Happy Birthday!

What? January is almost over?! What happened here? We have fallen off the face of the blogging earth for a wee month but it's time to start again. So let's begin...The most major event to grace our household since Christmas is...Desmond's 1st Birthday. Holy smokes Batman! Can you believe it? Our little Peanut is a big Peanut. Officially. At 20lbs (25%) , and 32inches (95%), he's a beanpole. He's taking a few steps, babbling constantly, and has the most magical laugh I have ever heard. He's still an incredible eater, polishing off his whole giant piece of cake in about 5 minutes flat. He also annihalated his previous Saturday pancake record over Christmas break, with 6 pancakes in one sitting! Are you kidding me? Nope. He's loud, thinks he's in charge and knows how to throw a  tantrum (Desmond, not Rob). On the flip-side he gives kisses that can melt the coldest heart. Eskimo kisses.  Oh my goodness, I am gushing right now. Des will lean in, close his eyes, and wait for you to rub noses with him. It is one of those moments that forgives any bad he could possibly do and he knows it. Mommy says a sharp no, lean in for a kiss. Break something, lean in for a kiss. Make a mess, lean in for a kiss. He also leans in when I'm laying on the couch watching him play. I'm right at his face level there so he walks right up. I lay down and wait just for this before I go do any chores. His favorite person to kiss though is Papa Pete. Anytime Grandpa picked him up, Des would lean in immediately for a kiss. They made us all jealous. I'm still hoping to get it photographed but the 1 year old won't cooperate. I wonder why (wink).

Well second on the list of events, is Rob's birthday! The big 27. We celebrated Rob and Desmond on the same day with cake, ice cream, games, presents and of course balloons. What party is complete without balloons? And thanks to Martin Luther King Jr., we got to celebrate all day. Woo hoo.

Next up, we had our first visitors of 2012... the good times just keep rollin' here in the itty bitty apartment. Katie and Janel showed up by train from Florida. Yes train. We explored the Holocaust Museum, Gettysburg Battlefield and they were kind enough to brave a baby shower. We also played Dominion, Word on the Street, and Nerts to my hearts content. Janel unfortunately had to leave a few days later but, lucky us, Katie is here to stay for awhile! Peanut has a room mate now. Katie is a brave soul. We provided ear plugs and a bed.



With the Washington Monument in the background!

 Since we're working backwards here, we are finally back to Christmas break. Three glorious weeks at home in Washington state. This deserves it's own post so I'll put one together and back date it. Check back again later if you care to see it!

Just in Time for Christmas (Part 2)

Just a week before the swim meet we were scrambling like chickens with our heads cut off to catch up from our long Thanksgiving vacation in Houston. It's official. I am an Aunt! Rob is an Uncle! Des is a Cousin! The Houston trip was in honor of the newest addition to the Paulsen clan...little baby Isaac. Oh babies are so fun, and so is Thanksgiving and pie. In that order of course. We had a splendid holiday de-stressing, reading, eating, sleeping, movie watching, house admiring, sight seeing, baby chasing, dog walking, warm weather enjoying, family picture taking, Emily and Harrison visiting, and my favorite...game playing. We played many rounds of Dominion, Nerts and of course Dance Dance Revolution and MarioKart. Overall it was just a great time seeing and enjoying family. Tiff you look amazing btw...

I can't believe Des was ever that small 

Playing with Grandpa at the airport.

Dear baby Isaac

Tina Puppy and her new friend

The iconic house of beer cans

Giant president busts

Just in time for Christmas (Part 1)

Hello again everyone! I always imagined that when I was grown up I would not let the holidays eat all of my time and stress me out...so I've just decided, I'm not grown up yet. : )  It has been a tornado of activity in this Maryland home since the holiday season arrived so here's an update, just in time for Christmas.

Starting with most recent activities....

Yesterday, in Cleveland, OH, I competed in my first swim meet since I quit swimming in college almost 8 years ago. My heart is all a flutter with the excitement of racing again. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face as we drove the 5 1/2 hours home after the meet. I am a mother/athlete now and student/athlete no more.  I'm a little bit fatter, a lot bit slower, but I'm equally as jazzed about swimming as I ever was. I even had a cheering section as the Lovinger's were kind enough to join us for the afternoon.  It was a 25 meter pool and my inaugural times were this:

50m free: 33:00 (29.57 scy)
100m back: 1:19.42 (1:11 scy)
200 IM: 3:04.06 (2:44.9 scy)

I have a bit of work to do but I love having a benchmark to work from and I feel pretty good about those times. Especially since some weeks I get three swims in and some weeks I get one. I think I beat every woman at the meet, except for one, and a large handful of the gentlemen folk as well.  I'm mostly hoping that Des will catch the swimming bug with all this exposure. Cross those fingers that our future will be filled with swim meets and not baseball games.

So Dad, here is a snippet of my 100 backstroke for you to analyze (I'm in the closest lane if you can't tell)To begin the critique, my start was horrendous, but I've still got it under water off the walls. My age group swimmer timers told me I was, "impressive". That's a high compliment from a teenage swimmer to an old timer.

(TO BE CONTINUED...)