Go Daddy-O!

There has been an exciting new development in our house.  Ryan has changed careers.  He is now going to be vice principal of FOUR schools in Richmond, Maine.  He will be covering two very tiny elementary schools, and a junior high-high school combo.  We are really excited.  I will be hopefully decreasing my clinical hours by four a week to get home earlier with the kids since he'll be a bit busier.  The district he is working in is rather innovative, and their learning system is one that he is very interested in.  

We have been doing a to of visiting lately.  This past weekend, we drove down to Andover, MA to visit my cousin and his family.  The kids had a great time playing in the pool, and my cousin's in-laws worked with Gav on his swimming.  He made a bit of a breakthrough, which was very nice, especially since the last time in the pool he was crying and screaming hysterically.  It was a refreshing change of heart on his part with regards to the water.  This is a picture of Gav and his cousin Lavi:

My grandmother on my Mother's side also came to visit.  This I also find impressive, since she is 86 and traveling independently, let alone at all, is not something everyone her age does.  She survived the Children's Museum, and I captured this little gem as we left the pizza place:

Ani has been getting cuter daily, which is rather disgusting and cliche of me to say, but it is, unfortunately for us, true.  I caught her feeling her cracker to her stuffed kitty the other day.  Then on the way home from a late night out the other day, she was Chugga-Chugga-Choo-Chooing the whole way home.  She and Gav have also been playing together a lot, and he likes to play the big brother and hold her hand.  For those of you who have not read it, this is the first rule outlined in How to Make Your Mommy Cry (In a Good Way): Guaranteed Results.  

We went to fireworks at our neighbor's house the other night.  That was the first time either one has experienced fireworks, and both were a little scared at first, but I think they enjoyed it.  Gav said as too loud, and a "little scary." That child has become rather philosophical.  He asked tonight what made it different when people got married.  I'm not sure exactly what spurred that question, but it came right after we were discussing how I had portrayed myself as "outdoorsy" before we got married, which Ryan felt was misleading.  Gavin also asked about the debate regarding the health care law, and why people wanted it or didn't want it.  I'm grooming my child to be an NPR dork.  That way he won't need to worry about dating until he is 30.

Below are some other random photos from our very random life.  We are going camping way "up north" tomorrow, so the next blog post should be interesting.  Be sure to check! Now that I've built it up, hopefully the bears won't eat us, which would prevent a post submission...