A busy week

James is picking on me! At least I'm not following his mother's suggestion to load a can of tomatoes into the pillow before I bap him with it.

For some reason he seems to think it inappropriate for me to nag my sister for updates on her adoption process without updating my blog, so here goes. . . .

Last Saturday my friend/sister Lee and her family stopped by. They happened to be in Annapolis and called to "pull a Mary" and stop by for a short notice visit. It was my first opportunity to meet my new "nephew", and I have to agree he's a keeper. The twins seem to think he's a fine addition to the family, but much prefer playing with their twin "cousins" to discussing the baby. Samuel was worn out after taking them to the park, racing Kyle home, and playing hide-n-go seek with Noe & Gil. Gil, on the other hand, was NOT ready to leave when Dad suggested getting his shoes back on. He figured he'd just have a sleepover at Aunty Mary's house. Fortunately, he agreed to delaying that since his Grandma was coming in the next day, and he also wanted to see her.

I could really fill the house with preschool-aged nieces & nephews since my brother Rob's kids think it's time for another sleepover at Aunt Mary's also. We spent Sunday afternoon in Alexandria taking time for a more extended visit than we usually manage around returning Kyle to his mother's care. Lisa took advantage of the opportunity to tease James about how complicated his vegan diet makes it for her to plan a meal for us to share. Once she finished "working" on the computer, Aria was delighted to entertain us all, and enjoyed having her cousins join the audience for her performance. Once again, Samuel earned a star for entertaining his adoring cousins.

Tuesday I joined Rob & Lisa for a trip to the neurology department at Johns Hopkins hospital. I was supposedly there to entertain Evan when he got bored with the adult conversation, but he was just fine, and we spent the hour and a half in the room with his parents and the doctor. It's wonderful to have the time to spend with him one-on-one. With such an exhuberant big sister, it isn't easy to have extended time to interact with Evan. We spent quite a bit of time playing with and learning about a set of magnets I'd brought to keep him occupied. Dad wanted to play also, and kept asking for his turn, but Evan was busy learning all about these curiousities, and wasn't ready to share. (Have you had a turn to play with them yet, Rob?) Something about the experience watching him reminded me of his dad (I can do it myself!), and also his uncle Rich (Let's see, how does this work? How does it come apart? What could I do with this piece???). Look out, Lisa!

As much as I enjoy the explorations of my young nieces and nephews, I am enjoying my teenagers venturing into the adult world even more!

Thursday I joined Eliza's entourage in a trip to the Hungarian embassy in DC. One of the Rotarians is a former ambassador, and happened to know Ambassador Simonyi personally. Mr. Penner arranged this trip for Eliza, myself, himself, the president of the Rotary Club that is sponsoring Eliza's trip, her teacher and one of the school vice principals. We spent over half an hour with Ambassador Simonyi, and more time than that with one of his staff. They gifted Liza with a beautiful book about Hungary's history, and invited her back to spend the day with Dr. Zoltan Fehr once she knows where she will be staying. They'll go over the history and other details of the area, so she goes into this even better prepared than she currently is. I may be biased, but I keep hearing how impressed other people are by Eliza, so I think there is reason to be proud of my girl!

And Miriam had a wonderfully successful day on Thursday also. Her chorus group took first place in the county competition.

Now that I've pretty muc brought you up to date, I'm going out to admire James's work installing our back patio. He's using the rest of the reclaimed pavers and a bunch of reclaimed bricks and laying out a patio to match the one in the front. We'll fill the squares between the bricks with soil and plant thyme when it gets a bit warmer. Then it will be time to plant rosemary, etc. on the hill.

Life is great!