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Happy 20 months, Benjamin! Wednesday, April 30, 2008   Today marks 20 months for Benjamin. He spent it gated in one of the guest bedrooms at the new house while I painted the rooms next to it. He was amazingly good. He played with his little people, created a FINE mural on the wall with his crayons, spent some quality time with his girlfriend Dora, and ate a few crayons. And a happy meal. Things are coming along beautifully at the new house. I felt rejuvenated after taking yesterday off, and was able to paint two bedrooms, the laundry room, and start priming the kitchen this afternoon. My mom and Ron came down to MD late on Friday night, and we spent the next 3 days working on the house. Andrew and I are (were?) kind of dumb about getting started on the massive list of home improvements, so they REALLY helped us get on track. Some of the things that they did include painting the master bedroom, painting 101 for me, sanding the cupboards, changing the locks (there were a lot of them!), pulling out all of the grody appliances, and a fair amount of yard work, including unclogging the gutters. We can not even BEGIN to show our appreciation for how much they did for us. Seriously, it was the jump-start we needed. So, who is coming down next? Kidding. Kind of. I still need to meet with the contractor, the ADT security people, the internet/phone/cable people, etc. Thank you, too, to the person who mowed our lawn last night. It was a nice surprise to have it done when I got there this morning. I hope you don't plan to send a bill. ~Courtney posted at 8:39:16 PM Busy Friday, April 25, 2008 We're swamped. And tired. And barely started. After some drama linked to the intense rain storms last weekend,we were finally able to settle on the house this morning. We started working on the house IMMEDIATELY, and made some great progress while our dream-baby took a 3.5 hour nap in his new bedroom. We have a TON to get done before the packers and movers come on May 6th, but are excited to be able to do it! ~Courtney posted at 8:30:52 PM Funniest Picture EVER. Sunday, April 20, 2008 Benjamin and I met up at the aquarium with some friends earlier in the week last week, and Rebecca was able to take some pictures of the morning out. This is, in my very humble opinion, the funniest picture ever.  The rest of the pictures are available here:
Enjoy! Also, if you're in the area and up for aquarium fun, we're hoping to go a few more times before the move and it's much less convenient to get there. ~Courtney posted at 9:25:51 AM Our last weekend of nothing for a LONG time Saturday, April 19, 2008 We have a busy few weeks ahead of us, so we were psyched that this weekend involved very little. The week went by pretty quickly. Andrew is swamped with work. Benjamin and I made a trip to the new house to take some measurements. And a stop at Ikea, which is always fun. Or not, with a toddler who wants to run around. One of my favorite people in the world came for a visit on Thursday/Friday. She brought her fantastic daughter Emma with her, who is five months old, absolutely stunning, and the most peaceful baby I have EVER met. We were SO glad to finally meet Emma! Benjamin wasn't so sure about her, but seemed to warm up to her when he realized that Anna was packing up their belongings to head on out. We tried desperately to get some pictures of the kiddos together, but Benjamin wasn't really having it!
The weather has been HOT the past few days, and of course, the pool isn't open yet, so we've been doing the bulk of our outside play in the early hours of the day. Today, I got the idea to run out to Target (and then horrid Wal-Mart, and finally, Toys R Us) to get Benjamin a water play table. I had been planning on getting him some outside toys for the new house, but was waiting until we'd moved. But, I am SO glad we didn't wait for this one. He spent over an hour splashing around, losing articles of (drenched) clothing as he played.
As a bonus, I don't think we need to take our cars to the car wash tomorrow...they are parked under the deck and seemed to get rinsed off quite nicely. On the short list of things to be thankful for, our next door neighbor arrived home from his 5 month deployment to Iraq early this morning. He and his wife were headed out in (one of) his corvette for a night on the (suburban) town. I am also thankful for the relocation package surprise we got from Andrew's work this week. Um, Woot!! That's about it from here. Tonight is a stay-at-home-date-night. Benjamin just went to bed, and Andrew is grilling some burgers and sweet corn, and baking some sweet potato fries. The Corona Lights are chilling, and we're about to pick a movie OnDemand. FUN. Enjoy the rest of your weekend! ~Courtney posted at 8:25:00 PM Caught in the act...again. Tuesday, April 15, 2008 Benjamin decided that he wanted an appa for breakfast again today. Andrew snapped these pics before I came downstairs for the day. Different stripy pajamas, same wild antics. He really is part monkey.
~Courtney posted at 2:05:13 PM Time outs and pancakes Tuesday, April 15, 2008 Benjamin woke up on the wrong side of the crib this morning, apparently. He was being HORRIFICALLY whiny this morning, and as I am making him whole grain blueberry pancakes (not the kind from the freezer-to-microwave, mind you...actually MAKING) he starts to hit and pinch me. Um, who are you? And what have you done with NICE Benjamin? The whining continued, so I pulled a chair into the living room and told him he had a 60-second time out. In 60 seconds he yelled at me, told me no, laughed at the thought of a kitchen chair in the living room, and started yelling for his father. I am sure it didn't ACTUALLY work, but he's been pretty sweet since then. So, I'll take it. Oh, and he out-eats Andrew at breakfast now. Lately, he's been a THREE waffle or pancake kind of guy, but today he added in an apple, too. We're off to the aquarium in a couple of hours. I hope that he continues to be sweet, because a morning out-and-about with that other kid who was in my kitchen this morning sounds like a REALLY bad time. But, I think staying at home with him sounds even worse! ~Courtney posted at 7:39:49 AM Benjamin likes the table, too Monday, April 14, 2008 He was yelling "Appa, appa," and of course I forgot that we'd bought apples yesterday. And that I'd put them in the center of the new table. In a matter of seconds, he'd used his car (which then rolled out of his reach to get down) to get up onto the table. This boy is trouble. Here is what I found: 
~Courtney posted at 8:39:48 AM New Table Sunday, April 13, 2008 An old friend posted about a local-to-us warehouse sale for Restoration Hardware. It takes place for 2 days each month (2nd Fri/Sat of each month), and lots of things are deeply, deeply discounted. Once Katie posted about her $200 table, I got VERY anxious for the April sale. We picked up Andrew at the airport on Friday afternoon, and headed straight there. I was excited to find the table I wanted for only $199 (plus $170 delivery). Here it is!  Now I need to find 6 chairs that we both love... ~Courtney posted at 7:32:51 PM Some random photos Sunday, April 13, 2008 I've been awfully wordy this week. Since Benjamin is currently obsessed with the built-in camera on my computer, here are a couple of shots he took this morning. He has perfected saying "cheese," although, his timing is a tad off.  This one reminds me a bit of those celebrity mugshots Not his finest picture, but funny.  Here is a sweet one from a couple of weeks ago. He had boycotted his normal nap, but crashed at about 3 PM. Of course it happened on the first nice day in weeks, and Andrew surprised us by coming home early to go out on a bike ride. He is NOT the kid who falls asleep in his high chair, stroller (twice in 19 months), exersaucer, etc.  And finally, here is one of the pictures that B and I sent to Andrew last week. We'd take a couple of pictures each morning, and email them to be in his inbox when he woke up. I am super-corndog, but he loved it!  ~Courtney posted at 11:54:00 AM I'm Mad Saturday, April 12, 2008 Benjamin's latest thing to say is "I'm mad." It's usually involving diaper changes, heading to bed, turning off Dora the Explorer, or a recommendation to finish his vegetables. I giggle every time he says it. Which just makes him more mad! ~Courtney posted at 11:22:33 AM Uh-oh! Friday, April 11, 2008 This story was worthy of it's own post. Benjamin is borderline obsessed with airplanes lately. NO surprise, since he's spent a decent chunk of his life on one, but anyhow, last Saturday night, on our way to Baltimore, we were driving on the road that is perpendicular to the BWI runway. A HUGE FedEx plane was coming in for a landing, and was RIGHT over our car. Benjamin looks out the back window, notices it coming (it wasn't more than 20 feet above us...) and yells "Uh-OH." Andrew and I basically cried, we were laughing so hard. It was, hands down, the funniest thing he's said in awhile! ~Courtney posted at 9:00:11 AM Lots of fun Friday, April 11, 2008 So, I've been a posting-slacker lately. We've had a ton going on here, and honestly, I've just not been in the mood to talk about it. Actually, I have TOTALLY been in the mood to talk about it, but for the sake of not sounding like a whiny jerk, I have refrained. Well, except the few of you I've emailed. Anyhow, we've been quite busy. So, that's my excuse. Andrew has been swamped with work lately. It made me remember the late nights and last minute software testing that has to happen before a big (or little) tradeshow. It was nice to know that our company is FAR from the only one rushing to get things done. Benjamin and I have wrapped up the bulk of our activities here in Maryland. We'll sign up for new Germboree-type classes, and probably some swimming lessons as soon as we get settled. Benjamin and I spent Sunday-last night in Florida. We had a BLAST. I got some good work done with FL, he did fantastically with the nanny for the two days that I was in the office, and we had such a nice time with our fantastic friends. Last Saturday, Rebecca, one of the funniest people I know, was in town visiting Holly. A, B & I headed up to Baltimore after I got all gussied up. Holly, Rebecca, and I headed out for a fantastic and full-of-laughs dinner. As always, it resulted in a couple of memorable and funny lines that will likely be used at the next get together. Andrew was traveling this week, too. He was in CO for the Space Symposium. He didn't get to COS in time to see his mom, but I think he got to spend some time with his dad. I only got to talk to him once or twice during the week because he was MUCH busier than he had intended. We have some errands to run today, and I am on a thing-purging spree to prep for moving. Other than that, our weekend consists of a whole lot of nothing! ~Courtney posted at 8:53:37 AM Vote for Fran. Wednesday, April 09, 2008 Okay, if I have any readers left after the hiatus I've taken... I have a good friend, and her company's website is up for a Webby Award. If you don't know what it is, well, it's a BIG deal. Anyhow, it's a copy/paste from an email, but if you have a minute, and want to vote, I encourage you to do so! I apologize for the form letter, and I hope this email finds you well! I have some exciting news on the work front, which is that my company's consumer health website, VisualDxHealth.com, was just named as a nominee in the 12th annual Webby Awards for Best Health Website of 2008! For those of you not familiar with the Webby Awards, the New York Times called them the "Oscars of the Internet," so it is a great honor to even be nominated. This nomination is near and dear to me because I have put a ton of my time and effort into helping build this site, sometimes even in my free time. We are up against some tough competition, such as WebMd and Healthline, so we are a bit of an underdog, but I truly believe we deserve to win. I have seen the other sites, and I honestly feel like ours is the best. I may be a wee bit biased, but please see for yourself (http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=12#webby_entry_health). The exciting news is that we have two chances to win: there is a panel of judges that vote in each category, and there is also a web-based popular vote. This is where you come in: I would be forever grateful if you'd take a couple minutes to go vote for our site. I can't tell you how much it would mean to me. Here's the scoop: 1. Go to http://pv.webbyawards.com/. 2. Under Sign Up Now, click Register Now To Vote. 3. Fill in the requested info and get your access code. 4. Back on the Webby People's Voice pages, click Website. 5. Scroll down to Living and click Health. 6. Vote for VisualDxHealth. Okay...end of cut and paste...be sure to vote! ~Courtney posted at 10:57:05 PM And some more good... Tuesday, April 01, 2008 At least Andrew will agree this is good. I had some errands to run today, including the exchange of a pair of shorts that I had gotten at the Gap Outlet a couple of weeks ago (for a different size). They didn't have the same color, but they had them in another color. And on sale. And then marked down an additional 40%. A bunch of stuff was marked down, in fact. I left the store with the same shorts, four tank tops, and $1.80 in my pocket. Seriously. Everything was about $3. Rarely can I call my shopping excursions an investment, but those accidentally-purchased-too-small shorts would qualify for one! In other news, I love 77 and sunny. It's my favorite. Benjamin and I had a nice afternoon playing outside, because the sun FINALLY came out and dried up the rain from the past two days. Oh, and freeze dried apples are FANTASTIC. That's all. ~Courtney posted at 8:53:49 PM |
