Easter Party at Trinity

I took Abbey to Adam's party, memories of her tantrum last year at not being able to grab the eggs in the hall for the other class on my mind, reminding myself she has come far and she's a year older.  I dressed her up, Daddy had Ellie, and we snapped her picture in her dress before we went.  Now, she LOVES to model with her arms and head.  It's really, really cute.

I love this dress.  It has an embrodiered bunny on it.  Gorgeous.

We got to the room and they were setting up still.  she was cool, calm and collected.  And when the kids came back down the hall, she was SO excited to see Adam... I love this photo.

She grabbed his hand.   They just love being together.

My A-team.

Easter egg hunt.  Abbey and Adam did well.  She didn't even try and take anyone's eggs.

Adam needed a little guidance finding his eggs.  I couldn't even find one!!

Surprise face.  Doesn't he look handsome dressed up??

Snack time.

Everything went really well (and considering we've hit a rough patch, I need to focus on this!!)

Awww...

Adam's speech teacher snuck in to wish him Happy Easter.  Mrs. Ross.  I didn't like her at first, but she's grown on me.

Story time.

Are you listening??

Abbey planted next to Toby and they got scolded for goofing off.  Of course.

Aren't pre-school class pictures the best?

Outta Here

Ok, it's for like 26 hours, but I'm getting away.  Todd and I are spending a night alone together for the first time since Adam was born.  And I'm doing something I've wanted to do for a long time... stay at that over the top champagne tub and heart shaped pool room in the Poconos!  I wanted to go for our honeymoon, but kids aren't allowed and Adam was with us.

I CANNOT wait.  I need to get out of here and just relax, even for a day.  Cook for no one.  Clean no ones poop.  Dress no one.  And actually have some privacy with my husband.  Right now, Ellie's cute little face pops up next to our bed.  I can't wait to lay in bed and have meals done and get in that cheesy champagne tub.

This all started because Todd and Travis kept talking about going to the waste expo this week, I scurried to make it work but then they decided not to and I was really disappointed.  Todd said that we should still try to do something for the night and he brought this up, remembering I'd wanted to go.  I know, it's just a day.  But one I'm going to make sure I remember!    

Eight days!!

Abbey's Open House

The Thursday before Easter, Abbey's school had a spring open house.  What a difference from her fall one.  She couldn't wait and ran right in and joined.  No anxiety or fear.  She loves to paint and right away, knocked over a cup!  Here's Miss Liz and Abbey just loves her.  She is one of the things I will miss there. She's made to be a pre-school teacher... so patient and kind.

They had a portfolio for us to look at it.  Apparently, Abbey wants to be a dentist!

Each classroom was modeled after a book or series of books....hers was the Pigeon books by Mo Willems, Abbey's FAVORITE right now.  Each room had a craft and we walked through and did them.  Her room was obviously a pigeon hat which she loved.  She went into each room happy and fine, no fear like six months ago.  Her favorite, of course, was the Lorax room the door cover was awesome.  One of the rooms had Pete the Cat, another favorite of hers and it took her a minute to figure out who it was but I just love the look of delight when they "get" something.  So proud of her!

Duttinger History

I found this photo going through my boxes for Bethany's birthday.  It's been fun the past few months to post old photos on people's birthdays, after getting inspired for Tammy's birthday (though no one gets the treatment like SHE DID :).  And some of my cousins and I have been inspired to post TBT of the family.  That's my Dad, his brother Kenny who passed away six months after him and my Uncle Dave, who currently looks enough like my Dad did to be startling.  The back of the photo says Dorsey Road.  I got this in a bag years ago from my Grandma, who doles family stuff out on the sly, acting like each grandkid is the MOST important (which I get...she has well over 20!), but she sensed I am a guardian of the photographic past, and gave me some rare ones, including of Grandpa who died when I was little.
Dad and Kenny always looked and even sounded so similar...look how they are standing the same!!  They were 1 and 2, a year and two weeks apart.  (Kenny had the same birthday as Adam) and Davey was number 6.  Dave was always kind of the outcast with the six boys... mostly because he didn't party, got a steady job and didn't gamble.  He has a nice home in suburbia and retired after many years from GM.  The rest of the guys, including my Dad until his mid-30s, drifted from job to job, drinking and/or doing drugs, but mostly besides Uncle Marty, who is number 8, drinking.  Both Uncle Kenny and Uncle Billy passed from obviously drinking related diseases.  Or at least all the drinking didn't help.  But I also don't think it's a coincidence that the three brothers who served in Viet Nam all died young.

Uncle Dave is the only brother left interested in family much.  My Uncle Terry has always been the drifter, the one to blow off family the most.  He was in Las Vegas for years, though he's back.  I've sent them all Christmas cards for years, the only kid to do it, but I've lost track of his address.  He had curly hair and a Camaro always growing up.  And a diamond earring.  And Uncle Marty, the baby, is still in the drug rabbit hole.

Looking at this photo, is seems so far removed from me.  My kids will see this photo and feel like it's ancient history of people they have no clue about.  I talk about Dad with Adam especially, but there's no memory of him.  For a couple of years, he called the house in Granby Grandpa's house, a removed memory of some type.  But not now.

I sure wish I inherited Dad's skinny genes, but we girls are all built like his sister, my Aunt Peggy.   Well, kind of.  Carolyn really is.... it's like twin bodies.  I'm a combo of my Mom's small frame and the Polish chunk.  Aunt Elaine had the chest, too, but had a chest reduction.  She, like most of her brothers, liked to party, her more than anyone I think, but Aunt Peggy also did the suburbia thing.  Her husband, my Uncle Carl, is stable and normal and I think that kept her on track.  She was always beautiful growing up, like her daughter, the blond Cousin Kerry.  A hairdresser and a little, um, blonde.  When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time with that family.

I see this photo and it makes me miss my Dad of course, but because it was before I knew him, it's less painful.  It's more interesting to think about him as a kid whose truck driver Dad drank too much and his frazzled Mom was burnt out from 8 kids in 12 years.  I would be, too!

But you can see also see the Dad I knew in this photo.  The nice jeans he always enjoyed.  Even if he could afford two pairs versus a wardrobe, he wanted good jeans no matter how poor.  He wasn't into expensive stuff or material stuff, but he needed his jeans to be good.  And the open smile.  And the hair.  Until the end, Dad was vain about his mane.  He loved his coif.  Him and Carolyn used to argue about the Aqua Net in high school. That's a great memory.  And he wasn't a shorts guy.  He was paranoid about his skinny legs and liked his jeans, though he wore cut offs around our house, of course.

I spent the majority of my life NOT with the Duttinger family, having moved here, but whenever I get going I realize how much they impacted my life in the first 8 years and even after, in a more removed way.  Extended family shapes us in ways I never realized fully, because I wasn't raised with them and was intentionally removed from them to escape their influence.  And I will admit, there is plenty of drinking going on with a good half of my cousins.  Most of them are functioning and just the one went to state prison for robbing a convenience store and DWI, but they all love to party on some level.  And I'm not completely innocent on that front....

Most of Spring Break

No school last week.  Again.  At the risk of sounding old, they seem to have A LOT of time off these days!!  On Monday, I decided after a year hiatus to take them up to Carousel Mall and see how Abbey did.  She had such a hard time there going into stores and I had to get a couple of MAC items and return shoes.  And I brought the wrong shoes.  Sigh.  We went through Macy's and got what I needed and all were fine, but Abbey never had a problem with Macy's really.  Then we got into the mall and she loved it.  I steered her into a store and she was....FINE!  She walked around and was going ooo aaa pretty dresses.  She LOVED it.  By the time we got to the Disney Store, she was still in a great mood.  I let them pick out a shirt and tableware piece each and told them it was part  of Easter.  Adam said, "I know, Mom."  Five going on fifteen.  Of course, Miss Ellie was so good the whole time.  She got her first Disney plush...a Minnie in pink :)

On Tuesday, it was Me day.  Bobby came out to see the kids and I got a pedicure and drove to Syracuse to have Indian food with Tammy, something I do not get enough of!  On Wednesday, we met Adam's schoolmate Hunter and his Mom Stephanie and little Grayson at the Kidz Club.   Stephanie and I clicked earlier in the year and had coffee a few weeks ago.   She's local, not typical Trinity.   Adam was shy... His new thing is shy and he can't figure out how to approach people.   His teacher says he seems to over think and hangs onto things from weeks in the past where other kids his age barely remember yesterday.  Apparently he remembers feeling hurt and has a hard time trusting.  Hmmm wonder where my kid gets that.  Sigh.

Ellie had a blast!

Adam and Hunter played so well together once Adam got over his initial hump.  This kid has got the funniest faces.  His Mom is also very animated.

Little Grayson.  One of the reasons she sought me out is because he's 18 months and a terror and she wanted to know how I stay so calm when Abbey loses it.  Ha.

Oh, my Abbey just loved it.

Then on Thursday, we went across the street.  We hadn't been in a long time. Both kids needed hair cuts.  Abbey did AMAZING!  She is so grown up now.  She just got a trim as she wants "Rapunzel" hair.  Then she sat still as Erin gave her double french braids.  She loved it!  It was nice to spend a couple of hours over there like we used to.  Adam and Daniel have basically grown up together.

Modeling her Elsa hair :)

Nothing

OK, this isn't a special shot but Ellie looks cute here.  This was mid February.  Below, Ellie is giving me a dirty look while drinking her bottle.  Leave me alone, Mom.

Don't you just love this dress?  Abbey called it her Princess Squirrel dress.

I think Abbey looks like a model here.

Posing for the camera.

My heart melts when I look at photos of her.

She sees my camera and GRINS!

So I love dressing my girls up....

This one didn't fit.  Both of these Ellie outfits are gone now. Ha.  But I do love the seriousness of her face below even if it was too big!

And at his own behest, Adam just reached over and kissed his girl.  He really loves to spend time with her.  He likes it when she crawls into his room and climbs up the side of his bed or "plays" with him.  He is so amazing with her.  A couple of weeks ago Abbey was having a VERY bad morning and Adam kind of took over Ellie and started showing her a game on the IPad.  It made me so proud of him.  I love these kids.

And Miss Abbey, posing.

Isn't she lovely?

ELLIE!  Can't get enough of this shot.

Ethan's Birthday

A few weeks ago, Ethan Potter had his fifth birthday.  It was the day after the St. Patrick's Day parade and Adam was sick (did I mention he vomited behind the car before we went home?  Too much St. Pat's partying! Ugh) so I took Abbey.  Here's the birthday boy above and Harley, his cousin below.

Abbey did well.  She wanted to bring him all his gifts.  She wasn't the only one.

And I had been pretty nervous about the safety of teaching two kids how to ice skate.  With only one, it was a little less daunting.  I shouldn't have been worried.  Abbey was a natural!  She wanted to ditch the cart and me.  A couple times I let her ditch it and hold my hand.  She certainly needed help, but she didn't have wobbly legs like most of the kids.  She's talked about it ever since!   But she was kind of quiet and didn't eat much, so I thought maybe she didn't feel well.  I was right... she lost her stomach on the way home.  MMM.....motherhood....

Today

 This morning after I dropped Adam off I took the girls to Target.  We walked by the women's accessory section first and right away Abbey was like ooo purse, ooo hats.  Then she asked to look at shoes.  I took her over and she tried on a few...all were either too big or too small, thank goodness.  We walked over to the clothing for girls and Abbey started picking out things for Ellie.  In her size, I let her pick out a shirt.  Then she was like Mom, SKIRT!  She needed a skirt for her shirt.  And leggings.  Then she was looking at headbands and socks, but I drew the line!  She's going to break us!  At the register, she had a VERY hard time waiting for the lady to scan the items so she could get them back.  When we got home, she asked me to take a picture for Daddy :)

We went and got Adam and went home.  As I was unloading my bags, Adam decided he was shopping, too.  Here's his cart.  And the monkey?  That's his baby.  Because in his whole memory, there's a least one sister riding around in the cart!  Thought it was cute.  He was playing Daddy.  His baby would cry and he'd put him on his shoulder. :)  However, he put him to sleep on the edge of a counter...hmmm...