Olivia is looking forward to meeting...

Donna Quirke Hornik. Astute long-time readers may remeber when my oldest friend (we met at the top of an apple tree in kindergarden) Jeremy Hornik visited Olivia when she was just a few months old. He and his wife Sheila have a daughter, Donna, who is a few months older than Olivia. Three months ago they discovered a tumor in Donna's brain. The whole family has since been on a roller coaster involving several surgeries, too many nights in the hospital, many scans and tests, good news, bad news, chemotherapy, and (blessedly) many fun-filled symptom-free days. Jeremy and Sheila have been keeping an online journal to keep friends and family informed. We have been watching her progress day by day, and are at times joyous, heartbroken, sad, and hopeful. Please take a moment to send some healing energy Donna's way. We love you and we're pulling for you Donna- one strong little girl to another!

Girl on Wheels!

One great thing about living in Cambridge is that Olivia _knows_ that what grown-ups do is go off on thier bike in the morning to work. She's very excited about bikes, and generally likes to ride in her bike seat. Lately she's been interested in climbing aboard and steering herself! We just got her a little trainer-bike, more pics of that soon.


She also loves to ride in the wheelbarrow. Pushes it too! What was really funny was when she wanted to push _me_ in it... I kind of had to help.

So, I've been wanting to tell this story about Olivia for some time now- I think this happened a few weeks ago: Olivia woke up very early in the morning, around 4 or so, and sat up, asking (in sign) for milk. I carefully explained to her that it was still night time and that night time was for sleeping, and that when it got light out and was day time, then she could have some milk. She listened carefully, and nodded from time to time, understanding. Then she pushed me over and clambered over me to where Suzanne was lying, taking matters into her own hands!

Olivia goes to Paris!

Boy- it's been a long time since the last post! Olivia's been keeping us busy lately, now that she's officially a toddler and walking everywhere... But a weekend (or 2 now) ago we finally got the chance to take advantage of our close proximity to the continent, and went to Paris for a long weekend. We took the eurostar train through the chunnel, and stayed at (first) Cousin (once removed) Kathy's apartment, which was fantastic. We all had a great time despite quite a bit of rain (turns out we were missing a great deal of rain back in England that weekend as well!).


Olivia on the march in Paris, with her Horse. Turns out one of the great things about the broad Parisian sidewalks is that you can play with your horse on them! Several more pics are at our flickr site.









Olivia loves fountains, and Paris didn't disappoint. This is also one of several pics at our flickr site.














Of course we went to see Notre Dame, but for some reason it didn't seem like a fun idea to spend an hour or more in a queue to get in, so we viewed it from afar.














Olivia slumbering through the rain (which for some reason doesn't show much in this picture) while strolling along the Seine. The cobblestones were pretty rough- it's amazing what she'll sleep through once she gets going!