The Edwards Family

Moving...

2011-01-18T20:20:00.000-05:00

physically and virtually. Any guesses where? Here's a hint:
It's going to be very different.

We're excited (and a little nervous). If you'd like to go on this journey with us send me your email address and I'll invite you to our new blog. We're moving that, too... and it's private. I know, I know :) nicolinisnail at gmail dot com. Hope to see you in our new home!

He's a Sunbeam!

2011-01-11T20:05:00.000-05:00

Liam graduated from Nursery!
In church kids are grouped into classes by age. Nursery is the youngest class, with kids from ages 18 months to 3 years. Now he's in Sunbeams, an actual Primary class!
Oh, this makes me feel so old. I can't believe how big Liam is getting. And he's only going to get bigger. Yikes.
He's been in the Sunbeam class for 2 weeks now and is doing really well! I hope it continues :) Love my Sunbeam!

Gingerbread Construction

2011-01-10T19:27:00.000-05:00

My sister, Jackie came to visit after Christmas. One day we made graham cracker "gingerbread" houses; A tradition in the Pilcher household :)
Liam started out putting the candy on his house, like you're supposed to.
But he soon started just eating the candy. Should I really have thought he would do otherwise?
And then it started to fall...
Liam will huff and puff...
and knock your fake gingerbread house down.
These two houses survived... Mason didn't actually make his house...
Liam tried his best to demolish them, believe me.
I have these visions of doing projects like this with my sons and them turning out well! I want my boys to use their creativity and ingenuity to actually finish a project. The realist in me knows that projects will always turn out like this, though; Destroyed before they're even finished. I'll keep trying. Maybe one day it'll work out ;)

Christmas 2010

2011-01-09T19:07:00.003-05:00

Christmas was nice and relaxed this year. We mostly just sat around in our PJs and played with toys. I loved it! Here's the tree before it was ransacked:
Mason wasn't interested in opening presents, but he was happy to play with the ones that were already opened. Liam was ok with that as he finally got the whole Christmas/presents thing and wanted to open everything. On Christmas Eve we even had Santa "talk" to Liam on the internet and he was totally enthralled by it! I'll be excited for next year when Liam really understands what is going on :) It makes Christmas so much more fun!
Plastic wrapping is way more fun than toys.

It snowed for about 5 minutes. I was really hoping for a white Christmas... I guess partially white is good, right? Better than Florida, anyway.
We went out to find some good, Christmassy things to do. We found an ice-skating rink next to a big Christmas Tree. Fun :) *check out Liam's face*
Liam started shivering, though, so we didn't stay long. Poor, thin-blooded Floridians.
I love Christmas! And I love that it was cold for us this year!
I hope you had a lovely Christmas!

More of Mason's B-day

2010-12-31T21:05:00.005-05:00

Liam "helped" open the presents because Mason really didn't care about them...
He liked them when we got them open, though :)
Family Photo. (This would be decent if the boys were looking at the camera)
And then we played.
And Mason walked.
These are actually from earlier that day. Mason got a play tent that Liam was obsessed with. It was fun.
Everyone had to get in the tent.
Good times :) Oh, and Happy New Year!

Mason's Birthday Cake!

2010-12-30T20:37:00.000-05:00

Mason's cookie-construction cake.
I totally copied this idea from a friend. It was just so perfect for a boy's first birthday!
I don't think Mason knew what to think when Dave brought out his cake.
Liam and I helped him blow out his candle. Mason just tried to touch the flame.
Mason's personal "1" cake.
He didn't know what to do.
We tried to give him bites but he just wasn't very interested. The bulldozer was a big hit, though :)

Liam, however, finally learned the joy of cake (he usually just eats the icing).
And you may notice that he refused to use his fork. He's been doing this more and more lately... is it because Mason doesn't use a fork?
My sister, Jackie, was able to be in town for the mini-festivities :)
Mason made a decent mess, but didn't actually consume much of the cake. I'm not sure if he enjoyed the experience. What do you think that face says?
He'll learn. There will be plenty of birthdays.

This Little Guy

2010-12-29T21:23:00.003-05:00

Turned ONE today!! Let me tell you a little about him.

He's adorable. Dark hair, interesting bluish/green/grey eyes and so, so sweet. He's super cuddly. Often he'll crawl up to me just to give me a Mason-hug, which is him dropping his head in my lap/on my leg/wherever he can reach for a second then finding something else to do. It's so cute!

He loves his blanket. He has to have it to sleep and will often go find it just to give it a little snuggle and maybe chew on it a little.

It's funny; He'll crawl over to it, face-plant on the blanket, then chew on it for a minute. Very cute.
Mason has 8 teeth but I'm pretty sure he's teething again. I only really notice his birthmark on his left ear, which is good since it used to cover half of his face.
He crawls all over and is pretty fast, getting into everything. He has started walking a little, although he's not very steady yet. It doesn't help that Liam is always pushing him over.

He's much quieter than Liam, although he is finding his voice. It takes more work to make him laugh and smile, too :) He loves to eat bananas and string cheese. And we love this little baby!! Happy Birthday, Mason!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas!

2010-12-26T21:51:00.001-05:00

Someday I'll send out Christmas cards... someday.

Botanic Gardens

2010-12-22T21:01:00.000-05:00

After seeing the trains we visited the rest of the gardens. While beautiful, Dave, Liam and Mason were just not very impressed...
until we found the huge Christmas tree in the main courtyard. Lovely. And there was another train.
The main courtyard also housed mini National Mall replicas. See the Washington Monument behind me?
Botanic Gardens--Fun place at Christmas :)

Botanical Trains

2010-12-21T20:39:00.001-05:00

The National Botanic Gardens has a Christmas train exhibit so we went to see it.
There were poinsettias everywhere!
The mini trains run through landmarks from around the world, which are made entirely from plant materials! See the train over Liam's shoulder?
There goes Percy flying by. We also saw Thomas the train chugging around. Liam, along with every other little boy there, was captivated. He stood by the little barricade, unmoving, searching for trains.
The workmanship on these mini monuments was very impressive! It looked like a lot of fun to make.
Liam could have spent hours in here watching the trains. But it was starting to get crowded so we left to explore the rest of the gardens...

What to do with a snow clod

2010-12-20T20:05:00.000-05:00

Pick it up.
Throw it on the ground.
Smash it to oblivion.
Or you could always just eat it. Your choice.

Snow!

2010-12-19T19:14:00.003-05:00

We looked out the window Thursday morning and snow was steadily falling. The boys kept coming back to the window to see the snow. "It's Christmastime now!" Liam kept saying. "Santa bring me presents!"
When it stopped falling we went out to explore... and clean off the car.
Liam loved every second of it.

He got pretty cold, though, after he tried to slide down a tiny hill on his bum. In corduroy pants. And even though he was wet and cold I had to convince him to go back inside.
Then we had hot chocolate!
I love snow!

Temple Lights

2010-12-18T18:55:00.005-05:00

The Washington, DC LDS Temple does a beautiful Christmas lights display every year. You can see its beauty, despite the blurry pictures.
Lights, lights everywhere!
In the gallery were nativities from around the world. I had to show my family this Scottish nativity, complete with bagpipes and woolly cow!
During the whole month of December the lights are up and there are musical performances every night. I thought it might be fun to go but the line started forming about an hour before the performance! It must be good, right?
Liam was enthralled with the life-sized outdoor nativity.
He even found the secret stairs hidden behind the camel and went up for a closer look.
Merry Christmas!

Another Free Santa

2010-12-11T21:44:00.007-05:00

Four years of Santa pictures and we have yet to pay for one. They're usually not very good but it's better that they're not good and we don't pay for them than them being not good and paying for them. Maybe we should just dress them in cuter clothes next year...
Mason's first experience with Santa. Not a fan. He tried to jump off Santa's lap.
Liam likes to just sit there but he doesn't say anything to him. Strictly pictures. He'll figure it out someday, right?

Randomness!

2010-12-09T20:22:00.000-05:00

Mason comes racing when he hears anyone open the dishwasher. It's his favorite toy. And he's holding "his own favorite blanket," as Liam would say. Liam is constantly remembering that Mason needs it and goes searching for it to give it to him.
My boys love cars. I hope they continue to have similar interests as they grow older :)
This, however, I do not hope continues as the boys grow older. Could cause problems, you know.

Favorites

2010-12-08T20:07:00.005-05:00

Anytime Liam likes anything it's his favorite. "That's my favorite, Mommy." For everything. If it's something he doesn't like, "That not my favorite." Some of Liam's favorites are:

Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum
It's free after 4 so we go often. This sculpture is supposed to represent flight. Liam likes to run around it, driving his cars on the edge.
We always pass this and Liam insists on pushing the button to start the engine.
Once he broke one of these phones. When we came back the next time it was fixed. And he still tries to play with them. We do also look at the planes here, but these other things are more fun, apparently.

Trails
The boys love walking on trails. We do it quite a bit. This one is behind the Harris Teeter by our house.
We walk to the store then walk the trail. Sometimes we even bring a soccer ball to play with at the little field. It's one of our favorites :)

The Tree

2010-12-07T19:58:00.000-05:00

A friend invited us to join them to go cut down our own Christmas tree. I told Dave about it and all he said was that it sounded like a lot of work. So we got ours at Home Depot.
We went very minimal this year to avoid any broken ornaments. A toddler and a baby make for messy Christmas trees :)
This is Mason's first Christmas, you know. He loves the tree and is constantly crawling over to it to grab hold of the lights/ribbon/branches. Liam just likes to sit and stare at it.
Merry Christmas!!

New York has such potential

2010-12-06T20:45:00.000-05:00

We went to New York for Thanksgiving!! New York! I was so excited. I love New York.
We drove up on Wednesday morning. Traveling went as well as expected. It took us 6 hours to drive there, stopping for potty breaks every so often. Liam was great and didn't have any accidents. We ate lunch at a rest stop in New Jersey... it was the kind of place that made you feel like you needed a shower after being there.
Then we spent the afternoon walking by Central Park and 5th Avenue.

Everything was decorated for Christmas! New York is magical at Christmastime. I love it.

This is the soldier standing in front of FAO Schwarz.
Mason and I watched a piano show while Liam and Dave perused the massive selection of toys.
Liam followed this moving toy train around in circles multiple times. See him? It was cute. He wanted to take everything home. "Bring this one home, mommy?"

After this we thought we'd go see the balloons for the Macy's parade; they're blown up the night before. We got to 77th St, where the balloons were, and it was so crowded it took us 20 minutes to walk one block. So we just went back to the hotel.
Mason fell asleep in the stroller, which is highly unusual for him, so we knew he must have been warm. Let me explain his coat: It was given to us. It's 2 sizes too big and tacky. But it's extremely warm and good for layering. So Mason wears it.

And then things turned for the worst. We put the boys to bed, then went to bed ourselves knowing we wouldn't sleep too well anyway. And I got sick. I was sick all that night. And all the next day.
We had these great plans to see Rockefeller Center and Times Square after the parade. Instead we walked down to 73rd St from 94th because I thought fresh air would be better for me than stuffy subway air(we saw this cool fire station on the way), watched the parade for about 15 minutes then went back to the hotel, got the car and drove 6 hours home.
We HAD to go to the parade. (Can you see the floating pumpkins in the picture?) We had been building it up for Liam for weeks before. He was "so excited!!" He kept repeating that over and over. I felt horrible that we had to leave so soon after it started. But, then, I felt horrible anyway.
I so wish I had been feeling better to take pictures of the people who carried ladders to sit on to watch the parade. Or of the vendors selling outrageously priced parade merchandise. We bought Liam a toy horn. I tried to convince him to get something else but he only wanted the horn. He loves marching bands. Had I been in full health I'm confident I could have persuaded him to get something else but I was too sick to haggle with a 3-year-old.
This is where I sat for the parade. I'm trying desperately to not vomit in the streets of New York. I think I saw Kermit float by but I wasn't really paying attention.
Liam LOVED it, though! Even when we left after only a short while he was still happy and enjoyed the parade. I was so gad he did. I didn't want him to feel short-changed. I had DVRed the parade and Liam watched it when we got home. He liked that, too.

Someday we'll try this again. And it will be fun. And we'll do more. Because I love New York. I just hope that next time it doesn't make me sick.

The Last of Fall

2010-12-05T19:37:00.000-05:00

I have really loved my Virginia fall. I will miss it next year.
The boys and I went out as much as possible to enjoy the cool weather and vibrant colors.

I'm not sure what Liam is showing Mason but it looks like such a big-brotherly thing to do.
But even though the leaves are now fallen and the trees barren, I still find the seasons beautiful. I hope we live here again one day.

These Boots

2010-12-04T19:29:00.002-05:00

Liam and I got boots. These are my (and Liam's) first real boots. I'll admit that, being from Florida, I never understood the appeal. I wore flip-flops year-round.
But now it's cold. And I love my boots. Liam loves his, too. We wear them whenever it rains or it is just darn cold. I got 2 different pairs, I love them so much.
And since he can put them on himself, Liam has taken to just putting his boots on and wearing them around the house once-in-a-while. I'm not sure if I should be worried about that pose...

No Big Dill

2010-11-29T19:32:00.002-05:00

Have you ever been to this blog? It's amazing. I know about it because I used to know Katy when I lived in Jax, but many others know about her because she's just amazing.

Anyway, right now she's got a sweepstakes going to give away a $50 gift card to Home Goods to buy stocking stuffers... hence the picture.

I want it. So I'm blogging as an entry... please don't be too annoyed with me.

Conversing with Liam

2010-11-28T19:19:00.003-05:00

Liam: (looking at dinner) That's disgusting?

Me: No, it's not disgusting.

Liam: Poop is disgusting?

Me: Yes, poop is disgusting.

Liam: No, poop not disgusting, it just brown.

-------------------------------------------------

Dave: What do you want Santa to bring you?

Liam: Package.

Dave: What kind of package?

Liam: Big Christmas package.

Dave: What do you want in the package?

Liam: Christmas present.

-------------------------------------------------

Me: What are doing Liam?

Liam: Crashing mo-mo-cars.

Me: You're crashing cars?

Liam: No, I just playing monster truck-els.

Me: Ok...

-------------------------------------------------

I really love that Liam talks more now. It's so entertaining.

The Best Worst Bodily Function Stories

2010-11-18T21:57:00.003-05:00

Tuesday

We went to a nature park to walk around for a little while. It was fun. As we're leaving Liam climbs into the car and I walk over to a trash can to throw something away. I begin to walk back to the car and notice Liam is pulling his pants down. "What are you doing Liam?" "I pee here." And he did. While standing in the door of Papa Smurf (our car) he peed onto the parking lot space next to us. And thought it was hilarious.

Wednesday

Liam finished breakfast before Mason and I and asked to go out on the patio. I let him because I can watch him while sitting at the table through a window overlooking the patio. But I can only see him from the waist, up. When I walk out to see what he's doing he's pulling up his underwear and there was a pile of poop on the deck. No joke. In broad daylight, on a very public patio overlooking a parking lot and facing other apartments, Liam took a dump. I can' t even guess how many people potentially saw him. I asked him why he did that. "Dogs poop in grass." We've had many discussions about that. I thought it was hilarious... even though I was the one who had to clean it up.

Thursday

Just now. The boys were in bed after a rough day of Liam acting out WAY more than normal. And complaining of a tummy ache after dinner. I go to check on Mason because he starts to whine. Mason falls back asleep but it stinks in their room so I check him and his crib for the source of the smell. Nothing. I walk over to Liam's bed, which is dark and hard to see, and touch a soggy pillow. Liam had puked all over himself and his bed and had been sleeping in it long enough to have it encrusted on his face, complete with whole mac-n-cheese noodles mashed into his hair. Neither of us thought that was hilarious... especially when he and his bed needed a bath.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds.

Grandma & Grandpa Edwards

2010-11-12T22:33:00.009-05:00

Alan and Annette came to visit. Here are some things we did:

DC Temple

Halloween Festivities (see previous posts)
Frying Pan Farm Park
Everywhere we went Liam kept telling them that we had already been there.
So he kept trying to show them all the good stuff... like playing in the dirt.
National Firearms Museum

Liam kept pulling them away from whatever they were looking at to show them...
...this. It's his favorite, he says. And he made Alan and Annette keep coming back to look at it. It is pretty cool, you know. It plays music and everything :)

Liam LOVED having his Grandparents around! And we did actually do more than that but both Annette and I forgot our cameras at times :( Oops. Thanks for coming to visit Grandma and Grandpa Edwards!

Little Lion

2010-11-10T22:15:00.002-05:00

My little Mason's first Halloween... in a hand-me-down costume (Liam wore this 2 years ago). It's so cute, though!
These were actually taken post-Halloween but it doesn't really matter, right?
Liam refused to put on his Ninja costume so I could take pictures of them together. I even tried to bribe him with candy... hey, it worked last year :)

Maybe next photo shoot I'll iron the backdrop.
Love me my boys!

Trick-or-Treating 2010

2010-11-09T21:14:00.009-05:00

The Lion and the Ninja: Ready to go trick-or-treating!

It got pretty chilly so we had to put on jackets and such. It's definitely more fun to trick-or-treat in cooler weather (as opposed to last year's 90 degree weather) but sad we had to cover up their costumes.
Alan and Annette (Dave's parents) were in town so they got to join in on the Halloween festivities :) Alan went trick-or-treating and Annette hung back to dole out candy.

It got a little cold.
Liam was collecting candy for Mason as well as himself. He'd grab 2 pieces of candy and take one to Mason's bag. It was pretty cute.
Success!
Liam entertaining his Grandparents... He loves having his Grandparents around :)
Ah, the spoils. We only went to about 10 houses so there wasn't too much candy even with Liam collecting double. It's probably best that way. Liam has quite a lot of energy as it is :)

Ninja

2010-11-08T20:57:00.001-05:00

Liam was a ninja for Halloween. He was going to be something else but when we went to look for a costume we couldn't find any his size (or he wanted to be creepy grim reaper-type stuff). So as we passed the clearance rack Liam saw this ninja costume and wanted to be that.

Liam had some mask problems... I'm actually surprised he put the mask on at all. It didn't stay on long.

We told him that ninjas were nice. That way he wouldn't be going around kicking and karate-chopping people. He was a peaceful ninja :)

He couldn't say the word "ninja", though. He kept saying he was an "injia". I think I'll be sad when he starts talking more clearly.
So cute! I love Halloween!

Fall Days

2010-11-02T21:02:00.000-04:00

The one day I thought to go take some pictures of the fall leaves it was abnormally warm. Hence the very un-fall-like clothing. Sad.
But still cute. Mason didn't like sitting in the grass and This was taken on a hill in an office park. You can see a car parked in the background. Virginians are funny like that; They like to give the illusion that nature is everywhere, even in the middle of an office park.
These were taken on the W&OD Trail. It's a trail that runs 40 miles across Fairfax County. It's beautiful.

So colorful. I love fall.

3 Years and 10 Months

2010-10-28T22:46:00.010-04:00

With all that has been going on recently I never posted about the boys growing older. Liam turned 3. His stats:

Weight: 36 lbs, 90th percentile

Height: 38.5 inches, 75th percentile

I think Liam's going through a growth spurt because he has been eating more, recently, and needing more sleep. Unfortunately, he usually refuses to take a nap. Sometimes I can convince him to take a nap if he's tired enough and I bribe him with being able to stay up late. If he does take a nap he is sometimes able to go to a football game with his dad (which he loves) or watch a movie and eat popcorn after Mason's asleep (which he also loves). It's fun when Liam stays up :)

Liam is extremely social. He loves other kids and will try to play with anyone... which doesn't always go very well. Kids Liam's age aren't as social as Liam so they're always wary and shy of him, and kids older than Liam rarely want to play with him because he's a little kid. He also doesn't really know how to interact with other kids yet. Most of his play turns into tackling and/or throwing mulch. Most kids don't like that.

Liam talks all the time and he's getting clearer, more articulate. He has whole books and songs memorized. So smart. He loves school, too, although he tells me he doesn't learn anything when he goes there.
He's been doing this thing where he does a "mad face" and talks in his "mad voice". All the time. He's always pretending to be mad. It's frustrating sometimes. When he asks a question he uses so much inflection lately that his voice passes through about 3 octaves. I wish I could catch it on video. It's quite funny.

He's completely potty trained now but he sleeps with a pull-up on at night. It's very nice.

Liam has started playing by himself more and more. I'll be working on something and I'll hear him in his room playing with cars. It's so unusual. He almost always has to be around people. I'm glad he's learning to play alone, though. I was kind of worried about it.

Here are Mason's 9 month stats (no 10 months stats, although he is 10 months now):

Weight: 19lbs 10.5 oz, 30-35th percentile

Height: 29.5 inches, 90th percentile

Head circumference: 18.75 inches, 95th percentile

Mason is crawling on his hands and knees (sometimes feet). He's pulling himself to a standing position and cruising everywhere (holding onto things and walking). He even stands for short amounts of time by himself!

He eats a ton. And definitely prefers finger foods, of course. He's extremely messy when he eats. I always have to scrub his area of the table when we're done with a meal and I can't even pretend to get his seat clean unless I remove it from the table and wash it in the sink. He likes to chew on the arm of his chair when he has food in his mouth. It's awesome.

He's still relatively quiet, stoic and easy-going but not always. He's got this squeal/scream thing he does all the time to get attention. He throws tantrums and, when Liam is bothering him, he now knows how to whine to get Liam in trouble. It's hard to tell when Liam has actually hurt Mason sometimes (when Liam puts himself in timeout, though, I'm sure he has done something).

Mason has to sleep with his blanket. He loves it and gives it hugs and has to suck on it when he's falling asleep. He gets excited when he sees it--he starts laughing and tries to make his way toward it. He's always pulling it out of his crib where I try to keep it so it doesn't get lost or dirty... or so Liam doesn't take it away from Mason.

Mason is in the transition from 1 nap to 2. It's tiring. No matter what I do it's not right and I'm getting tired of it. It would be nice if Mason did only take one nap a day--My schedule would open up (and be more predictable), the afternoon nap would be longer and I wouldn't have to fight Mason on sleep. But some days he's just so tired and grumpy by 10am that I don't want to make him wait until the afternoon nap. Soon this will be resolved. Soon.

Something Different

2010-10-23T21:45:00.000-04:00

Everytime we go down to the National Mall we do something different. I love it! We went a couple of times when my Mom was in town and here's what we did:
National Botanical Gardens:
Most of it it just a big greenhouse. It's lovely, though!
These "flowers" have different herbs and spices in them. We had a lot of fun smelling them all.
Is that Liam's likeness?
National Museum of American History
This is one of Liam's favorite museums. It has cars and trains in it :)
Cool science experiment. Everyone got in on the action.
Those people in the background are not really there. It's a large screen that shows people getting on and off a subway exhibit. I thought it was kind of creepy, actually. Mason didn't like it too much, either.
The Capital Building
We didn't get any closer than this but it's fun to see. I love going into the city!

Fall Festival

2010-10-22T21:22:00.000-04:00

We went to Great Country Farms in Loudoun county for their Pumpkin Harvest Festival.
This bouncy thing looked like fun but Liam was more interested in the sand around it.
The corn maze was giant. And it was kind of hot in there.
It was fun for about 15 minutes. We only made it to marker #3 of 10 and turned back. Why are corn mazes so long?
My mom was a good sport and joined Liam in all the fun little kids stuff. And, no, I don't know why her cow doesn't have a head.
This gun shot corn cobs. Liam loved it.
These guns shot mini pumpkins. We didn't shoot those because they cost money. Dave really wanted to shoot them, though...
Happy Fall!

Falling

2010-10-21T20:12:00.000-04:00

I've missed fall for the past few years. I'm so excited to finally have a fall. And there are so many trees here to enjoy. Loving it.

Super Saturday

2010-10-20T20:21:00.000-04:00

I agreed to teach a class for my church's Super Saturday. It's a day where the women in the ward can get together to enjoy each other's company while making things for the holiday season. I taught a class on making spice blends to give as gifts.
This isn't a good picture but I didn't really take any of the finished product. I made the labels and thought they were cute :)
I had fun doing it and putting it all together but it was a lot of work! I made bread for samples of the spice blend with olive oil, had an example gift basket with ideas for what to pair with the blend, made lid and side labels for the jars, not to mention actually getting all the spices and testing the recipe. Phew! I'm glad that's done :)

Name's Ima

2010-10-19T19:19:00.003-04:00

When anyone asks Liam what his name is he answers "Ima". It's pretty amusing.

How did we do all that?

2010-10-18T21:25:00.002-04:00

We've been really busy lately. Here's some stuff that's been going on:

Sept. 7 - Preschool Starts (every Tuesday and Thursday morning)

Sept. 8 - My mom flies in

Sept. 9 - Knee Surgery

Sept. 10 - Physical Therapy starts (which goes 3 times a week)

Sept. 11 - Soccer starts (every Saturday morning)

So just to clarify; Physical Therapy is thrice a week, Preschool twice a week and Soccer once a week. Busy weeks!

Sept. 23 - My mom flies out

Sept. 25 - Our friends, Dustin and Rachel fly in

Sept. 28 - Dustin and Rachel head up to Maryland, my mom flies back in

Oct. 5 - My mom flies out, physical therapy drops to 2 days a week

Oct. 10 - Dave flies out

Oct. 12 - I teach preschool!, my mom flies in

Oct. 14 - Teach Preschool

Oct. 16 - I teach a class for Super Saturday

My mom flies out tomorrow and Dave gets back on Friday. Busy, busy. I think Liam and Mason are tired of being on the move so much so we'll be taking it easy for the next week... finally...

Soccer Bug

2010-10-16T22:26:00.001-04:00

We put Liam in soccer! He's goes for an hour on Saturday mornings and he (usually) loves it.
This class is for 3 year olds so they don't actually play soccer... they just run around with the ball and all the other kids. It's amusing.
To top it all off, he got a cute little Soccer Bug uniform. That's what the program's called. Liam's a grasshopper :) Cute, right?

Railroad Museum

2010-10-15T21:00:00.005-04:00

A while back (before surgery) we went to visit the Fairfax Station Railroad Museum. I'm playing catch-up. As usual.
It was extremely small and seemed like the type of place that battle reenactors would hang out. There were people dressed in period clothing walking around (docents) and the museum was mostly miniature trains running around their tracks.
I didn't think it was very impressive but Liam was enthralled. He could have spent hours there.
The trains themselves were actually very well-kept and detailed. Liam reached for one of the trains and a guy running them snapped at him to not to touch them. It seemed like they worked very hard on them.

We did have fun. It was worth the trip for no other reason than that Liam loved it :)

Mobile Again!

2010-10-13T20:48:00.004-04:00

See that crutch in the background? No more! I am off crutches! Hallelujah!!! I am walking almost normally (just don't watch me go up and down stairs) and can do just about everything I used to be able to do! Hooray!

After being crippled for about a month I have a newly discovered respect for people with disabilities. It was so difficult for me to do anything! I couldn't walk and carry anything. I couldn't stand comfortably for more than a few minutes. Showering was an ordeal. Leaving the house by myself was difficult; leaving the house with kids was impossible. Mason and I didn't leave our apartment for a week at one point when my mom went back to Florida. The only reason Liam got out was because I arranged a ride for him to preschool. I couldn't play with my kids unless I was sitting on floor, which Liam got bored with pretty quickly. And if my mother hadn't been able to come help we would've eaten PB&J for every meal, if that.

It was really frustrating. I kept wanting to do things. Anything. Pick up Mason. Make dinner. Go to the store. Do the laundry. Get myself some water. Get Liam some water. Get OUT of the house. Anything! But I was inhibited. I couldn't do it. I felt so confined and it made me mad. And cranky. I totally understand how formerly healthy people feel when they become infirm. It's so frustrating that you just get mad and take it out on everyone else. You're helpless. I'm glad my condition was temporary. It would take major adjustments to live that way.

Liam kept pointing out my "owies" and saying I needed to go to the doctor. Anytime he gets hurt now (or anyone else for that matter) he says "I have owies, need go doctor." I think it really bothered him. He acted out more and was, in general, more difficult. Now that I'm getting back to normal he's calmed down a little. We're also getting back to our normal routine, which helps Liam act normally also.
I am so thankful my mom could come to help out! She's been wonderful taking care of all the household tasks and the boys! It's been phenomenal. And the boys love her. Well, so do I :)

I am so glad that's over, though. And since my mom is still visiting we can go do some fun fall stuff now :) Hooray for being able to walk!

Best Friends

2010-09-25T21:33:00.004-04:00

There are days when Liam says Mason is his best friend.
There are other days when they're not so friendly. Most days.
But I love when they're best friends.
It's the best part of motherhood.

Invalid

2010-09-12T20:59:00.007-04:00

That's me. I'm an invalid. I had knee surgery last Thursday to have my meniscus repaired (it's the tissue between the femur and tibia) and now I'm pretty useless.
Here I am 24 hours post-op. Liam is sporting his new sunglasses that my mom got for him.
She came up to help out while I'm recovering. She probably won't like me posting this picture... but thank goodness she's here!! I can't even pick up Mason unless I'm sitting. And if I stand for too long my foot gets all swollen and painful.
So I do this a lot. I look pretty good, I know.
And the crutches have become a new favorite plaything. Every time Liam sees them sitting around he picks them up and bounces them like a pogo stick. They're also good as stilts.
And they make a nice bridge for walking on. I can't wait until I don't need them, though, let me tell you! I feel like I can't do anything without help. I really don't like that feeling. Here's hoping for a quick recovery :)

Preschool!

2010-09-07T20:20:00.001-04:00

Liam started preschool today!! I am SO excited about it!
Ok, so it's not really preschool, it's a preschool co-op. Meaning I'll have to teach 2 weeks out of the semester. School rotates from house to house, depending on which mom is teaching that week. And Liam loves it!
Marci, this week's teacher, took these pictures on the first day. I did take some of my own but haven't uploaded them yet... maybe you'll see them here in a little while :) We LOVE school around here! Yay!

Great Falls National Park

2010-09-06T21:17:00.005-04:00

Great Falls National Park is a beautiful nature park on the Potomac River. Anybody who was anybody went there in Revolutionary times to look at the falls, attend dances and ride the now defunct carousel :)
This pole marks flood lines. The carousel was flooded in the '70s... that's why it's not at the park anymore. Bummer.
And the falls are nice to look at... but unless you're really into hiking and nature trails, there's not all that much to do here. But the trails are supposed to be reeeaaallly nice.
The visitor's center and museum had some nice exhibits and things to look at.
And that's all I have to say about that... :)

Lake Anne Plaza

2010-09-04T22:07:00.000-04:00

Lake Anne Plaza is just about the most random place we've visited so far in Virginia. It's a planned condo/townhouse community built in the 1960s around a lake. Lake Anne, to be exact.
This is the cement children's play area. Makes sense, right? They have shops and restaurants in the plaza, even the Reston Museum (which isn't really worth visiting). There are boats you can rent to paddle around the lake, farmer's markets on Saturdays and the boys and I even attended a free children's concert here once.
But it is a weird place. I'm really not sure what to think of it. It's pretty but weird. I doubt I'll ever live here.

And, in case you're wondering, we did visit Lake Anne on the same day we went to the Mill :)

Colvin Run Mill

2010-09-04T21:39:00.001-04:00

Colvin Run Mill is a historical park committed to preserving the mill. We actually went there a long time ago... I'm playing catch-up. Those are used millstones lining the paths.
The old house is beautifully kept with gardens all around.
The inside of the mill was very clean and impressive. It's still in use. You can watch a miller grind flour and even buy a bag of flour from their store. We didn't...
Allow me to explain Liam's terrible outfit: His Thomas the Train shirt is actually a pajama top. He wore it the night before and refused to take it off when I tried to change his clothes. It's a pretty awesome shirt, after all. But I don't remember why he's wearing totally unmatching shorts... must have needed to do laundry...
Water for the mill.
The waterwheel.
It's a very pretty park, set back in the woods and very well kept. I wish we could have gone when they were using the mill, though. That would have been a bit more interesting :)

Liam's 3rd Birthday!

2010-09-01T20:19:00.008-04:00

On Liam's actual birthday we didn't have a car so we couldn't do all that much. Liam got some golf clubs first thing in the morning, which kept him busy most of the day :)
When Dave got home from work he opened the rest of his presents.
He would open one then insist on playing with it for a little before he opened another.
He was a little obsessed with the Thomas trains and track that he got. He didn't want Mason to play with it ("Get that Mason!"-- which means 'get him out of the way'), so instead he was the giant monster in the middle of the track trying to get the train.
And then we had cake. This train cake is a little embarrassing but Liam loved it :)
After cake we went to dinner at Chick-fil-A. After cake, you say? That way I figured Liam could run off most of his sugar high at the play area and then eat. It mostly worked...
Liam was already yawning on the way home and was asleep by 7:15. Good Birthday :) We love you, kid! Happy Birthday!

8 Months!

2010-08-29T20:56:00.001-04:00

I don't have stats again this month, but he went to the doctor for an ear infection a couple weeks ago and he was over 19 pounds. He's a heavy baby :)

Mason is doing the army crawl and is everywhere! He's quite fast and always wants to be in the action. He has started to pull himself up on things, although he's not so good at it just yet.

Liam is always petting his head saying, "Mason soft". It's true. He is soft. And so cuddly! I love it!

Mason smiles a lot but it's hard to get him to laugh. He babbles a lot, too, but never when I want him to :) He also sticks out his tongue all the time. I don't know if he's feeling his teeth or what but it's cute.

He has 4 teeth and I think he's teething again. It makes him cranky. And emotional. He has started getting upset more easily when Liam takes his toys (which he ALWAYS does--apparently Liam doesn't want Mason to ever play with toys) or hits him or something.

Mason's hair is dark, dark brown and getting longer. I kept expecting it to fall out but it's just growing and growing! Liam's by now was all thin and wispy...

You can see the comparison pictures of the boys at 8 months. Mason with dark hair (above), Liam with blond (below). I tried to find similar pictures to more accurately compare :) Liam at this age was quicker to laugh and generally just more emotional. Mason is definitely more stoic. They are starting to look more different (Liam's nose is bigger and face is longer :) ) but you can tell they're brothers, especially if you ignore their coloring.

I love my boys and can't wait to watch them grow up!

Burke Lake Train

2010-08-28T21:32:00.000-04:00

Burke Lake Park has a miniature train. We've been meaning to go ride it for a few weeks but it's been broken. It was recently fixed so we went to ride it! Yay!
The train station :)
Liam was soooooo excited to ride the train!
He sat on it for a good 5 minutes before the train ran.
Mason loved it, too.
It took us on a 10 minute ride through the woods and around a lake. It was really nice.

And I just thought this sign was funny a) that there was a frisbee golf course and b) that there needed to be caution. Interesting...

3rd Birthday Celebrations

2010-08-26T19:57:00.007-04:00

This year Liam had an actual birthday party, with friends and everything (we celebrated early, in case you were wondering). We usually just do a family thing but this year he really knew what birthdays were and actually has friends... so we had a party :)
We went miniature golfing. Getting to the course was an ordeal, but the kids did eventually have fun. Three 3-year-olds, 2 babies, 3 moms and a big sister make for chaotic putt-putt golfing :)
It started calmly enough with everyone waiting patiently for their turn.
But soon turned into a free-for-all with everyone on the green.
The tunnels were a crowd favorite. Liam and his friends hit their golf balls through each tunnel about 8 times. Each.
And, of course, we had cupcakes. It was a birthday party, after all :) They're supposed to be golf balls on grass but look more like spike balls on gack (remember that stuff?). But they tasted good. That's all that matters, right? And Liam had fun. He talked about nothing else since going this morning. So I'll go ahead and call it a successful first real birthday party :)

Happy (early) Birthday, Liam! We love you!!

Frying Pan 4H Fair

2010-08-17T22:11:00.002-04:00

Frying Pan Farm Park had their Annual 4H Fair. It was really hot. But we had fun :)

{A real tractor pull}

{The umbrella makes a reappearance)

{A real beehive! I thought that was pretty awesome}

{bunnies}

{I thought these were dogs when I first saw them...}

{Mini-horse=Liam's size}

{I didn't mean to use the flash... poor horse}

Potty Training is Not For The Faint-of-Heart

2010-08-15T21:53:00.002-04:00

And other random stuff...
Liam is practically potty-trained. Practically. He doesn't wear a diaper at home unless he's sleeping and today we went out twice and he didn't wear a diaper! And no accidents!!

We started potty training on a whim one day ("Hey, Liam, wanna use the potty?", "Alright."). We took it really slow, rewarding him with cars when he was successful. So it's been about a month since we began and, because we took it so slow, it hasn't been too much of a headache. Liam has a lot of new cars :) So now he's rewarded with fruit snacks because he doesn't need as much motivation.

{Check out Mason's eyes here! You can kind of see how beautiful they are :) }

Liam has realized that using the potty takes priority over most things. We always drop whatever we're doing to hurry to the potty. So now when he's in time out he'll whine for a little bit, then say he needs to use the potty. Sometimes he'll purposefully pee his pants just to get out of time out. Kids are so darn smart...

{DC Temple's Visitor Center}

If anything fun is going on Liam will refuse to go use the potty. He'll do the "gotta pee" dance and say he doesn't need to go until we either make him go to the bathroom or he wets himself. It's awesome.

{Liam's Photography}

We sometimes put a diaper on Liam when we leave the house. When he's wearing one he'll randomly exclaim joyfully, "I wear diaper!" I'm guessing he says that when he does actually need a diaper.

{A frozen egg. I don't recommend you do this...}

On Sunday we attempted church diaperless. Liam did well until nursery when he was having too much fun playing to go to the potty.

{More of Liam's photography}

Someday I'll get brave and have him go everywhere without a diaper on. And that will probably be very soon because I have vowed to not buy any more diapers for Liam. I'll let you know how that goes :)

Liam has become very bossy recently. He tells everyone what to do, especially other kids. He has also become very agreeable, constantly saying, "alright," in response to questions.

Liam is extremely social. He will go up to any kid and say "Hi, name's Ima" (that's what he calls himself. should I be worried about dyslexia?). He will also go up to any kid and push/hit/tackle them. He loves to be around other kids and always wants to be.

And, random story, Liam calls cold water "so cold". "Need so cold, Mommy." He likes his water cold :)

Lately Liam has been pulling out all my mixing bowls and making everyone wear "cowboy hats". It's pretty amusing :)

Fire Station

2010-08-12T21:20:00.010-04:00

Our playgroup went to the Fire Station.
There were lots of kids. The firemen kept trying to talk and give us a "real" tour of the station but all the kids were running wild. It was a little chaotic.
But the kids had fun. And got to sit in the fire trucks, so what could be better than that?
A fireman dressed in full gear for the kids.
Liam was more interested in the fan.
Until he started shaking hands with all the kids. {Do you see all the moms with cameras?}
All the other kids looked at the cameras for the photo op and Liam spent the time tinkering with something on the truck. Such a boy. I love this kid :)

Love thy neighbor...

2010-08-03T12:54:00.005-04:00

This morning we had some friends over. There were 5 kids running around our small apartment (and 2 babies). My downstairs neighbor knocked on the door around 11am asking us to please keep the noise down because her 10-month-old was trying to take a nap. I felt really bad about that and have been thinking about it since. And here's what I've come up with:

I totally understand her frustration. It sucks when kids don't sleep.
But it was the middle of the day.
And kids are loud. It's nearly impossible to keep them from being loud.

Granted there were a lot of kids here and it was extra loud (actually when we have a car we're not even here this time of day). But does that mean I'm not supposed to invite friends over in the middle of the day? We've always lived in homes connected to other people's homes (townhouse, condo, apt) and have had to adapt. Our boys sleep with a loud fan on in their room to drown out noise. They have to or they would hear everything and not be able to sleep. {Maybe I should suggest that to her... how would I do that nicely...?}

Dave and I always say that we'd rather have neighbors that are loud during the day and quiet at night than the other way around (and we have had the other way around. No fun!) And that's the way we are. We are quiet after 7pm. But during the day I cannot promise that my nearly 3-year-old will be quiet. And I will invite friends to play at my home. I do feel bad that my actions are impeding the sleep of my neighbor's child but I cannot/will not rearrange my life and my children's schedules to accommodate my neighbors'. We live in apartments and need to expect to hear our neighbors and adapt. As I write this I can hear my upstairs neighbor. And my baby is sleeping peacefully thanks to the box fan. I hope my neighbor learns to deal with this peaceably. I hope she doesn't hate me for living my life.

What would you do? I think I need advice.

Reston Asian Festival

2010-08-01T20:40:00.004-04:00

We were heading to a nature park on Saturday when we drove by a sign for the Reston Asian Festival. So we went to that instead. We got there really early so there wasn't too much going on yet, but had we been there in the afternoon I'm sure it would have been really cool.
Liam got an awesome free hat from an Asian beer company.
There were TONS of food stands!! They smelled amazing! There was food from everywhere Asian.
Mason was super tired (it was nap time) but wouldn't sleep. I put the blanket over his stroller in an attempt to get him to sleep. I failed.
There were carnival rides. Liam was enthralled by them. But we didn't go on any.
There were lots of merchants selling their junk. It was fun to look at.

There was a stage and it looked like there was going to be cool stuff going on later, like the Miss Teen Photogenic contest. Seriously. That's what it was called.

We didn't do too much but it was fun. A good cultural experience, right?

7 Months Old

2010-07-29T19:40:00.001-04:00

Mason is 7 months old. Time flies. Oh, my goodness. He grabs everything, plays with anything and loves his big brother. He sits up by himself, rolls everywhere and scoots forward (almost like crawling). This kid will be mobile soon.
Mason has his 2 bottom teeth and is getting his 2 top front teeth. It's making him grumpy and he's all off schedule so I hope he gets them soon! He's usually so happy.

He smiles all the time but it's hard to get him to laugh. Liam gets the most success. Mason loves Liam and thinks it's hilarious when Liam rolls him around and wrestles with him. I get nervous when they do that...
His eyes change color all the time. Sometimes they look blue, sometimes green, maybe brown. Usually they're a dark, steely blue with a burst of light brown around the pupil. I can't get a decent picture. They're beautiful, though, trust me :)
Mason is strong. When he doesn't want to bend his legs they will not bend. He's started to do the head throw-back thing when he gets upset and it's difficult to hold him.

He's already in 9-12 month clothes (just like Liam was at this age). He has a darker complexion than Liam, darker hair, too. By the time Liam was this age all of his newborn hair had fallen out and turned blond. Mason's is still dark and just growing longer. He still has the comb-over and some little wispy hairs. I think I'll have to cut it soon :)
Brothers. They're so cute. I would have done a side-by-side shot of them at the same age but I'm too lazy to go looking for Liam's baby pics... so maybe next month :)
Ah, sweet boys. How I love them.

Washington & Old Dominion Caboose

2010-07-24T22:08:00.000-04:00

We go visit the Washington & Old Dominion caboose in downtown Herndon all the time but the caboose in Vienna has open houses so we could actually go inside the train car.
This guy was really nice and knew a lot of facts about the railroad and train car. I wish I could have listened a little better :)
"Railroad history was made in Vienna on June 17, 1861, where for the first time soldiers were brought into battle by train at the start of the Civil War." I copied that off the website. Interesting, right?

We got to climb up a little ladder to the top of the caboose and look out the window. Liam really liked that.
Can you see us?
This is the Freeman House and Store across the street from the caboose. The house served at various times as a residence, store, Civil War hospital, railroad station, post office, and fire department. Today, the house contains a museum and old-fashioned general store.

It was small but interesting. We mostly liked it because Freemans are in my blood. I wonder if I'm related to Leon...

149th Anniversary of First Manassas (Bull Run)

2010-07-22T20:56:00.012-04:00

We went to visit Manassas National Battlefield Park for their annual commemoration of the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run). There were two Civil War battles at this site. It's pretty famous. And sad. You probably learned about this in 5th grade.
There's a small museum at the site. Liam looks so mischievous here...
Yes, I carried the umbrella the whole time. It was hot and sunny and I didn't want Mason to get sunburnt. It's gonna become a trend, just you wait. So will the knee brace. Awesome.

Flags of the Civil War.
Since this was an actual site where a battle took place this was only a commemoration, not a reenactment. The ground is considered sacred. So people dressed in period clothing, slept in tents and had interesting items displayed. And they stood around talking about the battles and the way the soldiers lived.
This guy gave Liam a hand cast, Civil War-style bullet. It's pretty cool but what do you do with it?
Liam's favorite part of the visit was running around on the open fields.
And he took some pictures all by himself :)

And you can't come to the Manassas Battlefield without seeing the Stonewall Jackson statue. It's impressive. Here's where Stonewall got his nickname, you know.

The latest

2010-07-18T19:10:00.006-04:00

Mason is growing. Liam calls him a "big baby" now. "Mason big now," he'll say. And then we'll ask Liam if he's a big boy and he answers, "no, small boy".
Mason sits up! (can you spot those 2 bottom teeth?)
And then he falls down. The boy rolls everywhere and reaches for everything. He's about pop his 2 top front teeth and is grumpy about it. But usually he's the sweetest baby ever. So easy and content and cute.

Liam got a new cow toy at Chick-fil-A the other day and insisted on taking pictures of all his cows. So these next pictures are courtesy of Liam. He was very excited about taking his own pictures :)
Lately when Liam has an idea he'll say, "I know, Mommy!" and proceed to implement his idea.

When an idea is suggested to Liam and he likes the suggestion, he'll say, "Oh, that'd be fun". If he doesn't like the idea he'll say, "That not be fun".

When he likes a food he nods his head vigorously and says "That tasty".

When things are up high they're "Up up high." Always. No exceptions.

Liam has started being more vocal about his opinion. "No time out!!" "No want to go time out!!" "Daddy go time out!" And he'll yell and fake cry and hit his head on the wall while in time out just annoy us.

Liam often suffixes his sentences with "too" when it's not necessary. "Liam want this one too." "Play with this car too." "Go to kids house too."

We've started trying to potty train. Liam sometimes goes along with it and sometimes not. One day he wasn't going along with it but I refused to put a diaper on him. It had been over 2 hours without a diaper or a trip to the bathroom despite my constant reminders. We were sitting down to eat a snack and Liam looked right at me with a guilty face. I said, "Liam go to the potty, hurry!" He stood up, pants soaked (and getting more soaked), and said in a panicked voice, "Pee coming!" We didn't make it to the potty.

A different brand of diapers than we normally use was on sale and I had a coupon, so I bought them. They're baby powder scented and I think they smell pretty gross. Before I even voiced my opinion Liam got a whiff of them and said, "These smell ucky, Mommy." I was kind of proud of him for thinking that. Is that weird?

weMac

2010-07-18T19:05:00.002-04:00

We bought a Mac. It's pretty. And fast. I like it :) The only downfall is that Photoshop and the rest of the Adobe suite is waaaaayy too expensive for me to get on this computer. So I can't do the editing I used to unless I turn on the old Dell. Someday I'll get it on this computer. Someday. And then it will be perfect.

Moo, Baa, La La La

2010-07-16T15:17:00.003-04:00

One of the books that Liam has memorized. Before, we used to skip pages in books to speed along the book-reading process at bedtime (horrible parents, I know!) but now we can't because he has most of them memorized. So cute. So smart.

Downtown Manassas

2010-07-15T19:42:00.000-04:00

Sadly, we didn't do anything for July 4th. But the day after we went to Old Town Manassas and checked out the town. It actually reminded me a lot of St. Augustine. Except that there is a major railroad that runs right through the middle. We saw quite a few trains go by.
The train station had a little welcome center with some stuff about trains, which Liam loved.
That's a train going by out the window.

City Hall.
This big ring was the town's fire alarm. They used to hit it with an iron hammer and it was, apparently, really loud. We all thought it was pretty cool :)
It was super hot but Mason was still his happy little self!
After walking downtown we went to the Manassas Museum. The museum was pretty interesting, talking about the history of the town (mostly Civil War stuff), but the highlight was the Tunnel of Soil. The front desk gave Liam a flashlight so that he could "look" for things in the soil.
He found lots of things including carrots, animals, a miner and a septic tank.
Good times.

I liked downtown Manassas. It was very quaint and pretty. I'd like to go back when there's something going on down there... I'll let you know if we do :)

Big Boy Bed; Take 2

2010-07-12T19:33:00.000-04:00

If you've been reading this blog you know that we got Liam sleeping on a big boy bed almost a year ago. Well, when Mason was born he kind of freaked out and we put him back in the crib. And then we moved and there was more freaking out so he stayed in the crib (Mason slept in the pack-n-play). Well, the time has most definitely come to get Liam into a big boy bed. So we bought him a Thomas the Train bed.
He loves it. We temporarily set it up in the living room so he could play with it and like it. It totally worked.
Then he and Dave put it together in his room. Liam is constantly asking to play cars on Thomas and when anyone comes over he HAS to show them Thomas. He's excited to go to bed... but when he gets there he wants to play and usually takes a while to fall asleep. He even sings a song about trains while lying in bed. It's really cute... albeit a little frustrating. But at least he likes his new big boy bed! Hooray!

George Washington National Masonic Memorial

2010-07-10T20:55:00.011-04:00

It was a nice, rainy day today so we decided to go somewhere indoors. We visited Alexandria (our first time there!) and went to the George Washington National Masonic Memorial. The building is that big one up on a hill overlooking the city and it was VERY impressive!
Built in 1922 it cost $3 million (the equivalent of $38 mil now) and looks like it's completely made of stone. It's amazing. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the quality of the workmanship because it is made by free masons, who traditionally work with stone (although I'm sure most masons nowadays do not...). But it was very impressive.
The entrance hall was beautiful. I wish I had taken more pictures of the workmanship...

Liam thought the statue was creepy and wouldn't turn his back on it.
And then he spent about 20 minutes watching the "Shriner's parade" go by.
The boy loves buttons and he loves parades :)

These rooms look grainy because they were very dark and I had to lighten them before anything was visible. But they're cool rooms.

This was a good rainy day activity: indoors and free. And we got to do something involving one of Dave's minor obsessions (hence our second child's name...). Next time we'll have to get more pics of the building, though. It's lovely.

6 months

2010-06-29T13:04:00.004-04:00

Mason is 6 months old today! Hooray!
The Stats:

weight: 17lbs 5oz (50th percentile)
height: 28 inches (94th %)
head circumference: 18 inches (93rd %)

So he's tall and skinny. Go figure.

I love his eyes. They keep changing so I don't know for sure what they'll look like, but they're always a dark, grayish blue with varying amounts of light brown around the pupil. Sometimes they even have a little bit of green in them. Pictures don't do it justice. They're really cool.

Mason grabs everything. Anything within reach is caught in his vice-like grip and pulled into his mouth. He loves rattles and soft toys. He has also developed an affinity for cars... wonder where he got that from... But his favorite are blankets. He snuggles with one when he's sleeping and likes to suck on them.

He smiles all the time and thinks Liam is hilarious. Liam will be dropping pillows on his head and Mason will think it's the funniest thing ever. They laugh at each other all the time. When Mason is napping Liam will try to sneak in the room to wake him up so that they can "play". It's cute and sweet and will be great when Mason is older, but right now it just makes me nervous.

Mason is pretty tough, though. With a brother like Liam he'd have to be! He hardly cries and when he does it's not for long. I think Liam even tries to make Mason cry and he doesn't. Liam will jump on him and run cars into him and roll him over and try to pick him up (once he succeeded! and then dropped him) and Mason rarely cries.
He's got his 2 bottom front teeth and I'm pretty sure he's teething because he's a little cranky and extra drooly. He has the same fair complexion as Liam and I: pale and gets flushed easily.

Mason still has a crazy comb-over but you can't see it because of his cheesy little hat :) His birthmark is getting lighter and really is hardly noticeable. Every once in a while I'll see it and only then will I remember that it's there.

Mason loves being bathed and will laugh hysterically when I wash his neck. It's adorable. I'm sure he has a very clean neck because I probably run that washcloth over it a little too much :)

He's my little bean. I love this little guy!

Heritage Farm Museum

2010-06-28T19:43:00.000-04:00

The Heritage Farm Museum is all about Loudoun County's (the county right next to us) rich agricultural heritage and history of rural life. I took a picture of their county seal because I think it's pretty.
There was a little garden out front.
We stopped to take cheesy pictures...
Liam calls me an astronaut when I wear the baby carrier :) And Mason was very appropriate in farmer-y clothing.
About half of the museum was cool hands-on childrens' stuff to give kids a feel for actual farming.
Liam loved it. He loved it so much that we spent 2 hours doing the fun kid stuff and we left without seeing the actual exhibits.
There was a "general store" in the museum with stuff that the kids could "buy" and "sell" and play with. Liam found a bunch of the fake food in the stove thingy and just had to get all of it out.
He then spent some time putting all the food back into the proper boxes. "Organize, Mommy. Need organize." It made me very proud.

I do wish I could have looked at the other exhibits but this entertained Liam for a good, long time and it was air conditioned. So, all in all it was a good way to spend the morning. If it were free I'm sure we would be there often. Oh, well.

Family in the City

2010-06-27T20:19:00.004-04:00

My Aunt Terry, Cousin Kayce and her husband James were in DC for a day so I went to see them. In DC. With kids. Otherwise traveling by myself. We'll get to that.
There was a folk music festival going on so we walked around that and talked and hung out on the National Mall. It was blazing hot. I almost melted. But it was fun! If I didn't have small children I would like to have stayed and gone to some of the music tents. Mexico looked happenin'.
And Terry and Kayce were nice enough to play with Liam :) And it was nice to catch up with them. I was glad I went! After traveling alone to get there I almost just turned around and went home before getting to the mall. Let me tell you about that:

It only took 30 minutes to get to the National Mall from my home. Usually when we go into DC we leave early and park on the Mall before it's full. I left around noon so by the time I got there it was super busy and there was no where to park. Of course. So I went a little ways out until I found a place to park near a metro station so that we could take the metro. This is the first time I have ever taken the metro by myself with two kids. I took a picture to document it.
Can you see everyone staring at us? Yup. Not only am I taking a picture with the flash but I also have a huge stroller that I'm bringing on the metro. The nerve. Liam looks ecstatic. He thoroughly enjoyed riding the "train". Mason cried. Just a little, though.

Actually riding the metro wasn't so bad, even with a stroller and a toddler. I was really stressed at the time, though. Liam held on to the stroller or my hand and was very well-behaved while switching trains. The sucky thing about getting to the Mall was that it ended up taking an hour when it only should have taken half an hour. I had such a hard time finding parking that I seriously almost just went home. I'm impatient like that. And it was about 97 degrees outside. That was no fun. But seeing Kayce, Terry and James was fun, so I was glad I went. Even though we only stayed about an hour and had to leave before Mason got too hot.
After we got home Liam set up his cars and called out, "Mommy see! All cars trapped in city!" I guess he noticed that DC was VERY busy with cars everywhere. Smart kid.

Six Years

2010-06-26T13:34:00.001-04:00

This is what six years looks like around here :)
Happy Anniversary to us.

Keeping it Local: National Firearms Museum

2010-06-25T22:08:00.000-04:00

The National Firearms Museum, or the NRA Museum (really!), is about 15 minutes from us. And it's actually pretty cool. I don't even really like guns and I thought it was interesting.
Guns of every age, style and use were on display.
Can you spot Dave and Liam?
My favorite exhibit were the Hollywood Guns. They had the guns that were used in actual movies. I thought that was pretty cool.
And everything was surprisingly artistic. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the quality of the museum. Anything that's called a "National Museum" is usually pretty impressive.

Mr. Knick-Knack

2010-06-24T21:43:00.000-04:00

Mr. Knick-Knack is a childrens' singer/songwriter who does free concerts all summer long. We went. It was free, after all. A friend that I met there said that he's gotten a little weird this summer in his song choices and comments. I thought he was a little weird and this was the first I had heard him. One of the choruses to his song was "will somebody please marry me." hmm.
The kids weren't all that into it. Liam spent most of the time eating snacks. Mason spent most of the time staring at everyone around him... but that's what he usually does. Liam did eventually get up and run around with some other kids, even danced a little.
But most of the time, he made faces like this. It was kind of hot, though, maybe that's why. I'm pretty sure it didn't have anything to do with the strange middle-aged man singing weird songs... :)

Did you know...

2010-06-23T22:05:00.002-04:00

The pool is only open for 3 months out of the year here. Apparently that's normal everywhere outside of Florida.
Happy Summer!

More Family Came to Town

2010-06-22T13:38:00.009-04:00

My Mom and Dad drove up with my nephew and niece, Keller and Kamryn and spent the week with us and seeing the sights. My Mom took a bunch of pictures and emailed them to me but I couldn't get them to download. Weird. So I'm lacking some really cute pictures in this post.
And they read lots of books to Liam.
And watched lots of TV (Liam calls it "TT" :) ).
The kids and I spent most of the time at home while everyone else went out and saw the sights. It's hard to do serious sightseeing with small kids!
But we did do a couple of things, like go to the Air & Space Museum and walk downtown Herndon. Everyone else did a lot more, though :)
Liam would only let Keller or Kamryn hold the monkey tail. He followed them around all week and was kind of super-hyper the entire time they were here. That was a little exhausting.
But it was fun and now Liam casually asks for Kamryn and Keller about 30 times a day. "Where'd Ke-er Kam go?" It's cute.
It was a lot of fun to have everyone come visit. Liam especially loved having other kids around. I have a fun family :)

Algonkian Regional Park

2010-06-17T13:25:00.001-04:00

There are about a hundred parks within 15 minutes of us. Some just play areas, some historical, some nature and one is just a trail that runs for 40 miles. You wouldn't think there would be so much nature this close to DC but there is. Lots of people here seem so outdoorsy. It's funny how that contrasts so heavily with the urban areas.
Anyway, as far as I can tell, Algonkian Regional is nice. They've got cottages, camping areas, a playground, golf course, a mini golf course and a small waterpark that's open in the summer.
There were a ton of kayakers out on the Potomac River. It made me want to rent one and join them :)
It was very pretty and peaceful. I'm excited for when our boys are bigger and they can enjoy boating and camping. We'll definitely be returning here :)

What type of berry is this? I keep seeing this tree with berries growing on it and I can't figure out what it is. Any ideas?

And you thought it was only a doughnut

2010-06-15T13:12:00.000-04:00

Whenever we have the missionaries (Liam calls them "mans") over to dinner I allow myself to make something fun and terribly unhealthy. Behold the Boston Cream Pie. Yum.

Father-Son Outing

2010-06-14T13:16:00.000-04:00

One day Dave decided to take Liam down to DC. They rode public transportation the whole way there (which Liam loved!).
Dave showed Liam where he works.
They hung out at some National Monuments.
And visited Albert Einstien.
And Dave was kind enough to take some pictures for me. Good times :)

Our First Visitors

2010-06-12T12:29:00.011-04:00

Jackie and Chris came to visit! It was so fun to have them here :)
Jackie and Chris spent a lot of time entertaining Liam with their iPhones and iPad. Liam actually learned how to use it all by himself... that Apple technology is just so darn easy. They also played a lot of cars and read a lot of children's books, which was nice for me :) We did do other things, too, like:
The Air and Space Museum
Liam basically refused to do anything without "Gackie" (he can't say 'J's) for the entire time they were here. He preferred Chris over Dave and I, also :)
The National Mall (we weren't there very long, though Jackie and Chris did go by themselves one day)
There was lots of Liam lifting going on. Jackie and Chris are so nice :) Dave, too...

Downtown Herndon

This local bakery had the best scones and bread. We went in the morning when they were still making the bread for the day. Delicious.
Herndon's Old Train Depot and Visitors Center Museum was small and a little pathetic but there were some interesting things to see and learn about the city. That's always nice :)

The "extra" room worked pretty well for two people, even though it is small and we had to hang up a sheet in lieu of a door. We had a lot of junk food, good conversation and Dave and I got to go see a movie. Dave and Chris went to a Washington Nationals baseball game and came back telling us all the highlights. Chris also introduced me to Plants Vs. Zombies and I wasted about 5 hours of my life playing it :) So we had a lot of fun! Due to having small children in need of sleep it felt like we had a lot of down time but looking at all the pictures I guess we did do some fun things. Once we get to know the area even better I'm sure we'll become pretty decent tour guides... so who's next? :)

Sleepy Baby

2010-06-10T12:23:00.006-04:00

You would think it would be hard to sleep like this, sitting up on the couch.
Especially with Liam yelling "wake up!" every time you close your eyes.

Much better.

Everything always happens at once

2010-06-01T13:38:00.003-04:00

My leg started hurting last week. It was stiff and swelled up so I went to the doctor. Turns out I have cysts behind my knee and need to see more doctors.

Painful knee.

On Saturday I accidentally burnt something in our kitchen. It still reeks of smoke. I'm sure anyone who visits will think we're chain smokers.

Bum leg.
Smoky apartment.

Liam started feeling sick on Sunday so I kept him home from church. Since then he's had a steady fever of 102, among other symptoms. We've been to the doctor twice in 3 days.

Hurt foot.
Smelly house.
Sick toddler.

My usually sweet-tempered little angel of a baby is getting his 2nd tooth. And he's angry about it.

Useless appendage.
Stinky home.
Medicated kid.
Grumpy baby.

Dave has been carpooling with a guy from work and it's Dave's week to drive.

Stupid leg.
My apartment reeks.
Lethargic toddler.
Angry infant.
No car.

And my sister and brother-in-law (who I'm very excited to see!) are coming to visit to witness this craziness. Let's hope we don't scare them away forever...

A Dash of Friendship

2010-05-30T19:43:00.002-04:00

This happened a while ago and I'm just now blogging about it: My friend Brittany came to visit with her family. She lives about an hour away and I was so excited to see her! And so was Liam! Well, he mostly liked her son, Dash :) We went to Frying Pan Farm Park and Liam LOVED going there with his new friend.
I was kind of nervous about going to the farm with them because when they arrived at our house Liam unceasingly tackled both Dash and Brittany's daughter, Claire. Liam thought it was hilarious (of course) but Claire didn't like it at all and Dash got tired of it after a while. But Brittany and Kevin were actually really relaxed about Liam tackling their kids... unlike most parents. It was kind of refreshing :)
And once we were at the farm the boys got along great. He still talks about Dash. And I had fun catching up with Brittany, even though I only took these few pictures of our kids and not of us... maybe next time :)

Some things I've noticed about Virginia

2010-05-27T13:02:00.004-04:00

Virginia is a lot like Florida. It's very green, has lots of bugs and is super hot and humid in the summer... which is what it already feels like. Virginia does have seasons and foliage that changes and it will snow here but I've only seen it resemble Florida so far. It's very beautiful here. Everything looks like it was placed perfectly where it should be.

People here are less patient, always in a hurry, harsher and more vocal with opinions. I've already witnessed several parents in stores berating their children for being "annoying" or "irritating". I dread taking Liam to a park where we won't be meeting friends because parents give me and Liam dirty looks when Liam pushes or runs into a kid. One time Liam was being particularly rowdy and he pushed a boy about his age down a couple of steps at the playground. The mom went to get her child, who was crying, and said in my general direction, "I don't know whose kid this is but he just pushed my kid down the stairs!" Yeah, I know I would have been annoyed, probably mad. But that's rude. When other kids act out I expect their parent to take care of it. I don't yell at the parent.

Drivers here are fast, impatient and vengeful. If someone behind me thinks I'm going too slow (even when I'm in the slow lane going the speed limit) they'll ride my tail for a few minutes, pass me, then cut me off for spite. A semi did this to me today! Yikes.

There is always something to do around here. Whether it's a festival, farmer's market, free event, a different park to play at, a site to go to, museum, something! I love it. You could doing something new every day and not go 50 miles from your house.

Grocery stores here are amazing. There are so many more choices of products. And all of them double coupons. We have a Harris Teeter across the street from us and I love it! It's my new favorite store. We often walk over there to check out their quick-sale produce section (they mark down the stuff that's about to go bad). We've had some really interesting fruits and veggies because of it. It's great.

There is a vast amount of diversity here. I can't even name all of the different nationalities I've come across in my month-and-a-half of being here. It's kind of nice. Because everyone is so different, everyone has their own style. I'm really not worried about dressing to fit in here :)

All in all, Virginia is very nice and I like it. I've met some great people and done some cool stuff. Good times.

Milestones

2010-05-22T17:40:00.009-04:00

I'm not exactly sure what is going on with his hair but it now has this curly-cue thing going on. I remember Liam had it, too. Maybe it's just what my kids go through... The rest of it is falling out, though.

He imitates facial expressions and coos and squeals and smiles a lot. He only really laughs when his chin is tickled. It's very cute.
At nearly 5 months, Mason has discovered his hands and feet; He'll stare at them for hours and chew on them. It's quite cute. He tries to chew on everything else, also. I think it's because he has a tooth and is getting another. Isn't that crazy? He has a tooth! He got it last Sunday and it kind of makes me sad.

We've also started him on rice cereal. He loves it. Fun.
He likes to scoot and moves around quite a bit.
scoot...
Roll over! Mason rolls now... sort of. Liam likes to get on the floor and roll with him. That's sometimes dangerous...

And now Liam:
When Liam doesn't like a food he'll shake his head with a disgusted look on his face and say "That's yikes." It's usually something like "that's yikes bread" or "that's yikes juice."

When Liam doesn't like anything else he'll say "That's Thomas." I really don't know what that means. I assume he's talking about Thomas the Train, but he likes Thomas the Train. He usually asks to play with Thomas or says "Where'd Thomas go? On the train track!" And we don't even have any Thomas toys...
We pay for cable in our rent (otherwise we wouldn't have it) and for some reason PBS isn't there. So Liam can't watch Curious George in the mornings anymore. His new favorite is The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He's always talking about "Mickey, Donald, Goofy" and saying "need mouseketool" to fix things. And when something isn't going quite right he says, "Oh, Tooles (Toodles)!" Toodles is a mechanical character that gives Mickey and friends tools (mouseketools) to fix things. For example:

One afternoon I put Liam down for a nap and he didn't want to sleep so he yelled "Mommy" for a little while and then started yelling "Oh, Tooles! Oh, Tooles!"

Liam doesn't always nap. I don't know why but it's tiring. It's nice when Liam does nap, though, because then the boys will be sleeping at the same time for a little while. Sanctuary!
We've been teaching Liam to recognize his emotions. It was supposed to help him calm down before acting out, which it does, but it also kind of backfired in a way. Now when Liam doesn't like something he'll sit down with a very depressing look on his face and say "iam (Liam) sad" until I guess what it is that he's sad about.

Liam loves "vroom vroom race cars." But he only calls a few cars "vroom vroom race cars." Apparently that phrase has a very special meaning to him :)

Always grease the cookie sheet

2010-05-19T20:34:00.000-04:00

Or you'll have a broken cookie mess like this. I don't know WHY recipes EVER say to place on an ungreased cookie sheet! Seriously. Grrr.

Happy Birthday!

2010-05-17T20:36:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday, Dave!
Liam helped Dave blow out his candle...

They had so much fun doing it that we sang "Happy Birthday" and the candle was lit and blown out multiple times.
And then we ate. Dave and I had cake. Liam had frosting.
Yummy birthday :)

Herndon Big Truck Days

2010-05-16T20:24:00.006-04:00

The Public Works Department of Herndon puts on a "Big Truck Days Event" every year where they set up some heavy equipment for little kids to look at and sit on. Liam loved it. He spent the first 15 minutes of being there running from one truck to the next, then finally calmed down enough to sit on some and play with the levers and knobs.
It was very bright and warm that day... can you tell?
Yeah, that's Mason in the carseat. I thought I had parked illegally so I didn't pull out the stroller so that we wouldn't stay too long and get a ticket :) It was hard to find parking, ok!
Fun, fun :)

Family

2010-05-12T20:41:00.004-04:00

We were able to go down to Orlando right before we moved but I never got around to posting the pictures... so here they are. I failed to get any of my parents, though. Sad.
Why, yes, I am still carrying around baby weight, thank you.
The sweetest Grandparents ever. And Great-Grandparents :)
I remember playing with these toys when I was a kid! Liam loved them.
All of my parents' kids (and kids-in-law) and grandkids, sans Ian who was working. I think it's funny how in pictures like this Dave is always closest to the camera... or is it just his head?... :)
Liam and Mason with Auntie Jackie.

Too fun. I love my family!

Ah, Motherhood

2010-05-01T19:41:00.003-04:00

The other day my nose was running while changing a diaper. I wiped it on my sleeve thinking I could just blame it on a kid later.

We always bathe Liam and Mason together. One day I rolled up my pant legs so that I could put my feet in the water to hold Mason in the bath. I put my clothed leg right under the running water.

I always start eating dinner at the same time as Dave and Liam. Sometimes Liam is done sooner than I would like or Mason doesn't allow me to sit through a meal. Either way I usually end up finishing dinner after the kids are in bed. The French eat 3 hour meals, right? So I guess that's not so weird.

In an effort to get more vegetables into Liam I made breadsticks with V8 in them. He wouldn't eat them because they were orange.

Liam constantly asks to play with other kids. Until I tell him to put on his shoes because we're going to playgroup/the park/the mall/ANYWHERE where other kids will be. And if we don't go because Liam told me he didn't want to, 3 hours later he's asking for kids again.

I have been peed-on, pooped-on and puked-on all in the same day.

And, yet, I still love my children. Motherhood is crazy like that.

4 Months Old!

2010-04-29T08:02:00.001-04:00

Time is flying!! No stats just yet but he's getting bigger, I promise :) He's almost grown out of 3-6 month size clothes!
Mason doesn't really laugh yet but he's got this kind of deep, throaty chuckle going on. He smiles all the time and cries minimally, usually for reasons that are easy to fix.

He still has dark blue eyes and the large birthmark on the left half of his head. The birthmark has lightened a little but gets darker when he's upset. We call it his "mood mark".
Mason's newborn hair is falling out, just like Liam's did except he's more bald on the side of his head with the birthmark. He's got the comb-over look going for him now.

Mason still sleeps ALL the time! If he's awake for more than 2.5 hours he gets tired and angry. I keep wondering if I'm doing something wrong or doing something right...
He's started chewing on everything from hands to blankets. His favorite chew toy is this little blue doggie. It's fitting because Liam and Dave call him "MaseDog". I think Liam may be a little jealous of it because he's always trying to take it from Mason. Sometimes he'll even swap him the monkey!
Mason LOVES anything to do with Liam. Especially when Liam is jumping near/on him in a potentially harmful manner. Liam can make Mason chuckle like no one else. Mason cries when Liam leaves his side. Or when Liam runs cars into his head.

DC Temple

2010-04-26T19:51:00.005-04:00

Since we don't know anyone in the area that could possibly watch the kids for us while we go to the temple (not to mention I'm nursing) I probably won't be able to go for a while. So we went to the DC Temple's Visitor's Center. It was nice, although geared toward people who aren't members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Temple itself was beautiful, though.
My parents were sealed here but I've never been. It kind of gives me this sense of beginning and end to be on the grounds.
When Liam won't sit still for a picture Dave asks him to hold up a car (which he always has in his hand).
Temple through the trees. This is what I imagine the Sacred Grove should look like.

To the city!

2010-04-24T21:06:00.000-04:00

We finally ventured into Washington, DC as a family. It went pretty well.

Long story short: We're close enough that downtown DC should only be 30 minutes away. We've found that whether we drive or take public transportation (Dave tested it alone) it takes about an hour to get there. And that's during non-peak times of day.
Yes, I am that mom. You know, the one that puts her kid on a leash. I'm ok with that. I'm certain that this leash has saved his life a time or two.

We spent nearly all our time in the Natural History Museum. It's the only thing we visited on the National Mall. Liam was enthralled. There was so much to see that we didn't even leave the main floor.

After our picnic lunch we headed back home. I still haven't decided whether it's better to drive or take public transportation. I guess we'll just have to test more. I wonder how the boys would do on the Metro...

Keeping it Local: Sully Historical Site

2010-04-22T20:48:00.000-04:00

This is Sully Historical Site. It's a beautiful place is about 10 minutes away from us. This was once a plantation owned by Robert E. Lee's uncle. Now all the buildings have been restored and it's on the National Register for Historic Places.

The Slave Quarters. The main buildings are beautiful, made with walls of stone, but I totally forgot to get a picture of them. It was just such a pretty day :)

If I didn't have small children I would love to take a tour of this place. It was nice to just walk around it, though.
Liam looks like a little boy in these pictures!! He's not a toddler anymore. I can't believe how fast they grow...

Keeping it Local: Air and Space Museum

2010-04-20T19:56:00.013-04:00

I know what you're thinking: Isn't the National Air and Space Museum ON the National Mall in DC? Why, yes it is. This is the Steven F Udvar Hazy Center. It's basically an extension of the Air and Space Museum that's on the National Mall--everything that won't fit there is on display here. It's large. And it's about 10 minutes from us.

"Scary plane"
Part of Transformers 2 was filmed here. It wasn't a very good movie but I thought you'd like to know anyway :)

It was really cool. I don't know why I look so sad in this picture...
The Enola Gay. This one dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. Scary.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise.
The museum is located right next to the Dulles Airport so when you go to the top of the museum's control tower you can watch planes landing at the airport while hearing the live chatter between pilots and air-traffic controllers. Pretty cool.

Advice

2010-04-16T19:55:00.006-04:00

My 2-year-old is being, well, a 2-year-old. I need some advice on a couple of things.

1. Brushing Toddler Teeth
We've been brushing Liam's teeth literally since he got them. He's used to it. But lately all he wants to do is suck the water off of his toothbrush (we don't yet use toothpaste). I've tried giving him a toothbrush to hold while I try to brush with a 2nd toothbrush; He just sucks the water off both and doesn't open his mouth. We've sung songs, growled, smiled, laughed, yelled, anything to get him to open his mouth but as soon as the toothbrush is in there his lips close and it's impossible to get them open!! How do I brush his teeth?!?!

2. Naptime. Or lack thereof
Liam has stopped taking naps even though I'm sure he still needs one. By the end of the day he's unbearable!! Granted he does fall asleep right at 7pm, which is nice, but I'd almost rather him take a nap and go to bed at 8 if it meant him being happier and nicer all day. I've tried letting him watch a movie at naptime in the hopes that he'll fall asleep, putting him down later, wearing him out in the morning--no go. How do I get him to nap!?!?

3. Bullying
Liam went from being the smaller kid who got pushed around to being a bigger kid who pushes around. I don't know what to do. He thinks he's playing when he pushes other kids. I think he just doesn't know his strength or that he's hurting others but I'm having a hard time getting that point across to him. He used to bend back Mason's fingers all the time. He didn't understand that fingers weren't supposed to do that or that it hurt Mason... so I did it to him (not so much that it really hurt, just enough to show him that it could hurt and wasn't right). He hasn't done it since. I don't want to demonstrate everything like that, though. There has to be a less painful way to get this point across. So, other than beating my child, how do I get him to be nice to other kids?!?!

Help!!

In other news: Mason is generally happy and almost sleeping 12 hours at night (hooray!!). The nap schedule remains a thorn in my side, however. We're getting there...

Keeping it Local: Herndon

2010-04-15T19:44:00.000-04:00

We've been driving around the town checking things out, doing little things here and there. Here are some highlights:
This is at the indoor fountain in the mall. Yes, this is a highlight. Liam watched these little boats for a long time :) There was also a really cool play area at this mall with trains, which Liam also really liked.
Trees are in blossom everywhere!! It's lovely.
This is downtown Herndon. We went to check out the library. It was housed in a really cool old building (that I forgot to photo) but the actual library was rather disappointing. The downtown area was cute, though.
Dave loves the grass here. It is really nice and soft. Not at all like Florida grass...
There's a really long trail that runs through parts of Fairfax county that used to be the path of a railroad. This train car sits in downtown Herndon at a point on that trail. Liam was really excited about it!

Keeping it Local: Frying Pan Farm Park

2010-04-14T15:03:00.011-04:00

We've been trying to stay close to home since the big drive up to Virginia so that we're not stuck in the car for too long. Frying Pan Farm Park is about 5 minutes away from our house so we visited. It was the kind of place you picture when you think of a farm. There were lots of animals and I think this may have been Liam's first visit to a farm. He loved it.
He kept picking up handfuls of grass and trying to feed it to the animals. Except for the ducks--he tried to feed them rocks.

There was barrel racing going on. This was the warm-up area.
There was another, bigger turkey that didn't like Liam for some reason. He puffed up his feathers and acted like he wanted to charge. The camera batteries died before that happened, though, so no pictures...
As soon as we got to the farm Liam kept telling us that he wanted to see the pigs. We found them inside a stable and it smelled foul!! Liam loved watching them, though, and wanted to stay. I think it's because there were a bunch of piglets that were pretty cute. We made him leave rather quickly, though :) Good times.

Cows!!

New House

2010-04-12T09:50:00.006-04:00

Well, actually it's an apartment. We like it, though. Dave found it online and we signed a contract without even looking at it in person so we totally lucked out! It's just about as nice as our last place, which was technically a condo (which are usually nicer). Here's a photo tour of the place (a friend suggested I do this last we moved but I never got around to it... so I'm doing it now before it gets pushed aside). Please ignore the mess... we did just move :)
The kitchen. It's big. And nice. I like it. Gas stove and oven, which we haven't had for maybe 4 years, so that's nice although it makes the whole place really warm when we use the oven. That'll be good in winter.
The living room is big with lots of big bright windows.
And the big living area connects to the dining area with a balcony/porch (we're on the 2nd floor). We're afraid Liam will eventually learn to push out a window screen so we only open the windows enough that he wouldn't be able to fit through them. The weather here is perfect right now!
There wasn't enough cabinet space so we bought these immense shelves. They're unnatractive but very useful. Dave calls them urban utilitarian. We have a lot of stuff. We actually had a hard time finding places to put all our storage stuff because our last apartment had a lot of closets. This one does not.
The boys' room. That's right. They share a room! I thought that transition would be really difficult to make (that's why I didn't do it at our last place) but it was super easy! The boys already went to bed at the same time, 7pm. The first night we tried to put Liam in there by himself but he kind of freaked out. So I went in there and sat on the couch to nurse Mason. Liam fell asleep in about 5 minutes with me sitting there and then Mason fell asleep without too much noise. Liam doesn't even wake up when Mason wakes in the middle of the night. I know this might become a problem when I stop nursing but for now it works beautifully :)
The 2nd bath. There is a bath but it's not in the picture.
Office/guest room :) We thought this room would be bigger and have a door. Sadly it does not. But you come to visit we can move the desk and put the blow-up mattress in here and put a big curtain-blanket over the door. It's kind of away from the main part of the apartment so it'll be mostly private. So you still have a room to stay in if you come. It's just not what we thought it was going to be.
And , finally, there's this lovely tree in bloom right outside our windows/balcony. It's beautiful and smells divine. Unfortunately we can't leave our balcony door open to let in fresh air because bees that are attracted to the tree will fly in the apartment. Oh, well. It's pretty.

You'll notice that there were no pictures of the master bedroom... that's because it's the catch-all room. Any box we didn't unpack or couldn't find a place for is in there. Eventually we'll find somewhere to put them. For now, our room is a mess. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

The Move

2010-04-10T20:20:00.006-04:00

We're finally mostly settled-in so I'm finally going to blog about the actual move. Last Friday movers came to pack up all of our stuff (yes, we GOT moved!! So nice!!) so a couple of wonderful friends invited/allowed us to go over to their houses and hang out for a few hours each while the moving crew was there. That way we got to say goodbye to a few people and Liam was out of the way while everything was going on. When we got back home Liam kept running around, looking behind every door yelling "Oh nooooo! Stuff gone!" It was cute and sad all at the same time.
Friday night we cleaned and Saturday morning we started driving. Six hours the first day, 4 the second and 2 the third. The drive was actually much better than I had expected. Liam was relatively calm, watched a lot of movies and ate a lot of snacks. Mason slept nearly the entire drive. When he would wake up we'd stop and let Liam run around somewhere while I took care of Mason.
We found this exercise park off the interstate somewhere in North Carolina. Liam loved it. After the first day of driving (the longest day) we got to the hotel and Liam and I ran up and down hallways. He was literally bouncing off the walls. That'll teach me to trap a 2 year old in a car... The hotel stay wasn't fun but it was better than driving it all in one day. We had our own pack-n-play and got the hotel's delivered to our room. Liam was afraid to be by himself so He and Dave slept in one half and Mason and I slept in the other (our hotel had a door separating 2 rooms--we planned it that way).
Before we moved we kept telling Liam we were moving to a new house and he kind of seemed excited about it. Until we were driving and staying in hotels. These were our conversations on the road:

Liam: Wanna go home, Mama.
Me: We're going to the new house. Yay!
Liam: No go new house. Wanna go home.

This line of thinking continued until yesterday when our conversations started sounding more like:

Me: We're going home now, Liam.
Liam: No go home. Wanna go new house.
Me: The new house is home.
Liam Go new house.
I'm so glad he's warming up to the new place. It's a big relief, seriously. He was a little freaked there for a bit. But now that all our stuff is in place and we're getting back to a routine he's doing a lot better. Overall the move went much smoother than I expected. I hope this is a good move for us. In fact, I know it will be :)

I know this was really informational--sorry if you read all that :) I like to record these kind of things for posterity... More to come soon on our actual apartment and everything else :)

Virginia is lovely in Spring

2010-04-07T08:45:00.002-04:00

We made it. After what felt like a very long trip, we're here in Virginia with most of our stuff unpacked and minimal freaking out. No pictures yet but I'll have some soon with a better description of what's going on. Ah, new adventures :)

Big Bunny Party

2010-04-02T21:36:00.000-04:00

Every year this mega-church here in Jax puts on this big Easter thing called the Big Bunny Party. We went again and had lots of fun.
There were a bunch of really cool balloon sculptures.
Liam jumped on 3 different bounce houses for about a minute each. Good times.
The Easter Egg Hunt for the 2 year olds was on the playground.

He only wanted blue eggs.
Liam wasn't afraid of the bunny at all! Last year he cowered. This year he walked right up to the bunny and gave him high fives and hugs.
He picked up this green one to move it out of his way. He threw it down when he got out of the tunnel. I don't know why he only wanted the blue ones...
Mason slept the whole time :)
And Liam got to eat about 2 of his candies; Most of them weren't toddler-safe. Sad! But we went to another egg hunt at our church and Liam got some safer candy :) All-in-all it was a fun day!

Good-bye Beach

2010-03-31T17:03:00.000-04:00

I will miss you.

This was Mason's first time to the beach. And probably his last for a while. So sad.

3 Months Old!!

2010-03-29T21:48:00.004-04:00

Time flies, huh? I can't believe all this kid is doing now! I don't have any stats this month because Mason doesn't get another well-child checkup until next month. Last time he was weighed he was 12 lbs 14 oz.

Anyway, he can hold his head up now! I can hold him upright without supporting his head. So exciting for me!! When he does tummy time he even scoots his legs like he's trying to crawl. Crazy.

He coos and is starting to babble. It's so cute. He likes it when we sing to him and is usually enthralled with whatever Liam is doing (which is usually yelling in Mason's face, "Hi Mase!").

Mason is extremely chill. He only really gets upset when he's tired or awake in the car. He does not like the car.

After getting over his cold Mason bounced right back to the schedule we had him on. Well, mostly, anyway. He nurses more than he used to but only wakes twice a night. It's waaaaayyy better than when he was sick, though!

Sometimes I think Mason looks exactly like Liam and other times I think they look totally different. I bet I'll always feel that way :)

Liam calls him "Mase" and once called him "Mase Car". I like that. Macecar. I think that might become his new nickname :)

Easter Pics

2010-03-29T19:35:00.006-04:00

I took some cheesy Easter photos. Mason was very happy and cooperative. Liam not so much.
"Hide!" as Liam would say.

Liam pushing Mason with his foot. I had to bribe Liam with fruit snacks to get him to take pictures.
Sadly this was the most normal smile I got out of Liam... he looks a little maniacal.

And, yes, I know they're cheesy pictures. But they're just so much fun to take :)