It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve had a chance to sit down and write.  As it is, I am ignoring a pesky stack of belated grading, but I figure…it’s not going anywhere.

November was a busy but wonderful month.  I LOVE Thanksgiving!  We had three delicious dinners over the course of the week, and each was wonderful.  On the Saturday before, my whole family got together for our traditional feast.  Having everyone together is getting more and more difficult, so these times with the whole fam are precious!

We took our traditional Christmas picture, which is becoming more and more of a challenge: this year we had two additional family members to add to the mix.  My sister-in-law-to-be Katy is lovely and photogenic, so she didn’t add any complications, but Abby proved to be a tough subject to capture.  Finally!  I’m not the one messing up all the shots!  Getting the photo took the typical two separate attempts, and in keeping with precedent, the “winner” was taken in the front yard of my parents’ home.  So, after several false starts…

We ended up with all 9 of us looking fabulous!  Laura the Photographer has succeeded again!

Later on in the week, we took Abby on her longest road trip to date- four hours to East Texas to visit her great-great grandmother!  Our family matriarch is almost 97 years old, and she still lives at home in Emory, Texas, which provided the inspiration for Abby’s name.  Abby traveled beautifully in her car seat, and slept well in her pack-and-play on her first night away from home.

Speaking of sleeping, Abby is still pretty resistant to daytime sleep, although she’s improving somewhat.  She takes several short naps throughout the day- usually no more than an hour at a time.  I would love to see her consolidate these sleeps into a couple of really long nap times, but we’ll see.  I’m not really sure how to go about engineering that.  For now, I take what I can get, although my productivity is questionable (see previous post).  Her nighttime sleeping is about the same as it has been for a couple of months- she goes to be about 9 and sleeps until 6 or 7, with one feeding some time in the wee hours of the morning.  Abby is able to put herself to sleep easily at bedtime, and she goes immediately back to sleep after she eats, so I can’t complain one bit.

We’re still using FuzziBunz, and the hassle of laundry is really not a big deal.  I feel like I’m doing laundry around the clock as it is, so I don’t really notice one extra load per day of diapers.  I actually kind of like diaper loads because they’re easy to fold, unlike my normal loads of baby stuff!  Yes, they sometimes leak, but so do her Pampers.  My main complaint about the cloth diapers (and I’d love to hear input from you CD moms out there) is that Abby’s pants don’t fit over them.  So right now we only wear FB when we’re at home (or out for short trips) when I don’t usually deck her out in real “outfits” anyway.  But they are super cute, aren’t they?

Stephen was kind enough to give me an afternoon at the house by myself to decorate our house for Christmas.  Last year parts of the house were still under construction, so this year I enjoyed getting to deck ALL of our halls!  I love, love, love Christmas decorations, and it’s especially fun to be figuring out how to decorate a room for the first time.  All the possibilities!  I volunteered to host our small group’s Christmas party just to  make sure that I got all of my decorating done, which was a great incentive and deadline.  (The party was fun, too!)

We also enjoyed a fun Thanksgiving day with the Watson side of the family.  Abby is the youngest of six grandkids on that side, so Watson get-togethers are always loud and rowdy fun!  We also took a family picture, which was even more of a challenge with so many kiddos!  We took pictures at a nearby park, so the kids got to run around and let off steam between poses.  It worked!  We got a several great ones, thanks to my sister-in-law Sandy, who is our resident photo-genius.  Unfortunately, I do not have those pictures on my computer, so you can’t see them.  What you can enjoy is this picture of Stephen trying to teach Abby how to play dominoes.  You can see she shares my enthusiasm for 42.

Last weekend a couple of us girls from my small group got together to learn how to make bread.  So fun!  One of the ladies in our group is a terrific homemaker and she’s done lots of baking for her five kids, who are now mostly grown.  Another young mom and I enjoyed a few hours sitting in Carol’s kitchen, sipping on coffee and tea, tending our babies, and taking turns mixing ingredients and kneading dough!  The final result was a delicious loaf of whole-wheat bread.  I served my bread with some beef stew for dinner that night and patted myself on the back for days at the delicious accomplishment!

So Abby is taking after her mother in terms of her oral fixations.  I always swore I wouldn’t let my kids suck their thumbs, since it’s caused me so much difficulty (I have always believed that I started nail-biting as a substitute behavior).  BUT, self-soothing is such a wonderful thing, I’m letting it go.  After all, 27 years from now, Abby can always wear fake nails.

I’ve loved being back at work.  Sometimes I feel guilty for enjoying it so much, but so far I’ve felt like my work/home balance has worked out beautifully.  Abby has a team of very loving and attentive babysitters, and so I know that she is happy and well-tended while I’m away.  Teaching is a role that is familiar and comfortable, and it’s nice to get to wear that hat for a few hours every morning.  I know that maintaining balance will become more difficult as Abby gets bigger, but for now we’re in a good place.

Speaking of school, our faculty Christmas party was last weekend.  Stephen and I left Abby with his parents for the evening, and we had so much at one of our first nights away since Abby was born. We got all dressed up in our festive clothes and enjoyed hours lingering over delicious food and drinks with friends.

For those of you who are not so keen on the math, Abby is three and a half months old.  She seems so big, especially when I look back at pictures that are just weeks old!  She is getting more expressive and interactive every day, which I am loving.  She will play with toys in her bouncer and on her activity mat, and she is developing a strong grip.  She’s not rolling over yet, but she’s trying!  We’ll see the pediatrician again at the end of this month, and I’m going to ask him about a plan to start introducing some solid foods (I’m thinking of trying around month 5).  We’ve had no trouble with her feeding so far, but I’m looking forward to introducing her to some variety, mainly just to give me some flexibility when we’re on the go.

We have about a week and a half left of school, and we’re looking forward to some time off.  Stephen’s two jobs keep him very busy, and holidays are lovely times to enjoy hanging out at the house as a family.  I’m looking forward to leisurely mornings, tag-team housecleaning, holiday shopping, and, catching up with family and friends over peppermint Mochas at Starbucks.

My sibs and I have never had much in the way of extended family.  We have had sets of doting grandparents, one uncle on each side, and one cousin, who is several years older than I am.  But when it comes to a Home Alone-style family, with lots of aunts and uncles and cousins running around, we’ve always missed out.

Well, I always forget, but I do have an extended family on my dad’s side if you trace back up the tree far enough, and we see them about once every 10 years.  This past weekend the relatives threw a surprise party for Aunt Margie’s 80th birthday, and so we made an appearance.

My grandfather (dad’s dad) had three siblings, and this was a gathering of all of their descendants.  Almost everyone lives in Houston and gets together pretty regularly, but we are the “distant” cousins in more ways than one.  Stephen was busy, so I rode to Houston with my parents, and we met up with my grandma and one of my sisters along the way.

My camera battery died before we even arrived at the party (I was taking pictures of Abby with my grandmother and uncle), so I’m having to use my words to record some snapshots of the afternoon’s festivities:

The party is at Doctor Steve’s house.  (He’s a chiropractor, and I’ve never heard a complete explanation of why his entire family addresses him by his title, but they do.)   As we pull into the driveway, Laura and I make a pact to never leave the other alone in a conversation.  Laura breaks this pact twice, but it turns out okay.

Speaking of nicknames, no one in the “first generation” is known by their real name.  The older siblings refer to each other as Brother and Sister.  My grandfather was called “Babe” for his entire life.  Brother is called Kuncle (k + uncle) by everyone else, and his wife is called Honey.  Laura and I are slightly embarrassed when we are the only ones who say her real name when we sing “Happy Birthday” to her.

Dad holds Abby and leads our procession to the front door.  He is greeted and hugged enthusiastically; I wonder if he feels like a little boy again when he is surrounded by doting aunts and cousins.

The rest of us are welcomed with equal warmth; although they know nothing about who I am, they know that I belong to Babe and Sara, and that I’m Mike’s oldest girl.  This is enough for me to get the family treatment, and I wish that everyone had a nametag so that I could respond more appropriately with something more than a smile and a generic greeting.

In fact, I wish that everyone had a nametag with a family tree on it, so I could see where they fit in the puzzle and make more personal small talk.  As it is, Laura and I sit in lawn chairs and make a game out of trying to guess who goes with whom.

Our very cute and perky cousin Sophie is flitting around documenting the day with her camera and helping all the older generations troubleshoot theirs.  My last memory of this girl is at a Christmas party thirteen years ago.  She was about four, and she ate all the radishes off of the veggie tray.

There are little kids everywhere.  Folks who ask look a little surprised when they find out that I’m 27 and only have the one little baby.

Does everyone go to reunions and think that theirs is the most normal branch of the family?

Laura holds Abby for a while, and while she is rocking her, three different relatives come by to snap our picture.  I’m pretty sure that no one will remember that the baby belongs to me.

We had been told to wear fall colors so that we coordinate for the picture, so I selected one of Abby’s cutest outfits,a brown jumper with light blue pants and little matching fake-Mary-Jane socks.  The jumper has blue hearts and bows on it, so I judge my cousin when he asks,
“What is his name?”
“Abigail,” I respond.
Kevin doesn’t even look apologetic, and he smiles, “Oh, she’s a girl.  I guess I’m not used to seeing girls in brown.”
(I am wearing a brown shirt, but whatever.)

One of the last activities of the party is the family picture.  We’re one of the last ones to hike across the yard, so we get a good look at everyone standing together, ranging all over the normal/awkward scale.  Dad snickers to Laura and I, “There’s your gene pool.”

Everyone wants a picture on their own camera.  The photographer is the friendly Indian neighbor, and he good-naturedly obliges.
“Get closer,” he urges as he prepares to take the first shot.
“Pretend like you love each other,” someone jokes from the front row.
“Pretend like you know each other,” Laura and I joke under our breaths as we squeeze closer.

On the way home, we debrief, pooling our memories to answer the questions and make the comments that no one wanted to say out loud at the party: whose hair is natural, who used to be married to whom, what happened to various BabyMamas/ BabyDaddies, whose awkwardness can be explained medically, which adult children were still living with their parents, whose gut has grown the most since we’ve last met.  It takes a while, but we get it sorted out.

After a brief silence in the car, Dad comments, “Isn’t it great to be part of a family?”  At first we laugh, but then we realize that he is right.  Even when we don’t know them, even when we think they’re super unusual, there is something special about those people who share our names and bits of our DNA.  So, we answer, “Yes, it is,” and we mean it.

Big girl in her Bumbo seat.

You can admire her lovely orange FuzziBunz from this angle.  No, I don’t make her wear pants around the house.  What can I say…she does not get that from me.

All that sitting up got tiring.

For those of you who have only seen Abby when she’s sleeping…here is proof that she does in fact have eyeballs.  And they’re blue, for now!

This is her polite smile.

And here she’s really cracking up.  It’s too bad you can’t hear the accompanying sounds…it’s super cute!

Here’s Abby snoozing in the chair that makes me covet her life– a thick, ultra-silky blanket nest in a bouncing chair.  I would totally buy this in an adult size if I could.  Of course, the adult version wouldn’t need the spit rag standing by.

A family self-portrait.

My first camera was pink and had a picture of Mickey Mouse on it.  It was the kind where you  had to buy an expensive attachment if you wanted to have a flash, and it was only good for ten flashes or so.  Plus, you had to pay to get film developed, so I remember my mom instructing me on making every shot count.

Fast forward about fifteen years, and picture rationing has gone the way of walking across the room to change the TV channel.  Now that everyone and their brother carries a digital camera around in their back pocket, picture overload is a much more common dilemma.

In the spring I worked on a scrapbook of our family trip to Germany.  Of the ten people in our group, at least five had a camera with them at any given monument.  Each cameraperson took a few shots of everything to try to get the best angle.  Click, click, click…that was blurry…a guy walked in front of my shot…now one with all of the siblings…now one with Mom and Dad in it…now one with just Alan and Katy…oh, hold up your ring and let me make sure it’s in the picture…well, you get the idea.

By the time we got home, we had literally hundreds, maybe a thousand pictures of our ten days overseas.  It took forever to sort through them all, distinguish the poor from the good from the better, and select just a lucky few to represent our trip.

Fast forward a few months, and picture these diligent documentarians in the presence of their first daughter/nice/granddaughter.  Oh, my!  Everything Abby did was new, or cute, or hard to capture on camera, so from her first weeks at home we ended up with–again–hundreds of precious images!  There were so many, it was  hard to really even enjoy them all.  Rationally, I know there’s really only so many pictures we need of those first yawns and snuggles with our various family members.  But how is a loving mom to cull the photos?

Even the pictures that are blurry or poorly lit can be hard to delete.  These photos represent moments of Abby’s life that we’ll never get back again!  Even if she’s making a weird face–not the one we meant to catch–it’s hard to get rid of it.  (Of course, if I am in the picture making a weird face, or looking excessively bloated, the choice was much easier.)

Anyway, the Germany scrapbook eventually came together, and just a few days ago, I got the bulging photo folders in My Pictures pared down to a representative hundred or so.  But it wasn’t without a few regretful scrolls through the recycle bin!

I started by making five or six sub-folders, so that I could divide the pictures up and look at a manageable number at a time.  Then I arranged “like” pictures side-by-side: all six images of Stephen dressing Abby in her coming home outfit.  Of those, I picked one that was the best.  Or sometimes I’d decide I really didn’t need a picture of Stephen dressing Abby in her coming home outfit at all, and all six would be deleted.  Hitting the delete button took some determination, but I feel a great sense of accomplishment now that it’s done.

Now I have a few great pictures that are easy to enjoy and share, and I have plenty of space on my hard drive for all of the cute faces and occasions that are coming up just around the corner!

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Follow up-  My mom and I were discussing this overwhelming problem the other day, and we decided that one good technique is to sort through pictures long after they were taken, so that you are not as emotionally tied to each one.  In hindsight, many lovely medieval buildings actually look basically the same.  It’s easier to get rid of the three or four versions of “Alan holds Abby at the hospital” when we’ve since taken several other lovely pictures of Abby with her dear uncle.  Just a little tip in case anyone else struggles with the same issue!  Meanwhile, I’m trying to break the habit of snapping three pictures of every sweet scene I’m trying to capture.

As much fun as traveling is, there’s nothing like coming home.  I’ve been back for a week now, and I’ve been especially thankful for:

1.  Free ice water.  I hate drinking water, but I have never had a hard time getting it when I wanted/needed it.  Overseas, drinking water is like liquid gold!  I’d taken for granted how easy (and cheap!) it is to get nice, cold, icy water to drink with my meals, and how easily water is to be found anywhere.  In Germany, we’d look at a restaurant menu to find these drink options:  beer- 2 Euros; Coke- 3 Euros; water- 6 Euros.  Even then, they usually meant carbonated water.  How do people stay hydrated?

2.  Free Refills.  Very similar to before–I love the luxury of paying for a drink (or not, in the case of water) at a restaurant and getting to drink as much of it as I want.  Rationing 6 oz. of lukewarm Coke throughout a whole meal is no fun!

3.  Fresh Air.  Generally I resent government intrusion into private lifestyle choices, but I have to say–I did not even realize it, but I have grown accustomed to going throughout my daily life without ever breathing in secondhand smoke.  A person gets used to unlimited lungfuls of sweet air… and you don’t even notice what a treat it is until you get behind someone blowing their ciggies at you on the street.

4.  Space.  It’s everywhere!  In my kitchen, in my bathroom sink, in my car, on the side of the road, on the sidewalk… well, you get the idea.  Everything in Europe is tiny!  I literally sat on the toilet lid to spit into the sink in the bathroom of our rental apartment, and I got the impression that that was pretty much status quo.  It was like life in an IKEA demo flat.  I like walking three abreast down the sidewalk and not having someone fall into the oncoming traffic.  I like riding high in my roomy SUV.  I like walking through doorways that wouldn’t knock a hat off of my head.

5.  Home cooking.  I’ve never been an adventurous eater, and even traveling to a church potluck for lunch is a stretch for me.  So eating in a place with different normals is always an adventure!  Having TH in tow makes me even more sensitive to strange tastes and smells.  I’m embarrassed to remember how giddy and excited I got on the drive to Munich when we stopped to eat at a McDonald’s.  Chicken nuggets!  French fries!  Just like I remembered them!  It’s nice to be back in familiar territory.

6.  Parking spaces.  The exercise was great, but it’s also nice to be able to drive straight to my destination and park ten feet away from the front door.  Without worrying about getting a ticket or having to parallel park.

7.  The English Language.  It’s empowering to be able to read menus, road signs, advertisements, and instructions.

8.  Radio.  Sorry, Ace of Base is soooo 80’s.  That was the only sort of American music we could find to listen to on our car trips.  No wonder people still hate Americans.

9.  Not the metric system.  No more kilometers, meters, or liters!  Back to measurements that make sense to me!

10.  No Dogs Allowed.  As much as I love my two pooches, it’s nice to go shopping or eat at a restaurant without someone else’s pet underfoot.  While all of these shop dogs were very well behaved, it was weird to see them out and about like their human masters.

*Notice that my list does not include history, architecture, tradition, scenery, or recycling.  Those (minus the recycling) were the highlights of the trip for me, and even my dear old Waco, Texas can’t hold a candle to its German counterparts in those areas.  Maybe in 2000 years.

The emergence of the bump is a relatively new phenomenon…it’s kind of fun!  So that I can really have my cake and eat it too, little TH is riding high enough that even at four months, I’m still very comfortable in all of my regular-fit pants.  TH knows his way into his mother’s good graces already!

It made it especially convenient when it came to packing for the next week, when we are taking TH on his very first vacation!  This is a combination awesome family vacation and final pre-baby jaunt.  We’re heading with my whole fam to Heidelberg, Germany for seven days.  Now TH can’t say that we never took him anywhere!  We’ll have the pictures to prove it, which of course you can look forward to seeing here when we get back.

In preparation for my 2008 Christmas letter, I’ve been thinking about where we were last year at Thanksgiving, and marveling at how much has changed.

Thanksgiving 2007:

Lived in duplex in Hewitt

Regular attenders at Redeemer

Stephen was in school full time and working as a sub

I was the only 4th grade teacher at Live Oak and drove my 4Runner to school every day (enjoying the short drive to work after previous year in Whitney!)

Thanksgiving 2008:

Live in fixer-upper house in Temple

On staff at Grace Bible

Stephen is working full time as a 6th grade teacher and part time as a youth minister

I have a new teaching partner and commute to school every day in my gas-saving Sentra

And, some things stay the same:

Terrible insecurities surface while trying to select a Christmas card picture

Time with family is full of good times and hysterical laughter

Mom’s dressing tastes delicious

We plan for the future with great uncertainty, but with great expectation and hope!

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving–now the countdown begins

to Christmas!  Yay!

There’s been a great e-mail conversation that’s been filling up my inbox lately that is a nice glimpse of what sort of folks I’m lucky enough to share genes (and, often, jeans) with.

FROM: Mom (THE EVENT PLANNER)

Subject: Family time

We were toying with the idea of trying to plan a family vacation next summer. I know everyone is busy, but I thought if we planned wayyyy ahead maybe we could get it done. We were thinking of the week before July 4, so that starts about June 26…probably to return before the holiday as in July 2 or 3. So—does anybody know they could NOT go on a vacation then? Does anyone not WANT to go? Better not say yes to that question…

What would we want to do? Here are some of my ideas: rent a beach house, rent a mountain cabin, go on a cruise, drive to California, drive to Branson, drive to Waco, go camping…

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FROM: Laura (THE MIDDLE CHILD)

Subject: Re: Family time

I vote for a road trip! Let’s go to California so that we can spend long hours together in the car, playing games and all getting along. But that’s just my opinion…I’d be happy with whatever everyone else wanted to do.

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FROM: Alan (MR. MAN)

Subject: Re: Family time

I vote no on the cruise idea. Let’s go to the mountains, where we can go whitewater rafting and hiking.

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FROM: Lindsey (THE WIMPY NERD)

Subject: Re: Family time

I love the hiking idea, but let’s choose a destination where we can hike on sidewalks and make lots of stops at museums and historical sites. Oooh, or somewhere with celebrities!

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FROM: Stephen (THE “FUNNY” ONE)

Subject: Re: Family time

Let’s go to Alaska. Maybe we’ll see Sarah Palin.

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FROM: Leslie (THE FASHION PLATE)

Subject: Re: Family time

I don’t care where we go, as long as I can buy a new swimsuit before hand and get a good tan.

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Note that the only person absent from the discussion is Dad. He’s to busy to respond to e-mail, as he has started working overtime at the office in anticipation of our great shindig.

On a related note, if you have a suggestion for a great family road trip, pass a tip along!

Wishing my mom a happy Mother’s Day with a tribute to some of her most memorable advice, along with all the things I wish I’d have let her teach me instead of learning it myself the hard way:

• Cheaper by the Dozen is worth reading.
• Making the bed works better when you put the top sheet on upside-down, so it looks pretty when you fold it over.
• Sometimes the best remedy is a cold Dr. Pepper on ice. If that doesn’t work, take vitamins.
• Stephen Andrew the first was not a good match for me, for exactly the reasons that she said. (Unfortunately, this is one of those that I had to figure out for myself, and I wasted a lot of time getting there!)
• Latin is more useful than German, unless you’re going to Germany.
• Keep a spare blanket in the car, because you never know when you might need it.
• You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.
• Keep cash in your wallet, even if it’s just a little bit. You’ll feel better prepared to face the world.
• Sleep on your problems- they’ll be less scary in the morning.
• Never do something once you’re not willing to do a thousand times.
• (not really advice, but one of my favorite mom-isms) I could have took that with a poke in the eye.
• Just because you’re married doesn’t mean you have to be blind.
• Life is too short to sleep on cheap sheets.

  

Laura, Alan, and Leslie- help me add to my list! The rest of you, feel free to add your own mom’s best advice.

People-watching at Six Flags is as much fun as the rides, and it’s a good thing because when you attend Six Flags on Christian Youth Weekend, you will spend .016 of your time on a ride, which leaves .983 of your time for other pursuits.

As I mentioned in my previous post, my family decided to ditch the traditional egg-hunting Easter weekend at home, and we went to the Big D for our celebration. We kicked off our festivities with a family meal at Grandy’s. Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but Grandy’s is a Harris family favorite, and most of the restaurants in this classic chain are now out of business. We luckily were passing by the only one that I know of, which is located in a truck stop in Italy (pronounced IT-lee), TX. How do we love Grandy’s? Let me demonstrate the ways.

1. The other weekend we were on the way to eat dinner at Josh and Abbey’s. I had Stephen drive through Grandy’s to order me a side of baked beans. That’s all. They were as good as I remembered.

2. Actual quote from Alan: “I would kill three people to eat a Grandy’s roll.”

3. The fact that all seven of us unanimously agreed to stop and eat at Grandy’s for our dinner, rather than drive forty more minutes to have our pick of any restaurant that the metroplex could offer.

Anyway, I digress. The main event of the weekend was Six Flags. We arrived via shuttle trolley at the main gate as the park opened at 10 AM. By the time we left the park at 9:30 PM, we had ridden five rides. We took two breaks for lunch and dinner, and the rest of our time was spent in line, playing various games such as “Can you spot the Oklahoman?”, “What Not to Wear: Six Flags Edition,” ” Would You Let That Guy Date Your Daughter?”, and “How Do You Think Those People Are Related?”

We walked through France, Mexico, Spain, the Old South, Gotham City, and 1950’s America. Leslie finally got her cotton candy. Dad almost won a giant alligator for Mom’s library. Mom rode the Titan for the first time, and didn’t throw up. Laura chronicled funny moments for us to remember on the free hotel notepad. I confronted a waiter about a menu ambiguity and received a free basket of French fries (plus some shame). Stephen got even more vivid insight into what I’d be like when I grew up, as well as plenty of evidence that I am not even close to maturity yet.

On Sunday, we tried out the services at the Village Church, which exceeded our expectations. The music was nicely done, the candle-lit stage was ambient, and the Easter message was thoughtful and challenging.

Most of all, our family was together, which will become more of a challenge as the sibs get older and start getting jobs that do not give them awesome vacation days. For now, we got to enjoy Grandy’s, Six Flags line games, and the celebration of the Resurrection, all in one weekend. It doesn’t get much better than that.