The Kids' Table

We've all been present at large gatherings of people in someone's home before.  It was perhaps at a holiday meal or big weekend family gathering.  There were lots of people, tons of food and, of course, not near enough seating to accommodate it all.  That's okay though, because there was usually the same solution: the kids's table.

Odds are you've been there before...the rickety card table from the closet or, if the weather was nice enough, the patio table outside.  This was where "the kids" were herded so that the adults could be together at the dining room table.  I've had both good and bad experiences at the kids' table.  If I was stuck with some dining partners I wasn't familiar with, it was sometimes awkward.  But that was okay because awkward silence could easily be overlooked by the fact that everyone's mouths were full of food anyway.  As I got older, I often wanted to be at the grown-up table because I found their subjects of conversation to be more preferable to the things being discussed at the kids' table.


Tough luck, though.  I don't know if I've ever sat at the grown-up table.  Last week I turned 31 and, a few days later, found myself in the middle of a large gathering of friends and family.  There were 13 of us in my home enjoying some burgers following our son's baptism (see photos here).  The....more seasoned crowd ate at the table inside and we "kids" found ourselves outside on the porch.  There were 8 of us and the average age was 28.5-years-old, but it was still the kids' table.  I realized that, although Leni and I are in our 30's now and just became parents ourselves, it just may be a while before we graduate to the grown-up table.


And that's okay with me.


Keep It Real!

Let the Games Begin

There are only 71 days until the Summer Olympics in London.  But this isn't really about those games.


I'm talking about the New Mexico Brew Challenge, a competition being held among most of my husband's office co-workers and their spouses.  The goal: to visit each of the breweries in the state of New Mexico, beginning on Memorial Day Weekend and ending on Labor Day Weekend.

Leni and a co-worker have been mulling over this project for over a week now, determining rules of play, the point system, etc and finally have it all hammered out.  Different points are awarded for different breweries, based on their distances from where we live.  One can earn points for visiting the brewery as well as consuming a product sold outside the brewery as well.  In true engineer fashion, there's a complex spreadsheet for keeping track of points, etc.


Here are some quick stats:

• Number of breweries: 20
• Cities the breweries are spread across: 10
• Distance between two closest breweries: .1 mile 
• Distance between two farthest breweries: 403 miles

There's been some scoffing that it will be difficult for Leni and me to finish with an infant in tow.  While it is true that it may be hard, we are no less motivated.  I don't just want to win.  I want to annihilate.  I want to finish so quickly that someone cries.

Here's to a good summer and a great way to get around and see new places in the Land of Enchantment!

Keep it Real (and drink responsibly) 

Joshua Daniel Moore

Our son is two weeks old today.  Below is the first picture we ever took of him when he was just a couple hours old.

Born April 24 at 3:59 am

His picture has been all over Facebook and across tons of text messages but he's had no mention on this blog.  


The reason for Joshua's absence on the blog is not lack of time to do it but rather not knowing what to say, since the word of his arrival has been out for some time now.


At this point in the game, reps from both sides of the family have come, seen, and gone.  Everyone was very helpful, whether it was cooking, cleaning, holding Josh, etc.  He's been to church twice.  He's even been down to Santa Fe a couple times.  


There have been two standard visits with the pediatrician: one in our home 48 hours after discharge and one in the doctor's office just yesterday.  Both went swimmingly.  I'm not a person who typically enjoys when people overstate things (unless for purposes of sarcasm and humor) a lot but one can't complain about hearing a pediatrician use the word "perfect" to describe any child, let alone one's own :)


Loyal readers and those who know me well may remember that I like numbers and stats.  Here are some we learned in yesterday's two week appointment with the doc:

Weight at birth: 7 lbs 8 oz - 15th percentile
Weight at 2 weeks: 8 lbs 4.5 oz - 25th percentile

Length at birth: 21 inches - 75th percentile
Length at 2 weeks: 22 inches - 90th percentile

Anyway I could come up with more to update you on I suppose but I don't want to be the parent that goes on and on.  For now, I'll just leave you with a photo from today.

Keep It Real!