Halloween November 9, 2009

Here is a big stash of moments from Juliet’s second Halloween experience. They’re a bit out of order. We started the day at her ’school’ with a little party and ending the evening in Old Town Alexandria trick-o-treating. There is a ’safe zone’ controlled by the police and we felt more comfortable with that. When our brave lion(ess) was tired of hunting for candy the four of us stopped by Susan’s old work place, The Fish Market, and had a bit of food…(ha, i got oysters and a beer for a change of pace!)

Ju-ju-pea also went to Borders bookstore for a little party. And there are some other odds and ends shots in her new boots, pumpkin carving (yes that’s chocolate on her face), squatting in the corn and wearing papa’s new monkey hat from Toronto. By the way, Miss Juliet had to pick out her own costume again this year, Mamma had in mind a Dorothy costume with Celiedh playing the role as an elderly Toto, but nothing doing!

swim class October 19, 2009

Grandma and Granddad (Walmsley) gave me swim lessons as a present, and what fun I have had!! Mommy doesn’t always feel up to being in the pool in the morning, so Papa gets to play. We sing songs, blow bubbles in the water, reach and pull with our arms chasing rubber duckies, and kick, kick, kick!! Last week I also started jumping off the side of the pool into Papa’s arms. We signed up for classes with my friend Reagan and her mom Dana from our “My Gym” classes and we go Friday mornings for a half hour session. I LOVE SWIMMING!

across the border we go October 19, 2009

Hi Everyone,
Last week we went to Toronto for the BATD North American Highland Scholarships – an invitational only, major competition. Five of my dancers were nominated, but only Maeve and Cecily were able to attend. The competition rotates between the US and Canada each year and different places in each country. We stayed in the Delta Chelsea Hotel on the 22nd floor! It had a cool pool and a children’s play room which Juliet loved! We went to the Toronto Zoo, the Royal Museum (where we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls), the CN Tower, and Collier and Juliet went to the Science Museum. Juliet danced the night away at the Ceilidh (Collier videoed and I tried to keep up with her and safe from other dancing feet). She was great entertainment!! On the way home we stopped off at Niagara Falls (Canadian side) for lunch. It was a nice little trip.
Hope you enjoy the photos,
Love,
Susan, Collier and Juliet

Yes, we’re still into vaudeville with the dog bowls … August 16, 2009

Gram asked if the wee Princess still performed with the dog bowls. We weren’t sure at the time, but then she pulled this one out of her hat.

Off to a relaxing evening concert August 16, 2009

Our drummer friend Dave McDavitt, that sometimes plays in my band, played a free town center concert in Reston with his 12 piece Afrofunk band, Chopteeth. We thought we would go for a few hours, see a couple of shops, have a little dinner, meet up with our other drummer friend Ray Yrure, who also plays in my band, and his daughter Isabelle and just relax. Well, let me tell you… it was not too relaxing! and a lot taxing!

Juliet had a blast running around in circles to the music… the circles were really 50′ ovals – she wore us out.

Ray and Isabelle had to come much later than expected and when they did Juliet got a big surprise.  Isabelle brought two other babies her age and their fathers. Had Susan not been there it would have been quite the site! Four bewildered Papas with 3 baby girls an 1 baby boy! Alas, Mama Suzie was there to keep us in order.

To da Zoo Too! August 4, 2009

We finally made it to the National Zoo! Susan had been asking for the last year especially since we have such found memories of the Dallas zoo.

The only things that JuJuPea didn’t like was the heat and octopusseseses.

She found the wall of animals and immediately took to the wolf and owl. At the end of the day we went into the giftshop and she found a few friends including a 4 foot panda… yep, we made a big scene when it was time to leave.

Computer time with Juliet’s lap(body)top August 4, 2009

Juliet has always been fascinated by our computers. Fascinated and frustrated! As a matter of fact, she will shut your laptop if she feels she’s not getting enough of your undivided attention. She also likes to touch the keys… mimicing her parental units.

So…. I took Susan’s old broken iBook, put a basic system, a few parts, and a wee program called baby banger that allows her to mash the keys without fear of too much damage. Each key results in a colored shape appearing and the computer speaking the name and color of the shape. This was the first day she got it…

–like her little ikea chair and table set? Grandma Dorie took her to Ikea to pick that out.

Mother’s Day May 17, 2009

Juliet loves pens. She finds them no matter where they’re hidden. She prefers to put them in her mouth, but we’ve been working on using them as writing tools. She picked out the flowers too! Well, most of them… She helped me bring a catepillar into the flower shop… is that bad?

Window Conversations May 17, 2009

Did we mention that Juliet has taken to having loud conversations out of our windows? In this series we captured JuJuBean doing a little hat and cane dance with a dog bowl while telling Al a story. Or, maybe… she was performing her first dance play? An audio recording would have been priceless!

The Ju-Ju Train May 17, 2009

Not sure how this one happened…

But, the little girls of the neighborhood have started a particularly characteristic game with Juliet. For the past couple of weeks she has been a very exciting part of the girls playtime. I can’t say I understand the phenomenon, but it’s interesting to watch!