Brady, this one's for you

Brady has a thing about Ella. And Ella about Brady. They are each the male/female mirror of the other. They must each have a nice, healthy level of self-love to love the other as much as they do.

Brady has asked his mom, Angela, recently why our blog didn't have any pictures of the adults in our family. The previous post from my birthday was for you, Brady, as is this one of you and your girl. Thanks for keeping us on our toes, B. (I love that we have a three-year-old blog "reader.")

Bonding over snacks- is there a better place to bond?

This one actually reminds me of two adults at a cocktail party. I know, I know, they are just kids, but if you could have seen them. Ella, slapping her leg at the hysterical thing Brady said and he, in return, offering her the last piece of zucchini bread. They are actually making each other (okay, their parents are doing it for them at their request) a mixed tape. A MIXED TAPE! You know as in, here is the music I love, and, oh, by the way, I love you too.

At the folk festival last weekend, I actually saw them sitting together side-by-side and Brady had his arm around her. It doesn't get cuter than these two.

Ella had a screaming good time...

Best Birthday Ever

A quick break during our biking....

and a happy Suzanne.

No lie. It was awesome. It was the best birthday, hands down, and maybe even the best day so far in my life.

We got a timely start off to drop off the girls in the morning and then headed down the coast to Bar Harbor to clear skies, irrepressible sunshine and some serious peddling. We biked for hours around the carriage trails (thank you Mr. Rockefeller for having the foresight to give the land and make those unbelievable trails). We rode up Day Mountain on a trail that gave a new, better-than-the-last view of MDI and an unbelievable sense of accomplishment at the top. It was like the view that rewards a tough hike but in a fraction of the time to get there.

Then we went back to our room for a shower and nap (yes, a nap) then off to the Bar Harbor Inn for the BEST meal ever. It was the kind where you purposely slow down because it is so good you don't want it to end. Our friend John was playing the piano and played every song we loved. We looked out at the sparkling ocean, watched the sunset and talked about how great our lives are.

I must have said a dozen times that there was no one happier in the world than me that day.

The next day we had a leisurely wake-up, breakfast on the porch in the sun on wicker chairs and off for more biking. Our bums were sore but our spirits never more free. We stayed as long as we dared and then went back to Beals to get the girls.

A big thanks to Auntie Krick and Patti for watching the girls. After a personally challenging past month, I needed this break badly. And I needed to feel this happy! It was like emerging from a cocoon and feeling like myself again. Oh, how I missed me! I think those closest to me must also know because most of my gifts were centered around this- babysitting and gift certificates to go away again. For me, the gift of time is the best gift I could be given.

Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes!

A dream

Happy Birthday to me! Maya slept through the night!! Happy happy dream feed!!!

She has only slept through the night as a fluke when she was maybe 5 months old. This is a BIG deal (Ang, I know you know how big a deal this is.)

We are off to an overnight in Bar Harbor- sunny skies, hiking trails, a bed and breakfast, dinner at the lovely and unparalleled Bar Harbor Inn, biking the carriage trails tomorrow... What more could a girl ask for???

Oh my cuteness!!

Annalise attempts a steal from Maya.

Maya Papaya

As she is sometimes know as...

is crawling all over the place. No book, ball of lint, TV remote, cord, cup of water, dog dish, shoe, rock, marble, small animal (no joke) is safe. As with most babies she went from the tenuous one knee in front then a hand then the other knee to the crawling races we have entered her in for next week.

This is a major milestone and one we are delighted for her to have reached, despite the need to monitor the house in a way we had forgotten existed (except maybe when baby Reed comes to visit). The problem is that Ms. Fancy Pants Carver (the other name she has- not sure why) is so damn proud of herself that she can't sleep at night. I think she lies awake planning and strategizing how best to get to Mochy's water bowl before it gets elevated to counter level.

I met a lady in U.S. Cellular the other day while Sandi was getting some technical support (which kind of looked like she was going to have to resort to threats if someone didn't replace her blue-tooth.) Not at all unlike me, I struck up a conversation with this mother of three, as she was also waiting. She had a nine month old too and when I told her that Maya still gets up at night for a bottle, she shared a secret with me. Well, not such a secret anymore because I am publishing it on our highly read (yeah right) blog. Get ready for this. It's called...

The Dream Feed.

Yup, it's just like what is sounds like. Except, no you don't play subliminal messages to your baby so that they dream of eating but don't actually eat. You wake them before you go to bed and give them a bottle. They don't really wake up. They just drink. The ingenious idea of this, of course, is that then they won't need the middle of the night feeding and you can get some SLEEP. Will someone please tell Maya this? She seems to think of this more as a bonus feed.

It's quite comical really. She literally doesn't open her eyes. She just sucks and sucks like she is in the best dream of her life and then she is asleep and back in her crib before you can say 100 meter butterfly. It was kind of like she thought, "There is a nipple in my mouth- guess I'll drink." Eight ounces last night- her biggest bottle ever. (Yes, I am aware of the thread of competition that is showing up in this entry-I've been watching A LOT of Olympics). And then, thank you very much, up at 3 a.m. for more.

But, rest assured dear readers, because I wasn't born yesterday. (No, almost 32 years ago, in fact, come Wednesday.) When she woke the second time, I gave her a very watered down 3 oz. See where I'm going with this???

Okay, I'm starting to feel like my nightly exploits of mixing bottles like a bartender on a hopping Saturday night is starting to sound a little strange even to me, so I will sign off with this.

We went to a birthday party late yesterday afternoon and stayed until past the girls bedtime. Despite our late departure, we still left before cake. On the way home, Ella said, "What a great party. I had so much fun." Pause. "Except there wasn't any cake."

Girl after my own heart.

Not him...

We've been going through quite a run-around with RH Foster, the oil company. They "accidentally" pumped $913 worth of oil into our oil tank a month ago and we have been in (reluctant) constant communication with them ever since to figure out how they want to fix their error. We only burned 1/4 tank of oil last year and that was how much we had before they came so we needed a solution that translated into cheap, cheaper and cheapest for us if we were to keep the oil. (Which we did, by the way, at a sweet $3.79 a gallon - their wholesale price.)

After the ongoing folly of errors on their part, we had fielded at least a dozen phone calls from them. The other day the phone rang and the caller ID once again read "RH Foster."

"It's RH Foster, AGAIN," I announce as I pick up the phone.

Ella, from the living room where she is eating lunch with her cousin Michaela says, "Oh, not him again."

"Who?" asks Michaela.

"RH Foster," Ella says with a sad shake of her head.

Some more of Amanda's Pics

We promised these beauties quite some time ago and here they finally are. We actually have the hard copies of the ones we selected (a mere 12 in all) and they are just as beautiful in print. We are working on matting and framing (a small fortune) and will be glad to hang them on the wall.

What a relief to see the sun today (and some yesterday) after the suicidal grayness we have been experiencing- as my friend Angela said we were in sunshine withdrawals. Part of our lawn hadn't been mowed in 3 weeks!! I mowed it today and the relief felt like losing 10 pounds of water weight...