Obama Inauguration

So we went down to the Mall the day before the inauguration -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (1/19/09). We planned to watch the inauguration from the safety and warmth of our living room the next day, but we wanted to get a sense of what it was going to be like for the 1.6+ million people that ended up down there.

We have a public Obama Inauguration Picasa Web Album where we have posted all of our pictures from the day before, day of, and day after one of the greatest turning points in American history. Here is a small sampling:

Day Before

News trucks lined the Mall...

...and so did the port-a-potties

Mommy's mittens make me look crazy!

What a trooper!

Up Penn Ave from 7th St (toward White House)

Down Penn Ave from 7th St (you see the Capitol)

Inauguration Day

Someone's excited!

Congratulations, President Obama!

Couple Days After

World's Cutest Obama Fan modeling a "toboggan" (aka knit cap as understood by the world's population outside of Pocomoke City, MD and some random place in Kentucky)

NOTE: Funny story about the "toboggan." I give Susan a hard time every winter about using this term to describe a hat. To me, and every other sane person that I've known, a toboggan is something you slide down a hill on in the snow. So as I'm giving Susan a hard time on the street the day before the inauguration, she overhears a couple of women talking. One says "toboggan" to the other. In one quick move, Susan engaged the women and asked if they were referring to the hats being sold by the vendors. They were! Turns out they were from Kentucky. They asked me, "what do you call them?" My answer: "A hat." (* laughter from random strangers *) I hate it when random strangers corroborate Susan's stories...

It was an amazing time to be in DC. We have some slight regrets about not going down for the actual event or the concert over the weekend at the Lincoln Memorial. It just wasn't practical. At least we can say we were here when history was made and it became "cool" again to be an American.

- Rich

Happy Birthday David!

We went to a very nice party held in honor of E's friend David's 3rd birthday. Held at Generous George's, the kids got to make their own pizzas and play on the games and carousel rides.

Good seeing that everyone made it through the holidays unscathed. Hard to believe that all of the Milk Moms' progeny are now 3 years old. The days are long but, geez, the years are short.

Couple of pics from today.




"Can't wait til I can get me some pizza."






Making pizza - cheese with black olives. Birthday boy is in the background behind Sweetpea.






Ride 'em, cowgirls!





- Rich

The sick house

Instead of a touching and sentimental post about how great it was to have my parents here helping us and how sad we are they left today (who will do the laundry? hang with Elizabeth? empty the dishwasher? hold Andrew constantly?), I'm wishing I had hopped in the back of their car as they sped away from the sick house, driving toward 80 degree weather.

My dad got it first, and his developed into bronchitis. Then my mom went down, then Rich. And yesterday, Elizabeth. Andrew and I are hanging strong, but I'm not sure how long we'll hold out.

- Susan

off the charts!

Yesterday was Andrew's one-month check up. Wait for it.......

12 lbs, 4 oz. 24 inches long.

He's added 4 inches and 2 lbs 12 oz in one month. He's officially off the charts for the height and weight. (he's already grown out of some newborn clothes.) His head size, though, is right at the 50th percentile. It's impossible not to do comparisons with Elizabeth - her head size was so off the charts the doctor always remeasured after the nurse to make sure it was accurate. And while I don't remember exactly, she went off the charts early on, then settled into somewhere between 50-75 percentile for height and weight.

Sleeping is getting better - we've had two nights with stretches longer than 4 hours. And when he is awake, he's alert and bright-eyed - he's lost what my friend Vickie calls the newly-landed-on-earth look. And I'm not quite sure when that happened, though I meant to notice, but I do know every day he learns a little more and settles into his life on earth with us.

My friend Thrift Store Mama has a quote board on her blog, with a quote from our friend Laurie: "how nostalgic I've become for times that haven't even passed yet." So true. Every day he - and Elizabeth - grow, and learn, and change. And if you miss it, you miss it. He's still an infant of course, and is quite snuggly, but it only took a few days it seems to leave the tiny baby stage behind. I page through iphoto with Elizabeth, showing her baby pictures, comparing to Andrew, showing her what will come. It won't be long before he's laughing, rolling over, sitting up, trying solids...all the milestones to come. We'll treasure every one and won't miss a minute of it.

Another Birthday

Lots of December birthdays.

Happy 4th birthday, Samantha!

Shout-outs

Happy Belated 38th Birthday Michael!

And, Happy 7th Birthday Emily and Benjamin!

whoa

Busy week! Monday we saw the pediatric surgeon; yesterday had the two-week checkup.

The surgeon/tongue clipping was fine - simple, over quickly, and mostly without fuss. The doctor told us it would hurt us more than it hurt him, and then sent us to the waiting room right next door to the procedure room. There was no sound-proofing, so we heard the shocked/angry cries, and they brought him to us with a wad of gauze stuffed in his mouth, shrieking angrily at the injustice of it all. But he was over it quickly - nursed and promptly fell asleep. And yes, it's made a difference in the latch, so all in all a good thing.

And then the 2-week checkup. Turns out we might not be raising a quarterback, much to Rich's chagrin, but rather a linebacker. Hopefully not an offensive lineman, though.*

Recap - born at 9 lb 8 oz, dropped to 8 lb 6 oz, at one week gained to 8 lb 13 oz. I typed last week of course we wouldn't hit birth weight by two weeks. Ha, haha haha.

9 lbs 13 oz. He gained ONE POUND in 8 days. That's two ounces a day. He's 4 oz beyond birth weight. WOW. Our little man is not so little. All that nursing at night must be having an impact.

In better news, last night instead of every two hours, he was up every three - 11 pm, 2 am, 5 am, 8 am. Not too shabby. At least compared to up all night.

(* who are we kidding? We're raising the president of the math league, not a football player.)

- Susan