headed home. [181.365]

Somebody was VERY unhappy to drive home today. She wanted to stay and play with her cousin some more, but nope, mama's gotta get back to work (my dissertation defense is next week! A's taking extra vacation time to be the primary parent this week so that I can prep for it) and so do…

cousins. [180.365]

M had SO much fun visiting her cousin S this weekend. S turned 4 in February, and M is just so enamored with kids of that age (she's around them a lot at her school) and she adores her cousin. They had fun playing together (and taking baths together after they got all sweaty playing…

a REAL train!! [179.365]

On Saturday, we went down to the Hocking Hills area with my MIL, my BIL and SIL, and our niece, and rode on their "scenic railway". It wasn't especially scenic, but M was THRILLED to get to ride a real train (she loves trains!). She keeps telling us how much she wants to ride a…

a girl and her rhino friend. [178.365]

My MIL took the day off on Friday and took us to the Columbus Zoo! They've done amazing things since we left town, especially with their African section, where all of the animals who don't eat each other have a big huge savannah space together and you can get really close up to the giraffes…

on the road [177.365]

Driving to Ohio to visit my in-laws (M's grandparents and her aunt, uncle, and cousin). 7+hr car rides with toddlers who do not like being buckled into carseats are FUN, y'all. She was happy for about the first 10 minutes and then...oy.

rough morning. [176.365]

We drove A into campus this morning because it was raining (which meant he couldn't bike, and M and I couldn't do our normal long walk), and I thought it'd be a great idea to go straight from there to the Museum of Play. I didn't realize until we pulled into the (empty) parking lot…

“weird flower”. [175.365]

(Which I later learned was the remains of an Allium). We found this on the sidewalk during our morning walk and M insisted on bring "the weird flower!" home as her treasure (usually it's a pinecone that fills this role for her). We were lucky to get a walk in at all - it was…

collaborative monster-drawing. [174.365]

She draws the outlines, I draw the eyes/mouths/teeth. It kept us entertained for a little while, which counts for something. This home-with-M-all-day business is really hard. She misses school, it's making her grumpy and brittle, she's testing every limit she possibly can because she's not been home with me all day in ages and is…

park all to ourselves. [173.365]

A is trying to run regularly and I've been encouraging him to do his runs in the mornings on the weekend, rather than waiting until M's mid-day nap (both because of the heat, and also because if he runs during her nap, I basically never, ever get to have 1-on-1 time with him). But of…

solstice. [172.365]

We had beautiful weather for the Summer Solstice, which we celebrated with yardwork and sidewalk chalk. Before M was born, we talked a lot about how we wanted to have meaningful celebrations of the seasons with M, and so far, we've fallen woefully short each time. We'll get our feet under us eventually, I hope.

little screamer. [171.365]

(This was a scream of glee, though I know it doesn't exactly look like one in a still shot!) Yet another 2 playground walk this morning. I've walked like, 14 miles or so this week. Makes me miss running, but the wear and tear of walking is VERY different from that of running, and walking…

sad day. [170.365]

(Us, swinging together at playground #2 of our second 2 playground walk of the week - I've set myself an exhausting precedent at this point, but I guess I'll stay in good shape this way!) Thursday was a day we'd been looking forward to - Field Day, the end-of-school celebration at M's school which A…

2 playground walk. [169.365]

Since I've been thrust into SAHM-hood a bit earlier than expected, I didn't have any time to plan out things to do with M. So on Wednesday, I took M for a walk first thing in the morning. We went to a nearby playground (Ellwanger-Barry), and then when M was ready to go, she asked…

another new project

I registered my dissertation last week! Here's my final "page count" photo: I took advantage of having a day where I didn't need to be writing to cast on for a new project - my Lopi Affection cardigan! (Holy moly, you can tell I'm tired in that photo!) The pattern asks you to start with…

unexpected day with my girl. [168.365]

M's school decided, since all but one of their ~30 toddlers and ~10 infants was infected with Hand Foot and Mouth disease, that they needed to shut down the Toddler and Nido rooms, so A had to bring M home to me at lunch time. I'd been hoping for a couple days of rest now…