For all the Wesley lovers out there (especially the grandparents), a couple videos.

First, Wes having a serious conversation with his Da.



And then Wes and Mama playing at Starbucks.



Feel free to tell us how utterly adorable he is. Thanks.

Shiny happy babies

Wesley is generally a pretty easygoing baby. He usually only cries if he’s hungry, in need of a little attention, or needs to be changed. Once we satisfy his need, he’s all smiles again, especially when he needed to be changed.

This kid loves being changed. We’re not sure why, but whether we’re changing his diaper or changing his clothes, he’s always happy about it.

It’s not surprising then that he also like getting baths. There’s a moment in between coming out of the water and getting dressed where he yells because he’s cold, but it doesn’t take long before he’s happily cooing as we lotion, diaper, and dress him.

The last time we gave him a bath, he was so cute about it I told Ben to grab the camera so we could take naked baby pictures to embarrass him with when he’s older.







We ended up taking a lot of pictures. It’s not our fault the kid is so cute. I’m still pretty sure he wants to be America’s Next Top Model. Watch for him in Season 43.

Mon dieu!

Things that we’ve learned from French strangers:

You must not burp the baby so vigorously; you’ll cause brain damage. For life.

His bottle isn’t warm enough and we should stop feeding him with it.

His head is too cold. Always. We must keep it covered even if he is so warm he’s getting a heat rash on his forehead.

His neck is cold.

His head is not being supported enough.

You must pay attention so that his head doesn’t touch the wall next to you. This also may cause brain damage for life.

He is the cutest baby ever. He is si mignon, si chou, si beau, adorable, petit, oohlala! Despite all our attempts to kill him through hypothermia, beatings, and lack of head support, we must be doing something right, because all of Paris was completely taken with him.

Can you blame them?

This blog is way late, but apparently babies are tiring and take up every single second of free time. Add traveling to the mix, and all of the sudden weeks go by and I still haven’t found the time to write anything, catch up on America’s Next Top Model, or go to the bathroom.

So this is going to be picture heavy, but light on the witty story telling. Sorry. Having a baby hasn’t sucked my brain out completely; I’m still terribly witty and charming in person. You’ll have to just trust me on that though because I don’t have the time to charm you properly in writing.

This was Wes’ first voyage. He was a champ on the plane, a perfect little traveler.



The Bergerac airport was very very small.

The conveyor belt for the baggage was manually operated. As in, I had to keep pushing people bags down the rollers until the guys tossed our bags up there.


France was beautiful. We were in the Dordogne region, which is very quiet, rural, nice and relaxing.





We saw castles


There was a sign that said Do Not Touch. Apparently I’m not a very good listener.


We enjoyed drinks at cute cafés with Gamma.



We went to a goat farm to see how chèvre is made.


We ate lots and drank wine.


We went on hikes. It was very pretty until we got lost .


And at the end of a long day of hiking we hung out at the pool at the gîte.



Ahh, it went by so quickly and then we had to go back to the Netherlands. But not to worry, less than a week after we got back we left for Paris because Ben had another work trip.

Again, a great time. Paris never gets old. And this time Wesley accompanied me as I walked all over the place, to about 10 different grocery stores in three days(okay, I’m exaggerating. I only went to about 5, but some of them more than once).

We also did our usual breakfast on the step in front of Sacre Coeur.

Wes didn’t like it because we didn’t get any croissants for him.


And of course we had to take him to see the Tour Eiffel.

At two months old, he’s already an experienced traveler. We’re working on teaching him to buy his own metro tickets and order his own crêpes. No wine and baguettes until he can order for himself!

Il y a six ans...

Six years ago, before babies and Netherlands and traveling, and even before army life, on a beautiful October day Ben and I got married and started our real Morrison Adventure together.

This year, we were lucky enough to celebrate our anniversary with another beautiful October day. This time, though, we were relaxing in France, in a gîte that my parents rented for a month. It was a gorgeous location for what turned out to be a wonderful anniversary.

We started out the day with our special tradition of a photo shoot to add to our album of anniversary pictures. Each year we try to find a cool location and just have fun taking pictures. It's really neat to see ourselves grow and change from year to year and it'll be even cooler when we have an album with 50 years of photos in it.



This year, Wesley got to join in for a few photos.


We then spent the day going to a goat farm to see how chèvre is made, and to pet goats (the real reason to visit a goat farm!), and then spending a little time in the town of Rocamadour for lunch.

And then, THEN, the best part:

On the way home, Gamma and Papà told us that they were taking Wes duty for the remainder of the day! They had already said they would babysit while we went to dinner, but a whole free afternoon before that? Jackpot! And they're good, responsible babysitters, right?

Hmm, well... they were free babysitters, anyway..

We luxuriated in a long walk sans bébé, and then an episode of America's Next Top Model before dinner.

And then we got pretty and headed to La Belle Etoile restaurant in La Roque Gageac. La Roque Gageac is a really pretty little town on the Dordogne river and we left early enough so that we could walk a little, take some pictures, walk a little more.



And then, dinner...

was magnifique!

I had a langoustine ravioli and then cod with vegetables in a pea and coconut sauce, and Ben had foie gras (I know, animal cruelty, etc etc) with an onion chutney and then duck with a citrus glaze.


And the best part? Desserts!


And not just because I love dessert, but because these were really well done. A trilogie de chocolat with cinnamon ice cream for me, and a millefeuille de fraises with a perfect lavender sauce for Ben. Oh so good.

*Note: I hate taking pictures in restaurants because I always feel très tacky, but this wonderful restaurant had plenty of more obnoxious tourists than us, and being tacky is practically a requirement for American tourists abroad so we figured what the heck. We were very discrete about it. And we were much less obnoxious than the Canadians at the table next to us who were loudly discussing what "une tranche de lotte" was (it's monkfish). They were loud. And funny. We tried not to giggle at them, but we couldn't help ourselves.

After dinner we walked a bit more and then went back to the house and thought about how great life is, how blessed we are, and how nice it is to have good babysitters.

The past couple weeks have flown by! My parents, a.k.a. Gamma and Papa, were here and have gone and are now very happily settled in a gite in France, and tomorrow Ben, Wesley and I hop on a plane to go spend a week there with them. I predict that we will spend our vacation changing diapers and asking Wes to stop crying and look at the pretty French countryside. If we're lucky, we may be able to get him to sleep and, even better, stay awake ourselves to enjoy some red wine and the goat cheese that the area is known for. Mmmm, chevre. We could probably live on wine, baguettes, and chevre for the week. Maybe some chocolate, if we want to hit all 4 food groups - wine, bread, cheese, chocolate. Wes, poor little baby, will only get formula. Okay, maybe a little wine since we are in France. But only half a glass.

I'm not going to do much of a recap of what we did while my parents were here. There was much dog walking (by me, my parents, and Wesley), diaper changing (by everyone except the dogs. No opposable thumbs really worked in their favor this time), and bicycling (by my parents). We managed to make it out to dinner a couple times, but never all 4 of us at once due to the baby not being welcome in nice restaurants around here. That was kind of sad, but maybe someday Ben and will be able to share a nice restaurant meal IN a restaurant again. Someday...

If you want to check out more of the Burgett/Purcell/Morrison Netherlands extravaganza, you can check out my dad's blog, where he has started a travel journal. Go read it! It's got pictures and everything!

While they were here, we did take advantage of having the best kind of babysitters around (grandparents!) and went out to Starbucks twice and to Maastricht once. Each time we went out we struggled between being giddy and baby-free for a few hours and wanting to gogogohavefundoeverything and being sleepy and baby-free and wanting to curl up in corners of coffee shops and sleep for a few hours.

The having fun won each time. In Maastricht it was a beautiful day, so we even got to go on a little picnic in a park by the river.




And then we picked up a couple treats from one of our favorite bakeries to eat later while catching up on Grey's Anatomy and America's Next Top Model.


Speaking of America's Next Top Model, your Wesley anecdote for the day: A couple nights ago Wes was fussy and gassy and generally noisy and we were feeding him, rocking him, bouncing him while watching aspiring models pretend that Tyra Banks isn't a total whackjob. Wesley was just fussing, gurgling, etc, until I held him up to burp him, and I happened to hold him facing the TV. Suddenly, baby silence. He was totally mesmerized by America's Next Top Model. This was the only time he has ever looked at the screen. And he just stared. And stared. I think we have a future supermodel on our hands. Ben is less than thrilled. I'm just wondering if Wes will be ably to use his future connections in the fashion world to get me some fabulous free stuff. He's gonna be FIERCE!

Happy Birthday to Wesley!

Okay, it's obviously not his birthday yet. He is definitely growing every day, but he's not growing quite that fast. So don't worry all you long distance baby-watchers, you haven't missed that much.

But we do like to celebrate whenever we can, so when his one month birthday rolled around we took advantage of the fact that Gamma and Papa are visiting and had a mini-party in his honor!

(Note the adorable hat and blanket made for him by his Auntie Jessica!)

Alright. You may be sitting there thinking that I just wanted an excuse to make a cake. And you may be right.

(Buttermilk cake with chocolate cream filling and a white chocolate buttercream, if you're interested in details like that)


Teasing the baby. Too bad Wes can't have cake yet.


No cake makes babies ANGRY!


We also had a special dinner of grilled chicken and a delicious grilled portabella and pepper salad by Chef Ben with champagne compliments of Gamma and Papa.

And a special main course of formula for Wes, prepared by Mama.

I think he still wanted cake, but he's going to have to wait until his real birthday for a taste of the good stuff.