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!

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!

I've got some cute pictures of Leda taken in the past week. Okay, so I have one or two pictures of Leda taken in the last couple of weeks! I've just been really bad about using the camera these days! I have no idea where she learned this. Really...neither Brock nor I sit like this. I don't remember ever seeing anyone sit like this. She will lounge there like this while watching a little TV (it only lasts for a minute or two, because she really doesn't watch that much TV!) This one I took tonight. We had our next door neighbor's mother over for dinner and Leda was showing off. She emptied this basket of all her toys that are normally stored therein and sat in it. Cute, huh? We did have fun over the past weekend. My friend Kim (Hi Kim! She comes here all the time to read, but never comments!) was in town for the weekend so we headed over to the Durhams for a visit with her and her boys, Ian and Sean. Ian and Sean had fun tossing the football, playing on the swing and ...

Muttley was the dog's name...from Dastardly and Muttley. It was gonna drive me crazy if Brock hadn't figured it out!

Cowboys draw line, reportedly fining T.O. what was that cartoon dog's name.. the one that had that great laugh - he'd always snicker behind the main character's back when something bad would happen. I thought it was a character from one of the Banana Splits show or Rocky and Bullwinkle... I can't think of the dog's name or the cartoon he's from, but I can hear his snickering laugh in my head as I saw the headline and read the article above! Anyone ever tell Dallas that a leopard can never change his spots?? Duh!