Family Times Two

My step-mother's father recently passed away, and I was able to go out to Long Beach and spend some time with her and her family, along with a sibling reunion. It's always amusing to step back in sister/daughter mode for a few days. For the record I did not start a food fight this time. While it was a short trip, I was glad to be back home to be wife/mother.

I got back just as Sandy was starting to bring a little rain to DC. Thankfully Matt's mom was able to get out before the storm started, after being here a couple of days to spend time with Amelia. While I'm not saying it's her fault, Amelia did not think she was a princess till after Grandma was here. I'm just pointing out the timing. :) Thankfully we survived the storm with no damage and never lost power, which is some sort of miracle.

Family - Matt, Amelia and Teddy

 Our little ham enjoyed the idea of Halloween more than the actual day. She rallied for the school party and some pictures at home, but was not interested in trick-or-treating. She did like giving out candy and by the end of the night was running after other kids to give them candy. Great parenting win - she learns about giving to others and we end up with no leftover candy. Excellent.

Mary Poppins with all accessories.

(A big thanks to Grandma for the AMAZING outfit)

 Mary Poppins at school. I wouldn't let her take the umbrella to school because I didn't want to get a note from the teacher about Amelia putting out some kid's eye.

(Note: the kid behind her in the gold and black is Carnac the Magnificent aka Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. He has no idea what he is and his mom said it was the second year in a row in that costume.)

I went in for the "party" at Amelia's school, which was cute. It featured 2 Buzz Lightyears, Mickey and Minnie Mouse (not related just coincidence), Batman and Robin (again not preplanned), Elmo, a doctor and a couple of other animals. I learned that numerous kids, especially boys, talk about her at home, thankfully all good. However, Amelia has never talked about some of those kids and I only know their names because they have a cubby with their name on it.

On a recent park outing we were again reminded that this child has no fear. Also, endless energy.

Seriously, how are you big enough to do that?

Oh, and she's learned how to snap and even creates a little noise when she does it. Thankfully she only tries to imitate Swiper the fox, of Dora fame, but it's only a matter of time till she does it with attitude. I've discovered that recording her at the grocery store will buy us a few more minutes of calm until we checkout.

And now we present that she is Matt's daughter. She's trying to brush the dog hair off the blanket while Teddy is still on it. I don't try and get the dog hair off of most things, including the bed. But I will take "credit" for the crazy laughing while harassing the dog.

Family - The six pack

(six beers in a pack - six siblings)

We were all able to make it to Long Beach for Mary's father's funeral. It was the first time since I came home for Christmas my freshman year of college that all of us were there with no SOs. Yeah, Amanda will be a college freshman next fall so we clearly spend too much time with each other. I'm officially twice as old as Amanda and she's closer to Amelia's age than mine. She will be coming out to the East Coast and will attend Princeton and be a coxswain for their rowing team. She was recruited by Stanford but chose Princeton because of coach issues. My father still has not forgiven her, even if he agrees with the choice.

Sisters - Amanda, Anne, me, Bunny

Bunny and I look much more like our father, while Anne and Amanda are carbon copies of each other and look more like Mary.

Brothers - Hugh and Will

Speaking of family resemblance...

Seriously, other than height, did they get any genes from their mothers?