Vacation
Last week's much-needed vacation was a lot of fun, and a great celebration for LittleOne's second birthday.
We kicked off with a pre-vacation visit from my mom celeste42, my sister sarahfim, and brother in law, and on Saturday added Lissa and Grandma and Grandpa Scriba to the mix for a birthday party with food and fun, presents, and cake. She had a blast, and got to go sledding with her aunt and uncle and play with her Nonna and have a *mah*velous time.
Then, mid-vacation week, we headed out to my dad, stepmom, and brother's house in the Boston area for some time away from here and some fun for the kiddo.
Thursday, we spent at the New England Aquarium, which was packed with kids. As soon as we placed her on the floor, she was off and running, and she didn't stop for about an hour and a half. She ran up and down the ramps, laughing and shouting, going from tank to tank. She's look in the tank, press her face against the glass, and name the animal in question--we saw a fish, seahorses, turtles, and seals, as well as penguins, stingrays (also known as Beloved-Entertainer-Killers), and an anaconda. She got to touch a starfish, and tried to kiss a grouper five times her size through the glass. After lunch, she ran around for another hour, and then conked out big time on the ride back to the house.
Friday, we went to an indoor playground, where she joined the other toddlers in annoying the staff member whose job it was to try to keep all the balls in the ball pit. For every one he threw back in, they threw out about ten. Poor guy. He had one arm in a sling, so it was one hand against about fifteen. A loosing battle. But she had a blast. That evening, we went to see some friends from when we lived in the area. Not only was it great to see them--we missed them so much!--but their son is almost exactly in the same developmental place as LittleOne. The two hit it off instantly, and were giggling hysterically within five minutes. A wonderful time had by all.
The highlight of Saturday, unfortunately, was falling down a half flight of Grandpa's stairs onto the stone tile of the basement floor. Not so fun, that. Big fat lip and a bloody nose for my favorite toddler. She was over it in five minutes; I beat myself up about it for hours, of course.
And then Sunday after church and a birthday lunch, Husband, LittleOne and I went back to Cambridge Welcoming Ministries, which was nice. I was not as able to participate this time, as LittleOne was acting up *and* we had to change her diaper four times in the space of two hours. Don't know what that was about. The children's time was great, because it afforded her an opportunity to show off her dance skills, and the sermon, a reflection on "Jesus Christ, Superstar" as an integral part of the Lenten Canon was fun to say the least. We had a shared meal of Indian food after, which was a real treat.
Of course, the best part of going to CWM was exactly what I hoped, a little encouragement for what we're trying to do with LARK. The folks there said that for the first year they met in people's houses, and there were never more than two or three of them on any given week. They also had some good ideas about how to get rolling a little bit, or where to look for participants, such as developing relationships with local campuses and their glbt alliances and such, or asking local congregations to support the eventual startup by having some people pledge to come for six months to build up a critical mass. Of course, our hope is that through the building of small groups (if we still go down that road), we will have our own critical mass, but we'll see what it's like when we get to that point.
Anyway, good times. As always, it's hard to get back into the swing of things here. We got home Monday, and I've been off by a day ever since. I really keep thinking that tomorrow is Wednesday. Not a good thing, because I still have a lot of work to do before Friday.
We kicked off with a pre-vacation visit from my mom celeste42, my sister sarahfim, and brother in law, and on Saturday added Lissa and Grandma and Grandpa Scriba to the mix for a birthday party with food and fun, presents, and cake. She had a blast, and got to go sledding with her aunt and uncle and play with her Nonna and have a *mah*velous time.
Then, mid-vacation week, we headed out to my dad, stepmom, and brother's house in the Boston area for some time away from here and some fun for the kiddo.
Thursday, we spent at the New England Aquarium, which was packed with kids. As soon as we placed her on the floor, she was off and running, and she didn't stop for about an hour and a half. She ran up and down the ramps, laughing and shouting, going from tank to tank. She's look in the tank, press her face against the glass, and name the animal in question--we saw a fish, seahorses, turtles, and seals, as well as penguins, stingrays (also known as Beloved-Entertainer-Killers), and an anaconda. She got to touch a starfish, and tried to kiss a grouper five times her size through the glass. After lunch, she ran around for another hour, and then conked out big time on the ride back to the house.
Friday, we went to an indoor playground, where she joined the other toddlers in annoying the staff member whose job it was to try to keep all the balls in the ball pit. For every one he threw back in, they threw out about ten. Poor guy. He had one arm in a sling, so it was one hand against about fifteen. A loosing battle. But she had a blast. That evening, we went to see some friends from when we lived in the area. Not only was it great to see them--we missed them so much!--but their son is almost exactly in the same developmental place as LittleOne. The two hit it off instantly, and were giggling hysterically within five minutes. A wonderful time had by all.
The highlight of Saturday, unfortunately, was falling down a half flight of Grandpa's stairs onto the stone tile of the basement floor. Not so fun, that. Big fat lip and a bloody nose for my favorite toddler. She was over it in five minutes; I beat myself up about it for hours, of course.
And then Sunday after church and a birthday lunch, Husband, LittleOne and I went back to Cambridge Welcoming Ministries, which was nice. I was not as able to participate this time, as LittleOne was acting up *and* we had to change her diaper four times in the space of two hours. Don't know what that was about. The children's time was great, because it afforded her an opportunity to show off her dance skills, and the sermon, a reflection on "Jesus Christ, Superstar" as an integral part of the Lenten Canon was fun to say the least. We had a shared meal of Indian food after, which was a real treat.
Of course, the best part of going to CWM was exactly what I hoped, a little encouragement for what we're trying to do with LARK. The folks there said that for the first year they met in people's houses, and there were never more than two or three of them on any given week. They also had some good ideas about how to get rolling a little bit, or where to look for participants, such as developing relationships with local campuses and their glbt alliances and such, or asking local congregations to support the eventual startup by having some people pledge to come for six months to build up a critical mass. Of course, our hope is that through the building of small groups (if we still go down that road), we will have our own critical mass, but we'll see what it's like when we get to that point.
Anyway, good times. As always, it's hard to get back into the swing of things here. We got home Monday, and I've been off by a day ever since. I really keep thinking that tomorrow is Wednesday. Not a good thing, because I still have a lot of work to do before Friday.