The pictures move! It looks alive!

Hey, I'm trying something new!  Now let's just see if it works!

I took a few (lots) of videos of McColley at the Block Party on Tuesday.  Here are two of the funniest!  (FYI:  These are both from the Make Music! Tent, so there is a LOT of ambient sound)

First, McColley playing (according to some people) the best instrument ever:

And no, none of the wind instruments had  mouthpieces.  However, McColley only felt the need to 'play' the tuba.

Next, McColley decided to become a folk singer.  

And, I believe the lyrics are "Meow, meow, meow, meow..."  This song was inspired by the previous tune, "Kitty Kat" and followed by "Grilled Cheese."

*******

On another note, I (technically) hit 19 weeks on Wednesday.  

Just so no one is surprised next week, here I am at 19w1d:

I am still wearing some pre-pregnancy stuff... but mostly because I just haven't gotten around to busting out the other half of my pregnancy clothes (which is, like, ALL the shirts).

Also, the baby is definitely kicking around down there.  In fact, last night I was resting my hand on my bump and actually felt a kick with my hand!  It was quite surprising.  

And just to plug it one more time: Go and Guess at ExpectNet!  Everyone who goes now is already beating me (since I guessed girl and am WRONG).  The game name is MagsTake2.

Dancing, Playing and Singing

Today we went to the Dis.ney Bloc.k Par.ty (Just so you know, I am putting random periods into those words, just so this post doesn't show up when people Google the event.)

We went with T and her mom S.  It was held at a festival arena outside of Baltimore.

This is the eating area, but it was the center of the Block Party.  The colors were carried throughout the party though.  All the tents were brightly colored.

This is the stage where the musical acts performed.  Raven was the MC.

We arrived before the acts started, so we hit up the PlayDoh tent first.  Each kid got a free (small) cup of PlayDoh.  Each table had a different PlayDoh set to play with.  We chose the Octopus table.  There were also tables with Mr. Potato Heads, but the kids weren't interested in that.

After PlayDoh we went and watched the first act of the day: Choo Choo Soul.  They were good, but neither of the kids seemed overly enthusiastic.

So, after Choo Choo Soul, we went to the PlayHouse Disney tents.

There the kids got to color.  They got Handy Manny 'Tool Boxes'.  They also got stickers.

After tearing them away from Little Einsteins (which was playing on a big screen at the back of the tent), we headed back toward the Playskool tents.

That is where the sand boxes were with the big trucks.

McColley was playing with one of the largest trucks available.  T is behind him (wearing the blue shirt and tan shorts) piling sand up on a fire truck.

McColley walked his truck across the sand box to be closer to me... and also because there were no kids playing on my side of the box.

We finally lured them away from the sand by promising them food.

So, we got a hot dog (which I had to tear up because there were no knives) and fries to share.  T's mom also got a blue and red Hawaiian Ice to cool us all down.

However, this was when the third act of the day, They Might Be Giants, took the stage.  (We decided to just skip watching the second act because we didn't really know them very well... Ralph's World.)

McColley wanted to be closer to TMBGs... so he dragged us from the (covered) tables back out to the grassy area to the side of the stage.

That is where we found out that they were giving away free TMBG Foam Fingers.

McColley loved his... but for whatever reason, felt the need to do a push-up on it.

T's mom and I then took turns walking the two of them up to the Family Dancing area so they could be closer to the band.  McColley was the one who wanted to be up there... T just went along because she didn't want to be without McColley.  

You can see T's mom holding T and McColley on the left side of this picture... just find McColley's green shirt.

McColley LOVED They Might Be Giants.  LOVED.

After TMBG, we went to the Make Music! Tent.  McColley enjoyed playing the piano.

And then the drums.

And then the guitar.

And then the tuba.

And then back to guitar.

He also LOVED the guitar.  At one point he was strumming and singing his own little song... which I believe was about kitty cats and grilled cheese.

At what age can you start guitar lessons?

We finally dragged them away from Make Music! and went back to the third part of the PlaySkool tent.

McColley enjoyed trying to putt into the alligator's mouth.

He then tried to do the Sit 'n Spin... but couldn't quite figure it out.

So...

He  turned it over to see how it works.  But, then he lost interest and followed T over to the other part of the tent.

This was the 'house' section.  He enjoyed pretending to bake, wash his hands, and look after the babies.

But then he got tired and decided to relax in one of the 'overstuffed' chairs.

We left after this.  We got there at 3pm and left at 7:30pm.  The kids did really well and had a great time.

Also, I now know that McColley loves guitars and TMBG.

For my friends with little kids... this was a really great thing to take the kids to.  There were some tents which had more activities for older kids, but we skipped those.  It was hot, but super fun.  However... I'm not sure they're doing any of these on the West Coast.

(Can I still be a West Coaster if I take advantage of East Coast bias?)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I just found this!  I think it's really cool!  

(I'm guessing most of you have seen program before... sometimes I'm a bit slow on stuff like this)

Yard Suckage Redux

Brian saw it today.

Our neighbors now have a sign in their yard that says:

Yard of the Month

Yes, we are sharing a duplex with the 'Yard of the Month' people.  It's really not worth competing against, since I don't actually want to spend any money on anything like plants, planters, boarders, yard ornaments, or furniture.  But still... seriously... neighbors to the 'Yard of the Month' people?

On a happy note: Our two plants that we actually planted are starting to look less sickly!

Facing His Fear

You might remember that one of my earliest posts was about a string of unfortunate events that had befallen McColley's person.  After the toe incident (which we are still waiting to totally resolve itself), there was the popcorn kernel incident.

Quick Recap:  McColley was standing on his stool watching the hot air popcorn popper do its thing when a kernel flew out, hit the bowl, shot up and BURNED him right where his Adam's Apple will someday be.  (I tried to find a picture, but none shows the original injury... although you can see how it's healing in other pictures... which I've pretty much posted in other posts)

Well, today we decided to have popcorn again as a snack.  McColley wanted it.  But he also needed to take a few precautions:

Maintain a safe distance

Watch at all times

Cover the neck

And yesterday we watched T for a few hours so her parents could go on a date.  T is McColley's best friend.  She is a few months older... and about 10 pounds lighter!  But, that little frame holds a big personality!

Here they are watching 'Cars' together after dinner.

Hugs, Kisses, High Five

October 2007 (It's the only picture I could find of him High-Fiveing)

This is how McColley says good-bye.  Once he has given hugs, kisses and high fives to Brian and I, he supervises while we give them to each other.  Should he miss seeing a step because Brian and I dared to hug and kiss at the same time, he demands that we restart from the beginning.  As you can probably guess, when he's trying to avoid bed, I can get hugs, kisses and high fives about six times.

It's a very adorable little ritual though, and a nice way to say good-bye.

As for my last post... Wednesday morning when I got in my car to go to work, the battery was dead.  Brian took McColley to T's House (T's mother actually watches him, but since T is McColley's BFF, it's T's House) and then me on to work.  When we got home, we tried to push the car out of the garage so we could jump it with the other car.  But, our Torrent basically locks up when there is no electrical so we couldn't get the keys out... or put it into neutral.  After calling the GM Help Line, they sent out a tow truck.  The tow truck guy had a 'jump box', but it wasn't fully charged, so we couldn't jump the Torrent off of it.  However, we could get enough electrical turned on to shift the car into neutral.  When we got it out of the garage, we couldn't jump it off of Brian's car.  So... it got towed to the dealer.  We picked it up on Thursday at 2:30... apparently they just had to charge the battery.

This whole experience felt very familiar.  I had a similar (although more prolonged) Pontiac-with-a-bad-battery issue in 2004.

Why all this talk of good-byes and familiar situations?

A lot of our friends (and us) are going through more major life stuff and it got me thinking about how much we have all gone through since graduation (and our weddings).

So, here is the list I could come up with.  The sample group is The C's, The G's, The H's, The M's (us), and The W's.

Our Dover house under construction

Homes

2 intracity moves

4 inter-city moves

3 out-of-state moves

1 out-of-country move

2 purchased homes

More money than is logical on home improvements

Brian's Farewell Party May 2007

Jobs

21 New Jobs (4-C, 3-G, 6-H, 4-M, 4-W)

4 Teaching Jobs

4 University Jobs

2 Government Jobs

Driving May 2007

Vehicles

6 to 8 New Cars (Not sure about the H's)

1 Totaled Car

3 Pregnant Ladies May 2006

Current Pregnant Lady holding first child of other Current Pregnant Lady August 2006

Family

3 Toddlers

2 Pregnancies-in-Progress

1 Miscarriage

3 Cats

2 Dogs

2 Rabbits

2 Guinea Pigs

2 'Natural' Deaths

1 Euthanization

Now presumed the victim of a coyote

That is actually a pretty long list of happenings.  Mostly good, some OK, some truly awful and scary.  

I was just realizing though that we are now all at least in our late 20's (EEEKKKK!!!), and it seems like we are shifting into a new phase of life.  I think I will call it the 'We found our groove' phase.  Sure, not all of us are in exactly the place we want to be, but we know where we're heading (or trying to be heading).  

How weird is that?

My Gift... mwuhahah...

+

+

=

I kill car batteries.

I kill Pontiac batteries.

If it's statistically impossible...

I will kill the battery.

If it's a new car with 'battery save' features...

I will kill the battery.

If the car is in the most impossible place to jump...

I will kill the battery.

I am the battery killer...

FEAR ME!

Lingerie or Boxers?

We had our ultrasound today.

McColley and I went to skating this morning at 10am, and when it ended at 11am McColley went to a friends house while I went to the hospital.  I signed in at 11:20 and was immediately taken in to fill out all the lovely paperwork.  Luckily, I had done it before, so it wasn't that difficult and I was waiting to be called back by 11:25.

At 11:27 I was taken back to the ultrasound waiting room... but Brian wasn't there yet.  So, I found the one area of the waiting room that had any cell reception and let him know where I was.  He got there a few minutes later, and we got called in just after our appointment time of 11:30.

We got taken back to the room and were warned that it would take a while because the doctor had ordered a full anatomy scan.  

The lady found the fetus' head, but then asked us if we wanted to find out the sex.  We said 'yes', so she zoomed down to the other end... and the fetus proudly showed us his man parts.

Yes, we are having another boy.  He will be named Brayton William, with the nickname Brady.

Here he is, in his fuzzy glory:

To explain what you're seeing:  The short bright lines in the center of the scan are his hands.  He is sucking on the hand that is closer to the top (you can kind of see the arm bones attached to this hand).  The bottom of the 'alien' head is his mouth, his fingers lead to this.  Above the mouth is the nose... a less bright white line inside what looks like a wider 'V' shape (which is the chin area).  At the top of the nose you can kind of make out the eyes on each side.  The eyes are about halfway up the 'alien' head.  Above the eyes is the cranium.

To make things easier:  Here is the babycenter.com drawing of what an 18 week old fetus looks like:

Part of the reason the ultrasound picture is so terrible is because 'someone' refused to stay still.

In fact, the only time he did stay still was to show us his man parts.  The lady spent most of the time chasing him around as he did somersaults and scooted all over.  At the end of the scan, while she was trying to check his blood flow from the placenta, he was busy playing with the umbilical cord.  Yeah, we thought that was really exciting given his older brother's birth.

Based on this ultrasound, he measured at 18w3d... so only about four days ahead of the previous ultrasound.  The lady said the doctors probably wouldn't bump up my due date.

Also, he was about 9oz... plus or minus an ounce.  (Eventually) she got good pictures of his heart (with four chambers), his assorted internal organs, his brain and spine, and even his foot (5 toes!).

Everything looked good and my fluid level was good... so it doesn't look like there is any reason to worry about anything.  Although, it also doesn't really explain why I was measuring bigger at the doctor appointment... eh, but why worry?

It looks like he'll be a lot like his big brother though.  I'm so looking forward to the direct assaults on my kidneys.

Seriously, he's almost 2?!

We are now less than a month until McColley's second birthday.  It seems absolutely impossible.  A lot has happened in the last year and it looks like the year to come will be interesting as well.

But, since we are now less than a month away, I've been thinking about what would be good presents for McColley.  This is the list I have so far (the links are examples and this list is what we are working off of too.  This is a list of suggestions for those that might want them.):

-A waterproof digital camera for toddlers (which will hopefully save our adult version)

-A double sided easel

-A table and chair in McColley size

-Backyardigans-related furniture and toys

-A classic tricycle or one that can also be pushed

-A car (This suggestion is related to McColley's obsession with driving as evidenced by this photo)

(Yes, McColley did climb into the front seat from the back.  Yes, McColley did buckle himself in.  And, yes, McColley did ask me for the keys so he could drive... his words, not mine.)

Also on the birthday list, but without example links:

-Puzzles

-Clothes (size 2T)

-Shoes (toddler size 8 wide)

-Disney-related toys (We started on this already.  We went to Babies R Us yesterday and McColley got a Mickey Mouse Toddler bedding set.  He and the cat love it.)

(We also got him the Mickey Mouse sleep-sack, which will be making its traveling debut next month.  His favorite characters are actually Donald Duck, Goofy and Daisy Duck.  It is IMPOSSIBLE to find Daisy Duck things.  You might notice the Pooh Bear on the bed.  McColley also adores Pooh and Tigger.)

On a more serious note, does anyone want to do anything birthday-ee for McColley while we're around the grandparents/aunts/uncles?  Of course, the main purpose of our trip out is Ari and Tim's wedding, so we don't want to take away from that in any way, but I'm only asking in case people want to get cake pictures or see McColley open anything.  We have no problem just having a party for him at home, so I'll leave the decision up to the grandparents/aunts/uncles.

*********

And now for general McColley cuteness!

Brian was very excited when McColley woke up at 6am this morning demanding food... which he then didn't touch for an hour.

While waiting for McColley's appetite to kick in, they went outside to water the lawn.  

McColley, however, refused to wear pants.

Here he is watching the sprinkler:

And here he is moving the sprinkler:

Dig It!

Brian and I attended the invitation opening of special exhibit 'Dig It!' at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History on Thursday night.  Money was donated in my grandfather's name to the exhibit and my grandmother was invited to attend.  Since she couldn't, she got the invite transferred to Brian and me.  

We got to the opening at about 7:20... we would have been on time, but half the streets we needed in DC were one-way the wrong direction and the other half were closed for construction.  However, we did arrive in time for the free food and about ten minutes before the three speakers started.

Along with the five tables of hors d'ouvres and six (free) bars, there was a dessert table by the entrance to the exhibit.  The exhibit is actually next to the permanent 'Gems and Minerals' exhibit... a.k.a. The Hope Diamond and a bunch of other really expensive jewelry.  Brian noticed that the 'Gems and Minerals' were the only exhibits with huge vault doors while everything else just had ropes in front of them.

The main dining area was downstairs in the rotunda and that is also where the speakers talked.  Unfortunately the rotunda had TERRIBLE acoustics and it was very difficult to understand what was being said.  The only exception was when we were trying to sneak to the table with salmon and got stuck directly in front of a speaker... there was no trouble understanding then!

The 'Dig It!' exhibit is upstairs facing the rear-end of the elephant.  However, as I already sort of mentioned, it is next to the 'Gems and Minerals' which makes sense if you think about it.

The natural history museum is set up so that there are rings coming out from a center 'pillar', which is the rotunda.  This picture is of the exhibit from the exterior side, which is the side opposite the rotunda side.

If you enter the exhibit from the rotunda side, the first stop to your right is 'All-American Soils'.  This area features 'monoliths' (Smithsonian word... not mine) of soil from all 50 states and some US territories.  This was also the most packed area because this is where people and organizations got recognized for donating to the exhibit.  Each state had a placard underneath with the names of who donated from that state.

Our camera did not have the ability to capture the entire 4 foot monolith in one shot, but here is the top.

And here is the MOST IMPORTANT part... the part that honors my grandfather.  His is the first name on the placard.

And here I am in front of the Washington soil.  (I guess if you can't be on it... be in front of it?)

And, yes, some of the pictures are a bit fuzzy.  This is because the lighting at the museum and in the exhibit was really bad for taking pictures, so we had to set the camera to 'ISO' which purposely blurs the edges to make the center in focus (so, no, we aren't taking photography lessons from McColley).

Also, I was brilliant and forgot to bring extra batteries for the camera... so we kept turning it off and then back on to suck every last moment of power out of the batteries, but they did end up dying on us.

It was a very cool exhibit though.  It is at the Smithsonian through January 2010 and then it starts traveling around the country.  If you can't make it to DC, you'll have to check it out when it gets to your area.