Fall 2019 in Review

This has been a beautiful fall. 



This will not be a terribly literary blog entry.  I'm trying very hard to keep some sort of presence on here, particularly as I'd like to be able to look back on Tertius' early days in some other way than in scrolling on my Instagram.  But it hasn't been easy!  I finally bit the bullet and just bought some google storage, because after 15 years with this email address I've really just run out of space!  For a long time I was not able to update.  I ruthlessly chucked out photos and videos and documents but to no avail. So I hope that by bribing the evil empire, I will be allowed to continue to document our little family doings here; I'm too old and too tired to transfer to another medium! 

Autumn is the only season that I think Rochester does better than any other state I've lived in.  The colors are more vivid, the chill comes sooner, and the bite in the air feels real and invigorating where elsewhere it has often felt muted to me.  Look at this crimson! (No filter)

The kids continue their silly, creative selves.  I'm often astonished to find how much they really still like each other.  They're the best of friends:

And we're so pleased to be New Yorkers at last, and (I fervently hope) for good.  Just the other day Adele said, "if we'd never moved here, I'd never have met all my friends!" I'm fairly sure she'd have made friends wherever we ended up; she's got a great deal of social efficacy. But I'm so glad to think she's happy here that I won't tell her that.

I'm 32 weeks pregnant at the moment! Here I am at 25 weeks;

At the end of October, we attended Ithaca's Wizarding Weekend. What a blast for a family of nerds and their HP fan friend Norah from church:

There was a Quidditch workshop and a scrimmage!  

The Dinos got up to their usual antics for DiNovember:

We observed Halloween properly with pumpkin carving & neighborhood trick-or-treating. Miles went as Jason Grace from some of his Rick Riordan books (one of the spin-offs of the Percy Jackson series):

Adele went as Captain Marvel, complete with Flerken.  She's a huge CM fan: 

I wore my traditional Halloween maternity shirt, made in 2011 for Adele. I was rather bigger last time I wore it . . .

In news that really deserves its own post, Jon finished his dissertation and defended it in October.  He got his taxidermy tattoo after he passed his defense.  He expects his diploma sometime in December! 

It's been a long road since he started at Virginia Tech in 2010. Miles had just learned to walk when he began.  It feels appropriate  that he's finished just before the birth of this, our third child. 

Finally, my darling Adele has turned 8! She continues to be independent, opinionated, social, intelligent, a voracious reader and a passionate lover of animals.  She cannot wait to become a big sister, but I'm not sure how I'll ever stop thinking of her as my baby.  

Coming soon: pictures from our November 23rd Baby Shower!