guest blogger: gran

A guest blog written by Gran Gran / Photography by Pop Pop:

I am honored to be the first guest writer in the Brennan Family Blog. Since Rebecca is on a celebratory Mexican vacation Jeff and I have gladly tried to fill her shoes watching Aiden this week. I’m not sure about Jeff, but my shoes are a bit worn down trying to keep up with Aiden aka “the magic tree,” “wonder pet singer,” or “Fido, the Dog.” Aiden has shown his newly found imagination and bounces among personas at will. He has kept Jeff and I, aka the King and the Princess, busy replanting him when the winds come and blow down the magic tree. He entertains us with his rousing renditions of his “not too big and not too tough” Wonder Pet song. Then he decided to be a dog that we named Fido. We chased him in circles until we got dizzy, played catch until we lost the ball (ok.. it wasn’t really lost, we hid it), and finally walked him on his leash (a purse strap attached to his belt loop) until we convinced him that dogs weren’t allowed on the big ships we were going to take him to visit.

The big ships or what Aiden called “battle boats” were at Battle Ship Cove in Fall River, Mass. He loved climbing up and down and through the tight and twisted doors and hall ways of a destroyer, a sub, and a battle boat ……errrr I mean battle ship. We really did enjoy it. It is quite impressive and even moving to think of the sacrifices of the sailors who served on these ships.

Aiden liked the ships, but mostly he liked having us chase him and conning us into buying him ice cream. He fell asleep within minutes of climbing back into his car seat. After his nap we were back to his “magic tree” persona, but had switched back to being Fido to greet Jay and Lauren at the door barking on all fours with his leach attached. It’s a good thing we weren’t being paid!

We now had two more adults as partners in time to take Aiden to the local McDonalds to see Shrek and to the Newport Creamery to make a craft and more ice cream. I think I may have “forgotten” to tell Lauren he had ice cream already on the ship. Oh well, ice cream has calcium in it, doesn’t it? I’m not so sure Grandparent spoiling is the best thing for kids, but I do know that Aiden is good for me… If I were his permanent baby sitter I could give up my YMCA membership. I look forward to tomorrow. It’s good to be Princess.

good list

About a month ago we stumbled into the kid's craft night at Newport Creamery.  It was a good excuse for little ice cream treat and a crafty surprise.  Aiden loved painting this little bird house.  We even got another one at the craft store the other day to paint on our own at home.

Making forts which Aiden calls "cages" is a favorite game lately.  This is his face just after the kraken pulled the front pillow away.

The Babies movie soundtrack is just as moving as the movie.  I can't get enough of the first track.  It's the perfect background music while I work.

Clock Without a Face - The concept is simple - Read this wonderfully illustrated book and find clues that reveal where emerald encrusted numbers are buried in 12 spots throughout the US.  Our copy of the book arrived just before Mother's Day and I told J that I wanted an emerald number for mother's day ;)  Let's just say that it's tricky enough that not only did I not get a number, but no one (in the world much less our family) has found one since searching began about two months ago.  I'm telling everyone I know because I'd be so excited if someone I knew found one.  I have my hope on my mom spending some serious time with the book to find one!  Goo Mommu!

party climber

Aiden was living it up with two birthday parties in a row this weekend. The Sunday party was a totally different vibe from the low key birthday bash and was at this place right around the corner from us that we had never visited. Turns out it is a huge (like maybe three football fields big) chuckie cheese type place ramped up. They had real rides indoors...including Aiden's favorite the roller coaster cars.

Taeya's 5th Birthday from LB on Vimeo.

I was in awe as he climbed up this super huge blow up slide by balancing on his knee and pulling up with his arms. I could hardly believe he was doing that totally independently. He even turned around at one point to warn the girl behind him to wait until he was all the way to the top. Here's the little climb although I completely missed him sliding down - the fun part!

a bug bday

Nick's buggy birthday party was a hit in Aiden's book. He was so excited to eat some yummy dirt cake, jump in the bouncy house, and wack the ladybug pinata.  It was a perfect backyard bash!

Nick's 5th Buggy Birthday from LB on Vimeo.

weekend kickoff

We had a fun Saturday starting out with the Touch a Truck event in the parking lot adjacent to my physical therapy office. They had a van full of sea creatures to touch too, which was definitely the highlight. The little choo choo zooming around and the big sports guys were close seconds.

Touch a Truck from LB on Vimeo.

We're off to a birthday party today and tomorrow - Then Gran and Pop arrive!  Yay!

crafts

These are shots from our fun craft time during mommy's day.  Aiden and J bought the pipe cleaners, pom poms, and googly eyes.

Crafts for Mommy's Day! from LB on Vimeo.

one school night

I was glad to turn this craptastic week around this evening with a nice trip to see the bunnies at the bookstore, get a hair cut, and some steak dinner.  My boss came in my office to inform me of a very important event later on that afternoon - when a smile crept on his face I was actually a bit worried and then he informed me that there will be bunnies at the bookstore (which he owns) and we should take Aiden to see them.  I was relieved it wasn't some big work meeting popping onto my calendar.  So, we took an unexpected visit to see bunnies right after work.  Aiden loved helping make "tacos" for them with plates, straw, and berries.  He got to pet the bunnies - small, medium, and large bunny became their default names. I think cuddly, fuzzy bunnies would put anyone in a good mood.

Then we cruised over to get his hair cut since it had been a while. I couldn't get any of the shape when I tried to trim it - or hack it is a better word choice ;)  It was surprisingly crowded and he liked playing while we waited.  He was very enthusiastic to jump into the chair and let them spritz, buzz and blow.  We randomly decided to get some dinner next door at Outback (which was tastier than I expected it to be).

Then Rebecca came back so that J and I could both go to the orientation for Aiden's new school.  It was over an hour and 15 minutes of which type of pants, lunch boxes, and shoes we should have...  I have to say that I really appreciated it.  I do like to plan things out in advance. September will be here before we know it...

Here's some video snippets from our bunny visit and hair cut:

Once upon a school night... from LB on Vimeo.

grampa!

It was sad circumstances, but Aiden was excited to see his Grandpa at his Great Grammies' wake this week. She was always excited to see the little ones and will be remembered fondly.  We are so grateful that Grandpa is back on track after his lung surgery and it was great to see him energized and happy to get hugs (thanks to pain patches).  

dollies

Meet Betty and Big Sister, my latest stitching projects.
Big Sister was stuffed gently into a box and sent on her way to the newest big sister in our family - as Aiden likes to say "my Cuz-en Kaaay-leee!" Aiden gave Big Sister a big hug and a kiss before she snuggled up in some bubble wrap for her trip with a batch of presents for the newest cuddly member of our family. I still have some of the big sister presents that I was given by my family when my sister was born, including the snuggly, even with smooshed fur, Ruffy dog. That dog shows off how well loved he is.

I made the dolly dresses with some quilted patches that were cast off by my friend's quilting group and I scooped them up from their fabric scrap box at their yearly sale. My fabric squirreling away tendencies pay off! Big Sister is almost entirely bright rainbow colors because she's so cheery. Betty is more of a modge podge, and Aiden picked her out immediately as his. Who knows where he even learned the name Betty, but honest to goodness that is the name that popped right out of his mouth when I asked what her name should be.

adventure

Another fun adventure reported from Rebecca last Friday:

We went down to Battleship Cove to tour the 'Bounty,' but it wasn't open to the public today. Bummer! I asked Aiden if he wanted to go on the other big ships, pointing to the Battleship, and of course he replied with a gigantic "ohhh yessss!" We started off with the helicopter and airplanes first.Aiden couldn't figure out why there were 'men' sitting in the planes, but not driving them. So if he asks you about fake men,  you'll know where this came from. haha Oh the confusion of a 2 year old. Next we moved on to these old ships that were kept in a big garage. This is the one in the picture that has big scary teeth painted on it. It was neat though, you could go up these stairs and see into the little peep holes on the side.

We made some sailor friends here, and kept running into them the entire time. Aiden said to me, loud enough for them to hear of course, "Hey Becca, look at those guys in those hats." I had to laugh, and so did they. I was trying to explain they were sailors and that's what the men that drove these boats looked like. They thought he was cute of course and one got a high five! The whole day was filled with, "Becca, can we go over here?"

So next was the Kennedy; this is when I realized I was going to get a workout. It's neat that they allow you to go down into the barracks and engine rooms of the ship, but it would be nicer if they made wider steps. heh. We had it down though by the time we left, I go down a couple steps, Aiden holds around my neck tightly, and then we go down the rest of the way verrrryyyyy carefully.  He had fun running all throughout the inside of the ship, especially when he realized that stomping on the metal floors made a loud noise! We got to see the engine rooms, the hospital room, the barber shop, and the isolation rooms with the beds. I got a picture of him laying down on one of the beds, I thought it was cute.

We toured the Lionfish, which is the submarine. The inside of that one wasn't that fun; it was very tight and there were lots of doorways we had to climb through. The deck was neat though, they had lots of guns. Of course the Battleship was his favorite. I think we literally lapped the deck of the boat 3 times! The inside of this one was tricky too, but had a lot of neat stuff. They set the rooms up to look like the actual rooms so I was asking Aiden which room was which. His favorite was of course, the "chicken." I love the way he says kitchen!

We ran into our sailor friends again, and Aiden yelled out hey. They were explaining the missiles to us, up until then Aiden was calling them airplanes because of the propeller that was on the end of them. I was going along with the whole airplane thing just for the fact I didn't want him to learn about blowing stuff up yet. haha Sorry, I tried to save ya from the 'pow, boom' noises. Overall it was a pretty good day, we spent a little over 2 hours there. I told Aiden it was time to go because he needed a nap and he told me he could just sleep on the beds in the ship. Future navy boy maybe? hehe Maybe once your foot is better you guys can go...

feeling loved

Happy Mother's Day to all my mommy friends and family!  I hope you feel loved and got some unexpected and maybe even expected treats today.

I have a feeling that Mother's Day isn't something Aiden completely understands, but he sure does get that he will get an extra snuggle if he randomly runs to me and says Happy Mud-thers Day!  He was such a sweetie and wanted to wish me mother's day as soon as possible at 1:05am.  He trotted right into our room and had his little nose against mine when I woke up for my third official mother's day.  Lucky for me, he took daddy's hand and went right back to bed.

He bopped out of bed a little after I woke up naturally around 6:30 or so.  He pattered through the hall and asked if it was time to go downstairs, which he always asks in the most adorable voice.  We had some fun playing and sharing leftover peanut butter explosion pancakes from our breakfast yesterday.  We were glad to beat the crowds and sneak in a brunch yesterday, so I got to enjoy the treat breakfast two days in a row.  Then as I did some stitching and organizing in my craft closet, J and Aiden made me a surprise!  It's a shadow box where Aiden picked out the photo, and helped stick down the stickers.  I think they did a pretty awesome job.  

Choo Choo I Love You....

Then over nap time I discovered this Ovation British reality series called Picture This, which follows photographers competing for a book deal and gallery showing.  What an unexpected treat delivered by the satellite tv ;)  J had a great idea to take us all to see the new Babies movie that just came out.  I'm so happy that he was interested in seeing it too.  I've been following it on Facebook for a while and was really looking forward to it.  Aiden really did a great job until the last ten minutes or so when he got kinda squirmy, but he lasted the whole movie. A great mother's day treat:

After the movie we took an unexpected trip to the little carnival set up in the parking lot.  I'm not usually a huge fan of these questionable safety setups, but if you saw how excited Aiden gets you'd understand why I get sucked in...  He gets giddy chugging around in circles.  I found it really funny that he picked the back of the golden bus as his choice spot on the empty vehicles ride.

Then we came home for some baked fish for dinner and an evening of cookies and crafts!  I'll have to share the crafts once I get the photos loaded, but it was creative mama heaven with all the supplies collected by Daddy and Aiden.

Aiden made this coloring page (even the face on the sun was his idea - love the squiggle right eyeball)!

interviews for mommy's day

J put together a bunch of sweet things for mother's day this year including an "Interview with Aiden." These are Aiden's honest to goodness answers to J when he asked him these questions.

Q: What is your favorite thing about mommy?
A: She’s very proud of me.

Q: What do you like to do with mommy?
A: I like to tickle her. Tickle tickle tickle!

Q: What does mommy like to do with you?
A: She likes to read me the Hungry Caterpillar. Two pears, three plums, four oranges, and then he gets a stummyache. And then he pops into a beautiful butterfly!

Q: What does mommy like to eat?
A: Celery.

Q: Where does mommy work?
A: Hmmm… I think… I think, maybe swim class!

Q: What is your favorite game to play with mommy?
A: Play my restaurant, and we eats lots of foods!


Here are my answers for my mommy:
Q: What is your favorite thing about mommy?
A: She can tie cherry stems with her tongue. No seriously, she is one of the most hard working, committed people I know. If she sets her mind to something it will get done well.

Q: What do you like to do with mommy?
A: I bet some people would answer shopping, but my mom taught me early on that "shopping is cruel" on some marathon trips. My actual answer would be any sort of craft therapy. One of my favorites was the hand painted xmas ornaments with Aiden's hand and foot prints.

Q: What does mommy like to do with you?
A: She likes to teach and create. The most recent outlets of these include substitute teaching and watercolor painting.

Q: What does mommy like to eat?
A: Asparagus and anything she can get her teeth into at around 5:00pm when she gets home from work and before dinner.

Q: Where does mommy work?
A: Schools, Churches, anywhere you can help people through a little work and unconditional positive regard

Q: What is your favorite game to play with mommy?
A: Any game that involves me, my mom, and Aiden

Love you Mommu! Happy Mother's Day! I hope you have a nice brunch today. See you soon!

da thh-eater

We had an invitation from a group of friends to join them for "Storytime Live" a couple weeks back. I thought it sounded like fun especially since it was in the nice theater downtown. At first I thought it was traditional storytime, you know Goldilocks, Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood kinda stories, but it was sponsored by Nickelodeon. After a little bit of looking at it online I decided that we'd go for it to join in the fun even though Aiden had literally not seen a single one of the characters. I also figured with our new satellite tv we had no excuse for not at least showing Aiden the Nick shows that would be featured. Aiden quickly became obsessed with the Wonder Pets, which very surprisingly J openly admits he enjoys. I knew that Aiden would be thrilled by the show, and oh boy he really was excited! I spent a lot of the show watching him giggle, clap, dance, and shake with excitement. It was a nice treat that left us all pretty giddy. I wasn't allowed to tape during the show, but here's some snippets from before and after:

Da Thh-eater! from LB on Vimeo.

at the doc

Aiden seemed like such a big boy when we cruised into the doctor today. He was 37 inches tall and just about 31 pounds. I can't remember the head circumference, but it's something in the mid 90th percentile. Happy and healthy without any concerns... No need for any shots which was nice and he was really tolerant of the doctor's scope. She even tested his reflexes and he looked down at his legs with interest as they shot forward a bit. It was cute to see him peek at the Doctor like 'eh, i'm goin to put up with all this, but it's not my favorite'... The nice nurse told him he was a good boy and gave him a Mr. Potato Head with sticker parts. We got his school form all taken care of for his new school registration. We will have orientation next week for the fall start, so it was perfect timing.

happy half birthday!

Today was a very typical day for 2 and a half year old Aiden - His 10 big daily steps:
1. Woke up pretty early in his big boy bed and trotted in to get mommy "to go downstairs"
2. Eats/Drinks his milk, bar, and yogurt drink and reads books
3. Shares a few bites of breakfast with daddy
4. Played with Rebecca all day with a trip to see the Toe Jam Band at the Buttonwood Zoo and then to Tyler's house to hang out.
5. Took a diaper dude nap since he's such a hot box
6. Woke up to more Mr. Potato Head dressing, puzzles, and picnics
7. Dinner in his new divider tray where he pokes at most of his food
8. Chased the pretend Kraken (giant octopus) around the house running into scare mommy
9. Checked to see how stinky he was - peee yew!  Time for bath before the Kraken catches him.
10. Bedtime stories and sleepy time

No special celebrations, just enjoying the typical "day in our neighborhood"... but I did make this little video series of some unseen moments from the last 6 months - actually the flip magic movie function made it for me - thanks Flip ;)

Happy 2.5 years AB!


2.5 years - The .5 Part from LB on Vimeo.

Here is last year's happy half  (which I spent a lot more time on):
http://ababybrennan.blogspot.com/2009/05/happy-half.html 

30 months

Dear Aiden,

This month flew by in a tired busy blurrrrr... It seemed like you grew out of another shoe size and almost all of your pants in such a short amount of time it's making me cringe.  I'm not cringing at your high water pants, but cringing at the idea that you are getting big enough to realize that your pants are too short.  Uh oh, mommy better get her shop on... but I tell ya it seems like most of your clothes are either too big or too small.  The pile of outgrown clothes reminds us how big you are getting, about as often as you actually tell us how big you are.

Your favorite potty activity is to "read" guitar magazines with your dad.  I think you can identify more guitar types than I realized existed.  You are getting so close to being fully potty trained.  Now that we aren't traveling (and we're not going out and bout as much with my hurt foot), I think it will get even easier.  The cutest cutie pie word that I want you to keep using even though I don't want you to have speech confusion is:  stummyache.  When you say, "Mommy my stummy hurts - I think it's a stummyache" I can't help but giggle.

Your newest prairie dog buddies Copper and Tod (from the Desert Museum in Arizona) are constantly being rescued by the Wonder Pets that swoop in on their fly boat.  You are a Wonder Pets enthusiast all of a sudden (which is a little tv treat for you) and you love to create wild scenarios where a baby something-or-other needs to be rescued.  My favorite is when the "baby toddler" needs to be rescued and you pretend to be stuck under something or trapped. You sing the teamwork song while you set out on a  rescue mission singing the Wonder Pets. "Let's save the toddler..." You claim that Ming Ming is your favorite, even though her little sung speech impediment - "This is seeeriuuus! - isn't mommy's favorite.  Your dad is surprisingly tolerant of the musical cartoon and I think he likes your little pretend play games after the show just as much as you do.

One of your favorite new books is How Are You Feeling? with veggie photos that express emotion.  You now like to pretend you have an angry face or a surprised face. When we visited Philadelphia, storytime with Gran included the Tortoise and the Hare story (complete with a new tortoise puppet and bunny), which you love to repeat and pretend to be the slooow tortoise (and you couldn't say tortoise in a cuter voice - it melts my mommy ears).

You try to create categories for things lately.  You think that Aiden, Mommy, and Daddy all fall into the same category - so our second "names" are Mommy Lauren, Daddy J, and Aiden Brennan -so you think your real name is Brennan.  You do know your full name now and it's really adorable when you say Alexander because you say it slowly.  You also started calling all adults children - We went to a get together at mommy's work and you walked in and said "hey lookat all the children"  You were quite the dancer that afternoon while the engineering professors grooved on the patio.  You also like singing and dancing to YMCA in slow motion with Rebecca lately.

This month presented a challenge when I hurt my foot.  At first you were kissing my "boo boo," looking up at me with puppy dog eyes, and saying, "Is that all better, mommy?  Now it's time to go kicking in the yard."  I think you are just as desperate as I am for it to get better, although crutches are a good distraction.  You attempt to climb them which isn't a good game, but you also pretend one is a guitar and that's pretty fun.  You think it's funny to pretend you broke your foot or your finger so you can't walk up the stairs or pick up your toys.  Then you put a big cup over them as your pretend cast, giggled, and said "I'm just kidding!"

At the beginning of the month, you started getting more control over your fingers.  You can easily hold just two up now to say how old you are.  Dad thinks it's pretty funny that you can hold up the rock symbol. I love you fingers are pretty sweet too.  You very carefully arrange the zingo tiles until the perfectly overlap by pushing it very carefully with your pointer finger.  I think it's interesting to see how hard you concentrate.

You still love to play silly running games, but when we are inside you started trying to play with doors, which we nipped in the bud.  You love having dad hide as a ball eating monster.  He hides on one side of the yard, then he jumps out and grabs the ball, tries to eat it, then kicks it to the other side of the yard while he hides again.  The soundtrack to this game sounds like a bunch of giggles and munching sounds.  You like to take mini breaks from your ball retrieving and monster scares to "play chalks" on the deck.

You surprise us by how much you remember and repeat.  You've been chanting "master! dra-gon flying!" for a while and when we try to figure out what it's from, you make up something new all the time.  It's still a mystery, but I think you learned it from Tyler.  Here are a few other funnies I recorded this month: You were standing on one leg the other day, and you giggled and said "I'm a flamingo!"  You like to pick up your play picnic glasses and say cheers!  You like to think that pirates go searching for treasure chests full of pillows!  Another funny little mannerism is when you refer to yourself in third person, like the story of you "correcting" Rebecca - Listen to Aiden, it's tepper, listen closely, "ttt - tep" Then Rebecca and you start talking with letter sounds, and you say "oh,  I forgot, it's ppp pepper!"

You ended up crashing our date day since our little photo session ended up taking so long and we still wanted to go out for a nice dinner.  You were careful not to color on the white table cloth, but I was glad they had crayons and a yummy kids menu ;)  You are pretty good about breaks in your routine, and when you woke up when Rebecca was here the other day, she said you immediately said, 

"oh, you surprised me!"  Sometimes it blows my mind that you understand what a surprise is...

The Tickle Monster was a star this month.  You loved tackling and tickle wrestling at Stella's birthday party.  You were proud of the painted card you made for her.  Tickle Monster would enter forts to tickle and he would sometimes even tickle a sleeping mommy in the morning.  You were funny when our alarm went off in the middle of the night (weird because it's not even active) and you said, " oh mommy, it's time for sleepy" like you were disappointed that I didn't understand.  

We had a trip to Philadelphia this month, and you were so excited to see your Gran and Pop.  When we finally pulled into the parking lot after a marathon drive you recognized PopPop's car immediately.  You were giddy running towards Gran in front of the restaurant.  You've taken after your Gran and you joke and then laugh at your own jokes.  If we called you silly, you liked saying, "No, I'm just a happy boy!"  I love when you use your "coloring pad" to make happy giants.  You explain to me as you draw it: "I'm making happy faces by putting two dots for eyes and a loooong smile."

You told me the other day that you're going to grow up to be "a big boy with a scratchy face and hair on my knees."  I think I nearly cried.  You then started calling out, "Hey, where's my friend mommy!?" You're allowed to grow big enough to have hair on your knees as long as you are still willing to call me your friend then, k, deal?  Got it?

Love you, Your friend mommy

this tree

This tree came home in the trunk of our Honda Civic in August 2007, less than three years ago.  It was a birthday present from my folks (along with two other trees) and my mom and I (and Aiden on the other side of the belly) watched as the guys pulled away with three trees hanging out of the trunk.  We had to wait while they trucked those trees home since there wasn't enough room for us in the car.  A Honda can only handle two men and three trees.  Or maybe then they should've been considered a batch of sticks.  I remember laughing as the guys pulled out of the driveway and my jokester husband called a few minutes later "pretending" that the trees had fallen out of the trunk onto the road.  I remember how easy my dad and J made it seem when they planted those little trees.  I am shocked by how big it is now. My pruning job to get the branches to grow up a little bit higher seemed to work.  I feel the same way when I think of how big Aiden is getting to be - shock - but don't worry I'm not trying to prune him.

derby days

Do you Derby?  Here's Aiden racing:

Poor kid couldn't find his cowboy hat, so we told him that safari hat was an australian style cowboy hat ;) Tricky I know.

Both my mom and my aunt are hosting parties today (which makes me wish my superpower was teleportation and I could somehow hobble to three parts of the country today).  The Ohio Derby party has a built in celebration for my uncle's 50th birthday.  Happy Birthday Uncle Booey!

may day

What a nice way to spend a May Day - even though we didn't have a pole with ribbons or big poofy dresses, it did feel like the good old fashioned kinda day.  I started the day with a little mini photo shoot for a little girl to celebrate her first communion.  I'm so happy to capture photos that will linger in family histories since they are associated with big life events.

I wish I was in VA to take photos of and cuddle our new nephew, Trevor Patrick!  He was welcomed by J's twin brother and his family today around 5pm - May 1st is a fun birth date!  Congrats M, J, and K - Welcome T!  What a proud big sister:

This morning I participated in a community gift sale to benefit the Friends of the Library.   I made a grand total of $11.50 off the hundreds of crepe paper flowers I've made - ha pretty sad! - especially since I paid a $25 table fee (which I consider a donation to the library), but I made some new friends ;)  They all said that it was sooo slow because the weather was gorgeous.  I even tried lowering my prices half way through, but you can't sell things to non-existent people I suppose ;)

I couldn't resist this adorable sweater set made by this very sweet crafty neighbor of mine.  She said that it made her day to see one of her sweaters in action, and it made my day to see how excited Aiden was for a lion sweater.  He was so excited that despite it being a pretty toasty day he refused to take it off and even took a nap in it.  Let's hope he doesn't growth spurt too much and he can wear it next winter.  Nothing like buying a sweater set on May Day ;)

Then an old friend cruised down from Boston to visit us and she brought along a picnic!  We literally hung out outside playing and gabbing for over 3 hours.  It's just refreshing to talk with someone you know really well.  It makes me wish we lived closer ;)  Thanks A!

Look how well these jeans hide my bum foot ;)  I'm doing better and can pretty much get around with one crutch now.  yay!  Hope you had a nice refreshing May Day!