Jiggity Jig

Phew! Well, we made it home in one piece after our 13-day, 3-stop trip. This past Saturday, when we logged 16 hours on the road (with stops), made us feel like we needed a vacation from our vacation... but nevertheless, we made it home again. Jiggity jig.

Unfortunately, we don't have many still photos from this trip, since our camera is broken. We do have some video clips, which I may get to posting, but for now, here's a pic that I took on Grandma Jan's camera. It's our annual "Four Generations of Wilcoxes" shot.

From left to right, we have Dad Wilcox (Dave's father), Meg, Grandma Wilcox (Dave's dad's mom), David, and Matthew. Our once-a-year time with Grandma is a real treat. She is one special lady.

A few brief trip high (and low) lights on the personal front:

-Meg's sudden and unexpected sleep issues. This girl been a great sleeper since colic ended at around 3 months. Now, all of the sudden, she is fearful of the dark, thinking up myriad needs to delay bedtime, waking up to play in the middle of the night, then panicking and refusing to let Dave or I leave her room when we try to put her back down. Also... we suspect that she is sometimes walking/talking in her sleep. Yikes! Help!

-Matthew decided that this trip would be an ideal time to start working on the 12 or so teeth that have been missing from his mouth all this time. Fortunately, this didn't disrupt his sleep patterns much, but it made for some interesting attitudes during waking hours...

-Matthew experienced a vocabulary explosion, adding words by the day and surprising us all with his increased appetite for communication.

-The man of my heart celebrated 33 blessed years on this earth.

But most of all, this trip provided some quality time with our dear family whom we don't get to see nearly enough. And that's worth dwelling on in some future posts.

Outta Here

"Boundless adventures!"
"Adventures, old friend!"

Can anyone name the musical theater masterpiece from which that quote is taken?

We Wilcoxes are setting off on a road trip adventure tomorrow morning. Early. We're hoping to make it to Louisville, KY by dinner time. After spending most of the week with Dave's Dad and Jan, we'll move on to Holland, Michigan, where Dave grew up. There we'll get to mingle with the Beyer clan (Dave's mom's family; she was one of seven children) at a reunion and show the kids around their daddy's former stomping grounds. Next and final stop: Merritt, MI, home of Dave's Mom and Tom. Saturday, June 20th, we'll attempt to make the 12 hour trip from Merritt back to Maryland in just one day. And if we survive all that, you can expect regular blog posting to resume sometime in late June!

We appreciate any prayers you might offer up on our behalf. The trip is getting off to a bit of a rocky start, with Meg getting out of bed every hour or so tonight... for what reason we can't quite figure out. A sleepless night for any or all of us makes 10 hours of driving tomorrow look even more daunting, as you can imagine! If we can, we'll let you know how it goes...

Thanks to all who read and/or pray. Nighty-night.

Marker Mouth and the Ballerina

I am quite overdue to post some pictures of the kiddos! Our camera is partially to blame, being, as they say, on the blink. Basically, it will only power on if it feels like it. The good news is that today it felt like it! So I was at least able to download the pics that were already stored there.

These are some shots of Matthew from a couple of weeks ago. Warning: do not let this child get near your magic markers. He will bite the tip completely off, suck on and/or chew it for a while, and then spit it out at his leisure, in little chewed-up chunks, possibly on your carpet, where it will leave very dark splotches of color that may or may not come out. Yeah, ask me how I know.

He will also look pretty, um, goulish...

FYI: Since these pictures were taken, Matthew has had his summer haircut. It is short and really cute. Kind of like Matthew.

OK, Meg's turn. This week my little big girl is taking her first ballet class from none other than her Aunt Lena! Meg's been waiting for this for a looooooong time.

In this case the class is actually a "camp," running one hour a day for five days, which seems perfect for three to five year olds. (That's about all they can handle!) At camp, Meg and her six classmates learn some ballet and lyrical basics, do a craft, sing a praise song, and prepare a dance to present to the parents at the end. The whole thing has pretty much been the highlight of Meg's existence to date. (Second only to going to the beach, I would guess.) These are some shots from Sunday afternoon, when we were doing our "dry run," trying on all of her new dance wear and planning how to do her hair. Important stuff, you know.

Here she is in her very simple ensemble. I grew up studying ballet at a fairly strict, classical school, and this was our mandatory uniform: black leotard, pink tights, pink ballet slippers, no exceptions.

Miss Serious

And here's a shot of Meg in her "my-hair's-too-short-for-a-bun" do. Gotta get it out of her face somehow!

More to come of our little dancer... her performance is on Friday.