Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Such a good looking family, don'tcha think?

Your eye candy for the day (or week depending on how long it takes me to update the blog again) are pictures that Danielle took at our Father's Day/Laura Birthday/Jenn Birthday Barbeque a couple of Sundays ago. The idea to take pictures came from the fact that all of the sons and grandsons independently chose to wear striped blue shirts. It was quite comical. Anyway aren't we cute? Pay no attention to my red, overheated face when you answer that.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Lions and Tigers but We Missed the Bears

Wednesday morning we journeyed to the National Zoo. The weather was perfect, and we needed a place to escape to in order to hide from the kitchen work. It's a bit of a shame that I've lived here for 7 years now, and this is the first time that I've been there. It is a beautiful zoo with lots of trees and shade and places to sit and have a picnic lunch--if you had packed one that is. We of course did not, but we enjoyed a lunch from the snack cart instead.

The only bummer of the zoo is that it's very spread out and hilly, so being 33.5 weeks pregnant I'm sure you can imagine how tired I was after our visit. Even the crossing guard told me I needed to go home and rest. Thus, we only stayed about 2 hours--well that and also Chase was still a bit cranky since he was still recovering from his second bout with strep throat. He adamantly refused to ride in his stroller and only wanted to be carried. He did enjoy seeing the animals. I think the turtles were his favorite. It was nearly impossible to get any good face pictures of him b/c he refused to turn and look at Mommy. Nevertheless, here are a few of the pictures I did get. I hope to go back when Amaya is here...maybe in the fall or early spring when it's cooler, and I've fully recovered from my C-section. Or maybe I'll just wait until they're both old enough to walk themselves...

Running around the grassy area after our picnic.


Big, smelly elephants



Believe it our not, there is a lion up there to the left.


"What happened to turtle? Don know."


Watching the orangutan climb the tower.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

We're back...

Actually, we've been back from the shore since Saturday, but I've been lazy and haven't gotten around to posting the last few vacay pictures until now. Well, I've also been a little thrown off of my normal routine as my house is in a perpetual state of chaos since we're right in the middle of our kitchen remodel. Who does a kitchen renovation when they are 31 weeks pregnant? Only crazy people I'm sure. Picture me with my big belly, aching back and frizzy hair surrounded by plastic, dust and power tools and you'll have a fairly accurate portrayal of my life at the moment. Oh wait, add to that a dining room full of boxes of kitchen ware, a refrigerator currently hooked up via a bright orange extension cord, and a whiny 23 month old permanently attached to my side--now you have my life--are you jealous??
Now that he weather is cooler, I hope to be able to escape the madness most days by going on various field trips with Chase. We've been eating out or bumming dinner from Nana and PopPop, so we're not starving. Last night, I even got to have a kid free & dust free evening when my friends surprised me with a dinner out and mini-baby shower. It was so brave of them to face me in my current mood--but they were armed with chicken fajitas and gifts, so they probably figured they were safe.

And just b/c I know you don't care anything about my kitchen, belly or dinner options, but were kind enough to read about them in the hopes of catching a tidbit about the Noodle: here's a handful of random things about Chase.

1. He desperately needs a haircut. An attempt was made to accomplish this goal on Monday, but the kid threw a fit that involved much thrashing of limbs and head whippage. Needless to say, Drew didn't think that letting anyone near him with sharp scissors was a good idea, so he decided to try again another day. And by try again, I mean that he broke into my vanity, stole my operating scissors from my brief days in vet school, and tried to cut the kid's hair himself while I was out to dinner with my friends. You would have thought he would have learned his lesson about home grooming last time, but apparently not. In the future, I must remember to padlock the scissors when I leave the house.

2. He's been blinking a ton lately. Might be from the hair in his eyes. Might be a tic. Might be a phase. Might be allergies. Might be flirting with the ladies. Don't know. Guess we'll wait it out.

3. He loves it when you play Patty Cake Patty Cake Baker's Man with him. He doesn't actually patty with you, but he does the roll it, pat it, mark it part. Then he says "Mo Cake Cake" over and over until you repeat the process about 25 times.

Okay here are the pictures--with captions for clarification purposes.


This is Lucy the giant elephant in Margate. Pretty cool.



Chase playing video games with Daddy on the boardwalk in Ocean City. He loved the driving games best. I would have more pictures, but I was too busy playing skeeball...



Walking along the boardwalk all independent like.



The last few pictures are for my mom. She wanted to see what some of the bathrooms were like in the house we rented. Each of the 6 bathrooms had a different decorative theme. Very posh.



Thursday, June 05, 2008

Picture Bonanza

Here are some pictures from the Atlantic City Aquarium yesterday and Storybook Land today. Enjoy.

PS--Please ignore my frizzy hair as it was a bit humid here due to impending storms. I'm usually much more sleek and shiny in that area--;-). Thank you.








Tuesday, June 03, 2008

It's a shore thing



Here are a few pictures from our first two days here at the Jersey shore. We're staying in a ridiculously posh house a block from the beach. Yes, spoiled is a word that I could use to describe myself. Chase is of course loving the sand, sun and waves. Yesterday, he couldn't get enough wave chasing. He'd wait for the water to roll in and then splash his little feet all over the place. He took a couple of headfirst dives into the water, but it didn't seem to bother him too much which is a different story than last year. Today, he took great pride in collecting a bucket full of shells that he then used as cargo for his trucks. He was having so much fun, that he tried to keep us from packing up his toys when it was time to go. All that playing tired him out, so now he's taking a nice little nap in a big boy bed in his own private suite.

Noodle also has enjoyed putting on shows for Nana, PopPop II, MomMom and PopPop I. His ever growing vocabulary was a major source of entertainment--most especially the term "dump truck" or as Chase says, "Bum Crack".



We still have plans to visit Lucy and possibly storybook land, and of course there will be more trips to the beach. So be sure to keep checking back for more updates.