Grandma Jayne for Columbus Day!

Against all odds, it seems that we have survived midterms, the AOC class Seth taught, and the first round of seasonal colds. (Although, to be honest, the latter are still in progress.)

By happy coincidence, we had much-needed help over the long weekend, and likely would not have survived without it. After a horrible day of travel complicated by Hurricane Matthew flight cancellations, Grandma Jayne arrived Thursday night. The kids were so excited, I let them stay up past bedtime to see her. This was the scene in our guestroom while we waited. 

(Yes, that's Finley's Sheriff Callie Halloween costume she's wearing while jumping on the bed. We pick our battles around here.)

And, although there was a fair amount of candle-burning at both ends for those of us with dozens of pages to write, we had a bang-up weekend celebrating fall and playing tourist.

Jayne and I finally made it to the apple orchard in Warwick I had been dying to check out, and- tired toddler tantrums notwithstanding- we had a great time picking apples and checking out the farm animals. 

Finley even talked us into a pony ride, which she adored (even if we suspect she wanted to wear the helmet as much as she wanted to ride the horse.) It was basically the cutest thing ever.

Saturday night, Seth got to drop the puck at the preseason NHL game at Tate arena. It was very cool.

Finley had the time of her life, minus this terrifying interaction with the Panthers mascot.

And both kids, it turns out, love hockey games. I'm hoping this is a temporary fascination and there is still hope for swimming, since I imagine that goggles and latex caps are significantly cheaper than pads and hockey sticks. 

Sunday, we trekked into the city in the pouring rain for an awesome personal tour of FDNY Engine 10, Fire 10 by one of the 9/11 first responders Seth had met.

And a trip to the 9/11 memorial and One World Trade Center.

True to form, Finley's favorite part was the ridiculous and not-at-all scenic skycam.

She refused to leave it to look at the city view, preferring the grainy images of cars below and her ability to hop "on" them.

Ford, as per usual, was a perfect little gentleman all weekend. Jayne sent me this picture of our smiley guy when I was in school on Monday (no Columbus Day at Columbia, oddly!)

We all loved (and appreciated!) Grandma Jayne's visit, and can't wait until next time. I'm getting a regular workout taking Finley to the calendar to show her when we get to see grandparents again, and we love having something to countdown to. 

A couple favorites from the week:

A balancing act.

It's an ongoing conversation I have with girlfriends: how to "figure out the work-life balance." It's only slowly dawning on most of us, as we have more kids, more demanding jobs, ever-lengthening commutes (in order to accommodate both), more laundry, less time with our spouses, and on and on and on... that we have it figured out. That is to say, we now realize that it's a perpetual balancing act, a little bit like walking a tightrope with no discernible solid ground on either side. While carrying two kids. Who will not. sit. still. And also balancing a bottle of laundry detergent on your head. Which doesn't have a lid on it because your toddler is obsessed with lids and likely removed it and hid it under your sink. Which is, for some damn reason, leaking on the floor. Or is that spilled milk...?

... I digress. At any rate, while navigating this balancing act, you are never really even-keeled. Some weeks you get behind on work stuff and catching back up takes over. Seth had one of those weeks, as his knapsack currently includes all kinds of certifications he needs for work plus his ridiculous AOC course, neither of which he can manage to squeeze into his work day.

As a result, I had a "didn't get much schoolwork done" week. I'd call that kids winning, but we like to think the kids always win in a pinch. It may not be strictly true, but it helps us sleep at night. In the case of my week, the pendulum swung wildly in favor of CDC. (I know that's mixing metaphors in a big way, but sleep never makes the "winning" or even "breaking even" list.) I definitely didn't mind setting aside my voluminous reading to get us all back and forth a dozen times to accommodate CDC Open House. (Since it was an adorable family night culminating in the worst Mexican food I have ever had at "La Hacienda," but hey- I didn't have to cook. And hearing Finley scream "TA-cos!" was worth choking down whatever passes for tinga in Highland Falls.)

I was less thrilled about the half day of paper writing I lost due to the CDC nurse's mistaken belief that Finley was due for more shots, the fact that Seth just took her in for one she was allegedly missing two weeks ago notwithstanding. 

Finley, on the other hand, was thrilled, since she got a morning reprieve from "school" to wait around at the doctor's with Mom, a sticker for her troubles, and a DFAC breakfast date-- and didn't have to have any shots to boot.

Seth and I both had good intentions of getting caught up on a rainy weekend at home, having cancelled our trip to the Berkshires due to the forecast and the need for a no-travel/ no-company/ no-excuse not to study weekend between the Buffalo trek and a slew of upcoming houseguests (about which we're super excited! but desperately want to be able to enjoy without worrying about deadlines.) Naturally, we didn't get as much done as we wanted and I think Seth pulled an all-nighter last night as penance. 

But we had a blast hanging out at home. Finley got to go to her first birthday party, which was complete with a Tumblebus and face stickers and cake pops. (And, much to Seth's delight, Bloody Marys.) The Ryan family definitely set the birthday party gold standard.

I got in a long-ish run (a real treat these days), and even snagged a quick nap on the couch with our snuggly little guy.

Who gets his fair share of Mom & Dad naptime, actually. 

We peeled ourselves off the couch on a rain break long enough to check out the Wildlife Education Center (Finley liked the snakes. Ford snoozed.) The StoryWalk was a big hit too, although you wouldn't know it from this picture.

Although the Cornwall Park was the highlight for Finley, who learned "giddyap" this weekend (obnoxiously, she has also learned that it's funny to shout it while I'm pushing the jogging stroller uphill) and is getting big enough to make us nervous on the springy horses.

Annddd we finally finished off the garage, just in time for it to get chilly enough out to require winter wear inside it. Which made for this adorable sequence of pictures in which Finley and Ford "shared" a football toy in Dad's recliner.

Before we knew it, it was Monday morning, and we're off again. Grandma Jayne arrives for the long weekend on Thursday, and these little guys are almost as excited as Seth & I. We're planning a date night, and don't even care that we will probably spend it at the library.

Cheers to everybody else on the tightrope! I have a couple favorite photos this week, but the clear winner is this one, a glimpse into what makes double diaper duty and the circus that is twoundertwo life worth it:

Naturally, there are also plenty of these moments. ("Ford, do not touch my baby!")

And because I keep forgetting to send the following kid updates, Finley's hair is finally growing, and she's working an impressive rat tail right now. It cracks us up.

And Ford has two teeth! (This was my attempt to capture them on camera, which largely failed although if you squint at the bottom right one you may catch a glimpse.) His steak days are right around the corner.

Road trips, scary baby goats, and rampant falls tourism.

We were out of town all weekend and got back late last night, which means we have a billion things to do this evening. After Seth and I had longgg Mondays. We are majorly running behind.

But after we had finished dinner tonight (takeout-- fail) and were in the process of ignoring laundry (double fail) and starting the "let's get in the bath, please" routine, Finley wanted to dance. So dance we did, all four of us, like a bunch of lunatics in the living room. To Elmo's Greatest Hits.

In a couple years it'll be sports practices and quick dinners and homework and kids who don't want to play rubber ducky in the bathtub or be read to or need snuggles before bed. We remind ourselves every chance we get not to take these moments for granted.

Which is probably why we allowed ourselves to be convinced that a family road trip was in order. And so, six-plus hours (next time, I really need to check the map before agreeing) and so. many. temper tantrums. later, we found ourselves in Buffalo.

We stopped on the way up in beautiful Corning, where Finley and Ford discovered a playground on the wrong side of the tracks, ate wings, and looked just this impressed while strolling the picturesque Market Street:

And then it as back on the road. After a late night rolling into our Buffalo hotel, only one of us was really excited about an early continental breakfast. Guess who? (They had whipped cream for waffles. Can you blame her?)

Saturday we sampled real Buffalo buffalo wings, got to play catchup with the Howard-Blackledges (who we sadly always forget to take photos with), and indulged yours truly's insistence that we go to the falls. Where Finley tolerated exactly one selfie.

Niagara Falls, of which I had fond memories of visiting as a kid, has been utterly ruined by rampant capitalism. It's really just a terrific lesson in why we need National Parks- the states, apparently, will just sell off natural wonders to the lowest-bidder of a trolley/ hot dog stand/ souvenir company. We were kind of appalled. Although the falls really are that beautiful. (Casino across the way- Canadians, shame on you too!- notwithstanding.)

Naturally, Finley was more excited about this stick she found. And Ford chewed his toes. And Seth was checking sorts scores. So actually, I was pretty much the only person enjoying this particular nature miracle.

Buffalo-USMA was a night game, so Shanel and I skipped it while Seth and DJ got to watch the seriously disheartening loss. (Trust me, I would've preferred it to my dinner with F&F at Applebee's, which featured in no small part Ford wearing a glass of pinot grigio and Finley eating a piece of bread off the plate of a person two tables away.)

We all survived, even our fellow diners, and it was not without some enjoyment that we dragged the men to the pumpkin festival in Clarence before our long drives home the next morning. There were a lot of pumpkins.

Not to mention a petting zoo. It cracks me up that Finley is terrified of baby goats, but loved this camel:

This hilarious shot is of her after she inched her way up to the scary fence, and then- as per usual- flung the pellets at the animals and ran for her life. (Leaving Dad on his own.)

Luckily, Dad survived to take her on her first carnival ride. And her second. And third.

We eventually tore ourselves away and survived the long drive back (albeit with stops for playground time and pizza.) And are playing catchup with a little bit of red wine and a lot of skepticism, while watching this not-at-all-encouraging presidential debate.

Here's to 2020? And surviving road trips, and cider donuts (a prominent pumpkin festival feature), and "big girls" who want to help push the stroller and probably don't have designs on their baby brother's life...

 ... and our five month old (!!!) who can sit up in his swing now!

Lots of football and an apple-less trip to the Catskills.

It’s pouring in New York City this morning, which means an accident on the GW Bridge, traffic snarls everywhere, and a miserable slog across town with (for me, anyway) a broken umbrella. Add to today’s fun this and this, as well as this and a protest surrounding the building when I finally arrived because somebody or other is speaking who is allegedly a huge international human rights violator, and it has already been a particularly fun Monday.

But they caught the terror suspect while I was in class and at least Finley reminded me to wear galoshes this morning (largely because she wanted to wear hers.) So that’s something.

We had another lovely weekend at home (USMA had an away game, so it was quiet on the Hudson), even if my meticulously-planned apple picking adventure was a little bit of a fail. It was uncharacteristically hot and muggy in the Catskills, 

Finley turns out to be a little bit terrified of (if simultaneously delighted by) farm animals, 

and the beautiful farm I had picked out to kick off our fall apple picking tradition had no apples. Like, none. Well, minus these tiny two, and you can see how Finley felt about that.

But it did have a bounce pillow.

And the world’s largest garden gnome. Oddly.

Then we got rained out at Lake Minnewaska (although it was still beautiful, and Seth for one didn’t look too disappointed that our double stroller hike was cut short.)

And the “kid friendly” brewery we had carefully selected for dinner turned out to hate kids. Or at least ours. (So I only felt a little bit bad that Finley broke a beer glass and spilled milk all over the floor. Largely because they served her milk in a beer glass. What could go wrong?)

Seth was ecstatic about big wins for all of his football teams (as well as about the fact that he got to watch all the games), and I fled ESPN and took the kids to the nature playground where Ford rolled around in the grass like a boss and the almost-two Finley did too. Finley's rolls, however, more closely resembled writing, and were accompanied by shrieking. Outside is a good place for toddler meltdowns to occur, so a reasonably decent time was still had by all. And the mud puddles were obviously a hit.

Oh, and we braved the outlet mall since Ford has outgrown all of his clothes. Finley is the only member of the family who enjoys shopping, so she did all the work. (I intervened only a little, to prevent Ford from acquiring glitter pants.)

The photos of the week reflect the fact that we're settling into a routine, although it's anything but monotonous. Seth and I even had time for a lunch date Thursday (at the Officers' Club- very West Point), we actually got- briefly- caught up on laundry (the parents out there know what a red letter occasion that is), and Finley now has the run of the block, regularly disappearing to the neighbors' houses unannounced. We're grateful to live somewhere that this is not cause for concern. 

Still, just when we feel like we have a handle on things, something like this happens:

and our evenings, more often than not, look like this. Exhausting, maybe. But never dull.