Gettysburg

Since all our 3L friends are graduating and moving on in a few weeks, we've been trying to squeeze in some last minute trips with them. So this past Saturday we drove up to Gettysburg with the Glausers and had a great time (if you ever go you absolutely MUST get the audio tour CD from the bookstore- it made it an unforgettable, very moving drive).

The tour is basically just a drive around the fields where all the fighting took place. It was amazing to hear all the personal stories and imagine what it must have been like since the landscape really hasn't changed much.

It was also amazing to see the dedication of some people to this point in history. We visited a group of guys dressed up in period costume actually "camping" on the battlefield and living as the soldiers lived back then. They were very happy to tell us all sorts of stories and answer our questions. They were even roasting a chicken on a stick although we arrived too late to see if they had really killed, gutted, and de-feathered it themselves or if it had just come from Costco.

(Ethan unfortunately was more interested

in the rocks on the ground)

The craziest part of the trip was seeing the lady in her wedding dress perched atop a cannon taking actual professional pictures (psycho!).

All in all it was a very moving experience and we were
grateful that Chris helped Taylor navigate while Jamie helped me with the boys.

One of the funniest parts of the trip was when we'd been driving around for a half hour or so and Ethan kept asking "where are we going?" and I kept answering "we're just driving". After a few times of this, he finally asked "we lookin for a parkin spot?". Guess who's lived in DC a little too long!

Potty Training... Monkey George

So I've been procrastinating the whole potty training thing with Ethan. Mostly because he could care less (and because I have a 4 month old nursing baby). He will wear a soaking wet, 20 pound diaper the entire day if I forget to change him (I'm not confessing to anything). And because of the miracle of modern diapers, he stays dry and doesn't get diaper rash and so is happy to live in this way. But since many of his friends (some even younger than him) seem to have of late mastered this skill, I decided to give it a whirl. I read this crazy book called "Potty Train your child in just 1 day!" and I thought- I may be crazy but it would be great if that really worked. So Friday I set out to have this all-day potty-a-thon with Ethan.

We spent the morning "potty-training" his Curious George doll that he calls Monkey George. This seemed like a good idea to my first-grade-teacher-mind. He can learn by teaching the doll. And the morning was a success. Monkey George peed in the toilet several times (okay so I squirted lemonade in the little pot while Ethan wasn't looking) and then we acted all excited and gave him a sticker and a treat.

The premise was that then in the afternoon, Ethan would understand the whole process by vicariously living it through his doll and then he'd get to do it himself. Sadly, Ethan was not as patient as the doll at sitting on the potty. We ended up letting him watch a movie while he sat there and waiting for him to do his thing. In the end he peed 3 times but only because he happened to be sitting there at the right time and while it was a long day I think it was worth the try.

It would have been great if it had worked but since it didn't, we'll just wait til we get to Utah and I can let him run half-naked around the backyard. He'll get it someday and for now I laugh everytime he brings me his Monkey George and tells me that George needs to go potty (someone has figured out a sneaky way to get a treat).

Football withouth the pads and helmets

Taylor grew up in a "sports" family as I would call it. Every single one of his brothers and sister have played sports throughout elementary, middle, and high school as well as in college. Taylor chose water polo since his parents told him "you'll never be big enough for football" and he played all 4 years as an undergrad at GW. His brother Arty is a swimmer and competed for the University of Pennsylvania. His brother Mack plays lacrosse and played for Hofstra University. And finally, his little sister is now attending the University of West Virginia. She played soccer in high school but wasn't quite good enough for the WVU team since they compete in a very competitive Division one bracket. So given all the other choices in sports she could take up, she decided to try rugby. This decision was met with some skepticism and has been the subject of much debate in the Woodbury family. Mostly because of her injuries. In her 2 years playing, she has so far gotten a black eye in her first game, broken her collar bone in her first semester, and finally torn her ACL in her second year. We've never actually seen her play because every time we schedule a trip to come watch her, she gets injured the week before (her parents have also never seen her for the same reason). As luck would have it, her team was playing in a tournament just outside DC a few weekends ago and she was finally recoved from her ACL injury so she came down and stayed with us and we got to watch her play.

Barb is the one on the far right in the middle.
This is how Ethan watched the game (he wasn't very impressed with the wind, rain, or sun in his eyes).

We had never seen a rugby game before and still don't understand most of it but lets just say it's a little violent. Girls literally hurl themselves at each other (without any padding at all). And unlike football where play stops when the ball is down, play continues until (actually I don't know when it ever stops) but they keep jumping on the pile of ladies until somehow the ball escapes out of the bottom and then they toss it to someone and then try to run and then get clobbered and the pileups and running and clobbering continues. The really fun part of this tournament is that it had rained in DC for literally a full week so the fields were full of mud pits and these girls didn't seem to care.

We had a great time watching and are glad Barbara has found a sport and team she loves. Unfortunately, at the end of her second game on Saturday, she ended up at the bottom of a pileup and got really hurt. She had a seizure and got rushed to the hospital where they decided she had a concussion and therefore couldn't play for the rest of the season. So much for just recovering from her ACL tear! Poor Barb! But we're glad we finally got to see her play and that we were there to go with her to the hospital.

I hope Ethan and Isaac choose swimming or maybe chess even!

Caught in the Act!

You're probably thinking this looks like I'm trying to hold her hand... What me? Mr. Innocent? You're the one who dressed me in this "future Mr. Right shirt"!
Okay, you caught me! I'm really just after the duck toy!

No Shower = Hat Day!!!

After days of reminding each other of the sign that read, "Water will be shut off between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm on April 23, 2008," Sarah and I both were sitting around, unshowered at around 8:15 when we remembered. We laughed at ourselves for a while, then went about doing all the normal things you do when you can't take a shower.

I made a couple attempts at combing my hair, but to no avail. Instead, I decided to just have a hat day.

About 15 min. after I had put on my hat, I heard Ethan running down the all toward our room.

"Look Daddy, I wear a hat too!" He screamed as he turned the corner. It was so dang cute that I couldn't help but let him keep the hat on. He was pretty excited to be wearing his hat outside.

Who'd a thought that something good come on a day where I missed my shower and had to take a stupid final.

And a special thanks goes to Mr. Gilbert for his contribution to Ethan's musical repertoire....

We leave Ethan with the Gilberts for one night and guess what Sheldon taught him....

Thanks Grams!

So we have to send a thanks out to Ethan and Isaac's Grams who sent them these cute jerseys and socks. Isaac looked like the tiniest little buff football player in his West Virginia Jersey (Taylor's sister goes to school there) and Ethan absolutely loves his "Boozer" jersey from the Utah Jazz (yes, there's actually a player whose last name is Boozer and he's pretty good I hear). Ethan spent the day pointing at his shirt and saying "I'm Boozer, this is my Boozer shirt." And who can resist little baby feet with WVU booties on them!

Isaac's Happy Place

Isaac absolutely loves to stand up and therefore is always very happy when we're holding him and he can stand up on our laps. He has even discovered that he can arch his back and thus refuse to be forced to sit down. At church on Sunday I was trying to set him down in his carseat and he arched his back so I couldn't even bend him under the bar and get him in. Sadly, I'm still smarter than him and just put him through the top.

Last week when I was trying to make dinner and he was wailing about how terrible his life is since he'd been set down on the floor on his back, I remembered that we have a walker Ethan used. So I pulled it out and set him it and I have never seen him so happy. He can barely reach the floor with his toes, but he arches his back and sits/stands in the walker and can play with his toys and stay upright like he likes. The added bonus is that Ethan thinks the walker is a little "Isaac car" as he calls it and he loves to push him around the house (thus entertaining 2 for the price of one!).

Guess who slept through the night!!!!!!!!

(This was a totally unprompted event since he normally gets up between 2 and 3am to eat. There has been much knocking on wood at our home today. We'll see if he repeats the miracle tonight!)

Infant no more

Isaac (in my opinion) has graduated from infant to baby in just this past week it seems like. He's started pulling his legs up and eating his little hands. He's quite the little chatterbox and loves being passed around the room in church (he's a ladies man already). I even pulled out the walker last week and was amazed to see that he can scoot himself all over the house (only backwards) and loves standing up in it and looking at all the toys. Ethan loves pushing his around in his little "car" as he calls it.

Brothers

You may have to be a grandmother or auntie to appreciate this post, but I couldn't resist putting up all the cute pictures of these two together.



It really is amazing to me how much Ethan loves Isaac and wants to play with him and in turn how interested Isaac is every time Ethan comes near him at all. He follows his every move around the room and eats up every second Ethan plays with him.
(Sorry for the blurriness, just couldn't resist posting them!)

Kite Festival

Every year as part of the Cherry Blossom Festival, DC holds a Kite Festival on the National Mall. We've been every year that we've lived here and it's always amazing to see so many people out with their kids trying to fly kites. Taylor always tries to get ours to fly and is always unsuccessful (he says he got the kite up once this year but apparently I missed it and there's no picture to prove it). Maybe it's not his fault though since I let Ethan pick out the Elmo kite that cost $2.
This year we met Taylor's Business School group there and had a fun time hanging out.


Ethan gave up on the kite after a while and had more fun playing in the rocks with Trey's son Kyle. Isaac hated every minute since it was cold and windy and spent most of his time covered up with binky in mouth in the bjorn. Every time I peeked in to check on him, he gave me a very mad look like I should close the blanket flap and stop letting the wind in.

Spring keeps teasing us

I have to be thankful that we haven't had much (or really any) snow this winter but it's been consistently cold and it's wearing on all of us. And just to tease us a little, almost every tree in DC has started to bloom but the temperatures have stayed in the 40's and 50's. So last week I was overjoyed to discover that it was going to be sunny and 75 one afternoon. We couldn't resist. We packed up the boys and a few balls and spent the afternoon enjoying the weather outside.

Isaac was not impressed with the wind (he's still in that baby-can't-breath-when-it's-windy phase) but he loved all the trees.

Ethan loved having dad kick the ball around with him. At one point he stopped playing and went over and sat alone in the grass. When Taylor asked him what he was doing he said he'd put himself in timeout because he'd drop-kicked the soccer ball in the air (we have a no-drop-kicking-balls in the house rule). So we spent a while trying to teach him the difference between things that are always rules- no hitting, etc. and rules that change depending on location. I'm not sure he got it but it sure was cute to see him discipline himself.

Visiting Grandma Tina and Grandpa Pat

I was really sad this Christmas that we weren't able to go visit my parents (although having Isaac was a good trade-off) so for Spring Break we drove to visit them in Chicago. We spent the week hanging out and just enjoying time together as a family. Taylor will tell you he loved hearing Ethan call my dad "Gampa Pat" and my dad answer back "Yes, grandson Ethan". Ethan loved throwing ping pong balls over the stair railing at my dad every afternoon when he got home from work. Isaac loved being walked around all evening by my dad (it's his favorite thing to do with babies and Isaac loved the constant change of scenery and commentary). I loved cooking and chatting with my mother. It was a great week!

Dieing Easter Eggs

I have to tell you that I was totally excited for Ethan to be old enough this year to kind of appreciate the experience of dieing Easter eggs (without making an enormous mess). This is my absolute favorite part of the holiday. And I'll admit I did most of the decorating with the white crayon and such but Ethan did all the dipping (with lots of help from his grandma and grandpa). They turned out great and we had a lot of fun making and eating them!