A trip to Washington DC

Today (March 30), Evan, Natalie and I drove into DC to meet up with our friends Jess & Cody. Every year, DC holds the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which started yesterday and runs through mid-April. It's a huge event, for those who haven't been, and there are tons of small festival-related events throughout the next few weeks. Evan and I hadn't been before, so we were really excited to go! The cherry blossoms were absolutely beautiful, even if it was cloudy and a bit chillier than we would've liked (low 50s).

We first went to Georgia Brown's, a restaurant that serves southern-style food, and had an AMAZING brunch. It's expensive, but you end up getting an entree to take home as well, so it's food for the day. I highly recommend if you ever have the chance! We then walked about a mile, past the White House and Treasury building, where we saw our first cherry blossom tree, and had to stop and take a couple of pictures (Top: Evan & Abbe; Bottom: Abbe, Jess & Cody)

We then walked down to the new WWII memorial (opened in 2004), which is absolutely beautiful. They've done an excellent job of integrating it with the Lincoln Memorial, which is at the other end of the reflecting pool. The surrounding columns bear the names of all 50 US states, and the US protectorates, in the order they ratified the Constitution.
The Pacific side of the WWII memorial, featuring battles of the Pacific.

The Atlantic side of the WWII memorial, featuring battles of the Atlantic.

We then walked down to the Tidal Basin, which is surrounded by cherry blossom trees all the way around. It's really beautiful, all the pink and white blossoms. Here's a shot of the mass of cherry blossom trees:

Here are two close-up shots of the cherry blossoms:

Here are a couple of shots of Evan, Natalie and I in front of a cherry blossom tree, with the Jefferson Memorial in the background across the Tidal Basin.

Natalie was sleeping almost the whole time (who wouldn't, being wheeled around in a big fleece sack?), but we got her to "hold" some cherry blossoms for this last picture:

All in all, quite a fun day. We ended up walking about 3-4 miles total, over about 2.5 hours, and came home really tired, but in a good way! We had a really fun time - I'm glad we finally got to go!

Naked baby!

Ok, not really. But we have found that, like many other babies, Natalie seems happier when wearing nothing but a diaper. That ends up translating to her playing and smiling more when she's just in a diaper. Unfortunately, since she was born in the winter we've not had many days where it's been warm enough in the house to have her wearing nothing. So, one day when it was a bit warmer, I took a cute little video of her in just a diaper. Enjoy!

My first haircut

We don't really want to cut Natalie's hair, as the whole point is to let it grow as much as possible as she gets bigger. However, there was one piece that was really hanging down over her forehead, and almost into her eyes, as well as one piece on either side that hung over her ears. So, I trimmed up just those pieces to even everything up. The front may be a little short, but I think in the long run it will be good as it can all grow together. Here's a before (left) and an after (right) shot so you can see the difference.

The hair also looks a bit different because the "after" shot on the right was taken right after her bath last night, so her hair was nice and clean! I think she looks cute, especially because the lack of hair on her forehead makes her big blue eyes look even bigger. Tell me what you think!

Those crazy dogs

Ok, so this post isn't about Natalie, but it was so funny that I have to put it up here. My parents visited the past couple of days, and of course brought their puppy Rizzo with them. We took Rizzo, Calla, and Natalie for a walk Monday afternoon, and apparently Rizzo felt that we weren't walking Calla appropriately, so she thought she'd help out. I apologize for the quality of the video - Evan took it with his cell phone, so it's not the best, but I think you get the idea:




Poor Calla didn't know what to do! What's this crazy puppy doing? But they are getting along pretty well, and I think once Rizzo is bigger they will have lots of fun playing together.

I do also have some pictures of Natalie from the visit, but they are unforunately still on my camera, which is not with me at work, so I'll have to put those up later. Yes, I'm blogging at work - but I'm done now, and promise to get back to work! :)

Easter weekend

First off, I apologize for the lack of posts last week. I try to do at least one a week, and I know it's been 10 days since the last one. However, as I mentioned previously Evan was sick, and just as he was feeling better I came down with some sort of 24 hour cold/flu, so last week was a bit of a wash. The household is feeling better now, though, so I can catch everyone up!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. Evan, Natalie, Calla and I drove up to Evan's parents' house in NJ for an Easter visit. It was a great weekend! We hadn't seen Natalie's grandparents Lynn & Doug since January, or her uncle Scott since December. Plus, Natalie got to meet her grand-grandmother for the first time! Natalie also made her first trip to mass on Sunday, and she did VERY well. She put the older kids around us to shame, as she was very well behaved and quiet while awake, and after a while just fell asleep - even though we had her right near the choir! She's such a good baby. We also saw family friends The Massimines for dinner on Sunday, so she got to go to all kinds of new places. It was a lovely trip, and I think everyone had a great time. I've put some photos here from our visit.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Ok, so I'm not Irish. At all. But Evan's got it in his lineage, so I can wish everyone a happy St. Paddy's day. We even both wore a little bit of green today...although Evan's was in his face mostly. Unfortunately, he's been sick since early yesterday (sunday) morning. We're unsure whether it's food poisoning from our dinner on Saturday (more on that below) or if he got the nasty stomach bug that's been going around. Either way, he had a really rough day yesterday, and I was starting to worry about dehydration. However, today he was able to have some breakfast and tea, and I'll be feeding him chicken soup for dinner, so I'm less worried. I think he'll be home from work again tomorrow, but hopefully that will be it.

So, we went out to dinner with a bunch of friends on Saturday night as our friends Matt & Sam were visiting from Texas. It was a good time, and it was really great to see everyone. Unfortunately, dinner ran really late, as some of the guests were running late, so after the first couple of hours Natalie got really fussy. It wasn't her fault - her schedule got way off, and it was hot and loud in the restaurant. But, everyone got to see/meet her, which was the whole point.

Not much else to report, we're just trying to get Evan healthy. Send him your good wishes, and we send our love to all.

Happy 3 months old!

I can't believe it's been 3 months already. The time has flown since December, that's for sure. Natalie has grown so much, and is really becoming her own little person. I love watching her personality emerge, and to be able to really think about what kind of a girl she's going to be.

We had a good weekend, mostly because we didn't do much of anything. But sometimes that's really nice. Saturday Natalie was VERY awake, so we did a lot of playing. She then fell asleep early (about 9:30pm!), so the plan was to do that again on Sunday. However, she was very tired on Sunday (maybe because of the time change), so we didn't do quite as much playing. She didn't go to sleep too late last night (about 10:40, so 9:40 to her!), but was up about 4-5 times, which is a lot more often than normal for her. I'm hoping it's just the time change, and within a few days hopefully that will stop. I had gotten used to getting 4-5 hours straight - I don't know if I can handle going back to only 2 hours or so at a stretch! :)

We've gotten some great pictures over the past 3 days, so here's a new slideshow. I love that she focuses on the camera, giving me some great shots of her beautiful eyes (and the rest of her isn't too bad, either!).

A new milestone

Yesterday afternoon, March 4, Natalie rolled over all by herself! It was the first time I've seen it happen (unfortunately, Evan hadn't gotten home from work yet so he missed it). I was very excited, and so proud of her! I think she freaked herself out a bit - I laid her down on her back, and she just flipped herself over very quickly, followed by a brief pause and crying. So, she got on her stomach, but was then unsure as to what to do. That can come later!

We spent some time on the floor this evening, encouraging her to roll over, but she hasn't done it on her own again. She will roll over with our help, but nothing solo. I've also been putting her on her tummy more to help get her used to it. She likes when she's propped up on her arms, and she was nice enough to hold still long enough for me to grab a picture. Hopefully, we'll get a video of her rolling over soon!

A visit from the Hoffmans

My mom & dad visited this weekend, as they hadn't seen Natalie in quite a few weeks and were missing her a lot! It was a great visit; we had nice weather and they were able to dote on Natalie.

The biggest thing about their visit was that they brought their new puppy with them! On Thursday they picked up a 9-week-old cocker spaniel puppy they named Rizzo. She's absolutely adorable, as you can see here (more below the pictures):

She's a really great puppy, and was very well behaved! Calla was a little weirded out by having another dog in her house, but they got along well. I think once Rizzo is bigger they'll have a great time playing together.

Not much else to report; Natalie has had a very good week. Daycare is going great; they take very good care of her. She's growing like a weed, and almost turning over by herself. Video of that will definitely be posted! Everyone take care, and I will post again later this week.