Purple Dome Aster

pretty in purple...

One game away...

Go Yankees!! Win 1 more and we're in the playoffs!!

Maria's shower

This weekend was Maria's bridal shower. It was a lot of fun! On Saturday we made the traditional Canestri cookie boxes. I made snickerdoodles... a fun cookie that apparently everyone has eaten before except me! They are really good though, a butter cookie with cinnamon and sugar. Well, if it's got cinnamon in it, it must be good, right?? Love it! All the food was great, and we all looked cute, and Maria got a ton of stuff! : )
Gotta love showers!

Blog note

Hey guys, for anyone that checks the blog for pictures... I have started a flickr account and I'll be adding pictures there that might not necessarily be on the blog. You can get to it by clicking on "my photos" in the favorite links section on the right.

Enjoy!
Denise

Hide and Seek Video

Walking (well, almost)

A picture of Jonathan with his walker toy. He can walk well with it, but still won't walk by himself. He's taken a few steps by himself, and can play the drum while standing... but hasn't taken that big leap of faith yet.

Good news on September 11th

A coworker of mine had a baby girl today at 5am. I thought it was nice to get some good news on September 11th, when it seems you can't escape the endless media coverage of the tragedy in 2001. Not that I'm saying we shouldn't reflect on the anniversary, but for me, I have to not think about it too much or I start to get depressed. The war with Iraq doesn't help. Anyway, I wanted to share some good news, in case anyone else, like me, has a feeling of dread every year at this time.

I also wanted to share this photo of the sunset outside my house. The picture doesn't capture the color perfectly, but you get the idea. The clouds cleared just in time for sunset. Beautiful.

North Haven Fair

We took Jonathan to the North Haven Fair today. The heat made it impossible for us to stay more than an hour, but he still got to see cows, sheep, pigs, bunnies and chickens. Not bad. And I got cotton candy! Woo hoo! I don't know why, but cotton candy is the most exciting thing to me about fairs. I love it. There is something about it that makes me happy. : )

Garden overview- September 7

September Flowers

Here are some pictures from the garden. I am loving the fact that I still have flowers blooming in September. All the pre-existing flowers here were normally dying off by now, so it is nice to still have some color around. The first plant is the sedum matrona, which took forever to bloom, but it is very pretty now that it has. It is pinkish white and seems to attract bumblebees. The second picture are the multicolored zinnias that my mom bought at Expect Discounts... they sat in a pot for a while in front of my house until I got around to planting them, but they are blooming still, so that's pretty good.

Day Care- day 1

Jonathan's first day of daycare was today. I guess he did pretty well. The teachers said that he only cried once, when another little boy, who was also new, started to cry. Poor things!! : ( He was fine the rest of the day though, and one of the teachers even noticed that he likes music, so he must have been dancing or singing! He is still getting used to the kids and the teachers, I'm sure, but it seemed like he did a lot better than I did today. I kept looking at the clock and wondering what he was doing, and whether or not he was crying and/or throwing a fit. He ate breakfast and lunch and took a nap in the morning for about an hour. He slept on the way home in the car- I think he was exhausted! And we had to let him take another nap around 6 because he just wasn't going to make it to bedtime.

For those of you keeping track- he has 5 teeth (going on 6) and is now standing up (occasionally) by himself. He has taken about two steps before falling or holding on to something, but he gets really excited when he stands and starts trying to jump, which he really isn't ready for!!

Review for burpee.com

Check out my review for the zinnias at burpee.com! I actually have another for the butterfly bush- you can click on "read all my reviews" to see that one. I included a picture for each review. Apparently, not that many people write reviews, because they say I'm in the top 250 just for having 2!

Happy Labor Day!

Tomorrow is Labor Day... the first holiday of the school year. Conveniently, it falls just a few days after we start school. Most of us feel we need a break already, or at least we need to start slowly. Going back to work is weird enough when you have summers off, but going back to work after a year of taking care of an infant and taking a few classes is torturous. Partially because you haven't done it in so long, but mostly because you have to get another person ready every morning. (I used to barely be able to get myself ready.) So far it hasn't been too bad in the morning, because I get everything ready the night before. The only problem is that the days start to run into one another because I come home, feed the baby, make dinner, play with the baby, put the baby to bed, get the bottles ready, get his bag ready, think about what I'm going to take for lunch the next day, make sure I know what I'm bringing him for lunch the next day, figure out what I'm wearing the next day... and then go to bed. Forget grading and planning, I'm not sure when I'm going to find time for that. Anyway... I know that EVENTUALLY it will be nice to be a teacher and a mom. Summer vacations with the kids, Christmas week off every year... there are definite perks, I know... but getting to the point where it is nice to be a teacher is going to take a while. Right now it is just like, wow, I wish I didn't have to wake up so damn early, I wish I didn't have such a long commute, I wish I didn't have a mortgage that I have to work to pay... etc. Anyway, enough of this vent. I just think back to not having Jonathan and I wonder where the hell all that free time I had went!