French Visit

On Wednesday, two adorable little French girls and their chic Mom came to visit for the day! Elijah really enjoyed this visit with his cousins, who he only sees twice a year.

On Thursday, Elijah, Zoe and I spent the morning at Mills Riverside park, playing in the river, enjoying a picnic, and just generally killing time until our 12:30 playdate.

All the while we were playing at the park, we were unaware of the plight of Baby A, who seems to think she's ready to make her grand appearance at only 29 weeks! Sending warm wishes to Aimee, Tyler and Baby A...and hoping beyond hope that Aimee gets the opportunity to incubate this little munchkin for just a few more weeks...

Poker Hill School

Elijah begins preschool next year. He has been on the "waiting list" at Poker Hill School in Underhill since before his 1st birthday. When we received notification that he did get a spot, I signed him right up for the 1-week summer camp that begins on July 18. Elijah's a bit of a creature of habit, and is somewhat anxious about attending Poker Hill School. He's asked several times if I will be staying there with him. I thought it would be a good idea to swing by the school a couple times before summer camp week, since the building and grounds are always open. This will hopefully help Elijah feel a little more comfortable and confident as that week approaches.. I mean, seriously- look at this place. What kid wouldn't want to go here? I want to go here.

The rabbit pen and the sheep pasture:
Chicken coop and horse paddock:
"Sally" the sheep:

Bikes, trikes, trucks and balls:Checking out the playground:

It was a huge success. We got to visit with one of the directors, David, and really give the place a good old-fashioned shakedown. Elijah even said to me, "Mama, I LOVE it here."

Summer 2011: Recovered! and 4th of July

So, last post I mentioned that Elijah had a fever. It persisted, and he complained of a sore throat so by Thursday, we took him to the pediatrician. He was diagnosed with a viral infection called "enterovirus," which causes similar symptoms as strep throat but is untreatable, since it's a virus. The doc warned us these infections can take quite a few days to work themselves through. He wasn't kidding. Day after day of temperature-taking, ibuprofen-forcing and plan-cancelling really took its toll on us. Elijah was worse every day, running a fever as high as 104.5 sometimes. He had such a sore throat that I had to beg him to drink, and he hardly ate a thing. He slept long stretches of the day and was quite restless at night. It was terrible.

Finally, 6 days later, Elijah was still running a fever but seemed to be feeling a bit better. He was pretty active during the day and wasn't even interested in a nap. He didn't really want to play outside, though, so our challenge was keeping him occupied. We painted.
And worked some play-dough.

An finally, after dinner, he really did seem more like himself. So we headed out for a creemee. It was SO GREAT to get out of the house. On our drive home, we saw that someone was giving away this "Cozy Coupe" car for free, so we snagged it. Doesn't Elijah look like a younger Wayne in this picture? And, happiest of all, we were able to keep our Independence Day plans! This morning, we headed to see the Richmond parade.

Afterwards, Chris and Martha were kind enough to host a barbecue. We got to spend some great time with them, as well as Alexandra, Peter, Christa, Asa, Hazel, Mary and Jacob!

A Meeting of the Minds: talking about their experiences in small claims court. Alex can't believe how long this conversation is dragging on. She looks like she'd rather be just about anywhere else...Beautiful Hazel!

The weather, company and Elijah's health made this the most fabulous July 4th ever!!!

Summer 2011 (Days 4 & 5)

I don't seem to be able to remember my camera lately, so no new pictures to post.
We're getting into the groove of summer vacation, and the weather has been very helpful!

Yesterday our friends Beth and Dianna (age 4) came over for lunch, after which we went for a bike ride on the rec path and landed back at Beth's house for some swimming (it was hot!). Elijah was so tired, he fell asleep on the couch at 6:15 PM and once we moved him to his bed, he slept straight through until after 6:00 AM! He woke up a bit edgy, but we didn't think too much of it.

Today we had plans to meet a bunch of friends- Liz, with Reese (7) and Quinn (4); Mary, with Tyler (8) and Ava (6); and Selena with Catherine (9), Anna (7), Matthew (6) and Luke (2) for a hike. It was a much cooler day than yesterday and actually quite nice for a hike (which is actually more like a walk along a loop in the wooded area of a local park). Elijah was absolutely miserable throughout the entire hike. In fact, I couldn't wait for it to be over, it was NOT fun for me at all-- he was whiny and complainy and just plain horrible. After lunch, the rest of the gang stayed to swim in the river, but we blasted out of there. When we got home, Elijah was so lethargic that we took his temperature and realized he had a fever-- no wonder he was so awful during the hike, poor guy!!! It's been very low-grade, but just enough to make him uncomfortable. Oh well, better luck next time! He took a 3+ hour nap and seems to be feeling better this evening :-)

Summer 2011 (Days 2 & 3)

This weekend was our annual Whitman Family Thanksgiving in Maine celebration. We arrived around 1PM on Saturday and brought some slightly nicer weather with us. Not quite swimming weather, but nice enough to hang out down at the beach and build some sandcastles. Meanwhile, nothing but pure cuteness up in the cottage!Uncle George...supervising the turkey fryer or snoozing? I'll never tell...

Taking fishing lessons from Cousin Brandon~

While Cousin Sarah caught at least 3 perch!

Later that night, an intense game of Scattergories, followed by some cut-throat Yahtzee.
It was great to be back, and we're looking forward to heading back up there for our vacation week of July 11th!!!

Today we arrived home around 2:30 PM and then Elijah and I attempted to dodge some rain showers to go for a bike ride (we failed and got soaked). Since we were wet anyway, we headed off to the River Berry Farm and picked some strawberries in the rain!

Summer 2011 (Day 1)

It was a rainy and blustery first day of summer break- the temps only reached 65 degrees and it was rainy most of the day. Ed tweaked his back, so he's dealing with that pain, Elijah was stir-crazy and we were all kind of out of sorts. Finally, we seized a break in the showers to literally "go fly a kite." It was kind of windy and the rec path has lovely open fields, perfect for kite flying!

After that, Elijah rode his bike some. The exercise was good for us all! Tomorrow we head to Maine for my family's annual "Thankgiving in Maine" celebration!