Kai Loves Me!

He slept last night from 8:45pm until 4:02am!

Technical issues

OK, something has happened recently where I am unable to switch pictures that I've put on the blog. I obviously put the wrong pic on the last entry and I can't fix it. Here's the correct one.

Board Games, Prank Calls and Pix

Two days ago, the girls and I were playing Chutes and Ladders in the basement. It was the first time we've played in several months. A few minutes after we finished, Audrey wanted to play school and she was the teacher. She told the class (Avery and I) to sit down and told us we were going to play "Shoot the ladder."

Separately, the girls know our phone numbers and Avery LOVES to practice calling. Last night, I looked at my phone and saw that I had a missed call from someone with a phone number that was one digit different than mine. When I listened to my voicemail, there was a nice woman saying, "I received a call from a very little person from this phone this morning. Just wanted to let you know that she had your phone. She was very friendly, though." Hilarious. I can just imagine Avery talking to a complete stranger, very possibly in Spanish, asking how they're doing and what they're doing.

Yesterday, we went to the Children's Museum in Baltimore. It was a great museum and if you're ever in the area with kids, I highly recommend a trip there!

Kai is 5 weeks old today, so I'll take some pictures of him later (if I thought there were no pictures of me as a second child, Kai will find that there are even fewer pictures of a 3rd child). =) He was 10 lb, 4 oz last Monday at his 4-week (minus 1 day) checkup, and he is such an easy and happy baby. We love these children so much.

Here are a few pix from the past week, including the girls with their Big Sister and Kai with his Little Brother shirt, Avery too cool for school at breakfast, and a fun, quick visit with our friends Al & Joyce from San Diego who were in town over the weekend.

White House 4th of July

The White House hosted a party today on the South Lawn for military families. Iain put his name in the hat to go, and he was selected, so we decided to brave it with 3 kids in the crazy heat. Besides an insane walk from the Pentagon parking lot to catch the Metro (but mad props to Audrey who did about zero complaining about how hot and far it was), we had a great time. The girls got balloon "animals" (Audrey got Cinderella and Avery got Ariel ... these were no amateur balloon creators), we had a dinner, heard President Obama speak, saw him pretty closely in a rope line, and ended the day with ice-cream. We left before the fireworks (I think we're the only ones in the greater DC area that didn't stay ... the number of people downtown and parked along the freeways was unbelievable), but got the kids into bed by 9pm, which is better for my day tomorrow. Kai got lots of praise from random passers-by, and the girls had a great time. The two memorable quotes from the evening:

[As we're eating our ice-cream and about to leave]
Avery: Are we going inside now?
Me: Into the White House?
Avery: Yes. Are we going inside for the party now?
Me: No, this is an outside party.
Avery: But where's the cake?

[As we're walking out the gates]
Audrey: Obama sure does have a big backyard.
Me: You're right. He sure does.
Audrey: It's not a NORMAL size backyard for Arlington.
Me: [Silently CRACKING UP] You are right, Audrey. This is definitely not a normal size backyard for ANYwhere.

Funny Avery

Yesterday was Audrey's turn. Today it's Avery's. This morning we were at the playground and Avery was telling herself when it was time to slide. But she mixed up "On your mark, get set, go" and "Ready, set, go" and instead said, "On your ready, get marked, GO!" So cute!

Also, here's a daily dose of Kai cuteness.

Funny Audrey

Iain and I walked with the kids this week to the library. On our way home, the girls were eating peanuts and Avery dropped some of hers. I picked them up and told her that we could feed the squirrels with them. After a few minutes, we saw a bird and I tried to throw one of the peanuts to him (in my defense, I was holding Avery in my right hand and had a handful of peanuts in my left, so I could only throw with my left finger and thumb while trying to keep the rest of the peanuts from falling). Anyway, I didn't come anywhere close to the bird. Audrey said, "Mommy, maybe next time we could throw it NEXT to the bird so that he can see it." Good idea! =)

Here are a couple of pix of Kai from this morning. At his 2-week check-up on Tuesday, he weighed 8 lb, 11 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.

Weird

A pic of Avery in her end-of-year preschool program ended up on the last post in place of the pic of her feeding Kai. I cannot figure out how to delete that one and replace it with this one, so enjoy the extra pic below (she's the little blonde one closest to the camera).