The time I had almost six days to myself.

Two weeks ago, Tim was on vacation. He's been at his job for six years, I've been at mine for less than one, so we don't exactly have equal vacation time. I'd taken some unpaid time off in May, so I wasn't able to take more time off, and on that Thursday, we got up super early, drove to the airport and Tim and Elle flew to Ohio. They were gone until Tuesday, when I left work early to pick them up at the airport (and of course their flight was delayed and I encountered torrential rain on the way there and we hit rush hour traffic on the way back).

But that's six days - three times the longest amount of time I have been away from Elle since she was born almost two years ago. Tim and I are used to traveling separately and being away from each other - although not preferable, we're able to return to our long-distance relationship roots and manage short-term separations with relative ease. And he and Elle have plenty of one-on-one experience (for those not familiar with our situation, he works nights and I work days, so he takes care of Elle every morning), so I wasn't worried about her missing me terribly.

I was simultaneously excited and depressed about their trip to see our families. I knew I'd miss them, but I also knew I'd enjoy having some "me" time and the opportunity to get some stuff done around the condo.

Tim put almost 1,200 miles on the rental car and spanned the state, hitting every region except the southeast corner of Ohio (we've never had much use for the southeastern part of the state - sorry, southeastern Ohioans!). Elle was along for about half of those miles.

Elle was a trouper and traveled super well (especially considering she had to spend so much time in the car/plane and slept in unfamiliar places with people she doesn't see on a regular basis), and Tim got to see his beloved Reds and lots of his family, but we're hoping there aren't many more vacations like this, where we're separated and/or rushed and/or exhausted. 

While they were gone, I went to Spin class (twice! and to the gym without having to rush home!). I made a huge mess of the condo (and then spent time cleaning it all up). I planned a night out with friends. I ate what I wanted when I wanted and watched crap TV. I also missed Tim and Elle terribly, and while I was glad they were with family, I was jealous that I wasn't with them. It was hard to walk past Elle's door every night - open - and know that the quiet in the condo wasn't because she was peacefully sleeping in her crib.

To illustrate how a situation like this presents many conflicting emotions, I made a list of some of the things I noticed about my time by myself. Here are some things I could do that I normally cannot:

- Leave scissors out.

- Leave markers out.

- Not have to wash dishes every day or run the dishwasher more than once.

- Decide to go to the beach and just grab a towel and go - not debate the timing of the trip, if the time getting ready is worth the effort, worry about the sand that will get in all of the crevices of the baby and car, bags needed for the trip, etc.

- Spend an hour debating between two different pairs of shoes and then decide not to get either one.

- Visit 5 different (shoe) stores in about 40 minutes because I didn't have to mess with a car seat, stroller, etc. (I was having a shoe crisis, and unlike many women my age, I detest shoe shopping. Detest is actually a nice way of putting it. At one point I called my mother and expressed my anger at the genes that gave me huge, wide feet. But I digress.)

-  Go to Target even though it was monsooning out - I needed to buy stuff, darn it.

-  Eat lunch at 2:30 instead of noon because no one (other than me) was crying and whining because they were hungry and it was nap time.

- Watch TV before bedtime (like Lifetime movies and other fun stuff) instead of reading Tumford the Terrible for the tenth time that week before bedtime.

- Go to Spin class without worrying about who was going to watch my kid and "Ohmygosh I have to get home" because Tim/the sitter needs to do this and that and I need to take care of Elle.

- Sleep in until a ridiculous hour after a night out with friends. (I would probably still be sleeping except one of the cats jumped up on my dresser.)

- Have a night out with friends without paying for a sitter or worry about how early I was going to have to get up the next day.

- Leave my coffee cup on the floor while I leisurely read the newspaper.

- Change diapers.

- Leave the house whenever I wanted.

Conversely, I could not:

- Get hugs when I got home from work.

- Rock my baby before bedtime.

- Read Tumford the Terrible for the tenth time that week.

- Have a regular eating schedule.

- Spend the entire time at home because it got lonely.

- Make a freaking decision and buy the shoes already instead of wasting a ton of time deciding.

- Hear the sounds of giggles and toddler-speak that normally fill my home.

- See my family.

- See my husband's family.

Princess Elle Belle at her birthday party.

 - Attend the birthday party my husband's side of the family hosted for my almost-two-year-old daughter.

- Spend time with Tim.

- Enjoy a baseball game with my husband and his cousins.

- Make up for the fact that Tim took about seven photos on the trip (I would have been pushing 300).

I was extremely glad when they got home, despite the fact that the condo had been pristine that morning and looked like a tornado had hit within 3.4 seconds of their arrival. There was laundry to do, routines to get back in to and hugs to catch up on. It was fantastic to have a few days to myself, but I'm glad to be sharing them again :)

We need to find a new way to vacation

We've lived in Florida for almost six years. For those six years, the majority of our vacation time and money has gone to taking trips to Ohio to visit family. A small percentage has been used to take time off to entertain friends who have come to visit us, and an equally small percentage has been used to go on actual vacations not involving Ohio. This isn't the best situation. While I'm grateful that we have the means to take time off of work and buy plane tickets to Ohio, it's not a vacation in the typical sense. It *can* be restful and relaxing, but more often, for Tim and I, it's stressful, busy and leaves us feeling like we still didn't do everything or see everyone we wanted to see. We have a few days two or three times a year to squeeze in 365 days worth of visiting with family and hanging out with friends. We spend a lot of time in a car. Now that we have Elle, we feel ever more pulled to spend time with family and need to schedule around nap times and bed times, and the amount of time, money and effort involved in a trip has tripled. Elle is an easy going traveler, but it is still an ordeal.

With my new job, my vacation time has been drastically reduced. We knew that a non-Ohio trip would be highly unlikely this year, and we have one big Ohio trip planned for the fall, but that was the extent of our planned travels. But Tim's mom is retiring this year after a 40-year teaching career, and her retirement dinner was held last week. I desperately wanted to come home for a visit and had the opportunity to get away from work for a few days this week. So we decided to take a trip to Ohio. But of course it couldn't be as easy as just "taking a trip to Ohio."

At Grandma's retirement dinner.

Tim and Elle flew in on Thursday and drove to Tim's hometown for the retirement dinner. They successfully surprised Grandma and then spent the next day with family. I flew in to an airport on the other side of the state on Friday night. On Saturday, we met almost halfway to do an Elle handoff. We were fortunate that the timing of our fairly impromptu Ohio trip coincided with a dear friend's trip to Ohio, so we got to meet up with Meghan and Mike and meet Ryan.

Ohio brings everyone together.

 Tim and I hadn't seen Meg and Mike since August 2009. Before that, I think Meghan and I had seen each other at least once a year since 2001, including three times in 2008, when we both got married. So we were looonnnngggg overdue. We had both had kids in that time frame - kids who obviously needed to meet.

After lunch, Tim returned to his side of the state, and Elle and I headed east to see my family. So on our "vacation" in Ohio, Tim, Elle and I spent 90 minutes together. Before I left, one of my coworkers remarked on the fact that Tim and I see so little of each other when we're home because of our opposite shifts that it seemed semi-natural that we would vacation together-but-separately as well. Trust me, this is not ideal, and we're hoping that we don't have to do it again. The good thing is that we both got to see our families and Elle got a lengthy visit with family she doesn't get to see often. And Tim was on vacation all week, so I got to see him in the evenings, when he would normally be at work. But the rest of the situation? Not my favorite thing ever. Anyway ...

Aunt Marti (wearing birthday crown on her 35th birthday!) watches Elle,
who was searching for one of Marti's cats under the bed. Ginger knows
enough to hide when Elle is around, even in the new house.

Elle and I spent the next few days with my family, including another road trip on Sunday to see my sister and her new house. Tim was supposed to fly back to Florida on Sunday but only made it as far as Atlanta before being stranded in the airport overnight because his flight had been delayed and he missed his connection. He flew out the next morning, but we're both less than pleased with his Delta experience, and they WILL be hearing about it. Tim has vowed to never fly again, which could further complicate the whole visits-to-Ohio issue, but we'll revisit that at a later date.

On Monday, Elle and I spent the day with my family and then got together with one of my close friends from high school and her son, who is about a year younger than Elle.

The expressions on these two crack me up.

Elle has been enjoying her encounters with new friends as well as lots of fresh air, new-to-her toys and being spoiled rotten by doting grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends. She traveled well with Tim on the way up, and she's been a trooper with all of the long car rides across the state.

My 14-year-old brother accumulated a pretty awesome Thomas the Train set when he was younger.
Elle took full advantage of it and begged to play with the trains and tracks every day.

Hanging out with Uncle Doug.

She's even been sleeping fairly well at night, although I think she's longing for the comfort of her crib. Last night, though, she woke up at 3, which was entirely too early to start the day (6, maybe, 7, sure, but 3? NO WAY). I rocked her for a few minutes, then told her it was time to go back to sleep. Half an hour later, I heard her cry out again. This time, when I picked her up, I could tell something was wrong. It was dark, but I could tell she had been sick. I held her again, and she drifted off, but about thirty minutes later she started to squirm, and then she threw up again. This is only our second encounter with Elle vomit, and I'm not the best at dealing with these kinds of situations. We got up, and I prayed that this was just some small upset stomach incident and not some full-blown virus or bug that would affect our trip back to Florida tomorrow.

Our last full day in the state was spent at home, loosely following the BRAT diet and making sure she drank lots of liquids. We canceled the evening plans we had with a friend, and thankfully, Elle seemed to be nearly 100% almost immediately. After running back and forth through my parents' kitchen from 4 a.m. until 5 a.m. while my mom and brother slept and my dad prepared for work, I finally got her to crash on the living room floor with me. When we woke up a few hours later, she seemed absolutely fine. We're still taking it slow on her stomach, but I think something just wasn't sitting right with her and she's good to go now.

Elle sitting with my dad on "G's bicycle." She calls it "Suki" (short for Suzuki).
When she was prancing around the kitchen this morning at 4:30 a.m.,she was talking about this
and was super excited when my dad got home from work and brought it out for her to see.

We'll be reunited with Tim tomorrow, and I'll return to work the next day. It's been a good visit, but the general overtones of having too much to cram in to never-enough-time are definitely present, and it was less than ideal that we had our time split up (although I'm grateful that Tim didn't have Elle with him the night he got stuck spending the night in the airport).

Spending time with Grams.

And as always, it's hard to leave - it's hard knowing I didn't get to see Tim's family on this trip, didn't get to spend much time with friends, wasn't able to spend much time with my sister. It's also extremely difficult to watch Elle and my family get so close in such a short period of time and then have to take her back to Florida and know that it will be several months before we see each other again. I could go on and on, but basically, it's hard living so far away from family, not just logistically and financially, but emotionally, too. Technology allows for frequent phone calls and video chats, but there are some things that just can't be replicated.

Ohio recap, September trip

Elle and I went to Ohio a few weeks ago - Tim was busy at work because of football, and this also gave him a few days to rest up before I started the new job and his new schedule of getting up with Elle every day commenced.

We flew in to Columbus because it was cheaper, a direct flight and a good way to maximize visiting time with my sister, who lives there. Marti picked us up from the airport and we met up with her husband for lunch. Then Marti had to go back to work, and Elle and I hung out with Uncle Jeff for the afternoon (we pretty much all took naps).

That night, we drove to meet my mom halfway between my parents' house and Columbus for a human handoff. We met for dinner, and Elle enjoyed the buffet immensely.

On Saturday, Elle stayed to play with my parents and Uncle Doug, and I went to the wedding of one of my dear college friends, Aimee. It was the first time my college roommates and I had been together since my own wedding almost three years ago, so it was great to celebrate Aimee's special day and catch up with some of my favorite ladies.

My sweet suitemates.

With the bride! I heart wedding photo booths :)

Catching up with Katie, who I hardly ever get to see.

My roomiemate! With her daughter, Joey, who entertained us all :)

It was a beautiful day, a touching ceremony and an amazing reception, complete with amazing little details that Aimee poured her heart and soul in to.

Seating assignments were written on window panes,
hung from the ceiling of the rustic lodge.

On Sunday, we drove across the state to meet up with Tim's mom, sister-in-law and nephews so they could visit with Elle. We met up for lunch, and Elle enjoyed showing them some of her new tricks, longer hair and reading prowess.

Giving cousin Sam the side eye.

A few hours later, Elle and I met with some of my high school friends for some pumpkin spice goodness at Starbucks. Soon after that, Aunt Marti arrived at our parents' house to spend a few days with us.

On Monday morning, my mom, Elle and I visited with my good friend Jen and her three-week-old son Maddox. He is so stinkin' adorable. It was the first time I'd been around such a young newborn since Elle was born, so it amazing to remember her being that age and look at her now. I loved getting a reminder of the newborn noises, stretches and expressions, and it was great to see Jen again :)

"Grams, excuse me - what are you doing?!"
asks a confused Elle.

Jen and her adorable little man.

"So. How's this life-outside-of-the-womb thing working for you?"

The rest of Monday was pretty low-key, which was nice after all of the driving around and general traveling we had done.

We even FaceTimed with my brother, sister-in-law and niece in Colorado, so almost all of the family was "together."

On Tuesday afternoon, Elle, Marti and I packed up, took some final photos and and headed back to Columbus, where our flight would leave on Wednesday morning.

We went out for dinner, and in a quiet corner of the restaurant, Elle provided the diners with some awesome sound effects ... as she strained and grunted (Elle's days of stealth pooping are over, by the way), I felt like all eyes were on us. Marti and I asked "Elle, what are you doing?" Elle responded, cheerfully at that point, with "Poopy?"

Post-"Poopy?"

The rest of the evening was spent with me going through some stuff I'd left at my sister's house after our wedding (I've scored a nice family discount on the "storage unit" for the last three years) and reading, watching TV and eating.

On Wednesday morning, we headed for the airport ... and got stuck in a massive traffic jam. Awesome. We finally made it to the airport and Elle slept the entire flight. Whee! Tim picked us up in Tampa and drove us home, and we spent the rest of the day recovering and preparing for the start of the new job. I'm not sure when our next trip back to Ohio will be, so it was nice to have one last 2011 trip under our belts :)

Ohio recap, 2011: The west side

(Yes, I realize at this point we're several months out and an entire trip to Ohio removed from this second installment, but for scrapbooking/memory keeping purposes, I'm publishing this anyway!)

So. Over. This. Car.

On Tuesday, we packed up the car and drove four hours west to Tim's parents' house. Elle did great but was more than ready to be out of her car seat. We enjoyed a nice, quiet night catching up with Tim's parents. Tim discovered that he couldn't use his work laptop at his parents' house because of a firewall issue, so we made a late-night run to a local McDonald's to use their free Wi-Fi. We live on the edge, I tell ya.

On Wednesday, Tim's mom had arranged for the extended family to come over for dinner. Many of Tim's aunts hadn't met Elle yet, and all of the family wanted to come celebrate her first birthday. Tim's brother owns a pizza place (in addition to practicing law, among other things - he's a busy dude), so he supplied the yummy food, and Elle enjoyed a piece of ice cream cake after everyone sang to her.

Happy birthday to YOU!

"You didn't tell me there would be ice cream cake."

She was a bit overwhelmed by everything at first but loved playing with her presents, exploring everyone's cell phones and hanging out with her cousins, Cal and Sam.   

Playing with Daddy, Cal, Sam and Aunt Angie.

On Thursday, Tim and I took advantage of Grandma's offer to babysit Elle, and we headed to Lima, the "big city" in the area. (Tim and I met there, and I love it dearly and will treasure fond memories of it forever, but it's not exactly a bustling metropolis.) We did some shopping at the mall, ate lunch at Tim's favorite Mexican restaurant and then hung out at Panera (which was not there when either of us lived in Lima) to ... use the Wi-Fi! I spent the time reading, Tim spent the time working, and Elle spent the time crafting an epic diaper for Grandma. Oops!

Lunch at Bandido's:)

That evening, we had dinner with a friend of Tim's and his family. They have three little girls (approximate ages 2, 4 and 6), so there were plenty of toys for Elle to play with, and she laughed so much with the girls. It was hilarious, and it was nice for Tim and I to hang out with the adults :)

On Friday, we packed up and hung out until Elle woke up from her morning nap.

Photo ops with Grandpa's dog, Lucy, before we headed out.

We made a quick stop in town to visit another friend of Tim's, and then we hit McDonald's (Wi-Fi, again). We hit the road and Elle promptly fell asleep, and less than two hours later we were at Tim's cousin's house in Cincinnati. Tim and cousins Jeff and Ryan headed out to the Reds game, and Jeff's wife, Allison, and 18-month-old daughter, Syd, settled in with Elle and I for dinner and a quiet, relaxing night ... until it wasn't :)

Future engineers Elle and Syd.

We had finished dinner and were slowly getting the girls ready for bed when Allison walked out of the living room to throw away a poopy diaper. Allison tripped on the baby gate (further proof that child proofing is the devil), though, and fell, hard. At first, she was shocked and sore, but soon, she realized something was seriously wrong with her arm. We tried to reach the boys and figure out what to do, and in the end it was decided that I would stay home and put the girls to bed, a friend of Allison's would drive her to the ER, and Jeff would leave the game and meet her there.

Hours later, Allison came home ... with a broken elbow. She has since had surgery and is healing well, but I can't even begin to tell you how much baby gates freak me out right now! Jeff went back to the stadium to pick up Ryan and Tim, and we all pretty much crashed that night.

On Saturday, we met up with Ryan's wife and another cousin, Travis, for breakfast. Allison had to explain why her arm was in a sling, everyone ate way too many pancakes, and a good time was had by all.

No bones were broken in the making of this breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed for our final Ohio destination: the Columbus airport. We had a bit of time to kill, but Elle enjoyed crawling up and down deserted areas of the airport. The flight back was nice because it wasn't full, so we had a full row to ourselves. Unfortunately, Elle didn't feel like taking a long nap, and then there were storms in Tampa that kept us circling Orlando for half an hour before we could land.

By the time we got our luggage, Tim got our car and we loaded everything up, it was about an hour later than previously planned, which meant we were screwed on any chance of getting home before Elle's normal bed time. Luckily, Elle fell asleep in the car and went back down easily when we got home - I guess vacation will do that to you :)

It was a great, exhausting trip - we're fortunate that we can make one (plane) trip and see both sides of our families. We had a blast seeing everyone and were blessed with an excellent traveler :)

Ohio recap, 2011: The east side

Oh yes, just weeks before our next trip north, I finally have completed (and added photos, which for some reason always seems to take me forever to get around to doing) our recaps from the BIG trip of the year.  

Elle and I arrived at my parents on Wednesday evening. We had dinner, played around outside and basically tried to keep things calm since we'd had a long day of traveling.

On Thursday, our plans to meet up with a friend of mine for lunch were canceled because of a transportation issue, so we embraced the chance to hang out with my family.

Helping Uncle Doug.

On Friday, we met up with two of my good friends for lunch, and then we met up with Christy and Blaine for ice cream :)

At lunch with Lins and Sara!
(I was trying to keep napkins or the check or something away from Elle.)

We got home and waited for Daddy to arrive! He had flown in to Columbus, met up with my sister for lunch and got the car from her that we were going to borrow for the week (my sister and brother-in-law were going on vacation to the beach the next day and wouldn't need both of their cars, so we got to borrow one :)). That night, we let Tim recover from his long day of travel.

"Yay! Daddy's here!"

On Saturday, we went to my good friend Megan's wedding. Elle stayed with Grams, Gramps and Uncle Doug, and Tim and I had a blast. It was awesome to have an extended date night, watching Megan and Fred commit to each other, eat and drink delicious stuff and celebrate the nuptials with some of my closest, dearest friends.

Gorgeous bride Megan.

With good friends Jen (who just gave birth last week)
and Sara (who got engaged shortly after we returned to FL!).

At the reception :)

On Sunday, my uncle drove over from Pittsburgh and joined us for lunch to celebrate Elle's upcoming birthday. Elle LOVED the cake. She scarfed it down like she was afraid I would take it away if she didn't eat it fast enough.

With Great Uncle Dave.

Pre-cake.

Cake-in-progress.

Then Doug and Tim went to the movies, and Elle and I went to a baby shower for one of my best friends from high school. It was awesome to see her - we don't get to see each other very often, and she looks so stinkin' cute pregnant :) We can't wait to meet Baby Kate!

Teren and Baby Kate :)

That night, Elle and I met up with my friend Jen for some Starbucks :) We had been at the wedding together, but it was nice to have a chance to catch up more - and it was the last time I'd see her before her son arrived (which was JUST THREE DAYS AGO, YIPPEEEEE!).

Jen captivates Elle.

On Monday, Doug, Tim, Elle and I headed up to my alma mater, Kent State. We met one of my former professors for lunch and a tour of the new journalism building, which is ah-maz-ing, by the way. I was jealous. We took a brief walk around campus so I could show Tim some stuff (he'd been on campus with me in the past, but I think it was winter and not exactly favorable walking weather). We checked out the old journalism building, the May 4th memorial sites and the student center, which has undergone some major changes.

I spent a lot of time in this student center.

Elle was tired.

We headed home and basically just hung out for the rest of the night, because we were set to head out for the west side of the state after breakfast the next morning!

A few recent videos

Here are a few videos from about the last few weeks:

"Ello?": Elle "answers" the phone:

Dogs and cats:

Silly dance to a silly Christmas mouse my mom insisted we bring back from Ohio:

Num num num & blowing kisses:

Random randomness, 7.29.11

Get a clue: I'm signed up for various weekly and monthly e-mails from different companies and Web sites. This week, I received a particularly annoying one - why e-mail me with "tips for a great 1st birthday bash!" 10 days before my baby's birthday?! Shouldn't I figure most of that out before then? Not like I have 12 months to think about it or anything, dear e-newsletter.

I'll have what she's having ... or not: Usually, when we go out to eat, I order something that I can share with Elle. On our last morning in Ohio, though, we met up with Tim's cousins at IHOP, and I didn't want to share with Elle. So I ordered something for her off the kids' menu ... for the first time EVER. Baby is growing up, folks! She devoured it. I was so proud :)

The heat did it: I swear Elle came back from Ohio weighing more and with thicker hair. Tim and the babysitter agree.

Absolutely adorable: Remember this post, when I was saddened by the fact that I didn't have a camera to capture a few "awww"-worthy moments on the plane? On the return flight, I nudged Tim, and we got these photos of Sleeping/Flying Beauty:

Travel note 1: I must thank the people of the world who fly and happily make silly faces and wave at my child. Elle's a great traveler, but when you're stuck in a confined area for an hour or two, and Mommy and Daddy are boring the crap out of you, that person playing peek-a-boo in the seat behind you just provided you a priceless minute of comic relief. And the kid in the row next to you looks just goofy enough in his hat to give her a 30-second reason to smile.

Travel note 2: I also must thank the people of the world who don't fly, allowing my little family of three to take up an entire row on the plane, thus giving Little Miss her own seat to stretch out in.

Dessert decisions: While in Ohio, Elle celebrated her birthday with both sides of the family. With my family, she had traditional cake. With Tim's family, she had ice cream cake. So we were trying to figure out what she should have on her actual birthday. Tim came up with the perfect answer (and conveniently, it's HIS favorite, so he can "help" her): Cheesecake. "I know two things: My baby loves cheese, and my baby loves cake," he told me.

Frequent flyer: With this last trip, Elle has been on four round-trip plane rides in her 12 months of out-of-the-womb life. (She was also on three flights while I was pregnant with her.) That's four times more than I flew in my entire first 22 years of life. We've got another trip planned for 2011, and then who knows how many times she'll fly the friendly skies next year?!

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Bloggy friendship: Country is a State of Mind

A few months ago, I received a comment on one of my posts about one of our trips to Ohio. The commenter told me she was pretty sure we were from the same area - and after comparing notes, we concluded that we definitely are - we were even in the marching bands of rival universities :) I started following her blog, Country is a State of Mind, and she followed mine. She said to let her know the next time I visited my parents.

A few weeks ago, I posted about an upcoming trip to Ohio, and Christy commented to let her know if I would be free to meet up. We exchanged a few e-mails and arranged for an ice cream date. I've never met a fellow blogger except the people I already knew before they had blogs (Meg, Valli), so I was excited to get together with Christy and Blaine.

Elle and I met up with Christy and Blaine and had a blast. It's so nice to meet someone when you read about their lives on such a regular basis, and especially nice to find out that they're as cool as you think they are :) Christy is a totally normal, down-to-earth person who I felt extremely comfortable talking with, and Blaine is adorable and absolutely full of energy. I got a scary glimpse of my future as I watched Christy chase an extremely proficient walking and running Blaine all over the place :)

Here are some of the photos Christy and I took:

I guess the secret is out:
Elle and I shared a chocolate cone.

Blaine taught Elle the super fun trick of sticking
your hand in a water bottle - something she
continued to do for the rest of our trip, haha.

It's hard taking photos of moving monkeys!

At this point, someone started taking self-portraits,
and I knew that we had moved in to silly-need-a-nap-mode.

It was really neat to take some time from the general crazy nature of our trip and be able to chat about blogging, pregnancy, breastfeeding and general raising-a-babyness. It made me yearn for a real-life mommy/baby group with my favorite bloggers and their babies. (I think this should happen, don't you agree?) Elle didn't really know what to think about Blaine (she was dealing with a general dislike for grass and a growing need for an afternoon nap), but I am extremely glad we got to meet up with them, and hope to do it again on future trips to Ohio.  

P.S. Beware, oh, blog world, you're going to have to deal with a lot of posts recapping our trip to Ohio, as well as an emotional spew of posts about how my dear sweet baby is turning ONE this weekend. Seriously. Like, lots of posts about both subjects. Considered yourselves warned :)