Snow!

We got the rare Southern Virginia snow today! Just a dusting but still exciting, especially for a certain 3 year old boy. I noticed the flurries before school and it continued to (slowly) fall all morning. By the time Will got home from school, there was about 1/4-1/2" on the deck...enough for him to play in (by his standards!) And play he did! Gotta love the excitement and optimism of a 3 year old!

5 months and mobile!

Archer turned 5 months old yesterday...I simply cannot believe it. Time has really flown. Despite my sleep deprivation and severe lack of "me" time, I am enjoying every moment of Archer's babyhood. So far we're having a blast! Will is so good with his little brother; I love to see them interact. I can already see how Archer will want to do everything his big brother is doing...hopefully not for a little while though!

To commemorate the 5 month mark, Archer decided to become mobile. He's not crawling quite yet but he's got the tummy slither and roll down pat. He's so good that I'll leave him on his play mat and come back to find him in a totally different place.
Last night he made it all the way off the living room rug and almost into the kitchen (on the hardwood floors!) before I noticed. Sneaky little thing! I guess he doesn't want to be left out of the fun. I'm going to have to dig out the baby gates very soon. The downside to all this movement is that he's STILL practicing his skills in his sleep. I'm hoping he'll learn to back up out of the corner of the crib soon. And he's desperately trying to sit up on his own. When I lay him on the changing table, he'll strain until he's red in the face trying to sit up. So cute. He can balance in the sitting position by himself for a few minutes before he topples over. Man, so many changes all at once with this little guy!


I keep asking myself how I ended up with 2 such high energy kids. I'm considering buying stock in hair color of some sort...I feel the greys will be getting worse and worse!





I'm taking the boys to see the Mickey Magic Live show today. Hopefully it's worth the rather high ticket price. I bet Will will love it. I'm hoping this will start off our love of all things Disney so I have an excuse to push for a Disney World vacation at the end of this year. We'll see!





We're counting down the days until Keith gets home. I bet Daddy is going to be quite surprised at how much Archer (and maybe Will too!) has changed since he's been gone. We'll be standing pierside when the "big boat" (as Will calls it) pulls in. Ought to be quite a change from our usual fly-ins at the squadron.

Livin' the Dream

Yesterday we got to accomplish two of Will's biggest wishes...all at once! We went to have breakfast with Santa at the fire station! Let me tell you, when I told Will where we were headed, he was SO excited he could not stand still! This had to be the pinnacle of his 3 years so far! We enjoyed pancakes for breakfast, got to meet Sparky the "fire dog" (Dalmation!), learned how to get out of a burning house through a great demonstration, saw all the big firetrucks, and finally we got to sit on Santa's lap. Will told Santa what he wants for Christmas: a robot garbage truck. Yes, really. Archer even joined in to sit with Santa and although he had no idea what was going on, he did enjoy pulling on Santa's beard.


On Friday morning we got to talk to Keith; he was able to call while the boat is (or maybe was by now) in port in Greece. It was great to talk to him; Will was very excited to hear his voice and more than a little sad when the call ended. But we're looking forward to welcoming Keith home a little before Christmas. That will be perfect timing!

The boys have definitely been keeping me on my toes. They are starting to interact quite a lot. Archer perks right up when he hears Will's voice; it's very cute. Will loves making Archer laugh, which he does often. Besides the occasional issue that "Archer won't share", (hmmmm, didn't know 4 month olds knew HOW to share...seems a bit suspicious!) they are bonding well. As for Will, he keeps me entertained (to put it nicely) constantly. They are either keeping me young or quickly making me old. I haven't decided which quite yet. And yes, that's a picture of Will with his underwear on his head below. You never know what's going to happen around here!


I tried to start Archer on rice cereal at the end of November but he wasn't really having any of it. The first time he just spit it back out at me; the second time he kind of choked. So I'm waiting a bit before I try again. Interesting that MY kid doesn't want to eat; I never turn down food!


Will's Christmas program at preschool is coming up so check back for pictures of his big performance. He's been walking around the house singing "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" for a while so I'm anxious to see it performed live. I can only imagine that it will be semi-audible when sung by a large group of 3 year olds. :)

"That's a big boy!"

I'm a tad behind in posting but better late than never! (This single parent thing of 2 suddenly needy kids is tough!) Archer turned 4 months old on the 11th and a week later I took him in for his well-baby checkup. It was truly comical how many people looked at my baby and said "Wow, that's a big baby!" or "What a big boy!" I couldn't believe it. I mean, yes, he's significantly bigger than Will was at this age but he's not a total giant! He weighed in at 14 lb, 10 oz and 25 inches on the 18th. That puts him in the 39th percentile for height and the 30th percentile for weight. So yes, big but not the biggest. Although looking at those rolls on his thighs, it's easy to focus on the "big" part of him. I just love those big, chubby legs!


The boys are both doing well. We spent Thanksgiving in DC with Aunt Jill and Matt. It was a nice break, although being away from home is anything but relaxing at this stage. Luckily we'll be home for Christmas (with Keith to boot!) so it will hopefully be a bit more low key. Will is really enjoying school; his teachers are wonderful this year. I got to go to school and enjoy dessert with Will and his classmates after their big Thanksgiving feast last week. The kids performed a few songs and poems. It was super cute. I'm looking forward to the big Christmas program at school in December.


We have been missing Keith since he left a few weeks ago but luckily he'll be home just before Christmas (knock on wood...you never know what will happen before then...behave, North Korea!) From what I can gather from his email updates, the new job is going well and he's learning a lot about the formerly behind the scenes business of catapults and arresting gear. He's learning a lot about support of the aircraft instead of just the aircraft stuff istelf. It's good for these pilots to learn about the "real" Navy, although I'm sure he's dying to get back in the plane. Soon enough, I'm sure. We are really looking forward to welcoming him home before too long.

COD love

We had a great time at the Hawkeye-Greyhound Ball last weekend. We got to catch up with so many friends that we could have used several more hours just for chit chat. But of course we didn't spend all our time chatting...we ate, we danced, we laughed at the ridiculous costumes people wore after dinner. Hilarious! If only we had received the memo, we too could have been in on the fun. There were relics from the 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond. Good stuff.

VRC-40 even went all out and had a C-2 ice luge commissioned. It was awesome! I'm thinking of having one permanently in place in our living room. Okay, too messy...but it's a great idea!

But as much fun as all the partying was, the highlight of night came during the awards ceremony. Keith was nominated for, and won, the award for the Greyhound Pilot of the Year-Shore (meaning non-deploying, or a training squadron). Yay Keith!
The joke is that he had really stiff competition because he was, in fact, the only nominee. :) But it doesn't matter! He worked his tail off for 3 years at VAW-120 and it is nice to see his hard work recognized. He accepted his award in from the Commodore, who is in charge of the VAW/VRC side of the Navy. Pretty cool. Plus he got a stellar model C-2 that also doubles as a pen holder. I'm very proud of him!


As usual the ball was a blast; I hope Keith is home next year so we can do it all over again.

Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

I have to say I'm really enjoying Archer's current stage of babyhood. I know, I know...they are all great, unique, fun. Yep. But right now he's in a really exploratory stage and it's so fun to see things through his young eyes. He recently discovered his hands and cannot get enough of them. When they're not in his mouth (which is almost all the time), he'll just hold them in front of his face and stare in wonderment at these strange things. He also loves to grab his feet. Every morning when I get him up, he's laying in his crib clutching his toes. He'll hold on tight and kind of rock back and forth. He's in perma-happy baby yoga pose!


He continues to vocalize and is laughing up a storm. His laugh has evolved into more of a giggle lately. He is picky with what he finds funny though. He doesn't just dole out the laughs for no reason! But when he finds something funny, we all know it. So cute.

We went to the Hawekeye-Greyhound Ball last weekend so I'll try to get some pictures uploaded soon. It was, as always, a great time!

Our little pumpkin patch

Well the flurry of October activities is over and I have to say I'm not sad to usher in a (hopefully) quieter November. October was just very busy for us, which was good in many ways because it flew right past. We enjoyed many fall outings and all things pumpkin. Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin seeds, growing our own little pumpkin patch. Well, we didn't grow actual pumpkins but did have two of the cutest pumpkins around (biased! biased!)
We took the boys trick or treating last night and things went quite smoothly. This is the first year that Will understood Halloween and all its glory. We prepped him that the uber-useful "trick or treat" combined with a winning smile will net extra candy and he picked that up right away. He remembered his manners for a while but as the night wore on, and the excitement grew and grew, it became almost too much for him. He was on a sugar high without having actually eaten any sugar. :)
It got to the point that he was running as fast as he could from house to house, screaming "trick or treat" as soon as he set foot in the yard. No need to wait until he's at the door! Once he even forgot his trick or treat manners all together and just screamed "candy! candy!" as he went barreling up the driveway. It was quite entertaining! Needless to say I was not surprised when he asked if he could go trick or treating again "next day", which is Will speak for tomorrow.




Archer also tagged along for the trick or treating. But his lack of teeth and inability to hold on to anything for more than 15 seconds meant that he had to skip the candy. I was hoping we'd get extra while we paraded around our cute baby, but sadly, no one took me up on that. I'll have to rethink my strategy in the future. Anyway, Archer made an adorable pumpkin and just chilled in Dad's arms while we made the rounds. I think all the excitement did wear on him though; he was one tired little pumpkin by the end of the night.


On Friday we got to go to Will's school for the Halloween costume parade. All the kids paraded around the school in their costumes and then sang Halloween songs in the classroom. It was very cute. I'm not sure how long they've been working on the actual songs though because none of the kids seemed to know the words. There was a kind of low mumble throughout most of the songs; only Miss Sue could really be heard singing. Luckily she can carry a tune!