OY! KRISTEN

Easter Sunday.

What a joy it was to celebrate Easter as a family of three. Observing the cornerstone event of my faith, the divine resurrection of Jesus Christ, and sharing that exciting truth with my son, well, that pretty much takes the cake. Stevie and I had so much fun putting together Everett's Easter basket, getting him dressed up for church, and playing with him throughout the day that we completely failed at taking a family photo. Who does that?? Well, us apparently. We just took endless pictures of our little man discovering Easter eggs and, you know, chewing on them. Oh well. I tend to over-photograph our life in general, so while we might not have a ton of family pics from his first Easter, we have plenty of them from the day before and the day after.

This was our first Easter at home with family in many years. The past few years we've been in Boston and New York, so Easter has been an extremely chilly, friend-oriented holiday. We are grateful for so many unique Easter experiences, but this year with Everett was the best yet. It was just so much fun, introducing him to the traditions of the celebration, and even though he's not fully grasping it yet, it's just the beginning!

A Tisket, a Tasket.

I might have overdone it on the Easter basket. Well, it wasn't an Easter basket as much as it was a piece of luggage, his own little luggage bag! We are doing a good bit of traveling over the next few months, and I can't keep stuffing his goods into sticky Trader Joes tote bags. His bounty floweth over. And so of course, the bag just had a few goodies inside, MOSTLY NEEDS, like a bathing suit and sun hat and swim diapers. And a toy. And a book. And maybe some new shoes. I MIGHT BE OUT OF CONTROL.

We had so much fun, worshiping at church and then having lunch with family. And then egg hunting with cousins! And then crying a good bit. It's okay, it's an emotional day for all of us, Everett.

I hope you all enjoyed your Easter as much as we did!

Picking Muscadines & Scuppernongs.

Whew! Happy weekend to you! Our weekend got off to a bit of a shaky start. My little Everett decided to turn his behavioral clock back to when he was a brand-newborn and wake up all through the night again. This has gone on for four nights in a row. Just when I thought we were on to something! Any new mom tips on getting your child to sleep through the night are much appreciated. ALSO. I wanted to thank all of you who gave such encouraging feedback on last weeks post about Mompetition. I'm astounded at how many people have felt that icky mom-judgement. But all your kind words, camaraderie and commitment to stop judging and start loving on other mamas really touched me. Let's keep it up! Every time we have a "judgy" thought about another mama, let's squash it and take the time to encourage her instead. It's the best thing we can do for each other!

Finally Fall!

I wanted to share a suuuuuper fun Autumn activity! A few weeks ago Stevie and I packed up Everett (in his fancy new Baby Gap outfit from his surrogate Auntie Natalie) and ventured out to pick muscadines in our hometown. I can't believe I never did this growing up! It was so invigorating to finally feel a chill in the air and actually experience the weather of the season. This fall has been so different in our household... instead of apple picking and devouring cider donuts (like we did when we lived in Boston), we've been up to our ears in swaddles, lullabies and trying to get our baby to take a bottle. It's just a whole new experience this fall. So while the hayrides and corn maizes will have to wait 'til next year, I couldn't bear going the whole season without heading out to a farm and picking something. Since all the good apple farms are at least two hours away (and that drive seems a bit daunting with our spirited newborn), the next best thing was picking muscadines. Literally right around the corner from our house.

I had a vague idea of what a muscadine was (a super thick-skinned spicy grape), but scuppernongs escaped me. What a funny word to say. Try to say it out loud. SCUPPERNONG. See? It's just so silly. Anyway, I was uber disappointed to learn that scuppernongs are just a lighter-colored muscadine. There is practically no difference. The disappointment lasted for about 6 seconds, because then I tasted one. They are so delicious. PEOPLE. Why do apples get all the good press in the fall? MUSCADINES ARE THE NEW APPLE. Now go pick you some.