Doing for a Friend

Last June a good friend of mine lost her baby boy on his two week birthday.  There are no answers to what went wrong, and nothing that could possibly make this easier for her and her family, but yesterday we gave her a gift of love that hopefully helps.

Jocelyn and I and many of our friends created a beautiful butterfly garden in her yard, in memory of her baby boy.  It was a lot of work, but we are so happy with how it came out.  It is full of butterfly attracting plants, and it has a kid painted butterfly house, a memorial stone and a butterfly shaped stone that my friend made with her son.  It's full of memories and beautiful things.  I hope it brings her joy for many years to come.

We had a few surprises.  First Jocelyn and I got caterpillars that we watched become butterflies.  We planned to release them once the garden was finished, and it turned out to be the perfect plan!

In their crystalis

Feeding them sugar water

The kids came over a couple weeks ago to paint the butterfly house.

Anxious for freedom!

The garden took lots of helpers, including the kids.  We discovered that pulling out grass, dealing with good old Maryland clay, and lots and lots of rock, was hard work!  It took longer than we thought, but we went from this...

To this...






To this...

Notice the giant pile of rocks we dug out

To the final, beautiful product.

Jocelyn and I had a long talk last night about charity.  Each week when she gets her allowance $1 of her money gets saved for charity.  It's important to me that she understands that charity is about doing for others.  Often it's about giving to the less fortunate, but yesterday it was about making a good friend smile.  I feel really good about what we did yesterday.  It was something good that could be made from something so sad.  In memory of a precious little boy.

More School Fun

The Co-op preschool set up is so much fun.  I continue to love how much I can be involved with Jocelyn at school and here are a few reasons why.

Last week I went with Jocelyn on her very first bus ride.  The kids all got to go to the Science Center, but the real event was the trip.  I loved being able to share Jocelyn's first bus riding experience with her.

Then came the springtime Easter Egg Fun!  Now we can't call it Easter, so it's just an Egg Hunt, but who cares.  The kids had fun!

In class they made their own Bunny buckets, and then they tore around the playground to collect eggs.  So much fun!  And yes, again, I got to be a part of it.

The last few weeks of preschool are ticking down.  It's over the 3rd week in May and I can't believe it!  The time has gone by so fast!!  Jocelyn has learned so much, it's amazing to see the changes in her.  I think we will both be very sad when the year is over and we have to say goodbye.  I don't want to think about it.  I plan to enjoy every last minute of these last weeks, and celebrate Jocelyn's accomplishments every step of the way.

Aunty Joye's FUN Chaos

Last weekend Jocelyn and I took a trip to Connecticut to visit Aunty Joye and the clan.  As always, the trip was a lot of fun, but so exhausting!!  Joye and I always stay up way too late talking, and Jocelyn is always up late hanging out with the kids, but true to form, she doesn't want to miss anything, so when the kids start moving around in the morning, she's up and ready too.  So late nights and early mornings for all...   not a good combination.  But there's no way we would give up a minute of the fun.

Every kid Jocelyn turned to, and there are five of them by the way, jumped at the chance to play with her -- snowball fights, legos, Nerf guns, ponies, didn't matter what it was.  We pretty much walked through the front door and I didn't see her the whole weekend, unless I went looking for her.  She had a blast!

Looks like she fits right in!

Top row:  Alex and Abbie
Middle:  DJ and Hannah
Bottom: Ben and my happy camper

Abbie is working on an agricultural project in school and she is raising baby chicks in the basement.  The family lives out in the country, by the way.  These 33 chicks will be added to the already 20 something outside, along with the 9 ducks...

Not surprisingly, 33 fuzzy, cute baby chicks were quite the draw.  Jocelyn loved petting them and feeding them.

Throwing snowballs and shooting Nerf guns!

Mommy and Jocelyn are still trying to recover from our lack of sleep, but our trip to Aunty Joye's was so much fun!  The kids want us to come back next week.  Oh how we wish we could!!

NICU Reunion

Today was a special treat.  After 4 1/2 years without, the hospital Jocelyn was born in, finally did another NICU reunion.  It's been 5 years since Jocelyn was born, so it's hard to remember all the nurses and doctors. Over the course of 33 days, there were a lot of them.  But we got to see two of the most important ones today.

Dr. Blechman was Jocelyn's primary doctor.

And Nurse Susan was pretty special as well.  Because of her, we got to hold Jocelyn for the first time when she was 8 days old.

Unfortunately, the one we wanted to see the most, was Nurse Joanna, and she was not there.  Lucky for her, but not so lucky for us, she retired last year and moved to Florida.  I gave Susan my email to pass on to her.  It would be nice to be in touch with her again.  In homage to our Mommy Joanna...

The reunion had some fun activities for kids.  They had some dancing.  And a puppeteer.















And the kids got little stuffed ponies, cowboy hats, and balloons, and they got their faces painted.  No surprise, Jocelyn got a unicorn!















Afterwards, we got our picture taken, just because.

The oddest thing about today?  The last time I was at this banquet facility, was 27 years ago for my prom.  Yikes!

Discovered this news article today about last nights event.  If you look closely, you can see Jocelyn in a couple places!
http://foxbaltimore.com/news/features/featured/stories/howard-county-general-celebrates-years-nicu-success-706.shtml#.UT3O-hzU_2p

When you just have to be WACKY!

Yesterday was Wacky Wednesday in preschool, in honor of Dr. Suess' birthday this week.

Jocelyn got dressed up in polka dot shirt and pants, purple socks and a poofy tu-tu.  She looked great, but I have to admit, Ms. Judy and Ms. Kathy took the prize!

5 Year Photos

Now you had to know these were coming!

Our Friend Gus Appears Again!

My Favorite for Obvious Reasons!

Funny Faces

Just for fun, some of the latest funny faces from my favorite girl!

Happy Monday!!

Having Fun

We've had a fun week!

Earlier in the week we went on a field trip with Jocelyn's class to the fire house.  The kids got to see how the fire men live, and they got to climb through the fire trucks and ambulance.  What an experience!

Yesterday, Jocelyn and I went to Disney on Ice!  I went a lot as a kid, but I had never taken her.  Well her eyes were glued to the ice the whole time, and she talked about it non stop last night.  She had a great time, but I also had a great time watching her enjoyment!

She said her favorite parts were Ariel and Cinderella.  I really liked Ariel as well.  All the costumes were iridescent, so they showed up beautifully in the light.  Of course Mickey Mouse and friends were there, along with Lion King, Peter Pan and Captain Hook, and all the Princesses!!

Ready and waiting!!

What a great show!  I can't wait to take her again next year!

One of those moments

Once in a while we get reminded that we are but a speck in the universe and there are things in the world much greater than us.

Last week I had one of those reminders.

My sister and I drove out to Delaware to bring Mom home.  She was here a month after she broke her ankle.  As soon as Jocelyn's birthday was over, she was ready to go home... understandably so.

On our way home from the trip, my sister and I stopped by the side of the road to watch this...

This was a gathering of multiple flocks of birds, millions of them coming in from every direction to land in an open field.  I'm not sure what kind of birds they were.  We thought they might be Canadian Geese, but they were white.  Maybe seagulls, but the wing span seemed much bigger than seagulls, so we're still not sure.

But it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

How did they know to all meet there?
Where were they coming from and where were they going?
What made them stop in that spot?
We'll never know, but I'm so glad in that moment, we stopped to watch this amazing event transpire.

That white line down the bottom of this photo is the countless birds that had already landed.  Amazing!

February 16 - update.
After talking with my Mom, about the birds, she was able to give me more information.  The birds are called Snow Geese, which is why they were so similar in size to Canadian Geese.  Apparently, they fly through this area around this time of year, and land in the fields to clear out the leftover corn.  There's still plenty of mystery as to how they all know where to meet, but at least we figured that much out!   What an amazing sight!