Happy New Year!

Well, 2007 is just about over and I'm the only one still awake so I get to make the big year-end blog entry. We rang in the new year early by going out for late afternoon s'mores at Cosi. They give you a little Sterno-powered iron stove to roast your marshmallows, which Jake loved. Sadie was busy slowly dissolving graham crackers, while Jake held marshmallows over the sterno until they were wildly on fire, and then blew them out. He had no interest in eating any of the marshmallows, and we ended up with a pile of black, charred lumps on the plate. In fact, he hardly had anything to eat, so we were really surprised when he threw up. Which leads me to my first dilemma: what's the appropriate tip when your child throws up at a restaurant? We did our best with a stack of napkins, but someone has to finish the job. I left the largest bill I had and told the 16 year old kid that he might need a mop.

By the time we got home, Jake seemed fine and was back to his goofy self. We asked if his tummy hurt and he said "no", but that's about as reliable as the weather. Just ask him if he had monkey sandwiches for lunch. But he seemed fine so we went out to the Saigon Cafe for dinner. I know what you're thinking: is it wise to take a queasy toddler to an authentic Vietnamese place for dinner? We're no dummies, we just gave him a bowl of rice and two Hot Wheels cars to play with and he was happy as a clam. Sadie tried the rice cake patties and bits of the pork sausage too.

On the way home, we stopped at the Falls Church First Night festival and Jake got to high-five a fireman, which we tried to convince him was how firefighters say goodnight. He didn't buy it, so when we got home we told him we'd bang pots and pans in the cul-de-sac and then go to bed. We gathered up our kitchen equipment and then went outside and marched around the cul-de-sac banging spoons on pots and yelling "Happy New Year". Jake was laughing and smiling and said "What we doing Mommy Daddy?".

And that got us talking about how Jake's such a good sport. He had no idea what we were doing, but he was having fun. He was just happy to be in his PJs, marching outside with a pot in one hand and a spoon in the other.

Happy New Year, and I hope 2008 is a great year for everyone.

We Survived Christmas

I'll admit, sometimes it felt like I needed a helmet and goggles, but all in all we had a great Christmas. Ali and I hosted this year (30+ people), and here are a few lessons learned:

1) Light bulbs will burn out at twice the normal rate, and primarily in difficult-to-reach locations.
2) Garbage day doesn't come soon enough
3) When purchasing libations, figure roughly three drinks per guest-- or double that if they have a two-year-old
4) Have each guest bring an empty box with a return shipping label -- something WILL be forgotten.
5) And finally, don't forget: batteries are the currency of Christmas morning

Almost Christmas!

Only two more days to go and somebody is getting a little excited! I'm mainly talking about Ali, but all I had was this picture of Jake - who's also a little excited. :)

Ali's parents arrived yesterday and most of the rest of the crew arrives tonight. We're getting ready for fun and crazy toddler times when Jake's 2-year-old cousin, Arjuna, arrives tonight to add to the excitement.

Sadie 9 month checkup

We took Sadie in for her nine-month checkup appointment today and she impressed the doc with her crawling and cruising skills. No shots today, but they did have to draw some blood for a lead test -- they really make you earn those stickers they give you. Actually, Jake got the stickers, so Sadie didn't even have that to show for her suffering. Anyway, here are the stats:

Weight: 18 pounds, 3 ounces (45th percentile)
Height: 29 1/2 inches (99th percentile)
Head: 17 inches (25th percentile)

Same story: average weight, long body and tiny head.

This post is about Sadie, but Ali took this shot the other day and I thought it was so cute, even though you can barely see Sadie's face.

How many Ali's does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Well, I thought I should contribute to the blog a little more. I do get a lot of laughs and sweet moments throughout the day that aren't usually captured on these vivid pages.

One of my tasks today was to go to Target to get last minute Christmas items, as well as, some long needed lightbulbs for the bathroom. Before Ryan left for work today, we had a serious conversation. "You need to get the small lightbulbs. They have a smaller base than the regular lightbulbs. Do you know what the regular lightbulbs look like?" Rolling my eyes, I said, "Yes, I know what regular lightbulbs look like. Jeez!" So, off we went, the kids and I and lollipops aplenty, to do our chores. We did great! Got the lightbulbs, got the plastic cups for next week, got the extra dishwasher detergent, etc. But sure enough, when Ryan got home tonight, and he went to screw in the lightbulbs, they were the wrong wattage. *Sigh* Oh well. In my defense, I did have a toddler and baby in tow as we raced through the store before any meltdowns occurred. Guess I will have to restock my bag with lollipops for my return trip to Target tomorrow.

I had sort of a rough day in the land of "Terrible-Two's" today. They sure gave it a cutesy name for a rotten stage. I got this face a lot today........

Followed by, "I not gonna hit Sadie anymore" Argh!

THOUGH, we did have a really nice time reading "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" together, while Sadie was napping (before Jake woke her up! Grr...). He definitely has his cute, snuggly moments and I will love them forever. We took turns reading, well, sort of. He did a great job playing the role of Santa, "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas" and I read the rest of the story. It sort of reminded me of when my family used to sit down and read the play, "The Miracle Worker" for family bonding time. (Sidenote: Although, this probably contributed to my weirdness, I do have fond memories of this and plan to do it with my kids. Sorry Ry. Though, why was I always Helen Keller???)

Anyway, I'm sure there will be more cute and frustrating moments tomorrow, but now it is time to go watch the Wizards game. Woot!

The Three Amigos in..........the Botanic Gardens!

On Sunday we headed downtown to meet up with Jake's daycare buddies, Rachel and Jocelyn to check out the trains at the US Botanic Gardens. Well, the trains were mostly outside and it was a cold rainy day, so we just decided to head in and search the jungle for frogs. One of the kids noticed the "ribbit" sounds so we had them looking all over for the frogs. We finally found them, but for some reason they were hiding behind these big speakers.

Here's Jake and Rachel taking a break on a bench:
And here's Jocelyn pointing something out to Jake:

More photos (including some cute shots of Sadie) over here.

Feverish Conditions Lead to Behavioral Theorems

I was home sick a few days this week and I was determined to do everything I could to keep the germs to myself (I'm selfish that way). So, I washed my hands every 10 minutes and avoided my normal shenanigans with the kids. Jake was fine with it. He actually made some really cute comments in between going "kaboomy" with any number of his toys. But he was ok just kissing me on the elbow and with me not playing with him as much. Sadie seemed oblivious too, but she's a baby and she's a girl so all around she's harder to read. More complex, I should say.

Anyway, towards the end of the first day, Sadie started crawling over to where I was recuperating on the couch and climbing up the side to give me smiles. And then she just kind of hung out for a while. Looking at me with her happy little face. Like she knew something was up. She just doesn't do that with me. She'll use her on-board GPS system to locate Ali three rooms away, or climb up onto the first stair and patiently wait for Ali to come back downstairs, but I don't normally get that treatment.

So, I have two theories (comments welcomed):

Theorem 1: Sadie inherited Ali's CARE FOR ALL OTHERS FIRST gene, and she honed in on my discomfort, bypassing not one, but BOTH of Ali's pantlegs (her two favorite things in this whole wide world) to come and say "hi" to me with her smile.

Theorem 2: Sadie is exhibiting the (if I say "female" here, am I going to get in trouble?) tendency to inversely express interest in those that express interest in them. So, where she is normally nonchalant when I call her over to play, my hours of careful germ cloistering were interpreted as a signal of indifference, which in turn piqued her curiousity.

In any case, here's our subject enjoying a remarkably pleasant Friday afternoon in mid December (sorry about the middle-part, sweety. mommy was busy raking leaves):

Potatoes

We were driving around and we heard a blowing noise from the backseat. We looked back and Jake was blowing furiously at something on his finger. Ali asked if he was making a wish by blowing away an eyelash. "No," he said, "it's a potato". And on closer inspection, he had a little ball of earwax on his forefinger that wasn't exactly blowing away like an eyelash. Why does Jake think he has potatoes in his ears? Well, when we give him his bath, Ali tells him she's cleaning the potatoes out of his ears. Where did she come up with this? Apparently it's a family tradition that's been passed down through the generations. Although it's a cute saying, I am getting a little worried about the confusion that may arise now that Jake's helping out quite a bit in the kitchen.

Sick Day

Well, Ryan is home sick today. I am secretly happy because he is home with us, but mostly sad because he is sick. I was trying to explain to Jake that Daddy was sick this morning, so he walked over to Ry, and said, "I kiss your heart Daddy?" Ryan, laughing, said, "yes." Jake leaned over, kissed him and said, "I kiss your heart! You're all better Daddy!"

Crazy Mondays

Back when both Ali and I were working, and Jake was in daycare, I would take off every other Monday to do something fun with Jake. I told him these were "crazy Mondays." But now that Ali's at home, when I stay home every other Monday, it just feels like a longer weekend since we're all there. But today, Ali had to go in to Sunrise, where she's been doing some part-time work from home, and was at work all morning. I told Jake it was the Return of Crazy Monday! Sadie had no idea what I was talking about, but she smiled anyway.

I took the kids down to the National Building Museum where they have a really cool little kids' "Building Zone" set up with all kinds of activity stations. Of course, it was closed. It was closed because they were tearing down all the equipment from an event over the weekend in the main hall and they thought it would be too dangerous for the kids to be tucked away in this safe and quiet sideroom with all those toys, and instead ushered us out to one end of the main hall where they were working 20 feet away, with no barriers. That same woman who told us the playroom was closed came by later to tell us to be careful of the kids crawling on the carpet because she'd found several small metal objects and SHARDS OF GLASS! Thanks a lot, lady!

Jake and Sadie had a GREAT time anyway. Jake ran and ran and ran around the big space and Sadie practiced her standing and even pushed the stroller around. Jake made friends with all the kids we met and played really nicely - he's such a good boy (ok, I'm choosing to ignore the fact that he dumped out all the folded laundry tonight, and then knocked over the reindeer decorations just to get a reaction).

Here's a video of Jake playing "Ready-Set-Go" from one end of the hall to the other. Notice how long it takes him to get to the other side. He's running fast-- it's just a big building and he has little legs. On the way back he's trying to high-five me, but he misses and says so, and we try again, which apparently knocks him over.

Who's got molars and loves Christmas trees? THIS GUY!

Cheesy

The other night we made ricotta cheese and anyone who enjoys food should try this. It was fun, easy and yum. Here's the story:

Heat 1 quart whole milk, 1 cup heavy cream and 1 tsp coarse salt in a saucepan over medium heat. As soon as the milk starts to simmer (little bubbles all over) turn off the heat and pour in 2 TB white vinegar. Just let it sit quietly for 1 minute, then stir gently for about 2 minutes until you see the curds and whey start to separate. Pour the mixture into a colander lined with cheesecloth (oh, that's why they call it that) that is set in a bowl to collect the whey. Wait a minute and pour out the whey. Then, let the curds drain for another 15 minutes and you, sir, have some homemade ricotta cheese!

What will you do with this ricotta cheese?? Well, you can use it to make complicated things like lasagna or cheesecake, but I suggest something more simple like drizzling it with some nice olive oil, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, maybe some fresh herbs if you want to get fancy, and then spreading it on some crusty bread. Or maybe just drop a few spoonfuls in your mixed-greens salad. Or, sprinkle some sugar, cinnamon and chocolate shavings on top for a simple dessert. Leftovers will be happy in your fridge for a week, so you have plenty of time to enjoy your homemade treat.

Haiku

Jake wants to stay up
Chinese visitors need sleep
Worst timing ever

Sadie and the Helmets

Sadie is becoming more mobile and coordinated every day. It's exciting and fun and reminds me of Jake at this stage. She's been pulling up onto furniture, and taking steps while holding on. And over the past few days she's been standing up by herself for a few seconds before plopping back down. Jake took his first step at 9 months, and was walking more than crawling by 10 months. I think Sadie is probably on about the same timeline, with the added encouragement of keeping up with her big brother. Tonight was one of those nights where they were both in great moods and were playing together really nicely. Ali promises me it wasn't like that the whole day, so I guess I was just lucky enough to catch them that way.


Anyway, we were goofing around on the floor, playing tigers and scary animals and Jake said "let's play papachoot!" It took me a few guesses but I finally figured out he was talking about the parachute that Aunt Deni got us. I pulled it out and we all played under it for a while and then Jake sat on one end so I could pull him around the floor, as we often do. I caught Sadie's glance and she was giving me that "whatchoodoing Daddy?" look so I put her on too, for the first time. I put her on Jake's lap, and told him to hold her tight. I pulled them around and around the floor and they loved it. Until Jake bonked his head. Not a big bonk, just a normal five-times-a-day bonk. I jokingly said they should probably wear helmets, but I forgot he takes everything literally. I didn't feel like going down to the garage to get their bike helmets so I said that brown napkins work just as well as helmets. He bought it, so we all tied on our "helmets" and kept playing. Of course, now I run the risk of Jake insisting on wearing one of these brown napkins next time he rides his bike...

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like

I know it's not even December yet, but the Christmas TV shows are already on and Jake's getting excited. "Mommy I saw Rudolph!!" Rudolph was his favorite from last year and we must have watched that show about 765 times. Here's Jake helping decorate the house:

And here's The List, as dictated to Ali:

My turn

The other day I took some time off work to stay home with the kids so Ali could make her monthly work appearance at her other job (Sunrise). I don't have both kids by myself that often so I was looking forward to it, and a little nervous at the same time. It turned out to be a great afternoon. We played Ready Set Go (see video), went outside and played basketball (with Sadie in the wagon), and went on a marathon bike ride around the neighborhood (also with Sadie in the wagon, although asleep by now).



It's funny how all the sleepless nights and temper tantrums can be so quickly forgotten with one big smile or laugh from those tiny faces.

Thanksgiving Menu

We had a few requests for our Thanksgiving menu this year:

We started off with some raw oysters on the halfshell, and some that had been cooked a little in a champagne beurre blanc. We served those with a carrot soup with chestnut cream.

For the main event, we used a Trader Joe's all-natural 13lb turkey, rubbed with diced pancetta, butter and herbs. The juices were reduced down with some mushrooms to make a nice brown gravy. On the side we had ciabatta chestnut stuffing, sauteed broccoli rabe with garlic, and good old mashed potatoes and parsnips. For dessert we had homemade pumpkin, apple and sweet potato pies. Yum!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! We finished off the last of the leftover turkey today, so it's probably pizza for dinner tonight. Jake had fun helping stuff the turkey, and loved all the company and fun times. He loved it so much he didn't nap for three days.

On Friday we saw the Reston Town Center parade, and got our first glimpse of Santa Claus. Here's Jake with his favorite Aunt and Uncle as Santa approaches. That night we went to Alexandria to see the tree lighting ceremony. On our way there we stopped at the Majestic to grab a bite and so Deni and Patrick could see how their Irish-run Majestic compared to this one. The food was great, the kids were well-behaved and we had a great time. Deni and Patrick met the owners and compared notes and swapped secret Irish handshakes.

At the tree-lighting, we saw that Santa was making an appearance and taking requests, so we waited in line. And waited. And about an hour later we finally got to the front of the line and Jake got his first glimpse of Santa. "It's a fireman!" he exclaimed. He tentatively walked up the stairs and stood a safe three-foot distance from Santa.

"What would you like for Christmas?"
"Two presents."
"Well, what kind of presents?"
"Trucks."

After a few more pleasantries, Santa said goodnight and gave Jake a candy cane. All he talked about that night was that candy cane. Santa who?

Click here for more photos of the Thanskgiving weekend.

A Boy and His Salad Nicoise

Ok, this one's for Cara, one of our most loyal Tripdub readers. Here's Jake thoroughly enjoying his Salad Nicoise from his new Ratatouille cookbook. Capers, tuna, boiled eggs, green beans, cherry tomatoes, this kid was in heaven. Ok, he didn't touch the lettuce, but he'll get there....

Bath time

Ali and I have enjoyed almost two weeks of through-the-night sleeping. Ok, we both probably woke up once or twice expecting to hear a "wah" but were able to go back to sleep when we only heard crickets. It makes such a difference. I think the Army should develop Military Babies to keep enemy soldiers awake at night so they can't shoot straight the next morning. I'm sure it'd be much more effective that WMD. We've been enjoying our nights, but have almost been afraid to talk about them; afraid to jinx things. Well, I've been afraid to talk about it, anyway. I can't tell you how many times I've had a good nights' sleep and have said something about it to Ali the next morning only to hear that I slept through two separate 45 minute screaming fits from Sadie.

We've been working on making the bedtime routine consistent: bath, PJs, snack, TV, storytime, BED. Here's bathtime:

Here's Jake in his cowboy PJs. How can you resist his cuteness? You can't.

Another nice weekend for a hike

We hiked the Difficult Run trail again this weekend, and brought along the Jackson boys this time. Jake was so excited, he kept running back and forth between them and showing them his 'tricks' like pulling his hat over his face and saying "I'm a pirate!" Here are some more pics from that day. By the way, if you're local and you haven't checked out Difficult Run over in Great Falls, you really should. It's much closer than Shenandoah and the views are comparable to a lot of hikes we've done there. It's short, so a good hike for kids.

Dollface

Mike and Stacey, I hope you're getting royalty payments from the Cabbage Patch company.



Check out more pictures of Lily (and her BFF Sadie) here.

On Strike

You'd think these guys would be able to come up with a catchier strike slogan.

Number One Fan

Sadie doesn't care if this tiny guitar is out of tune. She's a good listener.

Sucrose vs. Bedtime

Here's an interesting Halloween experiment:

1. Give a two-year-old a bucket of candy and tell him to have just one or two pieces.
   
2. Of course you give in and let him have three or four pieces.
3. Now try to keep him from just eating the entire pile. See if you can hide a piece or two in between temper tantrums.
4. Observe as toddler bounces off walls and speaks in gibberish (more than usual).
   
5. Watch clock as bedtime comes and goes. Toddler has probably invented new games consisting of constant jumping and limb-waving, and possibly banging head against wall.
   
6. Mention bedtime.
7. Hide (or insert earplugs to save hearing).
8. Instructions at this point vary with your particular situation, but somehow transfer flailing toddler to crib and hope for the best.
   
9. Once toddler is in bed, destroy all evidence of Halloween and in the morning pretend you don't know the meaning of the word "candy".
   

Boo!

Happy Halloween!

Here's a preview of the kid's costumes, if you can't make it Trick-Or-Treating tonight in the cul-de-sac. Here's Jake as Buddy Holly and Sadie as, um, Buddy's number one fan? Peggy Sue? Anyway, she's in a poodle skirt, and she's cute.


Tonight we carved the pumpkins, which meant we (Jake) spent 10 minutes pulling out pumpkin guts, and then we (not Jake) spent two hours picking up slippery pumpkin seeds from the floor.

Great Pumpkin

We've been watching the Great Pumpkin over and over to get ready for Halloween. Jake's two questions about the show cracked me up: 1) Where that white doggy go? 2) What that teacher say? (Wah wah wah wah wah).

Nice day for a hike

This morning we went for a hike on the Difficult Run trail that heads down to the Potomac River. Beautiful day, lots of nice fall foliage, and some sun for a change.

Jefferson

This is a picture of the kids sitting on the spot where I proposed to Ali on her birthday in 2001. Ali surprised me for our anniversary this year by taking and framing this picture, which I now have sitting on my desk at work. It's one of my favorite spots in DC (especially in the fall, after the tourist season), even though there are a lot more security barricades now.

Interesting tidbit: When Jefferson was 33 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. When I was 33 I wrote a blog entry about Thomas Jefferson. Guess that's why he has that Memorial.

Homecoming and Busy Weekend

I was away all last week for work, and coming home I noticed that Jake's vocabulary had grown, that he'd become more skilled with his pronouns, and that he just seemed older than when I left him. Sadie seemed more than a week older, too. She's doing this shy smile thing where she smiles and turns away when you say her name or coo at her. And physically, she's crawling around like a pro and pulling herself up onto whatever she can get a grip on. Leaving for a week reminds me how quickly they're both growing up. When you see them every day, you notice little things, but when a week goes by, you see the growth.

Here's a shot from their week down at Smith Mountain Lake. Mike and Pat's neighbor, Wes, volunteers at the local fire department, so the kids got to play around on the vehicles
On Saturday, we went out to the Homestead Farm in Poolesville, MD to pick apples. This farm was interesting, because to get to it, you passed mansion after mansion, after gigantic mansion after gigantic mansion. There were so many country clubs, it seemed like they must have all decided that 180 holes of golf in a 5 mile radius was enough, and that one farm would be allowed to survive. Once we were on the farm, we heard all kinds of foreign languages and I'm sure it was the most international "farm" outside of Luxembourg. Jake loved it, but when we went on the hayride, he was more interested in the tractor's tires than the pumpkins. Here he is, checking out the tires:On Sunday, we drove out to Leonardtown, Maryland for the U.S. National Championship Oyster Shucking contest and festival. This was our second trip, and we thought Jake was ready to try his first oyster. I was holding him up as we watched several Oyster Shucking hopefuls practice their craft when one of them saw Jake and offered up a freshly shucked oyster to him. Jake opened his mouth wide and chewed while we all waited for his reaction. "It's good," he finally said, so we got a dozen and sidled up to the plywood tables to enjoy our "special treat." Jake somehow knew just what to do - he held the halfshell, and slurped the oyster right out. He had a little pile of empty oyster shells in front of him before he asked for his apple juice and declared, "we LIKE oysters!!"


More pictures over there (--->) under the Photos section...

Capers

This afternoon, Jake picked up a little bowl we use to give him snacks and walked it over to me and said "chocolate poooooding??" I told him we didn't have any chocolate pudding and he thought about this for a minute and then said "capers?" Yep, this kid loves his capers. "They're little flowers," he mumbles, while stuffing 10 into his mouth all at once. I told him they were little un-opened flower buds about a month ago. It sure is funny what he remembers.

October 12, 2002

Cox Farms

Sunday morning we headed out to Cox Farms to meet up with Jake's old daycare buddies, Rachel, Jocelyn and Evan. This place is pretty amazing. We were overwhelmed with all the slides, rides, and things to do here. The staff is friendly, the place looked great with all the pumpkins and fall decorations, and there is SO much to do for the kids. We spent a while on the giant hay ziggurat with intricate maze system underneath. Jake loved the tunnels ("It's pretty fancy!"), so much so that it got to be tricky to keep track of him with all the various entrances and exits. At one point another parent asked if the kid in the yellow t-shirt belonged to me, because he was last seen running wildly in a direction vaguely away from where we were. Yes, he's mine, thank you. I will put my camera down for a minute and act like a parent now.

Once everyone arrived, we ventured off to the giant slides built on the sides of hills. We saw five or six, but there must have been twice that many. The slides were pretty big and I looked around and saw lots of younger kids going down with their parents, so I wasn't sure if Jake would want me to go with him or not. He raced up the side of the hill, and I followed. As we got the top I asked if he wanted me to go down with him, but I couldn't get the question out before he jumped onto the slide and was halfway down already. He climbed right back up the hill and went down a taller one the next time. Then, he climbed up again, and jumped onto one that had a sharp turn about halfway down. He'd thrown himself onto it with enough force that he wasn't able to control the turn and ended up doing some dramatic tumbles down the slide. He was a bit shaken up, but I thought it'd be best to get right back up and try another one. "Ready for the next slide, Jake?" "No Slide. Jake pretty scared."

We rounded out the morning with a great hayride (they really put all other hayrides to shame) and a picnic lunch. Good times.

See some pictures here or over there in the pictures section -->

Happy Birthday Ali/Mommy!

We had a fun fun birthday weekend. On Saturday, we had breakfast at Ben's Chili Bowl in the old 'hood, and then did some shopping downtown. Then Mimi and Grandpa watched the kids while Ali and I scooted back downtown to catch the Hopper exhibit, a pit stop at Brasserie Beck and then dinner at Central (when you don't get out much, you have to cram a lot in). All three got thumbs up from both of us. Brasserie Beck is a really cool space with a great looking menu and about 150 Belgian beers to choose from. Dinner at Central was really great. Ali got the lobster "burger" - a patty of big chunks of lobster held together with scallop mousse, on a homemade brioche bun with a thin round of crisp potato to give it some crunch. I ordered the Pied de Cochon, aka trotters, aka pig's feet. They take the meat out, saute it with aromatics and mushrooms, then cure it like a sausage. Then to prepare it, they take it out of the casing, put a light batter on it, and deep fry it. It was served on top of some amazingly creamy mashed potatoes and a mustard sauce. I think we were both more impressed with this dish than the lobster burger. Pig's feet - who knew?

Sunday, we hiked around Teddy Roosevelt island (see pics here) and then had lunch at Eammon's, the Dublin Chipper, to satisfy Ali's request to do something Irish on her birthday. We had a delicious dinner at my folks last night and then this morning I went in to get my cholesterol checked. I'm not kidding. Breakfast at Ben's was probably enough to tip the scales, nevermind the fried cod and french fries at Eammon's. Oh well.

Sadie Stats

Yesterday Sadie had her six-month checkup appointment and the doctor was really impressed that she's already crawling, sitting up so well and even pulling up onto furniture. Here are her stats (don't worry Sadie, I'll stop reporting these once you're in high school):

Weight: 15 pounds, 15 ounces (50th percentile)
Height: 28 inches (99th percentile)
Head: 16 inches (15th percentile)

Party Trick

Last night we had some spoons out so we could play the castanets along with Don Toro on Jakers. Long story. Anyway, we were done with our Spanish music show and I asked Jake if he could balance a spoon on his nose. Without skipping a beat, he held it up to his nose, made some snorting sounds, and sure enough when he took his hands away, it was hanging on his little nose. Neither Ali or I have ever been able to do this trick, but Jake wanted to see us do it too. So, he taught us how to do it.
Here he is showing Ali his secret.

It worked!

Sadie turns 0.5

Sadie turned six months old yesterday! She's been practicing her crawling for a couple of weeks now, and is getting better every day. I think Jake sat up before he crawled, but Sadie decided to do it the other way around. Here she is, after mastering her sitting technique. She's also started to lift herself up and stand while holding on to the couch! Jake is very excited by all these new tricks - so excited that he tends to forget that she still needs some more practice before she can run around with him.

Sadie continues to be a pretty easy-going baby. She loves to giggle, and loves to have one of us hold her while chasing Jake around the house. She's starting to play by herself a little bit too. In this picture, she'd just crawled across the house to a corner where we have some toys, and she'd been playing quietly for 15 minutes or so before I got out the camera and she started hamming it up. See more pictures here.

So, happy Half-Birthday, Sadie! We love you!

Farmer's Market

Here we are at the Farmer's Market this morning. Jake is sporting his new fall collection, as well as a little pumpkin he picked out for Sadie. He said it was for Sadie, and he kept showing it to her, but he never actually gave it to her. Anyway, it's the thought that counts. We picked up some fresh basil and big juicy tomatoes. One last gasp of summer....

Here's Sadie snoozing in the wagon. That's the life.

Pebbles

Nice day

It's a little bit cooler today, and I'm glad summer is finally starting to give way to fall. On top this beautiful weather, Ali brought the kids in to visit me at work today. It was story hour at the bookshop downstairs, but today they had little-kid yoga instead. It was just Jake and another little boy and when I walked in they were doing tree and lion poses.

Afterwards, we went out to Enjera for Eritrean food with Fred. If you like Ethiopian food, you'll love Eritrean food. Actually, it seemed to be identical to Ethiopian, but I didn't want to point this out since I think those two countries don't get along too well. They give you a giant piece of round, flat sourdough-y bread, with little piles of food on top. We had some lamb, chicken, beef, lentils, potatoes, etc. Then, they give you more of the bread that you use to scoop up the toppings. I think Jake was a little confused, although he did seem to like the spinach topping. But mainly he just went around to all the other tables and brought the salt and pepper shakers back to our table. Luckily we were the only ones in the dining room.

And the best news of all is that Sadie has been sleeping through the night for the past four nights!!! One night she woke up needing a diaper change and went right back to sleep, but other than that she's been going 11 or 12 hours!!! We're so excited we didn't want to even talk about it for fear of jinxing it.

Zoo

Over Labor Day weekend we visited the Roanoke Zoo, which is situated right off the Blue Ridge Parkway, overlooking the town/city of Roanoke, VA. It was a really pretty setting, and a cute little zoo where you could get pretty close to all the animals. Jake had fun naming some of them. The big turtle was "Taxi", one Boa snake was "Pony" and the other was the ubiquitous "Pokeeno." Pokeeno has been the name of most animals since he started naming things about a month or so ago. We asked if he meant "Pinocchio," and he said "yes, Pokeeno." I don't think either of us have read him the Pinocchio story, so we have no idea where that comes from.

On our way back to the car, we passed a bench in a wooded area and Jake sat down. We hardly noticed, and kept walking for a minute until we hear him shouting about something. We turned around and he was saying "Jake BIGGER! Jake BIGGER!" Apparently a few weeks ago Jake was upset that his feet didn't touch the ground when he sat down and Ali assured him they would once he was bigger. Well, Jake found a bench that sat pretty low, and sure enough his feet touched the ground. He was so excited. It was pretty cute.

Hiatus

Yes, we're still here. I took a break from the blog while we were on vacation last week down at Smith Mountain Lake where, in fitting with the small town atmosphere, they only have dialup internet.

It was a great week, and the Jacksons came down with us, so we had a lot of fun with them. Jake got more practice swimming, and even jumped in the lake from the dock! We also visited a real dairy farm and the Roanoke Zoo (pictures coming soon...).

Here's a short clip of Sadie practicing crawling with Jake at her side. Of course, as soon as he realizes I'm filming, he takes the camera and uses those weird camera angles that are popular on MTV these days.

Sittin' Pretty

Greetings from Ft. Lauderdale

Typed on the blackberry, waiting for dinner, overlooking a dark Atlantic ocean...

Business travel is funny. Especially conferences and tradeshows. Normally, if you were walking down the street and someone tried to hand you a little plastic penguin, you'd probably politely decline. But at these tradeshows, people line up for all kinds of tchotchke. Platic penguins, glittery pins, little foam trucks, cheap pens that won't survive the plane ride home, and paperweights (paperweights?).

It seems like once you get on the tradeshow circuit, and you have your wardrobe of logo'd golf shirts, you get to know everyone else and you become like a traveling gypsy caravan.

But as much as I respect gypsies, and the new breed of gypsy punk rock (google it- I can't do hyperlinks from the blackberry), it's not the life for me. These gypsies don't have that great of a sense of humor and they don't know any Django Reinhardt tunes.

One of Jake's Heroes

This is Danny, Jake's Cul-de-sac hero, livin' large in the hood.
This next picture just cracks me up. After doing a wheely or two, Danny casually pulled up to the curb and laid his bike down so he could go check on the progress of the house across the street. Jake proceeds to ride his trike over to the same spot, but instead of just parking it next to Danny's bike, he heaved it up onto just two wheels so it would "lean" against the curb just like Danny's.