It's Been So Long Since Last We Met

It's been so long since last we met ...

That's the first line of the Georgetown fight song, and I think it sums things up nicely.

It's been a long time, but Orlando has inspired me to try to get back into the writing of the blog. Apparently he was bored the other day and read the entire thing from the beginning, and was sad that I had gotten out of the habit of writing it. So, today seems to be as good a day as any to pick it back up.

A friend gave Orlando two tickets to the Georgetown basketball game for today. He suggested that I take Anastasia, maybe to balance out the Maryland indoctrination with a little Hoya Saxa. She's had 7 full years of learning about Maryland sports, and I've been a bit lax in my teaching of Georgetown lore.

This morning I sang her the whole fight song (she thinks it's too long) and she finally put on the Georgetown t-shirt that I bought her months ago (to go with a very stylish maxi skirt, because that's how she rolls).

It may have been pricey, but lunch was very delicious, and almost too big for little stuff to eat.



Next, it was on to our seats. We had section 225 to ourselves. Not the closest seats, but we had a good view of the action. Anastasia has a pretty good understanding of football, but she really knew nothing about basketball. So, it was up to me to school her a bit. She's a quick study and within a few minutes of the first half, she was really into the game.



The Hoyas won, and we took the short metro ride home, arriving in plenty of time to see Maryland win their last regular season football game. Yep, that's a good day.

Picture Day

This picture has actually been in the house for a couple months. It was taken on the fall picture day at school, which we learned after the fact was supposed to be a uniform picture, not one in "dress down" clothes. I also couldn't have guessed that the background would be almost exactly the same color as her eyes.



The next picture day is this week. I'll try to get the picture online in a bit more timely manner next time.

Theater Bug

Since Orlando and I both had the day after Christmas off, we decided to take Anastasia to a play at the Kennedy Center, called Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale. She loved the play, and we had such a good time, that we decided we'd try to make it a more regular occurrence.

So, last weekend, she and I went to the Imagination Stage in Bethesda for P. Nokio, a hip hop musical based on the story of Pinocchio. There were lots of grown-up references, which helped to keep me engaged. Anastasia was intently focused on the stage, and applauded at all the right moments.



After the show, we went for dinner with friends and decided that we'll be back in May for their staging of Rapunzel. Between now and then, we're going to the Atlas theater in our neighborhood for a National Symphony Orchestra string quartet performance aimed at 5 to 12 year olds.

It's been a while

The holidays were very busy, and somehow that's bled into whole of January, and apparently half of February, too. So, the short version:

Christmas:
Our annual trip to the mall was a great success. Anastasia was very excited to ask for a veterinarian kit, a barbie doll and a unicorn. She stipulated that the unicorn should be a pretend one, since we don't have a place to keep a real one (dodged a bullet there, didn't ya Santa?).



Santa delivered (though Barbie landed at the wrong house and had to be delivered by our friend Rob), and the grown ups were all happy, too. Myney got everything she wished for, I was shocked by a new iPad, and Orlando got the thing he wished for most of all:



Several friends, including Mark and the aforementioned Rob, joined us for a dinner of roast suckling pig with lots of sides. The apple wouldn't stay in his mouth, but he made a pretty picture nevertheless. All in all, it was a lovely meal with almost no leftovers to enjoy the next day.



Winter Break:
Between us, Orlando and I were able to coordinate days off so Anastasia didn't go to camp at all during winter break this year. She was very excited to get to spend time with each of us. With Daddy, she got to go to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, where she saw Dorothy's ruby slippers, the Muppets (she calls it the Muppet Museum, after all), and the gowns of the first ladies.

When it was my turn, we did the puzzles and played the games that she got for Christmas, and enjoyed breakfast at a neighborhood restaurant. Don't you dip your bacon in jelly?



We also organized her closet, thanks to the Elfa sale at the Container Store. Anastasia was a super helper with the project, and she was really excited to get to put her things away. It's not easy to see in the picture, but the drawers are filled with stuffed animals.



New Years:
Orlando had to work on New Year's Eve (the hotel hosted one of the biggest NYE parties in the city, so he was busy until very late), so Myney, Anastasia and I joined our friends at a neighborhood Mexican restaurant for dinner. I was excited to eat homemade tamales, a shout out to my Texas roots, others ordered fish, fajitas and tacos. Anastasia fell asleep during dinner, but was a trooper until the grown ups were done.



Our dinner ended with complimentary shots of tequila. Thanks to Abby and Nathalie for taking the shots for Myney and me. It was a very fun night, even if I did have to carry 40 lbs of sleeping child up the stairs.

Super Bowl:
With no Super Bowl parties on our agenda, our weekend highlight was the Super Bowl Bar Crawl, an annual tradition for our friends the Martins and Larry (Miser) Davenport, capped off every year by a chug race between Miser and Laura.



We joined the party well into the evening, and kept it going beyond the last bar on the agenda for the evening. We ended up at Trusty's, a neighborhood joint with a short bus for a bar. Needless to say, our fun times ended in a cab ride home.



So, that pretty much gets us caught up to now. More coming soon.

Prima Ballerina?

After 13 weeks of lessons, last night was Anastasia's ballet class "recital". As a courtesy to the parents, this recital was really just a class that parents were invited to attend. We got to watch their warm up exercises before they presented the routine they've been working on for the last few months.




After the girls were all warmed up, we were treated to several iterations of the dance they've worked so hard on.

Things to look for in the video:

Anastasia's subtle repositioning
A stumble, but like a true star, she just moves through it
Graceful skipping



So, does she have a future as a prima ballerina? I think we'll keep up the lessons and revisit the questions.

Thanksgiving Portrait

I remember Grandma Sally curling my hair with strips of fabric torn from old rags. I told Anastasia about my memories of getting curly hair using old rags, and she thought it sounded like fun. But, since our weekends are often pretty busy, I really needed a long weekend to make it a possibility. So yesterday, with no chores and hours until we left for lunch, I pulled out an old flour sack cloth and cut some rags. Anastasia did a great job sitting still (Spongebob helped) for the 30 minutes it took me to roll her hair into this lovely little ragamuffin.



Three hours later, we were ready to take the rags out. Anastasia was pretty excited to see her hair curly. It didn't look like much, but it was pretty much what I remember my hair looking like when I was little.



After some brushing and twisting, and a healthy amount of hairspray, the curls were eventually tamed into a pretty style that I captured in a sweet impromptu portrait.



When Orlando saw the picture, he said this is what she should look like for her formal portrait next year (only without the crayons in front or the Wii balance board behind her.)

Princess Ariel

Our little girl wanted to be Ariel for Halloween this year. She was very excited to get dressed up, and wasn't even bothered when the weather was chilly and I made her wear a jacket underneath her costume.



We met up with a large group from the neighborhood and all went trick or treating together. This is the largest group we've ever trick or treated with. It was a ton of fun watching the whole group of kids make their way down the street.



After about an hour and a half, Anaastasia was excited to get to eat some of her haul, so home we went to dump her bucket full of candy on the dining room table.



She ate two pieces, then asked to go to bed. I'd say that qualifies as a successful evening.