May Travels

We went camping with my mom for Mother’s Day this year. Bradyn loves the outdoors rain or shine! It rained the first day we got there, but once it stopped we went around the campground and jumped in every single puddle we could find. He loved that! He kept running through them over and over again. He also liked throwing rocks in the water and watching them splash!

The highlight of this camping trip was how extatic Bradyn got over all of the boats at the marina! He saw one boat at the campground and got excited, so we thought we would take him to the marina to see LOTS of boats. Oh my!! I wish you could have see the excited look on his face when he initially saw them, then we got out and walked along the boardwalk and he kept saying, “Another one! Another one! Oooooooooh a BIG one! It’s MOOVING! I’m Excited!!” Tons of fun!

I also found myself at Huntington Beach, California for a week long work trip. It was an offsite Finance & Control meeting. It was a pretty good mix of business & pleasure. There were speakers, presentations, etc, but the evenings were filled with good food and free beer! We even had a little downtime to enjoy the beach and the pool. One of the days was a community service event day. There were about 300 of us that partnered up with an organization called KABOOM! and we spent 5 hours one day building an entire playground for an underpriviledged community center in California.. The space started out as a blank slate of dirt. By the end of the day we had transformed it into an amazing playspace complete with swings, slide, climbing wall, benches, shade shelter, and planted a vegetable garden for them as well. It was a very rewarding experience and it was nice to get to know some of our co-workers a little better that we used to just know over the phone.

Watch the playground transform here: PLAYGROUND

See more pictures here: PLAYGROUND PICS

Since I was already out in California and it just happened to be the week before Memorial Day, Chad and Bradyn met me out there and we took Bradyn to San Diego! We took Bradyn to the San Diego Zoo & to Sea World. Yeah Yeah, I know, the kid seems to be spoiled already… getting to go to San Diego for his second birthday. LOL Really though, it just worked out that way. Family vacation with one flight paid for by Nestle and it just happened to be over Bradyn’s birthday! Bradyn loved the zoo, but more so enjoyed Sea World. He had a blast watching the Shamu Show and watching the crowd get splashed! He even puts his hands in the air, makes a triangle with his fingers, and moves his arms up and down chanting “Shamu, Shamu, Shamu”. That’s what we were told to do to make Shamu splash!

Bradyn is 2!!

Can you believe it!? Bradyn is 2 now! Where has time gone? Seems like just yesterday he was our little tiny baby. Not so little anymore my friends. At his 2 year appt he was off the charts (still). He’s literally the size of a 3 year old. He measured 38 inches tall and weighed 34lbs. He’s talking up a storm now and is in the “kids say the darndest things” stage. It’s so fun to hear some of the things he comes up with. He likes to sing songs (especially ones from the movies, Mary Poppins, Wizard of Oz, or Charlie & the Chocolate Factory). His favorite right now is “Step In Time” from Mary Poppins, and apparently it is 8 ½ Step in Times from our house to Bradyn’s Daycare! LOL

We finally broke down and took Bradyn to get his first barbershop haircut. We took him to a kids place called Cookie Cutters where the kids can sit in a tractor, car, etc and watch a movie on their own little personal tv while they get their hair cut. After initially being indecisive as to whether he wanted to sit in the airplane, tractor, or pink car, he finally settled on the tractor.

Bradyn’s party this year was a “Things that Go” theme. He loves cars, trucks, busses, trains, and the bigger the better. He also has this infatuation with stop signs. We had a great party and celebrated with lots of friends and family.

Kyla Rae

On April 15th we welcomed a new neice into the family. Chad’s youngest brother Kyle & sister-in-law Laura had Kyla Rae Mazanowski. Kyla is the first female Mazanowski in something like 80+ years! Chad’s grandparents had two boys, and Chad’s parents had three boys, then Dustin & Kristin had Zach, and we have Bradyn. LOTS OF BOYS!!! Little Kyla brings extra special joy to the family as she breaks the streak of the Mazanowski Men.

March Madness & Easter Eggs

This year, ISU had a pretty decent shot at getting into the NCAA tournament, so my mom, Chad, Bradyn and I decided to go down to St. Louis for the MVC tournament and watch our Redbirds for the weekend.

It was a fun, basketball filled weekend. We also took Bradyn down to see the Arch and let him run around the park a little bit. Standing next to the arch really dwarfed him. Man, I forgot just how big it is. ISU ended up losing and didn’t make it into the tournament, but that didn’t stop us from watching the rest of the teams battle it out.

As usual, we filled out our brackets (even Bradyn filled one out), took a couple days off work to watch the first round, and even made our way to Vegas for the Final Four! That just so happened to be because Chad was out there for a business trip & I decided as long as one ticket was paid for, I’d meet him out there for the weekend. While we were out there we stumbled upon some Country Music Awards and saw all the country stars go through their red carpet walk before the show. We aren’t really country music fans, and didn’t know all of them, but I did end up getting Taylor Swift’s autograph. I ended up giving it to a couple behind us who had a 7 year old daughter. I knew she would appreciate it much more than I did. It was a gift for her birthday and they emailed me and thanked me again and said she absolutely loved it and they were very grateful. Always fun to make someone smile!

Easter was tons of fun this year! This was our first year of actually playing Easter Bunny. Bradyn LOVED coloring Easter Eggs and counting them when he was done. My favorite memory from this easter was when we were coloring Easter Eggs. Bradyn had the little wire thingie in his hand waiting to pull the eggs out of the dye and he said, “Stop Sign!”. It took me a second to figure out what he was talking about, but sure enough, the little wire thingie was an octogon and he was calling it a stop sign! That’s our little smarty pants! How he knew that I don’t know. We also had an Easter Egg Hunt outside at my mom’s and he had a blast with cousin Kyleah trying to find the plastic eggs. “Another one, and Another one!” Can’t wait to continue the Easter Traditions for years to come.

Good-bye 2008

Is this for real that 2008 is now over? ummm...hmmm. Wow. I can't believe how fast it went.

Overall it was a great year with many happy moments. Mostly because over the past year we have witnessed the miracle of watching our 6 month old baby grow up into a little big man 19 month old toddler. He's such a special kid. Always happy spirited, active (very active), smart, and has a great loving personality.

Let's see how well my mommy brain can recollect the year for ya. By January, Bradyn was 8 months and cruising furniture with lots of confidence. So we were in for an early walker and rushed around baby proofing the house. January also marked the "official" date that I gained a new sister. :) My brother and his wife went to the courthouse to make it official and were expecting a child in June.

The beginning of February marked Bradyn's first REAL steps at the early age of 8 & 1/2 months! He was so happy to be mobile. It was a whole new world for him (when we left the gate open) And not even a week or two later he discovered the stairs. He loved to crawl up them. His preference was still crawling because he could get there faster, but day by day he walked a little more.

Then came March when Bradyn really started talking a little more than just baby coos. The first words out of his little mouth were "dribble dribble dribble dribble" How appropriate for the month of March as we are huge fans of March Madness and had been watching quite a bit of basketball. We even thought it would be silly/fun to put all of the team logos on pieces of paper and let Bradyn choose his own bracket. LOL That's a fun little tradition we plan on keeping. What can we say, we are basketball freaks.

Springtime was fun because that was Bradyn first real chance to interact with nature. He loved exploring the new textures of the grass, sand, and water. It was so cute to see his initial (almost disgusted) reaction, then watch it turn into a familiarity. He loved smelling flowers, playing with bugs, and carrying the basketball around the neighbor's court.

May was the munchkin's 1st birthday! Wow.. I can't believe how fast that first year went. All of Bradyn's biggest fans came to a backyard "Ducky" party to celebrate. On his actual birthday, Chad and I took him to Chucky Cheese, and he LOVED it. His favorite was the little wack-a-mole game, but he also like the little cars that he could ride.

The summer was jam packed with camping excursions with Grandma Netter, playtime at the parks, walks/wagon rides on the trail, Bradyn's 1st White Sox game, swimming at the pool, and a Maz Family vacation to Myrtle Beach. Chad's entire family (Brothers, sisters-in-law, and parents) all rented a beach house for a week and enjoyed the sun & surf.

In June, I became an Aunt for the second time. My brother and his wife had Kyleah Nicole on June 4th. June was a big month for them as they also had their wedding ceremony & reception later in June.

July & August included Bradyn's extreme uncertainty of fireworks, absolute obsession with hot air balloons, busses, bubbles, lawn mowers, and making his funny duck face. I also found out around that time that I was going to be an aunt again. Chad's younger brother Kyle & his wife Laura are expecting.

September brought quite the rainy month and we spent some time drying out a very wet flooded basement. I could have done without that event...but it was part of the year. Bradyn really hated being couped up inside during those times and quickly learned to say, "rain rain, go away". September was also a happy month as my cousin Kristin got married. We were all so excited that she decided to have her wedding back home so we could all be there. It was so wonderful to see some of my cousins that I have not seen in years. It was an emotional, yet very fun and happy wedding.

September started a very hectic time for me at work this year as my counterpart went on maternity leave right at the beginning of Budget season. (Damn I hate being an accountant) Anyway, September through ...well pretty much now... I was stretched just about as thin as I could have possibly been stretched. I guess what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger huh?? I found myself travelling a lot, and in between work trips, I worked many long hours, many nights even leaving work to go have dinner with Chad and Bradyn, put Bradyn to bed, and then headed back into work until 10:30 or 11pm. I somehow figured out a way to half function on sometimes 4-6 hours of sleep back to back days, weeks, months. But I choose not to talk too much more about that because hopefully those days are behind me after this week and they aren't such happy times of 2008.

October brought Bradyn's 2nd Halloween... He picked out his own costume (sorta)...he was Elllllllvis. He had such a fun time ringing the door bells and we even had him saying his own version of "trick or treat" which sounded more like "tickle tickle". He also loved the pumpkin farm, though he was more interested in "UH OH" ing at the busted pumpkins that picking out a good one. We also carved a pumpkin this year, but Bradyn didn't want to have anything to do with the "ucky" pumpkin guts. The pictures of the disgusted look on his face while mommy pulled them out are just priceless. Once it was all carved and clean, he sure did love it.

While away on one of my work trips in October, my best friend Renee had her first baby. So I became an "aunt" again. I consider Dean my nephew because Renee might as well be my sister. How exciting, but how oh so bummed I was that I was clear across the country when she went into labor! Turns out she asked me to be Dean's God Mother, so that make 2 God babies now :). I'm so honored.

November and December brought many fun family gatherings for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I even found out I'm going to be an aunt AGAIN. As Chad's older brother Dustin & his wife Kristin are going to have another baby. (They already have Zach who's 4.5 months older the Bradyn). Christmas this year was a blast for Bradyn. He was very much into all the pretty lights, presents, and Santa (from a distance). He had a blast tearing into the presents and made the cutest excited faces at his presents.

Throughout the busy year we had raising our little man, we managed to still find time to spend with friends. Plus, the grandparents LOVE baby-sitting! We made time for evenings out at the bars with the buds, played in a dodgeball tourney, baby showers, birthday parties, a weekend or two in Chicago, attending the Booster Benefit, sports leagues around town, and of course ringing in the New Year.

I am so blessed to have such amazing friends and believe it's important that no matter how busy you get in the day to day routine that you take time out and spend a few moments with your friends. They keep you grounded, refreshed, and help keep memories alive because the remeniscing times and laughter that come along with that are priceless.

2008 was a good year...I'm sure I forgot something... I told ya, mommy brain. I understand now how easy it is for an organized person to become so scattered, and how easy it is for the memory to fade. Don't be sad if you're reading this and I haven't mentioned some big key event. It's definitely not that it wasn't important to me, it's that I've got 10,000 things going through my head and I just need a little nudge nudge to remind me. ;)
Good-bye 2008.

Welcome 2009...

Good-Bye 2007!

Well, today it's time to say good-bye to the year 2007. What an amazing and wonderful year it was. It was a year to never be forgotten. This year a new chapter of my life began, Chapter Mommyhood. But I will get to that in a little bit.

Let's start with January. January 12th I became an aunt for the first time. My brother-in-law and his wife had their first child, Zachary, so that made me Auntie Steph. The end of January, I went to San Antonio with my mom, brother, and husband. We did things such as the zoo, NBA game, visited Corpus Christie, and spent a lot of time at the Riverwalk.

March and April I was showered with many gifts for my baby showers. My friends and families planned wonderful parties for us. By the time all of them were over, we had more than enough stuff for the little one.

May 22nd was the big day. My due date was the 29th, but I was induced a week early. At 11:03 am Bradyn Lincoln was born. Since then life hasn't been and will never be the same. As if I wasn't happy enough already, I was suddenly filled with even more joy and love than I ever thought possible. Watching him grow and develop and showing him people and places and things that we love and seeing his reactions to these things has been so amazing and enjoyable. Words just can't describe.

June and July I took time away from work to get to know my baby and enjoy the summer. July 6th was my brother-in-law's wedding. So we packed up the baby at 6 weeks old and traveled up to the Chicago area for a weekend of wedding festivities.

Then it was back to work for me. Leaving Bradyn at daycare was the hardest thing I have ever had to do... still is. I hurt every day after I drop him off. I am sad every day at work, but he has become such a social little guy and I attribute that to daycare. He loves other kids and babies and is very happy even with unfamiliar and new faces.

October was our first Halloween with Bradyn. We had fun dressing him up and dressing up with him. We also took him to the pumpkin patch to pick out his very own pumpkin.

November and December brought with it all of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday festivities. After all of the traveling back and forth between grandparents houses, Bradyn has already become quite the seasoned traveler.

December was a busy month starting with going to see Santa, the baptism, and a a fun warm winter trip to Florida! Of course then there was Bradyn's first Christmas, which was fun. He almost knew what to do with those presents. He was more interested in the shiny paper, boxes, and bows, but we got lots of smiles from him.

So there you have it. In the last 12 months we now a family of three instead of two. And in 7 short months we have shown Bradyn so much already. We introduced him to our families and friends, put him on a plane, stuck his toes in the sand and ocean, and started a lifetime of family traditions.

And despite how busy Bradyn has kept us, we still managed to sneak in some time away to spend with each other and with our friends. Thanks to Bradyn's wonderful grandparents who have been more than willing to relieve us of baby duties every now and then. I think it has definitely kept us in balance.

Last night I rang in the new year with a bang! We partied, laughed, and lived up what was left of 2007 and kicked off 2008 with some of my best buds. I'm so lucky to have them!
What an incredible year! I can't wait to see what's in store for 2008!

Good-bye 2007...

Bradyn is 4 Months Old

Well Bradyn in growing like a weed! We took him to his 4 month check up on Monday and he was 17lbs 7oz and 27 inches tall! The doctor said that puts him in the 92nd percentile for weight and off the charts for height. He's still on pace to be tall like daddy! He also had his second round of shots too. He didn't like that so much. He did well though. He screamed of course, but by the time we got his clothes back on him we had him giggling again. He wasn't really phased by the shots other than he's had some pretty icky poopies this past week. The doctor said it was a normal reaction to one of the shots. He hasn't skipped a beat otherwise though. He's playful, happy, and always smiling!

Bradyn rolls from front to back, and gets to his side from back to front but he gets stuck. He grabs ahold of toys and actually has started interacting with them now. He loves to look at "the baby" in the mirror and gives him a big smile every morning.

As for Chad and I, we are both doing well also. Chad maybe better than I am, I've been pretty stressed with work lately. I try to leave work at work, and I've been doing a pretty decent job of that I think, but when I'm there, I am so busy I barely have time to get up and go pee! LOL Things are crazy because we are deep in budgets, but they are due mid-October, so hopefully after that things will die down! Besides working and being parents, Chad is playing softball on Friday nights and I'm playing volleyball on Tuesday nights. We feel it is important to still keep that aspect of our life to get our sports fix, have a little alone time, and release any built up stress...like I said, I let out those work frustrations every Tuesday!