Nerds among us!

Mark and I went out to dinner yesterday afternoon at an italian place in the Monroeville Mall. (trivia: the same mall that Dawn of the Dead was filmed.) The restaraunt is right across the little walkway thingy from Barnes and Noble bookstore. As we were leaving Braxton started having a tizzy fit (I'm trying to make it sound better than it was). We couldn't figure out what he wanted right away. When he started to calm down we realized he wanted to go "weed" which is read in BX speak. We decided there were worse things he could throw a fit about so we took him in the store. He wandered around reading any book that caught his eye for the better part of an hour. As he was doing this I realized that he's going to be a nerd just like his daddy. I thought I would document the progression of this. Mark was studying Neutronics. Braxton is about 5 weeks old.

Mark is doing a crossword puzzle. Braxton is 6mos old.

BX decided he needed to wear an old pair of Marks glasses in order to do his "reading".

Braxton's favorite reading place. He's gotten to the point that he knows all the stories so he doesn't let us read to him unless its a new book.

Can't leave Kieran out. I believe Mark is studying structural mechanics.
All three of my handsome little nerds. Its a beautiful life. Check back later for more nerd alerts!

Bactracking

So, I know its way past Christmas but thanks to both of our computers going bunk at the same time, I wasn't able to publish these until now. This was Braxtons face when he walked in and saw his new fort. We now can't keep him out of it.The aforementioned fort. The third part is cut out of the picture. Can you say "spoiled"?

Kieran's first Christmas. In true newborn fashion he slept through most of it.

With the exception of this moment. He woke up just long enough to smile for the camera.
"Santa" wrapped the presents too well. Braxton needed daddy's help opening some of them up. Marks shirt says "Chuck Norris does my stunts". I thought it was pretty funny. That was our Christmas. Braxton spent pretty much the rest of the day in his fort. Mark played guitar hero. Kieran and I slept. Good times for all.

Road Warriors

What do the Dogfish Head Alehouse, endless hours of Backyardigans, 1 lease, and Five Guys all have in common? They were the main elements of our househunting trip to DC. We took along our portable DVD player to keep Braxton from going batty with all the driving we knew we'd be doing over the weekend. It kept Braxton sane but I swear - one more time hearing the line "Hi, I'm Pablo... and we're your backyard friends, the Backyardigans" and I might have had to jump out of the car! However with that minor exception the weekend was a major success. We put in an application on the first house we saw because it was perfect (except for lack of a nearby stroller striders program) and were accepted by that afternoon. It was great, we ate some great food that we had dearly missed (shout out to the Five Guys burger gurus!) and discovered a new place to eat when we get back. The Dogfish Head Alehouse. Sounds disgusting, doesn't it? However it is the perfect place to take kids to eat. Its such a loud atmosphere that all three of the boys (our good friends Mike and Amy's little boy Brendan made the third boy FYI) were yelling and nobody even gave us a second glance! It was super. In short, I don't reccomend househunting with the kids in tow, but if you absolutely must make sure there is some great food in store!

Blue Toes

Ok, before I start this, I want you all to know I realize I never gave birth to a girl and am more than ok with this.

This morning I had to paint my toenails because it was that time of the week. (For those of you that don't know this, my toes haven't gone unpainted since I was 13.) Well I did it while Braxton was awake instead of waiting 'til he was down for his nap. Of course I should have known that any two year old is going to want to do whatever his mommy is doing...


At Least they're blue right???????????

HELP!!!

So, about three weeks after we brought Kieran home, Braxton started waking up at night. At least two times a night, and independantly of his brother. So we know that Kieran isn't waking Braxton up with crying (he doesn't cry too much at night anyway), but what we don't know is why Braxton all of a sudden wakes up 2-4 times a night. Does anybody know? Or have any ideas as to how to stop this???? Braxton was a great sleeper until Kieran came home. One baby waking me up several times a night is MORE than enough. Please help a mommy in distress!

Who's Who?????

When Mark and I gave away all our baby stuff, I had kept a few of my favorite outfits around for memories or the eventuality of another baby boy. Well, now that said eventuality is here, I took a picture of Kieran in one of the outfits I kept around. Well when I went back to look at the pictures I almost couldn't tell which one was which. Amazing to me... They are totally different now. Braxton was teeny at this age. Kieran - not so much. However what matters is both are healthy - and despite tantrums, happy.

Ego boost... For a minute.

So, this morning I was getting ready to go pick up Uncle Sneaky (my brother in law) from the airport. I decided not to wear one of the two pairs of jeans that currently fit me. I put on a skirt. (yes, its 30 degree weather - and yes - I know I'm crazy.) Well, somewhere along the way Braxton decided that if you wear a skirt you're a princess. Don't ask me I'm not quite sure where he got it. Well he saw me this morning in my skirt and said "mommy, you're a pretty princess". Of course I felt great after this. (I am only like 7 weeks postpartum...) Then Braxton came over lifted up my skirt, laughed and said "mommy's beeps wiggle" (beeps is what he calls anything in the bathing suit area). Well, I felt good about myself for a moment anyway.

Gearing up!

Well folks, Mark and I have settled into our house here in the small bourough of Jeannette, Pennsylvania (a teeny little township of Pittsburgh) and that can only mean one thing. Its time to move AGAIN! We are currently gearing up for the third move in 16 months. This one unfortunately is going to be complicated by 6 weeks of separation (kinda like the Kevin Bacon game, only not fun) between Mark and I. The boys and I are flying back to Oregon the first week of Feb. and will hang out at my parents place for those six weeks. Mark has a few more adventures in store for him. He'll be here in Penn. for another week to supervise the movers and get us checked out during his week of finals at the BRES. Then he'll drive down to Newport News, VA and do shipyard duty for a few weeks. Then he has to fly to BFE Idaho to finish up his training. Lastly, he'll head back up to DC and take reciept of our household goods and move us in before the boys and I return.

I wasn't sure I was going to miss this place, but as we get ready to leave I find myself wishing to transplant this small and quiet town into the hubub that is the greater DC area. I really enjoy looking out my living room window and seeing a silo, and a barn with a pasture of cows and horses. (Braxton has truly enjoyed the cows also.)

These are the views from our living room windows. They're a little different now that its winter and there are no leaves on the trees, and there is snow on the ground... but you get the idea.

However, this place will hold some not so great feelings... like having my second kid while my husband is currently in school for his masters degree. Its great for him - bad for my sanity. I don't reccomend having kids while either parent is in school. I also won't miss the road construction that seems to be ubiquitous in Pennsylvania. We live a mile from the highway, but because of road construction we've had to take a detour five miles further... then backtrack on the highway. They also shut the major freeway down on weekends. WHO DOES THAT??? So on the weekends, if Mark and I needed to do some shopping at a place other than the super-walmart we had to make sure we were up early so that we could beat the detour-around-the-freeway delays. LAME-O!

Of course the DC area doesn't exactly have a great reputation for traffic either.... hmmm.

Either way, the Navy says move, so we do. As long as nothing crazy happens, we should be there for about 3 years before another move happens. Thank goodness.

Jumping into the 21st Century (just a little late)

Alright everybody, we've finally gotten ourselves a blog. Everyone's doing it, and I figured this was one of those instances my mom wouldn't say "if everybody jumped off a bridge...".

Since naptime is ending all I can really say at this point in time is - enjoy the McDaniel Family Circus! (I promise, I'm not exaggerating... I live with three boys.)