Evening in the park...

So, I worked on Memorial Day. What kind of madness is that? I suppose I could have taken the day off, as many of my co-workers did, but I prefer to do my traveling during low peak times of the year. There's nothing less refreshing than taking off for a long weekend at the beach, struggling through three hours or more of bumper-to-bumper traffic, and then finding that the entire city you just left has relocated to the same beach.

So, I chose to work yesterday, deferring a beach weekend of paradise for a less traveled weekend later on. Redmond dropped me off and when he picked me up, we decided to stop by Forest Hills Park in Durham.

Yet another slide picture, with twice as much looking off to the side action! New and improved!


This park has an interesting water segment where various and sundry sprinklers cool off the kiddies. You have to watch where you stand, as the sprinklers have sporadic timing, and the nice little spot where you perch to watch your child may erupt like Old Faithful any second...

Abracadabra!


Man, this water is cold!


*shiver*
So, we're such dingbats. We just happened to have a swimsuit and a swimming diaper in the car, but realized later we had no towel. We stripped Sadie down in private spot in the park to allow her to air dry for a few minutes, but wouldn't you know it? She took off running, as naked as she entered the world! I finally caught her here, and Redmond couldn't resist documenting this moment so that we can embarrass her on her first date... ;-)


Clothed again and back in the ubiquitous pink car.

Not much goin' on...

Oh, how I love leaving my memory card at work... My camera's internal memory...well, it has amnesia... I can usually fit about 15-20 pictures on my camera, but that's about it. We attended Pippa's first birthday party on Saturday, but were running so late we didn't have time to drive all the way to my office to pick up my memory card, so I only took a few pictures and most of them turned out blurry. Almost none of the pictures of Sadie came out. I'll post the salvageable pictures here..

On Sunday, Mom and I took Sadie to the zoo so that Redmond could spend the day working on getting the house ready for his annual shindig he has on the last day of the school year. I believe his band will be playing, and it should be a madhouse. Last year, people camped out in our backyard. I hope people bring insect repellent this year, as our neighborhood has been taken over by ticks. I think we pull several ticks off us all every week.

Summer plans, for those who are vaguely interested in the minutiae of our lives...

Someone who works with me bought a rustic cabin in the mountains of Virginia and is renting it out for the whopping sum of $200 a week. The cabin is on a river and is not far away from Grayson Highlands State Park and the AT. We'll be there the second week of July. In August, we'll be in Topsail Island for our annual Breeder's Retreat. I think we're up to nine rugrats now!

I'm working on Aunt Sylvia, and possibly Uncle Mich to take a trip down here. Uncle David and Aunt Diane passed through town a couple of months ago, and Sylvia and Mich haven't seen Sadie since our trip to Vermont last July. She is not even the same child any more, which is pretty much why we're not going to Vermont THIS summer.

Also, I'm hoping we can take another trip to Tidewater this summer to see Robert and Marsha and the twins, or maybe we can persuade them to visit us again. I guess mentioning our tick-infested neighborhood is probably not the best advertisement to encourage any visitors, eh?

Here is Emily with the birthday girl, Pippa...

Missy is holding Lila. I can't believe how fast she's growing up... And poor Alex has clearly watched "The Ring". Seven days....

Here is Sadie, flirting with Alex. Actually, she is trying to unseat him from the snail rocking horse she sort of claimed as her own, but we'll pretend she's a coquette.

The piano was a big hit...

Brian, Missy and Lila...


Molly checks out Sadie's sippy cup. A special thanks goes to Marsha for passing on her soft sippy cups. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that Sadie still begs and pleads for bottles. She gave up the pacifier about 6 months ago, but she still prefers bottles to sippy cups. Marsha had some transitional sippy cups she passed on to us, and Sadie seems to find them somewhat acceptable. Although Sadie seems to have no problem yanking other kids' sippy cups from them and running away with them...


Haley, Sadie, Charlie and Alex play piano... The effect was much like a John Cage composition. I once saw a John Cage piece in New York around a large reflecting pool. There were four typewriters- one at each corner- and they provided the percussion. Several people unrolled reels of reel- to-reel tape, someone read gibberish, and I believe there were other homemade instruments involved. I'm trying to think of something appropriately sarcastic to say, but I haven't had my latte this morning, so I'll just pass.


Lila plays with one of those busy boxes...

James allows the birthday girl to sip water from a water bottle... Sadie has been obsessed with water bottles for over a year now... Now, she'll take a giant sip, spit it out all over you and herself, and then giggle.

*yawns* I'm back....

Well, I'm back from my conference in Philly and just getting settled back in.... Oops.. I guess I never posted that I was going to Philly in the first place... The annual Medical Library Association was held in Philadelphia this year, and I was away for four days. This is only the second time I've spent the night away from Sadie since she came home from the hospital 19 months ago, and while I enjoyed touring museums and actually getting to READ the displays instead of prying a toddler's hands off the Declaration of Independence, dining in restaurants where crayons are not handed out with the menu, and trying this groovy new thing I'd heard about called sleeping eight hours uninterrupted, I missed the stink out of my family and was happy to come home.

Philly is a decent, interesting enough city. I saw the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute and took in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, checked out the fascinating mosaic gardens of South Street, ate some tasty foods and, of course, attended quite a bit of programming and met with several of our vendors. I didn't have the chance to visit my beloved Mutter Museum this time, but I strongly urge anyone visiting Philly to make this fascinating collection of freaky medical oddities a priority. Just be sure to not visit either right before or after lunch.

Philly is well laid out and extremely easy to navigate and I am jealous beyond belief of any city with decent public transportation. Philly seems somehow more livable and smaller scale than New York, and it seems that there is plenty to keep one busy and mentally active there. That said, on the way home from the airport, I opened the car windows as I exited the highway and felt a sense of euphoria as I smelled the damp grass, the wildflowers, and yes, even the cows. I love visiting cities, shopping for unusual finds, sucking up the culture, and getting the h-e-double hockey sticks back to my woodsy retreat in BFE.

I didn't take my camera with me, as I was really there working, but I have a few new Sadie pics...

Sadie is apparently going to canine school. She has taken up fetching these days...



Last week, I took off a day so that Mom could attend to some business in Norfolk. I got together with Robena and wee Twyla and we just spent the day together hanging out...

Sadie finds a ginormous pink ball in Robena's lovely yard...


Just had to get a picture of the kerchief. Sadie ripped it off shortly after this and I couldn't coax her to wear it, but there's not much cuter than a hippie baby with a kerchief on her wee head, eh?


We stopped at the Wednesday afternoon Farmer's Market in Carrboro. We picked up a couple of freshly baked peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, and let the kids indulge... This was the result...


Twyla really enjoyed the chocolate...


This is just a random assortment of pictures I took of Sadie yesterday morning. I went to work a wee bit late, as I didn't arrive back home until late the night before. We took Sadie on a walk...


I just think she looks cute when she's looking down. Indulge me...


Deep in thought...


Retrieving her frisbee...


Looking a wee bit petulant...


And I just took this one because I love how the folks at Peek-a-Do cut the back of her hair. I think they are trying to make her hair grow into the shape of the classic Emo haircut. Toddlers are already so Emo, of course, just naturally....

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

To all you readers who celebrated yesterday!!! Here's a basic recap of our weekend. I was going to joke around and mention our zip over to Paris for lunch and ride through the Serengeti in the evening, but, alas, my pictures wouldn't fool a soul...

So, Sunday morning, we ventured out to Weaver Street Market for breakfast and groceries.. On the way out of the neighborhood, a rather young, dawdling (is there any other kind?) turtle sat in the middle of the road. St. Redmond, guardian of all turtles, couldn't bear to leave him there...

Here's the little guy on the asphalt...

He tucks in his head while Redmond carries him across...


And there he is on the other side, in the grass, and no longer in harm's way. My only concern is that I hope he wasn't trying to get to the OTHER side... He may have been cursing us in Turtle-ese...

On nice weekend mornings, Weaver Street is the place to go... The lawn fills with children, dogs, and hippies dancing to the music. Occasionally, there actually IS music when they dance... Sadie gazes upon the fountain, and looks longingly at the Carrboro branch of Maple View Dairy Ice Cream across the street... Did I mention that Weaver Street has the tastiest whole grain blueberry pancakes and real maple syrup?
We spent ten minutes trying to coax Sadie into looking at the camera. This was the best picture we could get... She loved the baked strata with olives....
Later, we took Sadie out for a haircut, and took Mom to lunch for Mother's Day at Johnny Carino's. Once again, we tried every trick known to parent kind, but could not seem to coax the child into smiling, even looking at the camera. Here she is looking like "Could you all just leave me alone?"
Also, I am totally questioning my wisdom in buying Sadie a white dress made of linen. What was I thinking? Toddlers don't belong in linen. I glance at my own linen trousers, and they wrinkle. Sadie is this big wrinkle...
Mom and Sadie. No, she will NOT look at the camera.

However, she's happy to gaze upon her cup of water. Her new trick is to take a sip of water, expel the water out of her mouth and onto her clothing, and to giggle...

Later, we took a walk to the pond to check on the geese and their new nest. All is well, but we're careful this time to not approach the pond too closely. We worry that our entourage of two adults, one toddler, a loud push car, a Labrador, and a cat might have caused some stress...

Sadie pushes her car....

Obi waits for a stick to be thrown...

Sadie, just generally staring off into space. This picture is only relevant in that she seems to have the same tendency to space that her Mommy has....
Changing the oil...
Posing with Obi...
I found these pictures on my camera this morning... Redmond must have taken them last week... More bath pictures..

Sadie, actually looking at the camera... With suds on her head..

Sadiejaya.... For those of you who do not watch American Idol, you probably didn't get that pop culture reference... ;-) Well, she loves to bathe in her old bathwater too... Ok- I just lost you all there, didn't I?
Looking cute and sudsy...

Wow! Two posts in one week!

Last night, Brian, Missy and Lila came over for dinner... Lila is about 7 months old now and as cute as a button, isn't she? She squealed and made motions like Chef from South Park every time she saw Sadie!

Here's Brian and Lila....


Whee! Big smile!
Missy with Lila...

Sadie really enjoyed Lila's visit... Several times, she came over to give Lila hugs and kisses... I'm wondering if she's hoping for a baby brother or sister... Hmmm..


She tried to put her hands in Lila's mouth several times... How hygenic... ;-)