Hair-Raising Weekend

Rory again treated her parents to a whirlwind, hair-raising, outdoors weekend. On Saturday, Rory took us to a fall festival hosted by the county of Fairfax and a fundraiser for the Alexandria Soft Playroom. On Sunday, Rory excitedly took us to Clemyjontri Park, a very cool kids playground that was recently featured in Newsweek magazine. It was at Clemyjontri that Rory discovered her electrifying new hairdo (static electricity will do that to a kid with as fine of hair as Rory's).
The weekend started at the Fall For Fairfax fesitval, where Rory turned into a fawning rock fan when her favorite band, Rocknoceros, took the stage. The band started "moonlighting" as a kiddie group when they couldn't get enough "adult" gigs to pay the bills, and now they are the biggest act to the DC "under four" set. In this picture, Rory is jamming in the baby mosh pit! Later, she boogied with the animals in the Petting Zoo ...
... Rory asks the baby chickens whether they want to come home with her.
The baby goat got an earful from Rory.
The baby donkey tried to ignore Rory's requests for a ride.
The baby pig got jealous of all the attention that Rory was lavishing upon the other animals.
And the baby ewe insisted upon a special audience with the jungle princess.
Later, at the fundraiser, Rory saw a set of swings, and she exited the party early!
At Clemjontri, at first, Rory wondered wistfully what a life behind bars would feel like ...
... before she went off running for the nearest slide.
Rory loves to ride the slide. She started with the baby slide ...
... which she could ride by herself.
But later she got adventurous, and she insisted that her Mommy take her down the toddler slide.

Rory is also a fan of the teetertotter; she cried and hollered when her Mommy finally had to lift her off her seat.
But the highlight of Clemyjontri was the carousel, Rory's first.
Later, Rory took her parents (and her pet lion) for a walk around the neighborhood.
When I say "walk", I should really say "leisurely meandering", since Rory saw much (including these flowers) along the way that caught her attention.
Rory definitely has an "explorer" personality, rushing headlong into unknown situations and down new paths and ...
... running away from her parents!

(Why is it that both our daughter and our cat make a break for it at every chance they get?!)

The Last Days of RFK

Rory took her daddy and Uncles Mike and Allen to RFK today to see her Nationals' last game in RFK stadium.
Next year, the Nationals will be playing their home games in a new stadium, and Rory plans to be a regular. She is a good baseball fan ...
... She claps at the right time, she waves "hi" at the other fans, and she napped in her daddy's arms during the slow part of the game.
Rory is getting so big! Compare her with these pictures from Opening Day at the beginning of the season back in April.

Medieval Times

It's amazing that we're now on our "second lap" with Rory. It's feels like just yesterday that Rory was eating her first turkey leg (see picture here) at Maryland's Renaissance Festival. Last year's festival was among the first events that took us outside the house with Rory (see picture here).
This year, we ventured back in time with Tim's family: Aunts Chelle and Jenny and Uncles Mike and Allen. The weather was much warmer than last year, and Rory took much of the festival on foot. She enjoyed the jousting, the costumes, the music, the food, and the the people watching ...
Yes, the festival brings out the geeky and freaky side of humanity, which gave plenty for Rory to stare at.
Rory was mesmerized by the stage acts, including this troupe of comedy jugglers, named London Broil.
Much fun was had by young and old alike. Well, except when Rory was stung by a bee!...
Yes, Rory has now survived her first bee attack. The bee stung Rory's ear, which swelled to a nice, juicy size.
Fortunately, Rory's uncles swooped to the rescue with ninja stingers of their own, protecting her for the rest of the day.
Even Rory's daddy got into the act. But, hey, were there really ninjas walking around Medieval England?

Rory Cuisine

Appetizing, no? This meatloaf was prepared using a recipe displayed on the back of a Gerber Oatmeal box (see below). The box said that the dish would be "something the whole family would love." Unfortunately, neither Rory, nor her parents, fell in love with this loaf.

1 jar "2nd Foods" Green Beans

1 jar "2nd Foods" Garden Vegetables

1 lb ground beef

1 cup Gerber Oatmeal Cereal

1 egg, beaten

1.5 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 tsp garlic powder

Summer Slips to Autumn

These past two weekends have given us plenty to do outside: Camping at Assateague (new tent!), the Alexandria Festival of the Arts (new print!), apple picking at Stribling Orchard (new favorite varietal, the Jonathan). Next weekend, Rory will take her extended family to her favorite event of the whole year, Maryland's Renaissance Festival.
As always, Rory makes everything so much more enjoyable. Whether she is showing off her super human strength (she can push the stroller entirely by herself! backwards!), waving to each new person that she meets and greeting them with "hi" and a big smile, insisting that she be placed on the ground so that she can run and growl on her own, or ...
...Or taming wild beasts with a gentle touch. Have I mentioned how much Rory loves animals?!... dogs, cats, ponies, donkeys, birds, goats. She loves them all, and upon spotting them, she will thrust out her arm and declare, "ohhhhh", as if to say "oh, daddy, there upon yonder is a helpless creature that needs my love and attention, take me there immediately."
Seated here, Rory enjoys a quite moment of contemplation amidst the apple trees and tall grass. For those keeping track of Rory's vocab ... Confirmed words: go, uh-oh, dada, mama, bird, hi. Possible words: ball, apple, chateauneuf de pape, bouillabaisse. In other news, Rory has her two, front, bottom teeth clearly visible and one, front, top tooth starting to poke through her gums.

Big Girl Shoes

Recently, Rory's footwear was upgraded to "big girl shoes" ... hard soles, canvas tops, and shoelaces! And while the styles are adorable, they do present Rory with new mobility challenges, as this video demostrates. The video also depicts a new, funny thing that Rory is doing with her arms sometimes when she walks. Sarah was so pleased that her daughter could wear shoes that she promptly bought Rory a dozen pairs ... more than her father currently owns!

"The Ponies Ate My GoldFish"

"Hi, it's me. While Mommy and Daddy are letting their old bones recover from our first camping trip, I thought I'd tell you about the weekend."
"Even Mommy had an okay time on this camping trip. We shared a campsite with friends that Daddy met when he was in graduate school."
"We pitched our tent at Assateague Island national park after a 3 hour drive from home. The campgrounds were beautiful, but we had to battle nasty mosquitos."
"I loved our big tent. (Pops, if you're reading, click here for more details.) I played on top of our sleeping bags and sleeping rolls for a long time with Mommy and Daddy."
"When I got tired, Daddy put me to bed in my Pack & Play. Later that night, I was awakened by a rustling that was just inches from my head..."
"... Right outside the tent, the noises were being made by the Magical and Hungry Ponies of Assateague Island! And they were eating my Goldfish!"
"Daddy had foolishly left a bag of my food outside our tent during the night. The horses came back several times looking for more, but I didn't have any more to share."
"On our second day, we spent lots of time at the beach, which was just a short walk from our tent."
"On the beach, I tried to get Mommy to quicken her pace with my frequent shouts of 'Go', but she was unable to wisk me close enough to my quarry ..."
"... The Magical and Chirpy Birds of Assateague Island taunted me at every turn! If only I could have convinced one of the Ponies to give me a lift."
"Daddy and his school friends were clearly in need of a little R&R. Unfortunately, Daddy forgot to put on sun block, and so he came back looking like the Magical and Bright Red Lobsters of Assateague Island."

"Go"

It is now official: "go" is not only Rory's first word (we've decided that "uh oh" is not, technically, a word), but it is surely her favorite. The word is Rory's all purpose command. It can mean "I insist to be taken to wherever my finger points" and "I am done now and am ready for something new to entertain me" and "I want to run even faster, Daddy, get out of my way or feel the pain old man!"
For better or worse, Rory's "go spirit" often exceeds her "go legs" and "go arms", which still do wacky things sometimes when she walks. In this picture, Rory is dancing on the deck of Indigo Landing, a restaurant that has something for everyone: an expansive lawn (with ducks!) for Rory to explore, a wonderful view of the Potomac for Sarah to contemplate, and a great bar for Tim to ... uh ... both explore and contemplate.

Rory gave us a big "GO" when she saw this ball pit at Port Discovery, a fantastic children's museum in Baltimore that we visited on Saturday. We will definitely be making a return trip to this awesome place (why didn't they have these cool museums when I was a kid?). Okay, Daddy probably enjoyed the museum more than Rory did (at least at this age).


The children's museum gave Rory long (carpeted) hallways to run down ... "go, go, go" could be heard throughout the museum. Afterwards, we ventured outside (we are having great weather now that September has come) and wandered down to the Inner Harbor. It was a crowded day, the perfect sort of day for ...
... a baby leash. I mean, seriously, this little girl is going to be hard to catch when her "go legs" have just a wee bit more coordination.

The Inner Harbor gave Rory plenty to explore, but unfortunately I think that she has caught ...




... the shopping bug. The clothing kiosks were the only thing that slowed Rory down.




Rory didn't even stop to take a proper sip from her sippy cup! She's drinking and driving.



Occasionally, however, Rory allowed her daddy to hold her hand, especially when she got a little too close to the harbor.

And after a long day of being chased by her daddy, Rory found a warm place to rest!...