Seven years.

Today is our seventh anniversary. For those of you who may remember our wedding day, it was a pretty darn fabulous party. We are so blessed to have so many family and friends who could be with us that day who are still a meaningful part of our lives.

Matt and I went out to lunch to celebrate at Ras Kassa's today, as I have to work at the Opera stage-managing auditions tonight.  We were talking it over and we realized that we are basically still the same people we were when we got married, except for parenthood.  That's a pretty big "except," I realize, but we both agree that parenthood changed us more than marriage did.  I suspect this is especially true for me, since motherhood has been approximately like having two additional internal organs that are now capable of existing a considerable distance from my body and acting independently without permission.

Still, I married a pretty amazing guy.  He makes the best coffee I can imagine drinking in my home, short of morning delivery directly from the Blue Bottle Cafe in San Francisco.  He lets me put my cold toes on his warm legs when I come to bed later than he does. He does a whole lot of housework and probably more of the cooking than I do, which make him an excellent roommate as well as husband. . . the amount of mush I could put into this post would be frankly shocking if I got around to it, but rather than displaying tons of overt sentiment to my reading public I'll simply wish him a happy anniversary--we have had so much happiness already that the years ahead are sure to hold even more than we can imagine.

Word of the day: graupeling.

So, hail starts with a raindrop freezing.

Graupel begins with a snowflake instead, creating a sort of weird styrofoamy pellet-like snow that melts quickly on ground contact.  

It's been graupeling on and off here since yesterday.  Sometimes snow, sometimes rain, sometimes (this new lovely word) graupel.   The bug had teacher in-service today so it's been very mellow: late wake-up, waffles with berries for breakfast, cookie-making and CD-listening, and probably at least one kids' movie in the works after quiet time.

A lovely not-quite-snow day, to say the least.

i would add a photo...

but it would make me sad. 

The polliwog took a header off the chair in his room yesterday, and we ended up at the doctor's office in the late afternoon. No stitches needed, thankfully, but some major band-aidage and a tense 12 hours on concussion watch.   He is just fine today, in good spirits, and things look like they were relatively superficial and will heal well.  Still an important brief list of lessons (re)learned:

1) Head wounds bleed like hell.

2) Four-year-olds cannot move to the car fast enough for a mom carrying an injured infant, even if they are completely cooperative and sprinting at top speed. That said, the bug was AWESOME in terms of taking direction and moving fast without asking too many questions until we actually got to the doctor's office.  (Then she kept asking whose fault it was. Mine, child. I took my hand off him and reached for the diaper wipes when he shouldn't have been up on the chair alone. Now shush.)

3) Blood doesn't come out of carpets. Or car seats. Or running shoes.  Or indeed most things it comes into contact with.

4) My boy is amazingly precious, cheery, and sweet, and has rebounded from his injury very quickly.  I'm the one who wants to cuddle him 24 hours a day and keeps having nightmares with the injury repeated in slow-mo.