I don’t usually post stuff on here that’s from other sites, but I’m sure you’ll all enjoy this.  The Onion is a fictional news website that regularly comes up with funny fake stories like this one.  By the way, if you’re at work, this is ‘work-safe,’ no swears or anything like that.

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/study_most_children_strongly

Congratulations to Charlotte on her graduation Saturday!!  She’s been through a lot in the past year and still managed to secure a Top 10 position in her class, as well as National Honor Society.  On to Fordham Univertisty in the fall!

Hailey was soooo well behaved at the graduation and the party at Robin and Kevin’s afterward.  There was so much going on, and so many people to play with, that she didn’t take a nap.  At all.  All day long she was going full tilt, running around and being silly.  Here’s a few photos from Saturday.

Gary sent me a joke this morning. Although I didn’t know he had attached it in the email he sent. Last line of his email was “don’t take any tea from Hailey in the next couple years. ~Dad.”
All I thought was what the hell is he talking about?. Then I read the joke. Enjoy.

Cup of Tea

One day my mother was out and my dad was in charge of me.

I was maybe 2 1/2 years old and had just recovered from an
accident.

Someone had given me a little ‘tea set’ as a get-well gift and it was one of my favorite toys.

Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought Daddy a little cup of ‘tea’, which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home.

My Dad asked her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was ‘just the cutest thing!’ My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy and she watches him drink it up.

Then she says, (as only a mother would know… ‘Did it ever occur to you that the only place she can reach to get water is the toilet?’

This joke made me laugh out loud this morning. Hailey could certainly pull this off, and I wouldn’t think twice about where the ‘tea’ came from. Then I wondered if Miss Ella has ever brought Eric a cup of tea, or Hannah brought Buddy some?

The videos of Hailey from the previous post weren’t getting any hits. I thought it was strange that the pictures were, but videos weren’t. I mean don’t you want to see a cute kid and a lemur. Gold! Anyway, I figured that maybe the video hosting site was blocked from peoples’ places of employment, which is understandable, no? Turns out that I had locked the video as ‘private’ and that nobody would be allowed to view them. Except me. Brilliant, Evan.

So here they are now, viewable to all. Enjoy.

Hailey and the lemurs from Evan McIntire on Vimeo.

Hailey at North End Playground from Evan McIntire on Vimeo.

Hailey at North End Playground #2 from Evan McIntire on Vimeo.

Wow.  We really got some nice weather this weekend!  Beautiful sun all day long Sat, Sun, and Monday!  Andrea didn’t have to work (just Friday night), so we all spent a whole weekend together, it was awesome.  Saturday, Hailey and I went on a couple really long walks around the city (while Andrea got some sleep after her overnight shift), stopping here and there at playgrounds.  Saturday night, the 3 of us went down to Pawtucket to see the Paw Sox play.  This was Hailey’s 3rd baseball game, and this time she was really into it!  Her first was May 2 of last year, Jon Lester’s 1st start back from cancer; and we also went to Hadlock to see the Sea Dogs last Father’s Day.  Hailey got her own seat on Saturday, and got completely sugared up.  She was clapping and cheering, mostly just being silly.  By 7pm, her usual bedtime, she got extra silly and was having a blast!  So well behaved, not a single peep or fuss for the whole game.

Sunday, Andrea cashed in her Christmas present of a 2.5 hour spa package downtown.  We all walked down there to find the place (right on Boylston, near Copley and the Public Library).  Hailey and I took a looong walk back through the Public Garden and the Common, across the city back to the North End.  Sat evening,  we went over to Uncle Nate’s (our good friend Nate Burke) apartment in Revere for some hot dogs and hamburgers, and more playtime.  Great weather and more fun.  Monday morning we went over to Doyle’s restaurant in Jamaica Plain where I / we used to live.  This is one of Gary and Julie’s favorite places to go eat.  It’s an old Irish pub, with a lot of Boston history.  Ever seen the movie “Mystic River”?  The bar in the beginning of that film is Doyle’s.  It’s also been in quite a few movies, and used to be the choice watering hole for Mayor Flynn, who used to get smashed there and then jog home when the bar closed.  Or so the story goes.

After breakfast, we headed to the Franklin Park zoo.  I’d never been there, and this was Hailey’s first ever zoo trip.  We saw a lion, who got all bent out of shape at the spectators and started roaring (worth the price of admission in my book), we saw giraffes, tigers, and Hailey got to see lemurs!  By far her favorite ‘lil monkey because she loves the show Zaboomafu, which features a ring-tailed lemur as the main character.

The two videos below are Hailey’s encounter from Monday with the lemurs, and a video of her at the North End playground from a couple weeks ago.  The playground is right around the corner from our apartment.

 
Hailey and the lemurs from Evan McIntire on Vimeo.

Hailey at North End Playground from Evan McIntire on Vimeo.
 
Hailey at North End Playground #2 from Evan McIntire on Vimeo.

EDIT:  I cannot get the videos to actually embed here in the site.  Something’s up w/ the code and you’ll just need to click the links to see the videos. 

On Saturday, Andrea and Hailey went up to NH to see Nana & Grandpa (Robin & Kevin).  As always w/ Hailey spending time with either set of grandparents, she had a blast!  You should see the awesome swing that Kevin set up for her in the back yard, I must have a picture somewhere….. Anyway, I was up in York planting Christmas trees w/ Rube, Cam and Jon.

On Sunday morning, I made us bacon and scrambled eggs.  But not any bacon, this was Meat House bacon. There’s one of the Meat House butcher shops in York and they have some of the best bacon and steak tips. Ever. The bacon is also much easier to cook b/c it’s so thick. I had a gift certificate for said Meat House, so I picked up some House Steak tips and Burgundy wine steak tips for Mother’s day dinner.

After Hailey’s nap, we drove to Whole Foods Market to get some picnic supplies. I asked Andrea “Why Whole Foods? That place is expensive. Why not Shaws?”  To which she replied “You have to see this salad bar. It goes on for.ev.er.”  I figured ‘ok, it’s Mother’s Day’ and for once I left it at that.

Holy crap this is the biggest salad bar I’ve ever seen. Calling it a “Salad bar” doesn’t do it justice. There’s an Antipasto Bar, Hot Food Bar, Fruit Bar, Pasta Bar, Veggie Bar, Salad Bar, and to the right there’s a sushi chef cranking out fresh sushi. OK, so I’m glad we went to Whole Foods. We got some crostini and hummus (Hailey loves hummus, any kind), Antipasto w/ olives, artichokes, peppers and marinated mozzarella; rattatouille, caesar salad; some fruit; I got some salmon maki (sushi).  It sounds like a ton, but all small portions of each.

Then off to Lincoln, MA (map route here) and the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park. We went there last year on Mother’s Day (Moms are free, Dads free in June) and loved it. I’m not big on art or sculptures (i.e. I don’t look at a twisted hunk of metal in a field, or a geometric pile of shredded bulldozer tires and pretend it evokes emotion or deep thought), but this place is nice and spacious, nice scenery, and plenty of room (sculpture park is 35 acres) to sit down and have a little picnic. Hailey also gets to run around freely, and we get some nice pictures.  Some pictures below are from last year, some from this year. The landscape pics are from last year, as are the “bald Hailey” shots. The rest are from this year.

Cameron and I put together a bunch of photos from Mom’s Mother’s Day gift, which is a digital picture frame.  Thought I’d share them for the heck of it.  They qualify for the site, as Cam is playing the role of “Baby McIntire” in these shots.

Andrea went to visit Lisa (my cousin) yesterday while Uncle Ian, Uncle Jon, and myself were working at the tree farm getting ready to plant trees next weekend.

Ella is the oldest, Lucy is just a little younger than Hailey (by 1 month or so).

Geez, we’ve been busy. Not much time to update this blog, and our internets at home are pretty much non-existent. So I’m updating this from work.

Last weekend, our friend, Kristina, came up from DC to interview for a new job in Boston and to visit us. Clcik on the link below to see the pics.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmj1659/sets/72157604658144907/

Non-parents may get grossed out by this story, or they may just laugh. 

Parents will laugh or sigh in recognition!

 Friday night Hailey was cranky, overtired, and hating everything.  Bath went badly, she screamed when we took off or tried to put on her diaper, dinner was a battle.  Finally we decided that putting on jammies was a battle we weren’t prepared for.  Her room is always warm at night between the humidifier and her heater, so I wasn’t too worried about her.  She seemed happy with this arrangement, so we all went to bed.

Woke up Saturday morning, and I decided to get Hailey and bring her to our bed to snuggle.  She’d been making some funny playful noises earlier, but that’s what she does.

I went in to her room, she was snuggled into her blankie.  As usual, when she heard me come in, she stood up and yelled “Mama!”  Then the smell hit me.  And the colors smeared onto every blankie and stuffed animal in her crib.  You see, Hailey has a blankie that lives at each end of the crib to cushion her head when she bounces around.  And two blankies that she snuggles with.  Plus, she has a baby doll, a froggy “lovie”, a stuffed doggy and three bears that she sleeps with.  Maybe overkill, but she loves waking up to play with them in the morning. 

Hailey had taken off her diaper.  She was butt-naked in the crib, leaping around.  And there was poop everywhere…  everywhere.  All Evan heard over the monitor was “oh my god” and “help me!” 

He bathed her while I bundled up the bedding and “friends” to take them up to Evan’s parents house to wash them.  2 wash cycles each load plus careful drying left everything good as new!

No, there are no pictures.  Believe me, it didn’t even cross my mind.  Be glad.