Hazel is one. I don’t quite know how that happened. I just finished baking birthday-vanilla-cupcakes for the second time in a week – blue and gold sprinkles last Sunday for her WV party and red and white sprinkles for tomorrow’s Canada party. It is all very surreal. I never thought I would live in Canada. I never thought I would have a baby in Canada. I never thought I would be freaking out about the prospect of leaving Canada. On the drive back here yesterday Hazel and I listened to the mix CD I made in December of 2006 to listen to as soon as we picked Janet up from the bus station in Pittsburgh and headed for the MOV for Christmas and the 2006 Iafrate Sibling Convention. I remember crying while I made it and crying whenever I listened to it after that trip. This time I just thought things like “oh, how I love Billy Bragg” and “oh, how I wish I’d been there to witness Janet drunkenly singing this song on a picnic table in Central Park after a long night of karaoke”.

Now nothing is like 2006. Angie and I were discussing the 2009 Iafrate sibling convention a couple of weeks ago and pondering how it should work now. Should there be childrens’ activities early in the evening, and the Airing of Grievances + booze after they go to bed? Or should they be around for the Airing of Grievances? We just don’t know. Having babies has changed the whole dynamic of siblinghood.

Today kicked off what will probably be the busiest month of my entire life thus far. Tomorrow morning is Hazel’s birthday party. In the afternoon I desperately need to unpack some things and pack up some other things. In the evening we are going to Chris’s CD release show. I am trying to calculate exactly how much bluegrass and old time I can fit into the next four weeks, what with all of the work / Etsying / craft show prep / mothering / housewifing / packing up of our life that I have to do.

Did I mention that Hazel is one?

The first morning of Hazel’s life – October 18, 2008

…and now. She looks just like her daddy and has his personality, too. She loves books and animals and people and food and music. She has very patiently spent her first year teaching us how to be parents.

Our trip home was great but there is too much to recount so I will just direct you towards all of the pictures on my flickr page. There was much visiting with family and friends, lots of celebrating various birthdays and Halloween goodness, lots of playing outside in the perfect blue-sky-orange-leaves crisp fall weather that came after a few days of perfect cold-dreary-rainy-cozy fall weather. I hit up two craft stores to restash my EBP blanket yarn (there’s no way I’ll finish before the first snowfall – too much else going on – but definitely by the LAST snowfall). I read two books. Neither was spectacular – I really like how the former was written and I really liked the story, although this might only be because it’s dysfunctionally close to home* (except the small detail of the main character killing her mother – which is the opening line, so I didn’t just ruin it for you). As for the latter – I hate Dan Brown, I hate how he writes, and I don’t like his stories. I think the Da Vinci Code is the only time in my life I’ve ever thought that the movie was way better than the book. BUT… I thought that the art, science, and D.C. architecture stuff in this book was reeeeeeeeeeeeeally really interesting and I couldn’t put it down.

*We once had a collie whose tongue would swell up and turn blue when she got upset, so the vet told us that when it happened we could just shoot a turkey baster of whiskey down her throat. Once Mom went to fill the turkey baster and realized that all the liquor had been drunk and the empty bottles put back in the cabinet. You’d think she would have realized how much grandma drank before that moment… -AMD

Listening: Bright Eyes in my head
(I am) Reading: I have sworn off of books until after the move
(Hazel is) Reading: Ten Little Penguins and all her other new birthday books :)
Working on: birthday party stuff
Packing progress: I moved home a carload of dog, dog crate, all of our records, clothing, Halloween decorations, and anything else I could fit in the car, and brought back the last of the perfect U-haul boxes (with handles! for books!), eight rolls of packing tape, and lots of bubble wrap from Maggie :)