Butterflies are SCARY!

Today, we (me, bran, and my mom) decided to venture into DC to see the Butterfly exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History. Basically you walk into a 80 degree/80% humidity room with 55 species of Butterflies flying all around. The curators prepped us to not touch/step on the butterflies and to be prepared that they will land on you. As soon as we stepped into the room, Lex, who is scared of the teeniest bug, lost her mind! If she could have run out of the room screaming, she would have!

Ooops. A butterfly like's GG's blond hair. Lex was shaking so she was so scared that the butterfly would hurt her GG.
One lands on my madras shorts!
Geeg and Bran convincing Lex that she doesn't have any butterflies stuck on her.
After the butterfly exhibit, we checked out the Imax theater and watched the movie Sea Monsters about prehistoric animals in 3D. HUGE prehistoric dinosaur fish with enormous teeth swimming at us in the dark in 3D was fine for lex, but butterflies are SCARY.
Afterwards, we took a little break and checked out the sculpture garden. We were able to put our feet in the huge wading pool and do yet another butterfly check.

Boyds Bear Country

On Friday, to celebrate Lex's last official day of summer, we had a mommy-Lexo day and decided to go to Boyd's Bear Country in Gettysburg, PA. We had a rocky start in the morning and Lex declared that she already had too many teddy bears and didn't wan to go to the "Teddy Bear Musuem." After some convincing, we were on our way.

Once we pulled into the parking lot, which had bear prints painted on it, Lex changed her tune. We had to take pictures of EVERY single bear in site. At least I was able to practice using my camera for my online photography class that I'm taking!

Lex took this picture of me!

Finally, the highlight of the trip...I'm a grandma! Lex "adopted" a baby Panda that she named "Bella" (funny story, last night Bella was renamed Julie). Bella/Julie was swaddled in a blanket, wears a diaper and a baby bracelet, Lex had to promise to take Bella/Julie on adventures, to feed her honey, dress her in cute outfits and be a good mommy.

After we left Gettysburg, I decided that we should stop at Cunningham State Park on the way home to check it out. There was no one there, probably b/c the weather was damp, drizzly and overcast and Lex kept asking me "are we allowed to be hear? Is it dangerous here? Are there bears here?

We walked around for a little bit and then Lex dripped on some moss and that was the end of our little wilderness adventure for my city girl. She declared that it WAS dangerous here and she wanted to go home :)

Lex + Brandon

Lex and Brandon tease each other mercilessly. This weekend, Lex told Brandon that she didn't love him, that she loved Justin more (Justin is bran's younger brother). Well, this morning, Bran was leaving for work and pulling out of the driveway while Lex watched from the window. Lex starts pounding on the window like crazy and tells me "Mommy come quick, Bran's leaving." We start waving good bye and Lex tells me "Mommy, I was only teasing when I said I didn't love Bran. I love him very much."

Lex's Homework desk and oh, yeah, Short hair!

I wanted to set up a homework area for lex and scored this super cute old fashioned desk in PERFECT shape on craigslist! Yesterday, I wanted to take Lex to cartoon cuts to get her hair trimmed. Well, Lex demanded to go where Brandon went to get his hair cut the last time. Little did I know, Bran ran out of time to make an appointment and went to hair cuttery! So, that's where lex wanted to go! She loved and asked for short hair!


Here's the inside of lex's desk ..complete with her letters on the top!

The Tooth Fairy comes to Mommy and Bran's house

The tooth fairy left Lex a little surprise for her when she returned from vacation. This little linen tooth fairy pillow is from my friend Jessica who brought it back from Ireland.

Lex loved that the tooth fairy sprinkled fairy dust and glittery flowers on her bed.



Lex asked last night if she's going to look funny with a giant grown up tooth and little baby teeth :)

Creme Mini Olympics

Lex's school had closing ceremonies for Creme's week of Olympic activities on Monday, August 18th. Lex was so proud of herself carrying her torch and then listening to the national anthem with her torch in her right hand and her left hand over her heart :)

Oh Canada....

I had my second investigator's meeting in Montreal Canada in mid August....For those of you not in my clinical research world, an investigator's meeting is a meeting for all the physicians and nurses involved in a clinical trial to learn how to run the study. It's a day's worth of intense training and presentations and the planning involved is like planning for a wedding (think favors, give aways, meals, etc) We had almost 70 people attend with involvement from almost all of our sites! Montreal had such european feel to it!
My study team at an outdoor restaurant in Old Montreal: Karen, Ned, Tina, Jason, Me, Tiff and Janet.
Everyone joked that my name was on the street sign outside ouf our hotel!

My long lost twin, Karen. Even my mom gets us confused at work!

Gargoyles! If I could, I would want gargoyles off of my house! I love them!

OH la la...c'est Francais

Smiles!

First tooth

Lex lost her wiggly tooth last night while at her Dad's house. She told me that it felt out while she was in bed, and she snuck it under her pillow in the middle of the night. Because lex didn't tell anyone, the tooth fairy didn't know to come. How cute is that? The tooth fairly will be visiting her there tonight.

While I'm ecstatic for her that she lost her teeth, part of me is sad that it wasn't while she was with me. Doesn't she know that all major milestones need to occur under my time :) Anyway, the tooth fairy *knows* that she has two houses and will be bringing her tooth to mommy's house in a little back pack on her back for mommy (yep, I will be keeping her tooth along with her umbilical cord stump that I still have!).

Lex is with Bobby until Sunday so I had to settle for this picture above....

Kindergarten in 20 days!

The Office...

Last week, Lex had strep throat (again!) and wasn't up to par to return to school. I am planning a huge meeting for work, so I really couldn't work from home, so Lex came into work with me last Wednesday. Can I just say how well-behaved and good she was all day? She used all of her manners, introduced and shook hands with people, and amused herself so well! Then at the end of the day, decided to make herself cozy in the conference room where my team was working and took a nap! Sue, my boss, kept telling me that I need to bring Lex in more often! :) Thanks for making momma so proud, Lexo!



Peaking out the front window!

Adding drawings to my whiteboard in my office :)

Nap time with my laptop and all of the boxes I'm shipping to Montreal for my meeting this week!