Bloggin again

I would like to start blogging again as a way to remember things that happen on a typical day in our household!


As a start, we recently visited Great Wolf Lodge - what a fun time.  These two are best friends and worst enemies (AKA typical siblings.)  We can't wait to go back!

"Mommy, come lay with me..."

Today, as I was putting Colin down for a nap he kept pleading with me to lay in his bed while he was falling asleep. Admittedly, nap-time is one of my favorite times of the day, I can get something done (like laundry or the dishes) or I can sit in silence by myself and space out. Today though, for some reason, I was moved to stay with Colin and actually lay with him while he fell asleep. During this time, it occurred to me how few chances I would get to just lay quietly and cuddle with my first born. All of the tasks on my to do list were looming and our house was a mess from a morning play date. BUT...I just took the time and laid there. I actually felt myself relax a little and every 5 minutes or so, Colin would look at me and say "Hi Mama." I was reminded of some quote I have seen a million times, but never taken to heart "The best moms have dirty dishes, sticky floors and happy children" I have no idea who said it, but I understood it today!

I don't want to forget that feeling and I know that he won't always want me that close to him. So, I am going to try to remember to be patient with my boys and take those precious moments and not worry about my to do list!

And now, some gratuitous cuteness....

Best Friends

I just had to share one of my proudest moments as a mom so far....Today, I was holding Ryan and Colin came running up to give him a hug while saying "My best friend Baby Ryan."  Granted, I am not sure he knows what that means, it has to be one of my biggest hopes....that Colin and Ryan will be best friends (but not forget about their mama!)

Lake Chelan

We had a wonderful few weekends in Lake Chelan this summer.  Colin loves the "Yake House" and all the exciting things he gets to do there....flashlight hide and seek, golf, picking apples, watching the horses, walking Mookie and so much more.  What an amazing place to have some family memories....I love the memories I have of Chelan as a child and I really hope Colin and Ryan love it just as much!

Baby Ryan!

Well, this is only 3 months late, but at least it is being posted!

Ryan Andrew Sullivan joined the world on July 9, 2012.  He weighed 8lbs 4oz and was 21.5" long!  A quick recap of the story (and no this isn't edited to sound easier since it is so late, it really was an "easy" process!)

On Saturday, July 7th, I started feeling some interesting feelings and timed these contractions, but they were still at least 8-10 minutes apart and once I went to sleep, they seemed to go away.  Well, on Sunday the 8th, Matt had a softball game and we decided to go to the game and let Colin play with Drew and let Matt play a little ball.  As I was sitting with a friend watching the kids and watching the game, I noticed more and more contractions, but they never really hurt.  That continued and after the game, we decided to go to dinner to celebrate Matt's birthday a day early.  Good thing we did because....

By 8pm, we decided to head to the hospital and once they checked me in we realized this was happening sooner rather than later!  Babysitters came for Colin and after a seemingly short night of labor (short after I got the epidural) Baby Ryan Andrew Sullivan joined our family.

His name is the middle names of my brothers and we just loved him from the minute he joined us!

The Happiest Place on Earth

We decided to one last trip before the new baby would arrive, so we booked a trip to California with my parents.  Colin was excited to go on the airplane and we were excited that he had his own seat on the plane! We stayed at the Marriott Newport Villas which is a great resort and very family friendly, I hope we can go back.  Colin loved playing golf on the putting green.  Of course we had to make a trip to Disneyland!

Marking his ball

Future pro?

Walking on the beach with Nana and Papa 

Chubby pregnant face

Dumbo ride!

Does everyone come back from Disneyland with a picture like this?

Yes, we put our almost 2 year old on a roller coaster!

Not sure if he liked it or not....

Where have I been?

Somewhere between Colin moving from his highchair (see last post) to having a new baby, I guess I decided blogging had to take a backseat.  Funny how time flies!  Well, since it has been almost exactly a year, I thought I would add some pictures.  We had a Halloween, Christmas, 2nd birthday party and so much more.    Just a few pictures....

Thank you to Jonah for taking family pictures!

Christmas Ships!

2nd birthday party at Touch a Truck 

Nana made a truck cake!

Who's the Boss?

Yesterday, when I was on my hands and knees picking up goldfish crackers while Colin was devilishly (is that a word?) laughing in his high chair I realized something....we like to think as parents that we are "in charge" there is just no way that is true.

Did you ever read the book "Seinlanguage"? There is a chapter where Seinfeld writes that if aliens are looking down at us, they will think dogs run the world since they lead us around by their leashes and pick up their poo. Well, I would like to propose a change...the aliens would think dogs and babies run the world. Like the dogs, we clean up their poo, but in addition, we make ourselves look silly by singing funny songs, making funny faces and picking up food that they throw on the ground while laughing at us.

That is all - I will try to write a more serious update soon!

Thoughts on 9/11 for the next generation

There are a lot of images today; pictures and video of the tragedy and the heros from that day, 10 years ago. I have been reflecting on how we will explain this to Colin when he is old enough to understand a little more and one thing became clear. Of course it is important to remember the actual event and every 9/11 we will say a prayer for the lives lost that day. The thing that I really hope to show him though was the unity in the hours and days after. I was away from my family at Gonzaga, but was able to have a candlelight vigil with my Zag family. There was an obvious connection that you could feel with everyone around you. Remember how people just tried to look each other in the eye and smile a little more?
There is no way our generation's children will ever fully understand the feeling that day (to be honest, there is no way I can fully understand how it felt to be directly impacted by the events) but I guess my hope is that when Colin sees my tearing up when we are watching the memorials on TV - we can have a conversation about not waiting for a tragedy to want to look strangers in the eye and give them a smile; that we don't have to wait for a tragic event to say thank you to the firefighters, police and serrvice men and women.

Supermoms....

I never really thought I would post about something like this, but it sort of struck me and so I figured, isn't that the point of a blog? Maybe it isn't interesting to anyone but me!! But again...isn't that the point of a blog sometimes?

First, I want to say that this is NOT a commentary by me on whether any person should be a working mom or a stay at home mom. Everyone should make their own decision regarding that and I truly believe moms make the best decision they can with their circumstances and desires! When I heard of this story and read this article, it just brought a few thoughts to my mind.

http://healthland.time.com/2011/08/23/working-women-who-subscribe-to-the-supermom-myth-are-more-likely-to-be-depressed/

So, although no one asked, here are my thoughts. I obviously am not a professional researcher, so these are amateur conclusions!

Finding balance as a mother is pretty difficult. I think this applies to those mothers who are working and those mothers who stay at home full time. It is easier to understand the difficulty for those who are go to a paying job. You have to balance a job with expectations and time away from your home where you want to build a family life. I think moms who are home full time sometimes have a hard time finding balance as well - it is easy to get too involved in details of life that are possibly not important to your overall happiness. Since it is more difficult to physically be away from home, you can fall into a habit of losing focus on the reasons you actually decided to stay home.

Sorry guys, but I really think the following is true in most cases. No matter working or not working mom...women bear the brunt of "expectations" in home life. This can be a great thing for women and also a burden. I say it can be great because when things seem to be in order (no matter who did the work) I think women usually get the credit! It can also be a burden because is things are out of order, women tend to feel like people will think less of them, not the husband.

I think moms often put unrealistic expectations on themselves (working or stay at home moms.) We look at the best aspects of other moms (their cooking, their outside the home career, their decorating skills or their volunteering efforts) and we expect to be able to do all of those.

So, I guess my point from all of this (if any of you are still reading) is that in order to be happy as a mom, we should really reflect on the reasons we are doing certain things. We should examine who we really are and what our gifts are for our families, homes and communities. If we all focus on our own best aspects I think it will be easier to avoid feelings of inadequacy.

What do you think?

Summer!!!

OK - officially, summer has been here for awhile. However, since today was the first day that REALLY felt like summer so far...I have decided to make this my first summer blog post! (Does everyone buy that? I think I have just been lame about blogging!)

Since we haven't had great weather, we have totally taken advantage of every nice day!

Playing at Lake Meridian with the toys that mama and her cousins used to play with. (man they don't make toys like they used to, that boat is about 25 years old I think!)

Splash park at Lake Sammamish!!! This place is awesome!

Hiking up at Tiger Mountain!




Mariners game - well some of us had fun at this one!

Tomorrow!!

As I think most people who would read this blog have heard....tomorrow is officially my last day of paid employment. I am embarking on a new career as a stay at home mom. I am SO excited about my "new" role but I will admit that I am also feeling a little sad. I honestly never really thought I would have the sad feelings, but in reflection, I think that like with any major life change a little part of you gets "stored away."

I cannot wait to spend more time with Colin and to come up with new activities for us to do. I am also excited to be able to take care of things around the house to attempt for more quality time as a family on the weekends!

I am SO thankful that this is a possibility for us and I am promising myself not to take it for granted. I mean, how could I take this cute little face for granted?!

Daycare, reading and an award....

We started taking Colin to daycare! It was not nearly as hard as I thought it would be, mostly because he LOVED it there. New toys, kids to play with, new people to watch and new food to eat. This morning when I dropped him off, I was actually a little sad because I thought he would have at least a LITTLE seperation anxiety from me. I guess I should be happy...on another note...apparently he has been winning the "Best Eater Award." So, I guess he is a little pig! I think I need to be more creative in what I feed him! I have never been a techie, but I actually LOVE having an Iphone if for no other reason than to use the decent camera (oh yeah and a few games of "words with friends" is awesome too!) If you would have told me that I wouldn't always have our regular camera on the ready with Colin about 6 months ago, I would have thought you were crazy. We are lucky to have grandparents who photograph him frequently. Like I said though, it is nice to have a phone that take pretty good pictures - so a few of my favorites from lately!

Watching Sunday of the Masters! Reading his "Animal Book" - I think he can pick out the dog and monkey when we are on the right pages...

Back to Blogging

Here is a picture of our little blue eyed guy. Looks like he really is going to have blue eyes! Cannot believe he is nearing 10 months old!

I have been wanting to get back to this blog, but many days I just don't want to be on my computer once I get home from work! So...I am recommitting to the blog (not that I think a ton of people read it, but it does force me to record things from our life!)

For a quick update, we have had a great first few months of 2011. Matt and I got a little vacation to Las Vegas to watch our Zags win the WCC and Colin has had a lot of grandparent time, since we are lucky enough to have grandparents babysitting while we are at work!

I have started a new job at Deloitte - I will be doing the campus recruiting and I am so excited! Matt is doing great at Amazon and we are all 3 looking forward to some better weather :)

New Year's Eve!

We had a great time on New Year's eve with the Murrays. We went to the Garden d'Lights in Bellevue and then back to their house for crab and fondue - yummy!
We don't have a lot of pictures, but here are a few from the light show!

Christmas!!

As many of you know, I LOVE Christmas.....I love Christmas music (usually my brothers and parents call to let me know when they start playing it on 106.9) I love Christmas decorations, parties, wrapping presents, everything!

I think I am going to love Christmas even more every year with a kid. We had a great first Christmas with Colin. We got to spend a lot of time with family and friends and mainly got to spend almost 2 weeks unplugged from work and together.

Here are a few pictures from Christmas 2010.

Some of Colin's favorite gifts

The biggest stuffed animal at Toys R Us - Thank you Kelly!

Definitely more interested in the wrapping paper than the gifts!

Hiking with the Mooneys on a beautiful winter day

At Snowflake Lane in Bellevue

Santa Pictures 2010

We had a great time visiting Santa this year. We went to Bellevue Square and met with my mom and dad, Kelly, Sean and Sean's girlfriend Jessi. Thankfully we had so many people to keep Colin entertained for the hour and a half wait to see the Big Guy!

Colin actually liked Santa and immediately started pulling on his beard.

It took a few rounds of "The Wheels on the Bus" to get him to look ahead and smile, but finally! What a cute picture - Santa looks a little bewildered though....

Just a picture

I just love this picture! Stay tuned a little later this week for a posting and picture of our visit with Santa!

You're So Vain

We have found the answer to the age-old question of who Carly Simon wrote "You're So Vain" about.....You guessed it - our one and only Colin Sullivan!


You had one eye in the mirror as - you watched yourself gavotte.




I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee!