Visiting friends

Last weekend, we visited my friends Kelly and Chris, who just moved up to Maryland from NC. I went to college with Kelly and lived with her for two years; since then we haven't gotten to see each other that much. So it's great to have them only about an hour away! Plus, our kids are VERY close in age - her daughter is only  about 8 weeks younger than Natalie, and her twin boys are two months older than Henry. The girls "met" when they were 3 and 4 months old, and we'd never seen each others' boys! So it was really great to get to hang out with Kelly and get all 5 kids together!

Luckily, both Sydney and Natalie love being princesses (and luckily Sydney had two dresses!)

 What do you do after dressing like a princess? Work on your laptop, of course!

We threw all 5 kids on the couch, and I managed to snag a pretty decent photo of them all

The biggest hit of all the toys at their house were definitely the cleaning set - vaccuum, mops, brooms, all sized for kids. We ended up having a parade around the house with them

Then, this past Friday, Natalie and Henry made a couple more new friends. They stayed overnight Thursday with my sister, and she took them on Friday to her friend Colene's house - Carrie actually watched 4 kids all day by herself! She was obviously exhausted that night, but did a fantastic job. Luckily, Colene's girls also love playing dress up

 Fun with 3D glasses!

 I'm calling this Henry's "Hey Ladies" pose. Man, we are so in for it later on!

I'm always excited when the kids get to make new friends - can't wait for us all to hang out again soon.

Random iPhone photos

With my new iPhone, it's so much easier to get pictures off of my phone - just sync it up to the computer through iTunes, and transfer! Much easier than with my old Droid (or maybe I just didn't know the procedure as well). So, I've been backing up my phone photos on my computer, which allows me to share them with you all here!

1. From Ms. Essie: the kids being adorable at daycare!

 2. Henry cuteness

 3. The kids at dinner time (from Evan)

 4. Also from Ms. Essie: a butterfly got trapped in the house, and let the kids hold it! I love the look of wonder on Natalie's face

 5. The kids having fun trying on winter hats at Target.

 6. Henry and Ellie, our friends Beth & Jason's little girl. They had a pretty good playdate!

7. Natalie braving the rain we got from Hurricane Irene. This was during one of the lighter moments in the storm.

8. A bed we created for the kids on the floor in our bedroom

9. Cuteness in front of the house (courtesy of Evan again)

10. Natalie swimming in her underwear at the Friends of the Va Pep Band fall bbq

11. The kids on our friend Heather's backyard hammock (courtesy of Heather)

Living room playtime

These shots are from last Friday, the same day that Essie cut Henry's hair (note the Mohawk). I went to see a movie with my girlfriend, so Evan let the kids have some fun on the Wii. Natalie's remote is active, whereas Henry's is just for him to hold. Natalie would freak out if Henry actually messed up her game!

The "mommy!" at the end is because the Mi character that came up and was batting is my Mi, and she recognized it.

Then over the weekend Evan built a pretty fantastic fort for the kids.

This kind of stuff is one of the reasons why I went through all of the kids' toys over the weekend and found some things to donate. Our kids are very lucky with all of the toys they have, and yet they often like to play with boxes, and pillows, and other things like that! It's fine (I just want them to have fun), but Id rather let them keep the things they really do play with, and donate the rest, teaching Natalie a good lesson about giving.

Dance time!

We took the summer off from dance class for a couple of reasons, including wanting to save a little money and having very hectic schedules that made it easier to not have to worry about getting Natalie to class every week. But with Natalie's love of dance class, we definitely wanted to sign her back up this fall. Unfortunately, Miss Helen changed around the times of the classes so the tap/ballet classes were all mid-morning, which prevented me from being able to sign Natalie up for it. Instead, we're doing "Fairytale Ballet" on Thursday afternoons. I don't actually know a lot about what the class consists of, because I couldn't go to the first one last week, and unfortunately I won't get to go to this week's either (work interfering both times). But from the photos and what Evan told me, it looks like they read a fairy tale story and do ballet.

Natalie's friend Ruth (from daycare) is also in the class this time, and it looks like the girls had a fantastic time together! We're taking the girls over together, and Ruth's parents are meeting us there after they're done at work. Evan said Ruth was a little scared because her parents weren't there, and it was new for her, but she did very well despite that.

 Story time. 

Natalie and Ruth

 Ballet steps

 Lining up for "across the floors"

 Here are Ruth's parents Dave & Laura with the girls. Wish I'd been there - can't wait to take them both in two weeks!

Leesburg water park

Last weekend (over Labor Day) Evan's cousin came to visit with her kids. He hadn't seen her since before we were married, so of course our kids had never met each other either. I'd only met her once, so it was really great to get to know some of my extended family as well! We all had a blast together, even though the visit was a very short one (they got here mid-afternoon on Saturday and had to head out Monday morning).

Since they had a pretty long drive to get here, we decided to stay close to home on Sunday, but we still wanted to take everyone to do something. Our plan: A.V. Symington! It's the relatively new (open two summers now; we did go last year), and such a great deal! Came to about $18.00 for the four of us to get in (Henry is free), you can bring your own lunch, and stay as long as you want. The weather was a little (ok, a lot) gray starting out, and we were worried about a storm, but luckily that passed and it ended up being really nice out!

I thought I had a video of Natalie going down the slide last year, but apparently not. Trust me - she has much less fear compared to last summer!

But she has the same ego that all little kids have. There's nothing she likes better than watching videos of herself!

This year, Henry got in on the fun. It's amazing to me how much less fear he has than she did! There's no way at 18 months she would've done this slide all by herself.

Yep, he went down the slide alone. One of us was right there to grab him, but amazingly he never once slipped or went face first into the water. More than that - he figured out how to get up there all by himself!

Henry is 17 months!

Henry is 17 months old today! I can't believe he's almost a year and a half already. He's growing into such a little boy now! While I know he's still a "toddler" (and really, he's only just started toddling recently, so he definitely still qualifies), he's becoming his own little man. 

You can see the devil in there, can't you? He definitely has his own personality now, that's for sure! In fact, we've been going through a little bit of a rough patch the last couple of months. Most of the time he's completely fine, and really is a happy little guy. We know how very lucky we are to have two kids who listen to us, get along very well, and are generally happy. But, for the past couple of months, at least once a day he throws a MONSTER of a tantrum. Screaming for no reason, nothing makes him happy...we've taken to putting him in either the "time out" spot for 30-60 seconds, or up in his crib until he calms down. Neither of us are willing to deal with it anymore, and the time out does seem to work. He doesn't completely calm down, but he can get himself under a bit better control. The worst lately has been at meal time - apparently, we have to have at least one meal a day (either dinner or lunch - he's FANTASTIC at breakfast) where he throws an enormous fit, doesn't want to eat, throws things, etc. Our current response is fine, but you'll be hungry! It's especially frustrating when we've specifically made things we KNOW he likes, and yet still doesn't want to eat them.We know these things are all phases, but it's definitely a frustrating one. The one plus side is that we don't want to take him out to eat anywhere as we never know what will happen, so we're eating out less!

The screaming for no reason has gotten a bit better since he's started walking. I showed this video last month from when he started taking his first few steps:

And from last night we have this one:

Look how much progress he's made in a month! He still falls down, but instead of staying down and crawling he now gets right back up. Yep, walking everywhere. That of course means he now has to wear shoes when we leave the house, and he's NOT a fan of those, but I figure with repetition he'll get better. He's got one pair that he's relatively ok with wearing, and only without socks, but of course he's going to outgrow those soon, and it's getting colder, so then what will we do?! He's just going to have to learn to deal with the socks (and long sleeves; not a fan of those either). This little guy definitely knows his own mind!

We're thinking that now when the screaming occurs it is mostly frustration of wanting to talk. He has some words (mama, light, calla (alla), go, ball - these are the most common, and we're probably the only ones who understand him, but they are there!), and a couple of signs, but that's about it. He really understands when you ask him to do something ("Henry, can you bring me that book?"), but isn't really talking much yet. I hope when he breaks through that barrier, like the walking barrier, the screaming will stop...for at least a little while!

Oh, and you probably noticed that in the second video his hair is shorter. Miss Essie cut it for us last week (as he was starting to get a baby mullet), and she did a great job! No more paying $15 at the fancy kids haircut place for us! Here's a pretty good shot of the new 'do, complete with "mohawk"

Remembering

I didn't anticipate spending a lot of time watching the 9/11 memorial on TV this morning, but a good friend of mine sent me a text telling me how watching it made him remember going to visit Ground Zero with me (and Calla) when we lived on Wall Street, so that got me thinking and I turned on coverage. I was home alone with Henry (Evan and Natalie were at church), and it was really very touching. I think they did a fantastic job, and I think the memorial site is beautiful. I really like how the base/pit of each building was turned into a giant fountain with the names of those who died inscribed around each fountain.  Since it's too soon for people to have posted pictures of the new memorial yet, I'm attaching this photo of the tribute in lights.

I remember where I was when I first found out. I was in the computer lab in the Psych building at University of Richmond; since I'd just started I didn't have a computer in my office yet, so I was checking email there first thing. My friend Andy Smith sent an email over the pep band list (which I was still on at the time) saying that a plane had just flown into the World Trade Center. I kind of ignored it, thinking it was just a little accident (maybe a 4-passenger plane; I'd get details later). About 15 minutes later our department secretary came running into the room (there was a TV in the corner), and turned on the TV just in time for us to watch the second plane hit. That's an image I'll never get out of my head. I then spent the rest of the day sending email updates to the pep band list, keeping everyone up-to-date on what was known at the time. There was no way any work was going to happen that day; I'm not even sure that I went to class. I know a few people who didn't have access to a TV that day, or were overseas, were very appreciative of the emails, and it was nice to have that link to others (remember, this was LONG before Facebook or Twitter were around).

Today, we remember all of those who lost their lives in these senseless acts. I am forever grateful that the year before Evan and I visited NYC and went to the top of the World Trade Center and had our photo taken at "the Top of the World". While I think I look terrible in the photo, that's one that we will keep forever.

Playground time

Before I headed out to Kentucky on Monday (Aug 22), we took the kids over to the playground near Evan's parents' house. It's a pretty great playground, it was a beautiful morning, and we had the place to ourselves for most of the time we were there! It's a lot more fun taking the kids to a playground now that Henry can really crawl/walk around and have fun there too!

 I had to include both of those photos of Henry, as I couldn't decide which one was cuter!

The big red swing is Natalie's favorite part of this park. She loves being pushed in it!

Natalie loves that she can now climb up things like this. She's so proud of herself, and I'm so happy that she's getting a little more adventurous with her exploration.

Grandma Lynn snapped this photo of us on the seesaw.

 Then Grandma Lynn took my place for a totter or two.

 Natalie's adventurousness came out as she started climbing up this big rope climber. However, just after I snapped this photo she started freaking out a little and that was it. Maybe next time we go she'll make it higher!

That wraps up our NJ trip. Now onto September activities!

Turtle Back Zoo: animals

While most zoos seem to have the same animals over & over again, we actually saw some neat things at this zoo, especially given its size! 

I had NO idea that ravens were this big. I always picture a regular crow - this thing was at least 3 times as big as the normal crows you would see. This puts Poe's story in a whole new light.

There was a small aquarium; the lion fish were gorgeous!

 Scarlet ibis; they're just so bright and beautiful!

 Gibbons! We got to watch this guy and his friend swing around in their enclosure for a while. They were very active because they just got fed.

 Penguins! What's not to love about penguins?

 Leopard. This guy was sitting up on high rocks, level with us, just watching everything. Look at those eyes! Beautiful, but scary too.

 Golden pheasant. Evan and I first saw one of these birds at the Sydney Zoo in Australia; I had never seen one before. So to see one at a little zoo in NJ was pretty cool!

Turtle Back Zoo

On Sunday in NJ (just over two weeks ago now), we headed over to Turtle Back Zoo in Essex County. They are affiliated with the Friends of the National Zoo program (of which we are members), so we were able to get in for free! Evan's parents joined FONZ too, so everyone got in free. For a "local" zoo in Essex Co, NJ, it's a pretty great place! I think it's just right for the ages our kids are; small enough to walk through (without stopping) in under 30 minutes, but still lots of great exhibits and activities for the kids.

At the zoo, we met up with Grandma Lynn's friend, her husband, and their granddaughter Emma. She was born the day after Natalie, and Lynn has been wanting to get the girls together for years! They got along pretty well

One of the first animals we saw was this peacock, who apparently wanders the grounds!

That photo is not zoomed in at all - I really was that close to the bird! Henry thought it was great, as the peacock was pretty much even with his stroller. Very cool!

In the park was a carousel; we ended up spending a decent amount of time there because a quick storm blew through and we took shelter there. Natalie was very adamant that she go on by herself; she loves carousels!

We took some time for a nice family photo

And a new thing for Natalie: her first pony ride!

 She did really well, even sat and pet the pony for a minute before dismounting. Very proud of my big girl!

Some sibling love.

One of the last things we did was ride the train. It's free, and a decent 10 minute ride through the woods next to the zoo.

 This was our conductor - I loved him! Very friendly with everyone. It made me think about how much my dad would love a job like this!

To prevent this post from getting too long, I'm going to put my photos of all of my favorite animals that we saw at the zoo in the next post.