Top Chef

(By JPC)

We had been planning to buy Ellie a toy kitchen for Christmas, but Lori found a "gently used" one today on Craig's List for quite a steal. It is now in our living room and Ellie couldn't be happier! She didn't even want to eat dinner tonight because it would interrupt her kitchen play and you know how our girl likes to eat :-) Below are a few pictures and a video of her in action.

Checking out all the cubbies to store things

Moving things from the refrigerator to the sink and then later to the oven. She spent most of her time just moving things between the different storage places!

There's even a highchair for her baby - a very important feature!

Now with a little water in the sink so she can clean that food clean

"Hello!"

Savoring every last minute of summer

(By JPC)

With our weekends now free and the end of summer rapidly approaching, we decided to take a mini family vacation today. New Hope, PA is about an hour from our house and is a very popular tourist town, filled with amazing galleries, cute shops, and lots of restaurants. Although it is very nearby and a popular weekend destination for folks in our area, this was our first trip. The town was great fun and we enjoyed looking into some of the shops. Unfortunately, today was the warmest day in a long time so when the temperature hit about 90, our little toddler's patience evaporated and she was not in the mood for any more of the "don't touch anything, everything in here is breakable" shops! Her mommies were a little impatient themselves :-) Despite the heat though we had a nice day and definitely plan on going back. In fact, there is a genuine steam locomotive that operates out of New Hope and we're hoping to take Ellie on that, maybe for the holidays. Grandma R, when are you coming to visit so you can join us on the train?!?!?

Lori and Ellie by the Delaware River where George Washington made his crossing

Ellie watching the ducks and two very big swans who were waiting for a taste of her crackers

You know how much Ellie loves her crackers, but she did share them with her feathered friends!

Jana and Ellie in front of the old train station

Taking a break to cool off! At lunch, Ellie loved the lemon from my iced tea.

Once home, we took a very cold dip in the pool - as you can see here, Ellie loves swimming and I love that grin! Sadly, our pool closes next weekend :-(

Finishing out the day by watching Elmo (as usual) and resting her weary head on mama's lap

Summer fun

(By JPC)

As promised, here are more recent pictures of our girl. As you will see below, Ellie LOVES watermelon. On our way home this afternoon, I asked Ellie if we needed to stop at the farmers' market for anything and she spent the next few minutes saying watermelon over and over! By the time she was done with her slices at home, it was running down both arms and she was covered from head to toe with watermelon juice.

Earlier this month, Ellie went to the county fair with Lori and Mimi. They had quite a good time seeing all the farm animals and riding the merry go round. I think that it was a little overwhelming for Ellie though so we're looking forward to next year when she may enjoy it a bit more.

And here are a few pictures of Ellie with her new friend, Uniqua. Uniqua is a character on The Backyardigans, a cartoon for toddlers that has lots of singing and music, which Ellie adores. For a couple weeks, there has been a large balloon of Pablo, another character, floating above our checkout line at the grocery store. Last week, we caved and bought Ellie the Uniqua balloon. Ellie spent the first few days just trying to hold her, hug her, kiss her, and dance with her. Uniqua also scared me silly when I came down the stairs one morning!

Weekend

(By JPC)

This past weekend was spent celebrating the end of studying. On Friday night, Ellie stayed home with her Mimi and Boppa while Lori and I went out. We had planned to go to the movies and then to dinner, but unfortunately our movie luck has not changed. We had a terrible rainstorm that afternoon and many roads were closed due to flooding so we missed the movie. After a long week, I was less than thrilled about this or about the hour we spent in the car trying to get there. We gave up after that hour and headed to the restaurant after calling to check if we could possibly move our reservations up by 2 hours, which of course was no problem. We then enjoyed one of the better meals that we have shared! After months of Weight Watchers, my broiled seafood platter was the best thing that I had ever eaten :-)

We spent Saturday and Sunday in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, better known as Amish country. Again, we left Ellie home with Mimi and Boppa although we missed her terribly. This was the first night in her 21 months that she has been away from both of us. Of course, according to Mimi and Boppa, she didn't even ask for us once! Lori and I had a nice relaxing weekend while we enjoyed lots of shopping, home cooked Pennsylvania Dutch food, and some of the local wine. We failed to take a single picture the entire weekend though since the star of our photos wasn't with us.

We have returned to life as normal here. I am back at work and am enjoying not studying. I have read 3 books since Thursday night! And in Lori's defense, the house is still a mess :-)

Recent pictures and videos soon to come....

Done!

(By JPC)

I took my board exams yesterday and today and, although I have absolutely no idea how I did, they are over! It is nice not to have to study tonight for the first time in a LONG time. The exams were definitely a challenge and now I am faced with the seemingly impossible task of waiting 3-4 months for the results.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes and calls today. Most importantly, thanks to Lori and Ellie for tolerating and supporting me during this process. I think Lori was more nervous than I was both mornings :-) I couldn't have done it without you!

Tomorrow I will spend the day with Ellie doing errands and trying to catch up on the rest of my life. While Ellie takes a nap though I plan to lay in bed and read a book that doesn't involve genetics! Lori and I have plans for dinner and a movie tomorrow night while Mimi and Boppa babysit. We rarely get to go out alone or at night so we're very excited! And then it's off to Pennsylvania on Saturday for the night.

My friend (and co-worker) took us all out for a celebratory drink this afternoon. She went through this process herself a few years ago!

Got genes?

(By JPC)

If you were to come to our house these days, you would probably be surprised at the state of disarray. There are dry clothes hanging on the drying rack, waiting to be folded and put away. There are piles of dirty laundry on the floor waiting to just begin the process. There are messy beds, messy carpets, messy bathrooms, and one somewhat messy baby.

And last, but certainly not least, are the hundreds of flash cards (500 is our best guess), pages and pages of notes, files and files of lecture materials, and more genetics books than I thought I owned.

The reason for all this is my upcoming board exams. There is so much to learn and regurgitate that, although I have studied most days of the week for the past several months, I have now been off of work since Wednesday. I am studying 10-12 hours a day and am awfully sick of it. Who knew that 46 tiny chromosomes could generate so much?!?! I've seen and analyzed my own - they didn't look like much under the microscope! :-)

My exams are Wednesday and Thursday of this week so I am in the home stretch. And I think that my family is almost as relieved as I am. It breaks my heart every time I tell Ellie that I'm going upstairs and she pouts but says goodbye and gives me a hug. And Lori has had to bear the brunt of child care and upkeep of our home.

After the exams are over, I have a 3-4 month waiting period before I find out the results, but we have celebration plans for this weekend. No more studying! We're planning a babysitter for Friday night so we can go out for a celebratory dinner and then we're going out of town for Saturday night while Ellie stays with Mimi and Boppa.

I can't wait for this to be over! I will be a much saner and less distracted version of myself come Thursday afternoon!

Summertime

(By JPC)

This weekend we enjoyed a few of summer's greatest offerings. Sunny weather, a BBQ with friends, swimming, sunflowers, and lots and lots of watermelon!

Ellie and Mommy taking a dip in the pool to cool off on a 95 degree day!

"Are you going to the BBQ? OK, I'll see you there!"

Ellie's ready for the sun in Mommy's sunglasses

At the BBQ, Ellie had her first hot dog and proceeded to eat 1 1/2! At this point though she's just dipping her finger into the ketchup and eating that :-)

Enjoying dinner with friends

Playing on the slide after dinner (while the bigger kids played on the slip 'n' slide)

Ellie having her 3rd snack of watermelon for the day and absolutely loving it!

Beautiful sunflowers from the farmers' market

Ahhhhhh, the good life!

Just Civil Unioned!

(By JPC)

Today is the 5th anniversary of our commitment ceremony so we thought it would be the perfect day to make it legal within our state! The mayor presided over the civil union ceremony, which took place in the gazebo on our local duck pond (conveniently located right next to our municipal building and the mayor's office). Our friends, Kerry and Michael, were there as our witnesses. Their kids and Jana's dad were also there for the event. Although we "made it official" 5 years ago, it was a nice way to do it again. Everyone that we encountered in preparing for this, from getting the license to arranging the date with the mayor's office, was incredibly kind and we felt happy to be a part of such an open and welcoming community.

One of the nicest gestures of the day though was a gift from Ellie's daycare. We had mentioned in passing that we were doing this today and when we picked Ellie up this afternoon we were given a card signed by the staff with a bottle of champagne, a gift card to a local restaurant, and the promise of babysitting when we choose to use the gift card. It was an incredibly thoughtful gesture and reminded us again of how lucky the three of us are to be surrounded by such loving individuals.

Happy anniversary, Lori!

(below by LPC)

Happy anniversary, Jana!

I just want to add something here. There are so many mixed feelings a day like today brings. There have been times I was angry that we couldn't have a "real" marriage that is nationally recognized. I have been upset that I had to pay so much money to adopt my own child- who I did indeed help bring into this world. Upset that I had to allow a social worker into my home to deem me fit. There are so many things that are not fair or equal. It can make one angry.

But no more.

All I have ever wanted lies in front of me. Good family (including in-laws!!! lucky me!), good friends, good community, good neighbors.

Most of all, I have you Jana and we have our incredible daughter. Life is good.

Happy Anniversary and Happy Civil Union!

Exchanging vows

Just civil unioned!

With the mayor

The kids were relieved it was over so they could finally go see the ducks!