Chez Stenger

Scooting Along

2012-01-29T14:52:00.001-05:00

The high drama of a 3 year old shouldn't take me by surprise any more than an aversion to bedtime, vegetables, and sharing. But the milking of a skinned knee injury over the past two days has reached near-Oscar status.

Yesterday, while running into ballet class, Lucy slipped and fell on the sidewalk out front and ended up with a bloody patch the size of a quarter on one leg. I'm not sure if it was because of the sheer pain or if was more the wet/bloody tights, but apparently participation in ballet class after that was out of the question. I got her all cleaned up, band-aided, and tried convincing her to give it a shot for a few minutes... but to no avail.

We had to stop at Toys R Us to pick up something for a friend's birthday party after our attempt at ballet class. I had tried to get Lucy a scooter for Christmas and had one at home, halfway assembled on Christmas Eve when I realized it was missing an important piece. By the time I took it back to the store after Christmas, the scooter selection was severely picked over, so I decided to put it on the back burner for a while. Yesterday I needed a good incentive to get Lucy up and walking normally again, and it turns out that test-driving scooters at Toys R Us does the trick (for a while.)

Once we got home, she got the hang of it pretty easily. And she even sorta likes the helmet. I jokingly asked her if she wants to wear it everyday and she said yes. On second thought maybe I should have offered her knee pads everyday.

Winter Wonderland

2012-01-15T14:47:00.002-05:00

I really can't say that I *like* winter. I don't really like summer either. I'm a spring/fall person (who would LOVE California weather-- who needs seasons?) But there are a few aspects of a winter in Maryland that aren't too shabby.

First, we got a little blanket of snow last Monday-- just enough dry, powdery snow to cover everything and give us some to play with. (But not a huge tree-killing, electricity-losing snowpocalypse.)

I swear it's not dandruff.

porch angels.

yes. more snow please!

And a day or two after the snow, as it can only do here in bipolar weather central, it got to be like 62 degrees. So we went and played outside and soaked up every last drop.

"I'm a lion at the zoo!"

And then today we decided to do something TOTALLY new and tried ice skating for the first time. On one of the coldest days we've had (28 degrees!) we got all bundled up and gave it a shot. For the record, I haven't skated since 2004-- and that was in Central Park with a bunch of 7 year olds. I managed not to fall on my ass, although I can't say the same for Lucy, though she took it in stride. It's a good thing we had her dressed for the Iditarod.

She actually did pretty well, she liked it best when I pushed her around while leaning on the bucket, because then we could go faster. Holding hands was a no-go because I couldn't be singularly responsible for supporting both of our body weights, but Lucy did pretty well on her own with a little shuffle-shuffle technique.

It is about 3 hours later that I'm sitting here writing this blog and my feet are still pulsating. I think I could hack this maybe once more this winter. On a warmer day. With 2 extra pairs of socks.

Jan Randoms

2012-01-06T21:34:00.001-05:00

It was 15 degrees on Wednesday and 65 degrees today. January is clearly a month for randomness. So, here are some random pics:

Someone decided she wanted to make and put up her newest art project.

A special treat.

Gotta watch my waistline!

Look who decided to dump out ALL the toys in the tent...

Fancy Dancy Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T21:23:00.001-05:00

Well, I think we can officially call this Christmas a success. Sure we hit a few snags, but all-in-all a good time was had by all, plus Lucy rallied like a rock star for 3 days straight with no naps. The theme for this Christmas was definitely dancing. There were tutus, ballet, and leotards everywhere!

Christmas Eve we went over to Grammy and Grandpa's and danced to their multiple singing stuffed animals. Luckily we ate the tons of lasagna AFTER the dancing. After dinner, Lucy also barged in on Scott in the bathroom and told him, "Daddy, your butt looks funny!" She also proceeded to tell us that her butt looks "cool." Ahh, fun with three year-olds.

Christmas day was more of the same-- tutus, dresses, nail polish, and dancing with Ballerina Dora. Grammy, Grandpa, Tia, and Jesmond came over and we got to Skype with Nanni and Grandad. Oh, and Santa brought Lucy a drum set. Depending on how that goes, one of us may be moving out to the shed.

Later on the extended family came over. Aunt Bobbie and Aunt Doris had a good time tickling and chasing Lucy and Vincent. I also cooked a wicked good ham for the first time.

Santa, in his infinite awesomeness, also left some presents for Lucy in Delaware so we had a little visit to Nanni and Grandad's. We had lots of leotard/tutu dancing action, played Zingo, sang songs, and did tons of puzzles and art projects. Oh, and Lucy had fun too. He he.

Santa

2011-12-17T15:54:00.002-05:00

A lot can change in 2 years:

Wheaton Plaza, Dec 18, 2011

White Flint, Dec 20, 2009

This was almost my last blog.

2011-12-11T20:48:00.001-05:00

Two weeks is a long time to go without a functioning computer.

Two Tuesdays ago, my (fairly) new laptop just stopped working and the folks over at the Apple store told me to basically kiss my hard drive goodbye. Even with the tenacious efforts of a techie friend (many thanks, Pete!), we were unable to restore all of my photos, videos, and documents. Luckily, I was able to piece together about half of those between this blog, Facebook, and Snapfish. Phew. So, the blog shall go on! I had to mourn for a while, though, it was a hard lesson to learn-- losing everything like that. I am now the proud owner of a 500 GB backup hard drive. As Lucy would say, "yay-hoo!"

It's been a while since I've blogged, and really not too much has happened. Thanksgiving came and went. We did the SOME Trot for Hunger again this year, and our friends the Bailey's joined us.

Ready to run!

Trotting away.

Lucy also got to meet some of her cousins (2nd cousins? 3rd cousins?) at an early Thanksgiving over at "Aunt Bunny's" house. She had a great time swinging with Kayla and Evelyn and playing legos and hide and seek in the basement with the Jill and the Jimmies. (That totally sounds like a band.)

Lucy and Kayla swinging

Lucy bending Evelyn's ear about something. Probably ballet.

Oh, yes... ballet. Sometime back in November I FINALLY signed Lucy up for a ballet class. But it starts in January. After explaining to her several (read: hundreds) of times that her ballet class will start AFTER Christmas, she has taken to sharing that information with everyone who will stand still long enough: friends, family, teachers, the checkout lady at Giant, and now 2nd cousins. Her obsession with tutus, ballerinas, and dancing has been going strong for over a year now (example below).

And if I don't get her into a ballet class soon, she might seriously flip out. Which might look like this:

Extreme duck-riding. Lol.

We have also been getting ready for Christmas-- we actually put up outdoor lights this year! I've always wanted to do that since I was a kid, and I felt particularly Griswald-ish while tacking them to the porch railing. And although we haven't gotten a big tree yet, we did drag out the little tree and do a little indoor decorating as well.

Merry Kwanzmasannukah!

Future Blackmail Stories

2011-11-09T20:20:00.005-05:00

Today we went to Trader Joe's, only had a few pieces of fruit in our cart, and hadn't even been there 5 minutes when Lucy promptly announced that she had to poop. Fun. My reply, "are you serious?" Her assertion, "yes." Okay. Even though I am squeamish about public restrooms, this was Trader Joe's, clearly they are in a realm above Giant and Target (retch). So we park our cart and find the surprisingly clean restroom and Lucy proceeds to produce the world's biggest and yellowest bowel movement I have ever seen. It looked like she pooped Bert from Sesame Street. When she hops down from the toilet she (loudly) proclaims, "Mommy! I did a banana poop!" I can hear the lady waiting outside the restroom door chortling, and we all enjoyed a hearty laugh. Later on we got to sign with a deaf guy who works the register there and he gave Lucy a lollipop. She signed "thank you" quite well and then proceeded to cover herself in the Trader Joe's stickers he gave her. Man, I love that place.

The other day Tia was reading books with Lucy before bedtime and instead of moving the heap of stuffed animals on the chair, Tia decided just to sit on them. Well, apparently, this created some kind of imbalance in the chair and Tia toppled over quite loudly just as Lucy was quieting down. Lucy sat bolt upright in her bed and said, "Tia! That was scary!" Angie laughed and explained that, no, it was FUNNY. Tia falling down is a funny thing. So, today we were eating dinner and Tia announced she was going down to Grammy's house for dinner. When Tia got back Lucy asked her, "Tia? You fell out of Grammy's chair?" Love it.

Here are some fun pics we've taken lately. The first one I took with my new, awesomely sexy iPhone 4S. I think it's pretty good for a recently-turned three year-old!

"L-U-C-Y"

Dennis Ave/Sligo Creek Pkwy playground

Queen of the mountain of woodchips.

The Dr. Seuss-looking hill at the new Wheaton Regional Park.

Climbin the spider web!

Fall Fun

2011-11-01T21:09:00.003-04:00

Slightly belated birthday present:

Indoor swing and gymnastics bar from One Step Ahead = $150.

Large step stool from Ikea = $10

Having a real life monkey girl swing in your kitchen = priceless.

Fall also means dweebs in tunics, robes, and cotton tights. Aka- RENFEST! The McGregor, Stenger, and Marchesani clans descended upon ye olde merry festival on a beautiful Sunday and had a pretty darn good time.

Yay, jousting! Wait, what is jousting?

Two hungry kiddos waiting for lunch.

Two happy kiddos after lunch!

Our best attempt to get a pic of all the kids. Finn, Jack, Lucy, and Vincent. Sigh.

A duel with Daddy!

Ye olde Stengers

And then this tiny little thing called Halloween came along, which is of course the high point of any kid's life. We had a very girly Halloween as a ballerina/fairy.

A ballerina outfit for a Halloween playdate at Anna's house.

The fairy outfit for the school Halloween parade. She made it a point to explain that she was the good fairy from Little Bunny Foo-Foo, NOT Tinkerbell. (Although we are currently a fan of Ms. Bell.)

Getting ready for trick-or-treating!

Hope she doesn't turn Little Bunny Foo-Foo into a goon!

The Jumpy Jumpy Place

2011-10-09T17:18:00.008-04:00

Not that I didn't have a great time at Lucy's backyard birthday party last year, but I wanted something a little more low-maintenance for this year. Something where I wouldn't have to clean the house before, during, and after the party. So this year we outsourced. We actually booked this place, Pump It Up, sight unseen, purely on the recommendations of friends and the info on their website-- and it turned out to be a great gamble. Everyone (including the adults!) bounced their brains out and had a great time!

Lucy pretty much got the concept that her real birthday was last weekend, but that since we were at the beach, we would have a party with friends when we got back. At first she thought everyone was coming to our house (again), so we tried to explain the concept of Pump It Up to her... "uhh... its a giant place full of moonbounces." (*quizzical look*) "It's a place where you can jump a lot. It's a jumpy-jumpy place." (*nods approvingly*) Phew!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-08T17:08:00.000-04:00

So, being the awesomely overcommitted parent that I am, I volunteered to help out with Lucy's preschool trip to the Butler's Orchard "pumpkin patch" on Friday. Even though it was a fast trip and most of the pumpkins were pretty picked over, the kids had a great time on the hayride and it was nice to spend some time with them.

This little boy came up to me and said, "Hey Lucy's mom, Lucy is my best friend!" And then they proceeded to entertain me with funny faces and hold hands as "buddies" on the way back. Glad to know Lucy is making new friends!

OBX 2011

2011-10-04T21:45:00.012-04:00

What's the best thing about going to a family-friendly wedding? When it includes a week in the Outer Banks with family and friends-- it's a sure hit! Okay, so it wasn't a full week... but five days of sun, fun, and sand was plenty to recharge our batteries and celebrate the wedding of two old friends!

We shared a house with some friends, and Lucy and Steven were pretty much attached at the hip the whole time. Whether running laps around the 3rd floor at 7:30am, hunting for seashells on the beach, or having a snack together-- they were like peas and carrots.

Having a little snackage...

Brushing up on some dance moves.

Pretending this sand castle was ours.

The sugar cookies we made (and ate for breakfast).

Lucy pretending to be Baby Mollie...

The day of the wedding was beautiful-- sunny and warm with a light breeze, and everyone looked great. The kiddos were even clean (for a while) and later on Lucy cut a rug with the grown-ups at the party.

And then Lucy had the nerve to go and have a birthday our last day there. Now she is a big three year-old! We kept telling her that on Saturday she would be three, over and over again. And then Sunday morning she woke up and said, "Mommy, am I still three?" Too funny! We had a little mini-party with balloons, a few presents, and a pink cake that we made ourselves.
....and what party is complete without a game of "shufflebaby?!?!?"

Summer Concert Series

2011-09-10T14:43:00.009-04:00

We've been really lucky to be able to see several concerts this summer, most with Lucy in tow. Here are some picture/video highlights:

Takoma Park Jazzfest with our friends the Lee's in early June:

The Bangles at the Celebrate Fairfax county fair in mid-June. Long time middle-school dream fulfilled. Lucy stayed home with Grammy and Grandpa for this one:

Title Tracks at Ft Reno Park in DC with friends:

(We eventually covered both kids in glow bracelets in order to not lose them.)

Private concert at our friends, the McGregor's house in Fairfax in July:

(aka-- The day that Lucy fell in love with the drums.)

Rock and Roar at the National Zoo with the B-52's-- we really lucked out

getting 1/2 price tickets for this from one of Scott's work friends:

Abbey Road on the River-- an annual Beatles tribute music festival--

down at National Harbor during Labor Day weekend.

Tons of dancing and lots of fun:

And last but not least, we went to the Sound of Music Singalong at Wolf Trap last weekend for my birthday. Ok, this picture below is not us. (Although we quickly learned that we were ill-prepared for the event, as many people were dressed up!) But we were singing and twirling the best we could from our blanket on the rear lawn.

Labor Day Weekend and Starting Preschool!

2011-09-10T13:36:00.013-04:00

Well, Labor Day has come and gone and summer is pretty much over. We got to watch the Kensington Labor Day parade this year (we were at a wedding in New York last year, so my Mom and Dad took Lucy), and ran into some friends and had a great time.

Blowing bubbles before the parade while Daddy got us Dunkin Donuts.

Watching the marching bands with Leigha, Marcelo, and Tia.

Fire engines!

Unkie Bryan and Jack

Hula girl/pirate Francine

Lucy liked watching the Irish dancers from the Culkin School.

And we also got to go see new friend, 5-day old baby Ramona!!!!

Instead of heading back to day care, Lucy is off to preschool! We had talked about preschool for a couple of weeks before she started (really, we only had about 2 weeks notice because we were so far down the wait list) but she is still not 100% sure that she likes this school stuff yet. We've had some tears at drop-off time, but its getting less and less every day.

Wearing her gymnastics medal for preschool orientation. Despite the smile in the

picture, she was not very impressed nor excited during our 1 hour visit.

There are three teachers in her class of about 15 kids in the 3's and 4's Dinosaurs class, and they are all FANTASTIC. Two of them are pretty young-- maybe mid to late 20's-- but there's one older Indian lady, probably in her mid 50's, who Lucy has especially taken to. She gives her a hug and holds her up so I can wave to her out the window when I leave. She's also great at keeping Lucy distracted-- the second day I heard her asking Lucy to be her helper and hand stuff out to other kids, which calmed Lucy down almost immediately. Preschool teachers are truly magical people.

Getting ready for her first (very rainy!) day of school. She cried in the morning,

but by pick-up time, she was all smiles and stories.

Nurdle Durdles

2011-08-20T22:04:00.004-04:00

My kid is obsessed with this Aquafresh commercial. It comes on every night at 7:58 (just after Caillou) on Sprout and has become part of our nightly ritual. I finally caught a vid of Lucy doing the dance, which for some stupid reason they call The Nurdle Durdle. I don't really see what that has to do with toothpaste, but... I guess its pretty cute.

Gym Love

2011-08-18T22:34:00.000-04:00

I really can't explain how much Lucy loves gymnastics. Before we signed up for this class at Dynamite, we were torn between doing this or a ballet class, since she has been obsessed with ballerinas for the past year or so. Gymnastics seemed like more fun and was at a better time, so this won out, and I'm so glad it did. I remember when I was working as a nanny in NYC, the boy I watched went to a very fancy private boys' school that focused a lot on sports and sportsmanship. Before the boys could play any other sports, they had to do gymnastics for the first 3 years to build up their overall strength, discipline, balance, coordination, and flexibility. Pretty smart. I promise that I will let Lucy do whatever she wants as far as extra-curriculars (as long as we can afford it) in the future-- soccer, dance, chess club, karate, badminton, whatever. But I remain convinced that this is a great jumping off place.

Sitting with Ojas waiting for her turn on the tumble track.

Doing straight jumps.

Climbing out of "the pit"-- an 8-10 foot deep crash area (I stepped in with one foot and fell in to my waist!) full of foam that the kids jump into to practice dismounts and landings.

Too bad her rainbow leotard that she picked out gives her a mondo wedgie. Picked up a new leotard at Target after watching her dig this thing out of her crack a few thousand times within a 45 min class.

Mid-Summer Madness

2011-08-16T22:53:00.001-04:00

Ok, so its not really madness, but here's how we killed the hot and sweaty time this summer:

Cabbage Patch Kid shorts and a newborn t-shirt. Hot outfit.

A trip to our beloved fountain with Leyla...

Scoopin'...

Hair-washin'...

Jumping around like Little Bunny Foo-Foo...

Having meaningful conversations over lunch...

And lollipops. There must be lollipops.

Then we took another trip with Leyla to the Splash Park in Germantown.

Lucy decided to do some planking while we were there.

Not quite deep enough to swim. They had fun running through it, though...

Oh, and don't forget to ride the spitting frog.

And then we got to have Steven over for an afternoon. They were completely captivated by this sandbox (that we inherited from our awesome neighbors, Connor and Ella, down the street) for a solid half-hour. They are a great pair since Lucy dictates and Steven is willing to fall in line.

We, of course, can't miss the excitement of the garbage truck!

And then it was Tia's birthday! Lucy helped make a cake and insisted that the cake and icing both be pink. She took care of sprinkles duty.

She helped Tia blow out the candles.

And then proceeded to just eat the sprinkles carefully with her fork.

We also got to visit Nanni and Grandad! It was a bit rainy, so we couldn't hit the beach, but that was extra reason to hit the rides. We did all of her faves.

I need to find the picture that my parents have of me on this exact same ride with the exact same not-so-thrilled look on my face.

Its a miracle my phone got this pic without a flash. This one is her top fave.

Riding bikes with Nanni, Maggie, and Callie. R.I.P. Fifi (or "Pee-pee", as Lucy called her until recently)-- who was a great dog with people and Callie eventually learned to avoid.

This. Sand. Box. Rocks.

"Mommy, I love this octagon." One day, out of the blue, she pointed to a stop sign and called it an octagon. And then asked to see more. Now whenever we are in the car, we spot octagons (and other shapes) and try to read some of the letters on them. I think this is the first time she encountered one up close since discovering its name.

Dynamite Fun and the Frederick Keys

2011-07-24T22:22:00.003-04:00

Gymnastics seems so natural for a kid like Lucy... she's not afraid to climb, swing, crawl, or jump onto anything and is eerily balanced and coordinated for her age. Crawling at 7 months, walking at 10 months, this girl has been begging for this kind of action since before she was born. We tried a couple of toddler gymnastics classes at the YMCA in Bethesda last fall/winter and they were okay-- the teachers were cool, but it was really unstructured and she got bored doing the same things every week. Fast forward through a busy winter and spring, and finally once summer hit, I needed her to do some climbing, jumping, and running in a place other than our house. Along comes Dynamite Gymnastics Center... my saviors! The teachers are great, the place is HUGE and new and fantastic, and the classes are challenging but not frustrating.

Lucy LOVES her class and I'm glad that she is learning how to follow directions, stay with the group, and watch demonstrations before just running/jumping in. (Definitely still a work in progress!) Her two buddies, Anna and Ojas, come to class with us and its just a big, giant lovefest. Okay, I have to admit that its a little more $$ than I wanted to spend on a 'just for fun' class for a 2 1/2 year old... but its not breaking the bank, and it fits her like a glove. Or like a leotard... like this one that we HAD to buy after she was mesmerized watching the older girls running and doing cartwheels and back handsprings.

And since us Stengers are so adventurous, we decided to do something different this past weekend, and be all American and stuff and take in a sporting event! (If you know us well, you will laugh out loud at this, since we don't exactly follow professional sports.) I mean, I grew up playing soccer and Scott likes to shoot some hoops, but we are not really "sports fans." Superbowl is on? Who cares. (Except for the half time show, of course.) Stanley Cup? Whatever. World Series? Ok, I'll watch the exciting clips on the news and be satisfied with that. But our good friends, the Santiago's are SERIOUS baseball fans, so we decided that we wanted to take in a Frederick Keys Minor League game with them. Despite the EXCESSIVE SWELTERING HEAT THAT MADE US FEEL LIKE WE WERE WATCHING A GAME ON THE SURFACE OF THE SUN, it was a lot of fun. [Also, for the record, Scott and I did go see a Washington Wizards game last December. How's that for American?]

"Keyote" the Keys' mascot. When he first walked by our seats, I said, "hey, kids! look-- its a bear-- er, dog, fox thing." The season ticket-holder lady sitting in front of us turn back to me HORRIFIED and said, "Bear, dog, fox?!?! No, that's Keyote, our mascot." Ahhaaa... Frederick-1, Stengers-0.

Luckily there was a Rita's ice stand on site.

And we got a sweet 3 minutes of breeze on the merry-go-round. God bless minor league parks for having this kind of stuff. The kids also got to run around the bases after the game. Even though Lucy was probably like, what the hell are bases? She still had fun running.

There was a 2 minute time limit in the moon bounce because of the heat. Zoiks. Fried kid, anyone?

And at the end, we got to tailgate and watch some pretty cool fireworks before we headed home.

Summer Trip to Pennsyltucky

2011-07-11T20:58:00.019-04:00

Last weekend, we took a kid-centric summer vacation road trip with lots of hands-on activities, rides, fun, and wholesome family togetherness out the wazoo. Imagine our surprise at driving to such a sweet and innocent vacation, when the street around the corner from our hotel was lined with nudy bars and adult book stores. Ahh... that's America for you.

Our first stop was at Sesame Place in lovely Langhorne, PA. This was pretty fun... Lucy loved the rides and the shows, even though she was wary (ok, terrified) of the costumed characters. Scott and I loved getting into the water to escape the 95+ degree heat.

Waiting to get into Sesame Place... hot, hot, and hot. And its only 10am.

Our spirits pick up at the merry-go-round. We rode it at least 5 times.

The flying fish ride that went a little too scarily high for

Mommy, but Lucy loved. This pic was taken BEFORE

we almost plummeted to our deaths.

Something Sesame did right: misters around the park.

Lucy's favorite thing: climbing the big blue mountain.

And sliding back down.

The biggest moon bounce I have ever seen.

Lucy basically just ran around wildly and then flopped down on her back.

Heh heh heh.. Daddy's turn to plummet to his death. The hot air

balloon ride. Again, Lucy seems unphased at the impending doom.

Day #2! WATER! Soooooo nice to cool off!

Lucy giving me a foot wash. Ironic since she's the one with the stinky feet!

Lazy river with Mommy. Mommy likes this. Ahhh...

This is the closest she got to Elmo the whole trip.

She did let me approach Big Bird at our Character Dinner (hesitantly), to let Scott snap a quick pic. Although, she SERIOUSLY flipped out whenever any of the characters approached our table. Especially, Cookie Monster. She thought he was going to "get" her. She did, however, like watching them sing and dance from a safe distance of 15-20 feet away.

Ooh, feel the terror. The shows were definitely one of the best parts.

Dancing by our seats.

This place is FUN as long as no one comes near me!

Our second stop was at The Crayola Factory in lovely Easton, PA, which was A LOT longer of a drive from our hotel than we had originally anticipated. It was still really fun, although I think a slightly older kid would get even more out of the numerous art projects you can do there. We basically just dabbled here and there.

Live characters-- hell no! But a giant stationary crayon? YES, PLEASE!

Crayola's version of Play Doh. Interesting. We drew on it with

markers and made a pretty sweet mess.

There was a clear wall you could draw on.

Which, of course, led to the idea of drawing on oneself.

Above the Crayola Factory there was this coal mining/canal museum (only in PA), and Lucy really liked this sandbox full of shredded rubber.

As my Dad says, there's one buckethead in every crowd.

Ok, it WAS pretty cool.

And then we visited some friends near Philly, where Lucy had a great time playing with Violet, who she hasn't seen in over a year! The girls are SO alike that they wanted to do and be the same things while playing, which caused a little conflict. But 5 minutes later they were over it and back to having a tea party.

Conflict? Problem solved: The Piglet Movie.

Oh, and horses. Is it just a universal things that all little girls love horses?

Third and final stop: The Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia. A truly great children's museum... very much like Port Discovery in Baltimore. Mommy and Daddy were very thankful for another day of air conditioning. Lucy had a great time touching everything.

Outside the museum. Yay for free street parking!

Wrong turn.

Lucy could have stayed here all day watching these ball balance on puffs of air.

Aaand, of course, we spent copious amounts of time in the water area.

The piano from the movie Big. Pretty cool.

Family band in the jungle music room. Elvis would be proud.

Giving baby bear some milk. (You can see she's already

put Papa and Mama bear in their beds in the background.)

Yeah, um... that's not a scary-ass Mad Hatter or anything...

Taking care of a baby (which was anatomically correct!) in the play hospital.

Yet another merry-go-round inside the museum.

I think this is my favorite pic from our whole vacation. Stengers of Avonlea.

Our last stop was at Dalessandro's and Lucy was convinced that the twisty stools at the counter were another ride . Mommy and Daddy enjoyed some cheesesteak bliss.

Beach Blanket Bingo

2011-07-07T07:34:00.001-04:00

We finally got a chance to get back out to Delaware at the end of June, and we got to do all the usual fun stuff... hit the beach and the boardwalk, went on some rides, rode the trike some, and of course, picked up all the shiny rocks in Nanni and Grandad's front yard.

Sharing some Italian ice on the boardwalk.

Merry-go-round with Nanni

Ahh.... good old fashioned rides with guns.

And the new lame rides that just slowly go in a circle.

Checking my seatbelt? Shoot. Don't you be touching my boat.

My beach baby.

Man, this kid loves sand. She eventually rolled in it before we left.

Oh, yeah, and probably burying her didn't help the sand situation.

Much cheaper than childcare.

Just me, my bike, and the open road.

Cheeser.

And then just before the 4th of July, we took a trip to Cunningham Falls State Park (the same place where we went camping last fall) to swim in the lake and have a beach date with the Fitches and Marchesanis.

A pink sprinkle donut and a tutu bathing suit-- life doesn't get much better.

Lucy and Vincent... the wild children bond.

Lucy digging in the sand with her other favorite toy of all time: a stick.

Aaaaaand more sand.

And then we went to Lucy's best friend from daycare, Anna's, birthday party on July 4th. The two of them are such partners in crime. Even innocently sipping their juices, they are hatching some kind of plot... I'm sure of it.

Too Cool for Pool

2011-06-22T21:15:00.003-04:00

I started sweating the moment I opened the door this morning. It was one of THOSE days... muggy at 8am, 110 degrees in your car by 10, and swarms of gnats and mosquitoes making any kind of park visit impossible. (At least for us sweet-blooded folks.) We needed a pool today.

I really wanted to join one of those neato cool private community pool clubs this summer, but the $500+ price tag scared us off a little. Thank goodness for MoCo's good public county pools! We hit up the Glenmont Pool today in Wheaton and we felt like "members" instantly. For only 10 bucks. We could get used to this.

PS- If there's a Parenting Olympics somewhere, I should get a gold freaking medal for French-braiding a squirmy two year-old's hair at 7:30am. Yeah! This pic was a week or so ago, pre-Lucy's second Mommy haircut of the year last night. I only took about a 1/2 inch off, and thank goodness her hair is so curly that whatever unevenness there is doesn't show. However, this girl's hair is getting too thick for me to mess with anymore! Uncle Sean, here we come!

Low Parenting Moment and Pics

2011-06-20T15:39:00.008-04:00

Now that I have a big, fancy camera, I find that I forget to bring it places now more than ever. And while we're on the topic of low parenting moments, Lucy dropped her toothbrush on the floor last night and let out a loud, frustrated "FUUUDGE!" Yeah, except it wasn't fudge. With homage to A Christmas Story, she dropped the f-bomb loud and clear and then proceeded to repeat it 10 times under her breath. I didn't want to encourage it, so I just covered my mouth and walked out of the bathroom to let her have her rant. At least she used it correctly. Usually we are pretty good with language around the house, but its probably slipped out in the car a couple of times. Oops. And back to the camera thing, its a good thing my cell phone takes halfway decent pics. With added help from iPhoto of course! Here are a bunch I just downloaded off my phone, from several different events throughout June thus far.

Takoma Park Jazzfest-- Lucy got to jam to tunes and run around with Sasha, and we got to hang out with our friends, the Lee's.

Wing of Fancy live butterfly exhibit at Brookside Gardens. We've been here 3 times already this summer and its not even July 4th yet. I have 2 sets of pics from this place...

SO GLAD she got over her fear of butterflies from last summer. In these pics, Lucy and AJ were running around outside pretending to be frogs. The second pic I snapped a second too late...

DC DUCKS tour with interpreters from work-- lots of fun on a hot, sweaty afternoon!

And back at the Rockville fountain-- a watermelon snack break before meeting Daddy for dinner. We LOVE this place. The Silver Spring fountain really does not even compare.
Oh, and a trip to Berry Cup for after dinner fro-yo...

Some pics from home....
I've been waiting for this moment....

Fulfilling my 7th grade dream and seeing the Bangles live at Celebrate Fairfax! Also very hot and sweaty, but we scored pretty decent seats by squatting for an hour before the show! The seats would have been even better if a bunch of a-holes didn't stand right in front of us.

Father's Day BBQ at Chez Cunha... unfortunately Scott was feeling under the weather, so Lucy and I went and hung out with all FOUR Cunhas (including BRAND NEW baby Mollie!) and the Funkranz four as well! (These are the non-nudy kid pics... of course the kids wanted to get wet, then dry, undressed, and then wet again...)

My Lego girl! She was so proud of this castle/tower thing that she wanted me to take a picture to show Nanni and Grandad! You have no idea how excited I am that she is finally into Legos and I'm not the only one!

Summer Kick-Off: Six Signs of Summer

2011-05-29T21:47:00.008-04:00

Its hard to believe that at this time last year, Lucy (then 18 months old) did her first pee-pee in the potty! Now she's fully potty trained (except at night), and 2 1/2, really ALMOST THREE! (And I REALLY can't believe that I've kept up with this blogging thing for over three years now. Up until my current career, I had never even kept a job for three years!)

Anyhow, summer is basically here. This week is our first week of high 80's/low 90's and its only going to get more and more humid and suffocating. Ugh. Bring on the multi-shower days. Here are six signs to let you know when its officially "summertime" around these parts....

1. We played a game called Ugly Porch, Pretty Porch. (With many thanks to my Dad for doing the lion's share of the sanding!)

Ugly porch. Splintery. Thirsty. Ouchie.

Pretty porch. Sanded and sealed thanks to Thompson's WaterSeal and Woodchuck Cider. Whew.

2. The Rockville Town Center fountain opens! We frequented this place last year, and since we couldn't swing joining a pool this summer, we plan to do the same this year!

3. Backyard sprinkler. This happens to be my Mom and Dad's backyard, but just about any backyard will do. Lucy was not so fond of the sprinkler last summer, but is clearly right at home with her "kitty" sprinkler this year.

4. The community bidet-- I mean, Silver Spring fountain opens for running, sliding, cracking one's head open on the concrete, and getting water shot up one's bum. I swear that every kid in MoCo has gotten a colon cleanse here. Its a madhouse, so we tend to just skulk around the edges. (To be perfectly honest, this place has always geeked me out a bit, even before I had Lucy, but its close to home and its wet, so...)

5. Sno-cones! Watch as it magically transforms from a ball of ice into a green smear down her shirt in front of your very eyes!

6. Rockville's Hometown Holidays Memorial Day weekend sha-bang. Got to hang with our friends the Santiagos and have some old fashionedish, low tech, home towney fun. Lucy and Ryu are two peas in a pod and had a great time together!

Food? Yes.

You sure its okay if we get wet?

I'll take a fire hose over the Silver Spring bidet, any day!

They had a great time on the world's slowest merry-go-round. (And had to ride it like 4 or 5 times!)

Summer, here we come!

Random Updates

2011-05-14T15:17:00.012-04:00

Crazy busy past few weeks: Osama Bin Laden is dead, Steve Carrell left The Office, Prince William and Kate got married, and Lucy survived her first trip to the dentist. We are also getting ready to work on a bunch of projects around the house now that Scott is no longer working his second job at Joe's Record Paradise (hooray!) We are working on sanding and resealing the front deck, we have some desk switching around to do, plus we need to paint and put together Lucy's new big girl room and big girl bed. Pics on all those as they progress.

One of Lucy's new things lately is pretending that Swiper (from Dora) is hiding around every corner. When we walk down to Grammy and Grandpa's house, she pretends he's hiding behind bushes and runs down the sidewalk. Its so cute to see her get really into her pretending. Here was a conversation we had a couple days ago:

Lucy: There's Swiper!
Me: Where?
Lucy: Inside the dog! Callie, open your mouth. Yeah, there's Swiper in there.

Here are some other things we've been up to:

Lots of popsicles. Especially orange ("odange") ones. I taught her to taste it and say, "mmm, orangey." Ahh, its the little things.

She is very serious with baby care. She keeps them well-fed and usually swaddled.

Lucy's partner in crime from daycare, Anna, came over to play one day. These girls are two peas in a pod with a shared love of tutus, wands, and jumping. They are a hoot together so we signed them up for the same gymnastics class for the summer-- should be interesting!

Lucy made friends with the cat (and bear, not pictured) statues at Rio.

Its funny that she is so bold here, but if this were Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny in a mall, she would be bolting the opposite direction.

We all did the NAMI Walk in Silver Spring on May 15. It was a bittersweet day, raising money for a great cause but feeling our heavy loss at the same time.

Getting ready to walk.

They spoke about removing the negative stigma associated with mental health issues.

Yeah, um, she like the IDEA of seeing Elmo and Abby, but notsomuch the reality.

At least we got to play in the Silver Spring fountain a bit after the walk.

Lucy and Vincent snuggled up (after she had tucked him in and patted him on the head) watching Fresh Beat Band together.

Lucy's "spider" that she drew. I do believe this is the first thing that she has ever drawn that actually looks like what she says it is. I love her growing enjoyment of bugs-- she watches ants on our front sidewalk and picks up the potato bugs she finds. She really is a mini-Tia!

Bunnies and Butterflies

2011-05-02T15:24:00.010-04:00

Two weeks ago, Lucy had a really nasty virus which gave her a 102 fever for about 5 days followed by the constantly runny/allergy nose, so she has been pretty miserable for the past couple of weeks. Despite being sick, we had a great laid-back Easter at Nanni and Grandad's house in LSD (Lower Slower Delaware, so I'm told), and by early last week she was finally feeling better enough to go back to daycare. All her friends had missed her so much, they said that each time someone rang the doorbell, all the kids would say, "Lucy?!?!?"

Here are a few Easter pics:

Pink monkey Easter basket!

Finding eggs in the front yard

She needed a little help finding some...

But she had a great time!

Shhh.... Uncle Sean and Aunt Buffy did the hiding!

See my eggs!?!?

PEEPS!!!!!

By the way, Lucy is TOTALLY OBSESSED with wearing dresses and skirts lately. We've been going through the "I don't like pants" phase for a while now (she at least has to wear a shirt and underpants in the house), but since the weather has become nicer she demands (nicely) to wear a dress pretty much every day. Sometimes I can talk her into putting some leggings on underneath if its a chilly day or if we're going to the park, but getting her to put on pants on a cold day is an uphill battle that I try to avoid choosing. (Somehow I won today, though!) I think its funny that every time she has a dress, skirt, or shorts (they are acceptable) on, she says, "Look, see my legs? You like my legs?" She did the same thing with short sleeved shirts when spring first came, "I have arms!" Too funny!

Today we finally re-emerged from our sick/pink eye cocoons (I don't know how I manage to get pink eye like twice a year while Lucy still hasn't gotten it once!) and headed out to Brookside Nature Center with some friends!

Tree house!

Yoo hoo!

"My fwoggy fwiend!"

Thank goodness Lucy was not afraid of the butterflies in the "Wings of Fancy" exhibit this year! Last year she was TERRIFIED to the point of climbing on top of my head.

Flying like a butterfly...

Just looking at the butterfly... it was hard not to reach out and touch them!

Sitting on the butterfly bench outside

After running up and down the ramps (as she usually does with AJ) about a thousand times, Lucy and Maggie took a break to sit and chat by the drained fountain.

I Heart Tina Fey

2011-04-20T20:53:00.001-04:00

I just HAD to lift this from the web and post it here... you'll see why!

A Mother’s Prayer for Its Child By Tina Fey
“First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches.
May she be Beautiful but not Damaged, for it’s the Damage that draws the creepy soccer coach’s eye, not the Beauty.
When the Crystal Meth is offered, may she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half And stick with Beer.
Guide her, protect her when crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age.
Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance. Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels. What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? I’m asking You, because if I knew, I’d be doing it, Youdammit.
May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers.
Grant her a Rough Patch from twelve to seventeen.Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, For childhood is short – a Tiger Flower blooming Magenta for one day – And adulthood is long and dry-humping in cars will wait.
O Lord, break the Internet forever, that she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed.
And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister, Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it.
And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back. “My mother did this for me once,”she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.
Amen.”
-Tina Fey

New Lucyisms, Vincent Turns 2, and The Zoo

2011-04-17T13:56:00.013-04:00

The Chatterbox

From morning till night it was Lucy's delight

To chatter and talk without stopping:

There was not a day but she rattled away,
Like water for ever a-dropping.

No matter at all if the subjects were small,
Or not worth the trouble of saying,
'Twas equal to her, she would talking prefer
To working, or reading, or playing.

Ann Taylor

This poem is SO APPROPRIATE for our Lucy. Sure, she can spell her name, take herself to the bathroom, and count to ten in English and Spanish, but she still has some pretty cute ways to butcher the English language or just make us laugh. Here are some more Lucyisms for her at 2 1/2 years old:

"Pootaste" (toothpaste)

"I dood it!"

"_____ hit me." (Baby, Callie, friend from daycare, etc)

"Hmm... (taps finger on lips) oh, I know!"

"I don't like pants."

"No quieres" (really should be no quiero)

(sings) "Rolling with the homies..." (when we leave the house in the mornings)

"Miss Mommy? Miss Tia? Miss Daddy?" (I guess this is because she calls the ladies at daycare Miss Yanci and Miss Dina...)

"C'mon! I show you..."

"Why?" (x 1,000)

"Toothbrush ("pootuhsh"), jammies, and an ELEPHANT... wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.. that's not right! Toothbrush, jammies, and an ALLIGATOR... wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute... that's not right!"

"C'mon, duuuuuuude!"

"Get you outta here!" (to the untrained ear sounds like, 'Get the hell outta here!')

April has been quite the birthday month for Lucy's friends-- Vincent turned 2, Leyla turned 3, and Ryu also turned 2 (and got to spend the night over here while his baby sister was born a mere 5 days before his birthday!) Here are some pics from Vincent's birthday, and it was nice to see (almost) all the cousins and second cousins together. The view from Leah and Steve's house in Myersville makes me want to pack up and move there, like, RIGHT NOW!

We also had a fab trip to the National Zoo with friends on a day with fab weather. I have to admit that I'm still not a big fan of the animals-behind-bars concept, but Lucy and her gang loved seeing the animals and were thrilled to run up and down the zoo's wide sidewalks following the animals tracks. We actually ended up getting a membership to FONZ just so we can come back and reap the benefit of free parking and special coolio members only events.

Easy Rider

2011-04-10T16:16:00.000-04:00

What can I say? This girl LOVES her bike. (Check out the hot new momerrific ride in the background!)

Even though she got a fancy pink Schwinn tricycle for Christmas from Nanni and Grandad, she doesn't quite have the strength to pedal or control that one yet. This little big wheel is a great starter bike-- its got the handle for pushing her up hills (and pulling back when going down) and it's lightweight enough for her to get up to speed on her own.

The Plunge

2011-04-05T21:34:00.011-04:00

This video sums up Lucy's personality perfectly in 38 seconds:

I can't wait until she grows up to be a stunt woman, ninja, or trapeze girl and I can show her this video and tell her that it all started this early. Along with Mommy's gray hairs.

Oh, and since the weather has become a little less frigid and the sun has decided to come out once or twice, Lucy and Vincent decided to rock some popsicles the other day. I just couldn't resist captioning these photos for my own sick and twisted amusement:

Well, hello, Lucy what a wonderous day it is!

Yeah, boyeee! And we gots popsicles too!!!

Why, yes, I think I shall kick back and enjoy mine right now.

And for some reason it always has to end with someone in tears. I think this is one of the cutest pictures ever, but Scott thinks I am mentally ill for liking (and laughing at) this picture. If I recall correctly, I believe he wasn't hurt or anything (well, maybe a bumped lip from before-- that's how they scored the popsicles in the first place!) but I think he was just pissed off that it was dripping down his shirt and not directly into his mouth.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. My new mantra. "Two is fun!"

The End of an Era

2011-03-27T15:52:00.003-04:00

Yesterday we said goodbye to fair Gretyl, my little Scion xD that has been so good to us and taken us on so many road trips. There was a great deal going on at Koons Tyson's Toyota where they were offering 125% on trade-ins, so I set aside my intense hatred of Krystal Koons to look for a new home for my wonderful, yet cramped, Gretyl.

I wasn't totally emo about giving her up because its been a little tiresome squishing all of our stuff and our selves into a tiny economy car (which Scott says is basically a slightly overgrown Smart Car) every time we want to go somewhere. Two adults + a kid + a dog + a bunch of stuff + tiny car = a not so pleasant road-tripping experience. But on the other hand, Gretyl has never broken down on us, never blown a tire on us, pulled through being rear-ended, and she also drove me to my wedding and brought our first child home from the hospital.... so I wasn't "totally emo", but I was still a bit emo...

Until I saw him... there he was, gleaming in the sun... his sexy Silver Hybrid self... The Highlander. Duncan. (A nice Scottish name, right?) As soon as they told me that, yes, he had a 3rd row of seating (you never know when you'll need extra capacity!) I was in love.

The long and short of it is: I got a good deal on my trade-in, I got the more family-friendly vehicle I wanted for a good price, and it was a hybrid to boot. I spent almost 8 hours at the dealership (keep in mind that I test drove about 6 or 7 other cars before I found Duncan) but it was totally worth it.

Looks like I'm not the only one who likes it!!!

Beware the Ides of March...

2011-03-15T21:35:00.007-04:00

I can't believe its been almost a month since my last blog post! I guess in this case no news is good news, and really nothing notable has been going on lately. Phew. Other than the fact that I'm still adjusting to having a 4 day, instead of a a 3 day, workweek (I know, I know... waah, waah), everything is pretty much peachy.

The weather is getting better and the geese are back...

Shoe art is back...

And I'm not so sure about this one...

Lucy still wiggles herself into a tutu whenever there's 25 seconds of downtime...

Last Saturday, we had a great time celebrating Baby JJ's 1st birthday. It was a great party-- chill, nice weather, great peeps, and about 3 straight hours of moonbouncing.

After ignoring each other for the first 2 hours, Lucy and Leyla finally had a moment of recognition and remembered that they were, indeed, friends. They then proceeded to raid the cooler, jump around in the moonbounce, and laugh each other silly for the rest of the afternoon.

A Port in the Storm

2011-02-21T15:18:00.004-05:00

Although, the weather has been quite pleasant the past few days-- its still a bit too cold for more than a few minutes of outside play. To the rescue: Port Discovery Children's Museum in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. It was a lovely day with lovely friends and we hardly heard a negative peep out of these two, even after schlepping around all day with no naps.

Ryu made a beeline for the music room and Lucy was happy to oblige.

Really, who doesn't love a giant drum?!?!

She also liked the do-it yourself pretend diner.

The inside of a piano.

Our favorite thing: the water room.

The queen mother of all water tables.

Its a good thing they have the loaner rain jackets. (Although her sleeves were

still wet... luckily, they also have a big body/hand dryer near the exit.)

After lunch-- storytime! (This lady is one of the best children's librarian's

I've seen... all the kids were totally captivated!)

Pretend shopping the pretend empty shelves at the pretend store.

The run-n-dump of food in the (slightly scary) cow's trough.

The perfect place to end our visit-- the art room.

Lucy watercolored and Mommy rested. Phew.

Dinosaur Music

2011-02-09T13:00:00.004-05:00

Anyone who knows anything about the current trends in kid's music knows that Laurie Berkner is THE SHIZZ. Her tunes are totally laid-back and folksy, but not too Raffi-ish. She's got a little rock n roll in there too, but not like The I'm-trying-too-hard-to-be-Beatles-ish Wiggles. (And we won't even discuss Kidz Bop.) Basically, she's one of the only musicians out there in the kid's genera whose music is cute and palatable, and even somewhat enjoyable, for parents.

So, this morning we're rocking out with Laurie's We Are The Dinosuars, and Lucy is singing along as usual (she sang along to the cd like 3 times through on the way to and from Delaware last weekend) and roaring when appropriate.

After the song is over Lucy adds, "and then the dinosaurs come in the car!"
Of course I nod along, "oh really? That's interesting!"
"Then they eat my shoe!"

Hmm, that really is interesting. I love that her story-telling skills are developing. Can't wait until she tells me that a dinosaur ate her homework!

Accidentally Amish

2011-02-07T13:41:00.000-05:00

Its been a long few weeks here at Chez Stenger as the snow storm that hit us Jan 26 (about 7 inches of heavy, wet snow) brought our happy digitally-driven lives to a screeching halt. I'm not sure why Montgomery County becomes a third world country every time there's a major weather event, but it does, no matter what the season. (Last summer brought widespread power outages from a bad rainstorm-- umm, hello Pepco! ITS RAIN!!!) So why should we expect any less when snow hits?

The calm before the storm...

We were without power for about 34 hours (Wed, 1/26 @ 7pm until Fri, 1/28 @ 4am) and trekked down to my parents house to camp there since they have a generator to run space heaters, the coffee maker, and sometimes the tv. Ahhh... TV.... That brings me to my Verizon-is-the-Devil portion of my rant, which I will try to consolidate because it involves ubiquitous use of the F word. Basically, we have all of our services through them (tv, phone, and internet) and after we got power back, NONE of them were working. Scott called to have a tech come out, and then they flaked on us and it took them eleven days to send someone out to flip a switch and have us re-join society. Going for a day or two, or even three or four, without tv and internet is annoying, but bearable. After the fifth day, we lost our sense of humor and headed for a) Redbox, b) other people's houses, and c) insanity. Raising a kiddo without the ability to turn on the automatic babysitter for 10 minutes while I make dinner is not the kind of parenting I'm interested in.

A few more pics from before the storm...

Morning play time

Lucy's cars become her "skateboard"

And then the storm hit...

The weighed down branches were touching the sidewalk

Eating your snowman is normal, right?

Snow cannibal

After the storm-- watching DVD's of Pee-Wee's Playhouse

Sporty Spice in her shiny new kicks

Lucy and Steven have a romantic dinner together

And follow it up with a little hanger-fighting

After the first week of being digitally cut off from the world and making do with DVD's, playdates, and (gasp!) reading books... we headed for Delaware for the weekend.

Lucy teaches Grandad to finger paint

And Grandad teaches Lucy to watch Wipeout

She reels in her victims by grabbing their hands and saying, "c'mon, I show you..."

And then we have the rituals: the picking of the rocks

And the running of the ramp

And then we came up with a new ritual of repurposing Play Doh into makeshift Rudolph noses. Finally, when we got home, the Verizon guy came and pushed like two buttons and got our tv, phone, and internet up and running again. I guess I'll demote them from devil status down to major annoyance.

Learning at the Speed of Sound

2011-01-25T21:20:00.009-05:00

Slow down, kiddo...

Scott and I were talking the other day about how Lucy is such a giant sponge these days, that she just absorbs words and phrases everywhere, they rattle around in her brain a bit, and then get spit out at the most random times. (Usually in the car-- I swear, she hardly even stops talking to take a breath in the car. Its like we are her captive audience and she's trying out new monologues on us.) But its fun to sleuth and suppose where she learned some of these in the first place. Sometimes I'll remember seeing that word or phrase in a book, or hearing it in a TV show, or saying it myself. With all the ice around lately, she's learned the word slippery (or "slippy" as she says it) from us. And there was one day around Christmastime when I made a hasty left-hand turn when there was a bunch of oncoming traffic and I yelled the F word like any good panicking motorist. And not 5 seconds later, she repeated that word with equal volume and enthusiasm, and it was clear as a bell what she was saying-- no room for "um, I think she needs a fork?" or any of that. It was perfectly clear where that word came from.

She likes to climb on things and pretend they are horses-- the arm of the couch, the ottoman, a pillow and when she was little (well, littler-- last summer) she would climb on her horse and call it "my big neigh." Now she gallops around and says "Giddyup, horsey" which is beyond cute, but it is a mystery where she got it. Most people would think that stuff like this is probably picked up at day care... which is totally probable. BUT (and here's the big butt-- I mean, but) at Lucy's daycare, they speak 99.9% Spanish all day long. Our day care ladies are all from El Salvador and God bless them, they are wonderful, fantastic, loving, caring, and patient teachers, but 2 out of 3 of them speak English as well as I speak Swahili. Nada. So where is she learning all these interesting words like "camel", "reach", and "crumbs?" Its a bona fide mystery...

I've recently been promoted to an Interpreter Supervisor position at work, which is pretty cool for a number of reasons, but it kind of sucks that I have to work on Fridays now. For the past 2 years I've only worked Tues-Wed-Thurs, and been home Mondays and Fridays so that Lucy and I could have playdates, go to the library, take classes, go grocery shopping, go to the zoo, and other fun kiddo stuff. And, luckily, I still have Mondays to do that with her, (and the weekends of course), but I'm a bit sad to give up my Fridays with her. Although, I am noticing that a) she hasn't been phased one iota, and b) she appreciates getting to see her friends at day care an extra day and getting to see the special guest teacher who comes every other Friday for stories/art/music time. Hey, maybe that's who she's learning all these words from...!

Napkins

2011-01-11T18:53:00.004-05:00

Tonight Scott and Lucy were sitting at the dinner table chatting as I was clearing the dishes. Here is there conversation:

Lucy: Daddy, I have a napkim?
Scott: Napkim? Can you say nap-KIN?
Lucy: Napkim.
Scott: No, nap-KIN.
Lucy: Nap-KIM.
Scott: Try again, nap-KIN.
Lucy: Nap-KID?
Scott: (laughing) No, not kid.
Lucy: (very confused) Kids?
Scott: Nap-KIN.
Lucy: Nap-KIM.
Scott: *sigh*

We also helped out with raking leaves in Grammy and Papa's yard not so long ago... Here are the pics I took with my cell phone, which aren't half bad after a bit of fine-tuning courtesy of iPhoto.

Kiddie leaf compactor to the rescue!

Funny Conversation

2011-01-09T13:36:00.005-05:00

So, this morning Lucy and I are eating Toaster Strudels for breakfast and have the following conversation:

Me: Do you like your Toaster Strudel?
Lucy: Yeah
Me: You know, Mommy ate these EVERY DAY when I was pregnant with you.
Lucy: (Looks thoughtfully at her breakfast, then holds it up.) I'm pregnant too!

Ringing in the New Year

2011-01-02T22:38:00.005-05:00

December 31st was a busy last day of 2010. Lucy and I went to Adventure Theatre at Glen Echo Park to see a production of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which was equally fun and terrifying for her. (Her first live play, although we did go see the 50 minute Nutcracker "Mini-Nut" in early Dec, but she sat through both beautifully.) It was actually decently warm that day, so we got to hit up the little Glen Echo playground after the show too. There's something about that park that is so cool and creepy and awesome. I can't believe that it was almost 10 years ago that I played the witch in AT's production of Rapunzel. Man, that place has come A LONG WAY with a crapload of renovations and investors and stuff... because it used to be (pardon my French) a TOTAL SHITHOLE, and it is now a fine establishment with MUCH BETTER SHOWS that I am happy to bring my kid to.

Ready(ish) for Rudolph

Trying to pose

The park

A snack break

Weeee!

And then that night we hit up the Garden of Lights at Brookside Gardens. We meant to see this before Christmas (as we did last year), but with everything going on with the family, viruses going around, and the weather being so cold, it got put on the back burner. Finally, some awesome friends suggested we join them on NYE, and it worked out perfectly.

Dear 2011,

Please me a marked improvement over 2010. I mean, it wasn't like the year from hell or anything, but... you can do better.

Love,

The Stengers

My Favorite Things

2010-12-29T21:13:00.005-05:00

Since Lucy grows by leaps and bounds every day-- she learns new words and phrases constantly (we heard "giddyup" for the first time out of her mouth tonight while she galloped around the basement)-- I feel like I should try to hit a few of her favorite things from this past year.

Lucy's Top Ten from 2010

Favorite TV Show-- Calliou wins, hands down. And I have to admit that I LOVE this show-- all the kids are so polite and happy without being too Barneyish, I bet every parent hope it rubs off. (Dora the Explorer, Monkey See Monkey Do, and The Wiggles are a 3-way tie for 2nd place)
Favorite Food-- Cheese, cheese, and cheese. Oh, and cucumbers, goldfish, cake, donuts, and raisins.
Favorite Toy-- She is pretty hardcore into her baby doll, whom is always naked and we just call "baby"... the day she see's Dirty Dancing, she may have some questions.
Favorite Person-- TIA! Although she sometimes gets too excited around her and smacks the crap out of her.
Favorite Song-- She can sing You Are My Sunshine all by herself, and you can almost tell what song it is without knowing beforehand. Lately, she is also very into the songs from The Sound of Music (especially "Do do do") and of course Moon Moon Moon and almost anything else by Laurie Berkner.
Favorite Book-- I'm going to give this to Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans. She is also a fan of the Maisy books by Lucy Cousins, and the If you Give a a books by Laura Numeroff.
Favorite Movie-- Annie, Annie, and MORE ANNIE. The 1982 original. She will sit through about 2/3 of it, which is pretty remarkable for a 2 year old. She is also a fan of Julie Andrews-- Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music (only the parts where the kids sing, of course.)
Favorite Outdoor Activity-- She got a sand and water table last spring and used it pretty much every day until it got too cold.
Favorite Indoor Activity-- Playing dress-up has been keeping her busy since her birthday, when she got 2 dresses and some shoes... Santa added to her dress-up collection considerably. She is also very into Play Doh and her Little People farm and doll house.
Favorite Friends-- We are very lucky to have lots of friends to play with, and on top of that Lucy has her own little crew of "buddies" at day care. On Mondays and Fridays we have playdates with AJ, Ojas, and Ethan pretty often, and also get to play with other friends once in a while- Leyla, Ryu, Steven, JJ, Sasha, Gus, cousin Vincent, neighbors Sophie and Owen, and Addie. Her BFF's at daycare are Brayden, Noah, Anna, Julissa, and Sebastian.

Update 12/30-- Favorite Quote of the Year:

Lucy and Tia are looking out a dark window after dinner one night and she says, "Tia, where outside go?" Ha ha ha...

Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T22:11:00.008-05:00

Wonderful to spend time with family

And get together with friends

And open presents from Santa

Even though the nose-wiping never ends

This holiday had little spots of dark

But was still fairly bright

Lots of food to fill our bellies

And wine to help us sleep through the night

The kids ran, grabbed, and chased

In the basement they played and jumped

How much chocolate can a dog eat

Before she needs her stomach pumped?

The little empty places nag

The hugs last a little longer

But we left with many a full bag

And perhaps just that much closer.

Girls and Boys

2010-12-24T22:22:00.000-05:00

Lucy: I got a dress on! Vincent have dress?
Mommy: No, Vincent is a boy, and boys don't wear dresses... well, usually...
Lucy: Hmm...
Mommy: Lucy, are you a boy or a girl?
Lucy: GIRL!
Mommy: Is Vincent a boy or a girl?
Lucy: GIRL!
Mommy: Are you sure?
Lucy: No, a BOY!
Mommy: Ok, how about Daddy?
Lucy: BOY!
Mommy: Grammy? Nanni? Tia?
Lucy: GIRL! GIRL! GIRL!
Mommy: Good! What about Mommy? Is Mommy a boy or a girl?
Lucy: A BOY!
Mommy: Are you sure?
Lucy: Hmm... maybe a girl...

I can see the wheels turning...

2010-12-20T14:36:00.004-05:00

Today's conversations between Lucy and I:

Mommy: Lucy, look there's Santa (in someone's yard)
Lucy: Big Santa
Mommy: Yep, its a big Santa
Lucy: Big Santa says HO HO HO LOUD
Mommy: uh huh
Lucy: Yittle Santa says (in a high voice) ho ho ho

And then after a trip to my office, where I was signing at some points and not using my voice, Lucy decided to imitate that as I was putting her in the car. She flapped her little hands all around-- some actual signs, some not-- and moved her mouth like she was talking and nodded like a real little signer. Of course I burst out laughing at her little caricature of me, but it was a very good imitation of ASL, Up until she was about 18 months old, I used (some) signs and words together with her, but now that she is older I am trying to separate them out and show her that they are 2 distinct languages. And I think today was the little keystone that set that concept in place. I tried to get her to do it again at home, and of course failed miserably at trying to get a video of it. Well, I got like 3 seconds worth... will try to post later. :)

Update 12/26-- Here's the 3 sec video of Lucy's sign language...

Extraordinarily Bad Photos

2010-12-18T22:26:00.000-05:00

Lucy LOVES her gymnastics class at the YMCA, and even though she only turned 2 a couple months ago, her teacher already wants to bump her up to the 3 year-old class. I mean, its not terribly complicated at this age-- its basically a big, padded room where they can climb, swing, roll, rock, hop, flip, and otherwise move in ways that are generally frowned upon at home. But she's pretty much a champ and does everything her teacher asks her to do easily and happily. Not sure where it came from, but she is very much a natural gymnast/dancer/stunt girl.

Excuse the extraordinarily bad photos... all I had was my cell phone...

Fun with an Amazon.com box

2010-12-16T21:09:00.002-05:00

Perfection is never what it seems.

2010-12-09T20:47:00.007-05:00

Today the world lost a beautiful, big-hearted, funny, and generous woman. A dynamic mother, a doting daughter, a loyal wife, a hilarious cousin, a caring niece, a thoughtful friend, and a woman who was more concerned with making people feel at home--offering them drinks and a nosh-- than she was with her own comfort. Unfortunately, she was also very sad, and possibly very sick.

I remember so many things about my cousin Missy, and whenever someone passes away I get this urgent impulse to write down everything about that person. Because memories fade, but there are some things I never want to forget.

Missy and I were bound by the whole older sibling thing-- she always told me that us big sisters had to stick together. Stick together for what? To take care of our younger siblings and to keep tabs on our parents, of course. She was very good at keeping tabs on people in a subtle way. A raised eyebrow, an offhand comment, a laugh and an eye roll.

Since she was born several years before my parents had kids, as a toddler she used to come spend the night with my parents once in a while. And even as recently as last summer, my mom and dad delighted themselves in reminding her of two things from that era almost every time we got together. First, that she had some kind of suction cup toy that she called "pop bing" and, secondly, that in the mornings she would scream and whine and cry for "frambled eggs" but really meant sunny side up eggs.

My sister and I remember our big cousin Missy as the perpetual beauty that she always was. And I mean ALWAYS. Never a bad hair day and never a fat day. I think she must have woke up every morning looking like a million bucks-- golden shiny hair, flawlessly clear and tanned skin, and a slim silhouette. As a teenager, she always knew where the party was, and just dripped coolness off her popped collars, acid-washed jeans, and perfectly Aqunetted hair.

When I was getting ready to become a mother, she had TONS of advice for me-- don't waste money on new toys, just hit up yard sales for like-new stuff at, like, 1/10 of the price. What should I drop the big bucks on? A $300 kick-ass Medela breast pump that I ended up using almost daily until my daughter was 7 months old. She also swore up and down that I should get a baby sling to tote my baby around the house and still do stuff with free hands. I never quite got the hang of that sling. She also called me and left a funny voicemail a few months ago that she owes me a new baby swing. The swing I got as a gift for my daughter cycled through my cousin Leah before it got back to Missy for baby Ellie, and she seemed pretty devastated that it had gotten broken on her watch. Oh well. Things can be replaced. People can't.

And its sitting here with my mind racing about that kind of stuff that forces me to write this blog. Everyone is so heart-broken and shocked that such a wonderful, shining member of our family could ever be so sad and so hopeless that she would feel the need to take her own life. We all blame ourselves for not reaching out her earlier, faster, stronger, more frequently, but that blame game could go on until infinity and we would still never have answers to all of the questions that hang in the air around this sad day.

I'm hoping to dig up some old pictures and scan them in sometime soon. The next few days, weeks, and months are going to be strange and empty, but also hopefully informative and relieving as the family strives to explain to themselves, and to Drew (and sort of, to Ellie), what happened to their mom. It pains my heart to think of a 6 year old boy growing up without his mother, and a 9 month old girl growing up never knowing her mother. It will be our job to tell these stories to them, and to remind them of what a wonderful person she was, and how she only wanted the most beautiful, perfect lives for them.

Orphans and Ooommmunumma

2010-12-02T18:34:00.009-05:00

I had a total epic fail with taking any kind of photos on Thanksgiving. But we DID have a good time here at our house with a table full of family. We ate turkey, but Lucy was a total ham, as usual. I think she really enjoyed having 8 adults, instead of the day-to-day 2 or 3, as a captive audience. And I got to go visit Abigail in NJ for a day. I figured that if she can fly 3,000 miles, I can drive for 3 hours-- and it was well worth it. Priceless catching up grown-up time!!!

Lucy has been really into singing some new songs lately-- especially Hot Potato by The Wiggles, Moon Moon Moon by Laurie Berkner, and You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile by the lovely and talented orphans from Annie. In fact, she was just dancing around the basement to the latter one a little while ago. We watch Annie A LOT. It all started just by watching a few youtube videos here and there... and then I realized I had the dvd... and it was all over after that. At least 2-3 times a week we spend time with our favorite freckled-faced red-head, and I'm always surprised that she actually sits transfixed through most of it. I suppose it could be worse... she could be addicted to some kind of Disney Princess crap. *shudder*

The other thing that makes me laugh lately is Lucy's verbal filler when trying to explain something. She speaks very well now and tells us all kinds of things-- what she sees, which socks she prefers, that her doll is cold, that she wants to jump on Tia's bed, etc. But sometimes she gets the subject of the sentence, and then there's this oommmmanemma filler sound, and then the rest of it. Here's an example of our conversation from this morning...

Me: Ok, let's get your shoes and coat and get ready to go.
Lucy: Callie?
Me: Uh, no Callie is staying here.
Lucy: Cookie?
Me: Huh?
Lucy: I ooonawunnaawunnaa Callie hemmmanennna cookie.
Me: Oh, you want to give Callie a cookie before we go?
Lucy: Yes.

Maybe that is a bad example and makes her seem a little special... I mean she can speak in small sentences, "the lights are on", "I wanna bath", "where's my cup?" But when she's REALLY thinking about how to put together a sentence is when the filler comes up. I just think its funny that not only can we see the wheels in her brains turning, now we can hear them too.

Making the most of the outdoors...

2010-11-21T15:34:00.006-05:00

I'm still a little scarred from last winter's extreme multi-week snow-in, so we are trying to soak up as much of the cool, crisp fall weather as we possibly can before it gets too cold to enjoy. Silver Spring put on this new Thanksgiving Parade thingy yesterday (this was the 2nd year, but the 1st time for us) and it was pretty cool. Lucy loved watching the marching bands and the dance groups. Tia scored us some coffee from Kefa Cafe and we sat out front of our favorite Indian restaurant, Bombay Gaylord, and had a pretty sweet curbside view. (Good for catching candy, stickers, etc.) Note to self: next year bring chairs. The pavement was tres cold.

Taking a break after a walk.

This morning was leaf-raking central at chez Stenger, before Scott had to leave for work at 11am. Lucy was surprisingly helpful, and with 3 adults we knocked out the entire front and back yards in 2 hours. I give mundo credit to Dunkin Donuts for their coffee and munchkins, which powered us nicely.

How to pack down leaves. Step 1: lift child

Step 2: let child jump in leaves in the trash can. Amazingly effective method!

Step 3: let child enjoy a break in a leaf pile.

And then she can jump in a pile all by herself...

And feel all proud and accomplished and stuff.

The Boots

2010-11-08T14:22:00.004-05:00

Lucy inherited these awesome yellow rain boots from our neighbor's daughter, Kaylee, a few weeks ago. And even though we've only had a handful of rainy days so far this fall (which is unusual), she is making the most of them and INSISTS on sporting these boots whenever she can. As you can see, they go with practically anything when you're tall, skinny, and two.

Fall Updates

2010-11-05T16:24:00.009-04:00

I haven't blogged in a while, but nothing hugely exciting has happened in a while... Lucy is talking/singing/dancing up a storm as usual and her favorite songs lately are "E-I-E-I-O" and "Zackah" (Frere Jacques) and her new (and continuing) hobbies are playing dress-up, jumping in puddles, putting socks on her hands and calling them mittens, and throwing leaves. She is loving her gymnastics class at the YMCA on Monday mornings, and she is somersaulting like crazy and growing even stronger and more fearless! She has also added bagels with cream cheese and lox to her preferred foods list. L'chaim!

Guess what's a lot of fun? Walking backwards!

Guess what else is fun? Holding hands with a friend...

And wearing a hat!

And eating a cupcake at a Princess birthday party!

Halloween came and went, and Lucy wore most of her costume. I ended up hot-gluing the dinosaur's face to a headband for her to wear. Well, for ME to wear. Oh well, it could have been worse. Much worse.

What she would have worn...

What she (and I) did wear...

We hit up (Not so) Scary Perry early on and then begged candy off of a few friendly neighbors on our street. The pic below is of Lucy with trick-or-treating with our neighbors from around the corner, Owen and Sophie. I think the facial expressions on the three of them sums up the whole Halloween experience for the 1 and 2 year old crowd. "Huh?" But we still had a good time!

Park and Pumpkins

2010-10-16T17:08:00.007-04:00

Warning: before you view the following photographs, you must understand that there is something very special about them. All of them. Something missing... Need a hint?

No diaper bulge...

"I'm wearing unnerpants!!!"

"Hey, dude... I know you, like, live in a pond.... but seriously, you should check out UNDERPANTS! Mine are DRY and have been all day!!!"

Ok, so maybe it didn't go EXACTLY like that... but Lucy HAS been wearing underpants everyday for the past week and pottying quite well-- only 2 accidents (the first day with underpants at daycare), and none since. Can you believe that this may be the end of my tirades about poop and diapers on this blog?!?!?!?

Luckily, Brookside Gardens/Wheaton Regional Park has nice bathrooms! One thing I've learned is that now everywhere we go, we see the bathroom. Including porta-potties...

A great example: today we had a WONDERFUL day at Butler's Orchard with friends (and Tia, of course)...

There was hay in every crevice of our bodies and clothes when we got home... but it was TOTALLY worth it. For the giant slides and apple cider donuts alone. Oh yeah, and pumpkins.

Birthday Party Recap

2010-10-04T15:35:00.004-04:00

Lots of friends, tons of presents, hoards of hugs, and countless cupcakes... just like a backyard 2nd birthday party should be.

Family birthday dinner on Friday night, Oct 1:

Hanging out with Nanni and Grandad Saturday morning, Oct 2:

The Party, Saturday afternoon, Oct 2:

The Daycare Disaster

2010-09-29T20:09:00.006-04:00

Today was part 1 in the trilogy that is Lucy's 2nd birthday: The Daycare Party. I'm not sure if you can really call it a "party," since all the kids are there everyday anyway, but we came over (Scott, Tia, and I) and brought cupcakes and balloons and sang Happy Birthday to Lucy earlier this afternoon. We thought she'd be delighted. She was not.

Instead, she HOWLED and cried the whole time. Poor girl. Not sure if it was due to just getting up from a nap, or too much attention, or teething, or overstimulation, or the fact that none of us got much sleep last night because of her wicked cough. It was probably a combination of those factors that somehow fused together to make an all-powerful SUPERCRANKY toddler today... but luckily as soon as we got home, she chilled out and we had a redo:

Oh, and here is a random picture from last weekend. The first time she did this, I yelled at Scott and asked him not-too-nicely what the hell he was doing. (I thought this was some kind of passive-aggressive message that I need to bring my shoes upstairs.) Scott, miffed and innocent, asked me what the hell I was talking about... and then we realized that it was the mini-beast who had done it. Funny girl. Not sure if she was trying to put them away or just having fun... but its an interesting installation!

The McCartney's Were Onto Something...

2010-09-27T14:12:00.010-04:00

While we have always been fairly conscious of our carbon footprint-- we reuse, reduce, and recycle our asses off, we do our best to buy local and/or organic produce, we drive small fuel efficient cars, and we try to use cleaning products that don't have harmful chemicals in them-- that just doesn't seem to be enough now. Especially with all the food safety scares-- salmonella in the chicken, e coli in the beef, and the staggering effects of hormones and antibiotics in factory farmed animals. And too, my rage and frustration grows... toward the big Agricultural companies that control 80% of the food in the supermarket, feed corn (or worse) to animals who should be grass-fed, pollute the environment with trucks to cart their products all over North America, exploit their farmers and workers, and sell bacteria-laden meat that kills people.

Its just TOO MUCH. Its disgusting. Food should be healthy and not make you sick, fat, or exploit the poor. I've been doing the vegetarian thing since mid-August, and I only buy organic and/or free range meat for Scott and Lucy. We are not big consumers of dairy to begin with-- Lucy drinks rice milk, I grew up on soy, Scott doesn't care-- but we have slowly been replacing more and more meaty things with veggie things, processed foods with whole foods, and year-round imported produce with locally grown in-season pesticide-free fruits and vegetables. And I really hope that we'll live long cancer-free, diabetes-free lives and have a kid who hits puberty at 11 or 12 instead of 8 or 9.

I know this can seem like a huge undertaking-- like saying from now on, I will only think pure, holy thoughts. Or from now on I will only walk on the ceiling. Or I will only breathe with one nostril. But it doesn't have to be that hard. Its sad that it takes a movement to demand safety, respect, and integrity in the food we eat, and products we use, but baby steps in the right direction CAN make a big difference.

Here are a few resources that have spoken to us:

No Impact Man documentary

Food, Inc documentary

Skinny Bitch (stupid name, decent book)

Fast Food Nation (read the book, haven't seen the movie yet)

GoVeg.com website

and I have a few more books on my must read list:

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell II

A Week From Two

2010-09-24T14:49:00.003-04:00

I wasn't really sad about Lucy turning 1. I was kinda happy-- she was newly walking, signing, climbing, sorta talking a bit, sleeping well, and I was waaaaay excited to get all of our friends together for our FIRST little birthday party in the park.

But now that we're on the verge of two, I'm getting a wee bit emo. I mean, I love babies... but this age--toddlerhood-- this is my favorite stage. It talks, walks, and climbs- yes, and even more now! It wears my shoes, it prefers running to walking, it pretends to make me coffee, it pees and poops on the potty (about half the time), it takes gymnastics class, it calls feet "peet", it jumps on all furniture, it can go down the big twisty side at the park all by itself, it attempts to brush my hair, it puts socks on her hands and calls them mittens, it requests to be read books like Madeline and If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, and it likes to give hugs and kisses to sad people and dogs to make them happy.

I know I'll never remember everything about this age-- but I'm really trying to document some of the funny/precious/horrific things she says and does. And that's really my primary reason for keeping this blog. A picture may be worth 1,000 words, but I'm sure I've amassed well over that in the past 2+ years.

Mini-Camping Trip

2010-09-20T14:45:00.006-04:00

Ok, so I guess technically we DID camp... we slept overnight, in the woods, in a tent... that we put up. By definition, that is camping, right? But what was intended to be a 3 day/2 night camping trip with 6 adults and 3 kids, ended up being a 23 hour stint into the not-so-wild-but-still-beautiful woods of Frederick County with a half-sick toddler, stressed-out Mommy, and camping virgin Daddy. Had it not been for our wonderful friends, we would have probably wandered in circles hungry, fireless, miserable, and would have been unable to find the bathrooms. Yes, there were bathrooms. And they flushed. Take that Survivorman.

And although the toddler did not nap, we SURVIVED. She did, however, enjoy filling her little potty with gravel and rocks, finding sticks, poking caterpillars, and popping bubbles, and she slept like a rock (a madly flailing rock) overnight. For a first attempt at camping, I think we did okay. Hopefully, by next year we'll be a little more prepared, a little less sick, and better able to take advantage of all that our area has to offer!

Jumping on the air mattress was a fun few minutes:

Having a snack at the campsite:

Our awesome friends and their bubble machine:

One Last Hurrah

2010-09-11T15:29:00.003-04:00

Don't get me wrong... I am GLAD that summer is pretty much over. Scott and I... we are not summer people. The sweltering heat, the disgusting sticky humidity, the swarms of mosquitoes, the herds of clueless tourists... no thank you. But we are a complicated family in that we love the water, and we will miss this a lot. We spent many a morning at the Rockville Town Center water fountain and the practically adjacent library this summer, and we decided to have one last romp in the water before they shut it down for the year. Apparently, the fact that it was 70 degrees and breezy this morning, did not bother the polar bear child.

I wasn't really expecting the full body submersion that happened, but... what are you going to do? Luckily, I had a change of clothes for the beastie girl in the car. Oh, and the pic below is of a very cute box of cookies my dad found for Lucy. I repeat: its a VERY CUTE box. Unfortch, the cookies taste like fish turds.

And last, but not least, our other daughter is going through a tough time right now. Callie has been having some allergy issues (to something in her food) so she had to get a satellite dish today to keep her from scratching her little nose open. We have some big gun allergy meds for her now (stronger than the Benadryl I've been giving her for the past 2 weeks), and I can already tell she's itching a little less than before. Poor girl. :(

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back...

2010-09-06T22:06:00.005-04:00

Do you need to go pee-pee? Should we go potty now? Do you need to go potty? Wanna come potty with Mommy? Is it pee-pee time?

I utter one of these phrases just about every 15 minutes on the days that I'm home with Lucy. And even though I'm pretty sure she gets the whole concept of doing her business on the potty, I don't think she's really ready to be fully "trained" yet. Although, today she spent the whole day at Mom and Dad's house (we were at a wedding in NY) and apparently peed in the potty consistently all day. She's even done her fair share of pooping on the potty here and there, and we get a little time in underpants in here and there... but I just don't think she can feel it coming on. Until RIGHT before. Hence the one step forward, two steps back process... Or is it two steps forward, one step back? I don't know. What I do know is that there is often pee on the floor. Hope the dog doesn't get any ideas.

Another up and down process has been the bed. We thought she was ready for a toddler bed, type-thing, but apparently we got a little ahead of ourselves. We have a crib that "converts" to a toddler bed, like this:

But then Lucy fell through the gap in the middle of the night (onto one of those big body pillows, thank goodness), and woke up crying and startled. So I tried putting her crib bumper back in, thinking that would keep her from rolling out:
But it didn't. She rolled right under it, onto the pillow on the floor, and kept on sleeping. And then the third night, Mommy got smart(ish) and got one of those roll bars for a big bed and stuck that on there:

Umm... notice in this pic that Lucy is sleeping perpendicular to the intended direction of the bed... but a lot of babies do that. So, I guess she is not ready for a "toddler bed" yet after all (which is really fine by me), and she will continue to thrash and roll about in this makeshift cribicle until she is.

Nostalgia: Little People, Big World

2010-09-02T21:01:00.006-04:00

I remember a lot of random details from my childhood-- favorite bedtime stories, mix tapes on road trips, listening to my read-along records and turning the page when the chimes ring like this, and that one time my sister threw my new pack of bubble gum on the roof. But nothing is better at taking you right back to your childhood than when your mom brings a bunch of your old toys out of the attic, and you get to see your kid playing with them.

Fisher-Price Little People. C'mon everyone had them. If you didn't, you must have grown up someplace really remote like Utah or Manassas. I had the barn and the school house, and after watching Lucy play with them over at Mom and Dad's house, I had to bring one of them home! (The school house.)

In my opinion, the vintage Little People are a lot more fun to play with than the new generation. The older ones were smaller, and came with a lot more vehicles, so you could put them in stuff easier (which may have been one reason for the redesign), but they also had holes on the bottom, which gave them a whole other use as finger puppets!

We currently also have the NEW Little People house and barn, and while they do keep Lucy busy for quite a while (for now, anyway) and it goes ding-dong and moo and all that... it just seems not as fun to me. But they're not for me, and as long as the kiddo is happy, that's all that matters!

Incidentally, I have been doing some hard core consignment/thrift store shopping lately and would like to brag that that is how I found both of our new Little People sets. (Those things are EXPENSIVE new!) I also got Lucy a great pair of purple winter boots that don't even look like they've been worn. In case you don't know, we have some KICK ASS kids consignment stores and general thrift stores in the area. I scored today-- here are my faves, so you can go score some great deals yourself:

Kensington Caboose (Kensington)

Togs For Tots (Silver Spring)

Unique Thrift (Wheaton and Hillandale)

Value Village (Hillandale)

Wagging Tails Thrift Store (Rockville)

There's also another one in Kensington called The Growing Years, but I've only been there once for a few minutes, so I can't really vouch for it personally...