Look at me, blogging about something the same day it happened. It’s almost like I have a 10-month old now instead of a newborn.

Oh, right. I do have a 10-month-old! As of today, in fact. I do believe she’s going to be walking before she’s another month older.

Anyway. Today we had a fun visit with Carrie and her kids! We were originally planning to meet at a park between our two towns, but it rained last night and we weren’t enthused about the idea of trying to keep two babies entertained at a wet, muddy park. So we scrapped that plan and decided to just meet at Carrie’s house.

Annalie and Erik didn’t care much. When we got there, they immediately headed to the playroom in the basement and must’ve had fun because we didn’t see them again until we told them it was time to go get lunch.

We could walk to the Amish market from Carrie’s house, so that’s what we did. It was a pretty nice day, despite the drizzle we ended up walking through on the way home. The big kids ran ahead of us and got some of their wiggles out, while we pushed the babies in the strollers and enjoyed the mild weather and the fall colors that are just starting to show.

The market itself was quite interesting. There were a bunch of different stalls, selling all kinds of delicious things to eat—cheese, baked goods, produce, preserves and baking supplies like flour and nuts, candy, soft pretzels—as well as a restaurant, a meat counter, and a furniture showcasing a variety of beautiful wood tables, chairs, dressers, beds, and bookcases.

It seemed a little incongruous to me see all these men and women in plain dress (the women in long, modest dresses with their hair parted in the middle and pulled back under crisp white caps; the men in plain pants and button-down shirts with suspenders, most of them with beards and a fringe of hair cut straight across their foreheads), which is usually adopted by those who forsake the modern world and its conveniences, blithely using electronic scales and credit-card readers and cash registers. Carrie said it’s even funnier to see them outside on a break, using their cell phones.

We stopped at the deli counter and bought fried chicken, potato salad, and cucumber salad. We also bought half of a chocolate cake for dessert, then took it all back to Carrie’s house to eat. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that it was all completely, utterly delicious. I’m already plotting when I can go back and get more of that fried chicken.

After lunch Annalie and Erik went to the little neighborhood park to play, and Carrie and I hung out in the living room with Elliora and Elsa. It was probably a lot more fun for them that we were in a house full of toys instead of at the park, where Elliora probably wouldn’t have been able to crawl on the wet ground and Elsa would have been continually frustrated at not being able to keep up with the big kids. They are a bit too young to play together yet, but they got along pretty well, considering.

Elliora seemed to look at the living room full of toys she’d never played with and think, Right. I have a lot of work to do before we leave here! Then she set out to play with as many of them as she could.

Well, with as many as she could before Elsa grabbed them out of her hands, that is. I don’t blame Elsa one bit, though. Who was this young upstart coming into HER house and playing with HER toys!? At least Elliora took it good-naturedly. She just moved on to the next toy. By the time we left she was grabbing toys right back out of Elsa’s hands.

Then Elliora did something that kind of startled me: she imitated Elsa. Elsa had put a pillow on the floor and laid down with her head on it. When she got up, Elliora crawled over to the pillow and looked at it, looked over at Elsa, looked back at the pillow, and then laid down in the same position Elsa had just been in, with her head on the pillow. She sat up and grinned at me and Elsa, then laid back down and patted the pillow, just like she pats my chest when she’s snuggling with me, clearly quite pleased with herself. She’s growing up at the speed of light, that one. She’s got a big sister to keep up with!

We left not long after lunch, since it was naptime for the littles, waving good-bye and promising not to wait so long between visits next time. Thanks again for having us over and taking us to the Amish market, Carrie!

When I saw that one of the 7 Days themes was WHITE, this jumped to my mind as the obvious place to take a self-portrait when one lives in Washington, DC. The top left photo was my 7 Days shot, and the bottom right photo was Annalie’s.

Annalie was so hot she could barely even smile, poor kid. Her little furrowed brow in the bottom left photo slays me. This is what she had to say about the heat:

Today we went to downtown DC. It was SCORCHING hot. We went to Caribou Coffee and I had an apple fritter that was really good. It was so hot we went to an art gallery to cool off in the air-conditioning. We went there once before when I was little, but I don’t remember it. Since today’s theme was WHITE we took our picture in front of the White House. It was really fun! But it was so hot I almost didn’t want to do it. But I’m sort of glad that we did. I had fun!)

For the record, I didn’t think it was THAT hot on Wednesday, and I’m a pretty big wimp when it comes to heat and humidity. It was probably not quite 90F. But there is something about downtown DC that makes the heat seem especially unbearable.

Sarah just happened to be visiting New York with Suzy* during Sonja‘s visit to us in DC. So we went up for the day last Wednesday and hung out in Central Park. And now I’ve met both the 7 Days gods!

Thanks to Sonja for letting me steal this photo, which I think Troy took. I had to steal her photo instead of using one of my own. We’ve been busy running around and showing Sonja and Noah the sights—not to mention going to New York and Southern Maryland, and doing the everyday care and feeding that three small children require—and I have not managed to edit or Flickr any photos taken while Sonja has been here. She’s been pretty good about Flickring her photos, though. Head over to her photostream to see them!

*I’m not sure why Suzy absented herself from this photo, since she’s a 7 Dayer too! Silly Suzy.