It's been a LONG time....

I think it's been about three weeks since my last blog entry. It's been a steady string of illnesses at the Grigg household. Sadie has been ill five times since starting pre-school, and whatever she picks up, I tend to get it next. Somehow, Redmond is impervious to illness- it must be the immunity building exercise of working with kids every day.

In the past few weeks I've had two ear infections, vertigo and conjunctivitis. I feel like a toddler!

Chicago was fun! I enjoyed seeing friends, doing my poster session and meeting up with vendors and seeing new products. I missed my family, but it's just too difficult for Redmond to find a substitute in May, so I have to attend this conference alone. I think Chicago is one of my favorite larger cities. There's so much to do, a lot of green space, and a certain Midwestern lack of pretension I appreciate.

Pictures and videos...

20 minutes before I had to head off to the airport, Sadie decided to strip off her clothes and play in the mud. We had to hose her off!



I wish we had better video of this... We've been reading "Green Eggs and Ham" to Sadie, and she's become obsessed with constantly asking us if we would, if we could, with a "fill in the blank here". Sometimes, she'll ask over and over for about five minutes, and will invent things like "Will you, will you (she doesn't quite have that part perfected) with a dinosaur? Will you, will you, with a bird house?" By the time I grabbed the camera, she was almost done this time, but you get the general idea.



We went to Pippa's second birthday party this weekend. This little clip gives some idea of the general chaos of these birthday parties.



Pippa's little sister, Rowan, is a great, big, adorable baby. She is 8 months old and actually wears a larger diaper size than her two year old sister. Sadie was fascinated with the "big baby".



Most of these pictures were taken at Pippa's party...

Sadie eats a wild strawberry found in the grass... We didn't catch on film the subsequent spitting out of said strawberry.

Sadie contemplates whether she wants to go outside or hover near the food table. I have to just mention that Sadie is going through a phase where she is voraciously hungry every couple of hours. She is particularly obsessed with blueberries, and I have purchased about 3 pints of blueberries in the past week! You'll see her eating in many of these pictures... I don't know if she's getting ready to go through a growth spurt or what, but we hear "I HUNGRY!" all day long.

Josh holds Emily and James' baby, Rowan. Rowan's sister Pippa is the birthday girl.


Pippa and Sadie play with a tiny fort. If you've seen the movie "Spinal Tap", this fort reminds me very much of the tiny Stonehenge that descended onto the stage.

From left to right, someone with a plate, Molly, Pippa, Emily and Missy.


Lila strikes a pose. When Sadie saw this picture, she exclaimed "It's Lila! She's so cute!"

Sadie running around with another child's Pooh Bear.

Sadie just enjoyed a small sunflower butter and strawberry jam sandwich. Yum!


Sadie and Pippa play at the tiny fort. I believe Sadie is eating something else.


Sadie finally managed to get her hands on a chocolate cupcake. We had to stop her from smearing her chocolate covered hands on Emily and James' furniture.

Post-chocolate cake. With the brown mustache and beard, she resembles the cliche of a French Existentialist. She just needs a beret and to say "Merde" every five minutes.


Josh and Molly.

James and Pippa, the birthday girl.

Lila, playing the bongos.

Emily feeds Rowan.

Alex and other kids head out to the backyard.

The next day, Sadie, Redmond, my Dad and I went to a local park. We have a thousand playground pictures, what's a few more, eh?






Sadie runs back and forth across the swinging bridge. Actually, I get a little nervous with this bridge because it can become slippery with just a light sprinkling of rain.

Sadie goes down the big kid slide.


And races back up again....

This is another one of the many "Pee-Paw pushes Sadie in the swing" pictures.

And finally, this picture is a wee bit cranky, but the sign on the side of Sadie's crane said it all that day....

Missed photo ops!!

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. Everyone except Redmond has been "laid up", as we say here in the South, with a cold that has left us with nasty ear infections. My right ear still is filled with fluid to the point that I can barely hear with it, and I feel constant, irritating pressure. Mom has the same problem. Unfortunately, giving Sadie antibiotics is more challenging than pilling a cat. She outright refuses to take it directly, and she can taste it immediately in milk and other beverages. We've had to resort to a variety of stealthy tricks, such as stirring it in ice cream (which occasionally works), half melted popsicles, sherbet and yogurt. Sometimes she'll eat the secretly laced food and other times she figures us out pretty quickly. Augmentin must be given twice a day, and it apparently tastes nasty.

Mom, Redmond and I attended the Piedmont Wildlife Festival in Durham on Saturday. This is the first annual offering, was sponsored by the Piedmont Wildlife Center, and we all had a great time. Mom ended up joining the Piedmont Wildlife Center and is planning to enroll in classes in order to become a wildlife rehabilitator. Sadie had the opportunity to actually pet a small alligator and a turtle, and we also had a chance to visit a red-tailed hawk and an opossum.

There were live bluegrass bands and food vendors, and Sadie sat on the lawn and tapped her feet to the music.

But woe of woes, I turned on my camera, and found I had left my memory card at home! Curses! There were so many great photo and video ops.

I do have some pictures from Sunday. We had a picnic at Cedar Falls Park and had dessert at Maple View Dairy. I took a few shots at Maple View, as I'm so fortunate to have views like this in my own neighborhood.

Sadie has decided that she wants to be a puppy. She frequently pants and slurps. I'm not sure, but it's possible that she actually licked the picnic table here. I know they say today's children are so clean that they are not building up immunity, but that's not the way we roll. Apparently.



This video was taken at Maple View Dairy. Sadie spots a 10 month old crawling baby, and drops to the ground to crawl with her.



Some pics...

Sadie always makes a beeline to the swingset.



Sadie leaps into her Mee-Maw's arms. She spent Saturday night with Mom. Now that Mom is not watching Sadie full time, she occasionally has Sadie sleepover on Saturday nights so that Redmond and I can have a date night. This weekend, we went to the movies and hung out at the bookstore.

Climbing the ladder up to the slide.

No, I don't want to get down and have dinner!

Playing with a flower from a tulip poplar tree. She said "I LIKE tulip flowers". Lately, she's been announcing things she likes and loves. She loves ice cream and eggs. And she likes flowers.

A farm view from the Maple View Dairy store.

This is a regular sight on a Saturday evening. When I was pregnant, I noticed that I was usually one of about a gazillion pregnant women standing in line for the sacred ice cream. On the weekends, it seems that half of the children in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough are here. It's a rare occasion when Redmond doesn't bump into one of his current or former students.

Sadie, enjoying some chocolate ice cream.


A view of Maple View farm from the porch.