I like this train!

Or, Brynna travels to Chicago...

We made the trek to Chicago a few weeks back to see our good friends Lucy and Steve, and also to travel up to Milwaukee to meet our close friend from med school Beth, who is now in residency in Appleton, WI.

Unlike the last time Brynna traveled by air, there would be two adults for this little one. Plus, there was a decent chance that neither would be feverishly sick. Lastly, we managed to hit a direct flight from MHT to MDW via southwest - one three hour hop and we're there.

That is not to say that traveling with Brynna is care-free. She's a great sport, and a good traveler generally, but she is still a two-year old who doesn't always follow directions, and whose patience is sometimes shorter than our own.

First hurdle: our 6:30 am departure from Manchester necessitated a 4 am wake up call for the B. In an extreme case like this, we thought nothing of keeping her in her jammies with her Nuk. She tottered along behind Mama through security while I wrestled the luggage and car seat. She charmed we way past through the TSA:

Brynna did well through the takeoff - all she needed was a little hand-holding and closing of the window shade. We expected Brynna to sleep on the flight over there, but she gabbed the whole way over. Probably the highlight was the handing out of the in-flight snacks!

At Midway airport, while Hil went in search of chai, Brynna and I flopped down for a late breakfast of cheerios and raisins.

The next hurdle was the 1-hour trip on the EL from Midway (to the SW of downtown) up to the northern lake shore where our friends live. But, as it turns out, Brynna really liked the subway. Here and there along the way she would say "I like dis twain!"

This was particularly true once we got north of the Loop, and popped back above ground: we could see most of downtown here and there, and passed just outside the right field fence of Wrigley Field.

We arrived at our friends' home right around Brynna's usual nap time. They had made wonderful accommodations for us and the B, and she went right down. We spent the rest of the day catching up and hanging out.

On Saturday we piled ourselves into a Zipcar minivan and started driving north through some snowy slop to Milwaukee. It was a convenient midway point for us and Beth, but also has a lot of charm in its own right. How wonderful to see old and distant friends! We hadn't seen Beth since leaving Minnesota. She is also a family medicine resident, whose schedule is at least as insane as Hilary's. She was kind enough to shlep down even after working the night before. We met for lunch at the (indoor) public market, admiring the impressive gingerbread houses on display - our favorite was the one done up like The Burrow. We lingered at the market for a few hours while Brynna napped out in the car (supervised and heated, of course). After Brynna awoke, we all went to the local children's museum right down by the lakeshore: five adults playing with one toddler seems about the right ratio. We hardly even saw 1/3 of the place, but B had a great time.

We capped it off with dinner at a local hipster restaurant. Brynna started becoming less than polite towards the end, but thankfully there's a small market attached to the restaurant, through whose aisles she could run up and down.

B was definitely finished when the adults were done with dinner, so we said our goodbyes to Beth and piled back into the van for a quiet drive back to Chicago.

Sunday morning we had a late breakfast at our favorite Chicago place: Tweets. They were very accommodating of Brynna: bringing out crayons and a fruit cup before we'd even gotten our coats off. Brynna heartily enjoyed Hilary's chai and pumpkin pancakes.

When we returned to Lucy and Steve's place, we decided to fire up the Wii and see what Brynna could make of it. I'm not sure she quite got it, but she was very enthusiastic about waving things around. (If we had one, I'm sure she'd already be a natural).

Then naptime while the grown-ups got to play.

Alas, it was not long after Brynna awoke that we needed to pack up and make the trek back to Midway for our flight home. After standing and waiting in the cold Chicago wind some minutes waiting for our first train, we had good vantage of the city at sunset all the way to the airport. Brynna still liked trains, which made the trip easy for us. Upon arrival, alas, we found our flight was delayed at least two hours. Damn! Two hours more we could have spent with Lucy and Steve! Plus, we now had the prospect of keeping B civilized and entertained for an additional two hours in the terminal. At least on the airplane you can reasonably strap her down! She was approaching peak active time, and ready to run up and down the whole length of the concourse (the moving walkways are particularly fun).

But there were two able-bodied parents to corral her. Unfortunately, however, just as we were exiting security, I started feeling queasy. During the subsequent wait for our plane, I visited the bathroom to vomit a few times. The last time was with Brynna in tow, because Hilary had gone off to forage some dinner. All the bathroom stalls were occupied when the moment arrived, so I had the unenviable experience of blowing chunks into a bathroom trashcan with a few dozen travelers looking on, trying to keep Brynna from freaking out at arms length. Did I mention that Brynna is a good sport while traveling?

But then we boarded the plane, and everything was good. By this point it was near Brynna's bedtime, so we expected (hoped) that she'd sleep the flight back. Somehow or other that kid managed to stay awake and bubbly the whole way. Whatever was happening in my gut had thankfully abated, but I was left both terribly exhausted and restless. Brynna, of course, konked out about five seconds after we started our car back home. Jasper greeted us enthusiastically at the door, and curled up at the foot of our bed when we finally crawled in to sleep well after midnight.

All in all, an excellent tour of the upper midwest to catch up with our good friends!

The Big Day, With More Photos

So, I am a doctor now. (Yikes!)

Graduation was a good time, despite having to go early in the morning for no apparent reason (lots of standing around in a conference room, which at least was a chance to chat with classmates), and despite the fact that the faculty were given a breakfast buffet, but not the pending graduates!

Brynna and Alex had to watch from the upper level of the auditorium, where they banished the babies. There were very nice speeches from one of the PhD students and one of my classmates, and then we traipsed down to center stage one at a time, collecting our hoods on the way. We heard our names with "Doctor" in front for the first time, were hooded by two of the deans, and received our diplomas from a third. Yippee!

With dear friend and classmate Beth, who is also going into family medicine (if you live in Wisconsin, she's the doc for you!)


Beth and I with Dr. B, our research mentor and psychiatrist extraordinaire:


With my proud parents, who have supported this entire journey in every way imaginable:


Ah, the indoctrination begins. This is Brynna with my old Fisher-Price doctor's kit:


We celebrated big-time that evening at one of my favorite restaurants. I don't seem to have those photos (if you were there, and have some, send them to me!) but there was lots of red champagne and Brynna smeared beets all over her face, making such a mess that the very helpful waiter took her tray away to have it washed in the kitchen before we left.

The Crumpet's Shower

Here are the promised photos from the crumpet's shower a few weeks ago!

This is Beth, the wonderful organizer, along with the heaping table of goodies that she brought for us to snack on:


Beth had the wonderful idea of asking the guests to bring a favorite children's book. Here we are with a few of the selections:





And here's a crowd shot:


We had such a lovely time visiting with everyone!

One More From the Birthday

Friends Beth and Cassi made these adorable little age signs. This one says "I am 1 week," and there are "month" and "year" placards as well, and little numbers to hang on them. Beth suggested we use something as a size comparison each time we took one of these photos. Jasper was our first thought, but he didn't come with us to the Wisconsin picnic. So we figured the champagne bottle would serve nicely!

On call!

I didn't think I should post yet again with no photo, so here is what I look like when I'm on call. Except tonight I'm lugging a reflex hammer and a tuning fork in addition to a stethoscope. I'm taking call with the neurology ER resident: she is a senior (4th year) resident who is responsible for seeing all the neuro cases that come through the ER and deciding how to treat them and whether they warrant admission to one of the inpatient services (general neurology, stroke, or neuro ICU).

Since her shift started at 6 PM (I've been here since 7 AM for my regular service as well), I have:
-studied for a couple of hours
-cleaned out two email inboxes and sent some emails (still not totally caught up, sorry...)
-read about human research subject protection and taken an online quiz so that I can access the Institutional Review Board site and do some work on my upcoming research project (my classmate Beth is doing all the heavy lifting on our project right now, so I can't complain a bit).
-scavenged a brownie from the on-call kitchen and realized that I'd much prefer Rachel's chocolate mousse
-reviewed the comments on a journal article critique I wrote for my OB-GYN rotation
-updated my PalmPilot
-posted twice to this blog!

I should've brought my gym clothes and gotten in a workout after leaving the stroke team around 4:30. You may ask why I can't just wear my scrubs and sneakers to the gym...Well, Mayo has a strict dress code, not just for clinic (business formal) but for the gym as well. Scrubs are strictly not allowed. Though, the gym dress code has recently been liberalized from forbidding sleeveless things altogether, to allowing sleeveless shirts if they were designed sleeveless (no cutoffs) and if the shoulders themselves are completely covered (no skinny straps). Shocking! They're still chasing down naked people in the new sauna, so clearly some folks aren't getting the modesty message.

Pretty soon I think I may try to take a nap. This shift lasts till 6 AM, then I need to go and "preround" (check labs and test results and do a physical exam) on the patient I picked up today. Also hoping to get a minute to dash across the street to Caribou and get some caffeine. Then lecture from 7-8, rounds (discussing the patients with the supervising consultant...known as an attending at most other hospitals) from 8:30 to whenever. I should be done by noon or 1:00 and headed home for a drowsy afternoon.

4 weeks old!

Sorry, we've been a bit lax with the photos and updates this week. Brynna is doing great! She spends most of the day eating and sleeping, and then she has a few alert periods scattered throughout the day. During those, we usually read to her, play music, or otherwise try to do some interacting. She makes very good eye contact now and can even follow my face if I move slowly across her field of view. No social smile yet, it's a little too soon, but it's going to be a killer when it happens!

Brynna often gets a bit fussy right before bed, but after an hour or so settles down, eats, and then is very amenable through the night. She gave us almost 4 and a half hours of straight sleep last night! And we've pretty much got the lying-down breastfeeding figured out, which means that I barely have to wake up. Alex changes her and then rolls her into bed next to me to eat. Eventually one of us realizes she's done, and returns her to her swaddle in her cradle. Or I feed her again.

Here are a couple of photos of her in her cradle, which my grandfather made for me. Could she be any cuter in her little sleeper? Well, I suppose she could be wearing the matching hat.



Big yawn:


Close-up:


I love this shirt:


Here is Brynna reading with her Dad. She really seems to be focusing on the bright pictures:


And here are a couple from today. This one is with Beth, who gave us the birthday boards and who stopped by to visit this afternoon:


Here is Brynna next to the yummy arrangement that showed up from Grand and M (my parents) today. I ate off the entire back half before Alex even got home from work...but left this part for the photo op! Brynna seems a little annoyed that she cannot partake in the chocolate-covered pineapple. Her chocolate-colored gDiaper will have to do for now!

Getting Stuff Done

Yay for the combination of the second trimester energy boost and a relatively light schedule at school! In addition to spending hours trying to groom the dog, we've been getting some other things done, as well.

This past weekend, we finally celebrated the crumpet's half-gestation day...only a couple of weeks late...by going out to eat. I was very excited to get to wear one of the maternity-friendly dresses that Beth helped me pick out a couple of weeks ago. (No, no pictures. Every time I think I'm looking cute in my maternity clothes, or someone else tells me I'm looking cute, I have Alex take a picture...then I look at the picture, scream, and make him delete it. Sorry. If a good one ever shows up, I'll post it. Otherwise, you'll all have to visit and see the cute baby bump in person.)

Anyway, for this event we explored a new restaurant in town which will definitely be added to our regular list of favorites! There are not that many great restaurants here, particularly vegetarian-friendly ones, and though I had heard of Prescotts before, I had assumed that it was full of steak and veal like many of the other fancier restaurants in town. Then, a few weeks ago, the local paper ran an article about their vegetarian chef that absolutely had me drooling. And indeed, the food was wonderful! We had a great hummus as a starter, which was specifically labeled "vegan" on the menu. I'm not sure I've seen the word vegan on a menu except at a vegetarian restaurant before, so that was a treat. The waitress took the opportunity to specifically inform me that even though the salad dressing looked creamy, that it was also vegan. Then I had a butternut squash ravioli with roasted beets...so yummy! There were also two vegetarian entree options, so it was lovely to have a choice, even though the ravioli was the clear winner. We stuffed ourselves so thoroughly with the first three courses that we didn't even have room for dessert. They seem to have a nice wine list as well, so we'll have to return post-crumpet so I can enjoy that.

We've also been watching a lot of basketball. Go Huskies!

As promised, here are our crocuses:

I'm hoping they will survive the storm we've been having for the last 24 hours, a combination of rain, sleet, and heavy wet snow.

We finished our taxes (mostly Alex, I just read numbers off pieces of paper while he plugged them into the computer), and submitted my federal and school financial aid applications. We happily discovered that we can list the crumpet as a dependent on those applications, since they are for the upcoming year, and that this has dropped our "estimated family contribution" a lot.

I spent much time wrestling with the new online travel booking system that the clinic has in order to book my flights to Arizona and then ask for reimbursement...I'll believe it when I see the check show up in the mailbox!

I got my eyes checked and ordered new contacts. Miracle of miracles, the optometrist actually had IN STOCK almost all of the lenses that I needed. My vision is so bad that usually they have to be ordered in. Last time I got glasses, they told me I'd better spring for the expensive thin lenses because the old-style thick ones would have to be so thick for me that they would look ridiculous. Poor crumpet is not getting the best eyesight genes from her parents...but at least her dad will be able to teach her to engineer a really good trap for the lion trying to sneak up on her.

Yesterday, Jasper and I went off to the vet for a check-up and some vaccines. We're starting obedience classes with him (more on this to come) and he needed a few shots first. He had blood drawn to check for heartworm, Lyme disease, ehrlichiosis, and anaplasmosis (those last two are tick-borne diseases like Lyme). He had shots to vaccinate for distemper (whatever that is...oh, wait, just looked it up, and it is an RNA virus in the same family as measles that can be fatal to dogs) and Lyme disease. They dripped the bordetella vaccine down his nose, which he was remarkably good-natured about. The vet said he looks very healthy, and he's up 8 pounds from when we got him (61 pounds now), but doesn't look too large. We go back in a month for a second dose of the Lyme vaccine...with all the hiking we intend to do with him, and the possibility of him spending lots of time in Lyme-infested parts of New England, and the wretchedness that Panache the wonder horse had to go through when HE had Lyme, I was very excited to find out that dogs can be vaccinated for it.

There used to be a people vaccine for Lyme, too, for a few years, but the manufacturer got tired of getting sued for side effects and stopped making it. Getting-up-on-my-soapbox warning: VACCINES ARE GOOD! CHILDHOOD VACCINES ARE PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT! (Though the adult ones like pneumococcus and influenza are also great, and save thousands of lives every year.) The flu shot does not give you the flu. Vaccines do not give you autism (if there was any chance in the world of me voting for John McCain, which there really wasn't, it ended the moment that he mentioned in a speech that there were still serious concerns about this issue). Not vaccinating your children not only puts them in danger, it reduces herd immunity and puts everyone else in danger as well. It will take me awhile to figure out how to address this issue with parents in my practice. Some doctors refuse to care for families who refuse vaccines. I don't want to go that route, since I think taking time to discuss the issue with people over time might actually lead to a change in their attitudes, which is better than slamming the door on them, but I can understand the impulse.

But I digress. The other great thing we did this past weekend was attend the local symphony's "To Heaven With Mozart" concert. They performed the 3rd Violin Concerto and the Requiem, and it was wonderful. We kept joking that it was making the crumpet smarter by the second (as opposed to some other composer, of course...none of that inferior Bach or Vivaldi).

Favorite crumpet books for the week: Aunt Kate sent along a wonderful set, including two of Alex's favorites, "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble," which I had not heard of, "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day," which is fantastic, and one book new to the both of us called "Pancakes Pancakes."

This was a huge hit, as it is all about where food really comes from (grain, cows, chickens, and so on). The crumpet was kicking along merrily throughout. We also read two great books from Sara, "Old Turtle" and "The Shape of Me and Other Stuff." Old Turtle has really, really beautiful illustrations, and The Shape of Me is just classic Dr. Seuss.


I love children's books!

Jasper the Jigsaw Monster

The weather has been chilly and gloomy recently, except for Saturday, and today continued along those lines. Jasper only got a brief walk yesterday evening because of the rain, so this morning I took him out for a run. He was a bundle of energy, dragging me halfway around Silver Lake before calming down enough to run next to me. Usually he's quite well behaved on the leash, but I guess the combo of not enough exercise yesterday and the cold weather made him very frisky! He also ate part of a jigsaw puzzle overnight, so perhaps he was just trying to run off some calories. At least we know he's not lacking for fiber...

We had a very relaxed weekend, as usual. Alex started work on some new bookshelves, I did a bunch of puzzles and watched a lot of Gilmore Girls on DVD, we hit the farmers' market on Saturday morning, and so on. I have been so tired from rotations that I haven't been to the market in awhile...we like to go early, like 8:00, to get the good stuff, and Alex has been doing it alone while I sleep in. It was pretty amusing to show up on Saturday and have the Amish guy (best tomatoes ever, and he has them into November!) look at Alex and say, "ah, you brought the boss along today, eh?" Also good to say hi to our spinach guy (who is also our leek, garlic, and potato guy). His daughters have finally stopped looking horrified at the amount of garlic we buy every week. Perhaps they think we are fighting off vampires? Those are our two really regular stands, and then we spread out the rest of our purchases depending on what looks good. This week we picked up a bunch of extra red peppers to freeze for the winter. I've got to chop those up tomorrow...

Today I checked in with Beth to work on some research stuff, took my second year "medsib" Natalie to lunch, and then spent a delightful hour at the public library picking up books to read during this three week mini-break. I finally had to cut myself off when I couldn't stuff any more into my backpack. Most of it is historical fiction, in all of its lovely escapist glory. Feel free to send me book suggestions, I'll probably read through this bunch in a hurry, especially with our trip to Maine coming up on Wednesday! I also just finished Harry Potter 7 for the second time, it was even more satisfying of an ending this time around.

Alex is heading off to the gym in a few minutes, and I'm going to take Jasper out for his evening walk. I bought a new pair of running shoes today, but I think I'll spare them the mud on the river path. Maybe I'll break them in tomorrow morning.

Nesting

We are slowly getting ready for the crumpet's arrival! It's just over a month until her due date, though only she knows when she will decide to make an appearance.

Getting the glider was a huge step forward, and Alex and I were so excited to find a used one that is a much nicer pattern (a light green) than any of the new ones that I have seen, thanks to some sewing work by the previous owner. The crumpet and I will spend a lot of time here after she's born, and it's lovely to have such a comfy setup. This is a big, wonderful baby present from Art and Denny:



Yes, I am large! The weekly email that I get updating me on the baby's size has moved on to varieties of melons (honeydew this week).

And Beth found us a wonderful used swing:


It has a really adorable jungle pattern:


This (long) weekend, we will be picking up a few things that we'll absolutely need if the crumpet surprises us with an early arrival...a car seat, diapers, wipes, and other little things like that. I may also wash the onesies and receiving blankets that we've gotten as gifts so that they are ready to go as well!

Back to Blogging

So, we've been a bit lax about posting over the last week...it's been so busy, even with both of us at home, that we look at each other around 11 PM, say "what happened to the time?" and collapse into bed.

A few quick updates:
-We road-tripped to Chicago so that I could do the clinical skills portion of the Step 2 licensing exam. This was about as fun as I would imagine a root canal to be, involving 7 hours of graded interactions with standardized patients. I found the time limit difficult to deal with, but did remember to drape each patient modestly and to wash my hands, so that's something. The first couple of nights after the exam, I kept waking up thinking of all of the questions I should have asked and physical exam maneuvers I should have performed, but that's stopped now and I will just cross my fingers that when the scores come out in a few months, I will have passed.
-I started my community pediatrics rotation, which is wonderful. It is quite a change to introduce myself as a fourth year rather than a third year! I've had great preceptors so far and am learning a lot. We're doing a lot of well-child visits, which is a good opportunity to create a picture in my head of what healthy kids of different ages are doing developmentally (having a baby will help me out big time in this regard as well). I'll have two more weeks in this rotation.
-Alex is hard at work on the medicine cabinet. He's altered his design plans slightly, but I'll let him post on that at a later date. We won't have a hole in the bathroom wall for too much longer! The painting that he did while I was away looks fantastic.
-Jasper continues to enjoy the summer, bouncing in and out of the stream several times on our evening walk. He's doing very well with the loose-leash walking and "come," which are our current areas of focus. He's even let us sleep until our alarm the last couple of days, which is delightful!
-The crumpet has continued to be a very cooperative kiddo, not waking me up at night but nice and active during the day. We drove up to the Cities today and picked up a rocker/glider and footstool that we found on Craigslist, which is a baby gift from Art and Denny! It's going to be great, and I'll post a photo soon. My friend Beth also hosted a wonderful shower for us today, so look for pictures from that in the next few days, as well!

In Her Easter Bonnet...

Brynna had a lovely first Easter. It was a bright spring-y day here in Minnesota, and Mom and I had a delightful time at church this morning (Brynna was napping, which was too bad, as she would have really enjoyed the music) and then everyone had a great lunch with Beth and Matt.

We got a quick photo with B in her Easter bonnet, which she much preferred chewing on or using to play peek-a-boo:


And here are a couple of video clips of her with her special Easter basket:





We hope all of you had a wonderful Easter, too!

Brynna at home

We're still doing great! Brynna is just a joy, and she even let us get some pretty good sleep last night. I was only up twice with her, once for about half an hour and once for about forty-five minutes. Though, as Alex points out, she's only five days old, so past performance is no indication of future returns...

Here are some more photos. She's been very hungry all evening, so I think I may just have a few minutes to pop all of these online before she needs another feeding!

Brynna resting, with me trying to catch up on what's going on in the world:


Brynna at her leisure, post-feeding:


Conked out in her pack 'n play:


With Beth, who made the most adorable customized onesies for Brynna...see, this one even has her name on it!


Get 'em started early (this was my T-shirt when I was a baby, too):


Out for a walk with the whole crew:


Getting ready for a bath:


Brynna objected most strenuously to the bath, which so brought out what seem to be protective instincts in Jasper that Jasper ventured into the kitchen despite the presence of a screaming baby and four adults, and parked himself as close to the sink as he could possibly get. He and Brynna both calmed down when we moved on to shampooing her hair...she seemed to enjoy the scalp massage!

More when we can...

Jasper's Spa Day

Today was quite busy with preparations for our trip to Maine!

Before that chaos, I spent the morning and early afternoon in the electrophysiology lab at St. Mary's, watching defibrillator implantations. Beth and I have been trying to set this up for awhile, just so we would know what sort of procedure our interviewees will have gone through. As with all surgeries, we spent much more time hanging around in between procedures, waiting for patients to come and go, than actually watching the implantation itself, but we still got a good idea of what it's like. And I did get to wear a very zippy paisley-print radiation-shield apron!

Once I came home, I set about getting things ready for our trip, and making sure that the house was ready for our friend Anna, who will be staying here and looking after Jasper while we're away. Jasper got a bath in the bathtub, which worked out great...he didn't even shake water all over the bathroom, and stood quietly even when I was soaping up his face and then dumping water on his head. I forgot to bring the camera in to get a photo of the bath itself, but below is a shot from later this evening, with Jasper wrapped in a blanket to stay warm as he dried off. We also clipped his nails, gave him his heartworm-prevention chew, applied his tick-killing stuff, and trimmed around his eyes. Now you can at least see that he has eyes underneath all of that fuzz. Unfortunately that made a big glare in the photo that I'm not talented enough to get rid of...



Now I'm stalling to avoid packing. The Sox are losing so wretchedly, however, that it may drive me upstairs any minute. Ah, wait, they've just hit a homer! And another! And another! Hope springs eternal!

Reading to the Crumpet

As we mentioned in a post a little while ago, fetal inner ear bones ossify around 18 or 19 weeks, allowing them to hear. So we figured this is as good a time as any to start reading to the crumpet before bed!

So far, we've done Hippos Go Berserk (Sandra Boynton), Consider Love (Boynton again), The Shape of Me and Other Stuff (Dr. Seuss, courtesy of Sara), and Good Night Little Bear (Richard Scarry, thanks Beth!)


The thing that I am perhaps most excited about when it comes to being a mother is introducing the crumpet to wonderful children's books. Once we've done Moo Baa La La La and Frances and Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny and Ramona, there's even Harry Potter to look forward to, all over again!

By the way, happy halfway point, crumpet! According to our first ultrasound, which set our dates, we were 20 weeks along yesterday, out of an average pregnancy length of 40 weeks. Only 5% of babies are born on their due date, though, so think more of a "due month" extending from 38 to 42 weeks, centered around that August 4 date.

1st Birthday

So, last month we received this (totally unsolicited) catalog in the mail, so that we could appropriately prepare for Brynna's 1st birthday. By buying lots of pink, frilly, environmentally wasteful stuff:

Including, apparently, a pink throne upon which Brynna could sit to open her presents. And lots of princess accessories.

Surely scarring Brynna for life, we refused to throw a fancy party for someone who wouldn't notice. (Or to buy a throne for someone who doesn't sit anywhere for longer than a few seconds, unless there are blueberries involved.) My mom made fabulous angel food cupcakes, and we got some blueberries and cream, and there were some presents, which were spread out over several days to allow maximum enjoyment of ribbons and torn-up paper. Sorry, folks, no throne pictures here! Just a happy first birthday girl, hanging out with her family:

Sampling the whipped cream:

First encounter with a birthday candle:

Supervising the candle-blowing-outing (Papa helped):

And working on her blueberry shortcake:

As one would expect from a one year old, Brynna had at least as much fun with the wrapping as with her presents.

What is in this bag?

How about this box?

Fabulous wrapping from MJ and Bob...

More wrapping! I can't wait to see what's inside!

Hmm. Aunt Katherine sure has some cool stripey paper!

It's a new book!

And a magnet!

Getting started early with the family habit of reading on the go...

Look! I got a package in the mail from Auntie Beth!

What could she have put in here for me?

It's a cute bag! Gotta find a way to carry it while I'm on the go...

A fascinating box from Aunt Donna:

And the Red Sox cap that was inside:

Dickie sent me a toy almost as big as I am! Hello, Elmo!

A lovely time was had by all. It's hard to believe how far Brynna has come in a year! She now stands up and walks (staggers) by herself, has two bottom teeth, signs "milk," "more," "all done," and "eat," says "Mo!" at daycare in such a way that she might actually be naming Moki the cat (Jasper is very insulted), climbs on and off low steps, and is fascinated by books, balls, and by putting things into boxes and taking them out again. Go, little B!