Thursday, October 25, 2007

Oh Yeah.


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday
And Penny.

Seriously.


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday
These big girls. They have grown up so much in the last two months - I barely recognize them as my babies. Nursery school has been so completely incredible for their minds, their talents, their energy and their blossoming personalities. They have gone from timid little munchkins to brave warrior women on the playground. They are compassionate and helpful big sisters to Penny. They are full of imagination and creativity. They eat most meals that I put in front of them and clean the plate. The world has so many questions that need very specific answers... and we ask and answer the same questions constantly.

"Mom, why can't we talk about poop when we're at school?"
"Why do we have to ask if we want to hug someone?"
"Why doesn't RaRa eat meat?"
"Why can't we say we hate something?"

Well, this is a photo of a special day at their school fair where I asked them to make really serious faces. Eloise is not so convincing, but Ruby's furrowed brow channels Mollie remarkably.

squatters


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday
My dad can still squat as well as the girls and I . It cracks my mom up - we can all put our heels on the ground "like a Vietnamese person!" she says. Every time. I love it. Then I follow with a comment about, "those Orientals!"

In a sense this photo has a family inside joke imbedded in it. I hope you think it's as hysterical as I do.

Pumpkin Inspector


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday
Ruby checking for bruises, brown spots and symmetry.

Cheesy Photo Alert!


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday
Hey. I never thought I'd be posting a photo taken by Myles that would be worthy of this blog. Aren't I an ass? How dare I doubt my husband's creative talents! This photo was taken during our long weekend in Nantucket when we took a trip to the farm to get pumpkins. That's right - our pumpkins this year were grown on Nantucket - not a farm in VT or Rhody. It feels kind of weird actually... the pumpkins took the ferry.

I'll just post some pics here on the blog, but you should all check out the flickr site for some beautiful shots of our beautiful life. There's something about fall that makes me feel like I've harvested new meaning to my family. Is it the advent of the holiday season and my obsessive nostalgia?

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Penny's Serious Face


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday
I take great pride in announcing that I've uploaded a TON of new photos of my adorable family from the last month. For some reason the flickr site won't let me create sets right now, but check back there at another time to see them in cohesive groups with comments.

We took another trip to Nantucket this weekend and did nothing more than eat and toodle about in the fog. Myles and I went on two long runs together - amazing that I could even keep up with him - and we watched a bunch of sports on t.v.. Saturday night became a bit of a bender, as we met up with my brother, his wife, his sister-in-law and her husband at this goof-ball bar that we've all frequented since we were of legal age. We danced up a storm in classic "middle -aged-white people" style and felt no shame. Fortunately we all had just a tiny bit of sense left in us and we skipped out on our skinny-dipping plan.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Out and About

So sorry to disappoint you photo hunters... but I just can't bring myself to post the load of pictures that I've taken in recent weeks. There are tons! First off, my far away friend Leah came to visit us and I got to meet her boyfriend Clive (a long overdue happening), then we took a weekend visit to Vermont - Lyllah and Rick's new house on Friday night, Auntie Liza's apartment in Burlington on Saturday night. Apple picking on Sunday (stuffing our faces with cider doughnuts) and a walk around Church Street was refreshing... the weather was perfect... and then a drive to Milton, with a 3 hour nap for the girls, where we celebrated my brother's 38th birthday. Then home to Providence at 11pm.

Penny was totally darling as she happily slept in 3 different beds on 3 different nights. Ruby and Eloise were also VERY adaptable considering the lengthy car rides.

At the end of last week Myles was offered a position as a second year resident in Orthopedics at Brown because a girl was quitting the program. The director was doing his best to lure Myles into the spot by this week so that the other residents wouldn't have to pick up the slack for the dropout... and then she would take over his research work. This was such a shock to both of us and we went back and forth for a couple of days about what Myles should do. It was either "Pursue your dream and get slammed into a really grueling residency program for the next 5 years... and stay in Providence" OR "coast along with the research you've been doing and hope for the best with the anesthesia match... and potentially move again in spring 2008". I was so completely torn. Ultimately I would love to see Myles work his ass off and become an orthopedic surgeon... but considering how much fun we've been having, and how excellent his entire demeanor seems without the added stress of the surgery world, I think anesthesia will be the best fit.

He has chosen to stay with research and wait to hear from anesthesia programs (he already has some interviews set up). But as with any life-altering decision we are now experiencing some "did I make the right choice?" remorse. The director of the ortho program was pretty pissed, the other residents are most likely pretty annoyed and Myles gets to think about how some people would have jumped all over the opportunity to join such an incredible program. Honestly though, it would have been perfect for us if he was 25 and we didn't have kids. If he had joined the program this week I would have been stuck with the 3 kids from 6 AM to at least 8 PM and would have had to consider paying for some evening help. He would have to miss out on most of Penelope's first year... and Ru and El's school events... it would have been awful and he would have been a total grump.

Sorry to bore you all with the lame-o details of this event. We have been wallowing in all kinds of mixed emotions for the last few days and it feels good to finally share it with the computer. When I take the time to spell all of this out I realize that Myles has definitely made the right decision and I should quit feeling bad about what regrets we might have down the road. It just feels odd to acknowledge how much more we value family time over career time.

Phew. I'm toasted and would love to put several thousand dollars worth of stupid shit on my AmEx while I'm at the mall.