Fenksday Residue

Just out taking in the sights at Chancellorsville Battlefield (a few miles up the road from our hosts). We Cramer gals have a real penchant for Civil War history.
Questioning whether these very rocks could've seen the boot soles of Generals Lee or Hooker. Perhaps, sweet child.
Joining the menfolk on a walk around the property in the balmy November sun while waiting for the grand meal

First of all, I find it difficult to say or write "Thanksgiving" most of the time, thanks to a game of Balderdash that took place (whoa) nearly ten years ago. "Fenks" was a word that we had to define and Kellie and I found it very funny and we've used it regularly ever since. Fenksday has replaced Thanksgiving, though the Michael sisters are no less thankful for everything we have. Now that that's cleared up, I found some leftover pictures I'd taken on our trip last week that had not yet been loaded onto my laptop. This video delights me each time I view it, though I must apologize to Jeff and Amy for sitting by and allowing my child to torment their boxers, Sura and Max. Olive was in heaven.

The Wednesday Before Thanksgiving

I managed to get the week (Monday though Friday) off so that our family could travel down south. I loaded up the car on Monday, picked up Rob from the aviary and zoomed down to Maryland to get in some time with Mimi and Pop Pop. On our way there we told Buggy who we were going to see, not thinking that she'd attach the names to their faces, but sure enough, once we walked in the door and she saw my mother, "Mimi" was the first thing she said. Same for my dad when he got home later that night. We had a delightful - though very brief - visit and then departed for Fredericksburg, Virginia, where Rob's longtime friend Jeff lives with his fiancé, Amy. It took us longer to reach the normally 90 minute-long destination than it did to get from Pittsburgh to Mt. Airy (we did that in 3.75 hours when it usually takes us 4). Still, Buggy was in pleasant mood, entertaining herself with Richard Scarry books, and Rob was the exceptional travel partner that he always is, so the traffic outside of DC and along 95 wasn't as unbearable as it could be.

Buggy stayed up several hours past her bedtime last night, wired with glee from being freed from her car seat. After putting her to bed, Rob, Jeff, Amy, and I gathered round the table for several hours of Bananagrams. Such fun! I turned in at 11:30, tucking in with my newest read:Olive Oil: From Tree to Table, by Peggy Knickerbocker. It's fascinating and is filling in a lot of the gaps I had in my oil knowledge. I feel so much better equipped with information and can now pass on more intriguing tidbits to my customers. Rob and Jeff sat out on the front porch talking, and their voices, a few feet outside my window, kept me awake after I'd turned out the light. I'd fallen asleep before Rob came in at 2, but not long before. Olive woke at 7, so I woke at 7. And then I completely misunderstood the plans. Rob's brother and sister-in-law, Rhett and Amanda, were flying in from Connecticut and Jeff, Rob, Olive, and I were going to drive up to DC to pick them up at the airport and, from what I'd understood, spend a little time in the city. I was delirious from fatigue and Olive hadn't taken a morning nap, so staying behind seemed the wiser choice. However, the District beckoned, so Olive and I left shortly after Jeff and Rob. The traffic going up 95 was atrocious, as I knew it'd be. We met up with Jeff and Rob at the airport; Rob got in with us and Rhett and Amanda got in with Jeff. I followed, not sure of our destination, until Rob said he was just going back home. Mind you, it took nearly two hours to get from the house to the airport, and the attractions of the nation's capital were within view. There was no way I'd driven in sluggish traffic just to witness and airport pickup and drive back to the house (which reportedly took them three and a half hours). Rob was down for some enrichment so our first stop was Ah Love Oil & Vinegar in Arlington, VA. I'd heard of this shop and was curious to check out its wares and see how they compared to ours. We sampled a few of their balsamics (our traditional is better) and infused oils and all of the monovarietals, but none of them excited me much. Our next stop was my favorite destination in Washington:Dolcezza. They have a good selection of dairy-free sorbettos so we got Olive a cup of the cranberry apple cider flavor. Rob and I went the more decadent route with thai coconut milk, salted caramel, and chocolate peanut butter (Rob) and valhrona chocolate amargo (a dense, dark chocolate for me). We savored our treats then, to make the most of our visit and to try to avoid some of the anticipated traffic, we meandered through Northwest before finally stumbling upon the National Museum of Natural History. We wanted Buggy to see the dinosaur and mammal exhibits in particular, the latter of which I hadn't seen before. It was pretty spectacular and just as good as a zoo in many ways. Go see it if you haven't.

Getting her first taste of Dolcezza

Fascinated by the fish at the museum

Coming face-to-face with some life-like owls
The sunset was exquisite as we left Washington

A spent goon

Reading a Book, Singing a Song

I've got to hand it to her - she really can entertain herself. The song she sings sounds a lot like "Walking Through the Woods on a Cloudy Day", a song we sing at Music Together and is one she can be heard singing often. I had to abort filming because she was showing no signs of stopping (she went on for another six minutes).

A Very Special Day at the Zoo

This was probably the sweetest zoo trip ever for our family, and just when I think Rob can't do more to impress me and remind me of why I chose him, we have a morning like this one. Olive was in rare form, in desperate need of a nap, and burst into tears each time I prevented her from following a zoo employee through a closing door, getting nose-to-nose with Cliff, the alligator, reaching out to pet Penelope, the porcupine, or poking her fingers inside the cage of a snap-happy owl (with a bloody and beheaded mouse at its feet, no less). But no matter. This trip was meant specifically for Jack. Kellie sums it up best in her thoughtful and witty blog post. For the full story complete with photographs of our privileged tour, wander over to her site (and take a look at some of her adorable knits. When I complimented Jack on his store-bought vest this morning and asked to borrow it, he suggested I make my own. I could hardly blame him; his wonder of a mother makes - or can make - practically anything).

And it goes without saying that I'd like my own pet kinkajou now.

Beautiful November

Until this year November wasn't one of my favorite months. I've always remembered it as being brown, dreary, chilly, and a threat of the coming winter, with the few bright spots being Thanksgiving and my mother's birthday. This November, however, has been glorious. Already over a third of the way through the months, we've enjoyed mostly sunny and warmer than usual days with the fall leaves peaking. I have to say that I was disappointed with the color in October, the month when things usually are at their most beautiful, so I was in for a belated treat this last week. The golden hues have been breathtaking but I was unable to capture anything. Alas, we are still without a standard camera, but I ordered a charger for our video camera so I'll be using that to take still shots as well for the foreseeable future.

Buggy has been a sweet. Bigtime. Nothing much new there. She continues to babble regularly, and one of her new games is identifying all of the moles she can find on me and saying, "mmmmooowl". She loves drinking juice with Rob and me and downing chunk after chunk of skin-on sweet potato (she can almost say this) with spinach. She's definitely not one to turn up her nose at vegetables. She confuses us with her standard response: "No." We have to read her other signs to determine the real answer. If the no means yes, it's usually accompanied by a giggle, or sometimes I can answer myself. A true no comes with a troubled tone and expression, often with fidgeting hands. I feel like she understands the word yes; she's used it in the past to convey an affirmative response, and when playing finding games like, "Where's ____", she will point to the object and say, "Yeaaaah" with such satisfaction that my heart melts into a little puddle. She'll get it one of these days.

Yoga Wednesday

I believe tonight was the first time I'd done yoga since I was pregnant. It'd been on my list of things to start doing again, particularly with my severe back pain back for a visit, but it kept eluding me. Thankfully Nina had expressed an interest in improving her flexibility so I looked into a yoga class she and I could attend together. And wouldn't you know, that Union Project, our next-door community mecca, holds pay-what-you-can drop-in classes every Wednesday evening, so we checked it out. I feel a bit silly having lived just yards away from this place for over a year and never taking advantages of its offerings until just this week. The class was great, and was also the first actual class I'd ever attended. In college my sister and I enjoyed ourselves some power yoga with Rodney Yi on VHS, the Hawaiian waves crashing in the background, Yi's calming voice guiding us through the poses, but there's something to be said about being in the atrium of a church with nine or ten other practicers to really help you get in touch. What I am seeking is, like Nina, more flexibility, as well as assistance for my temperamental lower back. Extra strength is always welcome too, of course, but I feel like that's one area where I can honestly say that I feel pretty good. On my first attempt I was able to execute and sustain a crow or crane pose. This feat made up for my lack of grace with the hula hoop last night. I'm looking forward to these back-to-back nights of group physical activity with Nina each week, and getting back into my running with my British pal, Catherine tomorrow. I'll also be taking my brand new Mizunas out on their maiden run. I got them on Monday having done a lot of research on the best shoes for back troubles, so I'm excited to experience a run in shoes with more support than I've had before.

Oh, and Buggy's eye? She looks rough, but as a grandmother at Music Together pointed out this morning as Olive and I dismounted our bike, "When kids look like that it means that they're really living." This is true. I'm sure she'll be out for more hula hooping next week.

Her First Shiner

Still without camera (Rob will take some shots with his iPhone tomorrow), I was unable to capture the painful sight of a little girl with a bruised left eye. Nina and I took her to the Tuesday night hula hoop group that gathers on the lawn between our house and the Union Project which amused her greatly. There were just as many young children as adults, and Buggy was mesmerized by the sea of hoopers with colorful metallic-taped - and some with lights! - hula hoops. More than those, though, she was engrossed in a rock hunt, plucking little pebbles from the dirt caked in the sidewalk. Rocks have recently become a big love of hers that started on a walk we took a month ago to the zoo: on one stretch of the road large rocks are placed on the grass between the sidewalk and street and it was on this walk that she needed to visit each individual rock and touch it gently, saying, "Hi, rock!" Anyway, tonight she was happy to dig up rocks and share with Nina and me her findings - a tricky task given the obstacle of the hoops. At one point Nina didn't see her coming and Buggy caught an eyeful. Bad. I couldn't tell in the low light just how or where she'd been hit, but I scooped her up and brought her back home to Rob. When I returned a little while later after having taken Nina back home, I saw a that the hoop had, indeed, clocked her square in the peeper, or just below, and there was plenty of redness and swelling. I dabbed a little arnica ointment on it over her howls, hoping that it would reduce the puffiness enough to keep her out of the state's custody. I worry a little about bringing her to Music Together tomorrow morning; she's always the most beat-up looking of the tots there, as she won't leave her scabs alone so little wounds not only don't heal quickly but are made worse by her picking. Besides, how credible a story is getting hit by a hula hoop?

Letter Learner

I lost my camera last week. I'm sick. The last place I remember having it was at the zoo (it hasn't turned up in their lost & found), and I jumped for it last night when we found Buggy at the refrigerator door naming the letter magnets - most of them correctly (T, O, C, etc.). It was pretty great. I'm working on replacing the camera with a Lumix I found on craigslist because we really can't go a full week without one, especially with all that Olive's been doing lately.