Interjections!

We didn't realize when Uncle Dave and Aunt Kara gave Owen the "School House Rock" DVD for Christmas, just how adorable learning parts of speech can be.



Awe, that's the end.

Summertime

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)

Oh No, No No

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

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.

This Boy's Life

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.

Drummers

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

Ballad of the Dinosaurs

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

The Boy in Black

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

A Tricycle Built for Two

Getting Ready for our Big Ski Trip

Kisses

City Sidewalks, Busy Sidewalks

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.

Owen's Birthday Party...

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)

All about the Cute

Father's Day - Part II

Last year for Father's Day, Allen got "Rock Band." This year, we decided to step it up a notch with an actual guitar. Thanks to a covert outing to "Guitar Center" with our dear friend, Brad Brown, who was instrumental (snicker, snicker) in the enterprise, Allen is the proud owner of a Yamaha Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar. And after a jam session with Brad and some guitar lessons off his i-phone (yes, they have an app for that), Allen was able to rock out a little with Owen.

Father's Day - Part I

Father's day started a little early this year. On Friday night, Dad, Owen and I went to the ballpark to catch a Nationals game. It was a beautiful night, the weather was perfect, Stephen Strasburg was on the mound for his second ever home start, and the snipers were ringing the roof of the stadium. Yes, it was such a perfect night for baseball that President Obama and family couldn't pass up the chance to see the rookie phenom pitch against their beloved White Sox.

Owen of course was thrilled to be at a ballgame with his Daddy and his Grandpa, and excited about all that entailed. A curly W pretzel in the 1st, a hot dog in the 3rd, ice cream after the Presidents Race in the 4th, singing 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' in the 7th inning stretch, and lots of cheering for his favorite Nationals players, Ryan Zimmerman, Stephen Strasburg, Josh Willingham, Adam Dunn, Nyger Morgan, and Pudge Rodriguez. Strasburg was brilliant of course, after giving up a run in the first on an infield single and a bloop double, he struck out 10 and walked none in seven innings. It wasn't quite enough for the win though, the game went into extra innings tied at one.

We headed home with the game still tied after 10 innings, and Owen was quite proud that he stayed two innings longer than Sasha and Malia. The White Sox scored in the 11th after we left, and the Nats couldn't quite pull out the win, but it was a great night none the less. I can't think of a better way to start Father's Day weekend than spending a beautiful night at the ballpark with my dad and my son. Life is good:-)

(click here to see all the Father's Day pictures)

What a difference 3 days make

After my kvetching that we were missing all of Nora's milestones and had to resort to staging a series of firsts in order to accurately record them, Nora decided to take matters into her own hands. Tuesday her first two teeth broke the surface (they're still not all the way in). Wednesday morning she pulled herself up for the first time (she was pretty excited). Wednesday evening she caught her first softball (That was actually an accident. Owen threw a softball that hit Allen's shoe and landed in between our little girl's chin and the sippy cup she was holding. Amazingly, she was unhurt (and also unfazed) by this unintentional game of catch which will not be repeated for a long, long time). And Thursday afternoon she clapped for the first time. We figure at this rate she'll be walking Memorial Day and talking in full sentences by the Fourth of July.

The teeth thing isn't particularly exciting, Nora's refusing to clap on screen, and we're not re-enacting the softball thing for obvious reasons, but for your viewing pleasure, here is Nora pulling herself up, day two.

Dead Men's Hollow

My friend and co-worker Jared is in a blue grass band, and when we heard his band was playing at Eastern Market on Sunday morning, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to catch a show. Owen had a great time listening to the blue grass, and he was very excited to see someone playing a banjo. The highlight though was Jared letting Owen play the stand up bass!

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.