Heading out

I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately. For a variety of reasons, it's felt like a stressful week or two. I'm in desperate need of a massage but keep putting it off in order to save my pennies for Edie and my upcoming trip to California.

In the meantime, it's off to Charleston again for work. I'll be gone 5 days this time, not returning until Friday evening; hopefully in time to tuck Edie in for bed. Edie will be staying with my parents for 2 nights and then coming home to be with Jeff until I return. I'll miss her enormously, but at the same time, I'm a strong believer in absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder with regard to 3 year olds. I doubt I would preach this mantra if I had to travel more than the 3-4 (usually short) business trips per year I make now, but one trip per quarter is usually just enough to erase the more frazzling parts of parenthood and fill your arms with a strong need to squeeze the guts out of your moon-face toddler.

I took time this afternoon to spend quality time just the two of us and we walked up the street to our neighborhood coffee shop that also makes fabulous crepes. We shared a ham and cheese crepe and a giant apple crepe, served warm and covered in cinnamon and whipped cream. We stayed for an hour after we'd finished eating, reading books together and talking. It was raining when we left and she wanted to run the 3 blocks home. I'm normally way too lazy to run with her and let her run ahead, catching up at the street corner where she waits to hold my hand before crossing. But I indulged her this time, knowing I might regret saying no tomorrow when on the plane alone. So, holding her hand and running as fast as my crepe filled gut allowed, I was rewarded with the happiest, most manic giggling from Edie as she looked up at me and ran. I had one of those rare moments of clarity when I was actually living in the moment and took a mental picture of the pure joy on her face so that I could sneak peaks of it while in Charleston this week.

Caroline

Our niece, Caroline Jean Bruton was born at 1:12am this morning. (Caroline was my paternal Grandmother's name - one I contemplated for Edie as well). She weighs 8 pounds and 10 ounces. Seeing as they are already home from the birth center, and her labor was less than 12 hours, I'm guessing her labor went according to plan - at least to the degree that something like labor can. 

We can't wait to meet her - hoping to nose our way into her life today or tomorrow - pending my brother and sister-in-law's approval.

  

Tonight

My sister in law is in labor tonight. By tomorrow we will have another little girl to add to our small collection of cousins for Edie. I'm hoping so much that she gets the labor she wants and that we get to meet our newest niece soon.

PS: I seriously cannot believe my little brother is going to be a DAD. Somehow, this makes me feel super old.

Bath Time

Mother Daughter Trips

I brought Edie (and my Mom) with me to Palm Springs this Fall. It was a short work trip and I'm not going to lie, Edie screamed the hotel down in the middle of the night for like an hour and in that moment, I swore I would never bring her with me anywhere ever again. She ended up in my hotel bed, kicking me in the face all night. I had to wake up early the next morning to work all day and I was a wreck. And then we checked into our next hotel (the purpose of the trip was to scope hotels out for a future event) and Edie wore her nautical drop waist dress with a big flower in her hair and WHO CAN RESIST THAT ADORABLE HAIR CUT? So on our second (and last) night in town, we dined in style and I forgave Edie (per always). She ordered the spaghetti with "meatball" - it was a gigantic meatball surrounded by fancy spaghetti. She ate like a grown up, tasting my Mom's fancy shrimp quesadilla and telling everyone that my giant pot pie looked like a jelly fish. Parenthood must make your memory turn to rot for a reason. How would you have any fun with your kid if you could remember the hell she put you through just 24 hours earlier? 

Truthfully, Edie is a fantastic plane flyer. With one small exception on our poorly timed (and lengthy) flight home from Mexico - Edie is always a total champ about flying. And one of the more appealing things about possibly only having one child is how much easier traveling as a family could be for the next 15 years. SO. I'm giving her another chance and we're taking another mother-daughter trip next month. I just booked us tickets to fly to LA together to stay with Katherine for a long weekend in early February. And even better - my friend Heidi was easily persuaded to come along for the ride. Heidi and I have always taken trips to LA together - ever since Katherine moved there over 10 years ago. This will be our first trip back together since I had Edie and I'm so looking forward to it. Maybe the temperature there will be above 40?! Maybe, possibly even we will pay another little visit to the home of Mickey and Minnie?? The possibilities are endless...

Mort and Mimi

Perfectly illustrated here. 

Mimi: aloof and sleepy. Mort: total freak show.

New Years

Yes, I realize I'm weeks behind with photo updates and I should really catch up before throwing some random phone photos from New Years at you, but whatevers. As Edie reminds me frequently, "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit."

We had a semi-impromptu gathering in lieu of our annual Stocking Exchange party, which has sort of fallen apart since the kids arrived on the scene and screwed things up with nasty colds and fevers. Then Katherine couldn't make it up from LA last year and it broke the spell a little. Thankfully, the kids were all in good form this week, and Heidi and Paul's new house has a rompus room in the basement perfect for 3 and almost-3 year olds.  Reid and Edie watched so much Curious George that their eyeballs fell out - they were PUMPED. And truthfully, it's pretty awesome for US to have kids at the age where they'd mostly prefer to be downstairs loading up on TV rather than interrupting adult conversation and wine drinking upstairs. This my friends, is what I call a win-win.

Addendum

I completely forgot about one of my OTHER least favorite things that occasionally gets said to me! Thankfully, Heidi reminded me in the comments section on my last post. 

Any variation on:
"Hey lemme show you this cool magic trick I just learned..."

You can also substitute "card trick" for "magic trick" because I dislike both intensely. Oh! And jokes. Boy do I get nervous when someone tells me they have a great joke I need to hear. 

On the flip side, when I tell people that I hate magic tricks, card tricks and pretty much all jokes, this in turn alienates THEM.