MPC retreat

Every August our church puts on a retreat in the Shenandoahs. This is the second year we've gone on the retreat and we love it. It's a great time to catch up with friends, relax, learn from a good speaker, and be surrounded by a loving community. It reminds me a little like college because you can have all your friends right next door and just hang out. And we also had a chance to go hiking. What a perfect weekend.

pictures from amy's visit

Okay, I'm really behind in my picture posting. I can't even say these are from last month because they are from August and it is now October! These pictures are from my friend Amy's visit. While she was visiting, Dylan and I hung out a lot with Amy and also Laura and Jack B. So you'll see a lot of pictures of the two boys. The last pics are from a cookout at Laura B's house. All the ladies in the one picture were all in one Bible Study together in what now seems like ions ago - circa 2002.

Dylan signing?

Since Dylan was born, I've been doing the "all-done" sign with him when I think he's done eating. I've tried some other signs but that's the only one I've done with enough repetition that he might have some chance of getting. Well, yesterday, I think he acutally tried to sign "all-done" for the first time. I was feeding him some peas (totally purreed of course since he spits out anything that isn't a cheerio or purreed) and he seemed to be slowing down and I asked "all-done?" I couldn't tell what he wanted to I kept feeding him and had planned to so until the container was empty. Well, after another bite or two I asked him again, "all-done?" He lifted his right hand and kinda shook his arm. It looked different from a wave so I assumed he was signing all done and didn't make him eat the last two spoonfuls of peas (which about irked me....I can't stand not finishing something that close to being gone.) Dylan got a big smile on his face so I'm taking that as he understood! Very cool. I hope it continues and that I can use some more words with him. I was going to do a baby signing class but I may just get some books from the library or amazon to help him learn more.

Farmers' Market

I forgot to tell you all how the Farmers' Market went last week. I liked it. I bought tomatoes, lettuce, peaches, cucumbers, red peppers, sweet potatoes, cheese curds, and homemade ice cream. Aside from the cheese and the ice cream, I spent about $20. I'm willing to pay a premium for buying local and I guess to accurately compare I should compare the prices the organic prices in the grocery store (but need to check if the stuff is actually organic). Still there were some things that were really over-priced there too. So I'll go back, but maybe only once every other week and I'll be a little more selective.

How Dylan deals with a cold....

....just like his daddy. When Martin gets feels a cold coming on, he says he's going to go to sleep and then you don't see him for the next 16 hours. [This happened once we were dating on a Saturday afternoon and I got all upset that Martin didn't call me that night. I thought surely he couldn't be sleeping this long. I was like screw him and went shopping with my roommate. I then felt bad when I found out that he had been sleeping the entire time.] Dylan didn't sleep for quite as long but it was about the longest he ever slept. This was Tuesday night. He didn't wake up on Wednesday until 9:40am. Usually Dylan wakes up around 4am and then goes back to sleep until 7am. After sleeping a lot yesterday, it seems his cold is getting better but he's still stuffed up. It's so hard for babies to eat like that. Hopefully he will be mostly better by tomorrow when we leave for PA for the weekend.

Swim Class

Laura B. took these great pictures from our swim class. The ones of Dylan and Jack on the side of the pool are comical.

Visiting Friends and Family in PA on the way home

On the way home from New England, we stopped and had dinner with my friend from high school Larissa and her husband Nathaniel and their 3-year-old son Dimitri. Larissa is due with her second child in February. Larissa and I played clarinet together in the band in high school. Oh, so many memories....probably my favorite was that when we were sophomores, the two first clarinets who were seniors were screwing up royally and so the band director pointed at the two of us (second clarinets at the time) and said "you two, there" pointing to the first chairs and pointed at the first clarinets and said "you two, there" pointing to the second chairs. Then there was marching band...where we were also either too hot or too cold in our uniforms. Larissa and I would also refer to each other by our clarinet's serial number. Yeah, we were dorks. I was thinking about band a lot today too because my sister, who was in band with us too, is now a band parent. Her 12-year-old step daughter has taken up the French Horn which I'm very excited about. But I just can't get over the fact that she is a band parent now. That's crazy too because Larissa's mom is still a band parent because Larissa's little brother is a senior in high school and still in the band. Anyway, this is a runaway post (ran far away from the topic about 10 lines ago). So here's a picture of Dimtri and another of Dylan with Martin's cousins Lynn and Tom who we had a delightful lunch with the next day. (We also stayed with Denny and Nancy M. - the folks that knew us separately before we met! - and had breakfast with them but didn't take any pictures.)

Okay, signing off for now...

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New Hampshire

Here are pictures from our "drive by" hike in New Hampshire. We left Maine in the morning and got to the White Mountains area of New Hampshire around 3pm (later than anticipated). We did this hike out to the falls you see below and then hiked back, got in the car and drove to Vermont to spend the night there. We had to hit all the New England states on the trip so that was one reason for going the long way home. Another was the beautiful views you see below.



This picture is a little dark but this gives you an idea of what the hiking is like in some real mountains (unless VA and PA and MD).

The beach in Maine

These are more pictures from our second day in Acadia. After drying off and taking a nap, the weather cleared up and we ventured out again, this time to the one beach in the park. It was too cold to swim but it was beautiful to look at. We also attended a lecture on webbed-footed birds. Dylan did great, Dad...:) He sat on my lap the whole time and looked around. These ladies couldn't get over what a good baby he is. We also went to a lobster pound that night. The lobster was good but the side dishes weren't and I guess when we decided to go out for our big lobster dinner in Maine we weren't thinking of eating with plastic utensils on a deck in plastic chairs. We had driven a while to get to the place so we stayed and paid the $50+ for our fast food dinner. But I guess that's what a lobster pound is. Next time we'll stick to the restaurants. Yes, we want to go back to Maine. Of all the places we've been Acadia National Park is the one place we could see ourselves going back to. There is so much hiking to do there. And we just loved the scenery. (We would go back to Alaska too but we would like to see the southern coast next time. But it's a little more difficult getting to Alaska.)

Another new endeavour

I'm been inspired by Catherine and my brother-in-law and his wife to buy local. So tomorrow I'm going to go to the Farmers' Market in Vienna. I'm going to try buying a bunch of stuff and then making my menu for the week around what I buy. Then I'll go to the grocery store on Thursday night to get the rest of the stuff. We'll see how long this lasts. It should be fun. Maybe I'll buy some flowers too as a motivation.

New Schedules

Seems like every week I'm adjusting something with mine and Dylan's schedule/sleeping and eating strategies. This week I'm going to try to stretch out Dylan's naps (since they have only been a 1/2 hour long) by not going in and picking him up when he wakes up. He usually just whines a little (not all out crying). Maybe he'll realize it's still time to sleep. Also, I've been trying to pump in the morning and that hasn't been working so now I'm going to try to pump after lunch and after Dylan goes to bed as opposed to just in the morning. I need to pump for his cereal (2 oz a day) and to get enough for the days that I'm at work (I usually only get 9 oz when I pump at work and he needs 12 oz at day care).

I'm also trying a new gym schedule. Instead of going at 5 or 6pm on Mondays, I'm going to go to the 8pm class on Mondays so I can just go after Dylan goes to sleep. Then I'll either do the 6pm Friday or the 8:30am or 10:30am classes on Saturday. That will get me my 2 total body weights work outs per week. Then I just walk or going hike or go to a spinning class at least 2 times on the other days and that should be good for me. I'm trying to get Martin on a new workout schedule too. MWF bike riding at 6am. September is a good time of year for renewed discipline so hopefully this will stick.

Dylan update

Yesterday I took my friend Patricia to the breastfeeding support group. I got to weigh Dylan there. He weighed 16 lbs., 14oz. completely naked and before he ate so I'm saying that he weighs 17 lbs now. The consultant at the support group couldn't get over the fact that he is walking at 10 months.

Dylan is now able to walk across the room. And he has started doing it without us prodding. Yet, a lot of times, he still wants to grab onto our hands when he wants to walk somewhere.

It's fun with Dylan walking and not too different from him crawling as far as baby proofing. I'm still able to catch him before he gets into something he's not supposed to. One advantage of smaller living quarters.

Dylan is really good about playing with his books right after he nurses for the first time in the morning. That lets me have some time to get ready for the day.

More Maine Pictures

Our second full day in Acadia was not as nice weatherwise. But I think the fog made for some nice pictures around the lighthouse. It was raining a little bit but we decided to try to go for a hike anyway. It was just a "short" three mile hike (hikes in the upper northeast take a lot longer since you have to do a lot of scrambling on rocks). Well, about the point where we realized there was no turning back, it started to rain a lot harder. The last picture below is me on top of Acadia Mountain, not feeling very happy and not looking forward to the hike down. I tried to make the best of it and tried to be too upset at Martin for encouraging us to go on this hike and not bringing the canopy for the baby back pack. Looking back it wasn't that bad and I got to try out the waterproofing on my hiking boots! Probably the worst part was the waterfall that the stairs up to the hike from the road had become. And then the other stares and probable head shaking from cars passing by as they saw us in the pouring rain with a baby. But we lived and we have a memorable story to tell about our trip.

Dylan's "first" steps

Dylan took his first steps on or about August 31st. The video wasn't his first steps but they were some of the first. (Trying out Blogger's new video feature here...yea, don't have to do the youtube thing anymore!) We had a fun weekend last weekend showing him off to Martin's family.

Acadia National Park

Here are a bunch of pictures from the highlight of our Maine trip. This was the day of the big hike. We hiked about 7 miles total. The hiking was very different than what we normally do because of the different types of trees (more evergreens) and the fact that we went above the tree line. It wasn't that high at the top (about 1600 ft) but the tree line is lower there due to the weather of the Maine coast. Dylan did great. He slept for a while in the Kelty. The top of the mountain was also different because it's also a tourist attraction that you can drive up to, complete with snack bar, bathrooms, and tour buses. I sort of had this self-righteous feeling (I actually hiked up the mountain, did you?) up there but I shouldn't because the beautiful should be enjoyed by all. See for yourself. I love the mountains and ocean together.

Leon Leonwood

In case you ever wondered what the L.L. in L.L. Bean stood for, that's it. That's what we learn on our trip to Freeport, Maine. The L.L. Bean "campus" there was cool. Here's some pics there and in the hotel that night.

Portland Pictures

Finally I'm posting pics from our vacation. The first two were at the Bug Light House in South Portland.

The next two were taken at the Portland Head Light. That's my friend Jen in the second pic. She and her boyfriend (now fiance!!!) came up from Boston to meet us for the weekend. This was the first time Jen had met Dylan.

This last one is of us on the ferry to Bailey's Island. That's Nathan (Jen's fiance) in the yellow shirt. That's the closest picture he would let us take of him. He's apparently shy about his stunning good looks.