Last Day of Summer

Labor Day marks the official end of summer for us, so we had to spend our last day of vacation playing outside with Mairead. We have loved every second of our time with her and we know that we were so lucky to have it. This summer, Mairead enjoyed a lot of 'firsts': Her first trip to the beach, first time playing outside at the farm, first trip to the zoo and to the aquarium, first birthday, and first steps! She is up to about 4 steps at a time now, so any day now, she'll have us running after her!

These pictures are from our lazy afternoon out in the yard. Mairead's Nana and Grampy bought her this fun little house to play in, and Brian delivered it (not without incident) to us safe and sound.

Tomorrow, Dave and I have our first day of classes as we begin another school year. This year marks 10 for me in Brockton, and 8 for Dave (plus his years in NY). It will be hard to leave our little girl, but at least we know that she loves playing with the kids at Ms. Pat's house. Happy September, everyone-- enjoy the beautiful fall weather!

I know, I have been slacking...

I have really been remiss about taking pictures this week-- can you believe that I don't have ANY new ones? We have been really busy this week and school starts Tuesday, so we are pretty much just hiding in our denial that summer is really over! So, in lieu of new pictures, how about an old one? The picture above is from just about a year ago at this time. I can't believe how different she looks! One thing hasn't changed, though; right from the beginning, she has always loved her daddy. Dave's birthday was yesterday and Mairead gave him a photo album full of pictures of the two of them. They are so cute together!

I don't have pictures, but I can tell you that Mairead is just doing great! She is on the verge of walking, and yesterday she took three steps before deciding that walking is just too slow. I think she could do it if she really wanted to, but she knows that crawling is faster. And, since she is not known for her patience, crawling it is!

We have just loved being home with her all summer and we will be sad to drop her off at daycare on Tuesday. We know that she loves it there and has so much fun with the kids, but after 2 months of being spoiled in our time with her, it won't be easy on us!

I promise that I will take more pictures, especially when it gets cooler outside and Mairead can wear all sorts of new 'back to school clothes' that look so cute on her!