A Step-by-Step Guide
First you use your mouth to bite and lift the plastic at the same time.
Then you toss the plastic cover into your crib.
Next, move to the next plastic cover and repeat.
Once all the plastic covers have been removed, bite down on the wood. Remind Mom that you’re not old enough to understand “no” yet. Enjoy!
“You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.” —Franklin P. Jones
Friends gathered at Angel and Marty’s house to watch this year’s Super Bowl.
Jenna fed Sophie cheese and Cheerios.
Rebecca holding her beautiful son, Evan
Sophie playing with some of her favorite toys
Jenna and Angel
Bill, Marty, Greg, Jenna and Angel
Christine, Jen, Mark and Bill
As always, Angel had a delicious spread of food.
Evan and Chris
3-D!
Sophie and Angel
Marty showing his beer to Sophie
Kara and Andy
“When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team.” —George Raveling
Current and former Writer’s Digest editors gathered at Tari’s house for a fun reunion party.
Sophie loved playing with Lauren’s toes …
… and looking out the window.
Here’s former Associate Editor Robin holding Lauren.
Ella and Sophie
Vincent
(from left to right) Online Managing Editor Brian, Ella, Brittany, Olivia, Peter, former Editor Maria, Vincent, Robin, former Editor Kristin, Dana and Chloe
So many toys!
Brian playing with the babies
former Managing Editor Maria and former Art Director Tari
Ella tackling Lauren
“The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.” —William Blake
Tucker has many jobs, but one he’s particularly good at is sniffing out dirty diapers. Who knew?
“You have to change those diapers every day. When those directions on the side of the Pampers box say, ‘holds 6-12 pounds’ they’re not kidding!” —Jeff Foxworthy
“God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style. He just keeps on trying other things.” —Pablo Picasso
I tend to bump my head on a lot of things these days, but especially on this thing. So Dad tried to cushion it. But little did he know that I would then become obsessed with pulling this squishy stuff off.
Because when I do, I can swing the squishy stuff around …
… and eat it, too!
“Here is Edward Bear coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming down stairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it.” —A. A. Milne
The ice came after the snow, followed by more snow. That week I went grocery shopping Monday night and didn’t leave the house—except to get the mail and feed the birds—until Friday night.
It seems as if everyone has their trying-to-conceive stories these days. Mine involved Clomid, two miscarriages and, when finally pregnant with a beating heart, two daily injections of Lovenox to maintain that beating heart. During those, at times, hellish months, I remember imagining days like these—sharing the beauty of ice-covered branches, enjoying the peace and quiet associated with staying in and staying put, my body kept warm thanks to another, smaller body snuggled up against mine.
And, during our week at home, there were many sweet and wonderful moments like that. But that’s the thing—they were moments, not days. And in between those sweet-and-wonderful moments were some trying moments, some cliché-grass-is-always-greener moments, some I-hate-snow moments.
And that’s the thing about babies, and, well, life, I suppose, if you want to get all philosophical about it. I’ve realized it’s the moments that matter. And when one moment is bad, or even really bad, you just have to trust that the next moment is going to be better. Because in one moment Sophie will be screaming her head off, and I’ll have no idea why. And in the next she’ll be resting her head on my shoulder, twirling one of my curls around her little finger. Just like one moment, many months ago, I was doubled over on the couch, sobbing over a heart that never started beating. And now, in this moment, I’m typing this while nursing my 10-month-old to sleep.
So to get through those long, snowy days at home, I tried to focus on the good moments. The moments of tickling her on the changing table and listening to her hearty laugh, the early morning moments of feeding her breakfast in the sunroom while watching the rising sun pierce the ice-covered backyard, the moments when Andy would come home from work and Tucker would run around and Sophie would laugh, both so excited to see him.
I’m reading Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier. In it, the narrator talks about holing up in a winterhouse during particularly hard winters. “Day and night came not to signify. Our light was the fire. Smoke lay in a cloud above our heads, where it collected before going out the little hole. We kept housecat hours, sleeping three fourths of the day, and the rest of the time we cooked and ate and talked.” I read things like this and laugh, thinking, Who am I to complain? During the day I’m cooped up in a perfectly sized home, with a big warm lab and a beautiful daughter.
It’s all relative, I suppose. And now, as I look out the window and see brown, lots of wet brown, I miss those ice-covered branches. And, on a particularly busy day, I know I’ll miss being holed up in my home. So I tell myself, focus on the moments.
“There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you. … In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself.” Ruth Stout
“All persons are puzzles until at last we find in some word or act the key to the man, to the woman; straightway all their past words and actions lie in light before us.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
On January 20 Sophie and I watched Barack Obama’s inauguration at Angel’s house.
“Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.” —President Barack Obama
About a month ago, Jenna came over with a bottle of wine and we built a diaper cake for Angel’s shower. The cake consisted of a bottle, Seventh Generation diapers, burp cloths, receiving blankets, ribbon and lots of rubber bands. We only had to tear it apart and start over once—we think we might start a business. 🙂
When not trying to tear apart the cake, Sophie played with ribbon.
A couple Sundays ago was the shower. We made a garland of onesies, socks, bottles and playthings.
Here’s the finished cake.
We can’t wait to meet Baby Beets!
“It sometimes happens, even in the best of families, that a baby is born. This is not necessarily cause for alarm. The important thing is to keep your wits about you and borrow some money.” —Elinor Goulding Smith
