July Rocks

Why is that when I finally have some time and energy to devote to blogging, there's really nothing interesting going on... and when it was all interesting, I had no time to write about it? The trick is to set aside blogging time (don't you love the notion of "setting aside" time, as if it's this piece of dark chocolate that you'll savor on the couch tonight at 11:00 even though what you really want to do is crash in your bed and sleep like the dead?). Anyway, since Ed's last written, it's been a great July. I've visited friends in Pittsburgh (first city that I've been to that Ed hasn't since we've been married), and my mom flew the red eye from the Northwest to spend a few days with us. (Do you know that until I was 21, my mom NEVER flew on a plane? And the only reason she faced her phobia was because I was lying in a Nevada hospital after a nasty car wreck - and now, she's flying all over - I say all this because we were and are SOOO thrilled to have family visit. Mom, if you run into any other family members or friends, please tell them how comfortable your stay was an how the humidity really wasn't that bad. Then, send them to the jetblue.com link to buy tickets.)

While my mom was here, we celebrated Jack's 2nd birthday. I imagined that since we were on the other side of the country, that we'd have relatively few presents for him. FALSE ASSUMPTION. Starting five days before his birthday, the packages started coming, one after another. And even though the presents were awesome, all of which Jack loves, just having so many return addressess of various family members made it feel like papa, grandpa, nana, pop pop, aunt Lisa, uncle Steve, Elijah, aunt Bev, Uncle Paul, Conor, Ryan, aunt April, uncle Frank, Lily, Daisy, and Uncle Bryan were that much closer to us. That's the real present. I think if everyone were actually here, gaging Jack's overwhelming exuberance around my mom, he'd pass out from excitement. We received so many presents that I decided to stager the gifts throughout the day in order to avoid overwhelming Jack. My dad bought and sent us a new digital camera (after Jack dropped our other one too many times), so we took a ton of pictures lately (some of which are posted). Our cups overfloweth.

I realized, after a soggy fourth of July, that July is going to be the best month EVER. Not only is July 4th my absolutely favorite holiday, I won't even have time to be sad about the fireworks being over before we are getting ready to celebrate Jack's birthday. The idea that I can get so genuinely thrilled about my kid's birthday is one of those things that trumps all the other inconvenient exhaustions that come with parenting.

Oh, the pictures (thanks, again, Dad). The first one is of Jack in Boston Commons, trying run away from George Washington; the second is the us on the bridge above the Swan Boats (yes, Ed has lost weight; and, yes, he looks great); the third is Jack hugging my mom at Hull Beach where we spent the morning of Jack's birthday(wait... emotional stablization in process... miss you, mom); the fourth is Jack the morning of his birthday, in p.j.'s and in the new coat nana & pop pop sent that we had to bribe Jack out of despite the 80 degree/80% humidity temperature ( at 9:00 am, mind you); and the last picture is, well obvious. What isn't so obvious is the five toddler-size index finger holes on the other side of the "2" candle.