Born to Dance

I often wonder what my children will be like, what they will do, and how they will act as adults. Usually my day-dream adult children are rock-stars or baseball players, but in reality, Bryan and I would be completely content with financially independent children who don't live in our basement and have college educations.

However it would not surprise me if Penelope ended up as a ballerina and Griffin decided that he was going to make a living as an edgy street-dancer (provided he was financially independent and not living in our basement) because they both seem born to dance. Although if I'm being completely honest, perhaps ballerina isn't the right word for Penelope's dance style - she's more like Elaine from "Seinfeld" than Prima Ballerina in Nutcracker. She did invent a dance of her own, called the "P.A.C." (if you've seen Nemo a million times then you know where that came from) and it's a combination of pseudo karate moves and the Can-Can.

One day I will stop laughing long enough to take a video. It's cute. It's adorable. It's also hilarious.

You know what else is funny? A break-dancing 2 year old. Especially one in knickers, suspenders, and a bow-tie.

I really wish I had video of last night. I know one is out there, there were videographers & photographers at the wedding - so somewhere there is evidence of my children's dance-related wedding antics. And so hopefully one day I will get my hands on said evidence and be able to share it with you so we can all be amused at my children's unique interpretation of "dancing".

They had fun. A lot of fun. And Griffin kept his suspenders on all night. They danced with just about everyone brave enough to share the dance floor with them, and gave everyone they met on the way out a hug goodnight.

They also made a new friend - Tigist, who was the flower girl and is about a year older than Poe. The three of them had a wonderful time together. In fact, Penelope and Tigis got married a few time this weekend, the first time was at the rehearsal dinner. Plus the two of them adopted a "baby" (i.e. a doll) so now Bryan and I are proud grandparents.

And let me say this - being a grandparent is oodles easier than being a parent. Especially if said grandchild is made of plastic.

It was really a wonderful long weekend, minor tantrum at Security in San Jose aside. Tomorrow is the plane trip home, so hopefully it will be uneventful.

It was nice to see B's family - it's been about a year since we've seen most of them (6-ish months since we've seen his Dad & stepmom) & longer for some. The kids really enjoyed spending time with their cousins - it's so cliche (but so true) that they're all growing up so fast. I remember when Gadge was Penny's age and now he's in the 3rd grade. Crazy. We often wish we lived closer, but - while I love my inlaws - you couldn't pay me to live in Wyoming. I hate snow. And gusty wind.

This has been a rambly post, hasn't it? But hey, at least it's a post. Since school has started it's been hard to fine the time & energy to blog.

....and the Bubs is up from his nap. Time to sign off.

The meetup

I know I've mentioned it before, but I have a few friends that I've never met. We met through an online baby group and have remained friends over the past 3 years. We're a pretty diverse bunch: age, politics, religion, education, etc. In fact, one of the few things we have in common is that we're all women and we all have kids who were due in December of 2008.

I've met a few of them, and every time I have the opportunity I try and meet more. I have grand dreams of being the first to meet everyone, but that might not happen. We're hoping to all be able to get together when the kids turn 5 and I really hope that happens.

Anyway, Lissy, Matt, and Zach live in Colorado Springs so they came out today to hang out. We spent an hour or so at the park and then had dinner. It was fun, the kids had a good time and Bryan and enjoyed chatting with Lissy and Matt. We commiserated over temper tantrums and pasta at the Olive Garden. Here are some pictures.





Zach and Penny holding hands on the walk to the park....

















It was a really nice afternoon and a wonderful beak from the car. I have loads more pictures of Wyoming that I will post soon. If the kids fall asleep at a reasonable hour I'll try and do it tonight.

Tomorrow is our flight back, and while we'll miss family & friends out here we'll be very happy to be home. Very happy. I miss our routine, our bed, and I even miss our dog :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Doubletree Hotel, Denver

In brief - with pictures

Today Penelope got a blanket and covered her sleeping brother with it. Too fricking cute.

Today was also the first time that I left Griffin at my parents. Really the first time I've left him at all - I went to a student teaching interview a month after his birth but that only lasted an hour and a half or so. This time we left him for over 3 hours to go see a movie. We saw "Grown Ups" which was terrible (although funny in parts), but it was nice to have a little break from the craziness of two under two and spend some time with my husband :)

Soon I'll be ready to leave him for an overnight... well, in a month or so. Maybe two.

Today was also another fun pool day at Olivia's (P's friend). We had a metric ton of fun, P is now a bronzed goddess and yesterday Griffin went swimming for the first time (well, I stuck his feet & butt in - he was not impressed).

We're so lucky to have so many amazing mommy & baby friends (and daddies too!!). I honestly don't know how I would get through without them. They keep us busy and make the days so much more fun! Here are some pictures of Penny and her friends.


Penny, Sophia, and Linden (and Alisha - Linden's mommy)


Alisha, Penny, and Linden


Lucy, our world traveler who just got back from Greece


Penny and Linden


Orson, Penny, and Kim (Orson's mommy)


Sarah and Elli (G's future wife)


Little Miss


Olivia (our hostess)

And now for some of Griffin being goofy - I flipping LOVE this kid!

Shake it baby

Tuesdays are Music days... MSN has music on Fridays as well, but that class tends to be really busy and overwhelming for Penny. Tuesdays generally brings a smaller crowd, and Penny really loves Lisa Phenix (the instructor). Joey teaches Fridays and summers, Penny had the biggest crush on him for awhile but since we don't see him very often she's gotten a bit shy around him, she's very wary around men she doesn't know well.

Anyway, Lisa's class is a lot of fun. Pen plays with egg shakers, bells, drums, wooden frogs, scarves, and more. For the past month Lisa's been bringing bellydance skirts for the kids to use as percussion instruments and today Penny was ALL ABOUT the skirt. She really wanted to wear it, and we obliged... and then she didn't want to take it off and got very upset when my hands got anywhere near the tie.

It was pretty cute, she'd dance and stomp and shake to the music - she really loved that skirt.

Luckily I brought my camera, so here's Penny the amateur bellydancer:




And here she is the other day with Linden and Sophia - the three kids were hanging out on Sophia's bed after she woke up from her nap:


And Penny and Daddy playing dress up. Bryan asked me not to post this picture, but it's too damn cute - sorry B! :)




Tonight I'm off to see Bon Jovi :) Hooray for concerts when you're pregnant! I saw New Kids when I was 8 months pregnant with Penelope, so I'm continuing the tradition with "&".

Don Lemon

Penelope has a crush... on Don Lemon. He's an anchor at CNN, and when he comes on she squeaks and grins. It's really cute :) He's pretty cute too, so the child has good taste! Here's a picture:



I'm thinking about writing him to let him know Penny's his biggest fan...

In other Penelope related news, she's getting so much more coordinated. Her favorite toys are ones that spin, and she is very good at getting them to keep spinning! She's also gotten quite good at turning pages in books. She does this really well with my Dad, but she does it for the rest of us as well - her and Grandpa love their story time!

Oh, and she has a "big" friend. Her name is Annalise, and she's almost 4. Her mom goes to the support center that we go to 2x a week, so we see her pretty often. Here's a picture of them playing: