Team i6 Takes on Week 129

Good times, my friends, good times were had by all this past week.  

It was blisteringly hot out so we spent a good deal of last Saturday inside relaxing the day away, we did venture out once in the morning to check Mr. Turtle who decided to take a stroll through our back yard.  We tried to feed him some CSA lettuce but he did not seem interested, he does not know what he is missing.


After naptime we loaded up and went to a local park to rock out with a great band that does kiddo songs, Rocknoceros.  They were great and Lincoln loved it, he even danced it out a little.  But most of the time he spent chasing after a little girl and her brother that he befriended and they all tried to play tag. 

Sunday Todd, Matt & Cyndi volunteered at a brew fest we've been helping with for the past few years.  Todd was happy to end up at the Great Lakes Brewery pouring beers for the early afternoon!  Meanwhile Linc and I had a pretty good time ourselves hitting up the Leesburg outlet mall to pick up a few things, though I am pretty sure Linc just went along for the rides.

Linc had another good week in the "chimpchunks" and continues to improve with his potty training.  We now have a sticker chart in our kitchen that he gets very excited to put his Toy Story stickers on when he does the deed successfully in the potty.  Stickers are quite motivational.  He also had his first water play day at school on Tuesday.  He was super excited to get there and play in the water with his friends!

Also one night this week at bedtime Todd was reaching for something under Linc's dresser and he happened to find an old paci that had gotten lost back there.  It was one that we had cut the tip off of when we were still in the midst of Operation: No More Paci.  As soon as Linc saw it he said "Oh oh, my pagey"!  We were like...wha?  Apparently he remembers it as being his "pagey".  He was so excited to see it and wanted to hold it.  It took us a little bit to get him distracted and get it out of the room.  He must have fond memories of his dear "pagey".

He's also taken to reading a million and one books again at bedtime.  He sometimes wants us to read them & sometimes he wants to read to us.  And then other times he just wants to sit on his bed and read his books to himself and he will tell us night night.  Well the other night we had just cleaned up all his books and put them in the basket next to his bed and said good night...a few hours later we found a little bookworm like this: 
Somehow he lugged up the 5+lb basket of books into bed with him!  Crazy little guy, takes after his Daddy for sure!

Mama i6 Takes on Week 10

Total weight gain/loss: None either way.
Maternity clothes? Nope.
Sleep: Pretty good for the most part.  I dug out my old body pillow that I used when I was pregnant with Linc, not sure if it is going to cut it this time, we'll.  I might have to invest in a better one.
Best moment this week: I got some test results back from my first ob appointment last week and everything was good/normal so that was wonderful news! 

Movement: Not yet. 
Food cravings: Oh my goodness!  This is crazy!  So I thought I had experienced a craving or two in my first pregnancy...um no, not like this.  I was sitting at my desk Thursday and all of the sudden I randomly thought about some dip that my mom used to make for parties, I seriously hadn't had it in YEARS, and I needed to have it.  I could not stop thinking about it.  It was so bizaar.  Afterwork I went and bought all the stuff that goes in it and I am going to try to make it.  Weird weird weird.
Gender: Me: girl (only because I haven't really had much morning sickness and I was SO sick with Linc...but again it is still early so we'll see; Todd: ?
Labor Signs: Nope.
Belly button in or out? In.
What I miss: Nothing really this week.
What I am looking forward to: My next ultrasound on July 2nd & our trip to Indiana.  Also can't wait to start telling more people in a few more weeks.
Size of Baby: Prune (1.2in long)

Team i6 Takes on Week 128

This week started with a pretty fun weekend.  We relaxed Saturday morning and then made our way out of the house to head to Fair Oaks to do a little shopping and become BJ's Wholesale members again.  We will now remain stocked up on dino chicken nuggets, pull-ups, paper towels, and deodorant for yet another year.  Exciting, I know.


We made a late afternoon trip to the Reston Zoo where Linc most enjoyed the snake house, alligators, and wagon ride.  We also had fun finding where they moved the giant fiberglass animals that used to be by the lake and they kinda hid up in the picnic area.  

Sunday we had a fun day that I chronicled below in a Father's Day post.


Monday Lincoln had the day off from school as they prepared for some kids to move rooms and the older kids started summer camp.  Linc was one of the kids that moved into a new room.  He graduated from The Cubs, to The Chipmunks.  He is getting so big!  We had a fun day at home together and we had a good playdate with Carsten, Dee, & Jules at Chuck E Cheese.  Per usual Lincoln never slowed down from the time we entered to the time we left.  I think he visited every single ride/game at least once the 2hrs we were there.  


Tuesday marked his first day as a Chipmunk, and he LOVED it.  How could he not, he was reunited with his pals that moved up earlier in the year.  It was the easiest transition we have had yet.  He is just so happy.  Morning drop offs are a dream, he get there hugs Julia and sits down for breakfast.  He usually looks up at me and says "bye Mommy, I love you" and that's that and I am off to work.


We bought Lincoln a bike helmet this week from amazon, I tried to pick a really cool one so he would be excited about it and really want to wear it.  Man, did I pick a winner, one with a dump truck & a bulldozer that looked kinda like a hard hat.  It was sitting at our door Wednesday afternoon when we got home and Linc wanted to open it right away.  He was so excited and wanted to put it on as soon as he saw it.  

He ate dinner in it, played in it, watched a little TV in it...I swear he would have slept in it if we would have let him.  This trend continued the rest of the week.  Score one for Mommy & safety.  I am happy he is excited about it and hopefully we will not have any trouble getting him to keep it on while he's outside riding his balance bike!


And lastly I keep meaning to jot these things down, here are some cute things Lincoln is saying right now:


He calls his new room at school, the chipmunks, "the chimpchunks"


He tells us he'll "stay right back", when he means he'll be right back.


He says "I want to carry you" when he wants us to pick him up and carry him.


Linc is also being much more conversational now than even a month or 2 ago. Now he'll start conversations, usually about the things he sees around him. We're looking forward to when Linc will tell us more about what's on his mind.

Mama i6 Takes on Week 9

Total weight gain/loss: None either way.
Maternity clothes? Nope.
Sleep: Still super tired, shocker, I know.  I typically fall asleep right after we get Linc down for the night.  And I am not moving too fast in the mornings either, thought that is sort of typical of me anyway.
Best moment this week: We told Matt & Cyndi our good news!  I had another Dr. appointment, everything looks good.  And we setup my next few ultrasounds. 

Movement: Not yet. 
Food cravings: Nada.
Gender: Me: girl (only because I haven't really had much morning sickness and I was SO sick with Linc...but again it is still early so we'll see; Todd: ?
Labor Signs: Nope.
Belly button in or out? In.
What I miss: Goat cheese & beer.  Oh and caffeine sometimes.
What I am looking forward to: My next ultrasound on July 2nd & our trip to Indiana.  Also can't wait to start telling more people in a few more weeks.
Size of Baby: Green Olive (.9in long)

Team i6 Takes on Clean-up on Aisle 5

I think I have talked about how I like to shop at Harris Teeter here before...it is very child friendly and they have fresh fruit & cheese samples, good kid carts, cookies, and balloons.  It's just a good grocery store & it helps that it is close too.  


Well anyway we stopped by there tonight after we had dinner at the Panera right next door.  I just needed to pick up a few things and we noticed they have these mini carts made for kids that have a tall flag on them that says "shopper in training".  Cute.  So since we only had a few things to pick up and it would be a quick trip we decided to let Linc take one.  He did alright but we pretty much spent the trip chasing after him and he of course wanted to drive it all himself and would except no help from us.  We split up for a bit so that I could grab what we needed since Linc was on his own mission.  Daddy and Linc headed one way and I the other.  


Daddy followed Linc and was pretty happy that he seemed ok just walking up and down the aisles not really grabbing anything just looking. Out of nowhere, he decided to stop and survey a shelf picking up a can of Hormel chili and placing it in the cart, of all things, lol.  Then he moved along and picked out a jar of green olives and proclaimed, "yummy, grapes!" and placed them in the cart as well.  After that, he started surveying a wall of glass pickle jars, and daddy knew it was time to move on.


We probably covered every square foot of that grocery store, but Lincoln was happy and there were no collisions. Linc even wanted to help place the items in his cart onto the conveyor belt. All in all, a pretty good trip for our "shopper in training". 

Team i6 Takes on Happy (Ma)Father's Day

I had been working with Lincoln on trying to get him to say "Happy Father's Day"...he would try but somehow it kept coming out as "Happy Mother's Day" apparently Daddy did a little too good of a job teaching him that phrase.  We worked and worked and eventually it became "Happy MaFather's Day", so an improvement of sorts, yes?  I think the morning of he did manage to eek out a few correct "Happy Father's Day".  So the take away here is Linc's favorite holiday is, I think, Mother's Day (well, and probably any others involving presents for him) but he sure does love his Daddy and loved making his day special!

Daddy woke up to a yummy homemade breakfast, eggs, bacon, french toast...the works, nothing but the best for the BEST Daddy!

Then Daddy opened presents.  A very special, made with love drink coozey (that he made as school), a new bank/catch all jar, and matching shirts for Daddy & Lincoln.  I was working with a mustache theme - and I made a super cute photo card online (I am quite proud of btw) that went along with it nicely.

Then it was time for Gymboree where we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  Daddy & Linc had a great time playing around.

I must'ache you, Daddy...Did you have great Father's Day?

We headed to the pool for the afternoon & we all were just slightly chilly but had a great time splashing around.  Sorry no pics from this venture, water and Mommy's iPhone do not get near each other.

Daddy chose a new place to try out for dinner, a Mongolian BBQ joint that just opened in Chantilly.  Genghis Grill.  It was SO good, reminded us of a place in Cleveland that we used to love to go to.  We will definitely be back, it was super kiddo friendly and Linc loved watching the cooks at the back of the restaurant.  Then we hit up our fav froyo place for just a tiny taste.  It was a sweet ending to a sweet day.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy, we love you bunches and bunches. XOXO

Team i6 Takes on Week 127

My creativity has decided to take a break this week.  I am going to go ahead and blame it on the heat or on how busy we've been lately.  Either way this is going to be slightly shorter but just as sweet as the usual run down.

Saturday we met The N's and hit up Celebrate Fairfax, 
our summerly right of passage, I think we've volunteered or attended every year since we've been out here.  We all parked at the shuttle stop and both boys were beyond excited to take public transportation.  We could have told them that was the main attraction & completely forgone the midway carnival rides for how much they loved riding that thing.  
First we walked around a little and found the petting zoo provided by the Leesburg Animal Park.  Linc's faves were the turtles, pig, and the ducklings this time.

After that it was time for rides.  We did get called out for Linc not being quite tall enough for all the rides even though at most of them he measured just right as long as he had his hat on.  He & Thomas were able to ride most of the vehicle rides and really enjoyed the nascar one and the motorcycles.

By this time everyone was getting hungry and tired so we grabbed some lunch and copped a squat and chilled for a little bit before walking through some booths and calling it a day.  Lincoln did have a great time meeting a Cookie Monster that was there from Busch Gardens promoting their new 3-6yr old area featuring Sesame Street characters.  The booth worked its magic, Linc asked quite a few times to visit Elmo & Cookie Monster at "the Garden".

We then rode the BUS again!  So exciting let me tell ya! ;-)
And then it was time for a long long nap.  After that we ate some early dinner and headed back to Fairfax to take in a couple more rides, hear some music, have some dessert, and watch the fireworks show.  Good times.  To avoid a little bit of the crowds we opted to watch from the top of the Mall parking garage just across a major road from the festival.  The fireworks were a hit with Lincoln, he kept shouting BOOM during the display as they set each firework off.

Sunday we slept in and relaxed and even decided to skip Gymboree for the week.  We had a very low key morning which was probably for the best since temps were around 90 degrees!  After nap though we had a playdate set up with Megan and Quinn at Frying Pan Park.  The kiddos had fun looking at all the animals, picking flowers, and taking a wagon ride around the park.  The heat really kept our playdate on the short side, but it was still a fun adventure.

The rest of the week was pretty good, sorta sad as it was the last week of Linc being in his Cubs class at daycare.  Starting this coming Tuesday he will be moving to the next older class, the Chipmunks.  And alas he shall be reunited with his girl Julia.  We are excited and sad at the same time, and when I say "we" it is probably just me, but whatever.  I can't believe my baby is growing up and getting so big! 

Mama i6 Takes on Week 8

Movement: Not yet. 
Food cravings: Nope, but Todd did bring me home a frosty one night this week. ;-)
Gender: Me: girl (only because I haven't really had much morning sickness and I was SO sick with Linc...but again it is still early so we'll see; Todd: ?
Labor Signs: Nope.
Belly button in or out? In.
What I miss: Nothing yet.
What I am looking forward to: My first OB appointment next Monday.  And celebrating Father's Day this weekend.
Size of Baby: Raspberry (.5in long)

Team i6 Takes on Week 126

With a trip to a Tot Shabbat, a local farmers market, and the Reston Zoo...all before noon on Saturday, you know you are in for a jam packed weekly recap!

We had a fabulous time at our monthly Shabbat service with Miss Nell and our other temple friends.  Linc absolutely adores the part where they get to go get little stuffed Torahs and march around with them, it is seriously too adorable!  He danced and sang, it is amazing to me how many of the Hebrew songs he has picked up from going to services and listening to cds in the car.  And we had the worlds best chocolate chip cookies for oneg...Linc had his hands on one before we even had a chance to say no, oh well.  After that we hit up the Reston farmers market to pick up a snack to take with us to the Zoo and we browsed around and partook of some samples, YUM!  Then it was time for the main attraction of the day:  Reston Zoo!

We were so excited to get our new season passes courtesy of Grandpa Sparks!  (Thank you thank you!!!)  The Reston Zoo is one of our most favorite places, Lincoln loves all the animals and he can run around and feed them and pet them.  So we got our pictures taken and have shiny new passes to take us through next June, yay!  We started off with the goats, a personal favorite of mine...of Linc's too I think, just look at this face:

Shortly after this we headed to check out the new baby lemur and Linc thought it was hilarious watching the baby jump all around and land on Daddy lemur's back.  We must have hung out there and watched them for 15min (which is like 1hr in Lincoln attention time).  Then it was time for Mommy's favorite part, wagon ride!  We got up close and personal with some watusi cattle.

While we were there we ended up running into our friends Jung & Thomas and finished out our zoo exploring with them, yay for impromptu playdates!  We all moved to the aviary to check out all the little birdies.  Linc did pretty well with minimal shaking of said birdies when they landed on his feed stick.  Note no birdies were harmed, and they really didn't seem to care since there was food involved. 

Sunday we met up with Carsten, Dee, & little miss Jules to go party at Herndon Fest.  The kiddos could not get enough of the rides, well the ones that they were tall enough to ride on.  They rode with the Daddies on the dragon ride and had a great time!

Then we walked around a little bit and saw a caricaturist tent and got the kids pictures draw together.  You will die from the cuteness!  We only got one copy and Dee is going to get me a copy of it and I totally spaced on taking a quick shot of it before we rolled it up for safe keeping, but I did snap a pic of the guy just after he finished Julia and started on Linc.

Completely adorbs.  It was a trick to get Linc to sit still for the solid 3 min it took the guy to draw him.  Bribery and iPhones were likely involved.  After that cutefest it was time for lunch and some time in the shade.  We dinned on chicken fingers & fries while listening to local music whilst the kids ate & danced around.  By the end of that morning/afternoon we were all wiped out and ready for naps.  But we all reconvened at The G's house for a bbq and some pool time.  The kids had the best time, and Linc LOVED their big fenced in yard and the pond with fishies.  He could have spent the night exploring and is still talking about "Julia's backyard"  and "when can we go back?".  


It was another super busy work week for both Todd & I, but of course those weeks are usually the ones where things happen, right?  Well when I picked Lincoln up from daycare Tuesday they informed me that he could not come back to school the next day because he seemed to have caught a bug that had been going around the class.  So I stayed home with Linc in the morning and Daddy pulled afternoon duty.  He seemed fine, but we tried to keep him on the quite side.  We watched some TV and played with trains.  We also made some significant strides in potty training, but I don't really want to jinx it.


Until next week...

Mama i6 Takes on 7 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss: None either way.

Maternity clothes? Nope.
Sleep: I have definitely started getting up more in the middle of the night to hit the bathroom.  I seem to be pretty tossy & turny while sleeping, but I am just going to be thankful that a) it is still very easy for me to roll all over the place and b) that I can still sleep on my tummy.
Best moment this week: Making our ultrasound appointment for next week so we can get our first peek at Bun2.0.  Getting a pretty great fortune cookie that made my day!

Movement: Not yet. 
Food cravings: Not really...
Gender: Me: girl (only because I haven't really had much morning sickness and I was SO sick with Linc...but again it is still early so we'll see; Todd: ?
Labor Signs: Nope.
Belly button in or out? In.
What I miss: Nothing yet.
What I am looking forward to: Attending our ultrasound Monday afternoon.
Size of Baby: Blueberry

Team i6 Takes on Week 125

It was a lovely shortened week followed by a long weekend, just what the Doctor ordered, and more fantastic weather to enjoy it with.  We spent lots of time outside and we all managed to not burn to a crisp which is impressive to say the least. 

Friday night I made crab cakes all on my own, I've helped my mom before but this time it was all me and they were SO good.  I am still patting myself on the back for those puppies! We ate all but one...even Linc ate some and he can be a tough critic when it comes to seafood.  In case anyone is interested the recipe I used can be found here. 

 

Saturday we had a playdate with T&Z. 

We all headed out to Ashburn to a park that one of my friends at work told me about, Dinosaur Park she called it.  And it was pretty neat.  It consisted of equipment that was mostly meant for the 2-6yr set.  There were a few other play structures that were meant for older kids but they were located down some paths and away from the little ones.  There were pictures of dinos on some of the equipment and a couple of large dinos you could rock & ride on.  And then in the middle there was - a slightly out of place but oh so awesome - FIRE TRUCK!  Linc was in heaven...we could barely get him to go on anything else, he did share the drivers seat once or twice with T&Z!  This park gets an A+ from all of us, and we can't wait to go back.



Sunday afternoon we hit the road again, because we i6 don't sit still for too long on the weekends, and headed out to The Plains.  One of Todd's coworkers got us a ticket to attend a Wounded Warrior Tribute event that her musical group were playing in.  There was live music, kiddo activities, vendors, a car show, airplanes, FREE BEER & WINE, and food.  It was a great afternoon/evening.  Lincoln had a three way tie for his favorite parts...the giant blow-up octopus slide:

the train ride:

and the antique bi-plane flyover during the Star Spangled Banner:

We sat and listened to Todd's coworker play and enjoyed the weather.  Lincoln enjoyed breaking in his fun new chair that Grandpa & Grandma i6 bought for him.

Monday was filled with cleaning and organizing, but it wasn't all boring we did take a walk to the new FroYo place with The Alderson's and then we had a water table/pool party in our backyards once we got back.


After all that fun we had worked up quite the appetite and Daddy manned the grill to char up some yummy veggies and grill to perfection a flank steak (another really good recipe here).  We accompanied it all with a chilled sesame noodle dish that was excellent and made for really good leftovers & lunches for the next few days. (and yet another recipe here) Man I was quite the little chef this weekend, eh?  Pinterest has been my inspiration lately...lets see what I can come up with next.