Vim &Vigor

Charlotte is nearly back to her old self. She awoke from her congested state and began rewarding us with the fun that is a 4-month-old. She was always a smiley baby, but now she gurgles and babbles and razzes (think: plthththhtthh!). Her lips are clearly her newest plaything. I think tonight we may give some rice cereal a try.

Like the Hollywood Walk of Fame....Only With Frosting

We took a walk today and stopped in for lunch at Nickell's & Sheffler, where we heard Harry's photo was tucked in the window display. We got there and I looked and looked, thinking it was probably propped near the bottom of the casing. Then I looked up. Harry's frosting covered face was staring right at us, hanging larger than life with two other pictures smack in the middle of the window. I asked Harry if he knew who the poster child was. He said "it's baby." But I'm pretty sure his own identity eluded him. Hey...the kid was bald, a miniature Kojak. I totally understand.

We celebrated his 15-seconds of fame by going in and purchasing a red velvet cupcake with vanilla frosting. Harry let me have about one bite.

The Fat Envelope

Forget the Lotto. We need to go to Vegas and see out this unexplained winning streak. I returned home from Harry's playgroup this afternoon and began to dig in the unopened mail. I'd heard that letters had gone out from Washington Street Methodist Preschool, another one of our favored spots. And there was the letter. And there were the words..."We're very pleased to inform you...."

How can it be? Maybe we have a little preschool fairy looking down on us. I feel so blessed and at the same time so crummy that our luck is not being shared by everyone we know. I remember so clearly dropping off the application at Washington Street. The place was jammed with moms. Everyone was writing checks and bemoaning the odds. I felt positively doomed. Right now I'm just flat out stunned.

I'm Alive

"...And the world changed for me today.... Suddenly I am here today. Seems like forever. Thought I could never feel this great. Is this really me? I'm alive!..."

OK, I didn't say it, ELO did in that cheese-o, cult rock-musical Xanadu (watch this clip at your own risk..man I miss the 80s!). Feel like getting your Olivia Newton-John on? Well I did this morning when I woke up with clearing sinuses and an infant who had bright eyes and a smile for the first time in days. If life had a soundtrack, this would be mine today. So turn up your speakers, lace-on those roller skates (leg warmers optional) and join me in a little 80s groove. I'm alive!

Bring Out Your Dead....!

That's pretty much us, a parody of a parody courtesy Monty Python. If you don't know the very funny scene from The Meaning of Life -- as the dead are picked up from doorsteps and hauled away in a wheelbarrow, then you have to give it a watch. Because as they take one last poor pathetic soul away he peeps his head up and says "I'm not dead."
"Oh yes you are," explains the guy tossing him on the cart.

Well, we're not dead yet...but it's feeling close. I now also have an ear infection (we're three for four folks! And no, they're not contagious.) and sinus pain to beat the band. Charlotte went back to the doctor this morning for good measure (terrified as we are that her cough will morph into pneumonia and we won't be the wiser. It has not.). The doctor tells us this is the worst wave of winter respiratory ick they've seen in a long time. Indeed it seems like everyone we know has it or has had it. Or like us just keeps passing it back and forth between family members.

Last night a girlfriend dropped some beef stew off. She'd made extra and thought we might enjoy it (it was indeed delicious Annie!), but unwilling to come near our house of assumed germs she literally knocked on the door, handed Paul her efforts and beat a hasty retreat. As Paul rightly suggested, it's starting to feel like the villagers with pitchforks and lit torches are going to come knocking with a big bottle of hand sanitizer.

Cupcake Part Deux

When Harry turned one (nearly a year ago!), I hosted our playgroup for a little cupcake fest. I purchased said cupcakes from a shop in Old Town Alexandria called Nickell's & Sheffler. Harry so loved the cuppies that I emailed the owners a few pictures of him in a frosting coma. Yesterday Susan Sheffler got in touch with me to report that she's posted the pictures of our cupcake monster in her shop's front window. I can't wait to go take a look! So if you're walking down to the waterfront (my fellow locals), stop in to N&S for a cupcake and keep an eye out for Harry.

Ear Infections, Hot Pizza and Hollywood Memories

OK, so we didn't win the lottery. We were home last night, still battling illnesses (Charlotte is the latest recipient of an ear infection, right on the heels of her brother), to watch the Oscars. The incredible (Anne Hathaway!) and not-so incredible (Meryl Streep) dresses, the moronic banter, the cheering, wanna-be throngs on the red carpet at the Kodak theater....makes me homesick for my years in Los Angeles.

The festivities were cause for some culinary gymnastics. I thought Harry might enjoy his first peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. HIS sandwich, not a bite, but his own. So I carefully cut off the crusts and explained to him the miracle that is the marriage of peanut butter and jelly. For the occasion I even gave him a glass of milk (not in a sippy cup but a plastic glass...) Harry took one bite, looked at me askance and then swept the sandwich onto the floor for his buddy Typo to eat. Apparently we don't like PB&J as much as our mother.

So, I engaged Harry in a little cupcake baking. No uncertainty there. Before Harry went off for his nap he said "night night" to his "cuppies" still rising in the oven. He awoke to the glory that is homemade frosting. For the Oscars we celebrated with some homemade pizza. Ever true to his Italian heritage, Harry helped me roll out the dough and actually did a good job sprinkling the pie with cheese and placing the meatball slices just so. It was very yum. The meal, however, did not help our favorite recovering drug addict -- Robert Downey Jr. secure a win for Tropic Thunder. Perhaps he likes PB&J.