Happy 10th Anniversary

A surprise delivered to work this morning for my 10th wedding anniversary.

Let's Dance

Big H's first dance recital was on Sunday, the culmination of weekly lessons since September. It was almost too cute for words. Her class performed two dances - a tap routine to "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast and then a ballet routine to the "Beauty and the Beast" title theme. Big H looked beautiful in her costume, especially with her blue eyes. Too bad it started falling apart on Saturday after the dress rehearsal. All of the fur trim started to fall off. At first, it was just the piece that runs down the center. As I was holding it in my hands to try and sew it, the rest of it started to unravel. I called my mom in a panic on Saturday night at 9:30pm and she came over early before the recital to help repair it. And Big H's wasn't the only costume this happened to; I would expect more considering we paid $60 for it.

But we didn't let it ruin the day. Big H did an excellent job, considering this was her first recital and the large high school auditorium was packed with people she didn't know. She didn't seem nervous at all. Her cheering section was quite large - 11 of us in all. We showered her with flowers like a prima ballerina. I can't wait until the video we purchased comes so we can see the performance again. Big H is the second from the right in the photo (you can see the fur drooping from the skirt of her outfit).

Milestone Accomplished

Hannah rolled over today. She's been trying so hard for weeks and she finally got her roly-poly little body to do it. She goes from back to front, which, according to the baby book we use, is the more difficult way to go (she's a genius, of course). She's also already rolling to both her left and right sides, not just one side. Up next - sitting up unassisted!

I can't figure out how to load a video to Blogger yet without posting it on You Tube, which I don't want to do, so you'll have to settle for before and after pictures.

Swims Like a Fish

The first official cookout and swim on the first unofficial weekend of summer. We went to Aunt J's pool on Sunday to celebrate Memorial Day. The pool water was freezing, of course, but the kids never seem to mind. Big H was excited to go swimming and wanted to try and swim this year without her arm floaties. Well, I think she was swimming better than nieces K&K. She was diving under the water and swimming using her arms and her legs. I think she's a natural! I stayed out of the water, which meant Little H did, too. I think that cold water would have been a shock to her system. Maybe next time. And next time I have to remember Big H's new Shrek swim goggles. I have to get a picture of her in those!

Four-Month Check-Up

Hannah had her four-month check-up today. She weighs 17 lbs., 8 oz. (!) and is 24 1/2 inches long. Her weight is beyond the 100th percentile, but her length and head circumference are right on target. We can start introducing cereal anytime now. We've tried it a couple of times, but she never seemed very interested, but maybe we'll try again this weekend. All of her other skills were on target as well - grasping, laughing, cooing, etc. We're working on sitting up and she's trying really hard to roll over. She can also scoot backwards when she has something to push her feet against.

New Addition

Little H was born on Friday, December 22 at 7:35 pm (a Capricorn by one day!). She weighed 10 lbs., 8 oz. and was 21 inches long. My ob/gyn sent me to Labor & Delivery at the hospital Friday morning after my last regular check-up because she didn't like the results of the non-stress test they did in the office that morning. After much back and forth, my c-section that was scheduled for Tuesday the 26th was moved to Friday night.

The surgery wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Mark was there the whole time and was even able to cut the cord again. My parents and Big H were waiting just outside. The only bad part of the whole hospital stay was being stuck there Christmas Eve.

But we all came home Christmas morning and moved the Christmas celebration from my parents' house to ours instead. It wasn't exactly what we had planned, but everyone is healthy and happy and we were still able to celebrate Christmas at home.

A Christmas Miracle!

Not really, but this is the first time Big H has sat on Santa's lap. I didn't think she would do it and we didn't really talk about it, but she walked right up to get her present and sat down to have her picture taken. This was at my work's children's Christmas party on Saturday, so maybe it wasn't as overwhelming as going to the mall.

Happy Halloween

Have a "wonder"ful Halloween everyone!

Big H, age 4, 2006




















And me, age 5, 1977

Smooth Ride

Here's a shot of Big H riding her bike on our glorious new blacktopped road!

Dentist

Big H made her first trip to the dentist yesterday. I originally tried to schedule her to go with me the last few times I've gone down to Aunt J's office, but it never worked out and we needed to go, so I found a local dentist instead. Big H did an amazing job for her first trip there. She wasn't scared and cooperated with the hygentist through the entire cleaning and fluoride treatment. The hygientist was great, too. She explained everything she was doing and really took her time with Big H. The only bad part of the trip is that the damage to her weird front tooth is a cavity. The dentist thinks it will probably fall out sometime in the next year, especially if she bites into something hard like an apple, because it is very weak, but he recommended filling it anyway to make it stronger. The silver lining is that I think she finally understands she can't drink chocolate milk in the middle of the night any more. We had broken her of this habit and then M. was weak and started giving it to her again. Last night, I didn't hear a peep out of her. He also is going to recommend an oral surgeon to have the piece of skin that connects the lip to the gum cut (Hayley's comes all the way down in between her front teeth, which I think contributed to the cavity and her "perceived" speech problem), which I'll probably wait and do sometime while I'm on maternity leave.

M. had an appointment at the same time as Big H. He hadn't been to the dentist in a very long time (as someone who goes religiously every six months, I'm too embarrassed to say how long) and it showed in his appointment results. Needless to say, M. will be making a few more trips to the dentist between now and the end of the year.

Easter Egg Hunt

My work had its annual children's Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday. It was originally scheduled for Saturday, but it poured down (some much needed) rain all day here, so it was rescheduled for Sunday. K&K were supposed to go with us, but they couldn't make it on Sunday.

H. looked so cute in the outfit I dressed her in for the occasion that I had to take her picture before she got all dirty. Here she is hamming it up for Easter (ha, ha).





The weather was a little bit chilly and breezy, but sunny. And the ground wasn't muddy at all, considering how much rain we had the day before. The two and three year-olds had their eggs on the mulch at the playground.







After H's age group was finished, she played on the jungle gym for a little while and climbed this very high and very steep ladder.





By Easter, she should be an expert on finding Easter eggs. She's having an Easter egg hunt at pre-school on Thursday and then we'll have a big hunt in the backyard for all of the kids on Sunday (if the weather cooperates).

edited: I have been trying to post this entry for two days. The first time, I had it all ready to go on Wednesday morning, when the Blogger connect died. When I finally reconnected, the pictures wouldn't load, so I just saved it as a draft. I got the pictures to load on Thursday, but then Blogger was down ALL DAY, from before lunch until 5pm.

Celebrity Look-Alike?

My sisters and my mom keep telling me they think H. looks like the young actress, Sofia Vassilieva, who plays Eloise in the TV movies. (Now older, this is the same girl who plays the daughter Ariel on Medium.) I just don't see it - Sofia has brown eyes and H. has blue, and H's lips definitely aren't that full (although she does have full lips, and I don't know where she got those from!). What do you think?

H.













Sofia, aka Eloise



And no, I did not stage this photo. When I saw that picture of Sofia on imdb.com, it made me immediately think of a very similar picture that I took of H. at the end of last summer. It's just a coincidence that they're both wearing orange, posed under a tree with purple flowers.

Snow Day



Like most of the Northeast, we were hit with quite a storm last night. I think we got about 12 inches; it's hard to tell with all of the drifts. H. was very excited about the snow. I don't remember getting a really good weekend snow last winter, one that she could really enjoy, but she was up at 6:30am and wanted to go outside. I managed to hold her off until about 10:30am, when we finally went outside. We tried to build a snowman, but the snow conditions weren't right. The layer on top was too soft and powdery. Then we walked up the street, before it was plowed (it was quite a hike up the hill) to play with J. The two of them sledded down the little hill in J's yard. I even went down it a couple of times, too. The plow finally came down our street around noon and they did a great job. We walked back home for lunch and a nap - both of us!

Birthday Party Hangover

I'm still recovering from the birthday party on Sunday, or the house is any way. The weather cooperated and we were able to have the party outside in the yard, complete with a bouncing house.

It was a little windy, but at least the sun was out. All of the kids seemed to have a good time and the "Pin the Cookie on Cookie Monster" game went over pretty well.

The only bad part of the day was right before we were going to sing "Happy Birthday" and cut the cake. H. got stung by a bee right in the center of her thumb. It took us awhile to figure out what was wrong. I had never, ever heard her cry like that before. Her poor little thumb was swollen and red and hard as a rock. We held up the party for a half hour trying to get her calmed down, which wasn't helped by the fact that she hadn't had a nap that day. But she recovered enough for us to sing and open presents, of which she received a wonderfully varied assortment - clothes, toys, baby dolls, computer games, DVDs, etc. We have wonderful family and friends who are very generous! (H's thumb was much better the next morning, no longer swollen and just a little sore by the way she was bending it.)


So now I'm still trying to clean up the house. There are presents or boxes in every room and dishes that need to be put away. Our trash day is Fridays, so we've been stuck with party trash all week, including a big box that one of the presents came in that is still sitting in the middle of the living room. And I need to get started on thank you notes, too. We're picking up H's photos from Sears tomorrow night, so I'll be able to include those with the thank you notes, which is good timing. But I don't know when I'll have the time to start those since the rest of the week is booked solid. Tumbling class tonight, Sears tomorrow night, Fall Fest in Westminster Friday night and Sesame Street Live Saturday afternoon. My plan for Sunday is to lay in front of the television and watch football for nine or ten hours (and maybe write a few thank you notes).

Niagara Falls Travelogue

As promised, here is the post on our trip to Niagara Falls. As I said, overall it was a wonderful trip, but we probably could have come home on Thursday - I think we were all ready - but, lesson learned. Here's the day-by-day play-by-play:

Sunday, July 18

We hit the road around 9am, but we couldn't seem to get in a good road trip rhythm. We hit the McDonald's drive-thru before breakfast ended at 10:30am, then a bathroom break for M. somewhere else along the way. We had just cruised through Williamsport around 1pm when H. started getting fussy. Thinking she was getting hungry for lunch, we started looking for a place to stop when - blah! - carsickness! Our poor little H. We had to pull over on the side of the road in the rain and change all of her clothes. The carseat was also affected, so I took the pillowcase off my pillow and used it as a cover for it. She was fine for the rest of the ride after that incident, but I think my new-car smell is gone. H. was actually fine for most of the time in the car, thanks to the portable TV/VCR we borrowed from my parents. It was six hours of Barney, with a little Teletubbies thrown in for good measure, and she was occupied.

Just before getting on I-90 outside of Buffalo, M. decides maybe we should ride by the dragway that's in the area, "just to see what it looks like." After some scrambling with the map, I got us there via a detour through the Buffalo suburbs. I think this was the long way, but the last-minuteness of it all threw me off. We did a drive-by and there wasn't much to see. It was kind of a run-down track and they don't race on Sundays. So we finally got on I-90, only to get stuck in a traffic jam to pay a 15-cent toll on the NY Thruway. We burned way more than 15 cents worth of gas waiting in line for a half hour! We crossed the border into Canada without any problems, then proceeded to get stuck in another traffic jam trying to drive the two miles to the hotel. As we found out later, the directions from the hotel website take you the long way. The other problem was that the hotel was in the heart of the tourist district and there were fireworks over the falls Sunday night, so the placed was packed. The only thing I can think to compare it to is the Ocean City (MD) boardwalk on a Saturday night. But we finally made it to the Quality Inn Clifton Hill and checked in. We unloaded the car, then went to get our first unobstructed view of Niagara Falls, just as they were being illuminated for the evening. Very impressive! Then we dined at the Hard Rock Cafe, which may not have been the best choice after our long day. H. was a little overstimulated by all the music and people and barely ate any dinner. That was the first and last night we bought her her own meal from the children's menu - another lesson learned. She ate off of my plate the rest of the trip.

Monday, July 19

Monday dawned a little gray, but not raining, so after a hearty buffet breakfast at the Golden Griddle (which was part of the hotel complex), we walked down to ride the Maid of the Mist. (Our hotel was in a great location - we could walk to most of the major attractions and restaurants.) I had been to Niagara Falls when I was ten years old and one of the few things I remember about the trip was riding the Maid of the Mist and having to wear these smelly rubber raincoats that I'm sure thousands of people had worn before me. Well, welcome to the modern age. Twenty-two years later, visitors are now provided with disposable plastic raincoats. There was even a child size for H. The boat ride was very fun. We laughed the whole time and got soaked. H. wasn't afraid at all, even when the boat was rocking back and forth right next to the falls. She just kept saying, "It's raining, it's raining."


After drying off, we caught the PeopleMover shuttle to go a few miles north to the Botanical Gardens and Butterfly Conservatory. We thought H. would enjoy this, since she loves insects of any kind. But we had to keep her in the stroller most of the time while in the Conservatory because she would try to catch the butterflies (and maim them in the process).

We ate lunch there, too, then headed back to the hotel. After a nap (for all of us), we went to the swimming pool, which I think was H's favorite part of the trip. The outdoor pool was nice, with a big pool and a kiddie pool, both with cool dragon slides. H. got right on the baby slide without even blinking and went down it about a hundred times while we were there.

Dinner Monday night was at the Rainforest Cafe, which I thought H. would like more than she did. She liked the snake in the gift shop, of all things, but not the elephants or gorillas. And thunder is another new word she's added to her vocabulary.

We pretty much followed this schedule for the rest of the week. We would leave the hotel around 9am for activities or sightseeing, then return after lunch for a nap, then a swim in the pool and dinner out. It worked well for trying to keep H. on some kind of schedule.

Tuesday, July 20

On Tuesday we went over the state park on the New York side of the falls, which I thought would be full of trash, graffitti and god knows what else, based on the "the Canadian side is much better than the US side" adage we heard from everyone and from things I had read, too. But the state park area was very nice. It was clean and safe and there was quite a bit to see there. We went to the visitor's center, then walked to both Prospect Point and Goat Island for up-close views of the falls.

We saw plenty of rangers and other park personnel throughout the park and I was rather impressed with it all. I think the US side has made a lot of changes over the years, but hasn't been able to shake the reputation yet. Plus, my overall observation was that there wasn't much to do on the US side in terms of entertainment. We saw plenty of hotels near the falls and the casino, but very few restaurants or shopping choices. Those were definitely all in Clifton Hill.

After the park, we went to the Power Vista Power Plant a little ways up the river for a tour. This was one of the things I picked to do because I thought M. would like it, but I really liked it, too. We practically had the whole place to ourselves and it was very informative. And there was plenty of room for H. to run around instead of being stuck in the stroller.



We were stuck in the indoor pool in the afternoon because of thunder, althought it never actually rained, then we went to dinner at Applebee's, which was uncrowded (yeah!). Afterwards, I went to exchange money at the casino (I had read that they gave a good exchange rate) and the guard at the door made my night. M. stayed outside with H. while I went in and before entering the casino floor, the guard asked, "Age, please?" I said 32 and he said, "Really?" I laughed and said, "Yes, but thank you for asking!"

Wednesday, July 21

On Wednesday we went back and forth across the border several times. We drove to the Buffalo suburbs to visit the Fisher-Price Toystore, based on Wendy's recommendation. I was in heaven! I bought H. a bunch of Christmas presents, plus a new toy for her to play with now. I could have stayed there for hours. There's a toy museum next door, with exhibits featuring the old version of the Little People (oh, how I wish I still had them!), along with other old wooden toys and classic Barbies. I bought two Raggedy Ann items in the gift shop (they were on sale).


In keeping with the children's theme of the day, we went to Explore and More, which H. absolutely loved, of course. She could have spent all day there! But we stayed for a couple of hours, enough time for her to try all of the stations. And I found out from my sister Ness that there's one in Gettysburg, so we'll definitely have to make a trip to that one (and it's inexpensive, too!).



We came back across the border for nap and pool time, then went across again in the evening to the towns of Tonawanda and North Tonawanda, which straddle the Erie Canal. They were having their annual CanalFest the week we were there and on Wednesday night there was a car show.

It was a beautiful area, with all these boats out on the canal, but let me tell you. I have been to a lot of festivals and carnivals in my day and I have never seen anything this crowded (the picture doesn't begin to show how crowded it was out on the closed streets). It was wall-to-wall people, which made it somewhat less enjoyable. But we got some dinner and looked at all the cars, then sat by the canal for awhile to watch the boats and listen to music.

Thursday, July 22

As I said earlier, I think we were all ready to go home on Thursday, so it was a quiet day. We drove up to Niagara-on-the-Lake, which is north of Niagara Falls, right where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario.

It was beautiful! Lots of Victorian B&Bs and quaint shops, bike and walking paths along the river and spectacular scenery. I told M. I'd like to go back there some day for a long weekend, just the two of us. We didn't visit either of the historic forts in the area, just drove by them, but just the drive was pretty enough.


One last visit to the pool, then we just ordered pizza to eat in our room while packing up.

Friday, July 23

Home Sweet Home. We left around 8am and made it home by 3:30pm. An uneventful ride home, thank goodness. H. couldn't wait to visit her little friend, Jenna, up the street, and we gave her the Nemo fish hat we had bought for her. And we gave Jenna's mom a little thank you gift for watering our hanging baskets (although she said she only had to water them twice - it rained every other day while we were gone).

So it was a great first family vacation for the three of us. I'm already looking forward to planning the next one. Where can we go next year??

Toddler Tales

It was an eventful weekend in Toddlerville, both good and bad. On Saturday, we went to the 40th birthday party for M's brother-in-law. It was at his aunt's house, and she has this wonderful in-ground pool that's heated. It was heaven, especially since the air was kind of cool Saturday evening. Surprisingly, both H's bathing suit and baby inner tube from last summer still fit, so we were able to get a little more mileage out of them so far this year. H. loved the pool! We stayed in for about an hour, with H. kicking her legs and putting her face in the water and blowing bubbles. I needed a break, so we got out for a little while, then M. got back in with her and I was able to take some pictures.



When she wasn't in the pool, H. spent the rest of the party chasing after the dogs that were there, yelling, "Doggie, doggie," at the top of her lungs. We didn't leave the party until 9pm and H. was out like a light. I let her sleep in her clothes once we got home and she slept until 7:30am Sunday morning.

Also, before we went to the party, we went and ordered a big wooden swing set, the likes of which you have never seen before. M. talked me into getting the "deluxe" model, which is pretty cool. I'm glad we ordered it now, because it takes 4-5 weeks to come in, so we'll have it well before her birthday party.


(This could almost be our backyard, with the cornfield in the background, but it's really just the picture from the brochure.)

Saturday was the good day. Sunday, not so good. Around noon, I put H. down for her nap. After awhile, I could hear her in her room, not yelling or fussing, just making noise, so I went in to check on her. She was standing up in her crib, pointing at a piece of paper on the floor. When I picked it up, I realized it was a piece of wallpaper border from the wall next to her crib. She had ripped off two pieces of border and pulled down the corner of another! So Sunday became the first day that H. was punished. I scolded her (I had written "yelled" but it sounded really mean) for ripping the wallpaper and explained that it was very, very bad. She wanted to get out of her crib, but I told her she had to stay in her crib and take her nap, no matter what. I pulled the crib away from the wall and left her alone. She was crying, but I stuck to my guns and eventually she fell asleep. When she woke up an hour or so later, she remembered that she had done something wrong. She was looking at the wall and saying "Uh, oh!" How can you stay mad at someone so cute! I fixed the piece that was just pulled down, but I don't know what to do about the other piece that was torn.

Since she liked the pool so much, I set up the blow-up pool early Sunday morning so the water would have a chance to warm up by the afternoon. After her nap and lunch, I covered H. with sunscreen and put on a swim diaper and her bathing suit. Before we had a chance to go outside, she was sitting on the chair in the living room and peed. Well, apparently those swim diapers don't work very well outside the pool. My chair cushion was soaked! So I changed her and into the pool we went. Even sitting in the sun, the water didn't warm up very much. "Cold, cold," she kept saying. Hayley spent most of the time outside the pool, putting her plastic fish in to swim. Then she pooped and back inside we went to change the swim diaper yet again. This was hardly worth all the effort! After about an hour, I gave up and got her dressed, then we went up the street to visit her friend Jenna. By the time M. got home from racing, I was exhausted.



On the subject of racing, M. did really well on Sunday, going four rounds before losing with a red light. He did win back his money, which was pretty good. He didn't get home until about 9:30pm, which is late. Both his brother and friend Tim each called about three times to see if he was home yet, saying, "That must mean he's doing well." Of course, I'm always thinking the opposite, that there's been a big wreck or something, but everything was fine. However, my worst fears were confirmed that night when we were watching the professional NHRA dragracers on ESPN. One of the top-fuel dragster drivers, Darrell Russell, was killed in a crash during the event in St. Louis. He was only 35 years old and had just won an NHRA event in Columbus a few weeks ago. I realize that these guys race at a completely different level than M., but there's always that thought in the back of your head about the element of danger involved with this sport/hobby.

PS - Happy B-Day to BFF Na. I left her a funny message on her answering machine tonight to make sure her family didn't forget her birthday, a la Sixteen Candles. Her sister is getting married on Sunday and it's going to be quite the bash, with people coming from out of town and events running from Friday through Monday.