While entertaining a neighbor for ten minutes, LOOK at what the girls did. They threw everything they could find - and then went up to their rooms to gather more - and flung it over the living room railing to the entryway a story below. Oh my. They were in hog heaven, squealing with laughter the entire time. I should have known they were up to no good. =>
Then, buzzkill that I am, I made them drag it all back upstairs, bit by bit.
Yesterday was the last pool day of the summer - sigh. Some of us are freckled (Laura), some of us are as white as ever (Rory), and some of us have gained a slight tan (Fiona). We spent nearly every Saturday and Sunday morning there from June through August, and it made the summer extra fun. Friends often joined us, and sometimes we even went twice in one day!
I acknowledge that by D.C. standards, 2009 has been a relatively humidity-free summer. Slightly cold and rainy in June, meek and mild in July - both very rare for these parts. And I have been so happy. In mid-July, I proclaimed this my favorite D.C. summer ever.
But these past few days have been horribly sticky. And to top it off, we have lost power in our house three times during this stretch - last night's episode lasted for 12 hours. The third level of our townhouse was super steamy, and the girls were both sweating like pigs by bedtime.
We tend to make the most of such power outages. We read books by flashlight, wear glow stick bracelets, and make fun shapes on the walls. But the high moisture level inside the house last night sucked the fun out of everything. I was so hot that I could only stand to read one book to the girls - mostly because I couldn't bear having them sit on my body.
By 9:00 pm, the power had been our for seven hours and the house was damp and lifeless. The power roared on with a jolt at 2:00 am (finally). Because we had set our fans to "low" before hitting the (sweaty) hay, the powering up was actually quite startling. But it was also immediately relieving, trust me.
Fiona cried much of the night, sweaty as a hog and unable to rest comfortably, so I kept her home from daycare with me. We had a lovely day, and she took a nice, long, 3-hour nap. =)
Gordie, way back in the day, played defense for the New England/Hartford Whalers. The Whale drafted him when he was 17, and my dad became friends with him soon thereafter (my dad was friends with most guys on the team back then, which was downright magical to my sister and me). Their friendship has continued through Gordie's career: being traded away, retiring, coaching, and now, scouting for Montreal. His playing career was long, and he won the Stanley Cup while a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins back in the early 1990s.
Gordie was in Connecticut this past week, and spent the night with my dad and Patrick. The three of them had a blast. Gordie made my dad make him spaghetti & meatballs, begged him to play the guitar so they could sing together, and the next day, Pat & Gordie shot 9 holes of golf. They tied, 37 each. A great time was has by all!
My little baby is growing up! Donna H. took this picture at a friend's birthday party, and Fiona looks so grown-up in it! I love it.
She is in the midst of temper tantrum twos (TTTs) right now, so while I love her at this squishy, still-baby phase of her life, I am eager to bid her random acts of Two-ness goodbye! => Hah!
Do all parents think these things?
It is an amazing thing, but we are now the proud owners of a four year old daughter. Zowie! Rory is thrilled to be four, and she woke up saying so. We had french toast for breakfast and opened some presents. She received fun mosiac art projects from Nana/Granddad, a Fraggle Rock DVD from Gramps & Liz R. & Uncle Pat, a giant stuffed dragon from Aunt Lizzie, and some live pet frogs from Grandma. We gave her a hippo Swatch, a book, and two DVDs. Fiona gave her some dinosaur Lego, which contains a T-Rex, Rory's favorite. The girls played T-Rex ("Mama!" "Baby!") all morning, running from end to end of the townhouse.
While Fiona napped and Grandma guarded her, Craig and I took Rory to see Up. Such a fantastic movie! The theater had a photo booth, so after the movie we jammed ourselves in and took some goofy birthday photos. Then the five of us went to Generous George's for pizza and dinosaur chicken. All this was followed by a hippo cake Grandma and I made. The girls delighted in dismantling the cake the *second* it was laid on the table. Hilarious! They even fed each other chunks of fondant.
What a girl Rory has grown into. She is funny, mostly fearless, hates loud noises (especially those emitted by her sister), loves pretend play, adores dragons and T-Rexes, could eat noodles until they came out of her ears, is addicted to books, loves it when I tell her bedtime stories, is a great (and mostly tolerant) big sister, and is very sweet and affectionate. Her current favorite movies include Peter Pan, The Land Before Time, Wall-E, and The Little Mermaid. Favorite books are whatever we're reading at that moment in time.
She is bringing gummy caterpillars into her class to share tomorrow. =)
Miss Rory, on her last night as a 3-year old! We were watching Peter Pan (the animated one from the 50s) at the time of this photo - both girls are in love with the crocodile, and his special "I love to eat Captain Hook" song. Doo do do do do, doo do do do do... and his bouncy eyeballs! We have several toy crocs, and Grandma bought them each a small stuffed one, and thet are figuring into a lot of our playtime nowadays.
On Tuesday morning, July 7, at about 8:15 am, Rory was horsing around and slid off the top of a Little Tykes Cozy Coupe, popping open the back of her head. She fell smack dab onto a 1960s-era Fisher-Price barn, bought to commemorate her one-year birthday. It's the barn with the doors that "moo" when you open them. Apparently there are rough corners on its gambrel roof, because Rory wound up with a 3/4" cut that required stitches.
So off we went to the local urgent care clinic for our first-ever kid stitches! She received four, one for each year of her life, and the doctor and nurses were wonderful with her. The nurse asked her how the accident had happened, and Rory said, "I fell off the top of the car." Then was when I intervened and said, "a toy car in the living room" (as opposed to the top of my car in the driveway... someone call CPS!).
Right before we arrived at the clinic, a woman had given birth right outside their doors... how exciting! The staff couldn't stop talking about it. As for Rory, she was great during the entire medical process, and only cried when they gave her some shots of novacaine in/around the cut. What a toughie!
When we were done, Rory, Craig, and I went to Panera, where Ror ingested her very first chocolate croissant. She inhaled it. Apparently getting stitches makes one very hungry. Then we bought her a huge SpongeBob balloon, and Auntie Liz said Rory could open her birthday present a bit early. It was a giant, colorful, stuffed dragon that we named Mu Shu. He helped make the day great!!
Yesterday morning, after a fever-filled weekend with her hightest temp reaching 104, I took Rory to the doctor where she was diagnosed with influenza type A, which includes swine flu. As such, as are all now being treated as though we *have* swine flu. Rory is home all week - even if she is fever-free for 48 hours - because the thing about SF is that they don't know how long it is contagious. Good thing I became a different kind of statistic last week and got laid off, eh?
We are all currently slaves to Tamiflu, which ain't cheap, in case you're wondering. $200 to medicate the four of us, thank you for playing. And that's WITH the co-pay.
So Rory and I are hanging out at home, playing a lot of Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Candyland, and Chutes & Ladders, in between bouts of television, reading, and other toys. Her super-high fevers seem to be in the past, which is thankful. I hate watching my kids suffer through high fevers.
She is much more like her normal self today, and I would imagine tomorrow will be even better. Even still, we will be banned from entering the public sector. I am sure this makes me a very bad person, but I have to admit that we cheated this am. We went to Target to buy a few games, but don't worry - I didn't let her touch anything and I hosed off the cart once we were done.
Cabin fever!!
While entertaining a neighbor for ten minutes, LOOK at what the girls did. They threw everything they could find - and then went up to their rooms to gather more - and flung it over the living room railing to the entryway a story below. Oh my. They were in hog heaven, squealing with laughter the entire time. I should have known they were up to no good. =>
Yesterday was the last pool day of the summer - sigh. Some of us are freckled (Laura), some of us are as white as ever (Rory), and some of us have gained a slight tan (Fiona). We spent nearly every Saturday and Sunday morning there from June through August, and it made the summer extra fun. Friends often joined us, and sometimes we even went twice in one day!
Gordie, way back in the day, played defense for the New England/Hartford Whalers. The Whale drafted him when he was 17, and my dad became friends with him soon thereafter (my dad was friends with most guys on the team back then, which was downright magical to my sister and me). Their friendship has continued through Gordie's career: being traded away, retiring, coaching, and now, scouting for Montreal. His playing career was long, and he won the Stanley Cup while a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins back in the early 1990s.
It is an amazing thing, but we are now the proud owners of a four year old daughter. Zowie! Rory is thrilled to be four, and she woke up saying so. We had french toast for breakfast and opened some presents. She received fun mosiac art projects from Nana/Granddad, a Fraggle Rock DVD from Gramps & Liz R. & Uncle Pat, a giant stuffed dragon from Aunt Lizzie, and some live pet frogs from Grandma. We gave her a hippo Swatch, a book, and two DVDs. Fiona gave her some dinosaur Lego, which contains a T-Rex, Rory's favorite. The girls played T-Rex ("Mama!" "Baby!") all morning, running from end to end of the townhouse.
Miss Rory, on her last night as a 3-year old! We were watching Peter Pan (the animated one from the 50s) at the time of this photo - both girls are in love with the crocodile, and his special "I love to eat Captain Hook" song. Doo do do do do, doo do do do do... and his bouncy eyeballs! We have several toy crocs, and Grandma bought them each a small stuffed one, and thet are figuring into a lot of our playtime nowadays.
