BREAKING NEWS

We interrupt the normal coverage of Swine Flu -- aka Influenza A -- aka H1N1 -- aka Mexico Flu to bring you news that ANNA. IS. WALKING.

I was actually starting to think that she might never walk. I had visions of carrying a teenager to her driver's license test.

Lily was fully walking by now. We have pictures of her walking at her first birthday party (there I go again with the comparisons!). But before she fully walked, she took plenty of steps here and there. In fact, the ONLY video we have of "Lily, the Early Years" is of her taking one of her first steps.

Anna, on the other hand, decided to just do it all at once. For the WOW factor. Don't get me wrong, she's been doing plenty of cruising. Holding on to this or that. But she would freeze, and drop to her knees, if you ever took "this" or "that" away.

But at some point during this absolutely I.N.S.A.N.E. week of working around the clock, I picked her up from daycare and was greeted by a walker. A full-fledged walker.



I just worry. If this is any preview, I can only imagine the monologue that will come out of her mouth the first time she officially starts talking!

Under water

Dear Friends & Family, [stop]

In the middle of swine flu crisis with client. [stop]

Situation is bad. Getting worse. [stop]

Latest information -- urgent.internationalsos.com. Or follow CDC tweets -- http://twitter.com/CDCemergency. [stop]

Wash hands often. W.A.S.H. [stop]

Much to tell. Photos from Anna's birthday. Tales from the Land of Lily. Will post updates when I come up for air. [stop]

Hugs 'til then,
CF [stop]

Hoppin Down the Bunny Trail

Along the same lines of our egg decorating and gingerbread making, this year we celebrated Easter. Sort of. Actually we celebrated the holiday of "looking for brightly colored plastic eggs, full 'o candy, in my cousin's backyard on a gorgeous Sunday." It's a new one. What? Haven't heard of it yet? Easter 1.0

Not only did I discover that Lily is GREAT at finding eggs, hid in the most unusual spots (think wheel well of a car), but I found out that my younger daughter is a bunny. Or at least she was dressed like one. Totally inadvertently.

And, as we were leaving my cousin's house, my blackberry buzzed with a new Facebook message titled "Easter Miracle." My old roommate -- the one who sang at my wedding and with whom I watched many an episode of Survivor...the one who is on TV ALL. THE. TIME. -- had come through with three of the hottest tickets in town. Yes, Ms. Savannah Guthrie, AKA the better looking of the NBC White House correspondents (my apologies to Chuck Todd), had tickets for me to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. Easter 2.0

I stayed up until almost 1:30 a.m. Sunday night/Monday morning working on a client document so that I could actually sneak away to the White House on Easter Monday. Where we would wait in lines. And more lines. For almost 2 1/2 hours. But there were still many, many people who didn't get to wait in those lines. Who would have KILLED to wait in all those lines. As I said, it was the hottest ticket in town.

I got the work done, and we went to the famous -- and now famously crowded -- "public" event at the White House. Lily's favorite part was the commemorative wooden egg. You know...the one that can be ordered online (DON'T tell her that....she thinks she earned it for being so good in line). Next year, though, I think that I may just order the egg and skip the roll.

Easter 1.0

Baby Anna with Cousin Anna

Peeps were a big. fat. hit. But not as big as jellybeans. Yes, my 12 month old ate candy.

Easter 2.0

Mrs. Obama's new organic veggie garden. Yum-o!

Bribed to smile with promises of peeps.

Lily called my peep bluff and, afterwards, refused to be in any photos.

The. Famous. Egg.

One Year

It's hard to believe -- nearly impossible -- that one year has passed since Anna joined our family.

I remember some of it like it were yesterday. I was SO done being pregnant. She was riding so high I could barely breathe. My back hurt. My knees ached. So on Wednesday, April 9th, I piled Lily in the jog stroller and set out for a hilly 2 mile loop through our neighborhood. I had heard that walking could induce labor, and since sitting on my yoga ball for 2 weeks straight hadn't helped, nor had the spicy food or, um, other "activities" that OBs recommend, I was game to try walking. Briskly. Very briskly.

The walk did work, as it turned out. Like many other nights, I feel asleep on the couch that Wednesday evening, probably watching some terrible Discovery Health TV show. About childbirth. I woke up at about midnight to move to my bed, and wouldn't ya know it, but my water broke when I got up from the couch.

The next few hours are somewhat of a blur. We took our time packing things in to the car, waiting for my mom to come over to babysit Lily. We got to the hospital where it was confirmed that yes, indeed, my water had broken. Which was a good thing. Because the alternative would have been urinary incontinence. No, my water doesn't gush when it breaks. As with my first labor, my waters prefer to trickle out. Gross, I know.

As I did with my first labor, I got an epidural. Which was awesome. Completely amazing. Unlike my first labor, I DID experience contractions this time around. Which were not awesome at all. They sucked. Big time.

Anna was born at 7:15 a.m. Right after the shift change. In fact, Noah almost had to deliver her himself. I'm afraid that the combination of shift change, "rush hour" of deliveries (I think that every pregnant woman in Arlington, Va. delivered within an hour of me), and "second time mom" label meant that I got the bare minimum amount of checks. And because my epidural was so incredibly awesome, I didn't fully realize how close to delivery I was. When the nurses finally checked me, Anna had already crowned and was on her way out. The scene that ensued was, honestly, hysterical. I started laughing. Her little head started bobbing from the laughter. And one bob lead to another and she slid right out. Suffice it to say, my doctor and nurse weren't fully prepared; I think my doctor only had one of her two gloves on when Anna was born.

I didn't hit me at first that I was a mother of two. Well, more accurately, I didn't fully realize then what being a mother of two meant. I do remember staring at my brand new baby in my arms. The baby I had carried for 38 weeks. The one that I had almost lost to a subchorionic hemorrhage at 9.5 weeks. The one who's hiccups and stretches were so completely familiar that I was, well, shocked that the little person in my arms was a stranger. Because I was having another girl, I (naively) assumed that she would look, and act, just like Lily. But in the place of the tiny, fair baby I had held 3 1/2 years earlier, staring up at me was a tiny bundle of darkness. Dark hair. Dark eyes. A baby who looked nothing like my precious Lily.

I'm embarrassed to say, but I think I spent the first month of Anna's life comparing her to Lily. Would she be as funny? Would she be as loving? Would she be as smart? Would she be as outgoing? Would she be as pretty? It took me time to bond with my second daughter. But when I fell for this little girl, I fell hard.

The last year has been incredible. Full of chaos. And WAY too many trips to the pediatrician's office. But equally full of joy. And love. And laughter.

Anna is not Lily. She is her own little person, and a pretty amazing person at that. I can't wait to see her personality blossom as she continues to grow.

At one year of age, Anna has seven teeth (all the better to BITE you with, my dear!). She's got the best darn belly laugh I've ever heard, and no one can bring it on quite like Lily. She can say "mama" "dada" "bye-bye" "uh oh" and "ba-ba" (bottle). She can do the sign for "more." She can blow kisses on command and claps loudly and proudly when you holler "Bravo!" She can whistle. Amazingly. She's stubborn as a mule. She's a screamer. And a squealer. And, when flying on a plane, she's both a screamer and a squealer (whoa is me...). She's also a complete love, and she gives the best darn snuggles I've ever had.

I have more grey hair than I did one year ago. And I'm much more tired than I ever was during my tenure as a mother of one. I am slowly learning how to parent two incredible, but very different, little girls; it's taking a lot of "on the job" learning. But -- and I think that Noah would agree -- we wouldn't change the last twelve months for anything. So big birthday hugs and kisses to our darling Anna Lake. Much love my sweet baby!

PS -- many thanks to our Atlanta host and official vacation photographer, Steve, for these wonderful pictures, which I adore. If you're matching outfits to yesterday's post, these were taken when we visited Stone Mountain Park.

The Devil(s) Went Down to Georgia

Spring Break '09. There was no "Co-Ed Naked Volleyball" or beers on the beach before noon. But since Lily's preschool strictly follows the public school calendar, we were forced to take vacation -- during peak travel (read more expensive AND more people) times -- as her school is closed for SIX. BUSINESS. DAYS.

We've been wanting to visit our friends Mariah and Steve in the great ATL for years now, so we decided to take advantage of this time off to plan our trip.

While "hot"lanta was actually pretty cold -- like snow flurries on our last day cold -- we had tons of fun and took full advantage of the relatively nice weather during our first two days. Lily claims the highlight of her trip was running through the fountains at Centennial Park. The highlight for me was seeing our friends and the "sea nettles" at the Georgia Aquarium, a truly amazing place. The highlight for Anna? You'd have to ask her. But just don't ask how she got her black eye; that wasn't a highlight for anyone. Noah's highlight? One word -- cupcakes; I'll try to post the video.

Apologies in advance for the deluge of pictures. Since we took more than 400, just count your blessings that I'm only posting a few dozen. And these "destinations" were just the highlights. Don't even get Lily started on the Center for Puppetry Arts, where we caught an Oregon-based production of Stellaluna (a favorite book in our house).

Stone Mountain Park

An "amusement" park of sorts, Stone Mountain Park -- about 35 minutes from the city of Atlanta -- boasts numerous attractions, including the world second largest rock. The first being Ayers Rock in Australia. Which I personally climbed. Twice. At dawn. So -- check, check -- I guess I can cross #1 and #2 off my list now. Although, technically, I cheated this time and rode the tram both up and back down.

Lily, who normally is afraid of heights and all things that are unstable, tackled the ropes course like a pro.

She even did the zip line!

And, of course, had to leave her mark (along with Mariah) on the State of Georgia through the mural in Stone Mountain Park.

Noah left his mark on the state when he was called on to participate in the "Drumming Stories" show.

Fountains in Centennial Olympic Park

Georgia Aquarium

The largest aquarium in the world, with more than 8 million gallons of water, this attraction really is spectacular. And extremely well organized. And, unlike our own aquarium in Baltimore, STROLLER FRIENDLY (what a concept!).

The coolest sea horse I've ever seen.

"Baby Beluga in the deep blue sea, you swim so wild and you swim so free..." (unless, of course, you live in an aquarium)

One of many rooms in which the fish swam over our heads.

Tunnel 'o fish...

...which included this whale shark (1 of 4 in there), shipped to the aquarium via UPS!

And my personal favorite, the Pacific Sea Nettles

Random Atlanta

Anna with Marco, one of Mariah and Steve's Chinese Crested dogs.

The staple of Anna's Atlanta diet -- french fries (I'm embarrassed to report...definitely a second child!).

Or a nice Cuban cigar, if you have a techie friend who loves photoshop!

Where Did We Go Wrong?

A year or so ago, I heard about a program called PJ Library, a pretty amazing endowment that sends a brand new book -- for free -- to Jewish children every month. Amazingly, it's in a number of states around the country, and we were lucky to be selected to participate.

In today's mail was the monthly book, And Shira Imagined, about a little girl who travels with her parents to Israel. While there they visit a number of places, including a kibbutz. While Lily could easily grasp the concept of a modern city (Tel Aviv) versus a biblical one (Jerusalem), she had a hard time coming to terms with the concept of a kibbutz.

On Passover eve, I tried to explain. Using things more familiar to her.

"So Lily, pretend that I'm the cook for our entire neighborhood. When people want to eat, they come to our house," I started.

"And say that our next door neighbor, Bob, is the fruit man for the entire neighborhood. He grows fruit, and when anyone wants some, they just go to Bob's house," I continued.

"We all work together. We share. We help each other out. We're a team. Do you understand?" I asked.

"Sure!" said Lily. "Like if Daddy were the tree grower for everyone. When they wanted a Christmas tree, they'd get one from Daddy."

And this coming from the little girl who, two years ago, asked if she could sit on Santa's lap as her Hanukkah present.

She's No Joke

Lily is crazy serious when it comes to this song. The Fifty Nifty United States. She's been working hard at learning all 50 -- by my count 1 or 2 are still missing. Not sure what the connection is between our country's geography and rabbit ears, but when I picked her up from school today, she announced that she wanted to make a movie AND wear her new ears.

So here she is -- my pretty nifty kid.



If April Fool's is like trick or treat -- no trick this year, just this treat.