When Mommy's Away, Daddy Will Play (and dress Laina in Steelers gear)

Daddy and Laina were solo for the weekend while I was in New York City. Check it out. She's decked out in her Steelers gear dancing to polka music, yes, polka music. I love the headband and Daddy did well with ponytails after a crash course. They seemed to have a fun time!

It's Days Like This...

...that make it all worthwhile, and then some.

I got Laina a shirt from my NYC trip and this morning I put it on her. She asked me what it said and I read it to her and I told her that Mommy got in in New York City because I thought she would like it. She looked at me and said so sweetly... "thank you mommy....you're the best mommy ever". I gave her a big hug, told her she was so adorable and let her know she was the best daughter ever. Then she hugged me and said so simply, "us love each other". Oh she's just squishable!

And We're Back!

Well we did it! Dianne and I spent the weekend in New York City and participated in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. This walk was NYC's biggest walk yet. There were 4,500 participants and 450 of them were breast cancer survivors. Dianne and I raised almost $4,000 together and the NYC walked raised an amazing $11.5 million!!! We are also proud to report that we walked 13 miles over the course of the two days, slept in a tent and got very wet during some heavy downpours! We had a great time and we've already signed up for the Boston Avon walk in May 2009. Thank you to everyone who supported our efforts. We couldn't have done it without you! If you'd like to donate to our Boston walk, please click the link for Sandy's Boston Avon Walk on the left hand side of this page.

Here's a picture of Dianne and I happy to be at the finish line:

Avon Walk For Breast Cancer!

for 2 days, we walk as 1

Well, it's here! I head to Rhode Island today and then tomorrow we drive to New York City. The walk begins early Saturday morning! I can't believe its here! I approached Di about doing this walk in January and back then October seemed SO far away!

My bags are all packed...sleeping bag, camping pad, etc. We're limited to 30lbs of gear and I've discovered that 30 lbs is actually a generous amount of space! Last time I weighed my bag I was at about 23 lbs with just a few final things to add.

Laina understands that I'm going to New York City with Auntie Di to do a big walk. She will be home with Daddy for the long weekend. She was very cute last night. Her hair was in her face so she asked me to put it in a ponytail. Then she said..."and daddy will do my ponytail on Monday". Daddy hasn't done pony's yet...but they'll figure it all out. I dropped her off at school this morning and she gave me a big hug and a kiss. It's hard to be away from her!

So, wish us luck! We've each raised over $1900, we'll be sleeping in a tent and we're going to walk for as many of the 26.2 miles as we can without hurting ourselves! I'll post an update when I get back. Thanks to everyone who sponsored me and has sent along words of encouragement. The support will take me far this weekend!

Happy Fall!

It's that time of year....Fall! It's our favorite season in the Northeast....mild days, cool nights, changing leaves, Laina's birthday, Joe's birthday, our wedding anniversary, pumpkin patches, apple picking, Halloween...what's not to love. Here are a couple of cute pictures of Laina taken today....she's wearing her new Halloween clothes. You can also see our new couch in the background of the pictures. We are SO excited to have a new couch!





In other news, Hurricane Kyle is bearing down on Maine. So strange to have hurricane warnings on the television...this isn't Florida! The storm path isn't right over us, but it's making for a wet soggy weekend. Oh well, we're chilling out indoors with a new yummy recipe cooking in the crockpot.

A Cousin Jam Session

Laina's cousin Ryan spent the weekend for Laina's party and he brought his guitar. Ryan is a great musician and what do we know about Laina???....she likes music. Well, there you have a match made in heaven. Here's a cute video of Ryan playing his guitar and Laina dancing to the music. Check out Grampy enjoying the show in the background

First Trip To The Dentist

Today was Laina's first trip to the dentist. I had a cleaning today so she came with me for a visit to learn what the dentist is all about. Next month we are scheduled for her to have an official cleaning. For today she got to ride in the dentist chair, have her teeth counted and get a new toothbrush and sticker. It went very well and we'll be back next month for the real thing! She was very cute and very curious about the whole thing...watching everything the hygienist did to me before she got in the chair herself.