BABES IN A POOL

When I started noticing the phrase, ‘building our deck’ was popping up frequently in conversations, it made me feel terribly grownup, in that same way you might feel when you have put on your mom's heels as a 8 year old.  I can’t help it, I’ve always associated home owning as something grownups do, and obviously in my mind, I still haven't accepted my entrance into this world. Membership, questionable. Having a baby is wild, but seems natural, and owning a home seems all of wild, a little unnatural, and firmly planted in the universe of grownups. Some may say it’s the opposite, but we each have our backstory. I’m not resisting it, I’m just commenting on how it’s strange.  Until I got married (and specifically until I got married to Ken), I actually never thought about owning a home. I thought about traveling and having babies, but the idea of buying a house never entered my brain, and it took me a while to come around to the idea. One year later, I realized that I have settled into the idea because the home that we have right now allows us to have people over and gives us a space to have community and build relationships. I really like that K. and I are on the same page about this; we previously talked about how we want our home to be a place where people feel like they can comfortably come into and hang out. I learned this past year that I really do like hosting people and I always so grateful that our home provides us a place to do so. 

I guess that’s how I feel about this deck going up? And it seems appropriate that the deck-building was successful through the willing and able-bodied friends who had the experience and/or volunteered the time to make it come together.  It was one of the coolest things to see it getting built, can I say, like magic? I have this fascination with seeing houses getting built from the ground up, so this was similarly amazing. And now we finally have a deck! We adore the fact that we have some outdoor space, the grill can now move out of our garage onto the deck, and it makes me appreciate the trees in our backyard even more.

The inaugural use of the deck lived up to the hype. We picked up a smallish (but it turns out, I can fit in it too!) inflatable kiddie pool ($10) and miniature Adirondack chairs ($5 each) at Walmart and voila, lifestyles of the rich and the famous, baby style.  We had our friends Joe, Alicia, and their little one, Bryson, over for lunch to break in the new deck with us, and really, could I not have gotten to these photos fast enough? 

MIMI'S BABY SHOWER

Fact: I have been eating way too much pie recently.  Most of it has to do with this pie themed baby shower that I threw this past Saturday. Some of it has to do with all the leftover pizza (pie!) from the deck-building activities from that very same day.  I will not tell you exactly how much pie I've been eating because that is just embarrassing, but I will share some photos from the shower. 

Mimi was the lady of the hour, and we are so excited to meet her little girl. We asked guests to sign children's books instead of a card, so I wanted to keep that in the theme, but thought it would be fun to be even more specific with the food, so I went with a pie bar.  Let's be real, I love pie. I was so into this. There was savory ham and cheese pie, galettes, different kinds of fruit pies, and chocolate whoopie pies.  My sister helped me round up a bunch of children's books from the library about pies (there are so many! and I had such a good time reading them). For refreshments, I cored and pureed two halves of a watermelon, filled the empty halves back with the puree and set out soda water, ginger ale, lemonade and mint so that each guest could make their own watermelon (virgin) cocktails. Those drinks were refreshing! 

And now...for the cutest pictures ever....

I MEAN......

FIVE THINGS

lovely goods in the mail from TL Made : moleskin and lavender soap

hold on flowers, hold on!

sniffing lavender in caroline's herb garden in search of mint

found it

deck building!

SLOANE AT TEN MONTHS

When you are raising a baby, the nature of it is such that the current moment consumes you so that it is difficult to grasp what it might be like even just a few months down the road. So when parents who have gone before me told me things like, ‘the first few months will go by SO fast’, you can understand that concept with your mind, but it isn’t until you are at the other end of those first few months that you are like, ‘HOLY MOLY. That went by fast.” – and then are quick to disperse that tidbit to other parents who are in that stage, even while knowing that they won’t know until they know. Another thing that several parents told me is that the age of 9 and 10 months start getting really fun and get increasingly better each month. I remember grasping to try to imagine what that might be like, but now that I’m in it, I wholeheartedly agree. These days, Sloane keeps K. and I laughing and fascinated at all the new things that she is learning and doing.

She is getting to be quite the walker. She is all over the place and she is getting quick, too. When she is trying to walk especially fast, her legs get a little bow-legged and off she goes. She often imitates our facial expressions – making ‘O’ faces, wide-mouthed faces, and blowing air right back in my face when I blow on hers. She eats like a champ; it seems like her appetite for food has vastly increased in this past month, and she is eating all sorts of fruits, vegetables, tofu, beans, and meats... like a big human!

I love watching how she discovers things. It really makes me look at regular everyday objects in a new way. Watching her as she looks, really looks, at an object - turning it over in her hand so that she can see every side and aspect of it – is one of my favorite things.

One other change is how she clings to me more. Perhaps this is her figuring out where her home base is, as she ventures further and further out into the world. She definitely recognizes me and K. as her people, which is good, and I love how she comes tottering over to me with a smile when she needs a rest or a reassuring hug. It also means that she whines more to be picked up and sometimes has more stranger aversion, which is new, but she is figuring out her perimeters. She also does this thing with Rusty where she starts walking over to him really quickly and excitedly, but if he starts running in her direction, she immediately turns around and comes back to home base (me). She also automatically wraps her arms around my leg if there is a loud noise or she gets surprised. It feels good to be somebody’s home base.

....another balloon??

TWO balloons! 

TIDBITS ON A TUESDAY MORNING

^It has been incredibly difficult to get up in the mornings these past couple of days for work. This morning, I wanted to get back into bed so very badly once I got up to turn off my alarm, but I knew that would mean a high chance of oversleeping, so I laid down on the floor instead. You know, the logic being that I wouldn’t be able to fall into a deep enough sleep, but that at least I was horizontal for a little longer. I still fell asleep for 5 more minutes.

^June is going to be a very busy month.

^Note to self: GET EYEDROPS. You can’t keep living like this.

^I overheard someone say, “No problem, it’s easy cheesy.” It made me wince.

^I mulled over the word, ‘avuncular’, for a few minutes this morning. The dictionary says, “of or relating to an uncle.” Or second definition: “suggestive of an uncle especially in kindliness or geniality.” Examples of the word in a sentence: “a man known for his avuncular charm.” Rhymes with avuncular: “carbuncular, peduncular.” I had to know, is there an aunt version? And yes, in fact, there is. The word is, ‘materteral’- which doesn’t roll off the tongue as nicely as ‘avuncular’, and it doesn’t show up in the Merriam-Webster. FYI (and it matters for the next point...)

^An avuncular co-worker said to me, “So is Sloane driving yet?” with a joking twinkle in his eye. (Yes, a twinkle. I don’t use this descriptor lightly.) I laughed. “They grow up fast, don’t they?”  “Yes,” I said. “It seems like she is learning something new every day!” “Let me tell you a funny story,” he said. “I was showing a friend a picture of my grandson the other day, and my friend said, ‘They grow so fast!’, and I said, ‘No kidding! His mom is MY baby!’” I don't know, this made me happy. 

^I had two eggs and one entire giant avocado this morning for breakfast. It felt luxurious. Also, this video.

^We got Sloane a couple of balls to play with – a small soccer ball and a small volleyball. She has been picking them up to carry around and we think she is saying, “bah” for ball but she also says this for other things, so who knows, but anyways, K.’s mom got us a big watermelon this past weekend and when Sloane saw it, she circled it, assessed the situation, gave it a few pats, and then, logically, tried to pick it up.

A SUMMER WEDDING

Our friends, Maya and Sang, got married this past weekend. It was wonderful and special because they have been together for a long time and we were happy to celebrate and cheer them on into their new life together in Charlottesville, VA. The location and details of the wedding were beautiful and romantic and even though I only got to capture a few on my phone, I thought it worth sharing those few here: