Anna Grows

After studying the newly painted family room for the past month with three yellow walls and one blue wall, Mom and Dad decided that it wasn't quite right. They also realized that perhaps they needed some outside assistance, so they called in the person they knew would be the most excited about decorating: Aunt Mary. Aunt Mary may be a renowned cardiac nurse and researcher by day, but she moonlights as a decorator (just ask Uncle Joe). Unfortunately Aunt Mary lives in New York, so all consultations were conducted via phone and e-mail. The end result was a lovely green and blue room with curtains that pull the whole things together ( Mom & Dad would never have picked this on their own and the end result is great). Aunt Mary says the chair needs to go, so that will be the next project. Saturday was a rainy day - perfect for a third round of painting. Mom and Dad headed to the paint store again and are practically on a first name basis with all of the employees. Anna enjoys lookin...

Today would have been Bailey Book Pharis' first birthday. While we remember her and her parents, Pauletta & Wil, we also are reminded of how fragile life is. Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words. The resulting story, which he considered his best work, is also a reminder of Bailey. "For sale: baby shoes, never used."

It was a lovely spring Sunday, so mom and dad decided to take a break from house projects (and mom needed a break from being sick) to visit Frying Pan Farm Park. Who knew that Fairfax County Virginia had a working farm park, complete with farm animals, tractor rides, playgrounds, and lots of horses? Anna enjoyed watching the sheep, cows, chickens, goats and especially the baby pigs. She kept looking for the elephants and lions, which Mom and Dad explained were not traditional farm animals. Everyone enjoyed a ride around the farm in a wagon and watching the equestrian events. The trip concluded with some quality time at the playground and a hotdog. What a great day! Mom thought this was such a great idea that maybe they should have a park l ike this in Ohio. Dad reminded mom that a farm park was not such a unique idea in Ohio given the fact that there are farms everywhere (good point). Northern Virginia kids rarely encounter farm animals on a daily basis. For more information on the par...

The next item on the home improvement agenda is renovation of the master bathroom. As much as the 1968 white tile and formica couter top is appealing to some, mom and dad had other ideas. Since the bathroom was in need of some major repairs, it was decided to do a total renovation. Ken the contractor started on Monday and by Friday the original bathroom was gone. Tearing out a 1968 bathroom that was solidly installed is no easy task, as evidenced by the need to bring in a jackhammer to remove the tile from the floor. Mom is quite familiar with the jackhammer as she was home sick on the couch when this part of the job took place. When Anna saw results, she exclaimed, "the bathroom is broken. Daddy needs to fix it." Hopefully the bathroom will be complete in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned for more photos.

Today Anna got to do one of her favorite things - play with her friend Aidan. Anna is particularly fond of Aidan's toys, particularly his tricycle. Aidan has a fleet of vehicles that include a red car and a tractor, so he was willing to share his tricycle with Anna. Anna needs to work on being a bit more subtle about her interest in the tricycle (as soon as she walked in the his house, she made a dash for the tricycle and declared that she wanted to ride it). In addition to joy-riding around the neighborhood, she and Aidyn shot some hoops and went out for lunch, where Aidan proceeded to impress Anna with his ability to throw food and shred napkins (Mom explained to Anna on the way home that bo ys typicially do this well into adulthood - just look at Uncle Rod). As a parting gift, Aidan and his Mom let Anna take the tricycle home. Anna is in charge of breaking it in for Aidan this year until he can reach the pedals next year. After collapsing for a long nap upon the return home, Ann...

After 2 1/2 years of mild Virginia winters, Anna finally got to experience her first real snow - all 6 inches of it. There are the basic kid things that everyone experiences with snow - sledding, snow angels, being stuffed into snowsuits, etc.... Then there are things that a kid in the greater Washington area experiences. For those of you who do not live in the Washington DC area, anything over 2 inches of snow is the equivalent of a terrorist attack. Everything shuts down and no one comes out until weather forecasters and other TV personalities assure them that it is in fact safe. Mom got a two hour delay for work (that's right - the government actually could not function on time because of the snow). Mom was able to use her Ohio snow skills and put Anna in the car for a ride to Ms. Be's so that she could go to work. As it turns out, Mom was one of only five people that made it in the office today (that's right - 97% of the staff did not show up because of 6 inches of snow...