Mocko Family Blog

Fall 2009

2009-11-27T20:15:00.002-05:00

Can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since our last post. We've been staying super-busy, and keep on taking more projects and classes. We had to put everything on Google Calendar just to keep track of it all - and we're running out of colors for all the different schedules!

Alison decided that being a Troop Leader for Girl Scouts wasn't enough work, so she started up a Destination Imagination team. The team is a small group of 2nd graders (including Sarah, of course) who will work on problem-solving in fun and creative ways, with a performance at the end of the year. Now, Ali and Sarah have Brownies after school on Mondays and "DI" after school on Tuesdays. Alison is also volunteering in the school library several days a month. She's also made the time to go to the gym at least 3 to 4 times a week, and has been losing weight and looking great!

David is gearing up to go to the AGU meeting in San Francisco for several days in December. He'll be presenting the public release of NLDAS data; one usage of this data is historical and real-time drought monitoring. The NLDAS data is over 30 years of hourly 1/8th-degree surface meteorology and land data, including precipitation, soil moisture, runoff, and snow cover. All that data is over 2 TB in size, so David's been working with the NASA GES DISC, who have the expertise and hardware to make it all available for researchers and the public.

David is also getting ready to move offices. After over 14 years in the Climate and Radiation Branch, he will be moving into a new office (in the same building) within the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office. David's actually been working part-time with both the GMAO and the Hydrological Sciences Branch for a couple years now, and his actual work duties and people he works for/with won't be changing. However, NASA just opened up a new building, which left open many new offices in his current building. Both the GMAO and HSB are consolidating on the other side of the building, and David will be moving sometime in the next month or two. The best part is that David will be moving along with his current office mate and friend, Greg, and Greg's agreed to let David have the window side of the office this time around.

David started the year going to the gym regularly as well, but ended up with a bad case of plantar fasciitis. It had been hurting him off and on for most of the spring and summer, but seemed to be easing starting the fall. But it started hurting more and more again, so David's now started physical therapy. He might end up getting orthotics (inserts for his shoes) to help keep his arch supported.

Sarah is enjoying 2nd grade and all her after-school activities. In addition to Brownies and DI, she was taking jazz dance and ballet, and will be starting ice skating lessons next week. She's also taking CCD in preparation for her first communion in May. She made the honor roll at school the first time she was eligible, and continues to read books all the time (even when she shouldn't be reading during school time).

Nicholas is doing great at the day care at NASA. He's the biggest kid in his class, and knows all his letters and numbers and has a great vocabulary. He can even spell his name (if you spot him the "N" and maybe the "I"). He has some trouble pronouncing several words, and we will be getting him evaluated for his ankyloglossia (aka, he's tongue-tied). Hopefully, we can correct it with just some pronunciation exercises/therapy. Nico also seems to be allergic to pollen and/or mold. He rarely gets a fever or other infection, but his nose will run for what seems like 2 weeks in a row. It seems somewhat correlated with when he visits the day care at the gym, but we're hoping the allergy nasal spray will shorten/reduce his bouts. He doesn't seem sick otherwise, but - as Nicholas finds hilarious every time we say it - "boogers are gross!".

Summer of Concerts

2009-09-08T18:40:00.003-04:00

David and Ali went to a bunch of concerts this summer. Some together, some individually, and some in serial (more on that later). The summer started off with the Springsteen and E Street Band show - the best show David's seen - and he can't wait until they come around again in November. David had no idea which songs were coming next (and he studies setlists from previous shows religiously). The highlight was a section in the middle where Bruce and the band took requests from fan-made signs out of the crowd. Next, we saw Green Day - a really good show that could have been great if Billie Joe (the lead singer) didn't yell "Washington DC" three+ times a song. Some reviewers called it "Springsteen-ian", but only in the sense of "a long show with a huge stable of hits". Alison saw the Young Dubliners with Marisa and saw Eagles of Death Metal with a friend from work. EoDM is not a "death metal" band, rather a power punk/alternative band that's in Ali's current musical wheelhouse. David also went to see the Progressive Nation 2009 concert with a couple of friends, mainly to see Queensrÿche, but was also impressed with Dream Theater. The final show we saw had the cheapest tickets - free! It was the FreeFest concert with a whole day's worth of acts on two separate stages. Since the bands David wanted to see were early in the day, and the bands Alison wanted to see were late in the day, we decided not to spend money on a whole day's worth of babysitting, and just took turns. When David was done, he met Alison in the nearby mall parking lot with the kids, and then took them home. Thankfully, we had some friends who stayed most of the day to hang out with.

Sarah spent part of her summer with a week of Girl Scout camp; she's already asked to go back next year. She also had a week with Camp Grandma and Camp Mom-Mom (David and Alison like the weekly rates, too), and a week at a "Nutritiously Delicious" cooking camp. Her school year started early this year - two weeks before Labor Day. She really likes her teacher and is having fun so far. Nicholas started his new school year, but he's still in the same classroom from the summer.

Summer Summer

2009-08-01T13:14:00.002-04:00

It's been a long time since we've updated the blog - and two big events have happened since. First - we got new phones! OK, it's not really that exciting, but we can now send/receive texts and we started some Twitter accounts (here is Alison's and here is David's).

The other exciting news is that Nicholas started at GCDC (Goddard Child Development Center) at David's work. He started near the end of June after the end of the school year. The first day was a bit stressful; the new acting Director of the center didn't want to accept the way our doctor filled out Nico's health inventory form. We did some research and found we were in the right, but they still made us obtain our doctor's initials to "prove it was her signature". It took 15 minutes to drive there, 30 seconds in the doctor's office, and then 15 minutes back to the school, and finally Nico was able to start his first day. He's been doing great so far; he was the first kid to start during the summer, so right now his classmates are 3 years old (or close to it) before they transition to their class next year. Of course, he's the biggest kid in the class. We have a really great lead teacher and it's been nice to see all of our favorite teachers from when Sarah went there. Speaking of favorite teachers, we were a little sad when Nico had his last day at Miss Beth's. She'll be moving out-of-state, but hope we'll still see her from time to time.

Sarah has been having a fun summer too after finishing 1st grade. So far, she's been to a camp in Annapolis (Quiet Waters) and went to a gymnastics camp at the Univ. of MD. She's also had swimming lessons and spent some time with her friends, including a couple sleepovers. Next week, she'll been going to a Girl Scout sleep-away camp.

David's softball team is having a .500 season so far. He has a summer student working with him on the NLDAS drought project. The project is getting close to having all 30 years of hourly data online on a new server as well as a new NLDAS webpage.

Alison's been going to the gym just about every day; she's trying to "Reach the Beach". The challenge is to do enough miles on the treadmill, elliptical, and bike before the end of the summer. She's been doing great and has just a few miles miles to go!

Taylor Swift concert

2009-06-13T20:41:00.003-04:00

Last Saturday (the 6th), we drove down to Waldorf to the [phone company] Wireless store just to enter a sweepstakes to win Taylor Swift concert tickets. Sarah is a big fan and plays her two CDs over and over again on her little boom box in her bedroom. The concert was already sold out, but thought we'd take a chance on free tickets. MIX107.3 was also there and giving away their own free tickets. On Monday, we got a phone call letting us know that we not only had won 4 free tickets, but also a meet-and-greet with Taylor backstage before the show! Sarah screamed with joy when she found out.

The concert was on Thursday the 10th at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia. Alison couldn't go because it was the same night as the Girl Scout leaders' award dinner. David took Sarah, who also invited her friend Rachel and her mother. We met at a tour bus with a group of about 35 people; there were two males in the group - David and a ~65-year old grandfather. We were escorted backstage and met Taylor's mom who gave us the tour. We took a quick look inside Taylor's bus, visited the backstage party room, and walked onto the stage before the show. Sarah and Rachel then lined up to meet Taylor and have a picture taken. They had a pro photographer, and they gave us a print inside a frame at the end of the show. The girls each got a hug, and Sarah had a chance to tell Taylor that her favorite song of hers is "Best Day".

We then made our way to our seats; about 20th row and a little to the left center of the stage. Gloriana and Kellie Pickler were the opening acts, and then Taylor started around 8:30pm. Sarah and Rachel were dancing and screaming in their t-shirts; David was glad he brought ear plugs for all the screaming at the show. The girls finally wiped out by 10:00pm, so we left before the end to beat the traffic. On the way out, we picked up our photo, along with a Taylor Swift signed poster, tote bag, guitar pick, necklace, and (even) lip balm. Now both concerts Sarah has been to were at Merriweather, and we won the tickets both times.

Memorial Day Parade

2009-05-24T15:32:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was Bowie's Memorial Day Parade. Sarah and Alison marched with the Girl Scouts. It was a nice sunny day with a few puffy cumulus clouds, so David and Nicholas grabbed a spot near the end of the route in the shade under the trees. This year, the Girl Scouts were near the front of the parade instead of near the end - but Nicholas still cried after waving at his Mommy and sister walk right by him. They came back pretty quickly, and we watched the rest of the parade go by. Sarah spent most of the time on the edge of the curb collecting candy being thrown, while Nico just wanted to eat, drink, and play with bubbles. On the way back to the car, we ran into our friends the Olsens and Sarah spent the afternoon playing over their house. Later, we met them at our pool, which was open for the 1st day of the summer. The water was very cold, but the kids had fun jumping in the water or just splashing in the kiddie pool.

Sarah is Seven

2009-05-09T14:49:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was Sarah's 7th birthday. But that doesn't mean the celebrating was (or will be) limited to one day. Her party at school was on Thursday because her teacher wasn't going to be in on Friday. We brought in (store-bought) Rice Krispie treats and juice boxes; Sarah made herself a crown that she wore. On her birthday, Grandma stopped by and we had Carvel ice cream cake, and then Sarah opened presents. Tonight, we're seeing Grandpa because Aust Susan is in town, and will celebrate with them. Sarah's actual party will be at our pool at the end of the month.

Visit to Auburn

2009-04-07T20:42:00.002-04:00

Back on Fri Mar 27th, we drove up to Auburn, NY to visit Alison's family. We originally were planning to go in the summer when it was nicer out, but many of Ali's cousins were going to be in town, so we decided to go when we did instead. Grandma and Papa Bob also drove up, as did Ali's brother Andrew and his family. Our trip up there was the quickest yet - no traffic and summer construction season hadn't started yet; plus we managed to keep it to only one food/bathroom break, which is impressive between Alison and two young kids!

On Friday night, we just went out for pizza and then turned in early at the hotel. Saturday was a busy day, however. First, we went to Ali's Uncle Al and Aunt Irene's Max200 shop, where they manufacture and sell dog agility equipment. We got a tour of the shop, and also got to see one of their dogs in action on the equipment. Next we stopped by Al and Irene's farm. Nicholas and Sarah had fun feeding hay to the horses, and also fed and got to pet some sheep and some chickens. David insisted we do at least a little trainspotting on the New York Central Line (since we were SO close). After less than 10 minutes of waiting, a freighter came through. Then we went to Ali's Uncle Chris and Aunt Margaret's house and met up with Ali's cousins too. Two of them have young kids as well, so there were plenty of little ones walking and crawling around. The weather was warm enough to sit and play outside; we even wandered out onto the golf course behind their backyard. When it was Nico's bedtime, David took him back to the hotel room and watched some college basketball, while Ali spent more time with her cousins.

On Sunday, Ali's Uncle Dennis and Aunt Pam came down from Rochester, and we went out to lunch/brunch. After that, we let the kids run around in the new Veterans Memorial Park, which was almost complete. The man who is leading the town's effort to build the Park stopped by and chatted with David for a bit. After that, we went to Liverpool, NY to visit Jessie - a family friend of Ali and her Mom's. Jessie and her husband Chris just had a baby as well, and we took turns holding the baby and playing Uno Attack with Sarah and Nico. For dinner, we drove back to the Auburn area to have a big dinner at Ali's grandfather's house.

Our trip back to Bowie on Monday seemed like it took a bit longer, as we picked up a brief cold sometime over the weekend. When we finally made it back, we collapsed and took most of the rest of the week before it felt like we recovered.

Nicholas turns two

2009-03-24T08:05:00.008-04:00

Today is Nicholas's 2nd birthday. On Saturday, we had a birthday party for him at our house. The theme was "A Very Hungry Caterpillar" for two reasons: 1) Nicholas loves to eat food, 2) last Friday was the 40th anniversary of the first publishing of the book written by Eric Carle. Alison and Sarah made a chocolate cake with a bundt pan and shaped it and frosted it like the caterpillar in the book. Alison also got some fruit and put holes in it, as did the caterpillar in the story. Finally, Sarah and Mom-Mom cut out and colored some paper in shapes/colors of all the food the caterpillar eats on his Saturday feast. Alison, Sarah, and Mom-Mom made a cherry chip cake shaped like a butterfly; we hid it behind a cardboard box (the crysalis) until we sang happy birthday. Ms. Beth read the book to the kids at storytime, and then we all had the cakes. Here are some more pictures of the cakes. It was still chilly, but the kids had fun outside in the yard and on the swing set. UPDATE - 9:05PM: Nicholas is 36 and 1/2 inches tall on his 2nd birthday.

Nicholas has a stomach bug

2009-03-12T10:45:00.002-04:00

Nicholas has had a stomach bug since early Tuesday morning. [if you are eating or easily grossed out, please stop reading now :) ] David went to get him when he woke up in the morning, and he was covered with gross stuff. David couldn't tell if Nico had thrown up or had diarrhea that leaked because it was all in his lap and down his legs; he later determined that the answer was "both". Nico took two baths - one to wash everything off and the next to get clean. While getting Sarah ready for school, Nico threw up in his high chair and a few more times on the kitchen floor. Thankfully, all these were clear, and David had put a few bibs on him to catch most of it. A few hit the floor though and Nico even got his shoes. After Sarah was dropped off, Nico threw up in the car seat on the way home and then again a few more times at home. David took him to the doctor's and was told to just let it run its course and give only sips of Pedialyte. By Wednesday, Nico was only having diarrhea, although he was also having a high fever. Last night and this morning, he's been very tired and quiet and not moving around at all. David's been staying home watching him. Oh, and Sarah is home today with a runny nose and cough; we're really hoping it doesn't turn into what Nicholas has!

Snow Day!

2009-03-02T15:13:00.002-05:00

We had a decent March snowstorm overnight - about 7 to 8 inches at our house. The kids had school canceled, and Ali decided not to go to work today. NASA at first said they were going to be "Code Yellow - opening at noon". However, at 10:41AM, they changed their mind and went to "Code Red", which means closed all day. David didn't know they made this change until he came inside from clearing the cars and shoveling the driveway, but he was glad to not have to go into work. All four of us spend some time outside in the morning. Nicholas barely moved in his snowsuit and boots, while Sarah was running all around in the snow. We took turns dragging Nico around the yard on the sliding sled.

Ali & Sarah at Camp Winona

2009-03-01T22:38:00.002-05:00

Alison and Sarah went camping over the weekend at Winona Girl Scout Camp near Hughesville, MD. They went with another Brownie troop, and camped in a lodge (slept in sleeping bags on the floor), had a campfire, sang songs, and went on a hikes. It was still a little chilly and the weather was cloudy with some light rain and sleet overnight. They came home earlier this afternoon and took a longer nap that Nicholas took this afternoon. E-mail Ali or David for the link to the photo album.

Sarah is Talented and Gifted

2009-02-16T14:15:00.002-05:00

Of course, we already knew that. But now so does Prince George's County Schools. We received a letter from her school letting us know that Sarah was identified for inclusion in the Talented and Gifted (TAG) program. There's a TAG school in Bowie to which we've applied (in a lottery system) for her to possibly attend next year. If we don't "win" the school lottery, she'll go to her current school again next year, but still within TAG. We don't know yet if that will mean a separate classroom (her current school usually has three classrooms per grade level) or special instruction during the week. One benefit of switching to the TAG school is that it starts an hour earlier (around 8:15AM) and Sarah can take the bus; some drawbacks are that she'd have to switch schools, which might also affect Girl Scouts. We'll be finding out more information on our options this spring. We're very excited and proud of Sarah!

David's Fortieth Birthday

2009-02-08T15:07:00.003-05:00

David's 40th birthday happened last month. On his actual birthday, David was flying back from the AMS conference in Phoenix and didn't get home until after dinner time. We decided to combine a birthday party with the Super Bowl and have a big get together at our house, even though it was a few weeks after David's birthday. We had it catered by Mamma Roma, and served gnocchi, ziti with zucchini, and chicken marsala. Ali, as usual, thought that wasn't going to be enough food, so we also served party sub, mini hot dogs in crescent rolls, wings, salad, veggies, cheese, crackers, etc. We had a very full house; we even played some Guitar Hero: World Tour on the Wii. Some people left to go watch the Super Bowl elsewhere, and some folks stayed to watch the game - and the halftime entertainment. David was most excited to see Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band. We had a contest to guess the songs played at halftime. As proof that David had no inside knowledge, he didn't even finish in the top half of the entrants. It was a great halftime show, and a great football game at the end as well.

For archival purposes, here's the text of the Evite that we sent out:

Lordy, lordy, look who's forty. Come celebrate David "officially turning old".

Dinner will be catered by Mamma Roma, so save all your carb points for the party!

Dress: Sports casual

We've included an end time for the end of the birthday festivities, but the party will continue to watch the Super Bowl (commercials/half-time show), for those who wish to stay.

David's 40th birthday party - family, friends, Italian food, ~~potential New York football Giants repeat appearance in the Super Bowl~~, Super Bowl football, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band halftime show -- it's going to be legen ... wait for it ... dary!

First snow of winter

2009-01-29T22:49:00.001-05:00

...and maybe the ONLY snow of the winter for Bowie. It was only an inch or two of snow, followed by a little sleet and freezing rain. Never lost power and the roads were only bad for a little bit. But of course the schools closed early on Tuesday, shut down on Wednesday, and inexplicably opened two hours late on Thursday. Sarah had fun outside on Tuesday, however, and she showed Nicholas how to catch snowflakes with your tongue. Nicholas just tilted his head to the sky, closed his eyes, and opened his mouth with a big smile on his face.

Grades and Awards

2009-01-09T19:50:00.002-05:00

Sarah received her first report card this week. Her grades for all subjects were "PR" (for "proficient") - except for "Reading Level", for which her grade was "AB" (for above grade level). She's been reading books that are 2nd and 3rd grade level and above for sometime now. She reads so often she's earned the school rewards (for minutes per read week) in the reading club every month since the school year started.

David earned two separate awards at work this week. The first, from the Climate and Radiation Branch (the branch David is actually in), is a Special Act Award "for [his] generous contributions to various Branch activities, including the resolution of computer problems and the organization of Branch seminars". The second award, from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, is an Outstanding Performance Award "for exceptional performance in the development of a multi-analysis data set and the validation and inter-comparison of GEOS-5, an outstanding contribution to the GEWEX/CEOP community".

Holidays 2008

2009-01-07T20:17:00.004-05:00

Our holidays this year kicked off, as usual, by celebrating both Chanukah and Grandpa's birthday at Grandpa and Sue's house. This year, we were at the new place in Annapolis, and there was plenty of room for all the kids (and all the presents). We had a delicious brunch and had plenty of fun playing with the new toys and puzzles.

We celebrated Christmas with Grandma and Papa Bob on the Sunday before Christmas Eve. We first went to the service at Knox Presbyterian (Grandma's church) and then we to Andrew and Treva's for more food (and more presents). Sarah finally lost her first tooth, chewing on some steamed rice. The Tooth Fairy paid a visit that night, and gave Sarah a dollar and a coupon to a visit to Chuck E. Cheese.

On Christmas Eve, we were all planning to go to the children's Mass on St. Pius with the Olsens, but Nicholas had another round of pink eye, so he stayed home with Ali. The next morning, we opened presents - and Santa brought us a Nintendo Wii! David wanted to ease into the day, but Ali and Sarah were pushing him to hook up the Wii as soon as possible. It didn't take long, and we played for a little while. For dinner, we went to the Olsens, and had ham and other goodies.

The weekend after Christmas, we drove up to NJ to stay at Steven and Jenne's in Madison for "A Mocko Family Christmas 2008". Sarah and Nicholas finally got to meet their new cousin Paige, and it was great to see Bryan and Anne and JJ again. We also met JJ's girlfriend Emily. Poppy was also there - but Mom-Mom was so sick with the flu or something like it that she couldn't come up to Madison. :( During the two-plus days we were in NJ, we met David's friends John and Carolyn, took the kids gym at the YMCA, and visited David's grandmother (GG, for great-grandmother) and Aunt Marlene.

For New Year's Eve, we went (as usual) to Ali's friend Cathy's party. She had a "pie" theme this year, so Alison made pepperoni bread on the shape of pi. We ate many other delicious savory and dessert pies, but the kids crashed and we left the party early, and were home by 10:15pm and asleep by 11:00pm.

That weekend, Alison had a bunch of her friends over for a tea party. We ate more delicious food as well (see a theme here?). It was definitely the kind of party that white people would like. *grin*

Happy 2009!

2009-01-04T11:47:00.003-05:00

On New Year's Day, we weighed and measured the kids. Nicholas is now 35 and 1/2 inches tall, and is 30 pounds. Sarah is 46 inches tall and weighs 45 pounds. Happy New Year to all!

Nicholas has a rap sheet

2008-12-03T21:53:00.003-05:00

Nicholas has been causing all kinds of trouble over the last week. It's a good thing he's so cute!

Last Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), Alison was at work in the morning and David was home with the kids. David called Comcast for only 5 minutes to confirm a service appointment. The kids were upstairs, and David was in the kitchen. At the end of the phone call, David could hear Nicholas faintly crying. He went upstairs - and found that Nicholas had locked himself alone in the bathroom! David tried to push the pin in the little hole in the doorknob to release the lock, but it wasn't working. He then decided to just unscrew the door handle, but all that did was drop the handles on both sides of the door and leave the bolt in place. David and Sarah could now see Nicholas was in there with the lights off, and was trying to put the door handle back in place. Sarah shone a light through the hole for him, while David tried to get the bolt to come out. Finally, he decided to just break a little of the (particle board) door to get it out. Nicholas was freed after ~10 minutes of "Entering and Locking" - and was fine after a 30 second hug, following his parole.

Also on Friday, Nicholas committed "Disposal of Stolen Merchandise", but wasn't busted for it until Monday night. On Sunday night, David couldn't find the iPod after a half-hour of looking around the house. He (and Ali) checked all the usual places that Nicholas might have dropped his toys; David even searched in the top two bags of trash outside, as Nicholas is in the mode of throwing things away into the kitchen garbage. We went to bed thinking that either Nicholas had really hidden it somewhere crazy and it would eventually turn up, or that the Comcast guy had taken it when he was here "fixing" the phone/internet (see a thread here?). The next night, Alison and David had the same thought to check the bottom trash bag outside, even though David thought it was from before the iPod went missing. Alison had just opened the bag and started looking through it, when she found it in there! We threw out the cover, but otherwise the iPod still works great.

Last night, Nicholas was busted for "Public Urination". He'd finished with his bath, and was running to his room when Ali quickly turned on some warm water for Sarah's bath. That's all the time it took for Nico to start peeing on the carpet, a couple of his toys, his clothes, etc. Oy!

Nicholas starting to talk

2008-11-23T17:01:00.002-05:00

Nicholas is starting to talk; he now has a vocabulary of 7-8 words: "cookie", "sock", "hi", "daddy", "juice", "choo choo", "touchdown" (complete with the international sign for a touchdown), and when we ask him was a little tiger says, he'll say "roar" (sort of). Here's a video of him talking; there's more new pictures and videos on the kids page.

Sarah had her investiture ceremony for Brownies; of course, being the troop leader's daughter, she'd earned the most patches over the summer and so far this fall. She's doing great in school so far this year; we had our first parent/teacher conference, and found out (no surprise) that she's above average in reading. Nicholas is headed that way as well; he loves to have books read to him. He also loves the alphabet puzzle. He will tip it over, and then hold up each letter until we say what letter it is. He will try to repeat it, and then knows exactly where each letter goes. His fine motor skill isn't all there yet, so we sometimes have to help him position each letter correctly. He'll go through all 26 letters, and then tip over the puzzle and start again.

The weather's turned cold and dry, so the kids have caught some colds. Nicholas was home on Thu and Fri and has bronchitis. Sarah was home on Friday and has the sniffles and a cough. David's coming down with something as well, and has spent most of the day in bed.

Election 2008

2008-11-09T12:42:00.002-05:00

We had an election party at our house on Tue Nov 4th. All of our friends and us managed to eat most of five pizzas, 30 wings, shrimp, spanakopita, veggies, cheese/crackers/chips/cookies, etc. A few beers (or more) might also have been consumed. Sarah helped us keep track of the electoral votes on her dry erase board. We waited until just past 11pm for the networks to declare a winner - and they we broke into the Sweet Sweet Victory Pie (and some champagne). David stayed up really late watching the speeches and coverage (and to wait for the room to stop spinning), and took off part of the following morning to rest up and start cleaning the house.

Halloween 2008

2008-11-07T22:24:00.003-05:00

For Halloween this year, Sarah dressed as an angel (complete with white dress and halo), and Nicholas dressed as a devil (with red shirt and pants, a New Jersey Devils bib, and red horns). The kids first went trick-or-treating with our friends in their neighborhood; there seem to be more houses with candy and kids out over there. After hauling in loads of candy, the kids said hello to Grandma who stopped at the house on the way to Ocean Pines, and then we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Several times, we were asked if Sarah acts like an angel and Nicholas acts like a (little) devil. The answer is yes - unless the roles are reversed. Pictures from October are up on the kids picture page.

Beautiful Fall Weekend

2008-10-21T22:59:00.002-04:00

This past weekend, Poppy came down and we celebrated his birthday in person (a few weeks late). Instead of a cake, we got him a chocolate pecan pie from Best Pie. At the same time, we got ourselves a chocolate cream pie. Yum!

Alison and Sarah were outdoors all day on Saturday with Girl Scout activities. Their troop participated in Bowie Stream Clean-Up Day; they helped clean Millstream in our section of town. After that, they met other troops at the park to celebrate the Juliette Low birthday bash.

That night, Grandpa came over to babysit Sarah and Nicholas. He said he couldn't guarantee that there would be any chocolate cream pie left when we got back. Poppy, David, and Alison went to the Verizon Center to see the Devils face off against the Capitals. Alison wore her Capitals jersey, David wore his white "away" Devils jersey, and Poppy wore his red/black "home" Devils jersey. It was an exciting back-and-forth game, and it was tied 3-3 at the end of regulation and overtime. The Devils won in the shootout.

On Sunday, David took Poppy on a steam engine trip on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. The weather was great, the skies were clear, and the trees had some great fall colors. Check out the trip pictures here.

Trip to Chicago

2008-10-16T22:44:00.013-04:00

Last week, we all went to Chicago to visit David's brother Bryan and his wife Anne and also to see Alison's cousin Erin, her husband Tim, and their baby Dorothy. On Wednesday, we took Sarah out of school a little early and drove to the New Carrollton train station, took the MARC train to BWI, and then flew to Chicago. Bryan met us at the airport, and we took the bus to their place, and then collapsed from all the travel.

On Thursday, we took the bus to the Lincoln Park Zoo and met Erin and Dorothy (Tim was in rehearsals for his new show). We saw lions and giraffes and had plenty of fun at the sea otters. Nicholas really liked playing with his second cousin. On the way back to Bryan and Anne's, we went out of our way to stop at Dat Donuts. We purchased three extra large donuts (two glazed, one chocolate frosted) to go, had Chicago deep-dish pizza delivered, and then watched the SNL Election special with some friends of Anne and Bryan.

On Friday, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. They had a "green" Smart Home built on site which we toured. We also checked out the train exhibit (David's favorite), the kids play area (Sarah and Nicholas's favorite), and the baby chicks being born (awww). After the museum, we walked to Lake Michigan and watched Sarah climb up and down the rocks. On the way back, we got off the bus a stop or two early and walked by Barack Obama's house. He lives just a few blocks from Bryan and Anne, and was their state senator before he became a U.S. senator. There are barricades on all the sidewalks near his house, and Chicago police and Secret Service on all the corners. That night, we played Guitar Hero and Sarah helped Anne make a delicious dinner of pasta and beer bread, with cookies for dessert.

On Saturday, we took the subway to Chinatown for dim sum for brunch. Erin and Dorothy tried to meet us, but we hadn't realized it was China National Day and the streets were blocked off for a parade, and thus there was no parking for them. We were sad we didn't get to see them again, but still stuffed ourselves at the restaurant. We packed for home, and then saw some cool public art sculptures in downtown on the way to the train station.

The Amtrak train bound for D.C. was supposed to leave about 7PM, but we were delayed about an hour waiting for another train's passengers to arrive from Wisconsin. We finally left, and then ate a late dinner in the dining car. The family bedroom in the sleeper car had two bunk beds, and Sarah and Ali slept on the top level, and David kept Nicholas from falling out one of the lower beds. The kids didn't want to go to sleep, and Ali didn't sleep all that well, but it still felt much more pleasant than flying. By morning, we were into central PA, and had breakfast in the dining car. There was some nice fall color in the hills, and David especially enjoyed seeing some of his favorite trainspotting locations from the train (such as Harpers Ferry and Point of Rocks). The train arrived in D.C. only a half-hour late, and then we took Metro back to our car to drive home.

Election Party '08

2008-10-06T22:45:00.003-04:00

The Mockos are hosting their 4th Quadrennial(*) Presidential Election Night Party - and you're invited! The festivities officially start at 6:00pm, and will last until a winner is declared (or until 2 a.m.). We will have snacks, veggies, and drinks; the main course will be determined by polling, so please vote early and vote often. All you will need to bring to the party is an "I voted" sticker. RSVP below in the comments, or by e-mail to David or Alison. Hope you can make it; feel free to come and go whenever during the evening. David has already taken the following day off from work; he figures whether he's celebrating or mourning, either way he'll be in no shape to go to work the next day.

To make things a little more interesting, we will also be having a contest to guess the winner and correct number of electoral votes. If you need help coming up with a number, David is updating the current presidential odds. If you can't make it to the party, leave your guess in the comments. Closest to the actual final number wins a prize!

(*) - Technically, it's only the 3rd Quadrennial party, but David is counting a party from 1992. Among the lessons learned from previous parties: three words - dry...erase...board.

Busy kids

2008-10-04T23:16:00.002-04:00

Sarah is busy again this fall. On Wednesday afternoons, she has Brownie Girl Scouts. Alison is again the troop leader - this time with 16 girls in the troop. Sarah loves to wear her Brownie shirt or her Brownie vest to school as often as she can. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, Sarah has soccer practice; David is the coach again this fall. Sarah has also started CCD on Thursday nights.

Nicholas is no longer the only "outside" kid at his day care; he's making friends with the new kids, and learning how to get up and down stairs by himself. He's also great at saying hi or saying bye.

Presidential 2008 odds

2008-10-03T23:06:00.012-04:00

For informational purposes only...

Wager	Rock Star/Amtrak Joe	Maverick/Caribou Barbie
Point Spread (EVs)	-61.5	+61.5
Over/Under (EVs)	299.5	238.5
Money line	-135	+135

EVs = total Electoral College votes

UPDATE (10/13/2008):

Wager	Rock Star/Amtrak Joe	Maverick/Caribou Barbie
Point Spread (EVs)	-85.5	+85.5
Over/Under (EVs)	311.5	226.5
Money line	-143	+143

UPDATE (10/23/2008):

Wager	Rock Star/Amtrak Joe	Maverick/Caribou Barbie
Point Spread (EVs)	-105.5	+105.5
Over/Under (EVs)	321.5	216.5
Money line	-151	+151

September 2008 weekends

2008-10-01T23:14:00.002-04:00

September was so busy, there wasn't time to update all the things the family did. Over Labor Day weekend, we enjoyed the last few days at our outdoor pool - and on Labor Day we went to the church fair. The highlight there every year is the hay ride and the pony rides. A few days later, we went to our gym to the outdoor pool before it closed for the summer.

The following weekend (the 6th/7th), we went to Ocean Pines, MD to visit Grandma and Papa Bob. On Saturday, we mostly stayed inside as Tropical Storm Hanna made its way up the East Coast. It didn't rain much where we were, but it sure was windy. The next day was much nicer, and we went out on the boat on the bay.

The day that David got back from NJ after his Geneva trip, our street had a block party in the afternoon. They shut down the street a few houses down, and we met people who live in houses further down the street. They had three grills going and (of course) way too much food. Sarah made some new friends, and they had fun riding and running in the street. The highlight was a visit from a fire engine from the local volunteer fire company. Someone who lives on the street has a son who drives the engines there. The kids even got to ride around the block in it.

We went to the Washington Nationals new stadium on the 21st with Sharon and Dean. The Nationals lost, but the view was great. The food was pretty good too.

Lots of new pictures from September (and our August trip to NJ) are up on the kids picture page.

David in Geneva - Part IV

2008-09-27T15:50:00.002-04:00

The last day of the meeting on Wed Sep 17th went well. For dinner, David went with another group to a pizzeria near the hotel. David commented it sounded like the setup to a joke: "Three Americans and two Brits walk into an Italian restaurant in Switzerland and...". One wouldn't think that Swiss pizza would be any good; however, Switzerland does share a border with Italy, and there are many quality pizzerias in Geneva. David ordered a pie with prosciutto ham - and he's got to say that it was the best pizza he's EVER had. Thin crackly crust and delicious sauce and cheese - better than Jersey pizza! And the ham toppings were not little chunks, it was entire thin slices of the best quality prosciutto. It wasn't just this restaurant either; one of his dinner companions said he'd had a little better at a different place the night before, and David had another great pizza pie at yet another place on Thursday night. For dessert, David ordered ice cream in a plastic cow. The waiter just stopped and said, "But that's for children!". David ordered it anyway; he wanted the cow for Nicholas. When he was done, the waiter tried to take it away, but he just said he was going to give it a "shower" so David could take it home.

On Thursday the 18th, David took the Golden Pass train from Geneva to Interlaken and back. It was a little over three and a half-hours one way, and the trip requires a couple quick train changes because of different track grades. The first part of the trip went along the north side of Lake Geneva. There were clouds that kept the visibility poor for most of the trip along the lake, but once the second leg began and the train started into the mountains, the clouds were mostly gone. The views were spectacular, of green hills and farms in the valley going up to treeless mountains on the side. There were chalets and farms and cows and goats in the valleys and along the tracks. The final leg of the trip went along the south edge of Lake Thun into Interlaken. David walked around town, did some shopping, saw some very clean blue water in the river, and had a big lunch of sausage, onion gravy, and rösti before getting on the train back to Geneva. The best pictures from David's trip are online.

David flew back into Newark on Friday the 19th - and a few hours later, he had a new niece! Paige Elizabeth is her name, and David and his Mom and Dad got to visit the baby and Steven and Jenne in the hospital. He stayed the night in Madison, before getting on the Amtrak train back home after one week away.

Alison and Sarah and Nicholas did well enough without "Daddy" around. Ali dropped off Sarah at Nico's day care before work, and Ms. Beth gave Sarah a ride to school once it opened. Nicholas did try walking down a concrete step, and landed on his face. He hardly cried, and only scraped his nose and cheek a little. But the next day, it looked like he was in a brawl the day before. *grin* He healed fully in just a few days.

David in Geneva - Part III

2008-09-17T09:35:00.004-04:00

On Tuesday night the 16th, David decided to go to a Swiss hockey game. He'd seen some ads for the team on the buses and saw the schedule and decided to go. He almost talked one of his NASA colleagues (also a hockey fan) into going, but he was too tired. By the time David got back to the hotel after the meeting to change, the game had started, so he tried to call to see if tickets were still available. After only hearing a pre-recorded message in French, he decided to just go out to the arena and risk it. The arena was only ~95% full and David got there in time for the start of the 2nd period.
The fans were very vocal during the entire game; it was like watching a European soccer match. Many things at the game were the same as American hockey (rules and style of play, food, mascot, zamboni). But some things were just different enough to feel odd. There were NBA-style cheerleaders, who danced to music in the aisles during breaks in play. Even stranger was that half the music was European disco-pop and the other half was American arena-rock standards (The Offspring, Outkast, Donna Summer, etc.). The home team won 4 to 1.

David in Geneva - Part II

2008-09-17T02:47:00.005-04:00

Some pictures and movies from David's trip are now online. He also spent a little time after the poster session playing with the mapping feature of the pictures.

At lunch on Monday on the 15th, everyone went to the cafeteria on the WMO building. The cafeteria is on the top floor, and there is an open air deck all around the building with spectacular views of the area. David ran into someone he knew from grad school who now works at WMO. He is half-Swiss and moved back to Switzerland about 10 years ago. They had a nice sandwich lunch out on the deck, at least until the cold wind chased them back inside.

That evening, David went out to dinner at Les Relais de l'Entrecote with some CEOP scientists. The restaurant only serves one item for dinner - steak with their special sauce and thin french fries. The waitress wrote down on the paper tablecloth how well everyone wanted their steak cooked. She even came around and filled the plates with both steak and fries again after they were cleared once. David had a Cardinal beer with dinner; everything was delicious. On the walk to dinner, they walked across one of the bridges over the Rhone. David tried to take pictures of the night cityscape, but the wind was blowing the camera (and shaking the bridge as well).

The meeting itself is going well enough. David is glad to see everyone who he only sees at most every year or two, as well as talking to them on international telecons every couple months. Some of the scientists though tend to filibuster when showing their results, and the agenda kept getting pushed back. There were many interesting results shared, and there will be additional international collaboration in the coming months and years.

David in Geneva - Part I

2008-09-15T09:57:00.010-04:00

David is in Geneva, Switzerland this week for 2nd International Implementation Meeting of the Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project (CEOP). The meeting is being held at the World Meteorological Organization building. The WMO is near buildings for the International Red Cross, the World Trade Organization, the League of Nations, and numerous United Nations buildings, including the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

David took the train from New Carrollton to Newark to get onto a direct flight to Geneva. He got in at ~8 A.M. on Sunday and didn't sleep much on the plane. He was able to check into the hotel early and (after testing the alarm twice) took a one-hour nap. Then he took a quick bus to the downtown area by Lake Geneva and the Rhone River. David doesn't use/own a watch, and his cell phone didn't connect to anything, so he considered buying a Swiss time piece. After looking at the prices, he decided to just use the digital camera to help tell time.

David walked across bridges over the Rhone to see both the Left Bank and Right Bank sides of town. The weather was overcast and very windy, so the famous water jet fountain in the lake was not operating. There were many sailboats on the lake taking advantage of the winds. David did see some historic buildings, several lovely parks and gardens, and even watched a little of a club soccer match. For dinner, David went to Les Armures and had pumpkin soup to warm up and then Swiss sausage and rösti. He'd entered the restaurant right behind someone David knows from the CEOP group, along with his wife. He is mostly retired, and they live in the Eastport section of Annapolis, very close to the SPCA where Alison works.

David took his work laptop (which is really great because it is so small and can last about all day without needing power, especially because the Swiss use different electrical plugs), but the wireless is not working at the hotel. There is a computer in the lobby, and it uses a Swiss keyboard. Most of the letters are the same, but the punctuation/special characters are really moved around. The y and z keys (or is that the z and y keys?) are switched, making it a QWERTZ keyboard. There's plenty of power and wireless within the WMO building. David's decided to listen at ~75% and post to the blog, rather than fall asleep during the meeting from jet lag and sleep deprivation.

Sarah is a 1st grader

2008-08-25T21:15:00.002-04:00

Today was Sarah's first day of school as a 1st grader at Whitehall Elementary. We took loads of pictures, of course - walking to school, by the school sign, by the front doors (with her new lunch bag), and at her desk. Sarah took the whole day in stride - talking up a storm (as usual) all the way to her classroom, and then quietly starting to color once she sat down. Alison went into work late so we could both drop her off, and just about every other parent at the school had the same idea. We had to park somewhat far away, but still got to her classroom on time. Sarah's already asking to buy lunch at school tomorrow - cheese pizza!

NJ Vacation 2008

2008-08-24T23:20:00.003-04:00

We took a few days off from work last week and visited David's parents in Little Egg Harbor, NJ. On Sunday, we just hung around the house, did some boating, and went out to dinner. The place we chose just happened to have a mini-amusement park attached. We played some putt-putt, and Sarah went on some kids rides they had there, including getting strapped into a harness to jump really high on a trampoline.

On Monday, Nicholas stayed with David's parents, and Alison, David, and Sarah went to Six Flags Great Adventure. Alison had been very eager to ride the big coasters there (especially Kingda Ka). We also went to the drive-thru safari park next door; Sarah liked seeing all the animals, but didn't like it when an ostrich came right up to our window. At the park, Alison rode nearly all of the big coasters, and went with Sarah on some rides she was tall enough to ride. David gets motion sick easily, so he stuck to rides such as the ferris wheel and cable cars. We all went on the water rides, and got very wet on the big raft on the rapids.

By Tuesday, David's brother and family were also visiting, and we went to the beach. The water was just warm enough, and the kids had a great time playing in the sand. They were rehearsing for the Atlantic City air show nearby, and several times, jets flew very low overhead. By evening, we went to A.C. to the Borgata hotel and casino (where David's parents had a comp room for the night). We swam in the pool at the hotel and had dinner at the casino's food court. David and Alison stayed with Nicholas overnight in the room, while Sarah got to stay with her cousins back at their grandparents' house.

On Wednesday, we met everyone at Storybook Land for yet more amusement park rides. The weather was perfect (mostly sunny, but not humid) and the park was shaded, so we spent all afternoon going on the rides. Even Nicholas got to ride some of them, although on the first ride he went on (a mini ferris wheel), he fussed every time he and Alison came to the bottom and saw us all waving at him. He had plenty of fun after that, especially on the train ride.

Loads of new pictures on the kids picture page - including from an earlier trip to NJ that just David and Sarah took for a weekend in July.

Alison is on YouTube

2008-08-15T20:02:00.003-04:00

Last year, Alley Cat Allies recorded footage for a short video they were putting together explaining high-volume cat spay and neuter techniques. The footage they recorded was at the monthly volunteer feral cat spay/neuter clinic in northern Virginia. They finalized and released the video this summer - and Alison has a starring role! The video is narrated, but you can see Alison in her surgical mask and gown and be awed by her surgical skills. If you want to jump to Alison's appearance, skip to the 3:45 mark.

Disney concert

2008-07-30T21:31:00.002-04:00

This afternoon, Alison and Sarah went to the Disney concert. It was really hot and humid out, but they did have a mist tunnel and some other indoor-ish activities. Sarah invited her friend Amber - her dad is also on David's softball team. Ali and Sarah got really close to the stage to see They Might Be Giants. They had a fun time and were home before 8pm. Check out the kids picture page for some new pictures.

Disney Music; Diving Board

2008-07-23T22:27:00.002-04:00

Today was a very exciting day. Sarah went off the diving boards in the deep end of the pool for the first time! She's taking swimming lessons this week, and can now swim well enough to get herself to the side. Sarah and Alison were at the pool in the evening while David and Nicholas went to the gym. Alison was actually guest-teaching her water aerobics class (the regular instructor is away this week) in the shallow end, when she noticed Sarah going on a diving board. Some of the ladies in the class just said, "Oh, she's gone off the boards a couple times already". Sarah made friends with a boy while swimming, and went with the boy and his dad to go off the boards. It was the boy's first time off the diving boards as well. Sarah jumped off a few more times - including off the high dive! We've since explained to Sarah to let us know when she's going in the deep end. *grin*

Even more exciting - Alison won concert tickets to see the Disney Music Block Party Tour! Sarah's favorite album right now is Here Come the 123s by They Might Be Giants. She has been seeing commercials for the tour on the Disney TV channels, and just a couple days ago, we noticed that the tour was coming near us. It's a show in the afternoon and evening with several different kids acts, ending with TMBG. After finding out the ticket prices were $36, we spent some time debating if Alison and Sarah should go or not. But while driving home, Alison heard on the radio that they were going to give away tickets. She got home, kept the radio on, and called in when they announced it - and she was caller #10 and the winner! She'll be contacted by the promotions department with the details; the concert is next week.

4th of July, Annapolis

2008-07-06T20:37:00.002-04:00

We didn't go to Asbury Park for the 4th - we were in Annapolis for two of the three days this weekend. On Friday, we went to Ali's friend Cat's house for a picnic. Sarah and some of Cat's nephews played in a sprinkler, and Nicholas (and David) ate a little bit of everything. In the evening, we just stayed home instead of going out to fireworks. It rained off and on anyway, plus we had our own fun - we gave Nicholas his first haircut!

On Sunday, we went to meet Grandpa and Sue at a new address in Annapolis, and were told there was a surprise. Ali and David were guessing it was either a boat or a new house. When we went to Cat's on the 4th, we drove by and did some recon, and didn't see either a For Sale sign or a boat. It turned out they bought a new house! It has a dock out back (like the former house), but is a single-story house and roomier on the inside. The backyard has grass and is flatter, and will be a great place for the grandkids to run around and play, both inside and out.

Nicholas is walking

2008-06-23T22:50:00.002-04:00

Nicholas is walking! He'd been slowly working up to it, each day taking a few more steps. But over the weekend, he started walking instead of crawling to anywhere he wanted to go. Need some proof? Check the picture page - and watch some movies.

Sarah is back - she went to Grandma and Papa Bob's in Ocean Pines, MD for a few days. Papa Bob's granddaughter Madison was also there. They went to the beach, to the pool, to the boardwalk, and played some mini-golf. On Saturday, David, Alison, and Nicholas went to Annapolis to see some disc dog competitions. Ali's friend Angie's husband Jeff has several dogs that do very well in the competition every year. On Sunday, we cleaned the house - the last three hours before bed in the dark when the power went out for a while thanks to some more thunderstorms.

Father's Day 2008

2008-06-19T22:39:00.002-04:00

On Father's Day, we went to the Bowie Baysox game with Alison's friend Cathy and her mom and dad. They had a special promotion for Father's Day - we went to the Diamond View restaurant in the luxury boxes behind home plate. They had a buffet and drinks and popcorn. They also let us go onto the outfield before the game to play catch. Nicholas mostly just sat there, although he did roll the ball to Sarah and/or David a few times. When the game started, we sat in some shaded seats just in front of the restaurant windows, but right behind home plate. Two times a foul ball went just over the screen and hit the windows just above us. The promotion included kids tickets so Sarah could ride the carousel and moon bounce. The Baysox won 5-2.

Sarah Kindergarten Graduation

2008-06-13T18:22:00.003-04:00

Today Sarah graduated from her kindergarten class at GCDC. The ceremony was held in the big auditorium at NASA. She and her classmates sang songs and shared facts about the planets. Sarah read a letter to next year's kindergarten-ers. She also walked across the stage to get her diploma. David, Alison, and Nicholas are very proud of Sarah; she's learned so much this year thanks to her great teachers - and in all four of her years at GCDC.

Heat Wave & Twilight Camp

2008-06-12T22:25:00.003-04:00

From last Saturday through Tuesday, there was a big heat wave in the Mid-Atlantic. We recorded highs up to 99F on a couple days here in Bowie. There also two more rounds of thunderstorms on Sat and Tue; one bolt scared Sarah so much that she came downstairs out of bed. David played softball on Tuesday in the heat before the storms. Wed and Thu have been a little cooler and much less humid.

This week Sarah has been going to Girl Scout twilight camp from ~6-8pm. They've been going for hikes and activities in one of the local parks. The mosquitoes have found Sarah though; her legs have bug bites all over them. She even got one bite on her eyelid. She having loads of fun, however; last night she even brought home a mini-cake that she'd made.

Yankee Stadium

2008-06-09T20:21:00.002-04:00

On Friday, David went with his Dad and his brother Steven to the "The Boogie Down Bronx" to visit Yankee Stadium and go to a Yankees game. It's the last year in the old stadium, as a new stadium is being built right next door and will open in time for the 2009 season. We drove to the area around the Port Authority, parked, and took the subway to the stadium. We had tickets for the stadium tour, and got to enter the press box, Monument Park, and then walk along the warning track on the side of the field all the way into the Yankees dugout. If we had come on a day without a game, the tour also includes a visit to the Yankees clubhouse. It was great fun to be there, the tour guide had plenty of interesting stories, and we got to pretend we were managing the game from the dugout bench.

We hung around the stadium in the afternoon, and got some food and drink and bought the kids some Yankees gear. We entered the stadium again right as the gates opened to make sure we got the giveaway for that game (a mini-replica of the Stadium). David and Steven went to the left field stands just by the foul pole during batting practice to try to grab a home run ball. After a few minutes, David started flipping through the game program, when Steven said "David - grab the ball". David looked down first and saw the ball squirming around the seats and grabbed it just before someone else did.

The game was close and entertaining, but the Yankees couldn't seem to get a hit with runners on base. We were sitting in the last row of the loge (middle) section in left field, with a great view of the bullpens and Monument Park. Of course, that didn't stop us from yelling at the umpire for every bad call against the Yankees! By the end of the game, it was a little chilly up in the wind. The Yankees tried to rally in the last couple of innings, but ended up losing 2-1 to the Royals.

Stormy weekend

2008-06-01T21:12:00.002-04:00

This weekend, Alison had training for Girl Scout camping, which included camping overnight with other trainees. She packed up all of her stuff, made a last-minute run to Target for some final supplies, and left at 9AM Saturday. David took the kids to the pool right after it opened at 11AM, and just as he got the kids out of the car, the first rumble of thunder hit. David _did_ check the radar before he left, and it appeared that if anything was coming near Bowie in the early part of the day, it would be brief. So, David, Sarah, and Nicholas waited at the snack bar for a half-hour to pass without thunder so the kids could go in the pool. We waited with some friends and Nicholas and Sarah shared a grilled cheese sandwich. Unfortunately, there was thunder every few minutes still, when David decided to leave around 12:30PM. Sarah was in the car, and Nicholas was almost out of the stroller when the heavy rain started. The kids were laughing (and David too) as David rushed to get Nicholas buckled in and all the stuff in the car while trying (futilely) to stay dry. It rained off and on most of the afternoon, but didn't get to the campground that Alison was at until later on. But it rained heavy enough that they canceled the overnight camping part of the training, and Alison got full credit for the training. She can't wait to go camping with Sarah and the Brownies next year.

Today, we again went to the pool. There was a brief shower, this time with no thunder, so we just stayed and kept swimming. The pool water still needs to warm up some this summer - there's been plenty enough falling from the sky in the last month.

Loads of new pictures

2008-05-26T21:38:00.002-04:00

David finally finished putting pictures of the last 6 months up on the kids webpage. There are pictures of Sarah and Alison at the parade, but David was taking video and our friends were taking snapshots. Once we get the files, we'll add them to the page.

Ballet Recital

2008-05-25T22:51:00.003-04:00

This afternoon, Sarah danced in a ballet recital at the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts. She was a gold finch, and danced beautifully with her classmates. She had yellow flowers in her hair (which she was very excited to have up in a bun) and a yellow skirt on. Sarah's class was almost at the end of the program; Nicholas barely made it to the end of the show. He was fine when there were dancers, but quickly got bored (and didn't like the dark) between classes. Sarah was very happy to get flowers both from Grandpa and Sue and from Grandma and Papa Bob.

Today Nicholas stood up for ~5 seconds without holding onto anything. He pulled himself up to stand next to one of his toys, then decided to let go to see what happened. He kept standing, and then decided to slowly sit back down.

Memorial Day Parade

2008-05-24T22:27:00.003-04:00

Today, Sarah marched with the Girl Scouts in Bowie's Memorial Day parade. Alison marched as well, as the troop leader. David and Nicholas met some friends and got a shady spot near the end of the parade route to wait for them. When Sarah and Alison came by, Sarah had a big smile on her face waving to her brother and to her friends. Nicholas was very excited too - until his Mommy kept on walking right past him. He started to cry, so Alison came back and carried him the rest of the parade route.

Later on, we had some friends over to barbecue in the backyard. The kids were playing on the swing set; Nicholas in particular was happy to be in the bucket swing. The kids ate dinner outside on the kids table, while the adults stayed inside. The weather was so nice that we just used to screen doors - and also so we could see what those crazy kids were up to!

Big Steps

2008-05-23T22:59:00.003-04:00

Nicholas is hitting a bunch of milestones the past couple of weeks. He's picking up a cup (with a straw) and drinking out of it; he said "bye bye" to David one morning being dropped off at day care; he's saying both "da da" and "ma ma" (although seemingly randomly); and he's "furniture surfing" - walking very slowly around tables and couches while holding himself up against whatever he's near. Two days ago, he wanted to get from the table to a toy, but didn't want to get down on the floor to crawl to it. He kept reaching and thinking about taking a step towards it, but wasn't quite ready. Still, it won't be long now!

Sarah had her "bridging ceremony" from Daisies to Brownie Girl Scouts on Tuesday night. She also received several awards and patches for her hard work this year, including stream cleaning, making cat toys for the SPCA, and helping to evaluate playgrounds. Alison made a bridge across a river (out of construction paper) and the girls "walked" across the bridge onto Brownies next fall.

Everyone had a cold this week, though. David was out the longest - 4 days (although he did go to NJ one day for Aunt Kathy's funeral), but Sarah was home 2 days, Nicholas 1 day, and Alison would have gutted it out other than having to watch all the sick kids one day. Everyone's finally getting better; just in time for another busy weekend!

Aunt Kathy

2008-05-17T12:03:00.002-04:00

David's Aunt Kathy died yesterday, from cancer. She was also David's godmother. There is a blog in her memory here. When David was growing up, sometimes he would take the train from Madison to near where Aunt Kathy worked (Bloomfield/The Oranges area) and stay with his cousins for a week. It was always great to go in the summer time - because they had a pool set up in the backyard! The funeral services will be next week sometime; most likely only David will go up, and he'll probably be taking the train....

Rainy weekend

2008-05-13T23:05:00.002-04:00

It was a very rainy 5 days here in Bowie. We measured a total of 8.58 inches of rain at the house - which is more than was measured from Apr 16th to Oct 18th of 2007. There were 2 different rain storms, one centered on Friday and one from Sunday night to Monday afternoon.

On Friday, Sarah's field trip to the zoo was rained out - plus her classroom was closed because they were installing new floor tile. The idea was to do it during the field trip, but with no trip, there was no room for the kids. So Sarah had to stay home - plus the parents of one of her classmates asked us to watch their daughter. Not to mention, Nicholas's day care was closed because they didn't have power. So David watched the three kids until mid-afternoon until Alison came home from work - then she watched them until David got home in the late evening. They behaved pretty well, but we still wanted to collapse that night.

But on Saturday, we drove up to NJ for Maddie's first communion. There was traffic (always bad on Sat mornings), and we ended up having to go right to the church (St. Vincent Martyr). David hadn't been in this church since probably high school/Youth Ministry - after then, the Mocko family was going to St. Patrick's in Chatham instead. It was a nice service and there was a fun party back at Steven and Jenne's afterwards. Then we drove back home and finally went to sleep after midnight.

On Sunday, Sarah went to the Washington Ballet with Grandma to see "Cinderella". They also went with Papa Bob's daughter and grand-daughter, and took the Metro train in and out of the city. By the time they got home, the rain was falling. While they were gone, David got out the ladder and cleaned the gutters just in time for the big storm. Alison got to stay inside and enjoy some rest on her Mother's Day, although she did make a big brunch for everyone before they left, including matzoh brei which we tried to make for the first time.

Tonight, one of David's two softball games was canceled because of poor field conditions, but the latter game (on a different field) was played. Unfortunately, we only had 8 players, and most of the outfield was still a swamp. The team lost, but probably could have kept it closer with a full team. David came home with mud all over his legs and the back of his shorts and shirt.

Sarah's 6th Birthday

2008-05-08T22:46:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday to Sarah who turned 6 years old today!

We had two parties for her on Sat May 3rd. The first was for her little friends and classmates; it was in the children's room at our gym. They bounced around, went through an obstacle course, and threw balls into a basketball hoop. The room was very loud, but the kids had fun. There was also a pull-string pinata and cake - one side dinosaurs and the other side princesses. The second party was right after that for cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. This time, we had ice cream cake, and all the kids had a great time playing in the backyard.

Sad Day on E Street

2008-04-18T20:26:00.002-04:00

Longtime and founding E Street Band member Danny Federici (keyboards, accordion, glockenspiel) died yesterday of skin cancer. He'd been off the tour for several months, but Ali and I did get to see him with Bruce and the rest of the band when they came through D.C. last fall. He'd been playing with Bruce for over 40 years, both getting their start along the Jersey shore. More info can be found over at Backstreets and on Springsteen's page. There's a fund for melanoma research that you can contribute towards. God bless, Danny!

Helping the Economy

2008-04-17T23:14:00.002-04:00

On Saturday, we went shopping. We used to go shopping together until Sarah was old enough to not have to be in the shopping cart. David decided then it was much easier and less stressful (at least for him) if Alison did most of the shopping - especially groceries - during the weekday. Alison has afternoons off, and the kids are in day care, which definitely help! We first went to Target and then to Sports Authority - the main purchase there was a new softball scorebook. Then to PetSmart for some litter and then to Kohl's for clothes (mostly for David). His underwear supply was vastly dwindling, as Alison would throw out anything that was wearing out. After that, we were hungry and tired, and decided to delay our last stop until late that evening. We went to Lowe's for some garden supplies and mulch.

On Sunday, David spent most of the day working on the yard. The new plants in the backyard seemed to have survived the drought and the winter, but a few weeds were starting to come up, so we put down some tarps and covered with new mulch. David was a little sore, but was convinced he wouldn't have made it through the day if we hadn't started going to the gym. We also found time to go the Girl Scout Hike & Bike day. We fit Sarah's bike in the trunk of the Prius, and drove to the starting point. Sarah rode her bike, and we walked next to her pushing Nicholas in the stroller. At one point, Sarah wanted to get off and walk, so David jumped on her bike and rode off with Sarah laughing and chasing him.

By Sunday night, Nicholas was starting to feel warm, so we kept him home from day care and took him to the doc on Monday night. He didn't have many symptoms other than a fever and sounding just a little congested. But, sure enough, he has strep throat. He also stayed home on Tuesday, but went on Wednesday morning. You really can't tell he is or was sick, as he's just as happy as always (assuming he's fed).

Parents Night Out

2008-04-08T20:20:00.003-04:00

When we joined the gym, we didn't just sign ourselves up, we also signed up Sarah and Nicholas. True, Nicholas won't be doing free weight curls any time soon, but there are plenty of kids activity classes for Sarah. But best of all - the kids membership includes babysitting. Now, we have no excuse to not go to the gym. Several times already, the whole family has gone to the gym, with Sarah and Nicholas in the babysitting. Plus - one night a month, the gym does "Parents Night Out", which gives us 3 hours of babysitting (no extra cost). Last Saturday night, we went to a steakhouse in Annapolis and had a really great time out. We made it back to pick up the kids at 8:59:59! We even made it back to the gym the next afternoon to work some of it all back off.

Last night, we went to Chick-Fil-A with one of Sarah's friends from school (and her mom and younger sister). The girls got to play in the indoor playsets and got some (free) face painting. Sarah's friend Fiona lives the other direction from school and kinda far away, and going out to C-F-A seemed like a good compromise between our houses. But somehow Fiona thought Sarah was going out to eat and then going to play at her house. It was all she talked about with David the last few days when he was picking up or dropping off Sarah. Fiona was so sad when her mom finally got it across to her that the moms took out their calendars to find another date for the girls to play.

Back to busy

2008-04-03T19:58:00.003-04:00

Sarah's much better now - the Tamiflu really shortened the length of her illness. She went back to school on Tuesday (and Daisy Girl Scouts that evening). Thankfully, the other 3 of us haven't gotten it, although Nicholas is still waking up in the middle of the night. Unlike when he was younger, simply picking him up and gently rocking him hasn't stopped the crying. We're thinking he's either hungry or teething or becoming a very light sleeper. With all the food he eats at night (and the rest of day), we don't think it is likely that he is hungry - plus he does fall asleep usually after ~10 minutes of screaming. Alison's theory is that he sees the bathroom night light on or hears one of us stir and then wants to be awake (while still very tired/rubbing his eyes). Last night, we tried closing his door and leaving him in his crib, and he fell asleep right away. We'll try it again tonight; hope it works!

David had his first softball practice on Tuesday night; he only stayed to take some BP because Sarah had Scouts. As they are on the same night, Alison will be taking Heather (Nicholas's day care provider's daughter) as a "helper" to watch Nicholas at the Scout meeting until the meetings are done for the year. Tonight, Alison had her monthly Scouts service unit meeting - David, Sarah, and Nicholas watched the Capitals on TV fight for a playoff spot.

Da Flu

2008-03-30T13:49:00.002-04:00

Sarah has the flu. It came on really strong and she had a high fever and achy joints. She went from fine in the morning to needing to be carried around that afternoon. Nicholas also had a fever, but he tested negative. He also had a rash on his skin, so we're thinking it was either he was just bundled up too much on the warm Friday afternoon, or he had a reaction to a new food. We can't think of anything new he's eaten, and the rash is gone now. Unfortunately, both Sarah and Nicholas have decided the last two nights to wake up in the middle of the night - at different times, of course. Nicholas, in particular, has been difficult to get to fall back asleep. He's even slept between us for a couple of hours. We're pretty wiped overall, but will be very thankful if we don't also get the flu.

In better news, David got to go downtown to the Tidal Basin on Saturday and see the cherry blossoms. He took some great pictures, but it sure was crowded down there. After that, he met his friends Rob and Ellen, went out to dinner (yummy Salvadoran chicken and vegetables), and then went to see U2 in 3D. This morning, Alison went out to [br,l]unch with her friends, including Damaris who was in town just to see cherry blossoms this weekend.

Happy Birthdays

2008-03-29T11:21:00.003-04:00

Nicholas turned one year old on Monday! We had a party the Saturday before Easter. He had a pretty fun time, but was spooked when we turned off the lights and starting to sing. :( Then he started to scream after being put in his high chair and given birthday cake. But we took him out of his chair and fed him some whipped cream and vanilla ice cream, and he was quite happy about it! Nico got lots of great clothes and toys and bibs and books - and also a little red wagon big enough for he and Sarah to ride in.

We also celebrated Alison's birthday. Instead of birthday cake, we had a birthday pie! It was a blackberry pie and surprisingly lasted more than one day. During the party, we also had a mini Easter egg hunt for the kids. On Easter day, we made a roast and potatoes. It was great to see everyone over the weekend, but we missed Bryan and Anne who couldn't make it out from Chicago, mostly because of a big snowstorm they had out there.

Judging; Scalpel; etc.

2008-03-14T20:57:00.003-04:00

This Thursday, the 13th, was a very busy day. Alison cut herself with a scalpel right after a surgery, and needed to go to the urgent care clinic. They didn't stitch up the cut because the scalpel was not "clean" and they didn't want to trap in any possible infection. She left the clinic with a big bandage on her middle finger and orders for some antibiotics. It's only been a day, and the wound is much much improved.

That afternoon, David went to The Mitchellville School to serve as a science fair judge. The school is very close to our house (just a couple small blocks away); in fact, the building was formerly the public elementary school for the neighborhood. David judged the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade projects, and was very impressed with the level of scientific knowledge and presentation at such a young age. It took longer than expected (he really didn't need the kids to read off every line of data on their poster), but the kids were very happy to show what they'd done. The school itself is small - only 41 kids between pre-K and 8th grade - and expensive, so we didn't consider it for Sarah.

Speaking of which, we've decided to send Sarah to our public school - Whitehall Elementary. We were very torn between sending her there or to St. Pius. We liked St. Pius because Sarah can go there up until grade 8, they start school at 8:15am (instead of 9:15am at Whitehall), and because the school is SO close to our house. But we decided to send her to Whitehall, which is also a very good school, and save some money in the process. Now we'll need to figure out a new daily schedule for the kids and for David to work - but we will just have to make it work.

Hockey and Skating

2008-03-09T11:54:00.002-04:00

The big event in February was that the four of us went to see a hockey game - the Devils at the Capitals down in DC. Alison, Sarah, and Nicholas wore Capitals gear, while David wore his Devils jersey. "Aunt" Marisa also joined us. We bought the family pack of tickets, so in addition to the ticket, we got hot dog/chips/drink and a Capitals hat. Nicholas liked watching the game; he only flinched when the horn went off. Sarah liked the game too (especially cheering "Let's Go Caps!") - but did say her favorite part was eating cotton candy. The Devils won 2 to 1 in overtime!!

Sarah took ice skating lessons this winter at the Bowie Ice Arena. She enjoyed it and didn't mind falling, as long as she wore vinyl-covered pants to keep her dry. David took her a couple times to open skating as well. At times, she would skate behind a "walker" that slides in the ice and you hold in front of you - but then usually gave it up to a smaller kid still learning how to stand up. Their favorite game on the ice is to pick a letter under the ice and skate to it and stop.

We joined a gym- Bowie Sport Fit. Mostly, it's because we need to get in better shape, but a big bonus is that they have an indoor heated pool, so the kids will be able to keep swimming all fall and winter until the community pool opens again in the summer. They also have free babysitting, so now Ali and David have no excuse to not go several times a week.

Over Presidents' Day weekend, we went back to Madison to celebrate Jake's 4th birthday. Yesterday, we hosted a 40th birthday party for Alison's brother Andrew. There was heavy rain in the morning, and then it was very windy in the afternoon - it was so strong it knocked down a couple panels of a neighbor's wood fence in the backyard. Finally, David and Ali celebrated Valentine's Day a weekend early at the Old Stein Inn. The German food and beer were delicious - but the desserts were awesome.

Super Bowl Champs!

2008-02-04T22:24:00.000-05:00

Whoo hooo! The New York football Giants are Super Bowl champions!

David's very happy that he roots for the best teams around. Since 1995, he's seen his hockey team (Devils) win 3 Stanley Cups, his baseball team (Yankees) win 4 World Series, and his football team (Giants) reach 2 Super Bowls.

He's just glad he didn't grow up in the Cleveland area, which hasn't seen a championship in 40+ years, or even South Jersey (ha!) which hasn't seen a Philadelphia team win since 1983.

Scout Sunday

2008-01-27T22:34:00.000-05:00

Today was "Scout Sunday" at church. Sarah carried the Girl Scout flag to the altar before Mass - along with another 30 or so various flags carried by other Girl and Boy scouts. She did really great! After Mass, they took a picture on the church steps.

Nicholas got himself another cold at the end of last week. He's been mostly just snotty, but we kept him home for a couple days because something was going around his day care. Sarah got the full version of it, though. She was sick to her stomach in the middle of the night. We had to borrow a neighbor's steam cleaner to get the carpet clean.

Nico is getting around on his belly; he's still not technically crawling - more like belly-surfing. But he will get himself across the room, usually to chase a toy that he grabs and then flicks away. He's also seemed to stop falling asleep at the end of breast-feeding. For the most part, he's been falling asleep when we put him in his crib, but there's been a time or two lately when he's been so tired, he can't fall asleep right away.

The New York football Giants are in the Super Bowl this year. David didn't think they'd make it this far, so it's been a pleasant surprise. Sure hope they keep it up!

Happy New Year 2008!

2008-01-10T19:52:00.001-05:00

Been too busy to post lately - in part, taking care of sick kids :( Mostly, it's been Nicholas. We're lucky that David has a flexible work schedule and understanding bosses, and is able to work from home in the morning and/or work later at night. David only took Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve off this year - and Ali only took off New Year's Eve. We went to NJ for "A Mocko Family Christmas" at Steven and Jenne's. It was great to see everyone, and the four cousins had plenty of fun with each other and opening some more gifts.

We celebrated the new year back in Bowie at 8:00pm eastern. Sarah was very excited to bang sticks on pots and shout "Happy New Year!". We all went to bed before midnight, though.

On Sun Jan 6th, it was really warm out and Grandpa came over to help us put together a bike Sarah had gotten for Chanukah from him and Sue. After it was done, he, Sarah, and Ali went to a park to ride around, although Sarah was just as interested in playing on the swings and slides. David and Nicholas stayed home and watched the New York football Giants win a playoff game!

Yesterday, David went to a really neat seminar he'd arranged - the speaker showed data from the SORCE satellite, and it showed that the total spectral irradiance (amount of solar energy from the sun) at the top of the atmosphere is about 1361 W/m^2, rather than the 1366 W/m^2, which has been the "solar constant" for some time. This value does vary some with sunspots and an 11-year solar cycle, but the new measurements with more sophisticated instruments are quite precise. Although this is less than 1 percent of a difference from the previously measured average, David and his group are planning to test the effects of these new measurements in their atmospheric models.

Holidays 2007

2007-12-25T09:39:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-09T12:14:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-02T22:43:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-24T12:12:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-14T22:29:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-04T22:36:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-31T21:23:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-28T22:25:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-16T23:15:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-07T10:06:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-06T11:18:00.000-04:00

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"

2007-10-02T22:40:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-29T23:34:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-17T19:37:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-12T23:38:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-03T15:49:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-23T20:02:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-16T23:23:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-14T07:44:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-08T22:38:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-05T12:42:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-01T22:25:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-30T22:42:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-28T13:16:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-27T21:16:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-24T22:50:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-17T22:48:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-15T17:47:00.000-04:00

....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

2007-04-07T16:15:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-04T15:11:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-02T10:17:00.000-04:00

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

2007-03-26T19:09:00.000-04:00

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

2007-03-24T10:17:00.000-04:00

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

2007-03-24T08:45:00.000-04:00

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

2007-03-22T20:15:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-03-21T21:16:00.000-04:00

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.