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

Pix from Grandma Lynne's Visit

Grandma Lynne was here for 3 days, doing some babysitting for us while Tara was out of town. She and Abby spent a lovely day together while I was in NC and Jake had Friday off from school and loved his time with her too. Thanks for coming to visit us all!!

And, here are her pix:

Fall is Here

I voted today! (Absentee that is)

Some people have been predicting that the lines on voting day might be VERY long, given the closeness of the race in VA, and the importance of the presidential election this year. Mike and I wanted to be sure our votes are counted even if the lines on election day make it impossible to stay and vote with our impatient little girl in tow. She has about a 20 minute limit in her stroller if it is not in motion.

So we went to our town center today to see about voting absentee and it was delightfully easy. In our little town, you can vote absentee between now and November 1. The voter registration building is about 500 square feet in total volume, but they have a voting machine and if you're pregnant, caretaking, working, or planning to be out of town on election day, they unlock the machine for you and keep your vote electronically confidential until election day.

It felt great to press the buttons and hit "VOTE!"

Now, can you guess who I voted for????

Abby is 9 Months Old!

And she is quite the little lady. As Ash and Matt remarked last night, she doesn't seem quite like a baby any more, but looks like a budding toddler. I think it's the way she holds her body and her legs - she's got so much more control now that she's crawling and pulling up to stand.

And it's clear to us she would certainly be toddling if she could!

She's still as sweet as ever!

A Change in Tone

The tone of the political debate is changing, in interesting ways. Obama's starting to give speeches about the hard work in front of us, and others are pondering the job the new President will have to bring our divided nation back together after such a divisive race. It is heartening and encouraging to see some long-term thinking happening a full three weeks before the election. Perhaps there is hope for this nation yet.

My great friend and former boss Charlie Firestone also wrote a nice piece for the Huffington Post yesterday proposing new responsibilities of citizenship. He talks about a bundle of literacies we should be responsible to achieve. Not just reading and writing, but being civically literate, media literate, financially literate, environmentally literate. I cannot agree with him more. Imagine if every American teenager had to become knowledgable about how credit card and mortgage debt works before graduating from high school. I am sure it would do a lot to curb our greed-centric banking system and help young people make good choices before it's too late. Kudos to you, Charlie!

Once I Got a Fish Alive

Click here for a recording of Jake singing a song he learned at school.

He does it complete with hand motions.

And how did we get it on tape from a boy who hates to sing in public? We did nothing. Mike had showed Jake the on and off switch on the tape recorder and Jake did this entire recording by himself the other day, hanging over the recorder to be sure it heard him.

Halloween B-day Party

Matthew's great Halloween birthday party was yesterday. Jake went as a surgeon:

Abby was supposed to be a ladybug, but it wouldn't zip over her belly, so she went as a one day shy of 9 month old baby girl. She played the part REALLY well!

We did some crafts...

Enjoyed the haunted blow-up house. ( I love this one of Bella, looking quite wondrous as Wonder Woman. In fact when Mike asked her her name, she told him it was Diana!)

Jake REALLY loved the moon bounce. He spent a great deal of time in there!

This one reminded me of the photos from last year's party:

You can click on the photo below to see all the kids closer up.

We have lots more pix to share with everyone... just email me if you want some. Here's one of the happy b-day boy!

Abby's Standing up!

Only twice so far, but she has stood up in her crib, quite jubilantly, twice, and has tried, unsuccessfully, to pull herself to a standing position on shelves, tables and other vertical objects. She is strong and determined!

Reality Check

Here's a good reality check from Thomas Friedman on the relationship between the economy and politics.

This is also good - distills the facts behind the assertions in the Presidential town hall debate last night.

Old Farm Day

We all enjoyed Old Farm Day on Saturday. We had gone last year when I was pregnant.

It was hot and there were big crowds!

Jake enjoyed the farm animals.

But his favorite thing by far was the apple cider making. It was across from the apple jam making, shown here.

Abby really wasn't very happy until we planted ourselves in the shade and let her out of the stroller. Then she decided that eating grass was a great deal of fun!

Seconded only by crawling,

Though swishing a piece of paper around and chewing on it was pretty good too!

Jake happily watched a potter make a pot just for him and had popcorn and a honey stick. He and I also played some renaissance string instruments.

... while Abby played with Daddy.

A good time was had by all. Boy were we tired when we got home!

Jake's School Picnic

Jake had a school picnic last week. I was in NC, but he and Daddy went and had a great time. Apparently he ate a tiny bit of fruit and then spent the rest of the 2 hours running, wrestling and rolling on the ground with his friend Aidan!