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)