Cooked Out

Happy Belated Labor Day! I think it's great that there's a day for celebrating the people who go through labor to give birth to us. I wonder who thought of it? Anyway, this Labor Day weekend, I went to several cook-outs; I haven't figured out the connection between grilling and the birthing process, but I'm sure it will make sense when I'm older. Whatever the reason, I have to say I really enjoyed all the fires and the sounds and the gatherings of people and the opportunities to crawl around in the grass (which I don't get to do at home - something about the neighborhood cats using our little yard for a litter box; I don't know about litter boxes, but I sure wish I could have some of those Tootsie Rolls in the yard). Last Labor Day, I did attend a picnic, but I was too little to really get into the spirit of things; I hear I spent the whole time sleeping or begging for a little milk already! Now that I know about all the perks, I'm really looking forward to the next one. I must remember to ask my parents how much longer until the next Labor Day.


Day 1 - Saturday: I drove with Mommy, Nonna and Grandma T to Aunt Joyce and Uncle Bruno's house in Clinton. I had just gotten up from a nap and was kind of antsy about being in the car for an hour, so everyone in the car sang to boost my spirits. My favorite was "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean" - I love to yell the "BACK!" part!

At the party, I spent as much time as I possibly could climbing. I climbed the steep stairs to the second floor (although Mommy was a party pooper about me climbing to the third floor). I climbed the porch steps. I climbed over landscaped hills of pine mulch chips. I climbed up and down the bricked levels of the back patio. I even crawled over gravel and concrete, so determined was I to locomote. It was utterly thrilling.



Here, Mommy was thinking how glad she was to have caught up with me. I was thinking about how to get back down on the ground.



Aunt Barb tried to corral all of us youngsters for a picture with Daddy's Cousin Zach, who was visiting from Puerto Rico. Bella, however, was not interested in holding her sister, Lilliana, nor in participating in the photo herself.


So then we tried with just Bailey and me, but I needed to get back to my ground reconnaissance.



Day 2 - Sunday: Our first stop was Dan and Meg's house on the lake. I loved being able to hear the waves lapping their deck on one side and Dan's band playing blues on the other side. I met Mia, whose parents used to be our neighbors, before we lived in our house; she is just about a month older than me, and she can walk unassisted, which I greatly admire. Mia also enjoys a good tortilla chip, like me, and we may end up going to the same school when we're older, like five years old, so we have much in common. Here you can see Meg in the foreground, and - if you squint - you can see Dan and his band in the background, playing on the upper deck.



After Dan and Meg's party, we went to the Casola party at Maria's. Maria is my Ono's niece plus she and Daddy used to be neighbors. I got to hang out with Bailey and Spencer plus the big Casola cousins like Bella (who let Bailey and me play with her fun puppy toys) and Anthony AKA Sonny, who was cool about hanging out with me, even though I'm much younger. Here, Aunt Christa and I were having a competition to see who could make the silliest face. I think it was a tie.


Day 3 - Monday: On the actual holiday, my parents and I met Nonna at Edgewater Park for a cookout. Daddy grilled Quorn "turkey", tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions, corn on the cob and garlic bread while Nonna and I played soccer and she blew bubbles for me.



After all this fun, I was asleep by 7:30 Monday night and slept until nearly 8:00 this morning, on which my parents complimented me. I'm off to go swimming with Daddy now, so maybe I'll sleep as much tonight.