Hung

Ugh. Hung jury today. Must retry. No words.


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Grandmary

Most of the people who read this know my mom, who might just be the closest thing any of us will ever know to a saint walking the earth. She is so amazing and patient. And the number one member of her fan club is vake. He is so confident that she can solve any problem.


Tonight, we lost a train and he begged me to call her. "I know who can find it. Grandmary." For the record, I tracked I down but neveryoumind.

Funny story. Today we were all in church. Gil has failed out of nursery and candidly, I like having the baby with us. Vake was sitting with beloved grandmary until the offertory. I gave Vake his quarter to put in the plate. He put it in the plate, and about 25 seconds later he took off down the aisle after the ushers. Wheeeeeee!

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And the sad part is...

I already know how much I am going to miss it when it is over.


Look at this funny little monkey. He's got his favorite books, his Raffi, Raffi's family and his trains all gathered up around him.

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Writing his name

He's still learning but it is finally obvious that he is writing v a k e. my big boy.


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Challenges of Church

Now that Gil is basically down to one nap, we're trying to get to church every Sunday.  Whew!  Easier said than done.  Today,  I slept until 7:45 and the service starts at 8:45.  I don't mind so much being the family that is scooting in as the whole thing is getting underway, but it was particularly frustrating today.

This Sunday and last Sunday, we've taken Gil to the nursery.  I think Gil is right in the middle of the worst of the baby separation anxiety right now because he just howls when he is held or taken by someone he doesn't know.  So our church nursery, like many others, has a pager system.  You drop off the child, you take a pager. 

And that's what we did.  About five minutes into the service, what I think is my cell phone starts buzzing and won't stop.  I check my phone, and it is not that.  I check Mom's phone.  Eric checks his blackberry- and we finally realize it is the pager from the nursery.  Oh dear.  I never had this problem with Vake at all. 

I arrive upstairs and Gil is upset, but it is an upset that I honestly think that the nursery worker could have gotten him through.  Oh well.  Nevermind.  So I take Gil back downstairs.  He's definitely pretty outraged and is still sort of randomly shrieking throughout the service.  I finally take him out and sweet Bo stops his sermon to tell me that Gil is fine.  Oh well again.

At any rate, we make it through.  By the end of the service, Vake is so amped up that he is ready to run up and down the aisle.  Yowzers. 

I do stand behind my firm belief that it is incredibly important to raise children in a faith but whew!  it is exhausting.

Outtakes from bath time

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Location:N Colonial Ave,Richmond,United States

Technical difficulties

Our desktop upstairs is currently being very cantankerous.  There will be posts as soon as I get it straightened out.

Stand by, please. 

People just like pictures!

Birth Day Weather

The day Vake was born was beautiful- warm and sunny.

I wasn't outside at all on the day Gil was born, but the 28th was similarly gorgeous- unseasonably warm and mild.  The day he was born was colder but still sunny- the high was in the high 50s.

I wish I could remember the details from both days more vividly.

 What a day we had on December 29, 2012!  Gil woke up and sat politely in his crib and finally asked to get up about 8 o'clock.

 These pictures capture the sweet sleepiness of this little monster-bear.  I wish I could have gotten some with the eyes open.

 Mary Frances had spent the night, so I got both of them awake and dressed and they played together in Gil's room for a little whie.

 And then we had a brunch!  We held it to just the godparents for both boys- we were SO bummed out that Aunt Courtney could not be with us.  She was completely missed!!!!!!

 And the only non-godparents in attendance were our number one babysitters, Emma and Flora.

 And then we had our cupcake.  And I got completely covered in baby frosting.

 Naturally, Vake wanted to be in on the action- he did surprisingly well for it NOT being his birthday!

Happy birthday sweet Gil!  I am so glad you are a part of our family!

Christmas 2012

 Yippee!!!  I've finally figured out (by using GoogleChrome) how to load multiple pictures to the blog using blogger as opposed to uploading them 5 at a time!!!!!  It is the little things, people!

We had a great Christmas.  I think that this is the last year that Vake will sleep til a normal time.  This year, he got up, and called out to us, saying, "I don't think Santa came."  So he came and got in bed with us and it took us about 15 minutes to convince him to come downstairs and see what Santa brought.

 And sweet little Gil is always along for the ride.

 Tell me this is not the sweetest, sweetest child.

 "Alright people, this is truly ridiculous."

 "Ok, I am just going to go on and take these off now.  We don't need to talk about it any more."

 Daddy and Vake reviewing the letter from Santa Claus.

 Cousins.  In their matching Santa pjs.

 Uncle Dennis took a turn with the headband, too.

 One of the biggest hits of the day was the turntable from baby Mary Frances.

 And Billy the train was also a big hit.

 And here are the cousins enjoying the afternoon sun!!!

I should have taken more pictures- I totally missed the Christmas feast that Eric prepared, and Dennis on the phone getting Mom's new phone hooked up, and the sampler I made for MF.  Oh well...

January 2, 2012

I was wrong about our discharge date- we were coming home a year ago today.  And then there were two!

Can you believe it has been a year? I surely cannot. Look at this little babykins. So fat and so sweet.

This photo slideshow generated with Smilebox

My sweetie pie is my long and lean machine with the most mellow personality you've ever seen.

A year!

A year ago, we were spending the first night home as a family of four. 

Here we are, a year later.  I'd post pictures of Christmas and Gil's birthday but the whole family is recovering from a nasty stomach bug and it has slowed me down a little bit.  In fact, I slept all day yesterday and was just getting my feet back on the ground today.

But here's what you need to know about Gil at a year.

At one year, Gil:

continues to be the world's sweetest, lowest key baby ever;
has taken his first step (in fact, on 12/28/2012);
eats three good meals a day;
probably has three words, tick-tock, dada and mama;
loves toys that make noise when he touches them;
crawls really fast;
is very sweet about the people he knows and loves, like Grandmary and Flora- he will reach out his little arms;
sits in a rear-facing car seat; and
wears mostly 24 months/2t clothes, but seems (and is) longer and lighter than his older brother was at this point.

We love you, Gil.  So hard to believe that you are a year now.