Happy Birthday to Devon!

xo & i love you!

(and the little piper that was in your belly in this photo)

(and the little graham that was just a sparkle in your eye*)

*that's a phrase, right?

I went-went back-back to Cali-Cali (part 5 aka finale).

Ninth stop = Tara's cute, self-remodeled home in Sacramento
I took zero photos of her house because:
I'm a bad friend and healing from aforementioned eye blisters.

St.Patrick's Day in Chicago in 2007

One of my fave pics of Tara....ever.
(she usually asks me to take it down)

Amy was Tara's date to my wedding (5/2/10) and...

I was Tara's date to Becca's!

She has a thing for the Kasahara sisters. :)

I was v.pleased to be able to spend some quality one-on-one time with my another one of my old roommates. Luckily, Tara lives in an old neighborhood of mine in midtown sacramento and she took me on a lovely biking tour of the hot, new spots! The weather was divine, the company terrific, and I even got to look at the two places Devon and I lived.

Big, Yellow House:

absolutely zero upkeep since we moved out. 

the front porch was saggy when we lived there years ago and has not been touched.

but i still love it.

We moved into a big, yellow house in Sacramento and sent out "New Address" postcards. Our high school English teachers (a couple) returned it with a HUGE house plant and a super sweet "congratulations on your new home together" card. We hypothesized the card must have led them to believe we went lesbian.

Second home with poop paint:

When we moved into this place, almost all the walls were faux-finished with what looked like torn off pieces of paper bags and piles of poop. It was so.sick. We repainted it, got in a big fight with the landlord when she sent her handyman to spy in our windows, and Patrick came to the rescue (moving, cleaning, etc) when I abandoned the place for my new job in SF. 

No matter how many bike rides I go on,
the Wicked Witch theme song is my mental background song.

The next morning, I boarded a plane back to New Hampshire, my husband, and little dog. Even with the three stop flight, I was excited to finally be going back home. :)

I think I can, I think I can.

How is it possible that I still don't have a good grip on time management and planning ahead? I mean, theoretically, humans are supposed to have been developing the ability to track time and days since birth, with the concepts of clocks and calendars to have sunk in by age 10 (according to this one site). And yet, I am constantly overloading my to-do list, constantly overbooking, constantly taking on more than I know I can handle. Are you all stuck in this same pattern or is am I alone in this?

I had grand intentions of gifting handmade items over the holidays; sending out loads of glorious packages across the nation to genuinely show how much I love you all. I had ideas flagged, materials purchased, and even mapped out a general schedule to enable a timely delivery. 

and.then.it.all.went.to.crap.

grrrrr.

At the very least, I was able to complete two items and although they arrived well after the holidays, I'm hoping they'll be well-enjoyed by a couple of lovely ladies in my life. As for the rest of you? Eh...maybe by 2045, I'll get my sh#t together.

for the 50s mom living in modern times.

loves cream, loves chickens, loves dots:

year-round kitchen chic.

chicken feet are so cute in pictures.

real life chicken feet creep me out.

one crisp pleat down the middle.

I used this FREE online tutorial that I had flagged last fall. 100s of people submitted their products to a contest, but I didn't get these done in time. See: opening paragraph of this post.

I actually had a delightful time with these two aprons! The tutorial is easy to follow, the cutie-patootie fabric showcases nicely, and although I was initially paralyzed by the choice of trim and bow, it became fun to play around with the combinations. Definitely add it to your loong list of things to do (bwaahahaha, I'm evil).

for the urban, loft-dwelling mom.

doesn't give two rats if you catch her wearing a Christmas apron in July:

and who appreciates an apron gift even if she has never been spotted in one.

elephant with earmuffs? adorbs.

gotta love the giraffe with scarf. 

it must be tough to have a long neck in the winter.

Material from the genius, Purl Soho.

Ribbon and rick-rack from another of my favorite spots in New York: MJ Trimmings.

It's been a long time...

what, isn't it totally normal for devon to be in new hampshire?

In what has to be considered the Best.Surprise.of.the.Year, my bff showed up in New freaking Hampshire last week and you can probably predict...I FREAKED OUT. I spent the most amazing 4 days with Devon and her THREE MONTH OLD BABY and at the end of it, I bawled my eyes out during the lonely 2 hour drive back home from the Boston airport. 

baby piper - 3mos

This is how it went down.....

1. Devon had a free Southwest flight that was about to expire.
2. She was about to go off of maternity leave. This had to be a good last hurrah!
3. Weekend travel was currently and was about to be off-limits for quite some time. 
4. It was pertinent to find someone to visit that had a flexible weekday schedule.

Here were the people involved.....

1. Devon (duh)
2. Piper (also, duh)
3. Jamie (for scheduling and guest room prep purposes)
4. and LARA (picked the travelers up from the Boston airport and drove them up to NH)

From what I understand, the sudden realization of an expiring free flight led to a quickly hatched plan to hop on a plane within a few days! It was Piper's first flight and she handled it like a pro (mom too!).

pipes had to fly to NH to figure out what her auntie leslie's nose tasted like. 

mmmm...cupcakes....

While Devon/Jamie/Lara were plan hatching, Lara asked me to grab a mid-afternoon gelato on Wed. We already had plans to have dinner at her parents that night (in Hanover), but I didn't think anything of Lara wanting to see me for additional time that day. Didn't even blink an eye. 

I happened to call Devon on my way to see Lara that afternoon, something completely out of the ordinary as we tend to do our communication away from phone calls. It just occurred to me that she was probably coming off of maternity leave soon, that it was a gorgeous New England day she would enjoy, and I just missed the pretty lady. I wanted to call to catch up, to hear her voice, and to try to convince her to visit. 

I walked to gelato from work (10min journey), trying to catch up on her life; all the while, she warily answered my questions, thinking I knew exactly what was going on. We both thought the other was acting so strange!

The call ended as I walked up to the gelato place as I promised to call her back soon, but that I had to get off the phone to meet up with Lara. I hung up, put the phone in my purse, and walked into Molto Gelato.

OH MY GOODNESS.

WHAT IN THE WORLD????

WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??

What are you doing here???

WHAT ARE YOU DOOOOOING HEEERRREEEE?!?!?!!

i couldn't have been happier.

Our leisurely dinner at Lara's parents house (her childhood home!) included homemade roasted chicken, a kick-butt apple cider sauce, oven roasted cauliflower, big/fat couscous, and was polished off with soft, maple cookies and coffee. It was a hilarious dinner, filled with happy barking (brody + hudson) and baby cooing (jamie...just kidding, it was piper). It was so comforting to meet our closest set of parental units and I can't wait to spend more time with the Slobes. Lara used to live with Devon and I could tell that her parents just loved up on my friend and her little one.

The next few days included touring a typical Vermont town, some baby clothes shopping, touring Tuck and showing Dev+Piper off to my new co-workers and our new Tuck-friends. We even took them to a popular Tuck activity....Tuck'Tails (tuck + cocktails)! The Larkins were a HUGE HIT (read: popular.as.hell) and had delicious fall themed foods as well as samplings of the winning chili recipe from the previous weekend's Chili Cook-Off, wine, hot apple cider, and beer. Mmmmmmmm....

piper and i got down to some hard core chillin'.

After a glorious few days in Hanover, we headed back down to Boston in preparation for their departure (sad face). Then we heard some yucky news about Patrick and the flu. Oh no!! After a few minutes of contemplation, mom and baby decided to extend their time away from flu-exposure as much as possible (happy face!). We had already made plans to visit with Brook & Marissa that afternoon which they so graciously extended to an overnight visit. I mean, really...do I have awesome friends or what?

Our best man, cozying it up with my m.of.honor's baby girl.

Lara, Devon, Piper, Hudson, and I clomped onto the scene rainy Saturday evening, interrupting the kids' dinner and creating total mayhem in their otherwise calm home. Max and Jane were completely into "the baby", watching mesmerized at diaper changing, endlessly kissing her, reaching for her, and hugging her. It was so incredibly sweet and if their parents ever needed a sign that they were doing things right? C'mon. Those kids being automatically being that loving to perfect stranger babies? Perfect parenting.

Piper with my such-a-great, terrific, awesome, AMAZING friend, Marissa.

She has become like family to me since we've moved here.

We ordered pizza, drank wine, ate brownies, let Brook watch the Rangers (?), and gossiped the night away; giggling like crazy. Their home was v.baby-prepared with a portable crib, extra wipes, electric swings, and the works! I hope dev felt super comfortable there as I'm sure she was pretty worried about Patrick being so sick back at home. Fun fact: Marissa had mailed all sorts of hand-me-downs to Devon before Piper was born and Piper was wearing them in their originating home! Full circle, people. Full circle. 

An entire next day of hanging around in Boston with Lara and then....

.....very reluctantly,.....
.....I let them leave me....

i don't wanna leave auntie leslie.

COME BACK SOON. I LOVE YOU GUYS.

And thank you, devs.

A note to my little "niece".

Hello, baby.

You came out without a name.

See? The form has all your stats, but the name part is blank.

It had plenty of your fans in atwitter.

But, at the final hour, you announced your precious name and we all fell in love.

Piper Alice Larkin.

~sigh~

Auntie Christine was trembling, had tears in her eyes, and looked like she almost couldn't catch her breath. Needless to say, she was pretty stoked to meet you.

You opened your bluest of blue eyes for Auntie Elaine and even gave her a huge yawn.

We kinda squealed with joy.

You snoozed peacefully in Auntie Kat-Kat's arms.

(haven't figured out why this otherwise great pic came out so blurry)

And well....you definitely broke in Uncle Nikolai.

Look at his grin despite your wailing!

It was your Uncle Jamie's first time holding someone as young as you (i think you might have been 3 days old then) and I'm sure he was super nervous. But you were super cool for him...it's like you knew:

I'm holding a baby.

Am I doing it right?

I'm holding a baby.

We all got to meet you within three days of you coming into this world. The amount of travel it took for all of us to get to you was almost unbelievable, but you provided some mad amount of motivation. The Bonkos had flight delays from Oakland where they were coming back from completing a half-ironman in wine country. Katherine had flown in from Houston. And we had been barreling across the country from San Francisco in a  HUGE moving truck. It was all worth it to meet you, your tinyness.

And now for a few more introductions:

This is where you live, sweet girl. 

In a cool, jealousy-invoking, kick ass loft.

Yup, you were born to hip parents, lucky pipes.

This is your daddy.

He's going to make silly faces your whole life and you're going to love it.

This is a crazy lady who may kidnap you in the future.

Don't worry, she'll give you back to your parents as soon as you have a dirty diaper.

So, poop away, little one. Poop away.

And this is the evening view from your balcony.

Good night, Piper Alice. Sleep tight.

I love you lots!

Charge me up.

September 2009

Last year, when the Larkins needed a car battery but were too busy with their busy work lives to grab one, Katherine and I came to the rescue. We had quite the adventure, feeling completely out of place in the auto shop....auto store? I dunno what to call it.

This year, the aforementioned Larkins had other distractions (ahem...a BABY) so when they needed yet another battery, we obliged.

Katherine was quick to point out that every time in Chicago, I'm Devon's battery girl. 

So we took another picture:

July 2010

Cross Country Journey (part 4 + meeting piper).

lots of water towers, but this one was my fave...smiley.

stopped by a mall in iowa

(where trish used to live!)

we cruised over a major waterway

it was HUGE!

I hardly remember this part of our trip because we were racing the clock to try to beat Devon getting discharged from the hospital. She had Piper and Patrick all ready to get home for the first time as a family and I was hoping to catch them at the hospital before they left (to give them private family time at home). It was a super stormy day and Jamie did such a terrific job of keeping our truck on the road....I think we were listening to Sweetness At The Bottom of the Pie (hilarious read). 

But all the while, I was thinking of how many life events I've been able to go through with Devs and how lucky I was to be able to meet her first born child within the day. We've been friends since the 7th grade and I was going to meet her baby so soon?? I couldn't stop grinning and kept our rest stops super short this day.

Eleven years ago...

omg, look at my crazzzy acrylics. i must have thought they were so hot.

We finally got to Chicago with a gorgeous rainbow floating over the city. It was a huge arc across the entire sky and I couldn't get a picture because we were busy trying to exchange our moving truck for a rental car! By the way, fun moving tip....when renting from a nationwide trucking company and wanting to safely long-term park, you can leave it with them on their official lots. It worked out great for us to leave it at the O'hare lot (locked at night), rent a car from the airport, and get around Chicago in our own ride (public transportation with a dog can be a little tricky). 

Once we got into town, I abandoned Jamie at Katherine's, and raced over to the Larkins for a quick visit, to hold Piper for the first time, cry, and sit with my friend....a new mom. It kinda blew my mind. Patrick escaped for a quick nap while we girlie-chatted in the living room with the baby. She was so gracious to let me come over that first night.

The next morning:

Me = so proud.

Piper = grinning as best she could. (i think her tongue was out!)

Devon = not looking like she got discharged the night before. pretty.

Dev wanted to take a picture kissing Piper.

I joined in on the fun.

There have been a few times in our lives together that folks have thought us an actual couple. The few that stand out in my mind:

1. Showing up for evening swing dance lessons in northern orange county one summer while we were home from college.
2. Mass pre-summer emails sent out to future camp co-workers were signed off as "devon and leslie". Led to many a confused reaction when we tried to explain our non-couple status upon arrival.
3. We moved into a big, yellow house in Sacramento and sent out "New Address" postcards. Our high school english teachers returned it with a HUGE house plant and a super sweet "congratulations on your new home together" card. We hypothesized the card must have led them to believe we finally pulled the trigger and purchased a home as a couple. 
4. And most recently, the photo above. 

It's like piper is OUR baby, devon!!

Arrrr, Matey.

Piper Alice Larkin

July 21, 2010

And if you're thinking this baby looks a little...uh....pirate-y (?), check out her genetic contributors:

Patrick - the father.

Devon - the mother.

Such good sports these two have been, to have so many guests tromp through their home to meet the little munchkin. Piper's been held by those who have been lovingly waiting for her, taken to several restaurants in her first week (what do you expect from foodie parents?), and is just ridiculously adorable. I obviously got lots of shots (oddly enough, none of dev + her child), can't wait to share them with you!

Gotta get back into that truck tomorrow morning....not sure how I'm feeling about that one.