walking and talking

We recently attended my 10 year law school reunion. I didn't see anyone from my class- it was a multi-year reunion-- but it was fun anyway. Alyssia and I really enjoyed the rose garden in the law school quad. They've done a lot to the school in the last ten years. It's really beautiful.



Ben and Alyssia on the metro on the way home.

The Severna Park Plaza hosted a free family movie night a few weeks back. They played Swiss Family Robinson on a big screen. The Little Gym had games for the kids before the movie. Alyssia was enraptured by the bigger kids. She is SO social. I don't think we'll have to worry about her making friends. She loves everyone. She even tries to kiss strangers in the grocery store. We have to work on that, especially now that flu season is approaching.

Alyssia's good friend Esther had a very fun pool party in September. Alyssia enjoyed herself immensely, although she refused to go in the pool.

I love this video. It took about 40 minutes to download to this blog, so I hope it works. Alyssia is so into her books. I hope it stays that way! Of course, right now, being into them means chewing on them and throwing them as hard as she can, but it's a start.

Yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch. It was weird because it was so warm outside. Alyssia loved the pumpkins. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera. We'll have to go back and take photos.

We've been very busy with our outreach sunday school. Our first week we had 13 kids. The second week, 26, and last week I think 35. It's been absolutely amazing. The kids are great. They come on the bus and they're very well-behaved. We have great people working on our team and I'm sure that makes a huge difference. Alyssia loves these kids.

I'm all excited because a new friend of mine shared a book with me about organizing your home. I love this book. She doesn't call cleaning your house cleaning your house--she calls it BLESSING your house!! (Check out http://www.flylady.com/) What a concept! I love it. I actually cleaned out my linen closet!! Mom, you can actually see what's in there now! And I've been giving away piles and piles of stuff. Stuff just accumulates so fast around here! It's like it has a life of its own. I'm learning to constantly put stuff in bags for the garbage and bags for giving away. And once the bags are full, they immediately get taken out of the house--to the curb or to the car. If I don't love the item and use it often, it's outta here. What a relief. My little house really is too little for any extraneous stuff. I'm so inspired by this book that I've actually embarked on a redesign of my bedroom! I'm painting! And we moved the furniture around!! I can only do a little bit during naptimes, but I've surprised myself at how quickly it's coming together. My new motto, (borrowed from the flylady) is "progress, not perfection." How liberating!

Alyssia and I have become regulars at any free storytime we can find. We're storytime junkies. The libraries are great for that, as are some of the bookstores. We've met lots of other moms and babies that way.

Ben is working hard, as always. His business has picked up a bit since the summertime slowdown. He's started playing his bass again and it's fun to hear him practicing. Alyssia loves it. She bangs her head while he plays and slaps the strings.

I tried to add pictures to all these paragraphs, but blogspot started having some kind of problem half way through my blogging tonight. I'll have to add more photos later.