Lord Stanley, We Meet at Last

Thanks to a friend from the WHDH softball team (he's good friends with former Blackhawks Assistant Coach.. and current Atlanta Thrashers Associate Head Coach John Torchetti).. I was able to hoist the Stanley Cup over my own head just as I'd watched my beloved Blackhawks do only months before -- for the first time in 49 years.


This was during Coach Torchetti's day with the cup in his hometown of Marshfield, MA. He's the one serving me the best Bud Light I've ever tasted in my life.

GO 'HAWKS! (How about another round in '11?)

Busy Bee

Wow how fast time flies. Ellie is now 18 months old and she is developing by leaps and bounds. A quick summary of some of the latest things going on with her:

• She has 6 teeth and is currently working on getting the 7th (lower left) and the 8th (her first molar). It's pretty evident when shes teething as she gets frustrated REALLY easy and is on edge.
• She won't eat meat...well only if we kinda trick her with chicken tortellini otherwise she picks out the meat and throws it on the floor. But she LOVES tofu and black beans.
• She is very attached to her baby. She has a baby doll that she loves. She loves feeding (with and without putting on a bib), dressing, undressing, pushing her in a stroller, reading to, carrying around, and anything that comes with a baby or baby doll.
• She is currently working really hard on mastering taking off and putting back on her shoes.
• Her love for her baby doll translates to love of any baby that she sees.
• She is starting to run, skip, and trying really hard to jump
• Her vocabulary is increasing daily. Everyday she has a new word. Some of her new favorites are, "me", "mine", "off", "shirt", "shoes", "Elmo", and "hello". She will point to something and ask for a word and then once you give it to her she practices it over and over and over.
• She has started combining words such as, "bye bye baby", "dada shirt", and "shoes off"
• She eats corn off of the cob! Seriously!
• She's getting better and better at using a spoon and fork to eat. Its still a bit messy, but practice makes perfect...

• She is shy around adults and waits for cues from us when in a group setting. She is shy in large kid groups, but if there is only one or two other kids on the playground, she will go and say "hi".
• She enjoys dancing! Put on music and she will dance for you. She has a handful of moves including, "raising the roof".
• She is thriving in daycare and gets so excited to see her friends. The teachers at daycare call her "Goldilocks" and tells us everyday what a happy kid she is and how she makes them smile and laugh (mostly having to do with water play or the baby dolls they have there).
• Books are probably her favorite toy (besides the baby doll). She loves to "read" and be read to.
• She is a fairly light sleeper and we have never been sucessful in moving a sleeping girl from her carseat to her bed. In fact, if you stop the car she will wake up!

She's growing so fast and her personality is so fun to watch develop. She is so much fun and has the best laugh! And yes, she still has dimples!

18 Months!

Reading to her dolphin

(if you look closely she's pointing to a shark in her book, she turned to that page, sat down with the dolphin and pointed at the shark...close enough right?)

And here is another photo with the dolphin just to humble me a little bit...she's reading her book upside-down...she's not always the genius child

Cheesing it to Vermont!

This past weekend we packed up a suitcase and headed up north to the Green Mountain State in pursuit of some quality ice cream (in the form of Ben and Jerry's) and cheese (Cabot). Vermont did not disappoint.

On Saturday morning we drove straight up to Waterbury/Stowe thanks to a very tired Ellen who ended up sleeping for 2 1/2 hours of the 3 hour trip. At our arrival we checked into our hotel and stayed long enough to change a dirty diaper. We quickly took the locals up on recommendations for a lunch/brunch spot.

We then stopped at a Cold Hollow Cider Mill for some samples of apple cider. Which apparently, Ellie LOVES so much that she will drink it straight from mommy's cup. Alas, she was pretty messy when we left (only a prelude to what was to come).

Ben and Jerry's was waiting for us. After climbing up a small hill to park and hiking about 1/4 of a mile (it was pretty crowded) we elbowed past the international tourists (seriously, you come all the way from India or Germany to go to the middle of nowhere Vermont for a half scoop of free ice cream?) and got our tickets for the plant tour. Our tour time was about 50 minutes after we got the tickets which was barely enough time to decide on a souvenir t-shirt for Ellie and purchase some ice cream for us. We actually got some ice cream that is only sold in the Vermont plant scoop shop. Ellie LOVED the ice cream I picked out for us (Nick had his own double scoop of some coconut concoction which Ellie and I didn't like). She barely let me take my own bites! The tour was interesting, however, they weren't making ice cream that day, and the free scoop (one for each of us) of mint chocolate chunk at the end was awesome. What planning they did to have my favorite flavor of ice cream for samples!

Nick got a couple of pints for after dinner (ice cream OVERLOAD) and we took Ellie to play on a little playground. She really like racing Nick down the slide. We also visited the flavor graveyard, where they have "buried" all of the discontinued flavors.

After getting back to the hotel, Ellie and I went for a dip in the hotel pool. Then, maybe due to the ice cream or excitement of the pool, Ellie decided that she wanted to stand up and yell in her crib instead of sleeping. So Nick and I sat outside the hotel room, eating our takeout dinner, with the windows open, waiting for Ellie to fall asleep. Fortunately the weather was georgous. Eventually she did fall asleep and we quietly crawled back in to get our ice cream out of the freezer.

Sunday was chock full of more fun. We started the day by going on a bike ride. The hotel had bikes that you could borrow for free, including child trailers (something for Ellie to sit in which we attached to Nick's bike). Stowe actually has a recreation path which was beautiful. Ellie didn't enjoy her "hat" but really liked the ride. She was a real trooper for trying two new things (a pool and a bike ride) this weekend.

We then headed back to Cold Hill Cider Mill to purchase some cider, syrup, and applesauce and headed towards the town of Cabot and Cabot Creamery, home of the World's Best Cheddar (a title they won in Wisconsin!). We drove through Montpelier and Ellie got to see her second state capital (she also collected states 6 and 7 on this trip).

The plant tour and the free cheese samples did not disappoint. Full of tika-masala cheddar (seriously awesome) and some terrific sharp vintage cheddar we headed back towards Boston. On the way we drove through the White Mountain National Forest and Ellie collected her third state capital (Concord).

We had a great time. Nick wants to head back once the snow has fallen. I'm happy to go back next summer, and maybe make a trip over to Burlington to the Teddy Bear factory and hospital!

Summer Fun

Just a quick summary of some of our summer fun activities...

...Fun with Jell-o

...Fun with markers (the aftermath of some afternoon doodling)

...Fun with utensils

...Fun on the tire swing

...Fun grocery shopping (well, collecting the reusable bags and telling me to hurry up)

...Fun on the bouncy turtle thing at the playground

...Fun in the sprinklers