Bertucci’s and Beaches

On Sunday, we met Ken and Dianne at Bertucci’s at the North Shore Mall for dinner. Due to a variety of trips, we won’t be seeing them until early June, so we wanted to have some time to hang out and chat.

Luckily, Catherine took care of the bill for us. You can see some more pics from the trip here.

Today we were gifted with very nice weather, so we once again headed to Dane Street Beach.

More pics from that trip here.

Dane Street Beach

Today was a simply gorgeous day, so we headed to Dane Street Beach in Beverly for dinner and some playtime.

Catherine digging some sand

Catherine had a blast on the beach! We’re really looking forward to summer time and more trips to various beaches in the area! You can see more pics from today here.

Since she returned

I’m glad that Catherine and Rebecca made it home safely from their trip to Ohio. The house was pretty lonely without them. In celebration, I’ve put up a gallery of some of my favorite photos that I’ve taken of my favorite photographic subject since her return. Enjoy!

Thirty Days: Day Four

Dane Street Church (visit our new site!)

20 Months

Catherine is 20 months old today! I thought we’d celebrate with this photo that Rebecca took yesterday while they were on a walk around the neighborhood:

You can see some more photos from that shoot in Catherine and the Snow.

Speaking of pictures, there are a few more albums of Catherine pictures that we’ve added to the gallery recently, but haven’t yet blogged about:

• Having fun with me learning to use the camera on a tripod.
• With braids in her hair, thanks to Momma.
• Watching for me in the window as I arrive home from work.
• Trying out her shopping cart. Canned food, anyone?

Boston Children’s Museum

Yesterday, while the work was going on in our house, we took a trip to the Boston Children’s Museum.

I had never been there, and Rebecca hadn’t been there since she was a kid herself. We all had a great time… it’s a HUGE place, with a ton of fun stuff for kids and adults alike. We played around with water and bubbles, climbed around in forts, played with “Arthur and Friends”, and even did a cowgirl photo shoot:

I’d highly recommend it for anyone who has young kids and wants a great place to spend the day! They welcome nursing moms, have plenty of restrooms and water fountains, lots of places for parents to sit while kids play safely, and there’s even an Au Bon Pain. In addition to their gift shop, there’s also a really cool Recycled store where they sell random stuff that local businesses have donated.

You can see more photos here.

She made me do the dishes

Here at the Wood household, we don’t have a dishwasher, so all of our dishes must be cleaned by hand. We generally try to do them as soon as possible after a meal is over, though sometimes if we aren’t feeling particularly motivated they may pile up.

Recently, Catherine has been helping me do the dishes:

Usually, when it’s time to do the dishes, I pull out a stepladder and she stands on it next to me. She does things like hand me the next dish, scrub the counter, and dry things off. Occasionally she will also attempt to clean me with the sponge. Maybe I should take more baths?

Tonight for the first time ever, Catherine initiated the dish-washing. We hadn’t cleaned up our dishes after lunch, and this evening I was sitting on the couch watching some WGBH fund drive program. Catherine walked into the kitchen, and must have noticed that there were dirty dishes on the counter. She started trying to pull out the stepladder from in between the stove and the refrigerator, so I helped her and set it up in the middle of the kitchen. I asked her what she wanted to do with it, and she pushed it over in front of the sink and climbed right up! She grabbed the first dish and handed it to me.

My daughter is more motivated to do the dishes than I am!