Short 'n' sweet

Do you ever look around in surprise, amazed at where you are and what you are doing? If you had told me a year ago that I'd be a stay at home mom with a blossoming photography business, I probably would have taken your temperature, started IV fluids, and called in a psych eval. I would have thought that there would be no way that I'd leave pediatric oncology, that I'd worked to hard to become a nurse practitioner to walk away. I don't miss fighting with insurance companies, or the endless documentation, but I do miss the families. But, and this is a big but, I wouldn't change a thing. Who knows, maybe in 10 years, I'll be back in my lab coat and stethoscope talking with someone about how I used to be a photographer. It's really about the ride so much more than the destination, anyway.

So we're almost to the mid-way point of Pete's work trip, and we're missing him.

Today was photo shoot #1. In the next 7 days, I am doing 3 days of photo shoots involving 16 kids. Crazy? Probably. It went well, although Addison (the little girl I was shooting) wasn't really interested in having her picture taken, so we had to work for it a bit. We did get some good shots, and it also provided me with the opportunity to set up my Zenfolio page - there's not much there right now, but as I do more shoots, I'll be adding more pictures. 

Big-girl Addison from today's shoot

Lazy Saturdays

We've had a quiet few days, catching up on housecleaning, laundry, and naps. The heat wave finally broke, and we soaked it in yesterday. Sarah and Liv stopped by for lunch, and some playtime in the back yard.

Looking at these pictures capturing Livy's dramatics just make me laugh out loud

Even though it's still side-by-side play at this age, we like to think that the girls love being together - they both squeal and clap when they see each other (kinda like their mommas!)

We love lazy Saturday mornings. Pete and Chloe went off to get bagels, and I was "working" on the computer (catching up on the Kelle Hampton blog). I had that feeling of dread seep into my bones - it was a little too quiet. I wonder why.

I guess she just wasn't interested in waiting for the bagels to arrive. But when they did arrive, she was in heaven.

It's cool and rainy again, so we're adjusting all of our outside weekend plans. Pete heads off to a conference in St. Louis this week, so the girls will be holding down the fort. Sun, please come back!

Sunshine

I scrolled through my pictures, and realized that although I don't have many words to justify a post, I have plenty of pictures... so here we go!

I did a little impromptu photo shoot with Addy. It was just the way the sun streaming through the windows, brightening up her big blue eyes, that make me know I had to grab the camera. And even though she was in a bit of a contemplative mood, with a small downturn at the corners of her lips, there are some of my favorites.

Addy had her first taste of watermelon. I think it might have at least shaken the pedestal that she places blueberries on - and that's saying a lot!

We had our (almost) weekly brunch with our Mom friends on Monday, when we eat all the things we shouldn't (muffins, pastries), and chat. It's taken on a new, slightly discombobulated feel now that all the babies are mobile (and the boys are walking!). Lots of unfinished sentences, trading babies around, and eating. It's probably not so good for our waistlines, but oh so good for our mental states!

 Sarah hosted this week. Addy and Alex spent the whole time crawling to the top of the 4 steps, and giving us heart attacks as we scrambled before they took a wrong step off the edge of the stair. Take them down, give them toy, watch them scramble to the top. Repeat one hundred times.

It's been hot, which means that we try and grill as many nights as we can manage. The girls play in the yard, Pete mans the grill, and I snap pictures, and soak it all in.

Today we hit another splash park. It was hot (upper 90s!), and it was crowded, so we didn't stay long.

Forget the sprinklers. Give the girl a stick and a ball, and she's in heaven.

Finally, this evening I did a photo shoot this evening with one of my mom-friends, her husband, and their 9 month old, Ava. We had fun, and got some good shots. Here are a few of my favorites.

I have 3 more photo shoots coming up in the next 2 weeks, so I'll be busy! Stay cool everyone!

Cleansing Breath

What a wonderful weekend it has been. The heat wave has broken, and we are finally getting some of the low-seventies spring weather that we thought was going to be skipped.

Medical update: all's good in this 'hood. That's it. Seriously. We were seen at the vascular anomalies clinic in Boston on Friday. The doctors were all pleasantly surprised at how great Addy is going - totally on track developmentally, and responded to the lasers so well! One doctor commented she couldn't believe Addy was the same baby as the one they saw back in August, because she looks so different without the red. And, it turns out, being so on-track actually changes our plans a bit.
Normally, they would do sclerotherapy soon, to keep the VMs from getting any bigger and for cosmetic reasons. They are almost positive she has sinus pericranii, because they can now feel a little "ridge" below the VM on her forehead. This throws a slight monkey wrench in the plans, because it is important to do an angiogram before sclerotherapy when there is SP to make sure we understand the blood flow first.
An angiogram is not without risks, and the larger a child is when it is done, the easier, so we are going to wait. As long as nothing else changes, we will plan to do the angiogram and sclerotherapy sometime prior to kindergarten.
We felt an amazing shift after this appointment - it seems that what we are dealing with is cosmetic. They said the brain VMs are what they are, and aren't going to change. And without the facial birthmark, we wouldn't have ever done an MRI, and probably wouldn't have ever known they were there. As we were walking (strutting, parading) out of the hospital, for the first time since Addy was born, I mentally took a "cleansing breath." We got this.

Emily, one of my friends from Penn, came to visit with her fiance, Troy. We haven't seen each other in a year and a half, and I was thrilled to get to introduce them to Addy. We spent Friday night strolling around North End (Italian food and Mike's Pastry!!), and Saturday morning strolling around the harbor (Yankee Lobster!!). We were really surprised by the influx of large jellyfish in the harbor. I have no idea of it's normal or not, but I always think of jellyfish as being in warm water (like the water in Punta Cana, where Em & Troy are getting married in October!) and given the temp of the breeze coming off the water, the harbor is anything but warm right now!

 Don't worry, she didn't actually manage to get even a sip of either.

 Emily reminds me to lighten up, get silly, and smile. 

Today was also Town Day in Winchester. We just made it for the last few minutes, but it's will be a must-do for next year. Chloe and Pete just got back from watching the fireworks, so now it's time to tuck all the tired legs into bed. More great weekend on tap for tomorrow.

Summer Lovin' - UPDATED

I'm sure I'll be kicking myself for back-to-back posts (when I haven't taken any pictures or have any witty banter 3 days from now), but it's a new month, a new season, so I'm going for it.

Last night was the quintessential summer dinner - burgers on the grill, leftover potato salad, and iced tea. The only thing that was missing was the corn on the cob, but after growing up on Jersey corn, it's hard to get excited about anything else. We ate outside in the back yard, Pete and I balancing plates on our laps, the girls at the picnic table. We drank it in - the sunshine, the smiles, and the pure joy of watching the girls together. They sat on the same side of the table - one almost too big, one almost too little - but both happy just to be there. Chloe shared her burger and helped Addy sip her water - the red plastic cup of sister love runneth over. Then Chloe had to head in to finish homework, and Pete played with Addy on the slide (another item recently added to our Yard Sale Wish List - the small Little Tykes slide). Fresh bird poop prevented us from sticking her in the swing, and we just had some intense storms roll through, so I'm hoping that Mother Nature cleaned up her own mess - otherwise, I'll be out scrubbing the swing today.

Next on our to-do list? Homemade ice pops. I'm going to stock up on some yogurt and fruit, and make some frozen yogurt pops so that it's not just a sugar rush after dinner each night.

I'm off to do some major house-cleaning - we have more friends coming to visit this weekend, and I have a lunch date with my Mom Friends tomorrow (which usually is more like a brunch to "oh crap I have to get home to cook dinner" date) -- so I'm done procrastinating!

Also - a quick reminder - we have our appointment with the vascular anomalies team coming up this week. I've got my notebook (and list of questions) at the ready, so brace yourselves for a medical-ized update in the near future.

AND - I try not to talk too much about the things Addy "isn't" doing, as I know all babies have their own schedules and timelines. But I am happy to report that she's made a huge language jump this past week. Previously, her babbling consisted primarily (haha, "primarily" as in ONLY) of "ma-ma"-- but something clicked, and now we've got da-da, ba-ba, la-la... the consonants have arrived! And, not just babbling, but she knows exactly who her DaDa is - the man now wrapped extra tightly around her little finger! And her signing has taken off - time to get to the library to expand our signing vocabulary!