Sunday's soccer game

That's Lauren kicking the ball. Andrew is mostly obscured by Ely, and Paul is standing on the right.

I don't know who those two moms are in the background wearing white shirts and jeans. They look buff though.

As part of my campaign

I'll let you know right now that it did flit through my head yesterday morning that I couldn't remember how many diapers I'd been through the day before. I usually tote around 3-5 of them and a package of wipes. Not those polite little recyclable containers, because I find they don't dispense moist wipes at critical moments.

It was a particularly stinky mess I'd cleaned up when I reached into the diaper bag and drew back empty handed. "Oh no." I said.

"What's up," Karen asked from the kitchen.

"No diapers." I was thinking, oh right, one change at the gym, two at Kim's yesterday. Three diapers gone.

"Oh," Karen said casually, "No problem. I might have some."

Karen is the quintessential hostess, so it would not surprise me if she did have a package of diapers even though her baby is nearly seven in the same way that my Gramma Jean (whose birthday is today - Happy Birthday, Gramma!) always has several different brands of cigarettes tucked away in her freezer in case you should run out even though she hasn't smoked since she was in her thirties.

"No," she said. "I'll just send Chris to get some at CVS."

The menfolk with Ross in tow went to get some diapers while we kept Lindsay in the kitchen. Karen was preparing salads for dinner and I was enjoying a beverage. Lindsay splashed happily in Pixie's water dish.

"I can move them if you'd like," I said.

"No need." Karen replied. "There's not much damage a little bit of water's going to do to the kitchen."

Lindsay wandered back and peed on the floor a couple of inches from my feet. "Oh, I see we didn't make it to diapers." As I stood up, I noticed that she'd also fertilized the floor. "Oh no." I said. "Poop."

"No problem," Karen said. We cleaned the mess together with paper towels. She sprayed the floor with some Method cleaner and all was right with the world, until we realized that poop had just been a distraction.

Why yes, that is my naked toddler giving herself a beer bath in a puddle of cat water.

Another day, another Mommy driveby

Lindsay has learned when we approach a counter when doing errands that she gets a lot of attention if she says "Hi!" loudly. She's reluctant to say "Bye!" although she can. Sometimes she gives a little waves, but oftentimes she just sort of stares.

It's a beautiful autumn day here - the leaves are starting to fall from the trees in shades of tan, yellow, and orange, and it's a humid 75 degrees. Lindsay's dressed in a pink t-shirt and a floral skort (skirt with shorts underneath).

As I was signing the "I don't want to talk to the pharmacist" paperwork for the 3 prescriptions I was picking up, an elderly man began talking to Lindsay.

"Why don't you have on your shoes?"

I didn't turn to acknowledge the speaker, because he hadn't asked me a question. I could've explained that she just takes off her shoes and that she'd managed to lose one of her shoes (purchased at Nordstrom) 2 weeks ago when the weather was cool enough to worry about socks. I took a step back so that I could keep Lindsay in my line of sight, but continued signing forms.

"It's silly that you don't have shoes on! A baby needs shoes!"

I handed the cashier my credit card.

"Your feet must be cold. Is that why you're holding them?"

I picked up the pen to sign my receipt.

"What's he got on his eye? A stye?"

"She has a hemangioma." I replied with my back to him, as I handed the cashier my receipt. "Thank you," I said as pleasantly as I could muster to the cashier.

"Bye bye," the man said to Lindsay flapping his hand at her. She stared back. "He doesn't say much does he?"

I narrowed my eyes at him and left without a word.

From her highchair perch

"Daddy? Mama? Daddy? Mama? Wuv ooh."

Romantic getaways

I'd been deliberately evasive about our weekend plans. "We're going camping," I'd told my friends.

That wasn't untrue. We stayed in a cabin a little way outside Binghamton. It had neither running water nor electricity. I prepared for this by spending the night before at the Holiday Inn, my previous idea of "roughing it". We went up with Alec's cousin Elissa and her fiance, Dan, trying to figure out who we were actually going to meet up there and why there was such a long prelude about the dog.

Shotgun camp.

What?!

Shotgun camp.

No, seriously. What did you do this weekend?

We spent the weekend at an intensive clinic to learn how to use a shotgun.

I was, as Lauren likes to say, more than a little apprehensive. On Saturday morning, I took copious notes in my composition book:

Your gun should always be unloaded if you're not firing it
It should always be pointed in a safe direction even if you know it's unloaded
Keep your finger off the finger off the trigger unless you're firing it

I learned how to load and shoot. I actually managed to hit some of the clay pigeons and steel plates despite having a short arm length and a cross-dominant eye. I have a good sized bruise against my left shoulder. But I expected I would learn a lot. I expected at the end of the weekend to have actually managed to shoot. I didn't expect it would be as much fun as it was. It was really great.

Number 3

Lauren and Paul at halftime on Sunday. United won (both sides, in fact).

Wild and sordid things

I almost have too much to write about this morning. Recall that line from Ghostbusters? "Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria." Welcome to my yesterday.

My neighbor Ed stopped me last night to ask me if I have a huge black cat.

"Why yes, I do. A huge black cat with no tail."

He narrowed his eyes. "And he hates people?"

"Well, I don't know about that. He's a nice cat to us."

"My daughter Holly said it was your cat and he won't let anyone pet him."

"Yes, that's possible. He's only been out for a couple of days, he'll warm up."

"He was setting the motion detectors off back of my house..."

"Oh..."

"And was in my garage..."

"Oh, sorry..."

"Well, it's alright, I mean, there's a raccoon and a skunk living together in my garage..."

"Um, really?" I bit my lip.

He nodded vigorously. "They used to live under the front porch but I put moth balls there."

Note to self: moth balls keep animals from living together in sin.

Photo credit: Jerry McCrea/The Star-Ledger

On a serious note, we had an incident at the high school yesterday. Rumors were flying about a gun having been brought into the school. Bus stop conversation revealed that that wasn't so - there was a report of suspicious activity in front of the school, the middle and high schools (share a campus) followed lock down procedure, and the building was searched by the police. Nothing was found, well, except that the procedure is flawed and needs to be reviewed.

It's scary. I jokingly complain about the attitude of some of the staff at Lauren's school, but these are the people who are charged with executing these plans in assuring our children's safety. I'm not feeling good about that. Perhaps I'm seeing the exception and not the rule, but they seem pretty dissatisfied with their jobs.

My friends tell me these days I have volunteer-itis. I wanted to be involved because from the sidelines it seems that a lot of things go on that don't make a lot of sense. I'm involved now and still things don't make sense. I felt we'd achieved a victory by drafting that the kids can't be punished by taking away their recess, but that's meaningless if they're not safe on the playground, y'know?

I have no answers today.

Old cat, new tricks

Seamus is in the midst of some sort of mid-life crisis. He has been sneaking out of the house like a truant teenager. It seems he would prefer to spend his evenings alfresco, and come home in the afternoon for a snack and a trip to the litter box. Yesterday, around 2 PM, I heard him trying to open the front screen door with his paw. When it didn't work, he called with a loud meow for me to open it for him.

He hasn't messed the downstairs bathroom since we've been letting him out, though, I've been closing it when he comes in.

Shannon is happier, anyway. She's eating more. It's usually most apparent that Seamus is in a bad mood when Shannon drops some weight because he won't allow her downstairs.

I wonder if everyone else's cats are as neurotic as mine...

The worst birthday party ever

You know how much I enjoy parties. Heck, I had 3 of them this summer alone. Four if you count the dozen or so friends who had barbecue with us after the garage sale last weekend. I've become much better at keeping things pretty simple, finessing simple salad recipes, not spending 3 days cleaning my house for a 2 hour party.

During one of the summer street fairs, the girls and I visited the pottery/ Asian Arts center on Main Street. We toured the pottery studio, peeked in at the dance floor, and Lauren danced as they played their drums. The proprietress told me that they had birthday parties there, where the kids would paint figurines, enjoy a brought-in birthday cake, and then finish off the afternoon by playing drums and dancing around on their dance floor. About 6 weeks ago, I came back, was regaled with the same party scenario a second time, and paid my $50 deposit. "You can bring in any food and drink you'd like," she said. "And we just charge per piece, so about $15 per child."

So we ordered Lauren a Carvel Ice Cream Princess cake, and bought wine, cheese, crackers, and fruit. I had invited all the parents, figuring we would relax with snacks while someone else ran the show.

When we arrived, 15 minutes before party time, no one there knew we were supposed to be there. The woman working the pottery studio called Song, who was supposed to be our instructor. "She's about a half hour away."

So, Karen, Chris, and I set up our snacks, and I thought, well, 15 minutes late isn't too horrible. There was a Rutgers game yesterday at 3 and it was possible she was in traffic.

At 20 minutes past, the kids were restless. I went upstairs and selected pieces for all the kids. I realized Song was upstairs doing paperwork. "The kids are waiting..." I said. "I think we need to get started before they start running around the studio..."

She said, "Oh ok, I just got in, sorry. I will be right down."

She came down and began setting up paints and palettes for the kids, and passed out brushes. We parents hung back with our wine as the kids happily painted. About 20 minutes later, they were done and restless again, Song was nowhere to be found. We moved our pieces, cleared the palates, brushes, and paints, washed the kids up, and had Lauren start opening presents. Alec prepared the cake.

After cake, Song was still nowhere to be found. The kids were full of sugar and ready to run around. Alec and I looked at each other, weighing our options.

"I think we should just clean up and leave."

"I can't believe this." Alec said. "What was supposed to happen?"

I sighed. "This was the worst birthday party ever." I blinked away tears. But as I looked around, the kids seemed pretty happy. They'd painted stuff and eaten ice cream cake. As far as they were concerned, this had been a tremendous success.

From the Bronx Zoo

In the catbird's seat

We took a trip to the Bronx Zoo yesterday since the kids have off from school for Rosh Hashana. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and cool. "It'll be an easy drive," I told Fred, "since it's a holiday." I was right about the drive, but the Zoo was packed. It was the busiest either of us had ever seen it. Having avoided the huge line to enter, and survived the 40 minute food court line with 4 children in tow, here are some pictures I took in the Children's Zoo.

Paul and Lauren looking at the fish tank

Nicole and Lauren are a conjoined twin turtle

Fred feeding the sheep

Lindsay eating her raisins on the car ride home

A snapshot

I like this picture. It was taken in October 2002 and marked the first time I went out after Lauren was born. I look tired and pale. I even look a little pissed off. More accurately, I'm terrified and I thought the only way to get through that was to white-knuckle it. I'd fought a hard path to becoming a parent, and it was nothing like I'd thought it would be. I mean, I knew that babies wake up at all hours, but I don't think you can know what waking up every 2 hours for 4 months is like until you do it. You go through times where you're just too tired to even cry about it. At 28 in this picture, I had magical thinking that I would have kids and the rest of everything would suddenly become perfect. I think I've done some growing up since then.

For the year and change I've written this blog, I've known the title Abandon Hope doesn't suit it. There have been plenty of times - stretches of many years even - that I've felt faithless and deserted. But these past 5 years, I haven't been there. I haven't been dancing in fields of wheat either.

Yesterday I realized that the title of these over 600 little glimpses of my life, some of them funny and some of them whiny and annoying is Screw Perfection. A week before my 33rd birthday I realize that the times I'm happiest are the ones where I throw my hands in the air and don't try to be the perfect mom, wife, sister, daughter, or friend. It doesn't mean that I don't have plenty of personal goals, it just means that among them trying to be perfect isn't working for me. It's actually downright toxic.

So there it is. Screw Perfection.

What the hell is wrong with people?

Lindsay is cute as the dickens. She's just could-eat-her-up adorable. I know that. She's also a very tenacious little person who believes she can do just about anything. That's very cool, sure, but also hard when anything is to stand up in the shopping cart, yell "Whee!", and then plop down on one's bottom.

The woman who cooed over Lindsay in the line at Target didn't surprise me. She seemed very pleasant at first. She said hi, Lindsay said hi back. The woman was taken aback, as everyone is, because Lindsay is a small person and usually mistaken for younger. The woman held her hand in front of Lindsay, thinking she was going to hand her the stray clothing tag she held in her hand, but this is a Lindsay game where she pretends she will hand it to you, snatches it away, and then laughs. After this, the woman held her hand to be "slapped five", which Lindsay didn't oblige.

It was when the woman asked Lindsay if she wanted her to hold her that I became uncomfortable. By the time she asked Lindsay if she wanted to go for a walk around the store and pick out some candy that the adrenaline began pumping through me so fast that my ears were ringing.

I quickly scooped Lindsay up and held her on my hip. Lindsay snuggled her forehead against my cheek.

I'm sure she thought this was a perfectly pleasant interchange. I smiled and proceeded on to the checkout saying, "Bye bye, lady!" cheerfully rather than "What the hell made you think you were going to pick my daughter up out of my shopping cart and walk her around the store while I checked out, person I haven't met?"

My dad has a saying that goes something like "never attribute to malice what could be more easily explained by stupidity". I'm trying to hold out a little more faith for people than that, but damn, I was so certain in that moment this woman was trying to get her hands on my toddler. Too creepy.

Lauren is 5!

All that fun stuff

Today is Lauren's 5th birthday. Happy birthday, my big little girl! It seems like yesterday we tucked you swaddled in our arms and tried everything to get you to sleep. Now we cajole, and sometimes negotiate, and still hear you telling stories to your stuffed animals well after bedtime. You dress yourself most days in clothes that actually match, down to velcro shoes (can't tie yet) and socks. Your silly sense of humor cuts your seemly constant chatter. These days a fart joke makes you laugh like nobody's business.

Your usually sunny demeanor occasionally breaks into general irritation at how slow the rest of the world is, particularly your parents. You roll your eyes and sigh through pursed lips.

You've developed an appreciation for that little person who joined our family 15 months ago and get her in a way I don't. You're usually much better at guessing what she wants, even when it's rewarded with pulled hair or a smack on the head.

I love you, Lauren. Have a great birthday!

My own first day of class was excellent. I'm looking forward to it. The subject matter is somewhat tough - it's a biomedical course about AIDS - but it's a freshman level course so it seems pretty well-laid out.

What else? We did a major purge of stuff through a garage sale on Saturday. What didn't get sold got set curbside and it seems there are only a few items left for tomorrow's garbage day: a rusted sprinkler that was in our front yard when we moved in, a couple of lawn chairs circa 1980 that we'd purchased at a garage sale for a dollar apiece, the fan we removed from the dining room (its hardware has been picked out) and a few books.

We decided that we can't cook in a second car and our falling-apart 21-year-old refrigerator probably won't make it another 6 months, so we measured the cabinets we acquired in Alec's dad's house remodel, and got some paint, tile, and floor samples from the Depot. In laying out the kitchen, Alec discovered that we probably need to purchase a couple additional cabinet pieces. Which isn't a big deal. It just seems that money adds up very fast in the kitchen with a couple of thousand dollar appliances (and those aren't low-end, but they aren't the high-end either...) and the cost of counter top (geez! I would have to cash out both college accounts to have granite). The couple of things we've settled on long ago were a black-and-white checkerboard floor, white appliances (I think stainless steel is going to look dated shortly), and a tiled back splash. Although I had not initially liked the maple cabinets (I wanted white), I think it will work out well. The paint color has me swooning. Did you know yellow kitchens make for domestic discord? And that blue is an unappetizing color? So much to think about...

First day of school

Lauren awoke with Dora hollering "Come on! Let's GO! Vamonos!" from her little red alarm clock at 7 AM. She sleepily got out of bed, brushed her teeth and hair, and dressed herself for her first day at school.She came downstairs to her usual breakfast: a multigrain waffle cut into dip-able slices, a half an apple sliced similarly, a half tablespoon of honey for dipping, and a half glass of soy milk. She wore the pink sweater set she'd picked out at Macy's for her first day of kindergarten. After breakfast, I gave her the small box containing the tiny silver charm with the letter L with a diamond chip in it. "So you always remember how much Daddy and I love you, and your first day of kindergarten." She beamed.

We walked the mile to school, so we could be there early to set up for the PTO-sponsored breakfast for the parents. For the first time, she didn't complain that the walk was too long. We arrived at school, and set up in the cafeteria, meeting our friends Katie, who is in Lauren's class, and Mackenzie, who is a year ahead. Although I hadn't intended to, I waited in the library with the girls while the kindergarten teachers retrieved their students, and then walked with them to their classroom.

"I like kindergarten so much that after 30 years, I still come here every day," Lauren's teacher said cheerfully as she introduced herself to her new students and their parents. "We're going to discuss where we put our stuff when we come in every morning, so," she said smiling, "it's time to say goodbye to our parents..." She nodded in our direction.
I blew a kiss at Lauren.

She wiggled her way across the room and gave me a hug and a kiss.

"Have a great first day of school! I will see you at the bus stop."

"OK. See you later, Mom." She ran back to her place on the carpet and waved goodbye.

The last day of summer vacation

Lindsay, riding the carousel at Central Park

Yesterday, we were at school stuffing folders for the PTO. We met Lauren's new teacher and saw her classroom. The teacher seemed very nice, and the classroom is the second from the front door, close to the cafeteria and the nurse's office. Lauren is very excited about her first day of kindergarten tomorrow.

The last day of summer was spent with friends. We ventured into New York City to Central Park. We played on the playground, rode the carousel, visited the zoo, and ate ice cream. I don't think we could've scripted a better end to vacation.

I hope Lauren remembers this summer - lazy days at the pool, hanging out at her friends' homes, our great San Diego vacation with family, and some great day trips with friends to the zoos and beach.

Party pictures

The birthday girl and Auntie Jules

Grampie

Nick and Jack

Lindsay applauds Sybil's cake

Alec tries on Lauren's present

Lindsay after her shower with Mama

Auntie Jules and a skeptical looking Lindsay

Lauren enjoys her presents

Riding the carousel with Daddy

A few moments

Lindsay is napping and Lauren is at soccer camp, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to catch up.

San Diego was fantastic. I don't think I've had as much fun on vacation as I had on that one. It was wonderful to have a little window into James' life, to see his apartment and meet his roommate, but mostly just to hang out was really spectacular. We went to a game at Petco Park, saw Sea World, hung out at Ocean Beach, where Ben had his first swim in the Pacific Ocean and we all rode waves together, and saw most of the San Diego Zoo. My brothers and Maria are just about the ideal vacation companions - they're all relaxed and don't stress over who gets where when. We arrived at Sea World and the Zoo pretty much when they opened, because our girls were up at 7 AM every day. They joined us around lunch time, which meant we could get all the kiddie rides out of the way, and Lindsay pretty reliably fell asleep as we were walking around.

We're going to schedule a vacation next summer, probably on the East Coast. James said he'd come to Jersey. He really hates Jersey, so he must've had a good time.

She shoots, she scores!

Lauren, Katie and Coach Spencer

Katie scores!

Princesses

Random pictures

Why else would you have a camera phone except to be able to take random pictures during the day to post to your blog? Today at soccer camp, it was picture day, so all the kids got team shirts. Here's the next Mia Hamm decked out in her gear...

Lauren at soccer camp, August 2007

Then, we went to DSW to find a new pair of black shoes for the black tie wedding we have to attend on Sunday. These are bad pictures, and really, cropped knit pants don't do much for flattering black pumps much...



I went with selection 2, even though they are a little higher than I would've liked. Alec is, well, Alec-sized, so a heel this high means we are about the same height. I love the style of the open-toed t-straps...very sexy...but the rhinestones made them look gaudy, I thought. They would've been okay with a simple black dress, but mine is pretty involved, with a black tulle sequenced overlay.

I want you to know that after trying on these shoes, I spent about 15 minutes in the public restroom cleaning poop off of a toilet with bathroom tissue and a hijacked can of spray labeled disinfectant. Oh, mommyhood is glamorous.

Here I am

I keep meaning to sit down and write the story that goes along with all those pictures of my family that I shared this past week. We'll put a bookmark there and I'll get back to it.

My real life outside of blogging is pretty hectic these days. I realized now that we're 2 weeks until school starts that finding a babysitter was critical. I signed up for a service called Sitter City, which is an online database of babysitters indexed by area. You can either browse through those sitters, or post your own jobs and have the sitters send you their cover letters and resumes. My time this week has been largely consumed in sifting through electronic paperwork, and scheduling and conducting interviews. This became very critical since my mom is too sick to take care of my kids this weekend, my husband's family has a black tie wedding we're obligated to attend. Soccer camp is really the best thing Lauren's done all summer - I am thinking about signing her up for another week. It is, however, about a half hour away. The upside is it's 5 hours, so Lindsay and I have some alone time, and I have some quiet time.

I've hired a sitter for Saturday, who will be able to help me out with weekends during the school year. In addition to my regular course - this semester it's an ethics course about bio-medical issues - I'm taking a reading comprehension workshop in October. I read very fast, but often I have to read each chapter of text 3-4 times before I really understand key concepts. I'm hoping this class with help me hone my study skills so I can spend less time doing it.

Monday morning soccer camp

From the San Diego Zoo

Life's a beach

SeaWorld San Diego

Pictures from Petco Park

Lauren, Maria, Ben, Diane, James, Epiphany, and Lindsay

Lauren, Maria, and Ben

Lindsay and Alec

A new adventure

At 6 AM, we will gather luggage and sleepy children and drive to Newark airport, where we will board a plane bound for San Diego. The sunny city where my baby brother lives.

James, rocking at X-Fest in May

I've never been. And worry too much tonight about screaming 15-month-olds on planes for 6 hours. I have to let it go.

I haven't taken a vacation that included my brothers since I was 15 years old. Ben and I got caught in a frenzy so many months ago when we started planning this. Airline miles. Hotel points. Our collectively absent spouses mean we get to pay down time lost on shmancy vacations. But more important, this will be the longest I've spent with both my brothers since I lived with them. Four whole days. A baseball game. The zoo. The beach. So cool.

Let me enjoy this, instead of fixating on everything that's not perfect. Relax despite the stress of getting there.

Overheard at the pool

"I think the crab is much more comfortable with his shell off..."

Yeah, if by comfortable you mean dead.

Reason number 137

To say Alec has been on a marathon of travel lately is really to underestimate the number of cities he has logged in the past few weeks. At the end of August, he will have been home less than a handful of business days. Mostly, it's that time after dinner before we get into our bedtime routine that's hard here.

"I miss Daddy," Lauren says sadly, every night he's not here.

"Daddy," echoes Lindsay emphatically.

"I miss him too," I reply.

"I miss him so much," Lauren widens her eyes for effect, "that it makes my tummy hurt."

It struck me today that reason number 137 why I love this man so much is that he's so damn funny that things he did 15 years ago make me chuckle still. The memory was from Green Bay, Alec was watching the Olympic games on the small TV that's now in our bedroom perched atop the kitchen cart, sitting on the futon that Lauren now sleeps on. Among his favorite sports was the luge, and whenever it would come on, he'd imitate it, straightening himself sideways on the couch. When I refused to ride in tandem with him, he would ride with Seamus the cat, who didn't really think this was much fun, but loves Alec too much to struggle. The last Olympics, Alec announced he was going to have a new luge partner, and Lauren would be excited about it.

I don't doubt it.

It's actually a pretzel

Lindsay talks about her favorite food

A moment of total spazz

Believe it or not, this isn't the first time this expression came up this week. On Tuesday, before Lindsay's bloodwork didn't happen, I'd thought I'd locked my keys in the car. My keyfob has been behaving unpredictably these days, and though I hit the button to unlock all the doors and trunk, the car responded by unlocking only the driver door and the truck. I closed the trunk, leaving my keys inside, and found it locked. A glance at the back doors revealed they were locked. I was on the phone with the locksmith when I realized the driver door wasn't locked.

Today, it is terrifically humid. I turned of my air conditioners last night and opened the windows, anticipating the cool down after the storm. The air has been on so many days now that it's stale in the house. It hasn't cooled down, and there's no breeze despite the rain.

I got out of the shower, wrapped a towel around myself and noticed the doorknob wouldn't turn. It was as though it was locked from the other side. I sighed. Who is around today who could come over and free me from the bathroom, which possibly needs its knob removed and can get in despite my house is still locked down from last night, I thought. Oh I am such an idiot, I didn't bring my cellphone in with me! Um, who the Hell brings a cellphone in the bathroom to take a shower?!

I have to somehow get Lauren upstairs from the sun porch. Then get her to find a name in the phone, click send, and communicate to some unfortunate friend of mine that I'm locked in my own bathroom. It could be an hour before she gets distracted enough from playing that she wanders up here to let me know she's hungry for breakfast, bored with Barbie, or that the light is off in the downstairs bathroom.

Just as my mind reeled into a full panic, I tried the doorknob again and it opened.

Befuddled by technology

Here's the answer to why Lindsay keeps saying, "Hello? Hello?" She thinks Alec's iPod is a cell phone. "Hello?!"

The blood tests that weren't

Lindsay has a prescription to have some routine bloodwork done, which she received at her 9-month well visit...yes, I know I just scheduled her 15-month well visit. I've been very slow getting to it. My friend Mary's son Ernie (you remember, Ernie - he shares his beverages) also needs bloodwork done, so Mary and I thought we'd take our 4 kids...that way the older ones could play in the waiting room while we braved taking the younger ones in.

We arrived in our separate cars, with 2 kids each, to discover the lab was empty (yay!) and two very nice techs were hanging out in the lobby. Of course, they had no pediatric needles. They aren't due to get any until later in the week. They called the Quest Diagnostic Lab in Somerset, which had the right needles.

"Well, let's head over there!" Mary said enthusiastically. "Since we went to all the effort of getting out. It's only about a 5 minute drive, anyway."

After the 5 minute drive, and a wrong turn resulting in a U-turn, I met Mary coming out of the second lab. "We're not going. That room was absolutely packed."

"Ah well." I replied. "Another time."

Instead we had a nice play date at Mary's, and a very yummy pasta lunch.

Promised pictures

About a week ago, I was having some problems getting pictures off my phone, so here are some gems from the last couple of weeks...

Nicole, Paul, Lauren, and Fred build a sand castle at Pt Pleasant

Lauren's flower girl hair

Lindsay looks on at Lauren and Nicole

Bathtime

"Lindsay, did you want the duck duck?"

Lindsay shakes her head. "Duckie."

"You want the duckie?"

"Duckie." She reaches with both hands.

"Here you are..."

At the grocery store

"Did you get milk?"

"Yep. Why do you ask?"

"Because it's the first item on the list," Lauren replied.

"It is?"

She gestured at the list. "See?" Sounding out slowly, "Milllk. Milk."

"Wow, good reading!"

More sisterly love

"I love you, sis."

"Lolo. " Smack.

"It's not nice to hit, Lindsay."

Smack.

"Lindsay, no!"

Smack.

"Moooooom!!!"