Upon my return, it was a flurry of birthday month activity. Holden turned the big 0-4 and there were also many adult birthday parties to keep us busy and social. We also had time to nerd out at the Maker Faire (you know, drive around cupcakes, see a functioning lego village, and watch a life-size mouse trap game).

Milo, Holden, Scarlett, Julian

This great June picture captures a moment in time. We all met up for dinner at Ryan and Whitney’s to celebrate some random Friday when none of us had a babysitter. You can see Milo with finger paint smeared all over his forehead; sometimes he comes home like that. Holden is happy. Scarlett is happy. Julian has a bandaid over his eyebrow from a self-inflicted incident. Getting them to turn around at the same time was quite a feat.

Other highlights in June:
My niece, baby Kate, was borne to Kristyn and Paul in faraway Leeds. We hope to meet them soon (and to get permission to share a baby pic). Holden and Milo now have a third girl cousin.

Whitney and I traveled to NYC to be part of a satellite media tour promoting The Rookie Mom’s Handbook. Makes a great gift… keep some on hand.

Alec had a birthday and Father’s Day and is/was certainly gearing up for our five year wedding anniversary!

Enjoy the pictures from May and June.

Ok so for anyone keeping score, I will pat myself on the back and agree (with myself) that I’ve done an amazing job playing catch-up with these pictures.

We’re almost current here! In the past two weeks, I’ve uploaded photos for August ‘08 through June ‘09 and redesigned the site.

Speaking of blogging, I am doing this crazy random project, NaBloPoMo to blog every day for this month of August in the hopes that I will improve my skills and have some fun. Perhaps as part of that challenge, I will update the pathetic flibbs photo archive, which is now one year outdated. Rest assured the kids are still cute and still aging.

Speaking of work, I’m back to looking for some. Let me know if you need anyone who is one part project manager, one part marketing diva, one part user experience advocate, and all parts awesome! Talk to you soon… and next time with pictures of the children.

I figured that I should probably start with pictures… but I think I have at least six months to catch up on so, that’s unlikely.

So, I’m just dabbling. Putting one single toe in the water.

What are we all up to?
I’m home from work right now while Holden naps. He has a fever (about 100 to 102 depending on when we check) and its been this way for a few days. Milo is no doubt being a charmer at his preschool/daycare and Alec is at work.

More specifically, I’ve been working for a small consulting company since about October on a freelance, parttime-that-feels-like-fulltime basis. The people are great, the work can be pretty fun, and sitting in traffic drives me bonkers. Except for all the NPR I’ve been listening to… that is actually making me quite smart!

The Rookie Mom’s Handbook came out about a year ago. If you know anyone at all who is pregnant or in their first year of parenthood, do everyone a favor and buy it. Buy it now. To round out other rookie moms business, the site is still going strong. And Whitney and I are both writing for a different blog too: SafetyAtHome.

Holden is FOUR now. He’s brilliant and handsome. He’s social and articulate. His favorite birthday gift was a garbage truck (that he’s been asking for since he was two). More about Holden here in this little love letter to him.

Milo is TWO now. He’s sensitive and funny. He’s silly and red-headed. He’s also brilliant. He likes to play with puzzles and animals. The boys get along pretty well, for now, and I think its because they’re so different. Here’s a little love letter to Milo for his birthday.

Alec is pushing 35 but you wouldn’t know it to see him. He cycles 2-3 mornings a week in the Berkeley Hills with some guys he met through my last job. He runs most of the other mornings. He’s still working in the city for a mid-size startup. I’ll let him tell you more if I can remind him how to use this thing.

And more pictures to follow. And I’ll get better about posting them. Is it too late for a New Year’s Resolution?

Whitney and I just got our copies and it’s so fun. Now available on Amazon like any other real book. Wheee.

Heather
I started a new job that I really like and in a few weeks — when we’re out of stealth mode — I’ll be sure to fill y’all in on it. It’s close to home and generally very cool.

And Whitney and I are finishing our final final edits on the RM Book project. Next, we’ll learn all about the world of book marketing and publicity. If any flibbs readers have ideas or contacts, be sure to let me know!

This weekend is the ten year anniversary of me moving to San Francisco. Believe it or not, Meggan and I wandered into the Folsom Street Fair as one of our first events as new girls in town.

Alec
He’s the glue that’s been holding us all together. In so many ways. Last weekend, we traveled down to Santa Cruz for the Sentinel Triathlon. After racing hard all morning, Alec crossed the finish line with both of the boys. That’s also kind of a metaphor for how it’s been around here lately.

He’s working on RookieMoms.com tech support right now. When he finishes all that, I’ll see if I can get him to post an update on his own life.

We had our five years of dating anniversary this week. My oh my.

Holden
The first week of preschool, he had a grand old time. Really enjoyed himself for the most part. The second week, he realized that we intended for this place to be his New Normal and he wasn’t very pleased. He still wasn’t napping at school and he saved up his most meltdown-y behavior for the afternoons.

Now that we’re four weeks in, he’s back to having routine tantrums (last Thursday is still vivid in my memory) but they don’t seem affiliated with school anymore than anything else (for example: me eating the wrong carrot or picking up his lovey when he wanted to). Now that he’s able to take little naps there, we’ve seen a big improvement.

Milo
Our 7 month old seems entirely unphased by this new daycare arrangement. He’s happy when I leave him there and he’s happy when I pick him up. For the most part. The transition week was rougher on me than him if you measure such things by tears shed.

He’s getting more steady sitting up but still completely uninterested in eating food so far.

We’re also scrambling to find him a onesie-free wardrobe for “school”. Looking for deals on American Apparel and Baby Soy or similar.

Order prints from the Sentinel Triathlon at brightroom.

See the rest of our September pictures.

What have I been up to? Here are a few things:

• Transitioning two little guys into daycare and preschool. Associated hanging out at school, leaving and returning quickly, pumping, and dealing with two little guys who didn’t nap nearly enough.
• Reading the latest Harry Potter. With all the waiting in the cafe across from the preschool and nervously sitting by the phone at home, I busted out a 700+ page book in one week.
• Editing the Rookie Moms Handbook with Whitney. Yep, it just happened to be all in this same couple weeks that we got a hard copy proof to review with lots of major and minor tweaks waiting to be discovered. I think it’s coming along nicely and we can hardly wait to see it for reals.
• Biking hard with Olivia. Yesterday, we did 35-mile Tour d’Organics while Alec drove Holden and Milo from organic farm to organic farm to play and wait for us to pedal our sorry butts up and down the rolling hills. It was his first time taking them both on an outing and it was a biggie.
• Starting a new job. Today was my first day at a Berkeley Internet start-up. I’d like to say more but I’m so darn superstitious after my last couple forays into working that I’d like to see how this plays out a little before sharing more. Suffice it to say that I’m trying to be professional during the hours between screaming tearful drop-offs.

And, yep, if I haven’t already told you… Whitney is expecting a baby girl in July.

Now I really need to go to sleep.

PS strangers and random lurkers, please don’t steal our ideas. This announcement (as mentioned above) is for friends and family only.