I've been meaning to write a post about our Labor Day weekend for days but unfortunately both Dealey and I are sick....it sucks but I guess the nice thing about it is I have so much to do with him every day to make sure he doesn't get worse that I don't have time to remember just how crappy I feel....so as we enter Thursday the snot flows freely in the Maples household and it looks like it'll be flowing steady for many days to come!

Okay enough about yucky stuff, lets talk about Labor Day! Matt and I spent Labor Day weekend hanging out at beaches, talking and enjoying what little time we get to all spend together. The best discovery was Bradley Beach, NJ it was incredible we were sad that we found it at the end of the season. Yeah that's right end of the season. Apparently up here Labor Day is officially the end of summer, everybody leaves the city, heads to the beaches and soaks up the last of the warm sun. However it was barely 70 degrees but the water was surprisingly warm. We splashed in the water walked the shore and talked about life.

I knew this move was going to be hard, moving to NY leaving everybody and starting our family. But there are many days I'm ready to endure everything I dislike about Texas just be back with family and friends. I have no idea what life holds for us where we'll be or what we'll be doing but I think for the first time in my life I realize just how much we need those things in our life. But for now life is in NY and I Heart NY, I just wish we had family and friends to love it with us. Here's some pics of our weekend, we went to South Beach Saturday night, and Matt took some cool pics then we were in NJ all day Sunday, we did IKEA, Trader Joes, a cute little town called Meutchen where we took a break and had ice cream at a place called "What's the Scoop", then we headed to Bradley Beach, hung on the beach until dusk, walked the boardwalk and enjoyed a MexiCali dinner at a place called "Fins". Enjoy the pics and remember you could see this all first hand when you each plan your trips to NY!!!!!!

South Beach & Verrazano Bridge


Bradley Beach, NJ

I was at my new favorite hang recently "Everything Goes Book Cafe" and they have this question posted on the wall in huge letters and I found myself starring at it. The fear of failure has been my nemesis my whole life. So I've been spending the last few days walking around Staten Island and Manhattan trying to answer this very question and what I've found is that the answer is so confusing I don't know where to start. I thought I'd toss the question out there to see what thoughts it provoked in others and what your answers would be....

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM LITTLE D TO YOU.....HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE....I HOPE YOU HAVE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY AND YOUR WHOLE LIFE THROUGH....HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM LITTLE D TO YOU!

Happy 32nd Birthday daddy, you deserve the best life has to offer and I hope D and I can always give that to you because you give it to us everyday! We love you so much and hope you have the best year EVER!

We spent a wonderful Saturday in Manhattan. We should have stayed home and unpacked the mountain of boxes we still have but what fun is that? So we packed up and headed to Manhattan for a walk through the farmers market in Union Square where we picked up some yummy snacks to eat once we got to Central Park. When we got to Central Park we landed in a great little area called Cedar Hill where we soaked up the sun, played with D a.k.a. "mr. right" and people watched (one of the most fun things to do in NYC)....So 9 hours later we were back on S.I. where we headed to one of my new favorite places Every Thing Goes Cafe for this cool Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer player but we headed out early because we were both so exhausted....Here's some picks from our day in the city!

When we first got to the park, D was half asleep and was seriously confused about where we were!

But once he figured out there were people he couldn't stop looking around, he didn't want to miss anything!

And then he was ready to pose and be funny. It's been so fun to watch his personality slowly come out, I feel there's more to come but every little bit is just that much more amazing!

Mr. Right is Mr. Cool! Watch out ladies he's going to be a hottie!

Oh and D's new favorite thing, blowing bubbles. Okay not new because he did it in utero but it's so funny to see him discover, he thinks it's so funny!

I couldn't help it Matt kept taking my pictures and you all know how much I love that so I started making faces to make it slightly more tolerable! Until next time.....big hugs and love.

NYdoctors....

We had our first dr. visit in NY today D did great considering he was pocked, stretched and stuck with needles :oO. The doctor said he was doing great he's in the 25th percentile on all his stats which she said was good considering were he started. We'll be working hard the next couple of weeks to get him on a more regular schedule which if it works as well as it looks on paper means slightly more restful nights for mom and dad!!!! So here's the update as of August 16, 2007

10lb 15 oz : 22 1/2 inches

He's healthy and growing and for the most part happy if we can get him a little more regular we think we'll get to see a few more smiles from time to time, however I must say it's seems our D is a pretty mellow and serious person, he always looks like he's thinking about something, my guess: " who are these crazy people they've left me with, what wierdos!?" Or maybe he's just wondering when he gets to eat again! Either way we're just happy he's healthy!

2MONTHSandgrowing...

I turned 2 months old this weekend and I must say it's been quite an eventful life so far, and in case any of you guys didn't already know, my parents are crazy! They moved me to New York when I was a month old and I've ridden the subway, eaten in little italy, rode in a limo, met everyone at daddy's work, looked at art in union square, walked a million miles with mommy (mostly when I decide I want to cry and cry) and today I got to touch sand for the first time. However I believe my greatest accomplishment is that I've driven both Mom & Dad to the brink of insanity! I put my evil plan in to place only moments after birth while everyone was ooooing and aweing over my big eyes and out of control tongue....

We are all getting settled in NY and can't wait for more visitors, we had a blast with Matt's mom, sister, aunt & cousin! Here's a bunch of pics daddy took to celebrate my b-day!

Hugs as mommy would say....and a sprinkle of m&m's!

And now for the comparison...from one month :2: two months!

I almost fit in my bumbo and there is hope someday I might grow into my feet..hee! Watch for pics from the beach this week, we're just getting ready to hang with mommy and daddy's friends JD & Celeste and my new friend Colin (their son), they live in California!

INTERNETaddict

that's what I am! We have been without internet since Wednesday and today I could take it no more, so D and I packed up and headed to Starbucks for some body warming tea and INTERNET! We might have it back by Sunday but not really sure yet. So I responded to a few emails people sent and now I have to run, so if I didn't get to yours I'll try to tomorrow, I have access hear until 4:00 pm....if you need something now, call my cell phone! Pray internet returns soon...PLEASE!

On Saturday afternoon Matt got home, his mom and sister arrived shortly after and his aunt and cousin arrived in the city late that night. Sunday around noon we all met in the city @ Union Square where we shopped and walked before heading to Little Italy for what quickly became a series of events that would make for the best day we've had in NYC so far!

It all started with a fun subway ride down to Little Italy where we almost lost Matt's cousin Tabitha because she suddenly jumped back on the subway car thinking she left her phone, luckily we had a small overnight bag for Matt's mom and sister that they were able to shove in the door and Tab leaped for freedom over the bag as laughter ensued. We walked into Little Italy towards a restaurant called La Mela. The afternoon was perfect a crisp breeze made the sun seem less intrusive than it had been in previous days. We sat on the sidewalk, enjoyed a huge bottle of the best house wine I've ever had, talked and enjoyed the amazing food. We chose to do family style where you don't pick the meal, they just start bringing you course after course. First caprizi salad, gorgeous tomatoes, thick slices of the freshest mozzarella and fragrant fresh basil all drizzled with yummy EVOO! The second course, grilled mozzarella wrapped in something buttery and delish, mushroom caps filled with sun dried tomatoes and cheese and roasted asparagus and red peppers, God could it get better? Why yes it can, as the waiter softly placed a massive tray of pastas on our table Gnocchi in marinara and cheese bubbling on top. Fresh tri-color cheese tortellini in a crazy yummy cream & marinara sauce. The third pasta was rigatoni in fresh tomato sauce with fresh basil ever so perfectly scattered on top.

Tabitha with a very sleepy D in Little Italy...

Now that's a milk drunk baby!

We couldn't resist his face was just to perfect for this shot!

So as you can imagine by this point we were all getting a little tipsy and very full, but there were still two courses to go ?! We went ahead and "forced" ourselves to eat the meat course with buttery lemon chicken, shrimp in marinara sauce and roasted garlic chicken. We decided to stop before the desert course because we wanted to go someplace else after our show. We finished our wine (seriously yummy) and started walking back towards the subway, when the next memorable moment happened...we saw a limo, he noticed the size of our group and Jeri (Matt's Aunt) and Matt went over to negotiate, not sure what they decided on but the next thing we all knew we were in the back of a white stretch limo traveling the streets of Manhattan. Singing horribly loud and laughing. It was D's first limo ride!

We got to Jeri's hotel unloaded and headed upstairs to get freshened up for our next adventure...BROADWAY! We went to see "Mama Mia" which I highly recommend it was fabulous and hilarious! I don't know many ABBA songs but it didn't matter the "older" couple sitting next to me knew every word! We left the show and headed to a favorite desert place of mine and Matt's called Juniors off 45th & Broadway they have amazing 7 layer cakes & awesome cheesecake (that's what they're known for) so we sat and talked and ate and laughed before heading back to the hotel where I picked up Matt and Deals and the three of us headed towards home. We got to the ferry just in time for 12:30 am departure and thank goodness we did, because after that the next one wasn't until 1:30....aahhh! It was an amazing day in the city for sure the first of many memorable moments.

Not sure why we were so surprised about our love of Little Italy after all Matt has professed for years that his love of Italian food means he must be Italian...well while I'm pretty sure there isn't an ounce of Italian in my fair skinned freckled faced husband, I am sure that our love of all things Italian runs deep and we can't wait for many more lovely dinners on the streets of Little Italy followed with more amazing Broadway musicals! We are definitely learning about great places to take all our friends when they come visit so book your trips now, we can't wait to share our NY with all of you!

And here's a few pics of our sweet boy!

I have a music crush on this group :Crooked Still: My sister-n-law Thea turned me on to them last summer when we were in Canada. They have a new album (Shaken by a Low Sound) out and I encourage everyone to check them out, they describe themselves as Acoustic/Folk Rock I describe them as freakn' awesome!

They are going to be in NY in Nov and we're going to see them, you should ALL come join us!

Check out their website www.crookedstill.com you can listen to a few of the songs off the new album there as well as purchase it or you can listen to and buy it and their other album "Hop High" on iTunes!

Hi friends, I wanted to introduce you guys to a very special family the Gross's. They are officially our first S.I. friends! I meet Christine at Starbucks on Monday and then Wednesday we went on the longest walk ever not really but the North Shore is all hills and I think we both felt like we walked them all! Steven & Christine have the most precious little girl Eva (isn't she cute)!

You guys would have been so proud to see me talk to a stranger granted I had my black jacket on and you know with the binkie in place I can trick my mind into thinking I'm a stronger person than I am. Thank God for Starbucks and courage! For the first time since we got here my hope was renewed that this was the best decision we've ever made! I can't wait for you guys to come to NY and meet the Gross's!

* intheMINDofmommies *

The first word that comes to my mind is fear. I think this is because of my current state of being a single parent. As if getting used to having a newborn isn't hard enough trying to do it without the support of your significant other is torture to put it mildly. No shoulder to cry on when you just can't figure out what's going on. No one to share the feedings, the diapers, the sleepless nights and the fear that you are or aren't doing what you need to do to support this little life. I know these are only the beginnings of fear and it will take on many meanings as D grows up but right now I ask the question will we make until Matt comes home? 4 days and 2 hours to go and as D works his way through the 6th week of his life I feel like we won't but deep down I know we'll get through this (never allowing Matt to leave us again....yeah right) and Saturday evening will come and for the first time this week I will get to shed tears of joy instead of tears, of desperation, fear, anxiety and hopelessness.

What's in the mind of my mommy friends? What one word comes to mind immediately when you think of your role as Mom, is it the same word you would have used a month ago?

WELCOMEpierce

Our friends Sheldon & Renee welcomed their little boy Pierce Thomas Sunday morning at 5:11 am he was a healthy 7 lbs 3 oz and 20 1/2 inch long boy with good lungs (Renee said)! I hate that we can't be there with you guys to share in your joy, I can't wait to meet him!

CONGRATULATIONS! WE LOVE & MISS YOU TONS!

This evening after a long day or rain I took a walk to my new favorite place, Silver Lake Park. It's this great park just a few blocks from our new home. It's so peaceful, lots of families spending time together it makes me excited about the days to come with Dealey. Matt is on a commercial shoot in Dallas and we miss him so much, me more than D, I must say as I haven't eaten or slept much in the last four days and I still have 7 days to go....aaahhhhh! Here's a few pics of the park and a special message for daddy!

ps. Daddy, Mommy says you have to come home soon before she goes insane! Personally I think she's one cookie short of a full jar already...hee, but come home soon anyways...The D-man

I decided to institute another picture day not because it's necessary but because I can't seem to always remember to do my Wordless Wednesday so starting today we have Tongue-tied Thursday! Why Thursday well it's usually about Thursday morning that I remember to do it!

NEWfriends

The D man has his first friend, just tonight as we came back from Manhattan on the ferry I looked down and he was hugging Hank's leg. It was short lived but it was too cute. However when we first introduced them I wasn't sure how it was going to go, as you can see in the first pic D had some choice words for the maroon monkey invading his car seat and then threw out one of his gang signs knocking Hank over to the edge of the seat in pic 2. D and Hank are best of friends now spending almost all day together. Hank has been spit up on and nearly pooped on yet he hangs around, I think we've all found a friend for life!

On a different topic isn't the D man getting big? I think he's got to be near 8 lbs now (feels more like 20 lbs sometimes, especially at 6:00 in the morning). I can't believe it! He is still wearing new born size clothes and a few of the smaller sized 0-3 but he's definitely grown maybe by the time we're 2 months old we'll be wearing all our 0-3!

PS. Dealey had several first today...his first ferry ride, subway ride, trip to Times Square, stroll threw the M & M store, hang time in Central Park, meal at Juniors and a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty among other things....I can't believe we're getting the opportunity to give Dealey the chance to spend the first years of his life in such an amazing place!

ROADtrip

We finally got internet access today and I'm so excited, however the lack of it did make me realize I might have a bit of an addiction, but oh well, I could have much worse addictions so I figure I won't obsess about it too much. I'll apologize now for the length of this post but wanted to cover the last few days of traveling and unpacking....


dayONE
Texas sent us off well this morning it was overcast and slightly cool, as if Texas was saying, “see I’m not too bad you don’t have to be so happy about leaving.” I started the day off driving with a sense of excitement I wanted to be the one that drove out of Texas, there was something thrilling and liberating about it. We’re driving into this new season of our life with so much fear, excitement, love and wonder. What does New York City hold for us, what adventures will we have besides the obvious watching Dealey grow and become the little person he’s meant to be. We can’t wait to find out.

It’s been an interesting week leading up to our departure we have some dear friends going through a really rough time in their life and I know Matt and I both have struggled with walking away from friends we’ve had all our lives but as my friend Rana said,” friends come in and out of your life but that doesn’t mean they’re aren’t always your friend...”and it’s so true. Life is full of so many seasons and I think it would be impossible and overwhelming to maintain ever friendship at high capacity through every season and I do believe that different friendships/relationships go through periods of growth when you need them most.

When we stopped on day one we we’re 743 miles from the only life we’ve ever known in the only city we’ve ever lived together and apart. It definitely leaves an unsettling feeling in my stomach, but then I look over to D and he’s so calm, just sleeping the day away with no cares in the world, no stress, luck little guy! Wish we could look at and live life that way.


dayTWO
Well, day 2 started much like day one...TOO EARLY! However I must give props to my mom she took over taking care of Dealey so Matt and I could both get a little extra sleep. We expected this day to be shorter but contrary to our desires it was longer than day one. None of us could pin point exactly what made it so long we had some traffic, maybe stopped a few more times but nothing too crazy. However we ended up in the wonderful town of Haggerstown, Maryland, we got to drive through the historic downtown to get to our hotel and it was so cute and quaint. We can not wait to go back sometime and explore.

WHAT?: Hungry Mother State Park.....you probably have the same look we did on our face....what the crap?! If you haven’t been to Hungry Mother....well you just haven’t lived!

Nothing much else to say about day two of our road trip to NYC just lots of beautiful landscape as we traveled from Nashville, through the rest of Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.....


dayTHREE
Sunday, we all woke up excited that our trip was almost over (it wouldn’t be until later that we remembered the end of driving meant that we had to unpack the truck). It was a short 4 1/2 hour drive from Haggerstown to Staten Island through Pennsylvania & New Jersey. We got in around 2:00 after getting lost and somewhat turned around in Jersey trying to get to a specific bridge to get over to Staten Island. We started unpacking the car and the truck into the first floor apartment......

That’s right I said first floor apartment, the crazy people on the second floor are causing all sorts of problems but they have finally agreed to get out of our apartment by the 31 of July so we’ll be moving again in a few weeks, probably on the 5th, but Carlos & Andy two strong guys, one is the landlords son (Carlos) and the other one is a family friends anyways Carlos has the muscles as his mom Maria put it so hopefully it will go quickly and I can finally after more than 4 months unpack our stuff and get back to a somewhat normal life. The hardest part about it is that Matt’s going to be gone on and off through the month of August so he won’t be here to help with much unpacking and after only spending a short time together here he will leave for a week and half and as soon as he gets back we have to move again so I am desperately looking forward to him being home and being able to spend the little time we have together playing with the Dealey Monster and exploring our new home.

We have to thank everyone for your prayers as we traveled a VERY special thanks to the Avants', Tammy helped us pack all day Thursday and then Thursday night we invaded their home for the night, all 6 of us! They have been such wonderful friends through the darkest and brightest moments of our lives since we’ve meet them and we will miss them and all our friends so much we talked about all our friends while driving and also talked about how we can only hope to find as many wonderful peeps here in NYC. Speaking of meeting people we had our first random meeting today and Dealey proved to be quite the conversation starter. We ate at a great pizza place called Cafe Milano (this one’s menu goes in the definite KEEP pile) we had an awesome NY style pizza with pepperoni and Italian sausage sliced not the ground up stuff, so freaking yummy. Anyways, sorry I got side tracked, this nice lady with a toddler just started talking to me, asked how old D was and it went on from there she said that we would love it here and there’s lots of families and kids, then she introduced herself as Karen and said she see us again, it was awesome hopefully I will see her again walking around or at the park!

We hope everyone is doing awesome, keep those blogs updated and I’ll do the same and seriously anytime you get the urge to take a trip NYC, do it! You get to hang with us and D so all around it’s just the best trip you’ll ever have! :o) The Maples B & L (because you all know I do not do mornings) is always open! Love, Hugs and Skittles all the way from NYC....

HAPPYhour

Wednesday we went and meet a bunch of friends for happy hour, drank a good margarita....okay two good margarita's and said some wonderful goodbyes to some very dear friends. One of our friends Steve took these pictures and photoshoped them up a little...it's just too hilarious not to share, Dealey's first happy hour and definitely not his last. We're raising our little guy right! Updates from the road to come later, we're in Nashville and of course exhausted but the trip is going great!

Thanks Steve for the great pics and thanks Sharon for sending them to us, we love you guys, can't wait for happy hour in the fall!

Also the monkey is D's new favorite friend Hank! Post about Hank (and his evil twin Frank) to come soon!

I decided I had to do one more Wordless Wednesday from Texas and last night Matt and I took this picture, we wanted to see what D looked like in his bumbo chair. Needless to say laughter ensued he's so little the back of the bumbo is a great little headrest...hee...but his feet look huge, it was just too cute not to capture on camera!

LEAVINGtexas

Sorry I haven't blogged in several days, I have plenty of stuff to post but no time to post it, so just wanted to drop a quick not to say hi. We are crazy busy packing up the last of our stuff we leave Texas Friday morning for a 2 1/2 day trip to New York....I do have one comment about our current experience, if anyone is thinking about moving, with a newborn, DON'T, Dealey is fine, but there just isn't enough time between feedings to get crap done and it's down to the wire and stress is the name of the game.....got to run! We will write more from the road.