Happy fourth birthday, little Nugget!  You guys, I can’t believe he is four years old.  Where does the time go?  For Nugget’s birthday weekend, he requested to “go to Mount Vernon dressed as Alexander Hamilton,” so that’s what we did.  Old friends may remember when Nugget and Peanut dressed as Alexander and Eliza Hamilton two Halloweens ago – sadly, we no longer have Peanut’s costume, but we still had Nugget’s and it still fit, thanks to the magic of elastic waistbands.  He got a lot of attention at Mount Vernon, as you may imagine.  After we had seen the cows and sheep and checked out the museum, we headed home for lunch and then Nugget and I hit the library – and we hit it hard.  We currently have thirty-seven books checked out (eighteen of them are mine).  Our favorite children’s librarian is always thrilled when she sees us walk through the door, because we’re so good for circulation.  Sunday wasn’t quite as birthday-rific.  It was still a nice day, but Nugget and I had to hit the grocery store in the morning, and then we had another birthday party to attend in the afternoon.  (Nugget’s party will be this coming weekend – we wanted to have it yesterday, but a little girl in Nugget’s class got her invites out first and caused scrambling on our part.)  Nugget did get to celebrate a bit more when we got home – opened some of his presents (he’ll get the rest today) and then we walked out to our favorite pizza joint, rode the DASH bus home, and gave him a bath with a mountain of bubbles.  A pretty good way to end your birthday weekend, don’t you think?

Reading.  It was a lovely reading week last week.  Early in the week I finished Edith Wharton’s Old New York, which had been sitting on my TBR for some time – and reviewed it here.  Next I turned to The Joy of the Snow, Elizabeth Goudge’s charming memoir, but set it aside for a day or so over the weekend when the new issue of Slightly Foxed arrived – and I regret nothing, because it was a really good issue; the perfect combination of books I’ve already read, books I haven’t read but had been wanting to read, and books I’d never heard of but now need in my library.  I went back to Elizabeth after finishing the new Foxed, and at press time I have about 35 pages left to go, so I anticipate finishing today during my commute.  I’m not sure what I’ll grab next – something off my towering library stack, I’m sure.

Watching.  The best thing I watched this week was my sweet boy running around Mount Vernon dressed as a founding father.  You don’t see that every day!  The other visitors were delighted with him and he got a lot of squeals and “SOOOOOO CUTE!”s as he ran from the cow pasture to the sheep paddock and back again.

Listening.  Lots of podcasts, as usual.  A great episode on “going crunchy in the kitchen” from The Crunchy Cocktail Hour – that was probably the highlight.

Making.  I didn’t make anything this weekend, other than an even taller stack of books from the library.  When will I ever learn, you guys?

Blogging.  I’ll be revisiting my winter to-do list and checking in on how I did on Wednesday, and Friday’s going to be a tribute to my favorite four-year-old.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  On my baby’s birthday, I am loving being his mom – how could anything else top that joy?  He’s really such a fun, smart, cuddly little guy and I am constantly delighted by him.  I say it all the time, but I really don’t know how the world survived without him.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?