Smile!

FOUR!

Nicole turned 4 this weekend and every year I take a photo of her in the same pink dress next to the same table and chairs to show how much she has grown. Check out the progress so far!

Mermaid

Nicole turns 4 this weekend and the theme for her party is mermaids. She loves mermaids and often immitates them when she is swimming around in a pool. This photo was taken by my friend Sonia at her pool and shows Nicole doing her best mermaid immitation. I am so excited because she is progressing so well in the pool. She has even taken off her floaty a good bit lately and the best part of watching her swim around is that she keeps her derriere in the air even when the rest is under water. I will try to post the video showing this soon. For now, enjoy the mermaid swim photo!

Alive?

This quote by author Graham Greene is really making me pause and think about things...I found it on the website, http://childofdivorce-childofgod.blogspot.com/

"Always I find when I begin to write there is one character who obstinately will not come alive. There is nothing psychologically false about him, but he sticks, he has to be pushed around, words have to be found for him, all the technical skill I have acquired through the laborious years has to be employed in making him appear alive to my readers. Sometimes I get a sour satisfaction when a reviewer praises him as the best-drawn character in my story: if he has not been drawn he has certainly been dragged. He lies heavily on my mind whenever I start to work like an ill-digested meal on the stomach, robbing me of the pleasure of creation in any scene where he is present. He never does the unexpected thing, he never surprises me, he never takes charge. Every other character helps, he only hinders.

"And yet one cannot do without him. I can imagine a God feeling in just that way about some of us. The saints, one would suppose, in a sense create themselves. They come alive. They are capable of the surprising act or word. They stand outside the plot, unconditioned by it. But we have to be pushed around. We have the obstinancy of nonexistence. We are inextricably bound to the plot, and wearily God forces us, here and there, according to his intention, characters without poetry, without free will, whose only importance is that somewhere, at some time, we help to furnish the scene in which a living character moves and speaks, providing perhaps the saints with the opportunities for their free will."

I can't decide which type of person I am...the one that God has to push around or the one that is alive...

N-i-c-o-l-e

Nicole is very proud of the fact that she can spell her name verbally and on the computer. Well, this weekend she can add a third way...she can now officially sign her own name! I am so proud of her...what makes it even cuter is how she sticks out her tongue when she is writing it which is her 'sign' that she is concentrating really hard.

Proof of her work:

My Little Pony

Nicole attended a birthday party for her friend, Hanna, this weekend and the theme was My Little Pony. Well, not only was the house decorated with a bunch of My Little Pony paraphernalia, http://www.hasbro.com/mylittlepony/ but there was an actual live pony there, too! Nicole was one of the first and then one of the last ones to ride the pony. She was grinning from ear to ear everytime she was on it and her face just lit up when the pony handler sped the animal up to a trot.



In addition to the pony, the garage was converted into a mini petting zoo filled with an ark full of animals including ducks, bunnies, lambs, goats and chickens. Nicole was one of the few children running around holding and picking up animals. It didn't even phase her when one bunny had a little accident on her shirt. Her favorite animal though seemed to be Binky, a two week old lamb (I think it was a lamb anyway).



It was a great party, but unfortunately I won't be able to bring any live mermaids to her mermaid themed party this year.

Danskin

Over the weekend I participated in the Danskin Triathlon http://www.danskin.com/triathlon.html that benefits breast cancer research. Just to give you an idea of how I did, I have decided to rename it from triathlon to triathLONG....

Of course I can't complain about the distance especially when you compare it to an old friend who competes in ironman length triathlons (http://www.michaellovato.triathletesonline.com/index.cfm?pp=1) and finishes up his races with a marathon run!

Seriously though, I did as well as can be expected on very little training. Although pulling Nicole in the bike cart while riding up hills in the neighborhood sure did help I didn't do it quite enough! The swim part is the easiest for me since I used to swim competitively. I really must buy a road bike to prevent all those people from passing me on my little hybrid bike and the only way to improve the run is for me to train more. I am hoping to make this an annual event so I have a year to make improvements.

I will try to decide if I am going to post any of the photos once they come out...don't hold your breath though.