Holidays 2007

On Sat Dec 15th, we celebrated Chanukah with Ali's Dad and Sue. Ali's brother, Andrew, and sister-in-law, Treva, were also there. And of course the kids, Kendra and Twila, had loads of fun with Sarah and Nicholas. The kids played with their new toys; the big hit was probably a wack-a-mole game that even Nicholas got into.

On Sun Dec 16th, we hosted a Cookie Party at our house. Ali was baking cookies just about all day. We had plenty of helpers to decorate all the sugar cookies; Sarah loaded hers up with plenty of icing and sprinkles. We also decorated big gingerbread cookies, and made a gingerbread manger scene (once we figured out which cookie was Mary).

On Tue Dec 18th, David's parents came down for a service for David's cousin John at the Maryland State House; read more about it here.

On Wed Dec 19th, Sarah and the kids from her school sang in the NASA Goddard Holiday Concert. Mom-Mom and Poppy came onto the center to see and listen to her sing.

On Sun Dec 23rd, we went to Grandma's church to listen to her sing in the choir. After that, we went to Andrew and Treva's to open Christmas presents and have dinner.

On Mon Dec 24th, we went to the children's vigil Mass at St. Pius with the Olsens. The bishop was there, but Sarah really liked the Christmas angels and shepherds during the pageant.

This morning at 1:00am, Nicholas must have heard some reindeer on the roof, because he woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep for a half-hour. Sarah slept right through it, and even let us sleep until 7:15am! Sarah had so much fun either opening her gifts or handing them out to others; Nicholas just sat there and played with a candy cane. We're having Grandma and Papa Bob and the Olsens over for dinner later today.

Boogie Woogie

We took Nicholas back to the doctor on Tuesday because he was sounding worse instead of better. His latest diagnosis - walking pneumonia. The little boy can't even crawl yet and he's got walking pneumonia! :) He now has to use a nebulizer four times a day; he kind of likes it and tries to lick the inhaler. He's also got new antibiotics, and has been doing slowly better the last couple of days. Thankfully, he's also still sleeping through the night. David's been working from home for most of the week, when Nicholas is quiet enough at least.

Snow and Cold

On Wednesday the 5th, we got about 4" of snow. It started just before dawn and lasted until the late evening. Schools and work went on as normal, but it took David an extra half-hour to get to NASA with all the traffic. But he decided to leave work an hour early to beat the traffic home, and he and Sarah had fun playing in the backyard before it got dark. They threw snowballs and David pulled Sarah around in the sled. Nicholas didn't get to go outside, as he was feeling a little sick.

(note: Only parents should read the next paragraph. Also, don't eat either during or after reading it. You'll thank us later.)

On Friday, Nicholas went home from day care early with a fever. As he'd been at least blowing snot on and off for almost 2 weeks, we decided to take him to the doctor. Sure enough, he has a sinus infection and an ear infection. So far today, he threw up ALL OVER Alison and later he pooped diarrhea so much that it went up the back of his shirt almost up to his neck. He's had a bath and is all clean, but we're still washing his clothes and his chair he was sitting on.

November pictures

The pictures of the kids from November are on their picture page. There's pictures of Sarah at ballet, Sarah with her classmates during "Recycle Day" at NASA (including a movie of them singing), Nicholas belly-surfing on the floor, and the kids with Santa. They visited Santa on the Sunday after Thanksgiving at the Bowie Railroad Museum - which also happened to be the same day as a trainspotting event. The Sunday after Thanksgiving is Amtrak's busiest year, and we watched the trains speed by for a couple of hours while eating some take-out lunch.

Yesterday, David "ran" in the 5th annual Greenbelt Wright Stuff 5K; he also "ran" the 1st race in 2003 (when there was packed snow and ice on the course). He improved his time from 4 years ago - never mind that the course was ice-free this time around. :P

Thanksgiving 2007

We hosted Thanksgiving in Bowie this year. Alison's Dad and Sue were there, along with Alison's Uncle Dennis and Pam. Of course, Nicholas and Sarah's cousins Twila and Kendra were there, along with Uncle Andrew and Aunt Treva.

All the food came out great - and Alison really timed everything well. Thanks to Alton Brown for the roast turkey recipe and the gravy recipe. It was so warm and beautiful during the day; the kids got to enjoy the backyard playset in the sun and leaves before dinner.

Magic in the Night

On Monday night, David and Alison went with some friends to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in DC. Our seats were in the very last row of the arena - we could touch the ceiling when we stood up - but at least we were "center ice". The show was simply outstanding - it was David's favorite show of the ~10 or so times he's seen Bruce (with or without the E Street band) so far.

There were rave reviews in both the Washington Post and the Washington Times for the Sunday night show. The Post reviewer also did a song-by-song recap of Monday night - and a colleague of his did the same thing (hilariously) from The Big Man's perspective.

David's (My) personal favorites were a loud bluesy version of "Reason to Believe", the appearance of the rare (and my favorite Bruce song of all-time) "Backstreets", and a smokin' duet with Bruce and his wife Patti on her song "Town Called Heartbreak". But the emotional highpoint of the night was the last three songs: "Last to Die", "Long Walk Home", and "Badlands". Just before "Last to Die" started, Bruce said "This is for John!". Now David (I) KNEW that it wasn't dedicated to my cousin John - but that's not what my heart heard. I'd visited his grave site at Arlington National Cemetery earlier that day for the observation of Veterans Day. The next day, it was reported that the song was dedicated to John Kerry, who Bruce campaigned for in 2004 and who inspired the lyrics to "Last to Die" (and who was in the audience). The encores were all better than the last, and included "Thunder Road", "Born to Run", "Dancing in the Dark", and "American Land".

Turkey for me, Turkey for you

It turns out there we're hosting Thanksgiving this year. We usually go to Ali's Dad's, but there will be a few more guests and not enough room. We're more than glad to host - the only problem is that we've never cooked a turkey before!

So, today, Alison had a "dry" run and cooked a practice turkey. The turkey didn't turn out dry at all though, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Turkey is a weird bird (ha!) - it cost about as much for the roasting pan as it did for the turkey. But Ali certainly spent enough time defrosting the turkey over 2+ days, brining it, and then preparing it to be cooked. It only took a little over 2 hours in the oven, and came out great (except the skin wasn't crispy enough for Ali). There were some spills and "uh oh"'s and "oh cr@p"'s along the way; hopefully, we worked out most of the kinks in the system. The whole house smells like Thanksgiving, because we made some turkey stock as well. Wish us luck - and leave us some advice!

Halloween 2007

It was a very pleasant evening for trick-or-treating. We went out with a group of the kids' friends several blocks away - our block doesn't have many kids. We (tried to get) started at 6:00pm; it was still light out and it didn't seem like there were many kids out at first. But as the sun set, everyone came out - and we even ran into or visited several more friends. Sarah was a snow princess and Nicholas was a baby lion.

David was reminded of days back at Trenton State College, when he and his friends used to walk Nimbus around campus, and people would come up and say "that dog looks just like a baby lion!". The school mascot was/is a lion as well.

Loose Ends

Too much going on lately - haven't had time to post or update the kids' pictures. They are updated now, though!

Sarah had her final soccer practice on Thu Oct 18th. For the last half of practice, before it got too dark, Coach David handed out certificates and some soccer-related goodies. Some of the parents brought some snacks and drinks to share. The season started off a bit rough, with only one coach and almost 20 energetic kids, but by the end Coach David could see some real improvement in the kids' skills, and it seemed like everyone had a fun season.

On Sat Oct 20th, David went railfanning (aka, trainspotting) with his friend Joe. We went to Point of Rocks, MD and hung out there for a couple hours and saw a few trains. At one point, we went for a little hike on the C&O Canal and decided to walk through an active tunnel. It looked short enough, but once we were halfway through, we had a second thought that maybe this wasn't the best idea. We made it through, however, and just in time, as a train came through the tunnel about 5 minutes later. After that, we followed this railfan guide and made our way west all the way to Shenandoah Junction, WV. In all, we saw 13 trains (technically, 12 different trains, as we saw one slow-moving/delayed train in two different cities) and had a great day. Here's some pictures.

On Sun Oct 21st, Alison had her cat clinic - and then in the evening we went to Baltimore to have dinner at Sarah and Toby's house. Sarah showed lil' Sarah how to spin yarn and then lil' Sarah smoked us in a mean game of Go Fish.

This area got a much-needed soaking rainstorm over 4 days the end of last week. The 4-day total at the rain gauge in the front yard was 4.37 inches. We're still running about 6 inches below average for the year, though.

The last 3 days (26th, 27th, 28th) Halloween came early. On Friday, Sarah's school had their Halloween celebration; due to the rain, the parade had to be held indoors. The Rockets class sang two Halloween songs they learned, and they made pumpkin loaf to share. On Saturday, the kids went to a Halloween party at a friends' house, and on Sunday, a Halloween party at St. Pius. Sarah is going as a Snow Princess this year, and Nicholas as a baby lion.

40th Anniversary Party

This past weekend, we had a 40th wedding anniversary party for David's parents in NJ. The party doubled as a belated birthday party for David's mother. It was great to see so many folks that we don't get to see all that often. We had the party at a restaurant and had a huge breakfast buffet. Of course, we had to get our own cake at a local bakery and bring it in to share. The party was a surprise to David's mom, and she rode with us to the restaurant. Just as we were getting Nicholas out of his car seat and into the stroller, we noticed he had an accident that escaped his diaper and the car seat and everywhere. So we changed him in the hatch of the car, not knowing that the ~40 or so guests saw us drive up and were waiting and waiting for us to come in. Nicholas still charmed everyone once he was in his spare outfit, and we were still able to surprise Mom.

Today is National Feral Cat Day! Support "Trap, Neuter, and Return" or TNR!!

7th Anniversary

Alison and David were married 7 years ago today!

Nicholas decided to celebrate by being up from midnight to 2am. On the agenda for today: cleaning the interior of the cars and installing the bigger car seats for Nicholas; going to the local hardware store for a new furnace filter; watching sports; napping; and going out with the kids to dinner.

David and Ali had an anniversary dinner without the kids two weeks ago at The Melting Pot with Steven, Jenne, Bryan, Anne, and J.J. Thanks to Mom-Mom and Poppy for watching the kids!

Busy lately

Here's some things we've been doing lately: went to birthday party for one of Sarah's friends, went to the St. Pius church picnic, went to the volunteer fire station to take a free family portrait that our neighbor gave to us, and finally, Ali hosted a PartyLite at our house. And that was just on Sunday. *grin*

Sarah's started ballet again on Thursday afternoons, and soccer is continuing on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. "Coach David"'s exhausted by the end of practice from running around the field and encouraging (aka, yelling to) the kids to "don't pick-up the ball". The kids are having a great time, so David's happy. They even are now bringing their flashlights to use at the end of practice as the sun sets.

We also went as a family to the doctor to get a flu shot. Nicholas also had some more booster shots. In order of fussiness and drama, sum of both before and after the shot(s), from least to most: David, Nicholas/Alison (tie), Sarah. In order of who ended up with a sore red spot on their arm/leg, also from least to most: David, Nicholas, Alison, Sarah. Nicholas did get a runny nose on Friday though.

Oh Oh It's "Magic"

Bruce Springsteen released his album "Magic" today; I (David) have only listened to it a handful of times so far. :) My review: it's awesome! I love his solo stuff - but I also love the E Street sound - and it all sounds great on this album. Plenty of saxophone (go Clarence!), organ, piano, and loud, loud guitars. It's the first full up-tempo E Street album since "Born in the USA". Go out and get it! Don't believe me? - check out some reviews: Rolling Stone (5 stars), Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly. Or check out some live footage from Bruce and the band's recent appearance on the Today show. If you only have time for one song, click here and check out "Livin' in the Future".

I've gone on and on about the music - and haven't even mentioned the lyrics yet. They're fun and smart and dark and topical, all at the same time. The lyrics to a couple of the songs just absolutely break your heart, but the music is so joyous that I can't wait to sing them aloud with 20,000 of my friends when I go to the concert(s) in D.C. in mid-November. As usual, every song has a line or two that's just outstanding; my favorite (so far) from "Long Walk Home":

"You know that flag flying over the courthouse
means certain things are set in stone -
Who we are, what we'll do, and what we won't."

Nicholas's Baptism

On Sunday the 23rd, Nicholas was baptized at St. Pius. The day was so lovely, we walked to the church to and from our house. The baptism was after 11:30am Mass, and Nicholas was the only baby being baptized. He was pretty well-behaved - other than a little hunger-related fussing - and didn't cry when the water went over his head. We had a very nice party at our house following the baptism. The kids enjoyed the new playset in the backyard, and the sand table too! We ate well (of course!) and drank some of the wine we picked up during our trip to the Finger Lakes. Thanks to his godparents - Uncle Bryan and Aunt Anne - and to everyone who helped us celebrate! Check out all the new pictures at the kids' picture page.

Nicholas's first cold

Sarah's first soccer practice was on Thursday, and David coached. It was really fun - but the roster grew to over 15 kids in the last couple of days. Such chaos! We don't play actual soccer games, but have fun with soccer versions of old standards such as "Blob" and "Red Light/Green Light".

Nicholas got his first cold last Thursday, and stayed home from day care for a couple days. Then he proceeded to get both Ali and David sick as well. Ah - the joys of day care. Of course, David got the much worse version of it, and needed another round of antibiotics. Poor Ali - she was sick, but still soldiered on and took care of Nicholas and David (and Sarah, who survived) - and still managed to help run and operate at the Alley Cat Allies feral cat clinic on Sunday.

Sarah hasn't had a Daisy troop meeting yet - they can't get enough girls to have a troop. We hear that there are troops for the older kids, but I guess not enough kindergarten-ers have joined yet. Updates as events warrant.

P.S. - Happy Birthday Damaris!

Sports and Activities

Last weekend, David played in an all-day softball tournament with the Sundogs. The Doggies won 2 and lost 2 - beating the teams we should have and losing to the teams we should have as well. It was a real family day - most of the guys brought out the wife and kids - and they even had a moon bounce set up on one of the (unused) fields. It was a hot and sunny day, and by the end of the 4th game the team was wiped and starting to get a couple minor injuries. Ali and Sarah and Nicholas didn't make it the whole day; they left to go to a baby shower. David's legs are still sore 4 days later from playing catcher in two of the games.

On Tuesday night, Sarah was to have her first fall soccer practice. David is serving as coach again this year. But there was enough (barely) rain to make the fields too wet, and practice was canceled. So, Ali took Sarah to sign her up for Daisies, but the troop leader wasn't there. Sarah's a real renaissance girl - she's excited for ballet and Daisies and soccer this fall.

Nicholas is doing well at day care so far. It doesn't sound like he naps all that often during the day - he used to nap most of the mornings when David was watching him before he started day care. Not that we're complaining, as he falls asleep well before we do, and we usually have to wake him up in the morning to get him ready. He's getting better at rolling over and can now flip over both ways - although he usually prefers to be on his belly.

P.S. - Happy Birthday Poppy!

First week of school

Sarah had her first day of kindergarten on Monday Aug 27th. She's still going to GCDC at NASA, so she knows most of the kids and the teachers - only now they have curriculum for a full day. Nicholas also started day care so Alison could work full-time again. Nicholas is going to Miss Danielle's house, where Sarah went until she started at GCDC when she was 2 years and a few months old.

We went to the wedding of "Miss Beth" - Sarah's teacher the first year she was at GCDC. It was nearly 100F that day and the wedding started almost a half-hour late. But the reception was fun, and Sarah kept following Beth and her bridesmaids around like they were princesses.

It was the last week our pool was open for the summer. We tried to go as often as we could, and even had a big group together one night and had Chinese food delivered. Yum! We also went to the Labor Day fair at Sacred Heart Church here in Bowie. Sarah won at the ring toss, we went on a hay ride, and Sarah went on a pony ride. New pictures posted on the kids page!

Crazy week

Last Saturday, we went to Sarah's friend Nate's birthday party. They had water balloons and a real piñata. That evening, we met Sarah's friend Katie and her family at our pool for Family Night. Sarah even got to be a special assistant for the magic show. They also had a coin toss in the pool and the kids got to play with pool noodles in the big pool.

On Sunday, Ali had her cat clinic in the morning, so Sarah and Nicholas hung out with David all day. That night, David went with Alison's Dad (aka, Lloyd; aka, Grandpa) to the Ravens-Giants exhibition game in Baltimore. The crowd was surprisingly excited for a pre-season game. It was funny, though, when someone in the crowd over-reacted to a call; inevitably, there'd be an empty beat and then someone would say: "Ah, it's only pre-season". Lloyd and I were (mostly silently) rooting for the Giants. It rained a little in the 1st half and both teams committed a bunch of turnovers and penalties. The seats were really great (9th row behind the Giants bench) and it was a good time.

We crawled into bed very late that evening, exhausted after a long weekend before the work week - when Sarah woke us up at 2 AM to say "I threw up". She seemed OK, but her room certainly wasn't. Huge puddle on her bed and sheets with lots of tiny spots all over the rug. Yuck! I won't describe it more beyond saying that David's off eating Oreos for a couple months.

David started feeling yucky too Monday morning, hoping it was just from the lack of sleep. He went to work for a couple hours, but then came home and slept (with fever and chills) the rest of the day. He also had another fun symptom of a gastrointestinal bug - and ended up with the obligatory sinus infection. He and Sarah have been home all week since Monday. Alison and Nicholas have been fine - although Ali has kept David and Sarah as far away from Nicholas as she could stand. Hope everyone else is doing well! :)

Upstate NY

Last Thursday to Sunday, we went to the Finger Lakes region in upstate NY. David's parents (aka, Mom-Mom and Poppy) joined us on the trip, and we met in Binghamton on Thursday night. On Friday, we went to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Poppy and I stayed there the whole day, but Ali (and Mom-Mom) took the kids to the nearly Farmers' Museum. Sarah loved the carousel they had there.

On Saturday, *hic* we went to some wineries around the Finger Lakes *hic*. We went to 3 different places - each had 6 to 8 tastings for a dollar - what a deal! We must have really enjoyed the wine because we bought at least a bottle at each place. Later that night, we had dinner with Ali's Uncle Dennis and "Aunt" Pam. We chose a restaurant close to our hotel in Auburn, but I botched reading the map and took us around the block the wrong way before we found it.

On Sunday, we went to "The Farm, Part Deux", which is the farm of Ali's Uncle Al and Aunt Irene. They went all-out for brunch for everyone, but that didn't stop Ali, Sarah, and I from going in their pool. Their property is really great; it's on the top of a hill, so you can see in every direction for miles. I'm trying to convince Uncle Al to install a 10-meter meteorological tower as well as a 360-degree time-lapse camera and/or webcam. The camera would be great for looking at cloud and storm formations.

Unfortunately, we had to drive back home in the afternoon. After our unpleasant experience going north on I-81 in Pennsylvania (where they only have two seasons - winter and construction), we decided to take a combination of local and toll roads south instead. We still hit a little traffic and construction, but at least we felt like we were moving most of the time!

4-month check-up

Nicholas had his 4-month check-up at the doctor's last week. He's doing fine and the doctor was impressed on how happy he was (at least until he got his shots). As far as the CONSTANT urp-ing, we were just told it's normal and would soon start to subside. We've been told over and over that boys just do this more often than girls; that's definitely been the case in our family.

Anyway, for those who are keeping track: Nicholas is 97th percentile for both height and weight, and 90th percentile for head size. The doctor says that he's proportioned well and isn't too "top heavy". :)

Heat and softball

We've had three straight days of heat and humidity since our weekend rain. Today the high temperature at the home office was 101F, and the morning low was only 81F. On Tuesday, we played two softball games - and won them both! Our team usually does better in the heat; we like to joke that we tend to be younger and thinner than the average team, so we don't wilt in the heat as much. Of course, we've been saying this since at least the 12 years I've been on the team, and still more than half of the team has been on it longer than I have.

Another Busy Weekend

David saw "The Simpsons Movie" on Friday night. It was pretty darn good; most of the funny stuff were sight gags and not destined-to-be-quoted over-and-over. I'd call it about as good as a great episode from the past 10 years, but not as good as the glory years from 1990 to 1997.

On Saturday, Nicholas and Sarah's Grandpa came to the pool with us. Sarah spent over 2 hours jumping and diving into the pool and swimming towards us. Nicholas even hung out for a little in both the baby pool and the big pool with us. Check the kids page for new pictures!

Later that night we went to Jasper's for dinner with Grandpa and Sue. Nicholas wanted to be held the whole time, but finally fell asleep right before dessert. Then Ali's friend Damaris spent the night. Damaris is looking for a place to live in Philadelphia and stopped here on the way; Ali and Damaris stayed up really late (for Ali, anyway) talking and looking for places online.

Today, Bill (from the Sundogs softball team) and his family are coming to our pool with us. They have a daughter a little younger than Sarah, and a boy just a month or so younger than Nicholas.

Celebrate Goddard Day

Today was "Celebrate Goddard" Day at NASA. Sarah and her Rockets classmates came and sang four songs at the auditorium: "It's a Small World", "This Land is Your Land" - and two songs I didn't recognize. There's a picture and video on the kids webpage.

We weighed Nicholas again a couple days ago - he's now 19 pounds! He'll be too big for the infant carrier car seat very soon.

Kwik-E-Mart

Last weekend, Alison (and Nicholas) went to Staunton, VA for a mini-reunion with some of Ali's friends from college. David and Sarah stayed in Bowie - and on Saturday we visited the Kwik-E-Mart!

A handful of 7-11 stores transformed themselves into a Kwik-E-Mart from "The Simpsons" in honor of "The Simpsons Movie" being released. We were lucky enough that one such store is in Bladensburg, MD - about 20 minutes away. They were selling Buzz Cola, Krusty-O's, pink donuts, and Squishees. We bought some donuts and shared a vanilla squishee. No pictures, but you can watch a video of the store here.

Backyard landscaping

Last week, we had the backyard re-landscaped. The most important (but not visible) installation was a French drain to deal with the standing water at the bottom of the hill. A trench was dug from the center-bottom of our yard, around the left side of the house, to a pile of small rocks - and a pipe was put in the trench which will carry any excess water out of the backyard. Then we had dirt put in to cover the trench and re-grade the yard, sod was put down over much of the yard, and seed over the rest. Finally, the overgrowth in the back along the fence was removed, and new plantings and mulch was put in. With all the growth removed, we were shocked to see how big our backyard really is!

I've put some before-and-after pictures up for everyone to see.

Drought

Well, another line of storms passed right through Bowie with little more than a trace of rain. I've recorded less than a tenth of an inch for the entire month so far. What's different about this summer is that, instead of a large high-pressure system stifling any rain and resulting in oppressive heat and humidity, there has been storm potential in the area. But it has been so dry that when the storms get to this area, they weaken and dry right up. Many small trees are already turning brown and losing their leaves.

UPDATE: Whoops, I should check my records before posting. I've gotten about a half-inch of rain so far this month; nearly all of it in the first week of July.

4-month birthday

Today is Nicholas's 4-month old birthday. To celebrate, we fed him some rice cereal. He just let it sit in his mouth for a while before deciding to try to swallow it. He ate what little we made, but urped a bit back up, of course, 5 minutes later.

Sarah is having swim lessons at our pool this week. Since the lessons are at 10:00am, we've given Sarah the week "off" from school. She can float on her back and swim a little freestyle, even if she does swim a bit like a Muppet.

Last weekend, we went to NJ for Sarah's cousin Maddie's birthday party and for Mom-Mom's birthday. It was a lovely weekend, and the kids had a great time playing in Steven and Jenne's backyard, especially on the inflatable water slide. The traffic was a real nightmare both going up and coming back, but the kids were very good along the way.

Rollover

Nicholas rolled over for the 1st time on Monday. He had to do it the difficult way - from back to front. He also break dances on his back in his crib.

Last weekend, we went to family fun night at the pool. Sarah went on the bounce slide and enjoyed a clown magic show, but mostly she was swimming in the pool.

My softball team, the Sundogs, won again - now we're 4-0 in the 2nd half. We scored the winning run in the bottom of the 7th inning with a play at the plate. I went 2-4 with the game-tying RBI in the bottom of the 6th.

Some new pictures are posted on the kids' page, including what they would look like if they were on "The Simpsons".

4th of July weekend

....and we're back!

The blog for Nicholas has evolved - now it's the Mocko family blog. We'll be updating when we have free time. Ha!

Over the weekend after July 4th, we visited Grandma and Papa Bob in Ocean Pines MD. Ocean Pines is on the mainland side of the bay near Ocean City MD. Bob has a boat docked very close to his place, and on Saturday we all went out on the bay. Nicholas spent nearly the whole time sleeping in his car seat; we think the little waves rocked him to sleep. We headed south, under the Route 50 bridge, and saw some wild ponies on Assateague Island. Sarah had a great time, but even she took a nap by the end of the ride. That night, we tried to head into Ocean City, but the drawbridge seemed like it was up forever for the boats to pass through, so we just headed back and went out to dinner instead.

On Sunday, we went swimming on the beach at Assateague. The beach had plenty of people on it, but we were able to get a good spot not too far from the water. Sarah mostly played in the sand; we tried to get her into the water, but either it was still too cold for her or the waves were making too much noise. Nicholas stood in the sand for a little, but screamed when his toes touched the water. After that, we went to Ocean City and walked the boardwalk. The boardwalk is really far from the ocean - the sand is so wide that you can't see the shoreline. We bought some "famous" Thrasher's french fries; they don't provide ketchup because they claim the fries are so good. Eh...

We left late on Sunday night for Bowie to avoid the traffic. We cruised home with no problems, and all slept late the next morning. Pictures are posted on the kids picture page.

Top Ten Nicknames

A few folks have been asking us what nickname we will be calling Nicholas. We've been trying out a few things, but we are going to try to stick with the full name of Nicholas for as long as we can.

Here are the top ten nicknames so far:

10) Nick
9) Big Boy
8) Nikola (pronounced like "Ricola")
7) Kicky Nicky
6) Little Guy
5) Baby Brother
4) Nikolai
3) Little Saint Nick
2) Sir Craps-a-lot
1) Little Man

Baby Pool Winners

Thanks to all who entered the baby pool. There wasn't much time between the baby pool post and when Nicholas was born, so there were only 6 (official) entries. I'm discounting my brother Steven's entry because he posted his guess 7 minutes after we posted that we were at the hospital.

The winner is... Jae Kim who guessed a boy on the 26th. He also correctly guessed a big baby (just not big enough). Jae wins a Chinese lunch the next Wednesday he can get to Greenbelt to collect it. Mark Olsen gets the consolation prize (a fortune cookie?) for getting the date closest, but he guessed girl.

There was another pool at a family party on New Year's Eve (12/31/06) - only the gender and weight were guessed. No one went over 9 pounds, but the person who guessed the heaviest weight who also thought boy was... Steven Mocko with 8 pounds 9 ounces. Congrats Steve!

First Week

Everyone's still doing well after the first week - although Mom and Dad are very tired. Nicholas seems to like to be awake during the night and sleep during the day. He has been a busy boy, already attending two birthday parties and spending plenty of time with his grandparents. At the one-week checkup at the doctor's office, Nicholas weighed in at 8 pounds 12 ounces. As he didn't seem much thinner than when we left the hospital, we weren't concerned that this weight was almost 2 pounds lighter than his birth weight. Just an hour after the doctor, we had an appointment at the hospital for paperwork, and they weighed him there at 9 pounds 10 ounces. I plan on bringing a 10-pound dumbbell to the next office visit to prove that their infant scale needs to be re-calibrated. :)

We're at home

We came home today about 4:00PM. Mom and Nicholas are doing well. We even got a fair amount of sleep overnight. Nicholas had a fever briefly earlier today, but they did some tests, and he's fine. His fever is gone now and he likes being home. Willow and Bailey have come over to Nicholas and sniffed their hellos - still waiting for Hydrox to say hi.

It's a Boy

It's a baby boy! Born on 24 Mar 2007 at 10:07 AM. We'll update weight and post a picture later.

UPDATE: 10 pounds 8 ounces; 22 inches long.

Baby's name: Nicholas Tesla Mocko

Mom, Dad, Sarah, and Nicholas are all well!

At the Hospital

We're at the hospital now (Sat Mar 24, 8:45AM), and have been here since about 6:00AM. Things are going well, and we hope to have a baby before noon!

Baby Pool

Post a comment - and guess the baby's gender and birth date and time. Closest guess wins a prize.

The official due date is March 28th. Good luck!

No Baby Yet!

Keep checking this site - if you do, you'll be the second group to find out - after immediate family members. We're hoping there will be a wi-fi signal in the hospital. *grin*

You're welcome to leave comments; we will post them when we can.

And, no.... we don't know if it's a boy or a girl.