If I could just reach a little further....

Summer is in full swing up in Vermont. And it is fabulous. The skies are beautifully blue, the air is fresh, and the construction work is backing up traffic (traffic jam = 3 minute delay).

Becky and Molly have been checking out some of the sites around the area with a new mom's group - Monday Afternoon Mommy Adventures ("MAMA" for short). Today we went to a state park on the beach (I've been told by some that it's not a real beach unless it's on the ocean, but to me sand + water = beach). Molly LOVED splashing in the water, just as she did during her first dip in a pool. There are videos of that, Molly playing with her favorite toy (a big metal mixing bowl), and Molly playing the piano (in a somewhat unconventional manner) on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/klestwalsh

We also went to the Shelburne Museum and Shelburne Farms in previous weeks. The mom who organizes MAMA grew up in the area, and she is on a mission to get me aquainted with all the places she used to go on field trips (unfortunately, we missed the trip to the aquarium).

We were back in Chicago the first weekend in June for a friend's wedding. It was great to see Chicago from the 56th floor of the "Chase" building (didn't it used to be the LaSalle building?). Being back home reminded us of how much we miss everyone back there - but it also was a good reminder of how much we like the pace of things in Vermont (see my comment about construction above). It was nice for Molly to have time with her grandparents. We've posted some pictures from our visit with Patrick's mom in Round Lake on PicasaWeb.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Becky.Walsh.1/MayJune

For Patrick's birthday, we headed up to Waterbury and Stowe to take a tour of the Ben and Jerry Factory and have a picnic on the Recreation Path. We took some great pictures of Molly on the rec path.

Molly is a total goofball these days. One of her favorite things to do is blow raspberries on my shoulder when I'm wearing tanktops. She also gives us kisses - sometimes on request, sometimes out of the blue, always very slobbery. She absolutely loves hustle and bustle - we took her up to Church Street (our pedestrian mall in Burlington) last Friday night and she was dancing with glee to be out and about. Lately she's had the same kind of glee when we walk up the stairs (which, to us, are slightly less stimulating than hundreds of people watching street performers juggle fire while standing on an exercise ball).

She enjoys eating meals with us - as long as there are Cheerios on her tray. She loves fruit, tolerates meats, and sometimes permits us to slip some vegetables past her lips. But that's just this week - her tastes change daily, of course. A development that also may change is that we think she may be a lefty (making her Uncle Dan and Aunt Jessie proud) - if we put a Cheerio next to her right hand, she'll reach over for it with her left.

We're headed across country for a Walsh family reunion in Lake Tahoe later this week. We look forward to hiking, bears, and family time!

As for the grownups (eek, are we really "the grownups"?)... Patrick is busy with research, trying to get a couple of papers submitted to journals this summer (economics journals apparently have a long turnaround time on papers, so he's trying to get a jump start on publishing so he'll be in good shape when he comes up for tenure in 5 years). He also has been reading a little Harry Potter to get refreshed for the Last One. Becky also is enjoying her job, and is thrilled that she can commute on bike sometimes - it's all downhill TO work, so she doesn't get really sweaty until she's headed home - what goes down, must come up... (that's kind of Molly's philosophy with vegetables, come to think of it...).

Most of all, we are enjoying growing closer to a wide group of friends - people through St. Mike's, people from the UVM Catholic Center, and fellow parents. You can see some of them (and their toddlers) in the Memorial Day ice cream manufacture video on YouTube. We are grateful to have landed in a place with so many fun and interesting people, and look forward to growing closer to them.

Becky & Patrick