Welcome Alexa!

Our new baby cousin arrived last Friday! She weighed just over 5 pounds and came a few weeks early. Apparently, Mom and Dad and baby are all doing fine. I just learned that right as they came home from the hospital they moved from one apartment to another in their Manhattan apt building. Talk about stress! Though if anyone can handle stress, it's Alexa's parents. Her mom is an ob/gyn and dad quit being a surgeon to go do research on Wall Street. And they are the sweetest people in the world. That is one lucky girl - and she and Abby managed to both be born in 2008!

Anyway, here is darling little Alexa with her Grandma Linda, my father's sister. I'm so excited that I'll be going to NY regularly very soon and will get to see her!

Gr. Lynne's Great Photos

Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas this year! Grandma Lynne decided the day before to come early to join us for Christmas morning, so we had house full of toys and hands on the big day.

Jake was super excited about Santa, leaving a cupcake and a carrot for Santa and some oats for the reindeer as well as a blank piece of paper so Santa could leave him a note. He told us he wanted to go to bed early and wanted us to as well to be SURE Santa would come. He even asked if I could sleep with Abby to be sure she didn't wake up in the middle of the night and keep Santa from coming! (I declined on that one!)

Abby did very well for her first Christmas. She wandered around in her jammies for about an hour, enjoying the very first toy Jake opened for her (little turtles on a pull string) and then went back in for a nap while Jake continued his over 2 hour opening and playing extravaganza. After getting dressed and rested, she returned in a cute reindeer shirt and red velvets pants and had a fabulous time playing with the foil wrapping paper from Grandma Fran (it crinkled but it would not tear, which she found fascinating), and unbidden, kept putting her new pjs from Fran on her head to play peekaboo.

We all loved our gifts and Jake exclaimed that each gift was "JUST what he wanted!" Jake got the remote control garbage truck he wanted from Santa and a huge amount of geo train parts from Mike's forays on Ebay. Abby got a few toys and a lot of books, some regular and some that play music, which she has been "reading" constantly. Mike got some new electronic gadgets he wanted and I got some very nice shirts, a sweater and a robe and 6 boxes of my favorite tea! All of Abby's new PJs fit her perfectly and Jake actually called out to say he liked the shirts he got.

I made a special brunch dish and we all enjoyed spending the whole day together. I'd say our first Christmas with two kids went over well! And next year, Abby will actually want to open her own presents. That should be interesting!

Abby is 11 Months Old!

And she is becoming such a little person! She "reads" books by herself, plays independently, and gets us all to laugh. She is a riot!

Jake Sings Rudolph

Jake's holiday celebration was today at his school. We all went. Last year, he gazed at the crowd calmly but kept his mouth closed. This year he sang every song! Here he is singing next to his best friend Aidan, giving his special wave to Daddy.

Last Class in Durham

Yesterday was my last class of the term in Durham. I had a very full day, which started with an early morning swim in my new favorite hotel pool, ran through a full of morning of meetings and then class. Then I stayed late in town to have dinner with a friend. It was a great dinner, but it rained cats and dogs on my 4 hour trip home and I spent literally hours not really being able to see in front of me. Not relaxing driving! And I got a sore throat about 9:30 that turned into not being able to swallow or talk by 11 pm when I got home. And it turns out Abby has the same affliction so we spent a lot of time together not sleeping last night.

Today I had a trying board call most of the day and nursed tea with honey as often as I could. I'm beat!! Now all I have to do is grade all the papers, finalize grades, and prep all the readings for next term -- all due next week! This working stuff sure is tiring! But I'm hoping we'll do some fun holiday stuff this weekend. I believe I've started the weekend on the right tone - see my elves below.

A Few Good Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A Few More Good Elves!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Ahhhhh.

I spent all week getting ready for a keynote speech I was asked to deliver today, for a conference in New Hampshire. Between that and trying to finish up my huge stack of ungraded papers, the week has been a blur. Up until 12 or 1 am every night, rushing to do more work every time Abby napped. Sitting stressed in rush hour traffic to the airport after class in Durham yesterday to make my flight to Boston and then the one hour car ride to NH. I got here at 10:30 pm and had not yet eaten dinner. My feet were swollen from standing all day at a site visit to a social enterprise in Durham yesterday morning, and then from standing to teach. My legs ached. I was a tired pup. I was wondering if committing to do this was such a hot idea.

Happily, I delivered my speech this morning and it went smashingly well. I have NEVER gotten so many compliments or engaged questions from an audience before. How totally satisfied I am after a week of stress! I'm thinking I should consider turning it into a white paper.

And the best part? I am staying at a beautiful resort, Wentworth by the Sea, and was able to make a massage reservation for this afternoon. There is hope for my tired little body yet!!

Happy T-day Rach and Dave!

Our cousin Rachel is 8 months pregnant AND on call (she's an ob-gyn) this week in NY. We made her, her husband Dave and soon to arrive Baby Girl this happy thanksgiving video. My kids are the biggest hams!

More from T-day in Philly

Jake in his beloved new hat:

Abby after getting dressed:

Abby and Linda discuss the finer points of teddy bears:

My little putti (NOT putta, apparently!) does not even need a fig leaf!

Thanks for the pix and the hospitality, Grandma Lynne!

More from Thanksgiving in Philly

We have so much to be thankful for! In addition to our amazing meal
cooked by Grandma Lynne on T-day itself, we had a lovely visit from
our cousins today. Jake and Abby had a blast, as did we! We didn't
bring cameras but took these with the webcam on Mike's laptop (hence
the blur):

Abby on Thanksgiving

After a brisk morning walk...

Abby is 10 Months Old!

She was last week, anyway. Now that I'm past my week of travel and a weekend of food poisoning (ugh!) I can turn to bragging about my beautiful 10 month old.

She is:

-laughing, laughing, laughing. She finds objects she likes and chuckles at them all day long. She looks through all of her blocks to find the one with the doggie and when she finds it, she laughs and smiles at it. Same with any kind of toy monkey. Today, one specific page of one of her cardboard books did it. She kept turning to the page with a smiling bear and letting loose. It is very cute.

-pulling herself up about 1000 times a day. chair rails, the couch, the TV cabinet, drawer pulls, the edge of her crib, really anything goes as a prop to help her practice standing. She's just on the edge of cruising, more in the endless up and down loop phase. And she laughs now more than cries when she falls, especially if we say "Abby went BOOM!"

-eating anything that is new. The mobility plus the advanced finger skills equal a very curious and able scavenger. She is not only endlessly curious about found objects, she also knows they are off limits and tries to pretend she doesn't have anything in her hand. Every tiny piece of dust, abandoned bead, piece of bark from someone's shoe, really anything, goes right into her expert pincer grip and then after she turns away, into her mouth. It is exhausting. On the other hand, she'll use this same curiosity to try nearly any new finger food we give her.

-understanding the word no. She is not allowed to touch the sound machine, the TV or Jake's crane. She reaches out, stops with her hand in front of the forbidden object and waits to be told no. Half of the time she touches anyway, and half of the time she turns, smiles very sweetly, and backs off. We're getting there!

-dancing. She'll dance to music, a baseline on the TV, or as she did the other day when Mike was using the chopper, to any rhythmic noise. Dancing means bouncing her whole body up and down, sometimes patting her legs, if she's seated. She LOVES music!

That's my girl!

Work and a Civics Lesson

So I had my first week-long business trip since Abby was born. Three nights in Boston, 2 in Durham, for 2 different conferences and to teach. I'm now sitting in the Charlotte airport watching the drizzle that has delayed my flight home. I'm tired, but all is well.

A very disappointing event happened at my conference in Boston. We were holding a 300 person conference in a very posh and fancy hotel on the Harbor. My hotel room was gorgeous - huge windows, a separate sitting room, huge bath and all comped for me by the org I'm on the board of. Felt kind of like a vacation just having the first night there to myself!

But on the second day of the conference, exactly one week after our nation elected our first African American president, racism reared its ugly head. We had invited a young black woman from the Bronx to be our keynote speaker. Her name is Majora. She's the recipient of a MacArthur genius grant and is a social entrepreneur who has transformed the South Bronx, by raising funds to turn dumps with water views into huge, green public parks and has created "green jobs" for thousands of people in her community. Work that Obama has promised to continue and extend in his America Serves plan.

Anyway, Majora had taken a red eye from San Francisco to Boston to be at our event, and arriving at the hotel, got a huge hug from our Executive Director, who invited her to use her hotel room to freshen up and gave her the keycard to her room. Majora was excited about the prospect of a shower and getting to do some yoga before coming downstairs to speak to us all. But when she got to her room, the housekeeper was there cleaning. Majora went in but the housekeeper looked her up and down and was skeptical. So she used her cell to call another person on our staff ( a young white man) who came up and said, yes, don't worry, she's our keynote speaker. He left, the housekeeper left and Majora got in the shower. When she got out and was stretching on the floor - sharp knock on the door - it was hotel security, insisting that she come with them.

She told us all this at the beginning of her speech, her voice cracking, her face filled with pain. Her usually jubilant voice got very low and gravelly as she told us that unfortunately, the color of her skin was still sufficient for staff of a large hotel to believe she was a criminal. (She didn't mention but it was clear that it didn't matter to this maid that she was well dressed, carried a business case, and had a cell phone.) The room, filled with mostly white men and women in suits, fell entirely silent. She then said, well, I didn't get to finish my yoga today so I'm going to ask you to help me do it now (this woman knows how to loosen up a room!). She asked us to stand, to wiggle our hands over our heads, to face our neighbors, and to then, give them a hug. I was in the back of the room but faced my closest neighbor and she and I both had tears in our eyes. I said - Majora is the one who needs a hug! I looked over and she was standing alone at the podium. I disentangled myself, wound my way through the crowd and went up to her, and said, YOU need a hug! She came down so gratefully and gave me the most heartfelt hug I have had in a very long time. I told her how sorry I was and my face flooded with tears. She smiled, got back up and I went back to my seat a blubbering mess, all of my colleagues nodding at me, and listened, riveted, as she proceeded to give a fabulous, passionate, kick-ass speech.

I had a very productive week, full of meaty conversations, getting new work leads, getting lots of work done, seeing old friends and teaching a good class, but honestly, hugging that woman at that particular moment felt like the most meaningful thing I did all week.

More info on her is here.

Goodbye Miriam

When I was a little girl, my parents played a record for me of a South African singer. She wore a beautiful blue wrapped fabric dress and her head was wrapped with a similar fabric. I studied the cover of that album carefully as I listened to her songs; her miraculous voice was as exotic as her outfit. She could make a clicking sound in the back of her throat while singing that sounded just like a cork popping! I was amazed.

Well, that singer, Miriam Makeba, died last Sunday at age 76 in Italy during a protest concert. I actually sing one of her songs to Abby nearly every night. It's called The Naughty Little Flea, and several months ago I found this amazing video of her at her prime on You Tube. If you watch to the end, you'll hear her do her clicking as she sings just one verse in her non-English native tongue. Oh, and I just found her doing the Click Song at the same concert!

In this video, I love her dress, her muscles, her synchronized improvisation, and most of all, her eyes! You can see the sweet voice coming from a person full of personal power. She was exiled from South Africa for over 30 years for her anti-Apartheid politics, sang with Harry Belafonte and Paul Simon, and was finally invited back to her home country by Nelson Mandela in the 90's.

Goodbye, Miriam... Abby and I will think of you as the naughty little flea bites her "here, there and almost everywhere!" And Jake too, as he loves your Click Song!

Jumping Jake and Baby Drake

Drake is our neighbor and Jake's best friend's brother. He's got great toes!

It was 75 degrees out yesterday! The boys and their dads played for a long time outside. Every time I looked they had stripped off more clothing.

Change.gov

Check out change.gov - this is really impressive! Go O!

Yes, We Can!

Happy Halloween!

Last year, Jake and Gram were both firemen. This year, they both went as doctors. Without any previous discussion, just like last year. Great minds and all, I guess. Abby went as a cow.

Jake loved going up and down our block and has relished dipping into his spoils ever since. It was a most successful trick or treating. I gave him two rules: no running and to say thank you when people gave him candy. He was the most polite little boy of the three in our little posse (him, Gram and James) and kept admonishing the other kids to not run! Drakie looked adorable in a monkey costume and James was a race driver. Have no pix of them, unfortunately.

Abby followed in her stroller but found the operation frustrating after about 2 houses. We could not stroll up to the doors and there was little to see. She had some puffs and then we went home.

Here they are as we set out:

This winning expression came when Mommy said no to putting leaves in her mouth.

My Favorite from the Shoot

Rainy Day Photoshoot

It was a warm and rainy fall day. Abby and I ran errands this morning and came back to find Ash and Gram snacking with Jake after a photoshoot. We decided to plunk Abby down and take some pix of her too. We always end up doing this on days I have not showered and am not wearing make-up!! Anyway, despite having not napped well, she turned on the charm:

I love this one of her standing: you can see how thrilled she is and also how stubby and chubby she is. She's all belly. The perfect 9 month old, as her pediatrician said to me over and over again yesterday. (For those interested in stats, she weighs 26.1 pounds and is 30.5 inches tall. Still off the charts, but her weight/height ratio is growing at the exact same slope as average growth.)

Jake agreed to join Abby and me:

And no one can get her riled up and excited like Daddy can!

Ash and I enjoyed some quiet playtime outside in a very light but comforting drizzle. The boys made mudpies and played with trucks and I realized it was the first time in a long time that the daddies both watched the babies and we were alone with the boys. Just like old times. Ahhhh!

Date Day

I'm on fall break this week from Duke, Jake's in school until 4pm, and Mike and I decided to keep Abby's babysitter for today so we could... drumroll please... spend the entire day by ourselves. A whole date day!

We had a blast. It was super cold this morning (35 degrees) so we started with a leisurely tea and snacks at a local cafe and then drove to Staunton, where we had a great lunch in a place we hadn't eaten in before. We strolled around downtown and ended up ducking into 2 furniture stores where after about 15 minutes we found the perfect table to go with the kitchen chairs we bought in Staunton about a month ago. High fives for us for efficient shopping! Then we did some holiday shopping for the kids and then headed up into the mountains as it had started to warm up. After some scenic views, a little foliage, a short but very pleasant hike, some pix taken by a friendly stranger, we made it back to snack again in town before picking up Jake at school.

Here I am on the hike:

And here's Mike at an overlook:
It was so quiet. No crying, no whimpering, no why'ing. We talked incessantly ABOUT the kids but that is entirely different than talking TO them. And we talked and talked about many many things. It was delightful. Such a simple thing. But it was also priceless. Abby was happy as a clam when we got home, and Jake had had Tumblebus at school today and clearly needed to tumble right into bed.
A good day was had by all!

More Leaf Play

A Cutie in her Crib