The Baptism, Part 5: Tourists in Port

As usual, it took forever to get out of the house this morning. We decided to go to Port Jefferson (or simply "Port," as the locals say) to look at the boats, play in the playground, and do a little souvenir shopping. That last item on the list is so not what Barb and Andy used to do, or ever in the past would have done, that it gives me pause to even write it. But souvenir shop we did, and with some success, scoring a t-shirt for Lily (with a matching one for Elizabeth, of course) and a couple of post cards for Lily and Riley. Daddy also got himself a board game to play with the adults up in the Adirondacks. (Settlers of Catan, if you're curious. I really wanted Arkham Horror, but it was 80 bucks and the guy at the store said it takes an hour just to set up.)

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We couldn't find a normal-type store (e.g., CVS or Rite Aid) where we could buy a stroller. It was warm and humid, which makes carrying a three-year old less than ideal. Not to Elizabeth. "Daddy is kind of like a stroller," she mused. I whipped out the trusty Droid X to activate its smartphone powers to find us a drug store and as soon as I fired up Maps it crashed. Plus, Elizabeth didn't want me looking at my phone, she wanted me holding and talking to her. These smart phones are awesome... in theory.

We gave up on the quest for the labor saving device and dove into a Starbucks. Barb was utterly baffled by the Frappucion menu. Last time she ordered a Frappucino, it was just, "I'd like a Frappucino, please." Now there is an entire menu of flavors, "coffee" being only one of the many options.

Refreshed, we headed down to the docks, saw a ferry (Elizabeth was puzzled by the homonym of "fairy"), played in a park with a cooling fountain (Elizabeth had to strip down to her undies, as we had no swim suit and no change of clothes), then went to a tiny beach where we sheltered from a brief shower under the pier, then collected and buried seashells. After a quick snack of fried seafood, we did some souvenir shopping (as detailed above), and spent thirty minutes or so playing in the playground.

Good times.


Here's Andrew talking to Uncle Mark while holding Suzanne.






Oregonian in Long Island.


Sheltering from the rain.


The Spirit of Freedom. Or something. She sure is photogenic.

The Baptism, Part 4: The Lost City

Yesterday, our big event of the day was a trip to an aquarium called Atlantis. We've been there before with Elizabeth, but she was too young to remember. Elizabeth enjoyed it, but she was in no mood to linger, moving swiftly from exhibit to exhibit. Even the snow monkeys (yeah, snow monkeys at an aquarium) held her attention for only a little while. This short attention span worked to our advantage, as we got to see most of the exhibits in a reasonable amount of time.

In the picture above, Elizabeth is chilling near the reptile bones. She likes bones.

Below, you can see the family attempting to touch the skates or rays (I think they're skates). These fish are incredibly friendly! They swim up to you and poke their... snouts, or faces, or fronts, or whatever out of the water in order to get a pat. They really seem to enjoy being touched by countless kids and a handful of adults. Elizabeth kept making excuses for why she hadn't touched one yet ("It was too fast," "It was too deep," etc.) but eventually by accident one swam against her timidly outstretched hand and she shrieked in horror and delight and, of course, was very proud of the fact that she had touched one. Her verdict? "It was slimy!"

Indeed.

After Atlantis, the whole family, including Frank and Bev, went out to dinner at J&R's, a favorite. Grandpa continued his losing streak with drink orders by asking for a Dewar's and soda (regular enough) and receiving a Dewar's and 7-Up (huh?), which he promptly sent back.

The Baptism, Part 3: The Big Day

The baptism ceremony went really well. Elizabeth was a champ, Suzanne didn't cry when the Holy Water bathed her head, and we were surrounded by family. Godfather Michael even got Suzanne a beautiful white-gold cross on a fine chain.

Afterward, we had a part at Hilltop Court with Barb's uncles and aunts, cousins, and their kids. Elizabeth particularly enjoyed seeing Nicholas again. He's more than a year older than her, but they liked playing when last they saw each other in March, and again this time.

We also enjoyed seeing Addison as a big girl (19 months!) walking and talking, and Bella, who looks like a Renaissance painting of an angel, curly haired and cherubic. Just beautiful.

Elizabeth was a bit clingy to Daddy, recognizing, I think, that all the hub-bub was about her little sister. She was well-behaved though. Unfortunately, having awoken (with Daddy) at 10:00am local time, she wasn't asleep until 11:00pm. D'oh!

The funniest part of the party was the cake which, if you look carefully at the photo, says, "God Bless Susan."


Here's Nicholas and Elizabeth playing in the side yard.

We got an unexpected visit from Cathy Crisci, our old friend who now lives in the city!

Addison is a bubble-blowing prodigy!

The Toolbox Robot Lives!

 

Uncle Mark gave Elizabeth the rather bizarre robot toy pictured here a couple of years ago. We though that the Braccos had thrown out the robot, but such was not the case. And today, after Suzanne's baptism, the robot was a big hit with the older kids (Elizabeth, three, and Nick, four-going-on-five).

Grandpa

This morning when Elizabeth got up, and consequently I got up, Uncle Frank was the only one around. Mommy and Suzanne were still sleeping. Grandpa was out shopping for the big party. Aunt Beverly was not yet up and about.

Elizabeth was, frankly (no pun, I swear!), kind of disappointed. She had to settle for yet more of the Daddy & Joey Show. "Where is everybody?" she asked, after Uncle Frank took off to run some errands.

I told her it was pretty early, and there would be plenty of visiting later on. But it was nice to see how eager Elizabeth is to have fun with her Rocky Point family. Especially Grandpa. So when Daddy and Grandpa went out for more party supplies this morning, Elizabeth came with. When we discovered that the bag of peanuts had been left in the shopping cart, Elizabeth insisted on helping Grandpa search the grounds for them. And this evening when we were playing in the yard, every once in a while she would run in the house to "check on Grandpa."

Suzanne had her second meeting of her life with Grandpa Frank, and definitely enjoyed it.

The Baptism, Pt. 2: Beach Day

Elizabeth sure didn't sleep long, so Mommy and Daddy were pretty tuckered out Saturday. We made the most of it, though, highlighted by a trip to the beach. Elizabeth and Suzanne had a good time, and the adults got our first taste of something that might reasonably be called "vacation."

For Suzanne, it was her very first beach trip.

The Baptism, Pt. I: Plane Trip

We flew from Portland to Houston to LaGuardia for Suzanne's baptism. It was a long couple of plane rides: seven hours in the air, plus a panicky scramble through the Houston terminal to get to our connecting flights just as they were announcing final boarding, and finally a hellish, near two hour wait for Budget to get us a car. Finally, after the brief satisfaction of firing the smooth 8-cylinder engine of our pimpin' Grand Marquis, a long 2 a.m. drive through bumper-to-bumper traffic, pea soup fog, and deer-haunted woods to an exhausted arrival at 12 Hilltop Ct.

It was a tough day, but I'm proud of how well my family held up. The girls stayed good-natured and well-behaved, and Barb and I managed not to freak out in frustration and anger and fatigue.

So: good job, Larrison family!