Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Giant Baby Spotted Near Bridgewater

Jackie had her four month appointment yesterday for another round of vaccines and the a weigh in. She weighed in at a very healthy 15 lbs 2 oz.

It looks like there are three teeth coming through now, and she's handling it pretty well. We've been able to tell when she's really uncomfortable and give her some teething gel to numb the gums a bit.

I'm going to try and put up a nice post on Christmas for the three or so readers of this thing. In short we had a great time, but very busy... not much relaxation, but I'm hoping for a bit more of that in the coming weekend. Due to my work schedule, I have 4 days off, and the snow made this a real short week, I stayed home on Monday to avoid the perils of post-blizzard mass transit. I wish I had taken the whole week off, as the trains are still not running on time. Yesterdays commute was a bit longer, as the PATH wasn't running between Newark and Journal Square, and we were on a weekend schedule for NJT.

Just an FYI, when NJT says Rail service is operating on a regular weekday schedule on all lines. A handful of trains (representing about one percent of the weekday schedule) will be cancelled. It is code for "your normal 6:41 train out of Bridgewater is canceled, and the 7:06 train that runs behind it will show up 4 minutes early, so you have to sprint through the icy parking, underpass, and un-shoveled platform. to get to work on time"

I found myself hoping that the car battery in the Explorer would be dead yesterday (and this morning) to give me an excuse to take the day off and get an early start on the New Years weekend.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Teething

We really can't believe how fast these teeth are coming in. We had suspected that Jackie was starting to teeth about two months ago, when the normal amount of drool we had become acustomed too turned into buckets of drool, and she was soaking through two bibs and her onesies at the same time.

For the last few weeks, it looked like there may be a tooth coming though, but now it looks like it's broken through the surface, and there may be second one popping out too.

She's actually been pretty good with all this, I've noticed that she's sleeping lighter during her naps, and having a tough time settling down, but in general aside from a few outbursts, she hasn't been much fussier, we're just so shocked and amazed at how quickly all this is happening.

We've really been scrambling to get ready for the Holidays, we had a busy month so the tree and lights didn't go up until this past weekend, and I think we've gotten most of the ornaments up. I've been baking a few batches of cookies, and Alison has been wrapping all the gifts. We made stockings, and are still putting up decorations around the house...we may actually finish before we head up to North Jersey for Christmas Eve. Between all this decorating and wrapping, Alison has been getting the Christmas cards in the mail. We've been meaning to send them out for a few years now, and finally this year, they are going out.

It's been a hectic week... but we are almost ready to celebrate our first Christmas with the baby.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

New Links

I added a few more links to the sidebar from some friends for anyone who is interested.

One is from our friends Dwight and Peggy Renshaw, who just welcomed their second child to the world, little Rebecca.

Another is from a friend in the Coast Guard, Nate Menefee writes about happenings in the Maritime world.

The last is from another KP classmate and his wife, they have also just welcomed their second child Audrey recently, they also have a very special and brave little boy named Keegan who had a heart transplant just a week after he was born. He's been going through a rough patch since Thanksgiving and could use some prayers. It's a very courageous family.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Work Related Post

Just as a point of interest, I wanted to take a step away from baby related posts for a moment. The Project Manager for the big transit redevelopment project at Denver Union Station that I have been working on for the last 2 1/2 years sent this nice aerial view of the job site. The photo I guess was taken by the contractor.


What we are seeing in this picture is about 1/3 of the new underground bus terminal that has been excavated, the slab and wall poured and the roof structure being erected. The holes in the middle of the facility will be skylights in the passenger concourse below. The rooms at the hammerhead shape of the facility near the top of the picture are all the mechanical and electrical equipment rooms. The larger one to the left, is where the giant exhaust system to remove the bus emissions and the smoke from a fire will be located. Above that in the picture is the new Light Rail Station which will replace the current one near the bottom, where you can see the train cars. That's scheduled to open in the spring.

The contractors are really moving along, it's been a great project for me to work on.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Success!

Alison and Jacqueline braved the crowds of the Bridgewater Commons Mall once again today, to try and see Santa.


Looks like we found the picture to include in the Christmas Cards!  

Video Update

I thought she was making some cute noises, so we took a short video this evening. We were watching the Giants game on the DVR and were real excited about how things were going, I avoided all media all afternoon, so I could focus on the decorating... what a waste of time that turned out to be!

Lights...

Finally... at long last... after buying lights for the last 8 years, I have decorated the exterior of my domicile in time for the winter solstice!


Joe happily made the trip down to Bridgewater to help me this afternoon, but I must say, this was really made easy by this glorious light hanging device ! It really saved a lot of time.

I expect that now, after we've finally done this for the first time, while the start is somewhat humble, we'll be building off this from now on. Please say a prayer that we don't burn down the neighborhood at some point in the future.

Party Time !

After our disappointing attempt to see Santa on Saturday afternoon, we brought Jackie up to Fair Lawn to hang out at Grandma's annual Christmas Party.

This year, with the good weather and apparent lack of germs floating around, they seem to have had a record turnout, (or at least more people than have been showing up over the past few years), Jackie got to meet all sorts of strange new friends, or maybe they got to meet her when she was zonked out in daddy's lap down stairs?

When we first arrived, we tried to get her to show off her new moves on the living room floor....


She was her usual bashful self, and decided she liked playing on her tummy just fine... there was no reason to roll over for Grandma, Grandpa, or Uncle Joe after all. Daddy seemed to be the only one able to get her to try on the new antlers the elves left for her.

Jackie took some nice pictures with Grandma at the tree. Grandma was so happy to finally show her all the nice decorations that magically appear each year after thanksgiving... (a little birdie told me they started showing up early this year, on account of the fact that the turkey was cooked in Bridgewater on Thanksgiving)

Unfortunately for all posterity, Dad neglected to use the red eye filter so our darling daughter looks like a space alien in all the pictures.


The elves paid a visit to the basement, and set up a nice play pen, with all sorts of new toys.


After a brief visit to all her new friends upstairs, Jackie got a wee bit overwhelmed and was whisked away back to the basement as gracefully as she arrived, where she was able to take a nice little nap and spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Walsh, Grandpa Trynosky, and Uncle Joe. Later on in the evening she was able to come back to the party, after it had died down a bit.

Uncie Joe, being a bit subversive (as we expect him to be), decided the time was right to introduce dear Jacquline to the wonders of candy...


She got a few licks in before anyone called DYFS....

After everyone left Jackie entertained everyone with tales of her crazy adventures until late in the evening


It was a fun evening for all.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Santa "Returs" at 2:00

The last two days we've been planning on braving the last minute holiday rush, and heading to the mall to have Jackie's picture taken with Santa, or one of his acolytes.

Yesterday's plans were thwarted by a diaper explosion that blew through 3 layers of clothing, luckily it didn't make it to the fourth, so we put off our plans again until today.

Today we tried getting to the mall a little earlier, but were thwarted by Daddy sleeping in, from being up too late playing video games... but decided to make a go of it anyway.

We got Jackie all dolled up in her Christmas dress, and we were all set to go.


By the time we got to the mall, she was totally passed out, nothing could wake her.

We then got to see the long line, and were greeted by a sign left for us by some elves who never made it past the first grade... "Santa returs at 2:00"...so our latest plans were thwarted by a sandwich apparently.

I think we will make one more valiant attempt to meet the big guy tomorrow, or Monday. If not, I'm sure he will still leave gifts for her first Christmas here in Bridgewater and all over Northern New Jersey.


She seems a little bummed out here, when she was told we had to try another day, but it's more likely she is still sleepy.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Jackie meets Tim Jr.


Hi everyone this is Alison's first post. Last weekend we drove down to Virginia to spend time with Tim and Lupita Williamson and meet their new baby son Tim Jr.

It was a busy weekend. We also had a chance to spend time with Uncle Steve, Aunt Jill and Uncle Joe.

New Link

I added a new link to the side bar.

The Gillespie family, now increased by one, have started a shutterfly website for their daughter Charlotte Rose.

Here is the link if you are interested in seeing what she is up too.

Charlotte Rose Gillespie

Rolling Over

Alison realized that Jackie didn't have any tummy time all day, so we got her down on a blanket and immediately it looked like she was finally ready to make her move...

Alison of course handed me the camera, which I fumbled with, as she headed down to the basement to change a load of laundry... Jackie took the opportunity to get the jump on us!

So no video of the first official roll over, I think we have an hour or so of video of us waiting for it over the past few weeks, and we missed the big moment. Lucky for us she was in the mood to demonstrate her new skills a few more times, we are happy to share it with you.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

New Friends

Congratulations are in order for the Gillespie and Williamson Families.

Timothy Patrick Williamson was born November 24th, and Charlotte Rose Gillespie was born December 3rd.

All moms and babies are happy and healthy.

Jackie got to meet her new friend Charlotte on Sunday night, and we hope to meet little Tim this weekend.




Terry Collins?

Jackie is no fan of the new Mets Manager


Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Good Luck

Good Luck Tim and Lupita! looking forward to Baby Williamson's arrival today hopefully!

Next week we'll get to meet Baby Gillespie.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Yikes!

It's been almost a month since the last post, i am getting really bad at this.

I'll have to try harder.


Right now Jackie is sitting in her high chair, in a very freshly soiled diaper, next to the kitchen table, we just finished up a late breakfast on my alternate work week day off.

Hopefully, we'll get to do some fun things today, and hopefully I'll start writing more posts for my meager group of followers. Right now Alison is whisking her away to the changing table.


Last weekend we felt like baking so we made these truly amazing snickerdoodle blondies. This recipe was incredible, and we'll be making these again for sure.

and we took a crack a home made pralines, they came out pretty good but there is some room for improvement, perhaps a better recipe is in order.


This week we are getting ready to host our first Thanksgiving dinner, I think we're going to roll the dice and do a rotisserie smoked turkey... I may have my brother on standby with the turkey frier and a second bird in case disaster strikes.

Also congrats to our friends Dwight and Peggy on the birth of their daughter Rebecca last week, and best of luck to friends Tim and Lupita, as they await the arrival of their son in the next week.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Baptism

Jacqueline was baptized on October 17th

new good things

Short post here, just to keep this thing alive.

We had a nice weekend traveling to VA to visit with friends and family, this was Jackie's first big trip, and she behaved quite well for a little baby. We were able to eat out in a few restaurants, she slept most of the way in the car, and aside from some uncharacteristic late night demonic possession, she was the perfect happy baby.

Today, she weighted in at 11 lbs, 7 oz, which I'm told is quite healthy, she had her first two immunizations and did OK with the shot.

Some other new good things are happening too, which hopefully I will be at liberty to speak of in the distant (but not too distant future)

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Hyperawake

I learned a new term during my lunch break...

Hyperawake

Jackie seems to go into overdrive fussing mode lately between 8:30 PM and 1 or 1:30 AM where she is constantly craving attention, and comfort. The past few days, it seems like she nurses almost that entire time, every time we put her down for a second she starts spooling up for a good cry.

We're happy to give her the attention, but it's good to know this is a common thing, I guess. I think we may have thrown her out of routine with our busy weekend, hopefully just a phase.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Still here


We’ve been distracted by Jackie’s cuteness the last couple of weeks, so I’ve been unable to post anything recently.  I promise some more substantive posts pretty soon for anyone who is interested. Started now perhaps…as my brain gets moving in the morning at the office (don’t tell my boss) 

It’s certainly been a busy few weeks, Jacqueline had another pediatrician visit last week, and she’s starting to gain some more weight. She was just over 9.5 lbs last Tuesday, and the other day we started using the “1” sized diapers, which I guess can be viewed as some sort of milestone. #1 for #2’s!

We had a nice visit over to the parish office to meet with the Pastor and set up the Christening date. We set the date for the 17th of October, at our Church Christ the King Parish in Manville, NJ. It will occur right after the 10:30 mass, so probably around 11:45 or so, and we’re scrambling for a place to host a reception afterwards, because out little house isn’t big enough to accommodate all the relatives and friends that we hope will join us. 

Jacqueline got to visit over the weekend with all the ladies over the weekend at the Gillespie’s baby shower, and spent the whole day snoozing in her stroller in the great outdoors, the weather was perfect so we glad to get her out of the house for a nice good amount of time. Meanwhile Dad and all the other men that were choking on the estrogen, were able to escape back to the Trynosky house for a little BBQ and some ice cold Marzen style beer in honor of Oktoberfest.  She also got a quick visit from Aunt Elizabeth, who was in town for a friend’s wedding; Elizabeth is making a habit of spoiling her with nice gifts every time she comes. 



This past Sunday, she got to spend the whole day with Grandma Walsh and her Aunt Lauren, who is turning out to be an expert baby handler and taught me how to set up the pack and play. She got her first visit with Alison’s Aunt Doreen, and got to see Great-Grandma Atlak again. 

Jackie got a little time with my parents, and then we headed home.
6 weeks ago Alison was headed into the OR for the delivery, can’t believe how fast these past few weeks have gone!

Alison and I are looking forward to our one year anniversary on Saturday, It’s been an eventful year for sure, a very very good year.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Back to the grind...



Boy... I sure didn't miss this commute the last three weeks.


Sunday, September 12, 2010

Hot Stuff

This weekend has been pretty pleasant, as I make the unfortunate transition back to work mode this week. We were fortunate to have a few nice visits with my mother, sister, brother and pretty much the entire Walsh family.

I spent a good part of my weekend trying my hand at hot sauce making, and also a first attempt at canning food. If Bridgewater Bill leaves us any tomatoes this year, I'll be using these skills to bottle up some homemade tomato sauce later in the fall.

Saturday was my first attempt, I made a reddish/orange sauce which I have affectionately labeled The "Citrus Witch" except the second word should start with a b.


About 40% of the peppers came from our garden, I was glad to finally put them to use. The freezer destroyed the cell structure, so they weren't really good for much else. I'll try and capture the recipe now...I kind of winged it.



1/4 LB Cayenne Pepper
1/2 LB Jalapeno Pepper (green and red)
1/2 LB Serrano Pepper
2 large Red Bell Peppers
3 Habanero Peppers
1 small yellow bell pepper 
3/4 a large sweet onion
1 full bulb of garlic rough chopped
4 cups of white vinegar
1 oz apple cider vinegar
1 oz red wine vinegar
1 oz cheap Kentucky bourbon
1 oz Dominican Dark Rum
4 tsp kosher salt
juice from 2 limes
juice from 2 lemons
juice from 1 navel orange
salt and pepper to taste

Rough cut garlic and onion, apply a liberal amount of salt and pepper, saute with some olive oil. Strain out excess oil and process for 5 minutes in a food processor with the citrus juice.

Rough cut all peppers and combine with vinegars, salt, bourbon, rum, and the citrus/onion/garlic concoction. Bring to a boil for 10 minutes.

Liquefy all ingredients in a blender for 5 minutes. Strain, and bring to a boil.

I got about seven 8" glass jars worth that I canned. I plan to let it age for 3 - 6 months. It had a good amount of heat, and a nice tang from the citrus. I am looking forward to seeing how it ages. If I make it again, I'm going to add some liquid smoke.

Today, I made a simple green Jalapeno hot sauce.


For this I followed a similar routine, I used about 2-1/4 lbs of store bought jalapenos, 4 tsbs kosher salt, 1/2 an onion, an entire bulb of garlic, 4 cups of white vinegar and the juice of 2 limes.

I cooked the garlic and onions the same way and processed with the juice. I rough cut the peppers, combined everything, and boiled for 15 minutes. Liquefied in the blender for 5 minutes, strained, returned to boil, and canned. The yield on this was eight 8 oz jars of sauce. I don't think this one needs to age for quite as long. To me it tasted a lot stronger, and not to brag, but much better than the Tabasco Jalapeno sauce I use frequently. I think I have a nice replacement for the next year or so, once that bottle runs out. I'll probably make this again, I call it the "Green Witch".

Right now Alison is preparing a nice stir fry dinner, using the single remaining Cayenne pepper that was ripe. I just cut it off the plant, we'll have a new batch in like 2 weeks or so though.

Other than that we had a nice lazy Sunday. While we may have to wait a while before we find out what baseball team our dear daughter will pledge her allegiance too, (for her own mental health, I hope she is a Yankees fan, for my mental health I hope she's a Mets fan), we introduced her to the NY Football Giants today, and Eli Manning is her favorite player.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Alison's arch nemesis

Since this is a blog about all things Bridgewater Trynosky related, and not just the new baby acquisition, I thought I ought memorialize a post with Alison's new enemy.

Meet Bridgewater Bill the Groundhog.



This lecherous tomato thief will get his comeuppance one of these days...

Settling In

It's been a remarkable week and a half since we brought little Jackie home. She's really surprised us with how quiet and peaceful she can be. Minimal amounts of fussing, we've really been lucky.



To my dear friends also expecting, there are things they never prepare you for in the baby classes. I think the first thing that springs to mind is how to get poop off curtains... this one I must have missed during the baby basics course at the hospital.





Also... practicing washing the baby with a plastic baby doll is virtually useless as Alison and I learned the other day. Babies in real life are much more squirmy, and they don't particularly care for having their heads under a sink faucet.

It's been a great couple of weeks of adjustments, and I'm glad I have the opportunity to work from home, so I can take all this in. I'm really going to miss my girls when it's time to head back to work next week. 

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Hey world... check me out



Jacqueline Annabel Trynosky was born on August 24th at 9:39 AM... in the few days since she has already grown tired of Dad's jokes.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

almost time...




I'm sitting here in my kitchen once again reflecting on the last 24 hours. Incredibly, we had to make one of the most, if not the most difficult decision we've ever had to make in our lives, in a brief few minutes at the doctor's office yesterday. Because the baby is so big, and things are not really progressing, we had to make the choice between induction, and a c-section. After a pretty smooth and hassle free pregnancy, this was tough news. We new we'd have to make this call last week, after the ultrasound showed the baby was potentially giant, and getting bigger, we were hoping that over the weekend, some evidence of progress or labor might take place to allow us to try things the old fashioned way. Unfortunately this is not to be.

It was clear from the Dr's tone, body language, and choice of words that she was looking at C-section as the best option, but she (probably for legal reasons) could not come out and say it. We had a few moments to decide, and opted for what seems to be the scarier choice, the surgery. It's scheduled a few hours from now, and we'll be headed to the hospital shortly.

While this was the scarier option, because... really who likes surgery? It was I think the safer option. The Dr. indicated there was an increased risk for Shoulder dystocia, which if it were to happen during labor could be a complete disaster (these were the doc's words)... these are not words to take lightly, so while it was a tough call to make. We know that at the end of the day, we're likely to have a healthy baby joining the family, and a healthy mom to keep it all together.

As for my reflections on imminent fatherhood. I pray that I have the wisdom, patience, and strength to do half as good a job as my dad. I think if  I can muster up at least that much effort, things should turn out OK. We're blessed with two loving families to support us, and a pretty strong group of friends all joining the baby parade over the next few months.

It should be a wild ride, and I'm looking forward to meeting the baby. 




Monday, August 23, 2010

Crib Status


This is what the baby crib is supposed to look like when we are finished. We'll see!

Right now it's still a pile of boards in the basement, but we're just about ready to finish shaping all the pieces, which will lead to the assembly hopefully in the next few weeks. I put things on hold this weekend to get the rest of the items in the baby's room set up, and do some other last minute prep work. 

Looks like the baby is going to be here before we expected, we have a visit with the Doctor this afternoon, and will probably need to make a decision on how to proceed. In either case, induced or surgery, we expect to be at the hospital in the morning, and new parents hopefully before the end of the day.

I'm taking my three week "working vacation" starting this afternoon. I'm going to try to unplug completely for at least a week, and then work part time the until the middle of Sept. to stretch the vacation time I've accumulated, and to allow me to spend time at home with the baby and the wife.

I'll have to squeeze all the introspective soul searching on fatherhood and all my anxiety into the next 24 hours or so I guess.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

38 Week Ultrasound

Just got back from the 38 week ultrasound.

Baby is weighing in at an estimate 8 lbs 15 oz

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Post Numero Uno

Sitting here at home, enjoying a delicious Stone IPA, watching the Mets play Houston and starting this blog.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep up with this, and our family happenings as we get ready for the arrival of the next generation of the Trynosky family anytime over the next few weeks.

We have our 38 week ultra sound tomorrow, hopefully all will be well for a smooth delivery, and James is getting his various work tasks in order for his much anticipated "family leave" time. The latter item is probably impossible, but we'll do the best we can.... i've got specs, revisions to drawings, LEED templates, estimates, change orders for projects I have no direct knowledge of and all sorts of other things to take care of before the baby shows up...

I'd rather spend time thinking of baby names, which is still up in the air, but I have to pay the mortgage, so back to work we go....

Let's see how long I can keep this up!