Picture onslaught

We think she's cute. Here's more of what we've been up.

 She can pull herself up on ANYTHING!

 Trail running with Mom. Running like a big girl. And miracles of miracles, she left her had on!

 The Fells Point Boat Parade! Always fun! Dad was working at Start-Up Weekend, but lucky for us, the parade went right past where he was working and he could come out and see the boats with us. 

 She LOVES to look at the baby in mirror. Whenever she wakes up (whether it be a nap, or morning) she wants to look in the mirror first. 

 She's starting to eat real food! Here is gumming some homemade bread. (It really just gets compressed into mushy bread, I don't think there's much eating going on.)

 Oh, mom. You think this is a toy for me to lay under. I will climb up it. :)

 Super cool woodwork in the park where we run. 

 First lesson in children at commercialism. Lydia was SUPER tired as we were running errands. We were at our final stop (and reason for going out) IKEA. She normally sleeps with a stuffed animal, so I gave her a puppet. She wanted nothing to do with the animal itself. Only the tags. She loves ALL tags. 

But when we got to checkout, my plan was to leave the puppet behind. But she SCREAMED. So we bought the puppet. 

Lydia 1. Mom 0.

 She has three styles of crawling. The army crawl, your regular crawl, and the downward dog crawl. She is very versatile. 

 "I am Queen of this house!"

 What happens when mom goes to work.

 Teething biscuits. Always yummy and will keep her entertained for a WHILE. But not so clean. 

 Last ride in the swing. The Christmas Tree needed a place, and it was time for the swing to go into storage. The swing has been one of our most used baby tools. 

 More from the boat parade. 

 "Why yes mom, I will play with this puppet. Thank you very much!"

My little Christmas helper.

Our first November Adventure

I've concluded that when Andrew works crazy hours, it's just better for me to leave. 

The first weekend in November, Kat and I were going to go up to Boston to celebrate the upcoming birth of Sarah's Baby Boy (of Kat and Sarah who lived on Keswick). But Baby Boy had other plans, and started premature labor. Sarah was put on bed-rest, and Kat and I decided it best NOT to go to Boston. Instead, I went down to North Carolina to visit Kat. 

 I watched you-tube videos and taught myself to crochet while Kat finished some work.

 This is how Baby Girl felt about the drive down. 

 Lydia was in HEAVEN with all our fabric scraps! Kat and I spent the majority of the weekend eating REALLY GOOD FOOD and making about a dozen baby blankets. It was such a lovely weekend. 

 There are no fabric stores in Baltimore that have good quilting material. Chapel Hill has one of the best I've been to, so I always stop and pick up some fabric. Above is the fabric being cut, below is the work in progress. 

So, so, so nice to spend time with Kat. Her husband was out of town, so it was just the three girls. It was so nice to spend so much time with such a good friend. :)

November is gone...

Um, I blogged once in November.

Today, I will make up for it.

During Newvember we went for a walk to see some new sites in our neighborhood. These doors were new to us. :) 

 Baby Girl started wearing tights in Newvember. Have you ever seen a cuter bum?

 She also tried to help me read my book for book club. Neither of us really got into it. 

 She became an expert climber in Newvember. This was just the beginning. Watch out, by the end of the month she was climbing and standing! Pictures to come....

 Mural on a Newvember walk that was being painted not far from our house. It's HUGE.

 A NEW run location. I love that fall is so loooong and pretty here. 

 Taking a break during a run...

 Hanging out. Andrew had a crazy month in November. (Some may ask, "Isn't every month crazy-busy in the life of Andrew Coy?" Yes. But this was busier than ever.) Lydia had a lot of mom and daughter bonding. 

A Sunday walk with Dad. And his sweater. 

It's NEW-VEMBER!

It's NEW-VEMBER! The month were we do something new EVERY day! Doesn't have to be big. Maybe drive a new way to work. Check a new blog. Today: I cooked this for dinner. Except the only ingredient we had was squash. So it's really not that recipe.

And Lydia rocked her NEW pajamas, because, baby it's cold outside! And this mamma doesn't want to turn on the heat.

Thankful!

This week we're thankful for a baby girl coming our way in April.

NewVember is Coming

I hope you're all making lists of the new things you want to do in New-Vember! It's one of my favorite months, and I hope you'll celebrate with me by doing all sorts of NEW things!

Page Chase

While we had Chase captive, we thought we would take advantage of his skills and knowledge: he took us on a private tour of the Capitol Building. Uh-mazing. It was really fun to hear all his personal stories, and go behind the scenes where most tours don't go. 

 After the tour, Andrew was super hungry! This is top priority. When Andrew is hungry, nothing else can be done first. Luckily, Chase knew where the nearest vendor cart was. Sadly, they didn't take plastic. BUT, the man gave Andrew a hot-dog for free. Um, don't say city people aren't nice. We've got some charity here on the East Coast. I know we get a bad rep, but the vendor man really came through.

And lastly, the steps of the Supreme Court building. I don't think most people make it here while touring DC, but it's right behind The Capitol. The Library of Congress is also right there, and we took a quick run through, but no pictures...we had to get Chase to the airport to see his family. :) Andrew was really hoping to visit all three branches of Government in one day and stop by the airport, but we were already late. Broke his little Government Teacher heart. But we do live so close, we can go for the trifecta another day.

Duckpin Bowling

Cousin Chase (aka ACE)  came to town this weekend. He's been here before, so we wanted to do something  NEW with him, in the spirit of New-vember. He opted to eat at Chipotle (new to him, definitely not new to us).

After an exciting meal in Charles Village where Andrew did his best to convince him that he did indeed want to go to college at Johns Hopkins, we headed out to go Duckpin bowling. Duckpin is a different type of bowling, that originated in Baltimore. I don't think you can find it many other places. The balls are about the size of a softball, and the pins are tiny! You get three chances to knock down all the pins, instead of two. We don't actually know much about the scoring, since all the Duckpin lanes are really old-fashioned and you do your own scoring.

This was the ONLY video of the night. Pretty lucky we caught this magic on tape.

Tark

At enrichment tonight the icebreaker was to make a hand turkey, and write what we were thankful for on each of the feathers. One sister brought her two little boys. They didn't want to make turkeys. They wanted to make sharks.

But they also wanted to be obedient and go along with the activity. So the compromised, and made Tarks.

I love their New-vember spirit!

New Drivers License

It's been almost a year, but I finally changed my name.

Angela Passey Coy finally has a new drivers license. And it looks like me! At least for now. It seems that every time I've gotten a license, I've then gone and done something with my hair.

My last picture I was sporting black hair with the baby-bangs and one white chunk of hair.

Now that my locks are long, and I have an ID to prove it, maybe I'll go chop it.


We'll see.

New-vember Continues

We've been doing new things everyday. And loving it. I've run new trails. Driven new routes. Gone to new meetings.

And we've eaten a lot of new food.

While we've eaten brussel sprouts before (they are a major ingredient in Andrew's favorite dish) we've never had them straight off the stalk. We're excited to try them!

Oh New-vember, how we love you. :)

New. Again.

I know, how 'bout I teach something NEW.

Like sixth-grade math and science.

I might cry.

Onions

New-vember event: cutting onions like Julia Child. Sara and I watched episodes of Julia yesterday. As a result, I thought I'd practice cutting onions today.

I got noticeably better in just one meal. :)

Also, new movie theater experience tonight with the hubby.

New-vember is HERE!

It's my favorite month: NEW-VEMBER!!!

I invite all of you to join me in doing one new thing a day. It's SO fun. :) I promise. Sometimes doing it everyday is a little hard, so just join in the fun when you can.

It does make everyday a holiday, though. And gives me something to look forward to everyday.

TODAY: Going to the top of The Gatway Arch in St. Louis, and going to Laura Ingles Wilder's Rocky Ridge Farm where you she wrote the Litlle House Series.

It's go big or go home for me, foks. Go big. :)

New-vember!

Prepare yourself.

It begins tomorrow.

You're more than welcome to join in on the fun. :)

Biggest Newvember Event

Newvember = New vision.

I haven't updated the prescription in my glasses for over 5 years. Therefore, I also stopped wearing them anywhere except between the bathroom and my bedroom at night.

Oh how I had forgotten how much I LOVE not having to put contacts in!

Newvember Thanksgiving

I ran in a tank top today.

Who knew North Carolina was so warm at the end of November?

On the drive down last night, I was also informed that there are certain foods that are served at all important meals in the south: greens, black-eyed peas, corn bread, deviled eggs, and creamed corn.

All of them were present today.

Newvember: Fourth Grade

It's a new low in the fourth grade. They made me so mad today I cursed at them.

Awesome.

And then paid full price to go to a yoga class to recover.

Two new things today.

Newvember: Cherry Garcia

Bless Brent's heart, after a rough week at school he showed up at my house last night with a NEW late night ice cream flavor.

A little Cherry Garcia and a good talk on Federal Hill improved the week exponentially. It's amazing what a little creamy goodness can do.

New Voting Precinct!

We're going to do this in list formation today.
A. I love teaching because we get election day off! God bless America, because I needed it.

B. This is me shortly after riding my bike to my new voting location. I meant to take the camera to the school, but I was so excited to be riding my bike, I totally forgot. Note the sticker as evidence that I actually voted, in case any of you were in doubt.

C. I also feel like I did my part as a citizen reminding someone else who wasn't going to vote, that they probably should (not in a super pushy way, just in a "who doesn't like going to elementary schools? kind of way :) And they rearranged their day so they could. Point for Ann Passey, ladies and gentlemen.

D. New-vember is off to a great start! New neighborhoods have bee explored, new ice-cream flavors have been tried, new endeavors in teaching have begun!