My soon-to-be-kindergartener

Visiting her soon-to-be- school. Unbelievable.

The first and only time he will be interested in a card

Next year, they'll just be obstacles preventing him from efficiently opening his gifts.

Gabe's new truck...er, I mean Jonah's

There is nothing Jonah has that Gabe can't take away. Especially if it's a truck that makes engine sounds.

But they do look like they're getting along in the picture, don't they? It's an optical illusion. Clever of me, no?

Mmmmm, cake!

Sometimes I can't resist

Tonight, outside Cub, my daughter misspoke just perfectly.

Allie (in cart): Mom! Mom! Can you be pushed?
Me: Only so far, darling.

Bye Bye Baby

It seems impossible, but there it is. My bear turned one today.

Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of him enjoying his highly-sugared, artificially-colored, refined-flour-based, nutritionally bankrupt birthday cake.

Tonight I'm just nostalgic. And I want to thank everyone who was part of our birth crew-

Rachel and Colleen, who took such good care of our kids that I don't think they realized anything was going on until the next day, when they saw Jonah for the first time.

Lee, for making sure we had everything we needed, and directing traffic.

Sarah and Brynn, the best doulas a woman could want- honestly, how many women do you know who got to laugh (hard!) during late labor?

Rolla, for guiding me through my last pregnancy, and affirming my trust in my own innate wisdom. Sometimes I almost forgot you were there, and in my opinion, there's no higher praise I could offer. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect midwife.

And last, Jeff. Thanks for the last few long, hyper-fast walks around the block, when I'd have a contraction every 45 seconds, and trusting that I wasn't going to end up delivering a baby down at the other end of the block. Thank you for understanding why I needed to give birth at home, and for trusting that I could do it.

Happy Birthday, Jonah. We love you.

I have a good excuse

Honestly, there's a perfectly good reason I haven't been able to find the time to post. I've been busy listening to this. When I'm not listening to it, I'm singing it either out loud or in my head. Even Jeff likes it- and he's always made fun of me for liking B&S.

If you want it though (and you won't be seeing me anytime soon), download it from iTunes- you get two extra songs. Not the best songs on the album, but still- two extra songs. Nobody does bonus songs anymore, and that's kind of sad. Because you could always feel cooler than your friends if you had the special bonus edition and they didn't. Which might make someone wonder why I'm tipping all of you off about downloading from iTunes...