Birthdays Galore

From the previous post you know that our little Laura is now 2. When you are with her one on one, she is so sweet and funny. It's hard to believe that she wanted nothing to do with me for the first 6 months of her life (that's 25% as of now). When she is not busy screaming, her vocabulary in both English and Spanish (Claire, what did Laura say?) is amazing. Given her strong personality and affinity for walking around the house in the nude, perhaps I should be worried in 20 years' time.

Last weekend, Grammy and Grampy drove up to spend the long weekend with the girls, as Lynn and I were heading to New York for a conference. The conference was quite productive for both of us as we made some good contacts. I was even asked to consider editing a book on the geography of beer. How cool is that? We did have some fun too, as we managed to see a musical on Broadway. (start watching at 2:08). Anyway, rent the video - it's a great movie.

Grandad also had a birthday this past week. The girls skyped with him and we are excited to see him in July when we will be in Vancouver for a few days. Did I mention that Lynn got a grant from the Government of Canada to do a comparison study of sustainability, looking at 5-6 cities in Canada? She will be spending the weekdays this summer, in various Canadian cities (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City and Halifax) and flying home for the weekends. Tough job. But more importantly, Lynn received official news this week that she will be promoted to associate professor and get tenure in August! Woohoo!

When we returned, we celebrated both the girls' birthdays with Grammy and Grampy. The girls had a blast. This weekend (Saturday) we were going to host Claire's brithday party at the Atlanta Zoo. On Friday evening there were tornadoes in north Georgia and the forecast for Saturday called for rain. So, we decided to move the party to Sunday afternoon. Claire's soccer game on Saturday morning was canceled. Of course, Saturday turned out to have great weather. So the party is slated for tomorrow (I am sure Lynn will provide updates), but unfortunately, I have a flight to Washington, DC at the same time. So I will miss Claire's party.

So, to make up for missing the party, the girls and I had a great play day today. Lynn and I bought them sleeping bags and a tent for their birthdays, so we set up the tent in the living room and pretended we were camping. Claire would ask, what's that noise (Kayla panting)? I said that's a Kay wolf. What's that noise (Rooster meowing)? I said that's a Roo Lion. And then we heard a strange noise, one I couldn't quite place at first. "What's that?", Claire asked. Then it dawned on me. I said, that is the most endangered species of all, it's your mother vacuuming.

Thank you. I'll be here all week.

Anyway, here are some recent photos and a video of the girls playing in the driveway yesterday. Laura spilled some liquid bubbles, so I was cleaning the driveway when Claire and Laura decided they wanted to help.