Voyages in Parenthood

Yeah, Yeah, I know, I was gonna try and update the blog on a more regular basis. Oh well, best intentions and all. I have to admit, with Facebook and the advent of updating everyone in 140 characters or less (albeit, Facebook allows a few more than 140 characters), it's hard to come up with something more substantial for the blog. I've not given up on it yet. Maybe as the days get shorter and cooler, I'll have more to say. In any case, here's an update! A little send off to Summer 09! Brock and Leda and I (and Duff) headed down to Avalon this past weekend to have on last beach hurrah...or as Leda has taken to calling, our goodbye to Beach World until next year. It also happened to be our 11th wedding anniversary, so we made a celebration out of it. We headed down on Friday after Leda's school let out and got down to the house and out to the beach by about 3:30ish. The day was a bit overcast, with the sun peaking through more often than not, a little on the cool side...

So, I'm filling up the bathtub for Leda's bath and she and I are having a discussion about how much water we will be filling said bathtub with - Leda believes it should be filled almost to the top, leaving an inch or two from the edge of the tub. Whereas I, being the conservator of water that I am, have told her that we won't be filling it that high! Leda looks at me, and in all seriousness says to me, "Remember what Grandma says, always do what you want to do!" I asked Leda when Grandma told her this little gem of advice and she told me it was when we were visiting her in May. Leda seems to think that this statement means she can do whatever she wants to do and if she wants to have the bathtub filled to the top, well, Grandma said so! So, what did I tell Leda, as I turned off the water at the point at which I wanted it filled? "Guess what? Grandma isn't here...and Mommy trumps Grandma!" Sorry Mom! ;-)

I know that when she actually is 15, I'm going to be wishing for these days when she 'acts' like a teenager. I know. I know. But when you say something to your 4 year old daughter and she turns to her babysitter (who actually is 15) and rolls her eyes and shakes her head with teenager attitude as if to say, "geez, is my mother ever so uncool? Like duh!" I just shudder with fear of what she really will be at 15! And how uncool I will end up being! And dudes, I can be pretty darn cool...really! Oh, shut up!

What an excellent week we had last week as we spent the whole week down the Jersey Shore with our friends the Durham's (Jennifer, John and Paige) and Jennifer's brother, Steve (AKA Uncle Beek), and the family dogs, Duff, Max and Ruby! Vacation started nice and early on Saturday morning, finalized the packing of the car and all three humans and one dog loaded up and off we went in hopes to make it down to Avalon by about 9 am to do the grocery shopping and get to the house by 10 am. We didn't do too bad, we made it to the house by 10:30 am. We got our unpacking done and putting the groceries away and by the time we were done, the Durham's arrived. We got them unpacked, the tent up in the backyard (where Uncle Beek got to sleep so he could be unmolested by the three dogs in the living room!) and after a quick bite for lunch (and off to Kohler's to put in our donut order for Sunday morning), we were off to the beach! Wow, we NEVER get to the beach on Saturday! The beac...

It's been over a month since my last post! I've never gone so long! Since facebook came along, I've ignored updating the blog. I'd actually thought about closing it up, but not really sure I want to do that just yet. I'm working on a post about our week down the Jersey Shore last week. Complete with pictures! I'll post that later today or tomorrow. After that, I think I will start posting a little more, maybe twice a week....see if I can get back that blogging vibe!

Life is going good around here. So good, I just can't find the time to post to my blog! So here's some snippets of our life lately. Weekend before last we headed up to Grandpa and Nana Yates' house for the weekend. We saw Nana Pam, Grandpa, Nana Rose, Aunt Stacy and Uncle Todd! And Miss Stephanie stopped by for a chat and Missy did too! We swam and played and had lots of fun. Leda told me "I love you, even when you're cranky." It was a great weekend. Drawing with Grandpa: We went and saw fireworks and a band play music in downtown Phoenixville for First Friday/Independence Day. It was lots of fun and the fireworks were awesome, even if some buildings were in the way. I mean, how can fireworks not be good while the band plays "Free Bird" (very well, I might add) behind you! It was great. We spent 4th of July with the Aunt Jennifer, Uncle John, Aunt Karen, Uncle Chris and Paige at the Durhams. Lots of swimming and good food and good friends. And a fine...

I know, no posting = bad blogger. But it's been raining here for 40 days and 40 nights most of the month and we've seen the sun so rarely I believe that I am suffering Seasonal Affective Disorder in JUNE! Besides that, we really haven't done anything fun since I last posted, except for this past Saturday night when we went to the Jimmy Buffett concert! That was a blast and a half! Leda stayed the night with Paige so Brock and I had the evening to ourselves, didn't have to worry about getting home to relieve the babysitter, so we even stopped on the way home for a beer. At a bar. A real beer in a real bar. Exciting stuff! The weather people keep telling us that the weather pattern will be changing soon. Which means we will go from REALLY WET to REALLY HOT and feeling WET (humid). Well, at least everything is green (of course, most of it is moss and mildew!) so things look pretty! My garden has exploded, so I apparently planted well for monsoon season. I'm thinking, ...

DISCLAIMER: If you haven't seen Marley and Me and have no idea what the movie is about and plan to see it in the future, please don't read any further. There are spoilers! So Friday night, after dinner, Leda asked if we could watch a movie. We said, sure, let's see what is available On Demand...Look, Marley and Me is available and we haven't seen it yet, would you like to see that. Leda would LOVE to see the movie of the book she got for Christmas (only her Marley book from Christmas isn't quite the same as the book the movie is actually based on, but what the hay, it's a PG movie, doesn't look to be too bad and isn't a movie that Brock and I have seen a billion times already! Here's the first failure of the night. I read the book the movie is based on (it's is a good book, I recommend it!) so I am quite aware of what happens at the end of the movie. Not even thinking that this is a bad idea! That was the first failure! Anyhoo, we get the movie s...

What a weekend. It was a lovely one here. Not humid, but warm and sunny. Perfect, really for the weekend we had. I woke up Saturday morning needing to get some work out of the way and after I did, I relaxed by tending to my garden and reading a book. We then got ourselves showered and dressed and off to the barn we went to join the Durhams in helping Ms Virginia with her post and rail fence - the boys dug the holes (well, they had already been dug mostly, they dug what they needed to to get the posts in) and centered and leveled the posts and the girls put the rails in. The little girls hung out around the barn and with Ms Virginia's puppy and were very good! After we finished up what we could there, we loaded up Ms Virginia's tractor and took it over to the Durhams to dig holes over there! As the boys were playing with the tractor and digging the holes, the little girls were playing on the playground and in the field with the dogs until they apparently got tired and headed up ...

When Brock told me that he booked Daytona for the 2009 One Lap, I instantly knew I was gonna wanna go there! It's been 5 years since I had attended any One Lap event and I had been itchin' to get back out to South Bend to see some friends I hadn't seen in quite some time. But a 9 hour car ride by myself with a 4 year old (or an 1 year old, 2 year old or 3 year old) wasn't what I thought would be an "awesome" road trip! Love my kid, but 9 hours in a car all alone with her was probably just the ticket to throw me over the edge of insanity! So, I contacted my Mom who lives 1 1/2 hours from the track and planned a week long trip with Leda - two-fold, Leda got to spend a week with her Grandma and Granddaddy and we all got to spend a day at Daytona hanging out with the One Lap. Oh, yeah, and maybe there might be a ride around the track thrown in there somewhere! That was the plan, and it executed perfectly. Leda and I flew down to Florida on Saturday, the start of t...

May really snuck up on us and slapped us upside the back of our heads! One Lap and a trip to FL in the same week really messed us up. We weren't prepared for the Dogwood Festival to be here last week! The past two years we have gone with the Flogaus's but this year, the Flogaus's and the Yates's had different plans...the kids got to stay home and the parents went out to dinner and a show. No festival, but man, was it good. A few weeks or so ago, on a family outing (meaning we had the kids with us), we got to discussing Spinal Tap , which lead to a discussion of Mighty Wind and then a light bulb went off, hey, weren't those guys touring and weren't they going to be playing at the Keswick (Brock's and my favorite venue!)? And would we all love to go? So tickets were purchased and reservations for dinner were made and a babysitter was procured and off we went to see Shearer, Guest and McKean play in their Unwigged and Unplugged tour and man, it was good! Side ...

Okay, trying to catch up with some stuff, then hopefully I can get back to normalcy around here! So, I've posted some new pictures to flickr! Leda and I went on her school trip to a local farm - the Milky Way Farm . We had a blast. It was really interesting. I think the parents got more out of it than the kids did, but it was fun and ended with some fresh made ice cream from the farm creamery while taking a hay ride! Lots of fun! For Leda's birthday, we took an afternoon off a few days prior to the big day and took her to Adventure Aquarium (formerly the Camden Aquarium). Another fun day! We saw lots of fish, some sharks, got to pet sharks and rays and starfish, saw penguins and seals and HIPPOS! It was a lot of fun and Leda really enjoyed it. Especially the mango water ice at the end! So, now that I am caught up on April photos, I'll catch up later with a post about our trip to Florida and our lap(s) around Daytona International Speedway with Daddy! Awesome!! Stay tuned! C...

Yes, I do believe that was an echo. Boy have I been a horrible blogger. This month has just smacked me upside the head and rolled over me on the way out of town! Yes, a child in the house turned four. And I missed blogging it. But my excuses are many...and I think they are quite good. I had the install from hell which had me traveling to NJ three times in the two weeks prior to her birthday. Not to mention a ton of work in the office. Kind of work that makes you want to through the computer out the freakin' window when you are done. No, I didn't, instead, personal computing took a way back seat! I think I twittered a few times and posted a status or two on facebook. Then there was the birthday party. And the planning, and the cleaning, and the cooking and the baking. Not to mention the cupcakes I had to make for Leda's school birthday party. First time I've ever made cupcakes...and I made two different types of cupcakes AND two different kinds of icing within 3 days! (t...

This week has been tough. Work is crazy (just a lot of work to get done and an on site on Friday!), we had the memorial service yesterday, Brock is working today and tomorrow, which means I am single parent for two days, including a nursery school field trip to a local farm tomorrow morning. Not to mention the not sleeping well (snoring husband, obnoxiously loud cat who apparently finds pleasure in meowing VERY LOUDLY at 5 o'clock in the morning) and the early morning that the kid thrust onto me this morning (5:30..."I can't sleep. It's time to get up." Who the heck's kid is this anyway????) But as I sit here trying to figure out how I am going to keep my brain working enough so I can watch LOST tonight (I have my priorities straight!), I am listening to my almost 4 year old (FOUR!! Oh.My.God!) playing in the bathtub and I smile and think, there's nothing I would trade for this. NOTHING. Would.Not.Have.It.Any.Other.Way. Nope. (Well, I might trade the cat f...

What a busy Easter weekend we had. Saturday we headed over to the Durhams for a mini-Easter Egg hunt with Paige and Sydney and a nice casual dinner. Saturday night the Easter Bunny visited and dropped off some candy, some presents and decorated our table with the eggs we decorated the previous night! Sunday morning, Leda walked out and practically missed the fun stuff she received from the Easter Bunny. But she finally saw everything and played with the fairies and ate some jelly beans and even had an egg or two along with the bacon Daddy made for breakfast! The rest of the weekend was spent planting some seeds for the garden (this year, we are going with flowers, herbs and hot peppers!) and prepping the garden for fertilizer next week and MAYBE some plantings! Oh, and reading. I actually read a book yesterday. A whole book. Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Great story, and, according to the book sleeve, that's all I am really allowed to say. I don't want to spoil the plot! Tomorrow...

Tonight saw a very successful night of decorating Easter eggs. I even let go and let Leda do it her way! This year I bought her little rollers to paint on the dye. I told her she could use different colors on the same egg, but she stuck with one color per egg! Daddy didn't... Mommy stuck to the old fashion way of decorating eggs...a dye pill and some water (and a little vinegar for some of the lighter colors)... We had fun! And we have a beautiful crop of Easter Eggs for the Easter Bunny on Sunday! We are ready for Easter! Click here for a few more pictures!

It's a good thing your blog can't be seized by 'blog services' and fostered by much better blog parents. Because this here blog, it would be in foster care faster than I could blink. I am going to try and do better, I promise. I had a good start before strep invaded our home. It's bad enough it attacked my kid, thank goodness it stopped with her! At least, I hope it's not lurking!! She was a totally different kid after 48 hours of pure hell. Brock came home to a kid who looked and acted like she had absolutely nothing wrong with her. So he totally missed out on all the fun and owes me big! ;-) I got to go see an awesome band on Friday night in town with a friend - Gaelic Storm . I highly recommend! It was a total riot and the music was awesome. Second best Irish band ever (after Rathkeltair , of course! ;-) Saturday night we watched Villanova lose to UNC. It was heartbreaking, but what an awesome run they had. I really could care less about basketball - except w...

Leda and I made it out yesterday to do a little shopping at Costco and Barnes & Noble. Kid was feeling ten times better and Mama was calm. Not necessarily less tired, but definitely calmer. So on our way to B&N, we are stopped at a light next to one of these gas stations: Leda says to me, "Mommy, I know what that says," and I said, "Oh yeah?" and she says... "Yeah, it says L U K Drop 1 L" I almost missed the light turning green, that was so darn cute. And really good! Maybe not exactly correct, but very good! I explained to her that the drop was representing an O and the 1 was actually an I. She said "Oh." And was onto the next thing. Like how may books she was going to get at the book store!

Well, I should learn never to plan ahead. Because, most likely, those plans are gonna get messed with! I had the whole weekend figured out - Brock leaves Friday morning, I pick Leda up at daycare in the evening, we have Chinese and watch a movie OnDemand. Then all the plans for Saturday - girls lunch, shopping, etc. And on Sunday, a little planting and cleaning up outside. Thursday night - no, make that Friday morning at 2:30 AM, those plans began to crumble. Leda woke up and was really hot. Took her temp and looked to be about 101 degrees. So I gave her a little Motrin and back into bed. Seemed fine in the morning, but didn't really eat any breakfast, but didn't complain about not feeling well and her temp was normal. So off to daycare Brock took her before heading out of town. Two hours later, daycare calls - kid's spiked the temp again, can you come get her. Also, complaining about a sore throat. Not sure if it's possibly chicken pox (which a kid in her nursery schoo...

Toward the end of dinner, which Leda ate EVERY LAST BITE of, Leda looks over at Daddy's plate, which had the leftover of the second piece of fish he took to eat and told him that she ate good and that he needed to finish everything on his plate. In an attempt to 'correct' her, Daddy explained that he went back for seconds, he had already eaten a full course of dinner and didn't really need to finish what was left on his plate. Leda replied, "We (meaning her and I) are right, you are wrong, Daddy." And I thought she wouldn't figure out men so early in life! ;-)

Well, this might be the format/picture/colors you get to deal with for the next few months - this is looking like it's gonna be the 'Spring' look to this blog! I've still a bit of work to do on it, like add my links back in, but it's pretty much what it's gonna look like for a little while! Hope you like it! (being that my Mom and my sister and my sister-in-law are are 3 of my 4 or 5 regular readers and my Mom has already piped in her vote, I've got about 20-25% approval already!) It's a bit of a rainy day here. I had some posts in mind, at least one I thought I would get done tonight, but now, with the rain, my brain is again on post strike. Hoping that with a nice sunny day, I might be able to bring this site back to life! In the meantime, this is what you get...a preview of our upcoming weekend... Leda and I are going to have a girls weekend since Daddy's off to play with cars this weekend. This was Leda's request of me this morning for us to ...

It might be time for a little sprucing up of the site. Hey, even if I am not here as often as I would like, I still want my space on the internets to look good! So, don't be surprised if the site looks a bit different from day to day! Or hour to hour. I'm gonna experiment! Maybe. Or maybe not. We'll see!

I was in the kitchen this afternoon when Brock walked in and pulled Leda's lip gloss out of his pocket. Aunt Jennifer had purchased the lip gloss for her when we were up in the Poconos yesterday. He proceeded to tell me the story about how he had ended up with the lip gloss. Leda had been playing with the next-door neighbors and they invited her in for some cake for a birthday they were throwing for their friend Lorraine*. Brock went over to get her and witnessed her telling Lorraine that she hadn't a present for her, she didn't know she would be coming to a birthday party. But she had her lip gloss in her pocket so she pulled it out and gave it to Lorraine as her present. Brock said that he spoke with Lorraine after and told her that the lip gloss was Leda's favorite. Lorraine gave Brock back the lip gloss to give back to Leda later. I hope she always is so giving and thoughtful of others. I really have no clue how she learned that. I'm in awe of my little, sweet g...

Hopefully this was the last snow storm of this winter...of course, this was over two weeks ago! Find the white dog!

Leda announced after dinner, "I learned a new song at school today." I was intrigued, "Can you sing me the song?" "No, it's a secret." "Why is it a secret?" "Because. And I can't tell you or else it won't be a secret anymore." Hate those loopholes. Oh, and happy 600th post to me! ;-)

If I could go back in time and have a visit with my 25 year-old self, there are LOTS of things I would tell her. First, I'd have her go back to our 19 year-old self and tell HER that there are some guys you dont't date more than once. But that's a WHOLE other post. One of the things I would tell her is you won't have to live paycheck to paycheck forever. I used to freak out about not having enough money. Not that I wasn't able to make it by week to week and still have a couple bucks to spend out with friends. But I worried constantly about the unknown...you know, medical, dental and eyes, not to mention anything that might go wrong with my car! My 25 year-old self used to put off going to the doctor, dentist and eye doctor. I know, horrible, right. But when you don't have money in the bank, unless you are in pain or dying, why spend what you don't have, right? That girl, back then, she stressed about that, praying that her teeth didn't fall out or her ey...

Cowboys Let T.O. Go! Okay, don't want to have a TOTALLY lame post, one that is purely spiteful and mean. We need one of these in the States . Preferably close to home! The kid could have as many Barbies as she wanted, as long as Mama can have a few glasses of wine! Awesome idea by Mattel!

Last night, on our way home from shopping (after ice skating lessons and dinner with Daddy), I had the radio on to the local classic rock station and Pure Prairie League's " Amie " came on. This is one of Brock's favorite songs, one which I have on the iPod and is part of a playlist entitled "Leda's Songs" because it also has the "UgaUga" song on it (also known as "Hooked On A Feeling"). So it's a familiar song! So, driving home, I'm singing along with the radio, as I am apt to do and at some point, I realize, I'm not the only one singing. Leda's singing along with the chorus. And not just humming, actually singing the words! In fact, when we got home, I had her go sing the chorus to Brock and she sang it just perfect! Awesome. I'm breaking out the U2 and Rolling Stones!

I've been missing my baby and her daddy for the past couple of days. They headed up to spend some time with Grandpa and Nana and I had to stay home and work. It's been quiet around here! Thank goodness they come home tomorrow! The kid is growing up fast. The past month she has started signing her name to everything. If she finds a pen and paper lying around, she signs her name. In fact, when we had to make 14 valentines cards for her preschool friends, she signed every single one! Wow. Blows me away! She was just a baby not too long ago! Each day they have called me. Leda has been talking to me on the phone - not just hello and thank you very much but I have things to do, but really talking to me. Telling me what they have been doing. Telling on Daddy! Yeah, so she calls me this afternoon - they spent the afternoon with Nana Rose and went to a kid's museum in the Rochester area. She gets me on the phone and she says, "Mommy, I have something to tell you," and I sa...

A blogger I read on a regular basis ( Blurbomat ) had a post this week entitled Why YouTube Was Invented . The ensuing comments brought out more stuff that could be evidence of why YouTube was invented, but I think this sample indicates how the notion that the white man can't dance came to be. Best evidence of this happens at about the 2:50 mark. I am also deeply scarred from watching this. I am not sure whether to laugh or cry. This may also be further evidence as to why disco died. Or, better yet, why it had to die.

Tonight was the start of Leda's ice skating lessons. There were several kids at her level or lower (meaning they've been on the ice once or never) and then there were several kids at a higher level (meaning that they were 3 feet-tall rockets on the ice...geez!) Leda wasn't going on the ice without me so I asked and the teacher said that was fine, so I went out with her. Basically tonight was learning to 'walk' on the ice and if you fall, how to get up on your feet again. Leda did well at the 'walking' although she spent the second half of the session hanging on to me more than doing it herself. She was doing great until she had fallen for the umpteenth time...the one time she fell and it hurt! She was fine, no damage, just a little scare, that, oh, maybe if I don't do this right, I might get hurt. There was more hanging on after that. But she did really good for the first 20 minutes. Then, her attention was all over the place, especially with the candy a...

Wow...two weeks without a posting...how could I ever stand to stay away for so long? Um, it's called mid-winter blahs mixed with writer's block. Bad combination. Seriously, I really should start to think about finding a house in the Caribbean that I can work from starting the beginning of January until the middle of March or so! So really hate these winter months. Anyway, it's been a crazy bunch of weeks here. Really not a lot happening, but when something is happening, it's a lot! Last weekend we took Leda ice skating for the first time. I've been ice skating a total of like 3 or 4 times in my life (and all in the second half of my life) and Brock hadn't been skating for, like, ever. So what do you think qualified US to take our almost 4 year old skating for the first time? Absolutely nothing! But we got her laced up, got ourselves laced up, went out onto the ice only to have to turn around and get off because by the time we got to the rink and got skates and g...

When we went on our trip to the Franklin Institute last weekend, Leda posed for pictures...very model like. Where the heck do they learn that? She is SO not allowed to sign up for Tyra Banks' show yet. Maybe for Cycle 35!

Sometimes, I swear, iTunes knows more than it should. Or is somehow programmed to know exactly what songs would be apropos. The Weight , The Band The Chain , Fleetwood Mac Crazy , Seal You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' , Righteous Brothers Terry's Song , Bruce Springsteen Scream , Seven Nations Grapefruit - Juicy Fruit , Jimmy Buffett Rattlesnake , Live Hot Cha , They Might Be Giants Pinch Me , Barenaked Ladies We had a pretty busy week here...Grandma and Granddaddy where here last weekend, Inauguration on Tuesday, Aunt Bet here for dinner last night. We are pretty tired and really looking forward to a relaxing weekend!

What a beautiful day on so many levels.