My favorite things

One of Mairead's favorite things to do lately is to eat!


As you can see, we are still working on eating neatly.



But, she is getting really good at holding the bottle herself. She is going to be a very independent person, I think!


I can also tell that she loves the camera. As soon as she hears it turn on, she looks for it and tries to reach for it. She is at a great age and is showing so much personality. We are so lucky to have her!

Happy Birthday, Katie!

Today is Mairead's aunt Katie's birthday! Happy 27th, Katie!


Mairead thought she'd send along her birthday wishes...



And then eat the message.

Have a happy one, Katie! We love you!

Busy Weekend

Mairead's weekend started off pretty well. We headed up to Lowell for a visit to Nana and Grampy's where Mairead got to check out the new fireplace in the kitchen.


Then she had time to exercise with Nana.


And finally, she could just sit back and read the paper.

We got some great news from John and Michelle on Sunday, so CONGRATULATIONS to you guys! But that was about the only good news for us that day.

The rest of Sunday was not so great as Mairead had to watch the Patriots lose to the Giants. We were all pretty much heartbroken, and we know that our New York cousins, even our newest cousin, Nathan, were loving every second of the Giants' win. We'll get 'em next time! At least Mairead got to hang out with her BFF, Connor.



How freakin' cute are they? I swear, we didn't make them do this-- they love staring at each other and laughing and talking.


Well, the almost perfect season is over-- at least we have the Celtics to finally get excited about. AND, there isn't too much time left before pitchers and catchers report to Fort Myers. Go Celts and Go Sox!

Happy Half Birthday!

This week, Mairead celebrated her half birthday when she turned 6 months old on Tuesday. Her six month check-up was great... both the pediatricianand the neurologist think that Mairead is doing amazingly well, and they don't see any ill effects of her stroke. She definitely has more than caught up in terms of size; she is 27 inches tall and weighs 17 and a half pounds. That's 95th percentile for height and 90th for weight. What a big girl!


Even though it wasn't our birthday, Dave and I actually got to go out to dinner at a real restaurant this week when Mairead's Nana came down to visit. She stayed over so that she and Mairead could spend the whole day together on Thursday. Thanks, Nana!



For her birthday, Mairead would like to see another championship in Boston. When she turned 3 months old, the Red Sox won the World Series. Now, she would love to see the Patriots win the Super Bowl, too!



We are staying warm, happy, and healthy as we enter February. So far, 2008 has been great! We are all doing well and are looking forward to all of the 'firsts' that Mairead will experience this year. We hope that you are all doing great, too!

Snowy Sunday

It's snowy and cold out today so Mairead is just spending the day hanging around the house. She had some laundry to do so she took care of that first.


After the laundry was done, she had time to catch up on some reading. She is sitting up on her own, by the way!




After all that, it's time for a nice relaxing bath. Not a bad little Sunday!

Grading Papers

Since we have today off, I needed to get some grading done. Mairead was nice enough to help me out in grading a few Research Papers.


Do we have another English teacher in the family?

AFC Champs!

Today we headed to the Estee household once again to watch the Pats game. Mairead definitely had her game face on, as well as her Brady jersey (courtesy of Matt Olsen-- thanks, Matt!).

She really got into the spirit of watching football, as you can see. Don't worry, no infants were harmed during the course of the game.

Mom and Mairead have matching shirts! We both love Tom Brady.

Mairead and Connor had fun hanging out on the play mat while wearing their Patriots gear.

They are really starting to try to communicate. They smile at each other and try to talk. It is SO cute!

Everyone was pretty excited to see the Pats win the AFC Championship and earn another trip to the Super Bowl. Needless to say, we'll be back at Chez Estee on Super Bowl Sunday!

GO PATS!