Love Bug

When my dad was visiting last month for Riesling birthday he started calling her "Love Bug."  It's really the perfect fit for her little personality right now.  She is particularly into giving hugs.  She will just stop in the middle of playing or reading a book and give reach in for a hug.  She makes this cute little awww noise and tilts her head and chin to the side.  It's the cutest thing pretty much ever.  She will then just continue on with whatever she was doing and stop a few minutes later for another hug.

She loves snuggling up in your lap, even for a brief second, but it's like the happiest second of her life.  She grins and looks so pleased.  It's funny to watch her try to back up to sit down on your lap, and even funnier when she doesn't judge it quite right and misses.

She is also big on hugging all her toys, books, stuffed animals, pieces of paper...you name it, she'll hug it.  Also ridiculously adorable. Her newest thing is leg hugs.  These seem to be particularly prevalent after she has been away from you for an extended period of time.  Extended periods of time in a baby world is amount 10 minutes. I'm telling you this kid is all about showing her affection and making sure those around her feel the love.

This apparently she is also means other children, even those whom she has never meant before.  While we were visited our dear friends, The Levin family, a few weekends back she was all about their son Jacob.  He's a stunningly handsome 5 year old so I thought she was just all about the older boy thing.  She wanted to hug him any chance she got.  Well today I took Riesling to a story time at our local Barnes & Noble for the first time.  She must have hugged a dozen babies, toddler, and preschoolers.  She's so sweet about it but the kids seem to be caught off guard and don't know how to react.  Most just give this weird glare over their shoulder trying to see if their mom is around to save them.  Only one little baby cried.  Oh little Love Bug what am I going to do with you?

November 22

Tomorrow is a big day in these parts.  Of course we'll be giving thanks and stuffing our bellies at Thanksgiving dinner with the rest of America, but in addition Jim and I will be celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary AND it happens to be Miss Riesling 9 month birthday. 

As far as our anniversary, no cards or gifts have been agreed upon.  Just endless amounts of love, gratitude, and respect (Aawww).  Our first anniversary we took a weekend trip to NYC knowing it wouldn't be a yearly thing.  I'm happy to do something small and meaningful each year (and maybe hit up Hawaii on one of the big ones!) We are planning a family hike and picnic at the park surrounding the restaurant where we were married later in the weekend, weather permitting. Past anniversaries:

One year

Two years

Three years

Riesling is so close to walking.  She even took 2 steps by herself yesterday before tumbling forward on her knees.  Although I doubt it will happen, a 9 month birthday does sound like the perfect time to become a biped. She's become more and more kid & less and less baby.  There is so much I love about each new stage and she keeps me too busy to miss any of the stuff that is already part of her little past. 

 Just lounging with a little after dinner drink

Confessions of Love

It's hard to believe you can love someone so much in such a short period of time. It took years and years for Jim and I to develop a soul deep, loving relationship that we thought deserved the vows of marriage and an eternity together. Yet just 1 week, 485 pictures, 68 diapers, and 81 feedings later I find my heart filled with more love than I could imagine....

Holiday Gala: Chiro Edition

The last time I hosted a holiday party was with my roommates and some close friends back in chiropractic school. It was quite the extravagant affair. Since everyone was always wearing sweats pants and rarely at their best during class time, we decided to make it mandatory to dress up nice and fancy. You know holiday dresses & sparkles for the ladies and a shirt and tie for all the men. We had it catered with little stuffed mushrooms and nice hors d'oeuvres. There was lots of wine, special holiday 'jungle juice' and even a bartender. Like I said, fancy! It was also the very special night of Jim's first proposal....

The story goes that at some point during the evening I was taking trash out to the garage where a group was gathered. Jim was amongst the gang. Jim was so amazed that not only was I hosting the party and wearing a skirt and heels, but I was also taking out the trash. He was so amazed in fact that he was moved to the point of asking for my hand in marriage. This of course was all in good, drunken fun because we weren't even dating then. It was in fact almost a year later before he pursued any romantic interests with me. We even have a terrible little video that night of us reenacting his proposal. I unfortunately can not figure out how to download it, so a few pictures of the evening will have to suffice.

Three.

Yesterday marked three years of marriage.
We celebrated with heart shaped grilled cheese and tomato soup.
True romance never dies.

Points on a wonderful wife

(edit. Jim accidentally posted this on my blog last night instead of his. It now rightfully appears on The Garden Club, but I thought I'd leave it here too. It makes me happy. Jim makes me happy)

I just got back from the Phillies game with my wife, Rachelle. Rachelle, when you read this I want you to know that I love you very very much. My wife and friend. You are the only person that I can hold a conversation with for more than 30 minutes. I don't know how you tolerate my wackiness sometimes. I see you, looking at me with slightly squinty eyes, wanting to tell me what to do but allowing me to make my own decision like a big boy, like a grown up, like I should. I know you see me look up at you with my head bowed down while I try to read your expression to see if I should continue with my decision. Sometime ago I was putting on my dress socks. They had a little hole in them over the big toe. Rachelle can not stand for holy socks. She has consistently thrown away perfectly wearable socks because of a few minor holes. No one sees my stockinged feet but you baby! Anyway as I'm putting the socks on I catch myself looking to see if she's watching me, feeling guilty about wearing these unacceptable socks but knowing if I can get my shoes on before she sees I can be home free for the rest of the day. She didn't catch me that time but she has in the past.

Rachelle, your musical knowlage has grown significantly in the time we've been together. Whenever I ask her "who sings this" and she doesn't know, she knows to guess The Grateful Dead, probably because they have multiple singers and a lot of different sounds which makes them hard to identify unless you know the song. I would say she is about 75% correct in playing our game and can nail all Beatles and Dylan songs. Tonight she missed on CSN's Suite Judy Blueeyes, but had acceptable guesses with The Dead and The Allmans. Nicely done Rachelle, but I do love to stump you now and then.

She is unbeatable at connect 4, also known as "four in a row". Overall, she is surprising smart. Up until recently I think I thought in the back of my head she was barely literate because she is from Ohio and Ohio seems like a very red neck place to be from. I don't know how much they work on reading skills instead of picking corn or fixing cars out there. But I can not beat her at connect 4. One game she could have beat me three different ways! It was like I was a toddler. There was a 9 year old little boy I used to babysit at the Quaker meeting who could beat me at Guess Who every time. That little kid was impressive. I wish I could find him and make him play, and beat, Rachelle in a board game war. That would wipe that smug grin off her face. Haha, you have no such grin Rachelle, only a beautiful smile! Haha.

Best of all, she is always watching out for me. She made me understand that using the same pair of tweezers to pluck my unibrow as to pick the ticks out of SoFee was a bad idea. My arguement was that the tweezers never touched my skin, but she pointed out that they were only 99 cents at the supermarket and it probably wasn't worth the risk of slipping and jabbing a pair of tick infested tweezers into my forehead. Good one chelle.

You are clean and healthy, tidy and interesting. You give excellent advice and still listen to all my blabber. All in all Rachelle you are my favorite person in life.

Pioneer Woman

Last night I finally finished up the sweet and endearing love story of accidental country girl, Ree Drummond aka Pioneer Woman.