Voyages in Parenthood

...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 ...

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 ...