Voyages in Parenthood

She loves it!

Yes, that is the first discernible word our child has said. No. Okay, to be honest, this isn't the FIRST word. We are pretty sure she says "cat", "dog", "Duff", "that" and "Dada". "Mama" is iffy...she's only said it three times, and the first two times she was chasing after my mother. In the past two weeks, she has begun to say "no" and "more." "More" is a good word. It helps us know she want's more! "No" is a little bit of a pain! "Leda, do you want to go take a bath?" "Noooo," as she runs for the bathroom (she LOVES taking baths!) In fact, she spends a lot of time saying "No." Not necessarily as "no," but as a word to say to just about any thing we ask her! Also, she says "done." While taking her bib off. Indicating she is done her meal, thank you very much. That's pretty much it at this point. She babbles up a storm and

Eight years ago... I love you more today. Happy Anniversary.

Some pictures from Grandma and Granddaddy's visit last month. Leda and Granddaddy...apparently she just heard Granddaddy was out of peanuts! I like this picture of Leda and Grandma! Leda and Grandma. She promises, next time, she will smile!

Okay, that had to be the worst 15 minutes of regulation football I've ever seen. The 11 or so in overtime pretty much sucked, too. I mean, seriously, what the heck happened to the Eagles? Did they look at one another in the beginning of the fourth quarter and think, "Ah, shucks, ain't no way these guys are going to come back from 17 points down"? Seriously?? That's it, that's all I'm saying. And, that's the only game this team had better play like that. Geez. These pictures were taken long before the Eagles started losing, so it wasn't the shirt. It hasn't been totally jinxed yet...she can wear it next week, we'll see what happens (they start to lose in the second half, it's coming off!)

Yes, I know summer isn't completely over, but the end of our summer vacations are! We headed up to the Thousand Islands for a long Labor Day weekend last week. Originally, it was going to be just our little family with the possibility of the family of a friend coming along, but Daniel threw a wrench into that plan! ;-) Seriously, we found out Daniel was coming to Syracuse (only an hour and a half south of the Islands) to meet his girlfriend's family and our friends decided it was too long a drive for a short period of time (their girls went back to school on the day after Labor Day) so plans changed! It was great - Leda got to spend time with her Grandparents and Uncle Dan and we all got to meet Maggie! We took off Thursday night after work and arrived around 11pm or so. Brock and Pam were waiting for us and Leda woke up before I could get her into bed without her knowing we had arrived, so we were up until around 12:30 tiring out the kid! We spent most of Friday just relaxing

I can almost taste the coffee I had just purchased that morning 5 years ago. I can remember the exact words Brock said to me when I answered the phone, "A small plane just hit the World Trade Center." I can remember not being able to access msnbc.com or cnn.com - so much internet traffic. I can remember the others in the office roaming around wondering what was happening. I remember we were supposed to be getting ready for our weekly office meeting. I remember someone finally turned on the tv in the conference room. I remember the silence that over took all of us that morning. The disbelief. The horror. The sadness. I remember the office closing and we were all sent home. I remember the drive home, how quiet, how empty, how much like a snow storm on a beautiful September day. I remember crying with Brock at what we had all lost that day. I remember going to church with our neighbors and just wanting to gather with others on that strange evening. I remember. I will never forge

Updates coming, I promise. Probably over the weekend. In the meantime: And And And, for something completely hilarious, Click Here ! Video of Leda laughing on the way home!