We're back

Steve and I spent last week in the mountains of North Carolina and it was just what I needed. I had s'mores every day. Olivia did really well sleeping in the pack 'n' play and riding long hours in the car. She busied herself in the doorway jumper (we took it everywhere) and rolling around on the floor, making friends wherever we went. Steve and I spent time in Weaverville and Asheville, eating well and shopping for Christmas gifts. We also started the John Adams miniseries and it's great. Love Abigail. Olivia and I took a side trip to visit my college friends Valerie and Casey near Winston-Salem, and then they stopped by our house on their way up to NY right after we got home on Saturday. It was really fun to see their boys (Coulson, 5, and Charlie, almost 3) so excited to play with a baby.

Yesterday I went to visit another college friend, Sarah, who was up visiting Arlington from her native Florida. We had coffee and pedicures and it was blissful to spend an afternoon catching up without having to worry about our kids and what they were in to and if they were hungry or tired or bored.

Nooty, I apologize. Yet another college friend, Brian, came to see us in June and I never mentioned it on the blog, which he reads. Brian is in the Air Force and gets stationed all over the country, yet he always makes time to come for a visit when he's on the east coast. And he is the main reason I try to limit my blog-talk about dirty diapers and such. (June was kind of a rough time for me because Steve was traveling a lot, so that plays out by me losing interest in blogging, being social, and cooking/cleaning. Makes me feel for Abigail Adams when John was in Europe for a year and didn't write at all because he didn't want to further burden her. Likewise I feel for the wives of pilots, truckers, submariners, soldiers, carnies, and other traveling occupations.)

Today Olivia had her 6-month checkup, this time with Dr. Robertson because Dr. Dameron was booked. He's pretty popular. But Dr. R is also great; he's the first one we saw in the hospital and I like that he's young. He may not have as much experience as the older, more seasoned pediatricians, but he's fresh and reads a lot of journal articles and has young children himself.

Olivia is 19 pounds even (90th percentile) and 28 ½" long (literally off the chart). We now have a prescription strength cortisone cream for the exzema on her calves and band-aids on her chubby thighs for her latest round of shots. She's getting better at eating from a spoon and I'm getting better at knowing when to feed her. Dr. R said it's time to lower the crib mattress now that she's sitting, because too often the way people find out their baby can pull up is when they fall out of the crib. He said we can mash up big-people-food to give to Olivia, so that's kind of exciting. (It makes sense; I don't think people in Thailand or India buy bland baby food.) No teeth yet. People have been saying, "any day now" for at least a month, so I figure she'll be a year old before bearing (baring?) any teeth... Dentally retarded out of spite!

More photos coming soon...