Thursday was Fiona's last day in the infant room at daycare! She is moving to the Toddler room on Monday. Fiona is currently the only girl in the baby room, which means that the ladies in that room (Khaleda - pronounced "Halda" by Fiona, and Saima - pronounced "Sama" by Fiona) will be in an all-boy zone. Have fun with that!
The women in this room are wonderful with the babies, and they are going to miss Fiona as much as she misses them. That said, the ladies who run the toddler room - Shia and Nureen - adore Fiona, and stole her away from the baby room as often as possible. Both Shia and Nureen also took care of Rory, and Rory still loves them.
My, how time flies!!
On Sunday, I took the girls over to visit their good friend, Ethan. Ethan's mom, Shelia, put a kiddie pool on their back deck and the kids went wild.
I took tons of pictures, including some from the next night showing Fiona's "hair bits" (courtesy of the daycare ladies), and of Rory in a bathing suit that turned out to be sized 18 months. Fit her like a sausage!! I thought it was a 4T, and was shocked that it was so tight... until I stripped it off her at bedtime. Well, duh!
June rocks.
It contains my birthday, summer officially begins, the school year typically ends, and it is cherry season. I love cherries, and the girls are learning to love them, too. Rory likes to color her tray with them, in fact. I cut them in half (quarters for Fiona), and Rory colors nice, juicy red streaks all over the tray. A budding artist!
Plus, they color themselves.
Off he goes to ride over hill and dale... and probably mostly hill! Craig signed up (pretty much at the last minute) for Bike Virginia, and he is so excited. He usually does one long-haul ride a summer (notice the reference to my previous post...), and this time he decided to go with Bike VA. It is in Western VA this year, down near Tennessee.
Here he is with all his loot, ready to pack it into the car. He will return next Wednesday night, considerably hairier and stinkier. All in a week-long ride!
Long have I eschewed the crapulence that is reality television. It started back in my days at Roku; I remember being in my "office under the spiral stairs" (directly off the kitchen), listening to people freaking OUT about the inaugural Survivor. Who knew fake, contrived TV would be so popular!
Because I sing, many people have recommended American Idol to me, but I just can't get past the mocking stage, plus I don't care for the show's hosts. Plus, I have a brain, and I'd rather watch just about anything (except a different reality TV show). It's just not my bag.
But I can't stop watching "Ice Road Truckers." I just can't. I have dragged Craig down with me, though not exactly kicking and screaming. In case you don't know about this show, it is in its second season and features a fascinating cast of men who drive long-haul trucks on frozen bodies of water in the dead of winter. "Dead" as in -42 degrees Faranheit. That's pretty darn dead.
They are crusty, they cuss incessantly (lots of bleeping), and truly, what they do is insane. It is always cold, they often drag loads that are heavy enough to cause them to plummet into the icy depths, and they leave their families for months on end.
And I can't stop watching.
For father's day, Craig rode like a thousand miles on his bike while the girls and I caused trouble at home. I think it was 75 miles - he did 150 over the weekend. So finally, after naptime and shower time, we gave him his prezzies. He got a lovely white LIVESTRONG t-shirt, and some new biking sunglasses! On a total whim, I went out and bought him some Maui Jim sport sunglasses, and they are a big hit! They look fabulous on him, as you can see, and he really likes them.
Craig leaves on Friday morning for Bike Virginia, and hopefully these glasses will enhance the trip. =>
Many, many thanks to Donna & Kurt, Marta, Christina, and the darling Craig for a fantastic (and delicious!) 40th birthday celebration last night. More picttures to come, but here is a sweet one of Craig and Rory (she was eating her first cake!!). There were even two pinatas loaded with candy and rubber balls, which put the kids in a HOME. As Ben S. said, "Nothing like being surrounded by children with sticks!"
A big shout out to all who came to eat, drink, and be merry: Christina & Rob, Mindy & Mark, the aforementioned Ben, Chris & Jacci, Kirstin and Jack, the Chaklader clan, the Matranga clan, the Rhys-O'Reilly clan, the Rose-George clan, Carol (but no Gaige, who was stuck at the Richmond airport because of foul weather), Marcia & Jim... am I forgetting anyone? I am OLD now... so forgive me, please. =>
And tremendous thanks to Miss Marta for cooking everything - she is fabulous!!
Fiona is 16 months old, and she is really coming into herself. She is funny, sassy (she likes to hit - we're working on it), laughs, and runs through the house like a crazy woman.
She talks a TON (much of which we can't understand yet, but she is trying). She says: kitty, animal, doggie, hockey, boom, ball, up & down, uh oh, milk, neigh, shark, beep, and then some. She is very sweet, and loves to cuddle. She adores being kissed a bunch, and detests having her diaper changed. We have to find a wide variety of ways to distract her.
Fiona and Rory have a blast together most of the time, like to chase each other around the house, and giggle like crazy people. It's great!
Our darling Nantucket cousin is SUCH an over-achiever!! She won the following academic awards this year, proving that you can have fun AND be a good student. How much fun, we don't want to know...
Delly won academic excellence in the following areas:
- Honors Plane Geometry
- Honors English
- Spanish II
- Honors World History
- Clothing (*I* never got to make clothing in high school... what gives?!?)
Congratulations, Cuz!
Tonight was the NHL's annual award extravaganza in Toronto, and man, did the Washington Capitals rake it in. Not only did Alex Ovechkin win the Hart (league MVP), but he won the Lester B. Pearson (best player in league, as voted by peers). Add those to the two awards he already won - Art Ross (most points in a season) and Maurice Richard (most goals in a season) - and AO becomes the first player ever to win all FOUR in the same season.
And the icing on the cake HAS to be Bruce Boudreau winning the Jack Adams trophy for Coach of the Year. I literally jumped up off the couch and clasped my hand over my mouth as I gasped in excitement. I know this makes me MUCH more of a geek than you could have imagined, but Gabby SO deserved it.
And then I found out that my good friend from Hartwick, Brian L., was THERE! He sent me a picture of himself, taken by his friend who was watching it on TV, on camera behind Boudreau as he was being interviewed. B-Luv was walking down the red carpet, saw the interview being conducted, and shamelessly paused just long enough to get on camera. How awesome! If I had seen that live, I would have freaked Here is a video of the whole thing. B-Luv is the light-haired guy who is staring straight into the camera before the cameraperson changes the angle. Then B-Luv pauses as he walks past... looking into the camera again. Call it his 8 seconds of fame!
I should have posted this DAYS ago, so sorry for the slackitude. Our good friends, Mindy and Mark, recently went to upstate NY for a little summer R&R. They visited Cooperstown, explored the Baseball Hall of Fame, and had a wonderful time driving all over that lovely area of the country.
I recommended that they dine at one of my all-time favorite BBQ restaurants - Brooks' House of BBQ - and away they went. Anyone who has been to Brooks' knows well the above picture: THE BONE BUCKET.
Any and all make of animal bone gets flung into the bone bucket. It is one of the things that makes Brooks' Brooks'. That and the revolting candied apple ring that comes with each meal. That sucker gets flung into the bone bucket faster than anything else!!
Yum. Makes me want to gnaw on some chicken!
And wasn't it nice for Obama to clinch the Democratic nomination on my 40th birthday? How sweet of him!
All in all, the birthday was great. The weather was sunny but not too hot or humid, I got some wonderful gifts (a blue topaz and diamond necklace from Craig; blue topaz earrings from sister Liz, my dad, and my dad's wonderful girlfriend, Liz Robinson; one of sister Liz's lovely landscape paintings; flowers from my good friend, Margaret; an Amazon.com gift card from Kay and Donald; a lovely ocean photograph from Liz Robinson; and future jewelry from my mom. Thank you to everyone!! I really appreciate it.
Here you see Rory and Craig decorating the DELICIOUS cake my mother made.... mmmmmm... I am drooling right now, anticipating the piece I will be eating later tonight. Y-U-M. Then we had my mom take a family photo, because we don't often get all four of us in a frame. =>
The chronological triplets are officially 40!
Good thing we still act 13.
Thursday was Fiona's last day in the infant room at daycare! She is moving to the Toddler room on Monday. Fiona is currently the only girl in the baby room, which means that the ladies in that room (Khaleda - pronounced "Halda" by Fiona, and Saima - pronounced "Sama" by Fiona) will be in an all-boy zone. Have fun with that!
