Halloween 2010...

Will and his buddy Tyler...
We finally agreed on a makeshift Bob the Builder costume...

This was Friday, at the Kentlands Halloween Festival...He was a monkey...

I almost didn't get him out of the Moonbounce. He made my one dollar last about 30 minutes.

The Rally to Restore Sanity...

William enjoys a bagel on the Metro...
Within 3 stops the train was PACKED!!!

William is off to the rally!

I thought this shirt was pretty hilarious!

My view from the crowd...

The sea of people behind me...

I like that sign over there that says "This sign is too damn big!"

William loved clapping for everyone!

William charmed some very nice people from Iowa into letting him use their blanket...

Wow. I don't even know where to start! It was a wild day, but lots of fun. We started out early, and when we got to the Metro station we were very happy we had our passes already. The line to buy passes was at least 200 people long! Yikes! We boarded a train and scored some great seats and were soon very happy that we lived on the end of the line. Within 3 stops it was standing room only, and soon it was getting crazy. They were packed in like sardines! Everyone was surprisingly cheerful and you could feel how excited everyone was. When we got to DC we decided to get off at the stop by the Building Museum so William could use the potty, which he refused, and then we headed down to the rally. Crowds got thicker and thicker and by the time we got to the entrance it was shoulder to shoulder, but strangely calm. Everyone there indeed seemed to be sane. We were about 2 hours early, but even then we couldn't get very close. We ended up in front of the American Art Museum, about 1 and 1/2 blocks back from the stage. I think the die hards up front slept there to get the close spots. They were showing clips from the Daily Show and Colbert Report on the jumbo-trons to keep us occupied while we waited, and I chatted with some New Yorkers who had driven down that morning. Around us were people from Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio, Maine, and Oregon. Wow. The show started with Roots, who sounded a lot like the Fugees, and then Jon Stewart came out. I will assume anyone reading this watched the show on TV or online so you know what happened. William and Jason braved the crowds to the souvenir tent and bought some goodies, I saved our spots and prayed they would find me again. It took them over an hour to make it back me, and Jason said that the crowd was all the way back past 7th street and getting crazy. The whole rally was a lot of fun, it was great seeing it all in person. Every time I attend these things I wish I were taller though, I can't ever see much since 75% of people are taller than me. I was very surprised by all the stars that showed up. Honestly I thought Cat Stevens couldn't come into the US anymore...maybe my memory is off, but I feel like there was something about him on the news a few years ago...but I was glad he was there. I love him. Sheryl Crow was great, and so was Tony Bennett. Honestly, though, we all enjoyed the Myth Buster guys an awful lot, and you really could feel it when all the crowd jumped together. Did they show that on TV? Once the rally ended, it took a long time to get home again. The streets were packed and they even had to close Constitution, which is a MAJOR street. Everyone was being nice though and the crowds were still excited. It was a fun day, even if I did get sunburned...

A Phone Call...

So today, I got a phone call. It was the Dr who analyzes the First Trimester Screen tests for my OBGYN group. She proceeded to tell me that me test showed an increased risk for Down's Syndrome, normally for my age it would be 1:500, and mine came back increased to 1:150. This didn't concern me a whole lot because this test can have a lot of false positives and the odds were still in my favor especially since the ultrasound looked great. She offered to do a amniocentesis, but I declined since the risk of miscarriage was almost as much as the risk for Down's! Jason and I made the decision long ago that we would not terminate any pregnancy for any birth defect. We will instead bring our baby into this world, and lovingly see it into the next with no medical interventions. After I explained this to her, and she agreed, she proceeded to tell me that I had another abnormal marker. This one is basically a precursor of things to come. It is just an indicator that things might go badly, something they have seen in mothers with Pre-eclampsia, preterm labor, inter-uterine growth retardation, and still birth. Since they aren't sure what, if anything will happen, they just want to watch us both. More blood tests for me, and frequent ultrasounds for the baby. I really wish I had just decided not to get the test in the first place. There is essentially nothing you can do to prevent any of these things from occurring and knowing that these things might happen is so depressing. Ignorance is bliss. So I have another blood test on the 12th, an ultrasound on the 19th, and another one 3 weeks after that. Then they will reevaluate and we will decide what comes next. Hopefully nothing....hopefully little bean will just keep growing normally and I will keep truckin' along, and we won't need anymore testing.....

Pumpkin Carving and Nature Fun...

William was carving VERY CAREFULLY...or so he kept telling me....
This is the picture Will took of his finished product...

Quite pleased with himself...

The Pumpkin at night looking "Spooky"...

Will at the Nature Center, enjoying some fruit snacks...

The Salamander...

My Little FFA Member...

Yesterday William and I carved his pumpkin. He wanted NO PART of the seeds or gut scraping. In fact, when I touched his hand with my slimy one to show him how it felt, he flipped out! He did enjoy helping me saw the face out. I asked him if he wanted a scary pumpkin or a happy pumpkin and he said "scary" and when I asked him what shape the nose should be, he requested the letter C. So funny! He isn't crazy about lighting it up though, he says it's too spooky. He seems all ready for trick or treating, but we will see how he does when the time comes. Today I really wanted to get out of the house before it starts to rain, we are supposed to have terrible storms over the next few days. So, we took off for the nature center at Brookside Gardens. William loves it there because they have a real hive of bees. We also took a walk in the woods, and had a great time turning over stumps. I found a earthworm that I swear was as big as a small snake! We also found 2 salamanders, so that was exciting for William and I. I had never held one before. We saw a puppet show at the center, and Will did surprisingly well during it. I feared that he wouldn't sit for it, but once the lights went down and curtains opened, he was fascinated! We have a big weekend coming up. Friday is a big Halloween party in the Kentlands, where we will get to see Justin Roberts, who is a kids singer that William and I both really like, and then Saturday is our Rally to Restore Sanity down at the Capitol. It should be a lot of fun!

12 Weeks...

I don't have any editing software right now, so this is the best you will get of the ultrasound pictures. Sorry. But you can see a nice little profile there, each pointing a different direction. The scan went great today, heart rate was still 165, which is so much higher than William's was. It already had all of the major organs pumping away, we even saw it's stomach! It was measuring a few days bigger than my due date, but William always did too. All in all I am starting to feel much better than I did. I am still sleepy, but I have a few good productive hours a day when William and I can do fun stuff and I can get the dishwasher loaded. William is feeling better after his bad cold and was bouncing off the walls at the Dr's office. We went to his favorite place this afternoon, Target and got some shampoo, since he had dumped a whole bottle in the tub the other day. I also got trick or treating candy since we will probably have some kids show up here since we are in the townhouse now. The only other issue that has been plaguing me is what to cook for dinner. I am in a severe rut without the brain power to think of anything exciting...ugh. I need to get out the cookbooks again and search for inspiration!

Pumpkin Pickin'...

Ready to pick!

He looks quite pleased with himself...

The best part of the day was finding the farm equipment...

Notice how huge this thing is...Will is barely visible behind the crawler track!

We headed out after I got home from work today to get our Halloween pumpkins. William had been looking forward to this, so even with a pretty bad cold, we headed out. The fields were already pretty picked over, so we had to settle for smaller ones this year. William had a good time in the fields, but he was THRILLED by the heavy machinery. This kid is destined to be a heavy equipment operator!

Hiking with Daddy...

Waiting for everyone to show up at NIST. William kept himself busy on this lawn tractor.
The view from the hike...

William spent most of the time checking out the view, it even impressed a 2 year old!

Walking on the rock wall over looking the valley...

William and Jason headed out with some co-workers to hike in the Shenandoah National Forest on Saturday while I was at work. They had a great time and William was very excited to tell me all about the valleys he saw, and the walking stick bug. Jason hiked most of it carrying William in the back pack, which I think is pretty amazing. William is now 35lbs so carrying him miles over rough terrain is no easy feat! Go Daddy!

Contemplating...

Spidey...

Will and I picked up this amazing costume for 7 dollars and we have already gotten our money's worth! I think he looks so cute with those fake muscles!

Children's Garden...

Today William and I ventured out in this beautiful weather to the Brookside Gardens. I had heard that they had a children's garden there and it was just as nice and as sweet as I had been told. He loved all the little buildings they had made and playing with the gardening tools. They had a worm farm that was pretty smelly, but William liked watching the worms crawl through the compost. My camera seems to be off these days, I am not sure what's wrong, but please forgive the funky lighting and blurry-ness.

A Fun and Busy Weekend....

Saturday was Alessandra's 5th Birthday Party!

Gabbi is ready to party!
William liked playing outside away from the maddening crowds...

The Birthday Girl and her Entourage...

Sunday we headed over to Virginia to hike in the foothills of the Appalachians...

William loves climbing with Daddy...

He's getting really good!

He is, however, the world's slowest hiker...

He found a large vine to swing on, pretending to be a monkey...

He adores throwing rocks in the river, like all boys...

Doing his Liza Minnelli impression.... pretend the water is Vodka, and he's pretty close!

Doing his Mommy impression... pretend the water is a Caramel Macchiato and he's pretty close!

Throwing more rocks off this rustic bridge....a little scary, but the water was shallow.

Jason chasing him down on the bridge. I got quite a few shots as they came across and William's shirt gets tighter and tighter as he comes nearer!

We had such a nice day hiking in the woods. William did really well and walked about 2/3rds of it. It was about a 3 mile hike so that was really good for his age. He also crossed into the Brotherhood of Man by peeing on a tree today. We need to work on his aim though, it mostly landed on his pants. It was so nice having a weekend off and spending time with both of my men. I miss them so much on weekends!

William has been OBSESSED with Toy Story, which I finally let him watch. He is convinced that he is indeed Buzz Lightyear and that he can fly. I keep telling him that even Buzz can't really fly, as the movie proves. Try and reason with a 2 year old. He keeps trying though, mostly by jumping off dangerous spots around the house. He knocked my lamp off the side table in the living room, thankfully only breaking the shade and not my lamp, nor his head. Yesterday at the Birthday party he climbed up onto the back of Solon and Andrea's couch and jumped onto Andrea's step mother! Terrible! So embarrassing! I am not sure what to do, I don't want to put a damper on his imagination, but this flying has to stop! For everyone's safety and my sanity!