lookey what dave made me:

Totally awesome, eh? I sold our cheapo book shelf at a garage sale six months ago in hopes of getting a new one. One of Dave's co-workers is a bit of a carpenter and helped him make these book cases for me for mother's day. We stained them on Saturday and I spent yesterday evening arranging the shelves. It feels so good to have our books out of boxes!

why i want a mac

d.c.

On Saturday, Dave graduated with his Bachelor's from American Military University. Consequently, we traveled to D.C. for the commencement! Dave and I took Lucy up on Tues. and Ralph and Marti joined us on Thursday with Penelope.

Trip Highlights:
*Calling 911 to report a man setting fire to the shrubbery on the National Mall.
*Visiting my cousin, Katie, who is pregnant with QUINTS!
*Being sans toddler for a few days.
*How my (and your!) taxes pre-paid our museum entry fees.
*Renting a van.
*Watching Dave walk and be officially finished with all hideous and looming homework.

Trip Lowlights:
*Being sans toddler for a few days.
*How renting a van has made our accord seem extremely small.
*The thousands of 8th grade groups in bright t-shirts on a field trip.
*Having the airline agent tell me "I see you're expecting another. You're a brave woman." Um, excuse me why I go into a corner and cry.

Anyway, all in all it was a good trip. One I'd love to take again with no kids at all because taking your 2 year old to the Holocaust Museum and shoving her mouth full of illegal crackers in order to keep her characteristic yelps from disturbing the respectful silence is just a bit taboo.

Now for some pics:

Lucci

Changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier

Arlington Cemetery

Going on a double decker bus tour

sight from the bus...

capitol in the day

capitol at night

at the Lincoln Memorial, overlooking the Washington Memorial
(Peeps is having one of many "moments")

the girls outside the Holocaust Museum (a very amazing place)

The girls take an impromptu nap

Last but not least, thanks to Ralph and Marti for all the many ways they helped us make the trip possible

the graduate

Hip, hip, hooray for Davey-dave!

(more pics from the DC commencement trip to follow...)

it's a happy mother's day

Thanks to this:

And this:

And this:

(note: this hat has caused Penelope to interchange the word "daddy" with "cowboy")

A happy day to all the mother's out there!

so it begins

Lately I've been finding Penelope naked in her crib in the morning and after naps. She wants to wear her red dress.

Fine. I let her wear it. Even though it's not conducive to play in. Even though, when she asks for it again the next day, it's dirty. I know how it is to love a certain outfit and wear it as often as humanly possible. For me as a kid, it was a purple Popples sweatsuit; now it's this one gray t-shirt.

Today she undressed while I was nursing and couldn't prevent her. She wanted to wear her swimsuit. I took issue because we were going out soon. Then she took issue because she couldn't have her way. It reminded me of how my mom used to always make me wear pink bejeweled shirts on school picture day, even though I despised them. Of course, I was too much of a coward to bring a change of clothes to sneak into. I just seethed resentment (though clearly I've gotten over it). Plus, now, when my children's children's children look back on my fourth grade photo, they'll misread me. They'll never know that their great grandma was the sort to wear a ratty DARE t-shirt on picture day. This is why I keep a journal.

Anyway, I let Peeps wear the swimsuit--partly in the name of self-expression and partly in the name of keeping things quiet so Lucy could fall asleep.