first haircut, carousel, shelburne museum

Dalia has had a very full two days! Yesterday, she had her first haircut. Her bangs were growing out, and she looked so cute with a barette in... but she pulled out the barrette after 5 minutes. So, with the weather so hot, the bug bites many, and surgery coming up, I thought it would feel great to cut it all off. SO adorable, and wicked cool. Now she has super short hair just like Mama's stylish friend, Liz.

Daddy and Calder were away at a soccer tournament for the weekend but got back in time to watch the World Cup Final. Henry spent the weekend doing lots of reading. Last night, Dalia and I went down to the East Middlebury playground for an hour or so and had so much fun on the animals, the slide, climbing all over the place. We met some other nice little girls -- Aspen, from Granville, and 2 older girls from E. Midd who were collecting tiny frogs, the size of the tip of my finger, that were on the basketball court next to the playground.

Today, Ginger, Ralph, Dalia and I went up to the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne. This is a destination, for anyone considering coming to Vermont. shelburnemuseum.org . We went to see the exhibit "Alzheimer's: Forgetting, Piece by Piece", an exhibit of quilts about people who have/had Alzheimer's. The first quilt I approached was an image of three trees, that looked much like the Tree of Life symbol in Judaism. The leaves of the trees had words that related to the artist's father's life, his interests, and his gradual losses from Alzheimer's. I read one line of the description of the quilt and started to cry. I had to just look around at some of the quilts before I could go back and read. I found much to remember about my Dad's dementia and Alzheimer's. I also found much to appreciate about how he was throughout, and the last year of his life. In front of one wall was a counter top, a few chairs, some colorful slips of paper, and a large cardboard wall-hanging that looked like a honeycomb. Visitors could write notes, roll up the paper and put it into the wall. I took a piece of paper, with Dalia on my lap, and wrote "Dear Grandpa Don, We remember you. Love, Dina and Dalia, your Granddaughter."

Another exhibit featured old artwork and a carousel from Circuses past. The best part for Dalia was a real carousel! We rode on a white horse with blonde hair. Such fun; she didn't want to get off. She fell asleep on the way home. When she woke up, sprawled out on the couch, her first word was, "Horsey!." Here's to many more horsey rides, Dalia!