Anna Grows

At long last, Mom finally had a free moment to get a haircut. You can imagine the excitement and relief at finally accomplishing this task, only to be greeted at the door by a two year old who takes one look and promptly exclaims "Mommy has silly hair. She needs a haircut." This was followed by hysterical laughter by Dad, who informed Anna she needs to be more diplomatic. Mom is left to assume this is not one of her best haircuts. To add insult to injury, Mom managed to squirt olive oil in her new hair while trying to refile the olive oil bottle. We will see what tomorrow's hair looks like.

Grandma and Grandpa were determine to visit Anna for Christmas and see the new house. Like the postal service, neither rain, wind, nor sleet and snow, or in their case two icestorms and three deer could keep them away. Grandpa decided early on that he would rather drive than risk an airline flight out of Detroit (and possibly a car buried in snow at the airport parking lot upon their return). After this trip, he may think differently. The problems started the week before their planned departure when Grandma and Grandpa hit two deer while on their way home from a shopping trip (probably with gifts for Anna). Fortunately, they were o.k; although the deer did not fair so well. The car was definitely not in good shape (to the tune of several thousand dollars in damage) and was towed. Of course this was the same vehicle they were planning to drive to see Anna. Grandpa decided that they would get a rental car. This task also proved challenging as the recent ice storms had left the rental car...

There is one word to describe Christmas 2008 - WHEW! We managed to pack-up and move to Anna's new house on December 19, followed by unpacking, cleaning the old house, mailing Christmas cards, putting up Christmas decorations, celebrating Christmas, journeying to New York and concluding with a visit from Gramma and Grandpa. The big Christmas present was the move to the new house. Mom located a small moving company and managed to find free professional moving boxes on Craig's list (this involved speeding down to Southern Fairfax county immediately after an ad was posted leaving a sick Dad with a sick daughter - but the boxes were free). After lots of packing, a team of Russian movers showed up at 9 AM in the rain to move our worldly goods. Incidentally, Joe noted that we have acquired many more worldly goods since our college days when everything would fit into the trunk/backseat of an economy car. This time it took a large moving truck two trips. Joe was skeptical of the moving ...

At long last, after countless Sunday's spent going to open houses, Anna at last will be moving into a new house. Mom and Dad were anxiously awaiting this day and wasted no time preparing the house to move in. Today's preparation work involved painting and lots of it. Anna joined Mom and Dad for the painting adventure (and it was truly an adventure for Mom and Dad with a two-year old). Knowing that Anna likes to help with everything, Dad brought along a small paint brush and bucket for Anna to use. She even had her own paint clothes and painting hat. Dad set her up on a bedroom wall, where she helped for most of the morning. She did take a brake to watch a bit of Dora the Explorer as well as a nap, but returned to help in the afternoon with the dining room. As you can see from the photo, Dad gave her some early lessons on painting techniques, including graffiti. Tomorrow Mom and Dad will continue the painting. Anna gets to spend the day with Aunt Gayle (Mom and Dad are VERY gra...

It is Christmas time in the nation's capitol. While Christmas came early for some this year (the banks, the auto industry, the real estate industry....pretty much any other industry looking for handouts), there are still some more traditional holiday sites to see. One of the little known holiday gems in the Washington area is the U.S. Botanical Gardens, located on Capitol Hill. This facility was recently renovated and contains a breathtaking display of holiday flowers and decorations. The highlight of the display is the model train exhibit, which takes up one entire exhibit hall and is contructed using all sorts of flowers and foilage. The result is spectacular to kids of all ages. Anna enjoyed watching the trains and running through the "secret tunnel" in the display. If you are in the Washington area during the holidays, it is worth a visit. For more information, go to http://www.usbg.gov/

The holiday season is upon us beginning with the Thanksgiving feast. Anna and family decided to stay in town this year to host Thanksgiving. Aunt Mary, Uncle Joe, Cousin James, Aunt Loren, Aunt Gayle, Pauletta and Wil were all going to join us for our first attempt at making Thanksgiving dinner. Theresa had a detailed menu and set out with Anna to the supermarket early on Sunday to stock up for the feast. The first problem surfaced about 30 minutes after returning from the grocery store when we learned that Uncle Joe was in the emergency room and would be having heart surgery later in the week. We are happy to report that everything went well. While there is probably some medical term for his ailment, there is talk in the family that the heart problems were brought on by the recent success of the New York Jets this season with the addition of Bret Favre. Uncle Joe has served as a stalwart Jets fan since infancy and is so use to the loosing seasons that it is believed his heart ne...

We celebrated Thanksgiving early with a long weekend in Ohio. Anna was able to spend some quality time with her grandparents as well as hang out with her cousin, Aidyn. Actually, Anna was not that enthusiastic about Aidyn as she was forced to share the spotlight. At one point she decided that if she started crawling like Aidyn, she would get more attention. Since Aidyn only spent one night at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Anna had the rest of the time to herself. As always, there were plenty of activities including coloring, playing with Mom's kid dish set, playing on Grandma's xylophone (that's right....one of Grandma's childhood toys) and Grandpa building a house for her in the living room. Really, how much more entertainment could a kid want? There was also a large Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday with the Kent family where Anna was able to meet some of her extended cousins. She also spent some time with Great-Grandpa. Top it off with an airplane ride and you have on...