Caroline Isabella Spead turned ONE year old today. How it is possible we have a one year old?? This year flew by. It was a fantastic day. She celebrated in style with us (her parents, who both were home that day), Kay, Kay, and Pa. We started off the morning right: with a balloon drop into her crib! (Special thanks to Pa for blowing up each and every balloon the night before. A truly amazing feat!) As soon as we…
So three days shy of 11 months old, Caroline headed off to her first day of daycare at a center in our neighborhood. Mike and I toured this center when I was 4 months pregnant and we handed in our waitlist deposit check before we even left that day back in October 2016–that was how much we liked this center. The staff, the mission, the setup, the teachers, the orderliness, the fun the kids seemed to have. I knew it…
Patriots v. Eagles. This was the big showdown for the 2018 Super Bowl and we decided to fly Mike’s dad down from Lowell to NoVA so these two Patriots fans could watch the game together. To be honest, even though it would have been amazing to watch the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Super Bowl, I was really glad that Mike and his dad could share the experience. During last year’s Super Bowl, I know Mike was missing him when it…
So February 2 is an important day in my larger extended family–we have two beautiful family members who share this birthday. Both of these lovely people also happened to pass away in the summer of 2017, which left the question…what do we do on February 2? How can we honor them in a positive way, while also being conscientious and respectful that celebrating them in no way trivializes the very real loss we still feel by their absences? I took…
Where do you go when you have a few hours in the afternoon of a delightful day in late January, when you just want to be outside, take a stroll, not spend a ton of money, and have a group of people (including two babies and two dogs) you are trying to accommodate? If you live in the DC area, Teddy Roosevelt Island! This lovely hidden gem along the GW Parkway is a great option for such an event. There’s…
We have made some wonderful baby acquaintances since our very own arrived last March, and Mike and I made a New Year’s resolution to have more people over to our house for fun events–especially those who have little ones. So fast forward to a chilly day in mid-January when we invited a small group of friends (all of whom have had babies in 2017) to join us for some old fashioned baby camaraderie, brunch foods, and (of course) champagne. We…
Last Saturday, the Patriots stomped all over the Titans and secured themselves a spot in the AFC Championship game. That didn’t surprise anyone—it is the Patriots, afterall. You expect them to win. But then the very next day, my high schools friends and I gathered together and watched the Jacksonville Jaguars take on the Pittsburgh Steelers…at Heinz Field, no less. All those Steelers fans with all of their terrible towels. But the Jaguars were up for the task! Especially when…
So to close out 2017, Mike and I headed to the Gaylord National in Maryland for the ICE! Exhibit. Note–the ICE! Exhibit is 9 degrees. But Sugar Bear has a sugar bear suit so we decided to give it a shot and do something fun. Like Christmas fun in general, we were both pleasantly surprised by how much she actually enjoyed it! We started off the morning of the last day of the year in our matching Chistmas jammies, which…
So Christmas morning came bring and early for us all in Florida. Before we headed downstairs for all the excitement, I snapped this quick picture of me and Caroline to remember the magical moment of her FIRST CHRISTMAS! Some of us wore our matching jammies (others didn’t have theirs arrive in time, grrrr) but we looked our merriest anyway. The adults headed down first so we could see the four-year-old’s reaction coming down the stairs and it was oh so…
Mike, Caroline, and I were lucky enough that we got to spend eleven beautiful, blissful days in the Great State of Florida for a long Christmas vacation. This year definitely made up for last year, when I was six months pregnant with Caroline and banned from the state because of the Zika threat. We had a lovely, albeit quiet time then. But this year, we were ready to introduce Caroline to how our family does Christmas. We kicked off the…