Holiday Dresses

The best part of the holidays is getting to dress Shelby up in cute dresses! Here she is all dolled up for the Lower School Holiday Sing which she enjoyed because of all of the singing and all of the kids. She's got a few more cute outfits for the holidays which I'll be sure to post sometime soon. Hopefully mom will have some time to get a cute holiday dress or two as well. We are missing all of our friends and family back home. Hope to hear from all of you soon - blog, email, call. Happy holidays everyone!

Snow Day!!

Yesterday was my first snow day, and it turned out to be quite a snow by this morning. Shelby was less than impressed and threw a major fit after about 5 minutes outside. Jon spent some serious time shoveling our rather long driveway last night and again this morning. It is still snowing lightly at around noon on Saturday. Jon is taking me out for my first driving lesson this afternoon! I must admit that it is odd to look outside our house and see snow, especially considering that we aren't on vacation somewhere but actually live in a place where it snows. It'll take some getting used to, but the snow day yesterday was a first!

Shelby's First Snow

A few weeks ago we had our first snow - just a little snow overnight...enough to allow us to drag Shelby out into it for a few minutes and let her walk around. She actually wasn't too into being out in the snow but loved looking at it from inside! Guess she takes after her mom.

Thanksgiving with the Merediths

The Guinn-Stewarts enjoyed a great meal and great company on our very first New England Thanksgiving. Stacey, third grade teacher at Moses Brown, was kind enough to invite us to join her family at Thanksgiving. Shelby loved every minute of it because she got lots of attention, especially from Stacey's two girls.

November Rain

Well, it is certainly more gloomy here in Cranston than in Sunny CA. But that isn't getting Shelby down!

A Walk in the Woods

We finally managed to make it out of our neighborhood and begin exploring New England. We took a short hike on a trail near Lincoln Woods just north of Providence. Many of the leaves have already fallen but it was still beautiful. We hiked by a pond that still was surrounded by trees with all shades of colors. Shelby hung in the backpack til the end - at which point she could stand it no longer and demanded freedom! Of course she doesn't follow the path nor does she follow directions so this resulted in some crying followed by dad carrying her the rest of the way. Overall, she loved the trip as she is our little tree hugger and LOVES leaves and trees of all kinds. She has since she was just an infant. Our struggle will be to keep her tied down so we can actually walk rather than deal with managing her eating leaves, dirt, rocks and whatever else she can manage to find. We are hoping to get in a few more short day trips before it gets too rainy and cold.

Host Family to English Soccer Boys

One of the great things about being at a school like Moses Brown is all of the events going on with the older kids. We offered to help host a boys soccer team visiting from England for a weekend. 2 high school soccer players stayed at our house and had to deal with Shelby staring at them the entire time. She was so excited to have older boys in the house she really didn't know how to react. By the end she was playing with them and smiling but it took some warming up on her part and theirs. On the last day 2 more players staying at another MB home one block away came over to watch a soccer match on TV. No one was as excited as Jon, who finally had someone besides Shelby to kick the ball around with. They talked soccer the entire weekend. It was a good time, and Ollie and Will were sweet kids.

Fall is Here

The New England fall is amazing and nothing like we have back in Cali. The mornings are cold (last week's low am temp was 34 degrees!), but by afternoon it is sunny, beautiful and in the 60s. And the leaves are so beautiful - Shelby loves to collect and hand to Jon and I.

Uncle Jeff Visits

Uncle Jeff came to visit! We had lots of fun showing him our favorite hang outs. Shelby loves her Uncle Jeff and loved going upstairs to wake him up in the mornings - she never gets to go upstairs so this was a special treat. Of course, Jeff's visit made us miss the rest of the fam. Hopefully more will come for a visit soon. More Uncle Jeff pics on the flickr link. Jeff and Jon had a Jack O Lantern carving contest - I am very sad to say that they were so great someone took it upon themselves to STEAL out pumpkins off our front porch :(

Alligators in the kitchen

Watch out Shelby!

Help Arrives!

When we visit Mom and Dad Stewart in Michigan, we always max out on pampering, relaxation, and fun. But when they visit the Guinn-Stewarts, we put them to work!

After Mom tackled furniture assembly/shopping duty and Dad put up 8 light fixtures, a 50 lb. mirror, 3 framed pictures, fixed our bathroom electrical and gave Abby hot water on demand, we allowed them a little time to relax.

And of course, they had to get their Shelby fix.

All in all, we had a great time, and enough people to entertain Shelby so we could make some progress.

Tiny Dancer

She was a little sick and run down, so the butt shake wasn't quite in full effect.

Splashing

MVI_1419
Originally uploaded by jonny stu

After 10 months, and roughly 300 baths, Shelby has finally discovered the joy of splashing. Now, fellow readers, I want to fully acknowledge that this is one of those things you only appreciate after you have kids.
Not sure that 11 months ago I would have enjoyed the splashing, but last night it provided a solid 5 minutes of hilarious entertainment for the Guinn Stewarts.

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures . . . .

Little Trouble Maker

MVI_1411
Originally uploaded by jonny stu

Shelby's First Trip to Michigan

We finally made it out to Michigan. Shelby got to meet her cousins Paul and Mary. Mary is only 4 weeks younger than Shelby so they had a fantastic time playing together. Shelby is just a little more mobile than Mary at this point, but Mary managed to hold her own and started crawling just days after we left. We like to think Shelby taught her.

In other news, we are surviving the heat of July in New England which is NO JOKE! Jon has spent the better part of the month installing window air conditioning units every weekend, while I continue to unload box after box. Shelby is a real trooper and is not phased too much by any of this, although she doesn't like being in the heat too long and does get a bit cranky (just like her mom). She has also inherited nose sweat bubbles like her mom and Uncle Jeff! The house is incredible and we are working on some before and in-progress shots that we'll post soon. It'll take us the year before we can post the before-after pics at the rate we are going!

The Stewarts hit the beach!

Our first weekend together in Rhode Island, so we celebrated with a trip to the beach. Shelby enjoyed herself and tried to make friends with anyone passing by.

Next was a trip to downtown Newport for some Newport Storms and sea food for Mom and Dad, and formula and a couple french fries for baby Shelby.

Jane, Email Me!

O.K. So in our haste to move I failed to transport my address book to my new email account. I must get in touch with my long lost friend in England, Jane...Jane, if you read this, please please email me at my new email address: abs_guinn@yahoo.com

Very excited about your news and can't access my home computer in a box somewhere for a while so I must speak w/ you. Send your phone number and I'll call you.

Shelby says her goodbyes

Well, she doesn't know it yet, but Shelby has said all her goodbyes and is now ready to be a full-time Rhody. Which is a good thing, because I'm having a little trouble making friends on my own.

Actually, thats not true. I've already managed to mooch off my interior designer and new surrogate care-taker Sara (and her daughter, dog and cat) with dinners and free room and board. I have been spending my days shopping while Abby does the hard labor in packing, moving, and taking care of Shelby. I guess that's just how it works in our family.

And . . . . I already have a cocktail party lined up! I'll be BBQ'ing with all Abby's colleagues from Moses Brown without her. Does anyone think I'll embarrass myself or her?

With that, here are some highlights from Shelby's goodbye tour:

Her cousins:

Tante Wanda
Pop-Pops
Grandma
Grandma

Uncle Jeff
And her new favorite, Nick

Movin' East

We are busy packing and preparing for our big move to Providence, Rhode Island. On the other end, our incredible house awaits us, in addition to the fantastic school I'll be joining as the new Head of the Lower School. Moses Brown School www.mosesbrown.org is where I'll be come July 1. These next 2 months will be exciting and incredibly busy for us - Jon leaves June 4 to sign on our new home, I finish school on June 13 and Shelby and I fly out June 14...just in time for Jon's first father's day! We will try to post updates when we can, but we might be offline for a bit while we set up life in Providence. Wish us luck - we'll need it, especially in June!!

First Swim

If you can even call it a swim...She did love the water, though and especially enjoyed all of the kids in the baby pool.

8 Months Old Already

We can't believe Shelby is already 8 months old. She's keeping us busy these days and is up to almost 20 lbs, has 2 teeth and 2 more coming in, and is sitting and pushing herself around. She can't crawl yet but she is working on it.

Time To Eat

Shelby is an eating machine these days! Sweet Potatoes and squash are her favs right now. We trying to introduce some mashed up banana as her first "finger food" but she really wasn't into it. We'll try again soon on that one. While eating is going well, Shelby has decided that sleeping just really isn't her thing. She's taken to waking up at 4am on the dot - every morning. We are hoping this stage will pass soon.

Shelby's First Trip

We spent Spring Break on the East Coast. Shelby was a great traveler and made many friends on the plane trip (although she also got the "evil eye" from a few child-haters sitting around us...I can't blame them as I used to be one of those folks - who really wants to be near the crying baby on the plane trip?) She really only cried once or twice, mostly she was just REALLY LOUD due to her overtired state. But she also managed to sleep quite a bit on both flights which gave us all some needed quiet time. Jon and I even got to watch a movie - a real treat these days! Gotta say - Jet Blue rocks for people with young babies. I highly recommend them. Shelby's favorite spot during the trip was hanging in Mom & Dad's bed at the hotel with all of her toys.

Easter in Brentwood

Lots of fun with family and friends. My parents' house is beautiful this time of year. Shelby enjoyed hanging out with all of the cousins and of course the Easter Egg Hunt. She collected one egg and immediately put it in her mouth. I would've documented the adult Easter Egg Hunt, but Jon and I were busy finding eggs...we made $25 this year - not bad (yes, the adult eggs have money and it is quite the scene and a huge family tradition). While we have a fairly all for one and one for all type family, it is truly each man for himself when it comes to the annual Easter Egg Hunt!