Anna Grows

What a difference 6 inches can make! Last week Anna informed her mom that she needed a stepstool so that she could go to the bathroom by herself (something she does at Ms. Be's place). Mom thought this was a great idea and at last found the perfect stepstool for Anna, complete with a handle. What mom failed to consider is all the other uses for the stool besides simply using the bathroom. Anna is extremely excited about the stepstool. Last night she used it to get into bed. This morning when she woke up, instead of carrying her kitty pillow to Mom & Dad's room, she brought her stepstool and proceeded to use it to climb into Mom & Dad's bed. She then took the stepstool downstairs, where she used it to stand in front of the television. She decided she was hungry and used the stepstool to get cereal out of the cupboard. Dad got her to part with the stepstool for the day, but she returned home to resume all of the activites that she needed that other 6 inches for, inclu...

Aunt Loren was on a whirlwind spring break tour that took her to Massachusetts, Williamsburg, and finally a stop in Northern Virginia to visit Anna and Anna's new house. Aunt Loren was spring breaking on Amtrak, which proved to be a bit more of a challenge from Williamsburg to Washington, DC with limited train service. Unfortunately, she missed the first train after getting stuck in Virginia Beach traffic. She made it to the station just in time to see the train pulling away from the station. Given the stricter security requirements, Aunt Loren decided it would not be wise to run afte r the train and opted to wait for the next train on Saturday. When she arrived in Northern Virginia, she was greeted by 75 degree weather and flowering trees all over the area. Anna took Aunt Loren to the farm park and spent some quality time blowing bubbles. Aunt Loren read books to Anna and taught her how to put on make-up. Aunt Loren had much better luck with catching the train back to New York. T...

The Easter Bunny stopped in Ohio this year. Anna spent a long Easter weekend celebrating with Grandma and Grandpa. As always, Grandma and Grandpa provided non-stop entertainment, complete with easter egg coloring, games, puzzles, more games, etc.... In short, Anna was the center of attention, which is her idea of a great vacation. Part of the fun is the plane ride to Ohio, which Anna really enjoys. This was her first plane ride with her own seat (Mom and Dad decided it had become too difficult to pass her off as a 23 month old, particularly after she informed the stewardess that she was "two years old"). The most exciting part of the plane ride this time was going to the bathroom at 25,000 feet. Mom was the lucky one that got to take Anna on this adventure (imagine trying to squeeze into a 3 foot closet with a two year old while holding your nose, diseinfecting w hat you can all while trying to balance through turbulence). Anna enjoyed it so much that she wanted to go back t...

There is something special about living in the Washington, D.C. area. Most of the time it is the history, both past and present, that make it awe-inspiring. There is one time of year that is truly spectacular in Washington and that is the spring when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. Some of you are probably saying, "gee, what is the big deal about a bunch of flowers on trees?" It really is something that you must see to appreciate, and it is hard not to (unless you suffer from allergies, in which case Washington/Northern Virginia is the worst place to be in the spring). There is much more to the cherry blossom experience than just seeing the beauty of the flowering trees surrounding the Jefferson Memorial, FDR Memorial and Washington monument. There is the experience of being packed into a crowd of tourists from all over the world who descend upon the city to see the trees. There is the attempt to get parking amid all of the tourists and their buses. There is the attempt...