Really Moving Now

Well Shara's offically walking now. First she took a couple of steps, waited a few days, took another few steps and then last night she went from mommy to daddy and back again! Then today she walked at school. When we got home it was like she had been walking for a number of days. She's doing such a great job! What a big girl!

First Haircut!

Shara had her first haircut today at Snipits in the shops at Cobbs Corner. She did a great job, but wasn't too happy about the whole experience. She looked so cute! They put her hair up in ribbons and she got a certificate of bravery with a picture and a few locks of hair.



After we went to the Village Toy Store and Shara had a nice time feeding the ducks the toy bugs.



Then we went to the Plant Depot for ice cream and to visit the turtles, goats and birds.

Pee'd on the floor

Good thing we have so much practice from cleaning up after Scratchy. This time it was Shara who piddled. Finished her bath, Alan took some cute tushie shots, I had out the diaper, and she crawled off the towel, and started reading her book and pee'd. I knew from Scratchy that moving a peeing animal/person is worse than just letting them finish.

More New Words

Mommy and daddy had such a great time with Shara on this vacation week. Shara is a wonderful little girl and a real traveling baby - having a movie playing in the car helps a lot though. She's so outgoing and sweet-natured, and smart! She's also not a baby anymore. Her level of understanding is very high and she gets really frustrated if she's tired and we don't understand what she's trying to say. And she's trying to say a lot! Here's the list, and much of it is based on her inflection and pauses, so it all looks the same in writing, but not when you see and hear her say it:
Brown Bear - bra bra
apple - ap...el
pocketbook - pa...pa
fish - ssshh
tigger - ti
hot on pop - hop
pop - pop

She also has a new thing of squinching up her nose and mouth when she's smelling something. It's really cute - she smells her socks and makes the face. We tried to get a picture of it, but I haven't uploaded to see if we did or not.

Today we're going to get her first haircut. Oma was worried that they'd cut off all her curls. We just want to get the front trimmed a little, since it gets in her eyes. I also mentioned to Shara's daddy that if Oma saw how Shara grabs her hair after eating her new favorite - penne w/ tomato sauce - she's actually want to get her head shaved!

Visit with Bubbe & Papa

We took a trip to Hadley, MA for a lunch & shopping date with Bubbe & papa and had a great time. We had lunch at Chili's and went to Trader Joes. Shara had fun walking up and down the frozen food aisle and saying hi to everyone and blowing kisses. She really is such a cutie-pie.

Bubbe's nose

Pictures from Long Island

Pictures from Long Island

LI - Day 4 - The Trip Home

The trip home went really well. We found the best little deli on the way off the island. We got bagels and a sandwich for lunch. They had an omelet bar, and an oatmeal bar. When we were leaving, they were putting out the lunch entrees and everything looked really good. It was also right next to a Starbucks, so we just walked over for our coffee drinks, and back in the car and we were off. Shara had her first New York bagel and ate almost an entire 1/2.

Alan drove the whole way while I handed toys back to Shara. She slep for much of CT, but as soon as she woke up it seemed she was ready to hear Aladden again. We stopped at a park in RI for lunch. It was really cute. Near Burlingame State Park and it had a little lake and playground. Shara went on a swing for the first time and loved it. It was the bucket seat type. She also went down the slide but didn't love it too much. We layed out our beach blanket and had our sandwiches while Shara had her usual smorgasbord for a meal. This time it was deli turkey, a couple crackers w/ hummus - which she didn't like too much today, some broccoli, and she showed us how she eats her banana like a big girl - holding it with the peel over her hand and taking bites of the banana, not the peel because that's yucky, or so we tried to tell her.

We got home at a reasonable time and Shara was ready to eat again, so I just kept throwing food at her and she kept eating it. She tried a couple bites of Antie Chris' stuffed grape leaves and liked them a lot. We played and played and Shara got really tired so she went to sleep after screaming for only a couple of minutes, in her own crib. As always, it's good to go on vacation but nice to come home.

LI - Day 3 - The day in the Hamptons & the Visit w/ Old Friends

We had breakfast in the room - we ate bars and Shara had a nice mix of banana muffins, gold fish, crackers, and applesauce. We then took the trip to Southampton and walked around the town. We had a great time. We fed Shara yogurt, crackers & goldfish from a park bench in a little courtyard by some shops and enjoyed looking at the people. I'm glad we didn't go on the weekend. There were plenty of people there on a Tuesday. When we left, neither of us were hungry, but as soon as we got in the car and out of town, Alan got hungry. We tried to find a restaurant the other night and Nora didn't have the correct address, so I had gotten the correct one and we tried again. Before we got to it, we stopped at the cutest farmstand. They had bunnies, goats, and horses. The goats got to climb up to the top of a windmill. I missed it because I was getting a wonderful mixed berry pie - still warm, and a little watermelon, which turned out to be yellow inside. Shara and Alan had fun looking at the animals. We'll be sure to go back next year - they also have a corn maze. Well, I found out how to get to the restaurant, and we were in a bit of a rush because we were supposed to be at Pat & Faith's at 2 pm and if we skipped the restaurant we would get there in time. We tried to find it but weren't successful, so skipped it and hit the road to the Rotolo's, with a quick stop at a Taco Bell. This was basically the first fast-food I had eaten in 2 years, so I tried to get something nutritious. I got a bean burrito for Shara and the spicy chicken bowl for me. Shara wanted to try what I was having, so I gave her some and she really liked it. It was good, and probably not too bad since I skipped the dressing it came with. We didn't bother with the burrito for Shara.

We got to Pat & Faith's and couldn't believe how big Nina was. We hadn't seen her in 2 years, so she's already over 4 years old. Sophia is about 7 months and very cute. It was really hard to spend much time with her because Nina's at the age when she's the center of all things. She was really cute and had a great time with Shara. It was really good for Shara to have another child to play with, especially someone that much older than her. I got a feeling of what it would be like to have an older sister. Nina was so funny - she had the hoola hoop on the ground and we were sitting around it and it was the campfire. Shara kept lifting it up and Nina would say, "No Shara, that's the fire!". They also spent a lot of time with Nina's Princess phones. Nina was pretending to be talking to her on the phone and Shara was happy to have the attention. It was cool to see how they played - Shara is still in the parallel play stage and Nina's all about pretending and using her imagination.

It actually worked well because Shara was another "toy" Nina could play with. It was also great to see Faith & Pat in their own home and with the kids. Pat made a very good eggplant parm. We had salad and a very good bruschetta with an artichoke topping that I have to remember to look for at the market. They also got a very yummy oreo cookie cake and we had the pie from the farmstand, which was really excellent.

I didn't feel a longing for the past - the irresponsibility and freedom to go out and party all the time, but would like to be closer to them so our friendship could continue easier. Especially since we're all in the same place in our lives. That's always the part which I find disappointing. We didn't have too much time to really talk but it was so nice to get the kids together and just hang out. Maybe this will turn into a yearly tradition as well. We'll just make it part of our annual trip to the beach.

LI - Day 2 - The Beach & Shopping

Today started about the same as the day before, but when we got closer to the beach, we realized it wasn't going to be a hot, sunny day. In fact, it didn't get up higher than 73. That didn't stop us! We decided to go check things out anyway. There wouldn't be any crowds and we wouldn't be sweating at all. We also needed to get a picture of Gnome at the beach, so we went. Shara had another fun trek down to the beach and liked seeing the big waves.

Alan got a couple of pictures of Gnome and Shara played for a couple minutes before pooping and then quickly losing interest in the beach. Apparently much of the appeal was the other people, the sun, and the warmth. Alan & I could have stayed a lot longer, just relaxing, watching the waves, but Shara was happy to leave. It turned out to be a good idea since it started to mist heavily on the walk back to the car.

We didn't have a good idea what else we could do, so we decided to check out Huntington on the North side of the island. The article in the little vacation guide from the hotel room made it sound interesting, and I had always wondered what it was like, so we punched in an address and away we went. It was a cute town and at first glance, reminded me of Carmel, CA. There was a map posted around the town called the Restaurant Map of Huntington. Every other business was a restaurant, and we didn't manage to eat in any of them! The timing was off, and there really wasn't any place that seemed too family-friendly. We walked around, Shara in the stroller, and had a nice time checking things out. When we got back to the car we searched for a restaurant which would me more appropriate and opted for a diner. This was an interesting experience. The waitress was just over the line of personal space. She was very helpful keeping Shara occupied, and gave her crackers and obviously liked her very much. What bothered me was her questioning what we were feeding her - surprised that she ate all the same things we did and worried about her being able to chew what we gave her, and hovering the whole meal - we were trying to eat and I'm sure she was trying to be nice and helpful, but it got a little annoying. Shara had a little of what we had - some grilled chicken and french fries. I ordered carrots for her and she wouldn't touch them. I thought they were really good. We (I) stopped at Carvel for dessert.

Shara went to sleep much better this night. We hid in the bathroom until she fell asleep, after I basically nursed her to sleep. We then quietly read some Harry Potter.

LI - Day 1 - The Beach

We woke, got dressed and went to the buffet at the hotel. Shara really liked the eggs, home fries and french toast. Shara was asleep in the car after just a few minutes, so Alan took his time in the market, picking up a few odds & ends for the beach. We got there about 11 am and it was really crowded. We park at the far end of field 5, closest to the Lighthouse and by the time we got there, we had to park almost 1/2 way down the lot. The beach is great, since they have a well kept boardwalk all the way to the beach and we don't have to trek through lots of sand to get to a good spot. We got to our spot, me wearing Shara down to the beach, and Alan set up camp while Shara & I basically watched. After two minutes I came to the conclusion that controlling the sand would be impossible - it gets everywhere and eventually it will come off. I didn't know that at the time, but I couldn't imagine we'd have sand on us by the time we got back to Easton.



So we didn't have Shara eat anything she'd have to put her hands on, since she didn't appear to like the taste/feel of sand in her mouth. She didn't hate it as much as I would have, seeing as she kept putting her hands to her mouth and eyes. She had so much fun playing with the sand. She was concentrating so hard on scooping it with her shovel and putting it into the pail. It kept her occupied for two hours. My occupation was with worrying about how much sun screen she had on. At least she didn't fight me with wearing her hat. She didn't fight us about anything. It was really great. A wonderful first trip to the beach. The only thing that cut it short for us was the tide came in much earlier than it was supposed to. We heard that it was due to a hurricane and came in closer to 1 pm, rather than 3 pm. So we were actually chased out. Had we stayed any longer, we would have had to go onto the dunes.

That evening we went toward Southampton and found (with a little bit of Nora the navigation system's help) a nice little Italian restaurant. It was early, so they put us in a room by ourselves, and we didn't have to worry about Shara acting her age. I got the fried seafood platter (fish, calamari, shrimp, stuffed clams, & french fries) and a salad. Alan had eggplant & chicken parmesan w/ penne & a salad. He got the mild sauce and Shara had about 8 penne, 1/4 cup of the parm, a little of the fish, and 5 or 6 fries. All that and 2 small slices of bread to keep her occupied while we had salad. We went across the street for ice cream and I got so caught up with the melting ice cream all over the place, I forgot to ask Shara if she wanted any.

Bedtime was interesting. We had to give in and let Shara sleep with us. It's a little harder to let her cry in a hotel room with others living so close. We were glad we had the king size bed because she spun in circles throughout the night.

LI - Day 0 - Travel Day

We left Easton at around 10 am and got to the hotel in Long Island at about 6 pm. Shara slept for the first hour and a half. We made our first stop in CT for bathroom break, diaper change and yogurt & crackers. There was a nice little picnic area with people having lunch & dogs, so Shara was well entertained while Alan & I fed her, using Alan as the high chair. Back in the car and the next stop is for lunch at a diner in CT. I can't remember where, but it was a typical diner and Alan had a bacon cheeseburger & fries, I had a turkey melt and fries and Shara had fries & some of my turkey and a bite of Alan's burger. Throughout the day I'm telling myself that she had her vitamins and a good egg breakfast. This is similar to what I'll tell myself throughout the rest of the vacation. Things started to get more challenging as we got stuck in traffic on I95. Shara was great, but toys fell and naps weren't really taken. We introduced her to Disney's Aladden, with Alan being the responsible parent to sit with her and monitor if something was scarry. She seemed to just turn her head when it got to be more than she wanted to see. We made one more stop to go to the bathroom and do another diaper change before we got to NY. We also wanted to let Shara walk around a little. She is so good at getting smiles from people and attracting attention. It's really funny and nice to see how much happiness she can give to people, not just her family. I switched with Alan and fed and entertained Shara until we got to the hotel. She was great until about 20 minutes left to go. She was tired and had had enough. She got herself to sleep just before getting to the hotel. We did the usual checkin and got the luggage to the room (Alan) and gave Shara a bit more to eat. Since she wouldn't go to bed, probably because she sat in a car all day, we took her walker and she walked up and down the halls until she got tired out, around 8 pm. We then tried to get her to sleep and could only do so by going to bed ourselves.

New Pictures mostly from July

July Pictures

Walking into School and Other Fun Things

Bad mommy - haven't updated Shara's blog in well over a week. Things happen rather quickly so here's the run down.

Shara has a new car! She's now the proud passenger of a 2005 Honda Odyssey - just recalled yesterday for a problem with the air bags. We'll be getting that fixed soon. It'll be very nice for our trip to Long Island next weekend.

We've also been walking into and out of school, rather than being carried like a baby. We're a big girl now. As long as Shara has a hand to hold, she's fairly steady. She also stands for many seconds at a time unsupported.

Shara is expanding her diet. She had fish for the first time last night and really liked it. I put a flavorful rub on a mild fish - haddock, so she wouldn't be overwhelmed with the fishy flavor. She also tried avocados (guacamole) again and seems to like them.

The August 3rd doctors appointment went very well. Her iron is up and she gained well over a pound in the six weeks she last got weighed. We're keeping the vitamins going just as a cushion, plus they have floride.

I'm trying to talk her daddy into going to the Newport Folk Festival this Saturday, so maybe we'll be able to update with something exciting before we come back from Long Island.