A Morning in D.C.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

One of the reasons I have been so busy and not been blogging is because we had company! My oldest brother, Ron, his wife, Nancy and our niece Ellen were here for a visit. They stayed through Easter and we had a great visit. The Saturday before Easter we spent the morning in Washington D.C. and I put together this photo montage of our day. Ellen is the only kid in her class that had ever been to Washington D.C. so she was excited to go back and see some of the attractions. I'm sure they would have got to see a lot more if it wasn't for me and by boys in tow but I think we had an enjoyable time nonetheless.

As you will see in the montage, we visited the steps of the Capital Building (we would have had a good long wait to get in most likely due to the fact that my boys and I were a lil slow moving that morning). Then we went to the National Botanical Gardens which none of us had ever been to. It was really quite lovely and warmed us all up before we stepped back into the cool air.

Then we drove closer to the Lincoln Memorial which was Ellen's one request to see. So, we were able to see the Vietnam Memorial, Women's Vietnam Memorial as well as the Lincoln Memorial while we were on that end of the national mall. By that time my boys were getting a lil restless and it was getting close to lunchtime. Overall, I think it was a nice visit into the district. We were back at our house around 1:30.

I have other photos from their visit to post but thought I'd get this posted for now.

St. Patty's Day

Well, may of you may see this photo and think 'What the heck is that Polish boy doing wearing that 'Kiss Me I'm Irish' shirt?" He has 3 excuses:
1. He is a tad bit Irish on his Daddy-O's side
2. The shirt was a hand-me-down from the O'Neill boys and
3. Everyone is a lil Irish on St. Patty's Day!

I know St. Patrick's Day is well over but since it's still March, I wanted to share one quick story before even more time goes by...

The week before St. Patrick's Day Benjamin's class had a leprechaun visit his classroom. (Apparently, he came by before St. Patty's Day since they were on spring break on the 17th). Well, that day after school Benjamin was telling me all about this leprechaun that visited his classroom while they were in music class. He sounded like a mischievous lil guy and Benjamin told me very matter of factly that he left "a trail of foot prints and pee." hmm. "Pee? Are you sure it wasn't gold dust?" This really spiked my curiosity but I didn't want to sound like a maniac mother calling his preschool to find out what he was talking about so I just went along with it. And I asked Miss Natalie who's son, Jack (Benjamin's best buddy), also goes to the same preschool if he had the same account of the leprechaun. Sure enough! Jack confirmed that the lil green guy left "footprints and green pee in the potty but forgot to flush." Ah. The stories meshed and Jack even gave more details! I was glad to hear that the green leprechaun pee was in the potty and not a trail along the footprints like I originally imagined. Besides the leprechaun leaving a big mess with pots of gold for the kids he also left them a lil surprise in the potty! Very interesting twist to St. Patty's Day.

Not sure why I felt the need to share that all with you except that I found it rather entertaining at the time.

The First Easter Egg Hunt

I started this post a while back but am just getting around to actually posting it now...

We had a somewhat busy weekend. Saturday was a beautiful day and we decided to join our friends Dave and Nelly along with their kids Brooke and Reed for an Easter egg hunt at a park in nearby Leesburg.

We had a good time. The kids enjoyed the egg hunts, moon bounces a carnival type ride and just running around!







































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To my dear blog fans (aka my mom and assorted others): Sorry for the lack of posts... I hope to be back blogging regularly soon!

Our Darling Starling

Last night was quite an adventure at the Chapman home.

The boys and I arrived home around 6:15 p.m. I started to make dinner then I realized the dogs were acting a little odd. They were focused on a large vent cover in our dinning room. hmm. Upon closer inspection I realized there was a lot of dust around the vent. Then I heard something flailing about in there. hmm.

So, I decided to call upon some neighbors. Within minutes my neighbor, Pasi, was at my door with work gloves in hand. He removed the vent cover and discovered a bird. A starling to be exact. Unfortunately, the bird was out of reach and not flapping about at this point. Pasi had a meeting to go to for his boys' track team. And he already seemed to be running late so I reminded him of that meeting and he promised to come back after the meeting in about an hour. Yikes! So, he screwed the vent cover back on and left.

I went back to making dinner. And about 5 minutes later I heard Benjamin say "We have a bird in our house." At first I thought he heard it flapping around again inside the vent. Then I looked at him and I realized he was watching the bird fly around our home. He was quite excited actually.

(So, this is where I kinda lost my cool and the craziness ensued).

I called my neighbor Katie "Is Dale home?"

"No, he just left. Why?"

"I have a bird flying around my house."

"I'll be right there."

Apparently, Pasi hadn't screwed the vent cover back on well enough to keep him in.

Katie showed up at our mad house. The dogs were going nuts. The bird was flapping all over the house from the front of the house to the back and the dogs were running right along with it. Benjamin was laughing hysterically and Samuel was crying in his high chair (it was dinner time). I was irritated and intimidated by the feathered guy. ugh. I didn't know exactly what a starling was until yesterday and I don't consider them to be particularly pretty birds.

We have lovely 12 foot ceilings in our kitchen area and the bird kept flying over there but wouldn't get out the big sliding glass door. It spent some time perched on our ceiling fan, our hanging pot rack, the top of the kitchen cabinets as well as several window sills.

It stayed inside an open crock I have above my kitchen cabinets for some time. So, we decided I should approach it. I was scared but eventually climbed up on top of the sink. And Katie says, "Be careful. Nothing can happen to you. We need you too much. " (Kind of a funny quote in hind site). Of course as soon as I got up there the darn thing flew out of the crock on another flying spree all over the house.

Eventually, Katie and I got the dogs outside and the bird cornered. By this point Katie had a bucket in her hand and I had a bath towel. Not sure what her plan was but I thought maybe I could throw the towel over it and capture it. Katie ditched the bucket at some point and picked up the kids' toy drum that has a separate lid. At this point her game plan was to get it in the drum then close the lid. hmm. I would have loved to see that happen. And she started calling to the bird in her best animal friendly voice "Come here, Boo." No such luck.

Eventually, I managed to get a front window open and the screen popped off and out that crazy bird flew.

As Katie left she said, "I don't know what you needed me for you got it."

"For moral support, Katie."

This morning on the way to his buddy, Jack's house Benjamin saw a bird flying and said "There he is. Our bird!"

What We've Been Up To

Life has been a little busy at the Chapman house lately. Where do I start.

Well, after not blogging for about a week, I suppose I have some tales to tell...

Like when Benjamin dropped his little yellow car in the toilet which I unhappily rescued like any insane parent would for their 3 year old. Of course, this happened right after Benjamin declared "No toys on the potty." Because that is exactly what his mommy preaches. Unfortunately, he slipped and didn't follow those rules and before we knew it that yellow car was swimmin' in a freshly peed in potty. ugh. Oh the joys of parenting. But that was last week.

On Saturday our big outing was to Toys R Us. It was a rainy day. A perfect day for such an outing. Samuel had received a gift card for his birthday and I was anxious to get him a small basketball hoop. He LOVES balls and has been practicing his moves for some time now! (seriously, he's great shooting form!). We spent some time at Toys R Us and had a nice time checking out all the toys! Benjamin was in heaven, as you can imagine. We managed to get out of there with the basketball hoop we went for, 2 small cars from the Cars movie and diapers so I thought we did pretty good considering we were there for at least a good hour.

The basketball hoop was a big hit! We all enjoyed it and Samuel figured it out right away. He loves to make baskets, as I imagined he would. And he also loves to sit in my lap while I shoot baskets. As the ball comes back to us after going through the net, he laughs hysterically until he gets the hi cups. He's such a funny lil guy. I love it!

Sunday night I was setting out Benjamin's clothes for school the next day and I set out his "Army" sweatshirt. When he saw it he pointed to each letter and spelled "A-R-M-Y". I was so surprised. He's learning his letters but I was shocked to hear him read it. He knows this is his "Army" sweatshirt so I said to him, "And what does that spell?" And he proudly responded "Mommy!" Well, at least he got the letters right. We have been practicing spelling his name verbally and today something clicked and he got it! Again, I was so proud and excited. He said each and every letter. And "Benjamin" isn't the easiest of names for a 3 year old to spell! Ahh. The lil victories in life.

On Monday, Samuel went for his 1 year check up. He weighed in at 30 whopping pounds and is a little over 33 inches tall. Following in his big brother's footsteps, he is totally off the charts in both height and weight for his age. Health wise and developmentally he's doing well. He is starting to say words "banana", "ball", "nana" (for Mama), "naanaanaa" (for Benjamin) and he loves to wave! But he was due for a round of shots. So, he has been a bit sluggish and napped most of the day at the sitters yesterday and then slept through the night last night. Hopefully, he'll be back to his happy energetic self soon.

There have been days lately that I have been a tad stressed out. Not over the kids really. Just busy at work and busy at home too. I guess I've just felt like I've been pulled in a lot of directions lately. Although, when I put things in perspective it's not really that much more than usual. Anyways, sometimes I will say to Benjamin "That does not make me happy." Then he says, "I will make a funny face. That will make you happy." And he does. And it does, make me smile. The sweet innocence of youth. You gotta love it.

Don called yesterday when I stopped home for lunch. It was a nice surprise. He had tried to call on Monday but missed us. He sounded good. He says he's keeping really busy. He misses us, of course, as we do him. Those twenty minutes on the phone once a week just go by to fast. We are just so fortunate to have the Internet these days. I can't imagine him being apart from us without this amazing way of hearing from him on an, almost, daily basis.

Some Photos from Don

I received a couple of new photos from Don today that I thought I would share. The first is of the unit he is deployed with, the 62nd Medical Brigade. Can you find our Daddy-O? He's the handsome one in the camoflauge (hee hee).

And the second is a picture of Al Faw Palace, which was built for Saddam's son. Don said "it is currently Multi-National Corps-Iraq (MNC-I) headquarters. To the right barely visible is the corner of the boat house. This is one ofthe ponds on the base that everyone fishes from. There is a distinct looking carp that everyone call's a Saddam Bass."





(Click on photos to enlarge them).

This Week

What a week it has been and it's only Wednesday.

Monday morning the phone started ringing while I was in the shower around 7 a.m. I thought it might be Don and I scrambled around and managed to make it to the phone. It was my mother-in-law with the news that Don's grandfather had passed away. I sent Don an e-mail and he called later that day. By then he had already received the news via e-mail from both his mom and sister.

It was good to hear from Don but he called while Benjamin was at school. So, he called back later specifically to speak to Benjamin since they hadn't had the chance to talk in a couple weeks. We were in the car on our way from preschool to the mall. Benjamin told Daddy about his morning at preschool, asked him if he was having a good time at work and chit chatted briefly. I love to hear their lil conversations. Benjamin is turning into quite the young man these days.

Monday was a busy day. After spending time at the mall on a mission to get Benjamin some new shoes ordered from Stride-Rite for his extra wide tootsies and having lunch we headed for home. Benjamin took a good nap and Samuel decided he'd rather help me with laundry before heading for nap time. Both boys were asleep at 4 p.m. when my helper showed up. It was a gorgeous day here around 70 degrees and sunny. So, I took the opportunity to take the dogs on a good walk. They loved it, as did I. When I returned Samuel had woken up from his nap a lil fussy and I decided to wake Benjamin up so he could enjoy some play time with his friend. I managed to get a few things accomplished around the house and actually made some dinner that didn't come in a box! Well, I just made sloppy joes which is easy but I have really gotten out of the groove of actually cooking lately. So, it was nice to take the time to cook while I had the kids entertained. After dinner, we headed out to Maggie Moo's for ice cream. It had been awhile since Benjamin had his favorite blue cotton candy flavored ice cream. He was pretty excited and devoured it. He must be growing because he has been eating like a champ lately.

Actually, that same night when I put his half a sloppy joe in front of him he said "I don't care for it. I don't want it..." and carried on for quite a bit. Then I said "How 'bout we put some sprinkles on it". So, I got out some shredded mozzarella cheese and he happily sprinkled his sloppy joe with cheese. Then he took a bite and declared "This is so delicious." Wala. Sometimes a Mommy has to think like a kid. Samuel ate the other half of the sloppy joe. Boy, that boy Samuel can eat. He doesn't turn too many things away. I hope he always stays that adventuresome with new foods.

This month is a busy time for us at my office and I have agreed to work an extra day which leaves me with one weekday off, Monday. I seriously don't know how parents work full-time. There simply is not enough time in a day. I am just so thankful that this schedule is temporary and hopefully it will help the month of March go by quickly.

Before I end this blog entry, I would just like to ask all my praying friends and family to please keep Don's family in their prayers.

Samuel's 1 Year Photos

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This afternoon I took the boys to get Samuel's 1 year photos taken (finally). You will see why I end up with a ton of pictures. They take so many photos and it's so hard to pick a favorite. So, I usually end up with a few favorites! Benjamin also jumped in for a few photos too. So, there are some of them together and some great ones of Benjamin alone as well.

Right before we headed out the door I put Benjamin's coordinating sweater on him so it worked out perfect. I wasn't sure he'd be game for photos and really it wasn't in my ultimate plan. But it worked out and after he saw Samuel getting his photo taken he ran into the middle of the photo session and declared that he wanted his photo with Samuel (without any prompting).

They took a total of 99 photos so this slideshow may get a lil boring! But if you have the time the photos get cuter as the slideshow progresses (Samuel didn't want to smile at first but then was all grins after awhile). Of course, I think all the ones that he's actually looking are cute! But I'm a lil partial to the cutie patootie!