A little bit of this...

...and a little bit of that.

We have been busy enjoying spring and have fallen behind on journaling our memories by blog. So here are some pictures to highlight some of the fun we've been having the past couple of weeks.

We tilled and plannted our garden...



Don't know how we did it last year without our little helper.



Took Carter to his first baseball game...



Go Flying Squirrels! (what a mascot - but we love it!)

Strolled down to our neighborhood playground for some swinging...



Lots of sliding...





Some bouncing...



And of course peek-a-boo. This game never gets old and we love it.



Loving spring...how about you?

We Love Gorillas.

Ever since our trip to the zoo, Carter has been making gorilla noises and beating on his chest at least 5 times every day. I have been showing him the few pictures we took of the gorillas, but I think those were getting a bit old. So I googled gorilla, clicked on the image search option, and voila: LOTS of new gorilla pictures. After doing that for a few days I was once again bored with looking at the same gorilla pictures over and over again. So, I googled gorilla again, but this time clicked on the video search option. We have watched several great video clips, but this one is by far the best.

It starts out a bit slow, but it is well worth watching until the end.

Officially Outnumbered

The ultrasound this morning confirmed that we are having another little boy!

On the way to the appointment I asked Adam what he thought we were having and he said "Boy!" I thought the same thing. I have felt so similar with this pregnancy as I did with Carter that I figured it must be another boy. Either that or I have very little pregnancy symptoms. Later Adam changed his answer and told me his real thought about the baby was "Oh Boy! Another newborn in just a few months!"

We are thrilled and can't wait to have another little one chasing balls, making truck noises, and even showering the walls.

National Zoo and National Mall

What a day. I am tempted to break this post into two different entries because there are so many fun memories and pictures to share, but I will just give it a shot and see how far I get. (Side note: I started this 2 days ago, but Carter woke up from his nap at the end of that last sentence so obviously I didn't get very far! Let's see if I can make it a bit farther today!)

We headed out for the Zoo Sunday morning. We debated about whether to take the Metro or drive. We usually love to take public transportation, but it was a 30+ minute ride by train and we had to drive to the Metro station anyway so we thought it would be quicker to just drive to the zoo. How bad can traffic be on a Sunday morning anyway? Answer? Traffic can be bad at all times in DC. Our directions sent us over Memorial Bridge, but the bridge was closed, so I had to use Adam's blackberry google maps to get us there. The short story is that the metro would have been quicker. But we made it there and Carter was rested and ready to go.

Here are the highlights of the animals we saw...
I am going to try to spell out or describe Carter's words or sounds for these animals.

"ri-gr"


"roooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!"



This picture does a better job of describing Carter's sound for a lion:



"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" while raising his right arm above his head like the trunk of an elephant.
We actually saw an elephant training show, so we have several cool pics of the elephants doing cool stuff.



A salute:



Balancing on 2 legs on the same side:



They can also balance on corners by lifting front right and back left or vice versa.

Imagine Carter beating his chest and saying "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" pretty loudly.



The gorilla exhibit was one of his favorites. There are 3 big rooms with walls of solid (hopefully thick) glass which the gorillas can travel between. In one of the rooms a gorilla was sitting with his back leaning against the glass and Carter leaned right up against the glass too. So he was basically face to face with the gorilla. Loved it. Has been making his gorilla noise non stop since we got home.

But after that Carter started asking for alligators (by clapping his right hand onto his left wrist - his motion for a gator mouth opening and closing).





And this picture is for Gram because I know how much you like these creatures! You might like them more when you hear Carter's cute "sssssssssssssssss" sound.



We brought with us to the zoo some pieces from one of Carter's current favorite puzzles. It is a Noah's Ark matching game with 30 pairs of animals. We picked out the pieces with pictures of animals that we thought we might see at the zoo. As we saw the different animals, we would show Carter the puzzle pieces that he often plays with so he could recognize what a real zebra looks like compared to the zebra picture on the puzzle piece (for example.)



He seemed to really enjoy relating his puzzle to his zoo time.

The rest of the day was spent with picnics at the zoo and on the National Mall.



I was trying to offer Carter a bite of my ice cream bar, but he seems to be a bit timid of cold food. He will open his mouth wide and act like he wants a bite, but as soon as you try to put it in his mouth he shuts it and starts giggling. Fine by me, more Dove bar for me! One of these days he will figure it out and I will have to start sharing again!

And finally just a couple of shots from our time playing on the National Mall...







Hope you enjoyed our little weekend recap...grandparents, believe it or not, there are even more pictures in the April album if you are still wanting more!

Half Way There...

We are 20 weeks along today. Can't believe it. Thought writing it out would make it seem more real, but still can't believe how fast this pregnancy seems to be going. I am feeling really good and trying to enjoy my second trimester because I have a feeling the heat of the summer months and the growth of my belly will make things a little more uncomfortable.

I realized the other night that I haven't written much about this new baby so I thought now would be a good time to give a quick recap of the first half of my pregnancy.

I found out we were pregnant just a few days before Christmas. My original plan was to wait and tell Adam on Christmas morning, but I didn't last past the first day. As usual, I did my best to convince Adam to open a present early. I used the small stocking in this picture and wrapped up a picture of our positive test result.



We used this picture on our Christmas cards in 2007 to share the news that we were expecting Carter so I thought Adam might recognize the small stocking and figure out what the present was before he opened it. But he either didn't put the two together right away or let me think that I surprised him. In any case, he was very excited and it was a special Christmas to know that by the following Christmas we would have another stocking on the mantle.

So far things have felt pretty similar to my pregnancy with Carter. I didn't have any morning sickness, just several days/weeks of feeling "unsettled" as I like to call it. But the one recurring symptom that hit me hard again was the fatique. Boy did I log some sleep hours on the couch during those first weeks. I did have more cravings during the first weeks. I remember one night as I was coming home from getting my hair cut and the only thing I could even think about eating was Chinese fried rice. I am not even I Chinese food fan, I usually just eat it whenever Adam wants it. But this time that was all that would work. Another strong craving was for Nana and Poppa's potato salad. I e-mailed for the recipe but before I got around to making it I bought a pint from a good bbq joint in town. I was craving it non stop for a few days. Can you tell which one of us is pregnant by this picture of us having "dessert" one night?



Other than that things are pretty much the same. My belly is growing, faster it seems than with Carter, but that it what I always heard, and it appears to be true with me too. Here is a shot from 12 weeks...we have meaning to take another profile shot for a couple of weeks...



We have an ultrasound scheduled for next Monday and I am hopeful this little one will cooperate so we can find out what we are having.

A little weekend getaway...

We spent the afternoon yesterday in Old Town Alexandria and are headed to the National Zoo this morning and National Mall this afternoon. Adam has to work in DC next week so we decided to come early for a little weekend fun.

We did some strolling down King Street...



Then Carter was mesmerized by this fountain. That is until the airplane flew over our heads, then he didn't know which was more fun to watch.



This guy played Beethoven's Ode To Joy on these water glasses. It was fantastic and so fun to watch and listen to.



Next we made it to the water where Carter had even more fun stuff to watch. There was lots of boat activity, a big bridge in the distance with lots of big trucks, airplanes flying over us every 2-3 minutes, and water. A sweet girl offered to take our picture and we took her up on it.



We had a yummy seafood dinner and then headed back to the hotel so we could put a tired little man to bed. We are staying in a hotel that used to be condos just a little outside of Alexandria. We have found that we prefer to stay in suites (if we can find one that is affordable) when we travel with Carter. It is really nice to be able to put him down in the bedroom and then have another small sitting area for us to hang out for a few hours before we head to bed. We have had luck with our past couple of hotels, but they took some time to find. Anyone with little ones have any suggestions for finding a good place with little ones? We will be in Atlanta for a few nights in May and we need to find a place soon for that...

Almost zoo time...more pictures to come.

Almost Done...

I just want to let you know that I am eating my bagel this morning off of a real plate and drinking some water out of a real glass. No more paper and plastic - we moved back into our kitchen last night and I am thrilled.

There is still a rather long list of detail items to finish up but the kitchen is functional for now which is great. Here are some shots of where we are now. (Note - these will probably be the final shots before everything else is done. The lighting, backsplash, paint, final trim, etc. should really make everything come together so I will post final pictures once the rest is done.)

Here I am unloading one of the many boxes last night.



It took almost 15 boxes to pack up the entire kitchen. And it of course seemed to take longer to unpack than to pack but it was still fun.

The hardware is in...



...and the ceiling and soffit crown back in place.



One of the final decisions we have to make is the backsplash. We have decided on the style and now just have to pick out the color. We are going with a 2x4 glass subway tile. Here is what the pattern will look like:



And here are the two colors we are deciding between:

a lighter khaki option...


or a darker grey option...


I was having a difficult time deciding based on the small sample, so I have ordered 1 square foot of each so I can hold them up against the backsplash and get a better feel of what the color will look like. The samples should be here next week and then hopefully we can place our order by the end of next week and get things moving again.

Any thoughts or opinions on the color options?

Here Comes Peter Cottontail...

Wow. Where to start. We had a great weekend full of Easter activities but at the end of it all I think mommy and daddy are more tired than Carter. That boy can play hard. And loves every minute of it. And so do we.

On Saturday we ventured out to our Botanical Garden to see Peter Rabbit as well as the start of "One Million Blooms."



Although Carter was really excited about wearing his bunny shirt, he was less than excited to sit on Peter Rabbit's lap.



But shortly after we saw Peter Rabbit, we found the sandbox.





We shoveled sand, made hand prints in the sand, buried and dug out a dinosaur in the sand. It was lots of fun. And after 45 minutes Carter was still loving it. But we convinced him there were lots of other fun things to do, like have an ice cream cone. Yummy!



When we got home there was still enough daylight for a couple of rounds of hiding/finding eggs. We have been playing this game all week and Carter loves it.



This morning, Carter was very excited that the Easter Bunny had visited - especially when he discovered that the Easter Bunny filled his eggs with chocolate!



The Easter Bunny brought Carter a few new books and some stickers which will provide hours of entertainment. Thank you Easter Bunny!

Here are a few pictures from our little guy all dressed up for church.





Our dogwood tree popped this weekend - Carter is checking out the new blooms.



After church we walked to Strawberry Street Cafe for brunch. Then we strolled over to Monumnent Avenue for the Easter On Parade.



This title is a bit confusing because there isn't a parade. Unless you count everyone that comes out for the event and strolls up and down the street in their Easter best, crazy hats, and dressed up dogs. Still it is a lot of fun with lots of vendors, puppets, music, etc. We enjoyed parading up and down the street and then came home so Carter could take a little nap.

It has been a great Easter weekend and we hope each of you have had a blessed weekend as well.

(Grandparents: (and anyone else interested) there are more pictures in the April album in the left sidebar. Enjoy!)

Happy Easter!

A New Favorite Book

Carter received a little Easter surprise from Mimi in the mail this week and Carter quickly decided he was a fan.



I think Adam gets a lot of credit for turning this book into the hit it has become. You see, during the three page "wild rumpus" where there are no words, just pictures, and Max is king of the Wild Things, Adam created "music" to go with the pages. Carter dances to the music and imitates the noises Adam is making. It is too cute.



We have yet to read this book just once during a sitting. As soon as the last page is turned, Carter says "more!"

Here he is enjoying the wild rumpus on his own.