Love that Jacket



Spring rain in DC

With our lifestyle, there are very few things that I'm really attached to these days. It's kind of hard when half of your stuff goes into storage to be used at some undetermined year in the future, and the other half will meet you a few months down the line. I LOVE our bookshelves, and I know I'll see them again some day :) I saved a few things from Oscar's babyhood - a hat I knitted for him, a blanket with his name on it...For Livi, I saved her onesie from Children's Hospital when she was born (where I was born too) and a blanket I knitted for her. I planned to save some more cute little outfits, but decided to pass them on instead and have them actually be used. (I did save a few outfits for future dolls or stuffed animals.)

However, the one article of clothing I'm truly sentimental about is Livi's raincoat. It's nothing fancy, an Old Navy special that I got on sale, but there is just something about it that just screams "Livi." Maybe it's the bright flowers that pop so much like her personality, or all the puddles she jumped into with it on, or that she mainly wore it in our first home as a family walking Oscar to his first school...at any rate, I just love that little coat. It's amazing how many memories are in that little 12-18 month plastic coat (that she wore until she was over 2). Maybe cousin Elly will have some fun in it too!

Now, 2 weeks, and 2 months

That's the plan we need to follow for packing up for India...
luggage - All the stuff we need now, for the first two weeks will be in our luggage on the plane
UAB - 700 pounds worth of stuff we'd like to have in the house sooner rather than will hopefully arrive in India in 2 weeks and will hold us over for a few months.
HHE - The stuff we bought (all those rolls of toilet paper and jars of peanut butter) plus the stuff from our house in NJ, will hopefully arrive in around 2 months.

So, these are the thoughts running through my head as I'm mentally pre-packing all of our stuff. Some things are easy - the kids blankets and special toys are definitely coming on the plane with us. Others not so straight forward - for 2 months we'll be in India without all of the lovely things we bought and all of our stuff from the house. So, with a pretty small weight limit, it's not just what becomes essential for those 2 months but how much? A tube of toothpaste sounds good. But how many bottles of sunscreen? People have said to bring coffee...I need my morning cup of joe, so do we actually pack coffee in our luggage? Does needing to pack coffee mean you can't find your Starbucks there (which I don't even go to here) or truly, there is really only tea? That seems pretty ridiculous to me...but equally ridiculous is arriving in our new home and not having coffee after 24 hours of travelling.

None of this is life or death stuff, and there will be stores where we're going :) , it will just be a matter accessibility, cost, and trying to avoid running around trying to find crackers and dental floss in the first 24 hours we're there! Another huge perk we have is that our upstairs neighbors are awesome and have two kids, and will help get us through and point us to the right places to go until we get settled.

But I still don't know how much bug spray to pack.

Father's Day Weekend



With Nanee and Grandad in town, we headed up to Montmogery Village to spend the night and go to a outdoor concert at Tarara Winery over Father's Day weekend. We joined forces with the Christakis family, Kennedy and Griffin and had a great time! I somehow don't have a picture of Oscar, even though it was Father's Day...I swear he was there :)
Oscar's quote of the weekend about Beny and all of his supplies for the kids (bubbles, glow sticks, glow bracelets...) - "Wow. He's really prepared!"

Daria and Elly

storytime with Nanee

Tarara Winery

the kiddos

a very determined runner

bubbles! emma passed them out to all the kids around us

oscar "posing" for a photo

kennedy, griffin, and uncle gordy

emma running the show :)

The worst thing about shots...

...isn't the hour it took us to get from the entrance of FSI to the medical clinic since there wasn't any parking (normally should take 10 min from lot clinic),
....isn't having to drag Oscar through the door of the clinic,
....isn't having to hug both of them with both arms and legs to let the nurses give the shots (2 this time),
....IS looking over at Oscar after he was done and it was Livi's turn - he was standing next to me with his eyes scrunched shut and his hands clamped over his ears so he couldn't hear her cry when it was her turn :(

They're done though!! Phew.

A conversation with Oscar

Here is a conversation I overheard with him and Livi:
"Do you know what born means Liv?
Ummm, no.
"Born means that...that you just come out of mommy's belly. And when you're grown up you'll be a mommy and you'll have to be responsible. You have to change the baby and eat the things that kids don't eat. Well, you can eat some things kids eat...But I'm going to grow up sooner than you."

Love it! He loves posing for pictures now too (when he's in the mood). His eyes are closed on purpose of course...

A note on Liv

Our Livi is increasing her vocabulary in leaps and bounds these days. She's FINALLY repeating a ton of words and actually trying to say different things. She's also started calling Oscar "Ozzie" which sounds so much cuter coming from her than me! Her gymnastics teacher also told me the team at the gym was going to have their eyes on her. She was disappointed when I told her we were moving soon, but she said to try and keep her in gymnastics! Funny since she's only 2, but I do have to admit she's got great form (and fearlessness!!). So I had my proud mommy moment :) This is an outfit she choose to wear to library today - any day is a party dress day for Liv! She probably would've chosen her current fav, a cupcake dress from Nana, but it was in the wash since she'd worn it the day before!

A pirate party

We rang in dada Oscar's birthday with a fun filled weekend around the area. Saturday we drove around the mall and Capital Hill (always on the prowl for real estate!) while the kiddos snoozed in the car, and headed into Old Town Alexandria for some ice cream and a short walk. Oscar was very good at making sure Dada was in charge and got to choose our activites for the weekend, since it was his birthday :)  On his official birthday, we spent the morning playing in the fountain about a block from our house. After naps, we headed to Casa Taylor for Oscar's birthday dinner. Aunt Ria had a pirate party waiting, complete with a birthday banner and pirate hats and favors. We also had a yummy ice cream cake sent by Aunt Jenny to top it all off! Nannee and Dadee arrived with Gus to start off their week with watching Ellie too! Aome photos that captured the day. Happy Birthday Dada!

Butterfly encounter

The kids and I took a trip into DC to meet up with Sandra and her kiddos on the mall and the Natural History museum. A carousel ride on a dragon, a visit with some butterflies, and a chance to meet up with a good friend made the 95 degree heat bearable!

checking out shark teeth

being silly in the discovery center (silly faces to match the seashells)

butterflies!

patiently waiting for a butterfly to land on him

silly face after butterfly "kiss" - sat briefly on his shirt then flew away

livi holding butterfly

The McCormicks Long Walk

We had a wonderful visit from the McCormicks this past weekend. Oscar took advantage of the 72 hours they were here and walked us all over the city throwing in his fun facts along the way. We went to Adams Morgan friday night and hit The Reef for kiddie-happy hour and dinner at The Diner. Saturday we did a whirlwind tour of some Monuments, Natural History Museum and Georgetown. Then on Sunday we took a trip to the zoo and had some sushi in Kalorma Park (our old neighborhood!). The kids were troopers and they had so much fun playing together - we were all troopers actually! :) Here are a few photos...Missy and Tommy have a bazillion more I'm looking forward to seeing!! Thanks again for the visit guys, it was awesome!!!

kiddie happy hour at The Reef

got milk?

ring around the rosie

happy cousins!

at the lincoln memorial

washington memorial

oscar and livi on the elephant bridge (liv's fav)

The swimmers

"me two piece"

blurry, but still cute

Oscar is swimming!

The bathtub shot is the closest I could get for this, but Oscar is actually swimming. He takes classes once a week, and he spent the weekend in the pool with Nana and Papa with his water wings - swimming back and forth, face in the water (with and without goggles), jumping in the pool. Today, we headed to the pool and after a few mintues he decided he wanted to try and go underwater to get a toy. He took his wings off and he was swimming! He can go a few feet at a time, and likes trying to get toys on the steps and at the bottom of the pool. He is actually quite a good floater, so he has trouble getting to the bottom but I'm amazed at how quickly he has taken to it! We've come a long way from refusing to get in the water during swim class in Hoboken.
Liv also jumps in and swims around with her water wings on... She seems so tiny to be floating around in the pool but of course she is not going to be left behind on this new adventure! They both love being in the water and I see a lot of pool time coming for the month of June. So happy to have 2 more fish in the family!!

And our next home will be in Martha's Vineyard!

OK, not really. We spent a wonderful weekend in Martha's Vineyard for a friend's wedding and now Oscar is looking at real estate. :) Here is a rare photo of us from the weekend, where we had a chance to catch up with friends we haven't seen in years! The kids spent a great weekend in VA with Nana and Papa, tooling around Ballston and swimming in the pool. Pics to follow when I get them from Nana - hint hint Bonnie :)....

We got our information on new house in Chennai! A 4 bedroom, 5 bathroom apartment in a duplex with a big backyard. We'll share the yard with our sponsor family (who also have 2 kids) and when we get to Chennai they'll do lovely things like pick us up from the airport and help show us around town. Oscar got really upset when he heard we had 4 bedrooms because he was concerned he wouldn't be sharing with Livi anymore. He was much happier when I told him they could share, and they would have a toy room. We definitely have a quest room, so start booking your trips to Chennai now! You have until summer 2013....

overnight trip in VA

Last week we took a trip to Winchester, VA and had a great time swimming in the hotel pool, walking along the pedestrian mall, and visiting the Children's museum. First, chilling at Quincy Park -

loving snacks in the hotel bed while watching tom and jerry

Oscar showing off a stink bug - you would've been so proud Nannie!

an adorable, but unfortunately blurry picture pre-swim

very cool buid-your-own-ball roller coaster room in childrens museum

Cabin John Park

A couple of weeks ago at Cabin John Park - a great park near Rockville that's perfectly shaded for hot days and a train ride to top it off!