WWFTC Reading at VA Festival of the Book 2015

Kevin read at the Virginia Festival of the Book last week. His read with Clifford Garstang (editor, Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction From a Small Planet) during a panel called "Short Stories: Great Fiction in Small Bites" at New Dominion Bookshop.

Kevin all set before the reading

The reading was upstairs.

Kevin read the title story and the reading went really well. He had a good rhythm and the crowd understood and liked the story. Kevin had some different answers to the questions this time.

Or so I'm told. I couldn't stay to the end because the kids were being kind of disruptive. The reading space was weird because it was upstairs and pretty narrow. There was some seating downstairs, which is where I had to park it because I had Miranda in the stroller. This turned out to be somewhat fortuitous as I could escape with bothering too many people.

James entertaining himself by reading some kids books

Miranda napping at the reading

[Not pictured: James whining, Miranda tearing all the books off the shelves.]

After the reading. (Photo by Pat Jarrett, VFH staff)

Meeting Robert B. 2015

On the way to Charlottesville, Kevin, James, Miranda, and I were able to stop in for a very quick visit to meet Sarah and Donald's new baby Robert. Robert is so snuggly and cute, and he's only 3 weeks old! I love him so much. I have an unhealthy obsession with him really. I have been missing him since I met him.

Meeting my new little buddy Robert!

Oh Robert posed for this one!

I also got to visit with his big brother William who is so smart and even pensive. As a bonus, Sarah's mom, sister Jane, and Jane's three girls were there too! So that's a total of 5 adults and 7 children! Everyone behaved!

James (almost 4), Miranda (almost 1), Robert (0), William (3)

James bugging Sarah's niece Rosie (9.5)

Sarah's nieces Isabelle (almost 7!) and Penelope (3.5), and son William (3)

• Last time I saw Sarah, Fall for the Book, September 2014
• Sarah and Donald meeting Miranda, May 2014
• Meeting William B., April 2012

St. Patrick's Day in Washington, DC 2015

This was Miranda's first trip to DC! We spent St. Patrick's Day afternoon in DC on our way to Charlottesville. I love DC, and one of my favorite parts of the city is still the National Mall with all the free Smithsonian museums. We met up with Cory and took the kids to the National Air and Space Museum to see what James called "rocket ships." I also took James into the one space ship you can enter while Kevin fed Miranda.

At the National Air and Space Museum

Studying buoyancy.

Generating energy.

Checking out the equipment

After that, we got overly-ambitious, and decided to go to the Museum of Natural History to see dinosaurs. Yeah, apparently the dinosaur exhibit has been closed for ages. Sad! James enjoyed the marine exhibit instead. When we showed him a big gross dead squid he said, "whales eat them!" So true. Calamari is yummy.

On the way to our next museum, the guys kept calling me "the nanny."

Who has fingers and is at the Museum of Natural History?

Showing Miranda the big whale

Hanging out with our mammal friends.

We met Robin for dinner at 100 Montaditos, a Spanish tapas place that serves tons of delicious little sandwiches.

Miranda likes Robin

James had so many cute poses here, I could barely decide, but this one won.

You might be thinking that James appreciated all these great things we did for his benefit. If so, you probably don't have kids. Later that night Cory introduced James to some real video games including Ms. Pac Man and a racing game. After that, James only talked about that, and told us he wanted to live with Cory forever. Thanks buddy!

 

Miranda has a video controller too. She uses it for teething.

• James was about the same age (not yet 1) the first time we took him to DC in 2012.
• Eastern Market and Yards Park in August 2012
• National Portrait Gallery in March 2013
• National Zoo in May 2013
• Girls' Weekend in DC 2014

Grandma Visits- March 2015

Grandma visited Thursday evening through Monday. As always she was a life saver. She had a movie date with James (his first!) and took him for a haircut and ice cream. She watched Miranda while Kevin and I got some important errands done. (And then poor Miranda turned out to be sick!) We celebrated St. Patrick's Day early with her: we dressed in green and Kevin made corned beef sandwiches. Here are my favorite pics.

Fake St. Patrick's Day!

And on a timer!

Loves Grandma!

He's so affectionate.

Irish girls chilling.

Reading to Miranda.

Mom's Cancer Recurrence 2015

As I wrote about on the blog, in August 2013, my mother was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, the same kind of kidney cancer my dad had. It was contained in the kidney, so she had surgery in October 2013 to remove that kidney. My dad had the same surgery for the same reason in April 1999, and his cancer returned 11 years later so I didn't assume she was off the hook, and suggested she upgrade to a serious renal cancer oncologist, which she did.

With her grandbabies

The new oncologist had her get scans every 6-months, and two scans later, in February , we found out the cancer had returned. This time she can't have surgery, because when it comes back it's always stage 3 or 4. But as we already knew because of my dad, chemo and radiation don't work on kidney cancer either, so the general treatments are targeted therapies usually in the form of pills or IV drugs.

She enrolled in a phase II trial, testing Cabozantinib. We were hoping that she would get the new experimental drug, but instead she got the control, Sutent. Typically, Sutent the drug they'd put you on anyway, the "first line" drug. We were just hoping for something else because Sutent was so ineffectual on my dad.

If you want to understand more about the treatment, keep reading. Otherwise you can stop now.

Each drug has a generic name and a trademarked brand name. My mother is on sunitinib malate, brand-named Sutent. Sunitinib/ Sutent is an angiogenisis inhibitor. For malignant tumors to expand and metastasize, they must be able to form new blood vessels by a process called angiogenesis. Tumors overproduce “growth factors” that stimulate the development of new blood vessels to supply oxygen and nutrition. These include “vascular endothelial growth factor” (VEGF) and “platelet-derived growth factor” (PDGF). These growth factors activate certain proteins inside cancer cells to develope new blood vessels. This allows tumors to grow and to metastasize to other parts of the body. Angiogenisis inhibitors, such as Sutent, inhibit the growth of the blood vessels. Additionally, Sutent may shrink tumors instead of merely maintaining.

My 36th Birthday in NY & NJ 2015

My birthday was low-key but full of wonderful things. Here are 36 fun things I did on my birthday!

1) Slept late.
2) Woke up this morning to a family pile-on! Thanks Kevin, James, and Miranda!
3) James and Kevin made me some birthday cards.
4) Breakfast courtesy of Kevin,
5) Kevin watched the kids while I indulged numerous mood swings.
6) Mood swings might actually have been a hangover as I went to dinner and drinks with college girlfriends this weekend. Though this was not actually birthday-related I'm still riding the happy wave.
7) Lots of birthday texts (I didn't have a smart phone last year so this is fun) and calls
8-17) Lots of presents and cards this year! Thanks Kevin, Andrew, Kathy, Janice, Ash, et al.
18) Italian subs for lunch- I was totally craving one!
19) Hug-a-thon from James that lasted like 10 minutes.
20) Lots of people coordinating to come to Clou-a-rama today! Yay!
21) Miranda and I had girl-time while James went to school.
22) But because she takes naps in her crib now I had child-free guilt-free time in the afternoon!
23) Kevin made dinner
24) My first birthday with two kids!
25) We had 4 different flavors of cup-cakes!

Cupcake with candle! Miranda is even more excited than I am.

26) Kevin and James sang happy birthday to me and James helped me blow out the candles

 
James is helping.

27) We also took numerous photos of this event.
28) We played cupcake-smash with the kids, the goal being to get as much frosting on our faces as possible.

Cupcake happiness.

 

Don't mind if I do!


Only frosting on his mustache could make him cuter than he already is.

29) Miranda decided this was the best day of her life yet and she expressed it with lots of smiles and happy sounds.

Best. day. ever.

30) Kevin gave the kids their baths ... and put them to sleep
31) ... and basically did everything all evening.
32) While I watched Dr. Who.  And I got to a lot of people's favorite episode "Blink" which was totally solid.
33) We had drinks after the kids went to bed.
34) And watched my favorite comedy Brooklyn 99.
35) Back massage.
36) Went to dinner and drinks with my gorgeous mother the following day!

Me and mom at Biggie's Clam Bar in Carlstadt

Girls' Weekend in NYC 2015

We had a very short Girls' Weekend this year, which could more accurately be called Girls' Night. We didn't plan in advance and we realized that since Megan is due in May, we might not be able to squeeze in another one for a long time. Despite the quick planning we had a really nice time. We started with pre-dinner drinks at The Growler in the Financial District. And their poutine is unique but tasty.

Megan, Ash, me at The Growler

Laurie, Janice, Christina

Our attempt to get a group picture with George Washington... in the dark

Then we had a super fancy dinner at White Street in Tribeca. I didn't take any pictures of us in the restaurant but this was our view from our booth. When we got there at 6 it was pretty empty but it was totally full when we left. Our appetizers and main dishes were yummy, and we shared wine and desserts.

White Street

After dinner we walked over to a cute little bar I really liked, Anotheroom. I wish our visit had been longer but we've already started planning the next year's.

All of us at Anotheroom

Visiting Hudson and Aria- March 2015

I hadn't visited with Hudson and Aria since August, and it's been a time of big changes for them. So when we decided to meet up with our college girlfriends in the city- near Christina's place- Ash and I got there early to spend quality time with the kiddos.

Me and my buddy Aria

Even though Aria is 7 months she's up to the same trouble as Miranda. I think the two of them would really enjoy each other's company and I'm looking forward to their first tackle-fest. I mean playdate.

Ash and Aria

When we got there, Hudson was napping but when he woke up he quickly warmed to the camera-holding monster that is me. As it happens, Hudson really enjoys taking photos and kept letting us know he wanted more.

It's because he's so cute- and he knows it.

Ash reading books to Hudson, but he appreciates my contribution more.

Baby-tossing! The next Olympic sport.

Ash, Aria, Ericka- happy family.

Nana Visits- February 2015

We had a fun visit with Nana this weekend. We played with the kids, I made crockpot minestrone, and by special request, we watched 19 Kids while Kevin made wildly inappropriate comments.

With her babies

Carrying the "sack of rice"

Tickling Miranda while feeding her. Haha.

We also celebrated Bob's birthday! Good times!

It doesn't look like Miranda is singing...

Happy birthday to yoooooooou!!

Make a wish!