traveling

Harlow is an amazing traveler. this month she took her 8th flight. third flight to Chicago in her short 20months. she travels like a champ. we spent the night in Boston first and then took a crack of dawn flight to Chicago. she slept most of the way. pretty sure this is her last time being a lap baby. now we shall find the joy of buying a third seat on the plane for the little thing.

night before travel in the Boston hotel room.


post flight and ready to rage.



Harlow at dinner with her bestie, Ida Rocket. she simply idolizes Ida. with good reason, look at those tats! i wish they could be together more often.




most of the time was spent at Auncle Momo's new condo with Pix the wonder dog and Hlow's new favorite movie - Totoro. here she is looking all Seattle in her Papa's hat and her beans/avocado.

you know what's hilarious? portraits!

these CRACK ME UP. too good.

here she is for her first ever school portrait. put a bunch of 1 year old toddlers in a room and then make them sit on a wicker chair ON TOP of a table while some cranky guy waves a stuffed something at you = brilliant. Harlow was sobbing big round tears. i'm shocked the end result didn't have one large tear coming down her cheek. poor kid.


every year my mom has Christmas portraits taken of the grandkids for her Christmas card. i actually love these because she is dressed old-timey. but man, portraits just don't catch the personality at all.

Thanksgiving

not the best picture of her but her outfit is so dang cute. Thanksgiving was wonderful. Harlow was a champ per usual with our wild bunch.

The Great Halloween Blizzard of 2011

also known as "the year that Halloween never came."

everyone was talking about the big Nor'easter coming. all week. snow snow snow. one of my biggest pet peeves are when people get scared about a big "Nor'easter." 90% of the time, the weather people are totally off. also, why does the name "Nor'easter" freak people out so much? it's just a snow storm...coming from the North East. so what?

as per usual, i ignored the warnings.

i went to dance class like any other Saturday morning. had lunch with a pal. walked around town a bit. no big deal. then Harlow and i went to the mall to get her some much needed new shoes. we entered the mall around 130pm. we went walked out around 3pm, it was winter white outside. i was SHOCKED how much snow had fallen in such a short amount of time. the 10 minute drive home took us almost an hour! we passed six cars off the road in less than two miles. it was BONKERS. my next stop was going to be to the store for fire wood, milk, and food for the weekend. i nixed the store in order to get home safe and sound.

Harlow and i had a lovely evening alone (Gwen was in Boston shooting). we bathed. sang. read books. after she went to sleep, i even ordered a movie and snuggled in to watch the snow fall and relax all alone. before the movie even started, the power dramatically died.

no power = no heat, no light, no water. and to top it all off, my cell service went dead.

i immediately started packing to get Harlow and i out of there and to a warm place for the night. as i brought the first load outside, i realized that leaving wasn't really an option. trees were cracking and falling. the road was full of branches, trees, and power lines. scary. so i hunkered back into the house and made a bed for myself on the floor of Harlow's room.

sadly. i only had FIVE pieces of fire wood for the fireplace. oooooops. totally ill prepared. that did not keep the house warm for long. i put more layers on Hlow plus a hat, and pulled her onto the floor with me...away from the windows.

i didn't sleep most of the night. i am not generally the type to get scared. but i was really scared. it was VERY cold. and in the silence, on the floor, all i could hear were the sounds of falling limbs and trees all around me. i was honestly freaked out. and hovering over Hlow trying to keep her warm and shield her from anything that may fall on the house.

when we woke up at 5am to walk the dogs, this is what we found: dead silence, an creepy feeling of being buried/stuck, trees, power lines, limbs down EVERYONE, and our neighborhood looking completely abandoned.



i was standing in the middle of the street when i took that picture with my cell phone. the crazy part is that it was like that in both directions. there was no way to get out...and no way for anyone to get in either. it completely freaked me out - baby on my back, no wood to heat the house, no food that didn't require cooking. i thought we would be there for days. luckily, by the end of the day Sunday, with the very generous help of some neighbors, we were lucky to get out.

it took SEVEN DAYS to get the power restored to our house. SEVEN DAYS. and i know we were the lucky ones. there are people still without power. also, we were lucky enough to have access to my company's apartment. i cannot imagine what we would have done with a baby in a home without heat for a week. scary.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PUMPKINS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the Locke family held their 8th annual pumpkin carving party two weekends ago. good thing we did it before the freaking HALLOWEEN BLIZZARD of 2011. more on that later. back to pumpkin carving. this is a party we (Sue and Gwen) started having back in our Chicago days. in fact, here i am carving a pumpkin at our first ever carving party. whoa, that's a lot of pink, Sue.



the parties were a bit different back then - a lot more drinking, a lot later in the evening, and a bit more wild. they have expanded over the years to include a potluck of sorts that i like to call "The Harvest Feed." they have also become a lot more baby friendly in the last two years. good wholesome times.

regardless, here are some pics from our party two weekends ago. i didn't take pics until late in the day, so i missed a bunch of the guests.

a carving group.



Uncle Wolfie, the pumpkin king.


a picture of Hlow making her famous Hlow face.


PUMPKINS! hey, Alex, if you're reading this - you forgot your pumpkins!


this would be one of them artsy pictures...from inside the pumpkin.


and the evening ended with a roll on the ground with Daisy. look at those two, Oliver and Harlow. all grown up!


at night.

Provincetown!

i am a wee bit in posting about our end of summer vacation. but everything in my life is a wee bit late nowadays. except for mornings. my mornings are bright and early and extra on time.

Ptown was incredibly lovely. we went with our usual friend/family Chicago group. only it was a smaller group this year as money as been tight for all. it was Ben's 30th birthday. yay, Ben! we tried really hard to get him a special surprise but it never actually came to fruition. too bad. because it would have been the perfect finalizing of Heather's 30th birthday some four years ago in Vegas. that's all that i can say in such a public space. okay, i'll give you one hint = Winnie the Pooh.

anyhow.

our vacation was delightful. we took FREEZING COLD swims in the ocean over and over again. it was actually very refreshing once you were in.



man. just looking at the picture makes me shiver. brrrrrr. out side of swimming, i had a few other highlights with no pictures to document it happened.
1. yoga on the deck in the sun.
2. pina coladas with Ben and Nako on the deck while Hlow slept. actually, i think that is what got us into the ocean that first day.

outside of those favorite moments, i loved loved loved watching Hlow and Ida Rocket play together and interact. Ida was smitten and did a lot of hug/choking Hlow. Hlow mostly just followed Ida like a doggie the entire time. terribly cute. here are a few sweet moments.

here is Ida Rocket. THE most lovely bebe (besides my Harlow of course). although i suppose Ida isn't really a baby anymore, huh?


playing on the beach together.


coloring together.


the city mouse teaching the country mouse how to use an iPad.



Nina teaching them about beer bottles.


they also did a lot of kissing (here they are kissing with the bear in the background).


what else? there was so much more. but pictures do always tell the story the best. there were sunsets from our room. Mama, Papa, and bebe all laying in bed watching the sun rise over the dunes and sparkling on the ocean. amazing.


getting the time to spend with my sleepy Hlow rather than rushing off to work in the morning.


there were also chances to nap with Hlow. here she is asleep on my chest. something that she hasn't done since she was a BABY baby.


there was FORT BUILDING!


and "playing circus."


amazing photo ops with hot Papa. this is Hlow's "take my picture face" that she has recently developed.


and there were early morning breakfasts that were just lovely. here Hlow is with her bestie, Nako. what an unlikely pair.


last but certainly not least...butches and babies, butches and babies, butches and babies, butches and babies, butches and babies, butches and babies, butches and babies.

"you my papa"

yesterday Harlow made 17 months. just one month shy of being a year and a half old. the rate at which she is growing is astounding me. i just can't get used to it. my teeny tiny little newborn is a KID. a total kid. and what a lovie little kid she is.

we must say, "my baby" a lot when we talk to her because a few weeks ago she started saying, "my baby" to all of her stuffies. it's pretty dang cute. yesterday i said, "where is my baby?" she pointed to herself. it was even more dang cute. so i kept saying it. then Papa walked in and Harlow said, "you my Papa." her first sentence!!! ah. my heart just throbs.

you my papa.

on a side note - we went to Northampton's balloon launch on Saturday. it was so incredible and beautifully amazing. i felt like a little kid. so much excitement and joy in seeing them fill and then launch. i loved every second of it. i think Harlow wasn't sure what to think.

books with poor messages for children

i don't like the children's book The Giving Tree. there. i said it. and i'm sick of pretending it's such a classic great story. read it again. the message is horrible.



that being (finally) said...i believe The Missing Piece Meets the Big O to be a terribly wonderful book/journey. also written by Shel Silverstein. what a lovely little story with a wonderful message. not to mention the illustrations are great! why are the two books in such a strange opposition?

we heart Vermont

enough with the words. lets get some picture updates! we took a vacation last week to Vermont. same place we go every year. we stayed at Pine Crest again. LOVE. it was lovely as usual. it rained for Bread & Puppet, so we missed the Circus, but it was lovely nontheless. a vacation update in pictures.

we made it to the Orleans County Fair. it wan't my favorite but Hlow certainly loved the animals. that part was fun. she looked cute as pie though.



here she is in the animal barn with Auntie Shannon and Uncle Wolfie. it was very cute to see her smitten with them all.


we got up at the crack each morning to see the lovely of Vermont. we ate breakfast each day at the Busy Bee or Parson's. soooooo yummy! we had lots of early morning adventures before the birds were even awake.





we also had lots of adventures at home at Pine Crest. one of my most favorite adventures of the vacation was a hike over the river...through the rapids...on top of the rocks...and through the tunnel to save the world. Harlow was on my back and enjoyed it very much. until she passed out, of course.



and then there was Bread & Puppet. the Circus was rained out. not that Hlow minded. she had a blast as a little dirty country baby.





last but not least = after everyone else headed home, the Locke's stayed on for an extra day/night. it was a pretty cold one but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. we never did get to swim at Crystal Lake this year but it still was lovely.