Ian is taking a storytime science class at the Curiosity Zone, so we decided to practice some of the concepts at home on this rainy Sunday. We mixed food coloring and vinegar, and he learned that red and blue make purple. Then he put the colored vinegar into a pan of baking soda and watched the fizz.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Home Improvement
My maternity leave is coming to an end, and while I spent a lot of it enjoying my time with Mia, we also used the time to do some projects around the house. In addition to the new landscaping, several rooms got a face lift.
In the laundry room, Joe and Janet installed recessed LED lights in the ceiling and added a motion sensor (very convenient when my hands are full of laundry baskets and children). The new wall color is Behr's Outback.
The dining room also got new paint above the chair rail. The color is Benjamin Moore's Whitall Brown.
The master bedroom is our largest project and, although the painting is finished, there is still much to be done. In the bathroom we added top-down honeycomb shades to let some more light in without sacrificing privacy. The main part of the bedroom is painted in Benjamin Moore's Wythe Blue, and the sitting room area is painted in Benjamin Moore's Whitall Brown.
I still need to order the curtains for this room, and Joe is busy building a media cabinet to go under the new flat screen TV.
Discovery
This morning the space shuttle Discovery arrived in Virginia. It did several low flyovers in the area and we were lucky enough to see all three of them. The first flyover happened right over our neighborhood and was by far the best view we had of the plane, but we just happened to catch it as we were heading to a spot to watch the landing and we didn't have a chance to jump out of the car and get a photo before it turned east to head for the city.
The traffic was so bad around the airport that we didn't make it to our planned viewing spot, but we got a pretty good view anyway. The shuttle did a final unplanned flyover past Dulles airport before making its final approach.
Coming in for a landing.
We kept Ian home from school this morning so he could get a look at the space shuttle, but he was much more impressed by the cement mixers driving past on the road.
Soon we'll visit the shuttle at its new home, the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Happy Easter!
We've had a busy and festive Easter this year. Saturday afternoon Ian colored some eggs in preparation for the Easter Bunny's arrival. His egg dipping method is a bit messy; luckily the dye comes off easily.
On Easter morning, Ian went outside to find all of the eggs the Easter Bunny hid in the garden.
Then he enjoyed a few treats.
This afternoon we went to the park to burn off some of the sugar-induced energy. Mia tried out a swing and seemed not to mind it.
Ian doesn't usually like the swings, but he agreed to at least pose for a picture.
On Easter morning, Ian went outside to find all of the eggs the Easter Bunny hid in the garden.
Then he enjoyed a few treats.
This afternoon we went to the park to burn off some of the sugar-induced energy. Mia tried out a swing and seemed not to mind it.
Ian doesn't usually like the swings, but he agreed to at least pose for a picture.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
5 Months
Today has been a big day for Mia. She turned 5 months old and she had her first taste of solid food!
She did really well with the food - apples. She caught on to the idea pretty quickly and gobbled down half a jar. She also seemed to like sitting in the high chair.
At 5 months, Mia:
- weighs about 13.5 lbs and wears sizes 3-6m and 6m clothes.
- has erratic sleeping habits, sometimes making it through the night and sometimes waking up for a bottle. She sometimes takes long naps and sometimes takes short cat naps throughout the day.
- can grab toys pretty easily and puts everything in her mouth.
- rolls from her back to her belly in both directions, but can't yet roll from her belly to her back consistently.
- wants very badly to be able to sit up on her own.
She did really well with the food - apples. She caught on to the idea pretty quickly and gobbled down half a jar. She also seemed to like sitting in the high chair.
At 5 months, Mia:
- weighs about 13.5 lbs and wears sizes 3-6m and 6m clothes.
- has erratic sleeping habits, sometimes making it through the night and sometimes waking up for a bottle. She sometimes takes long naps and sometimes takes short cat naps throughout the day.
- can grab toys pretty easily and puts everything in her mouth.
- rolls from her back to her belly in both directions, but can't yet roll from her belly to her back consistently.
- wants very badly to be able to sit up on her own.
Aruba
Joe and I spent last week in Aruba, and it was glorious. It was so nice to spend some time together without also having to juggle the constant needs of the kiddos, and it was really nice to sleep well and wake up whenever we wanted, although I can't sleep much past 8:30 anymore. This was the view from our room, not too shabby:
On Tuesday afternoon, we rented a Jeep and did some off-road sightseeing around the island. The northern/eastern coast is very rocky and has big waves since it's exposed to the strong trade winds of the Caribbean Sea; it's much different than the white sand beaches and calm waters of the southern/western coast.
Wish Rock Garden. Aruban legend says that when you stack stones you get to make a wish.
This is the stack we made:
Baby Natural Bridge
We also visited the Arikok National Park, a wildlife reserve.
We explored some caves in the park (Joe enjoyed this much more than I did).
Joe really enjoyed seeing the wind power plant up close. These towers are much bigger than they look from this photo, and standing under one was both fascinating and terrifying. Ten of these harness the power of the trade winds and provide much of the island's electricity.
Tuesday's adventures ended with a visit to the center of the island and some climbing on Casibari Rock.
We saw some interesting wildlife on our trip: wild goats, lots of blue-tailed lizards, colorful birds, an owl (he turned his head just as Joe snapped the photo), and an iguana who enjoyed hanging out in the gardens of our resort.
On Wednesday morning we still had the rental car so we headed over to Baby Beach for some snorkeling. The water was very shallow, clear, and calm and there was a large reef with tons of tropical fish.
Wednesday evening we took a sunset sail.
The highlight of the trip was the delicious food. Most of the restaurants we went to were just tables on the sand, and the seafood dishes were some of the best we've had.
On our last night, our resort set up a private dinner for us in one of the beach cabanas, where we had a five-course meal and watched the sunset and the waves.
It was a great trip!
On Tuesday afternoon, we rented a Jeep and did some off-road sightseeing around the island. The northern/eastern coast is very rocky and has big waves since it's exposed to the strong trade winds of the Caribbean Sea; it's much different than the white sand beaches and calm waters of the southern/western coast.
Wish Rock Garden. Aruban legend says that when you stack stones you get to make a wish.
This is the stack we made:
Baby Natural Bridge
We also visited the Arikok National Park, a wildlife reserve.
We explored some caves in the park (Joe enjoyed this much more than I did).
Joe really enjoyed seeing the wind power plant up close. These towers are much bigger than they look from this photo, and standing under one was both fascinating and terrifying. Ten of these harness the power of the trade winds and provide much of the island's electricity.
Tuesday's adventures ended with a visit to the center of the island and some climbing on Casibari Rock.
We saw some interesting wildlife on our trip: wild goats, lots of blue-tailed lizards, colorful birds, an owl (he turned his head just as Joe snapped the photo), and an iguana who enjoyed hanging out in the gardens of our resort.
On Wednesday morning we still had the rental car so we headed over to Baby Beach for some snorkeling. The water was very shallow, clear, and calm and there was a large reef with tons of tropical fish.
Wednesday evening we took a sunset sail.
The highlight of the trip was the delicious food. Most of the restaurants we went to were just tables on the sand, and the seafood dishes were some of the best we've had.
On our last night, our resort set up a private dinner for us in one of the beach cabanas, where we had a five-course meal and watched the sunset and the waves.
It was a great trip!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)