Wow, so it's been a while since I blogged. Life happens. I have a baby. The struggle is wanting to spend time with her but also wanting to write a blog post to remember everything that's happened. So here are some quick highlights:

• Daycare - Maisie has been attending daycare full time since the week before Thanksgiving. She is really thriving. She appears to love her teachers and having that interaction. She's usually the first child to be dropped off and loves that one-on-one time with her teacher. Having her on a set schedule has worked well for her. They taught her how to nap and go to sleep (no more fighting it!) And I think she sees the older kids in her class and wants to do what they are doing, so she comes home and it seems she has learned something new every day. 

• Illness - She had her first cold the first week in December. And her first fever the first week in January. I am sure this isn't the last, but we survived. STRESS!

• Solid food - I waited until she was 6 months to start her on solid food. I let her tell me she was ready and boy was she ever! She sits in her highchair while we eat dinner and kept eyeing our food and wanting it, so we offered her baby food and she loved it. We haven't really found anything she doesn't like. She takes it like a champ, some days more than others. She also hasn't had an allergic reaction to anything either. Fingers crossed she stays a good eater because Mommy and Daddy are adventurous eaters.

• Teeth - Her first bottom tooth popped through Jan. 11, and the second came, a week later, on Jan. 18. I haven't figured out yet if teething is going to be terrible for her or not because she was sick the whole time. I am hoping the fever doesn't come every time she has a tooth because that was miserable for her.

• Sitting and Crawling - These two go hand in hand because they happened together all of a sudden. She has always liked to sit up but she can finally sit up on her own and not look like a weeble-wobble. She started crawling last week and by the beginning of this week is full on using it to get anywhere, especially Caesar's gross dog toys. She loves those the best. 

If I had one wish in this world it would be for Maisie to have a chance to meet and know two people who had a huge impact on my life. One being Daniel's dad and two being my Bachia (grandmother).

One of the worst days of my life was when my father-in-law passed away suddenly the day after our engagement party. He didn't get to attend our wedding, we didn't get to surprise him with our pregnancy announcement and Maisie won't get to ever meet him. It stings so much. I miss him and still get emotional to this day even though it's been six years. How has it been six years?

Dan Dennis is a man who once offered me $500 for Caesar. We took it as a joke, but I am sure he was serious. If he would do that for a dog, I am sure I would have never seen my baby had he still been here. He's a man that would make me laugh until my sides hurt and say the most inappropriate things that I would laugh at and the rest of the family would cringe. I feel I got robbed of my time with him because I only got four years. Better than nothing, but so much has happened in those six years.


Maisie would have loved that man. I'm sure he would have been at my house every day to see her. I can picture him telling Daniel and I we were doing it all wrong when it came to everything -- diapering, feeding and even the way she dressed. He'd want to put her car seat in the convertible so they could go motor around. It just tears me apart that she will miss out on these things. So we will do our best to tell her stories and show her pictures so that she can at least know what a wonderful person he was.

As for my Bachia, she is still alive at 92, however, she doesn't know anyone anymore. The last time I went to visit her was very hard for me. I visited her the day of my grandfather's funeral. I think I took my visit with her harder than saying goodbye to my grandfather. She wasn't the woman I remembered or wanted to remember. She was just there. As much as I talked to her and held her hand it crushed me to know she didn't know me.


I'm sure people will think that I am a terrible person for not going back to visit since then, but I don't want to have my memories of her in her current state. I want my memories the fun times -- going to Disney or the Polish Club, her cooking or traveling.

She was such a wonderful grandmother that did anything for my brother and me, so I am again crushed she has no idea I had a sweet baby girl. I can picture it now, she would dote on Maisie and want to spoil her even more than she spoiled us grandkids. She'd want to dress her in fancy outfits and teach her how to make pierogis. It almost hurts more knowing she's alive but will never know Maisie.


I promise my next post won't be such a bummer, but I felt I had to share how important these two people are to me and how I wish my daughter could feel that too.

How did Influenster and Pampers know we were burning through diapers and that we'd love to review Pampers Cruisers?

Ever since Maisie was born we have been testing different diapers and brands to find out what works best for us. We have always gone back to Pampers. They fit great, they don't leak and they are so soft they don't even feel like diapers!


As she gets older and starts to move more I noticed you have to take that into account when you purchase diapers. I was happy to try out the Cruisers to see if they would hold up to my wiggle worm.

Did you know the new and improved Pampers Cruisers diapers have three separate channels in the diaper core that help distribute wetness evenly from front to back? They also help fit better without the sag of other diapers. One thing I cannot stand is a saggy diaper. Who knew pee would weigh down a diaper so much!


My girl did great in these. And they have fun characters from Sesame Street on them. How could you NOT love seeing Elmo & Cookie Monster on your little one! They are definitely on our purchase list next time we go to the store.


Note: This is a sponsored blog post. I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.

Thankfully the doctor said that the crying is not hurting her and if I need to sometimes set her down and walk away for a moment, she will never remember it and it won't scar her for life. I hate walking away from my child but when you have heard hours of crying you hit your breaking point and need to just splash water in your face to try and get yourself back together (and wipe your tears away).