Lest I Forget

Busch Gardens, that is. It may be our last trip there before we move and it was a grand day indeed. She had "the best day ever". She kept saying it over and over. She fell asleep almost instantly when we put her in the stroller to leave the park. I love this picture! Peter's first ride. This is apparently Jack's new face for the camera. I'll spare you all the others that look just like it, except the background. She was so excited that she could ride this one. Tony and I took turns riding the rides. Somehow I managed to escape miss out on this one. Good-bye Busch Gardens.

The rain was so heavy, it seemed like a solid sheet of water hitting our car, the roof sounding like a tin one on an old cottage. And that is how our whirlwind of a week at the beach began, driving to South Carolina in two cars in the pouring rain. We arrived just before midnight at the house on the ocean's shore. The kids' cousins had been asleep for hours, but the adults had stayed up. It seemed only minutes after I had fallen asleep that Peter's fussing roused me and I looked at the time. 5:30 am. I groggily made my way down the unfamiliar stairs and found the door to the porch. With the sun slowly bringing morning's light over the water, he and I cuddled and savored the quiet, for there were 17 other souls in that house. Quiet is not one of the words I would use to describe our week. It was Sunday, but Mass would not be until 11:45, so we ventured onto the beach and took the first of many walks. The sand on Edisto was coarser than Folly Beach, and the beach had ...

I did it. I blinked. Shame on me because look what happened... brand new! one month two months 3 months four months five months six months seven months eight months nine months ten months eleven months one year! Yesterday, we celebrated one whole year with Peter in our family. I made a chocolate zucchini cake which may or may not have been less fluffy than the one my mom made. (I did not sift the flour like she does). I bought him two toys. A wooden cube toy and a wooden racetrack type thing. He still prefers climbing onto the table. We tried to get him to blow out the candle. He is all boy, for he grabbed the candle before we could stop him and snuffed it out with his bare hands. Thank goodness he was not burned. Happy Birthday Peter!

Today marks six years of life without our son Benjamin. I am thinking a quiet day with family is best. I am hoping that the skies will be clear tonight so that we can watch the Perseid meteor showers, which has become a yearly tradition. I am linking to a post I wrote two years ago , because as I re-read it this morning, I could think of no better way to honor my boy.

Last night found us outdoors at one of Tony's summer concerts. Armed with all-natural bug spray, some water bottles, and folding chairs, we were ready to enjoy some music. The kids have made friends with two little girls whose dad is also in the band. They squealed with delight when they found one another and skipped off happily to play in the open area designated for just that. Backing up a little, let me state that yesterday had most decidedly not been a good day for Therese. When naptime was announced, she threw herself down on the couch with a wail that quickly turned into a full-fledged cry. She did not execute her exasperated flop well and ended up hitting her eye on the armrest, resulting in a rug-burn type scrape right in the corner of her eye. She was also awakened early by her mother, who foolishly thought that vacuuming the downstairs would be a good idea. Then to her dismay, dinner was not her favorite. So by the time she tripped and fell in the parking lot, skinning ...

Looking back, I realize this has been a problem for many months now. I need to figure out what is going on. I really like cloth diapering my babies. I like that I am not spending lots of money on disposables. Not to mention the throwing away of all those diapers. I have been doing this since Anna was a baby and I have never had the troubles I am now experiencing. Poor Peter. His little tush is a mess. I might get it looking better for a few days, but never for long and never completely clear. There are so many possible culprits that I can't seem to narrow it down to the right one. I thought maybe my washing machine might not be doing so great anymore at getting them clean, although they look and smell clean. So I tried boiling some to see if I could kill anything left after washing them. That didn't help. We have switched to disposables in order to try an anti-fungal lotion, an antibiotic lotion, commercial diaper rash lotions, petroleum jelly, you name it, I have probably...