The White House

Tom and I visited the White House today and did a self-guided tour of the East Wing of the Residence. We were able to go because Tom was nominated by his boss for the slot - it was nice, I thought it would be a smaller group, but there were a lot of people. Christmas is the only time you are allowed to bring a camera in. I got some good pictures, although not as many as I would have liked because the lighting was sort of difficult. I also thought that I would not be allowed to have my camera bag, so I took the small camera instead of my nice camera. I did get some good shots though, and here are some to share...

This first tree was dedicated to the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. There were table with postcards that visitors could fill our to be mailed overseas from the White House.

There were many beautiful decorations, but I think my favorite things were these amazing wreaths along the entrance hallway. They are really beautiful, made of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
This one is made of artichokes....
I may go rummage through the White House trash after Christmas to see if I can take one home...

Christmas Is Coming..

We are getting into the holiday spirit here! We put up the tree this weekend, got some shopping done, decorated the house, and Baby-O got an early, Smurfy Christmas present in the mail (he had permission to open it early).


After posing nice for a few shots, he decided to show that Smurf who's the boss...


I did not get to baking this weekend, but hopefully tomorrow night I will get a little bit done. It won't feel like Christmas if I don't do any baking.

Tomorrow we are going on our White House tour! I am very excited to see the White House decorated for Christmas, especially since I missed my opportunity to go to the National Tree Lighting ceremony. My friend had extra tickets, but it was too cold for the little guy, so we stayed home.

The Waiting Game

My trip to New London went well this week, and Tom's went well last week. We both feel really good about our interviews and teaching demos. So now we wait for the decisions to come down. The estimated timeline is that we should know by the middle of February. It takes a little while because the decision has to be approved by Congress.

One More Thing...

I forgot to mention yesterday that Baby-O sprouted his two top teeth on Thursday. Teeth total: 4 (and more on the way)!

On the Move

Baby-O is not quite crawling yet, but he does manage to get around. He rolls and scoots his way towards toys, the cat, me and Dad. Here is a sequence of his skills:






We are having a pretty quiet weekend here. Tom has his interview in CT on Thursday so he is busy preparing for the teaching demo and interview. My visit is next Tuesday, so I have a bit more time, but still need to get to work on my preparations. We have decided that I will travel to New London alone... that will be my first separation from Baby-O, but it seems to make more sense than hauling him up there, especially since we will be traveling for the holidays soon.

I need to get cracking on Christmas shopping too! No home-made pasta this year, too many other competing priorities.

Good News

Tom and I both found out today that we were selected to advance to Phase 2 of the PCTS selection process for teaching at the Academy. We will both be making trips to CT for the on-site interview and teaching demo in a few weeks. We will keep everyone posted!

Gobble Gobble

We had a nice Thanksgiving yesterday. Our guests enjoyed the day and left stuffed full of good food. I have to say that all of the work was worth it. I did think of Mom though, when it seemed like less than 20 minutes after we sat down, we were all done eating. She always commented on how quickly the meal goes after so many hours of preparation. I enjoyed the excuse to spend so much time in the kitchen, and all of my chopping and prepping on Wed did pay off yesterday; my morning was not crazy and I was able to enjoy the cooking part with all of the chopping and measuring done already.

Baby-O was looking particularly cute in Thanksgiving outfit #1.

Here are a few shots from dinner time.

The table before:

The spread:

The fam:
After dinner we walked off some of the calories with a trip down to the National Botanical Gardens. The Christmas display opened yesterday. There is an artist who does replicas of all of the buildings and monuments on the National Mall out of all natural plant materials in addition to a great train display. Here is Baby-O sleeping at the "White House":


And, Thanksgiving outfit #2:



Can you believe this?

Thanksgiving Preps

I spent a good part of the day today doing preps for dinner tomorrow. Hopefully, that will save me the craziness in the morning and set me up for an enjoyable cooking experience. That is the plan, at least.

We also went for a nice walk down around the Tidal Basin and visited the Jefferson Monument, the FDR Memorial, the Lincoln Monument, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam Wall and the WWII Memorial. That sounds like a lot, but they are all fairly close and it was a gorgeous day today. The bonus of the day was that DC clears out at Thanksgiving, so there were barely any people around - just the way I like it.

We will be hosting dinner tomorrow for Mark and Marian, and our friends Kristen and Becca.

Here are some photos from today:

It is hard to capture the people and the monument sometimes, here are Tom and his Mom and Dad at the Jefferson:
Our little family with the Tidal Basin and Washington Monument in the background:
The Lincoln Monument - Can you see Mr. Lincoln?
Here is he is - and he is HUGE! The Lincoln is very impressive:
Mark and Marian in front of the Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument:

I did not take any photos at the others, but they are all impressive. The war memorials are very moving, as well.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I will get some Thanksgiving pictures of our little turkey up tomorrow!

More weekend fun...

Before we get to the weekend adventures, I feel compelled to share these pictures from the other night. I like to call him Mini-Tom!





On Saturday we met Marcus and Bea, our neighbors from Guam, and their two kids for a nice walk in at a wetland meadow just south of Alexandria. It was a beautiful day, and as usual, Baby-O loved spending time outside.




We are gearing up for Thanksgiving here, looking forward to the visit from Nan and Pop.

First Report Card!

We had Baby-O's first ever parent-teacher conference on Monday. The daycare observes the babies in different areas, the ladies keep notes and then have a meeting once a year to inform the parents of what they observe while the babies are with them. So, our little guy is doing great! He is right on track with is developmental milestones and is a very social baby who loves to play with the other children and recognizes his regular caregivers. Of course, all of that social adeptness also means he is too interested in what is going on to take good naps at daycare...

Even though we think he is doing great, and the doctor assured me he is right on track, it is also nice to hear it from the "pros". Miss Sandra, his lead caregiver, has lots of experience with babies so it is good to know she thinks he is doing great too!

Great Day at Great Falls

What a lovely weekend! The weather here was perfect - low 60's, sunny and clear. We spent the day today walking at Great Falls Park.

Too cute!

This photo is almost a month old now, but too cute to pass up on sharing!The video is also about three weeks old, but also a cute one - I call this the la-la song...

Marcy and Baby-O sitting on the porch waiting for Trick-or-Treaters!

Yesterday, hanging out in the exersaucer - he really likes to play in it...


And, just for fun, a little comparison.

Tummy time in June:



Tummy time now:

He is growing so fast!

Happy Halloween!!

Baby-O in the pumpkin patch!



Thanks for the costume Grandma!