Capitol idea

Damon and I decided to celebrate his first birthday with a flight to Virginia to visit Grandma Brown. Thanks to some wonderful friends here who helped take care of the girls during workdays, Damon and I were able to spend a week at Grandma's visiting family, helping out around the house, and even seeing some sights.

It turned out to be a great time to go: we got to be there for two other cousin birthdays, a baptism, and Mother's day! It was neat, and unusual, for me to hang out with Steven's family without Steven, but it was a nice reminder of what a great choice I made to marry him. I loved hanging out, playing piano duets, and watching episodes of "As Time Goes By" and "One Step Beyond" with Linda; watching a local "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" with Linda and Heather (courtesy of Rachel's babysitting!); chatting with Heather and Richard on car rides to DC; visiting with Jason and Tashia; and of course seeing all the local nieces and nephews!

Damon opens his birthday presents from Grandma Brown

Damon and Uncle Richard

Savannah, Damon, Caleb, and Lindsey at Caleb's baptism

Damon, Joshua, and Caleb get ready to pick up chicks outside the ladies' room

Damon's cousin Tiana is a baby lover like her mom!

Showing off his Texas rodeo skilz at the carpet store

Showing off my great new 'do, courtesy of my niece Rachel!

And of course, we couldn't be in the area without going to the Capitol. Steven calls these Damon's "Flat Stanley" shots, where I'm basically taking pictures of stuff and plopping my baby in there, but gosh, how else am I supposed to show we were there? (or at least, that Damon was there).

Anyway, Damon and I had a fun day in DC. We saw Smithsonians...

And ate lunch on the lawn of the Capitol building.

Then we visited the monuments:

Including the new MLK one, which I hadn't seen yet. I made sure to get Damon's picture in front of the controversial (and misleading) drum major quote, before it gets changed.

Altogether we had a wonderful trip. And, as an added bonus, when we got home, Steven and the girls all acted especially appreciative to have me back.

Picnic

Far too long ago, before the weather got too blasted hot, I decided we should have a picnic lunch. Where, I asked the kids, should we go?

Well, they didn't want to go far:

As you can see, they got all dressed up for the neighbors. 

Well, some of them did.

Ding, dong, the goop is dead!

Before:

After:

Good riddance, clogged tear duct! We had a surgery scheduled downtown for later this month, but the duct decided to clear up on its own a couple of weeks before Damon's first birthday. Still, I waited to cancel the appointment until last week, just in case the duct somehow regooped. Fortunately, though, it's clear saline (get it?) for us from now on.

And, speaking of birthdays, here's Damon gooping up the rest of his face with cake.

I'm so glad that at least one of my children actually tasted their birthday cake. Olivia poked hers and then stepped on it; Carmen wouldn't even touch it. 

And after his cake he got a sink bath:

I love my little boy so much, from the top of his curly head to his wiggly little potato-toes. He is a funny little creature, toddling around our house babbling to himself and getting into everything:

He is indefatigable in his destruction - I could take a sharp, breakable, or electronic object away 1000 times, and he'd still scale stairs, chairs, and tables to go after it. If his hair wasn't so curly and his belly so soft, he'd be sold to the gypsies by now for sure.

And, because this picture was so cute, here's Carmen:

Thirty-wonderful

Last year I uneventfully turned 30 and forgot to blog about it. I was busy being pregnant and I hadn't been dreading it, so it kind of slid by without much fanfare. Besides, anyone who has had a child on their birthday knows that their birthday is effectively lost to them.

This year, I was not pregnant, but there still wasn't much fanfare to celebrate my big 3-1 and Carmen's big 3. It was a nice, happy day.

I am happy to share the celebration with my best birthday present ever:

(Carmen picks out the best outfits.)

Carmen's favorite presents were dress-up clothes from Grandma. (Olivia was pretty excited about them too.)

Steven bought me cookware and a fan duster. We're such romantics.

Dusting the fan!

Being "in my thirties" feels very normal to me. I have 3 kids, so 31 seems a decent age to be. In a way, I feel like being thirty-something gives me license to be an adult. I'm too old to be precocious, too young to be washed up. My smile lines are getting a little deeper and the backs of my hands are starting to look like my mom's, but it's not unpleasant. On the contrary, there's a certain charm in discovering more gray hair on Steven's temples or seeing my skin lose some elasticity and realizing that my husband and I are growing old together. It is hard to get used to how young college students look, and I sometimes sigh when I realize that nobody mistakes me for the babysitter when I'm out with my three kids. But I never really cherished youth, so adulthood has been great.