Apparently Flora inherited the I-Love-Post-It-Notes gene from me, courtesy of my father, who wrote damn near everything on a Post-It note or to-do-list. Flora calls her scribblings her “special notes” and then tells us what they say. From top, clockwise: Mommy, Beans, Mabel, Daddy, Applesauce, Flora Hergert, and I Love You.
Dad’s old friend from Kansas City, Jon, came for a visit with his fiance, Julie, over this past weekend. Dad showed them all around town, including a trip to the USS Constitution, a tour of Fenway Park, a walk in the Public Garden, and dinner in the North End. I didn’t get to go, but had so much fun hanging out with them here at the house. And as any good Boston visitor should do, they proudly sported their Red Sox gear!
Click on the COMMENTS link below to submit your baby predictions (gender, birth date, and weight). Deadline for submissions will be Friday, June 6th. Here’s what I can tell you: my “official” due date is Sunday, June 15th (Father’s Day), but every ultrasound puts me at Wednesday, June 11th. Dr. Wu, my OB, has referred to the baby as she on several occasions (is she just using a generic “she” or could she know something?). Dr. K, her partner, guessed it was a boy based on the heart rate during one visit, although had incorrectly identified two other genders that day. One of the ultrasound technicians referred to it as a boy, but clearly stated afterwards that “he” is just how he generically refers to any baby. Flora was due the 12th, born the 14th, and weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces. Good luck with your guesses!
… for those that don’t get a chance to look through all the links below.
Marty, Flora, and I traveled to Rochester for a few days over this past weekend for my grandmother’s belated funeral — we have lost three of our grandparents in as many months. But despite the circumstances, it was really great to see everyone, including cousins we hadn’t seen in over 10 years! After the service, we visited my father’s grave, and then had an early dinner at one of my grandmother’s favorite restaurants, Mario’s.
View Flora’s “Mount Hope Cemetery” photos
And as always, we partook in several Rochester traditions, all revolving around food: Abbott’s Frozen Custard, Empire Hots’ garbage plates, Wegmans’ submarine sandwiches, and Chester Cab pizza. The Abbott’s we went to was at Seabreeze, and although it was a little too chilly to walk out on the peer, we fed the ducks and swans and geese on the shore.
View Flora’s “Abbott’s and Seabreeze” photos
View Marty’s “Empire Hots” photos
We stayed with my Aunt Chris and Uncle Jack (and Rusty the dog), and the weather was so wonderfully warm for April (one day it hit 86 degrees!), they busted out the deck furniture on Saturday and hosted a leisurely visit with The Swans and The Flynns.
On Sunday, we drove to Cousins Linda’s (my Godmother) and Howard’s new house outside of Buffalo for a visit with almost all The Lawrences: The Swans, The Flynns, and The Fassls. Again, it was great to visit with cousins I hadn’t seen in decades. Flora was lavished with gifts from my Godparents and treated everyone to “bang bangs” — band-aids (stickers, really) on their hands and arms. And Marty finally got to sink his teeth into some authentic Buffalo wings from Duff’s. The verdict? Damn tasty.
View Flora’s “Buffalo Visit 2008″ photos
Bump is just about 32 weeks now. It weighs in at about 3.75 pounds (a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long. It now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (which explains all this heartburn!)
My honorary great grandmother in Kansas City, Winnie, crocheted me this very stylish shawl for Spring. As you can see, I really like it. She also crocheted me the sweetest, little dress that I wore in Rochester, and a little flower that she sewed onto a new sun hat that I have yet to wear. Apparently I look pretty cute when I wear said items — my Mom can’t stop squeezing and smooching me when I do!
When we got home from school yesterday, Flora wanted to model her sunglasses and have me take her picture. She’s been requesting to have her picture taken, and after we take them, she likes to look at the pics in the camera’s display window … but doesn’t understand why she can’t, “my have it” right off the preview screen.
Flora’s Great Papa Stanley passed away this morning in Nevada, MO, at the age of 85 and just nearly one month after his wife Bertha passed away. Papa Stanley simply adored Flora, and his favorite saying about her was, “She’s such a smart little girl!” He loved to look at her photos and marveled at her artwork. We’re so happy we all got to see him at Christmas time, when he was feeling better, and Flora and he got to read books and play with magnetic letters together.
Flora counted everything with a 2-3-8-1 — she said it so much I thought about changing my PIN code to it! But today counting finally clicked, and she surprised me by counting all the way from 1 to 10 without a hitch. A few weeks ago it was colors. One morning she pointed to five different markers in a row and correctly identified their color. We’re still working on the alphabet — she’s got all the letter sequences down but sometimes skips around. And she’s talking in long, full sentences now … practically paragraphs when she gets on a roll. And her attention span is lengthening. The kid who barely watched TV will now watch her new favorite show, My Neighbor Totoro, from beginning to end without a distraction. In swimming news, Flora jumped off the side of the pool and went under the water. When she popped back up she told Marty, “More, more!” And she can now get herself dressed, and unfortunately, undressed. I think she’s officially a pre-schooler!
