The Fabulous Life of Stefanie

Matty introduces me to Madeleine for the first time Happy New Year's Eve everyone! You know what I love about this time of year, aside from playing with all my new Christmas presents?: the lists. I love me some lists, and as the year ends everyone has them - the top news stories, the biggest celebrity breakups, the best this and that. I just can't get enough of them. And so, in the spirit of year-end lists, I present to you my own lists of the top Stefanie-centric things and events of 2011 - enjoy! Three generations in front of our well decorated Christmas Tree My Top Ten Life Events of 2011 Giving birth to a beautiful and healthy baby girl Moving to our new home and new neighborhood (Dot Rats for life!) Watching my husband finish the Boston Marathon (his 1st marathon ever) Celebrating the first year of marriage to my amazing, loving husband Getting to tell our family and friends about our bun in the oven My sister-in-law moving back to the East Coast from Seattle Buying our f...

There are many strange things about no longer being pregnant. The most obvious is the fact that the little person growing inside of me is now here, in our world, in our arms and even more in our hearts. We have a baby! Because she is out in the world means that I am no longer carrying her around in my tummy. That, is the second strangest thing. I know, I know, how totally obvious. I was pregnant one day and then the next, I was not, but it takes a whole lot of getting used to after lugging someone else around for 10 months, the latter half of them spent very obviously being pregnant (hello baby bump!). I had a lot of fun with my maternity fashion thanks to a) being pregnant in the summer (sundresses rule) b) Destination Maternity, Gap, Target and all of the awesome options for hip clothes for the prego set and c) that I did not gain a ton of weight (despite my best ice-cream eating efforts to do so) and so I was able to mix maternity and non-maternity options, and I actually wore a lo...

I am a Mommy!! It happened on November 20 at 2:37am when Madeleine Jane came into the world, into my arms, and instantly became the love of my life. She's amazing, being a Mommy is amazing, and watching Matty be a Daddy is the most incredible thing to witness. Last night was a major milestone for me emotionally; Maddie was crying a little so I went to pick her up expecting to feed or change her as we do in the middle of the night, but as soon as I picked her up she just nestled her face into my neck, put her arm on my shoulder and quieted. She just wanted her Mommy. That was all. She just wanted me to make it all better. And I did. Because I am someone's Mommy. What an incredible blessing. Xoxo, Mommy

Here we are ladies and gents, the final week(s) until Baby O'Shea makes her world debut! I have so much running through my head as I wait for this little one to join us, and I am feeling a cross between impatient, unprepared and pure bliss at what is to come. The hardest thing about all of this, for me, has been that my "due date" is really just a shot in the dark as to when I may have her - a point in the middle of four weeks that I could go into labor. As an obsessive planner, list-writer and type A extraordinaire this really has been the hardest part for me. I mean, if I just knew that she would begin her descent on 11/26 after I wake up from a restful 8 hours of sleep with my Mom here from Reno and my maternity leave started I could be so much more prepared, right? Nope, not really. But it doesn't stop me from wishing I knew. Since I don't know, I have taken to thinking that I am going into labor most all of the time, but this morning was the first time that I...

Yesterday my four favorite ladies feted me and Baby O'Shea with a gorgeous baby shower. Everything was perfect and so perfectly me - lots of pink, owls, yummy eats and cupcakes from my favorite place - what more could a prego lady ask for? Nothing! But I did get more - I got to see some really wonderful women who made me and this little (er, not so little lately) bump in my belly feel like a million bucks and showered with love and gifts (so, so many precious gifts). I am so thankful for the ladies that came and it really meant so much to me to see these women who have seen me through so many phases of my life - work friends past and present, NOLA volunteer friends, friends I have inherited from Matty and his life before me - who all had one thing in common: they are all true, dear friends to me and made me feel so grateful to have them as I move closer to this new phase in my life. When I got home last night and sat on the nursery floor with Matty showing him all the new clothes,...

Check out that bump! I would be ashamed to put a picture of myself in my underwear on the internet, except that those are Minnie Mouse underwear, so there is obviously no sex oozing from this photo...I hope...for you. Yay! More ways to waste time, I mean, create things and organize ideas! I made a Pinterest account and am loving it. You should check it out; my boards are kind of bare, but there are some great ideas and pictures on here. It makes me happy to look at. Matty and I are working on a theme for our upcoming maternity shoot and I think we have an amazing idea. I am going to keep it under wraps for a bit and wait to hear back from our photographer to see if we are totally weird or just extremely clever, then I will share, I promise. Let's just say that googling the theme with "maternity shoot" will not bring up anything, and may even worry your boss if you do it from work. I was going to work late today to make up for not being around much this week with doctors ...

I used to loooooathe going to Home Depot, mostly because it meant that my parents were dragging me there before asking me to slave, er work with them all day doing some ridiculous project like staining the flipping porch, including the underneath where all the spiders lived, on a beautiful summer day when I would rather have been doing anything else at all. Anything. Home Depot mostly made me feel dread, all hardware stores did really, even if they happened to have the added perk of free popcorn or a hot dog cart because, let's face it, one hot dog ain't gonna erase an afternoon of being under the porch with a paintbrush and a black widow in your hair. But now....sorry if you think I am going to say how much I love Home Depot and that I decided to do the baby's room in a lovely bright orange and don't even mind that the Watertown store doesn't have a snack bar (because I do) but...I don't hate it! Last night I was even glad to be there, which was probably due t...

I think it's despicable that I only post once a month, I promise (myself) that will change, even if it's just a few words on life, some pictures or a random thought, I will post more. I follow a lot of bloggers and I look forward to their (more frequent) posts, so I need to embody their consistency and get to it! Oh, and I heart blogging and the great feedback I get from my friends, which are the best reasons of all to post more! Since we last spoke.... Fall kind of turned into Summer but is turning back to Fall, I hope. It's October, which meant an intense need to go apple picking and find the perfect pumpkin, so Matty, Kate and I set out for Tougas Family Farm to get our fill yesterday. It was a pretty farm with a great selection of apples (which is important for our varied needs to bake, puree, eat and cook) and they had pygmy goats (!!) the only issue was, that even in a tank top and flip flops, it was just too damn hot. At eight months prego I could be biased, but ski...

We went to Niagara Falls and it was beautiful and breathtaking and wet. I know that Fall doesn't technically begin until the end of the month but the crisp air and the pumpkin flavored coffee has me so excited for my favorite season! I love the Fall, especially in New England; apple picking, pumpkin flavored things, scarves and sweaters, Halloween and the O'Shea Annual Oktoberfest party; Halloween and Thanksgiving (candy and gluttony) and...oh my God, wait...Fall...then that must mean....holy shit, we're having a baby! (cue tire squeals) This little person who has been growing in side of me, and who is currently bopping and kicking and squirming around, is going to be here in just a few more months, and we just cannot wait to meet her. This week we toured Mt. Auburn where I will be giving birth and it really, really hit me that there is a period of time between being pregnant and cuddling our little girl; namely, that somehow I have to get this little baby out of me...

I took this picture of my beloved city while waiting on the library steps for Matty to come whisk me back to Dorchester. This weekend we had our first big bash at our new place and it was super, duper fun. Lots of friends came by throughout the day and night - work friends, HONO friends, high school friends (of Matty's), friends of friends; it was lovely. There was a ton of food and beer (of the root variety for me) and lots of laughs and good times. There were even a couple little ones running around the backyard being adorable. It really made our new home feel like just that - our home. I can't wait until we have a permanent little one around; she is going to be here in a few months now, though the running around will take a while, I hope. It will be so, so wonderful to finally meet this little lady who is the center of our lives and thoughts and window shopping. By the time she is born her little floating fetus will have been in more states than I had been in by the t...

I am sitting at our new desk in our guest room of our new home. The desk faces the window that overlooks our new street; I see trees and the neighbors, the baby kittens that live next door and the lawn that someone mowed while we were at work yesterday. I see my husband working on his bike, involved in his work and never the wiser that I am admiring him from inside. I cannot wait to watch this man be a father to our baby, to celebrate being my husband for a year in September, and to spend the rest of my days loving him. He really is the most amazing dude ever, seriously. The baby is growing bigger and more livelier in my tummy. Matty can feel her kicks and stretches and somersaults. She still lets me eat spicy food and sleep comfortably, but my back and stomach are no longer options at this point. Next week will mark my third trimester. Next weekend my bestie will come up from NoHo and we will hang out and shop for girlie things together and gossip and laugh. We will be joined by other...

Tonight is officially my last night as an Allstonian. Or a Brightonian. I won't even live off the green line after I wake up tomorrow morning. No more 45 minute train rides that stop every block, no more "This train will run express to Packard's Corner". Tomorrow when I wake up I will pack the cat into his carrier, grab my purse and my husband will drive me and this baby in my belly to Dorchester, to our home, where we will have our first baby, our first wedding anniversary, where we will be "mom and dad" for the first time instead of just "husband and wife" or "Stef and Matty". I will use the vacuum cleaner Matty bought last night, the first new vacuum cleaner I have ever owned in my twenty nine years, and I will hang up pictures from our wedding, our trips to other states and time zones, pictures of our friends and our families. And on Monday I will wake up and catch the Red Line into work. It won't take too long, despite being fart...

That's our baby girl! Oh my gosh, it is July?! Where is the time going? Oh, maybe into moving/planning for baby/traveling/working/family/life.. .Things are so busy but are at the turning point for calming down, well at least as far as our life goes. Okay, I lied, the only thing that is going to calm down is that after this weekend we will be officially moved into our new place, but that really feels like it is going to make all of the other little things in my life so much easier. I am a routine person, I like to have my times that I do things and way that I do things and I feel like moving just makes everything absolute chaos - food isn't being made because the kitchen is a half-packed mess and we haven't been grocery shopping so we don't have to move perishables, evenings are spent being a tired prego lady or moving things over to the new place, and I don't want to waste time cleaning the old place but my OCD is making me not want to look at anything in our house ...

Make way for Bruins....er ducklings! Things that are awesome in my life right now (not necessarily in order of their awesomeness): My Mommy is on a plane on her way to Boston! Right now! And she will be here for a week. She hasn't seen me since I have been pregnant, so it's super exciting that she will be here to rub my belly and eat ice cream with me. We aren't homeless! Not only did we find a place to live but it has so many great things: it's a 3 bedroom, which means a spare bedroom for family and friends to have extended visits (especially after the baby comes and I will need them more than ever), it has porches and a yard, it is deleaded, it is gorgeous and freshly painted/stained/cleaned and it is not in Allston!! It is all the way in Dorchester where there are no college kids and there is actual diversity and there are real Bostonians. Yay! Today marks the official start of Pride Week in Boston and my co-workers and I went to watch the flag raising and show our s...

What can I say, I really love post-its. We sent this to my Mommy to remind her that she'll be making pancakes for me this time next year. Kidding Mom! Finding out we are pregnant has been the single most exciting thing to happen to the two of us since getting engaged, but we actually had to think about this announcement and how/when/who to tell. At first it was just ours to share, only we knew that there is this little person growing inside of me, and we could look at each other and know that we had this awesome secret between us. The thing is though, I hate secrets. I hate surprises. I love blabbing about things, especially exciting things. This whole intimate husband and wife secret thing was not going to last. I love you my dear husband, but I got a mouth on me, and he knows that. The obvious first person for me to tell was my Mommy, the woman who carried and birthed me and has been my closest confidant for 28 (then, now 29) years. So I called her and we chatted and, since she w...

It's true!! Matty and I made a baby, and it's growing and thriving in my tummy right now! As of today I am 12 weeks and going into my 13th (helloooo 2nd trimester) and I am feeling great. I have been ridiculously lucky and have not had any morning sickness or crankiness or emotional breakdowns at all. The most significant symptoms I have are being super, duper tired and a bout of hormonal acne that is bringing me back to my high school days. Both of these things are supposed to fade out this trimester, and I am going to see my dermatologist to get some prego-friendly goods for my face. Considering the many (many, many) stories we have all heard/seen/read/experienced about what being knocked up is like, I think I am making out like a bandit with this pregnancy so far. Since this is the first time I have been able to shout it from the rooftop, I give you my little story on how we found out there was a baby on board: March 14th was a Monday that followed a pretty crazy weekend. I ...

What a day to be a Princess! I woke up at 4:30 (on my own) to watch the wedding of William and Catherine and I was really glad that I did. It was beautiful and the hats and fashion were off the hook. Since my Mom was pregnant with me while Di was pregnant with William I have always felt a fun little connection to him (my Mom was happy that I got Matty for my Prince when she realized Wills was not going to do it for me) and his wedding was almost as fabulous as mine! I do love that he and Catherine were cracking jokes to each other on the altar just like Matty and I did (even if we did do it first). So speaking of being a Princess; I am the birthday girl! Well, my birthday is on Sunday, but I really like to spread it out for at least a few days so that everyone can enjoy my big day and give me proper love and presents :) I love that I am about the be 29, but still spoiled rotten like a little kid by my loved ones , especially on my birthday. I knew Matty was the one for me when he accep...

I love my husband. I know that most wives love their husbands (at least I hope they do) but seriously, I L-O-V-E that man of mine. We had such a lovely, relaxed, spontaneous and full weekend together, and I just needed to say that I love him oh so very much. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world when I am around him...or thinking of him...or sound asleep dreaming of our future together. Friday I got out of work early (just because, thanks work!) and went home to relax and clean the house a little and make some curried rice with shrimp for dinner. We finally watched The Fighter (which I loved) and we snuggled on the couch and went to bed early and everything was just how I love it. In bed with Matty on one side and Louis on the other, both snoring away. It's like an ocean sound machine for me. On Saturday Matty went running (one week until race day!) and I took my Little (H) on an Easter Egg Hunt at the Parker Hill Library. H and I also played on this great playground between t...