Dartmouth reunion weeekend

We had a lovely weekend of talking, eating, playing Apples to Apples, checking out Eastern Market, shopping, and walking. Oh, and a lot of singing. It was great to have the gang here, even though we didn't manage to get White House tickets (thanks, Megan and Debbie, for trying). It was particularly nice getting to spend some extra time with Liz, who flew in early Friday afternoon and left Sunday evening.

We are off tomorrow for our Christmas tour of the northeast. We will be driving to Matt's family's house in Pennsylvania tomorrow with two cats and a three-month old. I'm sure it will be great! We will continue on to my parents' house in NY on Christmas day, leaving the cats in PA. Then we'll swing back down next Thursday to pick them up, and return home on Saturday.

In other news, even though I actually paid for shipping, my Amazon order containing all of Matt's Christmas presents did not arrive today. It's going to be a sad, sad Christmas for him.

Happy baby

We've had a busy past couple of weeks. The weekend before last, Helen and Chris visited from Chicago. We had a nice time, mostly hanging out and chatting. Then Will's grandparents (Matt's parents) visited during the week last week. Then this past weekend my Dartmouth friends came for our annual Christmas reunion, which was a lot of fun. I'll post pictures from that once I get the chance to download them.

I can't believe how quickly December is going by. On Friday we're off to Allentown to visit Matt's famly and then on Monday we'll continue to Queensbury to visit mine. And the following week I go back to work, which I'm not at all excited about.

Check this kid out!

Did you know that he could lift his head like that? Or use two hands to navigate an object to his mouth? I did not, until this week.

Today Will and I went to a coffee hour for a local group of moms and babies. We both made friends. Will's new BFF is named Carter. He is nine weeks old. The two babies stared at, smiled at, and talked to each other for a good long time. At one point Will's attention shifted to another baby and Carter started to cry. I don't know what Will was thinking.

It was interesting to hear the babies talking to each other. It turns out that, as far as I can tell, all babies make the exact same sounds and smile the same way, just on different faces. It was nice to see how much the babies enjoyed each other's company. I look forward to going again next week. Maybe next week I'll even have my act together enough to get around to ordering a coffee.

Weekend in Pittsburgh

We had a delightful visit in Pittsburgh this past weekend. The drive Friday afternoon and evening was not great--we left home at 3 and arrived at 10--but the weekend more than made up for the lousy drive.

Our first stop was at Megan's apartment, where Liz was visiting. Liz had not yet met Will, so it was fun to introduce the two of them. Even though Will was tired and hadn't eaten in three hours, he was remarkably smiley and talkative for the hour that we were there. I wish I had a picture of his first smile when he met Liz. I'd say they hit it off pretty well.

The rest of the weekend we spent with Robbie and Jess for our annual Christmas visit. The first thing we did was stun their cat with the concept that human beings can be very, very small. I think he warmed up to Will over the course of the weekend, but as the picture above shows, he was not immediately sure that things were exactly right with the world.

The next morning Jess and I hit the Carnegie Mellon gym, where I did the elliptical for a half hour for the first time in three months. I was happy with how well I did considering that it's been a while, but then again I was eight-and-a-half-months pregnant and fifteen pounds heavier the last time I was on an elliptical, so maybe I shouldn't have been too surprised that this was comparatively not so bad. We spent the rest of the day walking, eating, chatting, teaching Will colors (see the third picture above), driving through an elaborate display of Christmas lights in a neighboring town, cooking, and opening presents. The second picture above shows Will with his very first Christmas present ever.

On Sunday we went geocaching for Robbie and Jess' cache, which I really have to remember to log, now that I think about it. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant where our entrees arrived before our drinks, but the food was good and we had fun. And our drive home was quick--five hours, including one long stop to feed Will and change his diaper.