Michele's blog.

Marlborough Tri

2011-08-04T19:36:00.002-04:00

The same weekend we went to Rialto, Ed competed in his first triathlon of the season. He won his age group!

Three generations celebrating. :)

Backyard fun

2011-07-18T18:14:00.000-04:00

Every time Ed tried to turn the water off, Elliot said (and signed, for additional emphasis), "More, more!"

Biking, grilling, eating

2011-07-09T17:43:00.011-04:00

Elliot and I attended a reception for Team Rialto at Ride Studio Cafe in May. The event included a raffle to raise money for the Pan Mass Challenge, and I was lucky enough to win a copy of a cookbook by Jody Adams, the chef/owner of Rialto, and two spots at an upcoming cooking class. Elliot's Grammie came from CT to spend the day with him so Ed and I could attend the class. It was so fun -- Jody is a great teacher and the food was, of course, amazing.

We started the day with a short bike ride to the Cambridgeport Farmers Market.

Rialto kindly provided us with sparkling water, coffee, and scones to enjoy while at the farmers market.

There was no shortage of beautiful produce and flowers. Ed bought fruit and cheese to take home.

Jody picked out some fruits and veggies for the class members to enjoy later that afternoon.

Once we were back at Rialto, Jody and her sous chef, Cory (?), began demonstrating/preparing a meal of grilled summer vegetables with romesco sauce, grilled lobster with an avocado/tomato/corn salad, and grilled fruit with summer sorbet.

I'm not much of a cook and so was relying on Ed to listen to the lesson while I snapped photos (around 300 for the day!). But one thing I learned is that everything tastes better with olive oil and salt.

Peppers on the grill.

Did I already mention that olive oil makes everything taste better?

The grilled veggies:

The lobster:

The dessert:

Thank you so much to Rialto and Ride Studio Cafe for this great raffle prize. Ed and I had a great time. It's been a while since we've gotten to go out for a classy meal without Elliot and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Waffle 'cross!

2011-07-06T06:07:00.003-04:00

Waffle 'cross is back! Hup United had it's 'cross kickoff the Sunday before last. Yes, 'cross season is still a long ways off. But we like to ride 'cross bikes early and often.

Here's our route (just the part from Ride Studio Cafe and back).

So many Hupsters!

Sweet trails in Concord.

Heading into trails in Lexington.

Mud!

Happy Hupsters.

Après-ride at Ride Studio Cafe.

Plans are already afoot for the next one...

Ed's birthday

2011-07-05T06:02:00.000-04:00

We celebrated Ed's birthday a few weeks ago with our friends, Rach, Josh, and their son Elijah. Rachel made a super yummy dinner and baked a tremendous chocolate cake in the only bundt pan she owns. :)

Trikes

2011-07-04T09:58:00.000-04:00

In early June, Elliot enjoyed "riding" his trike near Horn Pond with his calabash cousin, Elijah. So fun.

Reunion

2011-07-03T14:43:00.005-04:00

I'm so behind with everything right now. Will try to quickly catch up with blog posts...

We spent part of Memorial Day Weekend at Yale for Ed's reunion. We had a great time catching up (him) and meeting new people (me). We stayed in a dorm (not so bad, really) and Elliot enjoyed playing with the other toddlers at Camp Bulldog. And I do love returning to New Haven, of which I have very fond memories from when Ed and I first met and, 2 years later, started dating.

Carillon tour and private concert:

Drinking cups and singing at Mory's:

Yeah. This basically could not be any different from my experience at a large, cheap, commuter state school.

Ed singing "Bright College Years" with some of his closest college friends:

People hanging out after the class dinner (I was testing out my new portable DSLR tripod):

Father's Day

2011-06-19T19:20:00.002-04:00

I'm so happy to be celebrating Father's Day today with Ed! Here are my guys dressed up for Ed's cousin's wedding yesterday.

Big House Project: Part 10

2011-06-11T12:42:00.006-04:00

We're now at the point where our contractor has just a few small jobs left before we have the town inspect everything and Ed can start on the interior finishing.

As a reminder, this is still what the addition looks like from the front:

Our contractor has changed out the doors on the addition, giving us a clearer view of the backyard. We've started to envision what might go in this space. We're thinking about a bench (possibly built-in) along the wall that faces the front, a small couch facing the fireplace (you can see the bumpout in the left of this photo), and two long, skinny tables along the back wall where we can drink coffee and/or eat breakfast while looking out over the deck and backyard. We're trying to maximize the available seating. Once Ed has cut a wide doorway from the addition to our kitchen, this will be a lovely space to hang out with friends.

The post covers are on and the railings and balusters are waiting to be installed. Unfortunately one small part was not correct and should be in next week, when the railings should be done. The three stairways from the deck and addition are also almost done.

We're also thinking of adding a patio in the backyard once the deck and addition are done, with some more seating and a small fire pit.

Mother's Day

2011-05-16T07:33:00.005-04:00

Mother's Day rocked. We slept in (we all had minor colds and I was coughing quite a bit, so I skipped the group ride I had planned to attend). Then we took Elliot out for his first ride in the trailer. This is a Chariot Cougar that Ed has been taking Elliot out running in for over a year, so Elliot got really excited and pre-boarded before we had even changed into our bike clothes.

Our first stop was the bike shop.

Then we stopped for yummy sandwiches and coffee at True North. It is far cooler than that awful web site would lead you to believe.

Our final stop was the park near our house. I'm sure none of the other people there thought it was weird that we were playing with Elliot while wearing lycra and bike shoes.

Inspired by this article in Real Simple, I got some nice stitch-bound sketchbooks for Elliot to fill over the years for us. Here's the first page of my "mom book."

My first thought: Wow, this is the best thing ever!! My second thought: How will I ever match this for Father's Day?

Big House Project: Part 9

2011-05-15T09:17:00.004-04:00

At the end of April, Ed hired a stone mason (the same one that dug and poured the footings for our sun room/deck) to redo our front steps. They were concrete and were just a little lopsided, with a small platform that would make it difficult to install railings to bring it up to code.

First, the crew jackhammered away part of the original steps. (And prior to this, David's crew had finished up their remaining tasks, including putting up the shutters. The porta-potty and dumpster were removed. It took me two days to notice.)

Then they put in New England fieldstone and bluestone treads.

Mortar.

It makes a huge difference, but it will be easier to see the overall effect once the columns. railings, new front door, and storm door have been installed (probably by Ed).

Everything takes longer than planned, which my project manager experience has taught me to expect. :) In the meantime, our fireplace bumpout is proving to be an excellent place to store Elliot's stroller and tricycle.

(That adorable little Adirondack chair was something Ed found in someone's trash while he was out running when I was pregnant. The previous owners painted "Edward" on it.)

Big House Project: Part 8

2011-05-14T17:26:00.005-04:00

Sometimes, things go wrong. Sawzall happens, folks.

After a long winter's break, Bob's crew (working on the addition) returned in early April to reroute the ductwork from our microwave/hood. Fortunately, Ed was home. I called him that morning to let him know that Elliot had a fever and we needed to pick him up from day care. Ed said, "Bob's dad just accidentally cut through some wiring."

So I took care of the little guy and Ed spent his day repairing the wire between two sockets in our bedroom (above the kitchen). Then, later that night, Elliot and I were in the living room and I heard some yelling from the kitchen when Ed noticed that THERE IS A HOLE IN OUR MICROWAVE.

Long story short, Bob was super apologetic and his father later dropped by to apologize in person (and pay for the microwave). The model we have has been discontinued, but I found a new old stock one from an appliance store in Buffalo (via eBay) that will match our other appliances. A happy ending. :)

Grammie's birthday

2011-05-08T21:20:00.004-04:00

We spent last Sunday in Connecticut celebrating Elliot's Grammie's birthday. Elliot's Auntie Liz and Uncle Brandon drove from Brookilyn to meet us.

Elliot helped make the cake.

He blew bubbles with Auntie Liz and fingerpainted with Grammie.

Grammie's cake!

Elliot loves to spin in chairs.

Auntie Liz and Uncle Brandon have a little doggie, Micah, who is just the right size and temperament for Elliot to "walk."

A very fun day was had by all. Elliot was so tired that he slept the whole way home, which is quite unusual.

It only took 99 tries (literally)

2011-04-25T18:03:00.004-04:00

Pro tip: If you think you might want to get a passport for your child, do it before he/she starts walking and thinks that your camera is the ooooonly thing he/she wants to touch RIGHT NOW. GIVE ME THE CAMERA, LADY.

Ride #3

2011-04-17T13:53:00.006-04:00

Things are getting off to a slow start this year with riding. We kept getting sick and sadly, were not ready for the Ronde de Rosey. Looked like a lot of fun though! My second ride of the year, a month ago, went pretty poorly. I totally fell apart 2 hrs in to a 4hr+ ride (stupid) and ended up urging my companions to go on without me. I would have called Ed to pick me up had I not left our only car capable of transporting both a baby and a bike in Lexington. Ride #3 finally happened yesterday. My team's new kits just came in, so I arranged to meet up with Chip and his friend Steen at Ride Studio Cafe. After espresso and croissants (and picking up my bag of awesome kit), we headed out on Battle Road, which is maybe even more fun on a road bike than a 'cross bike. Tomorrow is Patriots Day, so it was crawling with minutemen and redcoats.

After that, we did most of the CRW Thursday night loop. It was windy and I am terribly out of shape, so the route markings enabled me to keep Steen and Chip, who aren't familiar with the area, heading in the right direction so I could suck wheels. Fortunately, they were quite gracious and waited for me after each hill.

We've been having lots of gorgeous, sunny days lately, and Ed has set up the Chariot as a trailer so we can start taking Elliot on rides. So I hope that soon, riding my bike will become such a common occurrence as to not be worth mentioning in the blog.

Elizabeth Park

2011-04-12T18:41:00.004-04:00

On Saturday, we met up with Ed's mom and sister, Paige (who was visiting from LA), for a lovely day in Elizabeth Park in Hartford. We had brunch in the morning at the Pondhouse Cafe and went back for tea in the afternoon. Yum. (My two favorite "meals.") The weather was perfect and we had a lovely afternoon. Elliot loved riding around on his push-trike and throwing sticks. He's becoming quite a runner too. We all took turns chasing him down and keeping him from: interfering in other people's games of catch, "helping" out in the kitchen of the cafe, and making faces through the cafe windows at patrons.

A trip to the park and new tricks

2011-04-08T18:41:00.002-04:00

The sun was out on Saturday, so we took Elliot the park near our house. He loves the swing. And the wood chips.

Elliot seems to be pretty normal for his age, but he's the only child I've spent much time with, so each new skill he picks up just blows me away. Here's some of what he's been up to lately:

- "cooking" for Grammie with his Ikea play kitchen, serving her, then "washing" the dishes
- he sort of says "mama," "dada," "up," "down," and "cracker"
- he asked for "more cheese to eat" yesterday using sign language
- he understands how to pet the cats gently and he laughs and laughs while he does it
- he likes to pretend to turn our dining room light on and off by pointing to it while Ed works the remote
- once, when I was sad because he had temporarily misplaced an awesome toy from his Auntie Heather, he looked at me very sympathetically and then gave me a big hug
- he likes to clap for himself when he's finished something (like a meal)
- he helps me put wet clothes into the dryer and generally likes to assist with everything we do
- he brings his Scootababy to Ed and says, "Up!"
- every night, he pulls a stool up to the sink and brushes his teeth with us -- he gets upset when we make him stop
- he likes to hold Ed's iPod up to his ear and say "hai-yo!"
- he waves bye-bye to the phone after friends and relatives call (we put them on speaker for him)

So again... I realize this is pretty normal, but all this new stuff is amazing to us first-time parents. :) Elliot is more and more fun every day.

Our little nerdling

2011-04-07T22:42:00.001-04:00

Elliots honors Prof. Einstein:

And builds molecules with his Daddy:

New England short course yards championships

2011-03-27T18:41:00.006-04:00

Another year, another SCY championship meet at Harvard. This year actually seemed tougher even though we didn't have Elliot with us (he was at our house with his Grammie). I think now that he probably kept me distracted last year so I didn't get nervous.

My swimming hasn't improved much since last year, which was a bit disappointing, but I know what I need to work on. I swam in 16 events again (including 4 relays) and set 4 PRs (100 back, 200 back, 100 IM, 50 breast).

Photo courtesy of my teammate TJ (I'm on the left):

I just have a few moments so some quick notes from the weekend:

- It felt super weird to drop off Elliot at day care last week Friday and then stop to buy coffee beans at Barismo on our way home while wearing matching track suits. Well, it was weird for me. Ed thought it was the best thing EVER.

- It's been a week since the meet ended and I still feel hungry constantly because my body still seems to think I'm competing even while typing emails at my desk at work.

- Exhaustion during the meet led to a dazed state in which I stared into space between events rather than reading all the magazines I brought. It also led to the extreme overuse of the word "awesome."

- I had several goggle issues at the start of my events. Let's hope I never have to do a 400 IM again with water-filled goggles. I was so blind that I couldn't see the flags or the wall, which led to wild zig-zagging during the backstroke and no flip turns.

- We saw some guys from Maine set all four men's 75+ relay records. Super cool!

- Our team, Minuteman Andover, was neck-and-neck with our rival team, Cambridge, for the whole meet. It came down to the very last relay. Our head coach, Rich, looked super nervous the whole time. We won!

Team photo taken by my teammate Jill's husband.

Photo taken by coach Rich at our celebratory dinner, where I inhaled someone else's chocolate cake while waiting for my entree. For some reason wearing just the matching jackets felt okay. :)

Big House Project: Part 7

2011-02-14T17:43:00.005-05:00

Three Brazilian guys were wandering around in our yard yesterday. It turns out they were looking for their pump jack scaffolding, which they managed to extract from under 3 feet of compacted, hard snow. Impressive.

Here's the dumpster and porta-potty:

Ed has been working hard on wiring. We've got some of our light and heating fixtures picked out (though we won't know if they're keepers until they're installed), and I think we have a pretty good idea of the floorplan as well. We're still trying to decide on flooring, which will help determine our selection of other finishes, furniture, etc.

Cognitive dissonance

2011-02-13T15:48:00.005-05:00

The two conflicting ideas that I held in my head simultaneously:

1) I should get out and ride. I've been off the bike since the Sterling race in late November. And before that, most of my "training" for cyclocross consisted of swimming and baby-wrangling (not at the same time). Brad and I were emailing about the Rapha 500 (which he completed!) and I was feeling inspired. I even had a brand-new set of fenders all ready to install on the Redline.

2) I should begin my return to training by going on a ride that Chip invited me to, even though it was clear from the email that there would be guys there that I wouldn't be able to keep up with on a group ride at the zenith of my post-baby bike fitness, which is many months behind me. Oh, and I should ride to the ride because driving to Ride Studio Cafe (just one town away) would be totally lame.

I think you can probably tell where this is going.

I saw the invite in my email around 9 pm last night, then stayed up late to install my fenders. I stubbornly wanted to do the work myself, so Ed kindly supervised and helped me out when I got stuck. I had lent the bike out to a friend for the fall and so needed to change out the pedals and wheels as well (and the stem... but I forgot about the stem -- will fix it for next time).

Rode to RSC, feeling okay, though cold (it was mid-20s). Enjoyed a ham and cheese croissant and bought some Terroir Coffee beans for later. (Yum.) (BTW, I'm sure I would have been waaay faster if I hadn't been carrying that extra 12 oz during the ride.)

There was more coffee and croissants all around as the guys arrived. All rides should start this way. (Photo of Richard by Chip.)

As we were about to get started, I realized I was totally outclassed (and I realized that I knew before installing my fenders that I was going to be outclassed), so I told several people not to wait for me -- I know the roads, have a cell phone, etc. But everyone was so nice and waited several times. And they were not hammering, either -- I just got dropped like a rock on every tiny incline. Chip was sick this week (and also, he is one of the very nicest people I know), so he stayed back with me and we picked up a third guy once we were definitely dropped. And really, it was a great ride. It's been so long since I've ridden outside in the winter that I'd forgotten how it can be kind of awesome.

I'm not planning on doing any road racing this year, but Ed and I have been thinking about the Ronde de Rosey so... day one of training is in the bank.

Awesome weekend

2011-02-07T17:59:00.003-05:00

We started off Saturday meeting my teammate Chip for snowshoeing in Needham.

Elliot was a good sport and enjoyed the view from the big baby backpack (hand-me-down from our wonderful ex-neighbors). Afterwards, we were famished and stopped at Bickfords for brunch. Once we got home, Elliot took such an unusually long afternoon nap that I ran out of little projects to do. :)

On Sunday, brunch again! We met our friends Julius and Sara at Masa. So yummy. We all went to Barisimo for coffee after that. Ed loved the Colombian coffee that we got so much that I'm concerned that the entire pound will be gone by tonight.

Finally, Ed and Elliot watched the Superbowl while I finished up a big project, a web site (which I put together using a pre-built template) for Elliot's small, non-profit day care.

So... perfect mix of exercise, brunch, family time, and productivity. I wish all weekends could be so awesome.

In my subculture, this is like a Superbowl party

2011-01-31T18:14:00.003-05:00

I woke up super early to make it to Ride Studio Cafe (pretty much the best cyclist hangout in the greater Boston area) yesterday to watch the UCI Cyclocross World Championships. The women were racing at 5 am EST (11 am in St-Wendel, Germany?) and the men were at 8 am EST. We watched what I think was a Belgian video stream. A great time was had by all -- we ate waffles and drank espresso and gasped every time someone crashed on the weird icy off-camber little hill after the barriers. So fun and totally worth the sacrifice of 4 hours of sleep that I will never get back.

Big House Project: Part 6

2011-01-25T07:13:00.008-05:00

After the blizzard on Dec. 27, both crews came back for a few more days of work and then stopped, perhaps until the spring.

Here's the current status:

Ed is going to rough in the electrical in the sun room and get it inspected. Then he can insulate and put in the drywall, trim, and floor. Once that's done, Bob's crew will move the kitchen vent and cut a hole between the sun room and our kitchen, removing the door and window that are there now. Bob is also looking for a new front door (for the house, which will coordinate with the sun room doors) for us and sourcing the fireplace.

The stonemason who did the footings will also be leveling the front steps and putting on stone. Then the permanent posts for the portico can be installed, as well as railings. There's some nice white flashing to emphasize the change in pitch on the gambrel roof here (installed after the previous set of photos were taken), but it's hard to see because of the snow/ice. I've always liked how much room the gambrel afforded us on the inside of the house (vs. a traditional Cape), but found it to be rather unattractive from the outside. I think the flashing makes it much more interesting. We had also thought about putting in dormer windows on the front, but the one that would go on the left as you face the house would open up into the master bedroom closets. I think going with the one skylight on the right was a much better choice.

Bob's crew will come back to finish the two sets of stairs you see here.

They will also be finishing the deck railings and building the third set of stairs into the backyard, which will go to the left of the french door. You can see where the window in our bedroom was moved. David's guys will be coming back to finish up the siding around that window, as well as install the gutters and the remaining gable vent. (The window in the upstairs bathroom is open in these photos because the ceiling paint smelled really bad.)

Then we get to decorate the sun room! So there will be more posts about the Big House Project in the coming months, but this is it for now.

Big House Project: Part 5

2011-01-24T06:47:00.004-05:00

Here's the nearly finished roof, in Owens Corning lifetime architectural shingles, Estate Gray. There are two skylights, one in the sun room and one in Elliot's room.

As a refresher, here's what Elliot's room looked like before the skylight.

And here's Elliot's room soon after the skylight was installed. We kept his favorite toys and many of his clothes in the living room while Ed worked on the wall.

Ed designed and finished up the wall beautifully. It's a little hard to see here, because we decided to put the crib back in the same spot for now, but there's a nice deep ledge there. We're not sure yet what it will be. Play surface? Bookshelf? Window seat? Headboard/nightstands? (Probably a window seat. But there's lots of flexibility there.) It's amazing what a difference this makes -- the room is so nice and bright now.

Ed did some other interior finishing work that I didn't get pictures of. The ceiling in the upstairs bathroom, where it used to rain, needed to be replaced. Ed tore out the popcorn ceiling and found a layer of plastered drywall below it, most of which he was able to salvage. That's been fixed and painted now. The peaked roof of the sunroom made it necessary to move one of the windows in our bedroom closer to the rear of the house. Ed fixed that all up so it looks like the window was always where it is now.

Big House Project: Part 4

2011-01-23T06:29:00.002-05:00

The old roof came off.

The new roof went on. We decided to put a skylight in Elliot's room, which was quite dark. David worked from the outside and Ed worked from the inside.

The decking (Trex in Madeira) arrived. One of the footings had been poured in the wrong place. It was too hard to fix, so Bob decided to build us an extra set of stairs in the side yard, and we agreed to make the deck bigger than originally planned. It ended up being a serendipitous error.

Bob's crew built a bump-out for the fireplace.

Big House Project: Part 3

2011-01-22T06:04:00.009-05:00

The siding crew, working under David, soon had the house HardieWrapped.

Here's the siding, in a lovely shade called Boothbay Blue.

With all the work that was going on, our house was no longer completely sealed off from the outside. One morning, we heard some scratching as we got Elliot dressed. I went outside and discovered a very fat squirrel squeezing his way in to the house via the place where the gutters/soffit used to be on the front. I tried to wave him off with a snow shovel but he was tenacious. (It was very cold outside.) The crawl space between our closets and the roof is accessible through a door in Ed's closet, so after Elliot and I left, Ed found the squirrel in the crawlspace and made a lot of noise to scare him off. Fortunately this was our only critter issue. :)

The siding crew was Brazilian but understood David's North Carolina-accented Spanish. Heck, we understood David's Spanish. It reminded me of the SNL sketch "La Policia Mexicana," which was "written by Miss Larkin's 4th grade Spanish class."

The contractor for the addition, Bob, had a crew whose members reminded us of undergrads at UVM.

They burned our old deck for warmth.

The framing crew made quick work of the walls and rafters.

The windows and doors went in around Dec. 17.

I've always wanted a portico; David worked on this himself.

Big House Project: Part 2

2011-01-21T06:45:00.006-05:00

All of a sudden, it was November. We picked the contractor for the "porch," which we started calling a "sun room." We started making decisions about windows, how big the deck behind the sun room would be, what work the contractor would do vs. what work Ed would do, etc. Oh, and we picked out a fireplace.

It turns out we were actually planning on building the Davis Square Starbucks and attaching it to our house.

On December 2, according to my Twitter feed (because I really don't remember), work began.

Soon, our house was naked; the siding and deck were torn off.

On the side with 40-year-old siding, some of the framing had rotted and needed to be replaced.

A crew came to dig holes for the footings for our sun room/deck/coffee shop.

Big House Project: Part 1

2011-01-20T07:26:00.005-05:00

It all started with paint. We had never liked the color of our house, and we've been here for 7 years now. We also had a small leak in the roof that gradually got worse over time. If it was raining hard enough outside, it was also raining in our upstairs bathroom.

So in July, we (and by we, I mean Ed) started getting quotes from painters and roofers. During this process, it became clear that even though the cedar siding was only 10 years old (on three sides of the house -- on the fourth side, it was 40 years old), it was starting to warp. The previous owner, whom we knew all too well because this was a FSBO, had done the work himself as cheaply as possible. Many of the pieces were around two feet long, which led to warping. We could paint, but would probably need to replace the siding in the next few years.

I'm a project manager in my work life. And this is the part of this story where we start something project managers call "scope creep."

I'd seen something about HardiePlank (fiber cement siding) on HGTV, so Ed got some quotes for a combined HardiePlank/roofing job. This would be the first time someone other than Ed would work on our house, so Ed was appropriately cautious in vetting the candidates. We settled on a contractor we both really liked named David. On a side note, David had recently purchased a turtle like ours. His was still tiny. Ed emailed him a picture of Benita with a measuring tape held up next to her (I think her carapace is around 8 inches), which freaked out David's wife.

Neither of us liked the idea of leaving our crappy little deck hanging off the side of what would soon be our nice-looking house.

I'd always wanted a three-season porch, similar to what our friends Steve and Mary Ann have in their lovely custom-built Cape near Bar Harbor. Our siding contractor recommended a couple of people he'd worked with before and had them contact us with quotes for the porch.

But once you've built a roof on the porch that can support a snow load, it costs just a bit more to put up some walls and insulate them, right? Then you can use the "porch" year-round.

Weeks and weeks went by while Ed tried to get detailed quotes from the "porch" contractors and he and I discussed, seemingly endlessly, what we would do with this "porch"/room if we built it.

Snow!

2011-01-19T07:28:00.003-05:00

We've had quite a bit of snow out here of late. Over the weekend, Ed took Elliot outside to try out his new toboggan from Grandma. He loved it!

Wintry mix

2011-01-18T17:09:00.004-05:00

This is my favorite weather condition from a logophile point of view, but my least favorite from a practical point of view. It's raining/sleeting/snowing now; we're all home safe, but I think the streets will be covered in ice tomorrow (and already are west of here).

We call this temperature (right around freezing, with precipitation) the Stevens temperature. Many years ago, I did the 'cross race at Farmington, and 'cross legend Tom Stevens delivered a disquisition to Ed in the pit on which bike parts, based on metal type, attract snow at various temperatures just around freezing.

I miss that course.

The holidays

2011-01-18T07:56:00.003-05:00

We had an early Christmas gathering at my MIL's. So fun, though it's kind of blur since we all still had our colds. Here's Elliot enjoying some quality time with Grandma.

Christmas Day was rather anticlimactic. We'd all gotten norovirus during the previous week and despite quarantining ourselves for several days after we were symptom-free, we managed to pass it on to my dad (who arrived a couple days before Christmas), my sister, and my BIL. I felt so bad for them. So, no Christmas dinner with the family. Instead, Elliot rolled around in wrapping paper at our house.

Once everyone was better, we had a nice visit to the small, lovely Griffin Museum of Photography with my dad and his girlfriend, Sherry.

We had a wonderful visit!

Swim meet at BU

2011-01-17T10:45:00.004-05:00

'Cross season ended, and a week later, I got a cold. Then one week after that we had the New England Short Course Meters Masters Championship at the BU pool. I was sick enough that I missed several practices leading up to the meet and felt totally unprepared.

Ed's mom was coming out to take care of Elliot on Sunday (12/12), but he came with us to the pool on Saturday. I thought he would get bored after a few hours, so I only signed up for a few events in the morning.

Foggy lens due to temp change from car to the deck of the pool. :) For contrast, here's Elliot at the same meet last year.

Inevitably, someone scratched though and I ended up staying later and swimming breaststroke on a mixed relay team in mid-afternoon. Our coach "wore" Elliot in his carrier so Ed and I wouldn't have to do a quick handoff during the relays. I wish I had a photo. Elliot loves Coach Rich.

Are these track suits more Royal Tenenbaums or Sue Sylvester?

Ed kindly made this so we could keep track of our events.

Ed and I both swam lots of events, making up for our relative lack of swimming skill with lots of volume. There were a lot fewer people at this meet than at the one we did at Harvard in the spring, so events were much closer together and we didn't have much time to rest. I was hoping to PR in all my events but only did it in the a few (but Ed kept up his streak of PRs).

I was really dragging by the time I got to my last individual event, the 400 IM. My teammates all stood around and cheered for more than 8 minutes as I completed the event at roughly half the pace of the reigning world record holder. Amazingly though, I got first place points, as there were no other women in my age group swimming the 400 IM. I then proceeded to almost miss the final relay, which I didn't realize was right after. Oops! I made it through my part (I think it was a 50 breast).

Everyone on the team contributed great swims and our team was the highest scoring large workout group at the meet!

We celebrated the team's win with the traditional dunking of the head coach.

This award plaque is so shiny that it is illegible. Big Al, the team captain, will be wearing this as a belt buckle at the Minuteman winter party.

Merry Christmas from the Royal Tenenbaums!

The end of 'cross season

2011-01-16T22:07:00.005-05:00

December disappeared -- multiple (minor) illnesses, lots of missed days of work, family visits, holidays, construction on the house... I feel like I'm still trying to get back into my normal routine. I'm finally starting to work on getting caught up with the blog.

First up: the end of 'cross season. I did my last two races, Shedd Park (Lowell) and Sterling, at the end of November. The season continued for a few weeks beyond that, but I was so exhausted that I decided to pull the plug after Sterling. I ended up doing 10 races total.

The Shedd Park race was a small 1/2/3 race. I hadn't been able to race the previous two weekends (didn't want to travel to Noho and was sick and DNS'd at Plymouth), so I was a bit nervous. I fueled up with a yummy chocolate chip cookie made by my teammate Robert a few minutes before the start.

I felt like I got a decent start on the cinder track, but I soon realized that I was last, as usual. I surprised myself by being able to pull ahead of a few people and rode a clean race to finish 12th out of 15. I think we ended up doing 5 laps. I was so cross-eyed up the very steep hill where my friend Andy (of Waffle Cross) was doing waffle handups (and someone else was doing 4Loco handups) that I couldn't find him.

I almost got the waffle on the 4th lap but didn't quite make it. Fortunately the Wheelworkers had a tent set up so I could get one later.

Here's someone in the men's 1/2/3 field who had more success than I did with the waffles.

The following weekend, I was pre-reged for both days of Sterling. It was a UCI race so I was in the 3/4 field. This tweet pretty much sums up the situation: "Elliot's (maybe?) finally teething, lost the acetaminophen, 1130pm CVS run. Sometimes my mom life is not compatible with my cyclocross life." (Indeed, he was teething.) I ended up skipping the first day but made it out for the second. I got to the venue super early to pre-ride and took note of a blind, unrideable dropoff very soon after the start. Many of the women didn't get a chance to pre-ride so I asked Richard Fries, the announcer, to tell everyone about it. (Yes, I am such a mom now.) He was super accomodating and even walked over to the spot and stood in it. No one crashed there (unlike many of the other fields).

I much prefer the small 1/2/3 races, which afford me lots of personal space. The 3/4 UCI races are more crowded and I get a little tentative at the start. I was not very aggressive off the line and ended up riding near a bunch of women I'd never seen before, so I assumed I was doing pretty poorly. At one point, the Tiny Russian was cheering for me and I smiled. She said, "If you are smiling, you are not riding hard enough!" I moved up a bit in the middle and ended up finishing about where crossresults.com predicted, much to my surprise. I was beyond tired and realized that as much fun as I was having, it was time to stop racing for the season.

I hung around for a while and took photos. The ground was frozen for my race but thawed and got sloppy as the day wore on.

Here's the masters 1/2/3 field going through an especially twisty section.

I ended up racing a lot more this fall than I planned, mostly because of my awesome team. Hup United made it so much fun to be out there almost every weekend. I don't miss road racing much -- I think I got my fill over 11 seasons -- but I can't wait for 'cross next fall!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-05T18:57:00.005-05:00

As I mentioned earlier, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our family in Connecticut. We had so much fun. And we really have so much to be grateful for this year!

Elliot really enjoyed all the food. Yum. My MIL is a wonderful cook.

I took family photos. Here's one of all of us:

My MIL put up her Christmas lights early. They looked wonderful.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well!

Happy birthday, Elliot!

2010-11-28T16:48:00.005-05:00

I can't believe it's already been a year. We celebrated with Ed's family after Thanksgiving dinner and again with local friends yesterday.

Grandma (Ed's mom) made Elliot a bear cake using the same mold she used for birthdays when Ed and his sisters were kids. So cool!

Elliot got many lovely, thoughful gifts. Here is a tricycle from Aunt Paige and Uncle Kevin that he's already taken outside several times.

Yesterday we had high tea, which was so fun that we might have to do it for other birthdays as well. (Probably mine or Ed's -- I assume by next year, Elliot will have other ideas of what constitutes a fun party.)

Elliot loved his cake! He ate a little and threw a lot of it all over the place.

We got him a recycling truck for his birthday, since his favorite toys are the wheels on the stroller and articles in our recycling bin.

The year has been a blur -- sleep deprivation will do that to you -- but it has been amazing. Ed and I have had so much fun and can't wait to see what the next year brings.

Visit from Popo and Grandpa Roy

2010-11-20T23:35:00.005-05:00

Mom (Popo) and Grandpa Roy came to visit last week. Elliot loved all the attention!

Popo entertained Elliot while I did some work, but he occasionally came to check on me.

We ate a lot...

Mom and Roy helped Ed rake up all the leaves in the yard.

On our last day, we took some photos in a local park. We had a great time!!

Canton and Orchard CX

2010-11-06T22:44:00.007-04:00

I raced twice last weekend, in Canton MA and Hampton Falls NH. The races were somewhat similar and a very busy week has passed since then, so they get one entry.

Both races had super long courses that provided extensive tours of the grounds of the Massachusetts Hospital School and Applecrest Farm Orchards, respectively. This helped me to not get lapped in the 1/2/3 field on either day, but made it difficult for spectators to watch anything. In both, my crossresults.com points had me seeded second from last and I indeed finished second from last on both days.

Differences: I underinflated my new tires (Vittoria XG tubies) for Canton, which led to some sliding out in the turns, but with Ed's help, got the pressure dialed in for Orchard. I have a long way to go, but my turning is improving. I went to Canton solo and brought Ed and Elliot along for Orchard, since there was a fall farm festival going on. Also, I got surprised at Orchard by $20 prize money for finishing 9th -- they were paying 10 deep even though there were only 10 starters. Woohoo!

Some pics from Canton, both of which I showed at my photography class last Tuesday:

The Boston 'Cross barriers are still in service! Aperture priority is my friend.

Jonny Bold just after the previously pictured barrier. I played around with the aperture and ISO a bit and was pleased to get this to come out just the way I planned.

Orchard CX:

Here, Elliot meets his first sheep at the petting zoo at Applecrest Farms.

These pics of me are by Brent Doscher. Nice use of a wide-angle lens.

Pumpkin by Ed, photo by Michele

2010-11-06T22:37:00.002-04:00

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T22:37:00.003-04:00

Concord mini-meet

2010-10-28T22:15:00.004-04:00

I decided to take a rest week last week, but wasn't really successful. I was short on sleep after three days of going to a conference in Cambridge, plus I went to a few swim practices. Then I fell down and entered a swim meet, where I proceeded to miss most of my seed times. But it was good to get an idea of what I need to work toward for the big meet at BU in December. There were just a few mixed heats of each event, so handing off Elliot got to be pretty exciting. Ed and I were each in 5 events and two of them were the same. The meet organizer was very nice and put us in different heats but the same lane, which meant that I leapt out of the pool at the end of the 100 breaststroke and the 200 IM and grabbed Elliot so Ed could get on the starting block. Good times.

MRC 'Cross

2010-10-28T21:33:00.002-04:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I'm finally getting around to blogging MRC 'Cross.

Gorgeous fall day, excellent venue at the Bolton Fair Grounds. Ed's mom came to hang out with us (and Elliot, of course), which was very fun. Check out this gorgeous color!

Here are my teammates Mark and Robert riding strong in the masters' race.

First off, I accidentally rode on the course during one of the races on my way to registration, since it wasn't taped off. Oops! I did a couple of warmup laps. I liked the course except for the flyover, which was way beyond my skill/confidence level. I determined pretty quickly that it wasn't going to happen, so I ran down and decided to stick with that strategy.

Here's what it looked like. Way too steep for me. Because I am old and I type professionally. (This is Mike R. on his way to winning the masters' race.)

We were staged by crossresults.com points, which meant I was at the back, but there were only 15 of us. So there was really nothing holding me back from a strong start, which I sort of got, but then everyone passed me in the first turn. The turns were definitely challenging and there were a lot of them, but I kept pushing and finished ahead of two real people and two phantom people (apparently there were 2 DNFs, but I don't know who they were). I kept running the flyover. I met my goal of not getting lapped. The Cat 4s were 1 minute behind us and 5 of them passed me. It was a little bit demoralizing. But it spurred me to buy some new tires, which I'm totally sure will compensate for my lack of cornering skills. < /sarcasm > My handsome mechanic glued them on tonight so I'll be ready for the races this weekend.

We now interrupt cyclocross season to present a few pictures of Elliot

2010-10-14T17:57:00.003-04:00

I can't believe this kid is already 10.5 months old.

Elliot dressed up to meet our friends' new baby, Margot.

The curls were getting mullety, so Elliot got a haircut a few weeks ago. Ed has a real future as a barber. (Scroll to the end to see a good pic of the haircut.)

Elliot is a great napper as long as he's being snuggled.

Elliot loves ice cream, and I'm sure it's partially responsible for the baby chub he's put on in the past month. I think our pediatrician will be pleased.

I can't wait until he can tell us what he's thinking. (My friend Whitney says that he's clearly plotting his escape.)

PVD

2010-10-13T17:33:00.002-04:00

When nationals came to Providence several years ago, I wasn't old enough to do the masters' race (the first year) and too out of shape to attempt it the second year. Ed was old enough the first year and did try to race, but his race was postponed due to extreme weather conditions, and we didn't return after it took us 5+ hours to drive home after which he spent 2 hours clearing knee-deep snow from our driveway so we could park. So I was quite excited to get a chance to race on the former nationals course this past Sunday.

I woke up at 4 to feed Elliot, then started getting ready so I could be on the road at 6. Ouch. I made it out in time to pre-ride before the first race. The course was pretty tough and long. The hardest section (for me) was right by registration and was the first part I saw. Very intimidating! But I managed to get things figured out during the pre-ride and was ready to go for the race. Il Bruce brought me some Fall River-style malasadas, which I saved for post-race nutrition.

I got a good start and then slowly lost places throughout the race. I felt okay though and was riding pretty cleanly, but I got tired the last time leading into the stairs and didn't clip out in time and botched the dismount, which allowed one rider to pass me right away and another to outsprint me at the line. I was still happy with my result (18th out of 67), and was so knackered that I had to sit down right after the finish so I could catch my breath and not boot.

I did a cool-down ride with my friend Aimee V., who is borrowing my old Redline and giving 'cross a try this season. Then I enjoyed my abolutely divine malasada. I was afraid it would be like the one I had many years ago in P-town, which was thin, oily, and a little crispy -- itwas more like fried dough than the malasadas I grew up with. The Fall River-style malasada was very similar to Hawaii-style, but around three times bigger. Amazing. Then I enjoyed a pizza made by my friend Jennyoooo's company, La Strada Wood-Fired Pizza.

I got to see Brad, who was in New England with his family for the weekend. I've known Brad since we were 16, and he accompanied me to the first time trial I ever did, in Mokuleia in 1997. I think I got about 100 pictures of him racing (seriously -- I had 430 pics total at the end of the day) in the 3 race. Here are a couple of my favorites:

The course was pretty solid when I raced -- it was in the 40s and I was having trouble clipping in because it was so cold (numb feet). By the time Brad raced, it was warm and sunny and the course was dusty. Also, do you see what I'm talking about with the size of that malasada? Amazing.

I saved the last two malasadas for Ed and I to enjoy at home. Elliot got a taste too.

Night Weasels

2010-10-12T18:13:00.004-04:00

This video, by David Deitch, pretty much says it all. You can just watch this and not read my post.

Night Weasels Cometh from David Deitch on Vimeo.

The crossresults.com team, led by Colin and Linnea, put on a really great race, the Night Weasels Cometh, last Wednesday. Hup was helping out, so I worked registration. The course was set up on the side of a shallow ski slope (Ski Ward) in Shrewsbury.

When I arrived, it didn't look too scary, despite the previous days' torrential rains.

Here's Chip hanging out at the Pedro's love van.

Here's a teammate I haven't met yet, spectating. As you can see, darkness is descending.

By the time I made it out to pre-ride, the course was muddy and the grass was super slippery. Everything was off-camber and the course was twisty. Also, it was dark. So this course was designed to exploit all my weaknesses. I made Meg give me a pep talk. I consulted Matty B on tire choice. (I have Tufo Elite tubies that I bought used from Mark A and Ritchey Speedmax clinchers, one bought used from CXM publisher/editor Andy Yee and one I bought new. So 3 of my tires are around 10 years old and all are more all-terrain than mud-oriented, but this is normally not an issue.) (Matty said to use the Tufos.) Then I made Cathy give me a pep talk.

I dropped out after one lap of sliding around, walking sections I should have been able to ride, and never really getting my heart rate up because I was riding so slowly. So, next year I think I will just volunteer. :) (Watching the video made me realize that my biggest problem is that I don't want to crash. Even gently onto muddy grass.)

But -- Night Weasels is what 'cross is all about. It was a great event. It was very well executed and everyone was out having a great time. The venue was great (nice comfy lodge for hanging out and registration) and the course was very spectator-friendly. I was proud that Hup was part of it.

Photo taken near the end of the women's race:

Gloucester

2010-10-11T15:52:00.007-04:00

If you are here, you already know about the wonder of the Gloucester CX races and don't need me to say much about them. Or, you are a blood or calabash relation, in which case, the picture of Elliot is at the end.

I made it out for both days, with Ed and Elliot spectating for the first. The first day featured a downhill start, which made me nervous since I was in the 5th row, but I stayed on Cathy's wheel and made it to the sandpit in the top 20. This made it possible for me to ride all the technical parts without getting stuck in traffic. Woohoo! A longer-than-usual course meant that we only did 3 laps, although we were on the edge of being able to squeeze in a 4th. But the shorter duration was good for me, as I didn't run out of gas, and held on for 18th out of 99 starters.

Pre-race hoto by Chip. My super-tall teammate Joy is on the left and my other super-tall teammate Jen is on the right.

MegA and I were together for much of the race. This photo is by Todd Prekaski.

Ed took the next two photos.

I think you can get an idea here of how much I was suffering. I was about 30 seconds away from finishing and trying to hold off a rider or two.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the Hup tent. Hup is the best team ever and I am having soooo much fun doing 'cross this year because of my super fun, supportive, classy teammates.

Elliot didn't quite get the hang of cowbell-ringing, but I have high hopes for next year. This year, he chose to concentrate on cowbell-dropping.

The second day was a lot harder for me. We had the traditional uphill start, which I thought would work more in my favor (and again I was on Cathy's wheel), but we got stuck behind a big group of slower starters. We both tried to move up after that; Cathy was more successful than I was. My arms were pretty tired from racing and baby-carrying the day before, and my bike-handling really suffered as a result, so I wasn't going as fast through the turns as I should have been. 26th out of 88 on the day. But, there is no such thing as a bad day at Gloucester!

Sucker Brook

2010-09-30T22:18:00.003-04:00

Sunday was Sucker Brook, a super fun race in NH. I had a cold all week (thanks a lot, Elliot!) so my only "training" consisted of practicing turns on a mini-'cross course in our backyard.

Despite all the time in the world, I was of course running late. My two guys thoughtfully loaded my bike on the car.

Guys in the sand pit. I don't remember which field this was. But there's my teammate Mark.

Eric M. was showing Kerry the lines during the pre-ride, so I tagged along to see if I could learn something. (Yes.) Then, the race. It was super fun, with a swoopy turny section before the barriers, then some woods, then a sand pit, then pavement up to the start/finish. I felt like I was handling my bike much better than at Quad 'Cross. In fact, I think I did all right on all parts of the course -- no particular issues turning or shouldering my bike or "running," but I just did everything very, very slowly.

With two to go I alternately worried that I would, or wouldn't, get lapped. But then I did about 2/3 of the way through. DFL. Next time. :)

I rode around afterward to cool down with MegA and Solobreak, who is staying strong in his protest against the new BOB kit. Solo showed us a nice gravel road behind the course, which linked up with some of the awesome trails I rode during the Big Ring Rumpus. I could have ridden around back there for hours, which I guess means my "fitness" is entirely aerobic right now. Dammit.

Fall is here:

I got to try one of the famous Sucker Brook cupcakes. Tasty, but too much with the muchness. This was more of a two-person cupcake.

Ed and Elliot stayed home, as I encouraged them to save their 'cross-spectating energy for Gloucester. There are seriously going to be 100 women in my race on Saturday and almost as many on Sunday. My team is all set with tents and grills. I can't wait! Can sheer excitement make me fast? I rode the trainer twice this week just in case it doesn't.

Quad 'Cross

2010-09-18T07:07:00.004-04:00

It is almost fall. Time for cyclocross. I did my first real 'cross race in 2 years last weekend. Ed was in RI doing a half-Ironman, so I dropped off Elliot with Uncle Brad and Auntie Kris before riding over the venue (only 7 miles or so). I could have driven, but was loathe to uninstall the car seat to fit my bike in the car. :)

Anyway, it was great to be there and catch up with people I hadn't seen in a while, including Solobreak, who entertained me with complaints about his team's new kit. And I saw my former teammate Pauline, which was so great. And of course I got to hang with my new teammates from Hup, who were all so fun and cheered so hard for me.

I had signed up for the 1/2/3, for numerous reasons: 1) I wanted to sleep in, and so did my babysitters, 2) the race was 10 minutes longer than the 3/4 and cost the same, 3) I like smaller fields so I can have lots of personal space. But I could tell I was going to be in trouble when I saw Adam M., who gave me a big hug and asked if I'd already raced (the 3/4 was at 9 am and the 1/2/3 was at 2 pm). And when I said I was about to race, he said, very kindly, "Oh."

I was a little nervous on the line. I helped another woman get her number pinned on right side up and listened to people chatting. The woman next to me, who was tiny, mentioned her 3 kids, the youngest of whom was 8 months -- one month younger than Elliot. There goes my excuse for sucking! (She trounced me.)

So anyway, long story short, I purposely soft-pedaled the start and tried to get into my own rhythm at the back. The race was much harder than I expected -- yes, I don't have 'cross fitness, which I expected, but the I was really shocked at how crappy my bike-handling skills are. The course was really twisty and required finesse, and I was riding like I was on a 58cm bike with broken brakes. (Thank goodness for Mike and Cathy, who ran a small clinic a couple of days after the race and helped me figure out what I need to work on, and how to work on it.)

Here's a pic that my friend Bob R. took. I don't think he'd mind if I included it:

I never really got to the point where I felt like I was using the little fitness I had, as there were so few spots where I could build up speed because of my bike-handling issues. But I did try to turn it on just a bit at the end, and managed to finish third from last, ahead of a friend who was racing for the second time that day and someone else who got a flat in the first half-lap and didn't have a spare wheel in the pit.

My plan was to ride back to my sister's, but a handsome man showed up (Brad described Ed later as a "knight in a shiney Subaru") and drove me home.

New skills

2010-09-17T07:01:00.006-04:00

Elliot is acquiring all kinds of new skills. He finally got the hang of the sippy cup.

He's started "cruising," which led to the purchse of a baby gate for the bottom of the stairs. Then I returned it because it didn't work with our banister. Got another one, same story. I hope the third one is the charm.

Elliot is a highly skilled cat monitor.

Elliot is also excellent at spoon evasion and graham-cracker crumbling.

Waterbottle FAIL

2010-09-10T07:23:00.001-04:00

Flatbread

2010-09-09T07:24:00.000-04:00

We took Elliot with us to dinner at Flatbread on Saturday. He had a great time and sampled a little pizza. He also loved watching the "Pizza Wizard" work the huge stone pizza oven.

Who needs toys when there are napkins around?

Yum!

The last time we took Elliot to Flatbread, he was 5 weeks old.

Weekend pics

2010-09-08T07:20:00.003-04:00

This is what Elliot's crazy hair looks like from the back. He has two cowlicks and lots of curls (like my dad) when it gets humid.

We just put the legs on the Learning Table from Auntie Heather (it was also enjoyed for many months without legs). Elliot loves it!

This awesome toy piano is from Auntie Paige. It also has legs that can be added later, as well as a little bench.

A new record

2010-09-07T07:24:00.005-04:00

In 2003, Ed and I had the mixed tandem Charlie Baker Time Trial record for about a week. In 2006, he rode it several times on the tandem with our friend Brooke and traded the mixed tandem record back and forth with our friends Mike and Cathy.

This summer, I noticed that while there was a mixed record and a men's record, there was no women's record. So I went out and rode the course by myself on my TT bike to gauge my fitness. My time was embarrassingly slow -- I don't love TTing and baby-wrangling has wrecked my forearms, so the aerobars hurt. But Ed talked me into giving it a try anyway. I asked Brooke if she was interested. We started training together a few weeks ago, and it turns out she's an absolute natural as a tandem pilot. (And it's nice for me that I can use drop bars as the stoker.) We first met at a bike race in 1999 and have done many of the same races throughout the years, so we're each pretty comfortable with the other's riding style and worked together really well.

We made it to the time trial last Wednesday and set the women's tandem record at 22:27.5, 26.05 mph for 9.75 miles. This is only 50 seconds slower than the last time I rode the tandem on that course, with Ed, in 2006. :) Brooke and I had a lot of fun and we'll be back again tomorrow!

Having such a cute Supporters Club president to cheer us on at the finish helped!

I love these jammies

2010-09-06T10:15:00.000-04:00

They have robots on them. And they come in Molteni orange.

Trying to restrain myself from buying every cute item of baby clothing I come across that features robots, dinosaurs, the space shuttle, the solar system, bugs, or bicycles is quite difficult.

Party time, excellent

2010-09-05T10:17:00.001-04:00

We spent last weekend on the Connecticut shore at a reunion of the Sloan Fellows. First we attended a lovely and exceptionally well-executed party at the home of one of Ed's classmates, Brian, and Brian's lovely wife, Shelly. Sadly, Elliot was too young to enjoy the awesome treehouse platform and zip-line that Shelly built.

Ed took this artsy shot.

Ed and I each brought one small bag for our overnight stay in a hotel. Elliot had, I don't know, about 6 bags. He usually sleeps well at night but seemed cranky about not being at home, which combined with all his crying in the car made me not want to go anywhere with him until he's 10 years old. At least. :)

After a yummy brunch with the Fellows at a diner in New London, we took Elliot to the Mystic Aquarium. He loved the fishies!

On the move

2010-09-04T10:14:00.001-04:00

Elliot crawls like it's his job. We now have a lock on that cabinet...

Big. Little.

2010-09-03T18:02:00.001-04:00

It was cold last week, so Elliot got to wear a few outfits that he last wore in the spring. This photo was taken on August 24 (Elliot was a few days shy of 9 months old). I laughed when I saw his wrists and little belly hanging out, but I really like that shirt and it was nice to get one last wearing out of it.

For contrast, this was taken April 12 (half a lifetime ago!).

The shirt was a "hand-me-up" from Rachel and Elijah, so it's time to return it so Elijah can wear it this fall. :)

Our little nerdling

2010-08-20T18:54:00.000-04:00

"I TCP/IP, but mostly IP" onesie from Auntie Kris. Proof that Elliot doesn't always dress in Daddy style. :)

The Amazing Bike Race

2010-08-19T22:04:00.011-04:00

On Sunday, Ed and I did The Amazing Bike Race, which totally lived up to its name. (In addition to being amazing, all proceeds benefitted a team doing the Pan-Mass Challenge.) It was about 62 miles on an unknown course, about 30% off-road, with a start/finish about 5 miles from our house. Perfect! Only 10 people entered, which was too bad, because this event was soooo fun. We broke up into 4 teams of 2 or 3 people.

Here's the pre-race meeting.

When we heard that the prologue was a trivia question designed to really make us think and spread the teams out at the start, I turned to Ed and whispered, "I hope it's a math problem." It wasn't, but we rocked the prologue anyway (we had to write down all the TdF winners since 1990 in order). However, our lead was short-lived. We missed a course marking about 1 mile from the start and were in 2nd place heading into the first off-road section in Lexington.

We rode through some choice trails in Lexington, including the Landlocked Forest, where I fell off a plank bridge. My tires were at 50 psi, higher than I would normally run because of the road riding, so my lack of finesse getting on the bridge ended up launching my front wheel in the air and then me, plus the bike, over the side. Fortunately I escaped with some small scratches and bruises. Then we rode a great dirt bike path in Lexington that I know I've been on before but probably can't find again before arriving at the first checkpoint. I think it was in Billerica. We opted for the crossword challenge over the riding-an-obstacle-course-with-an-egg-on-a-spoon challenge. One of the crossword answers (local bike race announcer) was Richard Fries.

Waiting to have the crossword checked.

We rode the powerlines in Burlington (sandy and difficult), the Mill Pond Reservoir, and the Middlesex Canal towpath. We briefly caught up with the first place team (3 guys) on the trails, but they got away from us before the towpath. Then we missed a turn off Rt 38 and ended up riding an extra 4 miles to get back on the course. Up to this point, I think we were never more than about 5 miles from our house. Awesome. Halfway stop on Rt 62, near the North Wilmington commuter rail stop:

On the third leg, we rode some great trails near the Ballardvale commuter rail stop in Andover and in Harold Parker State Forest. I saw this view for many hours, since I only pulled through for about 10 seconds.

By the time we reached the challenge at the end of the third leg, we were in third place. I think we took a wrong turn (possibly in the Pomps Pond section, where we couldn't find the route markings and had to call the route master/promoter, Michael Good, for directions), because the team behind us passed us but we didn't see them. It was probably a good thing though, because we might have been tempted to chase, and I was COOKED.

The second challenge was a choice between eating 10 marshmallows apiece or doing a word find. We chose the marshmallows.

More Harold Parker trails (rocky, but still enjoyable), then 15ish miles of road back to Burlington. Sooo much fun. Ed was a wonderful teammate and didn't mind my relentless wheelsucking.

Neither of us had cyclocomputers, but we think we did about 67 miles due to the wrong turns, and we guessed that it was about 5 hours of ride time. Michael Good and Kurt Johnson put together a tremendous route. We ended up third and scored some nice mini-pumps. We also had the winning poker hand -- we got a card at the beginning of each leg, and ours were all spades. At the finish, the community card was also a spade -- flush! So we got to take home two boxes of brand-new flavors (no labels yet!) of Odwalla bars. Yum! We'll be back next year!

Cheese!

2010-08-19T21:53:00.000-04:00

Long crawl

2010-08-07T18:28:00.001-04:00

I just couldn't resist sharing this with those of you who are not on Facebook. Click to embiggen.

July catch-up

2010-08-06T18:58:00.001-04:00

Ed's mom came to visit:

We went to a friend's BBQ, where we introduced Elliot to the classic Tiny Tike Cozy Coupe (and he now has one of his own -- free!, thanks to Craigslist).

I'd given him bits of watermelon before, but it turns out Elliot really prefers to chow on whole pieces, lamprey-style.

When I returned from an afternoon of errand-running on Saturday, my two guys were enjoying a nice summer breeze in the front yard.

Mass State Tri

2010-08-05T18:58:00.002-04:00

The day after the Grand Fundo, Elliot and I got up waaaay to early to go cheer for Ed at the Mass State Triathlon (international distance).

Aero baby!

Swim:

Bike:

Run:

Ed got third in his age group!

Elliot was pretty squirmy, which is understandable given the heat and his lack of interest in being confined to a stroller with minimal toys. (But wow, it was sooo hot for baby-wearing, though I did it to keep the peace.) So with that experience fresh in my mind, we skipped Ed's last triathlon, a sprint this past weekend attended by half our swim team. Sadly, we missed watching Ed win his age group and beat two of the male pros. Next time...

Grand Fundo

2010-08-04T06:21:00.004-04:00

More than two weeks ago, I headed out to western Mass to ride the excellent Grand Fundo, so called because it was more grand and fun than a Gran Fondo. (It has been so hard to find time to blog!) Hup United was out in full force and it was sooo much fun.

I got there nice and early to enjoy breakfast with Meg and JD. They live right by Mt Tom which was quite misty that morning -- it totally reminded me of Hawaii.

Here are some of my teammates before the start:

Meg and me, blanco and noir:

Meg has the coolest nom de course:

Here's everyone getting ready to start:

After that, we rolled out. I was a little freaked out being in a big pack for the first time in almost 2 years. Meg got a flat after about a mile, which was fortuitous: it gave me an excuse to stop trying to keep up with the pack. :) After she got a sweet neutral wheel (Zipp), we rode with some other Huppers. Eventually it was just me, Meg, and JD. I think we were last for a long time, though we start to catch up with other groups on the road. I was feeling pretty frisky for the first few miles, and then the dirt roads (yeah!) and climbing (no!) started.

I'd perused the Grand Fundo site in preparation. I registered that it was 64 miles, 20% on dirt roads. I noted this sentence and then did no further investigation into the course profile or description: "The Grand Fundo route isn’t that difficult." The organizers suggested that it would take about 4 hours to complete.

And looking at the site again, it wasn't super difficult -- only 3000 feet of total climbing. But when I was on the ride with my out-of-shape ass in the saddle, it felt. quite. difficult. (Also, our teammate Chip's Garmin recorded 105-degree temps. It was probably more like mid-90s, but it was HOT.)

Chip had left his shoes at Meg and JD's and had to go back for them, then take a shortcut on the ride course to meet up with us at the first water stop. (The water stop was awesome. Everything about this ride was very well-organized. Good route markings, good route, etc.) Shortly after that we met up with Cathy, who had gotten a flat, and our merry band was complete.

The halfway point was the ice cream truck stop. I was incredibly bummed that the heat was doing a number on my stomach and I felt too icky to eat ice cream. Can you imagine? Here's my teammate Mark with ice cream:

My teammate Stephen's special Hup edition Sketchy cyclocross bike:

After a while I started to feel better and pushed on through to the finish. At one point there was a shortcut, which I'm glad Meg didn't point out to me, because I would have taken it. :) At the finish, we all enjoyed a yummy BBQ (though I felt it was too hot to eat pig parts, personally) and I finally got my ice cream! It ended up being really fun and I'm sure I'll go back if it happens next year. There is just something about riding on dirt roads that makes me really happy, and this ride is definitely easier than the 100K D2R2.

Here's Meg's ride report and Chip's ride report. For really great pics, check out Podium Insight.

More favorite outfits

2010-07-07T18:30:00.000-04:00

It's kind of embarrassing how large Elliot's wardrobe is.

Betty

2010-07-06T18:20:00.003-04:00

Our poor cats aren't getting quite the attention they used to, but they seem to be adjusting fine. Lola continues to ignore all of us and Betty enjoys being near Elliot (but not too close). Here are some pics from a recent photo session with Miss Betty.

A short visit from Grandpa

2010-07-05T16:17:00.008-04:00

My dad came last weekend to spend some time with Kris, Brad, me, Ed, and Elliot. Unfortunately he had to head back to California a little earlier than planned, but fortunately I was able to shift my vacation time around to maximize Grandpa time before he flew out Thursday afternoon.

I loved playing the horsey game with Dad when I was wee.

Dinner at our favorite Thai place.

Some pics taken by Dad:

A belated Fathers' Day post

2010-06-27T10:49:00.000-04:00

We spent Fathers' Day with Ed's family in Connecticut. First we started the day off with homemade challah french toast (Elliot was very good during my quick early-morning grocery store run for bread). I got Ed an enlargement of this photo:

And also, at Ed's request, I got a year's worth of bananas for a mine-sniffing rat. :)

After breakfast, we headed down to CT for Ed's cousins' graduation party. Katie and Greg just finished high school.

Here are my guys in their matching outfits:

Grandma!

Aunt Liz!

Cousin Katie!

A super-fun time was had by all, and we were lucky enough to enjoy the leftovers all week.

Training camp

2010-06-26T10:33:00.003-04:00

I'm not complaining, but having Elliot around has made it tough to get in many miles on the fleet of bikes. Last week, I had a work-related conference to attend, Enterprise 2.0. (Excellent write-up here.) I spent way too much time figuring out the best way to get to the hotel, the Westin Boston Waterfront. All options were bad: driving, driving to Alewife/T/walk 1 mile, driving to Wilmington/commuter rail/T/T/walk 1 mile, get dropped off at bus stop/bus to Alewife/T/walk 1 mile. All were 90 minutes+. So, I decided to ride. Ed got my Redline ready for action and gave me a great route.

Here she is, many years ago in San Diego:

I went through the backroads of my town to Horn Pond (where I rode on the bike path), then on to the Mystic Valley Parkway where I learned to sprint when I was in grad school, then past a couple of places where I used to live in Medford and into Cambridge, over the Charles River by the Museum of Science, around Boston Garden, onto Congress Street past Faneuil Hall, on to Summer Street over the Fort Point Channel.

Getting back to the title: I ride so infrequently now that 4 days of 2x18-mile rides is a "training camp" these days.

I really enjoyed the ride, though it hurt to get up early enough to feed Elliot and then ride in, as I was pretty slow with the backpack and then needed to get cleaned up at the hotel. The bellhops all got to know me, as the hotel suggested that I keep my bike in the bell closet. :)

On the first day, I randomly saw Rachel walking around with her baby on my way home. We had a nice chat.

After the second day, I put a bell on my bike because of a few close calls with drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. It really worked well on days 3 and 4.

If I go to the conference again next year, I am pretty sure I will ride again. Training camp paid off: I went on the NEBC women's ride earlier this week and was not last up Strawberry Hill or Page Hill (I should also note that I was not in the fastest group). So, progress!

Waffle Cross 3.0

2010-06-25T22:26:00.003-04:00

I am seriously behind. This happened almost 2 weeks ago.

Waffle Cross 3.0 was super fun. It was a little drizzly out and Andy was joking about all the people who texted him to say they weren't coming because of the rain. "Um, this is cyclocross!"

The super awesome shirt, available soon (I hope!):

The ride was excellent. I was feeling much more in shape than I did in April. We rode some 'cross-friendly trails in Rock Meadow before heading on to Battle Road. Unfortunately, large sections were closed (some kind of sand/clay mix had been freshly spread), so after Ed S. got two nails in his rear tire, we called it a day and headed back to Wheelworks for waffles.

Two Wheelworkers pioneered the waffle with fluff. The fluffle, if you will.

Can't wait for next month's ride!

Big Ring Rumpus

2010-06-07T18:26:00.005-04:00

I did my first race since October 2008 today, the Big Ring Rumpus. It's a mt bike race with a cyclocross category. Several of my Hup teammates came as well. The forecast looked awful (thunderstorms, tons of rain), so Ed and Elliot stayed at home. (Despite the name of the race, I did not use my big ring once!)

Chip, Hup New Belgium coordinator, set up a tent with his Lion of Flanders flag.

(photo by Chip)

My new Hup bottles! (photo by Chip)

There were 5 women racing cyclocross. The start was pretty fast and I did my best to hang on to the wheel of Christine from Quad Cycles. I was having a hard time staying on but went to the front to take my turn toward the end of the first 4-mile lap (of five). The course was super flat and fast (perfect for 'cross bikes) and the mud didn't slow things down much. Although we had gotten clear instructions beforehand that the finish chute was to the left and the way to to course for more laps was to the right, in my anaerobic state I went left (as did some mt bikers) and lost a lot of ground to Christine at the start of the second lap. I burned some matches trying to catch up and was with her for a little while, but it was only a matter of time before she rode me off her wheel. I kept getting passed by mt bikers from the sport category and hoped that I could hang on with one, but I didn't find any good candidates until halfway through the last lap. I got a little complacent sitting on and got passed by Michele from ECV very close to the finish. She had already raced the novice category on a mt bike earlier in the day! There was a twisty cyclocross-style chicane at the finish to make it easier to pick finish order, so as soon as Michele passed me I counter-attacked to stay ahead. There was no point in trying to cat-and-mouse the twisty finish (especially since I have no idea if I can sprint -- my sprinting muscles are TINY now). To my surprise, I stayed ahead of her and finished 2nd. Super fun and a great course!

(photo by Chip)

All my stuff was muddy, of course. As I spent an hour cleaning everything up and moving my things in from the car and trying to find something to eat (I was ravenous for the rest of the day) I remembered why we don't do this so often anymore. Racing is sooo much fun, but takes sooo much time. :)

I miss it though. It was so awesome to see many old friends (Jeff G, Eric M, Carl R, Mike/Cathy, Thom P, just to name a few). To get an idea of how fast the course was, check out out the second video in Thom's race report.

Happy early birthday, Ed

2010-06-06T18:17:00.002-04:00

We had a few friends over for dinner last night to celebrate Ed's birthday a few days early.

Babies! Elliot, Eva, and Elijah, in order of age.

Yum! Birthday cupcake.

Enjoying my camera

2010-06-03T18:48:00.003-04:00

I've been having lots of fun trying to get better photos with our DSLR. I was relying too heavily on aperture-priority for a while, so now I'm trying to branch out. But I'm still using the different auto settings.

A new high chair and sweet potatoes:

Some flattering late-afternoon light:

Elijah!

2010-06-02T18:27:00.000-04:00

On 5/14, our close friends Rachel and Josh welcomed a beautiful baby boy, Elijah. We went to his bris on 5/21. We feel so lucky to be part of this little guy's life and look forward to having lots of adventures with him!

3 days old.

At the bris:

Me and Elliot, Rachel and Elijah, Cara and Eva.

Visit from Po-po

2010-06-01T22:06:00.007-04:00

I am woefully behind on blogging. We recently had Elliot's Po-po (Chinese for "grandmother") and his Grandpa Roy come to visit all the way from Hawaii. We had so much fun with them. My mom is so great at getting Elliot to laugh! She is a baby comedian.

Elliot took his first subway ride!

And then his second, when we met up with Brad and Silas for a trip to the Harvard Natural History Museum. They were in town for Fiona's grad school reunion.

After the museum, we had Vietnamese food.

We did the Burlington Education Foundation 5k run/walk. Ed, Brad, and Kris ran, while Mom, Roy, and I walked. Elliot protested against the infant seat, so we had to take it off and spend some time reconfiguring the stroller after the start of the walk, which meant we were just about DFL. You know your "athletic career" is in trouble when you're worrying about whether or not you can complete a 5k walk in under an hour. :)

Mom discovered that Elliot thinks sideways people are HILARIOUS.

It was a wonderful visit. We hope Po-po and Grandpa Roy come back soon!

Bumbo!

2010-05-09T22:46:00.005-04:00

Our friend Matty B got us a Bumbo seat and we've had lots of fun with it.

Elliot has been hanging out in it while I eat breakfast. Onesie from Uncle Kevin.

Today, Elliot enjoyed some rice cereal. Ed tried to give him some on a couple other occasions, but this was the first time Elliot got excited about it.

Ed also gave him a haircut. I miss the crazy professor fluff on the right side, the Euro-mullet, and the Muppet tuft. But I have to admit the new look suits Elliot well.

Fashion show

2010-05-04T18:01:00.000-04:00

I never thought I would care about baby clothes, but dressing Elliot up is way more fun than I thought it would be.

Nice piece of glass

2010-05-03T18:18:00.000-04:00

I got a new (used) lens for our DSLR (we have an Olympus E-520 and the lens is a 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5) and got to try it out over the weekend. Here are some of the resulting photos. I love the lens!

Ed did a sprint triathlon at Hanscom AFB, where we swim. We found out less than 24 hours before that the swim team members were invited to participate.

Elliot and I spectated.

Later, we went to a Kentucky Derby party, a fundraiser for swim teammates of ours who are doing the Swim Around Key West in June. Ed got a seersucker sport coat for the occasion and we put together a costume for Elliot. Unfortunately we arrived after the "best dressed" contest was finished.

A couple of shots of Elliot on his playmat:

Birthday surprise

2010-05-02T21:06:00.004-04:00

We participated in a surprise birthday for my MIL, Elliot's grandma, last weekend. It went really well. Relatives came from as far away as LA and Baltimore, and I got to see my MIL's cute new house. Elliot's the only baby in the family right now so he got lots of cuddles.

Waffle Cross

2010-04-12T20:53:00.007-04:00

Some guys at Wheelworks had the brilliant idea to combine waffle making/eating and cyclocross into one event: Waffle Cross. It is definitely a case of the whole being more than the sum of its (incredibly awesome) parts. I went to the inaugural Waffle Cross on Sunday. Ed and Elliot came along for the waffles, but left before the ride.

First things first. I made a half-hearted attempt at gaufres de Liege, but it did not work. I was trying to take a shortcut with turbinado and waffle mix. I'm going to have to rethink this for the next Waffle Cross. The waffles were yummy, but they were not wafels. (Speaking of wafels, there's a Belgian street food place, Saus, opening in Faneuil Hall.)

I just joined a new-to-me team, HUP United, and I got to meet some of my awesome, friendly new teammates (Chip, Justin, and Jenn) and get my new kit. Check out Chip's excellent Waffle Cross write-up.

Photo borrowed from Andy Huff, Waffle Cross maestro:

Also from Andy:

My baby, he is fast:

Trying out mommy's bike:

We headed out on Concord Ave ('cross-worthy in its own right), where I promptly got dropped on the climb. Fortunately this was a fun, non-race-style ride so we regrouped at intersections. As Chip put it, "It wasn't attacking like on some group rides it was more just plain letting it rip because it was so cool to be on cross bikes with other riders who are just as stoked as you are about cross." I had so much fun getting to know everyone.

Photo borrowed from HUPper Jenn.

We went to Battle Road and rode it both ways.

I admit I was a little overconfident about Battle Road, which I've ridden many times on my road bike. But this was my third time outside on a bike since last October and I am sooo rusty. I know the fitness and bike-handling skills will come back, but yesterday I was having trouble turning, kept picking bad lines, etc. By the time we turned around and came back on Battle Road I was a little less sketchy. Then we went back to Concord Ave. We took a very nice detour through Rock Meadow and then back to Wheelworks. I was completely knackered but managed to ride home.

So fun. I can't wait to do it again next month!

Elliot at 1/6 G

2010-04-10T10:51:00.003-04:00

Visit from Grandma, Auntie Liz, and Uncle Brandon

2010-04-09T18:24:00.002-04:00

Elliot's Grandma, Auntie Liz, and Uncle Brandon visited on Sunday.

Here's Elliot in the 50-year-old overalls that Ed's uncles and Ed wore when they were babies.

We took Elliot to the park near our house.

Awesome play structure at the park. And Ed is pleased it predates the IAU downgrade of Pluto from planet status.

A great way to get drool in one's hair.

Sleepy from the trip to the park.

Elliot has a lot to say to Grandma.

Yummy cake! Rachel, Josh, my sister, and my BIL Brad joined us for dinner.

Dinosaur jammies, ready for bed!

Babysitting

2010-04-08T21:01:00.001-04:00

Uncle Brad and Auntie Kris babysat on Saturday and took some awesome photos of the little guy.

Swim meet video

2010-04-06T20:36:00.001-04:00

Ed and Elliot made it into a video about the New England SCY Champs! Look for them at around the 1:20 point.

Piano time

2010-04-03T21:51:00.002-04:00

I got home from work earlier this week to find Ed and Elliot enjoying some piano time. It reminded me of playing my family's old Hammond organ with my dad. We have an electric piano and Elliot particularly enjoys the harpsichord and organ settings.

Swim meet

2010-04-02T21:51:00.003-04:00

I did my first swim meet since 1996 last weekend. Ed and I competed at the New England Championships (short course yards) on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Elliot came along and was so good. He watched most of our events from the end of the lane. It was pretty cool to be swimming the breaststroke while seeing my two favorite guys cheering for me.

I didn't know how to come up with seed times, so I went to my local pool and swam all the events in one afternoon. It was only three weeks after I'd started swimming again (Elliot was 11 weeks old), so my times were so slow that I considered not entering. But I worked really hard leading up to the meet and blew away my seed times. Out of almost 1100 swimmers, I was the 9th worst seeder. :) I swam in 12 events (100 IM, 200 IM, 400 IM, 50 Free, 50 fly, 100 fly, 50 back, 100 back, 200 back, 50 breast, 100 breast, 200 breast). I also did 4 relays. It was exhausting. The overall distances per day were pretty short compared to what we do in practice, but it was tough to sit around all day (12 hrs on Saturday -- humans are not meant to be damp for that long) and get up every so often to do a very short, intense race. I'm sure holding a wiggly baby for half of that time didn't help either. It was so humid that Elliot's feet got prune-y.

I was pretty excited when I beat Ed's time in the 200 IM, but of course he shaved 20 seconds off his seed time when he swam the event after I did. This is just like xc skiing -- I get him to try a new sport, and then he gets better at it than I am. :) US Masters Swimming was giving a prize to all heat winners in the 200 IM. Ed and I both won our heats and got very nice USMS polo shirts that make us look like USMS employees.

Elliot was so interested in what was going on that he barely slept on the first day, but fortunately he was ready to nap a bit on the second day.

My guys!

Me with Elliot and our teammates' baby Annika. We swim for Minuteman Masters, so these are the Minutebabies! I found out a few weeks ago that one of the swimmers in my lane is pregnant and heard earlier this week that another woman in our lane is also pregnant. Exciting!

Here I am doing my favorite stroke, breaststroke. I really enjoyed swimming the IMs and fly as well.

Trip to McLean VA

2010-04-01T20:48:00.002-04:00

Last week, I traveled to NoVA for work. It was a three-day, two-night trip, which was too long to be away from Elliot. So Ed and Elliot both came along. (Ed is so awesome. Elliot and I are very lucky.) I was pretty nervous about the trip logistics, but everything went well. We were able to avoid checking luggage and had no trouble installing our car seat (which arrived safe and sound thanks to the fancy traveling bag we bought) in the rental car.

I managed to get a room at per diem at the Ritz-Carlton, so Ed joked with his friends that he was going to be my trophy wife for a few days. The room was, of course, lovely, and we were provided with a crib, fridge, and baby gift bag free of charge. (The gift bag included a diaper, bandaids, a small stuffed cat, a tub spout cover, and a bunch of other first aid/baby care items. Very thoughtful!)

Here, Elliot talks about his first airplane flight.

Brad and Fiona had us over for dinner and Elliot got to hang out with their two lovely kids.

Fist bump!

Ed, Elliot, Fiona, and Clare went to the Air and Space Museum annex at Dulles (the Udvar-Hazy Center). Ed was very excited about showing Elliot his first SR-71 and space shuttle, but of course Elliot slept through the whole thing.

Afterwards, Elliot enjoyed a luxurious lunch at the Ritz. Note the space shuttle jammies, which Ed wanted to make sure Elliot wore to the museum. We own these in 3 sizes. :)

We were so happy to be able to meet up with Ed's college friends Yvette and Dorian and their two sons, Cyrus and August. We hadn't seen them since the last college reunion when Yvette was very pregnant with August.

The flight back wasn't too bad, even though we flew at the "snitting hour" (as my friend Heather calls it -- right around 6 pm). We had the loveliest TSA employee help us out at security, as our enormous car seat would only go through the scanner if it was out of the bag and reclined at a 45-degree angle. He followed us through the checkpoint and gave us tips for future trips with the car seat.

So, everything went well, but between my meetings, having dinner with friends, catching up on work late at night, and traveling with a baby, we were pretty exhausted when we got home and had just one day to recover before our swim meet.

Rachel's baby party

2010-03-31T21:51:00.001-04:00

Our friends Craig and Neilie came back to visit from Buffalo the weekend before last and we had a lovely party (hosted by our friends Jennie and Marc) for Rachel, Josh, and their baby (due in May).

Here Elliot shows off the very nice madras shirt that he got from Rachel.

Elliot got to see his friend Eva.

Rachel got some awesome hand knits from Jennie!

Elliot loves the kangaroo carry.

Before school, after school

2010-03-30T21:56:00.004-04:00

Here's Elliot getting ready for "school" a couple of weeks ago.

And here's a post-"school" nap with his dad, taken before I got home from work.

The sweater vest

2010-03-14T19:55:00.005-04:00

Finally, we have alignment of: sweater vest fit, a St. Patrick's day party, and the acquisition of an Oxford shirt. The pin says, "Kiss Me! I'm 1/8 Irish."

Best birthday ever

2010-03-08T22:42:00.004-05:00

Ed made a lovely birthday dinner and we celebrated with our friends Cara, Euge, Rachel, and Brad (my BIL). We had two kinds of pie and cupcakes. :) And Elliot got to see his friend Eva, Cara and Euge's lovely 5-week-old daughter. So fun.

Photo catch-up

2010-03-08T22:36:00.003-05:00

Crazy post-bath hair

2010-02-17T21:49:00.000-05:00

Sleepy boy

2010-02-16T21:47:00.001-05:00

Spiky

2010-02-07T19:33:00.006-05:00

As you can see, Elliot comes by his spiky hair honestly.

I started blogging about my first week back at work and Elliot's first week in day care, but when I reread my post I was totally boring myself. Suffice it to say that things are going pretty well, and that none of us are surprised that Elliot got his first cold on Friday. I got it too, but we both slept a lot this weekend and are on the mend.

Maternity/paternity leave is over

2010-02-02T19:59:00.002-05:00

Post and photo by Ed.

Elliot's first day of "school."
Model student.
Favorite subjects: nap time, snack time.

Visits from grandparents

2010-01-24T22:41:00.002-05:00

My dad left earlier today to go back home. Elliot and I are so sad.

Here are a few more pics of Elliot with Grandpa.

Yesterday, Ed's mom joined us for dinner. Here she is with Elliot.

My dad took this pic during one of our many sessions in which I would try, and fail, to get Elliot to smile for the camera.

Gifts for the newly pregnant

2010-01-21T11:33:00.005-05:00

One of my friends asked for gift suggestions for a newly pregnant friend. Here's what I came up with.

A pre-natal exercise DVD. (I used this DVD, which was pretty good but more stretching than cardio. )

Earth Mama Angel Baby Pregnancy Pampering Kit - Occasionally they sell for $20 at babysteals.com. I love this company's products and used several of them during and after pregnancy.

My MIL got me the Mother's Special Blend Skin Toning Oil after Elliot was born. I love it, despite the cheesy packaging, and it's supposed to prevent stretch marks.

A gift certificate for a pre-natal massage.

Bath stuff from Lush.

The Baby Love book -- I like it because the photographs are beautiful and the advice is calm and practical. It helped me feel like taking care of a baby might be doable.

Gift certificate for dinner -- since she won't be able to do that as much after the baby arrives.

A nice bottle of wine or champagne that she can drink after she gives birth.

I personally am not into this, but have a couple of friends who made belly casts.

Maternity/nursing pajamas - this brand is recommended by a blogger I like (Amalah).

An exercise ball - good for sitting on during pregnancy and labor, as well as bouncing the baby and exercising after birth.

Bella Band - holds up maternity pants that are too big and regular clothes that are too small. Also keeps the midsection hidden (and warm) while nursing.

Tummy time at Isis Maternity

2010-01-21T08:28:00.001-05:00

I took this on the last day (yesterday) of my Great Beginnings class. Elliot seems to prefer this set-up to what we have at home.

Photos by Grandpa

2010-01-20T00:18:00.001-05:00