melted smoosh

this year, on the feast of St. Nicholas, we received the best gift of all! our sweet Elizabeth Rose was born at 11:45 PM on December 6, just fifteen minutes shy of her due date, weighing 7 lb 2 oz and measuring 19 1/2 inches long. after Cecilia's whirlwind birth on the sidewalk, we were all excited and a bit anxious to find out exactly how Elizabeth would decide to enter the world. in fact, i had discussed scheduling an elective induction for 39-40 weeks with my OB just to have a little more control over the situation. and my amazing family scheduled themselves to take turns coming to stay with us so there would always be an extra set of hands to help with the older girls, with Kira arriving first, a week before my due date.  historically i've always gone past my due date (10 days over with Greta and 3 with Cecilia), but they say the third baby is the wild card. the day before Kira arrived, i had my routine 39 week appointment. my OB said he didn't think labor was going to

 somehow i feel like i'll be writing these posts for the next ten years -- i'm obviously biased, as her mother, but Cecilia is just such a hilarious little person and i love these insights into how her brain works!  the girls have been playing with a cane and crutches we have down in the basement. one day, Cecilia carefully examined the cane (which has a large foam grip on the handle), and announced: "a cane is like a unicycle without pedals!" (she's not wrong!) displaying the anklet she made (one of the amazing doctors in my practice gave the girls this jewelry kit!) "Mom! i can say the Plegible Legiance!" "Mommy, i'm the grown up and you're the kid, so you have to listen to what i say. and what i say is that we have to get ice cream." the girls working together to build a blanket fort, following specific instructions from their Auntie Krista (to help with one of her college assignments!) smelling a candle that had been in a box in the

 i just love words. big ones, small ones, long ones, short ones; words that sound like what they mean and ones that sound exactly opposite (like pulchritude). i especially love words that succinctly describe a complex concept. for years, i've jotted down words that struck my fancy, and thanks to the magic of Canva's free design software , i bring you the first batch of words to enrich your day!  Caravaggio's brush deftly portrays the glaucous grapes and shiny apples. With an avuncular grin, he produced a quarter from behind her ear.  Their bibulous laughter floated down from the rooftop bar. The fricative sound of the sprinkler, gentle song of the windchimes, and occasional whine of a mosquito lulled her into a summer afternoon trance. That otiose tradition tradition dates back to the fifteenth century. The panegyric strained the limits of the audience's attention.  The stern faces of the caryatids gazed out over the piazza. linking up with Rosie here ! 

  a book i own Every Note Played , by Lisa Genova. oh my goodness -- this is going on my Favourite Books list for sure (and the fact that my Favourite Books list happens to be about fifty books long doesn't diminish its importance!). Mom gifted me this book a few months ago and i can't believe i didn't pick it up sooner. a heartbreaking, yet heartwarming, story of a classical pianist who is diagnosed with ALS. the book alternates between his point of view and his estranged wife's perspective, and all interspersed with details of piano repertoire and the physical experience of playing piano. 10/5.  a classic Wuthering Heights , by Emily Bronte. there were parts of this book i loved (the flowery turns of phrase and Gothic drama) and parts i hated (the servant's indecipherable dialect and the slow-moving plot). i was by turns annoyed by it and also felt convicted that maybe my modern mind needs to slow down and not demand bright and shiny instant gratification! so, all

(for posterity's sake, Cecilia is 4 years and 3 months old.) while walking out to the car: "Spiderwebs can't hurt you! They don't have any arms!" she grew tired of playing by the rules and decided to play school with the pawns instead after going through the McDonald's drive-thru: "Ahhh! The fresh chicken nugget air!" "Sometimes we cry when we're so happy that we can't even hold the happiness anymore." one of many treasured self-portraits i discover on my phone "Mommy! We have arms so we can move our hands! If we didn't have arms, we just couldn't move our hands!" very excited about the girls' new matching comforters from Nana! this last exchange tells you everything you need to know about her glass-half-full philosophy. while racing toy cars with me, she announced: "I win!" me: "I lose." Cece: "No, you just won second, Mommy!" (linking up with Rosie here !) 

 i crashed and burned a bit with my reading goal for 2020 - 62 books read out of 75. i read 85 books in 2019 so 75 seemed like a realistic goal, but i guess i didn't count on the realities of returning to work part time halfway through the year! so this year i'm setting my sights a little lower with 50 books pledged to read by the end of 2021. i'm also committing to reading a book in each of three categories every month (plus hopefully a few bonus books).  a book i own Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis ,  by J.D. Vance. i've been wanting to read this for years, and Nick thoughtfully gave it to me for Christmas! it's a quick but deep read, an honest reckoning of the economic forces and cultural precedents that have impoverished Appalachian America. i'm letting it settle in my brain and heart a little more before watching the Netflix version. 5/5.  Edge of Eternity (The Century Trilogy, #3) , by Ken Follett. this monstrous book actually