Today was pretty much Celebrate Tess day. We started with a walk in the snow to Alterra, where two college guys oohed and ahed over her until we left, when they told us how disappointed they were she was leaving. This is true; I am not even exaggerating. My mommy pride rose to an unhealthy level!

Then LEXIE came over – Lexie the NICU nurse who just moved to Milwaukee from SLC! Seeing her face when she looked at Tess was amazing. Pride through the roof. Liz and kids stopped by, and Clara pretty much demanded we wake the nugget up and present her forthwith. She awoke on command and was snuggled to bits.

We headed out to the West side for our sitter’s graduation party, where we got to meet some of her family. THEY oohed and ahed over the baby. Still, the crowning glory was a surprise visit to a friend’s mom and grandma, who adore Tess from afar but haven’t gotten to meet her. Carol just had knee surgery, and we thought,

What better time to show up with the most distracting and adorable creature in the world?!

I told you it’s getting out of control.

I had plans for today, a list of things to do. I couldn’t be more pleased that I didn’t get to any of them. We’ve apparently declared this social weekend, and all of us are loving it. Knowing we’ll be out of town potentially for quite a while makes me want to hibernate. Seeing Lexie reminded me of how many great relationships came out of our time in SLC. Florida will be fine! So seeing all of our people, celebrating other mom’s kids highs and lows, makes me happy. And Tess is handling it all like a champ!

Most importantly, we’re finally (mostly) experiencing that

one child, goes everywhere

thing that we’ve been missing out on. The time will be short-lived, but it’s really fun to know we get to revel in the one-child window before it slams shut! Who knows? Maybe Deuce will be totally laid back and we can keep it up for a few more months. We take any normalcy we can get! Deuce is still in.