Easter was last week?

Yeah, I know, it just takes a while to download the camera sometimes...

Decorating...

Hunting...

and cleaning up!

Dancing for the Trees

Lili woke up one morning in Monterey and wanted to show the trees (and the cute little reflection in the window) some of her dance moves and signs...enjoy!

More California fun

More fun at the beach! Not quite as warm up in Monterey, but still plenty of sand, glorious sand...

Lili being silly with her great-grandmother Conti. I said, 'smile!' and this is the look I get...

More opportunities for chuckin' rocks! Oh yeah!

And finally, the brilliant San Francisco airport and its Kid's Zone - complete with working water-vapor tornado and...tunnels!!!

San Diego in February

It was painful to come back from California to 13 degree weather...

Fountain!!!

Beach!!!

Koi!!!

Elmo!!!


Mommy!!!

More, from Monterey, to come soon...

Pre-reading

Lili just started preschool, so I thought this dark, sleepy early morning video was appropriate.
Throw in a plug for Boynton books, and I can get away with spoiling Blue Hat, Green Hat - every page ends with......Oops!

Halloween in December

No, I didn't dress her up like this for fun. She asked for each piece of her costume by name, thank you very much. Bug! Dress! Wings! Shoes! Hat! (The hat didn't make it very long)

Merry Christmas, all!

Not going in the Christmas Cards...

Hello, police? I'd like to report a toddler perched on a table...

Zebras and basketballs

Our Lil' Ladybug

Tunnel vision

Lost in the corn maze, we were. But we kept finding tunnels so it was aaaaall good.



To me, a land surveyor, a 24" CPP (corrugated plastic pipe). To Lili, a TUNNEL!!!

E! A! G! Lili! E! Sssssss..

Lili and I like to hang out on fall Sundays and watch the Eagles whenever we can. Well, I was wearing my Eagles t-shirt yesterday and she started calling out the big letters - we teach her letter sounds and names, and the letter L is an especially tough one, so I usually say, L, like Lili. So, the Eagles chant is now, and forever will be,
E! A! G! Lili! E! Sssss! Eagles!

Fired up

We had the second meeting of the Centre County Down Syndrome Society today. I am blown away with the enthusiasm and ideas that are starting to come together from our little group. There are quite a few families in the area; we are just reaching the critical mass that is needed to organize events like a buddy walk or advocacy campaign. It is inspiring to be around such a great group of people, and we're already making a difference.
We were told a story of a recent visit to Pizza Hut. Our friend was gathering the kids in the car when her sister came out with a look on her face...apparently the 'manager' of the restaurant was getting a series of phone calls from the same person during the lunch rush. After telling the caller again that they couldn't call during the busy lunchtime, she hung up and said something like 'what, do they have down syndrome?' Appalled, her sister told the 'manager' how inappropriate her comment was.
After our meeting, our friend made a call to the National Headquarters of Pizza Hut and passed along her experience. The regional manager called her back only hours later and told her to apologize to our entire organization, and that there are employees of that very restaurant with Down Syndrome. Apparently there had been issues with this 'manager' in the past, and this conduct was inexcusable, so she was
FIRED.
How's that for instant karma?