Virginia Roots

Yes, it's true

2007-10-30T08:48:00.000-07:00

We've moved. Again. We're back in Georgia. We snuck out of the state like the Baltimore Colts and the Washington Senators, under the cover of night without telling anyone. We'll get contact information out soon.

Yes, Jen has a JOB this time, which means it might actually last a bit longer.

The Marietta Roots blog is back up and running now too:

http://mariettaroots.blogspot.com/

Happy First Birthday, Alexander!

2007-09-11T19:30:00.000-07:00

We are very far behind on putting out the news for the Root Fam. Stay tuned for cute beach pics from Labor Day at Buckroe Beach, VA (near Hampton). I think we even missed posting for Veronica's 4th birthday...lucky she's not old enough to guilt us on that. So... long story short, we have been busy with life, trying to find that elusive "balance" that we keep hearing about.

The first picture is from Daddy's attempt at balance when Jen went away for a weekend, managing a trade show in Chicago. This happened about 10 seconds after he "reset" the boy in the living room. (Daddy rule #1: when the boy makes a run for the cat food in the kitchen, reset the boy by lifting him up and planting him in the living room...furthest from the cat food within the defined safe zone.) He tumbled books from the bookshelf as he does not yet realize that he can climb the shelving, made a mad dash for the cart full of fake food and toys and such and trashed it against the bouncy, and proceeded to try to wear and then eat the collander.

The other pictures are from the birthday. Most of the event was caught on video as it required both Mommy and Daddy to manage the dinner ritual, especially as it was extended for the cake. Yes, he ate the traditional carrot cake (the carrot and cream cheese gave us some assurance that it may be at least partly good for him...). He did good - his eyes didn't dialate like his sister's do (and did when she ate the same cake), and he didn't go nuts like his sister does (and did when she ate the same cake...we think she's getting better though...she does more of the vibrating in place instead of practicing the "fly off the handle on a sugar high" routine...there's hope).

Take me to the River . . .

2007-07-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

We had a PERFECT day at the James River on my sister's property. We couldn't get our little river rat (aka Veronica) out of the water, except to swing. Alex enjoyed discovering grass, bugs and just soaking up the sun. He even celebrated by taking his first unassisted steps. Thanks Joe and Dianne - we had a GREAT time!

Fourth of July

2007-07-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

We had a nice fourth holiday . . . it all started with a parade in downtown Fairfax. The weather was perfect - not too hot - and we found a perfect viewing spot in the shade. Here are some cute shots of the kids. You can see their favorite activity for the day was "hop on pop."

After the parade we packed ourselves up and headed out to Ginger and Jason's for a little soiree. We never made it to the fireworks - the kids were worn out and Veronica hasn't quite accepted fireworks as not scary, so we just headed home ahead of a little rain. A very nice day.

A Happy Father's Day

2007-06-19T19:00:00.001-07:00

Father's Day was great - I got to see my dad, visiting from Oklahoma, and spent a lot of time with the kids that made me a dad. Jennifer took a red-eye back from her conference in California to be back in Virginia bright and early on Father's Day. Of course, she wasn't in much shape to do a lot of minding, but she made the whole day. Afterall, I couldn't be a dad without her, either.

Veronica played very well with Natalia and all the other kids, and they all played well with Alexander. Even the adults played well with Alex!

Double Trouble

2007-06-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

Greetings all - I wanted to toss up a quick pic to let you know we are all healthy and hale. We have misplaced our camera these past couple weeks, so our activity is a bit down with the blog. Alexander is doing well and recovering (still) from ear infections. It looks like it has been the same ear infection that has been lingering for weeks now, so he is heading for ear tubes in the next few weeks. We don't relish having him go under for the operation, but we know from experience with Veronica that it will be a dramatic improvement on downtime from being sick. One of the many drawbacks to daycare - we are definitely back in the viral soup that seems to make us all so human (miserey loves company, eh?). Veronica has been nothing but healthy and is really happy the water is warm enough to swim in. Mommy and Daddy are going through the normal throes of living - seems like a pretty constant and quick hamster wheel, moving from one appointment to the next. We know there's a future out there, we just need to take a break now and then to get it back into our sights before jumping back o that wheel. Slowly but surely.

Grandma to the Rescue

2007-04-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

This is a tribute to my mom (a.k.a. Grandma) for helping us out when we hit a jam with bad travel schedules - Nathan going to New Jersey for bidder conferences at the last minute while Jen went to Kentucky to run a conference. Oof! All is well that ends well, though, eh?

The girls definitely had a great time. I realize belatedly that we didn't toss Alexander into the picture. He may have been sleeping at the time these pictures were snapped. We wouldn't have gotten these if Nathan didn't make an executive decision and tossed the girls onto Grandma for photos. Veronica is still recovering and is really looking forward to when Grandma and Grandpa come out in a month or so. However, she keeps saying Whiskers will be coming, too... Not sure what Grandma has been filling her head with.

In the time that Nathan and Jennifer flew off into separate directions, Grandma kept Alexander and Veronica happy and fed and entertained, and somehow managed to administer Alex's nebulizer, baby Xantac, and Amoxicillan. When mommy and daddy got back, they discovered that Alexander had added a couple upper teeth (to match the two lower front teeth), and Veronica was 2 inches taller!

Last but not least, I had to add the latest family portrait that I picked up this afternoon - it came with the girl. I had only just noticed the fifth figure in the picture. The only thing I could reason is that Grandma is one of the figures in the family portrait, and that the little guy is Alexander. I will have to interrogate the girl in the morning.

Positive Thinking!

2007-04-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

Well, we hear snow is on its way YET AGAIN this weekend! Argh! We talked it over with Veronica, and we decided to say Nay! It's time for warm weather to come and stay for a while. To prepare for blue skies and hot sun, Veronica is practicing with her new goggles. It took some getting used to, but they came in pretty handy in the bath - she still gets a bit wiggy when we have to rinser her hair of the shampoo. The goggles make it a snap.

Not a bad week - Nathan is back from horse country (Kentucky was beautiful, but mighty windy). The local aristocracy introduced him to Woodford Reserve, though he regretted he didn't have time to visit Keeneland Racetrack across from the Lexington Airport - the times he drove past it, though, it looked pretty gorgeous. Next week will be West Virginia and then off to New Jersey the week after. Grandma will be shuttling out to help with the kids as Nathan and Jennifer will be off in opposite directions at the same time!

Baby boy officially cut his first tooth the day before Easter and has started happily munching on meat (mushy though it is) - seven months old this week! Nathan is still itching to introduce him to the holy grail (hot peppers). Time and a place for everything, eh?

Happy Easter 2007

2007-04-09T03:49:00.000-07:00

It was a good Easter, one of the busier that I can recall. Of course, it helps when you are constantly being rousted at 2AM and 4AM by a playful little boy blue. Daddy was pretty tired, but all in all, it was a good time. Started with Easter surprises for the kids, church service, then a bee line for Woodbridge. Sorry for crashing out in the guest room with baby boy, Mandy! At least it wasn't quite an hour.

Of course, we had to leave just before the great Egg Hunt - at least we got to gorge on Peruvian Easter food. We both forgot the name of the dish, but it sure was good. It carried us pretty much for the rest of the day.

After Easter at the Mesones's, we booked up to Herndon to visit with the Fetske family and baby Abby. What a cutie! At the end of the day, we got back just in time to force feed some veggies into Veronica (to help offset th

e various jelly beans and chocolates she'd consumed, mostly in the car. We are very blessed to have such a beautiful and happy family. Zach - we included this last picture just for you. Crunch, crunch. :)

Snow in April? For Easter?

2007-04-07T07:55:00.000-07:00

Just wrong....just...wrong. ;)
This picture was from this morning. I am sure you will see more from us from the egg coloring activities.

Goodbye

2007-03-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

November 1987 - Charlottesville, Virginia
A skittish grey kitten with a broken tail finds a permanent home . . . in Jen's heart.

Nineteen years and a million memories later, it is time to say goodbye.

Goodbye sweet PJ.

UPDATE:
On Saturday, PJ started vomiting, stopped eating and drinking - all signs of kidney failure. We had her euthanized today so she wouldn't have to suffer any longer. We have just learned of the cat food recall - and this is the food that PJ has been eating for a week. We are 100% certain her kidney failure was due to its consumption. She was feeble with arthritis, but she was still sharp and healthy enough until she consumed the tainted food. We plan to follow up with the company that produces the food.

Walk in the Woods

2007-03-10T17:58:00.000-08:00

Finally, a Spring-like day! We took advantage of the weather and took a walk in the woods with the help of our neighbor and one of Veronica's idols. This would be Alexander's first swing - a bit snug in front of his big sister, but it made for a great picture.

Veronica enjoyed "going higher and higher." She also enjoyed shocks from the slide. I wish we could have captured some of the static discharges.

And of course, Veronica enjoyed goofing around with Mommy, too! We had plans to take in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in DC (didn't pan out), and plans to visit the library with the kids (didn't pan out ). But all in all, it was a fine walk in the woods.

Festival!

2007-03-04T18:29:00.000-08:00

It was a good weekend! We went to a consignment sale & festival at a nearby Episcopal church - Veronica had great fun. She even deigned to have her face painted with a butterfly to match her shirt. She was a hoot. Of course, the brownie and cupcake helped her along. She also picked up a couple new Cinderellas. I guess one can't have too many Cinderellas.

She and Alexander got to enjoy balloons - we are posting this on Sunday night and we are finally down to one. No, Alexander didn't bite the one that bit the dust. We didn't get to witness it, but it involved a big hug from Veronica, that much we know.

What's a weekend without a little down time? The photo with Veronica sporting a Cinderella dress was just cute - she was draped by her "princess blanket" in the morning as she woke up and daddy got her oatmeal ready.

Wintry Mix - Invasion of Snow Men

2007-02-25T11:01:00.000-08:00

Some "wintry mix" this has been - it started snowing some time this morning, and it's afternoon and still snowing. Veronica and Daddy got out to play in the snow. It was perfect for packing snowballs and making snow men. These gents have already been destroyed by local hoodlums, but they were fun to put together.

Veronica at least conceded to get back inside for hot cocoa before she becam a total popicle. :)

Peas in a Pod

2007-02-23T15:54:00.000-08:00

Veronica and Alexander enjoyed each other's company over last weekend (and even shared their little pod..."the bathtub" as V would say...with a puppy named Bear and a blue-footed booby).

They have both been very sweet. Looking forward to another blustery weekend. So far, so good in the health department - no resurgence of colds or ear infections or chest congestions. Of course...mommy decided to break a toe last night! Funny, she feels like she has finally found a balance she has lacked all her life. The only other bone she broke until now was her other little toe!

Cookin' in Charlottesville

2007-02-05T18:31:00.000-08:00

February 2007 - Charlottesville

This is a slideshow from our visit to Charlottesville over the weekend. There are also some pictures of baby boy who continues to grow and astound us. He has been doing much better now that he's on "baby Zantax." Turns out reflux has been a cause of his ear, nose, and throat congestion. He is moving on to solid foods (rice-oatmeal-sweet potatoe gruel is a fav), now if we can just get him to start sleeping through the night again!

Veronica has been a big helper, though. As you can see, she is getting pretty proficient in the kitchen. One of these days, mommy and daddy will be waking up to a full breakfast.

Making of a Snow Angel

2007-01-26T16:52:00.000-08:00

2007 Snow Angel

Click on the picture for the making of a Snow Angel. She had a blast in the first snow, despite how cold it was. I think she was out for a good two or three hours, and soaked through three pairs of mittens before we bribed her back in with second helpings of hot chocolate!

2006 Year End Letter

2006-12-22T09:36:00.000-08:00

This online version is for our friends and family that we don't have addresses for, or we were just plain negligent in getting cards out to. Please forgive us!
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Where has this year gone? It is hard for us to think back to imagine where we were a year ago, but we are happy where we have ended up. As usual we’ve had a year with lots of changes, ups and downs but mostly new beginnings for our family. Sit back and enjoy reading the Root antics for the past year.

At the end of 2005 we had just moved back to Virginia from Georgia. The pain of leaving our beautiful house and wonderful neighbors behind is still pretty fresh – we miss them dearly and look forward to introducing them to Alexander very soon. We began 2006 living in Herndon with Jen’s sister and we can’t say enough about how much we appreciate the generosity of Melody and Al sharing their home with us. In August we moved into a townhouse in Springfield, and we think everyone was breathing a sigh of relief that we have a new beginning in a place of our own again.

And we were barely settled into the townhouse when we had another new beginning with the introduction of our son, Stephen Alexander on September 11. What a joy he is! We are still figuring out how he works, but he’s pretty neat so far. His new beginnings include smiling, learning to laugh and discovering his hands. Just in case you don’t know, he was a complete surprise for us – we were certain that we were done with having children and were settled with being a “one child” family. A higher power obviously had different ideas. . .

Veronica is still a source of constant amazement (and challenge) to us. On the one hand we never saw much of the “terrible two’s,” but the three’s have been pretty trippy. Her milestones this year include potty training and growing from a toddler into a beautiful, independent - if not a bit sassy - little girl. This year her new beginnings include taking a ballet and tap dance class, learning Spanish and Sign Language. She’s our Princess and she makes sure to keep us in line.

Late last year we bought a terrific little hybrid car – a Toyota Prius. It was great when the gas prices shot up this past year and in the DC area, driving a hybrid allowed Jennifer to use carpool lanes alone which saved her 20 – 30 minutes each way on her commute to and from work. But as great as this car was we discovered its’ greatest weakness: You can’t fit mom, dad, two kids and Grandma in the car. Nate’s mom was here for three weeks when Alexander was born and we couldn’t all fit in the car to go out together so we did what all typical suburban parents do. We traded the Prius in on a mini-van. Jennifer still protests about it – she can’t get around the image of her driving a mommy car and was still saying she would never, ever drive one until we drove it off of the car lot.

Nathan’s job at BearingPoint is going very well. He received a great promotion this year and is helping staff his department up. His travel is even cut back quite a bit since he’s back in the DC area. Most of the travel is now local, which Jennifer and the kids really appreciate. But he still manages to sneak a bit of travel in to keep his frequent flier cards busy.

Jennifer’s job is going well too. This December marks her first year with the Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association. Her travel is greatly reduced from prior jobs, but she still gets to travel some. Her first meeting with this group took her to Hawaii in February where Nathan joined her while Veronica spent time with the grandparents in Oklahoma. It was neat to revisit where we exchanged our wedding vows and know that we’re still as happy now as we were then.

We’re looking forward to 2007, but can’t say that we have any idea where we will end up. We have to admit we feel like we’ve been full circle in the past four years and perhaps Virginia is where we belong and will stay. But then again, we still own a beautiful house in Georgia that we are very reluctant to sell . . .

We hope that this letter finds all of our friends and family happy and well this holiday season.

Happy Kids

2006-12-18T13:15:00.000-08:00

Trying to be good for Santa.

Who me?

2006-12-11T09:56:00.000-08:00

Couldn't resist posting this super-cute picture of Alex. He has officially discovered his thumb too. Daddy was responsible for the hairdo.

It took us a week to decorate for the holidays. We finally finished yesterday and are trying to figure out how to keep all the gifts hidden from a certain little imp . . .

Speaking of Veronica, she went shopping with me to buy a small gift for Nathan and she promised to keep it secret. We weren't home 5 minutes when she proudly ratted me out telling him everything I had purchased. Ahhh. Christmastime.

Finally!

2006-11-13T10:14:00.000-08:00

Pictures of Alexander! Getting bigger and cuter everyday. Had his 2 month check-up. He's a champ and weighs 13 lbs already!

Halloween Pictures

2006-11-09T07:38:00.000-08:00

Goofballs that we are - we couldn't find our camera on Halloween, so we only have pictures of the kids that our neighbors took. But you get the idea of how adorable they were. This picture is of the group that took Veronica out trick-or-treating. From left to right it includes:

Jordan the witch - holding Alexander, our little devil
Ian as Darth Vader
Veronica, our very own Princess
Sy as some Star Wars character I can't identify (OMG - I'm OLD.)
Aaron as a hockey player

Jordan and Aaron are siblings and live in the townhome on our right. Ian and Sy are siblings and live in the townhome on our left. They're good neighbors - but Halloween brought back such bittersweet memories of last year and the best neighbors in the world . . . we still miss everyone in Marietta very much.

We've been taking more pictures of Alex, now that we've found our camera again. Now we just have to find the time to download them and post them!

Welcome Stephen Alexander Root

2006-10-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the very long delay in getting anything posted about our new addition . . . it's been a busy month.

Little Stephen Alexander was born at 10:58 am on September 11, 2006. (I guess we won't have any trouble remembering his birthday.) Labor and delivery went fine, no complications. He will be going by the name "Alexander." (We let Veronica choose what to call him.)

We had a busy house for the first couple of weeks with his Grandma Root in town to help with Alex's transition to the outside world and to help with letting his big sister Veronica know that she was still important. Grandma stayed for three weeks and then when she was certain we could handle two kids on our own, jetted back to OK to take care of her "kids." (We're talking about the dogs & cats, not Grandpa!)

Shortly after Grandma headed home, Alex developed a persistent fever and on Sunday Oct. 1 (Nate's B-Day) when it jumped to over 100, we called the doctor and ended up with a 24 hour watch to see if his fever would get high enough to precipitate a trip to the hospital. Monday afternoon, our worst fears were realized and we had to quickly pack up the whole family and go to the ER. (Many thanks to Uncle Chad for coming to get Veronica so we could help Alex through the experience.)

The worst pain I've ever experienced in my lifetime, was helplessly watching my barely three-week old son getting stuck in all extremities trying to get an IV in and getting a spinal tap. No child at any age should have to endure such things.

We ended up in the hospital for three days waiting for all of the test results and they all came back clear. It was just a viral infection that had to run its course, but because he was so young, no chances could be taken with his undeveloped immune system. When we came home he still had a fever that we had to watch for another couple of days, but it finally broke and he is gaining weight and looking very healthy now.

So now we're just navigating being a family. We've always heard that having more than one child is challenging and we've gotten to learn first-hand. We have an enormous respect for any single parents out there now.

So our apologies for the delay in the update - but it's been a challenging month.

And to top it off . . . we got a mini-van. My poor ego. ;-)

We've been lagging on the photos too, but will get busy with the camera soon. We don't want to end up with tons of baby pictures of Veronica and none of Alexander!

(And for those of you that believe in such things . . . is it a coincidence that when Alexander was born, there was a hurricane brewing in the Caribbean named "Florence?" Florence was my mother's name - so I know she was nearby when he was born.)

Third Birthday Chaos!

2006-08-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

Veronica had a great third Birthday - complete with THREE parties. She had one at her old school, one at her new school and one with family. She was a Birthday cake freak for a whole week. Let's hope we didn't set a precedent of week-long Birthday celebrations. Wait a minute . . . maybe that's not such a bad idea!

Here's a cute photo from her family Birthday party. She insisted on getting dressed up and wearing a party dress. Precocious, yes?

And of course the theme appeared to be "Princess Dress Up" - as she got three outfits to wear. Here is a picture of her trying on one of them, with the help of Aunt Vicky.

Speaking of help from Aunt Vicky . . . if she hadn't arrived early, it would have been even more chaotic. You see we moved in to the townhome on Tuesday, I was sick through Friday and yet we held a Birthday party there on Saturday. We managed to get a few rooms cleared enough to host the get-together with minimal boxes and clutter. Thanks!

The countdown has begun - I only have only four more weeks. Although everyone seems to think I'll deliver early this time . . . the way I feel - I don't doubt it. My guess? September 7 . . . any guesses on my due date? (Doc says Sept. 16.)

Carolina Beach

2006-06-06T18:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry for taking so long with this post - have had a combination of issues that were technical and time related. We had a wonderful weekend over Memorial Day at Carolina Beach, NC. We were joined by the Gomez family (Mike, Amy, and Ian). I think it is safe to say we had a blast, but I think Veronica and Ian had the best of it. Our routines were pretty simple: Nathan would wake up a couple hours before everyone else to do some work, we'd all eat breakfast, scoot to the beach, make sand castles and chase waves, back for a dip in the pool, lunch, nap, and start over again. Couldn't get much better than that, and the weather cooperated the whole extended weekend.

Veronica collected lots of sea shells for that salt water aquarium they'll have one day. The sand castles Nathan made were usually sand castle-bathtub combinations. Veronica would keep jumping in the bathtub until a really big wave would roll in and scare her back to dry land. Then Nathan would start over again. The turrets never got too high, though, thanks to Veronica. When Ian got adventurous, he got his Godzilla licks in, too.

When the sun set on your Memorial Day weekend and it was time for us to go home, we summarized the lessons we learned: try to get a pest report before renting a condo on the beach; convince friends to pick up fireworks in SC (the sparklers in the stores of NC are a bit bruising to macho egos); read the clock carefully before drinking a half pot of coffee if you intend to wake and do some work in the wee hours before everyone else gets up; Elmo is a very strong flier. We can't wait to do it again - hope to see you there!

Tuckered Out

2006-05-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

It was a great Saturday with the Mesones family this past weekend. The intrepid Root Family journeyed to Dale City to hang out with Mandy and Natalia for the day in an effort to give Veronica some play time and see if we could get her good and pooped. We intended to stay until about nap time, but wound up staying for dinner after Jorge came home from work. Veronica demonstrated prowess on her new bouncy ball, and Natalia matched her bounce for bounce on her bouncy ball. At the end of the day, the great carrot battle was pretty fun for all of us (except Natalia). As you can see, although we got home late, we achieved our primary objective: Veronica was good and pooped - she barely lifted an eyelid while she got transferred to bedtime jammies.

Happy Mother's Day!

2006-05-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend - we had a wonderful visit with Mandy and Natalia, and today was "icing on the cake," as they say. Veronica had a blast playing at the JetBlue play area at the Dulles mall and was generally just a peach.
Jennifer seems to have had a pretty good day - she's now got pajamas that actually fit, and her next motherhood experience is still going well. She still doesn't have gestational diabetes, but watching the sugar and all that. All signs are pointing to positive. Veronica grins every time she feels her baby brother (she hasn't quite put it together that when she feels her baby brother, it's because he's kicking her!). Even daddy seems to be doing things okay - stayed out of the dog house all Mother's Day long!
Happy Mother's Day to you, Happy Mother's Day to you,
Ha-a-ppy Mo-o-other's Day to you-ou-ou,
Happy Mother's Day to you!

Chopsticks!

2006-04-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

Granted, she won't be flipping sushi in a sushi bar anytime soon, but she's awfully cute. We ventured to take her with us to a local Thai restaurant and she was actually very good for us. We were VERY surprised by how well she picked up with the chopsticks. Her skill level is roughly at "can pick up enough not to starve," but she still cheats a bit with the fingers. What do you expect for not quite three years old?

It's our latest delay tactic to keep her occupied and happy while mommy and daddy prepare dinner or just unwind. We scatter some popcorn on the table mat and giver her the chopsticks. We're a little worried it's working too well, and she'll suddenly tire of the routine right when we get dependent on it. It's also a great way to get her to eat more of her dinner if the carrots or meat aren't disappearing fast enough!

She's slowly getting over the Easter treats, and is really enjoying a recent upgrade to her bike - princess bike with Cinderella helmet. She can get bookin' pretty well to the point that mommy can have a hard time keeping up with her (on the downhill).

Not much news other than Jen and Veronica's baby brother keep getting bigger.

Garden Bunny

2006-04-18T06:14:00.000-07:00

Veronica "helped" Aunt Melody plant some flowers, green peppers and tomatoes. She was a very happy helper although the evening dissolved into her watering herself more than the plants.

Here she is showing off her sugar-induced boo-boo. She ate some candy then ran into a wall. Takes after her mommy, what can I say? We tried to moderate her candy consumption, but she's such a cute beggar.

Final photo - the Easter Bunny brought her a little purse with a matching necklace and earrings. Here she is modeling them . . . right before she promptly disassembled them. When we went for an afternoon walk - she wanted to go see Evan and Ian. If it wasn't such a long walk (Marietta!) we just might have tried.

Pre-Easter Eggster

2006-04-15T18:07:00.000-07:00

Oh, the young humanity. We took Veronica to Herndon High School for an egg hunt. The eggs didn't have a chance. . . it was horrific. There were about a thousand plastic eggs in an enclosure of maybe 1500 square feet. Ringing the enclosure were about a 100 kids and assorted parents and sibs. It was over almost as soon as the ribbon was cut. Toddlers were stooping and scooping, many closely followed (and helped) by parents and older sibs.
While we felt really badly for the eggs, the kids seemed to have fun. We were surprised not to see a lot of pushing and shoving and swiping. We stood back and watched Veronica toddle off with the rest of the runts, hoping she would be able to fend for herself and get at least a couple eggs. As you can see, she did pretty well for herself. Most kids we saw after the grounds were picked clean had maybe half as many as she did.
Toward the end of the morning we were there, the Easter Bunny himself showed up and was mobbed by the kids. Veronica was enthralled for the longest time. She kept petting him and hugging his legs while all the other kids posed for pictures (we couldn't get lined up for a posed shot without elbowing the other parents in the face - figured it wouldn't be the Easterly thing to do).
She also got up close with a sheep in the petting zoo - Daddy couldn't get to her in time as she harassed a poor sheepy trying to pet ears that didn't want to be petted (or pulled?). It was a gentle butting, but it surprised little V. (Daddy thought it was cute.) All is well that ends well, and we are looking forward to Easter Sunday.
We've got the eggs dyed and ready for a more realistic Easter Egg Hunt, where the eggs are at least a little hidden. More pictures to come, but Daddy's just sorry they won't quite live up to Zachary's egg coloring bonanza. One of these years...

Happy Birthday, Hosanna!

2006-04-14T18:09:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Hosanna's birthday yesterday by taking the three cousins to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the GMU Patriot Center. We had a bit of concern - Jen has had a persistent fear of clowns and other things sometimes associated with circuses, and Veronica was still a bit wiggy from the Disney Princesses on Ice (drat, that Ursula!). We really have Jen's friend Julie to thank for the excellent seats (and great price!). <>
After some initial 15 minutes of hiding in daddy's and mommy's shoulder, she finally came out of her shell a bit. The elephants and horses helped a great deal. The tigers were icing on the cake. Hosana and Natalia took it all in pretty good stride. By the end of the night, all thee of the girls had a ball. Chad, Jen, and Nathan had a pretty good time, too. We're just sorry it started out so stressful - we told Chad and Mandy to try to get there early to beat traffic (hoping to meet around 5:30), and we were even later than our originally planned time of 6 o'clock! (Subconscious sabotage from a clownophobe.) Then we couldn't find a place to meet for dinner...all the pizza places that were on the online maps must have been hiding down unseen alleys. Ruby Tuesday's did us in a pinch. After the stress of traffic, meeting for dinner, dinner with three toddlers in a mostly grownup restaurant, and parking for the circus, it was a really good night. Good times were had by all.
Happy birthday again, Hosanna! Happy Easter!

April Fools

2006-04-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

We visited with Mandy last weekend on April 1st. I proved how very bad I am by telling my mom that we were sending Veronica to live with them in Oklahoma while Jennifer and I would be splitting up between Mandy and Jen's friend for the next several months. I may be the death of my parents yet, or at least my mom. Dad napped through the whole thing, including Mandy's beautiful set up call an hour or so before I sprung the trap myself. I thought there would be no way Mom wouldn't make the connection between dire news and April 1st. Oh well, I am a bad son. Someone had to teach me, though. ;) At least I didn't let it linger - I fessed up on the same call after I gave her some time to think about how she could Veronica-proof the house in Oklahma. Mandy seemed to get a kick out of it. He he.
Anyway, this was a beautiful shot of Veronica and Natalia, both being perfect princesses while Veronica played with all of Natalia's stuff. I think they are both getting better about the "mine!" thing, but we still wound up coming home with a humongous red monkey that Veronica didn't really need. Not much news otherwise. The circus is in town, so hopefully the cousins will get together again next week to see the big top.

I Walk the Line

2006-04-03T17:19:00.000-07:00

I can still recall the day we tramped into our local Waffle House in Georgia to have...waffles. Jennifer gave Veronica some quarters and let her play with the juke box. "I Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash was one of the first songs Veronica picked out, and from that moment forward I have thought it was an appropriate theme song for her. She certainly can walk that line, and look very good doing it. Long ago, we came to the conclusion that we don't care what others say or think, we think she's pretty darn tootin' and a great kid to boot (if you aren't familiar with strange American lingo, it's just an expression: she's got a lot of spunk and is also a wonderful kid). We could be spoiling her, we could be giving her mixed signals, but we understand that's all part of the parenting package.
We are looking forward to many years of spoiling her, and we'll spoil the next one too. But we have very high hopes for Veronica and her sib-to-be, and have every reason to look forward to raising a couple of well-adjusted kids who can't help but walk the line between precocious and precious, good and bad - living and loving are learning experiences. Boy do we have a lot to learn, but we're really happy that we have a lot to love. Sorry it's been a while for updates - been a bit hectic and tired lately.

No real news

2006-03-30T08:36:00.000-08:00

I know we've been really bad about keeping this up, but honestly there just hasn't been anything interesting going on in our lives lately.

Our house in Georgia still hasn't sold, so we're still living with my sister. We know that our welcome is wearing out, but we've dropped the price on the house as far as we can. It's just a tough market there and we're hoping that now that Spring has arrived there will be some more activity. It's such a great house, we can't imagine why someone hasn't snapped it up yet.

I just wrapped up a conference in Dallas. It went well, but it's getting harder to be away from Veronica, she really knows when either Nate or I are traveling now and she lets us know that it's unacceptable to her.

I'm doing well - no morning sickness or anything. We've been warned about our high risk for potential genetic problems because of my age, but it doesn't change anything - this is still our baby and we love it regardless of what could be.

Nate's travel is picking up again, but it's short trips here and there, no more long stretches in Montana.

We've been hoping to get back down to GA for a visit and to give the house a spring cleaning, but we just don't seem to have the time lately.

So there it is - our full update. Nothing going on, just day to day stuff. Wheee!

Disney Princesses

2006-02-20T14:01:00.000-08:00

We did something brave today . . . we took Veronica to her very first Disney On Ice Show - Disney Princesses. Oh Boy. And we thought she was a prima donna BEFORE we went. Seriously, she had a good time, but spent a lot of time covering her face. All the witches scared her. And Goofy. Goofy scared her - go figure.

We've been keeping busy, mostly working and crossing our fingers that our house in GA sells soon. We hate to think about letting it go, I think there's a part of us that wonders if we'll ever go back - we really, really miss our neighbors. But the fact of the matter right now is that we can't live with my sister forever - we're really in need of our own space - and we can't afford that in the DC area until the house sells.

It's also a wee bit early and I know I haven't told many people, so this might be a shock to some of you. (It sure as heck was to me!!) Nate gave me another Christmas present - it appears as though Veronica is going to be a big sister. Completely unexpected, unplanned, etc. We had given up and were certain that V would be an only child.

Well, I think that's enough news for everyone today. I'm craving spicy foods - gotta go find some Thai or Mexican. . .

Veronica Visits Grandma and Grandpa

2006-02-01T19:22:00.000-08:00

Well, we had our doubts, but Grandma and Grandpa seem to be holding up well under the pressure. Veronica is keeping them on their toes, but they have the luxury of a 6-dog and 3-cat buffer to keep the little tyke busy. Veronica is really having a blast and mommy and daddy will have a pretty hard time taking her away from Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Zach and all her new toys (Hairy, Bruiser, Whiskers, Zam, Polar, Tick, Bob, Izzy, and Catalpa). Not so sure how well mommy will hold up in her absence. Daddy's one advantage is that he's got plenty of practice by now, but this will be interesting. We will be so happy to get back to the mainland to be with our baby.

Overdue pics of the

2006-01-21T18:03:00.000-08:00

Prius Hybrid! Sorry, this was long overdue. We have been a bit busy since Christmas and New Year. Nathan has been working and traveling more, and Jen has been preparing for her first conference just a couple weeks away. The fact that the conference will be in Hawaii makes it just a bit more stressful - this will be the first time she's been away from Veronica for an extended amount of time since Veronica has been talking. Veronica will be hamming it up with Grandma and Grandpa and Polar, Zam, Tick, Bruiser, Whiskers, and Hairy (six dogs) and Bob, Izzy, and Catalpa (3 cats). Nathan will be joining Jen in Hawaii, making a couple business stops while in the islands and in Oklahoma.
Anyway, back to the baby. She's been averaging about 48 miles to the gallon, and that's been helping a lot with the latest spike in gas prices. With Jen's commute of 35 miles ONE way, it gets filled up once a week for all of $20 or so. Saaawwweeeet. But yeah, it's a goofy looking car. And talk about a dichotomy - it's a tree-hugging, earth-saving car . . . and we got it with leather. ha ha. Save the earth! Kill the cows!

Christmas was G-r-r-reat!

2005-12-28T20:57:00.000-08:00

For any of the pictures in this post (or throughout the blog, really), you can click on them to view a larger version. Be warned: you may not like what you see!

In case there was any doubt, we had a very fine Christmas. We knew we were blessed to have such a supportive circle of friends and family, and that is still our greatest blessing. But Jen getting a job just a few days before Christmas really helped to vent a lot of the anxiety we have been living with.

Jen even found time to make Christmas cookies! Of course, she had a little help from her very own mischievous elf. We can't tell you how many cookie-equivalents Veronica snatched from the cutting surface, but she was pretty wired. She did kitchen laps for twenty minutes (reminded me of Beavis and Butthead, if you remember the MTV cartoon).

And of course, later, we finally opened the package from Gramma and Grampa Root. There was one parcel that was marked "open first." Well, guess who really enjoyed opening it first? Quite the cookie season for little V. Her first molasses cookies went down pretty well. She ran a few more laps from the Christmas tree to the oven and back, another twenty minutes. (Julie - please note the t-shirt she was wearing, even if it clashed with her pink sweatpants. Daddy dressed her, what can I say?)

We actually got out to visit the Mesones on Christmas day. Jorge, Mandy, and Natalia were all doing pretty well, though it seemed like Natalia lost a few toys, though there were a few new ones about. (Actually, they're just rotating them a bit between rooms. That, and they were just barely moved in and living out of boxes when I first (and last) saw their home).

And last but not least, the Pace Family Christmas came together quite nicely. Here's a lovely shot of the Pace Women, though as Al has pointed out...none of them are Paces anymore! (They'll always be "the Pace Women" to me.) As I said at the beginning, we have been blessed by this wonderful and supportive circle of family and friends. We could not have gotten to where we are today without their help and encouragement. Thanks to you, we are looking forward to a truly Happy New Year! We love you all and look forward to seeing you soon.

Santa's Wish

2005-12-21T18:15:00.000-08:00

We made the journey to Santa's lap one fine day - daddy was able to take an early lunch to help mommy and V find the North Pole. We aren't sure what Veronica asked for - she used the barest whisper when she responded to Santa's question, but we think she said.... "I want presents!" She'd make a great little Who - is Dr. Seuss recruiting? Something tells me she'll get her wish, though we're getting a little worried that she's going to be found on the naughty list this year. Where do you find coal, anyway?

Now whether she's been naughty or nice - she looks sweet...maybe we should post some of the other looks from her... We still aren't sure where she picked up her Miss Bossy routine, but there's a certain look that goes with it. Daddy's pretty sure she comes by it honest... (Can't tell who's writing this, eh?)

Gingerbread House

2005-12-21T18:07:00.000-08:00

With time and an increasingly demanding toddler on her hands, Jen decided to start a new "Chrissa-mass" family tradition of making a Gingerbread House. In retrospect, perhaps sugar was not the best additive for a demanding toddler (sugar and spice and everything nice...right!). Made for a cute picture though - can you tell she's not camera shy? All daddy saw, besides the photographic evidence after the fact, was the collapsed house in a zippy bag where mommy and other scavengers would continue a long disposal process for the ill-fated and suddenly demolished house. It's funny how many fingers found their way into the bag, despite claims of the gingerbread not being very tasty!