Baby Charlie's Check Up...

For those of you who are not proficient at reading ultrasounds, this is a side profile view of Charlie's face. He is growing very well and is about a week bigger than average. They estimated him at 2 lbs 14 oz. which seems big! His heart rate was good, 142 and it looked like it was beating strong. We saw his little tongue wiggling around and he was waving and kicking. We did a little 3-D, but didn't get any good pictures from it. I can't wait to see what he looks like in person!

Another Cold, Wet, Day...

We have been trapped in the house for so many days lately, I decided to take William and go to Great Kids Village again. It takes about an hour to get there, but it is a place you can spend ALL DAY at, and your kid will not run out of things to do. Will had a ball! He did tend to forget to go potty however, so we ran out of pants after 2 potty accidents. He did tell me both times though as he was going, that he was having an "Accent" as he calls it. He spent a long time in the sand box and found some other kids to play with for a while. He was exhausted on the way home and fell asleep within 10 minutes. The other funny thing he did today was this: Jason and I watch the Jon Stewart show 4 days a week, thats pretty much it. We almost never watch any other shows anymore, and never when William is around. So tonight after the show, he says "You have been watching TOO MUCH TV Mom and Dad!" and went over and shut it off. So funny! This morning he also went upstairs by himself and as he was going up the stairs he said "See you later!" It's so funny to hear him use these mature phrases!

Bedtime Routine...

William has a VERY regulated bedtime routine. First we take a bath, then he reads books in our bed for about 30minutes, whilst drinking his bottle of milk, then he brushes his teeth, and says goodnight to me. He and Daddy then head in to the bedroom to rock for a few minutes while he watches his musical bird/light show thing. I have no better way to describe that thing. He then gets into bed and falls asleep on his own. The problem we are facing is the rocking chair. We kinda need to move it to our room for the new baby. So I can use it to rock and feed Charlie at night and at nap time. I am not sure how to go about moving the rocking part of Will's routine to our room...when he wakes up scared in the night, he insists upon being rocked for a few minutes before getting back in bed. I don't want to make him feel we are taking it away from him and making it the baby's, but essentially that is what needs to happen. I think if we move it to our room now, he may not associate it with the baby at all. Who thought it would be this complicated? Maybe I am just overly concerned....probably.

Snow Days, or How I Grew to Appreciate Electricity...

William bonding with the spider...

Checking out the butterflies...

A very snowy capitol...

Eating snow...He always looks so serious while doing it!

Wednesday night it started snowing, and it snowed and snowed. Jason has a 3 mile commute. It took him about an hour to get home. The roads were a mess, and then as the evening went on it became clear that we were at a very real risk of losing power. Then right after Jon Stewart, it went out for real. It stayed pretty warm in the house, thankfully, but it is always weird not having any light. We put William to bed by lantern light and then Jason and I played a good game of scrabble. I was hoping that it would be fixed by morning, but it wasn't. We went to Panera for breakfast and then William and I went on the Metro to DC so we could spend the day in a warm museum rather than a chilly house. When we got home the heat was on and all was well again. William has been having a ball playing in all this snow. We did a little sledding, but mainly he just enjoys eating it. I think we have about 8 inches in our neighborhood, and we are supposed to get more this weekend....

An Excersise in Self Control...

Today I ran to the mall to return a couple of things and made the mistake of stopping at Janie and Jack. Never a good thing, but usually I can control myself. Then I saw this:

The pictures do not do it justice. It is SO sweet and soft and adorable. It is however completely over priced. It took EVERYTHING I had in me not to buy this outfit. He could only wear it for about 1 month before it would get too hot to be in something long sleeved, plus he would probably outgrow it in about 2 weeks! I am proud of myself for being strong. But if it goes on a good sale before he is born, I am totally buying it!

A Wild Time at the Zoo...

The Piranhas...William said "It bit Grandpa's finger just a little, little, bit!"

Checking the weight density of different types of tropical wood. ...

William and Daddy went to the zoo on Monday, I stayed home and recovered from my newest virus. It was very cold, but they had a great time!

Creepy, Crawlies are the Best!

William has been VERY obsessed with all things creepy and crawly these days. Especially Tarantulas. The Natural History Museum has a great Insect Zoo exhibit, and they always have bugs you can actually hold and touch so I knew he would get a kick out of it. We braved the Metro and got to the museum about 11. We ended up staying till 3pm! William had such a great time watching all the bugs and touching a wide variety of critters. We also got to witness a tarantula attacking a killing it's meal- a grasshopper, and we got to see a recently molted tarantula exoskeleton. Pretty neat. William was so worn out after today he fell asleep on me while riding home on the Metro. I made a point out of setting out with no big plans or schedule for today and I think it helped us both enjoy the day more. I let him lead the entire experience and I felt better not having to urge him on or take him away from something he was really enjoying. I am going to try and squeeze in as many of these fun trips out as I can before the baby comes, I know it will be a while till I feel ready to take 2 kids on the Metro alone!