Lexie's Baby Shower

This past Christmas we received a very exciting Christmas card; my friend Lexie and her husband Jason's Christmas letter announced their latest news - They were expecting their first baby!

Lexie is a friend of mine from the National Pest Control Association, where we worked along side each other for 5 years before I married Brett, had Peter and became a stay at home mom.

Almost a year before we got Lexie and Jason's Christmas letter they had come to dinner at our house and told us that they had been actively trying to start their family with no luck; so the news of the baby was that much more exciting!

In March, Lexie's friends threw her a shower and Aaron and I got to go celebrate.

Before the shower another NPMA friend, Meghan, and I went baby shopping and out to lunch to catch up since we don't see each other as much anymore.




The shower was a lot of fun, with a "The Price is Right" game and really cute decorations (ideas I am going to use if any of my friends ever decide to have kids!!!). I also loved getting to see Lexie's mom and a few other friends from NPMA.

Lexie and Jason are due this month, so look out for a baby announcement soon!

Happy Birthday Sarah... like 2 months ago...

On March 13th (like always I am very on top of things), Aaron's God mother celebrated her 27th birthday!

Most years we celebrate Sarah's birthday by going to a Japanese Steak House, but this year she opted for Buca Di Beppo, a family style restaurant in DC.

Since Sarah likes our kids almost as much as we do we decided to bring them along. Neither child wanted to sit in their high chairs so they enjoyed being passed around on laps and running around the crowded restaurant (the benefit of a crowded restaurant was that it was loud, so no one could even tell if my kids were being naughty).


Dinner was delicious and we had fun seeing friends and getting out of the house.

We left pretty soon after we finished eating, so we missed cake and birthday singing, but we heard it was delicious!

Happy (2 months) belated birthday Sarah!

This blog brought to your by Listerine!

I am terrified by dentists. There is no basis for this fear, seeing as I have never had to have anything more than a cleaning done in my life, but never the less, terrified. Due to my fear I am sort of nuts about brushing, flossing and using mouth wash, but I am always convinced that I still have cavities.

This is why it has been over 5 years since I have seen a dentist.

Brett is also good about tooth maintenance, however because we have had a busy couple of years it had been 2 years since his last cleaning.

Since we have a new dental plan, and have moved since our last appointments we decided to find someone who was:

a. close to the house
b. had a name we could pronounce
c. had office hours on the weekends

Brett found Dr. Paul Harris, a graduate from Maryland University (which gave him credibility with Brett), and who's office was open on Saturday and within walking distance of our house. Perfect.

We made our Saturday appointments back-to-back so we could tag team taking care of the kids.

The night before, Brett and I had date night and I couldn't stop talking about how paranoid I was that I would have a minimum of 6 cavities. This conversation prompted Brett to say I was crazy, and then for us to make a bet.

If I had 6 or more cavities he would get me a dog (to make it all worth while... I have been begging for a dog recently). If I had no cavities, no dog.

Saturday morning I get dressed and head over to the dentist.

The dentists office sort of freaked me out more. It was in the Seoul Plaza - a mini strip shopping center (as mentioned in previous blogs we live in Korea Town). Seoul Plaza has other interesting store fronts including, a charcoal chicken place, a traditional porridge cafe, and a gentleman's bar that is rumored to be running a prostitution ring. Classy.

The receptionist brought me back to a miniature room, which probably seemed smaller in comparison to the enormous bottle of Listerine that was sitting in the corner. This bottle was bigger than something you would find at Costco. I would guess AT LEAST 5 gallons.

As I looked around nervously the hygienist/receptionist (because they were the same person) asked if I was really this shy or just nervous. I admitted to being afraid of dentists, which is over heard by Dr. Harris, who runs in the room and announces that he has 2 rules:

1. No pain - he will not hurt me, if he does tell him and he will stop.

2. No pain - I am not allowed to bite.

He clearly thought he was funny. I did not.

The rest of the time that I was there he proceeded to curse (clearly trying to be "cool") and tell me his philosophy of dentistry... all you need to do is use Listerine twice a day for a minute each day. He even said that tooth paste is unnecessary, and was only invented so that kids liked the taste; and that flossing regularly was a waste, you only needed to when you had something stuck between your teeth.

He x-rayed my mouth and told me that I was cavity-free and that my teeth looked so good he couldn't believe that I hadn't seen a dentist in 5 years.

After my appointment (or what I consider to be a long Listerine commercial) I left knowing that my chances of getting a dog were slim to none, but higher than ever going back to see Dr. Harris.

Anyone have a recommendation for a nice, non-Listerine obsessed dentist?

2 down, 2 to go!

Last night Brett and I sprayed the kids' hair (mohawks) red and packed them in the car to head to Union Jacks to watch the Caps Game!

The game was the second in the Caps verse Penguins best of 7 series for the NHL's Quarter-finals; and the Gardners were FULL of Caps spirit.




In the car we worked on teaching the kids to cheer:





And I gave Brett a kiss so he could Rock the Red lip print (since he wouldn't do a mohawk):



Once we got to the restaurant there were lots of Caps fans to cheer with us, including a table of friends that we invited! Nick, Leigh, Heather, Sarah, Mike and Andy all got in the spirit (some even wearing borrowed jerseys from our collection). During the game we all played the restaurant/bar's "You don't know Jack" trivia game (which they do every Monday), and chowed down on 1/2 price burgers.



Brett and I also took turns playing with Peter since he was not interested in sitting at the table. This lead to some funny situations with other people in the restaurant, including Peter walking up to one table and trying to take someone's purse. The woman who owned the purse was talking on the phone at the time and said, "There is a small street thug with a mohawk trying to steal my purse!" She and the other people at Union Jacks thought red mohawks were awesome and many people asked to take photos with our cute babies.

The game ended up being just as AWESOME as the boys' hair! With hatricks scored by both team's super stars, and more importantly the Caps winning 4-3!!!



Tomorrow is Game #3 of the series so we are hosting a viewing party at our house! All are welcome, so come help us Rock the Red!

C-A-P-S Caps! Caps! Caps!

Tonight is the second game of the second series in the Caps 2009 playoff run, and Peter and Aaron are geared up with their new Mohawks!

Aaron's hair is so fair that it is hard to see his Mohawk, but I promise that we did shave his head.

Tonight we are going to Union Jack's for dinner to watch the first period (or as much of the game as the kids will sit through!).

The whole family is ready to rock the red (and rock the hawk), including red hair.

That's right, we bought red hair spray to paint the kids tonight so they can show their Caps spirit. Pictures will be posted tomorrow!

Lets go Caps!!!

Honey!

As Peter gets older and picks up more and more on the things that we do we learn more about ourselves.

He mimics phone conversations with his toy phones, he rubs will rub back when he gives you a hug, and now he has started calling out "Honey" to get Brett's and my attention.

This morning over the baby monitor I heard him waking up, and waited for him to call out "mommy" like he is supposed to when he is ready to get up.

Instead I heard, "Honey?... Honey?... Honey!!!"

Talk about a wake up call.

151.5 is the new 666

Ok, that might be harsh; but seriously I am so annoyed by the number 151.5!!! Why? Because that is the number I have seen on my scale the past 20 mornings!

It never seems to matter how much I eat, work out, etc., I am still 151.5.

The most annoying part about the number is that it is 1.5 pounds away from the 20 pound mark (which was my goal for Easter); and the longer I take to get that 1.5 pounds off the harder it is going to be to reach my 30 pounds lost goal for Memorial Day!

And in other, annoying weight loss news - my whole body is shrinking EXCEPT my tummy! This is frustrating because: a. it makes my tummy more exaggerated, and b. I haven't been able to drop that many pants sizes because the waist is still nice and round (I call it my kangaroo pouch since I got it carrying babies around).

However, on a brighter note I finally got down to 151 without the .5 this morning.

Hopefully I can get up to a pace that is higher than .5 pounds every 3 weeks!

1 day, 4 cute stories and a new developmental step!

Today was a story-filled day for the boys!

1. Peter said his first REAL sentence! Peter is great with single words, naming body parts, and doing animal noises; but more than a 1 or 2 word sentence is a little beyond him right now. Until today! During story time I asked him to get a book, and after grabbing one he ran back to me saying "I got a book!"

2. Do the crime, do the time! Peter absolutely loves his brother and is constantly wanting to hug him, play with him, and even feed him bottles. However, if Aaron doesn't want to play, Peter gets frustrated. More often than not this can lead to Peter hitting Aaron. This is something that we have worked on a lot, and Peter has gotten so much better, but it still happens sometimes. Today was one of those days. Peter was laughing and trying to get Aaron to laugh by tickling, but Aaron wasn't in to the game. Frustrated, Peter took a swing at Aaron, but since I was within reaching distance I stopped Peter and put him in time out. When Peter's time out was over he walked back over to Aaron and I just had a feeling that he was going to try to hit him AGAIN. I grabbed Peter, looked him in the eye and said in my "mommy voice" - "Peter, you are not allowed to hit your brother! If you hit your brother you are going straight to time out again!" With that Peter turned around, slapped his brother, and walked directly to the time out chair.

3. They cannot be separated! We have a twin's stroller that has the kids sitting one in front of the other, and we always put Peter in front. Tonight, Brett and I took the kids for a walk and while Brett and I were deep in conversation Peter climbed out of and then over his seat and into Aaron's seat so he could give his brother a hug (and if you were wondering, we couldn't see him do so because of the sun shades that are over top of the kid's heads in the stroller). When we realized what they had done and picked Peter up to move him back to his own seat, both kids cried and reached out for each other!

4. Night Night! Tonight, Brett had a meeting to go to at our church so I had bed and bath time duty with the boys by myself. This is actually one of my favorite times of the night because we play together as a family and then all snuggle up for stories before we say prayers and tuck the kids in for the night. Tonight I was sitting in Aaron's room and Peter was running back and forth between the two rooms playing his version of hide and seek (more appropriately titled, hide and then run out of hiding place screaming "MOMMY!!!"). Peter ran full speed around the two rooms for about 30 minutes, taking breaks to read books and play with his train table. Then in the middle of the game he walked up to me with the sweetest little face and said "night, night" then took my hand and walked me into his room to get into his crib.

And the exciting new developmental step - Aaron sat up for the first time!!! He has been doing it with help of pillows and leaning on things a little, but today I actually had him sitting with no assistance at all! He still cannot get to this position on his own, but with his rolling skills and attempts to crawl I wouldn't be surprised if that was coming!

It was a very cute and fun filled day, but we are all exhausted now!

Night, Night! :)

A new bath video...

No pooping in the tub this time!

Peter finds it HILARIOUS to tickle his brother's feet during bath time, so we caught some footage the other day:



Also note how big Aaron is now! He isn't even close to fitting in his baby bath!

Snake!

Last week it was raining, but Peter likes the rain and splashing around in puddles so I let him out in the back yard while I sat in the door way watching him. Once he got bored he came back in the house and we shut the door to find a SNAKE had crawled into the house while the door was open!!!


We got the snake in a Tupperware (well, Brett did - I was screaming on top of the couch). Then Peter wanted to see it, so we showed him and learned that Peter is not remotely afraid of snakes! See video:



We kept it for the day, but eventually let him go.

Screen doors are becoming a big priority ever since this event!