Palm Springs

Well hello on a rainy Monday. We're back from Palm Springs, from mine and Sophie's and Summer's first experience at a golf tournament. AJ took us out to the American Express Pro Am along with Sophie's godparents and their girl (one of Sophie's best friends Bryce), and I had a lot of anxiety about a 3 year old at a golf tournament where we need to be supremely quiet at times, but the girls did amazing.

I was a little sad that my favorite golfer (Kisner) was in the tournament but not at the Stadium course that day, but I still got to see a lot of great players, like Ricky Fowler, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler, Tony Finau, Patrick Cantlay, and upcomer Akshay Bhatia.

Chris's dad lived across the street from the course and we got to be there and have the girls take a nap there and have dinner there before we went to the evening concert where Train was playing. Sophie and I had so much fun dancing on the grass during the music!

On Sunday, AJ and Chris went and did a round at a private course, courtesy of Chris's dad, and Megan and I took the girls to the Living Desert. The way that Bryce and Sophie can interact and play now is so cute. Sophie pretty much worships the ground Bryce walks on and wants to do everything she does (climb on the same things, jump off the same things), and pretty much follows her lead, but is also old enough to add her own ideas and fun too. (Watching them play hide and seek endlessly throughout the condo in the morning was adorable too by the way - Sophie is incapable of being quiet and usually shouts "I'm in here!" from wherever she is as soon as she hears you coming LOL).

We've done the Living Desert before but I never made it to the Australia habitat before - like the Nashville Zoo, you get to be "in" with the kangaroos (okay, here they're wallabies), but you have to stay on the concrete path, whereas in Nashville you get to wander around everywhere with them, pet them, let them come up to you, feed them, etc. Still, A for effort.

Notice her outfit? Sophie has a 
matching one - courtesy of their dad LOL

We came home late Sunday night, which was so nice, and I had to marvel at the state of our supplies for simply 3 days now that we have two kids... if this was just me and AJ it would be just 2 duffel bags!

And we had to make a stop by this landmark to keep my tradition with Sophie going...

January 2024

December 2021

August 2020

Have a great week everyone!

My Girls in January

Well hi there. I am back to work (and wow am I back to work - they had clearly just been waiting for me to return to drop a bunch of stuff on my desk) and we are getting through this chilly winter.

Summer started daycare with Sophie this month, and here was a photo I received of her there on her first day:

Sophie loves having Summer there and loves to remind me at pick-up that we need to bring Summer home with us too.

And at home, Sophie is endlessly entertaining as she comes up with new phrases and dances and wild ideas, like telling us she's her friend Wesley and making us call her Wesley all evening, or making us throw cat toys for her when she is a cat to go catch.

We got to have a zoo day with Gangy

And Summer has been meeting milestones - like rolling over

and turning 5 months old on the 12th.

and then of course, our various instances of sleep.

And who could forget that Orange Monster Kiwi, always up to no good?

We're in Palm Springs this weekend for the PGA Tour, so maybe I'll have some fun stories from this weekend in a bit.

Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm!

Happy New Year

After a really great Christmas for the girls, we last minute (the day before) decided to get together with some friends, two other couples with young kids, for a low-key dinner to get together, celebrate East Coast New Year's, and be in bed by 10. It worked out great, and we all had such a nice time.

Sophie ended up having so much fun and going so crazy with Penelope, Scarlett and Ethan that she was pretty inconsolable when everyone had to leave. It probably helped that one friend brought over a small bounce house for the kids, and that got them overtired, and they were screeching and running around playing hide and seek too. This has been a new development of Sophie's because she recently learned what it was, and to her, "hiding" is sometimes just throwing a blanket over her head, burying her face behind a chair, or laying down on a floor and calling out "I'm over here!" when someone misses her. It's been so cute to watch.

Just Summer being her usual very
happy self

They also decorated gingerbread men and sugar cookies, and all the parents sorta took turns supervising kids so others could sit down for a minute.

Adults toasted with champagne and the kids had noisemakers and said happy new year, and everything was cleaned up and done by about 10 or 10:30, although I had had a nap that day so AJ and I both still stayed up until midnight to welcome in the new year.

New Year's Day was also nice. We made waffles with Sophie's new mini heart-shaped waffle maker from Great Aunt Dawn and had the Rose Parade on. We didn't have any plans for the day, but last minute we had Iris, David and Landon over for a short while to help him jump himself tired on the bounce house.

Otherwise, we enjoyed staying in with Sophie and Summer, and Sophie used that bounce house until bedtime. I got Summer's daycare bag all ready, because she started at daycare today with Sophie. It was emotional for me, but Summer didn't cry, so that was very helpful. And it's why I've had a free second to write this. I go back to work next Wednesday, January 10. The last vestiges of maternity leave and adjusting to a family of four are upon us.

Welcome, 2024!