marginal benefit

Hitting the Slopes

2012-01-17T14:44:00.001-05:00

It's been an unusually warm winter this year, but we finally had enough of a cold stretch that the local ski resorts started making some snow, so Owen and I hit the slopes on Sunday. We went up to Ski Liberty, just over the border in PA, and Owen had a great time in his lesson and according to his instructor was, 'turning like a champ'. After his lesson we skied together, and Owen rode the chair lift for the first time. He looked great on the bunny hill, and he really liked going fast. We have a long ski weekend planned at Seven Springs over my birthday, so I have a feeling Owen will be skiing pretty well by the end of this season.

(click here for all the pictures)

2011 - The Year in Facebook

2012-01-01T22:10:00.001-05:00

10 hours into 2011 nora masters the word, "no." ~ had a system breakdown whereby the "sell by jan 11" milk was consumed before the "sell by jan 4" milk was opened. god help us all... ~ went a little spanish inquisition on her kids during prayers tonight. ~ For the record, the mike & ikes just made my mouth sore; it was the carrot that gauged my gums. There's a moral there, kids. ~ my boss has suggested that my experimental approach to nora's recent serial hive outbreak might be not be the best plan of action. apparently, i'm in fact not that kind of doctor. ~ just received her very first phone call from school regarding her child's behavior -- apparently owen has turned to the dark side. ~ owen had his first ever happy meal this evening at the behest of andrew "artisan, free-range" stivers. it's always the foodies, isn't it... ~ my son keeps letting tinkerbell die. ~ i dearly love my children, but i miss staying out 'till 2. ~ i'm more of a tony the tiger kind of mom. ~ early dismissals are much more complicated once you have kids. ~ Owen woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Afterwards, he couldn't reach the sink to dry his hands, so he decided to wait until someone came to help. Allen found him asleep on the bathroom floor at 3:15 am. We might have over-stressed the hygiene thing. ~ Day 3 of owen literally having cabin fever. ~ 4 adults holding him down at the snowmass clinic couldn't get Tylenol on owen. We're now going the suppository route. ~ seriously, it's february. how am i already closed out of camps? ~ If your children are watching johnny cash clips, does that make it ok that they're watching him on Lawrence welk? ~ i wasn't particularly impressed by owen's new haircut. his response? "it was the best they could do." ~ nora watched the glee cover of justin beiber's, "baby" and then promptly puked on me. ~ fyi, according to owen, the sauropod of the day is saltosaurus. ~ wow, 18 months of nora. that went fast. ~ such a conundrum: it was owen's allosaurus's idea to be bad, but as its brain is only the size of a walnut, can it be blamed for poor choices? ~ my son just prayed to the father, son and holy spit. ~ is babysitting an allosaurus, a brachiosaurus and a triceratops today. ~ owen overheard glee last night and announced that he's a fan of "afternoon delight." so many things wrong w/ that sentence... ~ march 12, 2011: the day we finally introduced owen to star wars. ~ apparently we have a self-cleaning oven. information i could have used two hours ago. ~ dear oil of olay: making me break out is not the same as giving me younger looking skin. ~ we received an ad for capitol hill cemetery plots today -- "term limit: eternity." ~ nora has started referring to owen as "oh-no" and to herself as "no-no." ~ apparently it's "squirrel week" here in dc... maybe they should just shut us down. ~ so it's official: despite all my parent's reassurances to the contrary, i am in fact not "essential". ~ so we forgot a key piece to one of our kites and a blanket to sit on, and there wasn't any actual wind, but otherwise the kite festival was perfect. ~ My daughter is wearing a beer cozy as a bracelet this morning. awesome. ~ we sold the double stroller. i guess we're officially done. :( ~ i get that, having attended charlie sheen's "violent torpedo of truth" show last night, you have some issues you need to talk through w/ someone. i just don't think i'm the ideal candidate. ~ tip of the hat to single parents -- if i had to do this everyday i would be cowering in a corner sniffing glue. ~ based on today's behavior, nora is on team edward. ~ The deputy assistant secretary of defense got me a refill after I spilled wine all over myself. Clearly the country is secure and in capable hands. ~ We explained the designated hitter rule to owen at dinner. He cried. Stupid American league. ~ owen woke up at 6:15 this morning. stupid sun. ~ Owen is sleeping under his bed tonight, and apparently we're ok with this. ~ should it be at all concerning when your son's pre-K teacher spells "thanks," "thanx?" ~ My children celebrated their grandmother's retirement by running around barefoot ( as sanctioned by their father) thru the hallowed marbled halls of the national archives. Meanwhile, I turned to champagne to ease my mortification. ~ was woken by her son at 6:15 am to play catch and was too tired to not oblige him. ~ off to owen's first t-ball game. i apparently volunteered allen to coach. should make for an interesting blog post... ~ Turns out there's a reason I'm not usually in charge of getting owen's hair cut... ~ nora has decided it's "fun w/ feminine hygiene products" day. ~ how binding is the expiration date on a jello pudding cup? ~ it's seersucker thursday here in washington, dc -- which means we're cool only in the literal sense. ~ labor unrest at the department of labor: how meta. ~ email subject line from the moms on the hill listserve: "FREE random nipples." ~ saw two squirrels copulating across from the capitol on my walk in this morning. i'm pretty sure there's a metaphor there. ~ Raiding the parking meter stash to buy 2 hotdogs and an order of fries: $7.15 in change. Avoiding 2 meltdowns on the 15 minute drive back to Iowa City: priceless. ~ allen is camping with a very insistent owen in the tipi at the pond tonight despite the 100 degree heat index while nora and i are back at grandma & grandpa z's. sometimes, gender roles are our friends. ~ Owen just asked for a shoeshine kit, for his flip-flops. ~ katherine fawcett is a big old cheater and I am a bitter, drunk Chinese checker player. ~ I have decided to start fining the kids if they get up too early on the weekends. Surely market forces will be welfare improving. ~ Nora has joined "naked force" making me the sole, "force of the cloth" member of the Fawcett household. ~ nora's two today although she's telling people she's three and indicating via fingers that she's five. apparently she's laying the groundwork early for underage drinking. ~ My daughter is wearing a neck gator as a skirt. ~ nora's daycare teachers were really impressed when she counted to five in spanish. apparently her excessive dora watching is paying off. ~ owen shouted "what the heck?" and "dang it" twice this evening. i'm trying to figure out an appropriate response since these clearly aren't expletives, but seem like gateway words which will lead him down the slippery slope to profanity, hooliganism and ultimately, ruin. ~ owen and nora collectively lost $2,000 in their college accounts last month. for those at the justice department, that's roughly 125 muffins. ~ note to self: when trying to determine whether the kids have religious ed homework or not, their father is not a trustworthy source. ~ Owen just informed me that I turned out to be a better mom than he thought I would. I'm not sure when he made his initial assessment, but it's nice to be revised upward. ~ i would like to take this opportunity to thank the fertility gods for not blessing me with triplet boys. ~ fortunately, Brandon Gentry and Jeff Young left before the justin beiber singing portion of the evening routine began. ~ An hour and fifteen minutes into the PTA meeting with no end in sight. ~ nora got bit again. why must my children be so delicious? ~ i rode the elevator with a thirty-something man in a denim jacket with a large "Hogwarts" insignia on its back. apparently he, like so many before him, has confused DOL with the magic kingdom. ~ according to owen's homework his favorite word is "trust" -- because it helps [his] family know that [he] made a lowercase "r." ~ nora woke up at 3 am crying and shouting, "hand, hand." contrary to our initial concern, she was not hurt; she just wanted her handbag. ~ so my father-in-law just dropped off 10 lbs of candy for the "treats for troops" donation at daycare that ended on thursday. oh, and one of the 5 lb bags is open. this isn't going to end well... ~ i was singing beyonce's, "(girls) who run the world" to nora who responded, "boys." i am now going to cry. ~ nora is on a nap strike. i'm unclear as to what her demands are, but they probably involve better sleeping conditions and dora. ~ ethical dilemma: a large box just arrived at the house. the kind of box kids dream of. the kind of box that last time took 2+ months to get rid of. we are about to have an extended visitor and so are severely space challenged. no one else is home. do i remove all evidence of said box's existence or present it to owen and nora when they get home tonight? ~ owen's first words upon getting home tonight, "a big box! just what i wanted!" ~ nora woke up at 2:40 am crying and asking for a bagel and cream cheese. she didn't get it. ~ currently leading in the fawcett/zimmmerman "who ruined christmas" race: snapfish. ~ thanks to shutterfly, i finally have my christmas cards. you're dead to me, snapfish. ~ Allen broke a lightbulb resulting in our kitchen becoming a biohazard zone. ~ you know what would be awesome? if my 2 year old could refrain from pointing and shouting, "he's little!" every time we run into the little person working on my floor. ~ Back in the homeland with 'ner a meth head or hunter in sight. ~ uncle dave's xmas present to nora? the catch-phrase, "boo-yah." ~ the school house rock financial vignettes were not their finest work. ~ home.

Holiday Swap

2011-12-31T21:33:00.003-05:00

We really stretched out Christmas this year, so much so that our 'Christmas' dinner at Mom Mom's house was actually on New Year's Eve, and much to Aunt Katherine's delight, we didn't actually open all our presents until New Year's day. This of course meant that we all spent the night at Mom Mom and Grandpa Don's to ring in the New Year. We had a Mexican feast inspired by the Fonda San Miguel cookbook (one of our favorite restaurants back in Austin), and Elaine and I whipped up some delicious flan the night we got back from Iowa to bring to the celebration. Katherine drove in from Ohio; Nancy, Danny and Christopher all joined us of course; and Aunt Jen bravely brought her boyfriend Aszur (sp?) to the party. We stayed up into the New Year playing a lively game of Cranium (don't worry, none of the videos will go online, particularly the Aunt Katherine and Aunt Jen's 'pin the tail on the donkey' puppet charade), and drinking more than a few Christmas Ales. New Year's day felt like Christmas morning, complete with stockings from Santa and lots of presents to open under the tree. All told, a great Christmas in Maryland.

(click here for the pictures)

The Seven Days of Iowa Christmas

2011-12-30T19:13:00.001-05:00

Christmas tends to not be a discrete celebration for us, particularly when we go to Iowa. Our extensive extended family tends to have other familial obligations on the 25th and so the Yuletide is celebrated via a series of informal mini gatherings rather than one central feast. And while this wreaks havoc on poor Grandma Z's menu planning skills, it means that we get to see a lot of relatives in a relatively short amount of time.

Sure, Aunt Katherine shot Owen in the head with an arrow (a nerf arrow, mind you) and Nora got lost while wandering unsupervised through Aunt Helen and Uncle Ken's house. Yes, maybe it wasn't the best idea in the world for Grandpa Z to make Owen (and cousin Olivia) a real spear using Indian arrowheads (though at least Owen's new light saber distracted him). Ok, we probably shouldn't have bailed on Christmas Eve mass just because we couldn't actually see the mass. And yeah, it would have been nice for kids not to be innundated with caucus ads describing their hometown as a den of evil responsible for all that is wrong with the world.

But nobody lost an eye, we were able to meet three new baby cousins, Santa came, we played a lot of hide-and-go seek, ate a ton of goodies, stopped by the pond, and had a pretty amazing time.

And then we came back to DC and did the whole thing over again.

(Click here to see all the pics from our adventures in Iowa.)

Peabody for the Holidays

2011-12-22T10:33:00.003-05:00

The weeks leading up to winter break are pretty packed with school related Holiday festivities. On Friday, I chaperoned Owen's class field trip to see the trains at the Botanic Gardens. We walked the mile from Owen's school to the Capitol, had a great time seeing all the trains and flowers, and hiked back with a stop at the Capitol Christmas Tree.

Wednesday was the last day of school, and also the day of Peabody Classroom 8's Holiday Program. Ms. Dorsey's class went above and beyond, and put on a program for all their parents and all the other Kindergarten classes to see, and hosted a delicious Holiday brunch. Owen had been working hard memorizing all the poems and songs, and the whole class did a great job. The video below has the entire show, but for those not up for the whole 8 minute program, click here to skip to the cute dance to 'Santa Clause is Coming to Town' (which also happens to be the part that would make me a felon and could put me behind bars for five years as a first time offender if SOPA passes, who knew Kindergarten, cameras and copyrighted music were such a dangerous combination.)

Nora's Daycare Holiday Program

2011-12-15T14:42:00.002-05:00

It's been a couple years since we last went to a DOL daycare Holiday Program, so we were pretty excited to see Nora's first performance. She was a little upset that she couldn't find Mommy in the audience (not being able to find Daddy apparently didn't phase her), but Classroom 8's performance of 'We Wish You a Happy Holiday' and 'Light the Candle' was adorable none the less.

A Public Service Announcement

2011-12-09T08:32:00.006-05:00

As the holidays are upon us and the season for online shopping and cross-country gift exchanges is here, you might find yourself suddenly overwhelmed with cardboard boxes. While ultimately these receptacles should be recycled or used for long-term storage, Owen and Nora have some more immediately gratifying uses that we thought we'd share. FYI, the spyglass has met with some technical difficulties and the jail/additional sleeping space might run you into trouble with protective services, but you really can't go wrong with the sword-shield combo or a puppet show stage. Enjoy!

(click here for all the box pictures)

The Latest Addition

2011-12-08T10:07:00.004-05:00

Cousin Molly recently got a job as a staff assistant for Congressman Bruce Braley and moved to DC this past Sunday. The timing was rather impeccable, since the Occupy DC protesters had just built a barn in McPherson Square on Saturday. The prospect of meeting new people while living rent-free in the great outdoors was tempting, but as the police dismantled the structure Sunday evening, Molly decided to take us up on our offer to crash on our couch until she finds a place (in exchange for unlimited babysitting). Needless to say, we're pretty psyched she's here.

Great Falls & Natural History

2011-11-30T17:09:00.001-05:00

The weekend after Thanksgiving turned out to be warm and beautiful here in DC, so we finally satisfied Owen's desire to go back to Great Falls. The kids decided that with all the rocks and rapids, they better be on the safe side and dress up as superheroes for the trip. We all had a lovely picnic lunch, and Owen and Nora scrambled around the rocks near the overlook together, before we hiked down the Billy Goat Trail, and Owen and I ventured off for some more challenging boldering off the beaten path (Mommy was happy she didn't see Owen climb the rock face in the picture above;-).

On Sunday we had a bit more of a low key outing to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, or the indoor zoo as the kids like to call it. We arrived right as the doors opened, and Owen sprinted to the Dinosaur hall to see the paleontologists working. He held up a rock he found in Texas, that looked like it might have a fossil in it, up to the window, and two of the paleontologists came out to talk with Owen and they all decided that it might be a tooth from the Cretaceous period. Pretty cool stuff for our little fossil hunter. Nora was much more enthralled with the Ocean hall, with the biggest hits being the deep sea sculptures in the back of the hall, and of course the fish tank with Nemo & Dory. Altogether a lovely post-Thanksgiving weekend.

(click here for pictures)

Thanksgiving Part II

2011-11-27T11:43:00.001-05:00

While the Fawcett contingency loves going over to Nancy & Danny's for Thanksgiving each year, their one regret is that due to their role of "guest," they don't have full access to the leftovers the meal produced. So this year, they decided to do something about it and spent Black Friday cooking a turkey and all the fixings (sans the leftover pumpkin pie that Allen decided not to share).

I went into work while Allen went with the kids to pick out a Christmas tree and then headed up to Mom Mom's and Grandpa Don's for some extra Aunt Katherine bonding time (which involved Firetruck Park, a hike in the woods, and the re-purposing of a cardboard box. By the time I made it up for dinner, the crew was pretty exhausted and wondering whether Thanksgiving the sequel was worth it. However, based on the look of joy as Allen made a turkey-cranberry sandwich complete with his mother's homemade crescent rolls on Saturday, there was at least one convert.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T10:56:00.001-05:00

It was our year to celebrate thanksgiving in the DC metro area, which meant we got to sleep in, have the traditional Thanksgiving pancakes and sausages, go to a park, take an early nap, and then head over to Nancy & Danny's in Old Town Alexandria, VA at three o'clock for some serious eating and the company of Grandpa Don & Mom Mom, Katherine, Adrienne and Christopher.

The kids' table was in its own room which allowed them to dine while viewing some classic Disney and Superman movies, as well as access to an unsupervised bowl of Chex Mix which Nora took full advantage of. Meanwhile, the adults enjoyed some delicious southwest influenced Thanksgiving standards, excellent wine, followed by an ambitious number of desserts.

Nora enjoyed her second trip to a park in one day, where we got some swing time in and called Grandma & Grandpa Z. Later, everyone else (save Grandpa Don who opted for a nap instead) took a lovely stroll to the riverfront to check out the lights (and work off some of the meal).

(click here for the Thanksgiving pictures)

DOL Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T09:48:00.001-05:00

There wasn't a play or poem or even a song (though it was very loud), but Nora and Mommy still had a great time at her Thanksgiving luncheon on Tuesday (even though the traditional Thanksgiving cupcake necessitated an outfit change before nap time).

Peabody Thanksgiving

2011-11-18T07:36:00.005-05:00

One of the joys of Kindergarten is putting on class shows for your parents. For the last couple of weeks, Owen has been learning songs and memorizing lines all in preparation for the Peabody Thanksgiving lunch, and we've learned a lot about 'Autumn's frosty art' and how the Indians taught the Pilgrims how to hunt and plant corn. Well yesterday was the big day, Daddy took the day off work, Mommy sneaked out over lunch, and Mom Mom came down for the show. Owen had a great time performing (though for some reason, the class decided not to utilize their costumes), and we had a lovely early Thanksgiving in Classroom 8.

Fall

2011-11-14T11:17:00.003-05:00

Just a little Fall fun...

The Wedding Party

2011-11-13T15:57:00.009-05:00

It's been a while since we've been to a wedding -- it seemed that most of our acquaintances that were able and inclined to be joined in holy matrimony have already done so. But then the state of Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriages and my cousin Mark met and fell in love with a doctor named Bryan. Suddenly we had a reason to go to Boston and I got to buy a new dress.

The nuptials were adults only (which is kind of shocking, knowing Mark's fondness for the "Chicken Dance"). This meant that the kids got to spend two glorious days with Mom Mom and Grandpa Don -- watching dolphins jump at the Baltimore Aquarium, eating homemade waffles, and playing some new robot/alien/giant game which apparently involves laundry baskets.

Meanwhile, we got to catch up with some local friends (though not as much as we'd hoped to as storms in Boston delayed our flight by a couple of hours and ruined our dinner plans), explore Harvard Square, see lots of relatives, drink a few too many cocktails, over-indulge in a photo-booth, and bask in the union of two people who love each other (as well as Mariah Carey lyrics).

Congratulations Mark and Bryan. We wish you a long and happy life together.

(To see all the pics from our Boston weekend, click here.)

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T13:34:00.000-04:00

For Halloween this year, Owen decided he wanted to wear the superman costume that he's been wearing to fight crime in the neighborhood for ages, and Nora went as an absolutely adorable ladybug girl. Keeping with our Halloween tradition, we went over to Grandpa Fawcett's house to trick-or-treat on East Capitol St., and hand out candy to the thousands of kids that descend upon the neighborhood. We did have a slight break from tradition, instead of Kansas City chili, this year Claudine made spaghetti with Kansas City meatballs, but it still was delicious. This was Nora's first year trick-or-treating, and she was pretty thrilled with the whole concept. Owen had plenty of fun getting candy from strangers, but he really preferred giving candy to strangers. He's become quite adept at managing the crowds, and strictly enforcing the one piece of candy rule, which given some of the hungry monsters coming to the door, was definitely a job for superman.

(click here for all the Halloween pictures)

Brady's 5th Birthday

2011-10-31T12:11:00.000-04:00

Fresh off of his play-date with Brady and Leo last weekend, Owen saw Brady and a bunch of old DOL friends again this weekend at Brady's 5th birthday party. After the cold wintery mix of precipitation on Saturday, Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous (if somewhat muddy) day, quite fortunate since Brady's party was outside at Ticonderoga farms fall festival. The kids all had a great time playing on the giant slides, bouncing on the awesome bouncy thing, going on the spooky hay ride, screaming in the haunted house, and roasting marshmallows for s'mores.

Meanwhile, back at home Nora had her very first play-date. Her friend Violet, from DOL, lives one block over from us, and the two of them got together (with their moms of course) at the park and had a great time playing while the boys were off at the party.

(click here for all the pictures)

Hottern'Hades Halloween Party

2011-10-30T12:27:00.000-04:00

There is a long and glorious history for our annual Halloween party, and this year Brad & Marlo planned to go big. I can't to Brad's epic write-up of the party history and plans, so best just to quote it here:

A brief history for those new to this phenomenon: 1996: Kirsten A. throws the first ever UT Econ Halloween Party in her tiny apartment. Everyone dresses up and has fun. 1997: Kirsten gets a house and the party becomes a serious event. 1998: The Browns take over, add a trash can full of super spiked sangria & a keg - the event is now a happening. 2000: The Party moves to the “Cougar Den” - the atmosphere is more like a frat house (albeit a nerdy one) & less like a married couple’s house. 2003: The Founders are scattered all over the world, but there is critical mass in DC. Armed with infinitely more income than in grad school and a truly global guest list, the debauchery level reaches apex and the happening is now a cosmic force. 2007: We are old and have children. The parties start earlier and tend to end a little after dark. There are less f-bombs in songs on the playlist. There’s still plenty of good beer, lots of friends and neighbors, and great costumes. And we added the now famous chili cook-off.

2011: Looking to restore the old glory of this bacchanalia (in a way that hardly resembles the great monuments of the past, but… ), we are blowing the roof off and taking it to the streets. 100 yards of traffic free pavement, a moon bounce, a horse swing, pumpkin carving, bikes, trikes, and big wheels, frisbees and footballs, cornhole, pingpong, bocce, and other non-sports. Marshmallow roasting. Plus, the return of the Witches Brew, primo local micro brews on tap, and wine (and softdrinks). Music. Leaf piles. Candy. Grills moved to the front yards and fired up to feed the delicate tummies.

Alas, mother nature had other plans for this year's party, as Saturday brought us rain and the first October snow we've seen in DC in many years. Unfazed, Brad and Marlo moved the party inside, set up a tent and a fire-pit on the deck for the kegs, and pushed on with the party. The chili was delicious, the kids had a blast, and the party was salvaged. Sadly we had to head home around eight to get the kids to bed, but reports are that the party raged on until 2 am, so at least some of the party's old glory was restored.

(click here for all the Halloween pictures)

Three Amigos

2011-10-27T14:07:00.005-04:00

Owen's been missing his daycare friends, Leo and Brady, so we squeezed in a playdate last Sunday. One forgets how silly five year old boys can be, and when you multiply that by three, well, you get a pack of little boys that decide to shove footballs up their shirts and pretend that they're pregnant.

The day was beautiful so we headed over to Lincoln Park for some football, baseball and ghost in the graveyard before walking to Eastern Market for some donuts. All in all the boys walked over 2 miles, and yet still didn't seem tired when they left (thankfully, no one went into labor).

Austin

2011-10-18T13:41:00.001-04:00

Last Friday was a professional development day for DC teachers and Monday was conferences, which meant that Owen had a four day weekend. We decided to run afoul of the DCPS attendance policy and make it a five day weekend in order to accommodate an overdue trip to Austin.

Which meant we had to pack a lot into five days.

There were three separate ice cream trips (at two locations), seven restaurants (including the site of our first official date) and three museums (only two of which involved dinosaurs). We saw the clock tower from a distance, saw my dissertation chair up close, and posed with an animatronic president.

Custom-made antelope, rabbit & pork sausage, huckleberry compote, sriracha aioli, cheddar sausages were consumed as well as taquerias and some serious Texas Bar-B-Que. Livestock was inspected (though none were harmed in our subsequent brunch). Longhorn paraphernalia was purchased and worn. Dinosaurs were sat upon and admired from a distance. Pools were swam in and naps were missed.

And there were cows. Lots and lots of cows.

But mostly we were able to catch up with some good friends and relatives that we haven't seen in a few years (or in the case of Brandon, Anneke and Asa, since May). Thanks to Bill, Katherine, Billy & Sarah who drove up from Houston; Shane and Laura who put off packing for a trip and playing with their new iPhone 4S to meet us for dinner; Brandon, Anneke & Asa; and Kelly, Channing, Calder & Wright who managed to not get sick. Finally, a special thanks to Uncle Truman & Aunt Janis, who let us crash at their place for a couple of nights, provided our kids with all sorts of diversions and got up at the crack of dawn to make us breakfast tacos before we headed out to the airport. We had an amazing time and we hope to see you all again soon.

(click here to see all the Austin pictures)

Fall

2011-10-11T16:30:00.000-04:00

I gave Allen 1 week to recover from his India trip, after which I scheduled pretty much every second of his weekend. Saturday was baseball camp followed by the Red River Shootout/F Street Block Party. Traditionally Brad and Marlo have had everyone up to their place for the Texas-Oklahoma football game, but since it was the same day as our block party and there was a bouncy castle involved, we instead invited everyone to our place. Apparently, the gods didn't like this change in plans. Allen, Brad and Andrew gave up and joined the outside festivities after OU was up 34-10 at the half. Sadly, they couldn't escape our neighbors giving us updates. I suspect will be back in Silver Spring for the 2012 game.

Sunday we managed to make it out the door before 10 am in order to get to Brad and Marlo's for our annual pilgrimage to Butler's Orchard for the harvest festival. It was a balmy 78 degrees, prompting us to skip the hayride, but we still managed to partake in the corn maze, super slide, hay barn and play area. Sure, Owen was MIA for 10 minutes and the squirrels have already eaten our two pumpkins, but it was still a pretty great way to spend a Sunday.

Monday was Columbus Day which we celebrated by eating pancakes, a trip to the zoo and dinner at Mom Moms. Afterwards, we retired and started preparing for our trip to Austin...

India

2011-10-03T14:08:00.000-04:00

Last week I went to India to speak at what I thought was the Enhancing Capacity for Low Emissions Development workshop, but after a long series of meetings and discussions at the U.S. Embassy and the Indian Planning Commission (about which I've probably already said too much) turned out to be the Joint Indo-US Workshop on Economy-Wide Analysis for Low Carbon Strategies.

I left DC on Friday afternoon, flew to Chicago, and then took a 15 hour flight over the North Pole to India. The flight went smoothly, I managed to get some sleep and even got to see the scenic views over the desolate mountains of Afghanistan before landing in New Delhi on Saturday night. The jet lag was a bit tough, I kept waking up in the middle of the night with my body convinced it was the middle of the afternoon. The upside of this was that with three 24/7 cricket channels available, I learned a fair amount about limited overs, leg by wicket, silly mid on, and the third man.

I had the day free on Sunday, except for a prep meeting in the evening, so I hired a car and driver to take me to Agra for the day to see the Taj Mahal. It was a long four hour drive to Agra, but it was certainly worth it. The Taj was even more impressive in person than it appears in pictures, the white Indian marble gleams in the sunlight, and the beauty of the fine detailed relief carvings and endless designs of inlaid semi-precious stones show why it took 20,000 workers, 1,000 elephants and 20 years to complete. In the words of the Emperor Shah Jahan himself:

The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;
And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.

After seeing the Taj Mahal, I explored Agra for a while and saw some of the beautiful carvings and inlaid marble work that is still done by the descendants of the artists who worked on the Taj itself. The trip back to New Delhi took a couple extra hours due to an accident, and I learned that I never want to attempt driving myself in India. The upside of this was that I missed our seemingly unnecessary Sunday night prep meeting.

The rest of the trip was all work, a read-in meeting at the U.S. Embassy with USAID, a meeting with the Indian Planning Commission (which judging from the reaction of the locals, was a bigger deal than I realized), two days of the actual workshop, and a day of follow-up meetings with the Indian modelers. The most interesting part was the local transportation in Delhi, we rode around in tuk-tuks, little motorized rickshaws, that were terrifying to ride in (they seemingly obeyed no traffic law), but interestingly enough had all been retrofitted to run on compressed natural gas to improve the air quality in Delhi.

I'm glad I was able to add India to my list of world travels, but it was tough being away from the family all week. Thankfully, technology has progressed since my last trip abroad, and I was able to use Facetime to see the kids and Elaine each day. They'd call right before bedtime in DC, which was 6 am in India, and we'd end and start our respective days with smiles from halfway around the world.

The trip home was even longer than the trip there. I left Delhi just after midnight on a 15.5 hour flight to Chicago (over the North Pole again) landing at 5 am, followed by a four hour layover, before finally getting back to DC around noon. But the hugs and smiles from Owen, Nora and Elaine when I got home made all the weariness of the road melt away.

(click here for all the pictures)

Since You've Been Gone...

2011-09-28T10:27:00.005-04:00

Allen left for India last Friday. It's been a loooooong week without him. We still managed to make baseball camp (10 minutes late), a bicycle/tricycle ride to Stanton Park (which took roughly 30 minutes each way with only a 20 minutes window of playing at the park due to ominous skies), Sunday school (5 minutes late), the Peabody-sponsored Nats game (1 inning late and we left after the 7th inning stretch which means we missed Michael Morse's two run homer in the eighth) and a library run (which resulted in dinner lapsing into the ridiculously fashionable hour). Homework has been completed each night (despite Owen's "homework buddy" being in Delhi) and Owen has not been tardy to school once.

However... we're really tired. I'm sure part of it is just general malaise what with not having the "fun" parent around to inject levity or to give the "non-fun" parent a break lest she become the "ridiculously grumpy, un-fun" parent. But mostly it's because of the the 10 1/2 hour time difference and our zeal to have the kids talk to Allen once a day before bed (because one can only watch your two year old yell into a broken cell phone, "Hi, Daddy," so often before you feel compelled to intervene). Allen set up face-time on the computer before he left and the kids have been chatting with him at 8:30 pm each night, right after homework, books, prayers, teeth and pajamas are all done. It's a nice way for Allen to start his mornings and a sweet way for the kids to end their day, but it does mean the kids aren't even being put down for bed until roughly nine o'clock at night and are falling asleep considerably later.

At least they're having happier dreams, though, having gotten to say, "good-night" to their beloved Daddy who will hopefully be joining us on Friday at which point the "ridiculously grumpy, non-fun" parent will transform into the "incandescently happy" one.

Sailing

2011-09-06T16:27:00.000-04:00

With all our travel this summer, and the brutal heat, we hadn't had many opportunities to go sailing, so when it looked like there would be a window of decent weather and Mom Mom and Grandpa Don invited us out to the boat, we jumped at the chance. It was Elaine and Nora's first time out on the boat this season, and we had plenty of wind and a great day for sailing. Owen of course was excited to put on his life jacket and harness so he could ride the waves up on the bow, and make mommy exceedingly nervous. Too make sure mommy was really nervous, Nora got to go up on deck for the first time. She clipped in, and walked up to the front of the boat with daddy and Owen. Nora wasn't quite as adventurous as her brother, she preferred sitting with Daddy front to standing by the bow, but she loved riding up and down over the waves and wakes. We'll make sailors out of these kids yet.

(click here for all the pictures)

Nora's Party

2011-09-05T15:57:00.002-04:00

Second birthday parties are my favorite. First birthdays are adorable, and watching your child's first experience with cake can be endlessly entertaining, but the concept of a birthday is still beyond a one-year-old's grasp. At three, birthday parties become all about the friends. Watching the amazing amount of energy they can expend running around on a sugar high is quite the sight, but it's not really a party designed for adults to enjoy. Second birthday's however are right in the sweet spot. All the adorableness of a newly minted two-year-old saying, "I'm two!" and "my BirthDay!" but the guest list can still be made up of our friends and family.

We threw a party for Nora's second birthday at our house on Saturday, with friends & family, and beer & burgers. Nora had a blast, and we had a great time too. What more can you ask for. Happy birthday baby girl!

(click here for the pictures)

(click here for the far more dysfunctional party edition of Happy Birthday)

Shutdown Week with Mom Mom

2011-09-02T14:53:00.009-04:00

Daycare closes each year the week before Labor Day which has traditionally meant that either Allen or I (or sometimes both) need to stay home with at least one of our children. This year, however, I had used up all of my leave for vacations and the many school holidays DCPS celebrates, and Allen had a number of meetings that he really couldn't take at home while hanging out with Nora.

Enter Mom Mom.

The newly retired Sharon Fawcett has managed to fill most of her weekdays with volunteer work, consulting and acquiring the latest in Apple technology. However, she generously offered to set aside 4 full days this week (I stayed home on Friday to take Nora to her annual physical) to watch her youngest grandchild.

Nora had a blast.

There were long walks, pushing her "baby" in her stroller as well as some new accessories for said baby. There were trips to the park and the zoo. There was even a leaf/rock/acorn collection excursion via tricycle. Nora and her grandmother became "ladies who lunch" and who also share the occasional milkshake. And there was even a handy iPad to watch Dora on while Mom Mom got a manicure.

In short, Nora was a pretty bummed to see her week with Mom Mom end, and I think Mom Mom enjoyed herself too. I'm just not sure Sharon's up for Owen's suggestion that she watch Nora everyday...

(click here to see all the pictures)

Birthday Girl

2011-09-01T06:00:00.001-04:00

Two. Wow. Our baby girl is no longer a baby by any stretch of the imagination. It's always amazing to me how one begins the second year of life barely walking and uttering a few intelligible words and ends it running everywhere and using complete sentences. Nora's grown into a beautiful little girl with strong opinions, a commanding presence, and the most devious giggle you've ever heard. Happy birthday, baby girl. We love you more than I can possibly say.

One can never have too much moisturizer.
Life is all about the accessories.
Not everyone feels compelled to pee in the potty. Some people prefer to use it for alternative seating.
Good-byes are always hard. Blues Clues makes them easier.
Some people are born to rock.
I don't want the world; I just want Owen's half.
You can toast using pretty much anything.
Hair extensions aren't necessary if you're resourceful.
Civilized people eat their bread with a fork. Fingers are just fine, however, for all meat products. And pasta.
Big brothers are always good for bumming rides off of.

Belly Zerberts

2011-08-30T22:29:00.003-04:00

Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Oh My!

2011-08-29T10:09:00.002-04:00

Owen's first week of Kindergarten certainly was an eventful one. Of course we had an Earthquake shake our Nation's Capital on Owen's first day of school, and then Hurricane Irene blew through over the weekend, dumping about six inches of rain at our house. The worst of the storm passed through during the night early Sunday morning, so Saturday afternoon we were able to go out in the rain and do a little puddle jumping before the wind really picked up. There were a few downed trees in the neighborhood the next day, but overall not too much damage (certainly not as much as after Isabel back in 2003). Owen enjoyed all the excitement, but he may have developed a distorted notion of the correlation between Kindergarten and natural disasters. Hopefully that will be fixed with a larger sample size...

Kindergartner!

2011-08-25T10:18:00.007-04:00

Owen started kindergarten on Tuesday. We originally thought that it would be a fairly mundane first day -- same teacher, same classroom, same students as last year. But a couple of weeks ago we found out that Owen was getting a new teacher, Mrs. Dorsey, that he was moving to a new classroom, Room 8, and that a number of his classmates had either moved or changed schools meaning that there would be seven new students in his 20 person class.

Still, we didn't think it would be that dramatic of a day when Owen biked to Peabody Tuesday morning. The kids happily played on the playground, and we dutifully escorted Owen to his new classroom before saying goodbye.

A few hours later, the earth shook.

Owen found the earthquake experience hysterical -- akin to a ride at an amusement park. We found it a bit more frustrating, especially when they cancelled school the next day to insure that the building was structurally sound. Fortunately, it was and Owen's second of kindergarten on Thursday was far less eventful.

Though we're curious what this all portends for when he graduates from high school...

Birthday Bash

2011-08-22T14:31:00.029-04:00

We had a hard time picking a venue for Owen's birthday -- the Dinosaur Park doesn't do birthdays, the minor league teams were too far away, Nationals Park was ridiculously expensive, climbing walls are intended for the six and older crowd, and the only slot we could get at the Smithsonian Zoo was for 10:30 am on a Sunday. But then Brad & Marlo mentioned the College Park Aviation Museum and they had an opening for a Saturday afternoon party on Owen's actual birthday, so we booked it sight unseen and hoped for the best.

It didn't get off to a promising start. Nora woke up with a 103.5 fever which meant she couldn't attend the festivities and Mom Mom volunteered to watch her while Owen, Allen, Grandpa Don and I headed to the wrong venue before eventually making it to the museum. There we met up with 9 of Owen's friends from daycare, school, and our about town.

Despite the less than promising start to the day, the party at the Aviation Museum was a lot of fun. First the kids played in the party room, then they toured the museum, then they played in the "hands on" area and flight simulators, then they checked out the "pedal planes," put together Lego helicopters, sang "happy birthday" and had cake.

At which point the sugar kicked in.

With 15 minutes left to go, it was bedlam -- kids were running around everywhere. While the party technically ended at 4:00 pm, Owen, Leo, Brady, and Tadashi decided to close down the museum with an after-party that primarily involved throwing their good-bag "sticky-hands" over any surface they could find and running up and down the outside stairs. Everyone certainly had a good time, and the staff at the Museum were very nice and understanding about our gaggle of energetic five year olds.

By 5:00 pm we were finally able to convince Owen to head back to Mom Mom's to see Nora and go out for the french fries he specially requested for dinner. But when we went out for his birthday dinner, Owen barely touched his hamburger, fries, and the ice cream that Fire Station One brought over for him. That probably should have been the tip off. With neither child feeling great, we headed home and quickly put them both to bed and called it a night...until I went to check on Owen around 11 pm and found our poor little guy had thrown up (and fallen back asleep without a word). Apparently turning 5 is harder than you think (and donuts for breakfast and two pieces of cake in the afternoon are more than a five year old stomach can take). Thankfully by the morning Owen was on the mend. Afterall, he wouldn't want to be sick for his first week of Kindergarten...

Owen's a Handful

2011-08-20T08:10:00.001-04:00

Five -- it just seems really old. To think that our baby boy has lived half a decade and is about to start kindergarten is a little frightening. "Mom" and "Dad" have started to supplant "Mommy" and "Daddy" and the occasional eye-roll and, "I know that," has become a not uncommon response to parental insights. For the last few days, as I tuck Owen onto the floor at night (he abandoned his bed a few months ago) I've just been overwhelmed with how quickly it's all gone. Fortunately, Owen informed me that just because he was turning five doesn't mean he's moving out. At least not yet.

The line between reading and reciting can be blurred.
Long underwear transcends seasonal variations.
Medicine may taste bad, but there are worse ways of taking it...
Beds are not your only sleeping option.
Cold lunch > hot lunch.
Oddly enough, birds evolved from the saurishian (lizard-hipped) dinosaurs, not the ornithischian (bird-hipped) dinosaurs.
Riding a bike is easy. Stopping a bike is a whole other matter.
In a pinch, "banana pants" can be used as a substitute for most punch lines.
The first rule of batting: look around and make sure you don't hit anyone.
School is cool; but camp is awesome.

Riding Around the Neighborhood

2011-08-15T11:45:00.003-04:00

After we were rained out of our fair plans, it looked like Sunday was going to be another washout, but after lunch there was a break in the clouds, and Owen decided it would be fun to ride his bike around the neighborhood while Nora took her nap. We rode over to Lovejoy park (well technically Owen rode and I chased behind him on foot), then Owen decided we should visit all the parks, so we rode on down to Lincoln Park. After five laps around Lincoln Park we were hungry and thirsty, but not ready to end our adventure, so we rode down to Eastern Market for some fresh donuts and some water. Feeling refreshed, we biked over to Grandpa Fawcett's house to show off Owen's riding skills, and then biked over to the Capitol (with Grandpa Fawcett joining us for part of the way). The Capitol proved to be a great place to ride around, and with the cumulonimbus clouds on the horizon, it was quite picturesque as well. Finally we turned towards home, and after a quick stop by Peabody and Stanton Park, we made it back safe and sound.

Duckpin

2011-08-14T11:27:00.004-04:00

Our plan for Saturday was to go up to Mom Mom's house in the morning for a little swimming in Rose's pool, then head up to the Montgomery County Fair with the Brown's after nap time. For the past three years we've kept up our little tradition of visiting the fair, and the kids we're excited about riding the Ferris wheel this year, but the weather had other plans for us. As we were swimming in Rose's pool, the sky darkened, and by the time we were back inside the rain was washing away our plans for pony rides and funnel cakes.

Not wanting to let the day go to waste, we regrouped with Brad and Marlo after nap time to work out a new plan for the evening, a delicious Latin American dinner at Samantha's, and an evening of duckpin bowling with the kids. Dinner was delicious, and the kids went wild for bowling. It wasn't quite the fair, but it was a very fun evening none the less.

(click here for all the pictures)

Beach Trip 2011

2011-08-01T09:02:00.005-04:00

It's been a few years since we've done a proper beach trip. We did a big beach trip with friends back in 2005 before Owen came along, in 2007 we went to the Outer Banks with Joe & Cate (where Owen showed his early interest in body boarding), and we did a quick weekend trip to Bethany beach in 2008. But our last big vacation with the Hyatt and Pearson clans was to the mountains instead of the beach, and it was long past time that we introduced Nora to the ocean, so we tagged along with Mom Mom and Grandpa Don on their biannual trip to Duck in the Outer Banks with Aunt Katherine and Uncle L.

I grew up going to the Outer Banks almost every summer with my family and with my best friend Brendan's family (our mom's were close friends from their days back at the University of Texas, and we'd been friends since birth), so it was nice to go back the beach with family.

Owen took to the beach like a fish to water -- he asked to use the boogie board the first day there, and fearlessly rode the waves (with just a well timed push from daddy to help catch them). Even being knocked over and rolled by crashing waves didn't dampen his enthusiasm -- and he even managed to pick up a few fans. Nora on the other hand, was a little more nervous about the water. The first few days, she was perfectly content to just play in the sand. After getting used to the place a bit, she decided it was alright to try swimming in the pool, and she would adorably yell, "I'm swimming" to whoever cared to listen. On our last day at the beach, she finally was lured out into the waves when Mommy and Owen were out playing in the ocean. She held on tight to Daddy the whole time, but had a smile on her face as we jumped to ride over each passing wave.

Given how much fun the kids had, we'll have to make sure we don't go so long without a beach trip again. I have a feeling we'll be back next summer.

(click here for all the pictures)

Bicycle!

2011-07-25T07:11:00.006-04:00

The road to Owen riding a bike has not been the truest of paths. We'd hope to skip the training wheel stage entirely because, quite frankly, both of us learned on two wheelers. Sure there was a fair amount of blood involved and it took a while for the skin to grow back, but we liked it. We loved it. So we bought Owen a balance bike for his 3rd birthday, but Owen balked at riding it because it didn't have pedals and begged for a "real" bike. We insisted that he needed to ride the balance bike first and once he got good at it we would upgrade to a big boy bike. Owen chose to continue riding his tricycle instead.

The standoff continued until Spring of this year, when we finally decided to purchase a new bike with training wheels. Unfortunately, around the same time Owen decided to start riding his balance bike in earnest and that he didn't want training wheels but a bike with a kickstand. But we'd opted for the 16" bike which was a little big for Owen to get on and off without the training wheels, so Owen decided to continue riding his balance bike and I began to rethink my whole parenting approach.

But when we got back from Iowa, Owen needed a new pair of shoes which meant a trip to REI. Allen suggested that while there Owen could get his training wheels removed and a kickstand installed. Owen jumped at the chance. Once they got home he donned his helmet and went for an innaugaral ride. While we're still working on stopping (and had one bad run-in with a wall), we're pretty impressed at what little assistance Owen needs from us. And maybe just a little bit sad.

High Dives

2011-07-21T19:53:00.003-04:00

Owen set the record for the youngest person to jump off the high dive at the pond last year, and after a few days of nervous jumps, he more than fulfilled his promise to Aunt Katherine and Uncle L to jump 11 times for each of them, even climbing the high dive ladder and jumping off all by himself this year.

Summer in Iowa

2011-07-20T20:13:00.003-04:00

We planned our trip to Iowa this year around Elaine's 20th high school reunion, so we missed out on corn fest, but we had a great time visiting everyone all the same. We made our customary stops in Cleveland on the way to and from Iowa to stay at Aunt Katherine & Uncle L's house, and had all sorts of fun playing baseball, and even playing with a few sparklers. Once in Iowa we had all sorts of fun playing more baseball in Grandma & Grandpa Z's backyard, playing with cousin Grace, and of course lots of swimming at the Pond.

The exciting new development at the Pond this year was the covered wagon that Uncle Ken just finished building to go along with the tipi. Uncle Ken gave us a ride in the covered wagon around the pond and back to the tipi, and thereafter Nora was quite adorable saying 'covered wagon' every time she saw it.

Since we were in Iowa for the reunion, we headed out to Des Moines over the weekend, but first we stopped in Ames to visit Thomas & Jen. Leanna and Troy were there too, so we had all the cousins, Owen, Nora, Ethan, Simon and Grace all together for a really fun afternoon picnic in Thomas & Jen's backyard.

After the reunion, we drove back to Eastern Iowa, and the epic heat wave of 2011 descended upon Iowa. Even the the Capital Weather Gang back in DC was tweeting about how hot it was in Iowa. The heat wave brought good and bad news. The good news was that with all the heat, the sweet corn was ready early enough for us to enjoy some, the bad news was that it meant that the night Owen and I were planning to spend in the tipi was going to be a bit more uncomfortable than anticipated.

On Sunday we had a big family bbq at the Pond, and it was great seeing everyone and eating some delicious Iowa sweet corn (Owen and I both managed to eat four ears;-). After the sun went down, it was way too hot for a fire, but we launched sky lanterns above the Pond, and watched them drift away into the night sky. Then after everyone left, Owen and I hiked back through the woods to the tipi. Owen was quite brave, and happily hung out in the tipi by himself with just a flashlight while I made a few trips back to the cabin to get all our gear. I was sweating buckets, but Owen happily fell asleep in the tipi without any problems. I eventually drifted off well after midnight, when the air finally started to cool. In the morning, Owen and I went fishing off the dock (though we didn't catch anything), and then back to the cool air conditioning of Grandma and Grandpa Z's.

We did a lot more swimming at the Pond the rest of the week of course, and the last real adventure of our Iowa trip was going over to Nan's house to see cousin Kendra's horses and chickens. Owen was particularly taken with feeding the horses, and Nora couldn't get enough of the chickens. She really was quite thrilled to see all the farm animals she reads about alive and walking around right in front of her.

Sadly our Summer Iowa trip is over now, but we'll be back again for Christmas this year (Owen is really hoping he'll be able to play ice hockey on the Pond), and next summer we'll be back for corn fest 2012.

(click here for all the pictures)

Reunited

2011-07-18T12:25:00.009-04:00

The timing of this year's Iowa trip was dictated by my 20th class reunion. I hadn't really seen anyone from high school since Memorial Day 1991: my parents informed me they were moving to Texas the day after I graduated, I wasn't invited to the 5th reunion and I opted out of the 10th (I was but a poor graduate student living in Austin). But I'd promised myself long ago that I'd make at least one of these, and as the kids are cute, Allen still has his hair and I lost the baby weight, I figured this was the one to attend.

Shockingly, I was not the most popular person in school, and though I'd reconnected (or in a lot of cases, connected for the first time) with a fair number of my classmates via Facebook, I was still a bit anxious about seeing everyone. A good time was had by all, however. Despite missing most of the tour of my alma mater, Owen managed to coral a bunch of offspring into a baseball game at the picnic while Nora focused on the food. After we handed the kids over to Grandma & Grandpa Z that afternoon, Allen and I got to hang out with some awfully cool people at the State Historical Museum (who knew their was a woolly mammoth infestation in Iowa a few million years ago). While I probably should have mingled a bit more, it was a really nice time. I might even be willing to make the 30th...

Nora

2011-07-07T10:39:00.003-04:00

The blogs have been a bit Owen-centric of late -- a natural outcome of ending school, starting T-ball and camp, and just living the life of an almost five year old. Nora, however, has been pretty busy herself. After a 2 week taste of how terrible the twos could be, our sweet baby girl returned to form. She's working hard on counting to 10 and saying her ABCs, with the requisite dance breaks in there. She's not always sucessful, mind you, but she is ridiculously cute.

The Things You Do For Love

2011-07-05T10:44:00.006-04:00

I stayed home with Owen when he was first born, and when he started daycare it was exactly 4 floors down from me. We commuted together, I would visit at lunch time, give hugs after falls and scrapes and chaperone field trips. Even after Owen started Peabody this fall, we still commuted together which meant I got to meet his friends, watch them play, and was the first to hear all the days happenings.

But now that Owen is in camp and it meets on the other side of the Hill, Allen has taken over drop-off and pick-up duties which often includes watching Owen play a few innings before dragging him away. By the time I see him, he's exhausted and down to monosyllabic answers to my inquiries about his day.

I miss the little guy.

Which is why I insisted on taking Owen to Tadashi's snake themed 5th birthday party this weekend. Owen had a great time seeing his old daycare pals, running all over the Gulf Brand Nature Center, checking out a lizzard, bees, turtles, fish, frogs and snakes (sadly Mr. Owl passed away the week before). But the best part was that both Owen and I got to touch a live Virginia Black Snake and then talk about it all the way home.

Summertime

2011-06-24T14:48:00.005-04:00

Summer camp, for reasons I don't completely understand, is a really big deal in DC -- emails started arriving shortly after New Years and by the time I registered Owen in late February for one of the camps he will attend this summer, I had already missed the "early bird" discount. Choosing an appropriate camp can be challenging as one needs to consider: age restrictions (Owen's under 5), the existence of aftercare (someone needs to watch him between 3 pm and 5:30 pm), the "friend factor" (Owen takes after me in terms of social reticence) and whether the camp's focus will broadened your child's horizons. We had to also factor in that we are lazy parents, unwilling to drive all over the city during rush hour and so said horizon's must be broadened within a fairly narrow geographical radius.

But we found a couple of camps (one baseball, one general) that we hoped Owen would enjoy, sent off our checks (FYI six weeks of summer fun costs the same as 13 weeks of daycare, though given one of the camps is at St. Albans whose regular school tuition is slightly less than my Alma mater (and considerably more than Allen's), we probably got off cheap), filled out health forms, attended an orientation session (we skipped the optional one) and hoped for the best.

Which we pretty much got.

Because they belatedly added a half day to the DCPS calendar, Allen picked up Owen at noon from his last day of pre-K, ate a quick lunch and then headed over to Payne Elementary (1.5 miles from our house) for Home Run Baseball Camp. Our 8 year old neighbor, Seamus, and one of Owen's teammates from T-ball, Jack, had already arrived. Owen enthusiastically joined them for warm-up calisthenics and stretching before taking the field. The idea that summer break meant he'd be spending all day playing baseball instead of going to school was pretty thrilling, and Allen literally had to drag him away (after watching him play for over an hour) that night.

Owen's been pretty exhausted each evening (eight hours of playing baseball will do that to a 4 1/2 year old), but so far, this summer thing is looking pretty good.

(The first day of baseball camp)

T-Ball

2011-06-15T12:44:00.007-04:00

Owen has 'played' soccer for two seasons now with Sports on the Hill, but he's never been particularly into it, and it's always been a challenge to get him to participate in soccer practice. Now that Spring is turning into Summer, Owen's boredom with soccer practice has given way to the pure adrenaline rush of T-ball. Yes, our lifelong baseball fanatic finally has a team of his own to play on (technically he's been playing right field with Daddy on our softball team for a few weeks now, but that doesn't really count).

We had a few sketchy moments: I found out I was the head coach of Owen's team when we arrived for the first practice, and I didn't have the requisite popsicles for the kids. More importantly, we got our team shirts and hats and found out that we're the Yankees. Given that Owen is a die-hard Nats fan, and that he broke down in tears when he learned about the American League's DH rule, I wasn't surprised when he started to get a bit upset, but a quick explanation about the difference between the MLB Yankees and the T-Ball Yankees, along with a reminder that Joe DiMaggio played for the Yankees quickly put him back in good spirits. (In fact he handled it better than some of the parents, there were certainly a few expletives from the Red Sox fans that now have to see their kids dressed in Yankees gear each week).

Owen was pretty thrilled that his dad was the coach (though he had some questions about why I am the 'coach' of his T-ball team, but Jim Riggleman is the 'manager' of the Nationals). And his relentless practice certainly showed as he was hustling all over the field to make plays. I think we have a hit on our hands with T-ball season, and next week we'll really test his love of the game when he starts three weeks of summer baseball camp!

(click here for all the pictures)

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

2011-06-11T08:58:00.002-04:00

In honor of Owen's first day of T-ball today, here's a little baseball movie courtesy of the Washington Nationals.

Friends with Benefits

2011-06-07T12:31:00.011-04:00

Brad and Marlo Brown are two of our best friends: We met them in grad school, moved to the DC area a year after them, and had kids within months of each other. And while we always like hanging out with Brad, Marlo, Mia & Ben, we especially like hanging out with them in the summer when we can take full advantage of their pool membership.

So on Saturday we headed up to the Browns for a little pre-pool playdate (which mostly involved Allen & Brad playing guitar) and lunch. We took the kids over to Mom mom's for nap time, picked up stuff for grilling, and then headed to the Northwest Branch Pool. Owen was the first to jump in, but as it was also a bit on the cool side, he announced he was freezing and needed a warm shower about 20 minutes later. We spent most of the night eating and networking on the playground (nothing like seeing your co-workers and colleagues outside the office and only partially dressed).

Sunday didn't start off very promising, but the clouds cleared in time for a 5 pm rendez-vous with the Browns and Stiver-Saxtons. There was an informal splash contest for the dads on the diving board while Owen looked enviously on as Luke joined in the diving fun (someone needs to work on their swimming skills....). While not everyone enjoyed the water -- Nora's disdain for bathtime apparently extends to all water activities, resulting in her largely ignoring the pool in favor of the adjacent sandbox -- everyone had a good time culminating in our closing the joint down. Hopefully that won't impact our chances of being asked back...

(to see all the pics from the weekend, click here)

What is Past is Prologue

2011-06-04T21:53:00.002-04:00

It seems like Mom has been threatening to retire for years now, but now she has finally pulled the trigger and left the working world. Oddly enough Dad had recently rejoined the labor force as Acting Director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library (working for Mom no less), so we briefly swelled the ranks of Fawcett's in the government to three, but in quick succession Dad re-retired and Mom retired, leaving me as the last Federal Fawcett standing (well not quite the last if we credit Elaine as an honorary Fawcett ;-).

On Friday afternoon we took the kids down to the Archives for Mom's retirement party. Owen and Nora were the only children their of course, and since I remember going to similar work functions as a kid and being bored beyond belief, I wasn't surprised that Nora spent most of the time running up and down the marble halls of the Archives, and Owen rolled around on the floor through the speeches when he wasn't hiding under the couch or exploring under the table. Elaine may have been a bit horrified, but they were sufficiently cute that I don't think anyone minded.

The party was lovely: the champagne and hors d'oeuvres were generously provided by the various Presidential Library foundations; the Archivist of the United States gave some kind remarks; members of Congress paid tribute to Mom in the Congressional Record; the President sent a lovely letter; and Mom gave a wonderful farewell speech. But the highlight (and most blog worthy presentation) belonged to Nancy and her photo tour of Mom's work life. I'd summarize, but it's really best to let Nancy's presentation speak for itself, so I've included the video below.

Mom has really been inspiring throughout her career, and as she retires from her position as Assistant Archivist for Presidential Libraries I hope that she finds joy and fulfillment in her retirement; I hope that in my career, I can live up to her wonderful example; and I hope that she find's plenty of time for babysitting.

(click here for all the pictures)

Where the Boys Aren't...

2011-05-24T22:59:00.013-04:00

Caitlin is my goddaughter and Nora's godmother and so on the occasion of her graduation from St. Catherine's University (an all-women's college), we thought it only appropriate to ditch the boys and fly off to the twin cities without them. (Well, that and we feared additional censure from the administration if Owen had another unexcused absence.)

Conveniently, cousin Blaine lives nearby and let us crash at his place. Even more conveniently Grandma and Grandpa Z drove up from Iowa City to chauffeur us around town with a ICPD approved car seat installation. And probably most conveniently, a number of Grady family members live in the greater St. Paul, MN metro center so we also got to see Uncle Glen & Aunt Cheryl, Cousin Bryce, Jodi & Loude n, Uncle Al & Aunt Araceli as well as Caitlin, her boyfriend Paxton and proud parents Aunt Ellen & Uncle John on our extremely brief visit.

While Nora wasn't into the official events (security at the graduation mass offered to escort us to our car if we wanted to leave...), she really enjoyed St. Kate's campus, particularly the radio controlled goose at the duck pond -- the only thing that would drag her away was the promise of cake (my God that girl will rally if the word "cake" is invoked). She didn't get a lot of time with her godmother, who, understandably was pretty busy, but Nora got a lot of extra time with Grandma & Grandpa Z and cousin Blaine when they babysat for her while I attended the graduation and she boycotted nap time.

The graduation was pretty memorable (and not just because the President of the University informed us during the ceremony that we were completely safe in the auditorium despite a tornado warning). There's nothing like seeing the baby girl you held while they poured water over her graduate Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude. Now if only she had decided to move to DC instead of South Carolina for grad school...

(To see all the pictures from Caitlin's graduation weekend, click here)

When the Girls are Away, the Boys Will Play

2011-05-22T22:13:00.004-04:00

Mommy and Nora flew out to Minnesota for Caitlin's graduation, so it was just us boys this weekend. Mom Mom happened to be out of town as well to give a lecture series in Japan, so we teamed up with Grandpa Don for some baseball and some sailing.

On Saturday we went up to Baltimore to catch the Nats play the O's on the road with Grandpa Don. Owen was a bit skeptical of seeing a baseball game in an AL park. When we told him about the plan to go see the Nats in Baltimore, he was excited until we explained that in the American League they have designated hitters so pitchers don't hit. He broke into tears when he heard about the DH rule, worried about the poor hitters that wouldn't be allowed to hit even if they wanted to. He rallied for the game, but sadly the Nats used up all their offense beating the O's 17-5 the previous night, and they couldn't pull out the win for Owen on Saturday.

On Sunday we met up with Grandpa Don again, this time to go sailing. There wasn't much wind, but that might have been a good thing, since Owen was intent on playing all over the boat (with his life jacket and a tether of course). His favorite part was going up to the bow to ride up and down as we went over a wake, though a close second might have been playing fetch with Molly, the resident labradoodle at Hartge's (no word yet on how that will impact Mommy's stance on getting a dog ;-).

(click here for all the pictures)

Oh No, No No

2011-05-20T21:56:00.002-04:00

Nora has really become much more vocal lately, and one of the cutest things about her developing speech patterns is that she calls Owen 'Oh No' and herself 'No No'. We've been meaning to capture this on film, but by the time we finally got around to doing it, her pronunciation of 'Nora' had evolved to 'Nah'. Oh well, it's still pretty cute.

Mother's Day, Birthdays, and Nora Kisses

2011-05-16T21:51:00.002-04:00

Well we've missed a few weeks of blogging, we celebrated Mother's Day with a brunch at Jaleo's again this year, and had a low key birthday for Elaine (our birthday dinner at Volt had to be pushed back to June due to Grandparent/babysitter travel schedules). Somehow we managed to avoid taking any pictures of these fine celebrations, so instead here's a cute video of Nora kisses.

Easter

2011-04-25T22:20:00.002-04:00

We feel like we have this Easter thing down. We get up Easter morning, find some eggs and presents from the Easter Bunny. Then we get dressed and go out for bagels before walking to mass. After mass we head up to Mom Mom's where an Easter egg hunt and delicious dinner awaits. Now if we could just learn how to better ration candy consumption...

(click here for all the pictures)

Spring Break

2011-04-23T18:24:00.003-04:00

One of the challenges of Owen being in school is Owen not being in school -- daycare may have had a shut down week, but their holidays pale in comparison with all of the days that kids don't go to school. This past week was spring break for DC public schools, and since we didn't have any grand travel plans, we decided to have a week of Daddy and Owen time.

Our first big Spring Break outing was a trip to Nationals Park for a baseball game on Sunday. The game on Saturday was rained out, but the weather on Sunday was perfect, so we were treated to a double header. Owen showed his love for the game and stuck through all 18 innings. We watched the first game from the upper deck and moved down for the second game, eventually moving up to the front row behind third base where Owen flirted with Alexa, one of the young ladies from the Nat Pack. The Nats took both games from the Brewers, and we couldn't have asked for a better day of baseball (though I don't think we'll grant Owen's request to invite Alexa over for a play date ;-).

Owen had a dentist appointment on Monday, not the most exciting Spring Break activity, but we did manage to spend the afternoon riding Owen's new bike all over Capitol Hill. We spent Tuesday at the Smithsonian, first checking out the Einstein Planetarium presentation on that nights stars. Then we met up with Mommy for lunch at the Sculpture Garden, before going over to the Natural History museum to check out the dinosaurs.

Wednesday was forecast to be a rainy day, so Owen went into DOL to visit all his old friends from daycare. Then on Thursday we had our most exciting adventure, Owen's first trip to Great Falls. Owen was reluctant to go at first, but once we got there and he started climbing over the rocks, he told me, "Daddy, I didn't think it would be fun, but this is phenomenal!" Since it was just us boys, we quickly left the overlooks and started exploring the rocks downstream along the Billy Goat Trail. Not surprisingly, Owen was fearless scrambling over the rocks, and he made it clear that we better get him on belay to do some real climbing before too long.

Friday was another rainy day, so we stayed in and did some experiments. We made oobleck, a non-Newtonian fluid that acts like a liquid when it's poured, but as a solid when you squeeze it. Pretty cool stuff, but it couldn't top the previous day's fun at Great Falls. All together it was a great Spring Break, and I'm really glad we had so much Daddy & Owen time.

(click here for all the pictures)

This Boy's Life

2011-04-18T18:23:00.006-04:00

When you're a kid, there are certain days in your life you expect to be great: your birthday; Christmas; the first day of summer vacation. Typically, April 17th is not one of those days (unless that happens to be your birthday or you're home schooled with a very non-traditional calendar). But on Sunday, Owen received his long awaited "big boy" bike (after the 20 month, largely failed experiment of the balance bike), rode to the park where he met up with a classmate, had a quick lunch and then headed off to Nationals Stadium where he watched 18 innings of baseball, ate an absurd amount of ballpark fare and befriended "Alexa" from the "Nat Pack" -- he's asked me to arrange a playdate with her. Not a bad way to start his first official Spring Break.

Grounded

2011-04-10T15:48:00.006-04:00

It was an odd year for the Blossom Kite Festival (formally known as the Smithsonian Kite Festival). Originally, it was supposed to be held on March 30th, but threats of snow resulted in its postponement until April 10th -- one day after the government was set to close. Fortunately the powers that be were able to come to some sort of accord allowing the Cherry Blossom Festival to continue (as well as our garbage to be collected and Allen & I to continue to earn livings), but they weren't able to do anything about the weather -- it was damp and there was a noticeable absence of wind. In our zeal to make the festival, we forgot a blanket to sit on (which made for some damp bottoms) and a part to one of the kites (which, along with the lack of breeze meant we weren't able to actually fly a kite). But while we weren't able to actively participate in the festival's main event, the kids still had a pretty good time trying. (click here for all the pictures)

Drummers

2011-04-09T22:42:00.003-04:00

Ben had a rocking second birthday party on Saturday, and Nora and Owen were particularly taken with one of his birthday presents. They had a blast, but I think it'll be a tough sell for them to talk us into getting them a set of their own...

Nora Ball

2011-04-07T21:47:00.002-04:00

Baseball is Back!

2011-04-04T21:42:00.001-04:00

Spring is arriving here in DC in fits and starts -- we've had a few gorgeous days mixed in with lots of cold and rainy weather. Through it all, Owen has been on the hunt for signs of Spring, dutifully pointing out all the leaf buds and flowers he can find. Saturday brought Owen's first soccer practice of the year (which he actually participated in this time ;). Then on Sunday, Owen found one of the best signs of Spring yet: his first Nats game of the season! Josh and Teddy joined us to take in the rubber game of the Nat's first series of the season (and Jeff, Sommer, Brandon, Anneke and Assa came over to visit for a couple innings before going back to their sweet Washingtonian seats behind the Nats dugout). We finally had the painful conversation about how Josh Willingham and Adam Dunn were playing for new teams now, and Mike Morse and Adam LaRoche would be playing left field and first base this season, which Owen took surprisingly well. As for the game, the Nats new and improved defense forgot to show up, and they lost 11 - 2, but for Owen all that mattered was that we were at a baseball game together.

Marathon

2011-03-28T21:15:00.003-04:00

Aunt Katherine was in town this past weekend, and we had a marathon weekend of marathon activities. Every year the National Marathon runs past our block, and we try to make it out with the kids to cheer on some of the runners. After Aunt Katherine ran her second marathon, and started thinking about where to run her third, we started lobbying for her to run the National Marathon. Despite some worries about training during the Cleveland winter, she signed up and set a goal for herself of finishing in under four hours.

With Katherine doing all the hard work of actually running, the rest of us started planning all of our activities for the weekend. Owen and Nora helped with a little art project to make signs to cheer Katherine on. Katherine came into town in the middle of the week for some work, and on Thursday we all went up to Mom Mom's to carbo-load with a delicious pasta dinner. Then on Friday night Adrienne came into town, and we all went out to Smith Commons for dinner on H Street. Katherine and Adrienne stayed with us on Friday night, and we woke up at the crack of dawn to get Katherine over to the starting line.

Katherine had a lot of support the first half of the race. Adrienne cheered her on at the start, and she ran by Dad's at mile 1. Mom Mom and Grandpa Don came over to our house, and I biked over to pick up some fresh bagels for a little breakfast before marathoners ran by our place at mile 12. Owen's friends from the block Gavin and Chloe's dad Conrad was running in the marathon too, and our street was closed off, so all the kids were out cheering. After watching all the leaders run by, Katherine zoomed past our place on a great pace. Adrienne and I then hurried over to Dad's to cheer her on as she ran by 813 at mile 15. Then we had some time to kill while Katherine ran the grueling second half of the race on the other side of the Anacostia. Dad and Claudine were getting ready for brunch, the kids played, and Don, Adrienne and I walked over to RFK for the finish. Katherine came in with a smile on her face and finished in 3 hours 53 minutes, well ahead of her goal and just shy of qualifying for Boston!

Since Katherine had worked so hard, we all deserved a delicious feast of a brunch over at 813. And since one really builds up an appetite watching a marathon, we went up to Mom Mom and Grandpa Don's for a big bbq brisket dinner. It was such a fun weekend that we all decided we should do the marathon every year, so long as Katherine is the only one actually running;-)

(click here for all the pictures)

Elephant March II (Electric Boogaloo)

2011-03-23T13:23:00.006-04:00

Let me begin by admitting that I am not a circus fan. I've always found clowns kind of creepy, "Geek Love" ruined freak shows for me, and while I'm aware that Disney films are rife with inaccuracies (as if any primates existed when dinosaurs did), Dumbo and Pinochio made fairly convincing anti-circus life arguments.

However, every spring, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Baily Circus descends upon the Capitol, and in order to tranfer their pachyderms to the Verizon Center, the elephants are marched right in front of the Department of Labor. Last year, Nora and I missed the excitment (though Allen and Owen went). This year the proximity, a beautiful spring day, a light work load, and the parade conveniently taking place just after Nora's nap, all motivated Nora and I to join the many elephant gawkers.

Nora wasn't terribly into it, but the march did provide us with an excuse to play hookey for the rest of the afternoon and get some extra playground time in that she loved.

(click here for the pictures)

Star Wars

2011-03-14T21:52:00.003-04:00

This weekend we finally let Owen watch Star Wars. We'd been holding out, knowing that as soon as he saw it we'd be in for months of obsession with light sabers and blasters, but when he started coming home with stories from the playground about how Luke Skywalker turned into Darth Vader, we decided it was time. Star Wars was the first movie I ever saw, so of course I was excited to watch it with Owen. It was pretty special watching it together, but then I couldn't help but be a little jealous when after seeing Star Wars the first time, Owen got to see The Empire Strikes Back the very next day, and he can now watch them again and again at home. I had to wait three years for Empire, and we never did get our own copy of Star Wars for the Betamax. Kids sure are lucky these days...

Marine One

2011-03-07T21:36:00.002-05:00

I took Elaine and Dad to the White House to see the President depart in Marine One on Friday. Not as momentous an occasion as when we saw what used to be Marine One depart with George W. Bush and family after President Obama's Inauguration, but it's pretty cool to see the President off from the South Lawn.

(click here for all the pictures)

Ballad of the Dinosaurs

2011-02-28T20:37:00.000-05:00

Now Owen has started working on some original songs about a subject near and dear to his heart, dinosaurs!

The Boy in Black

2011-02-27T21:49:00.001-05:00

(Well, technically brown and green, but you get the idea.)

Snowmass

2011-02-13T20:51:00.013-05:00

Our ski vacation began rather ominously. On our way to the airport, Allen announced he had a conference call which made checking in the two bags and skis as well as going through security with 2 kids under the age of 5...interesting. Once he was finally off the phone, the kids were fed and we were on route to Denver, things looked promising, except Nora refused to nap and would scream unless we allowed her to watch Dinosaur Train on my i-phone. Both kids crashed on the flight to Aspen, but while Nora woke up as soon as we landed and preceded to scream unabashedly, Owen remained asleep while we got our luggage, boarded the shuttle to the condos, and even when the driver had to stop short to avoid hitting an elk and he fell to the floor. We finally arrived at the condo (as it snowed heavily), got the kids in bed and after a brief exchange with Allen's friends, crashed around 11 pm MST (which would be 1 am EST).

Only to discover the next morning that Owen had a fever.

Now, Owen is typically a one day fever kind of kid, which is fortunate because he's also an aspiring Christian Scientists who refuses to take medicine. Alas, this wasn't a one day kind of fever. Owen maintained that he wasn't actually sick but rather just tired and bored, hence his sleeping roughly 20 hours a day while Allen and I alternated parenting duties and skiing. But by the third day of trying to force Motrin down him only to have him spit it on us as his temperature climbed higher and our days in Snowmass dwindled, we finally took him to the professionals at the Snowmass clinic who, after ruling out strep, the flu, pneumonia and failing to get any Tylenol down him despite four adults holding him down, advised us to go the suppository route and head to the ER if the fever didn't break.

But it did, and finally, four days into our vacation, it really began. Owen went to ski lessons; Nora went to daycare and Allen and I were able to ski together (until he ditched me for some black diamonds) along with Nabeel, Megan, Chris, Elise and Billy.

Despite the medical drama, we really had an amazing time with the Hyatts, the Pearsons, their offspring, and Billy. The kids (Kaden, Liam, Hazel, Owen & Nora) interacted adorably, particularly after Owen was fully recovered and they were able to build their "fun house" together. The adults traded off skiing partners so that the more adventurous (Allen and Nabeel) could get in some fresh powder and fast runs before opting for more scenic runs with the less ambitious crowd (Megan, Chris, Elise and myself) and Billy even missed his heat in the "Men's Ski Slopestyle" at the Aspen/Snowmass Open just to hang out with the crew. There were lots of late night dinners (after the kids were asleep or at least in bed) and some even later night viewings of "Dan vs" with Chris providing some color commentary, but mostly it was just a chance to hang out with some of our favorite people who we don't get to see nearly enough.

It ended all to soon (though the Hyatts did manage to extend their stay a few more days...) but hopefully well go back in another year or two. After we've made sure Owen has had all his shots...

(click here for Allen's pictures)
(click here for Nabeel's pictures)
(click here for the full slideshow)

A Tricycle Built for Two

2011-01-31T21:16:00.001-05:00

Looks Who's Talking...

2011-01-17T14:39:00.005-05:00

When Owen was 16 months old, we posted a "Year in Language" blog entry which listed the extent of his vocabulary at the time (or at least those words which we agreed were in fact words and a fair representation of what he intended them to mean). As Nora is two weeks behind Owen in the calendar year, we decided to give her a couple more weeks to round out her word list before we posted it and let the sibling rivalry officially begin (besides, we though the Facebook year in review was a bit more amusing). While Nora's list is slightly shorter, it has more multi-syllable words and also refers to more vices. We're not sure what to make of that...

baa
backpack
bath
blue's clues
book
bye-bye
chocolate
coat
cracker
dada
hat
mama
meow
moo
more
neigh
no
quack
roar
row
shoe
sock
thank-you
this
that
uh-oh
up
woof
yes

Getting Ready for our Big Ski Trip

2011-01-09T13:23:00.003-05:00

Kisses

2011-01-05T22:46:00.001-05:00

2010: The Year in Child-Related Facebook Status Updates

2011-01-01T11:55:00.004-05:00

nora’s response to another round of vaccinations: grabbing a discarded needle and going for the nurse. • not to brag or anything, but nora’s pediatrician informed me that in the bovine world I’d be considered a holstein • was informed by her son that he does not love her. or nora. only daddy. • so ends elaine’s full-time maternity leave, and yet the photo albums are still not organized. guess we need to have another kid. • there is a digger and a bulldozer and a truck in our alley -- it’s like Christmas all over again. • owen informed me that he has 2 girlfriends and that they are both alright w/ this. apparently one shouldn’t watch “big love” while pregnant. • elaine‘s 4 ½ month old baby is watching the state of the union, and she’s not. • owen received a helium balloon two weeks before Christmas that is still going at full tilt. is it possibly for a balloon to make a deal w/ the devil? • just put owen’s educational future in the hands of the lottery gods. and michelle rhee. • the wind blew fort #1 over. Owen is now in bed as allen begins work on fort #2. • I asked owen to take his underwear off and put on a pull-up for bed. he then proceeded to sing a song & dance while doing it. the whole scene kind of weirded me out. • has begun rationing diapers. • contrary to his assertions, owen was in fact not ready for underwear overnight. • elaine’s daughter just got to first base w/ her. • owen started shouting, “gay, gay, gay…” at dinner. i asked him to stop. he asked me if it was a nice word. i no longer know. thoughts? • allen told owen to stop singing “nana, nana, boo, boo.” owen immediately started singing “gaga, gaga, gaga” at which point allen banned the underlying melody. i had no idea we could do that. next up: "hangin’ tough." • after last night’s experience, i’m no longer convinced teeth are worth it. • has the distinction of having the only child to ever throw a fit b/c he wanted to eat his vegetables • my god, the poop. • needs to remember that if she’s going to check which side she’s on before going downstairs to nurse her daughter, she should do so in the privacy of her own office rather than the DOL hallway lest she become the creepy economist lady that keeps feeling herself up. • just googled “baby ingested hosta” and got zero applicable hits. apparently i am the only negligent mother out there who also has lovely foliage. • you know when your child has an accident on the way home while in the stroller & so you really need to get home but you run into an acquaintance in the park that wants to discuss parenting & you just can’t bear to let them know that your child had an accident lest it somehow reflect badly on you & so you chat for 5-10 minutes while your child sits in their own urine? nope, me neither. • is relieved her son ultimately decided not to wear his princess dress to school today since it’s really her camisole top. • is home sick today w/ both her children (who are healthy) due to an ill-timed work retreat for allen & stomach bug for me. i am contractually obligated to note, however, that allen offered to skip the retreat and I told him “no.” • is trying to update nora’s baby book. in reality, she’s making stuff up. • based on recent behavior, three and three-quarters is the new two. • stopped at the park on the way home so owen could walk the tightrope. • just stole candy from a baby. • mommy, we don’t have room for any more babies. • three years, nine months and 2 kids later, we finally finished the tub of diaper cream. • the problem w/ introducing your 3 ½ year old to billy bragg is that he will inevitably turn to you and shout, “i put you on a pedestal, i put you on the pill,” which is just a weird thing for a 3 ½ year old to say to his mom. • nora learned how to cluck her tongue today. as a show of solidarity, we all sat on the floor and clucked together. it was oddly soothing. • parenting tip #103: when slack motherf***ers comes up on your playlist & your 3 ½ year old is nearby, you’re going to want to go ahead and press, “skip.” • on the plus side, nora’s first word is officially, “mama.” Unfortunately, she only seems to use it when she’s annoyed. • had no idea that having children entailed so many listserves. • is off to her first PTA meeting. for her 3 ¾ year old. in july. b/c that’s how we parent on the hill. • the senate energy committee has asked allen to delay our trip to iowa (and nora’s baptism) in order to revise his latest economic analysis. So it’s come to this, america: nora’s immortal soul or cap & trade legislation. • nora’s immortal soul wins! sorry about the environment, america. • ceiling fans are scary to the uninitiated. • owen: “i don’t love my girlfriend… every morning she tells me we need to have a big talk.” • last night owen fell out of bed. this morning he had shots. this afternoon he said goodbye to all his friends he’s had since he was born. tonight he has a temp of 101.8. turning 4 is rough. • so I think it’s all going to come down to our ability to convince owen that you don’t choose schools based on their proximity to baseball fields. and i’m not at all confident we’ll be successful. • Peabody it is. now excuse me while i go break-up with an elementary school. • owen did a great job getting dropped off for his first day of pre-K. me? I started throwing-up at 3:45 am. • and if I weren’t overwhelmed enough today, nora took three steps. • my baby girl is no longer a baby. • needs to find a better hiding spot for toys she’s trying to get rid of than owen’s closet. • owen has a bump on his foot. I postulated that it might be a blister or a wart. he informed me that it was his nipple. • allen is reading owen the first chapter of the hobbit – it’s kind of the moment he’s been waiting for since we decided to have kids. • has a sleeping baby in her office. • learned to never ask her child if he loves her lest she be informed, “not really.” • to everyone on delta flight #DL1745 who were lucky enough to celebrate nora’s first flight w/ us: mea culpa. • is chaperoning a bunch of four year olds as they appreciate masterpieces and brushstrokes. • needs to convince her son to stop referring to players of sport teams by their uniform color, because out of context, “I don’t like the black guys” doesn’t sound so great. • owen invented a new game at bath time called, is it hard or squishy?” we’ve decided this is not a mommy game. • has lost the moral authority when instructing her children not to pick scabs. • new rule: if blood is drawn on your watch you can’t just hand the kid over and leave 15 minutes later, even if it is for work. • parenting tip #247: always check the moisture level of slides when visiting the playground before 8 am. neglecting to do so means that instead of being the fun mom that’s the first one down the slides, you’re the grownup at the playground w/ a wet ass. • survived 3 healthy four year old boys and one sick one year old girl. • please, dark lord, stop possessing my baby girl. • nora keeps saying, “uh-oh” in her sleep. apparently she keeps dropping stuff in her dreams. • is thankful that the minivan has a dvd player. • discovered that the pocket in owen’s lunchbox has been doubling as a receptacle for discarded carrots. • owen’s response to the cold? taking off all his clothes and sitting on a heat vent. • someone just exclaimed to me, “I can’t believe you had a baby two months ago.” I don’t know what to do w/ that. • learned 3 things while standing in line w/ her family for 1.5 hours in 37 degree temps in order to tour the white house: 1) the Netflix phone app is essential; 2) my 15 month old can say “blues clues;” and 3) 1) & 2) combined w. the fact that my children were standing in line for 1.5 hours in 37 degree temps means I’m not winning mother of the year. • apparently, sugarplums scare the hell out of nora. • nora is abusing baby sign language. • tomorrow’s to-do list: the great toy purge of 2010.

Kingpins

2010-12-28T11:49:00.001-05:00

While Allen is on detail to the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), he has made it his goal to take advantage of every possible perk associated with his proximity to the Executive office. However, because he is only on detail for six months, we've had to fit all of these activities into a very short span of time. They have ranged from the very cool (such as seeing Hair from the Presidential box at the Kennedy Center) to somewhat excessive (such as two tours of the White House in as many weeks).

My personal favorite, however, has to be bowling at the White House Bowling Alley (which is actually located in the basement of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building). Not only was it kid friendly (we had the place to ourselves and so I actually didn't worry about the kids wandering into forbidden territory and requiring a Secret Service intervention), but we were able to invite a large crew to join us, and it was enough of a novelty that even those friends that spend a lot of time at White House meetings (specifically Nancy), were pretty excited to go.

Of course, Allen won (though I did manage a second place finish in shoes two sizes too large), but I had a good enough time that we might try to squeeze in one more trip before his service officially ends in March.

(Thanks to Katherine, Lee & Makayla, Mom mom and Grandpa Don, Aunt Jen and her friend Joanna, and Nancy, Danny & Christopher for making the night so great.)

(Click here to see all the pictures.)

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T16:02:00.006-05:00

2010 was our year to have Christmas here in DC, and kept up some of our cherished DC Christmas traditions, like visiting the Botanic Gardens to see the trains (though the lines were too long the first time we went, so we held off on the train part of the gardens until after Christmas); hosting Christmas Eve dinner at our house (we even made our mole chicken enchiladas again); and having Christmas dinner at Mom Mom's house with friends and family. Grandpa Don hopefully started a new tradition with his delicious oysters on the half shell (which aunt Katherine had no trouble convincing the kids were disgusting); Aunt Katherine and I took up competitive napkin folding; and Mom Mom brought back an old favorite, prime rib and Yorkshire pudding, for Christmas dinner. Owen was most excited about his Razor scooter from Santa and his very on copy of the Lorax, and Nora was awfully fond of her Bitty Baby and her Mrs. Potato Head, not to mention the her Great Grandma Fawcett's restored wicker rocking chair at Mom Mom's house. Christmas 2010 also brought a few extra reasons to celebrate, as Aunt Katherine and I both received job offers on the day before Christmas Eve. All together it was a wonderful holiday spent with family and friends. As Owen insists we say now, Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!

(click here for X-Mas Eve pictures)
(click here for X-Mas pictures)

Christmas Caroling

2010-12-23T22:20:00.002-05:00

One of the things we love about our house is our wonderful neighbors. There are a lot of kids on our block, and it's so nice for Owen to be able to go knock on the door of a friends house to go play (and Nora is starting to be old enough to join in the fun). In the summer time they get to go play superheroes, and in the winter they play in the snow. On Christmas Eve eve, the neighborhood kids and parents joined in song and went caroling on our block. We sang Jingle Bells, Rudolph, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Joy to the World bringing a little Christmas cheer and a healthy dose of cuteness to the neighbors. Then we all went back to Will and Katy's house for hot chocolate and Christmas cookies. Merry Christmas everyone!

White House Holiday Tour

2010-12-19T21:06:00.002-05:00

Setting up White House tours is one of the perks of working in the EOP. Ordinarily, when you set up an East Wing tour for people, you can flash your badge and be whisked to the front of the line. Once the White House is decked out for the Holidays though things change, the public line disappears and all of the EOP comes out for the tour. Well, I didn't want to miss out on my first chance to see the White House at Christmas, so I took the family and we braved the cold waiting in an hour and a half long line for the privilege. Elaine of course was a bit jaded about it all (she went on a White House Holiday tour during the Clinton administration, back when they had no security, no lines, and lots of cookies), but she put on a brave face and indulged me and the kids. Even with all the cold and the waiting, I'm glad we went. Owen loved the Red Room, Nora loved the singers, and I think we all still feel a little bit awed visiting the President's house for the Holidays.

(click here to see all the pictures)

Thanksgiving

2010-12-01T14:30:00.001-05:00

Owen started school this year, which means our non-summer travel is suddenly constrained by truancy officers who require a conference after five unexcused absences. This is problematic, as Owen's break doesn't technically begin until the day before the holiday and every other year we head to Iowa for Thanksgiving, by car.

So despite being awarded a perfect attendance certificate the Thursday before, we let Owen play hookey Monday-Wednesday and left for Iowa over the weekend. We spent the night at Uncle L and Aunt Katherine's on Saturday and arrived in Iowa Sunday evening.

As we weren't the only offspring that were driving to Grandma & Grandpa Z's (and Steve & Becky are less inclined to encourage delinquency in their children), we spent Monday and Tuesday hanging out with Fawcetts until Dave & Kara arrived Wednesday night and Ellen, John & Caitlin as well as Steve, Becky & the kids showed up Thursday afternoon.

The cousins had an amazing time and we adults enjoyed ourselves. Owen reported that his favorite part of the meal was eating the rolls he helped me make and Nora discovered that she inherited her father's love of pies. Come Friday morning, though, we quickly bid Grandma & Grandpa Z a fond farewell and headed back to DC.

Where three disgruntled messages from DCPS discussing Owen's absences awaited us.

(Click here to see all of the Thanksgiving pictures)

The Monday before Thanksgiving...

2010-11-22T20:48:00.003-05:00

Despite attending both of our children's Thanksgiving celebrations at their respective school/daycare, I have no pictures/videos to illustrate their adorableness due to a camera malfunction at one, and a dearth of photo ops at the other. And so instead, we offer in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday, Owen assisting in the dismantling of the Fawcett tipi for Winter. Surely there's some sort of harvest message there...

Three (little) Men and a (sick) Baby

2010-11-17T10:22:00.013-05:00

We've been hosting playdates for Owen for about a year and during that time have instituted a serial monogamy approach to them, much to Owen's chagrin. It's not that we didn't understand the allure of having multiple friends over at the same time, it's that the idea of having more than 2 three to four year olds under our care induced panic attacks in us.

But a couple of months ago we had a brief visit from our neighbor Will during one of Owen and Leo's playdates which made me think that a more expansive definition of playdates might be feasible. Allen grudgingly agreed and so we invited both Leo and Brady over to our house last weekend for an afternoon of structured play. They seemed excited, their parent's were thrilled and the forecast was ideal to facilitate outdoor play.

And then Nora got a sinus infection.

We didn't want to cancel at the last minute lest we disappoint 3 little boys (and 4 parents) so we forged ahead. Shockingly, Nora wasn't too keen to watch Owen and his friends play baseball in the park with 102 degree fever (my theory that fresh air would bring it down didn't pan out) which meant abandoning Allen and the boys. They managed fairly well, with only one minor dispute before they returned back to our house for a snack and some fort/cave play. In the end, we survived and the boys enjoyed themselves, though Owen may have to wait until spring to play host again.

(click here to see all the pictures)

Let the Sunshine In

2010-11-08T22:01:00.002-05:00

One of the perks of being the President is that you have your own box at the Kennedy Center, perfect for hosting the Kennedy Center Honors or for a night out with the First Family. But of course you're not going to be able to go to every performance, so one of the perks of working for the President is, if you're lucky, you get to use the President's tickets. On Sunday night, Elaine and I left the kids at home with Mom Mom and Grandpa Don, and went out for our own little date night. We took in the revival of Hair at the Kennedy Center from the Presidential Box. The show was great, though it was a bit odd seeing such an irreverent musical while you're representing the President. Truly an amazing experience, but I'm afraid we've spoiled ourselves and all our future trips to the Kennedy Center will be a little bit of a let down.

(click here to see all the pictures)

Halloween

2010-11-04T07:06:00.012-04:00

This isn't the blog post we originally planned -- that one involved pictures from DOL's Halloween parade as well as the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear (FYI: Nora was pro-sanity; Owen was all about the fear). But my civic duty (and a very split jury) coupled with Allen's previous commitment to a White House tour with his dad (due to his new position as Deputy Associate Director of Environmental stuff at CEQ) meant that neither of us could attend Owen and Nora's (aka Woody and an elephant) costume march; and we only attended the sanity rally long enough to discern that attempting to attend might be construed as a lapse in ours.

But then came Sunday. Owen was so excited for trick-or-treat night that he insisted on wearing his Ryan Zimmerman costume (no relation, he's the third baseman for the Nationals) the entire day. Nora, having refused to wear the head piece of her elephant costume during the parade on Friday (if only the rest of the country had echoed her sentiment on Tuesday...) was dressed in the less obtrusive alien butterfly costume we inherited from Brad and Marlo.

Owen had practiced the art of begging for candy earlier in the day, but suffered a bit of stage fright when we started out trick-or-treating. Eventually he warmed up to it, but he was much more excited when he retired to Grandpa Fawcett's porch to hand out treats to the thousands of revelers gathered on East Capitol Street. Nora watched in amazement as Owen enforced a strict "one candy" rule and directed traffic along the walkway, at one point informing the crowd, "I don't see a line, I see a group."

By the time Grandpa Fawcett ran out of candy, it was well past the kids' bedtime (as Owen repeatedly informed us), so we headed home so the kids could finally get to sleep... and we could sneak some of Owen's bounty.

(click here to see all the pictures)

City Sidewalks, Busy Sidewalks

2010-10-26T21:37:00.004-04:00

We posted about Nora's first steps a while ago, but in the last month or so she has really taken off. An update seemed in order so everyone can see how fast our little baby is growing up.

White House and Pumpkins

2010-10-17T21:23:00.001-04:00

We knew this was going to be a busy weekend. Saturday was booked up with a birthday party for Owen's friend Daryl, and volunteering for the latest Peabody fundraiser, the Capitol Hill Renovator's Home Tour, and Sunday we had plans for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch at Butler's Orchard, and dinner at Mom Mom's house. Then we found out that White House Fall Gardens and Grounds tour was open for Executive Office of the President staff, but it looked like we would be too booked up to make it until Peabody called to move my time volunteering for the fundraiser from Saturday morning to the afternoon. With our morning cleared up, we decided to visit the White House. The kids had fun touring the grounds, although there were a few times they were ready to run off somewhere the Secret Service agents probably didn't want them exploring. Owen particularly liked seeing the White House Kitchen Garden with its bee hive that has produced 170 pounds of honey this year, and Nora was just excited to walk wherever we would let her go.

Sunday morning we drove up to Butler's orchard, where we've picked pumpkins the last few years, with the Brown's and the Stiver's. This year we decided to partake in the Orchard's Fall Festival. The kids had a great time on the giant hillside slides, playing in the hay barn, exploring the corn maze, and taking the hayride to the pumpkin patch. And of course all the boys thought the giant pumpkin cannon was really cool.

Mountains and Caves

2010-10-11T21:08:00.002-04:00

Columbus day weekend greeted us with spectacular weather, sunny skies and late summer temperatures with just a hint of fall as the leaves started to take on their autumn colors. We decided to take advantage of the long weekend with a Sunday family outing to the Shenandoahs. I've been reading the Hobbit to Owen, and he wanted to see the Misty Mountains, and the cave where Gollum lived, so a trip to Skyline Drive and the Luray Caverns seemed to be perfect. The whole family had a great time enjoying the views in the mountains, and Owen had a particularly good time not eating his picnic lunch and convincing a little girl that she should play football with him. Then Mommy was quite the trooper descending into the cave with us to see some beautiful stalactites and stalagmites, and an underground lake that might just be where Gollum lived...

(click here for all the pictures)

Mothers and Child(ren) Reunion

2010-09-29T11:18:00.014-04:00

Every couple of years, my former college roommate, Tracey, makes the trek from whatever exotic locale she currently calls home (it's been Koh Tao, Thailand for the past few years) back to Michigan to visit her family. During her stay, the former residents of apartment J1 descend upon the Wolverine state to reminisce about our days at Northwestern and drink a fair amount of wine.

It's become a little more complicated the past few years as we've had to accommodate both work and nap schedules, but last weekend Audra, Cecily, Tracey and I along with the majority of our progeny reunited to take in the sights and sounds of the greater Brighton area. Turning adjoining suites into our own version of romper room, we actually managed to entertain (or at least occupy) six kids between the ages of 5 months and 8 years and still enjoy ourselves. (It helped that Kailash and Satya have mad baby whispering skills, Colin didn't come until after soccer practice on Saturday, and Cecily and I opted to leave Dylan and Owen home with their respective dads.)

In less than 48 hours we hit a petting zoo, took a hayride, and went swimming twice. But the highlight of the visit had to be leaving the kids with Tracey's mom and aunts in order to have dinner and drinks with just the four of us. And a horse.

It was over far too soon, though not as quickly as initially intended. Nora and I caught a ride to the airport from Audra and Keegan on Sunday morning and Audra and I chatted right past our exit resulting in an extra long nap for Nora, and a mad dash to the gate for me (we made it with 5 minutes to spare). The extra rest was beneficial though as Nora, who was very vocal in her disdain for air travel on her inaugural flight on Friday (my apologies to the passengers and crew of Delta flight #DL1745), happily chatted up our seatmate for the flight back to an awaiting Allen and Owen.

We were on a break...

2010-09-20T15:06:00.010-04:00

We generally try and update our blog about once a week, but due to the tremendous number of life changing events that occurred between July 3oth and September 7th, we wrote/edited/uploaded video for 12 posts in a scant 6 weeks. We were tired. Sure it would have been nice to record Allen reading Owen "The Hobbit" for the first time or when Owen and Nora dressed up as a tiger and elephant respectively. We could have narrated our first back-to-school open house or our new neighborhood watch program. We even could have waxed extensively about our decision to stop tracking Owen. Instead, we watched Top Chef and cleaned out our hall closet.

But after a pretty amazing long weekend which included Owen's return to daycare (for a day), soccer, Sofia's birthday party, the H street festival and Nora's inaugural sail, we thought we should at least post something. And so with no further ado, here is our little girl winching away.

(To see the rest of the sailing pictures click here.)

Walking, Climbing, Riding

2010-09-07T22:15:00.004-04:00

Nora's mobility has greatly increased recently. The week before her birthday she took her first steps. Just a few at first, and generally they were more of a controlled fall into Mommy or Daddy's arms, but she quickly gained her footing and started stringing enough steps together that "walking" really is the only suitable word to describe what she is doing.

She has also extended her range vertically by finally deciding to take on the task of climbing the stairs. While Owen started climbing the stairs soon after he started crawling, Nora was so uninterested in the stairs that we haven't needed to bother with the gate at the bottom of the stairs. Now she's discovered that when all the fun is upstairs, she doesn't need to ask to be carried up to join in, but can simply climb up herself. I guess it's time we finally start using that gate.

For her first birthday present, we pulled Owen's first birthday present out of Mom Mom's attic and gave it to Nora. She loved the scooter, and had no complaints about the hand me down present (although Owen had to be convinced that he's too big for it now). It's faster than crawling, easier than walking, and is all together the perfect mode of transport for our little one year old.

A year in the life

2010-09-01T10:23:00.008-04:00

Nora turned one today, and I've celebrated by alternating staring at her meaningfully and crying. I know parents always marvel at how fast time passes, but it really does seem like this first year went a lot faster with Nora than it did with Owen. Allen argues it's because Nora was a much better sleeper than Owen and so we were unconscious for a larger share of her first year of life. While not completely without merit, I instead attribute it to our attention being more divided with Nora than Owen, and so feeling like I've missed more stuff with her.

But a year has passed and as Owen keeps pointing out, "Nora is almost a toddler." Happy first year of life, baby girl, you've taught us a lot.

Orthodontia is a small price to pay for sleep.
Hostas are not a baby food.
If you build it, they will knock it over.
A watched child takes forever to roll over.
Mmmmm...paper.
Bubbling brooks are far more subtle than shooting fountains, but no less messy.
You don't need actual toys if you have a big brother.
All bananas and no fiber make Nora a very constipated girl.
Always get the non-mobile child out of the car first.
Thank heaven, for little girls.

"I'm freaking out a little bit..."

2010-08-27T11:40:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, August 24th was Owen's first official day of school. It was an odd culmination to the months of preparation for Owen enrolling in DC Public Schools, since we'd spent most of the summer convincing Owen (and ourselves) that it was ok he wasn't going to Peabody only to find out at the 11th hour that he was.

After finally meeting his teacher, Mrs. Murdock, for 15 minutes the day before and re-doing all the paperwork we'd done for Ludlow-Taylor back in July, Owen started at Peabody Early Childhood Campus the next morning. We got there a bit early in order for Owen to enjoy the playground and for us to get the lay of the land. Once the bell rang, Owen dutifully lined up with the rest of the first half of the alphabet of (the second half would attend Wednesday before they were all united on Thursday) and we escorted him up to classroom 5, where he dropped off his backpack in the closet and grabbed his yellow folder before heading into the room to find his name on the circle-time rug. We stuck around for a few more minutes before we were politely asked to leave. And while Owen looked a little taken aback, he didn't cry at all (nor amazingly enough, did his parents, at least not until much later).

We're not completely sure what transpired during the day. When I met Owen at 3:15 for dismissal, Mrs. Murdock commented that he'd slept under his mat rather than on it and all we could get out of Owen was that he'd had chicken and a peach for lunch and played bear on the playground, which apparently involved him chasing various children (wittingly or not) who'd happened upon his lair.

We're all still adjusting. When Allen took Owen early on Friday so he could have breakfast in the cafeteria, Owen informed him of his current mental state -- the title of this blog entry. Allen told him it was ok as he was freaking out a bit too. We still haven't completely worked the kinks out of drop-off and we're still trying to resolve aftercare, but overall we're feeling pretty good about this school year. Provided Owen willingly goes back.

Owen's Birthday Party...

2010-08-23T21:12:00.009-04:00

It's been an overwhelming whirlwind of a birthday weekend for our family. Friday was Owen's fourth birthday, and his last day at the DOL daycare. Owen of course seemed fine with it all, but for us parents it was quite emotional, since he's been at the DOL daycare with the same core group of friends since they were all infants. Elaine is particularly sad that her little boy won't be right downstairs from her office anymore, and when she's down nursing or visiting Nora, she'll miss the excited voices of Owen's friends in the hallway yelling for Owen to come quick and see his Mommy and baby sister.

To make the day extra special (insert sarcasm) for Owen, he had to go to the doctor's office the morning of his birthday for a checkup and three shots. The unfortunate timing was dictated by having to be four years old to get his next round of vaccinations, and DCPS requiring he have his vaccinations before school started on Monday. After plenty of screaming at the doctor's office, he seemed to be fine for the rest of the day at DOL, enjoyed his party, and cheerfully said his goodbyes to all of his teachers and friends. That night though, he had a bit of a fever and was even too tired for ice cream cake.

By Saturday morning our little boy had rallied, and he was ready for his real birthday party. We drove up to Mom Mom and Grandpa Don's house after lunch, and Owen showed off his favorite birthday presents from Mommy and Daddy, a Washington Nationals batting helmet and a Josh Willingham t-shirt, perfect for playing backyard baseball in.

As if a weekend filled with Owen's birthday, his last day at DOL, and getting ready for his first day of school wasn't packed enough, while we were at Mom Mom's we got a call from Peabody Elementary School telling us they had a spot for Owen. Peabody was one of our top choices (it's part of the Capitol Hill Cluster School, we have many friends and neighbors who have sent their kids there and given the school glowing reviews, and it's right by Stanton Park on Elaine's walk to work), but we were so far down on the waiting list that we had written off our chances of getting in and enrolled Owen in Ludlow Taylor instead. Owen was really excited about Ludlow Taylor (they have a baseball field on campus), we'd been doing a regular Sunday evening playdate with other Ludlow Taylor families, and Elaine had already been to a few PTA meetings, so we weren't ready to say yes to Peabody immediately and instead asked to be able to sleep on it and get back to them in the morning. The upshot of course was that we'd spend Owen's birthday party agonizing over the decision.

With our minds racing about what school to send Owen to on Monday, we drove over to the Little Gym for his birthday party. Owen was a bit overwhelmed by everything and was feeling a bit shy at first (hard to blame him really with everything going on), but he eventually warmed up to everything and had a great time at his party. As much fun as he had running around in the gym, his favorite part of the party was showing off his Washington Nationals cake. Baseball really is the best in the eyes of our four year old.

After the party we went back to Mom Mom's for bison burgers and more cake (this time Mom Mom's delicious banana cake). He also opened his present from Mom Mom and Grandpa Don, a new pair of bright yellow boots, and a yellow raincoat to go with them.

We agonized over the school decision all night, but after sleeping on it we were leaning heavily toward Peabody, even if that meant breaking up with Ludlow Taylor. The last thing to do was to convince Owen that this was a good thing. Sunday morning was gray and rainy, so Owen donned his new yellow boots and raincoat and we went over to Peabody to check out the playground. By the time we got there the rain had let up and Owen started to get excited about the beautiful playground. Some other parents were there working in the gardens, and Owen helped out raking some mulch, then he joined the other kids playing "Haiti Firefighter Earthquake Rescue Squad." With Owen seeming more at ease with the idea of Peabody, we called and officially accepted the spot for Owen. Then the assistant principal came out to the playground to welcome us to the school and give us all the forms we needed.

Exhausted from everything about the weekend, we went home so Nora could have a nice long nap, then took Brad and Marlo up on the offer to join them for a lovely evening at the pool. Just what we needed to relax on our last real day of summer.

(click here to see all the birthday pictures)
(click here to see all the Peabody pictures)

Four!

2010-08-20T13:14:00.010-04:00

Wow. I'm not sure which is more amazing to us: the fact that Owen has now been in our lives for four years, or that four years and one day ago, we didn't know the kid.

It's kind of a big birthday for us, because Owen's birthday is also his last day at the daycare he's attended since he was 3 1/2 months old. Come Monday morning, Owen will be at Ludlow-Taylor Elementary School, which means we'll no longer be commuting together and I won't be able to check in on him at a moment's notice. I'm coping as best I can.

In preparation for his first day, DC Public Schools interviewed me to assess whether Owen had any developmental delays. The last question they asked was "What is your favorite thing about Owen?" I rambled on for a while, but in essence said that it was his capacity for joy. When I asked Allen the same question, he replied that it was his adventurous nature. We both agree, though, that it's hard to narrow it down to one thing, because we have a sweet, silly, smart, loving, dramatic, curious, happy, adventurous little boy and our favorite thing about Owen is that he's Owen.

Happy fourth birthday, little man.

Playdates involve more tears than their name would suggest.
Banjo-Sneaker-Rockstar-Pajamas are the coolest.
Hide-and-Go-Seek is a much more efficient game if you tell the seeker where you're hiding.
You don't need to pace yourself when it comes to stickers.
The high-dive isn't at all scary. Cookie Monster, however, is a whole other story.
Winter is the best season...except for maybe summer.
Peeing while standing is overrated.
Baseball isn't everything. There's also softball, the Nationals, playing catch, batting practice...
It's nice to be worshiped.
Three is a magic number.

MoCo Fair

2010-08-16T18:12:00.001-04:00

On Saturday we joined the Brown's for our third annual trip to the Montogmery County Fair. As always, we had a great time seeing all the animals, visited the fire fighters and their moon bounce, rode the ponies, checked out the tractors and the combine slide, and had dinner and ice cream. The new addition this year for Owen and Mia (and the daddies) was a ride on the Ferris Wheel. The hour was late and the line was long, but the view was amazing, and Owen and Mia had a great time checking out the fair from on high.

(click here for all the pictures)

Iowa- Part VI - Hooverfest and Homeward Bound

2010-08-10T15:28:00.000-04:00

Our Iowa trip culminated with a celebration of our 31st President. We thought there would be more Pre-K appropriate activities at Hooverfest -- Allen promise us a Big Wheels race -- but the weather and the planning committee didn't cooperate. Instead we avoided the rain and watched Hooverball from the safety of Aunt Martha's balcony, had more sweetcorn back at the Pond with the Hoover Family and Trustees (and got a few last jumps in as well), and stayed up until 10 pm to eat ice cream and watch the fireworks (which Owen found scary but Nora loved).

The next morning we headed to Aunt Katherine's and Uncle L's a couple hours after Grandpa Fawcett. Makayla was also visiting and so she and Owen got to play baseball with the neighborhood kids and camp out in their own fort (though Owen didn't last the night) while Nora celebrated Mardi Gras a bit too early and enthusiastically.

We finally headed home on Monday, much to the disappointment of Owen who couldn't bear to leave Makayla ("She's the best... I love her."). Construction was crazy and so we took an alternate, scenic route through Pennsylvania before finally making it home in time for dinner.

And so ends our Iowa journey...until Thanksgiving.

(click here for all the Iowa pictures)

Iowa - Part V - Camping in the Tipi

2010-08-06T15:23:00.005-04:00

Last night Owen and I camped out in the tipi with Thomas and Ethan. We started out with everyone at the Pond for some swimming and a dinner of grilled pizzas. As the sun started to set we lit a campfire and roasted marshmallows for some delicious s'mores. Grandpa Fawcett and Uncle Ken told some campfire stories for Owen and Ethan, and when the hour was late we grabbed our sleeping bags and hiked back through the woods west of the Pond to the tipi. For Owen and Ethan, excitement and exhaustion dueled in the night, and exhaustion quickly won as the boys drifted off to sleep.

Despite predictions from Mommy and Grandma Z that Owen would be scared and want to come home in the middle of the night, he slept soundly and woke up at 6:30 excitedly proclaiming, "Hey guys, it's morning time!" After waking up the whole tent, Owen decided to, "sleep a little more longer," and Thomas and I went about cooking pancakes in the tipi.

Owen had such a wonderful time camping, that he didn't want to change clothes when he got home, because if he took of his dirty camping clothes, then the camping trip would really be over. To help him out we set up his sleeping bag for nap time, and talked all about one day going on a camping trip to the Boundary Waters with Thomas and Ethan.

(click here to see the tipi pictures)

Iowa - Part IV - High Dive

2010-08-04T22:09:00.004-04:00

Owen has always been a big fan of jumping into the pool, so when we were driving out to Iowa, I tried to convince him that it would be fun to jump off of the dock. It's a bigger jump than he's tried before, but I thought that with his life jacket on he might be up for it. Well the first day out at the Pond we tried to jump off the dock to get in, but he decided it was a bit too scary, so we waded in at the beach instead. Once he was used to the water though, Owen decided it was time to jump off of the dock. He did it without hesitation, and after a few jumps I had him watch me jump off of the high dive. Well, he certainly thought that was exciting and immediately asked to go off himself. I wasn't sure about that plan, but he was halfway up the ladder before I could try to talk him out of it. I climbed up with him, and he wanted me to pick him up so we could jump off together. After one more chance to back out, we jumped, and Owen came up with the biggest grin on his face.

We jumped a few more times with me holding Owen, and eventually we graduated to jumping off together while holding hands. Then finally after a few days of jumping, we would climb up to the top of the high dive together and do a "one-two jump" where Owen would jump in all by himself, and then I would follow afterward.

With Owen setting the record for the youngest person to go off of the high dive, his grandparents became inspired to express their youthful vigor. Mom mom was first to claim she would jump off of the high dive. Bets were placed, and sure enough on the day of the Sweet Corn Festival, Mom mom made the leap setting the record for the oldest person to do the jump. That record wouldn't last for long though. Once Grandpa Z got wind of it, he decided the record was his for the taking, and the next day he jumped of not once, not twice but three times (to ensure adequate video coverage). Grandpa Fawcett couldn't break the record, but he didn't want to be showed up by Owen's other grandparents, so later in the week he decided it was high time he jumped off of the high dive as well. Owen thought Grandpa Fawcett might be scared, so he insisted on jumping with him, and directed the jump to a successful conclusion. With three grandparents having jumped off the high dive, one might think that Grandma Z would be next, but she claims to have not yet lost her sanity.

We're all quite impressed with Owen's bravery jumping off of the high dive, but Mommy at least is a little afraid of where this will lead. If he's jumping off the high dive at three, what will be doing in a few years? Owen was very impressed with his cousin Andy's backflips off the the high dive, but thankfully he realized he was too young to try one, for now...

Iowa - Part III - Sweet Corn Festival & Open Pond

2010-08-02T14:55:00.008-04:00

The weekend brought plenty more activity with the Fawcett family Sweet Corn Festival on Saturday, and the Open Pond party celebrating 25 years since we started construction on the dam for Cold Spring Pond. After my grandparents Floyd and Mary Helen, and my great uncle Alfred and great aunt Helen all passed away, the Fawcett family decided we needed an annual event to bring the family together, and thus the Sweet Corn Festival was born. Because when the sweet corn is plentiful, there's no better time for a party at the Pond.

Saturday morning was spent picking, husking, cooking, cutting, packing, and freezing sweet corn (though truth be told, with our kids and Steve & Becky's kids to wrangle in the morning, plus various Grady departures after the Baptism, we only made it for the tail end of the actual work, and then Owen mainly spent his time eating sweet corn). The morning work was followed by a lunch (with lots of corn on the cob of course), and an afternoon of playing and relaxing at the Pond.

Owen had an absolute blast playing with his cousins Olivia, Maura and Sam. There was plenty of playing on the beach, paddle boating, paddle boarding, baseball playing, frolicking on "Hollywood", and jumping off the dock (more on this in a later post). Owen really was thrilled to show off the Pond to his cousins, and has clearly adopted the Pond as his favorite place in the world.

That afternoon we had a special treat when Joe, Cate and Gigi arrived from St. Louis. We hadn't seen them since we dug out from the blizzard of '10, so it was great to see them in a more temperate environment. Owen and Gigi had a wonderful time playing together, and we all had a lovely dinner at the Pond (with more sweet corn of course).

After two days of big events at the Pond, we weren't quite done. August of 1985 (back when I was living in Iowa), was when the bulldozers first started work on the damn for Cold Spring Pond, and on Sunday we celebrated the Pond's 25th birthday party with an Open Pond event. The whole community was invited, and over 200 people came to tour the Pond and enjoy ice cream and cookies. The whole weekend was an exhausting whirlwind of fun, and it was nice to end it with a little ice cream.

(click here to see all the pictures)

Iowa - Part II - Nora's Baptism

2010-07-31T16:28:00.002-04:00

We planned Nora's baptism to dovetail with the Fawcett Sweet Corn Festival in order to maximize Fawcett attendance (to maximize Grady/Zimmerman attendance, we simply made them godparents or officiants). It was pretty effective. We had Fawcetts coming all the way from Alaska for Nora's big day and all but the oldest and youngest of the Grady siblings managed to make the event resulting in a total of 50 revelers our own mini Loaves and Fishes miracle moment.

Nora was a little apprehensive about it all. Still recovering from the long drive and a bit overwhelmed by the crowds, she wasn't too pleased when Uncle Bernie started anointing her with oil (he responded by telling her, "It gets worse"), but seemed to rally when he poised her over the baptismal bath and "assumed the position." By the time Uncle Bernie had her stand (or rather be held) behind the alter with her Godparents -- Uncle Dave and Cousin Caitlin -- her parents and big brother to announce her membership into the Christian community she was positively aglow.

After which we headed to the pond (which Owen informed us he prefers to church) for another sort of baptism...

(click here to see all the pictures)

Iowa - Part I

2010-07-30T13:58:00.002-04:00

For our big summer vacation this year, we're spending almost two weeks in Iowa for Nora's Baptism, the Fawcett Sweet Corn Festival, the 25th birthday party for Cold Spring Pond, and Hoover Days. We packed up our bags and left DC after lunch on Tuesday to drive to Aunt Katherine and Uncle L's house in Cleveland for the first leg of our journey, and the next morning, all of us left in a caravan for Iowa. The drive went reasonably well, Owen of course was endlessly entertained by the DVD player in the minivan, but Nora is still stuck in a rear facing carseat for another month, so she had a few stretches of inconsolable crying, but at least managed several good naps in the car.

On Thursday Leanna and Grace came over for a visit, and the family began to trickle in. We started preparations for Nora's baptism on Thursday (e.g. Owen, Grandpa Z, and I picked up the keg and brought it to the Pond, so we could start working on the CO2 levels in the kegerator ;) We did some exploring around the Pond, and Owen was very excited to see the Uncle Ken's new teepee back in the woods on the West side of the Pond.

That evening the Fawcetts and Zimmermans gathered for dinner at Agave in West Branch, and with over twenty of us, we pretty much took over the restaurant. After a huge dinner, we headed back to Iowa City to rest up for Nora's big day.

(click here to see all the pictures)

Pre-School

2010-07-19T12:53:00.001-04:00

Those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer haven't been too lazy in the Fawcett household, as preparations for Owen's transition to the DC Public School System have begun in earnest. List serves have been joined. PTA meetings have been attended (ok, one meeting was attended; a subsequent committee meeting was skipped but I found out about it the day before and Allen didn't get home until 7 pm that night...). Fundraising ideas have been shared. And for the last two Sundays, we've attended a Ludlow-Taylor Early Education Playdate so that Owen can at least meet his new classmates before his first day.

We've had mixed experience with the playdates -- they've been primarily attended by children that will be in the three year old program. While Owen has enjoyed the actual activities (a splash day, chalk drawings), he hasn't interacted that much with the other kids. We have a few more playdates before school starts, so hopefully Owen will find a friend or two to ease the transition.

All about the Cute

2010-07-12T21:18:00.002-04:00

Fireworks and Other Fun

2010-07-06T11:45:00.004-04:00

We had a very full Independence Day and the three day weekend this year. We started out the holiday weekend with Tadashi's 4th birthday party on Saturday. Owen had a great time with the trombone band that played the party, and Nora played contentedly with the other babies.

That was just the beginning of Owen's excitement for the day, because after coming home for a quick dinner Mom Mom and Grandpa Don came over to take Owen to the Kennedy Center to see Mary Poppins. The original plan was for Owen to spend the night at Mom Mom and Grandpa Don's house after the show, but the poor little guy was so exhausted by the end of the day that he broke down when he got to Silver Spring and desperately wanted to be in his own bed. Mom Mom kindly drove him back home, and by midnight he was back in his own bed sound asleep. After a good night's sleep and a 4th of July breakfast of chocolate pancakes Owen recounted how much he loved seeing Mary Poppins, especially Bert walking on the ceiling during Step in Time. Then he called Mom Mom to thank her for taking him to the show, and told her that he'd like to sleep over at her house another time when he hadn't had "such a big day" and when he wouldn't miss out on Daddy's chocolate pancakes;-)

On Sunday we tried to take it easy for most of the day to prepare for braving the crowds to see the fireworks on the Mall. Elaine was anticipating an unmitigated disaster, but we managed to find parking in our old neighborhood, and it was just a short walk to a lovely spot in the grass by the Botanic Gardens where we spread out our blanket to watch the fireworks. Owen wasn't overly fond of all the noise, particularly the cannons near us that went off during the 1812 Overture, but he enjoyed seeing the fireworks, and Nora wasn't phased by any of it. Certainly not an unmitigated disaster, and we might even try it again sometime.

On Monday we finally relaxed with an afternoon at Mom Mom and Grandpa Don's and a swim in Rose's pool. Katherine was in town, and Jen came over, and several people from the neighborhood joined us for a little 5th of July cookout. A nice way to end the long weekend.

(click here for all the pictures)

Field Trip

2010-06-27T14:20:00.003-04:00

On Friday I managed to take a morning off of work and chaperon for Owen's field trip to the building museum. It was quite a treat to tag along with Owen's class, and it was great to see how excited Owen was to have his Daddy with him. It was a bit of a hike for the kids to get to the museum, but once we were there Owen had a great time playing with all the blocks, and I even got in on the fun building an arch with one of the other dads. Owen has several more field trips scheduled this summer before he starts at his new school, so hopefully we'll be able to do this again soon.

Better Than the Old Pornographers

2010-06-24T10:31:00.005-04:00

I have a soft spot for the New Pornographers -- they're one of my favorite bands in general and they performed the first concert Owen attended in utero. So when Allen heard they'd be in town around our anniversary (despite the fact he wasn't sure if he'd be), he went ahead and got tickets. Allen's Sweden trip was nixed and Grandpa Fawcett graciously agreed to watch the kids, so we finally got to see the complete band perform at the 9:30 Club, including the always elusive, Neko Case. The show was a bit surreal, particularly when they performed Electric Version accompanied by their "Rock Band" counterparts (which A.C. Newman only scored an 85 on for vocals) and broke out an impromptu (and ironic) tribute to Starship's "We Built This City," but it was a great way to celebrate our seventh year of marriage and how much my musical tastes have improved under Allen's influence.

If you want to enjoy the show yourself, NPR is streaming it here.