Death Becomes Her

I have been soooooo sick this weekend. It started on Friday when I was feeling tired and a little under the weather. I assumed I was just exhausted and needed to sleep. When I woke up on Saturday I felt like total crap. I was extremely nauseous, had a headache, the chills, and my whole body was achy. Marc was not at all sympathetic. "You just need to eat something." he says. Hello! I feel nauseous, I don't think eating is going to help that. To appease him, however, I let him buy me some Jamba Juice. Marc had insisted on going to get me something to eat even though I told him I didn't feel like eating anything. Long story short, the Jamba Juice didn't make it more than a few minutes. Marc's response "It's cause you have to eat something more substantial." Anyway, we had a wedding to go to on Saturday evening. After not being able to hold down even water I decided that perhaps we should not go and expose everyone to the serious on the brink of death illness that I had. Anyway, today I woke up feeling a little better. I'm not quite up to normal strength, but come tomorrow I think I'll be there. By the way, this morning I received more "awesome" sympathy from Marc. I slept in because I still feel sick and Marc's response was "you need to get moving." Hello! I DO NOT FEEL WELL. Anyway, in a little bit I'll post some updated pictures of the squirt and talk about happier news than my illness. As Winnie the Pooh says "Good Bye for Now."

P.S. When I ran spell check it told me to replace Marc with Marcia. I thought about doing it cause I thought it would be funny. But perhaps that is the illness talking.

Marielle Has Found Her Identity

You have all heard this, but I think it is so cute that Marielle has figured out who she is. Well sorta. This weekend we all went shopping and every time Marielle passed a mirror she would look at herself. Marc and I began asking her "Who is that?" and Marielle would answer "me." We thought it was so cute because she would say it and then be proud of herself like "yeah I know who I am." Marc and I have also been working on getting Marielle to say her name. Figuring that Marielle might be a little hard for her to say we worked on getting her to say Ellie. We would point at her and then say Ellie. Now when we ask "Where is Ellie?" she points to herself.

I am so embarrassed . . .

for the guy on the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy show. Marc and I were watching Queer Eye this evening and the guy they were making over was obsessed with the medieval time period. He proposed to his girlfriend by taking her to this castle where everyone was dressed in medieval garb. (Before I go any further I apologize to anyone who dresses up in medieval attire on the weekends, this is not meant to offend you). Everyone at this castle spoke in old English and acted ridiculously. i.e. They said things like "Excuse me fair maiden." To make matters worse, before this guy proposed he participated in a sword fight where he got his butt kicked several times. If Marc dressed up in medieval attire before he proposed and participated in a fight where he got his butt kicked, I might have to think a little harder about my answer. Thankfully, Marc did not wear tights when he proposed. At least he didn't wear any tights that were visible to the public. Anyway, after the guy gets his butt kicked he goes inside and during a dinner with all the other medieval enthusiasts he proposes, with the permission of the court of course. Anyway, while we were watching the show I kept covering my eyes. The whole thing was just so embarrassing. It was like watching Napoleon Dynamite in action. Except on the show, this guy was not acting. Not to be to harsh, the guy seemed really nice, but he definitely was not any cooler than Napoleon. By the way, Marc and I were just doing our best Napoleon immitations. We were trying to figure out the best ways to type some of his sounds. Comment with your suggestions.

Dog Whispering?

So while we were out in New York visiting Viv's Dad and his fiance, Meredith, we came across a guy calling himself the Dog Whisperer. No, he wasn't some crack pot on the street asking for money like the Naked Cowboy. He has a show on the National Geographic Channel (I think you need a fancy digital cable package to get this channel). Viv's Dad and Meredith love watching his show and were really excited about us getting to see it. Apparently they have heard about our dingo of an 8-month old puppy.

I was a little skeptical at first. With a name like "The Dog Whisperer," I thought it was going to be some guy who has some sort of psychic who talks to dogs. That, however, is another show. The dog whisperer himself is, in fact, totally reputable! Basically, he helps the owners of problem dogs assert themselves as the pack leaders. By doing this, most of a dog's problems seem to melt away when they fall in line as a subordinate. He talks about how most troubled behavior stems from the dog's confusion over who is in charge. Viv and I were hooked from the first episode in which we watched him tame an over-protective chihuahua named Nunu who had been attacking the owner's roommate.

After seeing two or three success stories, I got pumped about coming home and trying out some of his tactics with our dingo. To be fair, Sophie really is a good girl. She's actually fairly mellow for a puppy, she is very gentle with Marielle, Marielle loves on her all day, and she loves hanging out close to us. I think that we sometimes forget that she is still so young. We really were spoiled with our perfectly trained Chloe. Our lack of training experience is definitely part of our trouble. The big things are that she pulls when being walked, is easily distracted, and believes that the statute of limitations for a command like "stay" runs for only about ten seconds. The pulling while walking has really been driving me crazy. It makes the walk no fun for either of us. This happened to be one of the Dog Whisperer's primary focuses. He showed how to calmly, and gently assert yourself as the leader during a walk. He would demonstrate on the show and I was a bit skeptical about how quickly he seemed to get a dog in line. They probably cut the forty takes before it finally worked, right? Wrong. On my first morning walk with Sophie after our trip, I tried out the Dog Whisperer's tactics and they worked! With only about two corrections a found Sophie walking calmly at me side. It was great, and we both are enjoying are much more laid back walks.

This guy's show doesn't teach everything, but asserting yourself as leader seems to be a cornerstone of obedience. Viv and I have kind of known this. I mean that's kind of common sense. The show was an eye opener onto all of the little things that we do that had undermined that position. Everyone should watch. Lisa, they even had an episode with a Great Dane with shiny/smooth floor issues. By the end of the episode, the dog was cruising around a linoleum-lined school like it was no big thing.

Maine

OK, the long-awaited Maine posting is up! I meant to crank this out Sunday afternoon, but got bogged down putting our gear away after our trip. Viv and I are notoriously bad about unpacking after a trip. We never put our toiletries away, and for this trip, our suitcases were already out and on our bedroom floor from our last trip. Yesterday, I was determined to do things different and get things put away.

Let me start by saying we had a great time in Maine. Maine was completely different than I imagined it. Being so far north, I packed a sweatshirt. I quickly found out that I wouldn't be needing it. Being so far north, I expected there to be little to do. I quickly found that Geoff, Colette, and Alex had a full agenda ready for us, and we loved every minute of it. They took us around to all of the little gems they had come across. From what I could tell, Maine had many more gems yet to be discovered by us. I would definitely considered vacationing there again. In the summer only of course.

We spent a day exploring Acadia National Park and Mt. Desert Island. Specifically, we strolled around Bah Habah (AKA Bar Harbor) after a morning hike, visited the Bass Harbor Head Light (In Maine every lighthouse is called a head light. I think it's because not every lighthouse is actually a house), played in the North Atlantic at Sand Beach, and feasted on lobster at a local lobster pound, which is a outdoor restaurant specializing in steaming up lobsters for you on the spot. Vivian, Marielle, and I were beat by the end of the day.

Our second real outing took us south of Bangor to the seaside town of Camden. I was telling Geoff that Camden and Bar Harbor reminded me a little of Breckenridge. Their main streets were perfect for just leisurely walking/shopping. The trip to Camden itself was a lot of fun. You pass some gorgous little houses along the way and the lush woodlands are amazing. Camden had a neat little fair going on so we looked through the different artists' tents. We saw some neat things. We may have to recruit Geoff and Colette to track down some artists names so we can see about getting some original Maine art. We grabbed sandwiches in town and then headed out of downtown Camden in search of a beachside park Geoff and Colette had seen on previous visits. We found the park, had lunch, let the little ones swing and run around, and I actually went swimming. It was cold, but more bearable than I thought it'd be. Later that afternoon, back in the Bangor area, we took the kids to a playground that also has this great interactive fountain. Watching the kids climb around and play in the water was great.

Watching Alex and Marielle play was definitely the high point of our visit to Maine. Each morning, Alex would hear Marielle wake up and then he'd come looking for her. The two of them would play around on the bed or the air mattress while the rest of us would observe them while getting motivated to actually get up for the day. They both just seemed in awe of each other. They are both so much more aware of their surroundings even since our trip to Florida in May. They don't totally play together yet. They more play in the vicinity of each other and occasionally cross paths. Those moments are the best. In those moments you can see their excitement for each other. Soon they'll be an unstoppable duo that no playgroup could challenge. If we could get Nathan back from over-seas on a space available flight to make it a trio, watch out world!

Geoff, Colette, and Alex, thanks for always making us feel at home and showing us a great time.

New York

New York was tons of fun. Marc and I loved spending time with my Dad and his fiance Meredith, and we know Marielle did too!






On our first day in New York, we spent the day with my Dad and Meredith. We went down to Fulton Street and the South Seaport. We wrapped up the day by getting sandwiches to go from the Peanut Butter &Co. Marc has been dying to go there since seeing their Elvis sandwich on the Food Network (the Elvis consists of a grilled peanut butter sandwich with bananas, honey, and bacon). The next day we toured the areas surrounding Manhattan Island including Nyack, Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow, and Greenwich and Stamford in Connecticut (can anyone say Dunder Mifflin Headquarters). While out and about, we went to a Gothic Mansion called the Lyndhurst Manor. The tour was fun and Marielle was such a good little girl during the tour. She let us learn about the history of the mansion room by room without really so much as a peep. Our favorite part of seeing the mansion, however, was the large estate it sat on. It was like we had a private park to ourselves. We loved watching Marielle run around in the grass. At some points she had some issues walking in it though (see picture). The grass was really uneven and every once and a while she had trouble keeping her balance.

We spent another day hanging out with my Dad. We got to see the hospital that he will start working at shortly and went grocery shopping for dinner with Meredith's parents. Dinner was a lot of fun. It was great meeting Meredith's parents and they seemed thrilled to finally meet Marielle.

Our last full day in town, the three of us went out exploring the city on our own. We took Marielle to Grand Central Station, Times Square, and Central Park. We also went to FAO Schwarz. Marielle loved it! She especially loved the dolls there. We tried to have her play on the infamous piano, but she didn't weigh enough to make the keys light up.

New York is such a great place to visit. My favorite is all the great but cheap food you can get. Throughout our entire time there, we ate at great places. Everyone knows how much I like a good meal, especially at a good price. I love that most of the good places to eat are NOT chains. There is great ethnic food at good prices all over the city. We also like the great parks in New York. The upkeep of the grounds was awesome. We had a good time strolling through some of the parks.

As you can tell from our photos, we had a good time visiting New York. My dad and Meredith were great hosts and we can't wait to go back for the wedding.

4th of July

We had a busy 4th. We went to Marc's parents house and had a wonderful turkey dinner. It was like Thanksgiving in July. Marielle, true to form, was on the go all day. She spent some time swinging with her GG (Great Grandpa) and GGS (Great Grandma Susan). She also had fun getting on Grandpa's Harley. She even made bupbupbupbupbup sounds, which is apparently the sound motorcycles make. Although we wanted to go watch fireworks, Marielle only had one nap and we knew she wasn't going to make it to a 9:30 fireworks show. Hopefully next year Marielle will be ready for staying up a little later. Well we hope everyone had a happy fourth. Oh yes and "freedooooooooooooom!"


P.S. Our family sends our thanks to those who serve or have served in the armed forces. Including my Dad, Marc's Dad, Marc's Grandpa, our friend P.C., and soon to be my cousin Noah who has just started at the Air Force Academy. We are proud of all of you.

Telephone Time

Marielle has been showing a lot of interest in phones lately. She picks them up and puts them on her shoulder (as shown in the picture) and gibber jabbers into it. Sometimes she even says hello, like there is actually someone on the other line talking to her. She also gives you the phone like "here its for you." Our families think its cute so they let Marielle play with their phones. Twice, however, Marielle has locked features on a couple of the phones. Once she turned on voice activitation and another time she turned off the phone's ringer. In both instances it took a while to turn off the features she had turned on. He he. Anyway, our families have learned to start locking their phones before they let Marielle play with them.

Marielle and Her Reading Buddies

I am amazed at how much my Ellie Belly loves to read. Her Halmoni, Grandpa Al, Auntie Sarah, and Uncle Josh came up this weekend to visit and Marielle read with every single one of them. She loves to go and grab a book from her red wagon and bring them over to you and say reet (read) or beu (book) and then back her little behind into your lap. I find it pretty cute. Anyway, Marielle had a great time hanging out with the family. As you can see it was a very educational experience.

Marielle Has Adopted Utensils

Well, last weekend I let Marielle try feeding herself with a spoon. Viv and I had been somewhat concerned because we heard someone say that utensil usage was normal for 12-month-olds. We looked at each other and said, "huh, she's 15 months old and still chucks food with her hands." We then decided it was no big deal since our primary concern is just getting her to eat. Up until last weekend she did that best with her hands.

Last Sunday morning, we were hanging out and letting Mom sleep in - she had a busy Saturday and stayed up late to watch a movie with me. I handed Marielle a spoon loaded with strained prunes, and half expected her to throw it. I know, everyone is thinking that I have no faith in our daughter, but I have experienced the spoon tossing first hand. However, she made it to her mouth on the first try. She still hasn't figured out the whole scooping principal that spoon usage is founded on, yet she manages to transfer a decent amount of food to her mouth merely by coating the spoon after dipping it in whatever we hold out for her. She went on to finish half a container of prunes and a whole container of yogurt. Her friend Nathan would laugh in the face of half-a-prunes and yogurt, but it is alright by her standards.