Holiday Season

It has been awhile since I have updated the blog. We have been having a good time this holiday season. Aiden is old enough that he is really enjoying all the Christmas lights (and presents). We started the season by going to an annual festival north of Baltimore called "The festival of trees". There was a lot of entertainment for kids including live music, a Christmas train, some miniature race cars, a petting zoo with pony rides, a carousel, and a moon-bounce. It was quite a display. I included a couple of pictures below. You can see from the pictures at the petting zoo that Aiden doesn't realize he is supposed to be afraid of snakes quite yet. We also enjoyed putting up the tree this year. He has been very good about the ornaments and lights (well, after the first day!). He is very insistent that the tree lights be on, and will come find us to complain in the morning if he finds them off. Finally, we had to put all of the gifts in a safe place because he has now caught on that the packages may contain some great stuff if you just take the paper off. In fact, just the other day he came running in from the living room, proudly displaying a gift from Uncle Brian and Aunt Bethany he had unwrapped. Luckily, it was intended for him (Daddy would have been cool about it, but Mommy likes unwrapping her own gifts thank you very much!)

New Cousin!!!

We have some exciting news around here. Andrew and Tracie are having a baby!!! They made the official announcement at the Turner family reunion. We have actually known for awhile as they gave Aiden the t-shirt above. Needless to say he was wearing that shirt for almost an hour before I caught on. The baby is due in April and they are waiting to learn the sex. Congratulations you guys!!

Turner Family Reunion

Last weekend we piled in the car and headed down to Richmond, Virginia for the Turner family reunion (Julie's maternal Grandfather's side of the family). There were a lot of familiar faces but quite a few that I hadn't met, too. The reunion was held at Scott (Paula's cousin) and Amy Turner's house. It was really great to meet everyone and it was not short on entertainment or food. Scott runs a outdoor adventure company and his backyard was a kid's (and bigger kids) dream come true. First, they have a giant tree swing which you can see in the pictures below Aiden really loved. Scott also helped some of the kids climb a tree. Though it may be hard to tell in pictures, the girls in those pictures range in age from 4 to 12, and were climbing at least 50 feet in the air.

After the outdoor activities, everyone broke out the musical instruments. Robbie Turner delighted the kids with his puppet (Cool Cat) and children's songs. I personally really liked "My brother Billy is running naked through the house". Next, Bob and Carol Turner sang "My mother was a lady". Then Meridith, Elaine, and Eleanor performed a number of violin duets. Finally, the "Turner Trio" (Paula, Elaine, and Andrea)played a number of folk tunes with guitar accompaniment.

Trick or Treating

We took Aiden out for Trick or Treating for the first time with Kennedy. It was a good excuse to get him back in his monkey costume, and both kids seemed to enjoy the experience. After he got the hang of it, he seemed to really enjoy picking out a treat from the bowls. He especially liked the little boxes of raisins (the only treat he was allowed to eat later). The people in The Grams' neighborhood really get into the holiday, so there were a lot of kids in costumes running around. Also, because Annmarie takes the kids on walks so often a lot of the neighbors already knew Aiden. Check out our pics below. Click on a picture to go to the full web album.

Annual Vong Halloween Party

The Sunday before last was the annual Halloween party hosted by our good friends Phil & Tara, who gave up their house and moved to Towson so we'd have a place to live when we moved here. There are always pumpkin crafts and/or carvings--this year Aiden (read: Mommy) fashioned a little pumpkin into a mummy--a costume photo-op, and dinner exclusively featuring menu items that include pumpkin squash as an ingredient, from beer right down to dessert. Amazingly, Tara manages to devise an entirely novel menu each year. Last year was a Mexican theme which blew us all away; this year she again outdid herself with Italian-inspired dishes.

Aiden dressed up as a monkey this year (I call him "my little monkey"....sometimes this morphs into "my little monster", depending on what he's up to at the moment) and, although it ended up that some other poor parents drew the metaphorical short straw for the toddler displaying the worst meltdown, Aiden simply could not be bothered to stay in one spot for the pictures. Each time one of us set him down, he began to chase us. Finally Phil suggested that Brent exit in the direction of his camera, in the hopes that he might be able to get at least one shot where Aiden was looking at the lens. I don't think it ever worked out quite right, but we had fun trying, as you can see in this post's album. When we get a link to Phil's photos, we'll post those too.

Also included in this post's album are a few pics we snapped during the short visit we were lucky enough to have from my cousin Megan and her boyfriend Anthony, on their way from a wedding in the Blue Ridge back home to Brooklyn. We loved seeing them (thanks for coming, guys!), especially since they won't be able to make it to the Turner family reunion next month. It was Megan's first time meeting Aiden; unfortunately he was uncharacteristically moody since he's cutting his first year molars (holy crap those suckers are huge!).

Click on any of the photos below to view the entire album. As a special treat, we've embedded a couple videos in the album which should run right out of PICASA with no extra effort on your part. And look out for the next blog post of trick-or-treat photos; we're going to unleash the little guy on the neighborhood Friday night!

Roadtrip to Norfolk

Last week AnnMarie (our babysitter) was vacationing in Florida with her family so I also got a much needed break from work. My dad came up and hung out with Aiden for a couple days so I could clock in at least some time at work. His visit conveniently overlapped with our anniversary (4 years!) and so Brent & I were lucky enough to get an evening out alone. We enjoyed dinner, music, and some fancy coctails at Pazo Restaurant. Amazingly, we discovered we still had things to say to each other that didn't involve work or our baby. After averaging a mere 15-30 minutes of quality time a day, the night out together was a real treat. Thanks, Dad!

On Saturday Aiden & I said goodbye to Brent & Baltimore and Dad took us on a roadtrip down to Norfolk. Click on any of the pictures below to see the full album from our trip. You'll find pictures of the Saturday night soccer game at Dad's alma mater, ODU (just by coincidence, they played Baltimore's Towson University); both Uncle Andrew & Uncle Patrick joined us for that. On Sunday I went horsebackriding at a farm belonging to a friend of a friend of my mom's--it felt so good to be back on a horse again, even if "Skeeter" was an almost 17 hands high, off-the-track giant. Let me tell you that after nearly two years out of the saddle, muscles from my neck to my feet were complaining for a few days afterwards....but it was totally worth it! Anyway, Aiden loved watching his mommy ride and meeting some horses for the first time; he wasn't scared a bit when we got him up on Skeeter! Those pics are on my mom's camera and she promises to send them soon (right Mom?). On Monday with Mom at work Dad & I took Aiden to the Virginia Zoo in downtown Norfolk where his experience with the lions prompted him to start "roaring" (which he now does in response to the question "What does a lion say?" as well as plenty of other random, unprompted times). Monday evening I caught up with some old friends from high school, Tim and Andrea Fox, who now have two beautiful children, Sebastian (4) and Cecilia (6 mos.). Tuesday, after giving an invited presentation to a group of clinical psychologists at my mom's work, she & I took Aiden to the beach. He worked through some initial timidity and eventually was laughing as we each held a little hand and helped him jump the waves (such as they were--this is the Bay we're talking about here). Wednesday Aiden & I took the train back to Baltimore where Brent was waiting for us. Although he claims to have missed us, a report of the weekend included a night out to watch college football with the guys as well as a pool & beer night with some friends. Enjoy the entire album of photos from Aiden's & my trip to Norfolk by clicking any of the below.

One more in!

Josephine Alexandra Holler was born on September 26th--congrats Phil & Alyssa, you make very cute parents! (the pictures are adorable; I especially like the ones with all the bracelets).

The Stork's Been Putting in Overtime!

I don't write many posts but there are some belated and upcoming congrats in order for many of our friends and family. Here they are, in the order that they pop into my head!

Aras & Kristina Mattis welcomed their first baby to the world, Vidas Nikodemas. He was born on June 5, 2008 and I got to hold him when he was just 7 days old! (Happy coincidence had me out in San Francisco for a conference :)

The Melicks have a new grandbaby! Kaitlynn got a baby sister, Sierra Marie Whitecotton, on September 11. We hear she and her sister share that wild white-blond hair!

Brent's cousin Matthew and his wife Nancy had their second boy, Traxton Mattingly, just a few weeks ago. The announcement's on my fridge at home so I can't recall the exact date...but from the picture it's obvious he's a real cutie!

My friend from grad school Sonya Lehto and her husband welcomed Beckett Wolfe Garner Lehto to the world on August 8, which was also his sister Nora's 2nd birthday. The stork had good timing there!

Okay so this is REALLY overdue, but our friends Bob & Erin had their first back on May 2. You can check out pictures of Reed James Mihelich on their blog (linked in our list of blogs here at the top of this page). I personally recommend the video of Reed "finding his voice".

There are a bunch of babies on the way as well....My dear friend Sarah and her husband Ro are expecting their first in January, I think. We can't wait for baby Nelapaty to arrive! My cousin Rachael is also expecting that month--yay! now Aiden will finally have a cousin. Amber Curran (for those of you who know Heidi, it's her younger sister) and her husband Jerry are expecting a boy in...hmm...I want to say early November? Finally, we have just learned that Dave & Bridget LaRochelle are expecting their 4th little bambino as well! Undoubtedly, there are more babies on the way that we haven't heard about yet! And while still more are a mere twinkle in someone's eye at the moment, we'll be sure to keep you all posted as time goes on.

Anyhow, a great big congratulations goes out to everyone!!!!!! We love you all and are so happy for each and every one of you!

September 2008

I have a few pics laying around from some outings we had at the end of August and beginning of September. Julie and I tried to hit a couple of the ethnic festivals around Baltimore toward the end of the summer. We went to the Ukrainian festival first, mostly because we liked the location (Patterson park) and we had heard it was good. At least the location didn't disappoint...Next we went to the Irish festival at Canton Waterfront Park. The Irish festival was by far more fun. There was live Irish music, Irish Dance from a local school, and (of course) plenty of Guinness. Aiden had his first taste of fish and chips, also. You may notice from the pictures that he is very mobile right now so we spent a lot of time chasing him around the park. I have also added some pictures of our second trip to the zoo. It included a petting zoo where Aiden was able to get up close to the goats. Finally there are some pictures we took yesterday at a park near our house. Aiden is finally big enough to enjoy the jungle gym.

An overdue update

Things have been pretty hectic around here as of late. I started back on surgical pathology which means about 12-18 hour days. We did fit in a quick outing to Patterson park in Baltimore to see a National Public Radio sponsored outdoor concert series. It featured the bluegrass band Randy Waller and the country gentleman. It was a very nice time with a lot of families out in the park. It was the last concert of the year, so it is something to remember for next year. Also, on labor day we decided to take Aiden to the other half of the zoo featuring farm animals. I couldn't help but think how funny it is to see cows and pigs in the zoo after coming from central Illinois. Anwyay, I don't really have a lot new pictures to post. I did however play a little bit more with the camcorder and video editing software and put together a little video from our recent vacation in the Lake of the Ozarks (note that in order to get the video running smoothly on the website, some quality had to be sacrificed....it looked a lot better before but hey, you get the idea.)

Trip to the Zoo

This weekend we went to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore with our friends the Vongs. We have been told by the locals that the Baltimore Zoo is consistently rated as one of the top five zoos in the country. After our visit it is easy to see why. Even after spending half a day there we only managed to see about half of the attractions. The weather was great and the kids (Maia, Leo, and Aiden) all had a great time.

I captured some of the highlights in pictures below. Julie and Phil helped the kids feed the giraffe. I got a nice picture of the giraffe sticking out its long tongue to get some leaves right in front of Julie's watchful eye. Although I wasn't able to capture a smile on his face, at times Aiden was really enjoying it. The next big event was riding the camel. Julie took Maia for a camel ride and Leo rode with his Dad. We also saw the new big attraction, a baby elephant name Sampson that was recently born in the zoo.

I was a little disappointed that some of the big animals were lazily taking naps including the lions, cheetah, and polar bear. However, the chimpanzees were fairly active and put on a nice show for the kids. Check out my pictures below or click here to see the entire album.