Spring Photo Flashback

Some older photos I wanted to put up....
These are from the spring on a day.  Abbey has changed so much since this photo.  When I stopped at the pediatrician's office the other day to get Adam's physical and shot records for school, she acted like she had PTSD, throwing herself at the door and crying and say BYE BYE BYE.  Guess she remembers her last visit.  Adam started crying as we left because he liked the books in the waiting room.  I asked him in the car if he could pull himself together to go to the school to drop off the paperwork.  He took a drink of water, sniffed and said "Elmo Feel Better School".  It was cute watching him "pull himself together".  But Abbey flipped out when we walked into there, too.  Sigh.  I'm going to take her some place new every day when Adam starts school to get her more used to the idea.  I think I've figured out with her that if it's some place different or unknown, she gets nervous and reacts.  At first, this trait irritated me but lately I'm feeling very protective over her because of it.  Yes, she's capable of tantrums but that's not what this is about in public places.  It happens in dark or hot or cramped places and I want to help her figure out other ways of coping.

Anyhow, I think I got out the camera because Adam spent the day this way, which is rare.  I could eat this kid's cheeks.  Next Friday, I take him in to meet his teacher.

So I tried to take a photo of us together and this is what I got.  He's been making this expression since he was born.

And this expression scares the crap out of me.  I was experimenting with the settings on my camera.

Beginning of summer, isn't she pretty?

Does this need an explanation?  He uses that hat all the time...especially when he's being Humpty Dumpty.  And occasionally when he's wearing no clothes.  A but Village People.

A day were they didn't feel good.  The A-team and their monkey blankets!

And Bethany stopped by and she got hugs from Abbey!  Like I said, Bethany is the "baby whisperer". And so good with Abbey!

Or could it be that Abbey was trying to steal her jewelry??  Love this "caught" look.

Pam's Visit

OK, this post is about Pam's visit and this is the only picture I got of her inside Rudy's because outside, SHE took the photos!

So two weeks ago, Pam came down here from her cottage on Chaumont Bay, where she was vacationing for the week.  I was supposed to take the kids up there, but she was concerned about me driving a week after my eye surgery and being tired with the two kids. ( I'd say I didn't make it there for the first time in years, but Todd and I did a drive by the other day while up there checking out our place...and Pam is going to try and go back up in September!)

We don't see each other as much as we'd both like.  I've known Pam forever, since Junior High School.  Life took her to Buffalo, which isn't far in the scheme of things, but it's far enough!  She was looking forward to spending some time with the A-team, something she misses doing.  She arrived late morning and Abbey cried at first, but after she sat on the floor and hung out, Abbey was all over her.  So it transitioned well.  We headed over to Rudy's for lunch and we ate inside.  Here's Abbey waiting for the food :)

And Adam sucking on his lemonade, which he drinks the ENTIRE thing.  He kept trying to escape out the side door towards Bev's, asking for ice cream.  We hadn't been there since June, but Adam forgets nothing.

We took the kids to throw rocks, something Adam is obsessed with since his Daddy showed him last summer.  Here's a rare photo of me with the kids, griping Abbey's hand as she often tried to run off.  As we know, she'd run into the water and not stop until she got to Canada if I let her.

Abbey trying to escape.

Adam getting ready to throw a big one.

Abbey stops trying to escape to get into the action.

She has a natural throwing arm for sure!

Adam looks so serious here.  And I realize his hair is wild.  He's getting it cut tomorrow.

As we walked away from the shore, Adam asked for ice cream again.  So I took them back into Rudy's instead of Bev's.

The difference in the way they eat is funny.  Adam licks the cone and uses the spoon and really doesn't get his clothes dirty.  Abbey DIVES in.

Love the look on her face!  She really does kind of roll her eyes at Adam's caution.  AND she DID steal a taste of his after this!

YUM!

Pam at the counter waiting for my flurry. Love the sign in the background.

Abbey sucked it all out and we had to put more in the cone.  She was so intense.

Checking out the marine life displays on the wall. Abbey was pointing "See it! See it!".

MMMMM.....safe to say they both loved the ice cream.  And Abbey only yelled a little when we left.  Pam laughed and remarked that it could've been much worse.  Yes, it could have.  Pam got to know her pretty quickly!

Pam hung out for a while and I got the kids in their room for nap time.  It was nice to just hang out and talk, like we used to do all the time.  We made an art of it in high school and college, actually :)

I always loved the fall best and I still love it.  But in recent years, summer has meant more and more to me.  We do more things with the kids and it's really the time of year I get to see more of the people that mean the most to me.

September is here.  Rudy's will close soon....

Time is on Time's Side

Years ago, I wrote my Grandma Charlotte (Falcheck Duttinger) Entz and asked her for photos of her and my grandfather, who died when I was 2.  She sent me some other things at the time, including this post card above that my father sent her from boot camp.  Love this.  And also this photo of Dad in front of the Duttinger homestead in Gates in his sailor suit.  Must be about 1964 or 65.  Sometimes it's hard to relate theses mementos to the man who raised me; he looks so young here and black and white has a way of making things seems even....farther away.  Dad feels both closer and farther away these days.  Adam called him Santa in a photo I was showing him.  Sad because he doesn't remember him anymore, but Santa and my Dad....not too far off from each other.

Adored this picture from the time I unearthed it as a young teen in my mother's closet and had it with me ever since.  Dad was so handsome.  The story he told me is that he didn't have his dress uniform with him, so the photographer gave him a naval bomber jacket to pose in, even though he wasn't a pilot.  Over the years, whenever anyone has seen this photo, they have stopped to look.  "Whose the guy who looks like Elvis?" I've heard more than once.  My handsome young Dad.

Kevin found an old newspaper under the floor in the upstairs bathroom.  Very well preserved. He said it looked like it was used to shimy the board.  September 20, 1893.  Not long after the house was built, which has been a duplex for at least 80 years.  Loved the old advertisements and the feature length article on a set of triplets born somewhere else in the country.

Streets were listed that don't exist anymore.

And there were plenty of advertisements aimed towards those arriving off the boats.  Including a whiskey guy in Rochester.

Be sure to get a piano from Foster and Co!

In the center, you can see the photo of the triplets.

 It doesn't matter what businesses open and close, who is born and dies.  Time has a way of flying by when you least expect it.  When this person stuck that paper in the floor (I picture him yelling to his wife GRAB ME TODAY'S PAPER I can't get this floor even!)...do you suppose he pictured me taking photos of it 120 years later with a digital camera and uploading it my computer to put on my blog?  And when my Dad posed for those photos as a very young man (actually, he was 17 when he went into the military....he lied to the recruiter because his Dad told him to get a full time job or join so he joined), do you think he could imagine his four kids, his five grandkids and me taking a digital photo and uploading it?? Nope.

I wonder what my kids and grandkids will think of this blog in 40 years.  Laugh at the basic technology?  The difference: they'll know what I was thinking.  That's why I write it.

Quest for a Pool

On Tuesday, Bethany and I made plans to meet at the Scriba Pool since the kids had so much fun a few weeks ago.  We should have learned the lesson we learned last summer...they unpredictably change their hours!  I pulled into an empty lot, with Adam and Abbey cheering in the back, excited to go back, my gut sinking when I saw it was clearly shut. It was 10 a.m.  And now the pool didn't open until noon.  I don't have to tell you that Abbey did not like it when I pulled away, but stayed calm when I told her we'd find some place to swim.

Bethany and I decided to try the Oswego pool at Fort Ontario.  No signs of life.

Bethany suggested we either go play at the park or go back to her house and use her four foot pool. I asked Adam which he wanted to do as her kids said they didn't mind either way.  Adam, who rarely gives a straight answer about anything said "SWIMMING".  So, off to Bethany's house.

Abbey got out of the car and ran straight to the swing set, of course, while Brianna went inside and got out their kitten Bristol.  So cute!!  Adam was less interested than I thought he'd be because he loves animals so much, but Abbey wanted to hold him.  Wished I'd gotten a photo of Abbey "loving" him.

Here's Brianna with her new kitten.  Flashback to when we were kids....Bethany always loved cats, too!  Aren't they both adorable?

Abbey's patience ran out and as soon as Bethany got out the ladder, Abbey was up it.  I had to pull her off so someone could get in there first and she wasn't happy, but Devin and Bethany got in to pretty cold water to help Abbey.  Abbey didn't hesitate AT ALL from the cold.

Bethany had these great loops the kids loved.  Here's Devin helping Abbey...before she realized she could go it alone.  Which she LOVED.  She was kicking and swimming all over!

So cute.

Adam got pretty independent, too, as long as he had a back up piece of equipment to hold onto.

Miss Swimming Princess.

She was so happy, laughing and saying DADADADADADA.  Guess he's the fun one.

Happy girl.

Adam asked if he could get into the "boat".  He was kind of shivering, but once he was in there, he had a blast floating around.  He stole the temperature gauge and was really into it for some reason.

The A-Team takes the Simmons' pool over!  :)  Devin was so cute, showing Adam how he could throw a basketball. Both Devin and Brianna were so helpful and it's nice because they really seem to love to be around little kids and enjoy it!

On the way back, since lunch had been more of snacking on some apples and crackers, I decided to be brave.  I stopped at PJ's.  OK, maybe I wanted a flurry.  But what to give the kids still strapped in the car?  Blue slushies!  "Yum! So Delicious!" Adam said.

Abbey wasn't as into it.  But you can kind of see her blue tongue :)  from the few sips she did take.  She loved this rubber bracelets Bri gave her.  (The kids had spent time plundering Brianna's room after swimming.)  Nice summer day.

Dog Days of Summer

"Dog Days" (Latin: diēs caniculārēs) are the hottest, most sultry days of summer. In the Northern Hemisphere, the dog days of summer are most commonly experienced in the months of July and August" (Wikipedia)

Somehow it switched from summer until the end of summer.  But before the last couple of weeks where you could start to feel the switch, we certainly had plenty of "dog days".  I always loved the fall, but the last couple of years with my kids, I think of come to love the "dog days" of summer most.  (As a kid, I'd hear that expression on a Country Time commercial, with a nostalgic shot of kids running in yard and using a tire swing.)

I've written already about the kids and their love of our little urban yard water park, but these photos from a couple of weeks ago make me smile, the Saturday before my eye surgery, probably the last super hot stetch.  Their favorite part is the hose.  Abbey out right wants me to spray her and Adam pretends he doesn't then runs through it.

And they want me to push them down the slide into the water.  When Daniel came over, I had to remind them that not everyone plays the way they do.  They were pushing each other...and hime down the slide.

Abbey was into pulling leaves off the bushes that day.  I like this photo.  I mean, what a kid thing to do and she was VERY intent.  My kids can't get enough of sticks and Abbey just loves leaves and picking flowers.

And one of my favorite photos from the summer...capturing the "dog days" of summer.  Even with going to the lake in future years and even if we move somewhere with a pool, I will never forget how much my kids have loved a kiddie pool and tiny slide the last couple of years.  Another example of how what kids need is love, fun, and imagination to really enjoy themselves no matter what.  They spend many 90 degree days running through a hose and jumping into a tiny plastic pool on our four feet of lawn and loved it.  And Abbey taking off down the back of the house.  That's what she's contemplating in the background.  At least she stops before she hits the road now.  Sigh.

Tell me this isn't the cutest smile ever???  Even though it's not as hot, I'll have to hit up the urban water park some more....after everyone is feeling better of course.

A-Team's First Fireworks

The first week in August, Todd had to drive to Pennsylvania for business.  He was feeling crazy and stopped to buy some fireworks, something he had never done before.  We took them out to Bobby's house that Saturday night because we live in the city and you know, um, it's not legal anyhow :)  Bobby's sometime roommate Joel and his longtime buddy Rich were there, too.  It wasn't quite dark when we started....I only grabbed a couple of photos because keeping Abbey from actually trying to grab LIT FIREWORKS was a bit of a challenge.  That's right, she tried to run up and grab them...to be fair only after she saw Bobby's dog BB do it.

My family :)  Officially, this was the kids' first fireworks.  Adam was very interested in watching, though the smell irritated him a bit.

Doesn't he look grown up?  Todd had the idea if we gave Abbey a chair and told her to sit in it to watch like a big girl, she might sit.  It actually worked...for a while.

OK, my only shot of them going off :)  Of course, Abbey LOVED watching them.  She got impatient a few times and went to get more (!) from the back of my car for Uncle Bobby!

Todd also bought a Chinese lantern like the ones they set off in Tangled.

Getting it lit was not the issue, but the only wind we'd had in weeks whipped up at that moment and made it impossible to get it set up right.

Adam was fascinated of course...

But it never got up in the air before it burned out.  Better luck next time!  We'll be sure to try again.  I think the grown-ups were more disappointed.  And by this time, Abbey was running wild through the side yard, drunk on freedom.