You Know What They Say 'An Oreo a Day...' (or 2 or 10)

Cherry recently bought a pack of Double Stuff Oreos when craving and a prominent sale display created the perfect storm. For better or worse (depending on the mouth or waist's prospective) they are disappearing quickly.

Xavier may have also discovered a new love.

Room With A View

The family has joined me on a business trip to Colorado. After a week in the hotel with no playground nearby, Xavier proved quite adept at creating his own jungle gym.

Thank goodness there was a pool! Playing in water is always a blast.

Our room looks out over the light rail station. Xavier loves watching trains and exclaims "Choo-choo!" every time they pass. I love this kid!

July Retrospective: Independence Day, Washington-Style

We haven't written in a while, but it's not because we're not having fun! And seeing as we can't let ourselves get bested by CarrieAnn, let alone the Turners, who recently sent out what was essentially a year's worth of blog posts in a PDF (Lys, can you convince them to blog too?), it's time for some updates.

We celebrated July 4th DC-style. No, not with the big parade downtown, but rather DC's own hometown procession: the Palisades Parade.

Cherry wasn't feeling up to snuff that morning, so Xavier and I biked the four miles down to join our fellow denizens of Washington in celebration of our nation's independence. I sported my DC jersey while Xavier stayed cool in the outfit I got him in Tanzania.



Of course, July 4th is kind of a bittersweet holiday for Washingtonians because despite all the colonial indignation over "Taxation Without Representation" that's exactly what 600,000 of us are still stuck with more than 200 years later. For all the talk from certain political circles about the Founding Fathers and how we need to live up to and defend the principles of Constitution, one would think that perhaps these same people would take notice of and advocate correcting this blatant injustice.

But of course, these appeals to "American principles" are more self-serving than sincere, so the second-class citizens of DC (not to mention bemused foreign dictators) are left to point out this hypocrisy as best we can. Our own parade may not be the most effective venue, but it wouldn't be complete without the DC Vote folks, who had some great stickers. For those of you lucky enough to have Congressional Representation, please ask them to Let Washington Vote!

The essence of America is, it could be said, it's ability to invite and unite all peoples under a common banner. And let's be honest, without such a diverse and international flair we'd be a much more boring place. And without the three Bolivian dance troops who braved the heat in outstanding costumes and brought great music, the Palisades Parade would have been much less entertaining.

Same goes for the Different Drummers, DC's GLBT marching band.

I held Xavier during much of the parade to improve his view, but he got down and danced as the last Bolivians passed. This also led to our joining the parade shortly thereafter as a group promoting a basketball camp passed by, throwing out mini basketballs. Xavier got one and promptly took off down the street after their truck, which had a full-sized hoop in the back. (Have I mentioned that this kid loves basketball, as well as playing with balls of all types?) It was too cute, but alas, getting a photo was impossible as I caught up with him and we walked about two blocks down the road with the convoy.

The image of Washington is often a very staid one, but this belies the quirkiness that lies beneath all the seriousness. Exhibit A: the Patriotic Pirates, who regaled us with costumes and bad jokes on their signs...

...such as, "What do you get when you cross a zucchini and a pirate?"

(Sorry, I don't remember why the pirate crossed the road.)

Notwithstanding, it can't be denied that politics is infused in our psyche, and several groups demonstrated over various local issues, such as a university's expansion plans, gambling and potential health risks from buried WWI & II munitions under certain neighborhoods. But the largest group by far was composed of proponents of natural childbirth.

While we are clearly in their camp, I learned from them that midwives are practicing at a number of area hospitals as well the local birth centers. They also provided one of the more memorable moments of the parade as one of the marchers called out, "Do it vaginally, ladies!" This already awkward public statement was made even better given that she was looking at the small group of women standing next to us at the time, who were all easily in their mid-50's (and rather amused, to say the least).

After the last truck passed, carrying a band sponsored by the ACLU, Xavier and I cooled off with a sweet treat before heading home. (Can I help it that my bike happened to be parked right next to the ice cream man?)

Later that afternoon we went up to visit Xavier's other "Aunt Emily" and properly beat the heat in the swimming pool. Xavier, of course, had a blast.

Alas, our plans to head downtown and watch fireworks from the prime spot on my work's roof (which is just across from the Washington Monument) were foiled due to leaving the pool late and needing to stop for dinner. Nonetheless, picnicking and playing at a park nearby while fireworks echoed in the background sealed an enjoyable end to a day well-spent with family, friends, community and remembrance.

Another Reason to Celebrate!

I am a big believer in celebrating. Spencer and I bust out the bubbly and celebrate whenever we have an excuse. It isn't that we want to celebrate mediocrity, but rather life's successes, achievements and changes. It is good to recognize these things in our lives and celebrate! We hope you celebrate your lives similarly. ...and to your celebrations we thought we would add one more reason to celebrate:


We're having twin girls!!! ...no. we are not. But I am 11 weeks along with our second baby! We have had two appointments thus far. One at 7 weeks for a sonogram which showed a healthy little embryo with a beautifully strong heartbeat, and the second with the doctor at 9 weeks where we again heard a solid heartbeat! We feel very blessed! Good things will be coming our way this Valentine's!

Boston!

In early May we took a trip to Boston for a friend's wedding. It was definitely spring out and it was beautiful! Here are a few pictures from the Boston Public Garden.

Xavier and I out in the tulips (with the towering city back drop).

Xavier loves his sticks! ...oy! Poor birds.

I'm gonna get you pigeons! Xavier loves to chase the pigeons!

"Weeeee" exclaims Xavier as he plays on the mama duck of the "Make Way for Ducklings" statue.

A beautiful Swan and a gorgeous bridge in the Public Garden.

Spencer and Xavier loving each other on the Boston Common. --My favorite people in the world!

Scouting around the city we came across a couple of old old grave yards. This one houses the remains of Benjamin Franklin's parents and Paul Revere (just to name a few of the early patriots...). Amazing!

Life is Better with the Internet

Yes, this goes without saying, but there have been a few salient examples over the last two days.

On the way to New York, Cherry somehow got on a different route and ended up on I-95 through the middle of Philadelphia instead of bypassing it on the New Jersey Turnpike. In heavy traffic and without passenger big enough to read the map (we're training him, don't worry, Dad!) she made a quick call to me at work, who with the help of Google Maps was able to get her the most direct route back. I could follow her every step of the way, check out rest areas in advance, nearest banks, etc. I could pull up Street View to see the strange intersection where a wrong turn inadvertently turned her in a circle.

If remote navigation is awesome, then financial management may be even better. So you say a situation at Costco (too asinine to describe here) required use of the debit card, but we don't keep a large pad in the checking account? No problem, I can log in and instantly transfer funds from savings while you're on the phone so that your card won't get declined. Oh, and since everything is tracked using Mint, those transactions will all automatically be categorized and show up in a combined view with all our disparate accounts in one place. Though we're 300 miles apart right now, each of us can see in real-time what the other is spending and where our financial position stands. Budgeting, analysis and asset management all made fast and simple.

In my high school US History class I remember learning about the remarkable advances that were enabled when communication was separated from transportation (i.e. with a telegraph, no one had to physically carry the message from point A to point B). Separating transportation from action (i.e. now I don't have to physically go anywhere to see what's happening or to make something happen) is another remarkable development, for which I am certainly grateful. Yet this doesn't mean we don't go places - in fact it enables us to go even more places - but just the ones we want to.

Off to New York

Cherry and Xavier are working their way to New York City right now to spend a few days exploring the Big Apple, seeing old friends and leaving me with fewer excuses for not making more headway on my major papers. I'll miss them, but I suppose it's good.

Xavier's at a stage where he really wants to spend more time with me and notices how much I'm gone, and after two years of school I'm at the stage where I'm finding it harder to be away.

One more month, one more final push and we'll be through.

On a related note, after several months without movement, Xavier's visited state count just jumped with Delaware, New Jersey & New York. With a friend's upcoming wedding in two & a half weeks we'll add in some of New England as well.

Xavier's not the only one getting around though: On my way to work today the odometer on my bike clicked past 2,000 miles! That's equivalent to about four round-trips DC to NYC, or peddling from DC to Salt Lake City. Not bad for a year's worth of going back and forth to work, school, play & home again.