Two years ago, I was approached online by another Scott Ahearn with interest in the “scottahearn.com” domain name. At that point, teamahearn.com had been live for a year, and I had already migrated most of the important stuff over. My plan was to maintain teamahearn as a family site and eventually fine-tune scottahearn with more of a technology slant – articles, information, etc. on whatever I came across. With that in mind, I sent a gracious “no thanks” and saved Scott’s contact info just in case.
Of course, time conspired against me and I never really settled on a vision for scottahearn that was unique or worthwhile, so recently decided to dig up that old email and see if there was still interest. So adios, scottahearn.com. The past 11 years have given me the opportunity to tinker and learn about PHP, Perl, XML, AJAX, CSS, and a host of other related technologies serving me in my career to this day.
I’ll be transferring the domain within the coming days, and if I get really bored, might launch “scott.teamahearn.com” or something someday. But probably not.
And hey, now maybe the domain will log more than 20 hits a day.
Three weeks ago Lily turned two (see the photos!) and we invited several of her friends over for a late afternoon party. Since we’re evil, we then filled everyone with ungodly amounts of sugar, and turned them loose with stickers and crayons. It was great. Also great – the sleep later that night.
On the recent sleep front, though, Lily has been waking up around 5:45 each morning for the past few weeks. This is fairly unacceptable to mommy and daddy, who were quite accustomed to the 6:30 wake up call we enjoyed for months. Then came daylight saving time. This ["spring forward"] has actually worked in our favor in the morning, but we’re now faced with the evening bedtime challenge. So we’re trying to gradually shift bedtimes around until we’re back to a normal schedule, and hopefully everyone comes out sane and well-rested.
All this has also put a slight damper on our crib/bed plans. She has a “4 in 1 convertible crib”, and we were planning on changing it soon – from crib to daybed. But maybe we’ll wait for a less disruptive opportunity.
What is ideal about the time change, though, is that it’s now still daylight during the 6 to 7pm hour – traditionally known in our house as the “Post Dinner Freakout”. This means we can now open the door and set her loose to blow off some stink. Rejoice!
In other news, we’re going to the pediatrician today to follow-up on Lily’s allergies. For the past week, she’s had some … “diaper trouble” … previously associated with food allergies. We’re desperately hoping she hasn’t re-developed a reaction to something thought to be cleared, but they’ll take some blood and get to the bottom of it. Current known allergy roundup: wheat, eggs, and peanuts. Who knows – maybe she just has a little bug.
We’re now within two weeks of Lily’s 2nd birthday, and we can’t believe how the time has flown by. We look at old photos and videos, and can’t believe how far she’s come in such a short time. These days, it’s all about mommy and daddy just trying to keep up.
Lily’s vocabulary has simply exploded – she’s now able to communicate her wants and needs fairly articulately, which is both a blessing and a curse. (“What do you want for breakfast?” “I want a cupcake!”) With this dawning of conversation, though, she’s also fully into the “being a two year old” stage. Lots of “no”, lots of “I want”, lots of whining and carrying on. But at the same time, she is lots of fun. Always playing, singing songs, “reading” to herself, talking to her stuffed animals, and generously giving out hugs and kisses. It’s the best!
In other goings-on, it’s February, and that means birthdays galore. I’m pretty sure there are already at least three parties planned for Lily. For my birthday, I’ll be on a plane, on a business trip – but I’m sure I can squeeze in some festivities at some point. But as always, birthday wishes go out to Aaron, Ryan, Becca, and about twenty others!
Check out the “new” video below, shot in early December (two months ago). Your classic toddler serenade.
Silent terror instead of screaming? That’s a win. (December)
Lily is a staggering 22 months old today, and celebrated by tossing a full bowl of cereal (with milk!) across the kitchen this morning. Gotta love this age. She’s not really old enough to be bargained with yet, but having just spent the better part of an evening assembling her big Christmas gift, I was tempted to inform her that Santa would now be skipping a certain house on Ashview Drive. But no – we’ll save that one for some other time.
With Christmas less than two days away, we’re busily preparing ourselves for holiday festivities. Each year, Christmas Eve is spent with the A’Hearn clan, and we’ve offered to host this time around. For the first time ever, we will also be spending Christmas Day by ourselves. No early morning travel, no suitcases, no travel cribs – just pajamas, coffee, and a toddler who’d like nothing more than to tear into some presents like Ralphie and Randy Parker. On the 26th, another first: hosting once again, this time for the Baerent/Mayland families! We’re very much looking forward to all the guests, but that also means a great deal of cleaning and prep.
I’ll be sure to post heaps of holiday photos once everything settles a bit and, as always, I’ve continued to update Lily’s photo album as her antics continue.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted because it just seems to be that time of year when there’s always something going on. I’ve been swamped at work, there’s been one event or another each weekend for a month, and there are still remnants of unpacked boxes and things to do around the house to get “moved in.” That will never end, I suppose.
Lily is now just over twenty months old, and there’s a new adventure every day. She’s communicating her wants and needs better, has been sharing “memories” with us lately, and is as spirited as ever. She was sad to get her flu shot last week, though, and has reminded us of this every day since then. Because of her egg allergy, her doctor wanted her on-site all morning, and gave the flu shot in three separate doses, monitoring Lily’s reaction each time. It made for a long day, but she handled it surprisingly well.
For those of you keeping track, I’ve added more photos to Lily’s album. We’re also well aware that it’s already November – our job for the immediate future is to ensure Lily’s (and our) wishlist is up to date for the impending holiday season. Because let’s not kid ourselves – presents are awesome.
The time just keeps flying by! Lily turned nineteen months old this week, and the wackiness continues. I’ve added some photos to her album, and have even more on deck!
The biggest news to report since last month is that she’s settled in to her new daycare far better than we could have hoped. The first week was tough – she’s at her prime for attachment and separation issues, and after a full, fun summer with mommy there were a lot of tears as I dropped her off each morning. Who knew a toddler could have such a strong grip? But each day we talked about the routine and got it into her head that she would play, have lunch, then mommy would pick her up. Now, of course, she squeals with glee as we drive up, and practically leaps out of my arms to join her new friends. And she’s clearly determined to get an early start torturing daddy:
“Lily, what did you do at Ms. Hamdi’s today?”
“Kiss Jakey! Kiss Noah!”
