melted smoosh

welcome to the world, George Nicholas! our fifth baby was born two weeks early, completely upending my previous delivery pattern -- all of his sisters were born just before or up to 10 days after their due dates, except for Victoria with a scheduled induction at 39 weeks. a 39 week induction was the plan for baby boy too, and our dear friend Amy had requested the day off work to come doula for us again, bless her! my coworkers kept telling me I was going to go early with him and I kept confidently responding, "oh no, my babies like to stay cozy in here!" as I left the office on Friday (at 37 weeks 2 days pregnant), I told them, "see you Monday!" they all looked at me and said, "well... maybe!" and I reassured them that I would be there.  the last "bump" photo I have, on July 4, just 9 days before baby would make his appearance!  Amy texted me that weekend to see how I was feeling. baby boy was definitely sitting lower and I was having some inter...

over a year ago, we had made plans for Greta to go on a trip to Paris over Holy Week 2026 with her elementary school choir (pinch me now!). since Cece was going with Nick on an epic European pilgrimage in the summer of 2025, we decided it was only fair for me to accompany Greta. ;) also, Holy Week is Nick's absolute busiest time of year as a church musician and he definitely would not be able to take the week off to travel.  a few months after sending in the deposit, we learned that not enough families had signed up and the trip was canceled, so our deposit was refunded. we both were quite disappointed! then Nick said that she and I should pick another place to go for a mother/daughter trip in its place. after much deliberating over various options, including a trip to NYC for shopping/shows, a visit to North Carolina to visit my sister and hopefully see one of the shows she and her fiancé are involved with in the local theater they run, a trip to the beach, or a cruise, Greta fina...