Goodbye Connecticut

It is hard to believe that two years has come and gone so quickly and within these two years so much has changed for us. While we are excited to start the next chapter in our lives, we are sad to leave Ridgefield and the wonderful friends we have made during our time here. It is our last night here in Connecticut and I still don't quite think it has hit me that we are leaving for good. When I think back to when we first decided to move to Connecticut, I never imagined how much our lives would be changed for the better.

We arrived in Ridgefield as a family of two eager to settle in and make new friends.....



....and we are leaving Connecticut as a family of three plus a second bundle of joy on the way, with many new friends and an experience we won't ever forget.




I had to borrow this quote from my friend Janelle's blog because it captured everything so perfectly and it made my cry......

"Before you walk into your home with your new baby, stop and mentally photograph this house so that you can keep it in your heart forever. In this mobile society of ours, there's a good chance that your child will not live in this place till she goes to college. You may move two or three more times during her childhood, especially if you find you like this mothering business and have more kids. But this will always be Bethlehem to you, the place where your family was born. You may not know it yet, but your most precious memories are about to be created here, it's where you brought your first child. Welcome home!"

Bouncing Baby......

BOY!! Yep...there was no denying that Baby Dugas #2 is a boy. We are so excited that Will is going to have a little brother who will be close in age (only 20 months apart!) and will have a friend to play with all the time.

Everything looked good on the ultrasound...two arms...two legs...fingers and toes! Here's a sneek peak at the little guy...I think he already looks like Will...hahaha.

Beach Bum

We spent 4th of July week at the Cape this year and despite not having the best weather, we were able to make it to the beach a few times. Will LOVES the beach especially the water. The boy has no fear. He will run straight into the water and if we didn't stop him, he would keep going. It is amazing how kids have no sense of temperature either when it comes to the water. It could be freezing but that doesn't stop him. Here are a few pics....

Enjoying some lunch on the beach before heading down to the water

Will loved playing and talking to all the other little kids on the beach. This poor unsuspecting boy was walking near Will with a popsicle. Will went right up to him and starting talking and waving his hands at him for a good 10 minutes. It was hilarious because he wouldn't stop. The other little boy was just looking at Will, eating his popsicle and Will was talking to him about something. Maybe he wanted a bite?

Big Brother

Will is going to be a big brother soon! We are expecting Baby Dugas #2 on November 28th! I am already 20 weeks..halfway through my pregnancy. Time has flown so quickly this time around especially since we are busy chasing a VERY active little guy all over the place.

We are very excited for the new addition to the family but it is still hard to believe that there is going to be another little person in the house. We always knew that we wanted the kids to be close but it feels like just yesterday that Will was born (and it really wasn't that long ago!). So far the pregnancy is progressing exactly the same as the first (another boy??) which is great.

We are going to be finding out if the baby is a boy or a girl very soon. I was able to convince Eric this time that we needed to know so we will see which way is better...to know or not to know? Stay tuned for the news...

My Friend Jack

We were able to see our friends Jamie, Jay and their son Jack and new baby Ali over the 4th of July weekend. It is so much fun now that Will is a little older and he is actually able to keep up with Jack. There is about a 1 1/2 age difference between them but that didn't stop them from playing together. They were having a great time playing in the water as Judu was spraying their feet.




There was something pretty interesting in this pot that they were playing with. Jack would pull out a leaf or stone and Will would get all excited.



Jack is a great sport too because Will likes to hang all over him (see pictures below) and Jack doesn't protest which a lot of little kids would normally do.

Our Little Golfer

It looks like we might have another golfer in the family. Here are some pictures of Will practicing his skills on the golf course. I'm actually impressed how well he does with a golf club...he has really good hand eye coordination and can hit the ball with the club. Maybe we have the next Tiger Woods in training?

(I'm not quite sure what I was doing wrong with my camera but the picture color came out kind of weird. I'm still figuring out how to use the darn thing.)

14 Months

It has been a busy few weeks for us while we continue the search for a new house (which is turning into the never ending search!). I'm anxious to get our housing situation under control so we can begin enjoying the summer. Meanwhile, Will is becoming more of a little boy every day. It is amazing...I was just looking at him today wondering when did he all of a sudden he turn into a little boy who can communicate with us by pointing at things, drink out of big boy cup, say his first word, and more! I have been slacking on my picture taking so my selection is a little limited. Here are some highlights from the month:

- Carries on a conversation for a few minutes, however, we have no clue what he is saying. He tends to like to have a conversation when we are taking things out of the refrigerator. He stands behind us talking up a blue storm and pointing at different things in the fridge.

- Loves to drink out of a cup or water bottle...especially when he sees Eric or I drinking out of one. If we try to give him his sippy cup, he pushes it away until we give him the big boy cup. He actually does really well drinking out of it with minimal spills.

- Said his third word....doggy!!! (mama and dada were the first two) Only problem is that everything is a doggy to him....Lucy our cat is a doggy...girls walking down the street are doggy. Now we just have to work on the use of the word doggy.

-Does not sleep past 6:00am..regardless of what time he goes to bed (what I wouldn't give to sleep until 7am one morning!). And I have somehow created a monster who will not fall asleep without being rocked. He will grow out of this..right?

- Loves other little kids..especially the ladies. He likes to give hugs from behind and rest his head on their backs. However, his hug turns into a tackle and both babies end up on the floor..usually with Will on top looking up at us with an innocent look on his face.

- Loves his Sesame Street sing along video. We put him in front of the video and he does not move once the entire show. We have to put a blocker in front of the tv stand otherwise, he will stand with his face about 10 inches from the screen.

So long.....but not goodbye

Saying goodbye is never easy and it is going to be extra hard saying goodbye to our new friends here in CT. I was fortunate enough to meet Janelle, Mendy and Katherine through our Deloitte connection...our husbands! We met back when Janelle and I were both about 6 months pregnant and Mendy and Katherine's babies were about 3 months old. I remember leaving that evening thinking I really enjoyed hanging out with those girls..I hope we see them again! And here we are, over a year later and we have become good friends and the thought of us all leaving makes me so sad.

Mendy and Casey (and husband Kirk!) were sweet enough to give us all a going away gift that we would remember forever. We all got together for a farwell photoshoot (with photographer extraordinaire...Casey) at a park in Ridgefield. It was so much fun chasing the kids around trying to get them all to stay in one place for pictures. Of course that didn't happen for long but Casey was able to get some great shots of everyone.

Girls..you have no idea how much I am going to miss you! It has been so much fun getting to know you, your husbands and babies. I hope we stay friends for a long time and keep in touch often!

Here is a slideshow of all our pictures. The Youtube video doesn't do the pictures justice though. Enjoy!!

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Or here is a link to the album itself.

Goodbye from Casey

Playgroup Photo Shoot

As a going away gift, Casey took photos of our playgroup so we had one final group shot of everyone. Since both Will and I and Rylee and Janelle are moving away, each baby got their own special photo shoot theme. Rylee's theme was a tea party and everyone had to dress in their summer dresses or for Will and Pike, in their button down shirts. Will's theme was country club..aka polo shirts with "popped" collars. Of course trying to take pictures of 13 babies is challenging especially after trying to get them to pose for over an hour. But in the end the pictures came out adorable and we have some great memories to take with us back to MA. Thanks Casey for taking these great pictures!!