Red-letter day

Liam is officially cruising! He may have been doing it for a while at daycare, but it's the first time I've seen it. He crawled over to the couch, used his head to brace himself while he got his hands high enough to pull himself up, steadied himself, then resolutely made his way down the length of the couch over to Thea so he could grab her toes.

As for Thea, well ... it was a big day for her, too!

For Todd

Comic Con 2006
Originally uploaded by mystphoto.

"Darth Vera: Supplying cosmetics to the Empire since Episode IV."

I just can't top that.

Wild animals

When we had dinner at a local Thai restaurant with Sue and Lila Friday night, the girls were a little tough to handle. (Sue aptly called them wild animals.) We had an epiphany that maybe we go to Ikea too often, where they can run around all they want.

Tonight, after in-depth discussions about nice-restaurant behavior, they managed to pretty much stay in their seats for the entire hour and a half we were at Los Cabos for kids-eat-free night. I'm so proud.

Here are Thea and Liam playing after we got home from dinner.

I do not like that SAAM-I-Am

I tried to take the kids to the Smithsonian's American Art Museum to see the William Wegman show today while Todd and Bob played their guitars. Lessons from today:

1. Take enough change for the meter just in case you're lucky enough to find street parking.

2. Double-check what time the museum opens. Just because every other museum in the city, maybe even in the country, opens at 10 a.m. on a Saturday doesn't mean the one that you've schlepped 60 pounds of kid to will.

The NGA's permanent collection sculpture exhibit was cool, though.

Anyway, here are the cute (and so mellow and fun to take to museums) kid pics:


Liam's got some junk in his trunk.


Thea likes to pretend that Liam's walker is a race car.

Not chocolate milk

Worst packaging ever.


Not chocolate milk
Originally uploaded by kellygo.

I must have this

These t-shirts are very cool.

Backstory from Boing Boing:

Senator Ted Stevens, a neutricidal maniac who wants to allow the phone companies to charge Google and others for delivering their packets to you, gave this incredible description of his understanding of how the internet works.

I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially...

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.

It's a series of tubes.

And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Look alikes? Heather thinks so.

This morning

Getting Thea to wear anything besides "long, long dresses" for her "long long legs" can be difficult these days. Since we only have four such long, long dresses, the days when they're all in the clothes hamper are usually a bit of a struggle. Like this morning, for example.

A meltdown was averted, though, by explaining to Thea that the shirt I offered her was bought especially for her by her aunts Heather and Amy. Then it was like the shirt was made of gold.


Or goldfish crackers, which she was eating for breakfast.

We gave her a bag of them to snack on during the trip to daycare. Todd said that when they got there, he asked if she wanted to put them in her backpack to take inside. She replied, "Actually, I think I'm going to leave them here on my seat." ... "Actually"? When did my baby become such a little girl?



Here's a cute picture of our baby-baby. Please ignore the potty seat in the background and focus on the bed-head.



How he can be so cheerful this early in the morning I'll never know. But it's a wonderful thing.

Rock it, man

I could watch this a million times.

Rock-n-Romp photo

kids dig the rock music
Originally uploaded by workforidlehands.

This must have been before the music started, because when we got there the kids were dancing around like mad. Sabrina and Emmaly are in the front. Emmaly loved the maraca and was reluctant to let it go, but she did give it to Thea very sweetly before they left.

The renovation progresses

The workers started taking away the left-over foundation of our porch around 7:30 this morning. It's all very exciting, but the timing could have been a little better. Thea was up around 1:30am, woken up by a bad dream. Something about not being able to find her room, or maybe her blue? She was really upset about it at the time. I lay on the floor next to her for two hours, rubbing her back and humming "The Wheels on the Bus" until she calmed down and fell asleep.

So I was making coffee this morning in my tanktop and underwear, which I normally wouldn't do but this morning I felt like I might die without some caffeine, when the workers knocked on the drapeless kitchen window to let us know they were starting. "Hello, Mr. Construction Guy! Please don't mind my near-nudity. Carry on."

Anyway, here's the outline for the new dining room.

Fun weekend

Yesterday was the first D.C. Rock-n-Romp of the season. It was a blast and I meant to get pictures, but had my hands full with kids, ice cream, and tequila. Thea and Lila were dressed alike, which is always cute and weird, and the kids loved the music -- Liam, Lila, and our friends Sabrina and Estina's daughter Emmaly more so than Thea, who was feeling kind of reserved. Her shyness made her hang back from the kids right next to the stage, which gave me an opportunity to discuss with her the guitarist's use of standard rock moves ("The Windmill," "The 12 O'Clock"). Debbie of Rock-n-Romp always takes pictures and we were interviewed for a local magazine, so if someone else's pictures are floating around, I'll link to them here.

Today we went to Mandalay for Alanna's birthday.


There were nine adults and five kids, a formidable group.


Liam had an amazing tofu dish that he loved, though half of it ended up in my lap when the bowl was placed too close to him. He's often a blur of activity.


Our friends Emma and Heather came, too. We're all very fond of them. Emma drew pictures of fairies.


In other news, yesterday I left Liam on the floor while he and Thea were playing to get a glass of water. When I came back, he had pulled himself up on the ottoman. Very exciting.



But I'm a little apprehensive about what the future may hold.

Thea in front of the computer

The camera in my phone is working again, but now the lock is broken. Anyway....


Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by kellygo.
Here's Thea watching Dora on the computer.

Liam playing

Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by kellygo.

Crazy

Ya'll makes Molly-O crazy. I'm so with her on that one.

The one that makes me cringe is "between you and I". Between is a preposition. You wouldn't say "What we do now stays between we," right? It's "between us." So why does "between you and I" sound so right to people?

Oddly enough, I'm perfectly comfortable with someone saying "Me and Molly-O are heading to the bar." Hypercorrection vs. colloquialism, I guess.

Dinner at Ikea

Um, yeah, Ikea. Don't judge me. They have live jazz music on Wednesdays, cheap food, and lots of space for the kids to run around in. No one minds if the girls get loud or rowdy because it's Ikea and who expects refined dining at Ikea?



Now that Liam's learning how to walk, it won't be long before he's chasing after them.



We also usually bring a flask and spike the lingonberry tea.



Thea always has a great time playing with Lila.



Tonight they held hands on the way out the door, like they usually do, and Thea said, "We hold hands because we love each other."

Mesmerizing

Solla Solla Enna Perumai

The honeymoon's over

My love affair with my new phone? Kind of over. The camera quit working. Already. Gar.

And at the risk of getting dooced, Heather interpreted -- correctly, I think -- my recent vivid and weird dream. I was eating a big ice cream cone, one of those swirly softserve deals, but found it to be completely hollow and filled with hair (*shudder*). "To dream that you are eating ice cream that is tasteless or sour [or hollow and filled with hair] signifies sorrow, disillusionment, or betrayal." It's not as dramatic as all that, but my new job that felt like a vacation has turned somewhat into a J-O-B, as was inevitable. The commute and people still make up for the relatively minor annoyances.

Liam is 8 months old today

Liam is 8 months old today! He celebrated by sleeping through the night last night. Thanks, sweetie!

It's been a fun month. He's learning how to crawl and how to walk simultaneously. He can pull himself into a sitting position, and even almost into a wobbly stand, all by himself. Very impressive. He also learned how to say "Mama," but still only says it when he's crying. ("Maaaaamaaaaa-ha-ha!")

[Side note: our friend Dashiell learned to walk when he was eight and a half months. It was the weirdest, cutest thing, to see this little baby who really should be just learning to crawl instead upright and walking. But I digress....]

Liam's favorite foods right now seem to be hummus and ice cream. He's not picky about what kind of ice cream; any will do. (Thea, however, loves strawberry ice cream.) He doesn't like mixed baby foods and will usually only eat the single flavors. I thought they all tasted like paste, but apparently he can tell the difference.

Our son seems to be a bit of a thrill-seeker. He likes to be surprised, and he's clearly dying to run around like his sister does. When Thea speeds by, he shrieks with glee and flails his arms and legs. He especially loves it when I put him in the Baby Bjorn and chase her.



Our hands are full of kids.

Spudware

Okay, it's not a kid pic, but this is very cool.

Spudware cutlery:

* fully biodegradable
* made from 80% potato starch and 20% vegetable oil
* high-heat resistant
* durable

The ISO 14855 rating is for 34.2% and 65.6% biodegradation after 45 and 93 days respectively.

Rousseau rocks

I took the kids to the National Gallery of Art today to see the Henri Rousseau exhibit while Todd went to play music with his friend Bob. (Unfortunately he got sidetracked by an overheating car.) It was my first time out with the two of them by myself, although I really wasn't alone. Daria and Michael met me at the NGA and were lovely and helpful company. Still, I may have been a little overly ambitious.

The kids were wonderful, but the NGA is difficult to get through with a stroller, much less while you have 20 pounds of baby strapped to your chest. Broken elevators, the exhibit divided by spiral stairs, no changing table in the restroom, combined with a lack of planning on my part (soaked diaper that went through to the Baby Bjorn and no change of clothes, too close to lunch and nap time to be able to meander), made the experience more difficult than it really needed to be.

Anyway, the exhibit was gorgeous. Both kids seemed to really enjoy the art, Thea more obviously than Liam, of course. Daria took Thea around the galleries while I changed Liam (a huge pain in the ass that involved two elevators, a ten-minute wait, changing him on the floor, and much cursing on my part). She said that Thea liked a painting with monkeys best. That makes sense, as Thea has had a long-standing fascination with monkeys, though it seems to be transitioning to horses lately. What is it about girls and horses?

When we got home, Thea was inspired to do some drawing of her own. Some of the ink even made it to the paper.





Liam, meanwhile, was working on his crawling technique.



It's still a commando crawl, but he's close to raising up.

Random Thea pic

This picture always makes me happy.



It was May 18, 2005, in Central Park. Todd and Thea came with me on a business trip, one that I was grouchy about having to take. I don't know what my problem was; we all had a great time and even got to see Heather and Amy. I was pregnant with Liam, though, and even the littlest thing seemed like a huge effort.

Her t-shirt is a hand-me-down from Rosie. It's a cicada, commemorating the Great Locust Swarm of 2005.

Tragedy (no more ice cream)

Tragedy
Originally uploaded by kellygo.

New phone

Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by kellygo.

I just got a new phone, and I love it with an affection that's a little unnatural.

And so it begins

We came home to no porch tonight. It was both disconcerting and thrilling.

Good-bye, porch

We're about to start renovations on our house. First thing will be enclosing and extending the porch area to make a new dining room (the old one will be Todd's office), then adding a bathroom downstairs and renovating the bathroom upstairs.

The contractors should start demolition this week. Here are some "before" pictures:


Inside the porch, cleared of furniture and plants. The view is from the kitchen door.


View from the back yard. The house is over 100 years old and existed before the roads, so the front door used to be the back door, and this used to be the front. Now it faces the neighbor's yard.

It's kind of funny, we bought the house in part because of the porch. I had visions of drinking mint juleps there at twilight and watching the fireflies. Bucolic, no? The reality is that the porch is too close to neighbors who fight loudly and skinny-dip in their kiddie pool.

Besides that, we spend most of our time in the front yard, where we have a large yard and gorgeous, shady old maple and magnolia trees blocking the street.

Phone pic

Phone pic
Originally uploaded by kellygo.

Hey, I can upload photos from my phone, cool!

Now if I could just find a phone with a bottle opener, screwdriver, and leather-cutting attachment....

Liam's first word

Liam said his first word today! "Mama," but it was really more of a wail than a word. When Todd was getting him cleaned up after dinner, he looked over at me and cried "Maaaaaamaaaaaaaa!" then stopped when I picked him up.

I know, it's a little iffy to call it his first word. But even Sue, who was over with Lila avoiding Don's stomach virus (poor guy), said it sounded like he said and meant "Mama."

Anyway, here's a picture of Thea when she was 7-ish months old:


and here's Liam at 7-ish months.


Is it just me or does he, even at this age, just look like a boy? Weird, I always thought kids this age were essentially genderless.

Thea swimming

From last month when we went to Williamsburg.