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autumn here. well, fiona is officially NOT a baby anymore. last night our little 21 month old surprised both her parents by riding ella’s old tricycle out of the garage without assistance. bill had been riding his father’s day bike (an old raleigh 3-speed) around the backyard and when fi saw him, she cried ‘bike! bike! bike!’ and stomped off to the garage. we followed her and there she was, on the trike. we let her sit there while we opened the garage, and when the door was open, she triked herself out into the drive way! this was barefoot! once she had shoes on, she could reach the pedals even better and had a very good time going for her first bike ride. add in her favorite words and phrases (’no’, ‘me’, ‘no’, ‘mine’, ‘no’, ‘my turn’, ‘no’, ’swing me’, and ‘no’), she’s really a full fledged little girl now. ah me. time goes so fast. she’s also trying to sing her ‘abc’s now too ‘A, EEEE, CCCC, EEEE, OOOO, EEEEE (claps) DAA!’ (’daa’ is her way of saying taa-daa!’). she’s ALSO taking off her own diapers. when e started doing this…we went with it and she was out of diapers by age 2 (and dry at night not long after). so, we’re officially potty training…although at this stage its mostly training the parents to get her on the potty every once in a while…and to be ready to clean up any accidents (like today - we’ve already had 3).

ella is turning into a young lady right before her eyes. today she walked fiona to the bathroom to help her onto the potty and then read her two of the potty books (she’s not reading full books on her own yet, but she has the potty book memorized). she’s creating amazingly detailed drawings of herself and friends (all as princesses). as bill has stated in other posts, she has an amazing memory. i can’t count the times she’s mentioned something that bill and i didn’t remember…only to recount in amazing detail until her weak minded parents were able to remember. ‘oh!, yea, we remember that…WOW, ella!’ she has been busy with new classes this summer: at the science museum of minnesota she’s already had dino-mania and mixture madness, and later will have lots of rocks and one other class (she probably remembers the other one!); at como zoo, one day classes on snakes, bugs, and at least one other one. she’s also taking gymnastics again, swimming, and tball. very busy girl. she’s been making up games (like a guessing game where she puts something from her natural objects basket into a small silk bag and i have to guess what it is) and jokes (she knows a few real ones from the joke show cd ‘what did the fish say when it hit a concrete wall? DAMN!’ but she also makes up her own, such as ‘what did the house say when it hit the fish? SORRY!’ makes no sense to us, but she certainly finds it hilarious!).

well, my not-a-baby is asleep in my lap, and miss memory wants to play the guessing game again, so bye for now.

We often say that Ella has an amazing memory, but i don’t know if we’ve written down any examples of this.

At her birthday party in May, we had crown decorating kits with these little plastic jewels, some of which looked like little lady bugs. A week or two after her party, she was playing with some of them in our bedroom window, and one of them slipped through the vent for the storm window. She was mad about it, and i said, “i can’t get it now, but i’ll be putting in the air conditioner there when it’s hot out, so i can get it for you then.” Well, today at lunch, of course, a month later, i put that window AC unit in that window, and was doing it in a rush so i could get back to work. I even saw the jewel there on the ledge, but didn’t grab it right away and didn’t remember again until after i’d put the Incredibly Heavy Thing in the window. Of course, right after i turned it on, Ella asked me, “did you get my ladybug jewel from the window?”

well, we’ve been home since friday afternoon. we spent friday getting cleaned up, getting groceries, and our first farm share of the season (filled with heavenly greens). saturday we started to unpack and do laundry (and i went for a 10+ mile run). sunday we unpacked some more, went to the beach for a little break, and then had karen and mike over for a belated bday dinner with ella (who was thrilled to receive her very own barbie scooter). amid it all, we managed to sort through over 300 pictures from the trip. for the full assortment of pictures click here: http://www.fidean.net/pix/ohiotrip/ohiotrip.html, or here for some of andrew and tessa’s photos: http://www.fidean.net/pix/atohiotrip/atohiotrip.html, including a giant bottle of wild turkey. bill posted an update from the road which is worth a read. here i’ll sum up the trip, add in some pictures, locations, and give a run down of the distances we travelled…

june 1st, 2005 : st. paul, minnesota to rockford, illinois : 327 miles
very easy drive compared to past drives down to rockford. the girls napped and were very happy. we stopped at a rest stop and had a picnic next to a big rock formation. spent the night in rockford at grandma sandy’s house. saw joe & christy (who were getting married the same day as kate & bruce), their daughter rhianna, and brian.

june 2nd, 200 5: rockford, illinois to indianapolis, indiana : 276 miles
stretched our legs at sinnissippi park in rockford before heading out. ella had a wonderful time in the gardens and visited with a swan. spent the night at the hellman’s (good friends of kathy and terry clark). they have a beautiful home with a swimming pool. ella enjoyed the hot tub, picking mulberries, playing with their new samoyed pup (zeus), and listening to ‘mr. hormone’ play his banjo. it was great visiting with them and they were wonderful hosts.

june 3rd, 2005 : indianapolis, indiana to cincinnati, ohio/covington, kentucky : 114 miles
kate and bruce live in cincinnati, and that was were the wedding was, but covington is just across the border. the hotel was nice (at least no stitches after a stay there) and there was a park close by. we had time to get settled, track down family, and go to the park for a while. there is an older area of covington close to the hotel, so we wandered around there for a while, stopping for a late lunch at the cock & bill english pub. it was here that fiona realized for the first time that other women have breasts. that afternoon i headed to the rehearsal, then met up with the everyone again at the rehearsal dinner (in cincinnati). it was a lot of fun watching the cousins play together. ella, laurel, and will are all 4 years old (ella & will are just a few days apart, actually).

june 4th, 2005 : cincinnatti, ohio : WEDDING DAY!
we wish we could have been in two places at once. today kate and bruce were married, as were christy and joe. kate’s wedding was a blast. i was with my cousins most of the day, getting the reception area set up, going to the salon, then getting ready at kate’s house. saw my cousin doug for the first time in 12 years! danced with my uncle patrick. girls danced and played with all sorts of cousins. the wedding site required a lot of work on everyone’s part (especially kate’s) since it was a community center, but it ended up being a great location for kids with slides and gardens to explore. the girls really had a great time.

june 5rd, 2005 : cincinnati, ohio/covington, kentucky to cleveland, ohio : 252 miles
after some time visiting with peter, laurel, terry, and kathy who were all heading out (kathy to cleveland, the rest back home to minnesota), we went out to breakfast with andrew and tessa. it was so nice hanging out with them. we hope they move back to minnesota sometime soon. after that, we swam for a while, they loaded up the car and headed to cleveland (well, solon to be specific) and to colleen & niko’s house. on the way there, we stopped at an ohio state park for a quick picnic and some running around. ella and fiona met a rabbit, some turtles, and lots of other animals at the park’s nature center…and had fun sliding down the old metal curly slide at the playground.

june 5rd, 2005 : cleveland, ohio : old home day
today we visited the antique car museum. ella has been very interested in old cars, so she had a lot of fun seeing all the different vehicles. there was also a maurice sendak exhibit that was a lot of fun. after that, we went out to lunch at a place called ‘yours truly’ which had amazing burgers. then, we went to the cemetery where my grandparents and great-grandparents davis are buried…as well as president garfield, john d. rockefeller, and several other people not as important to me as my grandparents. it was a tearful visit, especially seeing our red-headed daughters dancing and singing and picking clovers to place on their grave. they would have loved ella and fiona, and the girls would have loved them.

june 6th, 2005 : cleveland, ohio : a swim and a date!
today we went to the solon community center and forgot to bring the camera. the center is wonderful, with both indoor and outdoor zero-depth pools, water slides, and lap pools. i snuck in a few laps and then we all played in the water for about an hour. after that, we cleaned up and headed over to chagrin falls to visit aunt eileen and uncle patrick. we got a little turned around, but found their house easily after eileen and kathy headed out to the road with banners to flag us in. after that we headed back to colleen and niko’s to get cleaned up for a double date! the grandmothers came over to watch ella, fi, michael, and will, while bill, niko, colleen, & i headed out to a local irish pub for dinner!

june 7th, 2005 : cleveland, ohio to chicago, illinois : 343 miles
this was the drive we were dreading, but it went really well. we had packed camping gear just in case we needed to stop, but since uncle john was going to be in town, we plugged through so that we could spend some time visiting even MORE family! we stopped at pokagon state park in indiana….

MORE COMING SOON - time for bed!

my task for this morning is loading pictures onto the site. since we had over 300 from our road trip, this is no small task. i’ll be putting pictures up from ella’s gymnastics class too. these are photos from the last class. ella has taken gymnastics twice now and really enjoys it. her third class starts in a couple weeks. this class was held at central high school which is about 2 miles from home. we walked to class, cutting across the concordia college campus. on this particular day, we were caught in a rain and hail storm, but it cleared quickly, giving ella the chance to watch the weather change in dramatic ways. we also saw two rainbows. once on the campus, there are lots of pictures of ella in her ’secret garden’. this is a small community garden (farm in the city) on the concordia campus. we have been walking this way to the co-op and gymnastics since last winter, so ella has observed the changing of the seasons here. it has been a lot of fun watching the snow and ice melt, the dry, golden remnants of fall revealed, and the fresh, green fingers of spring working up through the soil. flowers are finally blooming there now. in class, the kids do lots of tumbling practice and become familiar with the equipment. ella is now much more confident balancing and loves to do sommersaults.

pictures of the road trip coming SOON!

We’re mid-trip on our great midwestern tour, so i thought i’d post a little update. Much more, plus pictures, to come once we’re home in a few days.

We’re in Cincinnati (the hotel is actually in Kentucky), and Kate and Bruce are now married. The wedding was wonderful and the reception was a great party. It was held in a funky community/artist space not far from Kate’s house, and while the logistics involved everyone carrying their chairs from the wedding space to the dinner tables, it was a great setting. There was also a great garden area outside within the L-shape of the building, and the kids (of which there were many) had a great time playing there, climbing and sliding down the slides.

The trip to get here has been really good. Greta stayed at home, and it’s a good thing since the car was packed to the gills as it was. We brought a bunch of picnic food and a cooler so we wouldn’t have to eat out, and a whole pile of new games and sticker books and things to play with. Both girls have been great in the car despite the long miles we’ve come.

The St. Paul to Rockford leg was the best of that trip ever, just one long picnic stop at a wayside. We spent the night at Grandma Connell’s house, with lots of playing in the back yard and checking out the many flowers in (near-)bloom. In the morning, we visited my cousins at Tom & Erin’s house (seeing almost everyone but Tom & Erin). Reanna is getting really big, and she was very sweet too, making friends with Ella & Fiona right away.

Thursday night we spent at Clark family friends Pat & Rick Hellman’s house in Indianapolis, or as Ella mis-called them, “Mr & Mrs Hormone”. They were wonderful hosts, and we had a great time talking bikes and swimming in their pool. Fiona had a tough morning with the cold she’s been fighting off, but really liked eating mulberries right off their tree and playing with their new samoyed puppy Zeus. Ella played with me in the hot tub while Autumn did a few drills in the pool, then explored their flower gardens, finding roly-poly bugs.

We got to our hotel early Friday afternoon, a tower that looks like a giant hair roller. There’s a neat old neighborhood with shops and a nearby park, so after our trip we got in some play time and a late lunch at the Cock & Bull. Autumn went to the rehearsal with the bridesmaids, and we caught up with her at restaurant for dinner. The girls ran amok with their cousins Laurel, Will & Michael and many people threatened to kidnap them, they were so darned cute.

Autumn spent most of Saturday helping out with last-minute wedding work (i’ll let her fill in this section), and we played. After a big group breakfast, we went back to the park to play for a bit, then to the hotel pool for a long swim. We briefly met up with Autumn in the afternoon before her salon appointment with the wedding party, then spent the rest of the afternoon having some lunch and napping.

Now, we’re taking our time waking up and planning the next stretch on the road, heading for Cleveland to stay with Colleen, Niko, Michael and Will. More updates (with pictures!) soon.