Voting

Andy got to see his first election today. I took him with me to vote and then handed him off when his father went to go vote so he got to see it twice. I'm sure he was thrilled although all the nice election volunteers loved him and smiled a lot. He does like that. It's going to be interesting to see who wins. The polls close at 7 pm tonight.

Open and close

His new favorite game is opening and closing the door. I do worry a bit he's going to squish a finger by slamming it on himself, but part of me thinks he should maybe learn about that, hopefully without really hurting himself.

Tonight he was so cute. We were playing in the living room when his pappi walked in and he hustled his little crawling self across the room right over to him. It was adorable. Reminded me a little like a puppy though. In fact, so much of what he does is puppy-eqsue in the way we talk to him and how I can get his attention. I wonder if that's bad...

So productive

This morning I got up early and actually took Andy for a short walk and a ride on the swing before getting him ready for "school." Since it's getting dark at 5 pm now, we're not getting to walk in the evenings anymore really so today it just worked out. I can't say I'll be able to keep it up, but it was nice for today. And nice that the weather was cool, but not cold. It may get too cold before too long.

Teeth

I think Andy is getting SIX teeth right now. I've been watching the top gums and it seems that he's getting one front tooth and one second front tooth (I don't think that's an inciscor, but I'm not sure) that have already broken through and then the two matching ones on the top. But I checked today and it looks like one of his second bottom teeth has also sprouted. That may explain part of his illness this weekend (maybe). What's weird is otherwise he's been generally happy and fun to be around, which I would think might be changed by the teeth on their way in.

Dalahest rider

We went to visit Fafa today and he took a ride on her Dahlahest, courtesy of Pappi. He seemed to like it once he got over his initial concern. I was thinking it was an indication he'll love horses the way I did, but I have a feeling it has more to do with them being painted orange.

Oh, the places you'll go

I came across a CD in an attempt to clean up earlier. It turns out it has some pictures from earlier in the year. My, my how Andy has grown. In the top picture, he's about 4-5 weeks old. In the bottom picture, he's less than a week old. I see similiarities in the pictures, I mean, I see part of who he is now in them, but at the same time, with all his progress, he's a totally different kid somehow.

Beautiful Sunday

It's just gorgeous outside. The leaves are brown and falling like snow. I'm going to get Andy on a blanket outside under the trees once he gets up from his nap. He will, of course, try to eat the leaves.

Water main

They're still out there working on the water main. I was nosy and walked by a while ago and saw they had these hockey-puck sized things attached to what seemed like long curly straws, I guess to hear under the road. I also saw them load off several jackhammers. The good news is they said the water will only be shut off for a few hours, likely when everyone is asleep. The bad news is we're going to be listening to jackhammering tonight.

Water main break

Our neighbors just rushed over to tell us there was a water main break and to fill up our sinks and tubs with water before they shut it off. Seriously? Could this day get any longer or weirder?

Sick? Who me?

Fortunately, Andy is feeling much better. It's as if he knew what we were planning and scheduled the whole thing to foil our romantic weekend. The good news is that by noon he was back to his old self. The doctor said to just give him Pedialite in small doses until he seemed able to hold it down. She thinks he had just a viral thing that would be quick to pass, and so far, she was right.

His new trick of the past few days is opening and closing doors. It's pretty funny to watch actually.
He also likes to pull books from the shelves, as you can see.

Relief...sort of

I talked to my friend who could not have been nicer or more gracious about the whole thing. I'm just sick about it. I checked out flights and nothing gets in before the wedding. I even checked a nearby city and I still couldn't get there in time. Gah. I just planned this all badly. I had no room for error and I forget with a baby you HAVE to leave room for error. I totally need to make it up to my friend though. Now I just need to figure out what.

Ugh

So we're supposed to be on our way to Charleston for a wedding, but Andy decided to start vomiting last night. And then I decided to follow suit this morning. We. Are. Miserable. And worse, I have to call in a bit and break it to my friend that we can't make it. Ugh.

A well documented event

Here's another cute Halloween picture. What can I say, it's his first one. We probably won't take this many pictures of his graduation.

Oh, Susanna

So having a kid is making me reexamine a lot of things I grew up with, but never thought much about. The latest, the song "Oh Susanna." Seriously, have you listened to it lately? It totally makes no sense. I must not have studied this in my Folk Music class at Emory.

"Oh! Susanna" by Stephen Foster, 1847

I come from Alabama
With my banjo on my knee
I'm going to Louisiana,
My true love for to see

It rained all night
The day I left
The weather it was dry
The sun so hot,
I froze to death
Susanna, don't you cry

Oh, Susanna,
Oh don't you cry for me
For I come from Alabama
With my banjo on my knee

I had a dream the other night
When everything was still
I thought I saw Susanna
A-coming down the hill

The buckwheat cake
Was in her mouth
The tear was
In her eye
Says I, I'm coming from the south
Susanna, don't you cry

Oh, Susanna,
Oh don't you cry for me
For I come from Alabama
With my banjo on my knee

Another one

Another mom announced her pregnancy today at playgroup. I must be the only one not jumping down that path to have three out of our regular 10-15 women is a fairly high proportion, at least it seems that way to me. Granted, it's not like we're all 25 or something. Everyone is well into their 30s and many were career women before having this kid so at least one said she's hoping to have two kids two years so she can go back to work once they're in preschool.

I drove by a couple of daycares on my way home. Both came highly recommended. A Child's Place is right across from where my new office will be. I dropped in and said I'd like to sign up for a tour and the woman could not have been a bigger bitch, "Uh, we schedule tours a month out adn we're not even accepting any new children's until October." I said that was fine and she begrudgingly signed me up for a tour. What the hell is that all about? I also stopped by the Merritt Academy. Interestingly, it's affiliated with a Sunrise Assisted Living Center, which is actually a pretty smart idea. It's a real school and they were very professional and very nice. My brother-in-law's cousin's kids go there so I've heard good things about it. We're taking a tour there next week. They said they didn't forsee openings until August. It can't hurt to look. I've heard some people are already getting on wait lists for preschools so if that's what these turn out to be more so than infant care, that would be fine.

Grover Norquist

So it must be 10 minutes after my last post when I got a voice recorded message from Grover Norquist asking me to vote for Golden in the delegate rate. Seriously? Since when did big DC lobby types get invovled in state delegate races? I just read an article in USA Today about how the Governor's race is neck and neck between Kaine (Democrat) and Kilgore (Republican). Everyone seems to like Mark Warner the current governor (D) so he's helping Kaine while Kilgore is being hampered by the general loathing of the Bush Administration right now. Since Northern Virginia is largely populated by Washington-types, the state race is more moved by the national politics than in other places.

Elections in Fairfax

Man, this is an interesting election year. It's really contentious between the candidates for state delegate and for governor. I swear I get two or three calls a DAY about this election. I think we'll both end up voting for the Democrats. Virginia is so conservative that the liberals are even more conservative than in other states. That also means the Republicans tend to be super-conservative, you know, eliminating gay rights, banning gay adoption, and of course, anti-abortion. I do like that the Republicans say they'll improve roads, but I'd take traffic so long as we get to keep civil liberties.

How far we've come

I took this back in May. It's hard to believe that it was just a few months ago considering how much like a baby he is there compared to now. At the time, I kept thinking he was the perfect age. I was wrong. THIS is the perfect age.

Lobster

How cute are they!

Reading

I took this picture last night. It cracks me up how he "reads."