Firsts for Sam ...

I haven't finished our DC trip yet, but we're back safe and sound, and I wanted to post a few things before I forget them. Sam, like any 2-year old, likes to do whatever his dad does. Our neighbor was moving, so we inheirited this little toy lawnmower from her. Now Sam has a job to do whenever Ivan mows the lawn and they both love it!

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Aaagh! Now I know why Jenn was so frustrated with putting pictures in her blogs. I'll have to ask one of my friends who is an expert how to get them where I want them.

Anyway ... a few months ago, Sam told his first (at least to my knowledge), little white lie. He likes to chew gum, but hadn't quite gotten the not-swallowing part down. One day, I noticed that there didn't appear to be any gum in his mouth anymore. I said, "Sam, what happened to your gum?" He looked off into the distance and said, "It flew out of my mouth and went on a trip."


Along the same lines, Sam did his first practical joke. These pictures are of some of our friends who LOVE to come over and babysit Sam and Eric. They are adorable girls (ages 9 and 6). About a month ago, Ivan and I went to a wedding so we left Sam and Eric with these girls and their mom. When it was time to go to bed, Paula was giving Eric a bath so she sent Sam into the bedroom with her girls and told them to put on his pajamaser. About ten minutes later, they were still in the bedroom, so she went in to see what was going on. Sam was laying on the bed like a little baby with his legs up in the air and the girls were trying to stuff him into a pair of 6-month pajamas. He had convinced them that his PJs were Eric's and Eric's were his. And he was a total ham about it too--stretching his legs, trying to get his arms in, etc. The girls said, "Are you sure these are yours?" "Oh, yes!" said Sam. They were really laughing when they told us about it. Sam will do anything to postpone bedtime.

Caught in the Act!

Eric's favorite hobby is to chew on/suck on anything he can possibly get in his mouth. He's recently developed the flexibility to get his foot in his mouth and loves to suck his toe. Some kids suck their thumbs, my kid sucks his toe. How am I going to explain this one to his kindergarten teacher?

Air and Space

I'm on a blog-roll! Ivan took Sam to see the White House, but I stayed "home" so that Eric could get another nap. Eric is the type of child who loves his sleep, and he gets really giggly when he's overtired. If I don't take a cue, the next step is yelling at me (I'm serious--the only time he's ever cried is when he had an ear infection, but he does yell if he's not being understood and responded to.) I tried to post a video here showing Eric laughing his head off as Sam flew his new toy airplanes up and down, but I couldn't get it to upload. Probably too big. Anyway ...

On Sunday night, we went to the Air and Space museum. We went back on Monday. One thing that I love about DC with toddlers is that everything is free. Toddlers have such a short attention span, that if you're paying $10-$20 to get into an attraction, you really can't get your money's worth. But with these things, we can go, stay for 30 to 60 minutes, and leave and come back again, over and over and over.

The Air and Space museum is such a magical place, especially for a little boy. Sam was in awe and kept running around looking at all the airplanes. He loves Little Einsteins and quickly found a cylinder-shaped red "Rocket." Then he found an old DC-9 that you can go in and decided that was his favorite. We must have gone in that one 10 times. Here is a picture of him outside his airplane.


On Monday after we exhausted our attention spans (I think Sam could have spent another hour going in and out of that airplane, but Eric and I were bored to death), we went down to the food court in the Air and Space museum to get some lunch. Sam was dying for chicken nuggets and "fronch" fries. It was run by no other than McDonalds, and this McDonalds seems more like an extension of the national museum dedicated to innovation and technology. No matter how you feel about the quality of the food (ick!), McDonalds is synonymous with American cuisine, and this McDonalds was the most efficient restaurant. There must have been over 100 people in front of us in 10 lines (enough to almost make me walk out since I had two cranky kids, but since one was set on his chicken nuggets, I stayed.) We had our food and were sitting down in 5 minutes. In addition to 20 cashiers, they had 20 serving stations. So you paid, and by the time you out away your wallet and took five steps back, there was someone waiting with your food. Then there were these mountainous drink fountains and tons of spickets with ketchup and all the other condiments. Sam was happy, and even got a special little space ship with his happy meal.

Trip to DC, Part 1

Our trip to Washington started out with some excitement. We caught our 3:00 pm flight on Saturday with no real trouble. The flight was short enough that by the time the drinks were finished being served, and we had eaten some trail mix, we were descending. So Sam was fine. On the descent, we encountered about 30 seconds of turbulence, but it was more than I've had on a flight in the past ten years--the rollercoaster, catch your breath, kind of turbulence where everyone starts to laugh because if they didn't they'd have to scream. Sam got really quiet, and we didn't think much of it, but that's usually not a good thing with Sam, who has a comment for everything, and even prefaces his naughty acts with "I'm going to do something rude!" (ie right before he dumps a bag of cheerios all over the floor.)

Anyway, about 10 minutes after the turbulence, Sam threw up all over the place. Ick. We tried to get the little bag out of the back of the seat, but didn't really have enough warning. Next time there's turbulence, we'll know to be prepared.

It took the rest of the evening to get to our hotel, get settled, and get to Trader Joes. Our room has a full kitchen, and a TJs just two blocks away. We loaded up on breakfast food for the week, as well as some dinner stuff, went back to the hotel and crashed.

On Sunday, we went to church and then wandered around, ending up at the House Office Building, which is near a Metro station. This is Sam. I love the way he can be so enthralled and entertained by some sticks and a puddle of mud.

Sam entertaining himself with a little broom that he found in the Metro.
In front of the Smithsonian castle. Eric is constantly trying to grab anything in arm's reach.

My Mom's Legacy

About a month ago, my parents came to visit for a few days. We always love having them visit, and Sam was particularly excited. They were to arrive in the evening, along with Ivan who had been out of town doing an audit. I told Sam when he went to bed that Grandma and Grandpa and Papi would all be there when he woke up. My parents arrived and slept in the basement. The next morning, my dad woke up early and sat in the living room. When Sam woke up, I took him to our room to see Ivan, and then to the living room to see my dad. He ran around for a while, looking out the window, etc., and then came up to me and with a frown said, "Hmmmmm. Grandma Knight is not here." I said, "Oh yes, she's just downstairs." His face lit up and he said, "Oh! She's doing dishes!" Anyone who spends time at my parents' house knows that my mom spends a lot of time doing dishes (she uses her dishwasher as a drying rack a lot of the time). She says it relaxes her. I think dishwashing is sort of therapeutic!

I love my Phil and Teds!

A bit of explanation--we are on vacation in Washington DC, so I have a bit more time on my hands. I'm trying to organize my pictures, and will be writing some things from weeks past, as well as this week.

I saw my first Phil and Ted's single/double stroller in London at Hampton Court when I was pregant with Sam. It seemed like the perfect option for a family because it can hold a baby laying down or a toddler sitting up or a baby laying down and a toddler sitting up or two kids sitting up. What a great invention! When I got home, finding one was rather tricky because they are made in New Zealand, and just entering the market. I thought that in addition to being super functional, mine would be a novelty.

I used the single stroller with Sam all the time, and even walked to the grocery store and used the second seat for the groceries. But this is the first time that I'm really really getting to use it with both boys. Three years later, they aren't such a novelty any more (they are all over DC, and I even saw the Vibe, which I'm salivating over--too bad I don't have an extra $800 lying around.) But they are very cool. Generally, we have it in the two-toddler configuration (see bottom picture). But yesterday, we spent a little too much time at the Air and Space museum, and in about 30 seconds, I was able to change it to what you see in the other three pictures--Eric got an hour nap, and Sam and I could keep playing. :) I'm also using it for Eric's morning nap, hoping that he'll sleep longer than he does, and that we'll leave the hotel before he wakes up. So far, it hasn't happened, but I do push him around the room, and the rocking gets him to sleep :)

Oh, and one more bonus feature--Sam has discovered it as his newest "hiding" spot--Hiding is one of his favorite games.

Picasa, Part 2

This is Eric, on the floor at the Louvre, when he was about as old as Sam in my last post. His ears stick out more and his hair is darker, but other than that, I think they look a lot alike!

Playing with Picasa

Well, I just down loaded Picasa, which is Google's free picture organizer. And I'm just playing around with it to see if I like it. I haven't found a good picture organizer, and we just got a new computer at home. Picasa has a button that says, "Blog This" so I clicked it. And this post is the result. I can't belive how easy it is! Now I can start adding pictures to my posts and posts won't seem so overwhelming! Now if I can only catch up. By the way, this picture is of Sam when he was 6 weeks old. It's amazing how much Sam and Eric look like each other. I'll have to add a picture of Eric too.