D is for Dog Mill

When Carl saw this, he said, "Oh, things are about to change around our house for Terra."

Faust Park - Part I

Trivia time: Make your best guess at what this contraption was used for. Answer to be revealed tomorrow. (Oh, the anticipation.)

Horsin' around in Faust Park at the Indoor Carousel

More playground fun

At the park with cousins

Climbing...

Climbing...

Nick comes to the rescue to make sure Lily can handle the view at the top

Little Mary Cutie Pie

Abby showing the little ones how it's done

Cousins playing together

Katie's Birthday Party

Beautiful birthday girl

Adorable in her new panda hat

The Kissock family

Lily entranced by the festivities

Lily and Mama

More on moving

To pick back up on our moving story, last Monday we had our walk-through for our house. On Tuesday, we had our closing in the morning, and the movers came with our things in the early afternoon. The story since then has basically been unpacking and more unpacking. Also, buying and more buying. As my sister Suzanne so appropriately said, "When you move, you feel like you are hemorrhaging money". We doubled our square footage with this move, so needless to say, we needed more furniture. We have done pretty well finding some good deals and are almost totally finished setting up house.

On Saturday, Suzanne & her family and Jeff & his family came over to help out and see the new pad. We were lucky enough to have Jeff paint the kitchen and upstairs bathroom. Everyone else helped out hanging up curtains, putting in a new mailbox, cutting back trees/bushes in the front yard, and various other odd jobs. With all the new furniture, my father has also been on permanent retainer as our delivery service with his pick-up truck. I truly can't thank everyone here enough for their help!

On Monday, we celebrated my niece Katie's 2nd birthday (a little early). These events are the very reason that we wanted to move back to St. Louis. Although we enjoyed Baltimore, I was tired of missing these all-important times. I grew up with all my cousins nearby and shared in all of their milestones in life, and I want Lily to have that same opportunity. Already, Lily is developing stronger relationships with her extended family. Our location also puts us in a good position for visiting the Deetz side more frequently as well, which we have plans to do in the near future.

Overall, Lily has adjusted really well. She refers to our new house as her "St. Louis house" which makes me laugh because it sounds like we have multiple houses in various cities - not so much. She has been asked by several people if she likes her new house, and she always says yes. The only time she mentioned going back to Baltimore was a couple of nights ago. I asked her before she went to sleep if she missed Baltimore. She said that she wanted to go back to Baltimore, and then immediately asked where Ingrid was. She clearly knew the answer, but I confirmed that Ingrid was in fact in Baltimore. She then said that she wanted to go Baltimore with Ingrid. It made me sad, but I told her that Ingrid would visit us soon. I then promised to see Grandma and Papa the next day, and she was happy about that. I guess if Lily had it her way, everyone we know would live in the same town and be able to visit all the time. I feel the same even though I know it's not possible.

I don't want to leave out Terra in this update. To say that Terra loves the new yard would be a gross understatement. Before we walked Terra throughout the day, but we were only able to play fetch at the Dog Park. Now Terra gets to play her favorite game every single day, multiple times per day. She has a favorite bush in the backyard and must be coaxed back inside because she enjoys the outdoor space (and freedom) so much.

In general, we are all doing well. Carl and I absolutely love the new house and have plans to stay here a long time. I will update with pictures soon.

Friday, the 16th

The pictures above are from Carl's Hooding Ceremony which was held bright and early on Friday morning. The best advice I have received all year was from the former coordinator of the MD/PhD program who told us to sit in the box seats for the ceremony so that Lily could play without disturbing anyone. It was perfect! She had a wonderful set-up with snacks, books, various toys, and her current favorite play item, coins. (Her other current favorite is rocks.) There were only 3 chairs in our area so Carl's dad and brother sat with us while his mom and sister sat in nearby box seats. It worked out beautifully.

Unfortunately, once again, I fell through for the big event. My camera died about 2 minutes into the Hooding Ceremony, and I did not get any pictures at the graduation. Through it all, Lily was such a trooper. She finally had had enough at the actual graduation ceremony after all the chaos going on around her AND not having a nap that day, and who could blame her? We all were exhausted by the end of the evening.

On Saturday, Lily spent the morning with Ingrid and Carl's dad and brother at IKEA and then spent the afternoon with Ingrid and Carl's mom at the park while Carl and I cleaned the house. Jean, from Carl's lab, came over during "final hours" when we basically unloaded a bunch of things that we could not bring with us on anyone who was willing to take them. Everyone was even gracious enough to take some trash bags to throw away since we could not leave trash behind! We finally got on our way at around 7:00 pm on Saturday night, Carl with Terra in his car and me with Lily in mine. We drove for about 5 hours through the most difficult part of the trip (always) - Pennsylvania. We slept in a bit on Sunday but were back on the road at around 9:00 am. We pulled up to my parents' house at 6:45 pm on Sunday night. That pretty much covers the time up to our move here. I will update with post-Baltimore info later. But, I must say thank you so much to Carl's family for all their help in Baltimore. We were so glad that his dad, mom, brother, and sister could all be there for this huge milestone in our lives. A special thank-you to Ingrid who did a lot of driving and helping out in so many ways. We can't thank you enough!

Thursday, the 15th

The movers arrive!

A not-so-quick but very nice Awards Ceremony at the Hippodrome. Carl received the Donaldson Excellence in Pathology Award.

Back home for more moving fun

Sitting and looking cute is hard work too!

MD/PhD Reception

The 5 MD/PhDs graduating from U of Maryland this year

Lily made sure to arrive early to get a good seat

Enjoying some of the fine appetizers

Some of Carl's more distinguished photos were included in the presentation

Carl with his biggest fans

Wednesday, the 14th

Lily stayed in the action throughout the entire moving process. Here, she is at the Title Company signing some paperwork. She took her job very seriously.

A Fun Day with Friends

Rachel and Lily jam on the 'gater

Movin' on to make more music

Playing more tunes

Ride 'em cowgirls!

Cutie pies Ellie and Henry


We had loads of fun with Rachel, Ellie, and Henry at Annie's Playground before the big move. We miss all our Baltimore buds so much!

Mother's Day Fun

Entrance to the Water Play Area - a little too chilly to ride the waves just yet

Lily and I enjoyed looking at the sparking water though

Abby Cadabby's Treasure Hunt Show

Lily was loving it!

Getting an up-close view at Burt's Beach Party Show

Checking out the produce at the Sesame Street Market

Weighing in

Operating the crane down by the dock

Cutest machine operator ever

Climbing to the top of Cookie Monster Mountain, probably her favorite activity of the day

Lily and daddy riding the flying fish

I think Carl enjoyed the ride more than the kids did!

Saying bye-bye to her Sesame Street Pals

We spent Mother's Day at Sesame Street Place in Pennsylvania. We all had the best time. Lily was so excited the entire day. She loved the rides, the shows, the sites - she truly loved it all! Overall, it was just a great family day. This is probably the last time that we will visit Sesame Place due to our move back to the midwest, so I was so happy to be able to go there one last time.

We've been doing a lot of "lasts" recently to fulfill *my* need to go to our favorite places here just one last time. Today Carl and I had lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant which holds many wonderful memories for us. The food there is so delicious, or as my counterpart stated as we were finishing our meal, "If it wasn't socially inappropriate, I'd lick the plate right now." I think that we have hit most of the places on my mental "to do" list before we leave. Now, we are just trying to enjoy our last days in Maryland while finishing up any things we have to do before the big move.

Below is a video of Lily on Cookie Monster's Mountain. It is short, but I thought that it was cute because although it is hard to hear, she is saying, "It's fun, mommy! It's fun!" That's really the best mother's day present ever.

Carl's last day - Hip hip hooray!

Vietnamese celebration dinner provided by Aunt Ingrid

Carl's last day of medical school was yesterday. Awhile ago, when one of the neighborhood children discovered that Carl was still in school, the child asked in amazement what grade Carl was in. It turns out that Carl is in the 23rd grade. That means, including Kindergarten, Carl has been in school for 24 years - and it is all over as of yesterday. So where do we stand after all of this education, including a Masters Degree (me) and two Doctorate Degrees (Carl)? Well, we are both currently unemployed and in a matter of days, we will be homeless as well. Even if it is only for a few days, it's still kind of funny!

Let me tell ya 'bout the birds and the bees

Conversations with Lily are never dull. My latest favorite thing that she says is when either Carl or I are doing something that she does not want us to do, she says, "Honey, honey, honey..." and then proceeds to tell us what we should or should not be doing according to her. She has also taken to telling Carl and I to "stop talking" anytime we have a conversation between the two of us that she is not quite following. I actually heed her warning on this one and try to include her in the conversation because Carl stopped talking for a period of time when he was two-years-old, and I don't think anyone knows why to this day, but knowing that has made me hyper-aware of anything that might trigger the same reaction in her.

But, one of my favorite conversations to date happened tonight when we were reading books before bed. She picked out one of her "baby" books to read, First Words. In it, there is a picture of a girl and boy.
Lily said with a smile, "Boys have a 'gina?" (I'm not sure if the smile indicated that she actually knew the right association and was testing me (happens very often) or if she knew that she was getting into some tricky dialogue.)
I responded, "No, girls have a 'gina'."
"Oh. Boys have penises?"
"That's right."
"Why do boys have penises, mommy?"
"Well..."
"That's so silly, mommy. Boys should have 'ginas. They're silly."
"You're right, honey. Boys are silly." :)

I should mention that the entire reason that she knows about male and female body parts is because the bathrooms at her school are open and boys and girls use them together. So, when they naturally ask about the differences in anatomy, the teachers give them the vocabulary for them, like anything else. I really like this approach because it makes everything very natural and gives no cause to treat body parts as a taboo subject. It can catch you off guard though. :)

A Perfect Day at Port Discovery

Choo-choo!

Nathan & Lily LOVED the shape sorter game.

Neither Nathan nor Lily were as concerned about three-story-high rope bridge as their mothers were; they were more interested in pushing all the buttons and seeing the results.

Painting rocks with water

Winding down with a shared reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar