Catching Up

It makes one week since my last post, and what a week it was. Here are the highlights for those of you in a rush. For those of you with more time on your hands, more details can be found below.

• Audrey's first Falling-Asleep-In-Odd-Places episode
• Dental appointment for me, boo.
• Waterbaby Take Two
• GreekFest, 2009 in Camp Hill
• Audrey's first drink from a normal cup
• Early Birthday festivities for my upcoming birthday

Ok, on to the details. I'll try to keep this relatively short, although I've noticed when I try to make it short, it ends up long and vice versa. Oh well, it'll be what it'll be.

Falling Asleep Last Wednesday was a beautiful day. My friend Jenn came over, we had a lovely lunch, then took Audrey and Mica up to a county park for a walk. My best estimate is that we walked 4 or 4.5 miles. A decent amount, especially with a nearly 17 pound baby strapped to your chest. Audrey was alert and awake the whole time, mostly staring at Jenn. I tried to point out trees and flowers and Mica....Mica running....Mica pooping...Mica swimming...but Audrey still just stared at Jenn. It was great to have time to catch up with Jenn, and we both enjoyed a little bit of sun. We returned home, went for a quick shopping trip, then returned home and made dinner. Asparagus, carmelized onions, sun-dried tomatoes and fontina cheese make for a tasty pizza, in case you need an idea for a pizza. As Jenn, James and I were enjoying our dinner, Audrey was in her highchair next to me, starting to get fussy. It was rapidly approaching her bedtime, so she certainly wasn't to blame. As many parents will understand, I just wanted 5 more minutes to eat, then I'd be ready to put her to bed. So I grabbed her stuffed monkey, hoping he would distract her for a little more time. She grabbed him, fussed for about 10 seconds, and she....was....OUT. Asleep in her chair. Amazing how she can go from crying to sleep in no time at all. We chuckled in amazement, and finished out meal at a leisurely pace. Now, as my mom would tell you, I was pretty good at falling asleep during meals myself. There are many stories of me falling asleep in restaurants as a little girl, so maybe Audrey is taking after me in that area.

Asleep in her highchair, poor girl!

Dental Appointment Who grows up wanting to be an endodontist? 'Nuff said. No pictures either.


Waterbaby Friday was Audrey's second "swim lesson", aka "get used to the water" session. James got in with her this time, it was quite cute. I think she did better this time. Still very few smiles, but also still no crying. When she went under, she didn't seem nearly as surprised or shocked. Hopefully she's getting more comfy in the water.

Before swimming with Dad Swimming with Dad!! (sorry for these captions--I'm still learning the quirks of Blogger. Supposed to be a before and after type thing...)

GreekFest 2009 In the never-ending search for good food, Jenn discovered that the Greek Orthodox church in Camp Hill was throwing a Greek Festival this weekend. So Friday afternoon (yes, after swim lessons) we packed up and headed north. We met friends there, and proceeded to enjoy moussaka, spanokopita, dolmas, greek salad, loukoumades, and flaming kefalotiri cheese. I believe the flaming cheese was everyone's favorite. The Greek officials had advertised a "tour of the cathedral" at 5:30. Now, of course James and I and our friends are all worldly and intelligent (and humble), so we were quite interested in touring a Greek Orthodox cathedral and possibly gleaning some new information. A quick side note first. Keep in mind, that it was now 5:30pm, after a full day for Audrey. I wasn't sure how long she'd last, especially at a festival complete with loudspeakers, people, and hot weather. But luckily, so far, she had behaved very well. On to the story. At 5:30, we made our way into the cathedral, and plunked ourselves down in some pews at the back, in case Audrey got fussy. See? Not only are we worldly, intelligent and humble, but we're also considerate. The cathedral was beautiful, full of colorful paintings. Soon Reverend Yanni (I'm not making this up) came in. Yay, the tour was about to start! Well,..turned out it wasn't a tour. It was a very long, slow, quiet, monotone, dry history of the Greek Orthodox church. After about 10 minutes of struggling to hear Rev. Yanni, I decided I was ready to leave. As I looked at my friends' faces, I decided that most of them probably felt the same way. I prayed for Audrey to start fussing. I was in church afterall, right? C'mon little girl, just make one fussy noise and we can politely excuse ourselves. No luck, Little Miss was a perfect angel, albeit a squirmy one. Finally we all just left. Sorry Rev. Yanni, sorry Greek Orthodox cathedral, but it was just too slow. The cathedral was gorgeous, we were just expecting a tour, since they advertised it as a tour, not a lecture. All in all, GreekFest was a success. A trip to Greece is in the future for us, I'm sure.

Ready to be Greek!

Being an angel in the cathedral.




Audrey's First Drink (no no, not like that!) After GreekFest, we went to a brewhouse to enjoy a drink on what was an absolutely beautiful Friday evening. We managed to get a seat on the patio, and had a good time with friends. It was still warm, and we had been in the sun all day. The glass of icewater with lemon tasted so good to me. I noticed everytime I took a drink, Audrey reached for the cup. Well, why not? So I let her have a drink. She truly seemed to enjoy it and "drank and drank and drank". I'm unsure of the ratio of water in to drool out, but that's ok. I'm sure it cooled her off some (especially the drips that made their way down her arms and onto her lap). James managed to capture in on film, we're lucky to have such a good photographer in the family.

Nice cool water

Happy Girls
Birthday Lastly, we celebrated my birthday early this year since our good friends will be out of town on my birthday. Last night a few of us went to dinner at an absolutely amazing restaurant in downtown York. I had seafood bisque, sea bass with miso and coconut infused basmati and balck rice, pickled tomato, red onion and bok choy hash, flash fried asparagus (amazing!), then chocolate cherry ice cream for dessert. The food was outstanding, and we all had a great time. We are lucky to have such great friends here, we always have such great laughs together. After dinner we went to our local Irish Pub where we met up with a few more friends. Thanks to everyone who came out, and thanks to our babysitter!