Election Day! Virginians headed to the polls to elect ourselves a governor. Mike and I brought Caroline because it is never too early to introduce the concept of civic responsibility being appreciative of the democracy we all enjoy (most of the time). She seemed to thoroughly enjoyed her first civic duty opportunity despite the fact that it was during a downpour and it made her dinner a 1/2 hour late. She especially enjoyed the part where she got to gnaw…
Kay Kay and Pa came for a visit this past weekend, just as Caroline was getting over her feverish week and we were wrapping up The Longest Week of Our Lives. What is it about having a sick baby that makes the days crawl by? And more importantly, how can we channel that to happen during the weeks we are on vacation? They insisted on taking care of her on Friday rather than her going to daycare. (For those of…
Caroline’s first Halloween was a tremendous success on all fronts! Wellll, most fronts anyway 🙂 I shot out of bed all excited, ready for the fun to start happening. But Halloween is a cruel holiday like that. You have to make it through a day at work pretending like you are not going home to do anything awesome. It’s almost as if everyone is trying to act like they are too cool for this day, and that it doesn’t matter…
Babies in pumpkins…seriously, what is cuter?? And what has greater Pinterest fail potential? I made the very kind, willing Trader Joe’s employee scoop down to the very bottom of the “patch” to retrieve the perfect champion $3.99 pumpkin that would hold my 17 lb child. This was the year to do it. Now or never! Next year she would be too big. Not to mention she may have opinions about things like climbing into a pumpkin in her birthday suit….
Caroline had her first (serious) fever this weekend. It crushed me to feel her hot little face and see her temps hit the triple digits. At first her temp read 102.7. Then in the morning, it was 100.1 and I breathed a sigh of relief. It shot back up to 104.7. That is so high. The sweet side of this terrible fever was that she wanted all the snuggles. She hasn’t been this snuggly since her first few weeks home,…
Halloween Parade! Halloween Parade! The signs had been announcing this all week. This is the first year we’d be living in our cute neighborhood with a little one and I was super excited to attend this fun event. I love Halloween and all things associated with it–the creativity, the costumes, the candy, the neighbors hanging out part of it. I have wonderful memories of Halloween as a kid in Florida, running from house to house sweating and panting and questioning my…
Joy is my very best friend. Our friendship goes back to 1992, when we were twelve-years-old and starting seventh grade. Yes, 1992. As in the year Bill Clinton started his presidency…the year The Mighty Ducks came out…the year apartheid ended in South Africa…and most importantly, the year Sir Mix-a-lot shot to the top of the charts with “Baby Got Back.” I know. And we are a grateful nation. Here is what we looked like in 1992, wearing our gym t-shirts on…
It’s no secret that I love big political families. My fascination with the Kennedys started when I was in early elementary school. The idea of that sprawling white house on the Cape with all those smart, sun-kissed good looking people and active kids running around, sailing and playing football–it just sounds hectic and messy and fun and loud and awesome. The Bush family has never held quite the same allure, but sometime in the last 5 years or so, I…
I am a goals person. I like checklists, I like plans, I like feeling accomplished when I do something I set out to do. Earlier this week, I decided Sunday would be the day I’d fulfill a good one. My objective for this no-plans-at-all, gorgeous, blue cloudless sky Sunday was to use my very beautiful Marseille blue Le Creuset Dutch oven for The Very First Time. Now, Mike and I received this as a wedding gift from some of our…
Halloween is just around the corner. As for us, we are READY. Our costumes are in. Our candy is here (which may have been a bit premature. We are now dangerously low on candy. Unless you like Peanut M&Ms, which I do not. The 100 Grands, however, were drastically more delicious than than I remember. Or maybe my palette has just become more sophisticated?). Anyway, Mike and I have always loved this holiday. Last year, when I was pregnant with…