Flashback Friday

On December 12, 2004, Mary and her friend Caitlyn posed with a washi project in our kitchen in Yokohama. All these years later they're both working moms but back then they were just seventh graders living in Japan.

First Days of School and Last Days of Summer

First things first! In the past week, all the grandkids have had a first day of school. Last week, after being gone for the summer, she rejoined her friends at her Polish daycare.

Next up was Owen. On Monday he was excited to go to his very first day of daycare ever, on his mom's first day back at work after spending five months at home with him. 

Tummy time is great place to meet new friends. Owen wasted no time in meeting other babies at daycare.

Not to be outdone, Lloyd and Freddie headed back in style to the first day of their new daycare school year. They've both moved up to a new class. But there are changes ahead. By the first of October, these two will be on their way to Minneapolis and a brand new daycare. 

But wait! There's been more happening than just the first day of school. You've heard of plus ones? Well here we have a plus two. Owen took his mom and dad to his very first wedding. He wore a vintage 1989 outfit, compliments of his Uncle Peter.

It's 1989 vs. 2025. Who wore it best? (Answer: it's a tie!)

Owen also got to spend a week at the Maryland shore and experience his first time "in" the Atlantic Ocean. 

Meanwhile, Lloyd and Freddie wound down their summer by catching up on their reading.

Over in Warsaw, Chef Rosie celebrated being back home in her two kitchens. (She has a kitchen in her bedroom and she shares her parents' kitchen with them.) Her dad got her a made-in-Elkader apron.

A few days later, Coach Rosie went to a small town in Poland with her mom and dad and a contingent of their American friends for the Mölkky World Championships. They competed and I'm told had an absolute blast. Sounds like a great finale to the summer.
 

Breaking Blog News

Owen has met his Uncle John! The meetup happened today in Baltimore. It's a prelude to Monday, when John returns with reinforcements and Owen gets to meet the Aunt Troy, Lloyd, and Freddie.

For now, Uncle John is off to Dewey Beach in Delaware for a Bedik family weekend. 

Meanwhile, this morning in Warsaw, Peter introduced his family to his 8th grade English teacher Ms. Delaney. 

Rosie made a friend and got to borrow a cool hat. Peter, Jessa, and Rosie are in Warsaw for a couple more days enjoying the start of summer now that school's over, then they're onto Amsterdam for a couple days while en route to Tucson, where they arrive next Wednesday!

Bye Bye Baltimore

We've had a fun month in Baltimore. When we got here on April 13, Owen wasn't even quite a month old. Now he's already 7 1/2 weeks old and many pounds heavier. I don't need to tell you that we loved getting to spend so much time with him. We left town yesterday and now we're on our way to Warsaw. But before we left we had a whirlwind last week in Baltimore.

On Saturday we gathered at Mary and Andy's house to watch the Kinetic Sculpture Race, sponsored by the American Visionary Arts Museum.

The alligator was my favorite kinetic sculpture. All sculptures had to ride on dry land, in the water, and in mud. We only watched them on dry land though.

Peter and Jessa's college friend Ana - also a Harrison family friend - drove down from Pennsylvania and spent the day with us. We always enjoy seeing her.

The next day our niece and nephew, Kelsey and Kyle, drove up from DC and we got to catch up with them.

That same evening, Andy's parents came over and we spent some time outside while Owen slept in the fresh air.

Other highlights from the week were that Owen and I got to be twins when we realized we had the same fashion taste.

And it was great to keep getting to spend quiet weekday time with Mary and Owen.

I treasure the time we got to be with this sweet baby these past four weeks. I wish we could spend even more time here, but with three cousins that we want to be with just as much, we've become a traveling grandparent road show. Which is a pretty wonderful thing to get to be.




 

Owen's Week

Owen turned 6 weeks old this week. He went out with his grandparents and parents on a windy and chilly Saturday evening.

His mom and dad came over for dinner. Owen wore jeans.

He came over and hung out on our deck.

He played on the floor with his mom and grandma.

And in general he just enjoyed being cute.

Baltimore and Beyond

We've spent the last two weeks at our new Baltimore house. It's my first time here and I really like it. The house is great and we're a ten minute walk to Mary and Andy's house. Restaurants and grocery shopping are a short walk away. We leave tomorrow but we're returning in April to meet the new baby.

We came here to celebrate these two as they wait for the baby, who's due in three weeks. Last weekend the grandparents hosted a baby shower.

The shower was at a restaurant down the street from Mary and Andy's house. All four grandparents are in agreement that we're very excited for the arrival of this baby! It'll be our fourth grandchild in four years, and Mark and Eileen's first grandchild.

Eileen procured a cake that's more than blog-worthy. It was both beautiful and delicious.

Last weekend we went out to brunch. The weather was quite cold the first week we were here with lows in the teens and 20s. But it warmed up a lot in the second week with highs in the 60s.

I'm training for a 10k that I'm running next weekend, so I had non-negotiable running days. Even on the cold days it was clear and, best of all, dry. 

We played trivia the other night and took first place in a field of over 10 teams. And yep, I was very excited about this. Everybody else took it in stride.

But enough about us. Lloyd has a soccer shirt and he likes to play soccer with his daycare friends.

Freddie doesn't have a soccer shirt (yet) but he has this sweet face and toys galore.

Rosie and Peter and Jessa went on a trip this week, as it was  February break. First they took an overnight train to Vienna.

Then they took another overnight train to Florence and spent a few days there. All reports are they had a great time. They got home today.

Byyyyyye January

I haven't done one regular blog post all month. So here I am, making up for a lot of lost blogging time. Let's start at the beginning of the month. Or, more accurately, the very end of last month. We went to Pasadena for the Rose Parade with our friends Tucson friends Tim and Mary. Here we watched the floats being made.

We also visited the Huntington Gardens in San Marino. 

We toured the Gamble House, an arts and crafts residence in Pasadena.

And we went to the Santa Monica Pier. 

The highlight was the parade. It wasn't very cold, contrary to all appearances. The coda to this entire trip was, of course, the fires that came just a few days later. There aren't words for any of that.

After the parade festivities were over, Brad and I headed south on our way to the San Diego airport. One of our stops was to have dinner with the Reckinger crew. And we got to meet our great niece Ruby. Such a sweetie.

While in California I ran a tune-up 5k and received an unexpected first place medal among all females in the race. Not first female in my age group. First female. I have to brag it up, but to be honest it was a small and obviously not at all competitive field and it will likely never happen again.

After our time in California, Brad flew to Baltimore and closed on our first ever second home. While he was there, Baltimore got some snow and bitterly cold temps. He spent three weeks getting the house furnished and put together. I've yet to see it in person but I'm looking forward to a trip there in just a couple weeks.

Meanwhile, I drove home to Tucson. After a few days I was joined by our Wisconsin friends, Mary and Paul. They stayed at our house for three nights and we had a wonderful visit.

Meanwhile, the grandkids kept busy. Lloyd played peek-a-boo.

And he kept the bear well-nourished.

Freddie turned 6 months old and he started eating solid food.

He also started trying to figure out why his big brother is so interested in dump trucks.

And he worked on his standing.

Meanwhile over in Warsaw, Rosie worked on her standing too. Standing tall, that is, in an amazing outfit.

Slowly but surely the dark winter days in Warsaw are getting longer and lighter. But while it's still winter, Rosie's learning that a little pink - or in her case a lot of pink - really brightens up one's outlook.

Finally there's grandchild #4, who will make their appearance in about two months. Mary's 32 weeks along. She and Andy got to see a lot of Brad while he was in Baltimore as he stayed with them for two weeks. And our new place is just a few blocks from their house. Here is Mary, out to breakfast with Brad. It worked out that while he was there she had one holiday, around two snow days, and some late starts due to weather. Next month we'll be in Baltimore as we're hosting a baby shower with Andy's parents. And with that, I'm considering January to be caught up!