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.