Fall Season

Fall is upon us. We are busier than before, if that's possible.

At the end of August and beginning of September Juliana and I took a trip to Harrisonburg for a week to stay with Lolli and Pop. Brian worked hard on finishing up hanging dry wall in the lower basement. Upon our return, Juliana enrolled in ballet class on Mondays, I started a new appointment in a temporary Postdoctoral Fellow position at Pitt, Juliana graduated to the preschool room with the 3-4 yr olds at school, and we tried to settle into a new routine of MWF running for me, and TTSS running for Brian. I'm signed up for a 5k Oct 12th, and Brian's running a half marathon on Oct 18th. We are enjoying the colder weather, but I have to admit I am not ready for it. I feel like summer was a complete blur with trying to finish all of the school stuff up so I'm not really ready for it to be fall and starting to get colder...

Anyway, pictures of what we've been up to the last few weeks...

 Juliana learned about camping at school, so one Saturday when Brian was gone running, Juliana and I set up the tent in the back yard. There was talk about sleeping out in it with Brian that night, but the weather forecast was for thunderstorms, so we just packed it back up again. She will frequently ask to go to the backyard though and see the tent, and we have to remind her that it isn't set up right now.

She has been really into Cinderella recently. So she took some toilet paper, put it into my sandals and told me these were my Cinderella shoes. Last night, Brian and I went to see a play in Pittsburgh and I was dressed up and she commented on how I was dressed up and when I asked if I looked nice, she told me I looked like Cinderella.

 To school one day she wore one of her "fancy" blue dresses (it's pulled down so it doesn't get oatmeal on it while she ate breakfast), and I attempted to put her hair up into a bun like Cinderella.

At Lolli and Pop's, she passed out in the stroller for the first time ever. It was super hot that week, in the mid-nineties, and humid, so no wonder.

 She also fixed Lolli's chair, played with tons of new toys, and came home with the Berenstein Bear's New Baby book. Now she tells people either (1) She has a baby sister (she does not) or (2) Her baby sister is in her belly. So we've taken to using this as a tactic to continue eating dinner by asking if the baby wants more carrots...

We went to the Westmoreland County Fair with Grandma, and Juliana enjoyed the antique tractors like Dad. "Hey guys, how you start this?"

 A few weekends ago we went to the Covered Bridge Festival with Pap pap and Grandma Paula.

 She rode her first horse, which has been a big highlight, although I thought she looked terrified the whole time.

She has now been to 4 ballet classes (1 in Staunton with me was a Mommy and Me class, the rest have been a 2-yr old ballet class at a local studio).

 At the end of dance class she gets a stamp for good behavior.

Our crazy schedule right now and a general feeling of exhaustion has led to frequent eating out trips. Juliana requests Panera for soup, bread and butter, yogurt (see her rolling it up?), a smoothie, and a cookie. We've quickly learned how to curb the "gimmies" at Panera...

 Another favorite place is Chick-fil-a. She and Dad don't always get ice cream, but she was particularly thrilled on this day when she did get it.

We also go to Chipotle for a cheese quesadilla and double serving of rice (she insists that the black beans are spicy, which is a mystery to me because she gobbles up a pasta dish we make with original rol-tel tomatoes, which is spicy!). Or pizza at Costco.

The biggest challenge when eating out is getting her to sit still in a booster seat or the booth seat when she's on her knees. If she's tired, she can't sit still to save her life. Other times she does great. Lots of complaining if we break out a high chair, but she's getting much better.

Talking on her "squash phone" like Cookie Monster from one of the Sesame Street books she loves to read.

I've almost completed her halloween costume, a replica "Sisters" dress from the movie White Christmas (when first introduced to Rosemary Clooney and they sing the song "Sisters" with the blue feathered burlesque fans). Nobody will get it, everyone I show pictures of says she looks like Cinderella, so that'll be fine too. She loves to sing Sisters all the time though.

Brian has been super busy working on putting up the last of the drywall in the lower basement. After the dry wall is finished, our "to-do list" is: paint, tile laundry room, carpet family room and steps, put up baseboard, hang/install doors, install new cabinet and laundry sink, move stuff from upper basement to lower basement, fix some things in upper basement, convert upper basement into a play room, redo the kitchen floor (we got a new dishwasher and the next day the kitchen tiles were breaking and popping up...), and whatever other little things we could possibly have on our lists!

We've also been working on mulching the outside flower bed.

20 yards of mulch almost completed the front and along the driveway side, but we probably need another 10 yards to get to a decent stopping point.

I got my diploma in the mail, so I guess it's official! I won't walk in commencement until the end of April though since Pitt only does one ceremony.