02.24.09
5 months
This morning Jax rolled over…
…and kept on rolling…
…at which point I threw down the camera and grabbed him. Such a strong 5-month old!
Here are my favorites from this week:
Jax has been enjoying the beautiful quilt our friend Janene made and gave to him on Friday. It’s amazing! So bright and cheerful and modern and classic all at once. And she hand-pieced and hand-sewed the border! That’s more than I’ve ever tried to tackle. Thank you thank you thank you! I will need to take more pictures and close-ups. This quilt merits its own post.
Jax will trade off between stretching out his arms and lifting up his butt and kicking. With a little coordination, he’ll be crawling in no time.
We’ve been practicing sitting, too.
Getting ready for some solids (well, the cup part at least):
02.22.09
Weekend Projects: Writing and a new site
This weekend was all about writing a paper for a workshop taking place in 2 weeks. The final paper is for a big-deal conference I’m going to in July which will be important for me academically, but will also be a chance to take the fam on a little European tour.
In the midst of my writing and breaks to play with a certain someone, this afternoon my mom told me that the woman who was renting the family house in Florida had fallen gravely ill and had returned home. We are now looking for people to go keep the beach house company, and rather than email a ton of pictures, we decided to create a little site to refer people to. So with dns registration and blogging skills in hand, Seth and I threw this thing together in under an hour. It was a fun break from my other projects.
Voila! The Brown’s Bay Bungalow site is up and running.
02.20.09
Engaged!
Congratulations to Laura and Corey, who got engaged in Maui last week! Can’t wait for your wedding in the BC woods.
02.15.09
Valentine’s Getaway
We went up to Croton-on-Hudson on Friday and decided to stay the night at the lovely Alexander Hamilton House, a Victorian mansion converted into a bed & breakfast. Seth surprised me by getting one of the fanciest rooms, the Library, which had bookshelves filled with history about the area, and a cozy sitting room with a fireplace. What a treat!
02.12.09
Valentine
Babysitters, friends, and Seth (sent to work for added surprise) got personalized valentines this week. This project only took me about 10 minutes: First I downloaded the super-cute class sweetheart valentines pdf that the talented BunnyCakes has available for free download on her site. Then I opened the pdf in Adobe Illustrator and added a scaled-down photo of the smiling babe and a couple of text boxes with custom colors and messages. Print, cut, and voilà! A quick way to remember to spread the love even during a hectic week of exams and essays.
*you can see who calls him “Jax” and who uses the traditional “Jacob.” Identity crisis?
02.08.09
Happy Birthday, Cécilia!
This past Tuesday was Cécilia’s birthday, which brought back memories of last year’s celebrations {which I never really blogged about!} For her 30th birthday her chéri Séb organized a surprise birthday party in the countryside for the weekend of May 3rd. Since it was also the year of my 30th {May 13} and Julie’s {July 19} the two of us were also honored at the dinner and served the most beautiful desserts. I got in on the dancing, enjoyed a sip of champagne, and have such wonderful memories of that weekend with friends old and new.
I was 4 months pregnant at the time, and this year it’s Cécilia & Séb’s turn to be awaiting a baby boy – and in just a couple months! Today I’ll share 31 photos for 31 years. Joyeux anniversaire!
Julien
Julie
Cécilia’s parents have a pond in their backyard. How awesome is that?
New Yorkers in the French countryside
Waiting…
Surprise!
This photo is the reënactment of another moment, from the summer of 2002:
Everything was pink, Cécilia’s favorite color.
Paëlla!
These sugar sculptures were made by the most talented {17-year-old!!} pastry chef:
There’s a poney, too. A child’s dream backyard!
…and the party continued into lunch the next day…
02.06.09
What’s new is old
I love old photos and books. If you can’t find a sentimental photo of a place you love, just make one! This is what a 1909 photo of my street would like:
Converted using the Bakumatsu Koshashin Generator.