Andrew is doing a little gardening

My mom must have done some gardening while she was at our house last weekend with Andrew. Last night, Andrew was playing in the back yard while we were getting ready for dinner. When I walked over to ask him a question, I saw a flash of yellow and green flying through the air in the general vicinity of my zinnias and marigolds. Let's just say Andrew's form of gardening is not quite what my mom was probably doing this weekend. Every zinnia and marigold that was in one planter had been pulled up and moved to the other planter (which had poppies at one point - not sure if Andrew "gardened" those too!). When I asked him what he was doing, he replied: "Well, Mommy, I'm just doing a little gardening over here."

Here are the results of Andrew's

gardening - all the flowers in the planter on the right used to be in the now empty planter on the left. I'm thinking a career in landscaping is not a possibility at this point.

Daddy's new chair

When Colin's mom moved out of her house earlier this month, one of the things we "inherited" was a really, really nice Lazy Boy recliner. Currently, we have it upstairs in what used to be Andrew's nursery and has now become Colin's "man room". I can't bring myself to paint the room yet, because my sister painted the mural for Andrew. But it obviously needs it...pastel jungle theme does not really go with the manly look Colin wants for this room. But now that recliner is in the room, it's Andrew's new favorite place to hang out...

Two month countdown....

It's official - Jen, TAG and I have signed up to do another 5k October 27th. We're hoping that we can peer pressure Steph and Hav to sign up too. The race is 2 months away and I've been slacking on the running track...I was supposed to run a 10k in May and never really put my full effort into getting into good shape to run it. So, tomorrow starts the get back on track to run a 5k training. I'd like to beat the 31 minute time that Jen and I ran in December (the Reindeer Romp 5k) - talking the entire way!

My little tennis star

I signed Andrew up for tennis lessons which started last week. We had a rough start - Andrew would not let go of my leg at all. However, the second day was MUCH better - perhaps the new yellow tennis racket I bought him? Matter of fact, when we drove up to the tennis courts today, he jumped out of the car and ran up to the instructors - ready to play. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that he gets to hit a ball with a racquet....now if he would just stop swing it like a baseball bat!

Child Free weekend

This weekend we (Dan, Trace Ann, Colin, Jen, Brandon and I) had a child free weekend in New York. Colin and I have not done this since Andrew was really little - I think he was 18 months. We had such a blast.

We left at noon on Friday and Dan was sweet enough to drive up (and back) to New York in their CX-9. It has a DVD player which was Colin's saving grace on the way up. He sat in the back with the girls and after about an hour of girl talk (he told me later that he had no idea how much time women spent talking about their hair), he put the headphones on and watched "300"

Colin has never been to New York before, so the guys went to Ground Zero and looked at the Statue of Liberty from across the river before taking in a Mets/Dodgers game. The girls headed out for day of shopping. We had so much fun, we forgot to take many pictures (34 between the 3 of us!) which is huge since we are all major shutterbugs! Both night we ate a great restaurants - although I think Butter was our favorite by far. Overall, it was a great trip - I was relaxed and ready to go back to work...at least until I opened my inbox and there were 200+ e-mail waiting for me!

Meanwhile, Andrew had a busy weekend with Grandma and Grandpa - they all looked exhausted when we got home Sunday. Andrew had taken no nap all weekend and stayed awake until 10 pm each night...think they were all glad to see us.

Andrew's new best friend

When I picked Andrew up from school yesterday, he informed me that he has a new "best" friend. This is a bit surprising since Andrew's best buddy for as long as can probably remember is Matthew. Those two have been together since they were 8 weeks old. They are the cutest pair because Andrew is the gentle giant and Matthew is about 4 inches shorter but will take on anyone and everyone who challenges him.

So, who might Andrew's new best friend be?

Olivia! (pronounced by Andrew as Olibia). I guess I should have seen something like that coming. When I drop him off at school in the morning, his backpack MUST be next to Olivia's. Hmm, is this a preview of things to come???

Wiki Tiki

Andrew LOVES Scooby Doo - particularly the newer Scooby Doos that were done in the 1990's. We must have 10 DVDs of the new Scooby Doos in our house and we have seen them all at least 5 times each! Andrew's current favorite is "Aloha Scooby-Doo" which has the special guest voice talents of Mario Lopez and Adam West - corny, right?

Here's the synopsis on the back of the box:

Shaggy, Scooby -Doo and the Mystery, Inc. gang hit the bodacious beaches of Hawaii for the Big Kahun of Hanahun Surfing contest - only to discover that there's a terribly real monster about to show all the true meaning of wipeout.

The name of the "terribly real monster" is Wiki Tiki and Andrew thinks it's hysterical to run around the house acting like the monster, who runs around saying "wiki tiki, wiki tiki" with a tee shirt on his head (the Wiki Tiki has crazy hair).

Yesterday, I caught Andrew in his Wiki Tiki character

See a trend?

I came home Monday night to discover this -

Andrew has another head wound....although this one did not bleed as much or leave a goose egg. According to Colin, Andrew was turning on the sprinkler and bumped into a branch from our shrubs that left a big long scratch on his right cheek. Nice, huh?

Thank goodness for friends

Last week, Colin had to travel to Plano, Texas on business. This was payback in a way since I went to Texas for three days in April. He left first thing Tuesday morning and was not due back until Friday evening - my assumption was late Friday night because the flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Dulles is ALWAYS late. So, I was presented with the challenge of being a single parent for 4 days...definitely a bit daunting. I have always had a great respect for single parents - and after his trip last week, I completely appreciate Colin's willingness to step in and help with Andrew in our evening routines.
Fortunately, I have some really great girlfriends. Tuesday night, we had to go over to Nana's house and make sure that the items that we wanted to be moved on Friday were marked appropriately. While Oz and I made sure everything was ready to go, Nana entertained Andrew and made us dinner. Then Andrew must have rode his bicycle up and down their driveway 20 times. He was exhausted by the time we left for home.
Wednesday night, Andrew and I met up with my friend Havalynn and her son Samuel. Samuel showed off his jumping skills - jumping into the pool to Havalynn at least twenty times. Andrew was not as adventurous, but loved climbing the snake and whale floats that are anchored in the pool.
Thursday night I had planned to take Andrew to see Ratatouille, but we ended up going to dinner with Dan, Trace Ann and Olivia. Olivia and Andrew had so much fun throwing coins into the fountain in the restaurant. And when we stopped giving them coins, they started throwing other things into the fountain - specifically the dough they had gotten from one of the guys who worked at the restaurant. What a mess! Dan was nice enough to pick it all out of the fountain as we were leaving.
By the time we hit Friday, Andrew and I were perfectly happy to pick up a pizza (so Colin would have dinner when he finally came home) and watch a movie. Thank goodness Colin's flight was not cancelled...I was exhausted!

Nana and Oz are moving

Last week, my mother-in-law called to inform us that they had a buyer for their house in Oakton - they are downsizing to a condo in Gainesville. They have a split foyer home built in the 1980's that sits off a pipestem and backs to parkland. It's been completely remodeled on the inside, but I still think it takes just the right kind of buyer to want an older house like that. And in the current real estate market where there are a TON of houses on the market, I feel like this is nothing short of a small miracle.
The buyer wants to go to closing on August 17th (next Friday) which means there is a flurry of activity to pack up the house and handle all the items on the buyer punch out list in the next week and half. And since they are downsizing, they have to get rid of some of the things in their house.
Tuesday night, Andrew and I headed over for dinner and to mark the items we want to be moved into our house. When we pulled up to my inlaws house, I noticed that there was a backhoe in the front yard. The house has a septic field which has to be inspected and emptied before the house can be released to the new buyer and Fairfax County had been over on Tuesday digging up the grass and such to inspect. Andrew apparently noticed the backhoe too, because from the back seat came: "Nana is SO cool - she has a BULLDOZER!"

My latest accomplishment

Since last September, I've been taking pole dancing classes at Diva Fit in Ashburn

http://www.divafitonline.com/

When I first started taking the class, I thought it would just be a way to have some girl time - Jen and TAG took the first session and TAG and I have continued on- and get an extra light workout in during the week. Boy, was I wrong. It is a totally great workout. I have a completely new appreciation for the arm/core strength required to complete those spins around that little metal pole and the calf strength to do an entire workout in "stripper" heels. I know that if I miss my run on Monday, I will totally get a workout in Monday night at class.

In Level I and Level II, all the spins that we learned kept us vertical to the pole (and right side up). In our last session (Level III) , we learned a spin called the corkscrew which threw the vertical position spins out the window. Basically the corkscrew is a spin where you spin around the pole horizontally in a crunch position. That was tough - I got the hang of it on one side, but I am still totally struggling going the other direction (my right arm is WAY stronger than my left!)

Two weeks ago we started Level IV session. In the first class, the instructor demos all the spins that you will learn in your session. Lisa, our instructor, started showing us all the spins - the sundial - spinning around the pole vertically with your feet out behind you (toes touching and knees out); the flying body spiral - hold on to the pole with one hand while throwing your body out in front of the pole, then at the last possible second, arch your back, grab the pole with your second hand (which is behind your boday at this point) and swing around the pole vertically and backwards until your knees hit the floor; and the most daunting- going inverted on the pole. This means you have to pull your legs up onto the pole, wrap them around the pole and hang upside down with your legs holding you up on the pole. Then slide down the pole to the ground.

The first 2 sessions we learned the sundial and the flying body spiral. Last night was our first night to go inverted. I was completely perplexed in how I was going to get my big butt over my head and my legs wrapped around the pole and make it look a little diva-ish. Well. I'm happy to report that I managed to get myself inverted on the pole. I don't know how diva-ish it looked, but I got there. Major accomplishment! I'll work on looking good later!

It's not a party until someone gets hurt

All last week I was looking forward to Friday night. Four of my girlfriends and I had planned a night of girl time at TAG's house - complete with working on scrapbooking projects, wine, snacks and girl talk. Now, while we were all at TAG's house, three of the dad's were at my house for a little playgroup of sorts. The deal was that the guys were going to play cards on the porch while the kids watched movies and played in the family room - ha, ha - plans are made to be screwed up!

About an hour and a half into my girl's night, we get a phone call. Apparently, while showing off for Olivia and Alexa, Andrew has fallen off the couch and hit his head on the coffee table - and he's bleeding badly. The boys are divided on whether to take him to the ER but by some small miracle, they get the bleeding stopped and distract Andrew (and the girls) with an ice cream sundae. So, we spared Andrew a trip to the ER (poor little guy spent so many hours there as a baby with his earaches) - he just has a big ugly scrape on his head (and a goose egg) and a new appreciation of "no jumping on the couch"

Thanks Dan and Bran for helping Colin with the injured child and cleanup.