Ack, Stupid Deer!

I was having a stroll around the house this morning, and was shocked to find the deer ate all of my rosebuds! Not to mention the destruction they visited on my hydrangeas, and a number of other plants that are close in to the house, brazen little things!

A Low Profile

We had a nice quiet week with AhPoh:

she gave her customary piggy back rides (to say she can still do it more than anything else);

there were assorted presents, mostly for the styling 3-yr-old (check out those heels!);

she let the girls style her hair: ouchie;

the girls enjoyed massages/acupressure;

there was delicious food emanating from the Thermomix, esp my new favorite: squash soup, and its variation, turnip soup;

AhPoh made some fresh batches of Play-Doh;

we set up a playpen for M (because she's been climbing on chairs and making a general nuisance), which everyone, except who it was meant for, used to good success;

and this morning we said farewell.

In and Out

Z had her first checkup with the neurologist last week. Our new doctor, Dr LePichon, reviewed her health history anew, examined her briefly, and expressed his optimism at being able to take her off medication next year. Hearing from those in the know (beforehand), I knew that the current approach is a minimum of two years on medication, seizure-free and without any dosage increase – dare I hope!?! –, so no surprise there. What was new to me was hearing the term Doose Syndrome, which upon further reading sounds so much more like what Z has.

Crayon Peels

When I was a kid in daycare, I remember daycare workers sitting around chatting and peeling crayons, producing mountains of crayon wrappings. Not only is it necessary for the continued usage of dull/flat crayons, but it's also kind of addictive.

Firefly Catchers: Part 2

We went out earlier this time, and managed to catch nearly a dozen by hand, i.e. without glass jars, G and BB were so excited. And then there was an awkward nature moment after the first three went in: we saw the purpose for the blinking of the fireflies.

Drew found this miniature frog in the grass, which the girls were also excited to hold (when it wasn't hopping away).

Second Birthday

AhPoh arrived yesterday bearing gifts – mostly clothes and a box of crayons for Z – for the birthdays that she missed earlier this month.

Toddling

Father's Day

When Drew first emerged that morning, we all yelled "Happy Father's Day!" – followed closely with Z's "Happy Birthday!" I guess we forgot to brief her on what we were celebrating.

The girls – I haven't had time for Z and M to complete theirs yet – painted canvases to adorn Drew's office walls, and I gave him a new photo frame (with photo) for his desktop.

Opa!

The third stop on our cultural tour (again, with Elizabeth) was Greece – and boy do they know how to put on a festival! There was a huge tent with lots of tables and seating (and bus boys!); the traditional dancing was already in motion when we arrived (and this fantastic bouzouki player came later); and

don't you just love Greek food?! We had some souvlaki, a couple of gyros (oh tzatziki!!!), pastitsio, spanakopita, dolmathes, pilafi, and horitiki salata.

And for dessert, we had two different kinds of baklava: one with shredded phyllo (above, being devoured by Z) and the other with the more traditional sheets of phyllo, which was swimming in honey. There's a Greek lady at our local farmer's market who makes a fabulous, not swimming-in-honey baklava that is perfectly flaky and my preferred.

Helping BB finish her pastitsio,

so she can get to her dessert.

Afterward, Elizabeth and I had a look around their for-sale goodies table: a number of beautiful icons; T-shirts (one that said "Got Ouzo?") and hats; a cookbook; some of those belly dancing hip scarves with the little jingly coins on them (name?); jewelry; and a small selection of clothes. We decided not to wait around for one of the scheduled church tours and headed home.

Dance of the Firefly Catchers

Living vicariously through the girls, I prodded Drew to take the girls out to catch fireflies.

It was probably too dark by the time we went out, it was a lot harder to follow their path when they weren't blinking. The first must have been a dud, I didn't see it blink once.

The second was harder to catch being the girls each had their own little glass jars and were zig-zagging across the yard, probably scaring all the fireflies to stop blinking, but this one seemed to blink virtually non-stop. We looked at them up close for a bit – they have what might be described as "beady eyes" –, and then promised to try again another night, starting at an earlier time.