Just have to share

Elle tickling herself "gicka, gicka"

Nothing to long or exciting to post about, just my continued awe at Elle's learning. Having worked with children with disabilities for so long and picking apart skills and writing goals, I am continually amazed to see Elle learning things that I work on with pre-schoolers and elementary aged kids. A couple of things that make me smile daily are:

1) Grandma brought flowers over to our house recently and taught Elle how to "smell/sniff" the flowers. Now Elle just has to see pictures of flowers and she wrinkles up her little nose and begins sniffing. Here at camp there are lots of flowers and lots of people paying attention to her. So, she frequently points out the flowers to people and "sniffs!!" It is beyond cute :-)

2) I roared awhile back to her book that had lions, tigers, bears...oh, my.... and leopards etc. Today in the store she was roaring for her "new friend" (the lady working at the store) and then proceeded to pick up the leopard slippers! Wow, talk about generalization of knowledge/skills!!!!

3) She has become to most social little girl. EVERYONE at camp loves to pay attention to her. She is the complete center of attention. What are we going to do once we are home and its just us and the cat??????!?! Anyone walking by her receives a sweet little "hiiii," and if you don't hear it she will continue with a "Ahhhhhhhhhghhgh" followed by a wave and the sweet little "hi" repeated. So yesterday we drove up to camp and Elle says "hiiiii" and begins waving at camp, no one in site yet.

Actually, when we arrived to camp she was shy of everyone and hid her face between my legs. As she began to feel comfortable, she stopped hiding and everyone was her friend. So, when someone new came to camp, I thought that she would be their friend too, but, she went back to hiding. It made me realize that she really has strong facial recognition skills. Her friends are really people she recognizes and not just anyone. Funny thing, she mainly hides from men, not usually women :-)

4) Learning is such an amazement to me. We are doing sign language with her and she has finally caught on. Just after we ate lunch today she was playing and then began whining. She left the toys and walked over to me while signing "night, night." I picked her up and put her in bed. Simple as that. Someone at camp said the verdict isn't out whether sign language will slow down speech acquisition, so they didn't do sign with their kids. My correlation is that sign language is like crawling. No one crawls as an adult, eventually everyone learns to walk unless they have a true disability. I would rather that Elle have a communication method before her oral motor skills are developed then just throwing herself on the floor and crying because she is exhausted or because I don't know what she wants.

On the road with the Scully's

Here we are in the White Mountain's in New Hampshire for horn camp...yes, you heard me right, Bernhard goes to horn camp. How geeky does that sound?!? Actually, he has been working at Kendall Bett's horn camp since he 1995. Now he is a faculty member and we spend 2 weeks in the mountains every summer. People come from all over the world to attend and to teach at the camp. In order to arrive with everything we need for Elle, AND Bernhard's three horns...etc., etc...we drive. It took us 4 driving days, two long and two short, and spent 1 1/2 days in Rochester, NY visiting friends. So, I thought I would invite you along on our travels... so many photo ops. with a baby!!!

Elle is intruding on an ear training class because SHE wants to play the keyboard!

This week is the Lupine festival in Littleton. They are so beautiful!

Elle is helping Daddy practice. She has been dancing to horn music, even long tones!

Peek-a-boo!

Elle's fan club!

Napping on the road...

Boating on the Erie Canal with the Hunters


Walking with Daddy on the
covered bridge in Littleton, NH

Fun on the carousel at Strong Museum of Play
in Rochester, NY

Reading at Strong Museum

The butterfly garden at the museum. Beautiful!

Beautiful butterfly!!! What an amazing combination of God's creation--flowers and butterflies :-)

...fyi...these pictures are completely out of order. Stay tuned to my blog for more pictures to come!

All About My Man!!!

All About My Man

Well, I was tagged by my dear, dear friend Jenny to do this "Meme," "All About My Man." AND, since it is her fault...a-hem, her good idea and matchmaking skills, that my man IS my man, I decided I need to do this. Also, now is the perfect time. Tomorrow is Father's Day and I am here in New Hampshire while "my man" teaches at horn camp! This time in my life IS all about my man! So....here goes!

Bernhard practicing outside at our cabin

1. Who is your man? Bernhard David Scully

2. How long have you been together? Since June 2001

3. How long dated? As alluded to at the beginning, thanks to Jenny, she set us up in June 2001. We went on a double date with Jenny and her man for our first date. We then dated for 1 year and 1 month and were engaged for 11 months

Ok, I had better take a moment and tell our match making story. This story is really great and now that we are back in St. Paul it is even better. So, it all started when my dear friend Jenny's man, Matt, began subbing (on French Horn that is) with the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO). Jenny (who I went to college with and who is also a flutist) and I would go and hear Matt play concerts with these fine orchestras. So, we went to his first concert with the SPCO and while we were sitting there, waiting for the concert to start, she began telling me the names of the other horns players... "there's Herb, Paul, Matt, and Bernhard.....(wheels turning...) have you met Bernhard?" I say, "no." Jenny says, "WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT BEFORE? HE 'S SINGLE, HE'S OUR AGE, HE LIKES TO RUN AND BE ACTIVE, AND HE'S A CHRISTIAN...." Together we hoped that Matt would be reading our minds and invite Bernhard to go out for desert with us after wards. No such luck. Bernhard went speeding home after he played. Well, within a couple of weeks, we did get together for a double date. After that date we saw each other 5 times that week and he came to my 25th birthday party. After my party, he left for horn camp and said that he would write me. "Yeah right!" I said to myself. But he did. Twice!!! Once he got home we were inseparable.

...Fast forward to June 2008. 7 years later, we have been married for almost 5 years, we have a 14 month-old girl and Bernhard is now the principal horn of the SPCO! We are back where we started. All I can say is that God certainly had a plan for our lives, and He still does!

4. How old is your man? 31. He is 8 months younger.

5. Who eats more? Ummm... usually Bernhard, unless we are having an ice cream (or popcorn) eating contest :)

6. Who said "I love you" first? I da' know?!? Neither of us can remember. That is so sad, isn't it?! My only idea is that it was probably at his families cabin, where we got engaged.

7. Who is taller? Bernhard

8. Who sings better? No doubt about it, Bernhard! Don't get me wrong, I sing pretty well, but whenever I am singing a kid's song to Elle, Bernhard likes to jump in and harmonize and then proceeds to sing ALL of the parts (alto, tenor, bass). I always say he makes "The Wheels On the Bus" SO much more interesting :-)

9. Who is smarter? I say once again, No doubt about it, Bernhard. He is somewhat of a walking encyclopedia.

10. Whose temper is worse? Mine, definitely mine. I also wish that he would sometimes react to things like I do. It can be oh, so, annoying, when I am upset at something and he is as cool as a cucumber.

11. Who does the laundry? That would be me. Bernhard knows where the washer and dryer are...I think he has made contact with them before...I don't think they have harmed him in any way... Usually when he comes in contact with them, I say, "honey will you switch the laundry?" and then I walk him through the steps.

12. Who takes out the garbage? Usually Bernhard, unless he is gone or too busy to think about the garbage, or it stinks so bad I can't walk past it without gagging!

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me. We argued about who slept on what side when we were first married. I won the right side. We haven't talked about it since.

14. Who pays the bills? Me.

15. Who is better with the computer? I'm pretty sure that I win that honor.

16. Who mows the lawn? Mainly Bernhard. I do the weed whacking.

17. Who cooks dinner? Me. Bernhard can make a mean spaghetti or fish though.

18. Who drives when you are together? Depends. On long trips we alternate, depending on who is the most tired.

19. Who pays when you go out? Doesn't matter. These days it depends upon who has their hands free i.e. whoever isn't taking care of Elle.

20. Who is most stubborn? I think that I win this title. Although, we might be almost even on the stubbornness scale.

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Hmmmmm.... don't know. We are both continually learning and working on communicating effectively. I guess that this would fall under good communication!

22. Whose parents do you see the most? Mine. My dad's church that he pastor's is 1 mile down the road and he likes to stop by often to see Elle, we would be secondary. Also, we go to church there and my folks live just 15 min. or so away. Bernhard's mom lives about 30-40 min. away (depending on traffic on 494) and his dad lives in Georgia.

23. Who kissed who first? Well, this is up for debate. Bernhard seems to think that it was in his driveway and I think that it was on my cheek as he was leaving my apartment. I remember being very happy and excited when he kissed me on my cheek. I thought that it was soooooo sweet!

24. Who asked who out? As mentioned above, we were set up.

25. Who proposed? Bernhard. He proposed with a fake ring from Target while we were at the cabin battling the mosquitoes.

26. Who is more sensitive? We may actually be tied on this, BUT I probably show my sensitive side more often.

27. Who has more friends? Bernhard. He knows EVERYONE in the music world. He always gloats about how many friends he has on Facebook...lots more than me, but that's ok...sniff, sniff.

28. Who has more siblings? We're the equal. We each have 1 younger brother.

29. Who wears the pants in the family? Uhhhh...I certainly hope that we both wear pants, or at least shorts (or a skirt/dress...me, not him:). Well, in terms of decision making, Bernhard makes the important choices for our family. His career is the most challenging and specific, and when we began getting serious, I promised him that I would follow him wherever he felt God was leading us and wherever his job took him. Hence, we have lived in Madison, WI; Toronto, Ontario; Rochester, NY (this move was thankfully due to my job); and back to St. Paul, MN. I make the majority of the household daily decisions.