In-Network

At the Grace's visit to the dentist for her cleaning, her 5 year old status granted a new experience: x-rays. When the images were transferred to the computer screen, I was immediately called over to have a look.

Somebody is about to loose some baby teeth, the staff exclaimed. We are sure the next time we see you, you'll be missing some teeth Grace!

On Friday night, Grace had her first visit from the Tooth Fairy. Not for tooth collection, but for formal registration with the Tooth Fairy Network. That sly little sprite left this package on Grace's bed overnight for her delight at dawn.

The message read:
Dear Grace ~
I hear you have some loose teeth!
Congratulations and welcome to the Tooth Fairy Network!
To schedule a visit, leave a tooth in this pillow.
~ The Tooth Fairy

And for the rest of the day, she whispered her tongue across her teeth testing for wiggles.

The Waiting

They were waiting for me when I exited the train station.
'Stop being a pansy and take the stairs,' Matt texted to me while I waited a solid 5 minutes for the elevator to creep it way back up to me.  No way dude, these are BlogHer bags. They weigh a ton.

Grace refused to nap, despite the fact that Matt had taken them on a three hour tour of Fort McHenry. She focused on her American flag trinkets, counting the moments until I emerged again. I was greeted with 'I Love You's,' 'I Missed You's' and the inevitable, 'Why did you go on vacation without me Mama?'.

I whispered stories of my walks all over NYC. I saw her statue. I touched a bull. I sat on a motorcycle.
She whispered back with stories of feeding cows, singing our anthem and eating cupcakes with friends.
We both had grand weekends.

Then she remembered the empty suitcase I left with, and it's promise to be full upon return.

After emptying the suitcase, she looked at me and said, 'Mama, I like it when you go on vacation.'

A Little Bit of Disney

Robin has become my fairy blogmother. She raises her wand (or hits forward, whatever) and adds my name to the list. Yes, Shannon from Make Time For Love would be interested.

Do you recognize this face?

Not Grace's, because, you know, I try not to actually show her face on the blog. But the ears in front of here should be a giveaway of where we were.

The fine folks in Orlando, brought a little bit of Disney world to Baltimore yesterday.

I made them mistake of not doing by bloggey research on the Disney Summer Social, and billed it as a princess party to Grace. While it was in no way princesses-ey, it still was filled with enough Mickey Mouse and princess paraphernalia to satisfy her. Particularly when I declared that Grace was the princess at the party.

Hurray Princess Crown!

There was food and toys abound, along with an artist decorating the kids with their favorite Disney characters.

But what I thought was the best thing about this event?

It really wasn't about the kids. It was about the moms. I seemed to be one of the few people in the room that wasn't already connected to the rest of the crowd, but it was still nice. It was a safe, comfortable, environment to let you kid play while you talked to other moms. Disney, you got the Summer Social right.

Grace and I both went home happy. I can't wait until the girls are old enough for our first trip to Disney World!

Lovelies

This post is many weeks overdue.

It has been a lot harder than I thought to write though, not because I don't follow a million blogs, but because I'm not sure I deserve the title of A Lovely Blog. I'm not eloquent or shocking. I'm not laugh out loud funny or heartbreakingly sad. It is just me writing my own little journal in the matter of fact way a child does. For myself and my family. And my family doesn't even read it.

Back in May, NES was presented with a ‘Lovely Blog Award’ from Stepford Dreams.

She then returned the favor, being the great friend she is, gave me a nice pat on the back with my own ‘Lovely Blog Award’.

Now I guess it is my turn to select my 15 favorite blogs (in no particular order).....

Funnies:
Hippo Brigade
Sick Days
The Bloggess
Barefoot Foodie
The Little Criminal

Foodies:
Capitol Spice
Lemmonex (formerly Culinary Couture)
Line Cook

Fashion:
Capitol Hill Style
The Sartorialist

Life:
The Restaurant Refugee
Diary of Why
Princess Nebraska
Du Wax Loolu

All of the Above:
Not-Ever-Still Life With Girls, (despite knowing selecting her again is against the rules) because without NES as my inspiration I don't think I would have ever typed a single word.

T Minus a Few Hours

Wow. I'm looking at 7 days / 180 hours of internet free life. I mock Matt for his inability to go 24 hours without playing video games or sudoku. I guess I am just as bad because I think that is part of my nervous twitch right now.

We are packed. We are ready. The only things not in bags is my makeup, which of course I need at 4 am tomorrow morning, and various baby related items. I have been forbidden from adding a single shirt more to my suitcase. Hmm. That one may be hard to follow.

I will miss you. My family, my friends - which frankly, are one in the same.

No worries though. I will keep notes in the pilfered, have-used memo pad I stole from work. I guarantee you, there will be stories.

Until then ....