Turkey Day

Thanksgiving morning all of the snow was melting and Lucelia woke up grumpy. We sat down to breakfast and I asked her for what she was thankful. She snapped back, "Nothing!"
Calmly, I replied, "Well I'm thankful for..."
"I don't want to hear it!" she stopped me, with her hand up.
Jesse, overhearing the conversation from across the room, could hardly keep his breakfast from spraying the room as he laughed.

Catherine and Johnny hosted the West Siders of our family for Thanksgiving this year. Lucelia was very excited as she had been learning about the first Thanksgiving for weeks in preschool. She thought we had to go hunt a turkey for our feast. I assured her that Johnny and Catherine would buy one from the store. In the car ride up to Shoreline, Lucelia declared her intention to eat "lots and lots!" of turkey. She lived up to her prediction by eating exclusively turkey.*

The kids followed dinner with their usual dance party in the living room. Rohan turned on ABBA for everyone's dancing enjoyment and proceeded to shake his booty!





*Lucelia ate sugar cookies until the turkey was ready and then again for dessert, but other than that she only had turkey.

Snow Days

On Monday about four inches of snow fell here in Seattle. The whole city shut down for two days and we had a great time trying out the boots, hats, and coats we had barely used last year. Lucelia was thrilled with the snow, but Rohan was not so sure it was worth all of the restrictive layers. Lucelia made beautiful snow angels and Rohan... watched.

Ding Dong Merrily on High

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Lucelia began choir practice for the children's Christmas Choir at St. Therese a few weeks ago.  She loves it and is now excited to go to Mass each Sunday so she can sing with Kent Stevenson, the director.  Rohan is learning the songs as well since we practice while driving around each day.  The choir will perform at Pacific Place on December 4th and at the Christmas Eve evening Mass.  

A Game of Catch Up

It's been a loooong time since I posted on our blog.  So, here is what has happened since our summer trip to The Cape...

As soon as we returned to Seattle, Lucelia began summer camp at Sunnyside Montessori.  The first week they studied and learned about bugs.  They focused on the Madagascar Hissing Beetle, the Best Beetle, bees, and ended the week by releasing 100 ladybugs.  The second week the children did drama.  They acted out books they read.  Lucelia's favorites were "If You Give A Pig A Pancake" and "The Five Fiends."  We were very relieved when the director of the preschool emailed there was an open spot and Lucelia was welcome to come in the Fall.  And so, Lucelia was set to begin her school career...

Meanwhile, Rohan and I would hang out every afternoon while Lucelia was at camp.  Often he would take a nap while I went to work.  Our friends Joe, Carla, Josephine, and Sophia Orlando are spending the school year in Florence with the Gonzaga program.  Joe and Carla are serving as campus ministers.  Since Carla was leaving, the position at St. Therese for directing the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd opened up and I was happy to accept the spot.  So, Rohan and I would go into the Atrium and spend the afternoon cleaning and organizing for the new school year.  When Lucelia was finished with summer camp she would join us. 

On August 7th, Jesse's uncle, Bigga D passed away.  (Photo:  2008  Dave is in the white shirt.)  We are all so sad and know we will miss him.  He was a gentle and loving man who leaves a deep hole in the Connor family gatherings.  Jesse traveled back to Truro for a memorial and Lucelia, Rohan, Fred and I headed to the Farm. 

Down on the farm we helped prepare for Family Farm Fun Weekend and enjoyed playing with the old school Fisher Price toys with the cousins, chasing tennis balls, and sitting on the deck sipping beers, respectively.  Course, there was a bit of overlap there as, one hot afternoon, the kids ended up giving Fred a drink from the keg.

September came and Lucelia began school.  She LOVES Sunnyside and has learned all sorts of new things from the sounds of letters, to stories of Pilgrims, to how to tell other children she does not like how they are treating her, to the names of different countries, to how many days there are in a year, to how to make a heart shaped clay dish, and probably loads of other things she cannot remember to tell us about.

In October our Atrium year began.  The beginning had its bumps and challenges, but we are running smoothly now.  Rohan had his 18 month Well Visit at the beginning of the month.  His head is no longer in the 120th percentile, but it is still over the 100th.  He is in the 50th for weight and 95th or so for height.  Each day he is learning more words and entertaining us with his dancing.  We still look forward to when he will add "yes" to his vocabulary.

For Halloween I took on the challenge of sewing Lucelia a Princess dress costume.  It took about four weeks of working sporadically, but I was able to finish in time for us to walk out the door to head to preschool with it on my arm for Lucelia to wear during circle time on the 29th.  Whew. 

The post Trick-or-Treating feast.  Please note, the beer was not theirs.

Thus far in the month of November we have been enjoying (read "suffering through") the rain, reading lots of books (I think Lucelia and Rohan bring me around 100 to read each day) and trying new recipes.  Above is my first attempt at multi-grain bread.  It was a hit!

So, that's a general overview of what we have been up to the last few months!

H H H

This morning we woke up on Cape Cod, at Jesse's folks house to an H H H day.  I guessed the humid and hot but had to ask what the third H abbreviated.  Hazy.  Well, turns out it's not hazy yet, but it's supposed to get up to 90 today with a 100% chance of humidity.  It's tough to move even my fingers. 
I remember this stifling heat from my grad school days in Boston.  We have nothing like this on the west coast, thankfully, but we also have nothing like this:

Here's Lucelia jumping in the waves at Corn Hill Beach with Aunt Chris and Judoo.

Frank, Lucy, Jack, and Nicholas catching some waves.

Rohan playing in the sand with Big Joe behind him.

We have spent most every afternoon at the beach, splashing in the water with Judoo, Grandpa Sunshine, the McCabes, the Dutras, and the Faulkenbergs.  It's a tough life here, worrying about which swimsuit to wear and which beach on which to sit.  We'll be here for 17 days this summer, longer than we've ever been able to stay. 

Fred

Here's our Schmed-bird, or Fredward, or Fred the Amazing Dog, to give his full name.  We adopted him through petfinder.com for my 30th birthday and, while he has certainly been a handful, we have loved him ever since.  He has always lived up to his half Springer Spaniel side but had finally begun to settle down this past year or so.  Unfortunately, this past Friday I realized I had not filled his food dish in a few days, and when I asked Jesse, he realized he hadn't either.  There it sat, full.  Jesse and Fred spent the weekend going back and forth to the vet's office with no real conclusions.  On Monday morning Fred still was not eating, so I brought him back in.  Finally, yesterday morning we had the diagnosis: Addison's Disease.  He has now had two doses of the quite expensive medication and he is a whole new dog.  Fred is much more calm, though I do not think he has fully recovered.  It will take a few weeks of analysis to determine the right amount of medication for him.  We are happy to have our Fred eating again and running after tennis balls.

Putting Down Roots

Here is a photo of my latest effort in landscaping our yard. One of the selling points of our home was the large yard with southern exposure, however, the previous owners had a number of exotic plants and few trees in the yard. Over the past few years we have removed the high maintenance plants and worked to create some shade and interest. This morning I went to the Kubota Garden plant sale and purchased two Katsura trees. Katsuras have heart shaped leaves and turn a beautiful reddish-orange in the Fall. They are sometimes called the Caramel Tree because they have a very sweet smell when their leaves turn. Last year at the sales I purchased three other trees. Bit by bit we are making progress!

There is something elating and satisfying in planting a tree or two. We love watching the birds and bugs that make use of them, and enjoy the dimension and movement they bring to our yard. In the past few years we have seen five large trees cut down in our neighborhood. Some were not healthy, but a few were just a nuisance to the homeowners. It is a little sad to see a hundred foot cedar, home to so much life, chopped up. I like to think of the life our trees will have over the years. Obviously they clean the air and host critters and creatures, but I like to think of all the people who will enjoy their shade, the children who will climb their branches, the swings that may hang from them, and the spots of color they will add to the world.

...and we're back!

After months and months of fried motherboards and Internet issues, I am back to my blog! Using my cell phone for Internet access got old fast! So, here we are a year later.



Lucelia is three and working on the epic task of potty training and sleeping in her own bed. She also began soccer at the community center last week. She spent the first practice screaming. Yesterday was her second attempt. She actually participated with my help drawing her in. After about twenty minutes, though, she decided she had enough, put her ball back in the bag and sat down. While I would like to think she opened up and participated due to her own growth and maturity, I am sure the promise of an ice cream contributed to her more willing spirit.



Rohan is over a year now. They grow so fast! I gave him a haircut recently and he looks so much like a little boy! I hated it at first, but now it's growing on me. Rohan loves cruising, growling, wrestling, banging things, and making messes- in general, a strikingly different child from his big sister.

Every day is more fun than the one before.