Outdoor Fun

Well, Dave and I finally broke down and bought a piece of outdoor play equipment. It had been driving us crazy that Ethan had nothing to do outside due to the fact that we have very minimal grass and what grass we do have is on a slope. We weren't sure this would work, but we bought a Little Tikes slide for him and he LOVES it! It actually stays upright on our hill too.

Yesterday, I did have chores to do around the house, but then I looked down at Ethan's sweet little face and said, "Do you want to play outside?" To which he responded with an eager head nod, a "Da!" while running over to get his big blue truck to take with him. We had a fun time on the slide while I trimmed the mulberry bush and pulled up some massive overgrown lavender plants.

And then we broke out the pool for the first time. The best part was getting ready - putting sunscreen on, getting dressed in swim diaper and bathing suit, blowing up the pool, finding toys - because he just ran all over the basement yelling in excitement. The pool was a huge hit, especially the splashing.

I think the cutest part of the whole experience was that he was the absolute sweetest, most cooperative boy for the rest of the day. A little quality time goes a long way, huh?

Father's Day

Dave's perspective on Father's Day was that it was the "best Father's Day ever". Here's why...

- We opted to skip church in favor of hiking. After morning coffee, we packed up the boys, drove through Burger King for some breakfast sandwiches, and headed out to Sky Meadows State Park. For efficiency's sake, we put the boys in the backpacks (that I got for a great deal at a consignment shop last weekend) and let them hang out in the trunk like that. KIDDING!!!

We took a loop hike that was only 1.2 miles, thinking that a short hike was best. Noah had never been in the pack so we weren't sure what he would think. He did great for the first half mile...and then cried the next half mile. This kid...while it's nice and all that he likes to be cuddled, this also means that he only likes to be cuddled. No strollers, no backpack, no carseat...must be held. After the hike, we let Ethan wander around and look at the cows that were hanging out in the nearby pasture. I wish we had had the camera with us for that because Ethan got a major staredown by all the cows. After the hike, we put the kids down for naps and then Dave went and played soccer. Once he got home, we headed over to the Ludwig's house (we seem to spend all parental holidays with them!) for a great dinner of brats, mac and cheese, pineapple and smores. Ethan had a wonderful time playing with Molly in the rice, sand and bubbles.

And the adults had a great time hanging out talking by the fire...

So, Dave pretty much got to do everything he likes to do yesterday - hike, play soccer and socialize. He's an awesome dad, so he totally deserves it!

First Taste of "Real" Food

Ahhh....the first thing at which I feel like a veteran mother about with my second child. I've been procrastinating solids (started between 4-6 months - Noah is 4 1/2 months) because I know that it's just one more thing to add to my day. He also wasn't holding himself up great, so I figured I was fine waiting. Well, I guess he decided to let me know that he was ready...the last few days he's been acting like a starving child during feedings. My first remedy was to increase the ounces at each feeding from 6 oz to 7 oz. That worked ok, except for the fact that he's also become a lot more active and distracted during feedings so it's been a little like a wrestling match. Then yesterday he woke up early from both naps and acted ravenous; my mom got him up from his afternoon nap and he took an 8 OZ bottle! So I sighed and thought, "Ok, I guess we should try some solids now." I gave him a taste of unsweetened applesauce yesterday just to see what he would do with it; he seemed to like it and sort of rolled it around his mouth a little. This morning, I did the official first feeding. Good old Earth's Best organic rice cereal (on sale with two coupons, of course) with lots and lots of liquid. I think I laughed through the whole feeding (which really was only about 1/2 tablespoon) because I have never in my life seen a baby so incredibly excited about boring old rice cereal. He smiled, squealed, kicked his feet, rooted around for the spoon when I was scraping off the dribbles and waited with his mouth open when he saw it coming near him. All day today his naps have been pretty long so I'm guessing we just hit a goood growth spurt. My little baby is growing up!

18 Months Old and Into Everything

Today was Ethan's 18 month checkup...I am really starting to be completely non-phased by where my kids land on the growth charts. Ethan weighed in a whopping 10 oz more than at his 15 month checkup and grew one whole inch (21 lbs 10 oz/31 inches) which puts him in the 25th percentile for height and 5th for weight. That's where he's always been so Dr Schiavone is perfectly fine with it. He mentioned that potty training will be our next topic of conversation at his 2 yr old checkup and just basically said that as long as I don't stress about it and force it, it will all be fine. To which I replied, "Me, be laid back?? HA!" This to the person who completely obsessed about the Solids Feeding Strategy. We shall see...don't we all wish we could start with the attitude that veteran parents end up with? It would be so much less stressful.

Ethan's antics include:

- reading books, reading books and reading books; Our trips to the library now involve returning with a HUGE stack of books.

- trucks ("ut" - a word which refers to trucks, car, buses, trains, planes and apparently boats.)

- climbing onto furniture

- walking down stairs holding onto the wall instead of crawling up and down

- sharing his toys with Noah and trying to comfort him by patting him on the head, placing toys directly on his face and grabbing at his shoulders to try and pick him up

- puzzles

- new words such as cup, up, cat (which also refers to dogs), look at this, grass, outside, hot, eyes, nose, ears

- 1st year molars, which despite Dr Schiavone's assertion that growing teeth is "like growing hair or nails" and therefore shouldn't hurt, have made for some difficult times, lots of drool and gnawing on fingers and plastic food.

- praying, complete with folding hands, bowing head and closing eyes. So so cute...

Dave the "Valedictorian"

For the past year, Dave has been participating in the Top of Virginia Regional Chamber's Community Leadership Program. It's a program that you have to apply for, have references for, pay for and commit to for an entire school year. The participants are chosen from various professions such as health care, banking, education, technology, etc, and are selected based on their present abilities and potential to be leaders in their communities. Once a month, there is a full day class based around one aspect of community - education, law enforcement, city/county government, healthcare, etc. Yesterday, Dave graduated from the program in a ceremony at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley and I got to go with him. It was a very nice formal ceremony where the president of Shenandoah University spoke and each participant received a certificate. Dave was chosen to be the representative of the Class of 2009, so he was essentially the valedictorian. As the representative, he had to present a speech of reflections from the past year. He did an awesome job - he made great eye contact, lightened the mood appropriately with some inside jokes and expressed some great points regarding leadership. Here is my favorite part :

(Context is a reflection on the most memorable class project.)
I found that frustration is the kryptonite to leadership. Each time we would stray from ideas because we let our frustrations dictate decisions. If we can extinguish frustration from the decision process and recognize it early on, I think our leadership capability will only develop quicker and become more reliable.

I felt so proud to be able to sit in the audience and watch him. I was particularly struck with how well-liked and well-respected he is by his colleagues. After the program, the president of Shenandoah University approached Dave and told him he had given an excellent speech and that he should be a public speaker. It's really neat to think back to his entrance into professional society in Winchester (as a realtor's assistant for a high volume realtor) and see how he has worked so hard to build his business and reputation; I can't wait to see what the future holds for hikm!

The Aldi Experience

Aldi...a name I hadn't heard in years until an article in the local paper announced that Aldi - a discount grocery store - would be opening in our area. Although I had never been to an Aldi, I remember close homeschooling friends of ours (the Beans) shopping there. This past Saturday, we received an Aldi flyer in the paper along with a $5 off a purchase of $30 for their grand opening, which was today. So tonight, my Bible study group decided to make Aldi our weekly outing. I know, how lame? Well, whatever, I'm a mom; I'll take any outing I can get if it's without kids for a little while. We got all prepared with our $5 coupon, our reusable grocery bags (they don't give you bags), and our quarters (to use for a deposit on a cart). It sort of occurred to me that it might be busy because it was their grand opening, but considering we were going at 7pm, an hour before closing, I didn't think it would be that bad. Wow. It was a madhouse! It was so packed you couldn't even stop to look at things or check prices. I don't think I would do all my shopping here because I can get a lot of the items for the same price either with a coupon on sale or at Walmart, but I hit the jackpot with produce. That alone is worth making a weekly trip for. Among the notable prices: Bananas = .45/lb, cantaloupe = .99, strawberries = 1.29, pineapple = 1.29, Cucumbers = .39, grapefruit = .59 each, shrimp = 3.99/lb and eggs = .49/dozen. All of the groceries in the picture cost me $27.31.

Boyhood

Today I taught at the School of Boyhood. The first lesson was "How To Play With Dirt". I needed to trim the rhododendron bushes out front and brought Ethan out with me. This activity occupied him for a good 20 minutes.

Happy Birthday to Me!

One more year in my twenties and I plan on soaking it in. Saturday was my birthday and it was a pretty great day. Dave got up with the boys so I got to "sleep in", then come down to coffee and hanging out. I decided that even though I couldn't really have a day off that I wasn't going to do anything I didn't feel like doing (i.e. clean, cook, fold laundry, etc.). Other than taking care of Noah who came down with a fever of 102.3 (a day after shots), I did just that.

I knew that Dave and I were going out to dinner that night, so I spent about 45 minutes trying on pre-pregnancy clothes trying to find something that would be special and cute. I came up with something but wasn't particularly thrilled about it. And then...and then, my wonderful husband gave me my birthday present (which he had bought ahead of time). He gave me a dress. Yes, a dress. I think it is probably the best birthday gift ever. He even thought it through to the point of buying something with an empire waist and a pattern to hide the parts of my body that I have been complaining about ever since Noah came along. (No, I'm not insulted by that.)

For dinner we went to The Dancing Goat which is the restaurant in a newly renovated historic hotel in Old Town; I chose this location because my friend Anne loves the food so I wanted to try it for myself. The atmosphere was beautiful - contemporary and comfortable.

The food was awesome. We had a grilled flatbread with squash and drizzled goat cheese cream for an appetizer. Then we both had salads - one with a cornmeal encrusted goat cheese and one with shaved beets and crumbled goat cheese. For entree, Dave had a slow braised lamb shank and I had scallops with chopped hazelnuts and sherry sauce.

And to finish off the birthday weekend, we had dinner and dessert at my in-laws house last night. Mini toasts with goat cheese and mango salsa, grilled chicken salad and homemade berry pie made up the wonderful menu. Such great food all weekend...wish I could eat like that every day!