The Sporting Life

The last couple of days have seen Boo getting acquainted with local sports action. (Bowling counts as athletics in this area.)

We met up with my friend Nikki (she's the childhood friend of my old DC roommate, Sarah) and her little boy, Tommy, for a day of attempted bowling. Bumpers were definitely on deck. Here are the kids (a little blurry) in their little shoes:

Boo seemed to like bowling technology more than the game itself. She spent a lot of the time staring into the ball-return machine, so much I was waiting for her to get smacked in the face by a Brunswick 10-pounder.

Today (Mother's Day), we took in our first baseball game. The area now has its first real minor-league team in some 50 years, the IronPigs (it's a steelworking term), and they built a shiny new ballpark and it's the thing to do this spring and summer. LSI, a locally-based tech firm, has a corporate box that they graciously gave to the Da Vinci Center to use today, so I snagged tickets and took my hubby and my baby bear. They had a full catered spread and everything-- very nice. We all agreed it'll be hard to go back and sit in the regular Nonprofit Employee Cheap Seats.

Boo had a great time...

...until the mascot came up to the box and scared the absolute living bejeezus out of her. I didn't realize she was still scared of people in animal suits (she had done well with the Easter Bunny at her school), otherwise I would have hauled her out of there when he showed up. Her reaction was remarkable and startling: she hit the deck, crawled on her belly like a Navy SEAL under the seats, and crawled like hell down the row into the next box (under the legs of our local weather guy). I couldn't help laughing, but bless her heart, she was TERRIFIED. I had never seen her so scared. We managed to calm her down and were able to stay for the rest of the game.

Then in the car home, she asked about the mascot. He's a pig.

We were like, yes, honey, he's a pig, and he didn't mean to scare you. It's okay.

She pipes up with, "I wanna see him again!" Go figure.

Easter in NE PA...

...means wearing a pastel sundress over long johns and under a winter coat. At least this year we didn't have much of a wind chill factor.

You can't see much of the outfit here, and since it was basically a mishmash of Spring Thermal, that's probably a good thing. We're at the church egg hunt.

And...they're off.
Eggs secured.
Much rumpled, we check the take.
And a hug from Daddy.

"Comin' right up!"

"Mommy! I make you flapjacks!"

(We've NEVER called pancakes 'flapjacks,' nor do we ever say 'comin' right up!', but she apparently does.)

She washes up first...

The bowl contents are the 'flapjacks.' She likes to pretend her blocks are various foods.

She bakes her flapjacks in the oven.

"Five minutes."

(Cupboard's a bit bare there, Boo.)

"Juice?" (The quotes are really what she said.)

She's a great help in the real kitchen too!

Universal Healthcare

Alison received a "Bathtub Chemistry" set in her Christmas stocking this year. It's basically two hard plastic test tubes and a packet of dye tablets so she can make and mix colors. She enjoys the color stuff, but she has a new thing she does with her test tubes.

ALISON: I make Mommy feel better. I make medicine.

ME: Oh, okay. Cool.

Alison scoops up bathwater in the test tubes, pours one into the other, and then pours it on my hand.

ALISON: This make you feel better?

ME: Oh, absolutely.

Then she'll pick up a toy, like her rubber duckie.

ALISON: Duckie has a boo boo. I make Duckie feel better.

She mixes up her 'medicine' and pours it on the duck.

ALISON: Duckie's just a baby.

Then she'll pick up another toy, like her boat. Inanimate objects qualify under Boocare.

ALISON: Boat has a boo boo. I make boat feel better. Boat's just a baby.

And on and on. It's so funny, especially since I have no idea how she made the connection between test tubes and medicine. She's such a little nurturer, with the hugs and kisses and blankets and toys distributed to everything in sight (including Sam), and this is just another manifestation of that.

Eight Seconds

Alison's Aunt Betsy has established a tradition of buying Alison a ginormous stuffed bear every Christmas. Last night, Alison demonstrated her technique of bear-riding, where she straddles one of the bears, jumps up and down, throws one arm up over her head and yells 'yeehaw'! We have no idea where she learned this. Dora must have visited a rodeo or something. Anyway, it's hilarious.

She also busted out an early demo of The Alphabet Song, displaying an amazing command of the alphabet in the process. It's not perfect, but I was really surprised that she was able to get several chunks of letters in the proper order. She likes to point out letters on my t-shirts and guess what they are. (Unfortunately for my mother, that means she can spell "NEW ORDER" like nobody's business.)

Here's some more old photos. These are from Halloween...check out our little squinty-faced kangaroo. These may be the worst pictures she's ever taken, but they're kinda funny. I swear she was attempting to smile. You know how these things go.

This blog is BACK.

We've settled (somewhat) into the new house, we're past the holiday insanity, and now that I can take a deep breath, it's time to blog, baby.

We've had a fun weekend. Saturday morning we went to BounceU with our pal Jason, where we met up with one of his other friends, Peyton. The kids had a blast jumping around and flopping through the obstacle courses and sliding down the slides (the moms enjoyed it too). I think we're going back tomorrow, since the forecast looks gross and this kid needs to get her little body moving. Wouldn't hurt me either.

We've made plans to take the kids ice-skating together soon, since Alison is now the proud owner of a pair of double-bladed skates and a cool dinosaur crash helmet. She's seen a lot of skating on her little TV shows and is aching to try it out. I'll let you know how that goes.

Saturday night Alison and I made a white chicken chili (I sliced and diced, she dumped things into the pot and stirred). She is really excellent at following directions and wants nothing more than to help, and is turning into a really sweet and bright little girl.

Here's a brief photo album. We'll start with summer 2007. This is Boo and Sophia at the Promenade Shops fountains, where they cooled off and made some friends.
This is Boo and her daddy at one of Mommy's park concerts.
...and on 7/4, we had my friend Karen and her family over. The girl holding hands with Boo is Claire and is almost exactly 9 months older than Boo.
And here's Alison pitching in with the yardwork. (I was always tempted to put a real rotor blade on her mower...)
Looking at these pictures, which are only a few months old, it's amazing how much she's grown in such a short period of time.

Gigging

So everybody knows that I'm a park commissioner for my township, and I've taken responsibility for booking, publicizing and running our concert series. It's great fun, since I love music and bands and I love to pick stuff that's different and interesting that I think our neighbors will like. Boo has been my co-pilot ever since I started doing it-- her first public outing was a park concert when she was two weeks old. She's met lots of local artists who have been very sweet to her, even if half of the time she burst into tears when she met them.

Last night we had a favorite kids' singer, Dave Fry. I am in awe of this guy's way with kids. He had them eating out of the palm of his hand for 90 minutes straight. That's a feat.

Boo was a bit reluctant to get involved:

...but then she got braver (that's her in the background going to get a rhythm instrument):

(Note that we're inside-- we had a huge rainstorm that forced the show indoors. We still had a great turnout.)

That thing in her hand is a rhythm stick.