The Mt. Vernon 10 Miler

On Sunday we got up early and walked down to the Potomac - only about 200 yards - to watch the Mt. Vernon 10 Miler. The course was from Mt. Vernon up the GW Parkway to Old Town Alexandria. For those of you not familiar with the area - it is a beautiful course along the river but uphill the entire way - yuck! It was a perfect morning for running - cool and cloudy. It had rained the night before so the pollen was a little less too! Here's the crew waiting for the runners - very patiently I might add...Aidan borrowed this umbrella from a boy who was waiting to watch his mom run by - Aidan asked why I wasn't running in the race. "Mommy is lazy" probably isn't the best answer to that question!Here are the first runners - they were so far out in front we couldn't even see anyone else - and we were only at the 2 mile mark!The general prison population - most of them looked like they were already in trouble. Only 8 miles to go!!

The Mt. Vernon 10 Miler

On Sunday we got up early and walked down to the Potomac - only about 200 yards - to watch the Mt. Vernon 10 Miler. The course was from Mt. Vernon up the GW Parkway to Old Town Alexandria. For those of you not familiar with the area - it is a beautiful course along the river but uphill the entire way - yuck! It was a perfect morning for running - cool and cloudy. It had rained the night before so the pollen was a little less too! Here's the crew waiting for the runners - very patiently I might add...Aidan borrowed this umbrella from a boy who was waiting to watch his mom run by - Aidan asked why I wasn't running in the race. "Mommy is lazy" probably isn't the best answer to that question!Here are the first runners - they were so far out in front we couldn't even see anyone else - and we were only at the 2 mile mark!The general prison population - most of them looked like they were already in trouble. Only 8 miles to go!!

Emmy Waking Up

Emmy is the happiest when she is just waking up - she does NOT get that from me. Here she is getting up from a nap - all smiles!!

The Red Car

The red car is always the favorite toy whenever anyone comes over to play. Emmy has just gotten big enough to sit in the car without falling through too often! Here she is enjoying herself this morning before the boys were up.Here is a picture of Aidan around the same age - enjoying the same car!

Aidan's Garden

Aidan and I have been working on planting our vegetable garden for this summer. So far we have 3 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, basil, oregano, sage, cilantro, dill, sunflowers and a row of carrots in. We are hopefully going to get a few more tomato plants from my grandfather and maybe we'll plant some peppers - we'll see how much room we have. There isn't much room in the front yard that gets enough sun so I have converted the strip of land next to the driveway into our garden. Aidan LOVES watering the plants and checking on them everyday to make sure they are doing OK. Here he is in front of the tomatoes - I thought we should document how small they are - hopefully they'll get much taller than Aidan!!

Aidan and Logan

My friend from college, Tracy (Thorner) Morris, and I found each other about a month ago through Brendan's facebook account. We hadn't seen each other since graduation day in 1999 and here it is almost 10 years later and we live five miles from each other. We have been here almost a year now - I wish we had connected sooner.
Anyway - she has a 2 year old daughter, Logan, and a 3 month old son, Hayden. Today we went to the River Farm - it was a beautiful day - and Aidan and Logan got to run around and get dirty - great fun! It is really surreal to watch the kids interact. I don't think it ever crossed my mind in college that someday we would all have kids. I don't know why this never occurred to me - it seems quite obvious in hind site. I guess as time passes I feel pulled along with the tide - not quite as comfortable with how far away from the past it is pulling me as I probably should be. I always thought I would age gracefully - now I'm not quite so sure....Tracy and LoganAidan and Logan having a snackAidan and Emmylove the dress

Emmy is 10 Months!

Emmy turned 10 months old this week! She is getting so big and really starting to get around. She has figured out how to pull up - and sit down! - and is starting to cruise. Aidan seems to enjoy her new mobility and serves as a great look-out for me!Here we are enjoying a warm morning while Aidan is at school!

As If This Wasn't Hard Enough Already

Try mowing the yard with Aidan walking in front of you! Brendan is such a good sport - he let Aidan "help" him mow the entire back yard. I think he thought Aidan would get bored/tired of it - no such luck!

Emmy is Standing

Emmy started sitting up by herself on Monday and by Wednesday she was crawling around pulling up on everything. On Thursday she started cruising on the furniture. I thought she was going to give us a little more time - hopefully she'll take her time learning how to walk!

Mt. Vernon

We took advantage of the beautiful weather today and went to Mt. Vernon with Aidan's friend Will and his mom and sister. It was so nice and we got their early enough to be ahead of most of the crowds - tourist season is here!! Here are a few pictures of the boys running around.

Motorcycle Police Visit

Today two motorcycle police officers came to Aidan's school - a little in house "fieldtrip". Here are some pictures - the kids were entranced for just under an hour. It was cold but I didn't hear one complaint!Aidan and his classmatesAidan and Siena

Just Call Me Britney

I am now apparently vying with Britney for the worst mother of the year award. Aidan has been complaining that his ear hurts for about 3 days - but only in the middle of the night. I thought that he was waking up because he had to go to the bathroom and was just upset that he was awake - we all know how much he LOVES to sleep! He was pretty lethargic yesterday and woke up again last night so we decided that Brendan would take him to the ER in the morning around 10 - we figured the rush would have cleared out by then. Poor kid has strep throat - again! I guess he thought his sore throat was his ear - I feel terrible. I should have taken him to the doctor on Friday and I made him suffer needlessly for two days :( It will be so nice when he can communicate pain better...
On the up side - Aidan's face is healing although the doctor at the ER did tell Brendan to get our cat declawed - good advice if we had a cat...

Movin' on Up!

Emmy pulled up by herself the other day - here are some pictures of the big event - plus a few I took of her later on that were just too cute not to post!

Good job Em!

Throwing Dirt and Getting Teeth

We had a rough day today. Aidan and Emmy were both up a few times last night and Brendan had to get up at 4:30 to go on a business trip this morning. Emmy cut a tooth today and everyone was tired and grumpy the entire day. I made a big mistake by trying to go two places this morning. We had to run an errand in Old Town Alexandria (and get a few pictures too): and then we went to the River Farm to see all the flowers. Aidan just wouldn't listen - he is usually really good about paying attention. I told him if he didn't stop throwing dirt we were going to leave. He looked at me like "yeah right, we just got here". So he threw dirt again and we left. He trailed behind me crying all the way to the car "I'll never ever do that again, I promise wahhhhhh". We still left. After dinner we went for a walk by the Potomac because it is just too boring between dinner and bath without Daddy. Aidan rehashed the afternoon's trauma and told me that he was "very disrespectful at the River Farm". Very cute - it's so hard being 3. A new use for the salad spinner - note to self - wash the salad spinner before next use :)

The Boston Museum of Science

On Sunday we went to the Boston Museum of Science with my mom and dad. It was awesome - Aidan is still talking about it and wants to go back! We were there for over 4 hours and we didn't even get close to seeing everything. There was so much stuff for Aidan age and even a baby area for Emmy! I can't wait to go back and see more!

Emmy improving her cognitive abilities

Gramma and Aidan

more water!

Aidan and Daddy Jim squishing a penny

Emmy is a bumblebee

Emmy in a T Rex footprint