A visit from Auntie Em

BEFORE


AFTER


You get the picture. It was a fun weekend.

JUST JOKING! To my knowledge, Will didn't drink beer. But it really was a fun weekend. A fun weekend full of wholesome activities, such as going to the zoo. See?

Deep in the Heart of Texas

This past weekend we went to Houston to visit Dr. J, Big T, and Oliver. We had a really great trip. Will was good on the flight out and we sat next to a very nice guy from Texas who happened to love babies. In Houston we took a couple of beautiful walks, had lunch at Rice with Big T, went to the zoo, went to a barbecue with fifteen other couples with babies, and hung out and talked a lot. On Sunday Dr. J tried to set up a photo shoot with Will and Oliver, who happened to have matching outfits (a coincidence, really), but neither boy was all that excited about sitting still. We thought that there was a good chance that Will would learn to crawl after spending a weekend with Oliver, but he didn't. Oliver can do amazing things for a child not yet eight months old. He crawls like an expert, stands up with very little support, and cruises around if he has something to hold on to. He also got his fourth tooth while we were visiting.

Guess what!

My sister Kate passed the Florida Bar exam! We are so proud of her. She is also a new mommy. Pictured above is her new addition, Bosco. He's the one in the basket. Also pictured above is Macchi, Emily's son. It is great having two nephews.

Happy Easter!

We started the day off right with a nice family trip to Dunkin' Donuts. Hey, it's a holiday, after all. And now it's noon and Will is the only one of us dressed for the day.

Last night Matt and I went to the Kennedy Center to see the National Symphony Orchestra, which was Matt's birthday present to me. I have not been feeling well again, so we weren't sure if we were going to go, but we really didn't want to miss it and I was feeling better last night than I was in the morning, so we went and had a very nice time. I think what impressed me the most was seeing scenes that I recognized from The West Wing. I guess that doesn't say much about my depth of personality, but it's true. The music was also very nice, though I missed listening to most of the last several pieces because I was so distracted by watching the first three seats in the first violin section perform some bizarre instrument switch. I finally figured out that the principal violinist broke a string, so she switched instruments with her standmate, who then switched again with the third seat, in the row behind them. He restrung the violin while the first two continued to play. Then they did another elaborate series of very quick switches to get everyone their own instruments back. This was all fascinating to me, for some reason, and then the concert was over. Also, it is exceedingly easy to get to the Kennedy Center by metro. There is a nice red shuttle that runs from Foggy Bottom to the Kennedy Center every fifteen minutes, and it so happened to be there just as we exited the metro station, so we didn't have to wait at all. And it dropped us off right in front of the theater and picked us up there again after the concert was over. I was impressed by how convenient it was.

Will is feeling much better today than he was yesterday. His eyes look great, though he has to continue with the eye drops for another week or so. He slept until 7:30 this morning and then played in his crib until close to 8, when Matt couldn't take listening to his talking anymore and went to get him up. Then we all sat in bed together and watched last week's House, which I taped on Tuesday.

And finally, congratulations to all of our good friends who are expecting babies this fall. I've been putting off mentioning these upcoming new additions until it was public knowledge, but now all the cats are out of the bags, so I think it's safe. So congratulations to Debbie and Eric, Jess and Robbie, and--I just found out this weekend from Jess--Courtney and Matt, all the way in Haifa.

One-Eyed Willito

Our poor little boy has a yucky, goopy eye. It's been getting worse all day, spewing forth eye booger after eye booger. We called the pediatrician, who recommended that we take him in tomorrow morning for a probable ear infection. So we will do that, and in the meantime we're using warm cotton balls to clean out and soothe his eye.

Cherry Blossom Festival

This afternoon was gorgeous, and luckily for us Matt's experiment wasn't going well, so he ditched work and we went to the Tidal Basin for what will probably be the last decent day of this year's Cherry Blossom Festival. At first when we got there I was disappointed because the blooms were clearly past their prime and a lot of them had already fallen off the trees. But the further we walked around the Tidal Basin, the prettier the trees were. Plus it was such a nice day to be outside enjoying the weather and the city.

In other news, you remember Willito The Wonder Sleeper, the baby who falls asleep at 8:00 on his own, sleeps until 5:00, eats, and then sleeps again until 7:00? Yeah, he seems to be gone. I know that it is common for six-month-old babies to change their sleep patterns and not usually for the better, but we've been spoiled for the past several months and we don't like these new developments. Tonight he was exhausted by 7:30 and fell asleep nursing. He woke up when I stood up to put him in his crib, but we stuck a pacifier in his mouth and he quieted right down and appeared to fall asleep. Matt left for judo and I started doing the dishes. And five minutes later Will was screaming in his room, up practically on his hands and knees wondering how we could be so cruel to expect that he might sleep. Mind you, the kid was really, really tired. He just didn't want to sleep. I returned him to his back, put the pacifier back in his mouth, and he started to laugh! He just wanted to talk and smile and play all of a sudden, even though he was also rubbing his droopy little eyes. This was cute for a minute and frustrating for an hour. I spent that hour rubbing his head and resting my hand on his chest until he'd fall asleep for a minute or so before remembering that sleeping is not playing. So he'd awake violently, flip onto his belly, and start crying hysterically. So I repeated the process. A lot. A couple of times I got as far as the door before he woke back up. I don't know what was different the last time, but I guess he got tired enough finally. A couple of nights ago he (and Matt and I) were up from 3:00 until 4:45 because he woke up and just didn't feel like sleeping anymore. I hope we can all settle back into a mutually acceptable sleep schedule soon! Each day with Will is better than the last, but the nights are getting worse.