Watching the Grammy's and loving:
1) Adele - she is so beautiful and smart and SUCH a great example to girls everywhere. I heart her. And desperately want to know her baby's name, because I'm pyscho like that. Also I'd like to be her best friend. And sing like her, obvs. Basically, I could at any moment become crazy stalker-y over her.
2) Neil Patrick Harris - of course. Who doesn't love him? I would ALSO like to be best friends with him. And if we're making a list, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, too.
3) fun. - I've documented my love for them before. They sing with such enthusiasm and emotion, even if they are a little on the odd side.
4) Mumford and sons - how is the lead singer singing, playing guitar, and playing a drum with his foot? And do they really NOT have a drummer? I never would have known.
NOT loving:
1) Taylor Swift - something about her bugs me. She's too choreographed. It doesn't look like she has real, actual fun on stage
2) L.L. Cool J's monologue - though luckily I was able to fast forward through a bunch after I paused to TV to attend to a persnickety Lucy who insisted her blankets weren't arranged correctly.
3) J. Lo's dress - She'll be topping all the Worst Dressed lists, for sure.
But this is not a live-blogging of the Grammy's, this is a post to document Lucy's new clothing purchases from this weekend. While we were out (at Target, naturally), we kept an eye out for a dress that Lucy might be able to wear to my cousin's upcoming April wedding. We found one, and somehow in the process, Lucy conned us into buying not one but THREE new dresses for her. She is in seventh heaven. This is a prime time for adorable fancy girl dresses, what with the upcoming Easter holiday. We struck out in the boy's section, though - we'll have to hunt another day for a shirt/tie/vest/pants ensemble for Finn (he is less than excited about this, but I will prevail). Without further ado, Lucy's new dresses:
Sorry for the blurry photo - this is an adorable purple dress that might see some action on Easter sunday:
Here is Lucy showing off the purple dress in a video of her "swirling," the entire reason she likes wearing dresses:
And here is the one Lucy INSISTED we buy for her. She wore it today to a birthday party and got lots of compliments, mostly from adults wondering if it came in their size. I kind of agree, I'd wear it in a heartbeat:
Finn may not have gotten new finery to wear this weekend, but because of some stellar behavior at school over the past two weeks, he scored himself the Clone Trooper alarm clock that he's been begging for. He insisted on using it for Sunday morning, but apparently he was so excited that he was already well awake before it went off this morning:
And finally, bonus photo of Lucy snuggling with M. this morning. Dads are comfy:
Lucy has been taking a ballet/tap class once a week since September, every Saturday morning at 9:15 a.m. It's perhaps not the most convenient time (we are usually scrambling to get everyone dressed and in the car right as my body is screaming for another cup of coffee and a seat on the couch), but we do it because she absolutely loves it. She is an enthusiastic participant, even if some of the finer points of instruction pass her by :-). And on Friday, her dance school had a "Winter Dance Review," a sort of informal recital that gave all the students a chance to dance onstage without those expensive dance costumes (never fear, those ARE coming - in June).
Lucy's class of 2-5 year olds performed a tap number, and I captured it on film, for your enjoyment. The performance gives a very clear picture of exactly what each Saturday is like, where at any given moment some of the girls might be following the teacher's instructions, caught up doing a previous dance move, singing to themselves, lying on the floor, or refusing to participate altogether. Lucy, bless her heart, managed to do a fair number of the steps (at least, when she was actually watching her teacher who was hiding in the wings), though she did get a bit caught up "flashing" the audience for a few beats of the song. She is the one in the middle with a blond pony tail, 5 girls in from the right (just to the left of the girl holding her hands over her ears). Enjoy!
Lucy was not nervous at all, but Finn was nervous enough FOR her. He kept asking her if she was afraid that she would mess up, despite my repeated attempts to get him to shut the hell up. Luckily, he didn't phase her at all - she was excited at every step of the way.
Here she is with her proud/nervous big brother, before we left for the theater:
And a rare still-ish moment backstage, where she mostly ran around like a monkey on speed:
Man she likes playing with that skirt ;-):
At the end, everyone came out to take a bow. Lucy wiggled her way to the front, and then saw us sitting in the audience:
I know that next time, when she will have TWO! COSTUMES! (a hot pink tutu for ballet and a "duck" outfit for tap), she will be just over the moon. Here's hoping that she and her classmates remember a few more of the steps by then ;-).
This morning, driving in my car on my way to work, I lamented the stupid humid weather that has been messing with my hair and sweat glands and wardrobe choices to my sister on the phone (hands-free bluetooth, por supuesto). I mentioned that I was trying to encourage crisp fall weather by wearing a sweater/skirt/boots combo for the first time this season. I thought it was a harmless comment.
My sister paused, and squeezed out the response, "Well, I kind of think 34 is to old to be pulling off the skirt/boots look."
Gasp!
Am I too old to wear high-ish boots with skirts to work?
For reference, I work in an office on an Army post in a rural-ish area, where many people wear Army uniforms (as befitting their status as Army personnel), and the rest of us are instructed to wear "business casual" dress. And our handbook (yes, we have one) has lots of helpful hints on what defines business casual, such as "does not include blue jeans, but colored rinse jeans such as black jeans, or denim skirts, are allowed." That's not a verbatim quote, but it's very, very close. I have seen much in the way of "business casual" in my office that indicates to me that our definition of "business casual" likely differs from the definition other organizations might use. With our group falling on the more "casual" end of the "business casual" spectrum, clearly.
But the setting doesn't really matter, does it? It doesn't get at the heart of my question, which is "Am I too old to wear boots and a skirt to work?" Should a 34-year-old professional (can I call myself a professional?) with two children retire this look? My sister seems to think so.
For reference, this is the outfit I wore today:
I'm too lazy to figure out how to create some sort of poll, so please, answer me in the comments section. My fall/winter wardrobe is depending on it.
I am not too lazy to post a bonus video for you, where M. and I try to get our cat to take a little jog on our treadmill. Enjoy. Spoiler: It didn't work.
*Can my sisters and childhood friends name the movie referenced in this blog title? You'd better be able to...
To all who commented or e-mailed me with support, suggestions or stories to share on my last post - thank you! That's exactly why I wrote it, and your words mean a lot to me. M. and I are still thinking about what we will do - I know I will bring it up with Finn's pediatrician, just not sure when. For today, we are choosing to just keep an eye on him and wait, but we are taking it day by day.
On to more uplifting or at least mundane subjects. Yesterday Finn went ice skating for the first time with his daycare class. We were alerted to the field trip on fairly short notice, so unfortunately neither M. nor I could take time off of work to chaperone. But I have to think it was hysterical and fun - 14 or 15 kids wobbling around in little skates and helmets, pushing buckets around on the ice in an effort to stay upright. I was a bit hesitant - it's a lot of kids, and some of the teachers that went on the trip had never been ice skating before themselves. I pictured lots of crying, bumps, bruises and chaos. But apparently all the kids had a blast, even Finn, who was concerned ahead of time that he would fall a lot. He did fall, and he complained that he wasn't good at skating (at some point, need to have a blog post or two to seek advice on helping kids who are prone to low self esteem - why would he even think he SHOULD be good at ice skating, if he's never done it before? He sets unrealistic expectations for himself), but admitted that it was fun. Even the falling.
By the way, a note on the classroom door the night before the field trip indicated that parents could bring in helmets for their kids if they wanted to. M. and I vacillated, unsure of the right answer. Did he really need one? Would it be overprotective of us? Don't kids usually learn to ice skate without helmets? Is this just one more symptom of the madness that is parents trying to keep their kids in protective bubbles forever? Or would I doom him to concussion? I even considered taking to Facebook to put out a little poll since I am apparently incapable of making parenting decisions without doing some sort of research. But I did not, and we decided that we did not need to bring in a helmet for Finn. After all, he's only about 3 feet from the ice, and he was not going to be speed skating - how much damage could he really do to his noggin? Then I found out afterward that the ice rink had all the kids wear helmets anyway. And even though I'm very, very far from being a germaphobe, this skeeved me out because frankly, lice is gross. And a pain to get rid of. So in hindsight, I should have just brought in the damn helmet after all.
So that was Friday. Today, Lucy woke up with yet ANOTHER illness, which I suppose we can expect to see run through the family. She was free of sickness for about one week. Now she has a fever, a runny nose, and is currently coughing juicy coughs over the monitor. I have a feeling there may be a dose of antihistamines in her future tonight. And likely some missed work for me or M. (pretty sure it's my turn) next week. Or maybe by some miracle she'll be fever-free by Monday morning? A girl can hope.
Finn opted to spend the entire day in pajamas, and refused to let us go out and do anything. Well, M. did run a couple of errands, and picked up Thai food for dinner (and hey! The kids ate some chicken satay! Grown-up, non-processed food! It was a January miracle). And I walked about 10 yards outside of our house to get the mail. But other than that, no one left the house, and we did nothing productive AT ALL. Aside from some squabbles about too much TV watching, it was actually pretty relaxing. I took a nap. I think it's the longest amount of time Finn has ever spent in the same pair of pajamas (he's still wearing them now, which is probably kind of gross, but hey, less laundry, right?). They are footie PJs, so I have to think his feet feel pretty disgusting, but if he's not complaining, I certainly won't!
And now for a few photos and videos to tide over the extended family.
Here, Finn explains a drawing he made of the race car Chick from the Cars movie:
And here is a photo of the artist posing with his work of art, as well as a close up of the drawing. I helped a little with the green coloring, but everything else was all Finn - pretty good for a 4-year-old (I think!).
A cute faced Lucy
And Finn hamming it up with a funny face
Finally, a video of Lucy. Most of the ones I capture of her either involve her running away from the camera, or telling me "No pictures!" over and over again. Here she demonstrates a hint of her singing prowess - she loves to sing, especially at bedtime, where she accompanies whichever parent sings to her that night. It's hysterical, and also I am amazed by how many lyrics she knows. This performance is just small snippets, and you may want to turn the volume up when you watch it as I was sitting kind of far away from her when I filmed it.
Ever feel like Christmas shopping is less about the people on your list, and more about the obligation of gift-giving? I know this makes me sound scrooge-ish, so I'd like to assure you that I really do like giving people gifts, especially gifts they actually like. But Christmas shopping - I don't know, I just find it harder and harder to enjoy it each year. I think part of it is the idea of having a list of people to buy for. And I should note that I don't actually have a written list, this is more of a mental/metaphorical list. There are so many people to shop for, and I'm terrified of forgetting someone (Note to self: You really should have an actual, literal list). The list of people I buy gifts for has grown exponentially in the last 6-7 years, and I just cannot keep track. Nor can I make up my mind about what to buy anyone.
So instead of enjoying the shopping process, I race from aisle to aisle, website to website. Is this the right gift? Well, *I* like it, but what does that mean? Would anyone else? Is it too much? Not enough? Should I get one more thing?
Christmas shopping is a nightmare for the indecisive.
And it really seems as though everywhere I turn, I truly am being asked to add to my shopping list. For example, kids bring daycare, and daycares have teachers that deserve to be gifted at the holidays. All 4 of them (since each kid has two), and then there's the support staff and director that shouldn't be left out. Not to mention the charity drive at work, and the charity drive at daycare, and the secret santa toy Finn and Lucy will each have to bring to the daycare Christmas party, and the check for the cleaning lady, and the bonus for the cat sitter, and the gift card for the babysitter...
So, hey, Merry Christmas!
Sorry, maybe I am a little Scrooge-y after all.
I have decided that if reincarnation is a real thing, I'm going to be reincarnated into a profession where people are obligated to buy me gifts at Christmas. Target gift cards, here I come.
Eh, I'm kind of in a bad mood lately, which is likely coloring this post and my Christmas attitude (it really is my favorite holiday, swearsies). I am completely lacking in all motivation - dieting, exercise, work, being a good wife, being a good mom - I am not having success or enjoyment in any of those areas of my life.
But I got my hair cut today, and that made me feel better. And it is not entirely the result of the hairdresser's comment that I have a head completely free of gray hair (yes, it is true, and yes, I am knocking on wood. And yes, I did let her know that as the mom of two young children, I felt as though the gray was certainly on its way), but that didn't hurt. So maybe things are looking up.
Hey, pictures!
Trying on big bro's Halloween costume
Getting ready to gab on the play phone
Posing with Optimus Prime, a new toy obsession courtesy of McDonald's
Guitar lessons from Dad
Lucy demonstrates questionable babysitting skills with Curious George
Aargh!
Friday was Pajama Day and Bring Your Teddy Bear to School Day - aren't they cute?!
And, lest you think that Lucy is a complete angel who never gives us any cause for irritation, a little clip of a Lucy tantrum. Brought on by we can't remember what, but good god, it is hilarious. Also note that before M. got the camera out, she was actually kicking the floor.
Finn's big birthday gift from us was a bedroom makeover. We absolutely love, love the pictures and curtains in his room, which he's had since he was a baby. We picked out the pictures ourselves (we went with a children's literature theme), and painstakingly stained plain wooden frames before he was born, sitting on our little apartment balcony in the hot summer. My mom made his curtains and a matching wall hanging herself, and when Finn was little we used to say goodnight to all the animals on them, one by one, as part of our bedtime routine. But apparently, fond memories don't cut it in the preschool room. Finn's been letting us know, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways (meaning saying things like "Mommy, my curtains are BABY curtains."), that he has outgrown his bedroom decor.
He wants a superhero room, with Spiderman curtains (ah, no - not doing theme curtains, curtains are far too expensive for that). Oh, wait, he wants a Lightening McQueen room. Or Transformers. Or no, wait, a Monster Truck room!
Regardless, it was clear that tasteful and subtle was OUT, and loud merchandise-themed stuff was IN.
Aside from some probing on our part, Finn didn't really have any input into his room's makeover. In fact, he didn't know that he was getting a new bedroom at all - it was a birthday surprise. I ordered and shopped and collected things ahead of time (goodness, look at how on top of things I was!), then M. and I took the day of Finn's birthday off from work so that we could transform the room while he was at daycare.
In true home improvement fashion, we did our best to capture the before and after of the process, for your viewing pleasure.
Finn's Bedroom: The Before Video
Finn's Bedroom: The After Video
That same morning I frosted and decorated cupcakes I had made the night before. M. and I took them to Finn's preschool class in the afternoon, along with goody bags filled with the cheap stuff kids seem to love getting (tattoos, stickers, silly bands, lollipops, etc). Shh, don't tell him, but this was our way of getting out of throwing him an actual birthday party (eh, maybe he'll get one next year). Finn knew we were going to bring cupcakes, and apparently he was so excited that he didn't sleep during nap time. He was on cloud nine, acting like a hyper goofball and showing off for his friends while we were there. I think some of the excitement and anticipation stemmed from Finn's belief that he wouldn't actually turn 4 until he had his birthday cupcake. No amount of my explanations that the whole day was his birthday, or that technically he turned 4 at 12:30 pm since that's when he was born, shook that belief. He also managed to make a huge mess with his chocolate cupcake.
After the cupcake celebration, we headed back home with Lucy and Finn to open birthday presents. Predictably, every gift except anything clothing related was a big hit. Gotta work on those present-opening manners before Christmas rolls around, so I don't have to hear the whining when something isn't an actual toy, or feel embarrassed by his reaction. Then we brought Finn upstairs for his birthday surprise (he refused to close his eyes, though). And surprise it was - our efforts were rewarded by a very, very happy 4 year old. I guess we managed to pick the right theme after all.
Lucy entertained herself during the present-opening with a lollipop from a leftover goody bag
Wondering what his surprise might be
Seeing his new room for the first time
We capped the evening off by heading to Red Robin for an early birthday dinner - Finn's choice, he loves their kids' pizza. Yes, we went to a burger joint so he could get pizza. We let the waitstaff know it was his birthday, and they came by at the end of our meal with a team of singing servers and a big ice cream sundae. Finn hid his face into my arm and was as shy as I would have predicted, but I caught several little smiles despite the shyness - he loved it.
And, he loved the sundae (surprisingly, he was willing to share it with his sister)
Despite claiming to be too excited to go to sleep (see smile below), and avowing to look at his new room all night long, Finn managed to head off to dreamland within about 5 minutes of lights out. All in all, a pretty good day for all of us!
My day today started at 4:30 am. I managed to recognize my alarm as something other than a dream, and rolled myself out of bed. Brush teeth, wash face, throw on clothes, fashion a pony tail. I made it to my friend's house by 5:30 as planned, and we set off for Baltimore.
The sky was just changing from pitch black as we found parking in a lot behind the Raven's stadium. We met up with one of our other teammates, and huddled in the bathroom for a little while, chatting, fastening on our bibs with safety pins, and avoiding the chilly morning air. Finally it was time for me to catch the bus to my relay point, half an hour before the start of the race. I sat on a warm school bus, listening to nervous chattering all around me, as we zipped through downtown Baltimore and up north to our start point. I looked at our line of buses, at least 10 buses long, and the crew of police cars and policeman escorting us, blocking traffic. And I couldn't help tearing up, feeling emotional. Somebody thought what we were about to do was important enough for this, for the hoopla. I inwardly laughed at myself, and wondered about how emotional I'd be at the end, if I was already crying (spoiler alert: I was far too exhausted to cry).
Our route through Baltimore took me through so many familiar areas, places I had seen many times, places I had been, places I had lived. Our buses drove right past the driveway to the Department of Biology building at Hopkins, the place where I devoted many hours and made many friends. Right past the new-ish building where M. worked, toward the end of his grad school experience, after his department moved out of their old, rusty, cranky headquarters. I saw the Stieff Silver building, the Maryland College Institute of Art, the Belvedere building. We almost, almost made it up to my old apartment building, a beloved brick building built in the 1920's with few amenities but lots of charm, until each bus, one by one, made a 3-point turn to back track and drop us at the exchange point.
My first thought, upon emerging from the bus, was to find a port-a-potty to pee... and maybe, ahem, do more (nerves, what can I say?). Some busmates and I looked around for the facilities and saw... a line. A very long line, leading up to ONE port-a-potty. One port-a-potty, for hundreds of people. Pretty sure someone screwed up there. Perhaps some of the 100 or so port-a-potties at the finish line were meant to be delivered to Relay Point #2? Maybe at least one or two were wrongly directed? Figuring out how to handle this situation took up a good chunk of the time I would have otherwise spent hanging around pacing and fiddling with my iPod. Never fear - someone managed to get in to one of the locked Hopkins academic buildings, and a steady stream of runners (including myself) made good use of their very nice (read: far superior to a port-a-potty) facilities.
By then it was about 8:30, and the race had been underway for half an hour. The relay teams started at the same time as the full marathon runners. I was expecting my teammate right around 9:00 based on her predicted pace. I spent some time stretching, talked a bit with a friend who happened to be running the relay as well (this was nice, as I wasn't expecting to know anyone), and then watched the front runners for the marathon pass by. The wheelchair participants were crossing by us (at mile 5.7) by 8:30 or so, and the leaders of the runners began showing up by 8:45. I was blown away by how fast they were running - not only was it uphill at that point (and a steep hill at that), but they still had over 20 miles to go!
I nervously alternated keeping watch for my teammate and checking my cell phone to see what time it was. The race transponder would only record one time for our whole team, so the only way to know my own pace was to figure out what time I started, and what time I ended. I glanced at my phone at 9:01, and about a minute and a half later, I spotted my friend. She ran uphill for most of her 5.7 miles, and looked DONE. I'm pretty sure she was happy to see me :-). I grabbed the transponder from her, tossed her my sweatshirt and bag, and took off.
The race itself was a) fun, and b) exhausting. The fun part was the beginning. After a slight uphill, it was downhill for about 3 miles straight. And not a steep, bone-rattling/knee-jarring downhill. It was fairly gentle, just the kind of hill I like to be running down. As I neared the Inner Harbor, I began to wonder when I would see M. and the kids. He had gotten them up and out of the house by 7 am, drove to a light rail station south of the city (think above-ground subway), and took the train in so they could all cheer me on. Luckily, my leg of the race circled down close to the finish line, so he could pretty easily see me at about my halfway point AND at the end of my leg, and we were still positioned pretty well to get to the finish line to cheer on my last teammate.
I managed to spot M. and the kids - M. tried to video me, but apparently didn't actually have the camera ON. At that point I looked perky still. The kids saw me, but looked a bit confused and didn't really get excited.
Then I continued on, excited to end the race and hang out with them. I had figured that seeing M. would be about the mid-point of my leg, but as I continued running on a road that was supposed to loop back around, and I still hadn't looped around yet, I began to realize that M. probably hadn't been waiting at the midpoint, he'd been earlier than that. And I couldn't find a mile marker for the life of me (through the entire race I never saw one, though I imagine they must have had them) to know how much further I had to go. AND, I was suddenly tired. My legs were numb - they had been from the start (the cold, maybe?). But now they were also tired. I was slowing down, in the face of what I was sure was a lot longer to go. And we were no longer running downhill. There were some uphills, though they were pretty gentle (and I really can't complain about them, as I have seen a map of the course elevation and I know my teammates had some hills that were doozies). I kept grabbing cups of water and trying to gulp some down, though I wasn't terribly thirsty. I would have preferred food, I think - at that point, my Cliff bar and Cliff gels that I had gulped down earlier were no longer giving me energy.
We finally cut across and started back toward our relay point. I tried my best to find a couple of bursts of energy, to move my legs faster. Sometimes it's easier to run faster - if you run too slowly, your mind focuses on just how slow you're going and tries to convince you to just stop. So I pushed on, intermittently, running a bit slower in between. I never walked.
After the loop around, I wasn't sure how much further I had to go. My perspective was completely confused. But then I saw one of my teammates, the one who had run the first leg of the race. I saw her, cheering for me and smiling, and asked her how much more I had left. She told me I was almost done (still wasn't sure what that meant), and that my next teammate was all set to take over. She ran with me for a little bit, then ran ahead to let our teammate know I was headed her way. I realized, then, finally, that I truly was almost done. I saw the Relay banner, and the crowds of runners waiting to take over. And I saw M. and the kids again, cheering for me, waving at me, encouraging me. I picked up my speed for the last little bit, suddenly renewed, and made it to my teammate. I shoved the transponder at her, gave her a hug, and looked at my cell phone: 10:21 am.
78 minutes to run 7 miles. Boo-Yah!
Just before the end, when I passed by M. and the kids the second time. You can see my friend running just ahead of me, getting ready to alert our teammate that I was coming. Excuse the lengthy rear-end footage, please :-)
The kids waiting for me to run by
Me and two of my teammates, after the race (our fearless fourth had to leave just before this was taken)
This week was the first week I felt that pang - the one that I think I'll occasionally feel when someone announces a new pregnancy, or introduces a brand new family member. It was the first time I really thought "Am I sure I'm done having babies?"
I am sure, of course (I think) (definitely). I love babies. I love my babies. But I don't feel like there's a baby missing from this family. Lucy doesn't feel like a middle child to me. And if I'm really honest, I think some of those pangs are born of selfishness. Of me thinking that if I did it again, brought home a newborn that turns into infant that turns into a toddler that becomes an infuriating/lovable pre-schooler and so on... (not sure, still look ahead to/dreading whatever comes after preschool), I would do it better. I would handle it better. I would be more patient, less emotional, happier, better able to live in each moment. Less regretful when things don't go as planned (do they ever, with a baby?).
A new baby would be like a competition, a chance for a do-over.
That is not a reason to have a baby. So those pangs - I know they'll show up, every now and then. But they will be set aside.
And really, aren't these two enough for anyone? This family of four, we make a pretty good dance party.
My last post demonstrated some of the havoc Lucy is able to wreak from a mere few inches off the ground, crawling. Well, as of this weekend, her havoc-wreaking tentacles have extended:
This happened, of course, about two hours after I left town for a few days. Mommy leaves, Lucy decides to start walking. Because why would Mommy want to see that anyway, right? Perfect timing. Apparently she was sitting in her PB Anywhere chair, stood up, and started walking. Just decided it was time, I guess.
We are not up to full time walking yet, there is still plenty of crawling mixed in. But we are definitely getting there, and despite my failure to witness the big milestone firsthand, I couldn't be happier. All of that crawling on the playground at school that is completely ruining Lucy's brand new white sneakers may have something to do with my happiness, but I'm also thrilled that she's found a new talent that she loves practicing.
This weekend marked another Lucy milestone, too - Lucy is now completely bottle-free. I thought it would be a huge struggle, because Lucy LOVED her bottles. She got so excited to see them, and would do no more than throw any sippy cups filled with milk. We hadn't been forcing the issue at all, but something seemed to just click, and all of a sudden Lucy started getting excited when we brought out a sippy cup for her (or her brother). So we just went with it, and ditched the bottles cold turkey. Surprisingly, it has worked out really, really well.
As I mentioned, I left town for a few days. I went from a 3-year-old with an attitude occasionally bordering on teenager-ish:
and a 1-year old who just learned to walk and drink from a cup:
to this:
Oh, the contrast! My babies are babies no longer! I happened to have a work trip in the Boston area, and used the opportunity to spend a couple of days with my sister, MommyEsq, her husband, her 21-month old twins, and her brand new baby girl Josephine Alice (Josie). Josie was only 5 days old when I arrived, and so adorable! I had lots of fun holding her and remembering all those sleepy, cuddly newborn days (the good parts only, of course). If MommyEsq or any of my siblings want to have dozens of kids, I'd be totally supportive - I'd come take care of them whenever they wanted! This baby factory may be closed, but I love, love, love new little babies, and I couldn't be happier for the Esq family.
I have all kinds of fodder for new blog posts (a trouble-making Finn, a speeding ticket, yet ANOTHER stomach bug for Lucy, our very first ER visit with one of the kids, various other heart-attack inducing injuries - all of which occurred in just this past week), but no time to write them. Work is quite soundly kicking my ass right now, and I don't foresee a break from it any time soon. So instead, I shall just post some pictures in yet another cop-out post.
Lucy during a nebulizer treatment, with which we are thankfully done.
Lucy concentrating on her favorite activity - grabbing at the cat
Balloon-head Finn
What a smile!
Modeling new swim clothes, ready for summer (aren't we all?)
Finn in his pirate shirt
Perhaps you can make out one of the above-referenced injuries in this photo - Lucy took a header down the only two hardwood steps we have in the house. Perhaps you can also see that gate that was put up to prevent it from happening again... Geez, you'd think this was our first time doing this parenting thing.
Another view of the head injury, and a picture of the new crawling skills
In the last day or so, Lucy has developed a new "thing" that was funny/cute at first, but is quickly becoming annoying. I like to call it the "laugh-cry." She seems to do it whenever she's tired or frustrated or happy or hungry (so, always). Enjoy the new soundtrack to our lives:
Another quick video for you with a few seconds of Lucy crawling and rolling around:
A. and M. are two former lab rats who met in grad school, got married, left the bench, and settled in suburban D.C. A successful experiment in developmental biology resulted in a bouncing baby boy, Finn, in October 2006. He was joined in April 2009 by his little sister Lucy. Add to that a neurotically needy cat, lengthy commutes and the joys of homeownership, and there's never a dull moment! E-mail them at uncontrolledexp at gmail dot com.
