The Weekend

Well, I can't post pictures but...we had a fun weekend. Saturday we went down to Grammy & Grampy's house for a visit. Auntie Di & Nik came up from Rhode Island too. We brought Laina's dance recital dress, tights, shoes & music and she put on a private performance of "The Body Rock" for the family since they couldn't attend the big show. Once the DVD is in, they'll be able to see that as well. Everyone enjoyed it. We also brought Laina's big girl bike and she showed off her skills for everyone. It was so strange to have Laina riding her bike up and down the street I grew up on and rode my bike on for years!

Sunday we went to "La Kermesse" which is the local franco-american festival in Biddeford, the town next to ours. We had a good time. Laina rode on the merry go round, the train and the cars. Riding the cars was her first ever solo amusement ride. Last year she was too little to do anything alone. They also had a little circus there and we got to see a juggler, a clown, a lady on a trapeze way high up in the air and some very smart, adorable performing pooches. Laina was exhausted but had a great time. In the afternoon we went to a new playground near our house and I don't know who had a better time, she or I. We rode the swings together and climbed all the playground stuff and she and I went down the slide together a bunch of times. What a blast!

Pictures to follow...when I get my beloved computer back!

On Hiatus

The laptop is sick. To me, this is traumatizing news to receive. As it turns out, our wireless card was pretty much defective from birth. It's taken us forever to figure out that the problem lies within our poor little computer not somewhere in our wireless system. Apparently this is a big problem for our model HP and they are paying to Fed Ex it to them, repair it and Fed Ex it back. They are not reimbursing me for pain & suffering due to missing my laptop. I live for this thing!

Oh well, enough about that. Here's a cute little video of Laina singing the closing theme to her new favorite show, "Mickey's Clubhouse". The girl loves this show (now in the number one spot, before Super Why or Jack). For those of you who do not know the show, the closing theme goes "hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog.....hot dog, hot dog hot diggity dog". Laina sings this song over and over and over again.

Laina sings "Mickey's Clubhouse"

So...it will be a while before I post again....be back soon....better then ever I hope! :)

Finally A Beach Day!

Today was beautiful! Those of us in the Northeast are becoming all too familiar with thunderstorms. Every day it seems another round of storms moves in...and out...and back in again. But today was storm free!

This morning Laina asked me to re-polish her toenails because the nail polish was coming off. It cracks me up that she's so into having her toes painted. I learned a great trick at my last pedicure. One of the manicurists has 5 year old twin girls and I was telling her that Laina always wiggles her toes while I try to paint them. She suggested that I have Laina stand up while I'm painting them and that way she won't be able to wiggle quite as easily. It worked like a charm and this was the best mom-made pedi Laina has received in her 2 years, 9 months of life!

Here are some cute pictures of her. She's up on the counter just after I finished the pedi and put her sandals back on. These pictures, in my opinion, capture the true Laina and her silly, funny, hamming it up little self...a side you only get to see when you spend a lot of time with her and the real Laina emerges...






After nap, we finally got to hit the beach. This is the great thing about living in Maine. We are five minutes from the beach and so we can go at 4:30pm when everyone else has gone home for the day and the sun isn't so tough to take. There's plenty of free parking, it's a quick walk from the car to the sand, and we can spend an hour splashing in the water, digging in the sand and climbing up the lifeguard chair. Here are some shots of our beach outing. I just love the turtle shades...

The Elephant In The Room

Last week at school, the theme for the week was "the zoo". They made these ADORABLE elephant masks and I snapped a picture just in time...because 3 minutes later, cute Mr. Elephant lost an ear! Isn't this the cutest thing?

Auntie Nee's Baby Bath

This Saturday was Auntie Renee's Baby Shower (or baby bath as Laina calls it given that she's not a big fan of showers and much prefers baths)! Renee is due on July 16th...new SPG baby is right around the corner! So very exciting!!!

I spent the weekend in MA for the festivities. This was my first weekend being away from Laina in a very long time. I was away form her one other time when she was an infant. Laina and Joe had a grand old time home alone in Maine. Laina did pretty well being away from me. Every time I spoke with her on the phone, she told me "come home right now, Mommy!" Today when I got home, she was just about to go down for a nap and I tip toed into her room to surprise her. She was so cute in her crib...a huge smile on her face and said "mommy...you're home!" So sweet.

I had the pleasure of coordinating the shower, together with Renee's mom. I had a blast. We decided on a giraffe theme since Renee loves giraffes. Ohhh, I'm not sure if she was happy about that given the enormous number of giraffe related gifts that she received! The baby is sure to love giraffes now too (we hope!). I had a fun time designing the invitations and working on the favors. I ordered the paper products online and Renee's mom had the cake designed to match the napkins. Wilson Farms in Lexington, MA did an outstanding job with the cake!

Here are some photos of the gathering. Thanks once again to staff photographer, Rachel. It was so great to see all the girls again. We missed Merci who couldn't be there but it was great fun seeing everyone else. Renee & Mike got tons of good stuff to prepare for the arrival of the little one.

The cake...

Cutting the cake...

Big brother to be...

Grandma to be...

Mom to be and Great Gram to be...

Grandma and Aunt to be...

Friends from work: Sarah, Ruth & Robin...

Dad to be, modeling the giraffe blanket...

Me and the favors...

Lovely ladies...

Marybeth & Amy...

Lucas & Isabella...

Good luck Auntie Nee & Uncle Mike! Laina can't wait to meet her new cousin!!

Happy Father's Day

We had a lovely Father's Day today! I think the best part of the day is when I got Laina up and she ran into our bedroom and ran over to a sleeping Joe and shouted "Happy Father's Day Daddy"! That's his very first time waking up to his little girl wishing him a happy father's day and I think that's the coolest!

I made Joe French toast for breakfast, which Laina calls "French pancakes" because she just doesn't like the concept of calling it French toast I guess! We enjoyed our "French pancakes" with our Maine maple syrup - yum! Here are a couple of shots of Joe and Laina from breakfast.

After breakfast we gave Joe his presents. Laina doesn't have daycare on Fridays so she didn't make a craft project for him at school this year, but we did go to the Y on Friday and there she colored a nice poem for him. We also got him a bunch of new shirts and headphones so that he can use his ipod at the Y (since I stole his - hee hee!). Here are some cute shots of Laina and Joe with presents. Laina is wearing her ADORABLE "Daddy's Girl" tank & shorts from Gymboree of course. Unfortunately it was too darned cold out today to wear the outfit for the whole day but she looked awfully cute in it this morning!


After presents, Laina and I headed out for some errands to give Joe some quiet time at home. Then, after lunch and nap Laina and Daddy snuggled on the couch. We ended the day with homemade BBQ baby back ribs and German potato salad (one of Joe's all time favorites thanks to the Butler Family!).


In other news, Joe and I headed out on a date on Saturday night! These are few and far between so we really have fun when we do go out. Our babysitter Amanda (also our daycare owner) and her son Evan came over. Laina and Evan are best of buds and have been together since Laina was 4 months old and Evan 5 months old. They are so cute - they are more like siblings. I can't believe it but we've received our invitation to Ev's 3rd birthday party which means Laina's 3rd birthday is right around the corner *sigh*...

Joe and I went out for a delicious dinner at Joe's Boathouse which is a really nice restaurant in South Portland right on the water. Joe had lobster and I had a wonderful pasta dish with shrimp, roasted veggies, sundried tomatos, calamata olives and feta cheese! After dinner we headed out to see Sex In The City and I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't seen it yet but....it was great!

I hope all the daddy's and daddy's to be out there had a wonderful Father's day too!

Kerplunk!

Laina started jumping in off the side of the pool - yeah! She's been very hesitant. I think it takes a lot of courage to trust that the person who says they will catch you will actually catch you! She now knows that daddy will in fact catch her! Laina is definitely a cautious personality. This will get her far in life!

Here's a little video snippet of the fun.

A few of the SPG Babies

Here's a cute shot of Olivia, Jack & Laina taken at Liv's third birthday party. It's crazy how grown up they all are! They're just little people now, doing their thing, eating dinner...


Contrast that to our first get together after Laina was born in December 2005. Awwww, they're all grown up!

Winding Down For The Summer...

Today was our last "music together" class. Dance class ended last Saturday although I will be signing us up for an abbreviated dance summer session. Things are definitely winding down as everyone moves into summer mode...time for the beach, playground, pool and other fun things. We will definitely be signing up for dance and music again in September.

Laina adored this music class and I think a good part of it had to do with our teacher, Sue. She was just wonderful. We won't see her again until winter because she's pregnant with her 3rd daughter and due in October so she'll be out for a bit. Laina just really took to Sue so quickly. She started calling her "Auntie Sue" which means she equates her to people like Auntie Di and Auntie Renee --- and wow, that is sure saying something!

Here are a few pictures of Laina in class today. Her favorite part of each class is the instrument section where we all get to play different musical instruments. Her most beloved instrument are the little red marraca's so I'm glad I captured her with them on film. There's another shot of her running around the room with some of the other kids in her class. This is the same room that our dance class takes place in so you can see the room we spend quite a bit of time in each week!




After music class we ran an errand and then went to meet Daddy for lunch. Laina has really been missing Daddy this week because he's had to work every night so far this week. This morning when he went to leave for work she said "no...stay home with me daddy". Couldn't that just break your heart! So luckily he was free at lunch time and we decided to meet up for lunch. I had the camera with me from music class and snagged a few adorable shots...this being my favorite. I could just eat her up in this shot! So sweet! And definitely a daddy's girl!

You know you have a Gymboree Addiction when......

I picked Laina up from school yesterday and on the drive home, she asked me if Daddy was home already. I told her probably not and she asked me where he was. I told her that Daddy was working and then after work he was going over to the gym to exercise. So, Laina and I get home and she wants to go for a bike ride so we're pedaling through the neighborhood and she asks me again where Daddy is. I knew she knew the answer since we had just been over this so I said "Laina, you tell me where Daddy is" and she replied to me "Daddy's exercising at Gymboree"!!!!

What A Weekend!!!

Whew...we had a fun, fabulous, action packed (and super duper hot!) weekend here in Maine. Here's the re-cap!

Saturday was Laina's dance recital. Let me just say this...."a star is born"! Laina did a super job! During the rehearsals she only did part of the dance moves but when the real show began, and the curtain went up, let me tell you...she was in the zone! She did all the little moves to her song, "The Body Rock". She was adorable as were all the little girls in her class. I got to stand back stage and off to the side and Joe was out in the audience watching. The recital was at The Merrill Auditorium in Portland which is a big beautiful venue where Joe and I have seen various concerts, musicals, etc. The place was packed! Every seat in the house was filled.

When I signed us up for this cute little "mommy & me" dance class I really had NO idea what a production this whole thing was. We've had class once a week for a number of weeks and then we've had 2 in studio rehearsals, a full dress rehearsal at The Merrill and then the actual performance on Saturday. When we got there, Laina and I went to the dressing area downstairs to get her in her dress and wow...the place was crawling with little girls and boys in adorable little outfits and backstage moms galore....makeup, tights, tutu's, ballet slippers, props, hairspray...just incredible. I felt like I was in the middle of some Broadway production. It was surreal. They had the whole show simulcast in the dressing area so that the kids that were waiting to go on could watch the other performers. I really think Laina had a great time. She loved being in her dress which she calls "her beautiful blue dress". And she was just beaming after the performance.

Here are a few shots of Laina in her dress. We were not allowed to take photos at the show itself but we did purchase the DVD so we'll be able to watch that soon. All in all a very very fun time.





Later Saturday afternoon we decided to surprise Laina with her very first "big girl bike"! She's mastered the tricycle and already seems too tall for it so we went to the local bike shop and purchased her first bike. She LOVES it! She calls it her "purple bike" which she pronounces "paah-pull bike". It took her about 3 minutes to get used to the new angle of pushing the pedals and she was off! Here's a picture of Laina on her bike and also a cute shot of she and Joe on the swingset in the backyard.

Then.....On Sunday afternoon we had friends over for a cookout in the backyard. Joe works with Rick who is also a criminal defense attorney. Rick, his wife Kim and their two children MacKay (age 4) and Gannon (age 11 months) came over in the late afternoon. The girls had a wonderful time playing on the swing set and we pulled out the new sprinkler. MacKay loved the sprinkler...Laina was a bit uncertain about the whole thing, and baby Gannon was just fearless, crawling right into the spray! We had a great cookout dinner complete with potato salad, pasta salad, hot dogs, hamburgers, tossed salad, fruit salad and an ice cream pie for dessert!

Here are a few pictures of the festivities!