Some serious catching up to do

Monday marked the anniversary of my gorgeous niece Avery's arrival on the planet, but because Monday parties are lovely in theory but trickier to arrange around work days, the Subers, Andersons and Sweazys converged in the Lakeland on Saturday for some cake eating (her first ever), present opening (she's already a seasoned vet) and allergic reactions (Caleb's). He managed to finagle his second allergic reaction in 2 months - there were hives, women clucking and a hectic doctor visit, and then the man went and managed to play a show later that evening without even incorporating his extreme discomfort into his stage patter.

Avery took the liberty of using the party to announce her first word. I promise to get the video footage uploaded so you can witness the moment yourself. In the meantime, here's a hint. George Carlin would approve. And as my sister swears on the tape that that word is not used in their house, apparently he taught it to her as well.

Grandma Sue stayed the weekend with us, so there were dates to be had! But in order for their to be dates, I had to pump which, unfortunately, has become a problem over the past several weeks. Three visits to Mothersville and various shields and membranes and tubing later, I got it working. I don't know what did it, but there was milk for the baby and Matt Damon for me. And we had dinner! Sans baby! We cruised over to Spindini and had some excellent wine, some not so excellent toasted ravioli and some pretty decent pollo parmigiana. I was just psyched to see the place packed on a Sunday night.

Which brings us to last Monday - and another giant milestone that slipped by quietly and unnoticed.

It's been a year since we moved here.

One whole year of misgivings and extreme doubt and la craigslist surfing and sad emails and wouldn't you know it? I was too busy with projects and baby wrangling and new friends to even notice.

And before I dive into what has gotten me so preoccupied as of late, some baby recaps:

Harlow took a spin in her first exersaucer. It creeped me out to no end to be purchasing something with the words Baby Einstein on the box, yet, at the end of the day after she played in it happily for 45 minutes, I was considering redoing the entire house so that it is one giant Baby Einstein obstacle course.

No toof, no proof - YET - I swear that child is teething. It's the gumming everything within 2 feet, the buckets of drool, the waking up 3 times a night and the tiniest shadow of a bump that's got me thinking.