Odds and Ends

I don't have a theme for this entry but I'm sure that won't prevent the readers of NFN to continue reading. Take one look at this video and you will forgive me for the lack of my title creativity:

Last week when we went to the gym, Hadley said, "Mama, you can stay in the playroom, Ima go workout." I told her that she'd probably have more fun in the playroom. She's picked up on a lot of things recently. She can put DVDs in the player now by herself, and she put that headband on (which is really a pair of sunglasses) too. The funniest things I see her doing is saying things that I say in her playing. The other day she was playing with her "buddies" (the Fisher Price "Little People" - she has termed "my buddies") and she said, "You ready to go night - night buddies? Yea? OK, let's go night-night." She then put them in the pack-n-play, said good night, and added, "Tomorrow we're going to go to the park, buddies. Does that sound good?"

When Hadley plays with her airport, she gets all her buddies in the plane, helicopter, or taxi cab and wheels them around the runway for a bit before lining them up at Starbucks. Each of the buddies gets a "grande half-caf" to which I say, "Well done, child."

Hadley and Harper have been sharing a room for about two weeks now which has gone smoothly. I heard lots of warnings about making sure the older child doesn't feel like his/her room is being invaded or that their crib is being taken away by the younger kid. Hadley doesn't seem to have any of that. When we showed her the new bed (which is a toddler bed, but we still have it as a crib), she said, "Oh! That's the bed Daddy made for you.....with blocks." (She has a hard time with the difference between"you" and "me.")

Here's a video of Harper enjoying "The Wiggles." She likes watching Hadley dance around to these guys.

Harper gives us lots of smiles, especially to Hadley, but gets confused when the camera is in front of her.

Here's Hadley showing Harper how to do the "Shimmy Shake."

I need to learn a new phrase besides, "Oh, Wow! Good job!"

I read an article by a woman who is giving up blogging, Facebook, and Twitter for Lent. Don't worry, I wasn't influenced. The last time I gave up something for Lent was in college when my friend Alison and I decided we'd give up ice-cream. I believe it lasted for a day. I know I was supposed to be focusing on Jesus, but all I could think about was the ice-cream I couldn't have. Anyway, this woman was concerned about what this was going to do to her social life. Since she wouldn't be on Twitter (something I have no idea about; I'm still trying to make sense of what "flare" and "poke" are on Facebook, and why anyone cares that I've installed Facebook on my phone), she thought she'd miss out on get togethers with friends. Maybe she'd be folding laundry while her friends were watching a movie, and she would never know because she gave Twitter up for Lent. I wanted to suggest to her that perhaps her friends could call her on the phone instead.

Valentine's Day in DC

Saturday we went to the National Archives to see the original Emancipation Proclamation, and then to the National Gallery of Art for lunch. We met up with my Erika and Arie Wilgenburg and their daughter Chloe, who is about three weeks older than Harper. (Erika was my RA when I was a freshman in college.)

Here are me and the girls outside of the National Gallery of Art.

And here we are taking a look at ol' Abe's work.






In the rotunda of the museum we also saw the Declaration of Independenceand the Constitution along with other documents.

Here's Hadley quite interested in the ceiling of the museum.

And here she is explaining to us as delicately as possible that she would like to leave:

Ice-Skating

On Saturday we took Hadley ice-skating in Rockville Town Center. This is the same place where the little splash park is that Hadley enjoys in the summer time.

It took Hadley a little time to understand what was going on, but she loved it. Her reaction was much different than the first time I went ice-skating, proving once again that my oldest daughter does not have my timid personaltiy. (My first time ice-skating was spent the entire time crying because I was afraid I would fall down. I don't think I ever did fall down, but apparently worrying about falling down was enough to cause tears.)

Here are some pictures and videos:

After a taking a few pictures, Harper and I walked around the Town Center for a bit. It was such a nice day yesterday and it felt good to be outside. Now that Harper is almost 3 months old, I thought it was time to take her into Starbucks, so we walked over there while Hadley and Jesse were skating.

After the ice-skating, we got something to eat at Bobby's Crabshack, one of our favorite places to eat.