The Reception

I thought we would have had more time, more of a break between the ceremony and the reception, but by the time we left and drove over to the hall there were already people mingling in the gardens with champagne, drinks, and finger foods. Holly didn't get a chance to nap on the way over, but she was excited to join the party once we arrived.The food was amazing. I can't believe that the food in the garden wasn't the main event. There were carving stations, fruit, cheese, bread, and cheese platters, hors d'oeuvres, and even hot finger foods.Holly enjoyed all of the food. She had strawberries, watermelon, bread, and lots of cheese. We even got her some orange juice to drink. But she didn't really want to be contained at the table for very long, so soon she was off and exploring.The grounds are beautiful and Holly was eager to toddler around through the tables, and over the bridge and through the river. It wouldn't be an event with Holly if she didn't want to go go go!This of course for Holly was the pinnacle of the event. She was simply obsessed with this fountain. Water, at any cost was all she could think about. She started to stalk the fountain trying to find a way in through the flowers. She really wanted to play with the water, it was sort of amusing to a point, when she would get upset every time we left the fountain, or when she would run across the entire garden weaving in and out of the guests and tables back to the fountain.Eventually I had to take Holly inside and distract her. The bridal party was inside making sure everything was set up and taking pictures. In the main hall the three little flower girls were dancing. It was so adorable.They were playing ring around the rosie and Holly would run up to them and try to chase them and then when they fell she would squat down and sit with them. She loved playing with the older kids.Here is my Dad comforting Holly who is upset to be taken away from the fountain yet again, this time on our way to join everyone in the hall and begin the dinner.

The first course was an Anti Pasta with some yummy Mozzarella cheese. Holly snacked a little bit but then got cranky. A bottle and song later she was fast asleep in the stroller next to my table.I was sitting with Dara and Pam and there Husbands. Pam is not in her residency to become a Doctor and Dara is working on finishing her licences to become a teacher. It was sort of surreal seeing and talking with everyone. Although I had seen Dara somewhat recently and met Jon before, I hadn't seen Pam since she was about seven.Which is kind of amazing, as now she is all grown up and married to a lawyer, Mike. Her husband was very friendly and I had a great time talking to all four of them. I knew Jon liked trains, but i found out that he also likes models and once he finishes restoring the basement in there new house he will set up a train room down there. I had to introduce him and my dad so they could talk trains the next day at the brunch.Unfortunately Pam had to be on Call at the hospital at 6:00 the next morning so they had to head out just after dinner, and would not be attending the brunch. We did get a lot of time to talk though which was nice.Here are Alice and Ed, Dara and Pam's parents. We all got to spend some time talking with them also. they were sitting at my mom and dad's table. Ed made quick friends with Holly, you can tell he really likes kids, Holly had a lot of fun laughing at his silly faces.Here is the Beautiful wedding cake. It was delicious. All of the food was. After our anti-pasta we had a really good pasta dish with a yummy tomato and cheese sauce, I loved it. We also had a salad and then the entree. My entree was a Chicken and Cranberry sauce dish. The tables had yummy bread, and all of the food was scrumptious. The service was amazing, everyone so polite, everyone getting there food at once, and no one taking any plates you weren't finished with yet.Here is my mom and Sabina. I am so glad they had a chance to talk at the wedding. Family is so important, and its just so silly to not talk to your loved ones, I think ti was wonderful to see them, and they looked so beautiful.Here is Holly napping in her stroller, against a wall out of the way. I was able to have conversations with people, and even get up and move around a little, but most of the time I stayed at my table near her so i could hear a cry or see a wiggle.That didn't prevent me from having a great view of the dance floor. here are Lorraine and her mum dancing. It is amazing that Holly was asleep through a live band and a DJ. The party was wonderful. Open bar was nice, I had a few rum and cokes, was enjoying the music and people watching.

Here are the bubbles that my dad set up for the party. originally they were int he front of the room, but due to the video Screens and the band it had to be moved, I think this is a great place and he could run them by remote at various times during the dancing.There were actually three deserts. This one may have been my favorite. It was an ice cream in a chocolate, mascarpone type crust. It was really good. Then after that was an Italian pastries plate that included canolies.Then after a long while we got to eat yummy wedding cake. Here is a picture of my mom's table, the flowers and place setting's were beautiful, and I loved how the tables were at a tilt so everyone could really see everything.Here the bride and the groom are helping with the garter. I don;t think lee and Stephanie had 5 minutes to sit down and eat all of the amazing food. they were little butterflies flitting from table to table talking to all of the guests, taking pictures, and participating in the various activities.Here is Scott and his wife. Such a beautiful couple. It was so weird seeing Scott all grown up. He was amazing, he lent us the crib and the highchair and stroller and car seat. He was such a good dad and so responsible, and his son is already four. Here is Jim, the father of the bride. I am glad he got a little chance to enjoy the party, it was amazing. I hope he did sit down and enjoy the food, but I saw him and Elise make the rounds talking with everyone also. The father daughter song was amazing. The night before I heard the lyrics and I just cried and cried, I guess having a baby of your own makes you all sentimental like that, thinking of they growing up one day. I think it hit my dad too, as when they were dancing he came over to me and asked me to dance, he was so sad that he had missed our father daughter dance. I had thought about how I would feel at this moment, when i was flying to NY hoping it wouldn't upset me, and getting a dance made it perfect.Here is the beautiful Mrs. Hicks. it is so weird that Stephanie is married. I guess even though I grew up, in my mind all of my friends from New York sort of staged the age they were when I last lived there. Scott the little brother who always followed us around. Dara and Steph just getting out of grade school, going to girl scouts, all of us the best of friends.Around 11:45 Little miss Holly woke up. She missed most of the party, or at least let Mommy enjoy most of the party which was really nice. By that time it was starting to die down, but since we were helping out the family we were at the hall until at least 12:30 making arrangements, collecting items, packing the car, getting the bubble machine, ect.This gave Holly a lot of time to still run around and play on the dance floor without having to worry too much about getting trampled. She enjoyed it quite a bit, and liked being "back stage" as the band tore down.I had hoped she would have had more of a chance to play with Jason, Scot's son, but Jason was rather shy and i am sure overwhelmed in such a stimulating environment, so he liked to stay by mommy at all times.Here is a beautiful pictures of our lovely bride at the end of the night, looking as beautiful as ever. Since she wasn't leaving for the Honeymoon until Sunday, she got to wear the dress for the whole party, and she looked like a princess.Here Holly discovered a rose, given to her by one of the groomsmen. It was so sweet. She saw the flower girls with them and she wanted a flower too. It was so cute.Here Steph and my parents are watching Holly play with the flowers. I think Holly thought Stephanie was a princess she was so intrigued by her and the beautiful dress, she wanted to follow her around.I was expecting a rough night, but by the time we got home, Holly ate a snack, played for a few minutes while cars were being unloaded and people were unwinding, she was ready for a bottle and was back to sleep by 2:30. This was wonderful.On this particular night we got an amazing night sleep, staying in bed until almost 10:00 the next morning. i thought I would end the post with a picture of Elise and Stephanie. Elise sang the most beautiful song to Stephanie during the reception, I love this picture of the mother and the bride.

I Heart Faces - Week 33: Nostalgia

Week 33: Nostalgia

The theme is to take a picture that reminds you of your childhood. This picture shows a little bit of fear and a little bit of excitement as Hlly sits in a tree. She is only 17 months, so I couldn't get her really climbing one all by herself, but when Iheard the theme, I knew it had to be a picture of

Holly in a tree.

I will tell you two stories about me when I was a child related to trees.

Once when I was little and we were still living in NY, we went to visit my uncle in Poughkeepsie (upstate NY) At the time he was living on a farm of sorts, I remember there were horses and chickens and stables far from the house, and then it was surrounded by trees. While the grown ups were inside I was outside playing on the grounds. I remember finding a tree to climb in, and I remember being high enough that I could see above the other trees, and the house in distance.

Then I realized I was stuck and couldn't get down. The next part is really fuzzy, and certainly couldn't have happened as I remember it, but I recall that my dad needed to climb up to get me in something like a cherry picker, I was so high, Other times it feels like he had to use a double ladder. I should really get him to tell me the story, I remember being up there and climbing, and then of course them calling for me and searching the woods and finding me in the tree and having to get me.

On another occasion, we were living in Longmont Colorado and I was in about 4th grade. There was a field with trees and undeveloped land behind our housing complex. On one particular tree there was a tree house. A platform really. Getting up to the tree house was easy, a few steps and a few branches and there I was, but for some reason I was unable to get myself back down. So off my friend Chrissy was to get my dad so he could climb up and get me.

There were many other times I climbed trees and rocks and ledges, I had a thing for going up! So my picture of Holly is of her sitting in a tree, I am sure she will get me back ten fold she is already a little dare devil who tries to climb on everything she can. I'm not sure how my parent's survived.

I Heart Faces is a site where you can share photos and submit them into weekly contests, of faces, one for kids and one for adults.

Mid Week Updates

This past weekend was pretty busy. We had some friends, Tony and Tara visiting from out of town, here for GDC and scoping out the area in hopes to maybe move here. We met them in the afternoon and went to a cool SciFi bookstore called Dark Carnival. After we went to down town Berkeley, walked around checked out a comic book store and got some Gelato.



Later we met some mutual friends. Mike, Diana, and little Otter over at our house and we had dinner in. Joel loves to cook for friends and it is so fun to have people over for dinner. Especially when they have a baby for Holly to play with! Earlier in the day Holly and I went shopping at Costco to get some dinner supplies. I found some fresh salmon for 12$ and it was enough to feed 6 people, large portions (normally in a restaurant for 12$ each) Joel had just read in his Cook's Illustrated magazine some tips on how to keep it from sticking to the grill, and it worked like a charm. Everyone loved it. He also made some potatoes and asparagus from our veggie box and threw on some chick for me and a few Garlic Chicken Sausages for everyone to snack on.



I love Costco, when you can buy in bulk for some things you get amazing prices, and while for just the two of us, it would have been a waist, for a small gathering it was perfect. We also get fresh chicken breasts in bulk there and Joel will prepare some dinners and freeze them, for easy access later in the week. I also picked up some wine, which was a good deal and everyone enjoyed that. Holly and Otter hung out for a bit. He is only 4 months old, but a hit of the visit was getting to weigh him on our scale. He was hear about 3 weeks ago and gained 1.5 lbs topping out at 16.5 lbs, only 2.5 lbs lighter then Holly and she is a year old. He liked hanging in her little nest, and we tried him in the little red chair which he liked last time, but with the added bulk of his cloth diaper, he is too big for it now.. Its amazing.On Sunday we ran some errands and cleaned the house and rested from the week.




Monday was crazy busy. Holly had Therapy in the morning with Katie, it had been almost 2 weeks since she had seen her do to some reschedules and illness. This session was to be video taped for her to share with her colleagues and it was fun to work the camera and watch them play.After that Paige and Amy came over. Paige is 3. It was amazing having her. We joke about Holly leaving a path of destruction in her wake "Hollzilla" but Paige, in ten minutes did what it would take Holly an entire day to do. Every bag of blocks and toy was dumped out and she had a blast running from new item to new item checking everything out. It was certainly a glimpse into my future, and while slightly overwhelming, it was so fun.



She and Holly played remarkably well. Holly would follow her around as fast as she could like a little puppy wanting to play with and touch everything Paige was playing with. Paige has seen video's of Holly in the ball pit, and she wanted to try. I posted these on Wednesday but they don;t really do the experience justice. Paige would hide and bury herself under the balls and Holly would look for her. Then she would press her face when she found her, and then push her own face into the net and make a funny face at her. They did this over and over. Then Paige would dump out ball and Holly would hold them up for her to grab and Holly was laughing hysterically. She was having so much fun, I don;t think I have ever seen her laugh so much, she was utterly mesmerized by Paige and how much fun Paige was having in the ball pit.Eventually we had to wind things down, Paige had to go home for dinner with her Dad, Amy was a former co-worker of mine, so while we mostly talked mommy stuff i did get a few updates on my old job which was fun too. We certainly will be getting together again soon.



Then I was off to pick up daddy for the last day of our parenting workshop. Holly exhausted fell fast asleep in the car and slept the first 30 or so minutes of the workshop. Once she woke and we fed and changed her she was very cuddly. She likes to wake up slow and stay in my arms for awhile. But then of course Seth came and she just had to go and play with him. She was so well behaved. Now that she was pretty familiar with the space and had done the rounds she was happy to stay in the general vicinity of Mom and Dad and play with Seth and her toys.





Lots of the other parents had coffee cups and the little ones kept trying to get into them, so we gave them a cup of there own to play with, Seth was showing Holly how it works. They are just about the same age, I think Holly might be 1-2 weeks older. It is amazing watching two kids of the almost exact same age play together, the similarities and differences are so neat. At the end of the class when it was time to go, Seth gave Holly a hug. It was so sweet.



Well other then this Chaos, I decided that I would hang low on Tuesday I originally had a play date at a Bunny Farm and an Eye Doctor Appt scheduled, but the Dr. Called to Cancel, so I figured lets stay in and rest we can go see Bunnies another time, these play dates happen Monthly. It was a nice relaxing day which i spent most of it playing with Holly and reading a parenting book for my Playgroup / Book Club on Thursday. I will post more about that later.

Finally the weekend also had some sucky parts too. On Friday it seemed we may have forgotten to lock our car door, and when I went down to go shopping everything had been riffled through. I had about 20$ in change that was taken and sadly my GPS and cell phone charger were also missing. I was mostly mad that I lost all my addresses I had about 50 in there from all the stuff we had been doing, so it was annoying. It was hidden from view inside a compartment, so a passer by would not see it, I thought this would be good enough, even though Joel always tells me to bring it upstairs. But I guess with someone actually going through everything its not safe. Thank god though that my stroller, fast track, and Garage Door Opened were not taken, and nothing was missing from the garage. When I got to Costco I got a new GPS, so I am out 20$ Plus 169$ for the replacement, and a Pair of Sunglasses.

Sadly, however we are dumb, and the next night our other car got broken into. That is my "sports car" and the battery has been dead. When the grannies were visiting we had triple A jump it and i drove around for over an hour, then the next day they went to drive it and it was dead. We haven't even looked at it since, I haven't had time to deal with it. Well we aren't quite sure if it was too left unlocked, or if the person crawled in through the truck, which i can;t seem to lock when the battery is dead, but this time, it looks as if someone was "living" in my car. I heard noises about 1:00 Am and Joel had woken up, we looked out and saw something in the street that later we discovered were my floor maps. When he went to investigate and discovered it was torn up we called the cops. I made a report on both cars at this time. But inside we found a bag of leftover pizza, a sweat shirt and dress and shoes and even a wig. We don;t know if they had been there for several days or just that night, since we hadn't looked into the car for a few weeks, and the windows are tinted. I didn't have anything of value that I recall in there, so nothing seemed to be missing.

The next morning Joel cleaned all the stuff out. Then tonight, we were shocked when a woman knocked on our door and admitted she was sleeping in the car and she was so sorry and please don;t call the cops on her but can she have her stuff back. Joel told her it was in bags in the trash and she could go and get it. He said she didn't even look like she was homeless, but was very skinny and tired looking. it made me so sad. and in all honesty, I don;t think this was related to the theft from the night before, but then again, I am a very trusting person. Crazy Isn't it!

Grrr

Just a quick note... My laptop is dying and may need to be sent back to Dell. I am in the process of getting everything backed up off it, including pictures from my awesome day today, so you might not get very wordy or image filled posts from me for a while. I have a few video's up my sleeves for the next few days, and Hopefully by next week I will be set up on Joel's computer till I figure out things with mine.

L is for Lion

I was tagged by Quirky Mom with the Letter L If you are interested in your own letter leave me a comment.

Ten things:

L is for:

Love: The most important of all things. I don’t think I really knew Love until I had my daughter Holly. I of course Love my Family and My Husband, but the Love of a Child so unconditional, so forgiving, if someone tried to explain it to me before having Holly I would have thought that I knew what they meant, but it is only after her that I truly know. After having Holly I told my mom, now I understand just how much you love me. It is a love like no other.

Laughter: Is a healer of all things. Just when I think I may be at the end of my rope on no sleep and feeling sick and weary and grumpy Holly will do something so silly or cute that I just have to laugh and it makes everything else go away. I think it might have something to do with that first L word J but also Joel makes me laugh, he can’t help it and he loves when I laugh, it is apparently easy to do and I can never stay mad at him because he will say or do something goofy and make me laugh.

Lucky: Is how I feel now that I have Holly. I realize that there may be challenges ahead and there will be delays and life won’t always be as easy as it is for other people, but Holly is a blessing and I feel so lucky to have her, and well I think she is doing so far much better then feared and I feel lucky with each new development she makes and grateful that she is such a wonderful child. I also feel lucky for having Joel the most amazing husband, I have only learned to appreciate him more since Holly was born and I think she has brought us even closer together which I didn’t think was possible.

Learning: Is a lifetime pursuit. I love to learn so much that I made a career out of education, school, and learning. I have always loved to learn new things whether it is a lecture or a discover magazine. Now I get to learn and discover through the eyes of my child which makes it even more magical. Not only do I get to share in her discovery and awe, but I also get to learn about her, who she is and what makes her tick.

Language: has never seemed so important to me then now. When I was in college I studied Linguistics and Creative Writing, among other things. I was fascinated with the history of language how it evolved and grew. I loved learning about sounds and how they form, accents and regional dialects. I also love the use of language, witty statements and clever dialog. But now I am learning the difference between language and communication. The lack of language can be very frustrating and I am learning how to communicate without it. I am also obsessed with it as I work with Holly on learning to speak and trying to remember back to my college days of diphthongs, bilabial, open vowels - wondering if any of it is useful in helping her little mouth shape the sounds she needs to make words. But mostly I have to remind myself that without language there is still communication, and to appreciate that too.

Lazy: is how I am feeling this week. I am so tired from Holly being sick, and from me being sick, and from her being clingy and needing to lie on mama every moment of the day. Tired after a long day of hard but ever rewarding work not having the energy to clean, keep-up with chores or basically do anything responsible, So right now I am feeling very lazy. I also feel like I should be doing more with Holly. Because my days have been long I let her play independently and sort of zone out watching her, or catch up on blogs and writing posts and checking email, at least when she is not hanging on me or trying to knock down the laptop. I feel like developmentally I should be doing something educational with her every moment of the day, and when she is cranky and grumpy and I am tired and I put on Baby Einstein to give us both a break I feel like I am being lazy. But then again, I am known to be rather hard on myself and need to remember to cut myself some slack every once in a while. She is a very active and attended to baby.

Legends: Are something I grew up on and can’t wait to share with my Daughter. First there are stories about my family and Holly’s ancestors. Also there are fairy tales and ghost stories and legends of mythical places and creatures and beings that fill my imagination. I love imagination and that can be sparked by so many legends. Greek Gods, Water Nymphs, Dragons, and Unicorns, I can’t wait to begin to share these legends with Holly. Well I have already begun telling her some stories, but I look forward to when she is older and we can watch movies and read books like The Tales of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, His Dark Materials, The Last Unicorn, or even Harry Potter.

Linger: Is what I tend to do at social gatherings and events. I can’t help myself, but I am often the last one to leave. I tend to linger, I don’t like things to end and I want more. I will linger at the end of a concert and watch as the roadies tear down, I will linger after a Movie and watch the credits until the very end. I will linger after a party because it was over too fast and now that the crowd has thinned there is more time to bond with and chat with the host. I will linger at a Friend’s house after a play date because we have had so much fun and it has been so long since we have gotten together that I don’t want our fun to end. I also linger around the edges, overhearing a conversation that perhaps I can add something useful too, Linger when there is drama because I am curious, and linger at the end of the night because I don’t want to go to bed. Maybe it’s a bad habit, but it’s me.

Left: is the side of the country I live on and pretty much defines much of the city I live in. Perhaps Liberal is a better L word to define this, but I embrace Berkeley and its politics even when at times the notions are even a little left for me. I believe is social justice and paying higher taxes for schools and roads and parks. (from Wikipedia) I thought this was interesting.. and well it fits: In politics, left-wing, leftist, and the Left are terms applied to socially progressive and egalitarian positions. Originally, during the French Revolution, left-wing referred to seating arrangements in parliament; those who sat on the left opposed the monarchy and supported radical reform.

Limbo: Is how I sometimes feel or even “Lost” when it comes to knowing what is best for Holly and what her future will hold. I am so grateful to know her diagnosis up front, but it is frustrating sometimes because it is always there in the back shelf of my mind, will she continue to develop at this rate, will she be able to learn to read and do math, will she be in a mainstream classroom, is college a dream too far to think about, will she one day have a family of her own. Now obviously all those “Big” thoughts aren’t usually right there, it is more like what will potty training be like, when will she say her first word. When will she begin to feed herself? But really I feel like I am in Limbo, because I don’t know what behavior is normal development? What behavior is from Fragile X and what is just nothing at all. Limbo, because I sometimes don’t know if I should be upfront and tell people about her diagnosis, or if it is really not important to mention at all. Limbo because before this I never felt like I was out of control, but that is a feeling I am learning to embrace.