Katherine and Kailey's visit- first week of December

Their flight got into BWI about 11:30 which means we didn't get home until about 1 (Tim was out of town for work). To say that Gus and Kailey were happy to see each other is a huge understatement. The fact that Gus didn't fall asleep in the car on the way there- when we left our house at about 10 pm- is a testament to just how excited he was to see her. They talked in the car the whole way home- which was cool and weird since they had a more limited verbal ability when they last saw each other. They could talk then, but it was much less advanced. It's amazing what a difference just a few months can make.

They stayed awake and talked the whole 45 min drive home, then when we got home they played for over an hour. Seeing Gus that happy really highlighted how sad he'd been since we got to MD. He wasn't sad one single moment the entire time they were visiting, and after they left his mood had improved quite a bit overall. I think knowing that he would in fact get to see KK again made him feel a lot better. We finally got a webcam and that's helped a lot. Oh, to have had it as soon as we moved. I probably could have saved myself lot of misery if I'd just had that thing earlier. K and Gus will stay on it for forever just playing with their toys and talking while Kat and I do respective chores around our house while the kids are happy.


It's 1:30 am and they've decided that painting would be the perfect activity after getting home from the airport. Kat and I were completely supportive of this, of course, since that was the first time our kids had been at peace since we'd moved (which means that it was pretty much the first time Kat and I had been at peace since we'd moved).

The next morning

Gus's face says it all; he's totally and completely happy. They sat on the floor of Gus's playroom and ate cereal and made a collosal mess. I was thrilled. As long as Gus was happy I didn't care what else was happening.

We went to a Christmas thing in downtown Rockville

We went to the Christmas tree lighting in downtown Rockville which is about 2 miles from our house. Santa was there, of course the line was extremely long, but Gus wasn't dying to see him anyway so it didn't matter that we just skipped it that night. Later on in the week, we saw Santa at the Montgomery Mall at about 8 at night and not one other kid was there, so we could sort of meander up and neither Gus nor Kailey got scared because it was so low key. The Santa was nice and this was a great way to meet him. Poor Santa couldn't understand a word that Gus and K were saying.

As you can see, Gus was still beyond thrilled that Kailey was visiting. This was the second or third night after they arrived. Kailey wasn't digging having her picture made in front of the Rockville Christmas tree- probably because it was so cold- but Gus didn't care what was happening or how cold it was, as long as Kailey was there. This smile was accompanied by a huge squeal.


After we got home from the Christmas tree lighting, Gus had to hit the head- for a...ahem...a sizable contribution. Kailey wanted to stay with him- as she always did because they're stuck on each other like white on rice, but since the day before she had kicked him out of the bathroom when she had to go, he wasn't letting her in. She beat and kicked on the door the whole time he was in there and said "Guuuuuuuuuuus!", but he wouldn't budge. I mean, she tried everything to get in there-kicking and pulling and hanging on the door, begging and crying, but no dice.

The day before, the table had been wobbly and I fixed it. Gus and K thought it wasn't fixed enough, so that night after they changed into pjs, they had to work on it.

Going to feed the birds

One day we went to feed the ducks at the Washingtonian Center...the place we stayed when we came to DC to look for a house. It's only a few mins from us so we could just hop over there for a few mins. Katherine monogrammed Gus and Kailey matching hats. However, she underestimated the size of Gus's ginormous cranium when she bought the hat to mongram, so it was too small. I still got him to wear it that one day though, and I think that was the first day I was able to get him to wear a coat, and I only could because Kailey was wearing hers.

Feeding the ducks was fun...for about 2 minutes. Fun until the seagulls found us and attacked us for food. Katherine has a huge fear of birds so that pretty much ended the whole duck feeding expedition. They weren't there when we were there in August, so I have no idea where they came from or if they'll be returning from whence they came. We played on the small playground for a little while instead.

On the way back to the car, we stopped and picked up lunch at the Corner Bakery Cafe, and the kids even got cookies and lemonade.

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

In the front of the museum by the elephant. I couldn't take my eyes off of Gus for one second because I knew he'd be up on that display the next time I turned around.

This is the dung beetle display- right under the elephant (poop) display. Gus could have stayed here all day. Seems that beetles that eat and live in elephant poop are extremely interesting to him. To this day, I still hear about dung beetles... namely, whenever Gus poops I hear about DBs. He says "Dung beetles like poop. They eat poop. They live in elephant poop". Course, it sounds more like "Dund beedles wike poop. Dey eat poop. Dey wiv in eh-phant poop". About took me forever to figure out what he was saying with such intensity while sitting on the toilet.

Katherine, Gus and Kailey check to see if they can hear the ocean. This is in a great discovery room in the musuem. They have animal skulls, microscopes with various items to look at, lots of hands on materials.

More museum

Apparantly, you can hear the ocean in almost anything, even a plastic lid.

Dinosaur cookie



The second we left the museum, the kids both fell asleep and Tim, Kat and I walked around the National Mall and saw the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.

It was really cold.

This is Katherine in front of the WWII memorial, in front of South Carolina (Katherine's home state...and she's not even afraid to admit it!).

That's Katherine. Really! Like I said, it was cold and fairly windy and it snowed a little that afternoon. Even under all that cold weather gear she probably still has a bow in her hair.

Baking cookies with KK

cutting out the cookies

decorating with sprinkles! (by the end, more sprinkles ended up in Gus's mouth than on the cookies)

ready to stick in the oven

Ta-daaaa!

patiently waiting for them to be finshed cooking

Cheesy posed pics

We went out to dinner to eat sushi and since the kids had on actual clothes and didn't have food all over their faces we decided to take some pics.

We also took some Christmas photos that I might have used for my Christmas cards...if I had actually gotten around to making and mailing Christmas cards. Maybe next year! (I say that every year).

My Favorite Outtakes

My absolute fav:

This is the one I'm using for our Christmas cards next year.

Our oven

A couple of people emailed me asking about the oven so here are some pics. It wasn't complicated at all and not expensive. I got the premade box at Michael's and the stove eyes also, they were maybe $1 apiece. The legs were already constructed and I purchased those at Home Depot, though if I had it to do over again I would have had 2x2s measured and cut for me there. The legs that we got had screws in them already and I could have attached them more securely if I had been able to do it myself. The knobs and handle I got from HD, and the wire oven racks are cookie cooling racks cut to size. The blue stuff on top was Gus's contribution- he stamped the stamp pad on top as we were assembling it.

In no particular order...

Our photo card reader is broken, hence the lack of pictures and posts. We now have one that semi works so here are a bunch of posts in no particular chronological/importance order. Katherine and Kailey are here visiting and everyone but me is napping, so as hard as it is for me to do, I'll be brief.

Gluing stuff.

(cottage) Cheeeeeeeeeeeeese!

More visitors

John, Ilka, Dylan and Morgan came to visit, bearing gifts from their travels through DC, Rochester, and elsewhere. John read about Tim's sadness at his inability to get Two Buck Chuck here in MD, so he came with a whole case just for him that he got from a TJs in VA. John almost got lucky that day (Tim was super happy about the 2BC).

We all went to eat at a Greek restaurant that Tim and I had been wanting to try, and we also went to the park one day when it was bitter cold. Mostly we hung out and the kids played. Then on Saturday morning we received the other gift they brought us, a stomach bug-they thought it was long gone but there must have been some sneaky viral particles hanging around on their person or possessions. I got it first, then Gus. It was Gus's first real barfing illnesss and it really wasn't that bad. As he was telling me he wanted another blueberry blintze he was barfing, so apparantly he didn't feel that bad. From their description, I think John and Ilka had it worse than we all did, so it must have mutated on it's way to Maryland. So Dylan and John left to drive home on Saturday as scheduled and instead of Ilka and I getting to hang out and shop until she flew out on Sunday, I slept the day away and poor Ilka cooked us dinner and chicken soup. Overall, the bug wasn't that bad at all and really only lasted a day and a half for us. No biggie but it really blew that we didn't get to hang out more.

Dylan and Gus hard at work cooking. Gus is in his pjs...as always. But at least he has clothes on!

Cooking on the oven that Bre and I built. I was going to buy one but the ones I found in stores and online were 1) expensive 2) short yet huge 3) plastic 4) fug and tacky 5) pink, so Brandi and I made this simple oven for under $40. Before now the kids would use our antique pie safe as an oven.

Dylan, John, Ilka and Morgan at the park when it was cold.

This is where Gus likes to throw rocks into the water (for hours). This day his hands got cold because he wouldn't wear his gloves (of course) so he melted down because his hands began hurting and so we went home. I think he was still tired from Bre's visit. He took a nap, then we had a successful dinner at the Greek restaurant. Morgan was like the little brother in A Christmas Story and couldn't walk well because of all the layers of clothes.

Aunt Bre visited

Painting with Tim.

Bre and Gus painting - and Gus in PJs yet again. It's about 5 PM and he's still in PJs. Getting him to change into clothes (and leave them on) is an ordeal and an exercise in futility. The second I turn my back he's in his underwear again. Hanna Andersson makes a fortune off of us in sleepwear because he wears it all day like regular clothes. And I'm in big trouble because there's an actual HA store at the mall 5 minutes from me. Must ...resist...buying ...Gus clothes... (not that he'd wear them anyway).

Painting a treasure chest for Kailey.


The finished product. Ta daaaaaaaaaa!

We're here...

and pretty much unpacked. The move went fine though Gus has had some not unexpected adjustment issues (like he's stuck to me like white on rice as in I can't even leave the room without him, though that's slowly improving).

We went trick or treating with a neighbor and her son and Gus had big fun. I couldn't get him to wear a costume though he did wear clothes with long sleeves and long pants so I was glad about that (another issue, I can barely get him into clothes much less cool weather ones, he just wants to run around in PJs or underwear all day and not leave the house, though that's getting better, too).

We have friends coming for visits which is very exciting! We have people practically back to back starting on the 15th; first Brandy, then Ilka and her family, then Katherine and Kailey, then my mom for Christmas. We haven't done any of the interesting things there are to do here and I expect we'll get to do lots of it when these folks come for a visit. I think it will make Gus feel much better to see familiar people. I know I'm super excited to have them all come.

We have been to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and that has been great. We've really missed being able to shop there since we left California. But Tim was royally PO'd that all the TJs in Maryland don't sell Two Buck Chuck because they can't sell alcohol. It was almost ugly. So we're going to see if the ones in Virginia sell it.

When Tim and I got here we voted by absentee ballot in Florida so we won't be voting Tuesday. I put in my vote for Obama and if you want to know who Tim voted for then you'll just have to ask him. This article in Rolling Stone about McCain is interesting (not to try to sway anyone's vote ;)).

Also, those of you in Florida, make sure to vote NO on proposition 2.

Still spinning our wheels...

...in Huntsville.