Bicycle!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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 & Louden, 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

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

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.

Easter

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

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

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

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

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

Baseball is Back!

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

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)

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

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

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

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.)

Snowmass

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

Looks Who's Talking...

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...

1. baa
2. backpack
3. bath
4. blue's clues
5. book
6. bye-bye
7. chocolate
8. coat
9. cracker
10. dada
11. hat
12. mama
13. meow
14. moo
15. more
16. neigh
17. no
18. quack
19. roar
20. row
21. shoe
22. sock
23. thank-you
24. this
25. that
26. uh-oh
27. up
28. woof
29. yes

Getting Ready for our Big Ski Trip

Kisses

2010: The Year in Child-Related Facebook Status Updates

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.