The Daddy Diary: August 2011

Sunday, August 21, 2011

We're 4!

Four years ago today, while at the cottage, I started this blog. I had no idea if I would keep it up, or if it would just fade away.

289 posts and 3679 page views (not a lot, really) later, I'm still going strong.

Luckily, I still love doing this... and some people actually like reading this.

Now if only I could make money off this thing!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Maine Event 2011 - Weekend Three

Weekend 3 started with a late night Friday arrival on JetBlue. The next morning, both girls rushed into our bedroom for the usual routine of snuggling, wrestling and laughing.

Later we broke out the bikes for a ride on the Eastern Trail. Half way through our adventure we took a break for lunch at the Dunegrass Country Club. Then, back on the bikes to complete our 14 mile trip.

Afternoon was beach time with our Hurwitz/Supovitz cousins. This included burying poor cousin Lily.

We invited all our cousins over in the evening for a cocktail party. The grownups talked, argued and imbibed. The kids ran around and played.

Sunday was a bit gloomy, so we headed out to our first-ever family miniature golf challenge at Pirate's Cove. Lots of fun. The girls did a great job and, on some holes, beat their parents. Stella even got a hole-in-one on the 18th hole.

But when the numbers were totaled up, the results were definitive:

Stella 76
Marni 80
Lisa 56
Steve 48

Now, to the kids, it appeared that Marni won (highest score). But we all know who really won.

Late Sunday afternoon Nana Audrey, Papa Harold, Aunt Carol and Uncle Norman arrived for their visit. After taking a tour of the new cottage, we headed down to the beach for Stella's now-famous bike-riding breakthrough.

The next morning the big metal bird took Daddy back to NYC until Friday.

This post contains video that is only viewable from the website. So go there!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Biker Chick

We had planned for quite some time to take Stella's training wheels off this summer. She was all for it. The idea was to take advantage of the soft sand at the beach in Old Orchard as her training ground.

On Friday, August 12th the training wheels came off and learning began. Lessons for the first two days actually took place on the little streets surrounding the cottage. I figured that Stella wasn't actually going to be good enough yet for us to even let go of her handle bars. So falling wasn't much of a concern.

Indeed there was no falling and not much success. Stella was far too wobbly to ride on her own. Lisa eventually took over the lessons when I tired out.

We tried again on Saturday with similar results.

[ Sadly, a good friend of mine was also teaching his daughter to ride her bike that weekend in Brooklyn. Tragically, he died of a sudden heart attack while out with his daughter. I found this out on Monday morning when I woke up to catch my plane back to New York. So I dedicate Stella's bike riding lessons to Mike. ]

Lisa took Stella to the beach during the week while I was away and continued the lessons, but Stella wasn't yet ready to fly solo.

Fast forward to the next weekend.

Yesterday I went down to the beach at 5 pm with Stellie for more low-tide bike lessons. We took along Nana Audrey and Aunt Carol for support (and Marni).

We made a few attempts and Stella seemed still pretty wobbly. I didn't let go. After some prompting from the peanut gallery, I asked Stella if she wanted me to let go. She said yes, so we gave it another try.

We started down the beach and, after about 50 feet, I let go.

And off she went! Success!

I ran along side her as she grinned from ear to ear. She eventually made a safe stop and cheers went up from her audience. We did this several more times. Eventually we started doing turns. Then we worked on teaching her how to start on her own. She made two successful runs all on her own before we called it quits for the day.

She was so proud of herself (and I was so relieved).

This morning I flew back to New York and Lisa will pick up where I left off. Practice, practice, practice!

This one's for you Mike.

This post contains video that is only viewable from the website. So go there!

Back to Maine... For the First Time

Breakfast time on Day 1

Last year a dear friend from Maine left us forever.

The cottage.

After 80-plus years as beachfront headquarters for the Supovitz, Brenner and Shepard families, the cottage bid a fond farewell last fall to make way for a new headquarters.

Through the fall, winter, and spring, the new cottage metamorphosized from a dream to a reality. Although the Brooklyn Shepards have been visiting OOB for more than a decade, this is our first year in our new home.

And boy do we love it!

This year's Maine vacation began on July 31st. We were quick to unload with help from the Imhoff clan who, just as quickly, swept up the girls and took them off to the beach so that we could set the place up with the help of Nana Bev and Papa Art.

Stella and Marni love their new room as decorated by Lisa. Plenty of pink, and purple, and flowers. Our new upstairs master suite is quite cozy too.

Much of the first week was spent with Lisa Stefanoff, Ron, and the rest of the "J-Girls". We spent lots of time at the beach, took a long hike along the coast at Prout's Neck, visited a dairy farm (and a Dairy Queen), and had a blast at York Wild Kingdom.

Stella and Marni were sad to see the J-Girls leave the following Saturday, but cousins Marcy, Mitch, Hannah, and baby Seth arrived the next day and kept the girls very occupied. The girls were especially in love with 2 month old Seth.

On Monday morning I woke up early and flew back to New York. Never a happy time. But beach fun continued without me, and Skype kept us in touch until my return at the end of the week.

And so much for week 1.