Our busy week..

It's been a busy week in our little house.
North got a new tattoo. Temporary of course. He had great pride in it and showed everyone he could. Until it wore off. But here it is, captured in megapixels so that it can live on.

Jimmie came and stayed for a few days last weekend which was great fun. We went to Udvar-Hazy and took some photos from the air control tower.

Here's North posing with the "North" sign.

Mike and his girlfriend Lena drove over from Pennsylvania for the day and we played Settlers of Catan--a fun and addictive board game.

That night we went to a local hot pot restaurant. It was delicious. and fun.
Sunday we went to Baltimore to drop Jimmie off and also visit the American Visionary Art Museum. There were no photos allowed inside but we did snap a couple out front and a few in the restaurant.
Then on Monday Alan had massive oral surgery. Big time bummer. He's still recovering.
Tuesday North was crazy sick. He's better now.
Wednesday I gave North an unfortunate haircut and realized that I made him look like a baby Spock. So of course I made him pose for photos with some fake paper Spock ears I made. He really tried to do the "live long and prosper" hands but they just didn't work out. and yes, he does have green popsicle mustache to complete the look.

Don't worry, I trimmed the sides up after these photos. He no longer looks like Spock.
Here's hoping for a calm Friday...

Spring has sprung...

The weather is warm here and so this weekend we enjoyed the spring temperatures by visiting Great Falls of the Potomac. North LOVES climbing around on the big rocks. It was a lovely day--below are some of the pictures we snapped during our visit.

While there we even ran into a friendly little millipede.
With the warm weather, North has also been able to spend more time playing outside. While grandma was in town for Easter, he got some good bike riding time in.

He also recently got to attend his good pal Zoe's 3rd birthday party (complete with bounce house!)
Recently I had a business trip to Chicago--I missed North and Alan like mad but of course brought back souvenirs--North loved the 3-dimensional model of the Sear's tower that his daddy helped him put together.

We've also enjoyed a recent trip to Baltimore to check out the Aquarium and the Maryland Science Center.
And a recent visit from Nana and Grandad!

Spring is off to a great start!

Tee is overrated...

Other videos I discovered that we'd taken recently(ish) of our little songbird...

Two little monkeys jumping on the bed...

A week ago Jeremy and Carrie and Mila came for a visit. Great fun was had by all--I snapped a few pictures of the fun with my phone...which unfortunately was run over by a car before I downloaded any to our computer...

My poor phone.
Anyways though, Alan also captured a cute video of Mila and North jumping around on the guest bed during their visit so we have some small bit of documentation from their trip here...


Mila and North get along beautifully--it was so nice to see them. We had a lovely low key weekend hanging out. Of course, we miss them already!

Made up songs...

North is a music kid. He loves playing his little drums and poking on piano and keyboard keys and most of all, singing and playing guitar. Often we hear him singing away in the other room while horsing around on some instrument or another.
Last night while we were hanging out in the living room, Alan was poking around on his guitar and North started to make up a little song of nonsense syllables---I grabbed one of our phones and got a bit of it on video.

Painting

North loves to paint. And I love the paint your own pottery places. And so recently Alan had the brilliant suggestion that the 3 of us head to a paint your own pottery place near our house--it was such fun for all of us and we got two great (although admittedly a bit ugly) new bowls. North painted the insides of each bowl all by himself and helped us with the outsides.

Of course there were times when it was necessary that North convert his paintbrush to a lightsaber. Thankfully the paint was all washable.

Our finished products waiting to go into the kiln.





Afterword painting we went to a movie--North loves the 3d glasses and so we never are able to recycle his--he's building a collection and has started insisting on wearing one set OVER another set of glasses.
Unrelated but on our photos from that day, North has also started combining his 2 great loves--Tron and Star Wars-- by insisting that Sam Flynn and Rinzler ride in starships and Star Wars guys ride on lightcycles or motorcycles. Admittedly, Darth Vader does look quite appropriate on his little black bike.

Other recent(ish) adventures...

We haven't taken many photos lately but have been enjoying the first few months of 2011 here in Virginia.
We've seen lots of movies, and gone to lots of restaurants, and just generally been enjoying all of our favorite indoor winter activities.

North still has his killer smile.

And is pretty well potty trained now (thank you grandma!!!!) although we do still put him in a pull-up when he sleeps or we go out. He's been great about not having accidents although, while out the other day when we asked if he would like to use the store's bathrooms he informed us he would "never EVER poop anywhere but our house," so that's going to be a problem.

We have used extreme bribery in our potty training efforts, including lots of Tron and Star Wars toys. A favorite (which admittedly was really more for Alan than North) is a radio controlled light-cycle from Tron--it lights up and can drive up walls and on the ceiling.
Alan playing.

Grandma has been out for a couple of visits--during each of the federal holiday weekends--which has been great. During a previous visit we visited the National Aquarium in DC (much smaller than it's Baltimore counterpart) and had a great time. Last week she was here all week and potty trained North! Her timing last week was particularly welcome as I have a broken bone in my foot (our cat tripped me on our stairs one evening) and having the extra help while I'm not very mobile was a dream come true.

Before the broken bone we took a trip downtown one weekend to check out the Library of Congress (sadly our only trip downtown in months).
Enjoying the chilly day downtown.
And that's it for my photos. More to come as we take more...