Memorial Day Weekend

We had a really great family weekend. We reduced social commitments to a minimum, in order to progress on the Princess's behavior while optimizing our sanity. We had a date night and got lots of things done around the house and yard. We ended the lovely weekend with a boat road, and Amy had the best nap all weekend, despite the chop, fumes and wake.

Amy at the gym

Notice there are no princess dresses. At three and a half, Amy has hit the terrible two's. She is testing me at every turn. One of my efforts to establish who is in power, was to pull the dress up box up and out of reach. My plan was to give her one item out of the dress up box for each morning that she was good (i.e. let us get out the door to go to school). I thought I was going for the jugular. It has failed miserably. She has suddenly lost all interest in princess dresses. I even said, yesterday, "Amy do you want to pick one item from your dress up box, that you can have if you are good this morning"? And she said, "no mommy".

Sunday update: Don and I got the unified front theme down, had some unpleasant moments disciplining Amy on Saturday, and found her to be princess charming all day Sunday. Amy and I had our first dip in the ocean today. This time of year is my favorite. Yes, the water is cold: but there are no jellyfish.

Peking Acrobats

Enjoy the last of the photos ever snapped by me at the Sandler Performing Arts Center. This is the second show, in which I have happily snapped away on my love-hate iPhone. I had been so tickled that since its camera has no flash, and since the Sandler sign and announcement said no "flash" photography. Oy vey. We almost got booted. One of the members of the board had to come talk to me during the show. He said, "were you flashing?". I said, no sir. He said, "is it video?". I said, "no sir". Just still, no-flash photos. I'm very sorry if I've misinterpreted something here, but your sign and announcement says no "flash" photography. So I put the phone away, still not sure whether I was a suspect or if I was guilty. At the end, I went up and apologized, and offered to delete my still photos if that were an issue. He said they don't allow any photos and they'll change their sign. I hope you enjoy the photos that nearly caused us to get evicted from the show today!!!!

Oh, and one last thing: Don ran a 5k today in 22:50 (sub 8 minute miles), while pushing Amy in the stroller.

A Heavenly Day for me: Mother's Day

Amy's class project this week was to prepare for Mother's Day lunch. This is the inside of the mother's day card, created in concert by Amy (the color artist and signer) and Miss Carlene, the asker of "why do you love your mommy?".

"Because she takes me to the park". This is straight forward.

"She makes me dinner". Aw, she appreciates that one or two nights a week when I actually cook.

"Mommy work". She knows I have to pull in the money to keep buying her princess dresses.

"She eats breakfast". This one I don't understand at all.

"She gives me night kisses". That is the best one! I frequently have to go to her room to kiss and hug her in the middle of the night so she'll fall back to sleep, but I didn't realize I would hear of her speaking about it! Even if you put that in, make-believe, on all the mommy's cards, Miss Carlene, I'll still enjoy the fantasy. Thanks Miss Carlene!

Uncle Ron and Aunt Chris were in town!

The weather was wonderful. Ron had a great stamp show. Amy loved Chris' face-painting. We had a great dinner on Saturday night, and celebrated Dave's birthday remotely. Kathy's cake was chocolicious. We ate seafood all weekend, spent time in the park and even had a boat ride.