Every new beginning is some other beginning's end

As most of you know, Chipper is set to get hitched in September. I just recently found out from Maroof that he and Ashley have a wedding web page on TheKnot.com, so Gator decided that this was definitely a place you need to visit and posted the link in his section of Gator Approved links. Maybe Chip will update it more often than his regular site....

DDC

Thankfully, out sitter's husband is on the mend. Though it was a little touch and go for a while, he is home from the hospital and healing quickly. We are very happy for their entire family. And while we are celebrating his quick recovery, I am a little down because I know that the lazy summer days of Daddy Day Care are drawing to a close. But what is a bummer for me is a boon for Lily, as she enjoys getting to play with the other children at Mattie's. So, in honor of our last week together (at least until the first week of July), here are some pictures from DDC.

The morning bowl of cereal never seems to come soon enough!


And here Lily is playing with some blocks...it seems like she may have tried to spell something out but I can't quite tell for sure...


Finally, a couple of pictures from the new pool that Gran got for her. As time goes on, we are beginning to believe that her brothers may have got most of the water genes in this family.



OK, so Gator's picture does not actually feature him in water (in liquid form that is), but take our word for it, he loves it!

Strawberry pies forever

With our sitter being unavailable the past couple of weeks, Lily and I have been hanging out a lot lately. We read, and play, and laugh at the dogs when they are acting silly (almost all the time); and recently we have decided to test our baking skills in an effort to impress Emily. Our first attempt resulted in a sad state of affairs....lesson for all you aspiring cooks out there, if the Crisco looks funny and smells funny, the outcome will be funny as well. At least, it will be funny to everyone but the chef. In my disbelief that we could actually have a can of lard go bad, I chose to use the Crisco anyway, and it was a bad decision.

At this point Lily took a more assertive role in the baking process and we successfully made a yellow cake with chocolate icing. Emily approved, and thanks to contributions by the whole family, it did not last long. Feeling good after recent spell of good fortune, Lily and I decided to make a pie yesterday. We started out with designs for a raspberry pie, but the raspberries are a little pricey right now. So we substituted strawberries instead. I am pleased to say that the pie turned out great (yes, Emily liked it too!)



While encouraged by our success, Lily and I were left to contemplate a deep and disturbing question...if they are so delicious, why don't you see more strawberry pies?

Week 49: I Heart DDC

Lily made this shirt for Dave to show her appreciation for the time she gets to spend with him in Daddy Day Care (lovingly referred to as the DDC). Our sitter’s husband has been in the hospital this past week in critical care and luckily DDC was there to come to the rescue. What a relief it is to know Dave is available especially during the summer, should a childcare situation come up. On this Father’s Day, Lily and I both thank Dave for being such an amazing father.

Walk This Way

Week 48 (aka Month 11)

Today is Lily's 11 month birthday. I can't believe we almost have a one year old! We made an impromptu decision to visit the aquarium in Gatlinburg today. The idea was to find a way to do something fun, while beating this oppressive heat, so we thought we'd go take a swim with the fishes...(not in the "Mack the Knife" sense).














I think Lily really enjoyed the day and her attention was split between the new sights and sounds of the sea-life.... and all the other little kids there to enjoy the day. The aquarium is super kid friendly and there is an interactive area for the kids to play.














The "fish" resting on the tunnel is called a "sawfish", though it is closely related to sharks and rays. This one was probably about 6 feet long, but we saw some of his relatives that looked like they approached 10 ft. Other residents included sand sharks, nurse sharks, hammerhead sharks, tarpon (Jimmy Buffet fly fishes in salt flats for this big fellas), all kinds of clown fish, puffer fish, lobsters (the lucky ones anyway), jellyfish, lion fish, king crabs, and an ugly looking fella named a stonefish which is supposed to have the world's most deadly fish venom. There was also a ray pool where you can pet the rays. We were open to it (despite the Crocodile Hunter's misfortune) but they seemed more interested in resting peacefully on the far side of the tank than fooling around with the tourists in flipflops.

As for this last picture, what can we say. We tried to keep Lily out of the water, but she shares her brothers love for swimming...and selective hearing. Emily had to go in after her...

Week 47

While gone on our fantastic voyage, we were worried we would miss our yard blooming. Luckily that wasn't the case, and most of the flowers and plants are just starting to hit their stride. Lily is posing by the tiger lilies which are going to peak in about a week and are always so full and vibrant and a nice sight to greet us as we come home.

Lily is so mobile and so on the verge of walking by herself, that mishaps are bound to happen....at least that's what I'm trying to tell myself. You may not be able to fully appreciate Lily's two shiners in the picture on the left, but there's one under her right eye and in the middle of her forehead. I'm not too certain what she did to get the one under her eye, but the forehead was courtesy of the Babies r'us tile floor face plant. If you want to see the sometimes weird (new moms you know what I'm talking about) Babies r'us employees get even weirder, have your kid take a face plant right in front of them....oohh, they start to squirm....

And last and in this case least, there are now two 'adults' in the house with a 3 to start off their age...though Dave has been very generous to allow me to call it 29 version 2.0......hmmm I think I could get used to that. I had a great birthday last Friday, thanks to Dave's planning and Jonathan's babysitting....thanks to you both!

Who is 31, and who is almost 1

Right about now, you should all be feeling very sorry for Emily....

Round 1

You can tell Mary Hudson has done this before....
we'll have to put Lily in training before the rematch.

Week 46: Beach Cutie

The Rock: There are few places we know of that would possess us to make the 13 hour drive Dave described in the post below, but Hilton Head is one of them. Dave found us a great condo with a "5minute" walk to beach (give or take 2-3 minutes). Here he is pulling daddy duty as we set off for some fun in the sun, with the Bob in tow.


Lily took all the new experiences in stride. She found out quickly that she wasn't too fond of eating sand....even though Mary Hudson tried to convince her otherwise. Nana provided some fabulous beach toys, and though I think Lily's daddy had the most fun playing with them, she really liked the white shovel...just the right size....
As for the pool....well....indifferent is probably the best description of Lily's reaction. She was most excited about the plastic bottle she was playing with.....which I took away right before this picture. Dave tried to float her on her belly to see if she would kick or splash.....but all she wanted to do was drink the water.....










Anna, Sam and Mary Hudson joined us mid-week. Luckily it was Anna that had a medical conference on the Island, that triggered the idea for the whole vacation in the first place. It was a blast having both babies together, mock 'baby fighting', and seeing which could out-screech the other....oh, the memories..

Nana and Papa were of course there the whole week, and I don't think Lily could have had more fun. Between bubbles and boom-boxes and games of peek-a-boo (one of Lily's favorites) Nana had Lily constantly entertained.















To end the week, we went to Gavin's first birthday party (seated far right in the picture below). Gavin and Mary Hudson stay together during the week, with a nanny. It was great timing that Gavin's b-day fell when we were down there and Gavin's grandparents just happen to live down the street from where we were staying....

I love the picture of the three babies, because if you look close, they all are playing with their own pine needles, needless to say, that was way more interesting than three mothers making goofy noises and faces, trying to get their attention.

Roads Scholar

Usually a car trip doesn't get that much attention, but in this instance, our fantastic voyage was so ambitious that it deserves its own post. On Sunday we spent 13 hours in the car, traveling from Church Creek, Maryland to Hilton Head Island. Since we would be in the car all day, we decided to take a travel down the the Eastern Shore of Maryland, take the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel, come through Norfolk and get back on I-95 near Virginia's border with North Carolina. And true to our expectations, it proved to be a nice way to spend the first several hours of the trip.














Of course, what should not be lost in all of this is how amazing Lily was for the trip. As you may imagine, having a 10 month old in the car for 13 hours is probably not such a great idea. But in true Lily fashion, she took it all in stride. What really helped was meeting up with Nana and Papa just after crossing the NC border. While stopped for a picnic lunch, Lily was able to exercise her legs and show off for her grandparents.














And what trip down I-95 is complete without mention of Pedro! Emily and I spent a lot of time on this stretch of road during the first year of our relationship, and I always had a particular fondness for the South of the Border signs.... corny jokes can be mighty entertaining during 8 hours of interstate driving. You truly never sausage a place! Unfortunately, this shot as we drove past was a close as we got this time around.

Week 45: The Dan and The Shell's Wedding

We are a little backed up on posting because we have spent the last two weeks traveling around the East Coast. Our adventures started with a spectacular wedding on Maryland's eastern shore (one of the state's few redeeming qualities). The Dan and The Shell got married at a beautiful retreat that was isolated from most of the modern world....though not without the modern world's perks. The retreat had a heated swimming pool, jacuzzi, game room, and plenty of grass that made for an excellent bacci ball field. The link to the retreat is below:

http://www.chesapeakeretreats.com/


As for the wedding itself, it was top notch. They erected a large tent out by the water where the reception was held. The rehearsal dinner would have been there as well, but a hurricane blew through Friday night that forced the festivities indoors. And they were festive....it was a good old fashioned crab pickin, complete with two bushels of crabs and a bushel of corn on the cob. Back to the wedding though, the ceremony took place under a tree by the water with an amazing view of the Chesapeake Bay. The reception was great too, catered by old Salty or somebody, they served the most delicious crab cakes we've ever had. Each one was full of REAL crab meat. That is not to mention the coconut and chocolate meringue pies for desert....so good.

Significantly, one of the best good luck signs of the day (other than the great weather), was Lily's squishy nose of approval following the ceremony.

Needless to say, we celebrated the thing like it should have been celebrated (complete with a homemade fireworks show). The Dan sang a soppy love song to The Shell (it was very sweet), and later in the evening The Dan did his performance of "The Humpty Dance" where he was truly about "to ruin the image and the style that ya used to". And to all the other rappers in the top 10, he did indeed bump thee.

There was a beautiful sunset that evening that was so picturesque it could have appeared in the sunset room at The Big Bamboo. And speaking of The Big Bamboo, The Campbell Pack was up early the next morning and on the next leg of our journey....the 13 hour drive to Hilton Head!