The latest

I'm still amazed at how much Holly changes from day-to-day, minute-to-minute but I'll try to keep my parental gushing brief.

First off, to all those who are concerned we weathered Irene with only 6 hours of lost power and a few lost tree branches from our lovely oaks. We received quite a few messages of concern (which were very sweet) from those who seem to not realize that we're nowhere near the beach. We're more than 4 hours drive from the sea! I'll give the Aussie's a break, but I have serious concerns about general knowledge about geography in this country. Holly learned about candles and flashlights and thought it was awesome. She kept singing "no power!" whenever she looked up at our still ceiling fans.

Second, Holly's verbal ability has really been growing by leaps and bounds. Her longest sentence so far has been "Mama, Holly see mouse on green leaf neighbor's house!" I didn't actually see a mouse and I'm not sure how a mouse could have been hanging on to that flimsy leaf growing up our neighbor's wall. But it was pretty awesome that she formulated that all on her own! As you can see, we're still working on personal pronouns. She's begun to play pretend; diapering and feeding her doll, making us the best darn muffin cup coffee you've ever had, and "picking" flowers out of drawings for us to smell. She created her first finger painting art. She helped me cook her first meal (rather than desserts which she's been into for a few months now) of Chicken and dumplings (she made the dumplings). She is also VERY much a toddler. She doesn't want to wear the blue dress, she wants to wear the orange dress. She doesn't want to eat beans and rice, she wants to eat apples. She arrived at Chelsea's last week wearing a blue dress, purple bloomers and pink shoes. So it begins...

Third, we all had icky colds here which have finally begun to leave. Tom still sounds pretty bad. But happily, Holly's cough has gone away and her sleep has returned. I remember the days of her waking 2 or 3 times per night quite well. I remember the days of her waking at 5am for the day. I wasn't really happy to be back there quite so soon. On the positive side, at least we all avoided strep!

Finally, we're pretty busy these days (as usual) with lots of exciting stuff going on. Tom takes his last Architectural Registration Exam (ARE) on Tuesday. Holly has welcomed "Soakie" the baby dinosaur into our family and has been teaching him/her to say "night-night" as well as how to bathe and eat apples. And I'm pleased to say that on my next international work trip in September I will not be going alone. Tom, Holly and I are headed to Bangkok for a few days and then to Chiang Mai. I'll be working for much of it, but will have a little time off to see friends. Advice or general sympathy for enduring 22 hours in planes with a toddler are welcome. We're teaching Holly a few Thai phrases including "sabai sabai" and "jai yen yen"... I think those will come in handy.

July/August Photos

From top to bottom: Two spoons for my frozen yogurt! (what do you mean one of these spoons is Mama's?). All I need to do is pull up this step stool and then I can play in the Tupperwares in the bag! Holly of the Eno snacking on the river. Resting on a bench with my water at Duke Gardens. (be very, very quiet...I'm hunting duckies!)

Hair!

This photo of Holly in the bathtub is from a week or two ago when I was out of town. It was my first international trip since Holly was born, but it won't be my last. I can safely say that I HATE being away from her. But it wasn't too horrid. I worked so much that I fell quickly asleep each night (after midnight) and slept until 6am when I had my wake up call. I Skyped her just about every other day and she yelled at me to "get out computer, Mama!" Tom and Holly were ok without me, but everyone was happier when I was home. The thing about this photo that shocked me the most was her hair. It's getting so long!

Of course, Holly has always had quite a bit of hair. Unlike her parents who were little cue balls until well after their first birthdays, Holly was born with lots of lovely brown hair. It has actually presented quite a challenge! It gets in her eyes and frustrates her. All of the hair accessories I found to keep her hair out of her face were meant for much older children so I put it off for a while. After giving her essentially a bowl cut for her first birthday, we decided to begin using clips. These clips annoy the heck out of her. They slide and droop. She pulls them out, throws them on the floor and loses them in our travels through the day. I've purchased quite a few and I just can't seem to find any that work well. So I turn to you, fearless readers, any suggestions for toddler hair accessories or styles? I bought some little pony tail holders at the store this weekend and tried to put one in... but it didn't go well. Getting her little wisps up in the holder is not for the faint of heart. Getting her to sit still and deal with the gentle hair tugging was a downright challenge. And then... they fell out. I should also note that I'm not one of these skilled hair stylist-type women. My sister gave me every french braid I ever had while I can barely manage a pony tail. So... toddler hair solutions? Suggestions welcome!

A Kick for Tom

So this blog post is more about Tom than about Holly but I feel ok posting it here since you get to watch Holly playing piano and dancing on the streets. So Holly's love of music is clearly inherited from her Dad. And ever since our years in NYC, Tom has dreamed of being a piano busker. Now he has his chance to make his dream happen. It's a little hard for him to slip our upright piano in the back of our Subaru and hit the road... so he's launched a campaign to fund a smaller, lighter piano and a trailer.

Want to donate to this?

Yes... go to this link.

No... anyone can watch Tom play and Holly dance at the same link.