Blob's Park Weekend

Our good friends Carlos and Mary wanted to pay us back for babysitting their three lovely daughters a couple of weeks ago. So this past Friday, Angie and I were able to go to the swing dance night at Blob's Park in Jessup, Maryland, while the children stayed home. The last Friday of the month Bay Side Big Band plays swing songs and occasional cha-chas, waltzes and polkas. We had a fun time dancing and hanging out with our friends BJ and Amy.

Being a Friday in Lent, we didn't go for dinner, since the menu is a Germanic delight including lots of beef and pork but almost no fish. A customer needs to look to the "American" items for some fish. Anyway, we had lovely desserts to go with the fun dancing and camaraderie.

On Sunday, we came in the afternoon for a dance lesson which started at 3 p.m. The kids were awake and came with us; also my sister Regina came. We enjoyed the cha-cha lesson. Even though we knew most of what they taught, it was a good refresher.

The band (The Continentals) came on at 4 and we had a good time dancing. Jacob and Lucy also got to go out on the dance floor more than once. Jacob danced with mom for a swing and a polka and with Aunt Regina for a swing. Lucy polkaed with daddy twice. We also all did the chicken dance and a new, fresh from Germany dance called the Flying Dance. It was similar to the chicken dance in that it had special choreography: you flapped your arms, you then made arm muscles, then reached for the ceiling, then wave your arms like a giraffe's neck, then a bunch of other stuff. I tried to find it on YouTube, but it was not this (though that does look cool). Looking on the band's web site, the song title in German is Fliegerleid, and I was able to find this video of Germans dancing to a live version in German:



Dancing it was fun, though Lucy may not have appreciated the jumping part. But she definitely had fun being there. Also, Jacob enjoyed seeing the band, especially the drummer. And we did get to eat a meaty dinner.

All in all, the weekend was an awesome dancing weekend. The next Sunday dance with a lesson is March 21, so we are definitely thinking of going again. A bunch of other families with little kids were there too, which made it extra nice.

Lucy's two-fer

Lucy has finally done it! It only took Jacob four months (which took us by surprise when it happened). Lucy has done it in just under eight months. Since she took twice the time, I suppose she wanted to show twice the results. I asked her if I could take a picture and she sort of accommodated me:


In case you don't see what I'm writing about, here's a close up:


I told Lucy she could put on a better show. She did not let her daddy down:


Again with the close up:


Lucy is now a two-fer toother. No wonder she's been waking up so many times in the past few days! Hopefully she will settle down again.

Lucy's New Ride

Lucy has made another first today. Gone are the highly hazardous days of riding in her stroller while Jacob rides in the cart. We went to Costco today. Since Lucy has done so well at home sitting by herself, I decided to try her out sitting next to her brother in the shopping cart:


This picture is after we checked out. Lucy clearly is not having as much fun as she was at the beginning. She did have a good time, though. She didn't even try to take Jacob's cookie from him when we tried a sample. Some day, you too will get to sample Costco's finest, Lucy!

Jacob was constantly looking over his shoulder, back to the past when he was the lone rider. Alas, that past is gone. Or maybe he was looking to the future, when he'd ride in the cart with the groceries. Most likely, he was looking for the next free cookie.

Lucy on the move!

We have been waiting expectantly for Lucy to start crawling. She is showing lots of signs. She will get up on her hands and knees sometimes. If she is sitting and wants something out of reach, she will stretch and stretch for it. Not one to give in to frustration, Lucy will roll onto her tummy to see if that puts her closer. If not, she will rotate herself and roll sideways towards an object. Unfortunately, the video camera has not been ready when this happens, but she has done it a couple of times. It's an amazing trick to see.

I hope she does not get used to doing it, because then she might not bother with crawling or walking! I suppose jealousy of Jacob will eventually kick in and motivate her to walk. She does admire him quite a bit. Lucy sometimes just stares at Jacob, who is undoubtedly fascinating. Sometimes she grabs at him, with Jacob responding, "Lucy, be gentle." Or, "Put Lucy in swing!" Maybe someday it will be a mutual admiration society, but today is not that day.

Luckily, Jacob wasn't Adam

Jacob's latest obsession is trucks. Pick up truck, dump trucks, recycling trucks, loaders, diggers, excavators, cement trucks, etc. etc. He likes to watch videos on YouTube. He reads books from the library (did you know that John Deere has put out a whole line of toddler books featuring their trucks?). He stops in the middle of walks to watch construction trucks do their business. During the recent snowstorms, he's watched trucks clearing away the snow mountains. He plays with toy trucks of all shapes and sizes. He colors in pages we print from the Internet. Well, he scribbles on them, but for him, that's coloring.

Yesterday, he brought a truck to dinner (a habit I hope will end soon). It was a small dump truck. As we were eating, he told us about it. He said, "Credit goes dump dump." At first, we didn't know what he was talking about, but Jacob clarified for us, "Credit goes dump dump!" He finally elaborated since we were too dense to take his meaning. "Credit Card the dump truck goes dump dump!" So his new latest hobby is naming things. I hope he can come up with better names for his other trucks. Suggestions are welcome!

Fighting a losing battle

Today was day four of the snow removal marathon. Since we were walloped with over two feet of snow on Saturday, I've been slowly digging us out. On Saturday morning, I dug out the car and the front walk. On Saturday evening (after the snow stopped), I dug them out again and got down the driveway as far as the sidewalk.

Sunday I dug out most of the side walk in two shifts (morning and evening).

Monday morning I dug out the rest of the side walk (which included cutting some tree limbs that had fallen and been buried about a foot down in the snow) and in the afternoon cut our way out into the street. We went to Chick-fil-A to meet some friends for dinner to celebrate our escape. See pictures here. It was a lot of fun to catch up with people and just to get out. Arriving home, we didn't make it up the driveway due to snow and ice that had fallen from the trees.

Tuesday morning I dug out to the street again, since the plow came through at some point in the evening. Of course, that meant icy, solid snow. We managed to make it out to play date. Angie was off, so she came too. I dropped her and the kids off at Chloe's home while I headed off to the store for more provisions.

The store was swamped with people. Most of the milk and all the fresh meat were gone. Most of the produce was gone too. The only bananas left looked green enough to serve on St. Patrick's Day. Still, I managed to get some food for us. Then I had the luxury of shopping at the liquor store without the two tots. I could by four bottles of wine without any juggling! I returned to play date to hang out for another half hour or so. We came back home for lunch and naps.

After we all woke up (except for Angie, who didn't get a nap), we went to Arundel Mills Mall for our last chance to walk around, because...guess what...it's snowing again. Another 10 to 20 inches of snow is expected. Which means another day or two of shoveling. Just when I saw the finish line for the snow shoveling marathon, they move it back another 26.2 miles! Yikes!!

Jacob and Lucy at Play Group

Jacob was initially reluctant to go to today's play date. When I asked him this morning, he said, "No go to play date." After some coaxing, he relented and said he wanted to go to Eddie's so he could play with trucks. I told him we were going to Justine's and that there would be trucks. He was suspicious but went along anyway.

We arrived and found plenty of trucks to play with, along with a little railroad track and some ride on toys as well. Jacob had a great time. Lucy stole the show, though, when one of the little girls brought out some cat ears. Lucy tried them on and even let me get a good shot of her wearing them:

It was an extra fabulous play date because Justine's mom whipped up a lunch in no time at all. we had some pizza, fruit and salad with a cookie for dessert!

At dinner tonight, Jacob said to me, "Want to go to play group." I explained that we just went to play group this morning. Jacob thought about that and said, "Want to go to play group...some more!"