Mini Mia Hamm

On Weds Francie and I flew with Gordon back to Portland so that he could make his appointments. Henry and Mark stayed in Corning. It has been interesting to have the house alone with Francie. While she misses Henry a lot, she is constantly looking for him, she enjoyed being able to play with ANYTHING she wanted and loved not having any toys taken away from her. Tonight we were playing in the backyard and I noticed she kicked the ball...across the entire yeard. I nearly died. Guess she picked up some things from the hours of watching Henry.

Aunt Whisher

We are in Corning to help Mark's dad move his stuff out here and to visit Mark's mom before Gordon gets put back on the transplant list. Whisher drove down from Syracuse with Jake - I could barely contain myself the morning before they arrived. It was SO FUN. Jake is incredible and Whisher rocks as a mom. Francie was VERY interested in Jake, which is a good thing becuase Whisher and I have already decided that they are getting married. We went up to Ithaca to the Children's Museum and it was heaven for the kids. Good times.

Francie's Big Birthday: One Years Old!!

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Miss Francie turned one this weekend. WoW. I am so sentimental about this milestone, it feels like this year went by too fast. She is such an amazing little girl....or "Pistol" as I like to call her as there is no shortage of spunk and fearlessness ...LOVE IT. We spent most of the weekend at the Beach and she was in her glory. Her mission was mainly to tackle all the non-gated stairs in the house and front yard. Fun.....added a few more grey hairs to my head. She ADORES the slide at the park and persuaded Mark to let her go down head first, giggling the whole way down. We drove back this afternoon to have a birthday dinner with Grandma and Papa. Her favorite present seems to be the stroller that Grandma got her that she can push her baby around in....at incredibly fast speeds. I just can't believe she is one already....I can't wait to see what she will do in this next year.

Brilliant Brookie

One of my most favorite people in the world, Brookie, graduated from her MPH program focused on Maternal and Child Health. She presented her thesis on Weds and I went up to Seattle celebrate her achievement and hear her present on her graduate work. She did AWESOME and the presentations were so interesting....so made me want to go back to school...I LOVE that stuff. Dana and I drove to together and it was fun to have a "girls night" in a hotel in Seattle. In the morning I got to go running around the Univ of Washington campus. Those college kids kids are looking really, really young. Yikes. Yay Brookie!!

Last Day of School

Henry had his last day of school. No joke...I got emotional....yikes - thank god I was wearing sunglasses. His school had this wonderful ceremony where they presented each child with a "gift" from us (the parents). They had us each make an "award" on a piece of paper on which we described what we were proud of in their year of school and what we hoped for them in the future. The teacher presented each child with their "gift" and then made a special note of what they appreciated about them as well and their wish for them. It was all good....until Henry realized that there would be clapping for him.....not good. When his name was called he walked up very proud, sporting his Blazer Jersey, and he revelled in the teacher's noting what they loved about him and wished for him. Then...... the clapping started........he quickly looked down and prayed for the moment to be over. So not his mother. The last picture of his teacher Blake (with his teacher Nicole proudly looking on) giving him his "award".

Another Week with The Cousins

We had another great week with the cousins. Henry is really getting into the wrestling thing with the boys......foreshadowing of him following in the footsteps of his father and wrestling on the dirty floor of his frat house with beer all over him. Lord help me.