Rusharound

It was 100 days ago this morning that Sarah performed something of a miracle in the delivery room and gave us River.  What a profound difference there is  between being Two Married Adults and Two Parents.

Loud shout out (ha ha ha) to River for his accomplishments in his first 100 days:

• Graduated out of his first baby class
• Has gone a record 6 days without pooping
• Has yet to miss a single episode of the Ellen show
• Exhibits strong neck muscle tone (check out the photo!)
• He laughs.  Smiles.  Tells us ‘stories’ in the morning
• (Used to) log up to 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night
• Nearly convincing fake coughs and sneezes
• Weighs 15 lbs.
• Can eject nearly every sock we put on him
• Can go to sleep while dancing to Beyonce with his dad

Recently River and I have begun visiting Mt. Auburn Cemetary in the mornings.   It’s near the house, quiet, and very nice.

On Friday morning River was awake especially early and when we got to the cemetary, the large gates were closed and there was a sign saying that the cemetary opens at 8AM.

Then I noticed that there was a pedestrian gate that was open. River and I squeezed the stroller through and discovered half a dozen people standing just inside the entrance.  All of them had binoculars and notebooks in their hands.  I asked them if it was okay to be on the grounds before they opened and they said it was okay if I was a birder.  Playfully, I said that we might have just become birders.  “What kind of birds should we look for?”  I asked.

“Warblers.”

“Got it. We’re looking for warblers,” I replied, and then walked on.

If you haven’t seen it, the Mt. Auburn is really big. (More than 170 acres, according to wikipedia).  The walk started to get longer than we had intended and River started to get a little fussy.  As we started up a gentle hill he started making noises.  They sounded like Ehhhhh.  EhhhhHHHHH.

As we neared the top of the hill, I tried to distract River by telling him about the beautiful tree we were about to pass.  How its blossoms were bright green and made a nice soft-looking carpet on the ground.  He responded with louder Ehhhhhh noises.

Just as we crested the hill  I looked down and saw 24 eyeballs staring at me through binoculars, all hoping to see a most unusual sounding bird, and instead got a very common pair of homo sapiens and a bright orange stroller.

Most of them started cracking up laughing.  One took a picture.  Our little Warbler made some friends!

Just days after River was born my sister offered to make birth announcements.  It took only a day or two to finalize the design and she oversaw the printing, too.   Full service!

We’re delighted with how they came out and urge anyone looking for graphic design, branding, or website work to give her a call.  (She’s a rarity:  She started doing freelance work before the economy hit the skids.)

If you need help reaching her, just let us know.

My friends kind of did an e-tervention on me. They pretty much made me join Facebook.  There was no escaping.  I learned that there was a FB group all about getting me to join.  My colleagues at school were telling me that I needed to be using FB for Canditto.  Rob nearly stopped talking to me and Marc was getting exasperated.

So I did it.  I joined the mightyEffBee and introduced it to my Gmail account, where it found 700 links to other users.  I invited lots of them to be my friend and turned the thing on.

You’re all waiting to hear my reaction, aren’t you.

Well my grandmother says, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”  So I won’t say anything about it yet.  In fact, I’ll reserve judgment for a week (at which point I’ll decide if Canditto needs its own FB page.)

So if you haven’t already Facebook me baby!

P.S.  Mad props to my sister who sent me a FB message, welcoming me to 2007.  That was pretty funny.

About a month ago my school’s admissions office introduced me to an MBA applicant who had been accepted into the program. They thought I should meet him because he wants to start an adventure sailing company someday.

Since I like talking about business and sailing, I agreed, and Brandon and I spent the next four weeks trying to find time to reach each other. This was made more difficult because he just moved to Cowes, England for a captain’s course there. After many missed attempts, I finally got to Skype with Brandon this week. And boy did it get weird.
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There has been a little baby boom going on in our circle of friends, and River can’t wait to meet all of his new playmates:

On Februrary 5, Sarah’s camp buddy Kim and her husband Bobby welcomed Miss Stella Louise after a grueling 36 hour labor! They live nearby, so we are hoping for a lot of playdates this spring.

Out on the west coast, Rush’s cousin Ann and her husband John were a little surprised by the early arrival of Emily Katherine on February 17. Emily is small, but doing well, and we will definitely have to plan a trip out to Seattle to meet her. Check for updates on Ann’s blog.

And just this morning, on Long Island, Williams-Mystic buddy Jess and her husband Dan delivered twins Matthew and Leo! They are also a little early, as per usual for twins, but early reports indicate that everyone is recovering well from the c-section. Hopefully Jess’s blog will have some pictures in a day or two…

Stay tuned for news of Baby Cronin due in mid-March, and babies di Frisco — twins due in April!

To our neglected friends and readers –

You have all been so nice.  Food!  Useful Gifts!  Thoughtful Gifts.  Hilarious gifts!  We are a little behind in our (olde tymey paper) acknowledgments but we are working on it!  Please don’t interpret the delay as indifference.

More news to come.

On Sunday, Sarah and I welcomed some of our first guests since our household population grew – but boy did we make them work for it.  Anna, Brian, Henry and William came for a visit and they brought with them all kinds of goodies.

1. Lunch for six. (Soup and pumpkin bread)
2. Enough toy cars and trucks to populate a toy Wal-Mart parking lot
3. A special “performance tested” book River got to keep
4. Three brand new books
5. And then…. …the photography gear, which included a wardrobe rack, Rubbermade bins full of gear, cases with cameras, lenses, flashes (oh my).  Oh, and Anna now travels with a black bearskin rug.  Evidence to follow:

In addition to entertaining us and admiring little River, most of Team Sawin cleared out of our condo to do some big-city-errands while she did a photoshoot with River.  I’ll let the photos speak for themselves – but only if I can make a pitch first.

If you have a newborn, get a pro to take the photos nice and early. If you don’t know a pro yourself, check out the fine work of our friend Anna of Anna Sawin Photography.

River like you’ve never seen him.