Let There Be Light!

So Irene came through our part of CT as a tropical storm, leaving 800,000 people without power and flooding many rivers. Our section of the state was more affected by wind than water, which resulted in 5 days and 2 hours of no electricity for us. It came back this afternoon and our townsfolk were literally cheering the electric crews that came in from Ohio just for us! Many nearby towns are still out, though most should be restored in the next 48 hours. We have city water so at least we didn't have to rely on buckets to wash hands, flush toilets, etc. like many people we know, so we were lucky overall. Schools were canceled for the week, so Beatrice and I have our REAL first day on Tuesday (I put in 2 prof. dev. days before the storm hit). Beatrice could have cared less to be without power; in fact, I've never seen her happier. I think she was just in heaven being bunked in with the three of us and staying close to home, a huge contrast to how we spent most of our summer. We had fun using lanterns at night, eating by candlelight, reading by flashlight, doing laundry at Pepere's house, having Bea-Mama sleepovers in her room (those of you who know Anthony can figure out why a power outage would earn him a room to himself :) ) and cooking on the porch with our propane camping grill. The weather has been picture perfect since Monday too, 70-75 degrees and sunny, so we've been outside a lot. B. is in a major "fancy" phase, telling us over and over that pink is her favorite color and preferring dresses. Thursday morning she got up before 6 a.m. and said "let's go for a walk!" I was all in favor and then she said "it's fancy dress day, mama, go get yours and I'll get mine." I wasn't awake enough to fight both battles, so we settled on one of us celebrating Fancy Dress Day. She was quite the sight decked out like this for the entire day in a town full of people who hadn't showered in days....

She had so much fun participating in the conversations with people at the cafe, responding to people taking about the lack of power back with "we have no power, but it okay, we have water!" We sat out on the porch today and watched the crew on the street working on the lines and she said "We have to thank them mama" and yelled out "Thank Yooooou!" even before they were done.

We went to the annual Woodstock Fair for a few hours this afternoon. What a change from last year! Beatrice was willing to touch the animals, ride most of the rides, and walked all over the place since we forgot to pack a stroller. I cannot believe how much she's grown up. She is such a little but whole person it is incredible. One funny thing this week, though we're pretending it's not funny, is that she's calling us by our first names. She particularly enjoys doing this when other people are around, and LOUDLY, so you should see the look on people's faces when she yells out "ANTHONY!!!! MICHELLE!!!"

Recently, she's into dancing, especially ballet (her version of it anyway), and skating (pretending to, that is, roller OR ice, and puts all sorts of thing under her bare feet in an attempt to make them slippery). So Anthony seized the moment and decided to hold a first skateboarding lesson. Here's a video of her first seconds on the board, and it was amazing how much better she was with balance even minutes later. What a fun week it has been, an awesome gift of bonus summer time with my daughter, who is in such a great phase right now. Honestly, if this week is the measuring stick, I want to be THREE again and stay that age for the rest of my life.