Voyages in Parenthood

Technically, Leda's second Halloween, but her first shot at Trick or Treatin' and let me tell ya, by the third house, the kid, she was a pro. We headed over to Steve and Kate's neighborhood to go trick or treatin' since we really don't have a neighborhood to do so in. The Durhams and the Gabbs and the Shier kids all dressed in their finest Halloween outfits... (Thea, Brennan, Jane, Susy's friend (I didn't catch the name), Leda and Susy) We headed out and up to the first door. Leda went with Daddy and didn't seem to have much of a problem. I really thought she might not be very comfortable doing this, but by the third house, the one I went with her to, she walked right up, the lady gave her something for her bag and Leda watched her put it in, reached in, looked at it, threw it back in, the lady asked her if it was okay and she said, "No!" So the lady gave her another one, and off she went! It was hysterical! Each house we went to after that, Le...

We went to the annual Halloween party last night - this year, it was at the Durhams. (Sorry Kim, I was too busy chasing Leda and drinking good wine to take any pictures except for these two: (click to see bigger sizes) We did have one person in the family dress up for Halloween - Leda went as a Lion (a very reluctant lion!) Mostly, she just wore the body...she really didn't want to have anything on her head. We did get some pictures of her with it on before we headed off for the party: (click to see bigger sizes) We did have a great time at the party! Leda was up LATE! We figured we would get a little extra shut-eye today due to the lateness of her night, but she decided that 3:30 was a good time to wake up. Mommy slept (sorta) with her in the recliner until about 5 when she finally decided to go back to sleep. No more late night parties for our little lion! ;-) And, Brock made a pumpkin!

18 months ago tonight, I had just given birth to one incredible little girl. Little did we know that 18 months ago! Leda is getting so big. She had her 18 month check up yesterday and the doctor pronounced her fit as a fiddle! She's about 25lbs and 33 inches (give or take a sneaker sole or two!) She's about 50th percentile (for all of you keeping score, that would make her average!) She's got her 2yr molars coming in! We thought we saw a second set of molars coming in and the doc confirmed it. That would mean she's pretty much got all the teeth she should have by 2 years old! When we were flying home from Florida last weekend, we had one person on the plane ask us if she is always so happy. And, yes, she is. She is a very happy little girl. She rarely cries - mostly when she has hurt herself or we leave her with the babysitters. She whines-cries when she doesn't get her own way, but we are (hopefully) breaking her of that. She's more like her Daddy in that she g...

Must have been why the Eagles did so bad yesterday - but enough about THAT! We were in Florida this weekend visiting the family - Abby had a fourth birthday party and we were invited, so we had to go! We had a great time. We flew out on Friday morning - scratch that, we flew out on Friday afternoon. We were SUPPOSED to fly out on Friday morning at 11:35AM - turns out the weather was pretty nasty here and our flight was coming from Charlotte, and a long story short, with my propensity for needing to be at the airport ten hours before the flight and Philadelphia's low ceiling, we didn't take off until close to 1PM! So, we spent some quality time in the airport! Luckily, we were flying out of B terminal which meant we had a mall to walk around (the mall is between B and C at Philly International) and a good selection of lunch to pick from. Of course, we had hot dogs! Side note; so we sit down to have our lunch, and I have cut up Leda's hot dog and she is sitting in her own se...

Yes, I promised posts and then didn't follow through. I suck. Sue me! Guess what? I don't plan to promise any posts for the rest of this week, that's what! If you are lucky, I might post something. If not, then tough. Wait until next week - there will be posting and pictures since we will be heading to the sunny and warm state of Florida to celebrate Leda's cousin Abby's FOURTH birthday. Wow! Until then, sorry. Will try not to suck next week. Will try to be good blogger and post once or twice (maybe even three times! Can you stand it??) Bu-Bye!

I know I promised some posts that didn't exactly get posted over the weekend...you try watching a 17 month old, working, not really sleeping and missing a spouse over the weekend and try to post anything to a blog. Besides, I had Talladega and Eagles/Dallas yesterday. Seriously, where did you expect me to find the time? I promise, posting will be more than generous this week. Just chill, okay? ;-)

A great big phat win like yesterday! Please, please, with a cherry on top? That was just so sweet! I'd love to do that again! In the immortal words of Forest Gump, "and that's all I have to say about that!" ;-)

I swear I turned around the other day and my child had gone from being a baby who needed to be carried everywhere to a toddler who didn't want you to pick her up, she can do it herself. How do you stop that from happening? Obviously you don't. But it amazes me how quickly she has grown. I see pictures of her from a year ago and it baffles me how I went from having a 5-6 month old last year this time to having a 17-18 month old now. And the difference a year makes. Leda will run when given the chance. And if we are outside, she will run with her head looking over her shoulder at us as if she's saying, "catch me if you can," with a giggle that indicates that she fully expects us to catch her and tickle her until she laughs a great big belly laugh. She's so smart. She knows exactly what we are saying, exactly what we are asking of her, exactly what we have told her NOT to do, and she does it anyway, with a smirk worthy of the most disobedient 16 year old! She can...

New look, officially not summer any more so Caribbean vibes had to go away (making me crave it too much, I spend half the day checking rates for trips to all-inclusives in the Caribbean!). Of course, leaves have just barely started to change here, so had to go abstract! Hope you don't hate it too much. I plan a couple of posts here soon - mostly background/history type posts, because I apparently can't find anything inspiring to discuss that is present or future! Oh, and a way over due Leda update. Check back by end of weekend! Should be lots of reading for ya then! Happy Fall!