7:42am! What in the world?

After a crazy two weeks of traveling and Turkey time I was ready to get back into our regular routine. Since Lucius is a notorious early riser (5:30am) I didn't set my alarm for Monday morning. Lu went down at his normal bedtime of 7:30p and I fell asleep around 10p. I was awoken to Tom saying "Do you know that it's 7:42am?" What!!!! I couldn't believe it. We usually leave the house by 7:40am...needless to say we were running quite late. When I went in to get Lu he was just laying there looking up at his ceiling, saw me and said "Hello". I have no idea how long he had been up, but he was happy doing whatever it was he was doing. So, the week started off a little behind schedule but at least with a good night's sleep.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, this marks a year that I've been blogging. Hard to believe!

We had a great Thanksgiving. Sitty and Jagee came up for the event.


Mom wasn't feeling well, but lucky for her she got to relax in the Lazyboy all day! Her first time in 45+ years! You can tell by the picture that we kept her happy with a continuous supply of Johnny Walker Black Label. Boy, does that stuff kill a cold.


I made the apple pie, pumpkin pie, green bean casserole, stuffing and turkey. Tom made the mashed potatoes. Dad made the creamed onions and sweet potatoes and Mom made the gravy. Definitely enough food for the 4.5 of us.
Here's the turkey.



Jagee and Lucius talking on the phone. Later on that day I mysteriously received a call from my Dad's cell phone. I looked outside to see Lu playing with the phone and saying "Hello". I guess he pressed send to dial me. And about an hour after that my Dad lost his phone. I called it and heard a faint ringing outside. Lu had put it in the basket of his stroller.


After dinner smoke and drink. You can see Lucius carrying around the cigar holder. He quickly began mimicking Tom and Jagee and started puffing away on it. Oy vey.


Jagee and Lu turned the glider into a slide. No major injuries.

Fall Family Gathering

We spent an extra couple of days following my conference to visit family. Here are the pictures to prove it.

Being silly with Uncle Darren.




Being silly with Aunt Cindy.


Vegging out in front of the TV.


Playing in the leaves with some cousins.



Ryan

Bros




Willis


Scottie


The Pied Piper Cam


Mr. Nuk


Dad, "The Jage"

Since Dad is as old as dirt, he needed a headshot to be shown in the Smithsonian's new exhibit on soil. His picture will be accompanied with a bio with answers to questions such as, "What's your favorite thing about soil?" and "What's your least favorite thing about soil?". The exhibition will be on display in July 2008.
And I'm totally serious. Congratulations Jagee! We're very proud of you and the great soil work that you've done over the past 44 years!


China? No, just Mom and Dad's bamboo forest in the backyard. Who knew a little bamboo plant could overtake the whole yard?


Lu loved sitting on calm Uncle Rik's lap. That's my poster in the background that I presented at the conference. It just got accepted as a paper for Prevention Science...thank you very much.

Visiting Sitty and Jagee

Last Wednesday (11/14) Lu and I made our way to NOVA to see Sitty and Jagee. I had a conference in Baltimore to attend and I thought it would be a great time to have Sitty and Jagee babysit for 3 days. Lu was excellent on the plane. I brought him as a lap child so he only had about 5 inches to move. The plane was packed and we were the window seat in a row of three. It's a good thing it was only a 1.5 hour flight.

Lu had a great time playing with Sitty and Jagee. They said he was so good that they wanted to keep him!
There were only a couple of mishaps while I was away.
1) Sitty and Jagee were up at 1am changing Lu's diaper and crib sheets. Somehow his diaper had come off and he peed all over everything. You'd think after six kids my Dad would know how to put a diaper on.
2) While Jagee was "watching" him Lu got into the cabinet, found a tin of big ol' cinnamon hard candies, opened the tin, and hid in the corner eating his treat. Don't worry, he didn't choke.

Here's a picture from my hotel room.


While in town I also got to hang out with the ladies from MWC. Happy 30th Birthday Chica!!! It was great to hang out...although VA doesn't have a smoking ban. Man, what a difference that makes.

19-month weird

Lu likes to sleep with random things he picks up around the apartment. This night it was Dad's sneakers.


He also likes to wear our clothes. Whatchu lookin'at?


How the heck do you get this thing on?

Going shopping has never been harder.




Tom did his post-halloween halloween shopping and bought 2 bags of halloween stuff for $8. The cowboy ensem was $1.


Lu's big into drawing now. Of course, I do catch him eating the crayons. And of course they're made in red China. I'm awaiting the lead poisoning.


Lu looooves ice-cream...or anything sweet. He makes the sign for cookie if he wants a sweet treat.

Mmmmm...mint chocolate chip.


Lu's new thing is taking a shower instead of a bath. His favorite is to shower with Daddy. He has his own bar of soap and everything!



I was cleaning out my cosmetics travel bags in anticipation for our upcoming trip and Lu decided he would use them as his briefcase and purse.


On the pee n' poo front, Lu sat on his potty all by himself last night. He then "asked" for me to take off his shirt and diaper so he could be completely naked (I started having flashes of that Seinfeld episode, Constanza!). AND he actually got his penis pointed down into the potty! Usually it just dangles over the front. No, he didn't actually pee or poo, but that's a start.

Hickory Hills

We went apple picking with some friends on Sunday. It was a beautiful day and late in the season so we had the whole orchard to ourselves.






The trees were the perfect height for Lu to pick apples all by himself. He did a great job finding the apples, picking them, and putting them in the wagon.


Practicing snowboarding.



Note to self -- don't let child get attached to large stuffed animals. It makes life much more difficult. Thanks Valerie!