Happy 6 Year Anniversary!

Brad and I celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary yesterday! It's hard to believe that we've been married for 6 years already but they have been the most wonderful 6 years ever and I thank God for blessing us with so much. Here's a fun recap of what we've done in this time together - lived in Brooklyn Heights, moved to the UWS, got our Yorkie Bleeker, moved to London, traveled all over England, went to Paris a few times, Venice, Barcelona, Prague, & Dublin, moved to Atlanta, got pregnant, went to the Dominican Republic, moved to Old Town Alexandria, had a baby, and moved to the District neighborhood of Capitol Hill, not to mention our domestic travel. Holy cow! It sounds even crazier when typed out. That is one crazy ride and there is no telling where we'll end up next! I can't wait to see where the next 6 years will take us! I wouldn't want to travel on this journey with anyone but my Brad!

On our date night - a little shopping and dinner at McCormick & Schmick's.

DC Kite Festival 2010

Saturday was the Kite Festival in DC, as well as the first day of the Cherry Blossom Festival. We're going to see the cherry blossoms later so we went to the kite festival that we had heard lots of good things about. It was a gorgeous day but much colder than what we anticipated. Regardless, it was a beautiful day and a lot of fun. There were so many kites everywhere...I've never seen so many kites! You had to be careful of the falling ones too or else you'd get knocked out. There were these enormous, elaborate ones and then teeny tiny Cinderella ones. Pretty much everyone had a kite so we felt pretty guilty when we didn't have one and Baker kept looking at all of the others saying "I have it". Bless him. He was in awe of it all! And for us, being at the top of the Washington Monument hill, seeing the gorgeous views of major DC landmarks was great. It was a fun day topped off with lunch at the American History Museum and then back on the train for a quick trip home!

I love this picture. Thanks to the guy that took it for us! Would you believe that this was our first time going to the monument since we moved here? Not the first ever

but the first in YEARS!

The White House

The main kite area behind us where the competitions took place.

Baker standing proudly with the kites.

This is pretty much what we saw the entire time...his back.

He ran all over the place. He looks so small here next to the monument.

A view of the Lincoln Memorial and the WWII Memorial

It's not often that you see the Washington Monument surrounded with hundreds of kites.

There were so many of them that they looked like birds .

Leaving the festival

Sunny Day at Clemyjontri Park

I met up with a few friends at the most amazing playground last week, Clemyjontri Park. What I love about this park, beside the size of it, is that it has something for every kid to enjoy. Built so that any kid, even the handicapped, can play on it and experience it in every sense. It's simply wonderful! We went once before, last summer, and it was fabulous but really hot. I knew Baker would enjoy it even more now that he's older and he certainly did. We got there at 10:45 and didn't leave until a little after 1! He had me running from one side of the park to the other, nonstop. We had some serious fun!

Baker and Hartford riding the car. They had this thing bouncing back and forth like you would not believe and squealing all the way. Baker was like "Weeeeee"! It was too cute to watch.

They spent much of their time chasing each other back and forth to each car. There are several little vehicles to ride in this park.

Running through the maze that is a little challenging. It's difficult to keep up with such a fast toddler in a confusing maze!

So happy to be driving the school bus.

Next stop, the fire truck!

Just look at him crossing over this walking bridge like a big boy!

Climbing the "rock" wall.

Hartford swinging so proudly!

You can spot Baker on the far left. This pic gives you a little idea of how

massive the playground is.

Cheesin'

I just love these pictures of Baker! All three of them make me smile.

With chocolate chips smeared all over his face from pancake Saturday. Can you tell he enjoyed them?

One morning I walked into the living room and didn't see Baker, until I found him sitting under the desk wearing my glasses upside down! He was clearly hiding because he knows he's not supposed to play with my glasses but who cares, he's too cute. I absolutely love this picture! I just wish it was taken with my camera and not my iPhone.

Another iPhone pic but he's so funny here. I just realized that it's from the same morning as the photo above. Oh well!

Hot Dog Stand

Baker's imagination is really taking off and every day he seems to do little things that take it further. Recently on the playground, he went behind one of the little "counters" that is at ground level so I went up to him and told him I'd like a hot dog. Next thing I know, he's pretending to turn bolts and screws as if he was cooking me a hot dog and then said "There ya go" and handed it to me. So I then gave him pretend money...for some reason he "cooked" it. He has since turned one of our side tables by the couch into his counter and works back there too. On top of the fact that he brings his stuffed animals and Little People to life and carries on conversations with them. It's just amazing to watch!

Giving me hot dogs, aka chalk.

Saturday Family Picnic in the Park

Spring is definitely making it's appearance in DC and it couldn't make me any happier! Warm weather, sunny skies, and the chance to play outside is simply wonderful! Last weekend was one of those weekends so we packed a picnic lunch and went out to the playground. Fun for all!

Yes, he climbed to the very top of this with daddy spotting him...scary.

Working his way to the top.

Having lunch

Thanks to daddy for taking a couple of sweet pictures!

Sharing a snap pea crisp!

Videos from Nina and Papa's Visit

Riding the carousel with Nina

Opening up his Easter basket from the grandparents. He really took his time with this one.

Climbing the ladder

Baker loves for me to flip him but knowing how sensitive little shoulders can be, I'm very cautious! Funny story about this that the video doesn't quite show is how he was trying to get a reaction from us. The first time he flipped, he accidentally fell back into the chair and it was dramatic and we all laughed. So every time he flipped after that, which was about a dozen times, he tried to do it again, and again, and again. You'll see him falling on the floor afterwards but at this point, he had flipped so much that it lost it's pizazz!

Spring Break with Nina and Papa

Brad's parents came to visit this past week (Fri-Thurs) and we had such a great time visiting with them! Baker had an absolute blast with them so it always makes us very sad to have to say goodbye. I would do anything to be able to go and video his reaction when they walked in the door last week. He was beyond excited and immediately screamed their names and then took off running into the living room to show off and acting silly. His face was beet red from pure excitement. It was just too sweet! And by the way, Nana is now Nina. It seems that is what Baker is going to call her so I guess that's what it will be. Who knows, he may start calling her Nana, sometimes he does, but for now it's Nina. We'll see what happens! I really like Nina so I hope it sticks!

Friday

Right away, they gave him his St. Patrick's Day happy and boy did it make him happy!! They brought so much stuff, an entire suitcase full, that the airport security searched their bags. Ha!

Nana helps him open his gifts.

Really checking out his new book.

Sporting his new St. Patty's sunglasses.

He thought Nina wearing them was funny and insisted that she take her eye glasses off to put them on.

Saturday - The Big Apple Circus

We bought tickets to the Big Apple Circus several weeks ago so we were so excited, and a little anxious, to take Baker. I know how overwhelmed he can get in loud, crowded situations so I was nervous that he would freak out. He was very excited about in the weeks leading up to it and would run to the TV every time the commercial came and scream with delight. None of us knew much about the Big Apple Circus so I had been telling Baker for weeks that there would be elephants. He even went to his room and pulled out his little elephant toys so he could play with them and talked about them for days. I then discovered that elephants were not a part of this circus!! Yikes, so I had to tell him they were not going to be there but he was totally okay with it! It's a much smaller circus but in the end, that was a much better choice for us.

The circus was way out at the Dulles Town Center (a large mall), almost an hour away from us, so we had to leave at 9:30 that morning to be there in time to eat a quick lunch and make it to the 12:30 show. This gave us plenty of time for Baker to play in their soft play area. It's sponsored by JetBlue, hence the airplane and the luggage truck.

He even had time to take a ride on the train with Nina. For some reason, there are lots of malls around here with train rides but I'm not complaining. Baker loves them!

Waiting for the circus to begin.

This is Baker saying his painful looking "cheese". I love this face!

This is Grandma clown. He was in awe of the clowns and lucky for us, we had great seats so they constantly came to our section before the show began and during it.

Grandma up close and personal

With Nina & Papa

Let the circus begin!

Bello the clown, the big haired one in the center, is the main act throughout the circus. What is so great about this circus is that everyone gets a great seat. It's not too overwhelming and truly the perfect little circus!

Uh oh, daddy tries to talk him through it. When the circus started, the bright lights came on and the music got really loud and we thought Baker was going to lose it. Thank the Lord Papa bought Baker a lollipop at the mall before we left because this was our saving grace during those transitional acts that he wasn't too fond of. Nothing that a little cotton candy and M&Ms can't fix! Yes, we threw the "low sugar diet" out the window for this occasion! I know this picture is blurry but it shows the face that we saw a little more in the beginning but he slowly warmed up!

Family shot...so happy Baker behaved enough for us to get this one!

Come intermission, Baker was a circus pro and really wanted to go down to the bottom, just a few rows away from our seats. He insisted that the first row was his so I had to practically pry him away from it!

The doggies are here!! His smile says it all.

We only stayed for about 15 minutes longer after the intermission, misisng the last 20 minutes. Baker lasted an hour, which was more than we thought he'd make it, so we were thrilled but he was dying to get down and run around so we left. When we left the mall earlier that morning, he caught a glimpse of the Easter bunny and kept saying "Easter bunny" in his cute little voice. We thought that was weird because we've never talked to him about it but somehow he knows about him and wanted to meet him. We had no intentions of this but, of course, he wanted to so we let him. To our surprise, he walked right up to him, stared at him, gave a little wave. It was precious! When it came to sit in his lap, he wasn't so sure of that...

But when they offered him a lollipop, you better believe he got right in his lap and was pretty comfortable! He even got upset when he had to leave. The Easter bunny was a hit and we all left a little shocked at how easy it was!

This mall is huge and has a carousel in the food court. So, we made our way over and he and Nina went for a ride.

He clearly liked it! After another round of play in the soft play area, we left for home and of course, Baker slept the entire way home. He was exhausted after a big day but it was a great day and the five us had such a great time!

Monday

Opening up his Easter basket - yes, he got a St. Patrick's happy and his Easter happy all on this trip! What's funny is that the week before Nina and Papa got here, Brad was putting Baker to bed and they were talking about them coming to visit. Brad said "They're gonna bring you a surprise" and Baker said "Shirts, toys, pwizes". Haha! Do you think he knows his Nina and Papa well?

An airplane!

Shirts, toys, and pwizes - Baker was right!

We finally borrowed a ladder to take down the paper lanterns from Baker's birthday (only 2 months later!). Baker was ecstatic to see such a big ladder and wanted to climb it non-stop saying "I kime yadder". Papa eventually had to hide it in order to get him off it!

Baker the Clown - Wearing the clown nose daddy bought at the circus!

Tuesday - Elephant Walk

Playing at Marion Park - It was a lot of fun to be able to show Nina and Papa how much fun Baker has the playground. He loved them being there too!

Carefully putting grass in a hole in the ground...it's the small things that matter to a 2 year old.

After playing and a little picnic lunch, we went over a few blocks to watch the Elephant Walk that the Ringling Bros Circus does before the circus starts. We are fortunate enough that it always starts in Capitol Hill so we didn't have to go very far! This is some of the crowd that was gathering to watch it from the start-up location - lots of nannies and mommies!

These are the mascots for the Nationals baseball team.

George, Teddy, Thomas and Lincoln

Getting restless, we waited for an hour because the parade got a late start, ugh.

Someone from the circus was handing out these clown noses so Baker and I sported it proudly!

One of their clowns

Trying to give Nina a nose too.

A little creepy when they get that close to you!

Yeah, the elephants are finally here!!

Here they come!

Poor elephants. That's a long walk and you can't help but feel sorry for them. I try not to think about how they are treated!

And ponies

The Ringmaster

Wednesday

Unfortunately, Brad had to work every day they were here, minus the weekend, so we missed him but he still had a great time. On Wed, we took a double decker bus tour of the city. Brad's parents have wanted to do this since we moved here but it has never worked out. We couldn't have picked a better day to do it either...sunny and upper 60s. Gorgeous! Baker played with his double decker bus they brought him from London last year when we got on board. He was so excited to ride it!

He loved sitting up front so he could perch himself at the window and see everything!

Posing with the Lincoln Memorial

This is where he spent the 2nd half of the trip, in the floor board playing with the seatbelt buckles. He played with this for at least 30 or more minutes!