Voyages in Parenthood

We have some rules at dinner time. If Leda wants to get down from the table, she is to ask please. And, she has to wait until everyone at the table is done. In fact, all of us have to wait until everyone is done. Else, how do you think we would be able to enforce this to Leda! Brock has a few other rules he'd like Leda to follow, like using her utensils to eat, rather than her fingers. But we aren't too worried about that just yet - she's getting the hang of it, slowly! (Okay, I'm not too worried about it yet! If you've never seen Brock get all in a tizzy about something, you should come sit with us at dinner time! ;-) Anyway, she usually will say, "I'm done, can I get down please?" She will usually check to see if we are done ("Mommy, are you done yet? Daddy, are you done yet?) Usually SEVERAL times! Tonight, Brock finished eating and Leda asked him if he was done and he said he was and she replied, "I'm done with you, Daddy." To wh

Leda and I were on our own this weekend. We had a little summer company party to go to yesterday at the Shiers where we swam and ate and had a good time hanging out with the people Mommy works with and their families. We had to go out and do a little shopping in the morning - we needed to find some floaties for Leda as she really is doing well swimming with just the floaties on her arms. We went to Target and they didn't have any so we ended up at the local pharmacy (that has EVERYTHING you could ever need) and we finally found them there. Since we were doing a lot of driving around (well, to Target and back), we were in the car for a little while. Leda started to ask me for something from the back seat, but I couldn't hear what she was saying. Well, better yet, I wasn't SURE what she was saying. It sounded more like baby talk than toddler talk! After a few times repeating it, Leda finally yelled, "I want the ooka ooka song." Ahhh, finally I get it... Hooked on a

I love books. I love them so much, I find it hard to sign books out at the library because I want so badly to keep them. At least, the ones I really love. Thus the reason I probably should own stock in several bookstores. Really, I could start my own library (even though I have a hard time loaning my books out - I'm terrified I won't get them back. I'll loan anyone anything else before I'll loan out a book. If you've borrowed a book from me, you can count yourself as a really trusted friend!) I think that Leda has inherited this love of books from me. I don't know how many nights we have gone into her room just before we go to bed to check on her and have found every single book in her room in bed with her! Tucked in under the sheets. In her pillowcase with her pillow - so many of them that she can't even use the pillow because it is surrounded by her books!* I've taken Leda to bookstores since she was a baby. I love taking her to the bookstore - she get

I did a few things this morning that I haven't done in a really long time...1) I went to a movie. A real live movie, in a real live movie theater, one that smelled like buttered popcorn (do theaters smell like anything but?). 2) I went alone. Yesterday I decided that I needed to go see a movie and since there was no babysitter lined up, I told Brock I was going to take off for a few hours and go see a movie by myself. Hey, he gets to go racing next weekend, I deserve a few hours of fun myself. And there's only one movie I have been dying to see. And I really wanted to see it on the big screen (and not my tv!) So I went to see Sex and the City . And it was a great time! I've never been to a movie so darn early in the day - I went to a 9:10 AM showing. I was the only one in the theater. That was SO cool! I had it all to myself. It was awesome. The movie, well, I loved it. I had one little issue with it, but it really wasn't enough for me to not love the movie. I kinda wis

Dooce has a post about little sisters. It's funny. Really funny. On many levels. Sorry to all the little sisters (especially my own!) but, it made me giggle. Okay, it made me laugh loudly! Thank goodness I work from home!

For those of you reading who actually went to band camp with me, I am not spilling secrets, so calm down! ;-) No, instead, I am referencing a quote from the movie American Pie - the one the Michele character started every story she told with. I was trying to find a clip of it but I couldn't find anything that was at least PG rated, so if you don't know what I am talking about, sorry! Any way, I reference this quote because my daughter, she is so channeling this character!! Every time she starts to tell us something, like what she did at school or what she did down the shore or any story, it so sounds like "This one time, at band camp..." I swear, she has even started stories with "This one time..." Of course, she hasn't been to band camp - yet! It's really kinda funny. There is a small part of me that cringes a little though, because I was like this in high school....oh heck, I'm like this now...and I know it must be pretty annoying to my friend

If you want to know the goings on down the Jersey Shore, check out this site: Down The Shore with Jen Jen also wrote a travel book on the South Jersey shore areas. I almost picked one up in the bookstore in Stone Harbor last week. I just found out today she linked to my story about our trip down the beach. Thanks Jen!

This morning, watching the Today Show with Leda. Matt and Meridith are on the screen. Leda: I like the boy. Me: You do? Why? Leda: I like boys! Is three too early to start liking boys???? Boy are we in trouble!

How I was able to pick 155 pictures out of the over 1000 I took, I haven't a clue! Yes, I LOVE my digital camera! I've some stories I will tell with them, but in the meantime, click here to see our summer vacation!

When a vacation comes to an end, it really SUCKS! Especially when your vacation totally ROCKED! I have like six BILLION photos to sort through and load on up to the Internets. Lots of great shots of both the girls on the beach, in the pool, at the zoo, on the boardwalk, fishing on the boat. We did a lot last week. We had the BEST weather EVER - if it rained, it rained at night when we were sleeping. Well, except for the rain that started at the EXACT moment the fireworks were being set off on Friday night! Well, at least it wasn't a total downpour, the fireworks went off and we made it down the beach in time for most of them! I did think about writing up little notes on what we did all week long, but I ended up not doing that. I did turn on the computer and I did check email occasionally, but for the most part, I decided it was a good week to stay away from the computer and the Internets! I only got one and a half books read, but that was because there was so much to do! We went to