Packing

We are almost packed and getting ready to leave for Buffalo. There seems like so much stuff we have to bring. I always worry that I'm going to forget something important. But, in the end, most stuff can be picked up on the way. As long as we have our documents, Annie, and her snuggy, we are all set.

The challenge this morning appears to be keeping everything packed. Annie loves pulling things out of our bags, carrying them around, and then discarding them somewhere else. Also, she insisted on wearing this pair of pants this morning that are too long on her. She keeps coming by and saying, "pants, please," so I'll pull them up for her.

It's been a long time since we've done a big trip like this! Nervous, excited.

Coming soon ... vacation!

Dear Blog Readers,
It's been a few months and we will soon be going on vacation! The original purpose of this blog (sort of) was to share our travels, so I'm going to do that again. I'm not sure how much Internet access we will have, and this will be an easy way to update everyone on our whereabouts.

So, first, an introduction.
What? A cruise through the Panama Canal, starting in Acapulco and ending in Fort Lauderdale.
When? Coming soon in March
Why? Um, it's a vacation. Do you really need a why? :) Seriously, though, this is a baby-moon, and the first international vacation we've taken in over 5 years. Back in the day, we loved a good trip and have traveled all over Europe, a little bit of South America, Egypt, and have seen quite a bit of the U.S., including the cross-country drive and trip to the Southwest that we blogged about on here. These days, most of our traveling involves going to Buffalo.

See you back here soon with our travel log!

Clumpy travel

Why is it that traveling happens in clumps? It feels like we either have a month packed with travel, or nothing at all. Maybe the "nothing at all" periods are the times we need to rest up for the month that is packed with travel. Sometimes it really does take weeks to get caught up, it feels.

This month, we had my mom visiting, and my sister had her big flight back from Europe. She made it in safely very late last night, and made it back to her actual home a couple of hours ago. Amazing to be able to call her up and talk to her on the phone! With one exception, we'd had no phone calls since May!

Tomorrow, Jim goes on a business trip to Florida for a couple of days. Leaves at the crack of dawn, as usual. Hopefully Miss Annika will stay asleep.

And next week, Annika and I are off to Buffalo for a short trip, and our third joint airplane ride!

Then, finally, a week later, we have our annual family trip to the Adirondacks - and everyone is traveling for that. Laurie is coming here. Mom may meet us there or may fly to Boston - still figuring that part out. We'll be spending the weekend in Keane Valley ... hopefully lots of fall colors, perhaps some hiking, puzzles, reading, and lots of relaxing. So it's good that this last trip is at the end of everything else. It will be our time to get caught up again.

And, for strictly gratuitous purposes, here's a cute photo of Annika with her daddy:

And a bon voyage to all.

Rendezvous in Albany

On Sunday, we met our aunt and her best friend for a little visit in Albany. We've done this before. It shouldn't have been so complicated, right?

Albany is about 3 hours (or sometimes less) from our house, so it's quite a trip just for lunch. But when you compare it to driving to Buffalo, it really isn't so bad. Aunt D. takes the train in from Buffalo, and that takes much longer. Plus, when your family lives far away, you have to be creative with the ways you get to see them.

But this time around, we had been leaving messages for Aunt D. and had not gotten to speak with her. This was a little worrying, but nothing too out of the ordinary. On Sunday morning, we were 5 minutes away from getting in the car when we got a call from Jim's sister. She said that D. had told her that P. was getting in late the night before, and that they were planning on taking a boat tour of the grain elevators in Buffalo on Sunday. This did not sound promising, particularly since D. had e-mailed a couple of weeks before, saying that she had tried to schedule the train ride for Saturday, but couldn't get good seats so settled on Sunday.  If P. wasn't getting into Buffalo until Saturday night, why was D. looking at train tickets then?  We began to worry that the dates had been mixed up. But we couldn't reach D. at home and couldn't verify that she was still in Buffalo, so off we left for Albany. We were pretty sure that D. and P. were not going to be on the train, but we figured it would be an adventure.

We got lunch in Albany, since we got there at noon and D. and P. weren't scheduled to arrive until 1:45. We kept waiting for the call from D., saying that she was still in Buffalo but not on the train. But the call never came, and at 1:45, we found ourselves at the train station, feeling hopeful. Actually, we got there at about 1:15 and tried to supervise Annika as she ran around the train station for about 30 minutes, using her "outdoor voice" in a very boisterous manner. :) I'm sure all the people waiting to get on the train were praying that we wouldn't be in their car!

The train pulls in a little before 1:45, and low and behold, we watch D. and then P. get off the train! They're here! Yippy! It was quite amazing. We waved from the window of the station. It turns out that they did nearly miss the trip. They got home from the airport late the night before, and P. noticed that D. had messages on her answering machine. Thankfully, Jim had left a message about seeing them at the train station, D. checked her tickets, and realized that the train ride was the next day.

We went back to the same restaurant where we had eaten lunch, and got to visit for a couple of hours before D. and P. had to get back on the train and go home. It was a short visit, but it was a lot of fun. P. had never met Annika before. Annika made sure that P. got to see her belly button. That's important, you know.

Our trip home took 5 hours. Over an hour of this time was spent at the beginning of the Mass. Pike, in completely stopped traffic. About half a mile ahead of us, 3-4 trees had fallen into the highway due to a sudden storm, with rain and high winds. It took a long time to clear them out of the road. Then we hit a ton of traffic in the usual places, as well as a lot of rain and fog.

What an exhausting weekend - it felt like on both days, we spent a good chunk of the day in the car.  And Jim keeps the travel up this week, with a one-day round trip to D.C. tomorrow.  I'll be here at home tomorrow, trying to figure out how to entertain an energetic toddler while it continues to pour rain outside (rare summer Nor'easter since Sunday).

1461 miles

Here's the trip we took:

View Larger Map

According to Google maps, that's 1461 miles. And that doesn't even include all the little trips we took around Buffalo. I'm tired. Note that the trip was so long that it doesn't fit on the map without clicking and dragging the map around. :) Ha.

But we are now back home and readjusting to normal life. The house looked abandoned when we got back, mostly because our lawn died in the heat. Jim is trying to solve that problem with a irrigation system of sorts. There are lots of hoses, a timer and "zones" involved. Jim also replaced 3 stairs on our back porch last night, after driving for 7 hours. Superman!!

Awake early

I'm ashamed to say that I am now the reason that Jim is waking up early, and not Annika. I now usually wake up at about 5:30 and can't fall back asleep. Annie, on the other hand, has taken to sleeping until after 7. This morning, I finally got out of bed at 6:30 and decided I would take a leisurely shower, and have a little quiet time before we start Day 3 of our "vacation."

Annika will add 2 more states to her repertoire after this trip - Pennsylvania and Ohio. I think that means that she'll have been to 9 states as of tomorrow. Pretty cool. I believe I was 7 before I had traveled outside of NY, OH and PA (aside from Ontario).

More importantly, Annie gets to see her great-grandparents tomorrow!

Wedding weekend

I generally try to get on here at least once a week, but I'm a little behind this week. It's been a very busy 10 days or so. The highlights include a work conference in Worcester, followed by the monthly meeting of my professional organization in which I ran for secretary and won! Then the next day we drove to Buffalo for Jim's cousin's wedding. We were in Buffalo from Friday evening until yesterday morning when we drove back to Boston. Now we're settling back into life.

Here is Annie with her cousin Maddie, Uncle Rob, and Grandma in the pew at the church. Annie insisted on standing in pew the whole time.

 And here are the three of us at the church after the wedding:

Annie did OK on the trip. She tires very easily during these trips, but no surprise there. There's so much to absorb. But she seems to have bounced back pretty quickly. Tonight, for the first time, she is sleeping under a quilt that her grandma made for her; it's her first night without the sleep sack. Let's hope it goes well. Tomorrow is swimming and grocery shopping and a play date.

Corning and points beyond

After a short, last minute detour for two days in Buffalo, we have made it to Corning, NY at last. My sister is blowing glass at the Corning glass museum for 3 weeks to audition for a job as a glass blower on a cruise ship. Since this meant that she was on the East Coast for the first time since October, we decided to come see her.

Today was genealogy day. My father's family lived in this area for most of the 19th century, and so today we all piled into our car (my mom, sister, Jim, Annika and I) and went graveyard hopping and old house hunting. We found a graveyard that was built on land donated by my great-grandmother's great-grandfather, who was also a Revolutionary War soldier. We found his grave, along with many, many other relatives in the 3 graveyards we visited in Barton, Ellistown, and Elmira. We also found my grandfather's childhood home in Elmira on W. Clinton Street, near the corner with Davis Street. I can't believe we found it. I only have one photo of it, from approximately 1906, and we found it based on that photo and a mention in a wedding announcement of the name of the street where he and his family lived. We drove up and down W. Clinton Street (a major street near Elmira College), and suddenly a house caught my eye. I took a few photos, not sure if it was the right one. Then, when we got back to the hotel, I compared it with the photo I uploaded to Flickr, and it's very clearly the same house. At this point, the house is in pretty rough shape. We also learned that Elmira College tore down the house where my grandfather's parents lived, on Davis Street.

Other highlights: we drove by the "Bare Facts," a very classy "gentlemen's club" somewhere on Rt. 17 in between Barton and Waverly. It was in a not-so-glorified trailer, and was located just down the street from the dilapidated "Cat's Pajamas" bed-and-breakfast inn. Makes you wonder how business is these days. This area is very rural and quite depressed at this point. There are lots of farms, silos, open land, and old houses that are either abandoned or have not been cared for in a long time. In the cities, the architecture is mostly Victorian, and the houses, though often in bad shape, are beautiful examples of Victorian architecture. Of the cities, Corning seems to be in the best shape, probably because they still have an industry here that keeps people employed.

Yesterday, Annika went swimming for the first time, in the pool at the hotel where we're staying. She seemed to like it, although at first, she didn't know what to make of it and held on to me tightly. After our swim, we went to dinner at "the Gaffer" bar and grille (gaffer is another name for a glass blower). It was really nice, and Annika met a new friend, a little boy named Trent (nickname: Trotter), who was 18 months old. Annika spent all of dinner turned around in her high chair, starring at Trotter.

Tomorrow we hope to see the glass museum before we head back to Boston, and hopefully some normalcy after some pretty difficult weeks.

Last minute trip to Buffalo

We had a lovely visit to Buffalo this weekend. The purpose of the trip was to attend the memorial service for my parents' long-time neighbor and friend, who lived to age 95 and sadly died a week ago. Her daughter is my mom's best friend and someone whom I think of as family. There were lots of my parents' neighbors at the memorial service and it was interesting to see people that I hadn't seen since I moved away to college over 15 years ago.

Annika did quite well on the plane trip. I was pretty apprehensive because I was traveling by myself and while Annie is generally Miss Mellow Yellow, she will occasionally have melt-downs, particularly when she's thrown off her schedule. But she did really well. She was patient even though the flight was over an hour delayed. She practiced standing, and she played peek-a-boo with a lady that was sitting in the waiting area nearby. Then she slept through the whole flight.

But the changes in scenery eventually got to her - trying to sleep in three different cribs, seeing all kinds of people, etc. The second day, as usual, was the tough day, as that always seems to be the day when all the changes really sink in.  But she did relatively well on the flight home (although I don't recommend using the airplane's bathroom changing table unless you absolutely have to - it is about 1 foot by 1 foot and has a weight limit of 25 lbs ... unfortunately, in our case, our usage of it was not optional). Annie fell asleep as the plane landed in Boston, and was so sound asleep that I was able to move her from on my chest to the plane seat (to put on my coat), to back on my chest, then I carried her off the plane, then transferred her onto a seat in the waiting area (to open up her stroller), then strapped her into the stroller and she didn't even stir. I think she was quite happy to finally get home and sleep in her own crib last night.

Annika got to visit lots with her grandmas and her cousin Maddie, who was so excited to see Annika! Maddie just wanted to give her hugs and kisses, but Annika was a little shell-shocked from the drastic changes in her schedule, routine, and the people she was seeing.

In the end, she had fun playing with Maddie, particularly once we visited Maddie at her apartment. It was a good weekend - we got a lot of visiting in, considering how short the trip was. Annie's next road trip is in two weeks, when we drive to Corning, NY to visit Laurie.

Weekend in New York

We just got back from a fun weekend in NYC. We got to meet Olivia, a sweet little baby. Here she is with Jess and a penguin named Abraham:

We got to visit with Jess and Dameion, who we haven't seen since last year. And it was cool seeing Olivia, who is two months old. We drove down yesterday morning and came back this afternoon. Now we're watching the Pats game while Annika bounces in her jumpster. She is resisting a nap and soon it will be time for her to go to bed for the night.

We leave for Buffalo on Wednesday.

Travel

Just because I think this is cool:

I've visited 35 U.S. states:



Create your own visited map of The United States

It's interesting how there's a large gap right in the middle of the U.S. Another cross-country drive would fix that. hmm...

And I've been to 21 countries (or sort-of countries. Puerto Rico is listed separately here, for some reason):



Create your own visited map of The World

And I'm itching for more travel.

Busy week

Busy week! Tomorrow Annika gets her 2nd seasonal flu shot and her 1st H1N1 vaccine. Our pediatrician finally got the H1N1 vaccine in. There is a big shortage of both shots in this area. Neither Jim nor I have been able to get the shot yet. My doctor currently has this stupid rule where you can only get the H1N1 shot if you have a child under the age of 6 months in your household. Of course, if your child can't get the vaccine, then what does it matter if they're under 6 months or not? But I guess they have to come up with limits somehow. It's just all so arbitrary.

On Thursday we're going to a "multicultural" Thanksgiving dinner at Annika's daycare. We're supposed to bring a salad. I may make tabouleh since have so much parsley in my garden. We'll see how much time I have to make it tomorrow.

Then we are going to visit friends in Queens, NY this weekend! Our friends Jess and Dameion had a baby girl, Olivia, in September. So we get to see them and meet little Olivia! We will drive in on Saturday and then return home on Sunday.

Then, a week from tonight, we'll be packing and getting ready for our trip to Buffalo for Thanksgiving. Phew. I'm tired just thinking about all of it.

Planes, trains and automobiles, but mostly planes

This weekend, Annika went on her first plane trip. We flew to Buffalo for a whirlwind, 48-hour visit to attend my cousin Kathy's wedding. The plane ride went surprisingly well. On the way to Buffalo, she fell asleep while the plane was taking off and stayed asleep until I had to wake her up to get off the plane in Buffalo. On the way back home, she had taken a 2-hour nap right before we left for the airport, so she was very awake. She sat up and looked at all the other passengers. She smiled at them. She played with the water bottle that they gave me. She wanted to try my cookies, so I had to move them out of her reach (a challenge when you only have about 4 feet of space in the plane). She got a little fussy here and there, but no melt-downs. The funny part about the flights was that I ended up sitting next to the same woman on both flights. We were both in Buffalo for weddings, and I guess we chose the same flights and the same seats!

Our visit to Buffalo was quick, but a good time. Annika got to spend a lot of times with her grandmas. Her Grandma Kogler babysat while I was at the wedding and reception. Annie also got to hang out with her Aunt Alex and her cousin Maddie. Annie and Maddie hung out and played with their feet. And Annie met Uncle Charlie and Aunt Ellen for the first time.

I say that the weekend was a whirlwind, but now that I think about it, "whirlwind" is a good word to describe our life. We're back home and life is continuing to proceed at break-neck speed. We have come up with a work-day routine. Jim has to wake up at 5:45 so that he can leave the house by 6 so that he can get to work by 7 so that he can leave work at 4 to pick Annie up from day care at 5. I get up at 6:15 so that I can rush around for 90 minutes, trying to get myself and Annie ready for the day. Then I have my 45 minute (plus or minus 15 minutes) commute to work on the highway in rush hour traffic. It seems to be slightly shorter on the way home. I usually get home by 5:30 or 5:45. I feel like I'm constantly running, and yet I never can stay ahead of everything. The house is a mess, the laundry is piling up, the yard needs to be cleaned up for the winter. Weekends seem to go by in the blink of an eye, and we can't even put a dent in all the stuff that needs to get done. Hopefully we'll settle into a routine eventually.

One final note: Annie tried carrots this morning. She made the usual disgusted face when she tried them, but no gagging! I hope this means that she likes carrots. I should mention that carrots are messy! When we got to the day care, she had spit up some on her white onesie (of course I chose white this morning), and her collar was completely orange. I wonder if they stain - probably. We'll try more tonight if there's time.

National Parks

The Boston Globe held a photo contest of photos of the National Parks. They posted the finalists, and all I can say is Wow.

http://www.boston.com/travel/getaways/us/galleries/parkscontestwinners/

I also think it's cool that I've actually been to many of the parks in the photos! All from our road trips. It makes me want to see more.

Visit to Buffalo

Since last Friday, we have been in Buffalo visiting family. Annie has gotten to visit with a lot of family, including her grandmas:



And her cousin Maddie:

(Along with her Aunt Alex and Uncle Rob, of course). It's been quite fun. Last night, Uncle Rob had a birthday party, and there were lots of people for Annie to see - her Aunts Dode and Clare Marie, and some of her aunts' cousins. There were lots of people there, and pretty soon it was time for Annie to go to bed for the night! :) Annie's current bedtime is about 8:30pm.

Today we got to visit more with Dode and Clare Marie, and in the evening, my mom took us out to dinner at a cool restaurant in the West Side of Buffalo, called Left Bank. Aside from very good food, their chocolate espresso cake was pretty amazing. :) (My mom and I split it).

Tomorrow we have more visiting to do. We're hopefully going to see Aunt Mary, and then Uncle Al and Aunt Joyce. In the evening, Dode is throwing a Bon Voyage/Farewell party for Clare Marie, who returns to Cameroon on Thursday. She only comes back to Buffalo every 2-3 years, so we've been trying to get in some good visiting time with her while she's in town. The last time she was in town was in 2006, and a lot has happened since then. I wonder what our lives will look like during the next time she comes to Buffalo.

On Wednesday, we return to Boston and get ready for the fall and all the changes that will happen soon. To be completely honest, I'm dreading it. But there's nothing you can do but move forward.

The dog and pony show

I'm tired, but I knew I would be. Being solely responsible for Annie for over a week has been pretty exhausting, and I have a lot of respect and admiration for single parents. At least I know that Jim's going to show up tomorrow and help me with the night duty. And at least I've had some help from family this week. It must be really difficult to be alone and have no end in sight.

Earlier this week, Annie and I spent a night at Jim's family's cottage in Barker, New York. It was fun to spend some time with all the family - Annie's grandma and great-grandma, her aunt Alex and uncle Rob and her cousin Madeleine. Annie had a tough night, but I think that one of the reasons for that was fixed with a tablespoon of prune juice (Annie's first non-formula food). Thank goodness for my mother-in-law, who rocked Annie to sleep in the middle of the night several times when I was at my wits' end.

We have done a lot of visiting. We have seen: Great-grandma McAvoy, Grandma Kogler, Aunt Alex, Uncle Rob, Madeleine, Grandma Donna, Uncle Al and Aunt Joyce, Gretchen and Doey, Mr. and Mrs. Heckmann, Vicky, Aunt Dode, and Aunt Clare Marie. We are still going to see my cousins Sue, Marilyn and Kathy and their spouses and kids, great-grandma Betty, Aunt Patty, my cousins Carly and Cody, Aunt Luann and Uncle Jim, Jim's cousins Kate and Carrie, and probably some more neighbors. My mom was joking that we're a regular dog-and-pony show. :) It's about right. Here are a few photos.

Annie with her grandmas:

Grandma Kogler (in front of the yarrow that matched Annie's duck outfit):
Grandma Donna (at Shakespeare in Delaware Park):
Aunts Dode and Clare Marie:
With Great-grandma Mac, Madeleine, and Aunt Alex:

Since our night in Barker, Annie has given me two good nights (both with a stretch of 5-6 hours of sleep) and is just as cute as she can be. I can't wait for Jim to get here.

Smiles and Shakespeare

Guess what! Annie smiles! And not just because of gas!

Yesterday, Annie met her Aunt Clare Marie and saw her Aunt Dode again. Then she slept while her grandma and I got lunch at an interesting little cafe in Snyder called O3.

We also went to Shakespeare in Delaware Park in the evening, and brought salads and a DiPaulo's pizza. (DiPaulo's makes the world's best pizza. Really. We haven't found anything like it anywhere else). The Tempest was showing, but because we were too far back, we couldn't see anything. Plus, there wasn't a whole lot of action - it was mostly just dialog. So we cut out at intermission and went for a walk in the park instead. There was a wedding at the Delaware Park Casino, where Jim and I had our wedding reception. Very pretty. I can't believe our wedding was almost 10 years ago.

Today I'm hoping to do some family visiting. Then tomorrow, I'm off to Barker for a couple of days at the lake!

Reclaiming Baby Status

Now that Annie and I are out of the house, Solomon has reclaimed his rightful position as baby of the house:
In this photo, he is sleeping on the changing table, right where Annie's head usually is when we change her. It is the highest perch in the room, and I'm told that the cats often defend their territory by sitting in the highest place in their territory. So there you go.

I told Jim that he should try putting a diaper on Solomon, since anyone who leaves the changing table must have a diaper on. Jim said that he'd probably lose one of his arms if he tried to do that.

Nieces, aunts, grandmothers, friends and a grand old city

I'm in Buffalo til July 6. We drove in on Wednesday and it took 9 hours. Ack. The drive is usually 7 hours, but stopping for bottle feedings will tack on the time.

After some sleep (and feedings), we went to Alex's. Click on the link below to read more about that:

http://afuss.blogspot.com/2009/06/family-time.html

Today would've been my parents' 38th wedding anniversary. For lunch, Mom, Gretchen, Annie and I went to Merge, a new restaurant with a lot of vegetarian options. It had really great food (including an interesting kale salad that we're going to try to replicate tonight). It's located in downtown Buffalo on Delaware Avenue, somewhat near Spot Coffee. It's nice to see new businesses opening in downtown. After lunch, we went to the cemetery and then back home, where I took a short power nap. After several rather spectacular thunderstorms over the last 24 hours, the weather is sunny and hot. Hopefully it'll cool down enough so we can eat dinner on my mom's back porch, and then take a walk at Niawanda Park.

New York, New York

We just got back from a 2-day trip to New York, NY. It was really fun. We took Amtrak in on Saturday afternoon, and came back to Boston yesterday evening. During our trip we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge:


And saw the great view:


And then we spent some time at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn, which is all about the New York City subway and bus lines. It was quite interesting and Jim was in heaven because he loves all things having to do with trains.

During our trip, we also got to see our friends Jessica and Dameion, who live in Queens. We ate at a tiny Turkish restaurant near Times Square called Turkish Cuisine. Not too original on the name, but the food was quite delicious.

We got back yesterday evening and I had today off for Veteran's Day. I made lemon bread. I think it came out pretty well. I used the 3 lemons I got off my lemon tree from this summer. It was nice because the recipe called for both the juice and the lemon rind. So I got to use up most of the whole lemon. I used a recipe from James Beard. I really like his zucchini bread recipe, and I'll bet this one is pretty good too.

I was going to blog about the morning sickness issue, maternity clothes, and pregnancy in general, but honestly? Why should I put that all in a public blog? I really need to go talk to my friends who have been through this, as I think it'll be more useful.

So I guess that's it for now.