Crawling?

Our baby girl is on the move! She's not yet up on her hands and knees, so we're not quite ready to officially call this "crawling", but she can commando crawl wherever she wants to go.

All by myself

Allen was in San Francisco this past week. It was the first time he's been out of town since Nora was born. We survived...though it was a bit touch and go there for a while. Nora ingested some hosta leaves while I was talking to a neighbor and it wasn't until she threw up and developed explosive, green diarrhea that I realized something was amiss (fortunately they're not poisonous, but they're also not edible). In addition, Nora started teething in earnest which resulted in her waking up twice a night and Owen had an accident on the walk home from DOL which entailed my taking apart the stroller in order to clean it. I never made it to work before 9:30 am and the video I was going to make of Nora attempting to crawl didn't happen, but Owen's art project was finished, well balanced meals were eaten, baths taken, bedtime was largely adhered to and I didn't resort to alcohol until Friday night when Allen returned and the kids were safely in bed.

Now, if only he wasn't leaving for a work retreat later this week...

Baseball!

My friend and co-worker Dave is a Wisconsin alumni, and with the Brewers coming to town he thought it would be fun to invite Owen and I to a Nats v. Brewers game complete with a Wisconsin themed beer and brats tailgate. After "soccer practice" (really Owen just played baseball on the side of the field) on Saturday, Owen and I walked down to the tailgate and enjoyed some of the fine products of our Badger friends. Then we walked over to the Park to catch some of batting practice, Owen brought his glove, and we went right down to the edge of the field in hopes of seeing some players and maybe getting a ball. I told Owen that in all the years I've shared in Nats season tickets, I'd never managed to catch a ball. Well it turns out all you need to do to get a ball is show up early and look like an adorable three year old. It didn't take Owen long before one of the Brewers came over and handed Owen his first Major League Baseball. Having secured a baseball, we went on a quest for ice cream, and found our seats in the upper deck down the right field line. We ran in to all sorts of friends at the game, Ben, another friend from work coincidentally had seats right next to ours, and we bumped into Jeff and some old college friends as well. The game was great, Livan Hernandez pitched a complete game shut out and the Nats won 8-0, and all the nice Midwestern Brewers fans around us took it all in stride. Owen had a great time, and he can't wait to go to another baseball game.

(click here to see all the pictures)

Sailing with Grandpa Fawcett & Grandpa Don

We took Owen sailing several times back when he was almost one year old, but the last few summers we decided he was too little to appreciate sailing, and too rambunctious to be safe. Lately though, he's been talking a lot about boats and ships and asking to go sailing again, so we decided it was time to take him back out on the water.

Last month I helped move Grandpa Don's boat down from the old marina in the inner harbor, to it's new home at Hartge's on the West River in Galseville, MD. Back in the summer of 2000 Dad, Thomas, Joe, Brendan, Billy and I charted a boat out of Hartge's and spent two weeks sailing around the Chesapeake, so I've been really excited about exploring that part of the Bay again.

The weather for the weekend was looking a bit chilly on Saturday for Ben's first birthday party, but Sunday looked to be a great day for sailing. Grandpa Fawcett, Owen and I drove out to Hartge's and met Grandpa Don at the boat in the morning. Owen put on his life jacket, and we worked out a tether for him, and we were quickly under sail. Owen was quite the sailor, working the winch to trim the jib, taking a turn steering the boat (with just a little help;), and keeping a lookout with the binoculars. We sailed out to Thomas Point Light, had a little lunch, and decided to head back to explore the Rhode River.

The Rhode River is just around the corner from the Marina, and it was one of our favorite anchorages on our big sailing trip back in 2000. There was a great little spot in the middle of three little islands where we anchored, and we swam to High Island, the smallest of the three. When we got there, Dad and I were having a bit of trouble orienting ourselves, until we finally realized that High Island had disappeared beneath the waves, all that was left was a little sign sticking up out of the water marking what was now a navigation hazard. Having satisfied our curiosity, we turned for home, and promised Owen we would take him sailing again soon.



(click here to see the sailing pictures)

Easter

We didn't get tickets to the White House Easter Egg Roll yet again this year (we were informed via an e-mail addressed to "lotterylosers"), but the kids didn't seem to mind. We dyed Easter Eggs Friday night with Aunt Katherine, "Uncle L," Makalya and Grandpa Fawcett. Saturday I took them to the Egg-stravaganza at Lincoln Park where in addition to getting a balloon hat, fishing, bowling and playing with bunnies, Owen managed to get just one egg from the dirt field covered with eggs and preschoolers (in his defense, Allen was home and since Nora was sleeping in the stroller, Owen was left to his own devices in his inital foray and all the eggs were gone within 2 minutes).

But fear not, the Easter Bunny visited our house Sunday morning and Owen's only competition can't crawl quite yet. After bagels and church (where Owen met an imposter Easter Bunny) we headed to Mom Mom's where there was a hunt for Easter baskets with Makayla and then a full on Easter Egg Hunt sponsored by Nancy, Danny & Christopher. Afterwards, Owen spent much of the afternoon lounging in the hammock or else digging in the dirt while Nora took a much needed nap. All in all, a beautiful Spring day and a lovely Easter.

(click here to see all the Easter pictures)