What a month...

It's hard to believe that just a month ago Justin and I were sitting in our home in Kennesaw with our lives on hold, wondering when Abby would arrive. A new baby, hundreds of boxes and almost 600 miles later, here we are in Virginia, trying desperately to get settled. The move went smoothly, and we're slowly but surely making our way through all these boxes and starting to make this little townhouse into a home.

Our weekend in Gainesville before we headed up here was a nice reprieve for the three of us. Abby got to spend some time with her grandparents and meet a lot of friends who had been anxiously awaiting her arrival, including her great aunt Judy. I enjoyed being able to relax a little and let other people continue to make me dinner. With all the meals our friends brought us in Kennesaw and the ones I had frozen that we've been eating since we got to Virginia, it's been about a month since I've really cooked a meal for us. It's getting a little chilly here in the evenings...I think I see some prize-winning chili in our future.

One of the highlights of our final days in Georgia was a visit from my friend Megan and her daughter Neely. Megan and I sang on the bus together in elementary school, navigated the halls together in middle school and caused trouble together on the newspaper staff in high school. Now here we are with little girls of our own, praying that they'll enjoy the same kind of time-tested friendships one day.

Mom and I made the long trip up to Virginia with Abby a day after Justin and his dad drove up. Abby did great on the drive, although all the stopping to tend to food and poop and fussiness did add about four hours to the drive. We managed to get into a nice routine on each stop that allowed mom to walk around and stretch her legs while I fed Abby, then I got to do the same while mom burped her. (We took advantage of one of our stops to detour off the main drag for some North Carolina BBQ. It wasn't quite Williamson Brothers, but it was still a nice treat.)

Abby and I celebrated her one-month birthday with a trip to Clemyjontri Park for a play date with the wife and daughter of one of Justin's new coworkers. (Play date, for a one-month-old, involves sleeping while mommy enjoys some much-needed adult conversation.) And now, by special request, here's the first in what will be a very long series that I'd like to call Pictures of Abby being cute. Enjoy!

Abby, sound asleep, missing out on the coolness of the very colorful park.