rees genre

We spent the evening at a local minor league baseball stadium. Chris's school hosted a farewell event by renting out the ballpark, providing food, drinks, and a bouncer for the kids. Rowan fell asleep not long after we arrived and Davin spent the majority of the evening in the bouncer. In short, we had a lovely time. It was a nice finale for the many events that we have attended with Chris's classmates; we have had an entertaining experience with the opportunity to make wonderful friends and I know that we will look back on this time with great fondness. It has all happened to quickly and now we stand on the threshold of a phase in our lives when we should probably start acting more like grown-ups. I'm excited for our new house and new life, but I will admit that I'm sad to leave academia. It has been fun to be involved with school and not have to do the homework. I would say that Chris is ready to be done as well, but I think he will miss classes and not having to sit ...

It is an unfortunate thing to be the oldest. Everything that Davin does is new and thus it is unfamiliar territory. I find myself constantly wondering if he is okay, if he is normal, if this pinching phase will continue, if I'm handling his tantrums okay, if I'm fun enough, if I'm too hard on him, if I'm disciplining him enough, etc. There is a fine line between allowing too much and not enough and I'm not sure where it is at. The saving element is being around other wonderful parents who are also blazing the way through the maze of parenting. I think that I should start a young child support group. We would all sit in a circle on folding chairs and someone would start with: "My name is... and I am a parent of a young child." We would share stories about our experiences in this role and a group moderator would ask us about our feelings. Actually, this really does happen, even if it isn't in an official capacity. A few weekends ago, we were late to chur...

In order to include Rowan in our family meal time, I usually hold him in my lap. For a little while now, he would stare at the food on my plate, watching it being shoveled onto the fork and into my mouth. He started reaching for my plate and attempted several times to pull it towards him. Sucking on his lips, he would look up at me and watch me eat. We concluded that perhaps it was time to introduce him to solids. Admittedly, when Davin was his age, I eagerly looked forward to the time in which we would introduce solids to him. I was so excited to see his little face light up when we gave him new flavors to try. Instead, I discovered that solids are a lot of work (though it was fun to watch the little guy try new things); I wasn't in a big hurry to add a new thing on my to do list and thought I would put off introducing solids to Rowan. However, encouraged by his obvious interest, we decided to give it a try. I didn't make much cereal for him because I anticipated that he would...

For those of you who requested more pictures, check out this slideshow: We went back to Charlotte yesterday to do the home inspection, which went well. There are a few minor things that need to be taken care of, but otherwise the house is in good shape.

The business of real estate is a lot of hurry up and wait. We hurried to get our house ready for the market and then we waited, and waited, and waited. We would get a phone call informing us that we had an hour to get the house ready for a showing. Trying to ignore my crying kids, I would blow around the house, making it sparkle. Then we would wait to hear the news that the buyers weren't interested. Tired of waiting, I decided to post an advertisement on craigslist and create a blog to help market the place. I had someone interested in the ad; he came by the condo and I showed it to him. He gave good vibes about being interested, but then we waited again to hear back from him. Last Wednesday, we heard the good news: the buyer made an offer, one that we ultimately accepted. To occupy our minds (and a great deal too much of our time), we spent the interim time looking for the perfect house. We took trips to Charlotte, analyzing location, school, proximity to Chris's office, and ...

I have spent many Easter picnics bundled up in my picnic blanket and with the cooler weather earlier this week, it seemed like this year would be the same. However, the sun showed up near the end of the week in time for our Easter gathering with friends. We met at a local park on Saturday where we shared an Easter feast and put together an egg hunt for the kids. One of Davin's friends brought a dump truck to play with in the sand; dump trucks are a new fascination for Davin, so much so that we had to beg him to leave it to hunt for eggs. He had a great time finding the eggs once he figured out what was going on. On Sunday, Chris gave a beautiful talk in church. Davin, Rowan and I enjoyed it from the mother's lounge as Davin bolted during the sacrament and wouldn't go back into the chapel. In the afternoon, we took a walk on Wake Forest University's campus and enjoyed their spring flowers and blossoms. Later that evening, my cousin, Laura, came over for dinner and we ha...

Imagine this: you wake up one morning and realize that you have bars around your bed. You are literally sleeping in a cage. Your hands and legs move but you seem to have little control over where they go. With a little focus, you can move your head from side to side, but there isn't much to see, which doesn't seem to matter because you can't see very well any way. Your sense of smell is strong, but that isn't a plus because you barfed on yourself sometime during the night and you smell like rotten milk. The one sensation that overwhelmingly makes itself known is hunger. Unable to form words, the most basic human sounds erupts out of you and you start to cry. I think it is easy to think that the life of a baby is so easy. I do everything for Rowan. However, as I watch him struggle each day to make his body function the way that he wants it to, I realize how frustrating it must be to be so little sometimes. If an adult were in his situation, they would be considered an in...