Last weekend we decided to go down to Charlottesville (Roman’s first visit!) and give Portman a chance to catch up on some work. The trip would have been easy had it taken the normal 2 hours, but after over 3 hours in the car I wanted to kill myself! Note to self: never drive to Cville again on move-in weekend. The kids were both angels until we hit the 2-hour mark, then all hell broke loose. I wanted to call people and leave messages of the noise in my car just to get some sympathy! Anyways, once we arrived I had plenty of backup and the promise of a decent night’s sleep.

On Saturday we visited Uncle Luke, Aunt Alicia, and cousin Charlie at their new house and enjoyed a fabulous home-cooked meal (thanks, Alicia!). Harper demonstrated her new-found love of dogs as she rolled around on the floor with June. We did minimal damage to their new house and got home in time for bed – now that’s what I call a successful dinner party!

On Sunday I got to sneak out for a little shopping (completely unsuccessful) and La La had her first taste of babysitting two babies. I smiled inside when she said "I don’t know how you do this every day!"

On Monday morning I woke up with the intention of going home, but felt like I had the worst flu of my life. On top of that Roman seemed to be sick too, so we both headed off to Urgent Care. Turns out I had mastitis and thrush (yes, at the same time), and Roman had thrush. We ended up staying in Cville for a few more days to recover and La La got another day of diapers and messes. The good news is that we are all better now and I had a chance to upload photos! Below are the links to our August photos (so far) and our trip to Maine. Enjoy!

Harper & Roman – August

Kennebunkport ’08

Last week we took our annual vacation to Kennebunkport, Maine. This was Roman’s 1st, Harper’s 2nd, my 6th, and Portman’s 17th summer in KPT! Portman and Harper flew up on Tuesday and Roman and I joined them on Wednesday. We lucked out with amazing weather and had probably one of the best "Maine beach summers" yet. Roman was such a trooper on his first plane ride – he fell asleep at BWI and I had to wake him up in Manchester to feed him! We hit all of our favorite eateries and were not surprised when Harper spit out her first taste of lobster… I guess it’s an acquired taste?

Much to Uncle Dave’s dismay, Harper immediately renamed Katelyn "Kiki" and the two girls spent the week learning a lot about sharing and not pushing. They were so adorable on the beach, but proved that they have completely opposite personalities. Harper dug in the sand very daintily and refused to take off her shoes the entire time we were there, meanwhile Kiki launched herself right into the water and spent most of her time trying to bury her legs in the sand. Harper decided that the ocean was the "pool" and every morning would wake up saying "Harper pool! Mama pool! Dada pool! Kiki pool!" Despite her apparent aversion to getting dirty, she absolutely loved the beach and has been talking about it ever since we got home. 

The hardest part about the vacation was definitely the trip home. Our flight was delayed out of Manchester until almost midnight and we didn’t arrive at BWI until 1:30 am. Our new Phil & Ted double stroller completely saved us. It has a bassinet that is supposed to be for the baby, but Harper slept in it in the airport for nearly 3 hours! Unfortunately we had to wake her up to go through security… stupid 9-11.

We took nearly 600 photos during the trip, so I will have to sort through them for Smugmug (which I am terribly delinquent in updating!) Below are some (okay, a LOT) of our favorites:

Roman is three weeks old now, and for the first time in a few weeks they are BOTH asleep at the same time and I have a chance to write an update. It has been an exhausting few weeks, but everyone is healthy and happy (I think!). Roman is quickly earning the nickname “tank baby,” as he is growing at an incredible rate. At his 2-week checkup he was over 9 pounds and nearly 24 inches long. To put it in perspective, that is almost exactly the same size that Harper was at her 2-MONTH checkup! He is eating every 2 hours like clockwork (even at night), and by now I suspect that he weighs well over 10 pounds. Luckily he is also growing in length, so he doesn’t look at all chubby. As expected, I am completely exhausted, but I’m hoping that in the next few weeks his appetite will slow down.

Other than his aggressive feeding schedule, Roman seems to be a very easy-going baby. He has some digestive issues that bother him the most at night, but other than that he doesn’t fuss much and is very sweet. Harper has really warmed up to him and always wants to know where he is. If we are going somewhere, the first thing she asks is “baby?” as in, “is the baby coming too?” She kisses and “squeezes” him constantly, and we have to be very careful that she doesn’t love him too hard!

We have had a constant stream of visitors over the past few weeks, and all of the grandparents have finally had a chance to meet their first grandson. We were very grateful for all of the extra help and especially the home-cooked meals – it will be a few more weeks of take-out before I’m ready to cook again! Now that Harper, Roman and I are on our own, we’ve settled into our new routine. It is a LOT more work with two of them, but I’m slowly figuring it out. The hardest part is balancing their schedules- they have a way of waking up and needing me for diaper changes, snacks, etc. at exactly the same time, so that has been a challenge.

This week we are headed up to Kennebunkport, Maine for our annual vacation. Portman and Harper leave tomorrow, and Roman and I leave on Wednesday. We are all ready for a little rest and quality family time. I’m not going to hold my breath for the “rest” part, but we are excited nonetheless!

Below are a few photos from the past 2 weeks. I’ll post the bulk of them on Smugmug tomorrow.

Portman made an adorable TV (“T-T”) corner for Harper in the living room so that she is occupied while I’m getting meals ready:

Like mommy, like son:

Harper and Roman taking a break on the patio:

Harper is sporting:

• 8 strands of Mardi Gras beads
• 1 pair of mommy’s underwear (around neck)
• 1 pair of rock star glasses