Sunday, August 23, 2009

Happy Half Birthday Baby Carmen!

To celebrate her 6 months on the planet, Carmen gave Mothers Goose the bestest present ever - she slept through the night 2 nights in a row! Of course, now I probably just jinxed it but whatever, I'm running on 7 straight hours of sleep... I don't know what to do with myself. Amazing what a full night of sleep can do for you really, we've had the most productive weekend ever. Which is doubly impressive considering the current heat wave. Of course, kids know exactly how to beat the heat where as moms just clean. I have pretty much cleared the master bedroom of the last vestige of babydom - - anyone in the market for a used baby glider?? Oh, speaking of kids I promised cuteness updates. First the half birthday girl: Carmen has been doing the funniest repetitive arm extension/pull toy into mouth thing that I've tried to capture on camera but keep failing. It's like a rapid motion arm curl to the head/mouth move that is occasionally painful depending on the toy she is holding. Head bonks aside, it is adorable and we love it. As for her big sister, her vocabulary continues to amaze us (she used the word "peculiar" to describe a sound the other day) as does her negotiation skills (must be the lawyer in her). For example the other day we drove by a public pool in the Boston College part of Brookline. She asked if she could go swimming there and I said no, that pool is for big kids. Now she knows that Carmen is a baby and we're always calling her a "big sister" so she said, "But I'm a big kid!" and we said, "No, that pool is for kids in college." To which she screamed, "I want to go to college! Please, mom can I go to college pleeeeeeeaaaaase??!?" Yeah, I'll remind her of this very conversation 16 years from now when she tells me she wants to take some time off to explore Europe.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Ayuh, That's a Wicked Good Vacation


Another sandy beach, another naked baby. Life *is* good. So Mothers Goose has taken a chapter out of the European lifestyle manual and decided to take the summer off. Well, not really but a two week vacation plus company mandated furlough is a pretty sweet way to spend August. As usual we packed up the contents of our entire house and headed north "upta camp" as the Mainers say. What was different this year (besides the whole kids thing) was that the weather actually cooperated. Nothing beats spending time with family and friends, by the water, drink in hand and the sound of Yahtzee rattling in the background. After a waterlogged two weeks on the lake we then spent some R&R in Portland with my folks, ate cake for Maria's something or other (don't say birthday) and ventured out to the OOB. I'll post more on that later along with some of the latest kid cuteness - i.e. Carmen's stupid human tricks and Lucia wants to matriculate. Stay tuned.