I do love a good party. They can be way too much work to plan and prepare, especially, oh, I dunno, a double birthday party or something like that. But when it all comes together and my house is full of a chaotic scrum of shouting children and chatte

Wow, back-to-back birthdays really wasn't very clever of me, was it? This is exhausting!Nick was born six years ago today. It's hard to see the baby he was. He's all boy now, stocky and strong and still towering over his agemates, let alo

My baby is one year old today. How did that happen? I swear it was just yesterday we brought a sleepy, scrunched up newborn home from the hospital. Now she's talking, and almost walking, and acting less like a baby every day.Zoe doesn't under

My mother arrived last night, a mere two hours past her originally scheduled arrival and one hour past when we reached the airport to wait for her. Not bad, I suppose, considering how bad airline delays have been overall this summer. The wait would h

My mother is expecting to come to town Friday. Nick's birthday party is this Saturday. His birthday proper is next Wednesday. Unless the baby decides to put in an appearance earlier, I will be induced next Tuesday. And Nick starts kindergarten th

I had yet another ultrasound today. The kid's on track to wind up as big as Nick at birth, but probably not significantly bigger. Nonetheless, we agreed that induction would be a good idea, at 39 weeks this time, not 38 weeks like Nick. Thus, I c

Kindergarten starts in just a few weeks, and everyone we meet wants to know how Nick feels about that. Well, he's basically indifferent. He's got other things on his mind. The imminent arrival of his baby sister, and his upcoming birthday and

First of all, happy birthday to my mother, who is quite possibly eating cake at my sister's house as I write this. And second, we had a garage sale. It went well. We sold most of our stuff (yay!)  and earned almost two hundred dollars (doubl

We all trooped off to a birthday party yesterday; our younger next-door neighbor was turning three. The party was held at a business that specializes in such things; they had multiple bouncy houses set up as entertainment. And entertain they did; the

Nathan and I turned 31 yesterday. I understand he didn't do much to celebrate this momentous occasion. He called me via satellite phone for our annual birthday chat, but that was Monday morning for me, and Tuesday for him. On the plus side (from

Nick checked a book about birthday parties out of the library, a reflection of his mild obsession with his upcoming birthday. Well, upcoming in the sense of being a mere four months away, but that doesn't seem to stop him from engaging me in conv

It's my father's birthday. And I probably should have emailed my sibs about this earlier, because I'd be willing to lay odds that at least one of them will read that first sentence, and follow up with a head slap and a "doh!". On account of

Rich celebrated his birthday by giving a final exam. Then he came home and graded. On the plus side, I cooked some of his favorite foods (sirloin steak, stuffing, and spinach) and there were presents for the birthday boy. In other news, Christmas p

Apparently, one of the things I have to figure out about this SAH gig is blogging times. There's a lot of little details I have to work out yet, and most of them have to do with scheduling. Really, though, it's going fine. Friday we went shopping, p

You are four years old today. Wow. When I look at you, it's hard to believe you were once a tiny, helpless infant. The changes that you have gone through in just one year are surprising enough. You have, of course, grown physically, and in your usual

When I'm dropping Nick off at daycare, if I don't have pockets I usually just carry my keys in my hand, temporarily setting them down on a shelf while I'm settling him in his room. This is why Nick was able to pick them up, point the keychain lo

The morning started with me slapping the alarm clock off and sitting up in bed. I fumbled around on the nightstand for my glasses, just as I've done a million times before. Today, however, they weren't there. It took a noticable period of time for me

My borthday was lovely, thank you. I was fortunately already up when the phone rang at about 7:30 AM. Who would call at such an unreasonable hour? Why, my twin brother, of course, so that we could exchange birthday greetings before he went to bed at

I hate to complain, but - hey, stop laughing! I hate to complain, OK? I don't want to hear any comments from the peanut gallery! As I was saying, I hate to complain, but my family totally failed to think through their birth dates. Poor planning, I ca

Hey! Did I mention that we had a full weekend even before we left town? On Saturday we went to Jonathan's party. Food, a signing video on the TV, old friends; fun times for the whole family! Oh, and I do believe this was the first time my husband act

Still sick. Rich went to the doctor yesterday, and was told that he has "a flu-like virus". I think we have the Creeping Crud that's been going around. Nick remains determinedly healthy, aside from a cough that may not even be related. On