Olive has now started taking Snuggle Hostages whenever she's in bed.

Laundry Basket Fun

So, the new game is Olive sitting in the laundry basket with Marc or I swinging her back and forth until our backs give out while she shrieks with glee.

Actually, she's been especially stubborn lately and has been in timeout many, many times. I think it's just the age. And the availability of plentiful candy this time of year. I confess that I bribe her with M&M's in the mornings sometimes. Trust me, you'd do it too.

I did get my first official door slam the other morning. It was one of those milestones... First step, first words, first door slammed in your face... Olive is NOT a morning person and she was very unhappy that I woke her up to go to daycare. She scuttled out of bed, ran to the door and slammed it and screamed "Not time to wake up yet!!!" I couldn't help but laugh at it. When she's 15, I'm sure I won't find it so amusing. But for now, it's pretty funny.

Big Girl bed

Setting up the Big Girl bed today... Very exciting. We went to Ikea with Grandpa George and bought a mattress. I have her bed ready to go, but I may need to wait until Marc gets home to start moving furniture around. (He's at a nerd tournament today in Rockville. Exciting, I know.) She's getting Rainforest sheets and a comforter for Christmas, and we are thinking about painting a Lemur mural in her room. It's got to be biologcally correct, so we need to find other native Madagascar animals to put in it. Marc nixed my toucans becuase they are Amazonian. Anyway, we are still hashing out the details.

I am not crazy!

Am I the only person on the planet who only wants one child? What is the deal? Nearly everyone who was in my GBMC mom's group already had their second (or third) one or are expecting it soon. Really? Global population control, people. There are too damned many of us already. I know I am a wee bit defensive on this subject, but I'm so sick of being asked when I'm going to have the next one I could scream. Being an only child is not like being chained in some sort of solitary confinement. You have friends. It's not so bad. Why does everyone automatically assume only children are lonely? I wasn't lonely! I have tremendous respect for my Mom for having put up with all this pressure when she had "only" me. Especially being from a Catholic family in the seventies with four siblings of her own. I'm sure that was a tough position to defend.

Financial considerations aside (no small matter in and of themselves), I can't deal with sibling rivalry. The constant whining, the "Mom, he's touching me!" "Am not!" "Am too!" would put me over the edge. Again, I tended to only see the bad parts of sibling relationships because I had none of my own to compare it to. I'm just tired of feeling like there's something wrong with me because I only want one. Like I'm somehow not a nurturing person or that I'm just being selfish. You never know, I may change my mind eventually. But there's no rule that says your kids have to be exactly 2 years apart. Or a rule that says you have to have more than one in the first place. I think this is just me being hyperdefensive, but that's just how I've been feeling lately.

Ladybug Halloween

Ladybug!

Well, here she is in her slightly too small ladybug suit... She wasn't terribly forthcoming with the picture taking this particular evening, so I don't have a lot of great shots. But here she is, looking adorable with her little basket.

Want some cheese to go with that?

Lately, Olive has been, in a word, WHINY. I don't think she's feeling very well, but I can't seem to pin point anything. Very restless, all she wants is to be held, and then you pick her up and all she wants is to get down. She wakes up at night and is cold, but screams whenyou put the covers back over her. That kind of thing. She was supposed to get her H1N1 Vaccine last Thursday, but she was running a slight fever the night before and they wouldn't give it to her. So, they rescheduled for today. She's still whiny and cranky, but not running a fever, so we have to do it. It's too hard to get the vaccine, I can't afford to pass it up. So, I am leaving work early (yay!) and I'm not sure if I'm coming back. I don't have much to do really, but I could use the hours. We are very slow; it depends on who you ask, but things feel pretty precarious to me. I've been knitting together my loose safety net just in case. Marc is working at center Stage and liking it a lot, he's only been there two days. I miss set painting. I don't miss the hours and the pay, but I miss the painting.

Renaissance Festival

Sunday, we went to the Renaissance Festival in Crownsville. I am always amazed at that place; it doesn' t seem that crowded when you're in there, and then you come out and see the acres and acres of cars in the parking lot. We went on the slide several times, and we saw juggling, and Olive went on a pony ride. Of course, we ate and ate and ate, which is what the Ren Fest is really for. I can't get enough fried pickles. They are soooo delicious. It rained on Saturday, so the place was pretty muddy on Sunday. They do a good job of putting down straw and stuff, but still, it was 6" deep in places. Kate came with us, and she spent time with Olive, which freed us up a bit too. I am always amazed at just ho wmany people come in costume. they really get into it. It's also close to Halloween, but still, it's a lot of fun to see everyone dressed up. The cleavage bananza is always entertaining. It was beautiful weather, adn the woods were lovely, lots of fall colors. It was a nice end to an otherwise rainy weekend.

Rainy Day

Olive and I had a fun day today; it is rainy and gross. Marc was helping his brother move, so we were on our own. We went to the library and then drove into Baltimore and went to the Conservatory. I love that place. It just makes me happy. Olive loved it too, she ran around the greenhouses and looked at all the flowers. Then, we had grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch, which is quintessential rainy day food. Now, she's taking a nice long nap. Perfect.

Go Marnie, GO!

We brought Olive over to Auggie's house last night so they could play and wear eachother out. Marnie is in labor now, so keeping Auggie occupied is a good thing. Hopefully he is enjoying his last few hours of only-childness. They play pretty good together, the usual "MINE!" issue comes up every eight or nine minutes or so, but I guess that's to be expected.

Weird!!!

She called the Dinosaur Horace again tonight, totally unprompted by me. Freaky.

The Maryland State Fair

I know, I am just getting around to putting these up.

Cookie Time

How can you make this much of a mess from one Oreo?!

Spooky Toddler Speak

OK. So she totally freaked me out last night. This was really weird. She's in the bathtub, we're playing with plastic dinosaurs.

"What's this one's name?"
"Dinosaur."
"No, that's what he is, but what is his name? Is it...Chris?"
"Ummm, yes. He's Chris."
"What is this one's name?" pointing to another dinosaur.
No answer. About a minute later,
"That one's name is Horace."
"What?" Thinking she just said 'saurus'
"Horace. His name is Horace."

This sent chills down my spine because Horace was the name of my grandfather who died in 1998. We were very close. He went by Spike, and in fact, Spike was going to be her name if she were a boy. I'm sure she just heard it somewhere or something, but come on, it's not a name you just hear every day. It was just plain spooky.

Today at daycare, Kristen was out of milk, and Ella had the last of it in her cup. Julian apparently goes crazy if you mention milk because he wants some, so Kristen told Ella not to say the word milk in front of Julian. Ella announced that she had "A cup full of 'M'." Olive, who was drinking water, turns around and says, "My cup has 'W'!" which made Kristen do a double take. How does she know this stuff?

She also announced tonight, "Volcano starts with 'V'."

Letter Magnets

Yesterday, Kristen said they were playing in the kitchen and Olive was playing with letter magnets. She picked up an R and said, "This is an R!" Then she picked up an "M" and said, "This is an M!" and turned it over in her hands. "Or a W!"

Green Bean

Lime snowball at the zoo....

Zoo this weekend?

I seem to be back on the proverbial shit list with Olive. The last few days have been nothing but, "No Mommy! Daddy do it!" and its starting to get a little old. I'm sure it will pass soon. She had a great day yesterday with Kristen. Kristen only had Olive and Julian after they dropped Ella off at school. They went and got donuts, went to Michael's to get craft supplies, went to pet goats someplace in White Marsh, went to the grocery store. They had a great day, and they were exhausted. Last night we walked to get ice cream, since Olive was grumpy. I think we are going to try to go to the Zoo in DC Saturday or Sunday. It kind of makes for a long day, but I think she'd like it.

September already?

Wow, the summer has gone by so fast. I can't believe it's September 1st already. We went to the State Fair on Saturday and had a really nice time. We took the Light Rail, which is always a big hit with the kid. The trick is to go early before it gets too crowded. My Bread and Butter Pickles came in Second Place! I am very excited. That's usually a pretty tough category, so I was feeling pretty smug to get Second Place.

We went on some rides at the Midway; I didn't realize how expensive they were! I wanted to go on the Ferris wheel with Olive. Each ride ticket is $1.25. The ferris wheel is 7 tickets EACH. That's $9.50, which is more than the cost of admission. We opted for the Dumbo ride and the merry go round instead, which seemed to suit her just fine. We checked out all the animals, Olive really liked the baby ducks and the rabbits. They had day old piglets in one barn that were soooooo adorable and soft. We got some food, hung out for awhile. She pretty much crashed around 1:30 or so, and we ended up leaving just as it was getting crowded and hot.

At daycare, Ella started school Monday. So now, I try to get her to daycare by 7:30 so that she can go with Kristen when she drops Ella off at school, which Olive totally loves. I'm glad she likes school. A bunch of Kristen's kids are going to school this fall, so Olive will have a whole new group at daycare now.

Finally! Some new pictures

Here's Olive at the beach a few weeks ago with her highly fashionable pigtails. Very adorable. We had a great time at the Beach (Rehoboth) and in NY (Adirondacks) with my family. Marc had to come back to work, so he wasn't around for the New York part of the journey. We both missed him very much.

What was the most important lesson I learned? ALWAYS TRAVEL WITH CANDY. Always. It prevents child abuse. Olive did fine on the plane rides up to NY, but not so much on the way home. She was already on my nerves when we got to the Philadelphia airport because she was being really whiny. The flight from Philly to Baltimore was only about 25 minutes long, but we had to wait about 45 minutes at the airport, in which time Olive whined continuously. At one point she whipped up my shirt to my neck just for grins. But teh worst was when we got on the (very full, very crowded) plane and Olive had a full on, kicking screaming meltdown. To make the situation even better, she was screaming, "Mommy! Don't hit me Mommy! Stop it!" I was mortified. Finally, a woman in front of us turned around in her seat, and I was bracing myself for some sort of nasty comment. She whips out a lollipop, looks at Olive, and says, "If you stop crying, you can have this." Bam. Problem solved. Sticky, messy, filthy child, but a reasonably quiet one at that. People were pretty understanding; I think they were also thanking their lucky stars that it was only a 25 minute flight.

I'm making it sound more horrible than it was. It really wasn't that bad, and we did have a wonderful time on vacation. I've always wanted Olive to be able to do someof the same things that I loved doing as a kid. We went to Otter Creek, where we used to go swimming inteh river with my cousins when we were little. The rocks are so slippery that you just let the water carry you down the rapids. Olive wasn't doing that, but she was wading around in the shallow water. We were on Brantingham Lake, and she got to go swimming and ride in the canoe with Grandma and Grandpa. My parents had a great time with her there, it was nice for them to be able to spend some time with her.

Beachy Bean

Well, Olive is enjoying the beach tremendously. We are on Vacation with Marc's family in Bethany Beach, Delaware. It's been great, Olive has been to the beach, played in the sand and had lots of fun with Grandpa. The house were renting is well stocked with Ply Doh and a fun factory contraption, which she has been playing with non stop. Last night we bought a cheap ladybug kite and flew it on the beach. She LOVES it. Very cool. Anyway, now it's naptime, so I'm going to go try to get her in bed.

One of those days...

Nothing makes you feel like a good parent like feeding your kid a breakfast of Saltines you found in the car door on the way to Daycare.

Bus Stop Guy

I love Olive's ability to completely disarm people with a smile. This morning we were on the way to daycare and we were stopped at a red light. There was a bus stop, and there was this burly looking tattooed biker guy sitting there waiting for the bus, not looking especially friendly. Olive just waved and said "Hi!" and this guy just melted. He was giggling and waving back at her and it was just so damned cute. I love it when she does that!

Let's see. yesterday I took Olive to go visit Baby Eli; She got a little antsy after 45 minutes or so, but was generally being pretty good. We then walked to the Tot Lot, as promised. She's very into money now; she handed me the sieve from the sandbox and said, "You buy this! Six dollars!" They have been playing store at Daycare lately. I felt bad this morning; I overslept, as per usual, and had to get her up and hustle her out of the house. She's not a morning person at all, like her mother, and generally requires a good hour to fully wake up, eat and get it together for the rest of the day. This morning it was get up, throw on clothes and get in the car. Here's some peanuts for breakfast. So, I think I kind of threw her for a loop. Hopefully she'll be OK once she's at Daycare.

We went Blueberry picking on Saturday and had fun. We picked 11 1/2 Pounds! Oy. My neighbor and I made jam and two pies last night. The biggest drawback to the canning process is that it makes the house so damned hot. I made 14 jars of jam... adding to my state fair entries collection.

Olive's also picking up on my keen sense of direction. Now, when we drive to Daycare inteh morning, she tells me, "We turn here" or "We go that way" without any prompting. I am so proud!

Finally! I feel like we have been sick forever. Both Marc and I had some plague that would just not let go. It sucked a good two weeks out of my life and rendered me useless. Anyway, things are better now, work is not too terribly busy and my boss is being strangely chipper and not too crazy as of late. I am thinking of starting a separate garden blog, but if I barely have time to keep this updated, how am I supposed to maintain two? I am always making work for myself and then beating myself up when I can't finish everything. Gotta stop doing that.

I gave up the home phone this week, grudgingly. It just didn't make sense. It ends up being $50 each month, and almost no one uses it. What forced the issue is that the home phone is broken, so even when people called, I couldn't answer it and Marc vowed not to put another cent into it by buying a new phone. So, as of July 6th, my beloved phone number of over ten years will vanish. I don't know why I am so attached to the stupid thing. I guess I don't fully trust cell phones. But, on the other hand, it's $600 a year that I won't be wasting, so that's a good thing.

Marc and I both have the vacation itch. Bad. It seems like it's halfway through summer and all I have done is work. I don't care if I ever see DC again in my life. I'm glad to have work, don't get me wrong, I just feel like the summer is slipping away without me.

Marc's band played at Hon Fest last weekend. It was very hot, but the show was good. I don't think Olive quite got it, but that's OK. She got an ice cream cone out of the deal. (See pic)

Lame, I know

I know, I know, I am so lame. I can't belive I haven't updated this in two months. Pathetic.

A lot has happened since I wrote last. Olive had her 2nd Birthday, which was great. Her actual party was May 23rd, not the 21st. Mom and Dad came down, as well as Mom and Dad Raley. I wanted to give her a bath before the party, but she slept late and I didn't have time. So all of her Birthday pictures show her with greasy hair from where she dumped a bowl of buttered noodles over her head at lunch that day. Oh well, probably no one will remember that but me. She had a good time, I think she was a little overwhelmed by the end of it all though.

The other night Marc was at band practice and I was here with Olive. I went to take out the recycling, and I was only gone about two minutes. When I came back in, Olive had dumped out the entire box of Cheerios on her table and was sitting there with a big grin on her face. It was hilarious.

Random toddler utterances

This morning when Marc got Olive up, she said "Up a Daisy!"

Yesterday, we filled a dish with birdseed on the deck and she yelled, "Biiiiiiiirds!!!!" Like she was calling the cat.

Very funny.

First Official "TIME OUT"

So, Olive got her first official time out at daycare today, according to Kristen. Apparently she grabbed a toy from Zoe and then clocked her with it. Charming. Kristin said she went and sat in the time out chair for a minute and totally got it; She knows what the time out chair means. We are trying to establish this at home too; I'm not sure where the time out chair will be, but I'll have to figure something out, soon. She's definitely gotten fiesty. Bathtime is much more of a challenge than it used to be. I can usually bribe her with bubbles, but that doesn't always work. We're still trying to wean off the TV thing, but it's really tough. Although, now that the weather is better, (well, relatively anyway) we have been trying to go for walks or go to the playground before dinner to wear her out a bit. She's been doing this thing where she doesn't want to sit in the stroller, she just wants to push it herself for half a block and then have a tantrum. But at least we're outside. It's gray and rainy today. Again. Blah.

So, we were supposed to go out Saturday night with friends. Kristin was going to watch Olive overnight at her house. I was supposed to bring her by around 7:00 or so. Kristin called me on Saturday morning and asked if it was Ok if they went out to dinner. I said sure. Then she asked if I could bring Olive over earlier, because they wanted to spend more time playing with her. I ended up taking her over there at 4:45. It made me laugh though because this woman spends 40+ hours a week with my kid, and she wants me to bring her over EARLY on Saturday so they can hang out together? Wow. That's pretty cool. (Pats self on back).

We are trying to wean off the TV dependency lately. Really, it's just because now if you try to tell her no, she has a complete breakdown, where as earlier, she'd cry, but you could distract her with something else. Now, we have a full on Elmo-Crackhead to contend with when we say no.

I am really really tired of the cold. It's just making me angry now. It's just not fair. It was 27 degrees last night...at this rate, It will never be warm enough for my tomato seedlings. Argh.

Marc took some great pictures on Sunday at the playground, I will post some soon (famous last words)

I went to daycare yesterday and Olive looked at me and said, "Shamrock!!"
They had been making shamrocks out of green paper for St. Patrick's Day. Kristin is always doing some kind of crafty art project with the kids. They totally love it. I also got her to say "Obama!" last night, which made me laugh.

Marc went out last night and Olive and I had a really good time. She was tired, but didn't give me too hard a time. I've discovered the magic trick of bubblebath; takes all the arguing right out of bathtime. She says, "Funny!" and giggles at stuff now. This morning she thought her strawberry banana yogurt was the most hilarious thing ever. I wish she had clued me in on the joke.

I finally got around to updating some pictures, at long last. it took me a little while of screwing around with I Photo, but I figured it out eventually. I am getting better with the Mac; it's so simplified that sometimes I can't find stuff. I have been trying to learn ITunes... I know it's supposed to be so simple a gerbil could figure it out, but I've been going through the tutorials so I don't have to ask Marc anything. We can work together on almost anything, except computers. It's just a screaming fight waiting to happen, so I try to figure stuff out on my own whenever possible.

Anyway, the one picture of Olive on the stairs cracks me up because she looks so much like Marc I can't stand it. I have a picture of Marc at about age 4 from Ocean City and he has the exact same look on his face.

Oh I hope Spring arrives soon....

So, we had the first go-limp-slide-to-the-floor-kicking-and-screaming incident last night. Marc and I just watched and tried to ignore it, although, I must say it was a little hard not to laugh. So much drama from such a little body. She's doing better today; I think yesterday she was just WAY overtired and was falling apart. Today, she was much nicer to me. She didn't say, "No! Mommy go way!" and shove me whenever I walked by. That was pleasant. I mean, come on. I know I'm not supposed to take it seriously, but you can only take so much of that before you feel a little hurt by it, rational or not.

I was having this self flagellating moment yesterday where I was remembering how scared I was after she was born; I was afraid to hold her because she was so fragile and small, and I was afraid she'd wake up or be upset. Marc was the natural parent from day one; all he wanted to do was hold her all the time. I felt like there was something wrong with me, something missing. I started to wonder if things would be different if I hadn't been so scared around her.

Then I also came to the realization that beating myself up for things in the past is a huge waste of time and emotional energy. I am not going to feel bad about being scared. Yeah, looking back I'd do things differently, but I can't go back. I am just working on trying to be a good parent NOW. So, today when we went to daycare and she pulled out two chairs at the kitchen table, climbed in to one and then patted the other one with her hand and said, "Mommy sit!" I felt like I was on top of the world.

The bad days are when you question yourself, the good days are when you sit back and let yourself enjoy the moment.

(Ugh. That is soooo right out of a Lifetime movie. But you know what I mean.)

So OK, I admit it. I was the one who taugh Olive to say Shit. Unintentionally of course, but she parroted it back to me nonetheless. Nothing makes you feel like a good parent quite like your toddler swearing. She's been quite feisty lately; her temper is starting to rear its ugly head. We haven't had too many instances of it, but she is quickly catching onto the "go limp" technique when you want her to stand up or put on her coat. I guess that comes with the territory. I heard someone say that trying to dress a child was like trying to stuff an octopus in a net bag without any of the arms getting out. I get that now.

This last weekend she was in serious "Daddy Girl" mode, which was frustrating. We were at the grocery store and she kept pushing my hands off the cart and saying, "No, Daddy turn!" and freaking out if Marc left her sight for a nano second. I know, I can't let myself get offended by a toddler, but it's like, "What up? What did I do to you?" Marc swears that when I'm not around she asks for me all the time. I guess I'll take his word for it. I need to learn to chill out and just roll with things a little bit better.

Well, we got a nice respite from the cold on Saturday. It was 70 degrees here and it was blissful. We played in the backyard, moved the compost pile, dug up a dead tree to make room for the sour cherry tree I ordered. It's all very exciting. We went to the Y and went swimming in the morning, and then walked a loop around Lake Montebello. In the mean time, I am trying to keep the gardening obesssion under control for a few more weeks.

Damn Elmo

So, we've now been watcing Elmo in Grouchland, which Marc bought her on DVD. Its' a one hour movie, but it amazingly holds her attention. The gist ofthe story is that Elmo's blanket gets thrown in Oscar's garbage can and ends up in Grouchland, which the blanket must be rescued from. Hilarious adventures ensue. Anyway, the unforseen side effect now is that Olive freaks out whenever we throw anything in the kitchen trash can, because its going "to Grouchland."

We had a snowday Monday, Yay! the big nor'easter blew through with 6" of snow. It was kind of pretty really; It was nice to have an impromptu three day weekend. I have been going through seed catalogs and fawning over my seedlets. They are so cute.

So, my cat homing beacon is obviously still working, because I got a cat in Charles village Sunday night. Kate called me to say that there was a little cat scratching at her back door. What I theorize happened is that the woman downstairs from Kate, who moved out last week, left her behind, and when the cleaning crew came through on saurday, they just tossed her out. She is in very good shape, obviously hadn't been on the street very long. She's 5 months old and black. I got her shots and all (to the tune of $143.00) and now she's at our house. She's cute and all, but I always forget how much of a pain kittens are until I have them in the house. They get into EVERYTHING. Olive loves her. I think Kristin from daycare might take her. She told me to bring her by with Olive tomorrow to spend the day at her house and see how she does. I hope that doesn't stress her out too much; the newness of a new house, plus a few toddlers thrown in for good measure. The recipe for feline relaxation. But, realistically, I think our house is just too small for four cats. Three is one thing, four is exponentially worse. Besides, Pingu is so fat he almost counts as two cats anyway. I'm almost afraid to take him to the vet because I'm afraid of what the vet is going to say to me. Oh well, I'm just glad I could help the Keeten. I've been calling her Neko (Japanese for Cat) I picked her up Sunday night just as it started snowing. She might not have made it if she was out there for two nights in that storm. People are so shitty. They just take no responsibility for anything and wait for someone else to come in and do something about their problems. Arghgh.

I am really tired of the cold. More later, M

So now she has learned about 3/4 of the Alphabet and is picking up numbers very quickly. She's got some key phrases down now, like, "I go play" "Here you go" and, of course, "I no want to." She had her first melty go-limp tantrum last night when I took her off the back of the dining room chair she was climbing. Marc and I were both looking at her and going, "Huh." But, in the process of flailing around she whacked her head on the floor, so maybe she learned something.

Olive's great grandmother Bess turned 99 yesterday; pretty amazing. I was at Target looking for birthday cards for her and was profoundly taken by just how stupid they are. What kind of card do you get for someone who lived through WWI? I opted for the generic cute dachsund card. Of course, i mailed it late and forgot about the President's Day holiday, so it will be a few days late, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Olive comes over every morning and looks at my tomato plant seedlings growing on the table and says "SEEDS!" Is it too early to have her start learning the latin taxonomic names? Hmmm...

Olives and Grape Jello

So, in the last few weeks we have been busy weathering a nasty stomach flu. I realized that the worst thing about a baby with a stomach bug is that they don't tell you when they are about to throw up. It's like carrying around your own personal vomit hand grenade. Fine one minute, them BOOM. Let's just say I was doign lots of laundry and cleaning with bleach. Marc and I both got it too, but not nearly as bad.

Other than that, O is doing really well. Friday night she said "soccer!" pointing to a soccer ball at our friends' house, and Marc and I were stunned because neither of us had taught her that or ever heard it before. She's loving her letter magnets on the refrigerator... marc has actually taught her to say all of the vowels.

She's getting a lot more fun; I guess that doesn't sound very good; I guess I should say that I am learning to have a lot more fun with her. Marc is still her go-to guy for most things... she is very protective of him and will get pissed if she sees us hugging. I have to admit, I was a little hurt that she saw him as "comfort". But we talked about it and I realized it's just that he spends a lot of time with her.. I end up cooking or doing other stuff while we're at home, so I've been trying to make more of an effort to hang out and play with her and it seems to be working. I've had some genuine hugs in the last few days which have made it all worth it. I also realized how stupid it is to let ones self be offended by the behavior of a 19 month old. I'm trying to get her to say "I love you" but I haven't heard it yet. I figure that pretty much has to be about the highest moment you can achieve in life. I am looking forward to it.

I know I have to update pictures. I promise I will soon... I got some cute ones of Olive in her snowsuit when we were in Ithaca... She looks a little like Randy from a Christmas Story.
More later, M