Voyages in Parenthood

Brock and I got the opportunity to experience an event yesterday that I am so proud to have attended. A friend of ours, our Best Man in fact, John, was offered tickets to the West Point Graduation. President Obama was going to be giving the commencement speech. So he contacted us and our other good friends, Kate and Evan, to join he and his wife, Eileen. So we asked the Durhams if they could watch Leda until Sat night and we headed north on Friday night. Due to the large number of people who were going to be descending upon the small town of Highland Falls and the security due to the President's attendance, we needed to arrive in town early...this meant leaving the house by 5:15. AM. In the morning. So we got up REALLY early and headed on over. John's plan was to park at his place of business (John runs the West Point Tour company in the town of Highland Falls), we would have a bit of breakfast at the local greasy spoon (oh, and it was greasy, and GOOD!) and then take a nice wa...

I have been thinking of our neighbor Mrs. Jean this week, mainly because the cherry tree is blossoming and she loved the cherry tree that stands between our two homes. And the flowers are blooming and Jean had a lovely garden. Her daughter reminded me that it has been a year ago this week that she passed. I am grateful that my memories of her are associated with Spring and rebirth. She was such a lovely lady who deserves to be remembered with joy. And when the cherries are ripe, we will pick some of them (and leave some for the birds) and make something delicious to eat and invite Mr. George over to join us!

Just for Grandma...pictures of Leda in her new outfit she got for Easter...oh and some funny sunglasses she got for Halloween! She was just so darn cute in the glasses!

What a weekend. It was absolutely gorgeous. Saturday we attended our annual Easter Egg hunt and dinner at the Shier's...a large group of friends and kids and good food and just an awesome time. The kids just enjoyed the heck out of the hunt! Later in the evening, as we sat around the table chatting, Paige came in to tell me that Leda kissed Nathan! Oh really, I said. So I informed Nathan's dad Jim of this little development and proceeded to ask Leda "Where did you kiss Nathan," wondering if it was on the lips or on the cheek. Leda proceeded to walk me out to the patio and pointed to a chair on which Nathan was sitting, "Right there, Mommy." Right, the physical location of the kiss, not the body part that was kissed! Turns out she had kissed Nathan on the lips. Nathan was looking pretty proud of himself. It proceeded to happen three more times, each time either Paige or Leda let me know about it! Then Leda came up to me and told me she had a secret to tell me...

That's what I feel like I am...underwater! I was doing well until Monday afternoon and even a little on Tuesday but then the stuff hit the fan... Work is a bit busy at the moment (not totally a bad thing, just making me crazy!) so I haven't had much of a chance to take pictures or update the blog or even enjoy the sun that made a reappearance yesterday after several days missing! I'm hoping that after the weekend, things will be a little more normal, at least for a little while. I unfortunately have to work on Saturday, but hopefully can go enjoy the egg hunt on Saturday afternoon and a nice dinner with friends! I'm really looking forward to a weekend at the shore house with the Durham's next week! I don't even care that we are doing work around the house! ;-)

...don't inspire for good pictures. That and a very busy two days of work make me cranky and not interested in blogging. So, no picture taken today... Instead, have I told you how much my kid loves sushi? And not that fake sushi roll stuff her mother eats either...nope, she likes the real stuff. On our way home from Grandpa's house a few weeks back, we stopped at our local Wegman's to see what we could find for dinner. They actually have a sushi bar there...a real working sushi bar with real sushi chefs who will make it while you wait! So we stopped there and Leda pointed out what she wanted...salmon sushi - you know, with the big piece of salmon lying on the pod of rice? Yep, and a salmon roll along with it. That's what she wanted. So we got that home and she dug in...except she really didn't care to eat the rice along with the salmon, just the salmon. Yes, she is her father's daughter!

With Brock off playing with race cars this weekend, it was just me and Leda. We had a few things planned for the weekend, to keep us busy. First off was getting dinner on Friday night and since I had to work on Friday and didn't feel like figuring out what to have for dinner, we headed off for dinner at McDonald's. Yes, bad mother that I am, I fed the kid fast food! Good thing it's always treated as a special treat and doesn't happen very often! We got home and made popcorn and sat down to watch Where the Wild Things Are . We were really looking forward to seeing this movie as it is one of Leda's favorite books. It wasn't a bad movie, just depressing. Not as uplifting as I hoped. And both of us were in tears by the end. It is hard to comfort your kid when you are crying as well! [Spoiler ahead] I tried to explain to Leda, who was almost as uncontrollably upset as she was when she watched Marley with us, that it was a happy ending, that Max got to go home to his ...

These are my office mates: I love the laughing Buddha. He makes me happy. I have these two sitting on my desk, just next to my computer. I think I was hoping they would make me happy while I am trying to fix some customer issues....sometimes it works, other times, not so much! ;-) I have two other Buddhas sharing my office, big enough that they can't fit on my desk. I would love more. Like I said, they make me happy. And who doesn't wanna be happy on a Friday! Awesome!

Day three of the take-a-picture-every-day and I've already Failed! Due to work, I haven't had a chance to take a picture yet today. Oh well. Best intentions. I could take a photo of my office, but I'd rather not see that picture, I spend enough time in my office! So, instead, how about a picture of a recent visitor we had in our yard. This lady came for a visit the day before we got hit with our first 18 inches or so of snow in February. She was just sitting in the tree outside my office window so I grabbed the camera and went outside to grab a few photos. There were some nasty crows hounding her, they finally scared her off. I am pretty sure she's been hanging around our neck of the woods for a few months, maybe even a year now. We catch sight of hawks every once in awhile, but you hear them more often than see them! She was a beauty.

Today is picture day at school. Hopefully she smiles for the photographer. Because she was not smiling for me this morning. She's wearing her Easter outfit for the picture. It's the dress she picked out all on her own. I wanted her to wear something else, a little more colorful than white and pink, but the skirt I bought her to wear is too big! I couldn't win! Had to let her wear the Easter outfit. She was thrilled (even though the look on her face doesn't portray that!)

I'm having a bit of writer's block. Bear with me! I downloaded a bunch of photos from my camera and realized that I hadn't done that in over a month! Also, I didn't take any photos in January! I've been bad about taking photos in the past year. I'm not sure why. I've tried to make a resolution (not for new years, just an every day resolution) to take a picture a day (at least) in the past and wasn't really good at keeping it! I'm renewing that today. I think I am trying to get myself out of the winter funk that I tend to get into just about every winter...the weather is getting warmer, the sun is getting brighter (when it is out). I'm going to do my part to try and come out of hibernation and rejoin the world. I'll try to do that with words, but if words fail, hopefully a picture will do. And maybe that will get me updating the blog more regularly and taking more pictures! So, Picture of the Day: Leda!

Leda is very into spelling things out on paper...she will ask you to spell something and she will write it out on paper. Salt Watch Robot Wood Metal Family Mommy Daddy She will ask for the names of her friends, her cousins, her family members. We oblige either by spelling it out or writing it down on post-its. She has drawn pictures and then wrote out 'Happy Birthday' or 'I love the family' or a description of the picture. She will write out things she sees on books, cereal boxes, TV. She started doing this about three or so weeks ago. She can't seem to get enough words. She's gotten to the point where she knows some words now, she doesn't need to ask us to spell them. Tonight, she made a 'magazine' that she is going to give to her Grandpa. Makes me wonder, with writers and magazine editors in her family, is this a sign of what she will become? She loves to tell stories with pictures and words. It's amazing.

Attending the Olympics is on my Bucket List. In fact, I would say it is at the very top. I would LOVE to go to an Olympic event (or two or three or as many as I can get tickets for!) I would LOVE to attend an Opening or Closing Ceremony. Part of me would be perfectly happy if I could just go to a city that is holding an Olympics and just hang out! Leda watched the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics with us last month - she fell asleep half way through but she put in a good effort. Since most of the events were after her bedtime, she didn't really watch much the rest of the two weeks, except some highlights with me or on the news. She saw the women's ice hockey team highlights and pointed and said, "Mommy, I want to do that." Just after were figure skating highlights which I pointed out to Leda suggesting that maybe she would like to do that, to which she responded, barely looking up, "No, I want to play hockey." On the last day of the Olympics, we wat...

Oh my what a winter this has been. We've received more snow this winter than any winter on record (that according to the record keeping people). In all honesty, it has felt like we have received more snow than any other place on earth! Okay, I have been known to exaggerate! It all started the weekend before Christmas. We got about 18 inches or so that day. It was kinda awesome, because it was over the weekend and we got to play. And I went shopping on Sunday with 1 other person! It was pretty awesome. All that snow was pretty non-existent on Christmas, but it was nice to have the snow. After that, little nuisance snows here and there. Nothing that accumulated or anything that needed to be shoveled. In fact, thought we pretty much dodged the bullet, which was kind of a bummer, as I really wanted it to snow good! And then came February! February 6th we got about 18 inches of snow. On a Saturday, so I got to play! When it snows during the week, working from home, I don't get the d...

Leda has been very prolific artist the past year or so. It used to be that when she wanted something drawn on paper, or made with play doh, she made Brock and I do it - she would tell us what to draw, and we would draw it. But since she started preschool last year, she's produced an abundance of art work. And not just what they make at school, she has used at least a ream of paper from my office to create her drawings or paintings. There is not enough space on our refrigerator or on the walls of the kitchen or my office door or her bedroom door for all the artwork. And these include pages that she has ripped out of coloring books and colored. She has even made drawings for her friends and loves stuffing them in envelopes and asking us to put a stamp on it and mail it! She is very creative. She has made drawings that describe everything she's done in a day - almost like story boards or comic books. I have kept just about everything she's drawn - I just don't have the spa...

I've decided to publish my blog as a book (or series of books) for Leda to read when she is a little older. So I spent some time on Friday night 'slurping' my blog with Blurb and reviewing the first couple of months of posts. The idea to publish the blog has been rolling around in this head of mine for awhile. I think Brock and I saw something on the news about it or something in the past couple of months. And then I registered Leda for Kindergarten last week and they handed me a questionnaire to fill out and return when Leda goes back for her testing for placement. Some of the questions asked when she first spoke, first walked, etc. I thought to myself, I'm going to have to go back and read through my blog to find out these things! This is the only 'baby' book I really kept on Leda - except for the first few months when I actually did fill out the baby book I got for my shower! This was easier - I could put it down in my own words and share it with family and ...