I Don't Mean To Offend You, But...

Usually not the best way to start a conversation...with a complete stranger...in the gym! But this opener led to a conversation that would inevitably make my day.

My usual Monday morning Body Pump class was just finishing and I was starting the daunting task of putting away my equipment (which is as much a workout as the actual torture - er, I mean class). A woman who I have seen many times before in this very class stops me and says, "I don't mean to offend you but you look GREAT! You've really slimmed down!" Offend me??? I couldn't express my gratitude to her fast enough! Not only was I pleasantly surprised that a stranger would take the time to compliment another but also validated in my almost year-long effort to stash the baby weight somewhere other than my back end!

As I picked up Evan and walked to the car I thought about how simple it really is to make someone's day and decided to challenge myself in the coming weeks with paying it forward...and then I got myself a nice, toasty supreme bagel with cream cheese! A girl's gotta celebrate, right?

Jibber Jabber

Scott recently caught some footage of Evan jabbering...

16 Months And Counting...

Little Evan,

We knew life would change dramatically when you arrived - but no one could quite tell us how. I understand that now as I cannot put into words for my friends how having a baby will change everything - for the better.

Every moment has not been perfect. Goodness knows I've lost my cool on more than one occasion. You've taught me that I am more of a control freak than I ever could have imagined! You've also taught me what pure joy and love feels like. You make me and your daddy laugh daily; at funny things you do and at each other for the different ways we each interact with you.

The first ten months of your life are well documented in your baby book....then you started walking and mommy has been on the run ever since! You're now 16 months old and a ball of energy. You learn new things everyday - some we teach you and others, well, I'm not sure where you pick them up! Today I wanted to capture for you what you were like just 16 months into your life...

You are such a little communicator. You're not talking much yet; mostly still mama, dada, and the sweetest little "hi" ever (sometimes you even add a wave - so stinking cute!) but you definitely know what you want and how to get it! We recently (with the help of Ms. Debbie) taught you a little sign language. You sign "more, "please" and "all done". Sometimes when you're being impatient (sorry -you get that from me) your sign for please looks like you're scratching yourself under your arm! In just over a week you went from full-on tantrums to signing "please" when mommy tells you to "ask nicely". What a big boy!!!

You jibber jabber - a lot! We have taken so much video of you "talking". You point when you talk, you talk to toys, you talk while you're playing...it's so funny to watch. I know you know what you're saying - we just don't understand it!

You respond quickly to things we say. If we tell you, "Let's go to sleep", you get woobie and head to the stairs. If we say, "Let's go bye-bye" you walk to the front door and grab the knob.

You love books and for mommy and daddy to read to you. You're very good at pointing to pictures of objects when we ask you. Your favorite bedtime book right now is Oh The Thinks You Can Think by Dr. Seuss.

You respond to questions. If mommy says, "how old are you?", you hold up your pointer finger. You point to mommy's nose, eyes, and mouth. You blow kisses - although this is a newer skill and we're still refining!

You amaze us with your ability to build tall towers of wooden blocks. You clap for yourself everytime you stack one successfully...makes me want to kiss your cheeks off! You also can busy yourself by putting all your blocks into your Little People garage...this is one of your newer games.

You love looking at your reflection; in mirrors, windows, the oven, and the fireplace doors. If we tell you to "kiss the baby" you actually kiss your reflection. You also like to watch yourself do things. You frequently put things on top of your head and jut your chin out to try to hold it in place, all while watching yourself. I could watch you do this for hours!

You bang on everything with anything! Your favorite banging objects are your bat, maracas, hammer, spoon and toothbrush. We gave you a tin popcorn can and you now consider that to be your drum -but lately you've also been putting it on your green chair and sitting on top of it! You also really like banging on the trash can but mommy and daddy try to dissuade you!

You've recently started to enjoy dancing. If there's music on TV and we say, "dance, Evan!" you start either stomping your feet or swaying. You also really enjoy pressing the button on your Leap Frog fridge alphabet toy and dancing to the ABC song.

You're still the gross motor master. At the playground you like to slide down backwards on your tummy. We're not sure how you learned this! You are fearless, even sliding down the big, winding slides! You also now climb and stand on chairs!

Lately you've been paying more attention when mommy and daddy leave. You go stand in the window and watch us leave. Mostly you smile and wave but sometimes you also cry. It melts my heart everytime!

You now have 11 teeth; you cut your one-year molars at about 15 months. You also had your first stomach bug at 16 months - not so much fun! We know you're allergic to eggs and just recently took you off milk, too, in case you're allergic to it as well! Your favorite snack is Cheerios and your favorite meals are grilled Sunbutter and jelly sandwiches and chicken nuggets. You eat most fruit but only peas and corn for vegetables! Definitely a picky little eater!

Overall, you have a really easy-going little personality. You wake up happy, you play well with others (sometimes you even try to make friends!), your tantrums rarely last more than a couple minutes, you like to cuddle and give kisses and you generally just go with the flow!

So there you have it; YOU at 16 months. You keep mommy and daddy very busy and you are certainly a curious and busy little man but we wouldn't have it any other way. Three cheers for you, big boy! We can't wait to see what the next 16 months have in store!

All our love to you...

A Day In The Life...

So I've talked about it before...Evan is ALL boy! There is just no denying it. So, I shouldn't be surprised or amazed when we have days like yesterday. And even after all of yesterday's events it took me really thinking about the entire day and putting it all together to go, wow! that was one worth documenting!

We had the normal morning of breakfast with a side of Elmo. Rather than go to the gym (I mean, we haven't been all week due to Evan's illness - stomach bug then a nasty cold - so what's one more day, right?) I decided we would do something different. For the very first time we attended story time at the library. What fun! Afterwards we grabbed some lunch and headed home. So far, so good. Although he did manage to get in a two-hour nap, Evan was rudely awakened by the teenagers as they left school...honking their horns! I cannot wait to live far, far away from a high school! So, up at 2:30 meant entertaining the troop for 5 hours.

I don't know if it was the short nap or shot of cranberry juice in his water but the kiddo was bu-sy! We headed upstairs to do some light cleaning - mostly just making beds and putting things away. As I made the bed Evan played in my basket of hair supplies. He managed to toss everything from the basket and, of course, climb inside. It's just a small wicker cube, really. So imagine Mr. I Weigh 26 Pounds inside of it!

He moved on to his bookshelf in his room where he managed to pull every book onto the floor and carry some into my room. He sat and "read" a while and then I heard quiet. Never a good sign! I immediately thought -HUMIDIFIER!!! Sure enough - I walk into Evan's room and he is sitting on the floor playing in the water. Water is splashing on the walls, on him and all over the carpet. So I clean up that mess and we head back downstairs.

A little while later I decide to box up some things to mail to Melissa. As I'm in the kitchen Evan is playing in the living room. I heard a noise and a little whine but nothing too out of the ordinary so I kept going. When I did finally check on him I realized he had pulled the lamp down and it was now resting horizontally on the arm of the chair. Apparently jarring 3-way bulbs causes them not to work anymore...dim was all I got when I turned it on. Right after that I see him in the kitchen where I had been working. I cut a few pieces of cardboard and the remnants were on the floor. Evan kept busy at least 30 minutes moving the cardboard pieces from the kitchen, down a few steps, and into Scott's office, jabbering the entire time. I'm sure he was trying to explain to me what he was doing...

Later at dinner I decided to put a few carrots on his tray. He's not a big fan but I'm on a mission to get him to eat new things. When I looked back after a few minutes I saw that some of them were gone and got really excited - before looking down and seeing about 10 carrots on the floor. Better luck next time, I guess!

Scott got home and I took a few minutes to myself upstairs to read. After about 20 minutes I heard some commotion but tried not to pay attention. Scott then came upstairs and told this story. If this doesn't make you laugh, your funny bone is broken. I almost wet my pants...

I should preface by letting you know Evan has recently become very amazed with running water, including Scott's streams of tinkle (not sure he'd appreciate me calling it tinkle...). So, Scott is using the restroom not really paying attention to where Evan is when all of a sudden he looks down and sees a little blue spoon held by a little hand come between his legs and into the tinkle. Apparently tinkle started flying. As Scott is laughing and trying to clean the mess Evan has moved on very quickly to the toilet paper roll...half of which is now pulled out onto the floor!

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. I only wish I could have seen it with my own eyes!

Bath and bedtime shortly followed...

So, if you're ever wondering what a day is like with little Evan, now you know!

Jello is One-derful!

Just a little video (yep - I've advanced my skills!) of Scott teaching Evan how to slurp Jello from the spoon...and a little something extra he learned recently!

There are perks....

I get so many reactions to the Air Force lifestyle we lead; "Don't you hate moving all the time?", "What if Scott gets deployed?", "Will you have to live overseas?" There are so many pros that outweigh the cons it makes it hard to imagine another way of life. In fact I told Scott just last night that I don't know what I'll do when he finally retires (granted we have 9 years to go!); I'm going to still want to move every 3 years!

Among the many positive things are the cool people we know around the world (I can say the world thing since we do now have friends in Korea - there's your shout out, Sara and James!). One of those is Mel, Scott's good friend from the Academy. We saw her and her husband just a few months ago and it was then that she invited us on a West Wing tour - you know, since she works there and all!

Just after we arrived in 2006 we went through all the red tape to get the usual White House tour and, although it was impressive to be there, it was a little underwhelming. Red Room, Blue Room, Green Room, and out the back door you go. Being very curious I'm always interested in what's behind the scenes. I'm much more interested in seeing the living quarters than the boring rooms lined with historic artwork. I mean, who didn't want to see Elvis's bathroom when they visited Graceland?!? I'm not afraid to admit it! Okay, I digress.

I say all that just to make the point that I was really excited about getting a West Wing tour that is not easily available to the general public. You for sure have to know someone to get in. Hence the perks of the military; had we not known Mel we would've just been looking through the gate like everyone else!

It took a while to schedule but we finally nailed it down to the 10th - just before tours really slow down (maybe stop) with the new administration. So, I lined up Kevin to watch Evan and we headed out on Saturday afternoon for the hour and a half trip to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

We met Mel and Adam just outside one of the entrance gates and proceeded through security. The first thing I noticed after walking through security was the storage of camera equipment just outside the entrance to the White House. Mel explained that these are cameras of the individual networks and they just leave them covered outside, since they are used so frequently.

The first area we toured was the Press Room. This is the room where press conferences are typically held. Having only seen this room on TV I was surprised by how small it actually is. There are 49 theater-like seats facing the podium, all designated for individual networks by a name plate on the base of the chair. The longer you've been a member of the White House press corps, the better your seat. Behind the seats are about eight stationary cameras for the camera crew. Unfortunately this is the only room where you can take pictures. You'll just have to take my word for it on the rest!

A view of the back of the Press Room

The podium at the front of the Press Room

Cheesing it up in front of the podium

After the press room we entered the lobby area. On each side of the foyer were two huge - and literally priceless - vases from the Ming Dynasty of China (that's like from the 1400's!!!). The main lobby was decorated with a few couches and chairs and a bookcase housing books of papers from some of the most recent administrations as well as some of Dubbya's favorite presidents (although I cannot remember who they were!). Also in the lobby was the clock from the HMS Resolute, an English ship which the US saved from thick ice in the Arctic in the 1800's. More to come on that....

Just past the lobby was the Roosevelt Room (named for Teddy), a large conference room used for formal meetings by the President and his staff. Of interest was the one chair in the middle of the table that was taller than all the rest; you guessed it, that one's designated for the Prez himself.

Lining all the hallways of the West Wing is priceless art selected by the President; in Bush's case it's a lot of Native American artwork by George Catlin. At the end of the hallway is another large conference room, the Cabinet Room. This is where the President meets with members of the Cabinet. On the back of each chair is a gold plate with the name of the cabinet member. At the end of the term, if the cabinet member is not chosen by the new administration, they have the option of purchasing the chair and those proceeds go to charity. Pretty cool. The Cabinet Room also has a large fireplace. Mel tells us that Bush brings back mesquite wood from Crawford to burn in the fireplace. Just some trivia if you're ever on Jeopardy!

And then - just around the curved hallway - the Oval Office. Since the President was not in residence the doors were open and we were able to peek just inside the doorway. The only way to describe it was amazing. Just standing there was overwhelming; I mean imagining what it must feel like to be the guy sitting behind that desk. I wonder if you sit there on your first day and think, "What am I doing here?" And speaking of the desk - the HMS Resolute I mentioned earlier - well, as a thank you for returning the ship to England, Queen Victoria had parts of it made into a desk, the desk used by all the US Presidents since.

On the right side of the office was another door, the door into the private office of the President (can you say Monica Lewinsky?!?) and to the left was a door that blended with the wall and had a peep hole. This is the door to the President's Aide. On every conference table and on the desk in the Oval Office is a small box with a button on top. The President can use this button to call the aide whenever he needs something. Can you imagine how long it takes to get used to that kind of treatment?

Through the windows of the Oval Office we could see the First Dogs, Miss Beasley and Barney hanging out in the Rose Garden. Because the dogs were in the garden, tours were not allowed access. Dang dogs!

We then headed downstairs to get a glimpse of the White House Mess, the dining area for staff. It was a small but very elegant area where senior White House staff have lunch meetings. Mel explained to us that the four military branches actually have specific roles in the White House; the Air Force of course is responsible for Air Force One, the Marines for Marine One, the Army for transportation and logistics on the ground, and the Navy for the food!

When you turn around from the dining room you are staring at the door of the - duhn, duhn, duhn - Situation Room. Of course we were not allowed in but we did get a quick peek when someone walked in (the staff there are 24/7!) and I winked at the camera perched above the entrance door! This is the intelligence management center for the White House and where the President conducts all secure communication. Way cool!

Probably one of the coolest parts of the tour, aside from the actual Oval Office, was the array of photographs of the President since he's been in office. Apparently because he will be leaving soon, these pictures were just changed out to really depict some of the highlights of Bush's time in office. There was one 11 x 14 after another of the President - from him at Ground Zero after 9/11, to throwing a first pitch at a baseball game, to him with his chainsaw on the ranch in Crawford. They really told the story of his last eight years and we were just amazed. As we exited, there were three new pictures on the wall, all of which were taken just in the last week. Two were of the five living Presidents, Bush Sr, Bush, Carter, Clinton and Obama, and one of Obama and Bush. A pretty cool way to end the tour...

Lastly, Mel pointed out the Blair House just across the street from the White House. This is where the incoming President resides five days before he's inaugurated and moves into the White House. So Obama will be staying here in a few days...

So, there's my long-winded version of the once-in-a-lifetime experience that was our West Wing tour. Thanks, Mel -

Happy Belated New Year!

So it's been way too long since the last post! Once I finally got over the exhausting holidays it was time to take down the decorations and then, of course, get back into the routine of things. I think I can now safely say we are back to normal - whatever that is!

We got back to Maryland the day after Christmas and spent that weekend unpacking and unwinding.

By Monday Evan had me on my toes again - this time it was wondering whether or not the red bumps all over his legs were chickenpox. When they did not go away and did not take the "usual" course that chickenpox take, I headed for the pediatrician. There I learned that it was just hives; probably an allergic response to something but who knows what! Currently we are still treating the symptoms - just some mild itchiness - and I'm deciding if this warrants another trip to the allergist for more testing.

We had a pretty low-key New Year's Eve, which has been the case for the last couple of years (2008 - fifteen month old, 2007 three month old, 2006 possibly pregnant!). We headed over to Debbie and Mark's for some drinks and I am quite sure we were in bed for 11! Hey, we did see footage of Australia's countdown - that must count for something!

The first weekend of the New Year brought our much-anticipated date night! Our awesome sitter, Kevin, decided he just had to go away to school so we've been without him since August...just when we were getting used to our monthly outings! When he told me when he would be back for the holiday break I booked him! So, Scott and I headed out to dinner and a movie (Four Christmases - definitely a rental!) and really enjoyed the evening.

After that the routine really hit and it's taken every bit of the last week to slowly but surely get back in the groove. Ah, but another long weekend is almost upon us!

We wish you all a super-fantastic 2009!

Happy 16-month birthday, Evan!