Wah

It's been a month, more or less, since we our crazy summer ended and we were done traveling, and ready to start living in our new house in our new surroundings.  In that month, we've gotten a lot done, a few fun little projects, and we've re-established normalcy.  But I have to be honest here.  Since the dust has settled and Tim's gone back to work, I have to admit that I'm experiencing some loneliness and isolation.

It sounds pathetic, I know.  But I'm racking my brain trying to think of a way to meet new friends.  Tim warned me that life here would be different from Quantico, and I would have to "cast my net" wider, if I wanted to make friends.  Living on base at Quantico was a situation that would probably never happen again --so many families in such a small space with so much in common.  We knew when we chose to live off base that this might be an issue.  As we knew would be the case, now that we live in the middle of nowhere, gone are the days of putting the girls in the BOB stroller and pushing them to a friend's house for a playdate.  We live 10 minutes from the back gate of Cherry Point, and about 10 minutes from New Bern.  Technically, we're not that far from anything, but I feel like I'm on an island.  These days, I might take the girls out in the BOB, or just out into the yard to play (if I dare!!), and all I hear are frogs croaking and crickets chirping.  If I walk them or run them around the neighborhood, I might exchange a wave with a nice old retiree every now and then.

When Delaney started preschool last week, I hoped that this would provide a new opportunity to meet other moms.  Yes, there are other moms, and yes, I see them every morning waiting for the doors to open, while I stand there with my girls.  But I don't know how to break the ice.  I am so shy, it's ridiculous.  What am I supposed to say, "Is anyone in the market for new friends, because I've just moved here and I don't know anybody?"  "Shut up, weirdo!"  My shyness is probably mistaken for aloofness, and it's high school all over again.

There is an upside to this: my house is consistently cleaner.  When I'm not farting around on the Internet, or playing with my little girlfriends, I'm cleaning something, dusting something, vacuuming something.  But I know that winter will come and it will get cold, and I'll feel the walls close in.  If I don't have anyone to laugh and commiserate with by then, my husband and children will have a tiresome grouch on their hands.

A visit from Grandma and Grandpa Brady

We sure have been enjoying the spring family visit series here in Quantico this year.  Every month it's been somebody, from February on.  We've really cherished these times.  They mean the world to us, as Tim and I each come from big close-knit families (in Ohio and Massachusetts, respectively) that we miss dearly.  I realized today that this visit from Tim's parents was the end of the line.  No more visits (that we know of) from now until we leave at the end of August.  The girls and I will be meeting them, as well as the girls' aunties and cousins in Pennsylvania in July.  I am so grateful for all the ways we have to stay in touch -- Facebook, Skype, this blog, the good old-fashioned phone..

They drove down from Massachusetts on Wednesday the 12th, and they left in the wee hours of this morning.  It was a busy few days.  We celebrated some milestones:  Tim's graduation from Expeditionary Warfare School (EWS),  Annie's first birthday, and the beginning of Tim's summer at Officer Candidate School (OCS) as an academics instructor.  And we went ahead and traded in our Jeep Grand Cherokee (I still love that car!) for the Chevy Traverse we'd been looking at and discussing the past several weeks.  In between all those things, we spent a lot of time in the backyard watching the girls play.  We also did a lot of shopping, and Grandma spoiled the girls with lots of new clothes.  Their wardrobes are all set for summer now!

The girls had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa.  Even Annalise seemed to be over her fearfulness from before.  She cried for about the first five minutes after they came in the door, and was fine after that.  I was allowed to leave the room, and Grandma even put her to bed while Tim and I were buying the new car.  That was the first time anyone besides me has put her to bed for the night.  She's growing up.

The first thing the girls did was dig into the big trunk full of princess dresses Grandma brought.

Here comes the drooly bride

Sleepy afternoon on the couch

EWS graduation

Annie loved to make us nervous by climbing on that chair.

OCS Family Day

There's something about Grandpa that induces sleep.

Right after receiving her balloon doggy, Delaney dropped it on the grass where, to her shock and dismay, it popped.  Luckily, this nice young man made her one more, and that one lasted about an hour.

Three guesses as to who gave Delaney cotton candy?

It doesn't get much better than this.

It's no secret to anyone who knows me that I'm one of the worst cooks ever.  If a meal turns out well -- like pizza last Friday did -- it's a pleasant surprise.  In the kitchen, I'm a bull in a china shop.  That's why Tim does most of the cooking when he's home.  He can't stand watching me do it.  We had a lovely arrangement going, in which he did all the cooking.  Then he left.

I was trying to make our usual Friday pizza last night, but for some reason it wasn't working out for me.  The dough was not cooperating.  The first time I messed it up, I thought I knew what I'd done wrong, so I dumped it all and started again.  The second time, I had no idea what happened, and that's when I got really frustrated.  It was 75 here yesterday (absolutely gorgeous!), and about 85 in my kitchen with the oven on, there was flour all over the place, and an explosion of dirty dishes.  Literally, a hot mess.

Meals are optional for Delaney, but Annalise and I were getting hungry and cranky.  The situation was becoming desperate, and after I dumped another impossibly sticky dough ball and prepared to start again, I decided to take a quick break.  I plopped right down in this chair, and sent out a prayer to God on Facebook (because I'm sure He's on there) that went like this: "This is about to be my 3rd try with this pizza dough, this kitchen is so hot, and I'm so hungry.  Please, God, let me get it right this time!!"

I'll admit I also threw that out there because I wanted someone else to know about my troubles.  Anyone.  Perhaps Tim, whose minutes-old status update I saw was, "I just ran 5 miles on the beach."

Feeling a little better after venting my stress, I headed back to the kitchen and began mixing yet another batch of dough.  Would this one work?  I would never find out, because just then I looked down and saw Annie waving the Terro ant trap around that I had so *cleverly* hidden in between the trash can and the dishwasher.  Poison was coming out in big sticky globs all over her and the floor.

I turned off the oven, then snatched her and sprinted up the stairs to the bathtub, where I gave her the quickest and most thorough scrub-down she's ever had.  Delaney stood next to me and watched as I dumped the water over her again and again, probably thinking, 'Glad it's her and not me.'

I briefly thought of calling for pizza delivery, but I figured the wait would be too long, and the pizza too greasy and disgusting.  So, after I'd barricaded off the kitchen with three chairs, we ate good old PB&J.  I reminded myself that the extra sacrifice was appropriate for Good Friday.

Later that night, my little prayer was answered when my next-door neighbor Andrea called and said, "I saw you had a rough night on Facebook.  I made a chocolate dessert -- we broke our Lenten fast a little early -- and I was wondering if you'd like me to bring you some."  I have to mention that Andrea and Dennis had been  so disciplined up to that point that they hadn't even taken the Sunday exception to giving up chocolate for Lent.

I accepted because, how could I turn down chocolate?  And it really warmed my heart, her noticing my plight, and thinking of a way to brighten my day.  I was a little sheepish about how pathetic I was, but oh well.

Today after lunch, the girls and I tried some, and wow, was it decadent!  They are chocolate chip cookie brownies.  Andrea found the recipe here.  As you can see from this picture, they induce giddiness.  I'm not even kidding, Delaney and I sat at the table giggling after eating one of these things.  Annie was allowed to have a few little bites, but she likes PB&J better.

And now I sit here, the girls are in bed, and I'm waiting for eggs to boil for their Easter baskets (one thing I know I won't screw up!).  I'm thinking of all the things I'm happy about tonight: good friends, beautiful weather, a clean kitchen and dinner OUT with my two sweet little girls.  Happy Easter, everyone!

Grandy and Auntie Grace visit

The girlies and I were treated to a visit from my mom and my sister Grace this past weekend.  It flew by like I knew it would.  The timing was especially nice for me, as it was during Tim's three-week-long trip to Florida for training.  Tim will be back in 11 days, not that I'm counting or anything.

We joked about how Tim is probably just complaining to me about how hard he's working, but when he comes home, his duffel bag will be full of sand, and I'll find his swim trunks and flipflops in there, maybe a golf ball, or a souvenir shot glass or something.  Sorry, hon, but it is Florida.

We all missed him, but he surprised us with a call on Skype that first evening.  Grace was at the computer at the time, and she's not familiar with Skype, so she didn't know what the noise was that means a call is coming in.  She was even more surprised when I darted over, and with a click of the mouse, brought Tim's face up on the screen.  My mom, who was across the room, thought that Tim didn't even have to call -- he could just pop up at any time, like 'Hello, I'm watching you..'  That would be scary!

It was so lovely coming down the stairs every morning with the girls and finding Mom and Grace there.  On Saturday morning, I tried making breakfast, but Annie would not allow me to, wailing miserably when I wouldn't give her my undivided attention.  I got a little overwhelmed.  So Mom jumped in and finished up.  I felt bad for putting her to work while she was visiting, but she didn't mind.  She made breakfast Sunday and Monday morning too.

They brought goodies for the girls -- little toys, candy, and some cute summer clothes, including the little dresses they're wearing in the picture above.  Mom also brought me something -- an early birthday present.  She knows I love Norman Rockwell, and she said this reminded her of me.  It's called "Little Mother."    Now I have to find a plate holder, and a place for it where it won't be broken.

We never went far, and didn't do very much.  We don't need very much to be entertained when we get together, as anyone who's ever been around us knows.  We can be very silly.    For instance, we went through the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru Saturday after dinner because Grace wanted munchkins for the next morning.  She started cracking up when I asked what the smallest order of munchkins was.  Then I couldn't finish ordering 10 munchkins without giggling.  I was completely sober.  I was just under the influence of my sister.  Schlosser girls are notorious for laughing at drive-thru windows.  Everything is funnier when you have to say it loudly into a microphone.

Here are some pictures we took, in no particular order:

Delaney and Annalise look so pretty in their coordinating dresses.  That purple is definitely one of Delaney's colors!

We all enjoyed coffee and Grace's book on the patio during the little ones' nap.

 

Grace was our official family photographer while she was here, and she must have taken about 500 pictures, many of which she watched me heartlessly delete.  To her, even the blurry photos are keepsakes.  Here are a couple of my favorite pictures she took of the girls at bathtime:

 

A visit from Grandma

This past weekend we were treated to a visit from Grandma Brady.  She arrived late Friday morning and left Monday evening.  It was sad saying goodbye to her Monday, and I told Tim, "A weekend doesn't seem long enough, but it's better than nothing, and we'll take it!"

Delaney, Annalise and I picked her up at the Dulles Airport Friday morning.  Delaney was so excited.  The past few days, Tim had been asking her these questions:  "Who's coming Friday?"  "Grandma!"  "What are you going to give Grandma when she gets here?"  "A hug!"  "What's Grandma going to bring you?"  "A present!"  I scolded Tim for teaching Delaney to be greedy and expect presents from Grandma when she comes, which she did -- the best one of all being this recordable storybook from Hallmark.  Now Delaney and Annalise can listen to Grandma and Grandpa reading them a story anytime they want.  And they do.

There was lots of snuggling on the couch, watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, playing hide-and-seek and reading books.  Delaney would say, "Grandma,  sit down and watch Mickey Mouse with me!"  "Grandma, come read me a story!"  "Grandma, cover me up!"  (One of her favorite things is to lie down and have someone cover her up so she can "go to sleep.")  She's a bossy little thing.

Little Sissy was not so sure about how much she liked having Grandma around.  She liked her just fine as long as  I was in the room too, or if she was distracted enough to forget about me.  Here's Grandma reading to Annalise.  I had recently left the house, and she didn't know it at first.

 Grandma's reading me a book.  This isn't so bad.

But wait, someone's missing..

Oh no, Mama's gone!

Friday night, Grandma got to try our version of pizza.  She liked ours better than Grandpa's.  On Saturday, we were planning to go out to dinner at the Olive Garden, her favorite.  We arrived at 4:30, thinking we'd beat the dinner rush like we old people always do, and were shocked to see there was a 45 to 50 - minute wait!  So we left, and drove around for awhile, and she and Tim bickered about which "only American or Italian" restaurant to go to next.  Tim and I don't go to Woodbridge often, and the only thing we know about it is the Potomac Mills Mall and the girls' pediatrician.  Now we also know about the crazy traffic at 4:30 on Saturday, and how we should plan accordingly if we're going to have dinner there.  Then maybe we won't have to sit in traffic and hear this:

Grandma: "Timmy, you are just like your father.  You need to be patient and go with the flow."  

Tim: "I don't like driving around like this.  I need to have a plan!"  

Back and forth, back and forth..

Delaney:  "Dada and Grandma, play nice!"

We ended up at the Macaroni Grill, were seated right away, and the girls stayed in their seats throughout the whole meal.  Delaney ate a lot of bread dipped in olive oil, and not much else.

Here are some more pictures from the weekend:

Delaney decided to show her affection by piling toys on top of Grandma.

Playing a game at the Air and Space Museum.  I think the space shuttle was Delaney's favorite thing.  Back at home, Delaney pretended that Grandma's Diet Coke bottle was a space shuttle.

Looking at puzzles at the library on base.

Bodies in the basement!!

We went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum today.  This is one of the things I love about living in this area.  You can drive to a museum in D.C., park right in front of it, and just waltz right in without paying.  It just doesn't work that way anywhere else.  Yes, we got there on Sunday, 20 minutes before they opened, but still, I think it's incredible.  In Boston, there's never any parking, any time.  And if there is, it costs $40.  I don't know if it makes up for the times when 95 is a parking lot, though..

This morning when we showed up and there wasn't a single other car parked along the street, we kept driving because we figured it must all be one big "no parking" zone.  We drove back around, pulled over, and we each got out of the car and read the signs on the curb, looking for the fine print.  We were convinced that as soon as we left our car there, it would be ticketed and towed.  Tim finally asked a street vender who "spoke English and drove a Tahoe" if we were allowed to park there, and he said we were.  So finally we relaxed and waited in our car for the museum to open.  We noticed everyone else who parked up and down the street after we arrived did the same thing, scrutinizing the signs.  One guy started feeding the meter even though it clearly said you only have to pay Monday through Saturday.  Tim decided to be a nice guy, and he got out and told him it was free today.  But when the car with New York plates parked in front of us, and the driver started putting coins in the meter, Tim said, "They're probably Yankees fans.  They can pay."

Since Tim is nicer than me, he let Delaney out of the stroller, and he chased her around.  In the ocean life section of the museum, there was a coral reef exhibit, and for all Delaney cared, that could have been the entire museum.  The sign didn't say anything about Finding Nemo, but it was basically a Finding Nemo exhibit.  There were clownfish in there, and beautiful anemones, and I recognized other species of fish from the movie too.  It took M&Ms, pretzels, and many promises to go back to the "fishies," to get her to go anywhere else with us.
"You're a clownfish, right?  Tell us a joke."

We made our way around, looking at all the things you expect to find in a natural history museum.  It had been awhile since I'd been to a natural history museum -- the Cincinnati one -- and I thought I would enjoy learning about the ancient peoples, because that's what I remembered most of all.  But a surprise favorite for me was the "Written in Bone" exhibit, that teaches you how people lived and died based on the condition of their bones.  If you didn't have kids with you, you could attempt to solve the riddles presented by the skeletons: male or female?  Young or old?  Diseased or healthy?  What killed this person?  And on and on.

There were a few skeletons on display that had been found buried under people's basements in Maryland and northern Virginia.  Very intriguing.  You could see by the way the grave was dug, and the placement of the bones, and anything else found in the grave, what the circumstances of the person's life and death had been.  Very sad, of course.  It's not a good story if it ends with being buried in a basement.  It was something I had not expected to see, and I wonder how many other natural history museums in the nation feature bodies found in basements.  Tim said, "This is giving me some ideas."  Har-har-har.

Two hours went by quickly, and it was back to the coral reef before heading home.  We ate lunch, and all of us had naps.  The girls and I slept over two hours.  I don't know about them, but I was exhausted.  The days have been busy, and Annalise has been waking up in the wee hours again (Sleep Lady, you're failing me!).  So the nap was needed, and everyone slept, and it was lovely.

Tim made enchiladas for dinner -- my favorite -- and it was a relaxing Sunday.  As you can, see Tim and the girls still had plenty of energy left after dinner and naps!

Christmas Part 1

Santa made an early trip to our house on the 20th, since we were leaving the next day for Cincinnati. What a great morning to open gifts, with the sun shining on all the snow outside. And thanks to Skype, Tim Sr and Carolyn got to watch us open their gifts too. Delaney was so excited. She kept saying, "What's in the box?" "What is it?" We kept telling her, "It's a surprise, you have to open it to find out!" I'm not sure what Annalise thought about her first Christmas, but she seemed to love rolling around amid the gifts.

Here's the nice big desk Santa got for the "Brady children." If you pull it away from the wall, and put a stool on the other side, two kids can sit at it.

Delaney's playing with the doll Grandma and Grandpa gave her.

"Hey Annie, you're a little too close right now."

Halloween

Delaney woke up in the morning already excited about going trick-or-treating. She even practiced what to say that morning at breakfast: "Trick or treat," and "Thank you." I love any excuse for her to smile for the camera like that.

At 4, I just couldn't wait any longer to put the girls in their costumes and take some pictures. Only one turned out good. I got rid of all the pictures that show our entire front porch. Remember those flowers on either side of the stairs that looked so nice when we moved in in August? They are now dead and creepy. You could argue that's appropriate for Halloween, but yikes, they are ugly. These two little girls made the front porch look beautiful for a few minutes, though.

Our friends Matt and Meredith came over with their kids, Sophia (3) and Harlan (5 months), and we went trick-or-treating together. The babies got to ride along in the stroller. Don't they look thrilled?

It started raining as soon as we went out the door, and we were all like, 'uh-oh.' I'd told Tim earlier, I don't think I've ever seen a rainy Halloween EVER in my life. I know it must have happened at some point, but I don't remember. Fortunately it stopped after a few minutes and held off until later that night.
Tim and I had so much fun watching Delaney go up to the doors and say, "Trick or treat." Sometimes she needed a little help getting up the stairs. Then she would say, "Thank you" loud enough to hear and it was so sweet. Then she was off again.



She was having the best night of her life until her little pumpkin started to get heavy and she grew tired. Then this huge inflated skeleton head on somebody's lawn growled at her and its eyes started rolling. She ran straight to her dad and gasped, "Uppy, uppy, uppy!" She still says the same word she used at 14 months to mean, 'Pick me up.'
After we'd gone around the block and everyone had had enough, we had a delicious dinner of Chinese take-out (thanks again, Matt and Meredith!). The babies played on the floor. Annie learned to roll both ways after watching Harlan roll from one side of the room to the other. If this had been our condo in Massachusetts, we would have had to put up a baby gate. We remarked on how, even at this age, it's so obvious he's a boy.
After dinner, of course, came candy. Delaney got at least three or four "last" pieces of candy. We are such pushovers. I thought between the sugar and seeing that big skeleton earlier, she'd be having nightmares for sure. But thank goodness, she slept like a log until a little after 7 a.m.
And here it is November already!

A fun Saturday morning

Today was a beautiful early fall day, and we spent the morning at Belvedere Plantation in Fredericksburg, VA. We told Delaney last night that's where we were going, and this morning it was the first thing she asked about. "Pumpkin patch? Animals?" She asked about it the whole car ride there. It's fun now that she's old enough to actually anticipate things and get excited about them, even if that means she gets a little impatient too. I know that this is also the precursor to "Are we there yet?"

We got there right when it opened, and that's good, because it got crowded pretty quickly. First we went to the bouncy thing (I don't know what they're really called), and Delaney had a lot of fun in that. We could have just stayed there and she would have been happy. Next, we took a hayride to a pumpkin patch, which Delaney really enjoyed. The pumpkin patch was kind of anticlimactic, I have to say. We got there and just looked around like, "OK, now what?" We didn't actually pick our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, contrary to what we'd talked about all morning. We got back on the hayride five minutes later, and didn't get a pumpkin until it was time to leave. We picked the pretty ones from the store, like a friend had suggested. If it had meant a lot to Delaney to pick her own pumpkin (and had she actually been able to lift a pumpkin), we would have let her pick her own.



After that we went to the barnyard, where Delaney visited with pigs and goats. The pigs were very friendly toward her, especially considering she had no food to give them. She touched their backs, noses and ears, and tried coaxing one of them out of the dirt. "Wake up, piggy, wake up!" Then she tried to feed the goats dirt. We could have bought pellets for the poor kid, but we had no change. Oh well.



I thought it would be a great idea to put Delaney on a pony. She liked it alright, but didn't seem crazy about the experience. I think when she gets a little older, she'll be thrilled to ride on a pony, but not yet. At least she wasn't scared. Tim walked along with her, taking care not to step in pony poop.

Delaney also played in a big sand box and rode on toy tractors. Running around in the hot sun wore us all out. We had a nice lunch of burgers, pulled pork sandwiches and fries in a picnic shelter. There was a cool breeze and no flies [the same can't be said for our own kitchen!], and it was very relaxing. Delaney had her very own 100% sugar fountain drink that she slurped down contentedly on her dad's lap. Life doesn't get much better than that!

After picking out a big pumpkin for Delaney and a little one for Annalise, we were on our way home. The ride back up 95 was surprisingly quick for a Saturday afternoon.

1 month in Quantico

Today marks our first month here. 9 more to go. I can't believe it's only been a month, it feels like forever. We're pretty much used to fending for ourselves now, although we sorely miss Friday night pizza and Sunday dinner. Our grocery bill has been going back up, but our eating out bill is going down. Aside from food, we do miss the family very much, but we've been keeping busy.

We like it here a lot, and we're very happy with our decision to live on base. We would highly recommend it to anyone who's coming to Quantico. If you have a family and little kids, you have everything you want and need so close by. It's a nice community. We are hoping to get orders to Camp Pendleton, CA, and we'd love to live on base there too.

Delaney talks to her grandparents and cousins in Massachusetts regularly on Skype. Recently, she talked to her friend Rebecca (also two) too. Neither of them had much to say. At one point, Delaney roared at Rebecca like a lion. Rebecca said, "I'm so scared!" It took a little while for Delaney to understand what was going on the first couple times we sat her down in front of the computer to chat. She had this look on her face, like, 'What the heck is Grandpa doing on the computer screen?' She wouldn't say anything, she'd just stare. But she's getting used to it, and now she interacts much more. If we could get the Schlosser side up on Skype, then we'd really be set.

Tim is very busy at school. Sometimes he comes home for dinner, then goes back to school later that evening. His hard work is paying off. He got a perfect score on his first test. Sorry, had to brag.:) As much as he likes being in this environment, he hates being a student again. He will never go to graduate school. I've always known how much he hates to read. Before Delaney was born, I read The Baby Whisperer, and wanted him to read it too. He wouldn't. Instead, he said that if I summarized it for him, he'd read my summary. So I wrote him a book report on The Baby Whisperer. I don't mind these things. In light of all this, I'm amazed at his level of dedication. When he's studying at night, this house is as quiet as a church. The TV isn't even on (gasp!). If I rode past him on a unicycle with a monkey on my shoulders, he wouldn't take his nose out of his book. I keep wondering, 'What have they done with my husband?'

The girls just keep growing and changing. Delaney's vocabulary is increasing by the day. We can have real conversations now. Her brain just seems to be working overtime. Lately she's been having trouble settling for a nap. This is the first day in a few that she's actually gone to sleep. Usually I'll hear her up there talking, or turning the pages of a book she's taken with her to bed. I try to tell her as I'm changing her before her nap that all the other kids are taking their naps too. (If all else fails, I try for bandwagon appeal.) "Friends sleeping?" she asks. "Friends pooping?" She whines a lot up there too, because she's sure she's missing out on a lot of fun. Our rule is, she stays in there for two hours, whether she sleeps or not. We can call it "quiet time" then, "mommy sanity time" or whatever. She's still in a crib. It seems like almost everyone else puts their kid in a bed by the time they're 2, but not us. The "Sleep Lady" recommends keeping them in a crib until 3. [The "Sleep Lady" is what Kim West, author of Goodnight, Sleep Tight -- my sleep bible -- calls herself.] It's not that I needed the Sleep Lady to tell me that, but it was nice to have an expert second what felt right to us. But if moving her to the bed is what felt right, I wouldn't hesitate to do it.

Delaney and I have a lot of differences these days as she tries to assert her own agenda. Sometimes I get frustrated, sometimes I compromise with her, sometimes I put my foot down and she cries crocodile tears, and every once in awhile we agree. But last night she made a concession to me that was so sweet it almost brought a tear to my eye. I sat her on the sink wrapped in a towel like I do every night after her bath, so she can brush her teeth. She lets her dad brush her teeth, but not me. Last night, just for the heck of it, I asked if I could brush her teeth. She said, "No, mine's." I said, "OK, maybe another night." A moment later she handed me the toothbrush without a word and opened her mouth cooperatively. It was such an unexpected gesture. My heart just swelled up. It fortified me for more struggles to come.

Annalise is a busy little girl too, and growing like a weed. I got her a Bumbo seat and an Exersaucer off Craigslist last week (I love Craigslist!). She loves being able to sit up and stand up like a big girl. It's funny how much better she holds herself up earlier in the day, as opposed to later. By the time it's dinner, she bobs around like she's drunk. That's when I know that soon it will be time to start thinking about bed. She's an absolute joy -- all happiness, contentedness, agreeableness, fat and slobber. I could kiss her all day long.

We had a playdate here this morning, and it was a really nice time.


"Yay, aren't we having fun!" Delaney and Elyse.

Annalise and Haven.

Haven, Delaney and Jimmy.

Delaney and Elyse go night-nights.