The Next Viral Baby Video

Noah and I have been hard at work trying to make the next viral youtube video.

We have two excellent candidates.

New York In the Spring Time

When we moved to New York I printed out 20-30 5x7 pictures of snap shots from my phone.  I hung them in frames around the house and I love them (do not ask me what the land lord did with them the day he paid us to leave the house so he could pretend he lives at our house and bribe the city zoning committee to let us have a balcony because I don't know).

I love having pictures of my family and kids all around the house and I committed to continuing to print out pictures every couple of months.  On that same vein I also decided to take family pictures whenever I get the chance.  My brother and sister-in-law are here visiting.  K has a nice camera so we asked her to take a family picture.  We didn't have coordinating outfits or more than 5 minutes in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (who closes a cemetery at 4:30 on Memorial Day Weekend?) but we got some winners (you are getting these totally unedited--pudgy tummy and all).

M and K--the happy couple

Our Weekend

This weekend we watched our niece and nephew.  I will now say two words which will strike fear into the hearts of anyone who had ever watched someone else's kids or left their own.  Stomach.  Flu.  Claire was the first down and I followed in her tracks.  we started dropping like flies and finally, when one of the kids who wasn't ours started puking we called the parents and told them to get back quick.  We sent them on the 4 hour drive home with a puking almost 2-year old. 

Best baby sitters ever.  We pretty much loafed on the couch, made the kids entertain themselves and lamented our very lives. 

Gloomy

Whenever I get gloomy I like to remember that somewhere in the world there is a little curly-haired boy wearing legging and an old-man-v-neck while he rides a rocking snail

6:10 am

A Little Morning Video

Here's a little video to start your day out. Just us. Making Noah play fetch.

Oh Good

In case you were worrying that I was starting to love New York too much...

Fear not. Can you believe that we have the incredible luck to arrive on the one year in 17?   That means we'll have a double population folks.  Yes, you heard me right.  Double. Cicada. Population.

Awesome.

Could we have guessed?

Could we have guessed that Elisabeth Smart would turn into the amazing woman that she is?  Could we have known that she would become this amazing advocate for women and women's issues?

I love her.  I think that she deserves every second of fame and every penny of fortune that comes her way.

Here's her most recent awesome article.  And my favorite bit.

Smart spoke at a Johns Hopkins human trafficking forum, saying she was raised in a religious household and recalled a school teacher who spoke once about abstinence and compared sex to chewing gum.

“I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m that chewed up piece of gum, nobody re-chews a piece of gum, you throw it away.’ And that’s how easy it is to feel like you know longer have worth, you know longer have value,” Smart said. “Why would it even be worth screaming out? Why would it even make a difference if you are rescued? Your life still has no value.”....

Since her rescue, Smart has started the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, which works to protect and educate children about violent and sexual crimes.

Smart says children should be educated that “you will always have value and nothing can change that.”

Dress ups have come to our house

And just like that Noah learns the joy and pain of having an older sister