October 20: “Pardon me, Mom. I need to take this important call on my markerphone.” This was the beginning of Elliora pretending that many things—hairbrushes, barbies, remote controls, dollhouse furniture—are phones.

October 21: My business cards came from the Buy More!?

October 22: We drove down to North Carolina for our nephew Leo’s 6th birthday party! Annalie had fun playing games in the arcade and loved playing miniature golf for the first time.

Dana took this shot of our family. It’s not perfect—Elliora was overdue for a nap and resisting sleep and quite cranky—but I like it anyway.

Annalie and Leo had a blast playing on the trampoline, as usual.

They also spent some time playing in Leo’s room, making food for all of Leo’s many animals. I love how well they get along. Elliora spent a lot of time blowing her own mind, putting things into and taking things out of a toy hamster ball.

October 24: Hot dog sandwiches and roasted asparagus for lunch. That’s how we roll.

Since Elliora recently started sleeping in her own room, we decided it was time to make it a bit prettier and more functional. I am the rare mom who has never gone crazy designing a nursery when she was pregnant. I think I used to care about stuff like that, but being in the Navy for 16 years, living mostly in rentals, and moving every couple years has made me a lot more indifferent to that kind of thing. Elliora’s room was thrown together with stuff we already owned (dresser, changing table, bookcase) and stuff we bought in a couple of quick trips to IKEA (crib, curtains, rug).

The blue quilt up on the wall is mainly for noise reduction. No one made it for us; my mom bought it somewhere ages ago because it was blue (Annalie’s favorite color) and had stars on it (I like stars). The rocking chair belonged to Troy’s Grandpa Gronberg, who passed away shortly before we got married. Troy’s sister Dana had this chair at her house, but it was in storage, not being used. So she let us borrow it to use in Elliora’s room for a while.

I was feeding Elliora her dinner when she grabbed the fork out of my hand and fed herself. By the end of the meal she was quite good at getting the right end of the fork into her mouth. Now she tends to get a little annoyed if I won’t let her have the fork and feed herself.

October 25: I had to fudge the Elliora-and-Katy photos for 11 months, since we were going to be in Omaha by the time she turned 11 months old and I didn’t want to skip another month.

October 26: While we were in Omaha, the girls and I all shared one small bedroom. It had its disadvantages, but one advantage was that seeing Annalie and Elliora sleeping next to each other every night was adorable.

October 27: Annalie asked for, ate a couple bites of, and then decided she didn’t want a ham roll-up (deli ham rolled up in a tortilla). She handed it to my mom, who was holding Elliora and chatting with me. Elliora grabbed the roll-up when my mom wasn’t paying attention and went to town on it.

October 28: Demonstrating for my mom and brother how the Ergo can be comfortably used to carry toddlers. Aurora thought it was pretty fun.

The geekiness is strong in my family.

Girlies dressed in their Halloween best; Annalie posing with my cousin Ted, who is also my parents’ contractor.

My new favorite photo of Aurora; that’s a whole lotta orange.

WHAT.

Self-portrait with Annalie.

October 29: This was a full day. First, I met Kassie, Rainbow and Katrina to paint pottery. Rainbow wasn’t so sure about painting pottery at first, but she surprised herself by having a lot of fun. I mean, she expected to have fun talking and laughing but I don’t think she expected to enjoy the painting part as much as she did.

It probably helped that she had an idea for what to paint before she even got there. We were talking about how cool it was that we’d reconnected and become friends via the internet, when we were only friendly acquaintances in high school and college. Rainbow suggested we needed matching necklaces, and I said, “How about mugs?” Internet friends, FTW!

After painting, we said good-bye to Rainbow and walked a couple doors down the sidewalk to B&G Tasty Foods. My doctor’s office when I was growing up was in the same strip mall as this diner. I had not been there for at least 25 years. The decor has been updated in a really great way! The food’s still the same (their specialty is the interestingly-named loose meat sandwich) and is, as advertised, quite tasty.

But even if the food hadn’t lived up to the name, I wouldn’t have minded because I got to eat with two of my favorite people.

After Elliora’s afternoon nap, we headed over to Katrina’s house for more fun. Kassie and Joe were there too, and our friends Jeff and Alma and their daughter Isa.

Elliora is apparently the best toy ever. The boys dragged and pushed Elliora around the house for a while on a plastic lid, which she loved.

As far as Annalie was concerned, though, the boys’ pet rats Ginger (above) and Steve were the best thing ever. She was rather sad to hear that we probably won’t ever get any kind of pet rodent as long as we have cats.

And I’m stopping here. I think Halloween weekend is gonna need its own post.

More photos of October and our trip to Omaha are in my Flickr.

P.S. Like the spiffy new banner in honor of Elliora’s 1st birthday at the end of this month? Thanks, Brenda!

pretty: I like playing with the shutter speed when there’s a fountain around. This one is in the main park in Erin and Rocco’s downtown.

happy: Annalie loved this ziplining thing on the playground in the same park. She went on it over and over and over again. There was a similar piece of playground equipment on the playground at our old church in Maryland, and she loved that one too. And she was pleased as punch with herself when she was able to go all the way across the rings on her own.

funny: Silly ice-cream posers. And goofball me, posing on Annalie’s scooter with Elliora on my back.

real: This is what happens when you accidentally fall asleep with wet hair when you’re putting the baby to bed for her afternoon nap.

Pretty, happy, funny, real is about capturing the context of contentment in everyday life. Via girlwithgreencard.

These are just a few of the photos we’ve taken during Brenda and Bug’s visit that I haven’t written about yet. We’re not just sitting around impatiently, waiting for the baby to be born; we’re keeping busy and having fun in the meantime. Maybe I’ll get around to blogging some of these eventually, maybe not. If you’re curious about what unblogged fun we’ve been up to you can always look at my Flickr set Brenda & Bug, back in DC, or in Brenda’s Flickr set DC 2010.

When Brenda and Bug arrived on Tuesday night, it was already dark outside. Before we all went to bed, Brenda looked out the kitchen window at our dark backyard and mentioned how excited she was to see the autumn trees in the morning. Morning came, and she was not disappointed.

A couple of weeks ago I was worried that the fall color was peaking, that most of the leaves would be brown or gone before Brenda and Bug got here. Since they’re native Californians, they don’t usually get to see the kind of fall color we are blessed with in this part of the country, and I really wanted them to see it.

As it turned out, I was worrying needlessly. There are still plenty of bright red and yellow and orange trees around. When Brenda came upstairs yesterday morning and looked out over our deck, she was quite impressed at the view from our backyard. She even went outside on the deck in bare feet to admire it for a minute before she got too cold in the 45-degree weather and came inside. You can take the girl out of California…

But later that morning, after we ate some breakfast and drank some coffee, we walked to a park near our house to let Annalie and Bug climb and play for a while while we sat and admired the fall color.

On the way home we stopped to gather leaves from a neighbor’s yard, lots of red maple leaves and a few bright yellow ones, so we could press and preserve them by ironing them between wax paper. Brenda has big plans to make some greeting cards to send home to her friends and family.

Then we stopped to play in a giant leaf pile. Isn’t that what giant leaf piles are for?

Annalie and Bug have been having such a blast together. Brenda and I have been marveling at and being very thankful for how well they still play, despite them both being only children (for now) and both having such strong wills and personalities, and despite them only seeing each other a couple of times in the past eight months. I think because they have known each other so long and spent so much time together, they’ve learned how to work out their differences through compromise. Plus they are a lot alike. They both love to use their imaginations and will come up with elaborate make-believe games. Today alone I’ve overheard them hiding from ninjas, running away from home so the bad guys don’t catch them, granting a wish to the princess, and walking their puppies. Yesterday Annalie said to Bug, “I’m so glad you’re here. It’s nice to have my best friend around as a playmate.”

Then at the end of the day, we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner, at Annalie’s request, and made half a cake for Annalie’s half-birthday. She blew out her candle and then announced that her wish had already come true.

“It did?” I said. “That must have been a great wish. What was it, will you tell us?”

“Sure, since it already came true,” she replied. “I wished that I would have the best half-birthday ever!”

Are you wondering where the Halloween post is, with photos of Annalie in her cute bobby soxer costume? It’s coming soon, I promise. First I want to tell you about how we had a fun playdate with Carrie, Erik and baby Elsa…um, a week ago Friday. *Sigh.* I don’t seem to be able to blog about anything in a timely manner. I was going to say, “since I’ve been pregnant,” but that would be a lie because I don’t think I’ve ever been able to blog about stuff in a timely manner.

Anyway! We had a fun playdate. Carrie fed us lunch, mac & cheese with fruit and veggies for the kids, and delicious steak salad for the grown-ups, which I never think of making for myself so it was a treat. Annalie and Erik disappeared back downstairs to the playroom while Carrie attempted to feed Elsa. Elsa wasn’t much interested in nursing because not only was her grandma there, but a new person was there to smile at. So mostly we just chatted for a bit and let the kids play. Just like last time, they got along great. Don’t you love it when your kids and your friend’s kids play together well?

Then we piled in the minivan and went to a super cool park near Carrie’s house. I neglected to take a photo of the whole thing, so you’ll have to trust me on that. I kind of wished I weren’t pregnant so I could have run around and climbed on the big castle structure and the rock-climbing wall, too.

Annalie and Erik certainly enjoyed it, although there were a few moments of friction because Annalie would periodically go back to the swings, which Erik found boring. He’d stand there hollering, “AnnaLEAH, c’mon! Let’s go over to the pirate ship!” (He kept pronouncing it “AnnaLEAH” even though Carrie corrected him a time or two. I assured Carrie that if it bothered Annalie she would correct him herself. I don’t think she ever did though.) Annalie would tell him she’d be over in a minute, when she was done swinging. Then Erik would wander over to his mom and announce that Annalie wouldn’t play with him anymore.

It never deteriorated any further than that, though. Usually Carrie would tell Erik to be patient, and he would, and then after a bit Annalie would hop off the swings and come running over to Erik, ready to play again. Carrie said it was probably good for Erik to play with someone a little older than him like Annalie, because he’s got such a strong personality and he’s used to being the leader of the pack. I guess the same could be said of Annalie, for that matter! They definitely clashed a few times (they spent a couple of minutes arguing whether the creature in the photo above was a sea monster or a dragon) but never in a serious way. They always managed to work it out on their own.

Which was great, because it meant that Carrie and I were free to sit and gab and enjoy the gorgeous fall day. And make funny faces at Elsa, of course. Carrie has been saying on her blog for ages that she gets so frustrated trying to take photos of her daughter, because she has a beautiful smile but the second she sees that camera the smile disappears, and she gets a totally befuddled expression on her face. Now I know exactly what she means. Talk to Elsa, smile at Elsa, move into Elsa’s vision? Big grin, complete with dimples! Raise camera in front of Elsa? Immediate expression of serious concern.

The rock-climbing wall was a big hit, though more as a place to practice flips and as a “quiet place to sit and think” (according to Erik) than as a place to climb.

Eventually we had to leave, because of course we were trying to make it home before traffic got bad. That’s the thing with DC, though…the traffic can be inexplicably heavy at any time of day, any day of the week. It makes driving around here an exercise in patience.

Thanks again for the fun day, you guys! We look forward to the next time.

What the heck, I’ll end this post on a Halloweenish note. Have you ever been booed? I remember doing this with Erin when we were roommates our freshman year of college, only back then it just involved making little ghosts out of tissue-paper-covered lollipops. When we got booed this year, one of our neighbors left us a basket with oranges, a Halloween candle, and a little stuffed pumpkin whom Annalie promptly named ‘Punkin Pie.’ Annalie thought the whole concept was just the best thing ever, and was super excited to get a turn at booing two neighbors in return. We assembled goody bags filled with chocolate kisses, apples and little packets of caramel dip, a spinning flashlight toy, and a can of cat food in the one we were giving to a neighbor with a cat. Annalie had a blast decorating the bags (with some help from me) and thought walking with me and Troy around the neighborhood at night to leave the bags under cover of darkness was possibly the funnest thing she’d ever done. Kids are so awesome.

The night we did that, there happened to be a full moon. It looked very cool with the tree branches and leaves silhouetted against it, and I was able to get a couple of neat photos, even without a tripod.

We did dig out the tripod when we got back to our house, because when I looked through the viewfinder of my camera with it zoomed in at 200mm, I could actually see the craters on the moon, and I really wanted to try to get a picture of that. Unfortunately, in the three minutes it took us to find the tripod and get it set up, clouds had rolled in to cover the moon. We waited a few minutes, but they didn’t go away and we had to get an increasingly tired and therefore silly Annalie to bed.

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween weekend, with just as much spookiness as you like!

p.s. New banner, one that’s appropriately toasty and warm. :-) Thanks, B!

The last time Troy’s mom and stepdad had the chance to visit us, we lived in Arizona and Annalie was still a baby. So we were all excited to hear that they were planning a visit to the East coast! Last week they drove from Texas to North Carolina to visit Troy’s sister and her family, and then last weekend they drove up here to see us.

Troy was still at work when Carol and Tom arrived, but Annalie stepped in and gave them the grand tour of our house, with special focus on the new tree swing in the backyard, the pumpkin dish full of candy corn in the entryway, and the fireplace that we’d just decorated for Halloween.

While we were all in the backyard, Annalie talked Grandma into playing catch with her for a little while. Notice Annalie’s outfit?

Aunt Dana had sent a Halloween shirt with Carol to give to Annalie as a gift. Annalie loved it and immediately created this whole outfit around it, right down to the socks.

After that, Annalie felt it was important that Grandpa Tom be introduced the wonders of Netflix Instant on our TV.

Tom was properly impressed. Half of James and the Giant Peach was watched. And then we met Troy for dinner at our favorite local steakhouse. After that, we decided to go see the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial.

Tom and Carol had both been to Washington, D.C. before, but years ago. There are a bunch of big monuments here now that weren’t there on their previous visits, the 9/11 Memorial among them. When Joe visited us in April, Troy took him to see the Pentagon one evening, and they both said the Memorial there was really neat at night. They were right. We’d been there during the daytime, so I’d seen it before, but the Memorial is lovely at night with all the lights on.

I especially like this ghostly photo I got of Annalie lying on one of the benches. There is a bench for each of the victims of the crash, with their names inscribed on the ends. The name on the end of the bench Annalie is lying on is LCDR David L. Williams, USN. Because of the direction the bench is facing, I can tell you that he was in the Pentagon on 9/11. The benches facing the other direction honor the people who were on the plane.

The next day, over a delicious breakfast of sausage, Trader Joe’s Ready-to-Bake Mini Morning Buns, and Blackened Home-Fried Potatoes from Hell, we asked Carol and Tom if there was anything else in particular they wanted to see in DC. Tom said he’d like to see the Lincoln Memorial again, and Carol said she was up for whatever we wanted to see.

We decided we’d start with the Lincoln Memorial and work our way around to a couple more memorials. So after breakfast we headed downtown.

As we walked to the Lincoln Memorial, Troy was telling Annalie a little about President Lincoln and why he was such an important man in our country’s history. When we got there, he read the Gettysburg Address to her from where it’s inscribed on the wall. Then Carol impressed us all by being able to recite half of it from memory. I memorized it in 7th grade and I can only recite about the first two sentences from memory.

Of course Annalie’s favorite thing about walking around the Mall is seeing the ducks. “Aww, look at the cute little duck butts!” is what she said when we saw these guys.

We walked down to the other end of the reflecting pool where we could see another newish memorial, the World War II Memorial. It’s a big one, with tons of fountains. Fountains are always a big hit with Annalie.

It was a warm day, and Annalie was hot from all our walking around, so she asked if she could put her hands in the pool of the big fountain. There are signs around the edge asking visitors to respect the memorial and not wade or throw coins in the water…but technically it says nothing about putting your hands and arms in.

Here is Troy taking a picture with his phone…

…this picture, in fact.

I handed the camera to Troy and asked him to take a picture of me and Annalie, because I realized I wasn’t going to be in any photos if I didn’t. As he got ready to take it, Annalie said, “Get a picture of me hugging my baby sister!” She also has conversations with my stomach and if I make the mistake of replying to something she’s said, she’ll look up at me and say, “I wasn’t talking to you, Mom. I was talking to my baby sister.”

That photo of Annalie and Tom cracks me up. Carol wanted to take a picture of them by the Texas pillar, since that’s where Tom and Carol live. Annalie was being pouty for some reason, Tom’s making a weird face and grabbing Annalie by the wrist…it’s just funny. Five seconds later we told Annalie pouting girls don’t get ice cream and she cheered right up and cooperated. The piggyback ride she got from Troy didn’t hurt her mood either.

As we were walking from the WWII Memorial over to the Vietnam Memorial, we stopped to rest on one of the many benches lining the path. I took the opportunity to take a picture for the photo wall, but Annalie wasn’t very smiley.

So I told her to think of the ice cream we would be buying for her in a few minutes, and that cheered her right up.

Annalie remembered the frozen lemonade I bought for her when we went sightseeing with Joe last spring, and immediately requested the same thing. Troy and I shared a bomb pop Liberty Rocket Pop.

Ice cream breaks are so refreshing.

Troy was confused about how exactly he was supposed to use his phone for money at this ancient “pay phone” we spotted along the pathway. And Annalie posed nicely for me in this spot looking towards Constitution Gardens and the Washington Monument. Troy noted that it was kind of a unique view, because there are no other buildings in sight. You can also just see the Capitol dome to Annalie’s left.

One of my favorite things about the Vietnam Wall it that it fairly begs to be touched. It’s counterintuitive; it’s a stark wall of black granite that seems like it should be forbidding. But somehow you can’t help but run your fingers over the names. And seeing what kinds of memorial offerings people leave is always interesting. On that day I saw several letters, roses, flags, and a military beret. This can of peaches with the fork rubber-banded to it struck me as particularly sad. It was such a specific thing, it told me the person who left it must have clear memories of the person he left it in honor of.

After we walked up from the Wall, we crossed this street where we had a not-usually-seen view of the Lincoln Memorial and headed back to the minivan since the time on our meter was about to run out of time. We had just enough time left to grab hot dogs from the vendor we were parked near.

When we first parked the car, while the adults spent a half-hour feeding $8.00 in change into the meter for our two hours of parking, Annalie wandered up the hill a little ways. When she came back down she announced that she’d seen a skeleton on the ground under the trees. We all sort of went, “Okay, uh-huh, let’s go see the sights!” Then when we went back to the car, she made a beeline for the skeleton and hollered for Troy to come look at it. He walked up to her, and I was surprised when I heard him say, “Huh. I guess it’s probably a squirrel skeleton.” Annalie thought it was totally cool and asked Troy to take a picture with his phone.

After our busy Saturday of sightseeing, we decided Sunday would be a good day for hanging out at home and relaxing. Carol and Annalie potted our recently-purchased mums for us, and then they did a little crafting. Carol usually has fun craft projects ready for Annalie to do when we visit them. This time she brought a project with her, a purse plus ribbons and rosettes for Annalie to decorate the purse with.

While they were doing that, I made eggs benedict for lunch because I find that kind of thing fun.

That afternoon, because I hadn’t gotten enough cooking in with the eggs benedict, I cooked the sugar pumpkin we’d bought the day before, then roasted the pumpkin seeds. When the pumpkin had cooled enough, I mashed it and Annalie and I made pumpkin spice cake. Annalie helped me grease and flour the pan, and then I showed her how to use her finger to gently draw pictures in the flour. I learned to do this from my piano teacher’s daughters when I was a kid. (It was at their house I also ate my first bagel, natural peanut butter, string cheese, and yogurt, before any of those foods were mainstream. They shopped at a food co-op long before it was trendy.)

While the cake was cooling, we killed some time at a nearby park. Well, really it’s the playground at a church, but it’s open to the public. Annalie calls it “the wooden park” because all the play structures are made out of wood.

Unfortunately, playing at the wooden park sometimes leads to the need for splinter removal. Annalie was very brave. The lollipop I gave her to suck on while Troy tweezed her splinters out helped, I’m sure.

After pizza for dinner and pumpkin cake for dessert, we headed to bed. Early the next morning, Tom and Carol loaded their stuff into the Durango. Troy, Annalie and I all got up early to see them off. We hugged them good-bye and took the traditional last-day photo with Annalie and her grandparents. It was a great visit. We hope they get to come visit again sometime, when there will be another grandchild in the picture!

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

“Our flight from DCA-LAX leaves in just over 12 hours. Am I all packed? No. Am I mostly organized? Sort of. What am I doing right now, other than blogging? Oh, messy crafts with Annalie, contemplating baking cookies—the usual, in other words.”

I wrote those lines last night when I should have been busily packing and preparing for our trip which starts today. I’m actually writing this at the airport, sitting at our gate, while Annalie plays with play-dough. I did make cookies around 11pm, because when I said something about how I’d wanted to make cookies, Troy said, “You still can!” So I did.

I was planning to finish this blog post last night, too, but instead I crocheted while Troy and I watched the last two episodes of Season 1 of Veronica Mars on Netflix Instant. (Have I mentioned how much I love Netflix Instant?) So I’ll write my catch-up post this morning instead.

Troy was on leave for a week, just because he had the chance to take some time off before things get busy again this fall. The week started out auspiciously, when the goldfinches came back. We saw a goldfinch in our neighbor’s yard a week or so before, and that day we saw a dozen goldfinches! A whole charm of goldfinches. I’ve seen them several times since then, too.

Out hostas, about the only flower we have in front of our house, have been blooming like crazy. I always forget that hosta blossoms actually smell good until they’re blooming again. And they’ve been hosting a million bees and butterflies, which has been fun to observe.

Since Troy was on leave, we took that road trip to North Carolina and Virginia Beach last weekend, but other than that we just hung out at home, enjoying having Troy around for a few days. We ran errands, we went to the park, we goofed off, Troy let me sleep in whenever he could. It was really nice.

One day last week, when it was rainy and considerably cooler than it had been, we had a fire in the fireplace. Annalie has been begging all summer to for a fire, so she was thrilled.

Then we toasted marshmallows, because why not? Might as well, if you’re sitting in front of a fire anyway.

The day it rained, I also took advantage of the cooler weather to enjoy some of the tea that Lauren Hewings bought me from England. I drank my PG Tips (England’s No 1 Tea) from the mug I painted with Lauren Carter when she visited me in San Diego last January. The internet has blessed me richly with so many good friends!

We hit the Museum of Natural History one day. Annalie could go there everyday and not get bored, I think. So could I.

On Troy’s last day of leave we went back to the splash park. We had originally been planning to go miniature golfing at that same park and then cool off in the water, but the day we had planned to do that was the day it rained. The next day was sunny and warmer, but because of appointments in the morning we didn’t have time to do both.

Annalie had been really excited about what was going to be her first time miniature golfing, and she was disappointed that we couldn’t do both. But she handled it really well. She decided that since the splash park closes at the beginning of September and we wouldn’t have another chance to go there this summer, we should go do that, and we could mini-golf another time.

And we did have a lot of fun at the splash park! Annalie had a fantastic time playing in the water with her dad. Troy was properly impressed with the coolness of this particular splash park.

Annalie especially had fun ordering Troy to stand underneath the buckets, where he pretended over and over again that he didn’t know he was going to get dumped on, much to her amusement. Ditto for the mushroom shower thingy. Troy was a very good sport.

Even though none of us wanted Troy’s leave period to end, this was a good way to end it.

Now, I think I’m all caught up! Except for the pottery photos I need to share. But I’ll do that another day. Because now we’re on the plane (thank you, gogo in-flight wifi, for making my first blog post from 30,000 feet possible—the future is now!) and on our way to California.

Okay, so I don’t mean “god” in the usual sense. Lauren is one of the founders of my beloved 7 Days group on Flickr, and when she and Sarah set up the group they decided to award themselves the title of “gods” rather than the more prosaic and commonly used “admins.” I’m a moderator of that group, but my title is “angel.” Those titles probably give you a pretty good idea of what a fun group it is, if you have not gotten a clue from seeing some of my own self-portraits from 7 Days over the years.

Lauren lives in England, but she happened to be in the States for work training last week. And since we were visiting Dana and her family in North Carolina last weekend, it was no big deal to detour to Norfolk on the way home and meet her for dinner. Then we introduced her to frozen yogurt and toppings by the ounce, which she declared to be an idea England needs to import, pronto.

Lauren and Annalie made friends with a kitty in the window of a gallery. We walked past the closed gallery, and there was a little black-and-white cat walking around in the front windows. We crouched down to look at her, and she went crazy, rubbing up against the glass and even putting her paw on the glass where Annalie’s hand was. Too bad the gallery was closed, she really seemed to want to be petted!

Annalie showed her Color Wonder Princess Glitter coloring sheets to Lauren, and then offered to let Lauren color on them if she liked. Lauren was properly impressed with how cool they were, thus winning Annalie’s undying affection.

We even dragged Lauren to a nearby park so Annalie could burn off some energy before we started the three-hour drive home, and she graciously insisted she was happy to hang out with us till we were ready to take her home.

Basically, the meeting went exactly as I expected it to: it was fun and relaxed and full of talking and laughing as I finally sat at the same table as a friend I’d already known for three and a half years online, who just happened to live on another continent. It was lovely to meet you, Lauren, and learn all those mundane details that get overlooked online, like what you do for a living. I’m looking forward to seeing you again sometime, and wondering with happy anticipation who the next 7 Dayer I’ll meet will be.

Sorry for bombing you with posts left and right lately. Annalie and I are packing up and heading to California for two weeks to visit friends and family, and I know I’ll probably have a ton of photos and stories to blog while I’m there…or possibly, I won’t have any time to blog at all. Either way, I’m trying to catch up before we leave. One more post is coming and then it’ll be all about California for a while.

Yesterday we had a fun playdate with Carrie and her kids. I feel like I was neglecting an assignment and now I’ve finally gotten a good start on it! See, Brenda and Carrie are blog friends from way back. When Brenda and Bug were here helping us unpack last spring, Carrie and her son Erik came over for lunch one day, and we had a blast, kids and moms alike. Brenda ordered me and Carrie to become good friends and have lots of playdates so she could live vicariously through us. I had every intention of following her orders, because Carrie is smart and funny and interesting and I liked her very much, and also I don’t have very many local friends!

But you know how life goes. First, we were busy unpacking and settling in. Then, Carrie and her husband Mike had a baby girl, Elsa, and were deep in the newborn stage of just trying to keep their heads above water with no extra time for playdates. Then Annalie and I went to Omaha for a visit. Then it was Annalie’s birthday, and my mom was in town for a few weeks. And of course by then I was dealing with first-trimester exhaustion all the time, and then we went on another trip to Omaha.

But finally, all the stars aligned and we had simultaneous free afternoons! So Annalie and I went over to their house to play and eat Carrie’s yummy version of my spicy veggie stir-fry with peanut sauce, which I just realized I’ve never blogged despite it being one of those recipes that everyone always asks for when I make it. Then Annalie and Erik wandered downstairs to the playroom while Carrie and I gabbed away for more than an hour. We were so busy talking (mostly about cloth diapers—more on that in a bit) that we neglected to check on our kids even once. But it was okay, because they got along great! They prepared a delicious pretend vegetable soup garnished with maple syrup for us.

Then we changed into our swimsuits and went to the splash park! There is an awesome park in their town that is full of fun things to do, among them this excellent splash park next door to a miniature golf course. Annalie has been to a half-dozen different spraygrounds in her life, so they’re no big deal to her, but when we walked into this place her eyes widened and she exclaimed, “Oh, wow! This is so cool!” She barely stood in one place long enough for me to spray sunblock on her, she was so excited to go play. (Incidentally, I’d like to kiss whoever invented spray sunblock. I love that stuff.)

Annalie and Erik both took off as soon as they were sunblocked. I grabbed my camera and followed them, persuading them to pose for a quick photo before they ditched me to play. I followed Annalie around as she checked out the “big mushrooms” and the waterfall cave and took a moment to spin the wheel on a spray fountain. I grabbed her for a quick arm’s-length self-portrait by the water maze, forgetting that I’d zoomed in for the previous photo and the result was a surprisingly good close-up shot.

Annalie fell in love with this blue whale, whom she said was named Daisy. There was a bit of drama over the fact that other kids kept climbing onto the whale with her, which would make Annalie hop off and pout till they’d left. Then she would race back over and climb on the whale’s back again. I think we are providing her with a sibling (and hopefully some perspective) not a moment too soon. Erik, meanwhile, spent a few minutes perched on the frog’s back, encouraging it to hop. “C’mon, Frog, HOP!” He didn’t seem to mind that the frog ignored him.

Towards the end of the afternoon, I pointed my camera at Erik, who tried to thwart me by sticking his hands in front of his face. So I just raised the camera and pointed it down at his head. Ha! At least to a 4-year-old, I’m still tall.

Most of the time we were there, both kids were in the water maze. I spent some time in there myself, since Annalie wanted me to go in with her a couple of times—purely for fun, not because she was afraid. I actually spent a few minutes contemplating how great it was that she wasn’t the least bit afraid of the noisy jets of water; that she just charged right into their midst, laughing. I bet last summer she would have had to spend a while working up her courage, and then she would have only gone in if someone had been there holding her hand. I love watching my kid grow up. No crying on my baby’s first day of kindergarten for me, thank you!

Well, she’s home-schooled, so her first day of kindergarten was at home with me. But that’s beside the point. My point is that I genuinely delight in her growing confidence, knowledge, and skills. Did you know she can totally make her own microwave popcorn now, starting with getting the package out of the pantry and all the way to dumping it in a bowl and adding a sprinkle of salt? She can also get her own bowl of cereal, pour herself a glass of lemonade without spilling, and get herself out of the shower, dried off, and into her pajamas. I love age six!

I admit that when I think ahead to her being a college student I might sigh a little, but then Annalie tells me that she doesn’t want to live in a dorm when she is in college because she would be too sad to leave me and Troy and her little sister. I take that with a grain of salt of course, because she probably will change her tune over the next 12 years. But it wouldn’t surprise me if she doesn’t. She is just that kind of person. Hey, my younger brother lived with my parents for six or seven years in his late 20s, just because he liked living with them, and I am forever telling Annalie how much she reminds me of her Unky Ben! So we’ll see….

…but I digress! I was telling you about how the big water maze was the main attraction for both Annalie and Erik. Even Carrie (with Elsa asleep on her chest) and I enjoyed standing near it. The shallow water cooled our feet and the mist from the fountain sprayed our faces and arms and kept us from overheating while we chatted about how we wished we had waterproof cameras and kept an eye on the kids. Though it was actually perfect splash park weather yesterday, not horrifically hot like it was last week.

Eventually, we noticed that the kids were getting tired, and were just sort of hanging out near us. It was almost time for us to head home anyway, to give us a chance to beat the afternoon rush. So we casually mentioned the magic words “ice cream” and Annalie and Erik immediately announced that they were ready to leave and rushed over to dry themselves off and put their shoes on so they could go pick out their ice cream treats. Not a bad way to end an afternoon at the splash park and a summer playdate!

Thanks again for the fun afternoon, Carrie, Erik & Elsa! We’re already looking forward to next time.

Oh, remember how I mentioned up there that Carrie and I were talking about cloth diapers while our kids played? Yep, I think we’re gonna cloth diaper this time.

I’ve been really intrigued by cloth-diapering since right around the time Annalie was potty-trained. I’d been watching my friend Lynn use cloth on her daughters for a couple of years by then, and I’d had several conversations about the whole thing with OMSH, who is a staunch advocate of cloth diapers.

Then I moved to San Diego and became friends with Sonja in real life. She’s a cloth-diaperer who also works at a shop that sells natural, organic and earth-friendly products for parents and kids, including a wide range of cloth diapering, breastfeeding, and babywearing products. So she’s kind of an expert. My friend Madge also used cloth diapers on her kids. And now Carrie, too. Much like with homeschooling, the more I considered using cloth diapers on a theoretical second child, the more people I discovered around me who had been cloth diaperers. Troy and I talked it over, and we decided we’d give it a shot.

Which leads me to the above photo. Carrie‘s daughter Elsa, at 3.5 months old, is ahead of the growth curve and has already outgrown a lot of her size small diapers. Carrie had mentioned that she was trying to sell them online, but that she was running into a lot of people who weren’t willing to pay her (more than fair) asking price. I offered to buy a few from her, thus getting me started on my stash, and preventing her from having to deal with crazy bargain-hunters and shipping hassles.

Which is why I left the playdate yesterday with ten size small cloth diapers (and a sample of Rockin’ Green detergent and a couple of little cubes used for making wipes solution that Carrie generously shared with me). When we arrived back home and I opened Annalie’s door so I could grab the shopping bag of diapers, Annalie hopped out with a grin on her face and her doll Greta clutched in one arm—and Greta was now wearing the blue and purple diaper that had been at the top of the bag. Even Annalie thinks cloth diapering is a good idea, apparently.

July 1: Our early-morning flight to Omaha allowed us to see a lovely sunrise at Dulles.

July 2: Aurora approved of the plate I painted for her; cousins chilling together.

Photo taken by Joe Sands

July 3: Painting pottery (and drinking Starbucks, and talking nonstop) with Kassie and Katrina has become a tradition when we’re all in Omaha at the same time, long may it continue.

July 4: Happy Independence Day! Grandma Carol & Annalie; sparklers galore.

July 5: Annalie and Grandma Val laughing; Old Man Annalie; Aurora making a face at the water we were giving her from the end of a straw, even though she apparently liked it.

July 7: Annalie monkeying around, Aurora watching and wondering how much longer till she can monkey around with her.

July 8: We took Angie out to lunch and introduced her to pottery-painting as an early birthday present, and did some handprints with Aurora and Annalie.

July 9: Lunch with Rachel; an impromptu visit with T and her kids.

July 10: A triple-the-fun birthday party for Zach, Josh and Alex; playing at the sprayground.

July 11: Lunch at Godfather’s with the Kay family (including Mike, who took the group photo); Krista cleverly disguised with a gumball-machine mustache.

July 12: Annalie hanging out with the mariachi band at the Mexican restaurant where we met Nancy and Ben, Angie & Aurora for lunch; shooting off some leftover fireworks at Ed & Leslie’s farm.

July 13: Katrina and I got pedicures and then went to dinner at an unexpectly busy Olive Garden all by ourselves and it was awesome. I think a new tradition has been born.

July 14: Starbucks for the moms, Slip’N'Slide for the kids—perfect on a day when the high temperature was near 100F and humidity was 91%.

July 15: We’re heading home.

I hope to write more detailed posts about our time in Omaha eventually, but for now you can enjoy many photos in my Flickr photoset Omaha July 2010.