7 Quick Takes

one

Today is Nathan's 32nd birthday!  For his birthday this year I did something completely unexciting and let him pick out his present.  We had a date night last night, which was awesome, and we stopped at Best Buy where he picked out a new set of super spiffy headphones for his computer.

Elijah's all bundled up because that was the day we took him sledding.

two

Check out how grown-up this kid looks!  I can't get over it.

three

Please say a prayer or two for my sister's friend Taryn who is trying to pay off the last thousand dollars of her student loans so she can join the Discalced Carmelites in Buffalo where she was recently accepted.

four

My car is officially fixed.  It's out of the shop and back in our garage.  I won't get into all the details of what was wrong, mostly because it was my fault and it's embarrassing.  But I will say that for all I hate to drive in general and even though I get mad at the car when I do something stupid and it has to be worked on, I actually do love that little car.  I drove it home from the shop yesterday and was very happy to have it back.

Nathan's car is a stick shift and I really hate having to drive it.

five

  I don't think anything has caused me more "first time mom" anxiety than what to feed Elijah now that he's eating regular food.  We have the chart about serving sizes and what he needs nutrition-wise everyday, but I keep wanting to feed him more.  He usually gets bored of sitting in the highchair before I think he's really full.  I also need to figure out better snack foods than just giving him Gerber crunchies and Goldfish.

six

As I said, last night was date night, so Nathan and I went to see the new Oz, the Great and Powerful.  I have to say I was surprised by it.  The plot did things I didn't expect and it was actually a pretty good movie.  A big thanks to my father-in-law for babysitting last night!

seven

Are you as excited as I am that the conclave starts Tuesday?  I can't wait!  

For more 7 Quick Takes, check out Conversion Diary.

 

One month old

Yay!  Happy one month, Elijah!

And so we begin the early-year-birthday onslaught.  Really, it started yesterday with our niece Sophie's second birthday.  We continue tomorrow when Craig, my father-in-law, celebrates his.  Looking ahead to next Thursday is my mother's birthday and a little further down the road we see Nathan's 31st on the 9th.  Just beyond that, we celebrate the first birthday of our Ides of March baby, our nephew Brian.

It's going to be a fun month!

Birthday extravaganza--Spring edition

Have you ever noticed how birthdays and other special days tend to group themselves together within families?  For example, in my own family there are five birthdays at the end of the year: Anne-October 8; Daddy-October 15; Eric-October 30; Elizabeth-November 24; and Nate-December 19.

That doesn't even include Mom and Dad's anniversary in September, our anniversary in late October, Nate's anniversary in early October, aunt and uncle's birthdays of which there are at least 3 in October alone, cousin's birthdays: I can count 2 in October off the top of my head, and Eric and Elizabeth's anniversary in mid-December.

According to Mom this means October is closed.  We are no longer allowed to add birthdays or other "special event days" in October.

I'm finding that this crosses family lines as well.  I think the last week of February to the second week of March are almost as action packed as any three-week period in October for Nathan and I.  Our niece Sophie just celebrated her first birthday February 25, Craig's birthday follows quickly on the 27th, then comes my mother's on March 1 and finally Nathan's on March 9.  (Side note: be gentle with Nathan on his birthday this year, he's turning 30.)

And those three weeks are about to get more involved: my brother's wife is due to have their baby any day now.  She's due March 16, but I don't think she's going to make it that far.