Billie’s Blog

We now resume our “odd”essy in pictures of Anna and Will’s excellent spring adventure to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  On day 2, Aunt Cheryl from Oregon, and Aunt Ina, Uncle Don and Aunt Jean from Oklahoma came for lunch and a few hours of visiting with the kiddos.

 Aunt Cheryl has Will tied in knots

 Anna has to get in on the action

  Checking out the blog

   Lunching

Outdoor fun:

  Saying goodbye

 Self-portrait

  The whole family.  Note that girls have nice smooth hair, and apparently, boys have hair that sticks straight out from their heads.

 Grandma and Grandpa.  I think Grandma is on the higher step.  He generously gave Grandpa a full head of hair.  Quite long, too!

We interrupt the retelling of our Oklahoma adventure (from which we returned home almost a week ago, so yes, I am once again, woefully behind) to wish Grandpa a very happy 83rd birthday today!

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After a (relatively) stress-free trip from Waterford, we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa’s home in Oklahoma on the 15th.  We got away from our house in good time, and had no problems at the airport.  I worried about entertaining the kids for 6 hours on the same plane (we had one of those Southwest flights that stops several places, but we didn’t have to get off until Tulsa).  In retrospect, I’m not sure that’s easier than changing planes, which at least occupies the kids for a few minutes between flights.  Our flight on the way home involves a plane change, so it’ll be easy to make a direct comparison.  The kids did fine, overall.  We got a drink and peanuts on each of the three legs, and we watched a couple of Backyardigans episodes, and played our Leapster games a bit, and that was it.  The flight attendants got to be very good friends, and they each required a hug before we could deplane.  A hug from the kids, that is.  They didn’t seem to want hugs from Joe and I.  Hmmm.

 “Grandma!”  “Grandpa!”

Playing with new toys from Grandma, and some of Auntie Nicki’s old toys:

Time for a tea party!  Anna is pouring today.

Moving the party outdoors.  Anna has a new slinky, which appears in most pictures, and Will has a couple of new Hot Wheels to race down various inclines in the backyard.

Then to lunch at McAllister’s, a sandwich shop chain in the midwest.  Good food.  Don’t know why we don’t have anything nice like this in New England!

We had a pleasant Easter Sunday, with a visit to church, a quick Easter Egg hunt indoors (you will see why it had to be indoors shortly), Easter dinner at Applebee’s, and then an afternoon at home relaxing.

This is what the weather was like all day Easter Sunday.  I don’t know what else it would have done.  It’s only April, after all.  When you live at the North Pole, just a stone’s throw from Santa’s domicile, this is what you expect 6 months out of the year.  You will notice, though, that the snow on the ground is all gone.  Woohoo!  We just have a few small piles left where the plow deposits our driveway snow. 

Given the conditions outdoors, this is how we spent the afternoon.  Anna and Baba figured out how to split the TV screen so they could play their games simultaneously (Baba playing Madden football on the Wii, and Anna playing the Wiggles on the V-Tech V-motion console.)

Actually, it was quite nice today.  Note that I said today.  Not yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that…

Anna got a lovely dress from Grandma for her birthday, which she wore to church last Sunday.  It apparently had some sedative properties, though, because she fell asleep in the car on the way home, and slept for about 2 more hours after we transferred her to her little bed.  She must have needed it; even after all the napping, she had no trouble falling asleep in the evening.  Hmm, perhaps I should make her wear this new dress every day.

She also got a really nice outfit from Grammy, which she wore to school on Tuesday.  I didn’t get to take any pics until after I picked her up from daycare, and the pants had already met with a disaster requiring urgent laundering.  So, here’s her top half, anyway, sitting at the table.

Some other nuggets from this past week:  Joe discovered on one occasion that the kitchen door and the mudroom door were both open.  He immediately started trying to figure out which cats might have wandered out through the open doors.  After a moment or two, he finally started to wonder why the doors were open.  He looked outside, and saw Will meadering about in the driveway.  It turns out he had decided to go out and get the mail.  By himself.  On our high-speed road.  The same road on which people have knocked over our mailbox at least once a year, and taken out two of our trees.  We even have those covers over the doorknobs that are supposed to prevent little hands from being able to open them, but of course, Will can open them better than we can.   Well, in any case, he was retrieved safely, and lectured soundly about how he is not allowed to leave the house unaccompanied.  We’ll see how many incidents it takes for all that to sink in.

Miss Anna and I were driving the other day, and we were singing “Shoo, Fly, Don’t Bother Me.”  I don’t know why, there aren’t any flies out yet, but whatever the reason, we were having a good time with it.  All of a sudden, she stops and asks me, “Mommy, if there was a shoe fly in the car with us, would it go away when we sing this song?”  I can just see the images in her little head of a fly wearing tennis shoes!  I decided not to try to explain the difference between “shoo” and “shoe.”  It’s too cute just to let her keep thinking about shoe flies for now.

Anna and Mama went for their regular beauty shop appointment today, and Will had to come along because Baba was at school.  While we were there, Will got his first bona fide professional haircut!  Here’s a before shot:

And here are a couple of afters:

Doesn’t he look grown up all of a sudden?  I always kind of liked the little boy Prince Valiant look.  The mama-jury is still out… 

Here’s one of Anna after her haircut:

 And here’s a string of shots I took trying to get one or two decent ones of Will:

Enjoy my goofy kid!

The young banana turned 4 this week!  This is the third birthday we’ve gotten to spend with her; absolutely amazing that 2 old codgers like us could have ever become parents to such special little kids.

Miss Anna starting putting in her orders for her birthday party right after Will’s birthday in January.  She requested a surprise party, where the lights would be off, and she would come into the room and say out loud, “Where is everybody?”  Then we would all jump out and say, “Surprise!”  She also requested a monkey pinata.  Not every mention of her party included the surprise aspect, but every time she talked about it, the monkey pinata was featured prominantly.  So, I had to work pretty hard to find one.  And I did, believe it or not.  Photos to follow.

I had to work all day, which meant she had to wait until evening for the festivities.  A pretty tall order for a 4 year old.  Before she got up, I put this fellow

in her chair at the kitchen table so he would be the first thing she saw.  Baba says she carried that humongous (about 5 feet tall) inflatable monkey all over the house all day.  I also got her a very cute little cash register with a scanner that actually reads the little groceries it comes with, and has money and an ATM card.  It was too big to wrap, so I put that out on her placemat, so at least she would have some new, fun birthday things to play with all day on her birthday.

The party started when I got home with Auntie Renee in tow.

I have a video of her blowing out her candles.  The lights had to be out, at her request.  Unfortunately, I cannot get it through my head that when I shoot video in the portrait rather than landscape aspect of my camera, I cannot rotate it 90 degrees so it can be displayed upright.  So, I will probably post it sometime soon, but you will have to lay on your side to look at it.  Even sillier, I shot 3 different video clips that way that evening.  Sigh.

On to the presents.  Everything monkey was represented, from several stuffed monkeys, to Curious George, a Play-Do Monkey toy, and a “book of monkeys” lovingly handcrafted by Auntie ‘Nee.  Some lovely clothes were received from both grandmas, and puzzles from Baba and Aunt Cheryl.  Aunt Rosemarie sent some wonderful stickers and other goodies, along with some birthday money, as did Aunt Ina.  Will even got in on the action with several gifts of cars (what else?) from several people.

We wrapped up the evening with the much desired monkey pinata!  Many of the pinatas come with trap doors these days, so you can pull a string and open the door in order to let the candy fall out.  This one, naturally, did not, and I didn’t want Anna to have to destroy the pinata to get the candy out.  Sooo, I enlisted the aid of the baba to cut a little trap door in the bottom of this one.  We stuffed it with candy, and then she just had to whack at it a few times before we pulled the ribbon and let the candy out. 

Whew.  It was a really long day, but a happy one, and we successfully managed to get the child through her 4th birthday.   I’m quite curious to see if she is still so wild about monkeys next year.  This is the second birthday we’ve had with a monkey theme!