Moving Day

We're moving in the morning. We've been workin' on it all day today and all day yesterday and some on Wednesday, even. It's always more work than I think. Scott is so great. My mom is here, which is soooo helpful. I love having her in the same time zone!

So, since we're moving, don't expect any posts for a few days. We need to get the internet set up. I'll do what I can to provide you a reason to check back within the week. Meanwhile, you could go do something nice for somebody. Anne says hello.

Anne is 4 Months old!

That's a 3rd of a year.


Here's our sweet little 4 month old baby in her skivvies. She likes to giggle, suck on plastic toys, "talk," and blow bubbles. She is 15 pounds and 25 inches (both the 90%), so basically she's large and in charge. She is wonderful.

Halloween, Shmalloween

Once again, our Halloween was very un-Halloweeny. Perhaps even less this year than last. I did make a costume for Anne, but she did not wear it. Neither Scott nor I dressed up either. As I am writing this post, Scott says, "This whole Halloween thing is pretty traumatic for you, isn't it?"

Yes. It is.

I used to have like, 3 costumes per Halloween. One for the school party, one for the church party, and one for the actual night of trick-or-treating. I could do this because my mom loved to help us create unique costumes and also because we had a very good stash of random dress-ups to work with (also because of my mom). Here in PA, however, where there are weird regulations about when you can and can't go trick-or-treating (as in it's definitely restricted to a few specific hours and is NEVER actually on Halloween) we had nowhere to go. So, who wants to be all dressed up with nowhere to go?

Maybe that supports the idea that the only reason to dress up is to be seen, and maybe so. Instead of anything with pumpkins besides the pumpkin cookies I made on Friday, we drove to D.C. for a trip to the temple and some museum time with our friends Alan and Lyanna. They discovered, while so graciously watching Anne so we could go to the temple, that Anne is able to drink from a bottle, but only if she is the one holding it. She likes to play with it and poke it into her eye, then nose, then mouth and finally take a few sucks. Hooray!

My favorite thing about the weekend was trying a few of Georgetown Cupcake's cupcakes. WOW! I realize that cupcakes are kind of ridiculously faddish right now, but if ever a confection had reason to be cool, these ones have it. They were flavorful, fresh, dense, moist, and beautiful. My favorite was the lemon berry that tasted exactly like the best raspberry lemonade you ever drank. Aah. Sugar is what Halloween is about. Hope yours was happy!

Oh, and if you visit Georgetown cupcake's website, you'll have a fun time. Their branding is chic and the opening site is a place to play!

this is a gem

So Anne is really having fun with smiling and laughing. We think that she is a bit ticklish too. This was one of those late night giggle sessions in the family and we thought that it would be fun to share with everybody.

Right Now

Scott is at Scouts being a good scout master.

Anne is falling asleep in her crib. She was looking super sleepy—eye rubbing, yawning, and the like.

I am blogging. Duh. And I also have plans to edit pictures, shop for next semester's text books, design Christmas cards (anyone need a Christmas card?), and maybe even clean up the front room.

You should go read my article on embodyingwomanhood.com. My friend Laura started this online journal to be a repository and source for articles that "glory in our essentially-gendered divine nature and purpose as women." I love the other articles and poems so far. I'm so honored to be a contributor. If you are a woman who has something to express in poetry, essay, a scholarly article, or art, you should submit! If you are a man who has something to express in those forms, you should submit! If you are a woman or a man who is interested in understanding what it means to be "essentially-gendered" and wants to learn more, you should READ the beautiful submissions on her site. I love that my talented friend with a graduate degree in women's studies is using her time to produce such a lovely resource for faithful discussion of gender issues.

Fun videos of Anne

So Anne is doing plenty of new stuff these days. She is really fun and we are loving her so much. Life is busy, though she makes it worth it for Nancy and I.

This second video is of Anne and another one of her first ever, you have to be patient to see it, though this one is classic.

My Baby Won't Take a Bottle

It's so frustrating. If I didn't have classes two nights a week, this would not be a problem. However, instead of gulping down a bottle of breastmilk or formula as she used to do on a nearly nightly basis when she was 3 weeks old, Anne will NOT take anything from a bottle. HELP!

If you have any ideas, please let me know. We'd really like to be able to leave Anne for even a little while with a trusted friend and not worry that she'll starve in the interim. I'd really like to leave Scott with Anne at night for class and not worry that she'll scream and scream and starve in the interim. I'd really like her to not freak out when I try to give her a bottle of "the good stuff" that I painstakingly pumped.