Dinner Laughs

Dinner time is often not a relaxing time. Between 5 and 6 each night the kids hit the wall and go crazy. Dinner is then an exercise in avoiding food being thrown on the floor or rubbed into the hair. But sometimes, when the stars align and the gods look favorably on us, they enjoy dinner.

On this night, they were laughing and enjoying their own company so much, we let them have some time to themselves while we cleared the table.



The boys are not just entertaining themselves more now, they feed into their antics. Liam can now say "poopy". Finn immediately laughs, repeats it himself, and the laughing continues indefinitely.

Of course, they also play, share and pretend together. Now that Liam's almost two, they really can play together and enjoy being around each other. And that's fantastic.

Spring Garden

Spring has been back in DC for a while now and many of our plants have come back from their hibernation. I tried something new this year with sowing seeds indoors and bringing them out after the threat of frost was gone. Mostly it worked, though the beans didn't make it and the new seeds I planted haven't come up.

Still, I've got peas, spinach, lettuce, sage, beets, mums and strawberries all growing well in the flower boxes. I even had flowers on the peas last weekend and now have pea pods gaining size in the warm sun.


So things grow well out there now, but I know the sun will someday soon overwhelm the plants and make them wither if I don't give 2 gallons of water a day to them. I also have a potential aphid problem:


Finn had fun squirting the bugs with soapy water to get rid of them. It worked well and most of the are gone. We probably have to give another round this weekend to completely rid ourselves of them.


Finn likes another sign of spring turning to summer, the blossom piles. He grabs them by the handful and throws them in the air. I say that he's making it rain like Flo-rida, but he corrects me and says he's making it snow!

Hide and Seek

The boys are old enough to play games with each other. Sometimes it takes a little counting from me, but they can do most everything on their own. Here's fine example.



If you ever play hide and seek with Finn, always look under his bedroll in the playroom. He's there almost every time. Even Liam has figured it out.

They play games like "Metro", "Museum", and "Cooking" too. I guess they copy what they know. Finn's favorite part of museum is running the credit card and giving you a receipt. He can even sign his name to the receipt now.

These kids are getting so big so fast. Or time is just flying by...

Miami

I had a AF Reserve trip down to Miami for a Sciene and Technology Conference last week. Since I would be working normal hours there, we brought the whole family down so I could see them.

Our hotel was nice, overlooking Biscayne Bay, and centrally positioned to everything we needed. Finn and Liam liked the marina and the contruction site next door which they could watch fromthe balconies.


To get established in the ways of Miami, we studied the signs posted everywhere. There were a couple funny, signs and a few informative. Here the boys study about manatee safety when boating. It was not that important since we saw no manatees nor drove any boats.


While I was at the conference, everyone else stayed at the hotel. They got to go swimming and enjoing the hot sun. They also went to Jungle Island where they saw sloths, toucans, and flamingoes.


I took a day off at the tail end of the trip too enjoy the city with the whole gang. Liam was very excited to get to the beach for digging and swimming. He's begun understanding us and nodding in affirmation of a question. I think he hates it though since all I do is ask him yes-or-no questions now, like a human Magic 8-ball.







We left on July 3rd in order to get back home for the 4th in DC. But before we left, we saw the flag flapping over the bay ready for Miami's own 4th of July.

Birthday Boy!

Little Liam turned one year old a couple weeks ago. He had a great birthday and finished the day with a cupcake. I'll run the order of the day backwards in this post. It's always nice to start with the big, happy, cake-filled smile.

He ate the whole thing, not just the frosting like some kids we have.


Although he ate a separate cupcake, the main cake was beautiful. Sarah had done a lot of research into fun cake ideas and settled on a good one that looks super and, as a bonus, gave Finn a project to help with. She made a turtle shaped cake. Finn had a train cake for his first, but Liam's was more amphibian.

We also continued a tradition that lapsed a little on Finn's third birthday. We try to take a picture of the birthday boy with a picture of them on the day they were born. I'm always struck by how they don't look like themselves in the birth picture, but that's probably because they were mostly cartilage and got squeezed out a toothpaste tube.

I used to think that the two look very different, but I can't really tell which is which in the newborn pictures. Now the more I look at the pictures of Finn at one year old, the more I think they look more similar.

While Liam was napping, Finn helped make the cake. He separated the M&Ms into pile of the same color. He then helped put the candies on the shell. Most important to him, he also helped eat the leftover M&Ms once the cake was covered.

It's been a great year with two boys. Liam's grown so much and will be walking around in a month or two. The kids wrestle and play together. Finn's an awesome big brother and Liam idolizes him. I can't wait for them to be get older because they get more amazing each day, but I know I'll miss all these milestones once they're behind us. I'll just keep enjoying them as they come.

Soft play room

Alexandria is a great town and has a lot of community activities and services. At the city athletic center near the high school there is a soft play room in a racquetball court. The kids love it. Here are some pictures and video of them having fun.

Finn is quite a daredevil and jumps off the slide instead of sliding off it. It's a great rainy day place to go. April showers gave plenty of need to have rainy day places to go too.

Day out at the park

A favorite thing to do is to pack up a picnic and head down to the riverfront park. It's got it all: airplanes on final, boats, running, playing ball, &c. Finn got his own umbrella and rain boots to protect him from the spring showers. The umbrella also doubles as a nice shade maker for summer days.


The best activity of all is walking on the rocks and throwing sticks into the Potomac. The leaves weren't full out at the time, but the sun was as strong as summer.

The kids also got new sunglasses for the summer. You can see how tired they got from the running and eating.

However, no matter how tired or how much you ate at lunch, there is always room for ice cream on a hot day. Ice cream is a higher priority than keeping a clean face.


It sure was a fun day and a good kickoff for summer. I'm sure that there will be many more days spent just like this one. Or maybe with a family bike ride kicked in.