the obligatory decade-in-review post

the aughts, by the numbers:

0.25 dissertations written

1 marriage
1 pregnancy
1 birth
1 historic election

2 world series championships (go sox!)

3 degrees earned (1 bachelor's, two masters')

4 cars owned

5 apartments lived in

6 grandparents buried (my gumpy; all four of josh's parents' parents, plus his step-dad's father)

7 vacations taken (paris, cross-country road trip, jamaica, cancun, california, arizona, hawaii)

8 children born among my generation of cousins (in order: sophia, lucy, chely, liam, sara, bebe, thea, kayalá)

500 books read in graduate school

10,000 miles driven cross country

where i was ten years ago: after almost two years of rocky starts and stops, josh and i were finally finding our footing as a couple and really falling in love. i was about to graduate from college. we were planning our cross-country trip and our move to boston. the possibilities seemed endless. inevitably, the process of growing up seems to involve the narrowing of those possibilities. each choice we make has ramifications, some immediately visible and some not discovered for years, that lead us to a life that, in our mid-thirties (!!!), appears much less flexible and much more defined than the life we were living in our mid-twenties.

but. then.

along comes a new life, and once again the possibilities expand until they are infinite, dizzying, breathtaking.

happy new year. happy new decade. i can't wait to see what the teens have in store.

_

cuke!

i forgot to mention that my camera broke on xmas day. the flash died -- i guess it couldn't handle the demands of keeping up with the beebs! anyway, i am in the process of buying a new one, so for the time being we'll have to make do with some pics i've taken over the past couple weeks but haven't had a chance to post yet.

bebe discovered a delicious new snack while we were at mems' and teed's. she wouldn't let me peel it or cut it or anything. nope, this kid takes her cucumbers straight up.

sharing with emma:

"a bite for you..."

"...and a bite for me."


multi-tasking: chomping and snuggling with daddy on aunt marge's bed.

still to come: bebe's first photo essay and pictures of our visit with 3/4 of our favorite quadruplets (and their parents, too). and hopefully some fresh new photos by early next year!

_

merry and bright

love to you and yours, from me and mine.

_

tree!

if you were at mems' and teed's house right now, that's a word you'd hear bebe saying a lot. on sunday morning, she helped teed measure the space where the xmas tree would go, to make sure that teed and daddy chose one that was the right height. then, the men set off to find a goodly 13-foot tree. they returned with their bounty on sunday afternoon and on monday morning, the crew of daddy, teed and aunt marge got to work putting it up, supervised by crew chief bebe marie.

hey bebe, where is the tree going to go?



wait, where?

the project took place during snack time, so bebe supervised from her seat.

she was pretty amazed.

teed, daddy and aunt marge worked really hard

and eventually,

after some hair-raising moments,

they did it!


bebe, where's the tree?

supervision was still required as daddy filled the bucket with sand and water.

and then aunt marge put the lights on.

she needed a little help too.

"wow."

"aunt marge made it so sparkly!"

nice work, team!

_

fun at mems' and teed's

beebs has been having a blast at her grandparents' house. some of her favorite activities of this trip include:

reading mommy's favorite books from her childhood (this is one of my favorites, too!);

finding new uses for empty wrapping paper tubes, including a ride-on horse (she made this one up herself, no one suggested it to her)

and a sword for dueling (i'll let you guess who suggested that one...);

visiting with ramona;

driving her bus;

climbing stairs;

hanging out with teed and emma;

mastering the fine art of eating cereal with milk (and sharing with emma);

peeling clementines -- and eating AT LEAST three a day;

and helping teed feed ramona.

don't let the dearth of photos of beebs with her mems and aunt marge fool you -- she's been loving them up, too. more pics to come!

_