worst, so i'll save them for another time.

disclaimer: no children touched the water for the purposes of our adventure.

xoxo, al

Baby g2

Given that CeCe is one month old today, I find it entirely appropriate to drop everything and take the time to introduce her to the blog!

Likely, if you read this blog, you've already been informed of Sweet Caroline's arrival, either by Facebook or intsagram, or even call or text. But here's the little story of our teeny new baby. 

And a few photos. 

On the 18th, I woke up to contractions around 2:30 am. After a couple hours, Joseph finally woke up enough to figure out something was up. 

We put the finishing touches on our hospital bags, showered, and dropped Hadley off at my sweet friend Marcy's house. 

Upon arrival to the maternity unit, I thought for sure I'd be sent home. After my long, long experience with Hadley, my expectations for this delivery were somewhat the same. 

But they kept me. I was so miserable that I didn't even have the energy to be upset my mom wasn't arriving until that evening. However, I was worrying about who would get her from the airport. When my friend Tammy volunteered a ride, we jumped on that;) 

Anyway. I was out of triage and into a labor room by 9. By 12 I had my epidural. And at 16:16, Caroline Claire Gilbuena made her appearance. We were so tired and relieved, and I was just ready for my mom and Hadley to arrive to meet her. 

This is all a long story short, and I am happy to share a birth story soon, I've had a lot of fellow moms and friends asking if I'll jump on the bandwagon and share. 

Now on to the last month of our life;)

Hadley was instantly in love with her little sister. Here's to hoping that lasts forever. 

My amazing friend Marcy hosted a baby shower for CeCe. It was orinigally scheduled for the 19th, but Cece's early arrival had us otherwise engaged. But this way, everyone got to meet her!

I don't know if you can tell, but my mom enjoyed her time here with us. Or rather, with them. 

Schlumpy baby visits Daddy at the office. 

CeCe goes to coffee. 

CeCe got her first bath. 

CeCe attended her first baseball game, at 9 days old. 

Miss tiny bum tried cloth diapers, three of four leaked. Will try again soon. 

CeCe got Daddy snuggles. 

CeCe got glasses. 

CeCe went to the zoo. 

CeCe went to Katie's birthday party. 

CeCe went to te beach. 

CeCe napped in our bed. 

CeCe held all our stuff while we played at the park. 

CeCe joined us for brunch. 

And now CeCe is alseep. 

You are all caught up. 

Thanks for stopping by! You can look forward to many more entertaining baby posts soon. 

Xoxo, al

just another day...

if you follow us at all, you know one of our favorite things to do as a family is spend the day at the zoo! this comes in second to baseball, which is not likely to lose "favorite family activity" title any time soon. but since it isn't always baseball season, there isn't a home game every day, and the mud hens don't have penguins or elephants, the toledo zoo has our hearts.

just a few weeks ago, our zoo opened a new exhibit, wild walkabout. we have been excited to check it out, and finally had the chance last week. who doesn't love some adorable wallabies??

 hadley absolutely loved walking around so close up to these, there really was not much between us and them, which i am betting was amazing to a three year old!

 our goal had been to hit all the wild walkabout animals newly on display, and make an effort to see animals we didn't normally check out. so, we hit the aviary and the insects and reptiles. of course, no trip is complete without the good ol' favorites like the elephants, hippos, monkeys and tigers. 

mission accomplished. 

Plus, when it's warm and sunny outside, you've gotta throw on your suit and take a walk in the creek at nature's neighborhood. 

what are you up to this summer? we'd love to hear new ideas, toledo specific or not. 

xoxo, al