That's right, the big man is over that hump known as Birthday #1. He celebrated yesterday with a very full day of fun and delicious activities, of which Mom and Dad partook (just so he didn't go it alone). We started off the day by giving him his birthday present, a small wooden xylophone (not yet sure why we bought something that he could bang on profusely). Turns out he is a natural musician, and he instantaneously fell in love with the xylophone sticks, carrying them around and screaming when we took them away for naptime and bedtime last night. After the gift, we made some pancakes for him, which he always enjoys. This time, though, we actually let him have some syrup...he smelled sweet the rest of the day.
Then...he took a nap.
When he finally woke up from his extraordinarily long nap (always seems to be the case when we have someplace to go), we packed up and headed into DC to seek some fresh air (did I just say 'fresh air' and 'DC' in the same sentence?), exercise, and superb food. We stopped by Jennifer's hospital and dropped off cupcakes for her fellow nurses to celebrate Mr. T's big day. That's right folks, home-made cupcakes from the kitchen of me. The only thing Jennifer did was help me clean the floor...the rug....the stove....the counter...and my feet when I sent a chocolate-covered spatula flying at one point. Anyway, I got a heck of a chuckle out of our visit to the hospital, and I have been struggling to come up with a good analogy for what happened. When we arrived on Jennifer's unit and walked up to the nurses' station, a few of them saw Jennifer and said hi, while Trevor and I were right behind and he was hidden below the counter in his stroller. Then he let out a little cry, and holy cow, I've never seen so many women get whip lash at the same time. The best analogy so far is like throwing breadcrumbs out in a pond and seeing the fish swarm. Yeah, it was kinda like that. In less time than you can say "It's a baby!" Trevor was surrounded by nurses. He's a ladies' man.
After dropping off the cupcakes we headed out to lunch at Founding Farmers, a farmer owned restaurant with an amazing menu. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for good eats close to the White House. Being so close, we headed over there next, followed by a walk around the Washington Monument (with a quick stop to apply sunscreen to Trevor and me), through the WWII Memorial, and then down to the Lincoln. By that time Trevor was ready to get outta there, but we did stop at Andy, Elliot, Gabe, and Alan's place on the way back for a while.
Then....he took a nap.
Last but not least on that momentous day, Trev was allowed to eat his first cupcake. I'll let Jennifer put some pictures of this out for you all to enjoy, but suffice it to say that he did not actually eat very much, yet somehow managed to completely destroy/decimate/obliterate that thing.
I emphasized the word xylophone because I was heavily ridiculed for calling them drumsticks by my darling wife last night. As it turns out, it would appear that she was wrong for a change, and they are technically referred to as 'wooden mallets'. Very scientific.
I know this is not really new news anymore, but I found this video and it made Jennifer giggle like a little girl so I thought I'd share with the rest of you.
The next time I see my sweet little one he's going to be a full year old. It's his last official night as a baby. Tomorrow he's going to be counting and speaking in complete sentences and dribbling a basketball. Alright, I guess they don't grow up that fast, but someday, far too soon, he really will be doing all those things.
I posted some videos from the last couple of months (as always, you must log in to view them). If you only have time for a couple, I suggest:
June 24...belly laughs!
The first 20 seconds of June 20...head banging
May 17...Daddy dressed me
Also, the quality is awful unless you click the View in HQ button at the upper left corner of the video screen. I only mention it because it took me a while to figure that out. Stop your snickering, some of us are naturally slow.
We've lately been having the shoe debate over at our place. Now that Trevor is walking I figure he should have a decent pair of shoes. I went looking at Stride Rite and holy buckets they're expensive. Are they worth it?
Everyone says, "They're durable, they last, they won't rub blisters into his feet, they provide great support." But does great support have to cost $42? And it's great that they last, but he's going to be wearing them all of three months (granted, if they're in great condition, future KnorrChubs can wear them).
So I did some research and found some great deals on ebay. New brand name shoes for the price you'd pay at Walmart:
Shoes with tags for half the price, a sale of 8 pairs of boys shoes (see image below 1. Stride-Rite 2. Bugle Boy 3. Baby Shaq 4. Keds 5. Nike 6. Weebok 7. Stride Rite 8. Old Navy) for $20.50 ($34 including shipping). And I discovered, unlike those who purchase electronics and check the auction every few minutes so they can swoop in at the last minute to outbid you, people with kids don't do that. I won both of the auctions upon which I bid.
The second purchase I made was for Primigi brand sandals. According to some online reviews I read parents love them; say they are durable, flexible and adorable. And they retail for $50-100, slightly less on amazon.com.
If I had lost that auction, my next bid would have been on these cute little sandals. There's not much time left so if your child wears a size 4 and you're interested, head on over.
My advice to you: If you're looking for shoes, get your kids' feet fitted at Stride Rite and then head to ebay. Is that ethical, you ask? I say it's smart; it's using your resources to your advantage (although, do note, some brands will fit differently and you are taking a bit of a risk). But, hey, if the shoe fits...
When I outsmart Derek (yes, it does happen occasionally) (actually, pretty often) (all modesty aside, it happens all the time) (of course, he outsmarts me quite frequently as well) he always retaliates with physical violence. Ok, hold your horses, it's not so much violence as it is pestering...like tickling or something else annoying.
His motto: If I can't win with brains, I'll win with brawns!
And unfortunately, no amount of yoga is going to enable me to kick his butt.
I've spoken about Spoofee.com before, as it is one of the freebie/cheap-o sites that I periodically monitor. I was on there today and came across two great deals that could potentially benefit a lot of people.
The first is to get Norton Antivirus for free, but you must act fast as today is the only day for which the rebate is good, and you must purchase it at Frys.com. If you are upgrading from Norton, you can actually pocket an extra $20 with another rebate directly from Symantec. We actually use McAfee so won't be buying this software, but wanted to share with you all in case it helps anybody out.
The second is not quite as urgent (must act by 7/11), but it is a good deal if you plan on upgrading to Windows 7 when it comes out. The OS is currently being offered at half off if you preorder. I think I will probably take advantage of this one. I mentioned a while ago that I am currently running the Beta version of it (also have Beta of McAfee for my virus protection), and so far I love pretty much everything about it, other than (surprise, surprise) a few of my Windows XP programs do not work on it. I was going to install a virtual server to run XP, but apparently my Intel processor does not support it. Bummer.
For the first time in about 5 years, I actually got a sunburn at work. Okay, wasn't really at work, but I was with people from work. My Deloitte team volunteered this afternoon at a local nonprofit thrift shop, The Closet of Greater Herndon. We had a pretty good turnout on this nice warm hot afternoon to put some elbow grease on one of the walls. They have a youth group coming up from North Carolina in a few weeks that is going to finish what we started, and also paint the building. So our team scraped, wire brushed, taped, painted, swept, and had a grand time. I drank three bottles of water and never hit the head. Also turned a little pink, but all I have to do is think about the sun and I burn, so that's not hardly even news. There was a happy hour afterward, but due to parental responsibilities I had to skip it. Hope they had fun.
While waiting for Jennifer to arrive home from work this evening, Trevor and I watched C-SPAN again. It's amazing how attentive he is to our country's representative process, he makes me very proud. :)
Our new air handler and heat pump were installed today. Derek's system is apparently shocked because he thinks it feels cold in here (it's 80.5 degrees in the office), but I think it feels great.
I felt bad for the guys working in the attic--it must have been 100F up there. I gave one guy a glass of water, turned my back to him for a second and when I turned around it was gone. I did pour you a glass of water, right? Just checking. Although it's partly their own fault; they didn't start until 9am and they installed the outdoor heat pump first. If I were scheduling, I'd start'em out at 6am and suggest they get the attic work out of the way early. But nobody asked me.
We got some awesome giggles out of Trevor today. Derek bent over to pick up a ball and Trevor just started cracking up. So we took turns picking up balls and swinging our arms like monkeys. Man, it was the best belly laugh ever. I've got video I'll post at some point.
