Our trip down to D.C. with my mom and dad was great. We walked up and down the mall with the children and saw the WWII Memorial (first picture), Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument (last pic.). It was especially fun for the kids because Nathan- who had been out of town for the week- met us downtown and we were all excited to see him. After 6 days of rainy, blustery weather Friday was a beautiful day, perfect for seeing some sights in D.C!
Alyssa Marie is 10 months and as usual, I can't believe it. She is still a sweet, happy baby- unless you take too long getting her food! Let me try to give you a snapshot of Aly J. at 10 months old. She still doesn't have any teeth though she has two that look like they will come in any day. She has started doing these short, staccato grunts to get my attention and she will keep doing them intermittently until I come and see what she needs. Aly isn't crawling yet, she seems to think she is going to skip it altogether and go straight to walking. Apparently that is what my sisters and I did...which explains a lot :) The other morning I went in to check on her and found her with her head and feet down and her little hiney sticking straight up in the air, she looked like a little human tee-pee. She kept pushing off with her feet and getting increasingly frustrated that she wasn't going anywhere! She still does the light bulb though it has now evolved into both hands twisting and her feet kicking- it looks like some sort of spastic hula dance- I have no idea how she keeps it all going! Anyway, I thought it was noteworthy that after 10 months of being smothered and mauled by her sibling's 'love', Alyssa is still with us and happy... Then again maybe that is why she is trying so hard to walk, so she can get outa here!!!
Dancing around uninhibited is common place in our home. While we get meals going or while we clean we often turn a song on loud and all dance around together. Everyone is involved from Nathan down to Alyssa. I have never documented this before because A: we are all too busy getting down and B: because I am afraid if I see what I look like in a picture I may be tempted to stop :) Anyway, soon after 'Papas' arrived(Our kids call both grandparents Papa) they were solicited for an impromptu dance. Seeing as I didn't have a partner for this particular dance I felt it safe to document the moment. Of all of my family's dancing I know this dance will stand out and be remembered for the fun they had cutting a rug with Papas!
This Monday Kohen got his cast off. He was a great little patient. They put on a gown and then ear phones while they took his cast off. I thought he might not be a big fan of the loud, spinning pizza cutter blade but he sat patiently while they removed his cast. The interesting thing happened when we got home and he was trying to adjust to using his arm again. Hours after getting his cast off he, not realizing it, would hold his arm in the exact position that the cast had held it in. I thought that was kind of funny, though today he is using his arm more. He seems to be happy to have two hands that can get food to his mouth again!
On Saturday while Nathan was home for the day before he had to leave again, we all loaded up and went to the Air and Space Museum. Nathan was able to go with his parents a week or so ago when they were here and if I would have known how Kohen would react we would have went with that time too! Kohen walked in, looked up and saw the planes hanging and parked all over the giant hangar and flipped out!!!! There is no way I could have predicted Kohen's response- pointing, jumping, laughing, squealing and frantic to see all of the planes- Nathan and I were so surprised. The museum was awesome and my dad especially enjoyed it too, and we all had fun watching Kohen's reaction- which probably sustained it's energy for at least 45 min. We rounded out our trip by going up to the flight deck to watch planes land and take off from nearby Dulles Airport. What a fun outing!
Having my mom and dad here has been great. With Nathan out of town they are a huge help. So huge that I am starting to feel guilty...well, almost! My mom especially is doing so many of my 'mom responsibilities' and it works well for both of us because instead of trying to spread myself over 3 children's needs, with her help I can focus on one child while she takes care of another. Meanwhile Papa John is no doubt getting the third child all riled up playing a chasing, hiding, or wrestling game of some sort. Now I am just trying to figure out how I can get them stranded here forever...any suggestions?Three Things That Scare Me:
Three people Who Make Me Laugh:
Three Things I Think You Should Listen To:
Three Shows I Watched As A Kid:
Poor Alyssa. She is trying to figure out how to crawl and she is feeling frustrated. I can tell she wants to just stand up and walk and is irritated that she has to crawl first. Between the wood floors and her clothes she does a lot of sliding around and ends up always going in reverse. It is kind of comical because when she starts practicing she ends up only able to scoot backwards and getting more and more upset the further back she goes. In a particularly unsuccessful session Aly started backing up and amazingly she somehow reversed herself into this tight spot between the couch and the wall. The more frustrated she got the harder she tried and the further back she went! The bottom picture almost looks like a smile but she was actually just relieved when she knew I was coming to save her!
Kennedy was so excited to color eggs this year. The confusion started when I said we were about ready to "dye the eggs". Kennedy got this worried look and asked, "What happens to the eggs when we "die" them?" Still oblivious to her real worry I answered, "We will put them back into the carton." To which she replied, "Yeah, but are they dead?!" After a lengthy explanation by me she still looked concerned so Nathan took over and in one sentence had clarified things for Kennedy...Just another reminder that Nathan is doing all the talking when we have to have the 'birds and the bees' talk with our kids- he is such a better communicator than I am! But I digress...us poor communicators do a lot of that! The coloring of the eggs went beautifully. It was fun for the children because they were able to be creative, and there were no spills- which was the definition of success to me! It went egg-sactly as I hoped it would!...sorry couldn't resist!
For my birthday Nathan surprised me with Christina Aguilera tickets! The sweetest part is that he bought them clear back in January and kept it a secret. I wanted to see this concert because I think that Christina has one of the best voices of my generation. Highlights of the evening: Nathan and I ate at a yummy little cafe' and then Nathan ran to go put some more coins in the meter (there's a highlight right there- $20 parking garages vs. $4 metered parking spot! woo hoo!) and while he was gone some 50 year old rich guy -I assume this because of his clothes and the pimped out Navigator he dropped his kids off in- totally hit on me. What!? This was a mini highlight because even though he was old and out of his ever-loving mind - I appreciate his...fortitude. And Nathan and I had a great laugh about it. Anyway, as you might guess the concert was amazing. We had great seats and could see really well. Christina (I feel weird calling her by her first name like we are friends or something, but what else do I call her?) belted out song after song- I can't believe she does that each night and still has a voice! Another highlight of the evening was people watching...too much to tell in a blog. The last picture is of this man who sat in front of us who was there with his son. His son looked about 3. He was not wearing ear plugs. What kind of a parent brings their 3 year old to a Christina Aguilera concert to have their innocent little ears permanently damaged roughly 3 hours after he should already be in bed?!!! Well, Nathan heard the guy proudly talking on the radio the next morning about taking his kid to the concert. We had suspected he was a d.j. because he had a radio station on his jacket but still- that is no excuse! Anyway- great night, thank you Nathan!!!!
Anybody ever read Memoirs of a Geisha? In the book there is a little girl nicknamed "Pumpkin" because she constantly curls up her tongue in a way that looks like the curly vine at the top of a pumpkin. At the time when I read that I really couldn't picture exactly what the author was describing. Then about a month ago Alyssa started to stick out her tongue in this odd, pointy curled way and immediately I thought of 'Pumpkin'. The fact that I already call Aly 'Pumpkin Pie' is a coincidence- and this little quirk is now one more reason the nickname fits. In related news, it took me forever to get a shot of her with her tongue out. I seriously took dozens of pictures over several days trying to catch her doing it. She actually does it an awful lot, especially when she is working at something and concentrating. The problem is that she rarely sticks her tongue out and holds it there and by the time I could snap the picture she would be done! It was so frustrating! So hopefully the 3 pictures show at least the progression of what she does. This girl moves too quick for me!! 
This afternoon we walked over to Tom and Rosie's house with the children. They were excited to get to see more of their Gma and Gpa Bonnie and Norm who are visiting. It is the first time that we put Alyssa in the backpack carrier and she was loving it! She was all smiley and laying her head down on Nathan's back. I love the picture of Nathan with the kids because everyone is all posed and then you see Aly sticking her little head up like, "Hello! Don't forget me!" But as usual this afternoon Kohen was providing the comic relief. We recently purchased the movie Peter Pan and so there has definitely been an increase in swash-buckling around our home. Along with the pirate-play there have been several questions and conversations about shadows. In the last picture get this; Kohen was actually trying to fight his shadow...I am not kidding. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried! But I think the main problem with fighting your own shadow is- much like a dog chasing it's tail- I am not sure you can actually win. Oh well, ignorance is bliss...and quite entertaining to watch!
