Hello Blog, did you miss me?

Wow, it's been a month (just about). So much has been going on.

Currently we're all in Maine, on a mini-vacation. Bruno had to come here for 2 weeks, and is in a very nice Marriott, so since schools and camps are over, we decided to drive over for a long weekend.

So far, we've been lost at least 8 times, but we've also had a blast. Everyone loved the Portland Children's Museum, and yesterday we spent at Funtown/Splashtown riding rollercoasters and water slides. I didn't take the camera, and I'm sorry for the lost photo ops. James & Cory rode a mini-gravity drop thing and their screams were absolutely hilarious.

Darby enjoyed the pools and the sprays and hung onto Bruno to the point where you just didn't know where she ended and he began. She really misses her daddy when he's gone, that's for sure.

Okay, let's update from the past month to present.

Darby's school was over on the 10th, (James camp was over on the 3rd) and so we skipped a few days of Cory's camp and drove to Philly to our friends' house. This is the trip that restores my soul. Every year our good friends put on a party and this year was the first time the whole family was able to go. There was a celebration for all the new Americans (we had 4 total, including James) and just good times for everyone. --Pictures to follow, they aren't here on the laptop, I'll upload them at home--

So, after Philly, we drove over to Delaware to visit the in-laws. My poor sister in law's septic tank overflowed due to a weird filter issue in her leach line. So, we left first thing the next morning, which was fine, as the drive home was brutal w/3 kids. --Again, pictures to follow, I have some nice ones of 3 generations--

So, we got home, Cory finished out his camp, Darby started an easy-breezy transition into Kindergarten. While she's been going to this school for 3 years, Kindergarten is in a completely different area, utiziling all different rooms and such, and she has all new teachers and a new para-educator (whom I love already). So, this is all very hard for her, to go to the same building, but not the same places. Her playground is even different.

I'm very excited for school. Yes, for the obvious, that I need a 2 minute bathroom break without a child in tow, but also for the milestones that it represents. I know that this minute I'm feeling like this, and it will change come Thursday morning when the buses arrive, but the point is, you have kids to show them the world. And their world will open 2-fold on Thursday, especially James. Sure, he went to a mini-Kindergarten last year, but he hardly remembers any of it. Now, he's going to Kindergarten like his brother and sister, riding a bus, going all day long...not a modified schedule at a different school. This is full-fledge 100% regular stuff. Nothing special because he's just learned English.

And Darby...wow...who'd have thunk it? She still is non-speaking, but she's so interested in her world now, so much more interactive, so close to just bursting out in language. I remember putting her on the bus, her screaming, thinking to myself how evil and awful I was (2.5 years ago) to make my poor defenseless girl do this, and now, now she runs for the bus and she adores her new para (did I mention I love her?) She's writing her name and humming along to songs. She's nearly toilet-independent and she's running everywhere. Not to mention she is the most beautiful girl in the world (ha! I'm a mom, my kids are the best looking in the world you know).

Then Cory. This is the kid that will teach his teachers a thing or two, and hopefully about loving learning, and how to find fun in the most mundane of things. He's an amazing kid, and to tell the truth, he's 70% of the reason James sounds and looks like he's been here all his life. Cory has instinctively taken the role of teacher with his brother, and the hardest thing now is to make sure he has enough of his own fun in things. I am separating all three kids in Kindergarten, to give them all the chance to make their own friends.

Okay, I have to get moving. Bruno's really wanting to take a shower, and Darby is just not leaving him alone. She is such a daddy's girl...but that's okay, I love watching it.

So, short story is, we're all fine, just finding that summer time is not a lazy time.

Oh, and note to any gadget lovers out there. Once you become dependent upon a GPS, accept it, and stop thinking you can find your way across New England without one. It's futile. You forget how to hold directions in your head and you wait for that sweet voice to tell you what lane to be in. When you don't hear it, you panic. So, today, our last day in Maine before we head home tomorrow morning, we're going to the mall to purchase a 2nd GPS, one that is really mine. Bruno's buying it for himself for his birthday, and immediately giving it to me so he can have his old one back. (actually, he bought one already, but I want the one with the blue-tooth interface for my phone, so this one is going back and I'm getting the 'even better' one).

Okay, onward we go! Today is the mall, LL Bean's flagship store, and the pool. Thank the stars the hotel is free this weekend (thanks to Bruno's company) and there's a small per-diem we can take advantage of, as this is one helluva expensive weekend. Did I mention there's a Coach store in the mall? And they have the wallet that matches my purse? Hmmm???