Bassin Family Blog

We've been terrible bloggers lately. We even failed to blog about our trip to France that we took in August (it was fantastic). Hopefully we can be rehabilitated and this will be the beginning of a new era of blogging excellence.

Anyway, as you can see in the attached video, Sophie's on the move now. This just happened this week, a couple days after Charlotte installed those little power outlet covers in an effort to begin child-proofing. At this point, with our hyper dog running around, I don't see leaving Sophie on her own to crawl without supervision, but I'm sure they're a good idea.

Our little girl is growing up!

Two years ago today I stood on a beach at sunset and married my dream girl. It's hard to believe we've already been married that long! At the same time, it seems like we've done an awful lot in these two years. We got a puppy, got some major projects done around the house, traveled half way around the world, and even managed to have a little baby along the way.

Tonight Charlotte and I will go camping in the mountains, leaving baby Sophie behind for the first time. Last year, we came up with the idea to spend the night of our anniversary somewhere other than our bed at home. I'm looking forward to sharing an evening together and celebrating. Other holidays are a lot of fun: birthdays, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, etc. But I feel more like celebrating our anniversary more than any of the others. After all, I really didn't have much to do with myself being born, I wasn't at the first Thanksgiving, and I am not a signer of the Declaration of Independence. But I did have something to do with Charlotte and me getting married.

I love the life we have made together and feel like I do a pretty good job of being thankful every day. But tonight... we celebrate!

Our friends Kevin and Marjorie invited us on a road trip to Moab, Utah. They were planning on going out there to celebrate their 5 year anniversary and thought it might be nice for our families to go out there together. They have a 17 month old daughter, Camryn, so it was fun to get the girls together. We've taken several trips with those guys over the years (Vegas, Sante Fe, camping) but this was the first one we all took as 'parents.'

We took separate cars and just met up at the Gonzo Inn in downtown Moab. Scott and I were excited to take Sophie and the Element on their first road trip! Sophie was amazing and slept most of the way. When she was awake she just played with her toys and made happy little squealing sounds. Most of our time in Moab was spent lounging by the pool and in the pool, out at restaurants, and napping. We did get to go for a little mini hike and try out the new baby backpack that we got from our neighbors. Scott wore it and Sophie loved the scenery from such an elevated viewpoint. We took some nice pictures and got to enjoy nature.

Overall, a fantastic weekend and thanks so much to the Noleens for inviting us!

It has been two weeks since I sold my Mini. I was waiting to post an entry about it until I got a picture of the new car, a Honda Element. When I got the Mini I knew I would probably only be able to drive it for a year or two, since we were considering starting a family (actually I found out I was pregnant a week after I got it). It was my dream car, though, and I had to have it!

A few months ago we were doing our finances (taking a new look at things since I haven't been working) and I decided it was time to sell the Mini and get something that was more practical and would decrease our monthly payments significantly. Hence, the Honda Element!

Yes, I was sad to see the Mini go - but it went to a good owner, another designer who seemed excited about the car (when he contacted me later, he said his wife was trying to take it over, she too fell in love with it). But... oh how I love the new Element. It's big, spacious, a smooth ride and I just love how I can throw anything and everything back there, whether I need it or not - the stroller, the car seat, the Baby Bjorn, the diaper bag, camera backpack, blanket, tent, whatever! Not to mention the interior is made of rubber or something that can literally be hosed out when the kiddies make a mess. Not to mention, for an SUV it gets pretty decent gas mileage (25 miles per gallon).

Today is Emilie's 29th birthday. Sophie was so excited that she asked me to create this little birthday card for her. Emilie's having a BBQ at her new apartment tomorrow so we'll get to celebrate with her then. Until then, Scott, Sophie and I wish her a wonderful birthday and hope she has lots of fun!

Charlotte, Sophie, and I flew to Michigan using some frequent flier miles last weekend. We were in town over Mother's Day - probably the first Mother's Day I've spent with my mother (or my grandmother) since I was in college and still lived in the area. Charlotte is a new mom this year so she was included in the celebrations. My sister, a relatively new mother herself, also made the trip up from Columbus with her three children.

Like all my trips home to see family, this one felt too short. Even though we were there three full days, they flew by. We did get to meet up with some friends of mine that I hadn't seen in a while, which was nice. We saw Molly, whose job involves enough travel to earn her elite status on Northwest Airlines within the first three months of the year. Charlotte, Sophie, and I also drove over to the East side to see Greg, Tara, and their two girls. Sophie got a kick out of watching little Erin and Rowe run around. Charlotte, Valerie, Valerie's son Will, and I also attended a Tigers-Yankees game Friday night at Comerica Park. The struggling Tigers eked out a win after extinguishing a Yankees rally in the bottom of the ninth. I spent some time around the house helping set up my mom's and the Almeister's new iPod Touch (a retirement gift from Almeister's office), and working on our family tree on geni.com. I even managed to spend about twenty minutes cleaning out the closet of my old bedroom - a task my mother's been begging me to do for at least a decade. Probably only about 10 hours left on that task...

I guess it was a pretty busy weekend!

Playtime in the Bassin household. This was such a cute moment between Scott, Peanut and Sophie.

Charlotte bought a mini season package of Rockies tickets for my birthday, and tonight was our second game. With the weather improving, we decided to take baby Sophie to her first game.

Unfortunately, she hadn't taken good naps during the day and was fussy from the opening pitch. One and a half laps around the concourse in her BabyBjörn and she conked out. We were able to enjoy the next three innings in peace before she woke up hungry.

The Rockies ended up losing the game 8-6, but they were winning 4-3 when we left. Maybe it's best we missed the late inning disappointment.

Well... after years of having the idea for this website/art project mulling around in my head - it has finally come to fruition!! The Wander + Wonder World Maps website (wow, lots of "W"s) has gone live! I also created a store where people can purchase prints, posters and greeting cards with all the various designs. Thanks to Sophie for taking nice long naps in the morning so I had a little bit of time to myself... and to Scott for watching Sophie for 24 hours straight this past weekend, so that I could get away and focus solely on developing this site!

I started my very own blog again. Here's the link:

http://wanderandwonder.org/blog/

The truth is I missed having my own independent blog, separate from this one that I share with Scott. I will continue updating this blog with various family-focused entries and photos (I hope Scott will continue to do so as well)... actually, I might update this blog more than I did before because my new Wander + Wonder blog is supposed to motivate me to open my eyes to everything other than Sophie. It has been 3 months since her birth and I absolutely adore our little baby girl and I am enjoying motherhood but I am finally coming to terms with the fact that I really must get back in touch with the outside world. I'm going a tad bit coo-coo being at home with baby. I'm also ready to take pictures of things other than Sophie.

So each blog has a different focus. This one is on family life and the Wander + Wonder blog is on... well... wandering and wondering.