Nice Day for a Bike Ride

My folks came by for a nice visit today with my grandfather. The highlight of the day was Nathan's new (almost new) bicycle. It was one of those Grandma Can't Pass Up Deals.


The bike is a 16" Rock It, by Huffy. I would have to admit, when I first saw it, I thought it might be a little too big in that Nathan would not be able to reach the pedals. But after adjusting the seat to the lowest position, and adjusting the handle bars, it seemed to work out quite fine. More importantly, I did not want to frighten Nathan with it. I assumed he would get on it, have an impossible time pedaling it, and would just ride his tricycle. The opposite happened. He could actually reach the pedals. It is a little streach for his legs at the 6 o'clock position, but he can do it. More importantly he loved it. He was not scared at all, and after about 15 minutes, he could actually get started and pedaling himselt. He also did a suprising decent job of stearing it while pedaling. My hopes were simply that he would want to ride it a little, at the least and go back to the trike. He really loved riding it (did I mentioned he loved it yet?). He rode it for over an hour. We really had to convince him to get down and go to dinner.



After a nice meal at the Olive Garden, where Nathan actually behaved fairly well, on the trip back home, Nathan actually asked to go home and ride his bike. He usually does not want to go home from school or anywhere. He usually likes to be out and about. When we got back from dinner he rode the bike another 20 minutes or so, then we said goodbye to my parents and grandfather.

It was a nice visit on a beautiful warm spring day.

I bid you goodnight.

Congratulations Taylor!

You are the American Idol!

Nathan said one funny thing today. Amy was talking to her sister on the phone. Nathan at the sametime on his knees, kneeling beside ottoman with his elbow on it and hands to face. We noticed that he gave his patened "Joker" grin, which meant he was pooping. Amy asked Nathan to talk to Aunt Julie. Nathan looked at Amy and said, "No, I am busy."

I bid you good night.

2 Votes In

I got 2 in for Taylor last night.

More importantly, Chris and Live just blew the crowd away on the American Idol Finale. Whatever Chris is selling after the American Idol tour, I am buying. Any rockin band could really use him as the lead singer!

Go Taylor!

I bid you goodnight.

Go Taylor!

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Wine in the Woods

Yesterday, we took our annual visit to Wine in the Woods. It is located in Columbia, Maryland at Merriwether Post-Pavillion/Symphony Woods. The best thing about it, is its in the woods. You feel like your in rural PA, or Western MD, but you're actually right accross the street from the Columbia Mall. This wine festival is great. There are over a dozen Vineyards there with there wines. I have a friend from work that hooks us up with tickets. She has been kind to do this since the tickets are about $20 a piece. It is sponsored and put on by Howard County Recreation and Parks I think we would pay regardless, we like it so much.

This year we went with John and Murano. We weren't even sure if we were going to go, because we did not have a babysitter for Nathan. This year we went late, like 4pm. The time of the festival is 4-6. We stayed about an hour and a half. Nathan was actually pretty good. Amy was the designated driver. If this would have been the typical year, we would had someone watch Nathan, and planned it better. Most likely we would have talked to our budds in another office to see when they are going. If they go, they can sneak us into the VIP tent. The VIP tent is for executives, politians, and corporate sponsors of the event. It mean, they will pour you glasses of wine, and we could enjoy a wide variety of cheeses, crackers and other muchables.

We still had a good time, but next year, we may plan for the VIP thing. They also actually had some good entertainment there as well. Good singers on stage. After the festivities we went to Fudruckers and had a burger at the request of Murano.

Sorry, not pictures from this. I usually get crunk, and would not trust taking a camera with such tempting wine.

Today, we did not do much, but we did take Nathan to a new playground. Infact, it is so new, it has not officially opened yet. I would have to say, it is the biggest playground I have ever seen. I thought the new playground at Centennial was great, this one actually blows it out of the water. Nathan had a fun time running around and going on the dozen or so slides. He also enjoyed climbing around. Afterwards we got pizza at Unos.

Ok, Nathan did say one distrubing thing today. At the dinner table he looked at Amy and said "I am going to kill you". We could not believe it came out of his mouth. His said it a couple of times. We corrected him and gave him a good speech on it. He did not say it since. I don't know where he picked it up from.

I bid you goodnight.

And then there were two.

I could not believe how close the vote was for the final three last night. The top vote getter was within 1% of the one getting the boot. That was amazingly close, even closer that the past two presidental elections. Good Luck to Elliott, he deserves to do something in the music business. He has a great voice. I only got through one time in the vote for Taylor Hicks. My one vote must have really counted in such a close race. Now I see why Chris got the kicked off. It is soooo close, if you take it for granted that a person will be there and don't vote, that person might not get the support in such a close race. I wonder how close the Chris vote was. Maybe it was a 5% difference. I am just happy to get my one vote through for Taylor.

Nathan Speak...

On the way home tonight from school, there was a runner on the side of the road. Nathan said "Get off the road man!"

After dinner, Nathan was out of milk, so he asked me for some of my drink. I poured him some diet pepsi. He immediately turned and asked "Is this beer or soda?"

After washing his hands Nathan said "How many times do I have to say wash my hands!"

Up up and away

For the first time, Nathan rode his tricycle up our street to the top of the hill. I knew he was strong because he can ride up the incline of our driveways, but I did not know he had the endurance to cycle to the top of the street.

After dinner tonight, Nathan played with all of his Neighbor friends: Joseph, Niomi, Sahra, and Tiffany. He rode both his tricycle and big wheel. I tried putting him on Niomi's real bike, but after sitting a little while he realized it was too challenging to ride or balance, so he got off. I got pulled into the mix as I caught football with some of Nathan's neighboors too. I was in the outfield for baseball as well.

I bid you goodnight.

AI

That was a very enjoyable American Idol. I am very happy with Taylor's performances thus far. I think he has been the most consitant performer of the entire group thus far. The only problem is his genre' of music is most likely not the most popular one. From the beginnning I have rooted for him. I hope he wins it. If I could predict the outcome of the vote tonight I would say that Elliott will be gone. I do like Elliott, but I would have to say of the top 10 AI's, his performance are the most boring. He is a consistantly good singer, but is not much of an entertainer. It should be Kat and Taylor in the finals, but I have predicted wrong before. I really thing the finals should be Taylor and Chris.

Kat's Over the Rainbow song was by far the best of all in the night. The funny thing about this contest is if I were to purchase an album of one of the top 5ers, it would have to be Chris, followed by Kat. Even though, I think Taylor should win the competition, I don't know what type of Album he would put out. Its sort of like Rueben a few years back. He was by far the best of the bunch, even better than Clay who was probably the closest 2nd in the group. I voted for Rueben as my favorite, but probably would have never bought his album. I guess I would like to see the type of Album Taylor could make. What type of new songs he could sing. He would have no probably selling a copeout album like Rod Stewart, full of remakes. I would like to see some music "taylored" to Taylor.

Nothing too too funny with Nathan, just the little catch phrases that make everyday with him special.

I bid you goodnight.

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day to all mothers, and mothers to be!

Nathan gave mommy a Cookie Monster Card, and a mug with mommy and his picture on it. Mommy was happy.

Nathan cracked me up again today, again another one of those "you had to be there" type things. While at the grocery store today Amy called and told me to get batteries. She needed them for Nathan's giant remote control fire engine. When I pulled into the drive way I looked up and saw Amy and Nathan in the window. Amy cracked the window 5 inches, Nathan stuck his head our and said ", do you got batteries?" Read the quote again, and put it into the context of an Arnold Jackson, "what you talking about Willis?" and thats what it sounded like. We put the batteries in his fire truck and he played with it all day. He was really into it.

We did not eat out this Mother's Day because, first Mother's Day is a crazy time to eat out, unless you're at McDonalds, and two, we ate you twice yesterday. It sort of was our Saturday version of Mother's Day.

I bid you goodnight.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Before I get into our little trip, I have a quick Nathan blurb. This morning I was about to turn the tv on, and Nathan turned to me and said "That is the big tv. Daddy and Pa made that tv". That cracked me up.



Ok, onto the day. We took a trip to Charles County Maryland, to pick Strawberrys. Yut picked us up in his Minivan, and we went down with his family, and Noy's mom. It took a little over an hour to get to form our house. It was fun. I haven't done this thing since I was 12 years old. I think the parents had more fun than the kids. Nathan and especially Austin, did a great job picking ripe berries. It was a perfect day, about 70 as a high. And we got to the place early enough, that there was only one family pickin. We basically had the place to ourselves. When we left there were about 5 cars/minivans just pulling in. The Strawberries were delicious off the vine.

After going there, we were going to go to St. Mary Point. This is where the Potomic river runs into the chesapeake bay. We got to the park, but decided to turn around and eat, since it was lunchtime. We looked for a ghost quiznos by St. Mary's College, and we never found it. So we went to a Mom and Pop type Corner Store, Gas Place, Beer Distributor, and Video Rental. We had some good local sanmiches. Afterwards, we decided to skip the point, and go to a lighthouse. It was a nice and probably the smallest lighthouse I have every seen. Yut said it is the oldest one on the Chesapeake Bay. It was a quaint little area. This lighthouse is on the beach of the Potomic river. It might be seen from the Chesapeake Bay. We had to drive past a small private beach, where people had beach houses accross the street, and owned an actual lot on the water. Many had Gazebos or small shacks by the water. Fortunatly, there was a little two day festival going on, and there were decent amount of people by the lighthouse. You could take a tour of the lighthouse, but we did not want to wait in line. There were other small festivities.
After an hour, we hit the road home.

The only other detail to note, was Trace Atkins was to be in concert in the St. Mary/Charles County Area Sunday the next day. I have not seen as man trucks in one place before. Southern Maryland is a beautifull place to visit.

I bid you goodnight.

TGIF

We had a typical Friday for us. Everyone went to work and school. Amy had a dentist appointment, so she had to take a half of day. Fortunately, she was in and out in 15 minutes with a routing cleaning. Of course, friday at Nathan's school means cookie day. So Nathan grabbed a cookie on the way out. I usually snatch one for mom and dad as well. They are really good cookies made by a company call Ralph's Almost Famous Cookies. I know the last three words are right. Anyway, they have killer chocolate chip, oreo, m&m, and mint/white chololate chip cookies. They maybe the best I ever had.

A cool thing we did today was go out to dinner with Amy's friends Judy and Lynn. We ate at La' Madeline's. It has some decent French quizine. We sort of celebrated Lynns Belated Birthday. Nathan was pretty good, and actually ate some trees (brocolli) offered to him by Judy. The soup there is amazing. And the dessert wasn't bad either. Nathan started misbehaving towards the end. The usual throw food on the floor type thing.

We made plans tommorrow to go with Yut and his family to pick Strawberrys in Charles county. I am looking foward to it. I have not done that since I was in 8th grade in PA. I hope Nathan has a good time. There is a place call Larriland Farms in Howard County (20minutes away), but it does not start till next week. Plus, Charles County is very rural and somewhat scenic. We may take a trip to St. Mary County after words and visit the point where the Potomic River meets the Chesapeake Bay. I'll post pics if I think about it, and remeber to take them. We may also go with Murano to the mall to pick out a Mother's Day gift.

I bid you goodnight.

Good but no cigar!

Nathan slept really well last night. He slept 12 hours from 6:30-6:30. When he woke up he was fine. I took his temperature twice, both were bellow 98 degrees, plus he was playfull. I got him ready for school, but when we arrived, we were told that Nathan had to go home. There is a 24 hr rule about fevers. The assistant director told us, that if we could get a doctors excuse, he could stay. Getting Nathan a Drs appointment would have probably taken at least a half of day, so I figured I might as well take him home.

I told her I heard about the 24 hr thing, but was not sure if it was for fevers or puking. She said he could be teething. I was slightly upset, because it was a wasted trip, plus Nathan was fun. But another part of me, about 90% was very happy. First, I was going to get to spend the day with a healthy Nathan at home, and two, I am happy they enforce their rules. I would not Nathan's classmates coming to class after having a fever and spreading it to everyone else.

So, this morning, Nathan rode his tricycle for about an hour before it rained. We also went up the hill in our plan to watch a bull dozer and digger rip out trees across the street. The building a huge development their that will have a Lowes, Costco, and a Traider Joes, just to name a few. Plus they will be building 66 townhomes along the road. Okay, I got sidetracked. Nathan and I sat on the Natural Gas cement doors, and watched the men chop down, and rip out trees, and throw them into a shreader. Nathan loved it, and I did not mind it.

Afterwards, we read a couple of books and watched Clifford, the big red dog. Then it was time for lunch, then his Nap. He was out for 1.5 hrs. After waking, we played with trains, read books, and wrestled. He also watched a PBS show Read between the Lions. It was a really good show!
We started cooking, mommy got home from work, and the rest was a regular day. We did have Pot Stickers for dinner. I would say, they were delicious. Even Nathan ate em up.

A quick funny thing that Nathan said. We both were walking to feed the fish, he sort of ran into my legs and fell down. I asked him if he was ok, and said I was sorry. He replied "I'm sorry daddy, it was my fault". That cracked me up.

I bid you goodnight.

Sick and Surprising?

Nathan had a fever today. He was a little warm before school, but not bad. I gave him some motrin. He was good all day, until the late afternoon. I got a call about 15 minutes before I normally leave, that he had a 102 degree temp. When I got him home, it was about 102. However, an hour or 2 later it was up at or above 103. So we gave him motrin, then he fell asleep in Amy's arms at 6:40. He has been sleeping ever since (it is 10pm right now).

The surprising thing was American Idol tonight. First I must say that I like all 4 contestants, and although Chris was not my favorite, I did not think he would get the boot. Katherine was definately the weaker singer this week. My personal favorite, has and always will be Taylor since I saw him in the auditions. Regardless, I am happy for whoever wins this show. I guess when it comes down to it, you really have to vote for your favorite. I was wondering if Chris had a lesser fan following than Kat? I don't know, but I like many others probably assumed he would win or make it to the finals. Thats the way it goes I guess. I personally tried voting for Taylor a dozen times with no luck. The thing to remember is, these guys are not getting voted off, the favorite is being voted on, and if you have the least amount of votes, you're gone. It really does not matter, Chris will get a record deal, along with Taylor and Kat. I have no doubt about it. This has been the strongest top 5 contestants the show has ever had.

I bid you goodnight.

The Little Things

Some funny things to note that Nathan is saying.

There is a turn on the way to Nathan's school that I take at a slightly higher speed then I should. Nathan has been saying "that hurts my pee-pee!" as he giggles. He has been saying that the past few weeks.

Last week Nathan woke up (1am) crying, saying "there is a bug in my eye". This morning, he said "remember daddy, there was bug there (pointing to the an area of his crib), uh remember, the bug was in my eye (pointing to his eye)." I guess there probably was a bug in his crib that night, or he would not have brought it up again.

On the way back from school, Nathan point out two men jogging and said "that man is running with not shirt on, the other man has a shirt on." These are definately you had to be there type things.

Everyday, on the way home, we make a left, and Nathan says, "go that way to old macdonalds". He knows if I go straight down a road about a mile, we are going to McDondalds, and he will get a happy meal.

I bid you good-night.

Quick DC Trip

Today, Nathan, Amy, and I took a nice trip to DC. The main reason we went on the trip was for Amy to meet up with other teachers and plan out an upcoming field trip. When she told me she needed to go there, I jumped at the chance. DC is definately one of my most favorite cities. There is just so much to do, and they have a great metro system. We met the teacher, then Nathan and I went to the Natural History Museum, and Amy and the other teacher went to the American History Museum. Nathan loved the Dinosaur bones. He cracked me up. He said his favorite was the tall one (Trex ofcourse). He also recognized the skeleton of a giraffe. He futher made sure I knew that it was infact dead. Nathan was really good through the whole trip. When he started to get tired, I slipped him a few Yogos, and he was happy. After we were done there, we met up with Amy, and the other teacher and had a vendor hot dog outside. It was a beautiful day, upper 60s and comfortable. After the hotdog and Nachos, we wondered over to a merry-go-round that was in between the capital and washington monument (nathan refered to it as a candle!). I ofcourse went on the merry-go-round. It was fun. I think it was the first time Nathan went on his own horse with very little handling.

I think that was it.

I bid you good-night.

Balsa Airplanes

You know those Balsa-wood airplanes kids get. Well tonight I figured out that one of those things last about 12 or so flights before it breaks or becomes unflyable.

Nathan was good at school today, no incidents like a little whale hitting one yesterday, which by the way was his first one in a couple of months. Also, just as important, he did not hit mommy or I today either when he was tired. Maybe the punishement is working.

I bid you good-night.