Have you ever wondered...

If your husband/significant other would make a better stay-at-home parent than you?

I am a lucky woman. This guy does it all and rarely complains--certainly something I am trying to learn from! He gave me the morning off!!!! He took wonderful care of Van, fixed a huge pot of chili, AND took out the trash (which was overflowing in all receptacles), making me feel inadequate as a mom/student who often complains about these sorts of responsibilities. Woohoo! I slept in until 7:30, went for a long jog, walked Soph, wrote some thank-you notes, and relaxed. We went for a family outing to the Fresh Market (yum!) which happens to be the first place we ever took baby Van. I cannot remember how many weeks old he was.

We picked up fresh flowers, good coffee, and shrimp. Love that place!

One of the best things about having a blog is taking time to pause and reflect about all the special people/places/things in your life.  I am so excited about Van's baptism tomorrow. We have some great family and friends coming and cannot wait to celebrate with them.

More pictures to come. For now--A cute eating video:

From now until December.

It is official. Childbirth in Puritan Literature. My thesis. I know I have a scholarly crowd of friends/fam, so please pass along anything relevant you come across. Will be spending lots of time researching so either blogposts will multiply via procrastination or dwindle. Atleast I can take and post lots of Van pics. Here is his finished, sweet baptism outfit. Practice tonight! Fingers crossed he'll be in a good mood Sunday morning!

(Up close monogram):

whoops...how'd that get in there?

{Almost} Ruined by the Norovirus.

If you haven’t heard of the norovirus go wash your hands immediately and lock yourself indoors. We had the most exciting family vacation planned…we were all going to stay together as one big family, here:

This vacation would allow for Megan (Auntie Snags), Evans, and me to do as we pleased…canoe, coffee, dinner, walk, run, zone out, because we could leave the kiddos with their grandparents who could not WAIT to get their hands on their grandchildren for the weekend.  

(That's dad in the distance!)

Auntie Snags and cousin Fray arrived Thursday evening not feeling 100%... Friday morning wasn’t much better so Evans and I debated over whether or not we should, on Van’s first overnight road trip, actively choose to lodge-in with norovirus for the weekend. We decided it wasn’t a great idea but still wanted some time with the family and a nice beach vacation so we booked two nights here instead: 

It was marvelous. Such a great place to stay with a perfect view of Taylor’s Creek and all the pretty sailboats. 

Two Beaufort sunrises +

 These two guys 

=Terrific Saturday & Sunday mornings. Evans & I also got to enjoy two sunsets out on the porch (Van's 6:30 pm bedtime allowed for much balcony chat time for us) and [Thanks to Ashley's suggestion] we FINALLY opened that bottle of wine we had been saving since our engagement. [What's the use in saving it for 'that special occasion' when you never get to enjoy it?] It was delicious! 

 Alternative lodging was a good decision on our part because Saturday morning, Rhombus (mom) came down with the virus in a bad bad way. Dad got it Saturday night. This is about as close as Van got to cousin Fray.  

But Friday we managed to squeeze in one family dinner at Clawson’s. Saturday, Auntie Snags and I had a delicious dinner at Beaufort Grocery.  

And some nice walking + coffee sipping. I was pretty protective of Van over the weekend. He spent most of his time chilling in his stroller

 & playing on the floor at the Inn…

& running some laps with me…(in his beachy 'man'-dles)

Evans came down with a sinus infection Saturday night.  :(

Other fave pictures from the weekend:

Stay healthy!!

Jumping for joy!!

Tomorrow Auntie Snags and cousin Fray arrive. We are Beaufort-bound for an incredible weekend. We are so excited!!!!

Nice gestures.

Frazzled, with baby in bjorn, unable to find cous cous in the diversity aisle at Kroger, (yes its huge there and I appreciate it because it gives me creative meal inspiration) a muslim woman in full hijab stops me, clears out an entire space on the shelf in front of me, and tells me to put my shoe on the empty ledge. She ties my shoe for me and tells me I am an accident waiting to happen. We laugh.

Then Darlene checks out my groceries...

(Darlene is the kind lady with a Van tattoo.)

In other words, I appreciate diversity, and loathe this.

Sorry, Van-- this is your blog, not my soapbox.

Food. New Reading Material. A Great Weekend!

Do you ever have those weekends when you go to bed Thursday night and feel like you wake up on Monday morning? That was our weekend.

Lots of food was consumed in this house!

 

Rice.

We entertained a great group of friends on Friday night. We served "Blenheim Dip", pot roast (my fave), and chocolate eclaires. Have I mentioned how much I love this table?

If you are in the market for a new kitchen table, I highly recommend a lazy susan.  This particular table is passed down with lots of love from Evans's dad's mother, "Nanny."  Crowding eight good friends around this awesome table with a warm fire blazing is my idea of a perfect evening.

We topped the night off with  Rolling Stones, Jay-z (and a little Jimi Hendrix if I remember correctly...) and my favorite sorts of conversations on everything from healthcare to global warming. I am grateful to have friends with a variety of opinions, because it helps me stay open-minded. (I'll save the details for another day).

So that means lots of leftovers to snack on :)

Van experienced his 4th snow! Just a sprinkle. (He wasn't too enthused).

We picked out his baptism outfit. It is precious. (I'm adding a small LEL monogram to the center).

He likes it.

I need to do some major Van milestone updating.  He is starting to really enjoy tummy time, and can hold himself up on his arms. (Had trouble getting a good picture of that).

He loves to smile and he is a little wobbly on the sitting up by himself--but almost there!

{I said almost ... }

He spent the night (a full night!) with my parents, and YES I made the entire night without crashing my parent's house to check on him. He slept beautifully, undisturbed all night long and did just fine without his mommy and daddy!

We dogsat Raleigh and Lucy. Sophie had a great time playing with them.

 

An update for the hair growth chronicles:

Van is enjoying his exersaucer. I will try to get a funny picture of him jumping around in it. He puts weight on his feet, bounces, then smiles really big like "hey...did you just see what I did??"

Its precious.

The new reading material is my sister's (Auntie Snags) blog.  It is sure to be entertaining (did I mention she is a well-published author with an agent?) Yep...she's good!

Belly Progression...

I wanted to do this post so I could group all my belly shots in order. These photos are saved all over the place b/c some are from the cell phone camera. (And because I am supposed to be studying for my Spanish competency exam which I need to graduate, but this is much more fun...) Anyway...here is Van baking!

May 19th, 13 weeks

(I think I am sticking out my belly in this one--in efforts to look pregnant...)

June 27th, 19 weeks

July 19th, 22 weeks

August 13th, 25 weeks

August 25th, 27 weeks

September 11th, 30 weeks

September 20th, 31 weeks

October 1st, 33 weeks

(don't have to "try" to look pregnant anymore...)

October 10th, 35 weeks...getting verrrry uncomfortable...

SURPRISE!

October 19th!