Harvard vs. Yale

It's Alumni Lax Game Day! Mark, Eddie, Pete - and, of course, UNCLE MIKE and cousins Trip and Wilson! - so great to see you! Isabelle and Daddy in front of Dillon Field House...










Isabelle and I left the field for a little while for a performance of The Three Muskateers! Go Auntie Shaine (one of the three remale Muskateers)!

Impromptu BBQ

Thank you Chris and Geni for the great Sunday BBQ! We had a blast ringing in the summer... and that says A LOT since we were planning to have our first boating excursion today! To escape the midday heat, Isabelle found every opportunity to jump into the sprinklers!

An Eventful Last Day at 19 Months

Isabelle's last day as a 19-month-old included (on the downside) ear infection and asthma diagnoses and (on the upside) making it through a WHOLE day in same underpants - not one accident from 7AM to 10PM! (Today was Day 6 in underwear.)

We knew something was really wrong when she came home from daycare last night and announced, "I want to go to bed now! Bed, now!" She wants lots of things "now," but bed is typically not one of them. And it was clear she was feeling achy, "My elbow! My knee!" she repeated. She didn't want any dinner, and also had no interest in pull ups for bedtime. Even though we haven't put the mattress pad cover on yet, we don't have any interest in forcing pull ups when she wants underwear. As we snuggled beside her in the middle of the night, I awoke with a warm, wet feeling that could only mean one thing. Just as I thought it, she lifted her head up slightly--eyes still closed, still fast asleep--and whispered, "Tinkle."

About the asthma - doctor says she has a mild case. He gave us a nebulizer, a handful of prescriptions (including something with steroids), and sent us on our way. We're in the process of tracking down a specialist in Boston to learn more. In the meantime, Daddy found a way to celebrate Isabelle's first ear infection (as you can see from the red paint on her dress, she also spent a good part of the day at the easel):

I Love Baby Showers!

Now there are four words I never thought would come out of my mouth! Congratulations, Tammy & Greg! I loved being at Tammy's baby shower today - all my ooooohing and aaaaaahing caused the person next to me to say, "Do you want another baby? You must!" No, but it's incredible to relive things... I am just in awe of my new memories.

Feels Like Summer's Here!

The new bike path is amazing! We took our first bike ride of the season today, and feel like we're on vacation as we discover a whole new North Falmouth! There are hiking trails behind Bourne Farm - and as we neared them, Isabelle was ready to walk. The pack rat that she is, she clutched Abby Cadabra and her sip cup the whole way and enjoyed getting off the path even more than staying on it!




We were on the lookout for horse poop which we were lucky enough to spot - and then when nature called, Isabelle was excited to tinkle where the horses go. Daddy suggested using the fence as a makeshift potty seat, and it worked like a charm!

It's day three in underwear, and things are going great. We were worried yesterday when we decided to go to Boston to visit Briana, Matt and Anika that we were setting her up for failure. But she didn't really skip a beat. We think she actually held it so much on the ride up that she gave herself a little stomach ache. "My belly button!" she wailed at one point. Accidents do happen (with tinkle only) - but she catches herself early in them, and is definitely trying to "keep Elmo dry."

When we met Auntie Briana (four months pregnant!) and Anika at the Barking Crab (how have we never been there by boat??), Isabelle immediately lifted up her dress to show off her underpants. Uncle Matt skipped out of his conference a little early to join us - and he and Dennis had to order some hot dog rolls to supplement the crab leg/steamer menu! Isabelle supplemented later with all of Anika's orange slices. And we all supplemented even more with ice cream at Faneuil Hall!

My mint chocolate chip cone didn't last long in my hands! Isabelle is an MCC convert! This is the last time you'll see her in these shoes - on our walk to the swan boats (closed for another day-boo), she decided all shoes and socks must be abandoned. On the way home we stopped at Stride Rite to have her foot measured - sure enough, most of her shoes are a half size too small. She was ecstatic walking - bounding - out of the store in her new summer shoes.

This morning we made a quick trip to Target so that I could exchange an embarrassing number of shoes I'd gotten in the wrong size (when I bought them, Jane told the checkout lady I had triplets--it really was the only logical way to account for so many shoes!) While I was looking at some wrapping paper, Isabelle started playing with some items in the home goods section. Then she presented me with a scented candle she'd positioned on top of a pretty paper plate with an ocean scene, "Here you go, Mommy - for you." When I looked closely it was a Mother's Day candle with this poem written on it, "Roses are red, violets are blue, you're the best Mommy, and I love you." Of course I bought it, and I suspect 10 years from now that candle will still be on display somewhere in our home.

Dennis called from work as we were leaving the store - "I just want to be with you guys," he said. Love that. We decided to have a picnic lunch on the deck - with amazing Portugese bread grilled sandwiches from the Wild Harbor General Store. "Where have you been all winter?" the owner asked us. "Uh, nowhere... a quarter mile away." Why haven't we been there all winter??!! It doesn't even make sense to us... we're just like the tourists - we consider it a summer spot. No more!

We biked back to the General Store later to fill up our tires, but the air hose was missing. Paul had one in his trunk. Jim has one, too. "It's a Dad thing," Dennis says-as I shoot a glance toward Isabelle. "Yeah - time to get one," said Dennis smiling.

Back on the bike path (did I mention how awesome it is?) we can hardly go a tenth of a mile without stopping to talk to someone we know or get to know someone we don't. (Shout out to Windy, Lilly, Faye and Kate. We decided the dogs names weren't important to us - except I seem to remember something furry named Skippy.)

Isabelle had the right idea on the way home! She proceeded to sleep for two more hours, until 6PM. Dennis picked up dinner at Talk of the Town, and Let Isabelle "drive" from the neighbor's driveway into ours.

There are two opposing views about where we live:

The Optimist
We live in a prestigious section of Falmouth with a pretty, new home on one side and a lake to the other. Behind us is a scenic bike path that travels all the way to the world-reknowned Woods Hole. Nature trails, cranberry bogs, horses and wildlife... the new bike path is already changing our lives for the better.

The Pessimist
We live on a highway near a strip mall. Oh, and criminals might travel on the bike path.

Good thing we're both Os!

Elmo Underwear!

Today was Isabelle's first full day in underwear! We were planning to start full-time undies in a couple days, when we could be with her round-the-clock. But this morning she insisted on underwear, and there was no way we were going to force a diaper on her when she's screaming, "Underwear! Underwear!" As Auntie Briana said, "She'll tell us when she's ready." And today was her day.

I didn't think I could not love Little Kids any more than I already do... but today I fell more in love with them. When we announced the underwear situation to Bonnie this morning, she was so excited. When Dennis picked her up, she said, "Tammy says, 'Don't go back!'" Their support not only means the world to us, but, I believe, means the difference between underwear success and underwear failure. Thank you, LKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Isabelle had two accidents today at school - both in the afternoon. And tonight there were two accidents and three goes. I think all of this is pretty damn amazing for someone who goes the bathroom about 1,000 times a day! We are definitely not going back to diapers. I've been very skeptical about the whole pull-ups thing, but Auntie Mo has convinced me that they're a good idea for nighttime.

I'm so proud of Our Little Sweetie. This was a BIG day.

Happy Easter!

We spent Easter in the Catskills - specifically in Wyndham, NY at Mo's brother's ski house. Stunning home and views! And Isabelle had a blast with cousins Trip, Wil, Maggie and Quinny.



We went bear hunting (Trip, Wil and Maggie proudly returned with fungus), stunned patrons at the "Minerva" Fondu Restaurant, recorded the best worst performance of Mack the Knife, sang a rendition of Here Comes Peter Cottontail that included verses from She'll be Comin' Around the Mountain, were befuddled by an 11:30AM Easter mass start time, debated the virtues of such pressing news stories as Valerie Bertinelli's weight loss (I argue she no longer looks like her) and Giselle's public discussion of Tom Brady's son (what is she thinking?), and filled the house with tickle time laughter.



Isabelle painted her very first Easter eggs, went on her very first Easter egg hunt, and--in Matthew McConaughey style--discovered naked bongo drumming. Anytime someone started tapping a beat, she'd tug on her clothes, "Off! Off!" This caused a series of jokes about what this means come college.

The kids went crazy for the bunny cake Auntie Mo made, and--as you can see from the mass gathering of blue jellybeans in between the bunny's eyes--Dennis went a little crazy with the jellybean decorations.




The Best Sharing Award of the weekend goes to Quinn!



Nana's Easter ham and carrot casserole were delicious--(and she had no problem eating them despite all the chipped teeth the anesthesiologist told her she had)! And at the million dollar pie country store, Isabelle can't decide if she should pet the kitties, watch the Vietnamese pot belly pigs eat, chase the chickens, visit the bunnies, pet the doggy, or eat the chocolate donut she "insisted" on having (what better way to wash down a jellybean breakfast?).

Isabelle now has her very first lacrosse stick...a pink, Lily STX... (Thanks, Uncle Mike!) which she'll bring to the Harvard/Brown game tomorrow!

In Isabelle's Easter basket:
-3 books (Haiku Baby, Home For A Bunny, The Golden Egg Book)
-Flashing light and glitter bouncing ball
-Kid chopsticks
-Abby Cadabra doll
- Bear shaped bubbles
-Heart necklace and bracelet
- Two pairs of sunglasses

No Diaper Dance!

If She Becomes A Doctor Someday...

this picture will be priceless.

Little Ladybug

The ladybug raincoat, boots and umbrella were supposed to go in Isabelle's Easter basket, but I couldn't resist giving them to her early! She loves pretending it's raining inside and doing her new ladybug jig. She is also still very focused on Anika's birthday.
Isabelle helps us cook all the time, but we've never made cookies together. I decided Easter cookies would be a good place to start. But I realized pretty quickly how unprepared I was to even make a simpe sugar cookie: no butter, no mixer, no rolling pin, no cookie cutters, no cookie sheets. And what about the frosting and sprinkles? I found most of what I needed at Williams Sonoma - including a precious little pink rolling pin and monkey spatula for Isabelle. The rest came from Super Stop & Shop (including--sorry, Briana--the ready-made sugar cookie mix.) Isabelle enjoyed patting, rolling and tasting the dough, but found her greatest joy in shaking and eating the multi-colored sprinkles. We made bunnies and baby chicks -- all unrecognizable shapes by the time they came out of the oven because I'd placed them too close together on the pan and they all melded into one another, creating one massive cookie by the time they were done cooking. Other happenings: When Dennis picked Isbabelle up from Little Kids the other day, he bumped into a mother he'd never met before. "Isabelle. The infamous Isabelle," she said to Dennis. Her new favorite sentences are "That's awesome" and "Here you go" (which sounds remarkably like "tinkle," and, therefore, is cause for some funny misinterpretations). Isabelle insisted on wearing underwear the other night. "No diaper! Underwear!" She loves her Elmo underpants and is totally ready to wear them full time. When she's naked it's amazing - she'll disappear from a room, and we find her sitting on the potty. She just takes herself right into the bathroom. Poops are never an issue - always on the potty - and tinkle is about a 50-75% success rate. We're starting to feel guilty that we're the one who are holding up the underwear process. We started her in them for a couple days a week before we left for Turkey -but stopped because we didn't think it'd be a good idea to have extended travel so soon after. We're pretty committed to officially making the switch when we're back from Easter. We've started playing the Brain Quest games. So much of it is intuitive (the kinds of questions we ask when we're reading), but I still really like them--and the size is great for travel. Some new favorite books: "Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes" (an amazing out-loud read); "Poetry Speaks to Children" accompanying CD has some of the poets reading their own work--including Robert Frost and Langston Hughes); "Do You Do a Didgeridoo?" (rhymes will blow you away); "Where is the Green Sheep." And we are so happy to have a new copy of "My Favorite Things" (Thanks, Grami for replacing our lost one!) Isabelle's right-hand ring fingernail is still healing from getting stuck in the basement closet door two months ago. She is constantly inspecting the nail asking, "What happened here? What happened?" We recieved our first tantrum report from daycare this week. Two in one day! The incidents that caused them: (1) After going potty, Isabelle chose a non-Elmo stamp for her hand. When it was applied, she flipped out that it was not Elmo. (2) She asked for a drink of water, immediately poured it into the trash and was then refused a second.

Congratulations, Daddy!

Daddy is savoring his first political victory! At town meeting this week, a proposed tax on residents who rent out their homes on a short-term basis was indefinitely postponed at the request of selectmen. Selectman had originally favored the tax, but Daddy ran quite an educational campaign against it, and succeeded in winning over a lot of hearts and minds. He was even invited to testify at the State House this week.

As this Falmouth Enterprise columnist said: "Dennis Murphy had it right. This tax could not come at a worse time, when a slumping real estate market, dwindling discretionary dollars, and global economic slowdown have us all feeling the economic jitters. To ask our own citizens to pony up more just isn't fair. I know friends who do, as Selectman Brent Putnam suggested, move out of their houses for a week or a few in the summer and camp out because they rely on the income from renting their house to balance the household budget. They are not getting rich, just getting by. Why don't the Selectmen get that?"

Way to go, Daddy!

Turkish Tea Party

There's a lot of apple tea in our house! That's because we plan to have an apple tea party for Isabelle's second birthday - she so loved the apple tea in Istanbul! And as we found out last night, we love having apple tea parties!



Here's what happens when Isabelle runs out:



President Obama isn't being met with the same welcome in Turkey that we were three weeks ago. They just arrested a Syrian guy living in Turkey who had assassination plans. While we were there we did hear people talking Obama's Turkey "problem" - one of his campaign promises was to classify as genocide the Ottoman Turk slaughter of Armenians a century ago. And even though it isn't officially declared, the mere mention of it has outraged the country.

Day at the Zoo

On our way home from CT, we stopped at the Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford - cute little zoo! Great black bears, elephants and buffalo! Isabelle loved riding the train, and waving to everyone. "Hi, people! Hi, people!"

At dinner at Cucina sul Mare (again, the best meatballs EVER!) she broke out a new phrase: "Thank you, much!"

Happy Birthday, Anika

Dennis and Isabelle met me at the airport, and we headed straight to CT for Anika's second birthday party, singing Happy Birthday the whole way.

It was a combo hat and ladybug party (selected by the birthday girl herself!) and we opted for a Turkish theme--Isabelle as the TurkCell character, Dennis as Sultan and me in an itchy whirling dervish hat. We have to admit, we were quite surprised to walk in and see no one wearing a hat! Could it be because we were hours late? But Diana and Charlie didn't have any trouble getting back into the spirit of things!

The mini lemon cupcakes had fresh flowers, and it was great that all of Anika's grandparents were here (Mary and Tom making the trip from Florida!) When Anika was opening her presents, I shared some additional gifts from Afghanistan - and Elli was resplendent in the traditional (and jingly!) handmade dress, pants and headscarf.

Around 9pm, everyone was fading fast (Anika still fighting some pink eye). Isabelle and I fell asleep in about five minutes (after a quick--and requested--story about the doggy who took a plane to Paris). At 1am, though, I was wide awake, and there's really no future sleep in sight! The next morning Isabelle pointed to the bathroom window (where she had waved goodbye to Bonnie the night before), and said, "More Bonnie! More Bonnie!" More Bonnie, indeed! Auntie Bonnie made quite an impression last weekend letting Isabelle pop bubblegum bubbles and telling stories about a beautiful princess named Isabelle.


Cousin RJ tries (unsuccessfully) to keep little fingers out of the frosting!



Throughout the party Ethan would take my dervish hat and exclaim, "I'm pretending to be Auntie Beth!" I could never capture a picture of it, though.