Jake gets his hair done

Yesterday, the doorbell rang and three of the neighborhood girls were giggling as they all stood in front of Jake. As they stepped aside, we saw what they'd all been up to for the past hour. We told the girls the little hair clips were ok, but please, no lipstick.

Fun Weekend at the Lake

Pop's sweetheart.....

The kids had such a fun time hanging out with cousin Lissa! Thanks for coming down!

New Shoes

It's been kind of a tough week or two, at night anyway. The kids have been hitting us on both fronts, and slowly breaking us down. Sadie goes down without a complaint, but then we hear her off and on all night crying. Jake sleeps through the night, but has been putting up a big fight about bedtime every night. Sadie slept through the night last night, so that's encouraging. It looks like her canine teeth are popping through, so maybe that's part of it.

But last night Jake and I went on a long walk before bedtime and he was in a great mood and I got to thinking about all the great little things that have happened the past two weeks, even though the nights have been rough. I ordered a few pairs of new shoes for the kids and when they came, Sadie was so excited. Ali got this great picture of her trying on the first pair. When I came home from work she was still so happy about them, wearing one pair and carrying the other pair around to show off. Jake liked his too, but he was more concerned about seeing how fast they were. He kept sprinting from one side of the house to the other to test them out.

Another fun development has been watching and listening to Sadie work on her words! All of a sudden she started practicing, and saying "Thank you", "Mama", "Dada", "Jakey" and "Ball". I don't know which was her first, but I like all of them. And she does the two cutest animal impressions. If you ask her what a tiger says, she opens her mouth and gives the quietest "roar" I've ever heard. You can barely hear it. It cracks us up. And if you ask her what an elephant says, she happily raises her arm up like an elephant trunk. No elephant noise, just the arm movement.

Jake and Sadie have really started playing together more and more and it's so much fun to watch. They take turns pushing each other around in the little baby stroller, or climb all over the couches and each other, giggling. Sadie obviously idolizes Jake, and wants to do everything he does. He was jumping the other day, and she stood there watching him for a minute, and then tried her own little jump-step. Then she got her serious face on and practiced and practiced her jump while Jake moved on to something else. If Jake is walking around outside and steps on a leaf, Sadie will follow right behind and step on the same leaf with the same foot.

Ok, one more. Backpacks. I don't have a picture of this, but Ali got the kids new backpacks to get ready for their new school in a few weeks. The only thing Sadie loves more than her new backpack is her new shoes. She wears her backpack all over the house. And she's constantly bringing Jake's backpack over to him to wear. Whenever we get ready to go somewhere, she gets her backpack.

The Milkman

The milkman delivered our first batch of fresh milk this morning. One-half gallon of whole milk for Sadie and one-half gallon of skim milk for Jake. Each came in a heavy glass bottle that feels nice and cold in your hands. South Mountain Creamery, a small family-run farm in Middletown, MD, finally added Falls Church to their delivery area this summer and we were so excited to sign up. Their cows are all hormone-free and roam around on their farm eating whatever cows eat when they're not being milked. They're open every day for visitors and I can't wait to take the kids there to see where their milk comes from.

I got the idea from Ali's folks (aka Gram and Poppy) who usually pick up some fresh milk from their local dairy, the Homestead Creamery, when we come to town. Although they don't deliver, we did take a tour of their little bottling facility, and I got really excited about the idea of a small, local operation selling quality dairy products without the factory feel. Jake was sold on the idea as soon as he tried their strawberry milk, which pretty much tastes like melted strawberry ice cream.

South Mountain Creamery also has partnerships with other small local farms that produce eggs, cheeses, jams, breads, honey and juices. They also offer pork, beef and chicken that have been raised humanely and without antibiotics or hormones.

It costs a little more, but not much. And at least I feel like I'm getting something for the extra cost, unlike the gas that goes into our car.

Cheers!

All Good Things Must Come to an End

We flew back from Bermuda last night and I think we're all still adjusting back to our normal routines. Bermuda was so beautiful and so much fun! St. George was a great little town to stay in, with so much history, and small enough to easily walk around between the sights and the beach and our house.

Here's a picture of Tobacco Bay Beach where we spent a lot of our time:


The water was so blue from a distance, and so clear up close. We had fun snorkeling, checking out all kinds of fish that looked like they belonged in a dentist office aquarium.

Here's a picture we took on our last day, in our backyard patio:


Thanks Mom and Dad for a great vacation!

Check out pictures here.

Greetings from Bermuda!

I can't believe we're already halfway through our week here. I've been slacking on the blog, but the house doesn't have internet, which is appropriate for Bermuda. The pace of life here is pretty laid back, and Bermuda doesn't encourage checking email every day, especially when you can see the ocean from your villa. We're staying in St. George's, a small town with lots of history -- our house is about 150 years old. Apparently the British were headed for Jamestown and someone made a left turn, and the rest is the subject of dozens of books for sale at the tourist shops here. In any case, it is a beautiful island and the water and sky are shades of blue that make you feel much farther away than just a two hour flight from DC.

Here we are from our visit this morning to Fort Saint Catherine, in the town of St. George's. It dates back to the 1600's, and was used as recently as dubya dubya two.
Here are Jake and Sadie, busy planning out our day. Sadie is checking her map and Jake is looking up restaurants on the laptop:
This is Mimi and Grandpa with Ali and Jake on the steps of the church in town, which I think is the oldest structure in the western hemisphere. Or something like that. Ali has the brochures.

Our house here has been perfect. It was the subject of an episode of This Old House on PBS back in 2004. The owners did a complete renovation with all kinds of electronic shower do-dads and a fully-outfitted kitchen that I've been enjoying. Let's see, do I use the electric convection oven or the gas range with wok attachment tonight....

But probably the best part of the house has been the small lap pool in the back that we've used every day. Jake has been practicing his snorkeling and has gotten pretty brave with that. Sadie, at 16 months, can swim on her own wearing water wings! We've felt her pulling away from us in the water for a few weeks now, and we finally let her go this week. She kicks and bobs her way all around this little lap pool, spitting out any water that gets in her mouth, and loving every minute of it.
We're off to Tobacco Bay again tomorrow (our little lagoon/beach) to do some more swimming and snorkeling. We'll see how she does in salt water, but this girl seems right at home in the water. And then tomorrow afternoon/night, Mimi and Grandpa have the kids and Ali and I will be terrorizing the island on a rented scooter. Look out Bermujans!

Exciting Day

We woke up this morning and everyone was really excited about our trip to Bermuda next week (leaving tomorrow). Yes, we just got back from a week at Smith Mountain Lake, but Ali has plenty of vacation time with her current job, and I just told my boss I'll be working from home (just kidding, taxpayers!).

Jake is excited to go snorkeling, and play on the beach, and ride the Metro to the airport. We keep telling him, "tomorrow we're getting on a plane to fly to Bermuda!" And he replies: "and the train, right?" So, basically, we could just take the Metro to Wheaton and he'd be happy.

But, to add a little excitement, and to Jake's disappointment, we bought a new (used) car today!! And it's a minivan, so turns out we won't need to take Metro to the airport since now we can fit us and Grandpa and Mimi all in one car. I think Jake's excitement over the new car will trump his disappointment about not taking Metro tomorrow. At the dealer he said, "I don't want our old car anymore, I like this car." I told him, "play it cool, Jake, Daddy has to ne-go-shee-ate." But he had made up his mind that he preferred the "miniman".

Here's a picture from the dealer (our cameras are already packed!):

The decision to buy a minivan didn't come easily to Ali and me. I don't think either of us ever thought we'd buy one. Not that we looked down on minivans or minivan drivers, we just never saw ourselves behind the wheel of one (except all those times when we borrowed the Jackson's to move something big). But, our trusty Saab was starting to feel a little small with our 99th percentile string bean kids in the back, kicking our chairs playfully. And then Pop showed up with his Toyota Sienna and I was sold. All the room, the sliding doors making it easier in parking lots, and the third row all looked pretty nice, especially after our long road trip down to the lake.

So, there we were at the dealer, new minivan owners, and the kids had been great and patient, but it was lunch time and well past naptime. We needed some quick food, and we needed to get home. Yep, we went to McDonalds in our minivan, and we got happy meals.