The Return of LBJ...It's All Downhill from Here!

Driving home today, Julia and I had a conversation about snow. She was remembering a recent trip up to Connecticut when we went sledding with Ben and Luke. This was Julia's first time on a sled and I fear that after it, she'll never want to do it again!
As she recounted to me in the car tonight, "It was fast and the snow got all in my face and it was cold!" In hindsight, I probably should have shielded her better!Now Luke had a blast. He must have gone down that hill about seventy times! Meanwhile, after giving a try to the sledding thing, Ben and Julia were more content to just sit at the top of the hill and make snow angels!The entire weekend was such a blast! We literally played all weekend...sledding, setback, air hockey, bowling and even castles and dragons (and who knew Jules would be so fond of dragons!).

After a thorough air hockey a$$ whooping that I received from Courtney, Julia and Benjamin wanted to play. We let them and this may have been the funniest thing that I have ever seen in my life! They could barely see over the table. The game was actually moving in slow motion!
They say that having a child can age you...I disagree! I have never felt so young. I find that Julia and our nieces and nephews inspire me to just be a kid for even a moment! While we were sledding, I felt like I was twelve again! They don't age you! They add years to your life!
Now when I woke up the day after sledding, I felt sixty!

-Andy

It's Snowing Da-Da's!

Right now it seems that Julia learns, tries or notices something new every single day. I feel like if I miss a day, I miss a lot! Something magical happened this weekend.

I think it all started when we brought Julia home from the hospital. I would sit with her in my lap and say to her over and over again, "Da-Da". Seven months later, my hard work and perserverance has paid off, almost to the extreme. Now she won't stop saying it at times!

It just kind of happened on Saturday. It came out of nowhere and Courtney and I just looked at each other like was that what we think it was? Now that she has it down, she's not afraid to use it. It's Julia's catch all for everything. When she's ready to get out of bed, we hear "Da-Da"! If she can't reach a toy, it's "Da-Da"! When her diaper is dirty, it's "Da-Da" again! I just wish I thought this whole thing through before I starting influencing her months ago!

She's such a happy girl right now and usually pretty easy going...unless Pop is around! And we keep lecturing her about that! We're confident that she'll come around!

On another note, we are in the midst of the storm of the season on the Eastern Shore. At this moment, we have recieved 3/4" of accumulation on cars and grassy surfaces and thank God, all evening programs and events in this area are cancelled!

After all, there may be BLACK ICE! Two words that are innocent alone, but strike fear in the heart of the strongest man and double Walmart sales when spoken in sequence around here! There's no joking about it!

-Andy

Riding the Storm Out

Yesterday we had a brush with the uber-powerful tropical storm Hanna. It came tearing up the coast and was certain to bring with it 60+ mph winds and inches upon inches of rain. Officially they say that we got 1.7 inches of rain. A far cry from the 7+ that they were talking about. Unfortunately I think our friends in New England were hit with the wet side of the storm.

We did get a little wind, but I'll tell you what...Hanna was no Ernesto!!!

Anyhow, this was Julia's first big storm. It's hard to even fathom how many more like this she'll see in her lifetime. But how would she handle it? Would she be anxious and frightened by the thunder and the sound of the wind battering our home? Or would she be relaxed, at total ease and maybe even a bit curious about what was happening?

This picture ought to help answer those questions:

She slept...and slept...and slept some more. She pretty well slept through the day. As it stands she's getting a solid 10 hours a night. There's only one other person I know who could sleep that well at night and still take a series of naps during the day...she's clearly learning a lot from her Momma!

I'm going to spend the rest of my morning cleaning up the four twigs that Hanna left in her wake in our back yard. I just hope that I have enough time to get the cleanup done before football starts.

- Andy