Cousins

(Disclaimer: Jules was at camp when these pics were taken. I hated that she wasn't around for these photo ops)

(Bailey loved Carver, and by default, she liked me a lot on this trip too!)

(Tommy really liked to poke Carver...but Carver didn't always like it so much)

D-Day

As in the "dreaded day" arrived on Sunday. June 27th. (i.e. the day I turned 30).

Oh sad day.

I liked being in my 20s. I wanted to stay in my 20s. I did not want to turn 30... but, alas, here I am-- 30.

While I like to think that I have accomplished a lot in these last 30 years, there are still a number of things that I wanted to do before I turned 30 which didn't happen. Maybe before I turn 40. Oh my gosh, I can't even think about turning 40...

Moving on.

Birthdays really make me thing of just one thing-- Lyle. For obvious reasons. I hate it that we have this great (physical) distance that separates us now. I miss the days when we were a package deal. Our senior year in high school we were almost always together. We drove to school together even though we each had a car, and when we were apart most people would ask where the other one was. I liked that. Because we are a package. Even now at the dreaded 30 years old mark.

I love Lyle. It's that simple. He is intrinsically a part of me and there just aren't any good words to explain that relationship. Now we don't talk every day but that's ok. Life just happens and gets in the way. But there is just a piece of my soul that will always be linked to his.

I am so proud of the man he has become. He has a beautiful family that he adores and he survived law school and found a great job that he loves. He is Godly, responsible, honest, and loyal, with a healthy dose of arrogance and humor thrown in to the mix. He makes me laugh like no one else can and he is one of the smartest people I know. I have cherished him as a friend, confidante, partner in crime, competition, and brother. I am a better person today because of his influence in my life these last 30 years.

Love you bro. Happy birthday-- even if we are now in our 30s.

The Dillard House

One night last week Mom and I randomly decided to go 45 minutes north to the Dillard House for dinner. We had been wanting to go and we had a free night so off we went. And I am so glad we did! It ended up being an absolutely perfect evening from start to finish. Carver slept the entire way there then sat and played quietly while we had dinner. After dinner we took a few pictures and visited the "Farm Zoo" and saw some rather entertaining animals-- Carver seemed very interested in them. Then Carver played the whole way home, ate dinner, and went to bed. Simple.

I already want to go back. It was a perfect night to spend with my mom and Carver. We had a fabulous time and the food was abundant and great.

It's the little things

Williamsburg

Obviously, I love history. Though American history, not so much... I do, however, like to visit historical places in general. I had never been to Williamsburg until last week. Though it was ungodly hot we still managed to have a really fun, though far too brief, visit there.

The best part of the trip? Getting to spend some time with these cute kiddos and their parents.

We spent the morning on Saturday walking around historical Williambsburg and I loved it. Not only was there a lot to see but there is just something incredible to me about walking in a place so steeped in history. I can't even really put it into words. It's little things, like the sign on a church we found:

(In case you can't read it it says: "...this historic building has been in service to God and Man continuously since 1715.")

I love this. There are really no words to describe how it feels to walk where so many others had tread so many years before. To see a street that has been preserved, to witness, to some extent, the physical dynamics of a place from the early eighteenth century. It moves me.

I'll remember a number of things about this day in Williamsburg.

First, the heat was brutal. Bru-tal. We managed as best we could with a few modern conveniences.


After sweltering in the heat all morning we took the kids swimming. Lyle's kids are old enough now to really enjoy it so it was very fun to watch them playing in the pool. This was Carver's second time swimming and I think he is really starting to like it.

That night we celebrated our birthday at a really fabulous seafood restaurant which we will definitely be visiting again when we return to Williamsburg.


And Courtney made us some incredible birthday cupcakes :)

I am so thankful for this week with my family, and especially thankful that Lyle and I got to celebrate our 3oth birthday together. It's hard living so far away from each other. I wish that we were able to see everyone more often. I love spending time with Lyle, Holly and their sweet kids. I hate that distance has made us miss so much of their lives so far. I adore Bailey, Will, and Tommy and I hope they know that. Carver was a big hit with the cousins :) I am so glad that he has four fabulous cousins the youngest two being boys-- I know he will love to grow up with them.

Travels

For the last several months we have been planning a road trip to Virginia and Maryland. Unfortunately, the best time for my family to visit and travel is the summer, which is, of course, the only time of year that it is impossible for Daniel to travel. This means that if I want to spend time with my family (and I do), then Carver and I have to travel without Daniel. Lucky for us, my parents were around to travel with us.

The first leg of our journey landed us in Baltimore to play with Court and Michael for a bit. (Jules was at camp with Daniel-- we missed them both). Carver was spectacular on the drive, but he did have my mom entertaining him the e.n.t.i.r.e drive while I drove. I think she has more patience (and endurance) with him than I do. She also snapped some cute pictures of him entertaining himself in the car.

(Note: Carver is now the proud owner of this Vera Bradley wallet after we left it at a restaurant full of my driver's license and all credit cards. Now the newly empty wallet is his to enjoy!).

I love Baltimore. It is one of my very favorite places to visit. Largely because Court and Jules live there, but also because I love the city itself. The week went incredibly smoothly with Carver and we did a lot of really fun things while we were there. I have a lot of Baltimore "favorites." Typically I visit several times a year, but due to the pregnancy and then first few crazy months of Carver's life I hadn't been back in a year. I'd missed it. We managed to cram a lot of fun things into just a few days...

First, heading to dinner at the Irish Pub.

Tuesday we spent running around Baltimore while Courtney was at work.


Then dinner at the Melting Pot while Dad and Michael cooked steaks at home. We had to park a little far away from the restaurant so Courtney helped carry the load.
On Wednesday the grandparents kindly babysat so we could go out for sushi!

Thursday was our busiest day. First lunch at Shuckers in Fells Point (downtown Baltimore), then off to Annapolis for the afternoon/evening. It was a beautiful, but incredibly hot day. Perfect for walking around down by the water in both cities. Carver even got his first teeny tiny taste of organic lemon gelato. Which he seriously l.o.v.e.d.

(Notice the cute crab shirt. Maryland and crabs, get it?)

(My favorite Maryland restaurant)

And, a few other random moments from our trip...

(meeting Alex (and Ivan)-- he liked them more than they liked him)

(playing with the guinea pigs)

(drinking water from a straw--sort of)

I am really sad that this trip is already over. It was so nice to get away from home for a few days, to spend time with my family and to let them spend an uninterrupted week with Carver. It was enormously helpful to me to have all of them around to play with him, entertain him, and just love on him. There were a number of mornings when I stumbled out of bed, with Carver still in his pajamas and wet diaper and just handed him off to Courtney (with a clean diaper in hand) and then made my way back to bed. You can only do things like this with family. It was a very full week but Carver and I loved every minute of it. From Baltimore we headed to Williamsburg to play with Lyle and his family. We also celebrated mine and Lyle's 30th birthday a few days early. More to come about the second half of our vacation :)

Six months...already?

I'm torn. I have so loved watching Carver meet each new milestone and grow and change and become more and more adorable with each passing day. But, I admit, there is a little part of me that is sad that the months pass so quickly. I'm excited for the phases of growth to come but I mourn the loss of those he has already passed through.

Taking pictures of Carver is becoming more and more difficult. No longer does he just let me prop him up somewhere and grin at me when I take his picture. Oh no. Now he tries to get to me, grab at me, or at whatever he can reach. He's always been an active baby but at this point he is always in motion. My word, we are going to seriously have our hands full once he is fully mobile. He likes to be held, but only if I let him crawl up my shoulder, or roll over onto his tummy in my lap, or if I am walking around with him. Gone are the days when we can sit quietly and rock.

Here are a few more things that month 6 has brought:

1) A new, even greater, obsession with toys. And, in his mind, any object can be a super fun toy. If only he had a longer attention span. He really loves things that are not technically toys, like the remote control, my cell phone, my wallet, my hair, etc.

2) Pseudo-crawling. He can't actually crawl yet but he can certainly get around. He can travel on his tummy quite well, usually to grab a toy...or Delia.

3) Increased vocalization. Nothing distinguishable, of course, but he is very vocal. He "talks" to his toys and especially loves to talk to his reflection in the mirror. We have a rather large mirror in the car and he watches himself and chats. This can entertain him for a good bit of time.

4) He loathes his car seat.

5) He loves to laugh.

6) He is still not a big fan of cereal. I have spent the last couple of weeks making and freezing (organic) baby food. So far we have a stock pile of carrots, green beans, avocado, and (gross) bananas. I find the process of making him food wildly entertaining and satisfying. Probably more than the activity actually warrants. We plan to start introducing more foods later this week.

7) He is still high maintenance, but is ridiculously happy as long as someone is always paying him complete attention.

8) Still not sleeping well at night...and still sleeping in our room. Planning to transition him to the nursery before too long. I'll miss him though. Paranoid mothers need their babies close :)

9) We survived a 10 hour road trip all by ourselves (just me and Carver). I feel like superwoman. Now we can conquer the world. It wasn't perfect, but went MUCH smoother than I could have ever hoped.

10) Went swimming for the first time.

11) Bath time. I originally thought Carver just loved it in general. Now I know that he only loves it in his fun whale bath tub. Big thanks to Megan for that gift!

12) More and more little blond hairs on his head :) And please, please, let his eyes stay this beautiful blue. People may say he looks just like his daddy, but his hair and eyes come from my side :)

My heart simply swells with love for this child. I've never been a fan of flowery language, or even thoughts, but I think I could write poetry about how much I love this boy. (Don't worry Courtney, I won't). He is so well-loved, and not just by me and Daniel, he is loved by two sets of devoted grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and honorary aunts and uncles. What better gift could I offer him than to have this huge community of people that love him?

I absolutely can't wait to see what the next 6 months will hold for us.

Funny Moments

As the months pass Carver and I tend to have a lot more funny moments together. They are small moments but they warm my heart in ways that I wouldn't have believed possible until he arrived. How many times in adult life do we really just laugh out loud and feel joy-filled? Things often make me smile, of course, but I just don't laugh enough. And, I mean really laugh. This was one of those random funny moments to me. I was trying to figure out how his sling worked for the first time, and the experience was funny for several reasons. First, the sling is a size small, because before he was born I had no idea that either of us would be this big...Second, the sling is oddly complicated and I had to read, and re-read the instructions with pictures to figure out how it worked...third, I was pretty much man-handling Carver and he was just letting me do it, not struggling or fighting it, though he was grunting a little probably from me trying to cram him into a too little space... (legs are bunched up against his chest in this picture.


Carver has also recently started to initiate play times with me. Last night I was holding him in the glider and he was trying to crawl up me to where his waist was at about my shoulder. Then he would open his mouth as wide as he could and come at me, trying to suck on my chin or cheek or nose. It was absolutely hilarious. He did it over and over, leaning in, mouth open, drooling, grabbing with his hands...(I really hope to capture this in a picture one day) It was a messy game but one of those small, seemingly insignificant moments, that I will always remember. I try to be so very careful to hold onto the little moments because this is what will make up the story of our life together.

Just keep swimming....

Carver's first experience was overall a smashing success! We had a brief breakdown when Carver first hit the (slightly) cold water, but after he adjusted all went well. I am loving getting to watch Carver experience all of these "firsts."

He especially liked it when we turned him around backwards and let him chew on the headrest.