Holiday Card Photoshoot Drama, Grammie Sue & Gramps arrive, & 3 hurried little steps!!!

Before Daddy gets into the Christmas/Birthday details...let's get up to 88 mph and go back in time for a little bit. It's the end of November and we need a nice family picture for this year's Christmas cards. After the great experience we had with the JC Penney's portrait studio in Pittsburgh this summer, we figure we'll do that again. Only to find out that the JC Penney's up here in VT doesn't have a portrait studio. Instead we go to the only one at U Mall in Burlington, the Sears Portrait Studio.

Lizzie Sue, jumping back to the future, one day you will brush your teeth and then drink some orange juice. That disgusting taste in your mouth, is exactly how Mommy and Daddy felt after our Christmas card photo-shoot experience at Sears. Daddy will save everyone the ugly details, and instead share a few choice words: overbooked, disorganized, understaffed, disorganized, apathetic, disorganized, not adequately trained staffers and disorderly disorganized. They did have one thing going for them...they were really good at being disorganized!!! All issues aside, we waited a long time and Lizzie Sue did a great job of waiting and waiting and waiting in her pretty christmas dress. Eventually we got some great photos a made a Christmas card. Oh and Lizzie Sue met Santa for the first time at the Berlin Mall too!







As the days got closer and closer to Christmas and Lizzie Sue's first birthday, Mommy and Daddy were getting excited. We had the house decorated. We had the house cleaned up ready for all of our house guests. We had an almost one year old let go of the ottooman and take three hurried little steps to the sofa. We had the stockings hung....what? YES you read that correctly, Lizzie Sue took her first real steps on her own the week before Christmas!!! Daddy decided not to tell Grammie Sue and Gramps and figured they could experience it first hand in a few short days. Each day Lizzie Sue got better and better about taking those steps and was ready for center stage. Grammie Sue and Gramps arrived, came into the house and Lizzie Sue let out her war cry of excitement, sprinted across the room and Polamalu style tackled Gramie Sue. Ok so maybe it didn't happen exactly like that, but Lizzie Sue did take a few steps in front of Grammie Sue and Gramps and everyone rejoiced!!!

Then Christmas Eve came and Lizzie Sue turned one year old!!! More to come on that shortly...

Lizzie Sue - Happy 9 Months Old!!!!

Dear Lizzie Sue,

This week you turned 9 months old! 9 months??? That's just crazy...it's like three quarters of a year...(wait for Daddy's public school math to catch up with everyone else)...hey wait, you are three quarters of a year old! Daddy said this week because for the first time in 9 months, Daddy wasn't home to see you on your monthly birthday. Daddy is actually writing this from BWI waiting to get on his plane back to VT...but more about that work trip later. As always here you are with Roxie Bear.



Update to the above comment about writing this from BWI...it's now been two weeks since Daddy started this post at the airport and finally Daddy is getting around to finishing it. That just shows you how busy things have been around here lately. Ok back to the regularly schedule blog post...

Recently Daddy took a new job which allows him to work from home all the time. In Daddy's eyes this is one step closer to being the house husband he's always wanted to be...now just to get Mommy that high paying job with the Steelers and Daddy doesn't have to work at all...hey Daddy can dream! Being home with you has been amazing. Daddy has been around more and feels more involved in helping raise you. It sound silly since Daddy was always involved before, but being home with you now 24-7 really changes that feeling. Mommy does go to work everyday at 1pm and Daddy has to juggle you and work by himself all afternoon. Thankfully you've had more good afternoons than bad afternoons and when the bad afternoons do happen, Daddy's work is very understanding about it. Thankfully working in the web world...Daddy can always make up work later in the evening when Mommy is home or you are asleep. Although it can be chaotic on those bad afternoons, Daddy wouldn't trade this new job, with the ability to spend more time with you, for anything in the world.

This past month you have really taken off into the feeding yourself races. Yes you still pick up the clumps of cat fur and try to eat them, but Daddy is talking about your feeding yourself real food. Mommy and Daddy have pretty much completely gone away from any thing we need to spoon feed you, aside from the random yogurt, to just giving you small pieces of whatever we are having for dinner. Again with this new high chair, you love to just sit in it, next to us at the dinner table, and chow away on anything we put in front of you. Recently you devoured asparagus like it was chocolate covered crack! Pretty much we haven't put a food in front of you that you didn't like, even to the point of you eating tomatoes the other day. That one really threw Mommy and Daddy for a loop as neither of us like tomatoes, so we aren't quite sure how you could like them so much. Still topping the charts as your number 1 favorite adult food for the time being has to be pizza crust. Mommy & Daddy could give you pizza crust every day 3x a day and you'd still chow down on it like it's the best food ever!

Daddy has a question for you...have you been reading his "how to be a dad" book when he hasn't been looking? Almost like clockwork this month started the separation anxiety, mostly from Mommy, but even from Daddy to a lesser degree. For the most part we aren't talking about horrific screaming when one of us leaves the room, but if given the option to be held by one of us, or anyone else at our church that you've known for the last 9 months, you'd pick Mommy or Daddy 9 times out of 10. Although while Daddy was away on this past work trip, again we had some of your favorite Norwich girls come over in the afternoons to babysit while Mommy was at work, and you weren't too happy with that at times. The hardest part was some days one of the babysitters would work a few hours and then another babysitter would come over for a few more hours until Mommy got home. Every time that happened, you heard someone come in the door and expected Mommy to be home. Once you realized it wasn't Mommy you weren't a happy camper to say the least. Needless to say our babysitters all agree that your screaming is giving them a complex...just kidding, but you still are a great form of birth control for them...so keep up the good work pumpkin!

Lastly Daddy wants to apologize to Chip and Dale on your behalf. For those out there in the Lizzie Sue Blogisphere that don't know, those are Mommy and Daddy's two cats. They handled you coming into the family well...interested in the new thing in the house but trying to live their own lives and stay out of the room when you cried. They worked out new schedules of when they can steal attention from Daddy in the morning before you are up, or in the evening once you are down for the night...they have even been known to curl up next to you during nap time every once in a while. Hell they even don't seem to mind you playing with their cat toys as they have been known to bat your toys around ever so often, yet now that you are crawling/walking with help or holding onto things, their world has changed once again. They can no longer curl up and take a nap on the sofa as they don't really like being woken up by you performing CPR chest compressions on their chests. Even just laying down on the floor near Mommy or Daddy leaves them open to you mad dashing of a crawl over to them and "trying" to pet them. Daddy used the little quote fingers there because when he said "trying" really he meant you grabbing a hand full of fur and pulling. Daddy never realized cat skin/fur was so durable, yet another valuable lesson learning from parenthood. And for that Daddy owes you a thank you for teaching him that, and an apology to Chip and Dale for your skin care/fur treatment techniques. Don't worry Chip and Dale...another year or so and she'll be dressing you up in baby clothes and putting you in a stroller...

As Daddy writes this, Grammie Sue and Gramps just got home to Pittsburgh after a week long visit to the McCusker B&B. Keep your eyes posted for another post soon about their visit to VT!

We Love You,

Mommy & Daddy

Lizzie Sue - Happy 6 Months Old!!!

Dear Lizzie Sue,

Today you turned 6 months old! Mommy and Daddy can hardly believe you are already 1/2 of a year old. Everyone warned us this would fly by and they were not kidding. If the next six months goes as quick as this first 6 months went, it's going to be Christmas time (and your birthday time) before we know it. As always here you are with Roxie Bear:


This last month has been a pretty crazy month. You've seemed to stop teething...for now. On one hand Daddy wishes you were done teething forever...on the other hand he would feel really bad for you trying to get a date in college (notice Daddy said college, not high school) with only your two front bottom teeth. Of course eventually you will start to teeth again, yet this time we have a secret weapon...no not the blackberry brandy...just this past week you've fallen in love with your mesh feeding bag. Daddy has learned this is a more recent development in babies so he'll explain. It's a little mesh bag on the end of a seal-able plastic ring. The ring is easy for you to hold onto, and we fill the mesh bag with everything from bananas to watermelon. You can gnaw away on the bag, and you are only able to get little tiny pieces of food through the mesh so there's no choking hazard. Your face with your first real bite into a banana was the best bitter beer face Daddy has ever seen. Anyway the point of this story is that frozen banana chunks in the mesh feeder are a great teething remedy and you get some nutrition out of it too. All this solid food is turning you into Popeye with his spinach...just look at this picture...I could have sworn you asked Daddy if he had his ticket to the gun show!!!

Solid food has become a nightly routine around here. After Mommy and Daddy finish dinner you get put in your bumbo chair on the dining room table and you tear into anything we put in front of you. So far you've eaten (also worn) avocado, sweet potato, oatmeal cereal, bananas, watermelon, blue berries and you keep eyeing up Daddy's baked ziti. Daddy just doesn't think you are ready for the baked ziti just yet. In the last couple of days you’ve even been eating so well that we figure about half of the food actually makes it both in your mouth but down into your tummy, instead of the other half that either makes it into our mouth and ends up on your tummy or just ends up all over your hands which get just about everywhere else.

Also in the last week or so you’ve really figured out rolling over…or at least half of it. Every time Mommy or Daddy puts you down on your back, with in about 10 seconds you are rolling over to your belly. That’s all well and good but you really haven’t figured out the rolling from your belly to your back yet. You’ve pulled it off once or twice but more often than not you just end up laying there and crying until one of us flips you back over. The other day you were so close to crawling, you were up on your arms and started to move your knees, then the next thing we knew you started doing pushups. I guess you really are getting ready for Norwich already! Another sign your going to end up in the Corps of Cadets is that you get distracted very easily..."oh shiny"...where was Daddy? Oh yeah you've started to sit up on your own if we help you get into the position. You are doing very well with it until you get distracted, either look off at something in the distance or just stop concentrating on sitting up and boom you fall over...it really is pretty cute to watch!

The next couple of weeks will be very interesting for all of us. We are taking our first big vacation with you. We will be driving 5 hours to the Cape to visit Guy and Ashley for the 4^th of July. We can’t wait to see your reaction to the first time on the beach, first time in the ocean and first fireworks experience. Right from the Cape we will be flying to Pittsburgh to see Grammie Sue and Gramps. Daddy's keeping his fingers crossed that we aren't that couple with the screaming kid everyone hates on their flight. Hopefully a milk coma will help us on that one. While in Pittsburgh we are looking forward to your first adventure to the zoo, your first ride on the incline, your first primanti brothers sandwich (don't worry Daddy will eat it for you, we'll just let you get all big eyed at the size of it) and your first time in downtown Pittsburgh, maybe we'll run into a Steelers player who would take a picture with you...long as it's not Hines Ward because if it's him Mommy might not be coming back to VT with us...ha ha! Even if we didn't do any of those things in Pittsburgh, the time with Grammie Sue and Gramps will be awesome...hopefully Gramps will continue to teach you how to play poker!

We love you,

Mommy & Daddy

Lizzie Sue - Happy 5 Months Old!!!

Dear Lizzie Sue,

Today (read as yesterday because Grammie Sue is a great big distraction) you turned 5 months old. 5 months is almost 6 months, which is half a year, which is half way to your first birthday, which would make you one year old...Daddy can't believe you are almost one year old...ok fine...almost there but still 5 months is closer then you were last month. As always here is a picture of you with Roxie Bear!


This past month has been a busy one. Not only have you traveled a bunch, you've had some grand adventures at home. One of those wonderful adventures was your 4 month doctors visit. Now for all of the Lizzie Sue Groupies out there, keep in mind the following measurements are a little skewed as Lizzie Sue was really 4 months and 2 weeks when we had our check up. You were 25 and a half inches long (Daddy still says it's long and not tall until you stand up on your own, then he'll call it tall) and 14 pounds 7 ounces. This made you 52nd percentile for weight and 79th percentile for height (Daddy swears it should be length). As Daddy mentioned above you did have 2 extra weeks to grown before these measurements comparing you to other 4 month olds, yet still we are very happy to see you are growing taller (read as longer) and putting on weight! Of course with all great doctors visits, there were shots, yet Daddy swears you handled this round of shots better then you did the 2 month shots. Mommy things you handled these worse, so at least one of us is right. When you get older hopefully you'll be able to read this, refresh your memory, and finally settle who was right!


Teething...Daddy is beginning to strongly dislike that word. He's not at the point of totally hating teething yet, hopefully the advice from last weeks post will help him from getting to hate, yet strongly dislike still gives off Daddy's love for teething. Your front left bottom tooth, the one that will forever be known as the tooth that got Mommy and Daddy to walk out of church, decided to join Righty on the outside of your gums this past Friday. Mommy and Daddy really enjoyed the 2 days we had without a fussy baby that was teething. Any Lizzie Sue Groupies just do the math and realize that two days makes Sunday? Yes, as Daddy writes this, it is Monday and you are starting to get fussy again and have a suspicious bump on your gums right next to your two front teeth. Excuse Daddy for a minute as he gets side tracked...

Dear Lizzie Sue's Teeth,
Today you are driving me crazy...please take at least a week off between forcing yourself into Lizzie Sue's mouth. If you do I'll make sure the Tooth Fairy takes you to the big tooth house in the sky and you get to eat all the sweets you want after that. Thank you!
We Strongly Dislike You,
Lizzie Sue's Mommy & Daddy

Ok Daddy's back...as Daddy mentioned at the beginning of the post, Grammie Sue and Gramps are here visiting for the week. They haven't seen you since February for your Baptism. Of course they have seen the youtube videos and the facebook pictures but that's just not the same. Needless to say they have both been super excited to hold you, love you, make you laugh, make you smile, spoil you, tickle you, play with you, even give you a bottle, yet they seem to always leave the stinky diaper changes to Daddy....what's up with that? You even got a visit from Uncle Jimmy's father today as well. He brought you a beautiful Red Sox cheerleaders outfit. There was also a Tom Brady jersey that Daddy's going to bury under the house. Daddy could bury it in the back yard but he'd be worried a tree would grow in the place and many years from now instead of apples or some other good fruit blooming, a bunch of video cameras would start to appear and start taping our every play.

Oh and Daddy can't forget that you now have a cousin. Aunt Julia and Uncle Jamie had a baby girl on Friday at 11:39pm, Brooklyn Juliette King, and if Aunt Julie could have held out for 21 minutes, Brooklyn could have had the same birthday as Grammie Sue. Daddy guesses we'll not hold that one against Aunt Julia. Hopefully later this summer we'll make it down to NJ so you can meet your cousin.

Daddy will have to make a post next week about all your fun adventures with Grammie Sue and Gramps. Daddy is sure we'll have some fun stories to write about after this week...

We Love You,

Mommy & Daddy

Lizzie Sue - Happy 4 Months Old!!!

Dear Lizzie Sue,

Today you are 4 months old. (ok fine, last Friday...Daddy drafted this post Thursday and got totally distracted and is just now getting to post it 4 days late...sorry!) 4/12th's...Daddy remembers something in math class that if he flips the bottom and multiples he'll find x which x equals the lowest common denominator or something like that...anyway Daddy means to say 4/12th is like 1/3rd of your first year with us. I can't believe it's already been a third of a year...wow! And Daddy means wow you've had a very busy month!

As always here you are with Roxie Bear!

As for this busy past month you've had tons of adventures. You got to meet Paul May and Poppa May. Poppa May is great cause he's a Steelers fan, Paulie we will forgive about being a Patriots fan. They stopped by the house to meet you and as always you were excited to meet new people. You also met President Schneider at Norwich one weekend, he was all excited to hear you'll be an incoming student (Daddy says rook, mommy says civilian) in the class of 2030 at Norwich. You also got to meet the Curran's. Shaina is one of your babysitters and her parents were up for her 21st birthday so we all went to a little "Irish restaurant" for "dinner". You were so excited to just sit on daddy's lap, watching all the neon lights and sports on the TVs, that you pretty much forgot to eat dinner and then attacked Mommy when we got home.

On that note Mommy has recently taken to saying how you can find a distraction in a paper bag. Although that is a great sign developmentally, it does make for trying to feed you while we are out of the house a bit challenging. Don't worry though, Mommy and Daddy are doing what all parents do and just rolling with the punches and making it up as we go along. ;-) Also as everyone can see from these pictures...you've been trying to help Mommy and Daddy with getting you dressed. We think you need to keep working on that one.


One of the many fun moments of this past month was Easter Sunday. You got all decked out in your cute little Easter dress, Mommy and Daddy were all dressed up for church, we had the diaper bag all packed, about to get you into your car seat, and you just wanted nothing to do with that Easter dress. Know how we know? Not from any screaming, you weren't screaming. Not from any flailing, you were a still as a 4 month old baby can be. Not from the look on your face, although that should have been a hint for what was coming...but by the way you blew out the side of your diaper and ruined your onesie and leggings. Mommy and Daddy made the quick change of under layer clothes for you, got you back in your dress, and still make it to church on time...we are finally getting good at this getting out of the house business.

Also another highlight of the month was when you rolled over for the first time. Mommy was so excited that she had to come back into the bedroom and wake Daddy up at 630am to tell him so! Thanks Mommy! Although we have yet to have a repeat performance, you have been nonstop about swiveling those hips and rolling over from one side to the other. If you only can remember to move that bottom arm out of the way instead of stretching it out and stopping your rolling motion, you'd be all set. You've also gotten a lot better about keeping your head up on your own, standing up for longer periods of time (still with help from Mommy and Daddy) and even lifting your head up when we have tummy time.


Well right now you are probably out for a walk with Nana. Daddy is in NJ for work, missing you sooooo much! So Nana is over taking care of you while I'm away. With the nicer weather out you've been getting out for walks almost every day, mostly in the stroller but once on Daddy in the carrier. Mommy and Daddy now just need to find adult size strollers or carriers and someone big enough to push/carry us around. Why you ask? Because it seems that strollers and carriers have this magical effect of putting the rider to sleep in almost minutes of starting the walk. If only Daddy could take naps like that!

We Love You,

Mommy & Daddy

Double Digits...10 weeks old!

Dear Lizzie Sue,

Today you are 10 weeks old, that's double digits. I know it doesn't sound like much, but think about it this way...double digits will only happen 2 more times in your life, when you turn 10 months, and when you turn 10 years old. So with that in mind, you are already a third of the way through your double digit changes...wow they really do grow up so fast. Ha ha.

So this past week has been an adventure into night time routines and sleep patterns. Up until this week Mommy and I just let you fall sleep for bed where ever and when ever you wanted. We figured you would know better than us your needs. After 2 months of 2-3 diaper changes and feedings throughout the night, we figured it was time to try something else. After a few nights with more of a routine, you gave daddy the best birthday present he could have asked for...no not season tickets to the Steelers (if you could work on that for next year that'd be great!) you slept through the night for the first time. Of course we haven't had a repeat performance yet, but ever since then you've been going to bed better, sleeping better, only needing to be changed once, and better/less feedings too. Needless to say Mommy and Daddy are sleeping better at night too which also is a plus.

When Grammie Sue visited she warned us that Moenke children like to move, dive out of arms, flip out of chairs, learn to crawl quickly, plain and simple they aren't content to just sit still. I know Grammie Sue was telling us that information but you weren't supposed to be evesdropping on our adult conversations. Ever since then you just aren't content sitting still. Even when we put you down on your belly for belly time, you lift your head up like your doing push-ups (read as Norwich Rook class of 2028), and with a little help from Daddy you push off and move your legs like your crawling. Also lately when either Mommy or I are holding you, you've been extending your legs and actually holding yourself up for a bit. Eventually those cute chubby legs give out but for only 10 weeks old you are standing up for a good amount of time. Let's just hope you take the time to learn to crawl instead of skipping crawling and jumping right to walking like Daddy did.

So you don't realize but this week we started having babysitters stay with you in the afternoon while Daddy and Mommy go to work. You have already had 1 day with each babysitter and so far you have survived. More importantly the babysitters have survived and haven't run out of the house crying...let's hope that continues. So for a teaser for next weeks post, you've got your 2 month doctors visit the beginning of next week. In case your reading this blog I don't want to say the next word so I'm going to spell it...S H O T S...no not the fun kind either... yeah so Mommy and Daddy aren't really looking forward to that doctors visit but if your going to go to college in 18 years from now, they'll want to make sure you had your S H O T S before you enroll so we have to do it. Hopefully somewhere between next week and the next 18 years, you'll forgive us.

We Love you,

Mommy & Daddy

Future Jobs, Your 1st Superbowl, 7 weeks and Grammie Sue's visit pt 1

Dear Lizzie Sue,

Today you are 7 weeks old. I'll be honest, Daddy has a hard time with this whole weeks old, half a week old, 6 weeks and 2 days and 7 hours old...I'm much. more of a month and a half, or 2 months on the 24th. On a totally different note I want to let you know something and then ask you a question. Since Mommy has the right parts to do the whole feeding thing, changing diapers has become my job. Every time you wake up in the middle of the night to eat, I wake up to change you before mommy feeds you..I just wanted you to know I'm doing my part as your father. With t hat said, I have a question for you. How come you can lay there totally still while I take the old diaper off and clean you up and the moment I go to put a new diaper on you turn into one of the rockettes practicing your kick line? Of course if this lands you a future job as a rockette, keep it up...if not please help daddy out at 3am and stop kicking...Thanks!

In 7 weeks you've already had many first...and i'm not talking about all those fun ones like the first time you lift your head up or your first smile...i'm talking about the beer drinking, men burping, tv watching, football fan important firsts. You've watched your first steelers game (read as slept through), you've watched your first post season steelers game (read as slept through again), and you've watched your first supperbowl game, more importantly it was a superbowl with the steelers in it, and most importantly the steelers won!!!! Ok fine you slept through most of this game as well, but you were there! I know there are old wives tales about being born under a full moon or with an eclipse or a comet in the sky, yet I think being born in time to watch Big Ben throw a superbowl winning touch down pass to Santonio Holmes with less than a minute to go in the 4th quarter has to be some omen for you being a die hard steelers fan!!! Maybe you'll get a job working for the steelers and work at bumping up Daddy's name on the season ticket list.

This past sunday Grammie Sue and Gramps showed up to spend a whole week with you in VT. This was the first time they got to see you(their first grandchild) in person since facebook pictures and youtube don't count. Needless to say they were both wicked excited to hold you, love you, play with you, love you, feed you, love you, change you, love you, bathe you, love you, spoil you, and love you. In case you are a little slow on the uptake...they really really love you!!! Seeing Gramps wrap you up in his big arms and baby talk with you is awesome. Just last night he was holding you and giving you a bottle. He said "wow you are loud eater and all you do is sleep, fart and eat....just like me. Guess I'll have to teach you how to play cards just like me too!" I don't know about you but Daddy is excited for the day to see you sitting at a table playing card games with Gramps. Also Grammie Sue has been a life saver this week. Mommy just started going back to work in the afternoon and nights so instead of Daddy being all alone and totally lost, Grammie Sue has been around to help. There a few more days/nights work of Grammie Sue and Gramps's visit to go including your baptism and you meeting your God-parents too. Don't worry Daddy will write all about.

We Love you,

~Daddy