A day of poking and prodding

Anderson is 4 months old today. And what better way to celebrate than to take him to his check up and let the doctor give him 3 shots. I'll show these two pictures first as it only gets better from here. These were taken about a minute after the shot series, two in his left thigh and one in the right. That is certainly a face we don't see very often. But if you notice, he did get a cool looking sticker. It all started here with the measurements by the nurse. He's gained a total of 8 pounds since birth and has grown 5 inches. "Hey, what are you getting out of that tray over there?" (after the first shot) "What in the @#!% was that!!" I must admit it was difficult to watch. In a split second, he went from his typical laugh and smile to screaming at the top of his lungs. But just like the shots at his 2 month appointment, he cried for about 10 seconds then was completely silent with just an occasional light whimper while his mommy was holding him.

Minutes later, he was back to normal. The doctor cleared him to begin trying solid food. So back at the hotel, here he is eating from a spoon for the first time. Rice cereal, everyone's favorite. Daphne provided direct supervision and was ready in case any of it dropped to the floor. But in this picture she decided to go straight for the source. Only a swift and timely move by Shelly prevented Daphne's tongue from lapping up Anderson's first bowl of cereal. Here's a short video.

After swallowing some and spitting some out, he was full. Here he is wiping his mouth after his first solid meal. We're all heading to Richmond tomorrow to visit our friends Jeanne and David and sons Ethan and Jeremy and will be back Saturday night. Enjoy your weekend!

Mike
Springfield, VA

Day trip to Baltimore

Saturday morning we all drove to Baltimore to visit the aquarium and the beautiful Baltimore Inner Harbor. Baltimore is about 40 miles north of DC by the way so a nice short little day trip.

Anderson was much more alert and interested in all the sights there than we thought he'd be. Here he is mesmerized by all the bubbles.

And these freaky looking fish skulls caught his attention.

We couldn't take the stroller inside the aquarium so we had to check it in exchange for this child carrier thingie (we have one but didn't take it). It worked out well but I made a horrible error late in the day. I complained to Shelly that my back was hurting after carrying 15 extra pounds on my stomach all day. Shelly looked at me with both hands on her hips (you know the look) and said, "Yeah, try carrying 30 pounds for several months fool!" Oops. So I bought her some ice cream and she was fine.

We ate lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. And since we didn't have the car seat and he needed a nap, we used our jackets and a blanket to make him a make-shift bed in the booth. He looked a little like a bum under a bridge but it worked.

The dolphin show was our first stop there.


Even though there was a thick glass between us, seeing a shark that close was a little frightening. Nice teeth though. He must use Crest with tartar control.


And I could swear this guy was looking right at me.

This is from the 27th floor of the Baltimore World Trade Center.


After a quick snack of oysters and shrimp at this seaside restaurant it was time to head back to the hotel.

This is the one where I said, "Okay, make a funny face". Anderson did the bug eye look while Shelly chose her patented head tilt.

Mike
Springfield, VA

Grandparents weekend in KC

A great time enjoyed by all in Kansas City last weekend! After saying a family goodbye to Daphne as we dropped her off at the kennel for the weekend we headed to the airport Friday afternoon. I'd say the airport experience with a baby went better than I thought, although we weren't expecting to take Anderson out of his baby seat and cram it and the stroller through the conveyer belt at the security point. But somehow it went through. The stroller that is, not the boy.

Here we are preparing for take off.

As luck would have it, Anderson enjoyed his first ever flight with U.S. Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas sitting next to us. Here he is in the background.

He was very nice and made little googly faces at Anderson on occasion. He looked a little tired from speaking on the Senate floor that day opposing the stimulus bill so I left him alone until late in the flight. Then we talked for a while and he introduced himself to Shelly and chatted about Kansas, the military, Anderson, his kids, etc. This is his last term as a Senator as he'll run for Governor of Kansas in 2010.

Anderson did very well on the flight. Pretty much just looked around and smiled at people around him and he slept a lot. Made it back without a problem last Friday night.

After getting our taxes done Saturday morning we met my parents for lunch and Shelly's parents had arrived at our house by the time we returned home.

Here he is with Grandma Deutscher.



And on Granny Essary's lap.

He was a big help for Granny Essary during our card game Saturday night.

Here he is with his Papa Essary.

Many people say he most resembles his Grandpa Deutscher.

All of us stayed at our house until Monday when all the grandparents left. We all had a great time and lots of fun! None of them could believe how much our little boy has grown since they last saw him over Christmas.

Shelly, Anderson, and I stayed another day and flew back to DC Tuesday night since I had school Wednesday morning. But we were able to meet some friends at Minsky's pizza in KC Monday evening. Joy and Kevin met us there as well as pictured below, Jackie Abell and Terry Elmore.


After meeting Shelly's friend Cari Beth (who found out yesterday she's having a little boy this summer!) for lunch on the Plaza we flew out of KC and landed back in DC late Tuesday night. After school on Wednesday, we met our good friend David Douglass at a nice Italian restaurant a couple of blocks from the White House. David was here this week from KC for a seminar.

Here we are after dinner. One of us had a bottle of Similac Sensitive and one of us ate Gamberoni ala Griglia and shrimp stuffed with crab meat in a pernod garlic sauce over capellini pasta.

After a busy week we all stayed at the hotel tonight. Anderson played with some of his new toys we brought back and Shelly and I played cards (she beat me bad as usual) and caught up on some television.

Heading to Baltimore's Inner Harbor Saturday morning to go to the Baltimore Aquarium. Maybe Shelly will see her favorite little sea otters!

Mike
Springfield, VA

The Walk of Shame

Here he is...on the way to the bath tub on Tuesday night. This picture reminds me of why I'm glad the internet wasn't around when I was a kid. I'm sure there will be a day when he's really embarrassed this picture was posted. But until then...

These were taken today at the National Mall and the Smithsonian Museum.


We went to Georgetown this past weekend. Shelly went to see "He's just not that into you" with Jayna while Anderson and I wandered around the area and the pier. Anyway, there's a very popular place there called Georgetown Cupcake. This is the line we waited in to get in there.

And this is what we went home with.

Shelly will tell you it was well worth the wait.

Last Friday night we went to a car show at the DC Convention Center. Thought it was interesting that Anderson's stroller was almost half the size of this Smart Car.

This is the car I chose (if I had an extra 300K lying around that is).

And this is the one Shelly liked. Pretty cool huh?

Goodnight. We're looking forward to being back in KC this weekend!

Mike
Springfield, VA

More photos and some random facts

1. He peed his pants in 3 different states this weekend (Virginia, DC, Maryland).
2. He usually goes to sleep around 10 and wakes up around 7AM for a 6 ounce bottle then back to sleep for a couple of more hours.
3. He's 15 weeks old today and weighs 15 pounds after weighing 6 lb, 10 oz. at birth.
4. This Friday he will make his first flight as we fly from DC back to KC to visit our families who are meeting us there.
5. He now giggles and laughs out loud.
6. His happiest times of day are right when he gets up, when he's in the bath tub, when he's getting his diaper changed, and anytime Shelly is holding him.
7. He was awake for the entire church service today and besides a case of the hiccups, was very quiet and just looked around at all the people.
8. He started rolling over a couple of weeks ago from his tummy to his back.


Mike
Springfield, VA