Hallucinations from an oven set on broil...

Thanks for meeting us at Busch Gardens, Karin, Maya and Bill. The girls were peas in a pod. Everything was wonderful, except for three things: Busch Gardens makes it hard to get wine!, the weather was wicked, and we didn't get to ride the Griffin! But I really enjoyed Bill's gibberish, the Land of Dragons and the Festhaus in Germany. Amy fell right to sleep last night, but her lack of nap yesterday, is manifesting as a big tantrum right now (9:30P Sunday night).

Pool, positive attitude and parenting

Pictures of Amy in the aquatic environment. She is blowing bubbles, scooping her arms, kicking her legs and holding on to the side of the pool. Never knew what a joy parent/child swim lessons would be. Best half hour ever. She's so happy in the pool.

Okay, I know I shouldn't take these things personally, and I should look for the positive, not dwell on the negative. But this is hard man. I know I'm not as thin as I'd like to be, but pregnant? If I maintain a positive attitude, then I will just attribute her little declaration while patting my tummy that I have a baby in there, to false association with learnings from Miss Patricia. Is she just thinking all mommy tummies have babies in them? Or is she thinking my tummy is as big as Miss Patricia's?

And then there's this repetitive, "go away mommy", that comes at very undesirable times. Like when she's crying for comfort, and I come to be the one to do that, and she says "go away mommy".

Okay, I'll just maintain a positive attitude and assume this is normal vocabulary development...

"Go fast....don't tie the boat....no home......"

Amy is a trip. We took the 15 minute boat ride through the no wake zone to One Fish Two Fish last night. The whole way there she repeated, "Go fast!". Then we got there, and as we were docking, she kept saying, "Don't tie boat". She was an angel at dinner. After dinner we went under the Lesner Bridge and out into big water, so we could appease her desire for speed. She could not wait to leave the no wake zone, repeating "go fast, go fast", the entire ride. Once going fast, she hooped and hollared "wee wee wee". We were all bummed to have a dolphin-sighting-free night, so we vow to go out more until we see them. She did see a huge pelican congregation on the pound poles. After we re-entered the no-wake zone on the way home, she whined, "no home, no home". This chick loves going on the boat.

Superwoman and honeybee

Superwoman is tired. So you get a break from the narrative! Here's Amy in the tub. Isn't she a honeybee?

Emotions and the family reunion

Am I emotionally unstable?

Or is motherhood just expanding the range and intensity of my emotions? I feel like I've gone from having the emotional reaction of a baby piano, to that of a baby grand Steinway.

One example of this was on the four flight legs this weekend, to and from PA. Each time the flight attendant would relay the cursory, FAA-required schpeel about "if the pressure drops in the cabin, the airbags will drop, please put the air supply on yourself before assisting your child...". What I never knew before is that they walk through the cabin getting eye contact with mommies. Just this act, and the thoughts it produced , gave me an intense response. That I am responsible to save my own life, so that I may save Amy's, in the event of a disaster, is awesome. On each of those four legs, this rote, repetitive message, evoked involuntary tears of previously unknown emotion.

Amy, Daddy and I flew into Buffalo, and drove to St. Mary's, PA. We had a grand dinner at St. Mary's best, probably, dinner restaurant. We then went to the hotel for an evening of non-sleep, due to Amy's hyperactive kicking, hitting, talking and other activities in the (on vacation only) family bed.

On Sunday, Amy told everyone she saw, "a two airplanes, sleepy, bumpy". She was treated very nicely by Aiden(sp?), Cliff's 10 year old grandson, who was thrilled to take responsiblity for watching over her and putting her sunscreen on. Alicia knocked me over, with her movie star beauty, and Kate was just and kind and beautiful as I expected her to be. Amy had a blast singing with Aunt Kathy and Aiden on the 3 mile walk, and getting a view from Cliff's shoulders in the 1 mile walk. She participated in her first egg toss event, and we successfully carried off about three rounds of tosses. She ate more junk in one day than she has in our first whole year together, including a late night snack of two chocolate pop tarts.

On Sunday night, we had the same hyperacative non-sleep pattern, so I took the opportunity to get home a day early and work on sleep routines. Amy was an absolute Angel in the airports and airplanes, including a frantic trip from one end of BWI to the other to "fly" to the plane we had to catch, after the door had already been closed. I cried (once again) upon boarding the plane, at the intense relief of not having to wait 5 hours in BWI for the next flight with a 2 and half year old.

Alicia, or Amy, please send pix for me to post! Thanks.