Just Some Cute Pics

Nothing much to say, I just wanted to post some cute pictures from the last week that I couldn't tie into my last blog entry. So, here you go...

Happy Wednesday!




Allison and Ben

Stinky Fish

Our house smells like fish.

I made fish for dinner Sunday night and it still smells every time I walk into the house from outside. I can't find the culprit and it's bugging me and making me want to redo the kitchen TO-DAY. Urgh. Perhaps the vent filter over the stove? I think I'll try that next.


Anyway, on a more pleasant note, Laney is walking more and more on her own. She's up to 7 steps without falling and I wonder if I can tell the world she's walking yet. Care to comment?

Last week was a busy one. First, Patrick had to go out of town on a business trip and my daytime babysitter is on vacation, so Marme came up to watch Laney while I tried my hand at co-opping at her preschool.

Turns out it is WAY harder than I thought to watch a bunch of 3 year olds! I don't know why I didn't think it would be this difficult. All I needed to do was to imagine 15 Mia's running around, and take on 4-5 of them at a time. I also had the ability to realize that Mia is by no means the busiest, bossiest, fussiest, or fastest 3 year old in the world, something I may have thought the week before. I love preschool.

Then, the latter half of the week Patrick flew up to Appleton, Wisconsin to attend a funeral for a close family friend. He said it was bittersweet to see everyone from his hometown, and in that manner, he was glad he was able to go.

Lucky for me, Catie's daddy was out of town too, so we had some fun play dates with Catie and her family last week and shared some delicious dinners too!

Oh! And for those of you who were waiting on pins and needles like me for the news, my passport is here! It's SO COOL! I love the new design, the new pictures on each page of some of our amazing American landmarks, it's fantastic!! And, now, finally, we can go to Italy. Hooray! T-36 days and counting . . .

Laney's Hair

People who have known us for some time will occasionally ask me who Laney looks like. I guess she doesn't look like Patrick nor me. She DOES look like Mia, though people forget what Mia looked like at age one.

Anyway, here's a breakdown as far as I can tell. Of course Laney looks like Laney (for you, Dad), but some of her characteristics can be traced to one or another family member.

Her hair is a strawberry blond right now (summer) - She gets this mostly from her Aunt Patty, but also from me, Laura (I was born with red hair), from her Great Great Aunt Betty, her Great Grandaddy Newton, and her biological Grandmother Phyllis.

Her nose is turned up slightly and pointed on the end just like her uncle Neil, though she has her daddy's nostrils. (Can you believe I'm drawing and quartering her this way? Me neither.)

Her eyes get moony and squinty when she grins just like her daddy, and she has the same Volpe diastema (also shared by me and her Marme, but ours have been hidden via braces, veneers, and other dental magic.)

She has two swirls in her hair, and I have no idea where that comes from, but I think perhaps her Grandaddy Martin has those as well, or perhaps it's from GrandMary, somehow via osmosis from kisses. She swears it makes hairstyling much more difficult. For now, it just gives her a mowhawkish / receding hairline look. When she was a very small baby, she looked a bit like a Kewpie doll due to this.

Mia's First Day

Today was Mia's first day of Preschool and boy did she have a great time! Ms. Janise had already been to visit, and Mia had a few play dates with some school friends at the playground, but today was the first official day. She borrowed Laney's book bag to take to school so she wouldn't miss Laney, and she had a blast!

Mia painted a picture of herself for her All About Me book, read The Kissing Hand, and is learning about feelings this month. Next Monday I will go with her for my first day as a co-oping parent.

Last night I was a little sad to see her reach this stage, but today as I had to wrench her free from the gaggle of kids running around chasing bubbles, I realized she really needs and loves this.

Mia's Still Funny

This video is from June, but as I was out looking for photos for her preschool collage, I found it and thought you all would enjoy it. (Plus, I want to try out Blogger's new Video function.)


Well, so far I'm not impressed. Here's the video on YouTube.

Just a Regular Summer Week

Not much new has been happening around here. Mia has decided that she's a baby again, but is learning to use a mouse.

Laney is taking a few steps on her own, but I won't quite say she's walking yet, we'll have to wait until she is officially on her own for more than 3 steps.

We booked our cruise in Italy for Patrick's 40th in November, and I finally got my passport in the mail to be renewed. YAY! (Yes, I expedited it.)
Mia starts preschool next Monday and her teacher, Ms. Janise, came by for a playdate last week, so she's excited and we're getting everything ready for her first day of school. And, she has a new favorite toy - Peggy the Pegasus. Peggy is a plush purple pony with pink ears and hair whose wings light up and she sings a little tune about flying away over the trees. For those of you who don't know, Mia LOVES ponies more than just about anything these days.

For our home, in terms of kitchen design, we have picked out appliances and we just finalized the cabinet layout. Now on to lighting and flooring! YAY! I can't wait until January when we actually make it real. (Of course I waiver every other day about NOT doing the kitchen and just selling the house as-is and moving to a less busy street, but today I think we should go for it.)

We are also in the midst of fence design discussions with our neighbors and LONG Fence. This has put a minor delay in our historic area work permit application - fun fun. Did you know that just to install a fence in an historic area in our county, you have to: Get Pictures of the current house, pictures and diagrams of the new fence design, elevations of the property and fence layout, a plat of the land showing the location of the fence to be installed, permission from all neighbors on adjoining property, you have to send an informational letter to neighbors next door, diagonal, and across the street letting them know what you are installing, and you have to submit all of this 3 weeks before the next meeting! What an effort for a few pieces of wood. Whew! Oh, for those not in the historic district? All they have to do is purchase a fence permit. Done.

So, that's about it for this little family this week. Next week should be more interesting - our anniversary is on Friday!

This is Laney learning about earbuds. (Ha ha. I must like this outfit - it's the same one she's wearing in the last post.)