Longwood Gardens

We found time during the week to take the folks to Pennsylvania to visit Longwood Gardens. It used to be owned by Pierre duPont as a weekend home (I can't even imagine what his regular home must have looked like!) but now the house and the grounds are open to anyone willing to pay admission. There are many, many beautiful gardens, three (!) treehouses, and 4.5 acres of indoor conservatories. Apparently Mr. DuPont really liked plants.

Isn't that a nifty treehouse???

We're sure glad he did, because the place is really neat. The conservatory was doing an orchid display while we were there. Now I don't know about you, but I've never even bought a $15 orchid from Walmart because I'm pretty sure I'd never get the darned thing to bloom again. No such problem for the gardeners at Longwood. Their orchids were blooming quite nicely.
My mom is the plant-lover in her house, but I think even my dad enjoyed the scenery.

The Statue

This is my parents' third visit to see us here in New Jersey, and they hadn't yet seen the Statue of Liberty. My dad was there quite awhile ago when he was a college kid, but my mom still hadn't seen it. Since we only live about an hour away from Lady Liberty there was really no excuse for this! We didn't miss the opportunity this visit, though. The kiddos and I stayed home and we sent Grandma and Paw-paw on their way to see the big statue. Looks like they had a nice time, and Mom could finally check that off her list.

More adventures with the Dermodys

Next up Mom, Maddie and I hit the Philadelphia International Flower Show, which is the largest indoor flower show in the world. There were, not surprisingly, a lot of flowers there, arranged in interesting and artistic displays. We had a nice time and I think Maddie enjoyed her special "Gramma and Mommy time" with us. Paw-paw volunteered to stay home with Claire and Colin, since Claire had school. It was so nice of him to take one for the team!

Phil's gone, but reinforcements are here!

Phil had to go to Europe for two weeks. Tough life he leads, huh? Lucky for me, though, my parents listened when I whined about how hard it was going to be without him here for TWO WHOLE WEEKS and they came out for a visit. On a side note: when did I become such a wimpy military wife? Two weeks is nothing! And yet, I have become a wimp and two weeks seemed very much like a big something. I need to get over this before he next deploys...

Mom and Dad (aka Gramma and Paw-paw) got here on Friday night and we hit the ground running on Saturday. Off to an animal farm!









Paws Farm is not actually a working farm anymore. But there are lots of animals there, which is good enough for my kids. The girls enjoyed being pretend veterinarians. Colin liked all of the critters, but he was especially pleased when he almost caught a baby chick.

The outdoor nature of the place was great for my stir-crazy girls and the weather was perfect for a picnic lunch. We even had a chicken friend who joined us for lunch (luckily we were eating ham sandwiches or it could have been awkward)!

Camden Aquarium

From 2011-02 Camden Aquarium

(photo above is "clickable" if you'd like to see some larger pictures from the day)

Yep, you read that correctly. We went to Camden. And we even dragged some friends along with us. The aquarium and its parking lot are not so scary. And the aquarium is actually quite nice!

Get to know Colin

Our little guy is getting so big so fast, I thought I should take a minute and jot down a few things that make him, him.

At almost 19 months old our son is still a terrible sleeper. Don't get me wrong, he can be convinced to occasionally sleep (which is a huge improvement on where he was a year ago) but it takes quite a bit of fussing and carrying on -- from us. He needs at least three books before naps and bedtime and he chooses them, thank you very much. Don't even try to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar if he wants Dora's Camping Trip (aka "Doo-Dah"). Then comes the rocking, the pacing, the gently placing of the kiddo into the crib, and then the shushing until you can carefully sneak out of the room. (His sisters have got to wonder where they went wrong, because we would have NEVER put up with that crap from them!) But he WILL go to sleep, so we're feeling pretty good about that. Unfortunately he still wakes up halfway through his naps and can not put himself back to sleep. We often end up with him finishing his nap in our arms. Or here:

Or the floor:

He really doesn't care WHERE he takes the second half of his nap, as long as it's not in his crib!

He misses his daddy terribly when Phil goes on a trip for work. Colin will ask me throughout the day, "Dada? Daaadaaaa! DADA?" until I finally tell him, "Daddy's at work." This almost always gets the disappointed response, "Awww."

He subsists almost entirely on:
grapes,
waffles,
and dill pickles.

And don't cross him, or he will freeze you with his icy glare:



But we've got his number on the icy glare. If you give one right back to him he can't keep a straight face. He slowly cracks...

...until he's giggling and has forgotten why you had fallen out of favor with him.

He's such a funny little guy. He seems to be learning new words and skills all of the time now. He wants nothing more than to be allowed access to his sisters' room, so he's constantly trying to be a big kid like them. And even though he steals their dollies, wrecks their tea sets, and has difficulty sharing his trains, his sisters love him to pieces too. Who could resist this face?

Step away from my pudding!

Peas in a Pod (or a laundry basket)

Ahhh, the laundry basket. Such a fun toy. At any moment one's mother can declare that it's NOT a toy and that all children must get out, but until that time it's SO MUCH FUN. It has endless possibilities for pretend play. It can be a boat, a train, a cage, a bed, a platform from which to launch oneself or one's siblings...

I think they were in a choo-choo here:


Claire (poor thing) got to be the engine and do all of the pushing. She didn't seem to mind too much, though.


And here Colin is using it as a stage while he plays a drum solo on his sister's head.

More snow pics

After I typed that last blog, Colin and I joined Phil and the girls outside for some snowy fun. We even picked up some shovels and helped. There are no photos of me shoveling snow, though, so you'll just have to take my word on that.

Plenty of pics of Colin shoveling. He worked so hard!


After we got the driveway clear Phil and the girls started on a snowman. They got a little carried away with their ball-rolling, though, so we had a little snow-people village in our front yard when all was said and done.

They're calling for more snow next week. It's pretty to look at, but we can definitely see why snow-blowers are so popular!

More snow!

We woke up to another winter wonderland this morning. All of the snow we've gotten in the past few weeks has been light, fluffy, powdery snow. The stuff we woke up to today was NOT light or powdery. We had sleet and freezing rain sandwiched in between snowfalls last night. The combination made for some really heavy shoveling. Poor Phil went out and made an effort to get the driveway clear again. The girls quickly put on their gear to go "help" him (but it seems to take him much longer when they're helping. Hmmm...).

Don't they all look like they're having fun?

Where was I, you ask? I was slaving away in the house, in my toasty robe with a warm cup of coffee, feeding Colin. It's very tough work, feeding waffles and grapes to an 18 month-old. Really.

And here's poor Bailey in his doggy-escape chute that Phil dug for him:
I think the snow would have been over his head if Phil hadn't dug him a path! According to our very scientific measuring (yard stick in the middle of the driveway) we received 10 inches of really heavy, packable snow last night. I see a snowman in our future.

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad D

It's been forty years since these two crazy kids decided to get married:


And I'm so glad they did! They provided me with a wonderful example of marriage and gave me such a loving start to life. I sure wish I could magically transport myself to Illinois to see them as they renew their vows after mass today. Cheers to you, Mom and Dad, for forty happy years and many more to come. Love you both so much. Happy Anniversary!

Colin's favorite song

I know I'm not singing the right words. There's supposed to be something about a bob-tailed nag and a bay:



We sing it with extra doo-dahs since that's Colin's favorite part. :)

Our new Chihuahua

OK, he's not really new OR a Chihuahua. That's our Shih Tzu Bailey-dog, who will be 14 years old this New Year's Eve. He got his hair cut this week and his fur was really matted so they had to shave him. He looks so different!

Bailey, before his G.I. haircut

And, with our recent cold weather, he's been feeling chilly. We have him wearing a sweater around the house (no kidding) but he needed a little more insulation for going outside.

Bailey, stylishly warm in a turtleneck sweater and a hooded fleece jacket

He borrowed a fleece hoodie from Colin's bin of too-small clothes. Who knew Bailey wore a size 6-9 months?

Happy Birthday, Bailey-boy!