happy october!

Today we went on a picnic near Sandia Crest! New pictures for October are up here.

Next week's plan: a pumpkin patch!

more photos than you could ever hope for

The last few nights after Anna's gone to bed, I have been organizing our photos on Flickr. Now, every (good) photo taken since Seth & I met in 2004 is categorized and labeled for your viewing pleasure. Whew - I'm just glad I've only had a digital camera for five years! :)

where have we been?

Iowa, that's where!

We went to Seth's parents' for five wonderful days and just got back on Tuesday night. Anna had a fantastic time exploring the farm, watching Grandpa's train set, and meeting lots of animals (Sophie the dog, Chewbacca the cat, and assorted farm kittens). We also enjoyed trips to Lauritzen Botanical Gardens and Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha just across the river. And, Anna got to meet her Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Hartwell and many other friends & relatives!

Bonus: Anna rode over 30 hours in the car and only cried for about an hour or two total. (When I say it that way it sounds so good - it sure didn't feel good for that hour or two, though!)

It's such a lovely time of year to be in the Midwest, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! Check out lots of photos here.

hanging on

It's been almost a month since my last post! Ugh... how did that happen?

Not much is new here. I'm crazy busy at work right now, though that should ease up by tomorrow. Seth just returned from six days with his guy friends from college (first to Indianapolis, then to Chicago by way of their college campus). He had fun sampling microbrews, deep dish pizza, and the Cubbies while I... did not. That's okay, though - he thoroughly deserved the trip and a break from his busy full-time gig as Anna's Daddy! We're glad to have him home!

I'm not going to lie: I could use a vacation. The last time I took off from work was my maternity leave, which I think we can all agree is wonderful, but does not qualify as R&R. Having said that, it is really restful to have summer weekends free. Instead of traveling and lots of running around, we have spent a relaxing summer just hanging out on the weekends, enjoying our sweet baby girl.

And speaking of Anna, she is amazing as ever. She loved her first experience with solid food - bananas, sweet potatoes, apples, and pears have all met with her approval. Avocados or green beans are up next. I need to upload pictures and will do that soon, including (hopefully) a short video clip of Anna's latest trick: blowing raspberries. Warning: a six-month-old blowing raspberries is about the funniest thing ever captured on video (although you might not be able to hear her as I am probably laughing hysterically)!

Tomorrow Seth and I go to Santa Fe for an early anniversary date, first to Cafe Pasqual, then to the Santa Fe Opera. We can't wait! (A big thanks to both sets of grandparents for providing the opera tickets and the baby-sitting!) So that will be a wonderful mini-break for us. And next week we celebrate four years of married bliss!

just wanted to share

We get a weekly e-newsletter from our beloved church in Minneapolis that contains some thoughts for the week. This week's newsletter just came and included this passage I wanted to share:

A great teacher of preaching, Fred Craddock, said, "Most of us will not get a chance this week to christen a ship, write a book, end a war, appoint a cabinet, dine with a queen, convert a nation, or be burned at the stake. More likely this week will present no more than a chance to give a cup of water, write a note, visit a nursing home, vote for a county commissioner, teach a Sunday School class, share a meal, tell a child a story, go to choir practice, and feed the neighbor's cat. Those things, my friends, done in the Spirit and love of Christ are the true riches. 'Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much.'"

I think I sometimes putter along in life waiting for big opportunities to present themselves. So often I forget that every day is momentous.

found time

For about a month now, Anna has been sleeping in her crib for 11-12 hours at night… without waking up for a feeding. I hesitated to blog about it right away since I didn’t want to jinx her, but we’re still going strong. I sure love spending time with my little pumpkin, but I have to admit that it’s pretty darn wonderful. These days, Seth and I get to spend our evenings doing other things besides trying to get Anna to sleep. A few of our favorites:

Reading. Yes, I have rediscovered the joy of reading for fun! Seth is almost done with Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven, which is a fascinating read about polygamy and the fundamentalist LDS church. I tried the Twilight books, but decided that preteen smut was no way to spend my precious reading time. (Creative idea? Yes. Well-written? Nope. Save yourself the trouble.) Right now I’m re-reading one of my most beloved books, Kathleen Norris’ The Cloister Walk, and I made a recent trip to the library and came home with an armful of books that I’m juggling all at the same time: Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh, The Essential Green You by Deidre Imus, The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs, and Freakin’ Fabulous by Clinton Kelly of What Not to Wear fame. How’s that for variety?!

So You Think You Can Dance. We recently moved the TV out of our bedroom, which has made the room an altogether peaceful and wonderful place, so we are watching much less TV overall these days. But we still find ourselves curled up in front of the TV on Wednesday and Thursday nights for this fantastic show. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and tune in. It was recommended by several close friends of mine and I’m just sorry I didn’t listen to them sooner!

Baking. This weekend we went to the Lavender in the Village Festival and I came home with a bunch of fresh lavender that I attempted to turn into lavender shortbread last night. It did not work very well (it’s not often that the divine Ina fails me, but last night she sure did – I wonder if there is some high-altitude adjustment for shortbread that I missed?). My next experiment will be replicating the fabulous lemon-and-lavender muffins from Breadsmith, one of my favorite spots in St. Paul. Any other suggestions?

So that’s a bit of what we’ve been up to this summer. No exciting travel, but it’s nice to be cruising along in a routine and I, for one, am enjoying a summer without nausea and round ligament pain! And, of course, Anna just gets more and more fun. We can’t believe she’s almost six months old! I am always hearing from fellow parents that their favorite age is whatever age their child happens to be at the time, and it’s true for us, too! She is incredibly alert (people are always stopping us to tell us how focused and engaged she looks, and we can’t help but agree). Anna loves church (yesterday Seth sang a solo and she perked right up and craned her neck toward Daddy’s voice), going for walks, and splashing—in the bathtub or swimming pool.

Lately, too, she’s been showing increasing affection for some of her favorite toys. It’s so sweet to see her hug and cuddle something soft. Also in the soft friend category are the kitties—and Anna is loving them. Sometimes she grabs their fur, pulls, and twists, but lately she seems to slow down and stroke gently when we tell her “gentle.” It’s amazing to see, and even more amazing is the cats’ tolerance! She shrieks with glee when they approach and they don’t run away (every time, that is).

Anna seems very eager to crawl and we’re pretty sure she’ll be on the go any day now. We’re also planning the big foray into solid foods sometime soon and are very excited to see what she thinks about all of that. (If grabbing for Mama’s utensils and drinking glasses is any indication, Anna is going to love grown-up food!)

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

as seen on a starbucks cup...

Do not kiss your children
so they will kiss you back
but so they will kiss their children,
and their children’s children.

- Noah benShea

I love this quote. Besides being a bit of what my mom would call “a tearjerker,” it perfectly sums up my philosophy of parenting. The way I see it, good parenting is like paying it forward: giving the world a competent, well-adjusted, happy person without asking any reward in return. Yet having our kids “kiss us back” seems to be the goal of a lot of parents. But that’s not really what parenting is (or should be) about, is it? A person shouldn’t have kids to validate her existence, or for companionship, or to raise her self-esteem. And parents seek their kids’ approval more than they should. Parenting really isn’t a mutual relationship; a parent is a parent, not a peer or a friend.

Just my opinion (but then again, I do get paid for my opinion on this subject). :D