The Further Adventures of Oliver & Madeline

And so it begins!

2012-02-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

It's potty training time!!! Just like her big brother, Maddie is pushing three years old, and we're spending lots of time *talking about* using the potty, but not a lot of time actually doing it... Since Ollie enjoyed filling up his "Toidy Chart" (getting a sticker for each successful use), we thought we'd do the same for Maddie. She was VERY excited to find Thomas the Train stickers, and now she also loves the Peppa Pig stickers we found. Her FIRST EVER pee on the toilet was on Christmas Eve in Maine... it was after a bath, and I asked if she wanted to use the toidy, and she said yes!! Lots of smiles and high fives and encouragement followed, but it was a few weeks after Christmas before she went again. To date, she has 8 stickers on the chart, all from post-bath pees. We're getting there!!! I'm sure one day, just like Ollie, she'll announce that she wants to use the toilet, and that's that.

Addie's Princess Party

2012-02-12T06:53:00.001-08:00

One of Maddie's best friends, Addie, turned 3 right after Christmas, when lots of her friends were away and things were just too busy to have a party, so Carol and I plotted to have a little party for her in January. It had a princess theme, and since Maddie doesn't have a princess dress, she (happily) wore her bumblebee costume, and with a crown on she became a bumblebee princess. Ollie was the resident pirate, also very pleased with himself. Addie always LOVES an excuse to be a princess... we love you, Addie, and Happy Birthday!!!

Thumbs Up

2012-01-06T17:12:00.001-08:00

It's Friday morning, and Ollie's already excited about starting soccer again this afternoon... and I start to think about the "practical" side of it, what I need to gather so he'll be dressed for it and we'll be ready to go. Only then do I realize that he has no sneakers. So we left home this afternoon with an extra half hour or so on our hands to dash to Kohls and pray they had something that fit at a reasonable price. I was shocked to find most of the decent sneakers there were at least $45 (??!!), so when I found some at $32 that I didn't loathe, we went for it. These are his first ever shoes in a boys size 1... a bit step!! I think he has a bit of room to grow into them, thankfully... hoping they still fit him fine for spring soccer in several months. He had a great time today with Pre K Kickers, already can't wait for next week.

Girls' Night Out

2012-01-02T17:56:00.001-08:00

I had a fantastic night out with my friends Jen, Chloe and Tiffany a few days after Christmas - our 2nd Annual Girls' Night Out! We met at Badger's in Union, my old hometown... it was so nice driving through the town common and seeing the same decorations that have always been there - little pine trees scattered about, decorated with big colored lights. When the four of us get together, we just laugh and laugh, and we had EXTRA fun this time because we happened to be at Badger's on "Quiz Night,"which costs $2/person to enter if you choose to play, and winners get a cash prize. The restaurant was packed, and pretty much the whole place participated. Our team name was "Kick Ass on the Cutting Room Floor" (long story). There were 6 sets of 5 questions, and they were hard! However, we had Chloe on our team, so we were golden.... and we came in second place, only a point behind the winners, I think! Here's to next year, ladies!!

Wow, Some Family Shots!

2011-12-22T16:23:00.001-08:00

We met the nicest family at the Owl's Head Lighthouse today - 2 parents, maybe 5 kids, and 2 grandparents - the wife grew up in Rockland but they all live in Viginia Beach now. We took pictures of them with their camera, and they took pictures of us with ours. We should do this more often... there are so few photos of the 4 of us together!! I like Ollie's expression in the second photo - the sun was right in our eyes! The weather was gorgeous today; it was so nice to walk along the wooded path to the lighthouse, with beautiful ocean views the whole way there. After that we went into town and had lunch with mom and dad at the Rockland Cafe (yummy Maine shrimp!), then meandered down to the Farnsworth Museum to visit their wonderful Christmas toy train exhibit. Tomorrow is a big day - Aidan and Eli come!

Oh, How They Grow

2011-12-22T14:31:00.001-08:00

We had such a fun time at the "Moms Around the Lake" Christmas Party... the kids would barely stop playing long enough to eat two bites of food the whole time. Santa was a big hit, as usual... he brought Ollie a fantastic Lego robot, and Maddie a magnetic paper doll kit. We stayed with Carol, Ryan and Addie about a half hour after everyone else left, and the kids rode around the empty gym in the plasma car, danced on the stage, and just had a blast. When we got home, Ollie got busy with his new Lego kit... he's quickly becoming a pro!!!

December!!

2011-12-17T18:37:00.000-08:00

Way, way behind in my posts... just wanted to start this month off with a photo actually taken on December 1st, when we put up our fabulous advent calendar. It was Maddie's turn to go first (the angel ornament was in pocket 1; the soldier in pocket 2). When she took out the ornament, she said, "Oh, Mommy, it's a princess!!" So, our angel with forevermore be a "princess" (you can see her at the top of the tree in this photo). The kids were completely ecstatic over their Peppa Pig calendars; Ollie comes into our room every morning to ask what day it is so he can find the right number on the calendar and retrieve his tiny piece of chocolate. He helps Maddie find hers when she comes downstairs. Maddie has gotten a bit over-eager with the chocolates a few times, so I've had to secretly replace a few missing chocolates with Cadbury buttons. Believe it or not, we're even enjoying a fourth advent calendar this year -- the Jacqui Lawson London calendar -- every day reveals a new, fantastic animated event. Maddie always wants to see "Bem" (Big Ben), Covent Garden, the London Eye, and the "chimney" (where the elf sweeps chimneys so they're clean for Santa). Ollie loves that one as well, and he loves making snowflakes and decorating the tree. Happy, happy December.

Oliver Turns FIVE!!!!

2011-11-06T16:59:00.000-08:00

Oliver's birthday morning!! All the presents from the whole family were stacked on the kitchen table, along with several from his friends that we hadn't had time to open the day before. He had loads of fun opening everything up.... a few things he played with a LOT were his new Chuggington trains and track, his stacking robots, his dinosaur excacation kit, and his cherished new stuffed owl. Here's a photo of him with his goggles on, hammer and chisel in hand, slowly digging to reveal the encased bones of a T-Rex. He got several of different kinds of building sets -- Lego, Erector, K'nex -- we can't wait to start building with those. At bedtime, he was super excited to see his new glow in the dark solar system model. Now (a few days later) I can report that he has become a huge Lego fan... he was almost exploding with excitement as we built his new Lego firetruck, and has hardly stopped playing with it since.
After a late breakfast (bacon! eggs! toast!) and more playing, we finally headed out towards Kittatinny State Park with the "superbike" loaded and ready to roll. The weather was stunning, a perfect fall day. I had a great walk with Maddie to the airport at the end, where we met Andy and Ollie, resting on a park bench after their manly bike ride. We found some creative ways to include Owl in the bike ride, since Ollie couldn't be parted with him... first he was inside Ollie's shirt, which was snugly tucked in, but Ollie wanted Owl to be able to see where he was going. So we stuffed him into our camera bag and attached that to the bike with a carabiner clip - the winning solution! Happy boy, happy owl.
We had a quick stop at the grocery store on the way back, then headed to our new favorite restaurant, Alice's, for an early birthday dinner. Andy and I had yummy burgers, and the kids shared one (mammoth) portion of mac&cheese. After dinner, the waitress brought a big bowl of chocolate ice cream with a candle in it, and we all sang Happy Birthday to our glowing, blissed out boy.
So many times during the day, I would tell Ollie what Daddy and I were doing 5 years ago exactly.... how we hadn't met him yet, didn't even know if he was a boy or a girl, were heading to the hospital, was in labor and feeling super ouchy... and he was pretty curious about how he wasn't REALLY 5 until late that night. In fact, as I type this, it was about 16 minutes from now, at 10:56pm. We are blessed that you are ours, Ollie - you are the most lovely boy we have ever known.

THE OLIVER OLYMPICS!

2011-11-05T17:38:00.001-07:00

The big day finally arrived -- Oliver's birthday party!! It was really cool having his party on Saturday and his actual birthday Sunday -- a whole weekend of fun, ending with a super tired, super happy boy. When we began thinking about the party ages ago, Andy said it would be cool to have an "old fashioned party" where we planned (gasp!) PARTY GAMES! Like in the olden days, you know.... :-) So our brains started churning, and at some point I expanded the idea to become the "Oliver Olympics," knowing that the kids would get a kick out of winning gold medals if they or their team won a game. I found some cool decorations online, mainly some excellent long flag banners and cut-out paper Olympic rings, as well as the gold medals. Then we had to decide on the cake, and all the Olympic themes seemed really boring (a torch? rings? bleh), so when I looked through a cookbook for ideas and saw the cutest owl cupcakes, I showed them to Ollie and he said, "I want those!" A thematic departure, but we didn't care one bit. The last order of business was to plan the party games. We knew of some favorites off the top of our heads... musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey, a relay race... but for more good ideas I looked online and found lots of great ones. We narrowed it down to 10 games, though we didn't have time to actually do them all at the party! More on that later. I typed up a master plan, complete with assigned teams when needed (I actually pulled names out of a hat to do this, incapable of making these CRITICAL decisions on my own). The food at the party was definitely the weak link... we made mini sausage-rolls, our favorite English standby, and had loads of corn chips with guacamole, salsa, and hummus... and that's about it. Lame. I forgot to put out cheese sticks and chex mix for the kids (and hungry adults, for that matter). Although I must say, the party was at 2pm, a between-meals time.... and we did have cake! I made it the day before, a recipe I've used often, knowing we'd be too busy on the day of the party. Very pleased with the owls.
On to the party.... Ollie's eleven closest friends came (very sorry we couldn't invite ALL his friends, just not enough room!), along with younger siblings, so there were TWENTY kids here, including Ollie and Maddie. Moms and many dads as well, so a very big crowd indeed. Before I forget, thank you to EVERYONE for being so helpful... every time I turned around, someone was offering to help - setting up for games, tidying, rounding up the troops, passing out cake, etc. We're so grateful! So, the best way to describe the party is through the games - here goes!
1. ZOO RESCUE
Probably our most successful game... I had hidden (with some help, as I forgot to do this in time and had to finish after our first guests arrived) about 75 stuffed animals around the downstairs of the house and the front yard. I know what you're thinking: 75 stuffed animals?? I'm shocked as well. We don't "collect" stuffed animals by any means, but apparently, when you have 2 kids, these things just accumulate. Many are quite small, three or four inches long, but many others are as big as a standard-issue teddy bear. Our range is quite impressive, including a hedgehog, a little fox, a good number of singing birds, pigs of all sizes, a hermit crab, loads of lambs, and on and on. We divided the kids into two teams, gave everyone their own plastic bag for collecting, and explained that ALL these animals had escaped from the zoo and we needed them to hunt for them... the team that collected the most animals won the medals! So they all dashed out in every direction, gleefully hunting and stuffing their bags, and then returned to their team bases for the big count. It was close - the winning team found 39 animals, and the other team found 33. The only unfound animals were a couple stuck deep into the sofa, and one very small frog in a shoe in the hallway. Nice job!
2. BALLOON POP
For this game, we had blown up one balloon per child (plus a few, since I miscounted), each with a little folded piece of paper inside. All the papers were blank, except for one that said, "WIN!" After everyone had a balloon, we said "Go!" and they had to pop the balloons any way they wished, to see if they held the winning balloon. Well, I had no idea it could be so hard to pop balloons, when you're actually trying to! It was a hilarious, raucus free for all, with kids attempting to sit and jump on balloons (not an easy task, really), intermittent loud POPS!, and lots of excited shouting. Ollie kept batting at his balloon, sort of chasing it and punching it, not a very effective technique, but lots of fun to watch. Lowry had the winning balloon, and won the gold medal.
3. MUSICAL CHAIRS
All twelve big kids played this game, so we set up 12 chairs in a long line (we had removed the dining room table earlier to make space), each chair facing the opposite direction from the last. The kids walked and danced in a circle around them while Andy blasted Poker Face on nearby speakers. For the first round, everyone had a chair, but after that one chair was removed each time. I was worried there would be a lot of struggling for chairs and possibly hurt feelings, but the kids were just SUCH good sports. The best thing about this game was that the kids just had a blast with it, they weren't strategizing or lingering near chairs, they just pranced around and danced and were silly, and no one fussed when they got out. Our only regret was that we didn't do this game twice - it was just so fun. Claire, Brooke, and Harper were the last 3 standing (or sitting, as the case may be), then it was Claire and Harper, and Harper won by a nose - gold medal!!
4. FLAMINGO
It was an absolutely gorgeous day, so we thought it would be a good idea to get the crazy kids outside. Flamingo is a cute idea, but it didn't work with 5-year-olds... you divide into two teams, and one person from each team has to stand on one leg and try to keep their leg up longer than their opponent, while the other team tries any means (except touching the person) to get them to put their leg down. Your team gets a point if you held your leg up the longest. Eventually, everyone has a go and the team with the most points wins. So, the kids were too excited to really focus on who was on what team and who they should aim their attention at making fall, so we nipped this one in the bud. Onward!
5. COLD DAY RELAY RACE
Two teams again, and each team had a hat, mittens or gloves, and a scarf. The first two players have to put on their stuff, run all the way to the other end of the yard and touch one of the volunteer parents' hands, then run back and give all the gear to the next person in line, until each person on the team has gone. A pretty excellent game, though for some reason one team was a lot more motivated than the other!! Still, a pretty close race and really good fun.
CAKE BREAK!
We all headed back in and gradually made our way to the dining room, where all the kids sat in a circle and everyone sang the Happy Birthday song to Oliver as the cake came in. I'm not sure I've ever seen pure happiness displayed in human form as what I saw on Ollie's face then. So, so sweet. All the kids got owl cupcakes, and the big owl cake was cut up for the parents (and don't forget our fab neighbors, Steve and Maureen, who are lovely beyond words). Super happy we don't have a rug - crumbs everywhere, a quick sweep and they were gone.
6. PIN THE TAIL ON THE DONKEY
Andy was intent on making the donkey himself for this game, which I agreed to mainly because I couldn't find one to purchase that was bigger than about two feet across (lame!). My hesitation was in the logistics (not in his artistic prowess, of course!) -- primarily, how to construct a tail that would adhere to the paper/board. Problem solved when I found a huge piece of folded cardboard (sold for science fair displays, etc.) -- we could stick a pin in that! We made a little tail out of brown yarn and managed to get a pin to stay in it with glue. The kids really enjoyed it, and Oliver won! Not fair, really, as he got to practice a little bit... but Georgie came in a very close second.
7. PASS THE PARCEL
I hear this is a very traditional English game; you select a small gift (I chose an mini Simon game) and wrap it over and over and over again, layer after layer of wrapping paper. The kids sit in a circle and the music starts (this time it was Don't Go, by Yazoo) and the parcel gets passed until the music stops, and whoever is holding it gets to unwrap the first layer. This goes on (and on!), layer after layer, until the present is revealed. I think I wrapped about fifteen layers... the kids were great, really careful to open only one layer, though the excitement mounted with each layer! Congrats to Duncan, the big winner! His mom was just sooo excited to have a new noisy game to bring home (sorry!!!). :-)
So, we ran out of time and energy for the last three games... one was called Balloon Sandwich, a race played with balloons held between tummies or backs, no hands, and another was Sleeping Lions, where the kids lie on the floor and pretend they're asleep, getting eliminated if they move (would be good if this game lasted about a half hour, ha ha). The one I really missed, though, was the Plasma Car Time Trials, where we planned to set up cones in the dining room and time each kid as they completed two laps around the track on the plasma car. They all would have loved that, but we just ran out of steam. Oh, I can't forget the gift bags.... we gave each guest their own little stuffed owl, along with a few English chocolate treats and some extra gold medals. Great keepsakes from the famed Olympics/Owl birthday party! Planning and preparing for this party seemed a bit daunting at times, but in the end it was just so much fun (although I had almost no time for normal conversations with adults, which was a bummer) - and the kids were simply fantastic, honestly. Oliver, you were a star - gracious and fun - as always. We just love you beyond words. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Why I'm so proud to be Mrs. Hargreaves

2011-10-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

It takes a certain kind of man to be willing to wear an orange skintight crushed velvet minidress. With a neon orange wig. Andy is that guy, and the reason it's so great is that he's NOT the guy you'd expect to wear it. I love his silliness and his seriousness, and everything in between. We were dressing up for our friend Beth's annual Halloween party, and the theme this year was "Orange and Black," with the rules stating we should aim for 2/3 orange, 1/3 black. I went as a volcano - got loads of fabric and had a good concept, but it never would have worked if my good friend, Kathy, hadn't come through with a offer to share her sewing machine and excellent skills! We had so much fun putting it together, and it was SO fun to wear. Biggest compliment of the night: someone asked me if I had purchased the costume! Score! Mom went as Mother Nature and Dad went as "the guy who thought he was supposed to wear two turds orange and one turd black." Ha! Andy was the star of the night, though, soldiering on with his itchy wig and hoop skirt, possibly enjoying the silky, stretchy fabric of the dress a tiny bit *too* much. :-) Our young friend, Dory, babysat the kids, and when we got back to the house around 9:30pm, they were snug as bugs in their beds. Such a fun night!!

England 2011, Day 13: Last Big Day at the Hayfield House

2011-09-22T10:36:00.000-07:00

lazy morning, andy on the bike one last time, i took a shower, kids walked to town to the "sweet shop" with g&g, and we all went down to the cricket pitch to try out ollie's new boomerang (limited success)
drove to bakewell, strolled around and had pies and lovely pork sandwiches at the river
c, m and ollie decided to take the bus home for fun, the bakewell bus to new mills, quick stop to see uncle bill and maureen, another bus to hayfield.
andy and i and maddie strolled a bit more, had coffee and baby toto, then drove back, gorgeous outside, packed up a bit, walked to playpark, kids enjoyed giving their little kitty and owl keyring a push on the swing.

Back to (Pre)School!!!

2011-09-06T18:56:00.000-07:00

Ollie was pretty excited to get back to school today - he even forgot to feed his fish before we left! He'd been talking about how he wanted to wear his pirate costume, but that fell through... then on the drive to school, he was talking about how he was going to pretend to be a mouse, and squeak whenever anyone talked to him. I guess he's intent on making an impression. At any rate, when he got to school he just dashed off to play with his friends - no "Shiver me timbers!" or mouse noises. Here's a photo taken during the circle time "Get up and Dance" song. Each student has their own verse in the song, and during their verse, they go to the middle of the circle and dance. Let's just say Ollie has learned some pretty radical dance moves from his dad... he tore it up. Look at that smile!! His friends Kayla and Dylan are at their smiliest, too. After happy waves goodbye, Maddie and I had a girly trip to the mall, where I *finally* found a comfortable, moderately good looking pair of shoes to bring to England, and we got some gifts to bring with us for Tilly & Neesy. It rained hard all day today... a great day to spend in school with your friends!

The Best Laid Plans

2011-08-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

Andy just got back from a work trip to Argentina, and all week long on phone calls and skypes we talked about going camping over the weekend. Ollie was so excited! And it was Maddie's first time camping, so even though she didn't really know what was coming (foreshadow), she was an enthusiastic participant. On Friday night, Andy (just back from his 10-hour flight) and I made loads of lists... food to pack, food to pick up at the store, camping gear, bedding stuff, etc. So much stuff. On Saturday morning it took ages to get it all together, and we actually had to make some tough decisions and leave some things behind -- no coffee or hot cocoa in the morning = don't have to pack the mugs, cooking stove, pot, cafetiere (yes, we were going to bring one), etc. The car was more packed for one night of camping than for our 3-week visit to Maine recently. By about 11am we were finally on our way, with Andy behind the wheel saying something about how he used to camp for a whole weekend and just leave the house with a backpack. Harumph.
We found our site at Stokes State Forest, deep deep in the woods, a decent spot with woods separating our site from the others around. That was nice but overall there wasn't a lot of "charm" to this particular area of the campground. Between signs at the camp office, various brochures we'd been given with our welcome packet, and more signs at the campsite, we'd gotten overall about 734 warnings about bears, so that was cool. The kids were happy and bouncy and wonderful, helping with all the unloading and organizing and tent-making. The only big trauma was when Maddie fell off the steps of this stupid platform thing (some people put their tents on platforms, apparently), and fell sort of forwards on her head but with her body going the other way, that sort of horrible way kids fall sometimes where you think they're going to break their neck. A little bit of crying and she was fine, thankfully.
After we got the tent up and had a nice little lunch (grilled cheesedogs), we headed out in search of ice cream (but secretly to give Maddie nap time)... our plan worked, and they BOTH fell asleep in the car. We got some ice cream after they woke up, and then wove our way back to the campsite, by way of High Point State Park, which is right next to Stokes. We drove by a sweet little pond there, and Ollie couldn't resist stripping down to his undies and going for a swim. Maddie joined in, too, mostly to get her feet wet. Ollie swam and frolicked for a good half hour before some park rangers came driving by and stopped to tell us that this was a fishing lake, not a swimming lake. Whatever!! It was the best part of the day, regardless.
Back at our site, we noticed a lot of clouds coming in (more foreshadow). No matter! We got all the sleeping gear set up, and Andy grilled us some super yummy cheeseburgers. Just as we were starting to eat, the raindrops began to fall, and we started hearing distant thunder. Good timing, we thought! Have our dinner, get in the tent, no problem. By the time we all made a mad dash for the tent, it was coming down hard. We were chatting happily in the tent until we realized that it was NOT waterproof.... definite leaks. Hmmm, maybe it won't be too bad. But then there were more leaks. And we realized that we'd either have to endure a night of moist sleeplessness (with bashing rain and potential thunder and lightening), or throw in the towel and head home. We were fairly indecisive still, so we flipped a coin, 2 out of 3, and going home won out. Lady luck did well by us that night... it rained hard all night long, and for nearly 3 full days afterwards as well. When Andy and Ollie went back to our site the following day to pack up the tent and get the rest of our stuff, Andy said there was at least a gallon of water in the tent. We're getting a new tent now, so we should be all set next time, rain or shine. Anyway - it was an adventure, and we had fun, and that's what it's all about.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!!!

2011-08-05T04:29:00.000-07:00

Andy's not big on fanfare for his birthday, really, but the kids and I still wanted to do something special for him... so he came downstairs in the morning to a big bunch of balloons, a few presents, homemade scones with birthday candles, and a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday," during which Ollie's beaming smile pretty much outshone the candles. His most favorite present was an authentic NBC tshirt featuring Ron Swanson's Pyramid of Greatness; it really is something to behold. After that it was a regular workday for him (boo!), but he did manage to get home early and we all headed up to Lake Mohawk for an early dinner at Il Porto on the boardwalk. It was an absolutely gorgeous evening, warm and very breezy, but the kids were being rascals so we didn't linger afterwards. After they went to bed, Andy and I watched one of his favorite movies, Lost in Translation. A quiet birthday, but he says it was nice. :-) We love you so much, sweetie.

Soulshine Farm 2011

2011-08-03T17:19:00.001-07:00

One of our best finds this summer was Soulshine Farm, a tiny farm in Randolph that runs camps each summer and has (from what I can tell) a very devoted following! It's just two mornings a week for three hours, and in that time they do arts and crafts, farm/gardening stuff, and yoga!! We signed Ollie up for two separate weeks over the summer, and from the very first day, he just loved it to bits. Apparently the feeling was mutual; after his first day, the owner wrote me an email to say "When they made the term 'happy camper,' they must have been talking about a boy like Oliver. Thank you for sharing him with us!" So sweet. He already can't wait for "farm camp" next year. Maddie and I have been having loads of girly time, which probably isn't always awesome for her (I'm trying to get on the exercise bike at home a lot) - but other times we go to the playpark or run errands. Her favorite game right now is "I spy." She says, all in one breath, "LesplayIspyMummy, myturnnow, Ispysuffin......... pink!" Seriously cute.

A Big Week at Blueberry Cove

2011-07-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

(text to come)

Hotter Than the Hinges

2011-07-22T11:51:00.001-07:00

Today is Friday, and it's 95 degrees here in Maine... yes, in MAINE!! The "real feel," according to the Accuweather.com, is 98. On days like this it feels like it's literally impossible for it to be any hotter anywhere on Earth, but come to find out, it is currently 98 degrees back home in NJ, "real feel" 114. Good god! Andy is supposed to participate in the Lobster Ride and Roll here tomorrow, the full 100 mile route, and we're banking on the weather forecast suggesting it will be 10-15 degrees cooler than today... which is still NOT COOL ENOUGH for a comfortable ride. We'll see. We actually beat the heat for a bit today, getting out in the boat for a trip to Weskeag, which was gorgeous... I was so happy to discover that it really IS remarkably cooler out on the water than inland. Lovely and breezy, big swells on the water, air that's cooled by the cold, cold sea, seagulls swooping, even a couple of seals popping their heads out and going back under. We took the kids and met Carol, Maurice, and my mom at the 'Keag for crab rolls. Coming back into port was brutal - you hit a point where it just feels like you've opened up an oven door. On broil. I think this afternoon we might go and submerge ourselves in the water at Drift Inn Beach. For several hours.
(Postnote: we did this! Arrived at the beach exactly at high tide, waded in a bit, and Granddad Maurice was the first to take the plunge. It took me a few minutes more - it was super duper cold, and I screamed when I jumped in, but after a minute I got used to it and I just sat in water up to my neck. Definitely a high point to the day. Ollie was at my mom's house playing with his cousins, but Maddie had fun with us at the beach. I was only in for 30 or 40 minutes before we had to head home, but I think I could have stayed in for a couple of hours!)

Garden Tour

2011-07-11T17:54:00.001-07:00

We're finally all in Maine for our big summer holiday... and by "all" I mean the four of us, ALL FOUR grandparents (yay!), and Ian and Suz, Eli and Aidan. Two weeks of fun (and an extra week for me and the kids when Andy heads off on a trip and Carole and Maurice have to go home). The two weeks stretch generously out ahead of us, but we all know the time will fly by in a snap. On our very first full day here, Carole and I decided to join the entire Kahn clan for the famous "Garden Tour," which was slated this year for Union, Hope, and Appleton. What a great day out!! The kids stayed with Andy and Maurice back home, so it was an *extra* peaceful day for me. Our wonderful friend, Hillary, was with us as well, which added immensely to the happiness factor. The first photo is of her and Carole, chatting away in the summer sunshine. We had packed a great picnic lunch (my favorite was Dad's smoked salmon with cream cheese and diced red onion on crackers) which we ate at one of the garden spots, a home on Alfred Lake. That's Eli on the swing! It made me miss my summers on Crawford Lake. The last stop of the tour was the home of our old neighbors, David and Tracy, who live directly across from the house I grew up in, which my parents owned for 30 years, starting when I was two years old. In the nine or ten years since my parents sold the house, the most I've ever done was drive by it slowly a few times, gazing at it wistfully. Our house! It really was a member of our family, full of personality... it still shows up in my dreams, quite frequently. So on this day, I sat on the steps of our friends' house across the street, stared at the house and at the windows of my old room, and cried! I think it knows we love it so, even after all these years.

OUCH!!!

2011-06-23T09:02:00.001-07:00

Poor little Ollie. He was in the midst of one of those crazy-boy times, running around naked and not slowing down for anything or listening to a word I said. He and Maddie were playing in her room and I was down the hall in the bathroom brushing my teeth, when all of a sudden I heard him screaming, that sort of screaming that you *know* just isn't good. He runs into my room and he's bleeding at the very top of his boy-bits... apparently he had been climbing out of Maddie's crib, as he's done many times before, but perhaps never before without clothes on. His little bits must have gotten caught somehow.... oh he wasn't happy! Thank god Andy was working from home that morning -- we ran downstairs and he immediately determined they had to go to the ER together. Turns out he needed 3 stitches. He was very brave, as always, and made a big impression at the hospital; they gave him a special toy before he left, a very elaborate tool box that he was VERY pleased with. After some rest at home on the sofa, he ran around and played for the rest of the day as if nothing had happened. Now he has a story to tell forevermore... and he's pretty responsive when I ask him to put his underwear on.

Pirate Party -- Arrrrrrrrr!!!

2011-06-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

Ollie has really enjoyed his first 6 months at Elements of Learning, his preschool - which is great since he misses the "cut-off" for kindergarten and has another full year at EOL before he "graduates." He has loads of friends there, and he loves all the teachers as well. The owner and head-teacher, Miss Parul, along with all the other teachers worked hard to organize a great end-of-year party for the kids on the last day of school. Ollie had voted for a beach-themed party, but the votes for a pirate-theme won out, so that's what it was! He wasn't so keen on that at first, even after I found a pirate costume. But a few nights before the party, once Ollie and Maddie were in bed, Andy said he wanted to make Ollie a pirate's sword. We made it together, out of cardboard, loads of tape, 2 wooden chopsticks for strength, tinfoil, black electrical tape, and fantastic sparkley gemstones. We left it out for him to find in the morning, and he was SO happy with it!! He wanted to put on his entire costume right away. By the time the party came around, he was an eager participant. You can see that his good friend, Claire, was an excellent pirate as well, along with all the other kids at school.

I Love You More Today Than YESTERDAY!!

2011-06-10T14:01:00.001-07:00

Today is Andy and my 5th wedding anniversary! 5 years ago today, sweetie, it was a foggy and rainy day in Maine, but we could only smile. And it's true, I love you more every day. You are a man among men, and if anyone wonders how I know this is true, I might ask them: How many men do you know that love to cook dinners all weekend long? That get up on a Saturday morning at 6am to go on a 60-mile bike ride? That make a point of keeping in touch with old friends across the world from them? That like to make lists of things to accomplish over the weekend, rather than wait for "instructions" on what needs to be done? That iron their own shirts (beautifully)? That make life so much cooler for their kids (bat watching, camping, crazy dancing, the story of the Burning Bowl, "thinking about things")? That make their wife feel like a friend and a goddess, all at once? This is the short list of the many, many things I treasure in you.

I decided on a whim today that it would be fun to greet Andy -- just returning from a work trip to Germany -- in my wedding dress. I wasn't really going to, but when I mentioned it to Ollie, he said, "You should do it, Mommy!" So of course, I had to. It hangs in my closet on a hanger, unceremoniously, in a clear plastic zipper bag... I like it that way, because I get to see it every day! So out it came, on it went, until I realized that I couldn't zip it on my own, and Ollie couldn't manage either. While Maddie napped, Ollie and I trudged next door and rang Maureen's doorbell, and thankfully she was home! She got such a kick out of it, and (miracle of miracles), she managed to zip it! No room to spare, let's just say. I'm going for a loose fit on my 10th wedding anniversary.

So sweetie -- "Yes, I love technology. But not as much as you, you see. Always and forever. Always and forever."

First Beach Trip 2011

2011-06-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

You know you have Maine in your blood when you can't wait to get to the beach even on a relatively cool and cloudy day in June. Drift-Inn Beach is beautiful all year round, but by the time June comes around, it's nearly impossible to stay away. The kids were so excited - "shubbel, shubbel!" cried Maddie (shovel!) - and after checking the tide chart to make sure there would actually BE a beach, we packed up a few toys and a towel, and we were off. Last year Maddie wasn't a huge fan of the beach, as she wasn't walking yet and crawling in the sand just didn't cut it for her... but this year, after a few seconds of pushing her toes around to test it out, she was off and running. Laughing and yelling, the two of them had the entire beach to themselves. Ollie asked if some "friends" would show up (meaning, any available kids who would play with him), but I couldn't make any promises... and none did. The sun had been out most of the day, but of course it clouded over as we got to the beach, and only poked out a bit to warm us up just before we headed home. Until next time, Drift Inn Beach.

Happy Birthday, Granddaddy!!

2011-06-08T18:42:00.001-07:00

It's always easy for me to remember how old my dad is, because his birthday is only 4 days before mine, and he was thirty when I was born, so I always just have to add 30 to my own age! Andy had to head off to England and Germany after our long Memorial Day weekend here, but I stayed on with the kids... and dad's birthday fell on Wednesday, the day before we went back to NJ. It was a regular workday for him, unfortunately, but we all got together after work for a great dinner at the Dip Net on Port Clyde harbor. We all had the baked stuffed haddock, which was pretty good, but the cajun spiced maine shrimp appetizer was fantastic. I think it's best to stick with the excellent fried seafood there, generally. I vote for Cod End in Tenants Harbor any day, especially since it isn't owned by Linda Bean. :-) It was a bit chilly as the sun set, but we were just SO happy to be there on the harbor on a lovely evening, and the kids adored running back and forth to the "lobster tub" to watch the live lobsters inside crawling around. Maddie was mesmerized. It's a wonderful thing going out to eat in a place where the kids don't have to sit in their seats the whole time. After dinner we all went back to our house to enjoy huge, ridiculous pieces of birthday cake - a cake given to dad by his colleagues at the hospital. Yum! Frosting overload. Dad was super excited to receive a handmade card from Ollie, featuring a striped and spotted pteradactyl, signed by the artist himself. He was possibly even MORE excited about his present from Andy and me and the kids - a panini press! Pretty much beside himself with glee. Bring on the paninis! We love you, Dad, soooooo very much.

Memorial Day

2011-05-31T14:53:00.000-07:00

We were lucky to be in Maine for Memorial Day this year, partly because we got to enjoy the nice parade that weaves through our little town, Tenants Harbor, and also because we happened to be in Maine during a massive heat wave back in NJ... I'm just so glad we missed it. On the morning of the parade, Grandma, Granddaddy, Ian, Suz and Eli all came to our house and we went nextdoor to the Masonic Hall for their Memorial Day pancake breakfast. It was quite busy there, but we did get our breakfasts in time to finish them up and stroll to our friends Anne and Tony's house down the road who have a prime (and shady!) location on the parade route. I think everyone will agree, the fire trucks were the best part - Ollie certainly liked them! After the parade we listened to a band perform outside the VFW hall and loads of little speeches there, and then we headed back to our house. Later in the day we had our first ever family outing to the cemetary where Greenie and Granddaddy were buried; just weeks ago the gravestone/bench was completed and installed, and it's lovely, nestled under a shady tree in the spot we chose. It was nice to go there all together on Memorial Day, and it will be a regular thing, I'm sure - visiting Greenie and Granddaddy and telling them all the latest news.

Mother's Day Bliss

2011-05-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

I have to say, I feel really, really lucky every single day of my life to be a mom to Ollie and Maddie and to be married to Andy. I think of this so often... so Mother's Day is sort of like a normal day for me, but with frosting on top.

On Mother's Day EVE this year, the boys camped out in the backyard. Ollie has soooo much fun putting the tent up with his dad, dashing this way and that to get the different bits and put it all together. Then they pack up their supplies into Ollie's Thomas the Train backpack - these generally include a flashlight, warm socks, and some granola bars and treats, in case of emergency. One of my favorite things ever is standing in the kitchen and watching the flashlight flicker inside the tent, and listening to their little whispers.

The morning was amazing - Maddie slept until 7am for the first time in AGES (this may never happen again, it seems). Pretty soon after that, Ollie came trotting upstairs to announce cheerfully, "Happy Mother's Day, Mommy!" Big smiles. Then I came downstairs to find an "I love mommy" gift bag on the table, which Ollie had made at preschool. Inside was a beautiful handmade card and a painted vase that he'd made himself. Happy mommy. There was a little gift bag from Andy as well, with a Glee cd in it.... just so seriously cute, since he knows I watch and enjoy the show (guilty pleasure) - ever since we got it, Ollie and I have been belting out songs on it in the car. His favorites are "Can't Stop Believin'" and "Bust-a-Move." So, after I opened that, Ollie exclaimed, "and Daddy got you flowers!!" which he apparently had promised not to tell me... but he was just so excited, what can you say?! So we all found the beautiful hanging flowerpot Andy had hung outside the kitchen window - just soooo pretty. I'm hoping to keep that alive for longer than my average....

Pretty soon Andy headed out towards Sparta on his bike, and we met him there at the boardwalk at around 9:15 for breakfast at Il Porto - we beat the crowd! Lots of people had reserved tables, but not till a bit later in the morning. It was absolutely gorgeous outside - sunny, a light breeze, perfect temperature - and we sat at a little table right on the boardwalk, overlooking the lake. The kids spent half their time strolling around the boardwalk, chatting with kids, grown-ups, dogs... anybody passing by. This is one of our favorite things about Il Porto, now that the kids are bigger - we can actually *encourage* them to leave the table. The food, as always, was wonderful. We had cup after cup of yummy coffee, and I had eggs benedict, mmmmm. Andy had a western omelet, and the kids shared yummy chocolate chip pancakes with a side of sausage. The kids were great, just especially lovely.

We went down to the water to feed the fish after breakfast, but I think they tend to prefer dining in the afternoon... they just weren't biting! Sometimes we see so many of them, and they actually jump out of the water to snatch the bread that's just hit the surface. So we gave up on the fish and headed down to the nearby playground, which was surprisingly empty for such a beautiful morning. After a bit, we walked back to town to the ice cream shop and got a bowl of raspberry chip to share. Everyone indulged me by agreeing to walk back to the boardwalk to eat it on a bench overlooking the water, so much nicer than sitting in town with the cars driving by. Then we drove home, singing to Glee all the way. Maddie had a nice nap when we got home, and I headed out for some kid-free shoppping! And even better, I actually FOUND a few things! Amazing. A pair of jeans, summer pants, and a few tops. Wow. Later in the day, the boys headed out for some groceries while I puttered around at home with Maddie, and we had super yummy minted-lamb burgers for dinner, my favorite. Now I ask ya, does it get any better than that? A heavenly day, start to finish. I am blessed, and I know it, every minute of every day.

First Flower Garden

2011-05-07T18:02:00.001-07:00

So, my fantastically talented mother and mother-in-law, both long-time gardeners, have always been great examples of what "could be" if I was at all inclinded towards gardening. They have been remarkably patient and non-judgemental about my lack of a green thumb. I am happy to report that Oliver's new enthusiasm about how plants grow has rubbed off on me, and together we planted our very first flower garden!!! We took a trip together to a local garden center (Fullerton's, what a great place!!) and chose the flowers, taking special care to find some that the dozens of roaming deer here won't be interested in, then got to work. As you can see, it is a very small garden, indeed! But I'm very, very proud of it, and so is Oliver, who enjoyed every minute of the process. He has since finished off this great project by repainting the entire mailbox post and flowerbox, with his daddy's help. We both enjoy watering the flowers, and it's extra nice getting the mail now. :-)

Royal Wedding Tea Party!

2011-04-29T14:34:00.001-07:00

The wedding of the century - what better ocassion to have a party??! I decided a few weeks back that it would be fun to get together with friends to ooh and ahh at everything together, drink tea and nibble scones... I just prayed for good weather so the kids could play outside and leave the moms to wedding-watching! Of course, the kids mostly wanted to be exactly where we all were, so that didn't work too well... but they were fine. Andy had decided (on his own!) to throw a little celebration for his employees that day as well, so he set off in the morning with a fully stocked tea and scone tray and a big Union Jack to hang up. The night before, we made raisin scones together (his mom's recipe), and I made two other kinds as well - cranberry almond and blueberry. Yum! I put up a few festive photos and a flag, and we all had sooo much fun watching the day unfold. I had recorded the wedding from 3am onwards, so we mostly watched the actual wedding itself, and a bit of the events afterwards.

Ok, the dress.... because Kate is so sleek and stylish, I really expected to be just knocked off my seat by her dress, but I kind of thought it was just nice. She looked lovely, I think I just expected something a bit more modern and dramatic. Anyway, the wedding was glorious, and it didn't even rain - amazing! What stole the show were the HATS! Beautiful, crazy, amazing English hats... the English just know how to do "fancy," don't they? I think my very favorite part of the wedding was the moment when they were pronounced husband and wife - the cameras were in quite close on them, but they also picked up clearlly the crashing swell of cheers and shouts from the crowd of thousands just outside the church and across the city... and Will and Kate clearly heard it too, and smiled. I loved that. It was a great day, and I was "feelin' the love," for my favorite city in the world, for England, and for the "commoner" I love sooooo much.

Sweet Bunny Birthday Girl

2011-04-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

Well, my sweet girl, you turned two today... mommy and daddy can't quite believe it. It seems like not very long ago that you arrived in our lives - 9 days early and 9 lbs, 12 ounces of loveliness - and now you have magically transformed from our little baby to a little girl. This happened quite stealthily, I have to say. Today I'll write down everything I can remember from this special day, so you'll be able to look back and remember the day you turned TWO! A while back, I decided you might like a bunny cake for your birthday, since your stuffed bunnies ("hop-bums," as you like to say) are some of your favorite toys. More recently, I asked you if a bunny cake sounded good, and you said "Ya!" Ever since then, whenever we said anything about your approaching birthday, you would shout "hop-bum!!" enthusiastically. When we practiced the "happy birthday" song together, you would wait till it was over and clap your hands and say, "yay!!!!!" Yesterday, it was time to embark on the cake... a big project! I used the same recipe as for Ollie's cake, doubling it to fill a big cake pan, and let it cool overnight... Today began with a private rendition of "Happy Birthday To You!" sung to you by mommy and daddy in bed, which received the customary rousing applause. Then you came downstairs to discover a big new playhouse waiting for you, complete with a doorbell, toy phone, and working shutters! A great find by mommy on Craigslist; your dad and Granddaddy put it together the night before, which was very lucky as Daddy gets stabbing chest pains when he does that sort of thing on his own. We all had a delicious birthday breakfast with Grandma and Granddaddy, Ian and Suz, featuring scrambled eggs and Taylor Ham, which you gobbled up like there was no tomorrow. After breakfast we got right to work on the cake again. I had drawn out the shapes of the bunny, ears, and tail on paper, then cut them out so I could put them on the cake and know where to cut. Then we assebled and started frosting it, using a star-tip to make the bunny look a bit furry (?) - I ended up needing a quadruple batch of buttercream frosting! It came out great, and you loved it to bits.

The best thing about your birthday this year is that so many family members were able to come -- Grandma and Granddaddy from Maine, Ian and Suz, Ronnie and Diana, Rachel and Beth and Saul, and Milt and Rae, who pretty much count as family. It was a big celebration day for Suzanne, too, since you share the same birthday! Your party was a 2pm, and a few of your best buddies came with their moms and dads (yes, all the dads came!) - Addie & Ryan, Brooke & Mady, Claire, Carys & Lowri. Toby came from CT, as well as Steve and Maureen from next door, and everyone stayed for hours. You were a bit clingy during the party, but I wasn't surprised, with so many people here and so much activity! We were lucky it was a lovely day, so you and your friends could spend a lot of time playing on the deck, dashing around on the riding toys, squeezing all together into the playhouse, etc. Around 3ish we all gathered in the dining room to sing you "Happy Birthday," which you responded to with clapping hands and a big shout of "Yay!" forcing us with your utterly relentless cuteness to sing it a second time. A good 3/4 of the cake was consumed at the party... and it was a big cake!

By the end of the day, you were pretty well spent. We had a booked a big table down the road at Blossom, a great "Asian Bistro," to complete the day with a bit more grown up celebrating for Suzanne, but by the time you got there you were pretty much just screaming, probably trying in your two-year-old way to say, "Are you kidding? Can I PLEASE just go to bed? Or at least have some peace and quiet?!" Your nice daddy obliged, foregoing his yummy dinner in order to take you home, give you a snack, and tuck you into bed.

You, my lovely Madeline, are becoming in your advancing years both dazzlingly beautiful and fabulously silly. You add new words almost every day to your creative vocabulary, including some of our recent favorites - "ba-del" (bagel) and "tow-ee-o" (cheerio). You are blessed to have such a fantastic big brother; he keeps an eye on you, laughs with me at your crazy antics, and is your general partner in crime, especially when the crime is being illegally cute. We love you so very much, Maddie-boo - Happy Birthday to our baby girl.

Bring on the Fun!

2011-03-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

What's better than having your grandparents come and visit? Not much! Grandma Patty and Granddad Richie have come to visit for over a week, the first weekend packed with birthday events (see next post!), and the second weekend coinciding with Ian's big NYC book fair. I was worried about how we would fill the time in between, but of course - poof - it just disappeared in the blink of an eye. Uncle Ian and Aunt Suzanne stayed with us for much of the time as well, just adding to the fun, especially with lots of rolicking games on the Xbox Kinect. Suz joined us for a day at the park towards the end of the stay, an unusually beautiful early April day - see last photo!

I'm not sure Maddie really knew Grandma and Granddaddy were coming, but Ollie was SO excited for their arrival. When they finally did come, he dashed around the house showing them a multitude of exciting things -- his newest drawings from school, his favorite Tuskegee airplane, how he can hop from one end of the house to the other on one foot... all the important stuff. Then he came to me and asked to whisper something in my ear, very intent and excited. "I don't know who to play with first!!" That pretty much sums it up... just too much happiness.

After the birthday weekend, which also included a fantastic bagel brunch on Sunday (a favorite family tradition) featuring an entire side of home-smoked salmon care of Granddad Richie, it was a fairly quiet week. Ollie went to school as usual on Tuesday and Thursday, and we all went down to the pool to cheer him on during his weekly swimming lesson. Grandma Patty wasn't feeling 100%, so we didn't venture into NYC together, although Granddaddy did go in for a day to help Ian set up for the book fair. We all just had fun doing regular things together, and the big event of the week was a trip to the Liberty Science Center (first two photos from this post were taken there). Ollie loved the ball-throwing machine best of all - I think he could have played there for hours. Maddie loved the fish and the rice bin. We were all exhausted when the day was done!

Now I do have an answer to "What's better than having your grandparents come and visit?" Answer: having BOTH pairs of grandparents! For two weeks in July, Andy's parents will be visiting us up in Maine, so ALL the grandparents will be on hand! Along with cousins Aidan and Eli... too much happiness all over again.

March Recap

2011-03-27T14:31:00.001-07:00

March is nearly over and I have only had one post, which doesn't really count as my NY trip was actually at the end of February! Thankfully, March was a pretty low-key month, marked mostly by strange weather. A week ago on Friday, we had 70 degree temperatures, and it was soooo much fun playing at the playground for a super long time. After that a cold front came in, and the weekend was mostly sunny but very cold. Then - bam! Sunday night and all through Monday, it snowed like a bugger, and we got 6 or 8 inches of heavy snow. Just as we all dug out, Wednesday it snowed again. Maybe the coast is clear now... let's hope so. It is nearly April, after all! Ollie's been busy with school and swimming, and in a few weeks he'll try soccer for the first time, once a week. Of course, his favorite thing is hanging out with his best buddies. Same for Maddie, whose closest pals are Addie and Maddie. My big job now is planning for her 2nd birthday party, which is only six days away! It's mostly family and just a couple of friends... more on that to come. All of a sudden, Maddie's just such a big girl, but I can't get it out of my head that she's my baby. Witness the shot of her sleeping in "basic meatloaf position," a holdover from babydom that's sure to disappear pretty soon. I had to get this shot while I still could...

Two big things to report today. First - we got rid of our hot tub! We weren't using it (came with the house), and the deck wasn't built to support that much weight (previous owners apparently didn't care), so we just were not inspired. Not to mention I just don't care enough to deal with all the hassle. So it's been an eyesore for 3.5 years, and we put it on Craigslist for free... got 35 inquiries in under five hours! Same week - gone! Lovely. Second - Ollie had a terrible night last night. We've really never had a night like this. Ollie was sick at 9:30pm, then a few times more, and from 10:30pm through 6:30am, he had to be sick about every 10-15 minutes, though almost nothing came up. Poor guy!!! He was with me in bed, so all night long we pretty much didn't sleep - he might doze for 10 minutes at a time, but that's it. He's a lot better today, but completely not himself; he just needs to rest (see photo, awwww). He's only drinking Pedialite today ("yummy juice!"). [Update: night 2 was without incident, a good long sleep, and he's starting to eat today, no signs of distress. Yay!] Meanwhile, Maddie seems intent on being extra cute and trying to cheer up her big brother. She always likes watching "Tun-tun" (Chuggington, her new favorite) with him, and has started talking excitedly about her "hop-bum" birthday cake.

Wicked Fun!

2011-03-01T08:01:00.001-08:00

I'm still glowing from my weekend in NYC with my good friend, Carol... one night and two days with nothing to do but have girly fun! With our husbands at the helm and not at all daunted by the prospect of a whole weekend alone with the kids :-), we set off for our much anticipated adventure. We took the bus in on Saturday morning - so convenient as the bus station (at the train station) is only a couple of miles from our house. The trip in went so quickly - we spent much of time on our phones searching for cool brunch spots. Even though we were both severely coffee deprived, we decided to wait till we got to the restaurant to have any, which was a good call since it didn't take too long to get there. Mind you, if you ever want to go to NYC, choose as your travel companion someone who lived in the city for ten years!! Man, Carol is a walking map and city guide!! She was amazing. :-) So, we got to our chosen brunch spot, a fabulous restaurant called Balthazar, a French bistro so perfectly perfect in every way -- a 20 foot high tin ceiling, huge antique mirrors, monsterous bouquets of flowers, an entire wall of wine bottles, smiling, gracious, efficient waiters who refill your coffee at every perfect moment, glittery, sophisticated people at nearby tables, chatting happily in different languages, stupidly expensive eggs benedict (of course!), and a bathroom with a cheerful attendant and a strange assortment of lotions, perfumes, and the like. A perfect start to our weekend.
Completely sated, we headed out into the crisp day and decided that we'd like to spend loads of time just wandering aimlessly in and out of shops, something we so rarely get to do. Our kids were never far from our minds, and right away we had to stop at a street vendor's table and browse his wares -- a zillion different hand-knitted finger puppets, all so cute. We each chose a great assortment to bring home to the kids - mine were a penguin, camel, pig with a vest on, monkey in green overalls. giraffe, and a yellow spotted one that could be an alligator or a dinosaur, not sure exactly. We headed towards 5th Avenue for shopping, although the majority of our purchases were at fancy chocolate shops... we kind of created our own "chocolate tour." Our highest recommendation goes to Michel Cluizel's - just stunningly delicious.
We were amazed again at how quickly the time flew by, and before we knew it we were headed for dinner at Nobu, a gorgeous Japanese restaurant whose sexy atmosphere didn't disappoint! We did struggle with the menu a bit, and our waiter didn't work too hard to help us out, but we enjoyed the sushi and tempura. After dinner we had to practically run about 9 blocks to the theater so we wouldn't be late for Wicked! If you're trying to choose which show to see in NYC, you can't go wrong with Wicked, especially if you've read the book first. It was fantastic, top marks all around. It was nearly 11pm when we got out of the theater, but we were still in high spirits when we walked a few blocks to Times Square (see last photo) and admired all the flashy lights before heading back to the hotel for a deep sleep until 8:30am, an unheard of hour for us! The hotel was only a block from Times Square, but it was surprisingly quiet at night.
We had a leisurely morning after our late wake-up, and made our way to Chinatown for dimsum, OF COURSE! Glorious. We had a few hours after that to continue our aimless wandering before our 3pm massage appointment at Bliss. We did push the limits of our girly getaway to the extreme, didn't we?! Thanks, Carol, for being my awesome friend and fantastic travel companion! I'm already looking forward to next time, and we might just have to bring some more friends with us!

Ollie's First Homework Ever!

2011-02-23T16:54:00.001-08:00

On Tuesday of this week, Ollie came home with his first homework assignment EVER!! It was to practice writing his name, once that evening, and then three times today (Wednesday). Instead of writing it just once on each line, he decided to write it twice. Each time we talked about the letters and how he could try writing them differently (making the "i" shorter than the "l," looping the "e" around, etc.). He was a bit distracted this afternoon and not very careful, but this evening - bam! His last two "Olivers" are incredible!! He was sooooo proud of himself, as you can see from his big, beaming smile. I'm sure he can't wait to bring it back to school tomorrow and give it to his teachers. Our big boy!!!

A Maddie Dictionary

2011-02-19T11:33:00.000-08:00

Maddie is nearly 23 months old, and she has quite a distinguished vocabulary, though much of it is intelligible only to us. Since this blog is serving as our long-term memory system, we thought it would be a good place to record a brief dictionary of Maddie-isms... this is not an exhaustive list of all the words she uses, just the ones we love most.

hop-bum (bunny)
bubble (a drink of any sort)
mo-mo bubble (more bubble)
toto (cocoa)
nee-na-nee (banana)
pop-pie (chicken pot pie, or usually any food at dinnertime)
det-uh-wah (? we don't know, but she uses it a lot)
doh-ee-doh-ee-doh (same as det-uh-wah)
bee-bee (boots)
a-wa (radio)
bwa-bwa (tv)
num-ee-num (food)
taaaaaaaa (thank you)
cheeeeeee (when smiling for photos)
And of course - Rai-a!!! An early word which Maddie would bellow from her crib when she woke up, and would use at various points in the day for any purpose. It might have meant, "Hello!" or "HEY!" :-)

Warning! Extreme Cuteness Alert!

2011-02-14T09:13:00.001-08:00

I did warn you. :-)

Valentine's Weekend in Guilford

2011-02-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

What better way to celebrate love than to spend a weekend in the town where Andy and I first shared a home together?! And in a town we love... Guilford, CT! Just a one-nighter, but that's all we needed -- time to visit a few of our favorite places, wander the town green (or "white," this time of year), drive Ollie past the house that he came home to as a newborn. Sadly, our old house has been painted avocado green - what's up with that??? Ollie was sooooo excited to STAY IN A HOTEL! According to him, we weren't going to Guilford, or even to Connecticut, we were going to a *hotel*. What is it about kids in a single hotel room with 2 beds and a bathroom that makes them so giddy? It was like he'd won the lottery or something. Everything is exciting - pushing buttons on the elevator, using the special key card to get into the room, pushing buttons on the heater, bouncing on the bed... how many times did I hear him say, "Mommy, I'm just so happy here!" "I love it here!" "I don't want to go into town, I want to stay here at the hotel!" The kids enjoyed a super long bath, and Ollie had packed his entire "shaving kit," which you can see he diligently used. We also had a stop at Hammonasset State Park for a walk along the boardwalk and beach, but it turned out to be our shortest walk there ever, as it was just stupidly cold and windy. The kids were great sports, even though I think they could barely breath. Sleeping that night was interesting... who knew that Maddie turns around 180 degrees about 700 times each night? Thanks for another fun weekend, Guilford!

Ollie in Preschool!

2011-01-22T04:22:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, Ollie had his first day of preschool... a big day for him and for his mommy!! We waited longer than most people, but it seemed like a good time - and he certainly didn't have any trouble with his new routine. On his first day, he ran in and started playing with all the other kids right away, and after I took some photos, he waved at me enthusiastically and blew me kisses... and off I went. Awwww! This first photo is from that day, during the "Name Dance," so at this moment everyone is singing, "Oliver, Oliver, welcome Oliver!" We chose Elements of Learning in Oak Ridge, which is a bit far away but several of Ollie's friends go there and we really liked the owner/head teacher when we visited, so it wasn't a hard choice. He only goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-3. Just this week they had "Pajama Day" at school, and Ollie wore his favorite "ornament suit," his slippers, AND his cool fleece bathrobe. Our friend, Jenna, took a great photo of him with her daughter, Claire, and their friend, Brandon. Look at these cuties!!!

On Fatherhood and Snowball Fights

2011-01-06T18:49:00.001-08:00

Despite the beautiful smiles you see here, Maddie is still fairly ambivalent about snow, although she loves any excuse to get outside and walk around. But big brother Ollie is now a big fan of snow, and of every possible use for it -- making snowmen, shoveling with his "baby shovel," sledding, tromping through it instead of using a perfectly good path right next to him, and, more recently, snowball fights. He is slowly learning the intricacies of snowball fights under the expert tutelage of his all-knowing father. When I point out to Andy that he doesn't have to aim quite so precisely at Ollie's neck -the only exposed part of his son's body as it runs away from him in a frantic combination of glee and horror - he replies with a glint in his eye, "He loves it!!" And it's true, Ollie will yelp out a protest after being pelted yet again, then will quickly dash to prepare his next round of ammunition and attempt a valiant retaliation... I think I was the only one to notice the injustice of his return fires mostly landing at Andy's lower back, not a particularly sensitive area. Therefore, I ocassionally tried to wollop Andy's head or neck on Ollie's behalf, and only once had a halfway decent (albeit immensely satisfying) result. You can follow the general chain of events in this photo selection: Andy tosses a huge mound of snow at his 4 year old son, Ollie runs around like a happy crazy boy and gathers tiny snowballs in his little boy hands to try to throw back at his dad, all the while avoiding the very real threat of the next huge snow-mound that's headed in his direction (see final photo, with snow in mid-flight). Never let it be said that this boy is coddled!!

Cuties at the Transportation Museum

2011-01-06T18:40:00.000-08:00

Over the holidays, one of our fun outings was to the Owls Head Transportation Museum, a favorite haunt of ours and especially of Granddaddy's! It was a good choice for a cold afternoon... the kids had fun running looking at the old cars and planes, going up and down the ramps, chasing each other, yelping loudly to great effect, since the huge hangars are perfect for amplifying sound... I was glad we were nearly the only ones there!!! I mostly ran around taking pictures - Maddie looked so insanely cute in her little dress and sporty Mary Janes - see for yourself!!

True Story

2011-01-05T04:58:00.000-08:00

Right around New Year's Eve, we were at my mom and dad's house for a few hours, and Grandma was showing Ollie her big kaleidoscope. He looked through it for a little while, then lowered it and asked her, "Is this wireless?"

Such a Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T18:30:00.000-08:00

A letter to our lovely lambs, Maddie and Ollie, on Christmas Day, 2010:
In years to come, you'll look back at all these posts and photos and will remember some of your earliest Christmas memories. We hope that recording funny details and silly stories here will be another gift for you, one day. So, here goes! Ollie, your excitement has been mounting for weeks and weeks. On December 1st, you and Maddie each got a personal email from Santa, with a video from him showing your actual photo in his "good book" way up at the North Pole. You were quite struck with this video message, a bit taken aback, really... partway through watching it, you looked up at me and said, "Santa knows everything." All this month, we've been talking about Christmas and Santa and being a good boy - once or twice, Daddy even had to call Santa from his cell phone to let him know that you were teetering close to the edge of bad boy status. You were not happy when it came to this, but the truth is, you are one of the best boys on the planet, and your ocassional slip-ups could never really set you back. Early on, you decided that you'd like to ask Santa for a baby dinosaur for Christmas, and soon after, you added "lemon holder" to your wish list. Yes, a lemon holder. We know you like the flavor of lemons, but even we were surprised with this unusual request - a request that persisted right up until Christmas day. We just had to wait and see if Santa would be able to meet such a wish. Maddie, meanwhile- you're still too young to know what's coming from day to day, but I will say that as it approached, we'd exclaim, "Christmas is coming!" and you would respond excitedly, "Yay!!!!" So you must have known something was up.
After nearly a week in Maine, it was Christmas Eve, and the excitement reached a fever pitch. In fact, you were so overcome that you barely made it through dinner, Ollie, and Daddy took you to the sofa to lie down, where you promptly fell asleep, just before 7pm. Maddie soon followed, and your dad and I had an unexpected super-relaxed evening with the rest of the family while you both slept upstairs. We had dessert, then moved to the living room for our Christmas Eve pajama-present opening (you were both sorely missed for this), Grandma's famous glug, and our traditional reading of A Child's Christmas in Wales. It's one of the most peaceful times of the year, sitting all together and sharing that beautiful story aloud, a story that fills your mind with such vivid images and your heart with the wonder and whimsy of childhood. You'll enjoy it differently each year as you grow up, and you can remember that it connects you to so many generations of your family. I can still see and hear my grandfather reading it aloud, and this year Grandma Patty read it masterfully, probably hearing her father's voice in her own head all the while.
Eventually, we all headed back to our little house down the road, which had gotten a bit chilly from neglected woodstoves. We hung up the stockings and left out treats for Santa and his reindeer, and were amazed in the morning to discover that, once again, he had remembered to fill the stockings here, but leave all the big presents at Grandma and Granddaddy's house. How he keeps track of all this, we'll never know. After inspecting the contents of your stockings, and having a great webcam with Grandma Carole in England (Granddad was outside tending to his dead car battery, poor thing), we sped over to G&G's house to meet your cousins and Ian and Suz and have a great frenzy of stocking-opening (see photo). Ollie, your stocking included a stuffed hedgehog, an old-fashioned tabletop bell, like you might see at a post office, a chocolate Santa, a Chuggington bowl, a make-it-yourself straw kit, a mini Simon game, a kaleidescope, and more! Maddie, yours included a shiny gold zip-up bag and some sparkley play necklaces, a can of spray foam soap with a duck dispensor on top, a little soft babydoll and an even littler ballerina doll, a wind-up robot girl, hair bands, cute socks, and more! We all bounded downstairs to a big breakfast of cheese-sausage-egg strata (a new favorite!), coffee, juice, and Grandma's wonderful stollen and Finnish coffee bread (Mommy's favorite). After that, we spent ALL morning opening presents in the big living room. We fantasize about opening one present at a time and admiring them all slowly, but that never happens, does it? Maddie's favorite presents this year were your babydoll and stroller and little toy purse, and Ollie's favorites were a huge Playmobil airplane, a toy cash register with shopping basket accessories, and a remote controlled Robo-Raptor (who makes an appearance in the group photo). The rest of the day was spent playing and playing, and getting ready for our big dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, which was somehow even more delicious than usual this year. Loads of Christmas cookies for dessert, and then two VERY sleepy lambs heading back home to a cozy, happy sleep. Ollie and Maddie, thank you for making Christmas day, and every day, so joyful for us. xoxoxo

YUM

2010-12-23T15:32:00.001-08:00

This post is just for mommy, because I'm really proud of these pretty cookies I made!! I call them "poor man's truffles," because they have this super crazy rich soft chocolate filling, which is made NOT with the finest Swiss or Belgian chocolate, but with Oreo cookies blended with cream cheese! And they kill everyone with their yumminess. It's tricky to get the melted chocolate over them without making a huge mess, and to decorate them quickly before the chocolate hardens... Ollie, Aidan and Eli helped with that. Maddie helped by trying valiantly to eat all the little ornaments before they went on the trees. Very pleased with them... with our big crowd at Christmas, I'm sure they'll disappear in the blink of an eye!

Sleepykins

2010-12-21T19:53:00.000-08:00

Beautiful Maddie, asleep in the car while Dad and Ollie run errands, and Mommy sits with you, snapping photos and trying to figure out her new phone.

One Busy Day

2010-12-21T19:34:00.000-08:00

This year, the big Christmas party for the "Moms Around the Lake" group I'm in fell *exactly* at the same time as my Messiah concert, and I was really bummed! It's a great party - so many families and friends there, including all the dads, a huge potluck dinner, and even Santa comes! So I was actually a little bit pleased that we couldn't find a babysitter to watch the kids, which freed up Andy to take them to the party rather than attend my concert. They had a lot of fun, although Maddie had a royal freak-fest when she saw Santa, and apparently it took her ages to calm down. Nor did the kids eat anything at all, despite there being enough food there to feed a gazillion people.

So, although I was sad to miss the party, my Messiah concert with the New Jersey Conservatory was FANTASTIC!! We sang our hearts out, and by the end of "Worthy is the Lamb," I actually started crying, it was so beautiful and AWESOME. Here's a teeny tiny photo of me with my pearl-bedecked choir buddies, Laura and Lora... I took this with my new phone and I'm not sure why it's so tiny. Anyway, what a concert. So good!

First Big-Girl Haircut

2010-12-21T19:04:00.000-08:00

My post on October 19, 2010 is called "Boy Cut," and I was chastising myself for giving Maddie the same haircut that I always gave Ollie. I thought, "Never again!" I'll take her to a real hair salon, and she'll get a girly cut. So that was my mission when we went to Snip-Its in Rockaway a week or so ago. As you can see from photo 1, she wasn't too pleased with this idea at the beginning. She cried a bit, but at least she pretty much stayed in one place. The lollipop helped a lot (photo 2). By the end, she sat resignedly in the seat, just waiting for the ordeal to be over. She looks quite dashing in her "after" shot, especially in her super snazzy outfit, for which I got a lot of amused comments on facebook! But she was wearing a cute sweatshirt over that top for most of the day, I promise. Anyway, by the time I got home I realized that it was actually a really BAD haircut - pretty much a blunt bowl cut that made her look Amish. I spent the rest of the day chasing her around with scissors, trimming a little bit here and there to get the hair off her ears. She's back to the boy cut, which looks incredibly cute on her, and I've learned my lesson: for now at least, Mommy's haircuts are just fine.

Best Buddies

2010-12-21T18:51:00.001-08:00

How can I resist publishing these photos?!! Look at those silly girls.... this photo was taken right before they both stood up on the table and started dancing. Ryan and Addie hang out with Ollie and Maddie just about every week, sometimes a few times a week, when we're lucky. It's fun to see them grow and change together; Maddie is only saying a handful of words now, but when she hears Ollie talking about Ryan, she shouts out - "Addie!!" The boys are getting a lot better at playing together without having meltdowns about sharing toys, etc.... the other day, they closed all the doors to the living room and were in there for nearly an hour - no shouting or drama!! When Carol and I finally got around to checking on them, we found they had been "decorating for a birthday party," and had stuck dinosaur stickers all over every imaginable surface in the room, including walls, windows, lamps, pillows, you name it. Thankfully, they weren't very adhesive stickers - phew.

Wayne!

2010-12-21T18:31:00.000-08:00

One of my best friends from college, Wayne Perry, was passing through town a few weeks back, and made time for a short visit before continuing on to Rhode Island... we calculated that it's probably about 16 years since we've seen each other!! I literally don't think he's aged a day, and we picked up right where we left off, laughing and sharing stories. I'm looking forward to next time, and hope it might include both of our families... having Wayne for a dad, I can only imagine his kids must be a blast, just like Ollie and Maddie. Sooner than another 16 years would be GREAT!

Candycanes and Smiles

2010-12-20T05:10:00.000-08:00

After admiring lots of glamourous Christmas light displays around our neighborhood, it became clear that the candycanes were Ollie's favorite thing, and we decided it was high time to get some outdoor decorations up at our house as well, for the first time ever. Ollie was SO excited when we bought them, and we set them up in the afternoon with lots of help from Daddy, who used all of his Daddy skills to refrain from swearing repeatedly throughout the process. It was bitterly cold out, and he had to hammer little plastic spikes into the frozen ground, without breaking them or splitting the candycanes when they were pushed down on top of the spikes. We marvelled at how much work some people must take on to put up the crazy light displays we've seen around town, and here was Andy fussing over 12 candycanes!!! So, here is the fruit of our labors; maybe we'll add a few candycanes each year, at least enough to make it all the way to the front door. Meanwhile, we found a few miraculous displays a couple of towns away, in particular one that features a HUGE tree that's hung with lights so it looks like a firework - it's amazing! They must have used a crane to do them, or something like that. Seriously impressive. I know our modest candycane effort holds a sweet and righteous place in the world of holiday lighting, but I'm grateful for the occasional INSANE light displays that pop up here and there, full of silliness and joy; they make us smile.

The Honeymoon is Over

2010-11-30T05:49:00.000-08:00

Every parent in our family has benefited from the early years of their kids' lobster-eating experimentation - that beautiful time when they're big enough to warrent their own lobster at the table, but all they really want to do with it is poke and play - not actually EAT it! So, the poor parents have to step in and take care of the cracking and the eating... all the while narrating the process to their kids, under the guise of teaching them but secretly gleeful about the lobster bounty. For many, many years, as a child I would only eat the claws, and mom and dad weren't too upset about that. My nephew, Aidan, was happy until recently to get his plate piled high with the spindley legs from everyone's lobsters, and my brother would just have to sigh and eat the rest of it. Now, barely four years old, Ollie has completely consumed his first lobster, and there's no turning back - the honeymoon is over!! We're a bit sad, Ollie, but you do make us proud!

The Fire Brigade

2010-11-21T18:50:00.001-08:00

It was an exciting night in Tenants Harbor! We were in Maine for Thanksgiving week, and were keeping toasty at home with the woodstoves on. Andy and I put the kids to bed, and were in the living room plunking on our laptops, when I told Andy it seemed a bit cold... so he opened the damper on the woodstove and sat back down. About thirty seconds later, we heard a huge SWOOSH and the woodstove started blasting air through it and sounding like a freight train. We both jumped up and freaked out, and Andy ran outside to look at the top of the chimney, and came back in to declare that we had a chimney fire and to call 911! He went and got the kids out of bed, and a few minutes later there were three fire engines parked outside, red lights flashing (no sirens, thankfully!), and about twelve firemen. Ollie thought this was all VERY EXCITING. His eyes were big like saucers the whole time, and he kept very close to me but also very aware of all that was going on. Andy had shut down the chimney fire pretty quickly when he closed the damper, but the firemen still did a great job inspecting everything, including the attic, and even went on the roof to drop a chain down the chimney and clean it out a bit more. Yay St. George Fire Department! They were so helpful and nice. So, let's hope we don't have too many more exciting nights like this...

Yummy Playdate

2010-11-14T18:29:00.001-08:00

My friend, Jenna, had a playdate recently where everyone brought along something "pretty" that they had baked... the idea being that we all like to bake pretty things, but we don't do it much because then we'd have lots of fattening treats around the house all the time! So we decided to make "ghost pops" - fudgey oreo ball fillings dipped in white chocolate and made into lollipops - they came out great!! Jenna made really cool decorated cookes that looked like nametags for "Moms Around the Lake" and "Meetup.com" - very clever. Here's a photo of Ollie and Claire having fun together, as usual. Thanks for the great playdate, Jenna!

All The Leaves Are Gone...

2010-11-14T18:28:00.001-08:00

... but thankfully, the sky is NOT gray most of the time! We've had a gorgeous weekend, temps just over 60, sunny skies and crisp air - we did our first and last raking of the season! Our method is simple and foolproof: wait till ALL the leaves fall, and the wind has blown lots of them away, then (and only then) commence raking. They had blown into two smallish areas of our yard, pretty easy job, then Andy and Ollie mowed the whole yard to get the stragglers. I especially don't get leaf blowers - I SWEAR I can rake any yard in a fraction of the time that someone needs to do the same with a leaf blower. I think it's a guy thing - it makes tons of noise and blows the crap out of everything - what could be better? I think I may have swayed Andy on this one; he used it today for about 2 minutes before switching back to the rake. :-)

We're four-season walkers at Kittatinny State Park... the leaves may be gone now, but this warm weekend has pushed back winter in our minds - can Christmas really be just a few weeks away?? Ollie's very excited for snow.

Birthday Boy

2010-11-06T17:39:00.001-07:00

Ollie, you turned 4 today -- FOUR!! Four years ago I became a mom, Andy became a dad, and we held this big bundle in our arms, all 10 pounds, 10 ounces of you. We have marveled at your wonderfulness every day thereafter. You're so full of energy and joy and curiosity and kindness. And FUN! Speaking of fun, your fourth birthday was super, super fun... it started on Friday, when you helped me make your big airplane cake. You're such a good cook, and you love to pull a chair up to the counter and help in any way possible, especially if it involves the kitchen sink or cracking eggs (which you're very good at). You decided a few weeks ago that you'd like an airplane cake, so we spent lots of time looking at them on Google images, getting ideas. I finally got up the courage to design a plane that looked manageable, so I drew a picture of it on paper the size of the cake pan, then cut out the pieces. We made the cake together (double recipe! yum!), then let it cool and covered it for the night. Today we put the design pieces over the cake and cut it up, and made a double batch of butter frosting, but the cake turned out to be soooo big that I had to make extra frosting! It took a really long time to frost... you wanted a blue airplane, but this is the closest I could get without using so much coloring that it was yucky tasting. You were SO happy with the cake, and it was super delicious, but the best thing about it was making it together. It took so long to frost that sometimes you would wander away to play, then come back a little later and exclaim, "Wow, Mommy, you're doing a really great job with the frosting!"

So, this morning you came downstairs to a big stack of presents from us, both grandparents, your cousins in England, and Auntie Mavis. You got a Geotrax train, a remote control amphibious vehicle, books, an erector set, a Peppa Pig t-shirt, and more! We spent a good part of the day putting together your train and making your cake, and then at 3:30 we headed to Titan Gym for your little birithday party. Your closest friends were there - Ryan and Addie, Claire, Emily, Brooke and Maddie, Carys and Lowri, and Georgie of course - your oldest friend in New Jersey. Titan Gym has loads of trampolines, and you all had so much fun bouncing on them! After playing for an hour and getting really hot and tired, you came over to the party area for your yummy cake, juice, and other treats. It's so nice you have such good friends here, and we're happy we could celebrate your birthday with them... our little boy, who's not so little any more. We love you so very much, Ollie, you're the most lovely boy that ever was.

Our Little Dragon

2010-11-02T06:08:00.000-07:00

Ollie Bollie, you get your own Halloween post, to show off what a good sport you've been over the years in your first and only Halloween costume - a scary dragon! When you were one, you barely tolerated it, and mostly rolled around on the floor in an attempt to rub the costume off... but you did give us some smiles, as you can see!
You were just getting the hang of it when you were two, and the costume fit you well, with room to grow. That was the year that we'd just gotten back from England, only to find SNOW!
When you were three, the costume was a tiny bit snug, but you still loved it to bits. You really liked trick-or-treating this year.And this year, baby, the costume was truly too small for you, but you squeezed in like a sport, the dragon feet resting a few inches above your own. You were so excited about Halloween this year! You're a wonderful dragon, but you're still our little lamb, and we love you so much.

Halloween in T Harbor!

2010-11-01T06:26:00.000-07:00

What a great Halloween!!! We couldn't resist coming to Maine for a long weekend, and the chance to trick-or-treat on Watts Ave.! It was such a nice few days - morning walks down to the harbor with steaming coffee cups in hand, loads of playtime with Grandma and Granddaddy, Ian and Suz and cousin Eli... Granddaddy was super excited to give Ollie his "birthday boat" (a week before his birthday) -- a handmade little wooden boat that had a hidden "Happy Birthday" song in it from a greeting card, and a button on top that you press and hold down to make the song play! Ollie loved it, of course. Andy had to work in his nice office in the garage all day on Friday, where the woodstove kept him extra toasty. Over the weekend we carved our imported pumpkin (fresh from the fields in NJ!) -- Andy quickly got frustrated with traditional carving and opted for a more efficient technique - see photo! We were so impressed with the result, especially the delicate nostrils.

Saturday night was our big night out - Ian and Suz watched the kids for us (thank you!!!!) and we went across the street with Mom and Dad to our friend Beth's famous Halloween Party - she throws a bang-up party every year with a great costume theme that changes each time. This year it was to dress up as a song title, so I went as "Kiss" by Prince (making use once again of my fabulous homemade kiss costume), and Andy went as "Devil in Disguise." I loved mom's costume as well - she went as "Yesterday," and wore a costume made of newspaper from yesterday's paper, and a hat draped with black fabric since she "had a shadow hanging over her" - get it? Awesome!

Halloween day just flew by - Andy had to work in the morning, and I took the kids to G&Gs for a great bagel brunch. Eli came back with us to our house at Maddie's naptime, and he and Ollie had fun playing all day. We had everyone over for a dinner of Andy's famous saffron pistachio risotto with Maine shrimp and peas (super good batch!) and then it was time to get the kids suited up. At first Maddie fussed and struggled to get her tutu off, but pretty soon she seemed pretty happy with it. We all headed down to the East Wind, where they were giving out special goody bags in the lobby, then to Big Dave's house around the corner, and Anne and Tony's... after that, Mom and Dad headed back to our house to give out candy, and we continued on our rounds. It was freezing out (literally), and Ollie got tired and cranky pretty fast, but we all trudged on, the promise of candy keeping Ollie from total meltdown. I was so proud of our cute little house, pumpkins shining, long candlesticks in the front windows, sparkley decoration on the door, woodsmoke rising from the chimney. Such a Happy Halloween!!

"Tis the Season

2010-10-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

... for pumpkin hats!! Grandma Patty made these a few years ago - they're actually both the "grown up" sized hats, a bit roomy on the kids, but the baby sized one is too small for even Maddie now! They're so cute in them. I'm just really disappointed because we're here in Maine for Halloween weekend, and I've left the hats behind in NJ!!! And it's COLD here! Ah well, they did get quite a lot of use out of them this month, and we'll keep wearing them for a few more weeks, till we have to switch to super-duper warm hats.

Matzo

2010-10-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've ever posted a photo of our cat, and since the blog exists partly as a way for us to look back on our lives in years to come and remember the good, the bad, and the furry (Andy would use other adjectives to describe Matzo) - I thought I'd better post a few now. Today we actually installed a new cat door to the basement, since the existing door did not meet with Matzo's exacting requirements (the new one has a soft flap; the old one had a hard plastic flap). We're hoping that he'll deign to use it so we won't have to leave the entire door open at night, wasting lots of good woodstove heat. Another reason for posting photos is that many of our friends think we may have an "imaginary cat," since they never see him... he goes into deep hiding when there are strangers around, although he has been known to make appearances. He's actually in deep hiding a lot - but as soon as the kids are napping or asleep at night, he appears, happy and meowing for his dinner. He's MOST happy when Andy is away on business, and he has me all to himself. He may seem standoffish if you don't know him, but when it's just me and him, he's so cuddley and sweet. I love you, Matzo.

October Farm Fun

2010-10-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

We have had so much fun this month going to the local farms, especially Tranquilty Fams in Andover - nearly every weekend has been beautiful weather, and there's not much we'd rather do on those crisp, sunny days than dive into huge vats of corn! Seriously, it's awesome. Their hayride is so nice, although it starts off going right next to the pumpkin catapult area (see photo of Andy demonstrating his pumpkin hurling skills), so even though it's super fun to watch them get shot into the air towards a distant target (hopefully, not us) I'm always a bit afraid that we'll get pelted by a stray. That's the dramatic part of the ride; the rest of it is just nice, bumpy dirt road all the way to the pumpkin patch and back again through the woods. The first time we went we just enjoyed the ride, but then the pumpkins looked so good out there, we decided to go back the next weekend and actually get off the wagon and hunt for our own pumpkin. I may be wrong, but I think is be the first time I've ever done that! I felt bad for all the zillions of beautiful pumpkins out there that would never get picked, since there are just so many of them.

Turtleback Zoo

2010-10-19T06:37:00.001-07:00

We had a really fun trip to the zoo yesterday, with Emily and her friend, Jacob. The ferris wheel and the train were big hits, as usual. :-)

Boy Cut

2010-10-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I tried to cut Maddie's hair (as she wandered around, playing) and ended up giving her exactly the same cut that I always give Oliver. Bummer. Lesson learned: I can manage a boy cut, but not a girl cut!!

Walking Shoes

2010-10-16T19:23:00.000-07:00

Our little walking girl!! Couldn't resist posting this, as I'm so excited that since Maddie has (finally!) started walking, she can start wearing dresses!! Kind of hard to crawl in them... She pretty much completely missed "sundress" season, so we'll have to move on to warmer ones. Last weekend we had a little window of opportunity, on another visit to Sky Manor Airport. I guess this may be the last time she'll fit into this cute little sundress... she does look happy in it!

High Point

2010-10-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

They forecasted a very windy day today, so where did we go? High Point State Park, the highest place in NJ... where it was CRAZY WINDY!!!!! Just a beautiful day, gorgeous puffy clouds, great light, so many pretty fall leaves flashing their colors and blowing around. We took these pictures next to the big monument on the top of the mountain, and the wind was blowing so hard that you could barely breath, and it was actually blowing us around, and you could lean into it a bit... we all just laughed and laughed. Ollie loved it!! Maddie was a good sport, too, she seemed pretty impressed! Tomorrow is supposed to be even sunnier, and we're heading back to Tranquility Farms to have another hayride and choose a pumpkin. Yay!

England 2010: Part 12

2010-10-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

Now that we're back in the US, memories come back to us unexpectedly: Ollie sitting with Grandma on the sofa as she reads him a story, or making fantastic paper airplanes with Granddad, Maddie's first solo steps, feeding Rusty, the neighborhood cat, fresh thick cream from a saucer on the back deck, cups of tea, pints of beer, morning crumpets, rain, drizzle, mist, having a "fun things to do" list that kept growing rather than shrinking, picnics with the whole family, stone walls, hot and cold water running from separate taps, vast countryside, feeding the ducks, ravishing squares of millionaire's shortbread, cobblestones, coal fires, cricket, Cadbury's, sheep (can't forget the sheep!)... and Ollie saying, "I love it at the holiday house! We can walk to the sweet shop!" We loved every minute of it, and the only sad thing is that now it's over and it will be a little while before we're back. In the meantime, we'll just have to appreciate our sunny fall weather here a little bit more, and look forward to many, many skypes with Grandma and Granddad and the cousins. We love you!

England 2010: Part 11

2010-10-06T19:06:00.002-07:00

Our last day, boo hoo!! On our agenda was to finally get in a little train ride to Buxton, a nearby town with nice shopping and a wonderful park. We could just as easily drive there, but the point is - train ride!! After some final purchases on the main shopping street (including one of my favorite gift shops, Hargreaves & Sons!), we headed over to Pavillion Gardens for yet another nice picnic lunch. The kids had so much fun afterwards playing in the big gazebo, and having a singing contest that Grandma Carole had prepared for, complete with MEDALS (see photo)!! I think I have to teach Ollie more songs, as his entry was the "Wonder Pets" theme song. Then we headed over to the playground for a while, until we noticed that the sky was turning grey, then nearly black... so we started to hightail it back to the train station, but didn't quite make it. Halfway there it started to POUR, but all things considered, we only had about 4 minutes in the rain all day, so that was pretty good!

The rest of the day was dedicated to packing, and though we had planned a lovely dinner out at one of our favorite pubs, in the end we couldn't face it and just got a whole bunch of fish and chips from town and had them at home, picnic style. Since Carole and Maurice were staying overnight, Andy and I had the chance to sneak out later and meet Ian and Anne at the nice old pub at The George Hotel in town, which serves Jennings on draft!

England 2010: Part 10

2010-10-06T19:06:00.001-07:00

Wednesday was the day of our much-anticipated trip to the National Railway Museum in York (a couple of hours from Hayfield). Needless to say, Ollie was pretty excited! We met everyone there - Carole & Maurice, Steve & Al and the girls, and also Alison's parents, who live in York. The museum is huge and filled with dozens of trains, some of which you can climb onto and explore, one that's set up with a walkway underneath so you can look at the underside (cool!), and some great gift shops! I think pretty much every generation of train that's ever been made is represented here, even Japan's speed-train. We spent a lot of time in the outdoor playground as well, where there was a little train ride you can go on with the kids (see below, the kids ready with their tickets!) - we all had a big picnic lunch and basked in the glorious sunshine. It was such a fun day out, I was just sorry that we didn't have time to visit York Minster while we were there... I think next time we're going to need an overnight in York.

After a great day out, we headed home and the kids fell fast asleep in the car. We had a nice walk around town later, and another trip to the local playground down the road. Andy taught Ollie the trick of "super fast sliding," using your jacket under your bum for extra speed and low resistance!

England 2010: Part 9

2010-10-06T19:05:00.001-07:00

Finally, a sunny day!!!!! We were so happy to see the sun. We planned a big "outdoor day," starting with a very, very special walk up to Chinley Head, where Andy proposed to me just over 5 years ago. Awwwww. It's one of his favorite places on earth, and now mine, too. The walk starts just a mile or two away from Hayfield (when Andy and I went before, we walked from town), but this time we parked at the bottom of the hill. Ollie had his wellies on, which was good since there was quite a bit of mud, which he loved, of course. "It's really muddy here, Mummy." "Mummy, it's so muddy!" "Wow, mud!!" We weren't sure how he would be with walking a good long way, but he just kept on going, and at the very end, when the trail gets extra steep and bumpy, he sped up and I had to race to keep up! Maddie's happy squawks let us know that she was enjoying herself, too. It's amazing when you get to the top, because you can see for miles in every direction. Gorgeous!

After our beautiful walk, we met the whole family in Bakewell for a huge picnic lunch in the park. Then, Alison and I managed to sneak away for some girly shopping time while the boys (and Grandma!) took the kids to the nearby playground. A while later we all met up for tea, then headed home. Andy enjoyed the good weather well into the evening, meeting his friend, Steve, for a night ride in the high hills. :-)

England 2010: Part 8

2010-10-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

During our last week in England, Steve was off from work and the girls were on a special "vacation" from school, so we got to see them every day! On Monday, we went to their house in the morning to play and to see all the renovations they'd been doing, which look really great. I stayed in the car for a while with Maddie as she napped in her carseat, but from what I hear, the kids played "grocery shopping/cashier" inside for ages! For a few days after that, Ollie had a pocketful of plastic pence and pound coins. Around midday we all headed out to Cheshire Ice Cream Farm where we had lunch in the cafe and then super yummy ice cream - you have to look at their list of flavors, it's insane! I had toffee fudge. With tummies full, we spent a couple of hours in their big "play barn," which had a big-kid section, and a toddler section. It was here that Maddie, a couple of weeks shy of her 18-month birthday, first walked about 5 steps on her own! We were all very excited! Yay, Maddie!

England 2010: Part 7

2010-10-06T19:02:00.000-07:00

Sunday calls for Sunday Dinner! Granddad Maurice helped to organize a nice meal today with his cousin, Christine and her husband, Len. It was the first time I'd met them, and I was looking forward to it as they'd been so nice to send cards and gifts for our wedding, the kids, etc., but we'd never met! After a drive through the "Dark Peak's" bleak but interesting landscape, we met them around noon at the Rising Sun, a pub near Hope Valley that was about 50 minutes from Hayfield. A big family event, with Carole and Maurice, Steve and Al and the girls, and us. We were there for at least 3 hours, socializing first in the pub, then at a huge table in a big room that we had all to ourselves - which was lucky, as the kids needed to run around a bit by the end of it. I had wonderful lamb with all the fixings, mmmm.
Back in Hayfield later on, we had a great little walk up to "20 Trees," a grouping of trees on a hillside overlooking town (see first photo). Ollie had fun climbing over or around all the different stiles at the fences, and he trooped all the way up the hill without complaining! It was so nice, looking down at our pretty town from up there, and it was windy, too, as you can see!

England 2010: Part 6

2010-10-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning, we finally had a visit from Auntie Mavis, Carole's sister. She came by the house and we had a nice time catching up - always good fun seeing Auntie Mavis. After Maddie's morning nap, we all headed down the road to the Hayfield Country Show and Sheepdog Trials. It was just what you'd imagine a great English country fair would be -- a lovely farmer's market, sweet rides for the kids, crafts, animal demonstra- tions... and RAIN!! We got lucky in that the first hour we were there was only *threatening* rain, but then it started... and unfortunately for the fair, it continued straight through the following day and was so heavy that they had to cancel that second day of the fair. Their website (above) shows photos of the sad, muddy hillside that remained after all was cleared away. Poor Hayfield Fair! Nevermind, we had a great time - the first photo shows a cyclist doing some cool tricks on ramps, in a very small physical space. I love this shot because it shows how beautiful the setting was; the fair itself took place on a hillside, so you were always trudging up or heading down, and at the bottom of the hill was another hill - so pretty. Pushing Maddie in the stroller wasn't easy! The next photo shows a sheepdog doing its "sheepdog thing," trying to rally the sheep into a special fenced area in the most efficient way. And then here's Ollie, enjoying a good old bounce. Our little lamb.

Almost forgot! That night Carole and Maurice babysat again and Andy and I went to Ian and Anne's house for a dinner party! All the usual suspects in attendance - Steve and Sabina, AJ and Ute - only Nige and Camilla were missing. Wonderful dinner with great friends, but no camera!

England 2010: Part 5

2010-10-06T10:53:00.000-07:00

After Andy got back from his morning bike ride, we headed to Lyme Park to meet Carole and check out the great new playground that has been built up along a hillside, making use of the natural inclines of the land... Ollie loved the big sandbox and digger, and Maddie loved the slide and swings. After a good long visit and a picnic lunch, we checked out the duck pond and then headed home. After some down time, we had a trip to the next town over, New Mills, and its fantastic Torrs Millennium Walkway - a gorgeous new bridge and walkway that winds itself along a huge retaining wall, past an old cotton mill c. 1788, over and around a river and waterfalls, and right past the New Mills screw generator that powers about 60 homes in the town and would really get Granddad Richie excited! A beautiful walk - I could have explored for hours, but Ollie had a pretty short attention span for some reason. The rest of the day was quiet as well - we had lovely fish and chips for dinner back in Hayfield at the Village Chippy, sitting on a bench outside the church in town, and then had a little bit of a walk around town. Nice day!

England 2010: Part 4

2010-10-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was another big day, my big "date day" with Andy in Manchester! We forgot the camera, though! We wouldn't have taken many photos, anyway, as it was super windy and drenching rain again! But we didn't mind - a whole day to ourselves, with lovely Grandma and Granddad watching the kids back home! We took the train from New Mills to Manchester, did some shopping and then had lunch at the little-known Sculpture Hall Cafe in Manchester's Town Hall - we both had delicious soups and paninis. Then we made our way via tram and bus to the Lowry Theater to see Evita - Andy's birthday present from his mom and dad - it was a great show! Neither of us expected that Evita was actually pretty much a self-serving egomaniac, but that's how she's portrayed in the show. Interesting. Show's what I know! After that, bus and tram back to town, then trudged for ages to find an old pub Andy used to go to with friends, which apparently has changed hands and turned into a complete pit!! Made us laugh, though (despite sore feet). Then on, via a short bus trip, to the "curry mile" for a great Indian dinner - well, our dinners were so-so, but the appetizers were great and we loved it anyway.

So, the great photos here are from our big outing on Thursday to the viewing area at Manchester Airport. Andy's best friend and airplane enthusiast, Ian, came along, and we all eagerly awaited the arrival of the huge A380, which lands daily a little after noon. We also enjoyed watching all the other planes taking off and landing every few minutes. We had a nice lunch at the cafe there, right next to the Concord that's stored in a hanger on the site. Super fun monring, and nice blue skies! After that, we headed to Run of the Mill in New Mills, our favorite indoor playplace, for hours of fun with T & N - Granddad joined the fun, as always!

England 2010: Part 3

2010-10-06T07:55:00.001-07:00

Tuesday was our first big day out, and very big it was!! We decided to go to Blackpool (a couple of hours away) to see the famous Illuminations, but that didn't start until dusk, so we added on a trip to Bowness, the closest lake in the Lake District. Carole and Maurice came as well, and we met up to walk to town together for a boat ride and some sightseeing. Bowness is supposed to be a bit less crowded than nearby Windermere, but it didn't seem like it on this day! We got on a boat quickly, though, and had a great trip out, even though the ever-changing English weather turned from happy sun to spooky clouds and light rain about 5 minutes after we set out! By the end of the journey, some of us escaped to the lower part of the boat, enclosed with windows and toasty warm. Afterwards, we braved the crowded streets and strolled through town, also braving Andy's harumphing (low crowd tolerance). :-)

Then we made our way to Blackpool, a seaside town that had its heyday in the 50s and 60s and now has a fantastic ambiance that walks the line between throwback cool and horrifying tackiness. There are miles of boardwalk, endless restaurants and "tat shops" (places to buy tat, not tattoo shops!), gorgeous peirs, a huge amusement park... it's just such an interesting mix of old charm and new sleaze. We started off with an early dinner of fish and chips at the famous Harry Ramsden's, which definitely hit the spot. Then we headed out to the very end of the nearest peir, and on our way out the skies darkened and the wind picked up, light rain began to fall, then heavy... it was so crazy out there at the end! Windy, high waves, dramatic skies - at the rounded end of the peir, it felt like you were at the bow of a great big ship in the middle of a storm. Ollie loved it! When the worst of the rain and clouds passed, there was a gorgeous rainbow that reached right to Blackpool Tower. We made our way back to the boardwalk and passed some time in the arcade, where the kids had a blast riding on little rides and playing games like the coin push, that only cost 2p to play. And finally - the Illuminations! Over 4 miles of the boardwalk magically lights up at 8pm, and every hundred feet or so is something different to see. People come from miles around to drive (or sometimes walk) these miles and see the beautiful lights. I think our favorite part was seeing the local tram-cars decorated with lights -- a train, a boat, etc. - the kids were transfixed with it all, and for Andy, it was a trip down memory lane.

England 2010: Part 2

2010-10-06T07:40:00.000-07:00

Sunday was a quiet day, as we were all still tired, but we didn't want to waste any time, either! I think mostly we explored town and spent a lof of time with Carole and Maurice and Steven and Alison, Andy's brother and sister-in-law, and their wonderful girls, T & N. Skypes will be so much more fun, now that the cousins have had so much time to play together!

On Monday, we headed to Buxton to browse the shops and visit the botanical garden, where Ollie was transfixed with the wonderful fish pond. I think this was a pretty quiet day as well, I don't remember a lot!

England 2010: Part 1

2010-10-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

I'm determined to use the blog to record a travelog of our recent trip to England in September - seems like a daunting task, so much to tell and so many photos to sort through, but I'll do my best!

After a pretty quick flight over (just 6.5 hours!), during which the kids slept about 3 hours and Andy and I not a wink, we arrived at our cute "cottage" in Hayfield around late morning, excited to explore every bit of it and so happy to see Andy's parents, Carole and Maurice. Carole had worked SO hard to equip the house with every possible thing we could need - a bed rail for Ollie, crib sheet and blanket for Maddie, every imaginable toiletry, tons of books and toys, a stroller, and a ridiculous amount of groceries in the fridge and cupboards and freezer... not just butter, milk, eggs, cheese, but sausages, jams, ketchup, peanut butter, spices, drinks, pizzas for the kids, homemade mac and cheese, and favorite treats like battenburg, malt loaf, and Marks & Spencer double chocolate rolls! It was amazing.

Ollie wasted no time in proving himself an equal-opportunity stripper (both sides of the Atlantic), taking off nearly all his clothes and prompting our first photo, taken in the living room. The backyard overlooked a lovely cricket pitch, and there was even a game underway when we got there, or at least a practice. I never got tired of that view, with the pretty hillside beyond - just so pretty. We all had a fantastic afternoon nap for several hours, and woke up so refreshed. We were determined to attend Granddad Maurice's concert with the Tideswell Male Voice Choir that night at 6pm at Peak Cave in Castleton - that's right, a concert in a CAVE! It was fantastic, and Maurice even had a solo, "Bring Him Home," which always makes me cry when I hear him sing it. So glad we were there! That night we all slept like logs.

The house was just wonderful - playroom and laundry room on the ground floor, with a grassy patio outside, living room, kitchen, and bathroom on the main floor, with a nice little back deck, 3 bedrooms and a full bath on the 2nd floor, and a big bedroom with 2 skylights on the top floor - old hardwood floors, deep windowsills, and steep stairs that felt like exercise to climb, all just right. Half the oven didn't work, and the internet signal never showed up, but other than that, perfect! We just loved that we could step out through our pretty red front door and walk down the hill town in 2 minutes, to a couple of little food stores, a coffee shop, magazine shop, gift and antique stores, several pubs, and of course, the village chippy! At the other end of the cricket patch was a really sweet playpark for the kids, which we visited a few times when it wasn't raining!

Sunny Sunday

2010-10-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

What a gorgeous weekend! After a few days of heavy rain, we've been rewarded by just the most beautiful fall weather, and we spent a lot of it outdoors. On Saturday we had a fun trip to Lake Mohawk, and today we went to some farms in Chester and Long Valley. Alstede (Chester) was a complete ZOO, and we were really disappointed that most of the animals are gone now, replaced with more gimmicky kid stuff that you have to pay for. We left there pretty quickly and headed to Ort Farm down the road, which was soooo much nicer!! So many different animals, loads of fun things for the kids to explore, and a really fantastic hayride pulled by a big huge tractor out into a faraway pumpkin patch. We didn't get off to pick pumpkins, just rode the whole loop at once, and we especially loved when the tractor had to drive straight through these fantastic monster puddles. Best of all, the hayride was only $1 per person - nice to see a place that isn't trying to milk people at every turn. It was loads of fun, so glad we went. We brought home fresh corn, lovely apples, cider, and pumpkin butter!

Sunny Morning

2010-09-08T06:21:00.001-07:00

We miss you, Daddy!! Here are a couple of new photos, the first one from just a few minutes ago! When Maddie came to snuggle with me this morning, she kept saying "Dadd-y!" over and over again... how she loves her daddy. And this morning when Ollie was breaking eggs into a bowl for our eggs-on-toast breakfast, he said, "This one is for daddy." Can't wait till you're home!PS! Just sent this text in an email to Andy, and realized it would cover a lot of our news today, so here's some "email style" news! Here goes:

nice time with ryan today, bit frenetic... nice play in the park (the one by the library in sparta, shady), walked around the corner to the pizza place next to the watch repair place, kids were loud and annoying, played a bit more outside the library then we headed home, i think they went on to the boardwalk but i couldn't take another in and out of the car, etc!!

home to play with ollie's new remote control car that we got at tj maxx (along with cute little fleece coats for both of them) for EIGHT dollars, and it's great!! has headlights and everything, goes both ways and turns, and controls from a long way off - no problem all the way from the downstairs bathroom to the hearth! he loves it so much, can't stop playing with it, makes him giggle. i think we might bring it with us to the airport, etc - could be hours of entertainment! assuming it doesn't self destruct, being $8 after all.

quick phone call with mom, which was interrupted when i saw maddie and wondered what she'd spilled - all wet on either side of her thighs and calves and her upper back, unusual pattern, until i realized quickly that it was POO!!!!!! super crazy liquidy poo that she must have done while kneeling or something, hence the pattern.... so she got stripped down, rinsed in tub, then a bath. daddy was glad he wasn't here for that!!

now she's (hopefully) having a nap, and i'm going in the shower myself. oh and we have a showing tomorrow at 4:30pm! a new person. ah, i'll have to check when you're due home... if it conflicts with the showing, i'll call antoinette. not likely, but i'll check.

Bears Again!

2010-09-08T05:50:00.001-07:00

A week or so ago, Ollie said he saw something on our front yard, something black. I figured maybe it was our resident groundhog, or a neighborhood cat. When I asked him how big it was, he held his arms out as wide as they would go. Still, I figured he'd taken on his father's penchant for exaggeration... but we went outside to investigate. We didn't see anything at first, but then we noticed something moving near the corner of the house, by the driveway, and were amazed to see two bears! Enjoying a breakfast snack of crab-apples from our little tree. We dashed inside to tell Andy (working in his office, on the phone - I had to mime "Bears!") and to get the camera; meanwhile, Andy discovered there were THREE bears! I had Maddie in my left arm, camera in my right, and Ollie and I ventured back outside to get some good photos... it was really cool. The bears just went about their business, and after a few minutes there was a noise from the woods nearby and they ambled away. I wouldn't want them around all the time, that's for sure, but once in a great while... we just love them.

Rock Star

2010-08-22T08:36:00.000-07:00

She only wears the glasses for about 20 seconds at a time, but whenever I first put them on, she gets this huge grin on her face!

Here's a full list of her first words, to date:
Dadd-y!
Ma-ma
MINE!
Kitt-y
Bed

Eggs on Toast

2010-08-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

Ollie in the crown he made at camp yesterday, very pleased with himself!

Camp!!!

2010-08-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

Our big boy Ollie had his first day of camp yesterday! No surprise, he loved every minute of it. In the morning I made banana pancakes to celebrate the event (ok, it was leftover batter, but they were homemade!!), and I asked Ollie what I should make with the last bit of batter. He asked for a cow (a cow??!), and I did my best... but as you can see, it appears that I made an outstanding terrier!! Witnessed by this photo, he was very pleased with it.

We heard about Lakeland Hills YMCA Camp from my friend Carol, whose son, Ryan, had attended earlier in the summer. He enrolled again for this session, along with Ollie - and for Ollie it's his first time EVER in the care of others, excluding a few hours here and there with family members or a sitter!! So it was a big day for me as well, as you can imagine. Yes, I actually teared up a bit when I dropped him off and watched him dash off to join the fun, immersed immediately in all the excitement. My little boy! Andy dropped him off today, and the same thing happened to him - Ollie jumped out of the car to greet the awaiting counselor, and Andy overheard him say, "You know what?" (a very typical Ollie-ism right now!). Here's a photo of Ollie and Maddie right before we left for his first day. Impossibly cute.

Each day when I pick him up, he apparently remembers nothing of what he did that day, not even what he had for lunch. Although today was a swimming day, he did remember that! By "swimming" I mean floating with special floaty things attached to you... he loved it. Other details come back to him slowly through the afternoon, in dribs and drabs. On my part, I'm already getting used to having a few relatively peaceful hours in the day (especially when Maddie is napping!!). All I know is, Ollie is going to LOVE preschool, whenever we get around to signing him up for it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY!!!

2010-08-05T04:54:00.001-07:00

Poor Andy is in Germany for his birthday, but we're here at home sending big, huge birthday hugs and kisses his way!!! We had some celebrations together last weekend, even a 13-hour power outage (very thoughtful of the power company!) which forced us to have a lovely birthday breakfast on the boardwalk at Lake Mohawk! And Ollie was very helpful at eating all that pesky frosting off the carrot cake that night. Andy has a fun weekend in England with family and friends coming up after tomorrow, so don't feel too sorry for him. :-)
One of my birthday presents is getting the kids to sit together and attempt smiles at the same time for a photo (witnessed here) - always a challenge. Not wholly successful today, but a good effort. I'm celebrating Andy's birthday - while he toils away in meetings across the sea - by getting a babysitter and having a pedicure with my friend, Beth!! tee hee! I didn't mean for it to be today, actually, just worked out that way.
To my wonderful husband, so far away - we love you more than words could ever say, and hope you can feel our bear hugs all the way over there. xoxoxoxoxoxooxoxo!!!

A couple of cuties

2010-08-04T17:51:00.000-07:00

Had to post this great photo of Oliver from today... he made this fantastic castle all on his own, a new design I've never seen before! He can't wait to show Daddy, though he'll have to wait a bit, since Daddy's in Germany. Speaking of that, Oliver has *already* grown out of "Germdiddy" - I was hoping that might last a bit longer. Now when I say, "Oh, Daddy's in Germdiddy," he says, "No, Germany." Aw, man!
Anyway, we had a nice day, starting with a great visit to Hillside Park in Andover with Carol, Ryan and Addie, as well as our friends Marcy and Emily. It was super humid out today, hot as well, but luckily there's a fair bit of shade at that park. I think the kids wore themselves out, as I actually managed early bedtimes for the first time in ages! We miss you Daddy, counting down the days. oxoxox

Cousin Saul's visit!

2010-08-04T17:32:00.000-07:00

Rachel and Beth have moved back to NYC, and we finally had an overnight visit in early July. It was soooo nice to see them, and of course SUPER fun for Ollie to spend time with his big cousin, Saul! When I picked them up from the train station in Dover, I couldn't believe how much Saul reminded me of Ollie, laughing at the silly chipmunk voice on my GPS, telling funny stories, asking offbeat questions. I know they will grow up to be good friends! We had a nice dinner - Andy's yummy tandoori chicken and my cucumber-grape-mint salad, and the boys all had fun putting up the tent with the promise of camping that night, but in the end we decided it would be easier (mostly for the adults) to save camping for another night. Rachel and Beth marvelled at how quiet it is out here, how peaceful (although lately I think that the chirping crickets out there every night could give the noise of NYC a run for its money!)... I'm sure when we visit them we'll marvel at how easy it is to get to great museums, events, and restaurants. We just can't wait for the next visit -- love you!

Does it get any better than this?

2010-08-03T19:35:00.000-07:00

Daddy's - oops, I mean Ollie's - new toy! Ha ha, we all know it's Daddy's new toy, you don't have to twist his arm to get him to purchase anything bike-related!! No, this is equally loved by Dad and son alike - Ollie pretty much yelped with glee upon his first ride out with his dad. Imagine, you're 3 1/2 years old, and you've biked here and there lots of times, pretty much on flat areas or down very little slopes, carefully. All of a sudden, you're zooming down the road behind your dad, going fast! Up and down hills with ease! Ollie does not stop smiling when he's on that bike with his dad. Bliss. And this last weekend, they actually went mountain biking together! Mild trails, so I'm told, but still, into the woods and along lake Aeroflex in Andover. Ollie loved it to bits, and Andy says he pulls his weight most of the time, doesn't just let Dad do all the work. That's our boy!!

What Happened to June and July?!

2010-08-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

I'm here to report that two months have passed since I posted an update!! However, my computer died partway through that time, so there's my excuse - ha!! And you thought I was just being lazy. Catching up now, it's hard to know where to start, so I'll just give it a go. The summer so far has been marked with various trips up to Maine... we just can't get enough of it!! Maddie had her first "taste" of proper ocean beach fun - I'm happy to report that she didn't try to eat the sand, as Oliver did when he first visited Drift Inn Beach, a younger baby than her wise 14 months or so. Or maybe he wasn't younger, maybe he just liked to eat sand! He learned quickly that it wasn't yummy. Maddie wasn't too impressed with the whole "sand thing," I must say... but she's warming up to it slowly.
Ollie, as you can see, looks "wicked good" in his lobster trunks (purchased in NJ!) - I bought a size 5T in hopes he'll get two years' worth of use out of them, as cute as they are. He never gets tired of the beach, searching for hermit crabs in the tide pools, digging holes, making castles, meeting new friends, getting braver and braver in the water. Mostly it boils down to how much energy mommy has to get all the junk together and actually get us to the beach, and also how the low and high tide schedule works with Maddie's nap. Thinking back, I feel like we didn't have enough beach time yet this summer, but I guess it's not over yet.
Speaking of the beach, I would be remiss not to mention our nice trips to the beach at Lake Mohawk with Ryan, Addie, and their mom, Carol! No drama of the ocean there, just lots of fun with friends, and lots of messy sand and sunscreen. It is nearly impossible, after taking loads of photos of Maddie wearing her very first swimsuit, to decide which is the cutest shot to put on the blog! I give up, here's my best effort.

Turtleback Zoo!

2010-05-28T16:49:00.000-07:00

While Andy spent his last day (for a while) in Germany, I took the kids to Turtleback Zoo in West Orange, NJ for the first time ever - what a great day! We have a regular Friday playdate with Ryan and Addie, and being with them (and their mom, Carol, of course!) made it even more fun. We've taken the kids to the Bronx Zoo several times, but Turtleback is only 25 or 30 minutes away, and very sweet - it even has a fantastic little train ride that goes along a nature preserve and a lovely lake and is - miraculously - included in the cost of admission.

Ollie took his very first ride ever on a horse... he really liked it! He shared a "seed stick" with Ryan in the "birdhouse," where zillions of birds swoop around and land right on your stick to eat the seeds - Maddie and Addie were transfixed! The only real mishap of the day (besides nearly losing Oliver a couple of times, and almost letting Maddie roll down a hill in her stroller) was when Ollie fell on the pavement (tripped in his new crocs, I think) and scraped his knee badly. He spent the next hour holding up his shorts so they wouldn't rub against his ouchy knee (see last photo). Poor little guy!

They both slept all the way home, which was a much longer "way" than usual, as we hit pretty bad Friday afternoon westbound traffic... I didn't mind, though, it just meant they both got decent naps. We look forward to visiting Turtleback often!

Germdiddy

2010-05-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

Andy's in Germany *again* - or "Germdiddy," as Oliver says, but he was home for the weekend and we all had such a good time. On Saturday, we went to Horseshoe Lake to fly a new kite that Andy brought back from China (didn't fly hight, but at least it stayed in the air!) - Ollie just laughs and laughs when the kite starts to fly. Maddie is still practicing her crawling, and hasn't even stood up yet on two feet really, even though she's nearly 14 months old!! But seriously, look at that crinkley-nosed smile, could she be any cuter?? Pretty much impossible. She's going to be a silly one, I can tell that already.

Now, before I forget them all, and speaking of "Germdiddy," I would write down some of our favorite "Ollie-isms" -- Maddie of course will have her own list in a year or two. Here are a few to get us started, and I'll be sure to add more as they come!

Bunny Easter
I wuv yis.
Get away from our direction! (to a truck going slowly in front of us)
Maddie, chill down!
(Ollie, do you want a raincoat?) No, I'm otay.
In a potit (pocket)
Oojoos (juice)
Kepit (ketchup)
Ay-pot (airport)
Nunu (vacuum)
Dama and Dandaddy

Tub Fun

2010-05-19T07:36:00.000-07:00

A live-action shot for Daddy - doesn't get any more "live" than this, as I have the laptop in the bathroom and the kids are still in the tub!!!!! A rainy day bath... both are having a grand old time. Maddie will take a nap after this, and Ollie and I will carry on with the packing. Back to NJ tomorrow, then Daddy's home on Friday, yay!!!!

Fast and Slow

2010-05-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

So, only a few more days and we head home to NJ; Andy's home on Friday, so now there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Partly it feels like eons that we've been apart, but coming to Maine makes the time go so much faster, so I'm also surprised that we only have 2 more full days here till we drive home.

I haven't posted new photos recently for Andy, so here are a few; I'll add some news in a bit, but it's nearly bedtime now and I just want to get the photos up!! From a few days ago at a fun playground in Rockland. :-)

Perfect May Day

2010-05-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

Except for missing Daddy, it’s a beautiful day here today. Sunny, crisp, around 60 degrees, and so many pretty flowers in bloom. After breakfast, we took our favorite little stroll down to the harbor, with Maddie in the Bjorn and Ollie on his trike. He was very careful going down the little hill, so he wouldn’t go too fast, and then at the end he took off, ending up at the flower garden in front of the East Wind, where I took this first picture. When we got to the benches by the rocks, there was a couple there that we’d waved hello to yesterday, when they’d been sitting on the porch of the East Wind. I started chatting with them today, and found out that they were staying at the inn, visiting from Minneapolis, Minnesota. When I asked them what brought them to this spot, they said that they had honeymooned here 25 years ago, and were revisiting the spot as a gift from their four kids! I thought that was so lovely, and we had a great chat, talking about some of the great spots they could visit that they may not have heard of, and what little things had changed here in the 25 years since their last visit. So here’s to Beth and Todd, who just made my day – Happy Anniversary!!!

Mother's Day Minus One

2010-05-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother’s Day! I fully realize that I’m one of the luckiest women in the world, with two beautiful, fantastic kids and a husband I cherish. In case you ever wonder, I don’t take it for granted in even the tiniest way. Today was really lovely, even though Andy (my “minus one”) was away; he didn’t miss his chance to send me flowers, a really pretty plant of miniature roses! We had a few nice chats on the phone, in the morning from England and the evening from Germany. He had a good weekend back home between meetings in Germany, and managed (besides lots of time with family and friends) to fit in three of his favorite things: a full English breakfast, a good hot curry, and fish & chips! Can’t beat that. I’m glad he doesn’t miss many holidays; nothing’s ever just right without him, or as sweet, or as fun.

That aside, it *was* a sweet and fun Mother’s Day! The best part was going to Chloe’s house for brunch this morning, even though my dad decided to stay home as he wasn’t feeling great. Chloe’s mom was there, and another friend as well, and Chloe made THE most killer Eggs Benedict I’ve probably ever had. Yum! And kumquat tart for dessert. It was so nice to see her and her mom and chat about things and reminisce. Maddie decided not to fall asleep on the drive there, even though it was naptime, so she was really cranky and loud the whole time, which was frustrating. Oliver, conversely, amused himself a lot, playing inside and out, so he won in the “easier to manage” contest this morning - an unusual accomplishment for him!
On the drive home, we stopped and gawked at our old house in Union, which is now well over 200 years old and is undergoing MAMMOTH renovations, including the demolition and partial rebuild of the house and workshops that once connected the main house to the barn. This is pretty much painful for us to see. My parents owned the house for 30 years, and I lived there from when I was two years old, so it’s very much a part of us all. I guess it’s good that it’s getting love and attention, but I’d prefer that it get love and attention and always remain exactly as we left it!! :-) I love that house.
Then we came home, by way of Rockland and a couple of errands (Maddie slept the whole time, and Oliver napped as well). By the time we got back to mom and dad’s house, dad was just finishing mowing the lawn, and he and Oliver decided to fly a kite, and promptly got it stuck in a tree. We all took some nice photos together, then played inside for a bit. After Maddie’s afternoon nap, we went for dinner at our favorite local restaurant, the Happy Clam, which specializes in German food and has (pork) Jaeger Schnitzel that is to die for. I can never order anything else, it’s that good. I don’t remember the last time that I was in Maine for Mother’s Day – it was so nice to be able to share the day with my wonderful mom!!
I won’t be able to post this for another day or so, as Crappoint – oops I mean Fairpoint - has failed again at setting up our services here in Maine when they said they would. Not that I expected them to. Heading up to bed now on Mother’s Day 2010. I am blessed to be the mom of my beautiful lambs, who make me laugh every day and are just the best things ever. Let me note just a few of the things I especially love about them, my 3 ½ and 1 year olds: I love that Ollie is so playful with his sister, and laughs when she’s silly, and is gentle with her, and gives her kisses. I love that Maddie fans her fingers over her lips and makes the most endearing “bubababa” sound, and that she forges her own way through the world, currently with a wonderful “s-crawl,” and that she points and smiles and says “Da-da” now when she sees Andy on our computer during a Skype call. I love that Ollie dances by slightly bending his knees, and that he’s super happy if you give him an umbrella or a flashlight or binoculars. That Maddie doesn’t just love to clap her hands, she loves to clap your hands. That Ollie is so full of love and enthusiasm (“Wow, Mommy, I loooooove going to the dump!” “I just looooove my dinosaur underwear!”). There is no end to the things I love about you both, my sweet babies.

Mr. Roboto

2010-05-06T06:11:00.001-07:00

A little post for Daddy, so he can have a peek at our morning shenanigans. :-) Bit cloudy out there today, but that's fine as I have to pack for Maine and clean the house all day. We're just sitting around having our Cheerios now.... Maddie is still practicing her *extraordinarily* loud squawking skills, for no apparent reason except that she CAN. I need a cup of coffee.

Making tracks

2010-05-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

Each in his or her own way... here's Maddie, showing off her new(ish) crawling skills (it's made my life a lot easier, since she's taken her time in crawling and walking!) - she's definitely getting around now, keeping us all on our toes. Sometimes she still tucks one leg beside her and one leg in front of her and plunks them along in little jumps; other times she crawls in the "traditional" fashion. Both ways are super cute.

Meanwhile, one of Ollie's favorite pastimes is still mowing the lawn with Daddy on the big tractor. He's careful to bend down and avoid the low hanging branches at the side of the yard (see first photo), and even gets to steer some of the time. Both boys pretty much love it to bits (see second photo).

Bowling Boys

2010-05-05T12:40:00.000-07:00

Had a great day out a few weeks ago with Ollie's friend Ryan, sister Addie, and mom Carol -- we went bowling, Ollie's first time ever! They had a really good time - it's lucky that they put up special bumpers over the gutters, or these guys would never knock over one pin!!! In one photo, they're lying down, mainly because it takes sooooo long for the ball to get all the way down to the pins, you could take a nap while waiting!!

A glance back...

2010-05-05T12:21:00.000-07:00

Time to step up the blog production again, now that Daddy's away and missing his lambs!! I have a big "April" folder of photos on my computer, but have posted very few of them, so I'm going to start there. Let's see... I'll start with a couple of "artistic shots" of Ollie playing with his new favorite toy - Magnatiles!! Our wonderful friends Cindy and Eric Middleton visited us last month on their way home to Ann Arbor from a trip to the Big Apple, and they brought Ollie the tiles as a gift... I have never seen him so taken with a toy, ever! He's constantly finding new ways to build them into creative constructions... a super long runway, an ice cream cone, a city of tents, a high tower, a spaceship... those are some of his favorites. Here are photos of one of the early houses we made together - so pretty with the light shining through!

It was SO fun to see Cindy and Eric again, after all these years (we figured it might be as many as ten). There are a few people you meet in your life that are just so lovely, you want to hold them in your pocket. I guess the best you can do is hold them in your heart, and get together whenever the opportunity comes!

Happy Birthday, Maddie!

2010-04-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

Good Heavens! My friend, Jenna, mentioned recently that I haven't posted to the blog recently.... not only was I pleased (as always) to hear that someone actually reads the blog (!!), but I am now *shocked* to discover that I haven't even posted a birthday blog yet!!! Our beautiful Madeline turned One on April 2, while we were frolicking in Maine. We were sooo lucky that her birthday fell during the time that Andy was up there, too. We love it there all the time, and we get to see so much of Grandma Patty and Granddad Richie, BUT the best times of all are when Daddy is there with us, too (we're there a fair amount when Andy has to travel for work).

We started Maddie's birthday with our favorite morning activity - a walk to the harbor, with a stop along the way at the general store for coffee and pastry. Later in the morning, Maddie and I went to mom and dad's house to decorate her cakes, while Andy and Oliver worked on putting up a homemade swing at our house... a valiant but ultimately hopeless effort. I think they had fun trying, though. The rest of the day was just peaceful - the weather was amazing, sunny, warm, and bright. Maddie shares her birthday with her Aunt Suzanne (my brother's wife), and we celebrated Suz's birthday with a special dinner at mom and dad's house - filet mignon! Yum.

The next day, we had a little birthday party for Maddie - she woke up from her nap just in time! Some of our fabulous friends and neighbors attended, and we were lucky that both Eli and Aidan were in town as well. Maddie tolerated wearing the cutest little birthday crown for a while - so sweet! The cakes were super yummy - chocolate (Martha Stewart recipe, very easy), one with white chocolate frosting, the other with buttercream. Maddie even thought that the ocassion of her birthday would be a good time to practice her crawling... she's a late bloomer, in that area! She's just the best girl, with the best big brother - and we're the luckiest parents.

Sooooo Big!!

2010-03-29T06:06:00.001-07:00

Maddie has two new great tricks - she's clapping her hands when we do, and also raising her hands above her head for "sooooooo big!!" And she's sooooo cute!! Meanwhile, Ollie and Granddaddy have been VERY busy building an air craft carrier in the workshop for a week or so; Granddaddy takes the design and implementation very seriously! Excellent attention to detail. We got a couple of cool "Blue Angel" jets at the museum yesterday, perfect for landing on the new airstrip.

High Flying

2010-03-29T05:02:00.000-07:00

We had another trip to the Owls Head Trans portation Museum yesterday - we found out they were having a special exhibit and rally of remote control cars and helicopters and airplanes as well as models of all sorts... couldn't miss that!! Loads of fun. Ollie wore his new overalls, so Grandma suggested we add the train conductor's hat and scarf (usually reserved for the conductor of the Christmas train) to complete the "look!" WAY too cute. Just a few more days and Daddy will be here - we can't wait!!

Busy Busy (well, not actually busy)

2010-03-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

Been having a nice time up here in Maine... the rain has passed, finally, and today was just gorgeous. Cooler temps coming in now, so I hear, but this morning we had a nice walk down to the harbor and around town, did some raking at the Greatest Cape, had a lovely lunch here at home with our friend, Carole, and then this afternoon we biked in the driveway and attempted kite flying - but we either need an easier kite (maybe) or a better kite-flying mom (definitely).

Maddie has been practing standing up, as you can see (with proud Granddaddy) - she LOVES practicing, always big smiles. This morning, Ollie announced he wanted to "nu-nu up," which is his word for vacuuming (he got it from the name of the vacuum character on Teletubbies). And he tried out just about every bike in the garage this afternoon, including his grandmother's "heirloom" trike!! A really nice day, except that we miss daddy.

More Maine Fun

2010-03-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

A few more favorite photos to share... at the playground today with Ollie's friend Weston (who just turned 4), "helping" tidy up the yard today, and a "boys day out" trip to the Owls Head Transportation Museum with Granddaddy yesterday. Busy weekend!!

Kite Flying with Chloe

2010-03-20T04:56:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I'm going to write "gorgeous spring day in Maine" and "March" in the same sentance... but I am! We've had beautiful weather up here for the last few days, and everyone's surprised... mom even saw the first blackfly yesterday!! We drove to Union (my hometown) in the afternoon, and when Ollie woke up from his nap in the car (the only place he naps at all now), Chloe found this fantastic kite she'd brought back with her from a trip to China. Pretty much the coolest kite ever. In her typical enterprising way, she fashioned a spool of string from various "found objects," and off we went into her big front field. The kite took off right away, as it's made of lots of tiny bits that hardly weigh anything at all; Ollie loved running back and forth with it, and he did a good job of keeping track of the string. I can't think of a nicer way to spend a sunny afternoon in Maine.