The National Aquarium

Yesterday, we finally met up with the Roses at the Baltimore Aquarium. We had to cancel these plans a few weeks ago due to some illnesses. But this time everyone was healthy, or so we thought. Here are Conner, Nathan and Emmy checking out one of the exhibits.It was a little warm & humid in this exhibit, but Emmy and Nathan didn't mind posing for a cute photo.

The jellyfish exhibit was pretty cool. But to be honest.... seeing all these sea creatures makes me not want to venture into the ocean anytime soon (or fresh water either).
Oh, have I forgot to mention Andrew? Well he was there too, but during our visit I noticed his head was feeling quite warm on my chest. We gave him some Tylenol and when we got home later that day, we confirmed that he had a temperature. I took him to the doctor this morning and he has another ear infection (along with a cold and some wheezing issues). The good news is we got our referral to the ENT and we're headed to see them in about 10 days. Hopefully, he'll have tubes in his ears by the end of the year and when we say goodbye to 2009, we can also say goodbye to ear infections!!

Getting into the Season...at Fairfax Corner

On Saturday night, we bundled up the family and headed over to Fairfax Corner to meet the Ayers for a fun evening. After a quick bite at California Pizza Kitchen, we crowded onto the plaza (with a ton of other people) to listen to Mr. KnickKnack, watch the lighting of the Christmas Tree, and enjoy other festivities to get into the holiday spirit.

Here are Paul and Dan waiting in line to see Santa with Jacob, Avery & Nathan. Luckily, Paul got in line early, while the rest of us tried to keep the boys entertained without getting into too much trouble. So, the question remains.... will Nathan make the nice or naughty list this year????

Train Show

Last Saturday (Nov. 14th), while Pink Pineapple Studio participated in its 2nd successful craft show, Dan took the boys to a show that would be of far greater interest to them, well, at least to Nathan. The boys met Grammy and PopPop at a house in Haymarket that was having an open house to display their model trains. Nathan was in heaven watching the trains go round and round. It was a pretty elaborate set-up for someone's basement!

Andrew had fun climbing on the chair and trying to eat it. At this stage, Andrew tries to put EVERYTHING in his mouth!!

Child Dedication

Yesterday was a very special day for Andrew and his buddies Laura and Anna. Dan and I, as well as the Hills and Korsvalls, publicly committed to raise these children to love and know Jesus as Lord. We started the day bright and early at the 9 am service at MBC Loudoun. We were very blessed to have nearly all of the grandparents present (some of whom live in CA and NJ) and several uncles. We then headed over to the Dock at Lansdowne for a yummy brunch and cake. We also took this opportunity to display our picture frames to our families for a small private sale. (Come see us on Saturday, November 14th at our next craft fair at Centreville United Methodist Church).

It was a full day. Here's tired little Andrew just before bedtime... fingers in his mouth as usual.

Nathan the Photographer

After I took a few pictures of Nathan's new cast, Nathan really wanted to snap a few photos. So I let him. Here's a sampling of a few of his photos:

Not too bad for a three year old.... maybe next time I should teach him how to turn on the flash.

Cast #2

So, Dan and I were awakened last night around 3:30 am by Nathan's crying. Somehow during the night, Nathan's cast "felled off" and he wanted us to put it back on. Needless to say, we couldn't (nor did we even try to) put it back on and had to call the orthopaedic in the morning. So after another unexpected trip to the doctor this week, Nathan got his second cast in one week. I guess the bright side is that it was for the same injury. :)

Milestones

So two big milestones for the Vaughan boys over the last couple of days.

According to Lanka (Andrew's awesome daycare provider), Andrew LOVES his rice cereal and is a good eater. Now, Dan and I cannot say we have the same experience when we offer him cereal. So we decided to offer him something with a little more flavor on Sunday evening.....BANANAS. In my opinion, he seemed to like it and he definitely ate it much better than the cereal.


On Monday morning, I took Nathan to the orthopaedic to look at his x-rays and wrist. We went and saw Dr. Lefton in Tysons Corner, who has seen just about all of the Vaughans as patients over the years (including Dan, Grandad, Gramma). Here is Nathan sporting his new cast (you might want to put on sunglasses when you view this photo). Now, the challenge will be to keep it dry and relatively clean for several weeks!!