New Door

Big old shoutout to Anne and Dennis- who JUST finished totally stripping and repainting their front door.

You guys, it is REALLY starting to look amazing. I cannot wait to come and help out once the furniture gets delivered. I am so proud of you two!

Baltimore and Back.

This weekend, V and I drove with Anne to Baltimore to see Anne and Dennis' new house. Long-suffering Eric had to drive up by himself on Saturday.

Can you believe how cute their street is? There's a beautiful Catholic Church on the next block and their house is in the center of the image (the door is the white one near the dead center of this picture). Eric actually took off the storm door, so the door's not white any more, but you get the idea...

This house TOTALLY reminds me of my Philadelphia house- just with one less story. It is uncanny, even the smells are evocative for me- I think that many of the building materials must have been the same. On Saturday morning, we worked on pulling up flooring. There's hardwood in the front bedroom. We did a ton of demo and are FINALLY starting to get there! YAY!

And speaking of getting there, back at the ranch, we are still working on crawling...

Anne's Birthday and Vake's Baptism- the two part post!

So we all "got down" for Anne Monroe's birthday, which was the night before Vake's baptism. Here's Eric partying like it is 1979. Please note that my very patient husband totally rocked the purple ruffled tuxedo shirt with his tux.
Here's the birthday girl with Dennis, who was wearing the peach version of Eric's purple shirt.

What good sports! And please note E's gold chain- the sad part is this is one of my fave necklaces that I wear to court ALL. THE. TIME.

I was channeling old school Halston, but my baby just wants to be a hippie!!!

Here we are- the happy 70s family!

Anne's Birthday and Vake's Baptism- the two part post!

Here's to my amazing sister, Anne Monroe, M.D.

Anne, I am so proud of you. You are so accomplished- how many people are able to achieve what you have achieved, both professionally and personally. And, as if that's not enough, you are just an amazing person- I am so lucky to have you as a sister- you remind me so often of what we are all actually striving for and reaching for in this world. Thanks. I think you are the bomb.com.

What a happy day we had on Sunday- we celebrated Anne's birthday on Saturday night and little Vake was baptized at Grace and Holy Trinity on Sunday. In these pictures, you might be wondering why he's not wearing the baptismal gown. Suffice it to say that it needs a little repair after Grandmary and Mommy attempted to stuff a very large baby into a very small dress.

V was a star. If he could walk, he would have sashayed his way down the center aisle. He didn't cry, didn't fuss and was generally cheerful about the whole process. It's not very good of me but I was SO proud when so many people told me what a gorgeous baby he is...

Here he is with Uncle Neil.

And livin' it up with Aunt Martha...

We were very fortunate to have Uncle Brook and Left Bank Granny Sue come in from Seattle- and how nice that they got a good dose of Richmond sunshine!

Here he is with Aunt Andrea- I didn't manage to get organized and get a pic with Wills, which is a total bummer- oh well...

And unfortunately, my pumpkin who was such a trooper started to get totally tuckered out- so he and I did not get a good picture together- this is about it....

But a certain someone still managed to pull it together for Grandmary...

Anne, thanks again for sharing your special day with us! We love you!

Startin' Him Out Young

Thank you Uncle Brian!

Had a great weekend with Anne and Dennis, Courtney and her family, and Jane and her family. So glad to be back in the 23220. Traffic on 95 south was terrible on the drive home today.

Vake was a total trooper- it was a weekend of no schedule but he was so smiley and happy!!! YAY.

I've got good pics of Courtney and little V- will post soon!

Happy Birdie to Two Cool Chicks

This birthday shout out goes out to two of the best friends you could hope to have. Martha is loyal and brave- she always strives to be a good friend. Here she is with her godson at the hospital.


Liz is smart, sensitive and thoughtful- she's a fantastic listener.

Vake is so lucky to have both Aunt Martha and Aunt Liz as a part of his life. This was his expression when I told him that he slept through his aunts' birthday party last night. He was definitely not a happy camper.

He did recover nicely when I told him I thought the odds of seeing both Martha and Liz at some point either this weekend or next were pretty good. I got him to model both a smile and his new pajamas from Aunt Martha after that. These are an 18-24 months size- and he's got a little (not a lot) bit of growing room in them- I am hoping that these will make it to Christmas. They are a super nice brand- such soft lovely cotton- so much nicer that the Carter's that I am getting for little V.

And just in case you thought the mobile was getting boring, it never fails to entertain...

We are on the Daddy leaving countdown for the week- it is Seattle on Wednesday...thank God for Mary Sabra and Taren...and in exciting news, Aunt Anne, Uncle Dennis and DOMINGO are coming down this weekend! Woo-hoo!!!

Happy Fourth of July!!!!

Happy Fourth of July! Eric, Vake, Mary Sabra, Neil, Martha and I packed up and went out to Shrinemont in Orkney Springs for a bluegrass festival. We met up with Anne and Dennis. Mom, Eric, little V and I are so excited to have them only 2.5 hours away!!! Yee-haw!!!

This year, the bluegrass festival had one of my favorite bands, the Seldom Scene. They played a lot of songs that I love- the only one I wish they had played that they didn't was "Last Train From Poor Valley" but they did play a lot of songs from Act 1 so I just sang along. They played under this shelter...it was such a funny mix of old Episcopalians and younger hippies.
The crowd was definitely laid back and the weather could not have been more perfect. The Seldom Scene played for about 2 hours and this other band that was actually pretty good too, the Farewell Drifters, played for about two hours- the concert went from 3 until 7.

Here's a great picture of Anne and Vake...he was very excited to get to hang around with cool Aunt Anne. Little V was very patriotic in his flag smock.

Vake loved being with the people- he didn't take very good naps at all- he was way too interested in everything that was going on. He especially was interested in staring at his quilt from Grandma Sue. Everytime I put him in the tripod sitting position, he would lean way over to try to see the pattern of the quilt.

As I said, we could not have asked for a better day weatherwise. Here Vake and I are- he's apparently trying to mash my cheeks into submission.

Vake also seems to have my skin, not Eric's. Our pediatrician has suggested that we be really careful about sunscreen until he hits six months- so I put this cute little blue hat on him and we just tried to be cautious about too much sun but he didn't show any signs of being burned today- that may be that we didn't go out to the field until about 3:15 or so...

By the end of the show, my little buddy was tuckered out and was ready for a snooze...but we all had a GREAT time!

Vake's Cousin Domingo

Anne and Dennis have a new addition to the family, Domingo. Vake and little D, as the blog world knows, share the same birthday (mostly because Domingo's birthday was initially unknown so we could make it whenever we want.)

Today, little Domingo gave Vake some kisses...
...and stole Vake's pacifier...

...and was basically too cute for words.