Finally...

...pics from our hiking adventure on Monhegan Island. First, a few notes:

• It was raining and cold the entire time.
• Alex was not so keen on the backpack at first.
• Alex was sleeping in the backpack within fifteen minutes
• The trail maps were vague about difficulty... we were told, "well, you won't need special equipment or anything". True, but just barely... we were climbing rocks over a cliff over the ocean. With a BABY in a BACKPACK.
• I almost broke my face.
• The views were spectacular.
• We hiked for 3-4 hours, then napped and hiked some more. We were exhausted.
• We were wet for three days straight, but warmed our cockels with wine, laughs, and snuggles from Alex.
  

the rain in maine falls mostly...

On Monhegan island the rain has been constant since our arrival. But in spite of that, we are all having a great time. Alex has gotten used to the hiking backpack, robin with her walking sticks, bob with alex's early waking hours, wes with the weight of the backpack and me with the thought that we are on vacation.

We have eaten too much- lobster everyday, scallops, mussels, haddock, and clams. Really seafood is good. I had talked about eating a salad everyday, I have changed that thought to having a beer everyday. So life is good.

In spite of the rain, we hiked for hours today and hopefully have some great pics to upload once our internet speed isn't blocked by the man.

Maine-iacs...

First day of vacation... a short review.

*Alex is up at 4:45... I have been awake worrying about the packing for two hours.

*Play, play, pack.

*Flight to Portland... a challenge with a one year old... less so with ours, but still.

*Bob & Robin pick us up... we try to visit a lighthouse, visit two that are not it, then the original target... fun is had.

*Brewery: closed. Boo. Bakery: open! Yay!

*Dinner at a hole in the wall, local, seafood, dive bar. Beer and food that was swimming this morning... nice.

*Alex is bored... we must leave to take a walk.

*Back to the hotel... drinks at the bar, bath time (thanks Ro), bed time.

Tomorrow... up early to have breakfast and head to Monhegan Island.

More later...

Audi, like a 5000...

Alright folks, we're out of here. Headed to Maine to do some hiking (if the weather holds out) and some relaxing. We hope to post pics and details along the way...

Finished product... for now...

OK... garden is planted... at least for now.


We have a couple different lettuces, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, kale, cucumbers, and zucchini so far. We plan to get some more greens and some beans next week, but are pretty happy with the progress... we'll let you know if it actually produces any produce.

Garden gnom in a pink hat...

Today's progress on the veggie garden...


Hoping to plant tomorrow... stay tuned!

Training skeelz...

We are starting to very cautiously tip-toe in to the arena of potty training. Nothing too serious yet... just alot of, "say ba-bye to the poopoo," and being thrilled with feces and the like. We're on vacation next week so no pushing until after that. We got this new little potty (damn I hate that word... furthermore known as toilet to you, and to her):


..she wasn't a fan of the one that goes on top of the big toilet (who wants to have to balance two feet off the ground and poo?). She seems to dig it... she can sit there while the bath is being drawn or while we are, umm, taking care of business ourselves. All this info to lead in to this revelation of questionable tact:

I have to learn how the other sex wipes. Seems simple, yeah? I already knew about the front to back business. Makes sense. I get the mechanics... but, and forgive my lack of a mind-blog filter here, I seem to leave tiny, stuck on, torn off pieces of TP across the whole grid every time. It's like poopoo confetti.

I either need to practice or skip the TP and use wipes... or just not write about it for the whole world to read.

Garden, Part Deux...

Today we continued work on carving a vegetable garden out of the back corner of our yard... and I think we made some progress. The space started out last weekend looking like this:


And after today's toil, and that exerted last weekend, it looks like this:


You might think that this isn't much progress... but please consider that on top of 20+ wheel barrows full of gravel/stones/dirt that we pulled out, we also removed all of these stones (please note that this is a full size bench and not one of Alex's toys):


So we are whipped and happy. Hopefully we can finish excavating during the week and fill in with topsoil, manure, and compost as well as plant next weekend before we leave for a trip to Maine.

A girl and her balloon...

Alex and I go grocery shopping together most Fridays. She loves this. I currently go almost exclusively to two places... Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. She gets excited as soon as we pull in to the parking lot, but for different reasons. Whole Foods puts out lots of samples... and samples of good healthy stuff. I needn't plan a snack or meal after a trip to Whole Foods. Trader Joe's on the other hand saves the big prize for the very end... the balloon at the checkout.



When she first gets them she isn't content to merely hold the ribbon, but has to hug the balloon with both arms. A firm grip on a little slice of rubber heaven. We generally have approximately 1500 half inflated Trader Joe's balloons in our house at any given time... but it makes her soooooo happy.

Happy Hump Day...

If you don't "work" from home on Wednesdays, go to the farmers market, and hang out with Alex all day... you need to reassess...

Alexandra- the gardener

Ha! Alex loves the out of doors. She is now able to say outside and says it within five minutes of coming in from outside. This weekend we had a chance to do some yard work. Wes and I were shovelling rocks, weeding and digging ditches. Good times. Well during all this, Alex was running around the yard- following Wes with the wheel barrel, climbing on benches and picking up small rocks. She loves rocks and unless you catch her, she will keep them clasped in her hands all day. The picture shows the cute hat that my mother found for her in A2. She amazingly keeps it on her head- I think it is because she equates hats to being outside because of her winter hat. So hopefully we are raising a little gardener- like her mom- like my mom.


My mother's day weekend was quite nice- very busy though. It was lots of time spent with our family. I was happy to see Alex behave so well with everyone. She loved playing with her cousins in Adrian on Sunday morning. In the evening we had my mom and my sister's godmother over for dinner. She was a joy- interactive, inquisitive, smiling and all around pretty happy. I know that no child will come out of childhood unscathed but I just see the joy that Alex has and it is contagious. Hope that she doesn't loose that!!

Daddy Haiku...

Second Mother's Day

even through all this,

the pee, the poo, the screams,

gorgeous strong mommy

New toy...

We got a new toy this week... a Flip Ultra HD digital video camera. We love our funny little videos of Alex so much, and felt the she would be even cuter in high definition. Alex, of course, just wanted the box...

Fresh, local fun...

Today was the first Wednesday farmers market of the season here in Ann Arbor. Alex and I plan to head down there most Wednesday mornings this summer to look around and replenish our coffers with fresh, local goodies.

There wasn't a ton of variety to choose from because it is still pretty early in the season. But we did manage to bring home asparagus, onions, spinach, a cinnamon roll (that didn't make it all the way home), and fresh locally produced goat cheese and mozzarella. We were going to buy some flowers, but decided to wait until Saturday's market so Michele can help pick them out.

Every time we left a stall, whether we conversed with its inhabitants or not, Alex waved and said "Ba-bye"... I think she enjoyed herself.

Bloggin' ain't easy...

We started this blog to keep people informed while we were hiding under the blankets for a few months. It wasn't even our idea... Robin came up with it and even set it up. But it took off and became a joy, a relief, and therapeutic to write things here. Now we realize that it is as much about documenting our lives for ourselves as anything... but hopefully still mildly entertaining, a distraction for our friends and families. While the number of posts that we write per month has stayed pretty consistent (until last months pitiful showing), it seems harder and harder to find things to write, and the time to write them...

Some of this difficulty is due to the slow normalization of our lives. Cancer is gone. Alex is a person. Things feel settled again. It's hard to sit down every day and say, "XYZ is what happened today." XYZ happens everyday for the most part. I worry that I bore the people reading this... assuming there are any left. It feels like things are slowing down.

The other part is that Alex is not slowing down. Alex lives life at a full sprint. She's a hoot, she's fun, she keeps us running and laughing until bed time and then we crash. We used to have a good coincise story every day. We used to have several good, sharable pictures every day... not we have this:



Hundreds of pictures of super cute moments that we almost caught. Tons of stories that we were going to post but never found the time. Moments and trips and giggles that we won't remember some day.

So I am going to recommit to the blog. I will try to update more often. I will try to get the "1 year plus" photo album up. I will try to better document the best days of my life with the best girls in the world.

So if you see us in the real world, outside of this little box, and something cool/cute/"damn I should remember this" happens... tell me to write it down and find some time to share it.