Snow day!

Last week we had our first snow! I bundled the girls up & took them outside so we could play.


snowbunnies

I wasn't sure how Katie would react, since she had just woken up from a nap and was still a little groggy.

what IS this stuff?

I needn't have worried -- she was FASCINATED and loved it! She kept eating the snow on her mittens (when she was actually able to keep them on...).

aww, snowbaby

Meanwhile, Miriam kept begging me to make snowballs for her. By the time it got too dark to stay out, her mittens were just coated in snow!

snow princess

Katie loved patting the new snow boots I got her a couple days later.

boots!

There's just something magic about that first snow, especially seen through the eyes of a child who's experiencing it for the first time! What I love most about it is that it transforms the ugly, bare, brown world into one of crystalline beauty and grace; when every twig looks individually outlined in pearl.


snow

God is a poet. It's most evident at the height of each season.

More random cuteness

We've been collecting lots of quips and photos that are blog-worthy, and now that I've filled up the memory card on the camera I thought it was time to post them. :)


We forgot to mention in our anniversary post that we would practice our dance steps while putting Katie to sleep (yes, we still walk with her -- she is only 17 lbs. after all!). She seems to prefer the Fox Trot -- it works like a charm. :) She loves dancing herself -- whenever she hears music she'll start bopping along.

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We have such pious children. Katie now says grace with us. Well, that is, she always smiles and claps her hands, because she sees us putting our hands together, and we must be clapping, right? And Miriam now has our special Advent prayers memorized -- she was holding the booklet and pretending to read it, when I realized that she was reciting the prayers Mr. Pickles says when we light the candles. Kids have amazing memories.

Maybe Miriam is just aurally gifted -- she now has most of the songs from a new favorite musical memorized: the 1957 TV version of Cinderella with Julie Andrews. We've watched it a total of 3 or 4 times, and already she'll correct us if we get a line wrong. It's a great musical with some really fun lines -- I think Mr. Pickles' and my favorite song is when the two ugly stepsisters (who were hilarious) sing about what's the matter with a man who prefers a "frothy little bubble, with a flimsy kind of charm" to "a sturdy girl like ME!"

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Here's Katie playing peek-a-boo with the Baby in the Mirror (a bday present from Nana):

peek-a-boo!

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Many households with pets experience the phenomenon that whenever the can opener is used, wherever the pet is in the house, it will come running. With our Katie, it's the sound of the dishwasher opening. She has a fascination with the silverware basket, so whenever she hears us opening the door, she'll come running so she can grab handfuls of spoons and forks before we notice her there. She's fast, too, the little goober.

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Proof positive that all our children are going to be certifiably nuts:

ha ha!

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Some of Katie's other recent accomplishments (aside from throwing clean silverware on the floor) include closing doors. She loves this. The other day she closed herself in the bathroom upstairs, with the lights off. I just waited to see what she would do when she found herself stuck in the dark. After a few seconds I heard an inquisitive little, "Doh?" as in, "Where'd everything go?"

Katie is also getting very communicative. She's growing up so fast, I still can't believe she's 13 months already! Sigh. Anyway, she can nod and shake her head in answer to a question. A few weeks back she was whining and just generally having a hard time dealing with life, so Mr. Pickles asked her rhetorically if she wanted to go upstairs and go to bed. To our very great surprise, she headed towards the stairs, nodding her head and rubbing her eyes! This is the fun stage where we get to see how much she really understands. (and where she gets to assert her will by shaking her head "no"!)

To facilitate early communication, I had planned to teach Katie some baby sign language to help overcome a lot of the frustration that occurs at this age, when little ones have definite needs but don't know how to express them, and as parents we spend a lot of time trying to figure out what pointing and "unh unh!" means, while said little one is working herself into a frustration tantrum.

So, even though I wasn't able to teach her as many "baby signs" as I had wanted, we tried at least to do "more food" (fingertips touching together) and "more drink" (thumb pointing to mouth), and "diaper change" (patting diaper). The food signs both became her pointing with her index finger to her mouth, but that works. We just interpret it as "Put something in here!" I've also started with "please" (rubbing chest) and "thank you" (like blowing a kiss, but without the kiss). This morning at breakfast she had snarfed all the eggs on her plate, but noticed some left on mine. After noticing that her pointing and saying "um! um!" was being ignored (I was attending to Miriam) she decided to pull out all the stops, and signed both "more" and "please", unprompted! I was so impressed. After such a display of intelligence and cuteness, how could I refuse? :) Yesterday she was practicing saying "thank you" while I fed her little pieces of orange (we do drive-by meals now -- it's the only way to make sure she eats enough!). She would come up with her mouth open like a baby bird, I'd pop in a piece of orange, and she's spin around and take a couple steps away, then turn back and blow a kiss (albeit from her chest), saying something which sounded an awful lot like a baby version of "thank you". She's picking up on things so quickly -- we can really see her little brain just soaking things up.

Katie can also say something that sounds like "hi". I know that is what it's supposed to be, because she'll grab our old dead phone, cradle it in her neck, and yell, "Aiii!" She loves phones. If any of you ever call us and you hear chortling and shrieking in the background, that's Katie -- she's fascinated and highly amused by the talking, glowy-button thingy. She also loves saying and waving "bye-bye" -- whenever I put my shoes on, or even grab my keys, she'll start energetically waving her hand and exclaiming, "bu-baaaaaa!" She loves standing at the screen door to watch whoever it is leaving, so she can wave to us.

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For sisters, Miriam and Katie get along pretty well together. It's so nice seeing them playing well together:

"playing" a "game" "together"

I can tell they're also going to get each other into trouble. This is what happens when Mommy is on the computer too long:

caught!

Like all older sisters, Miriam of course exercises her prerogative to be bossy (I can say this because I'm one!). Several times I've had to remind Miriam that I'M the Mommy, not her, so she can't do X to Katie, such as feed her large chunks of food, carry her around, and various other life-threatening activities. Yesterday when Katie needed a diaper change, Mr. Pickles teasingly asked Miriam if she wanted to do it, and Miriam explained rather loudly, "No, Dad! I'm NOT the Mommy!"

Well, I'd love to blog more, but the laundry basket is full, so...

time to do laundry!

Thanksgiving pictures

This post is going to be extremely short. Why, you say? Wasn't Thansgiving a huge reunion of the Eastern half of the family, complete with babyfest and more cuteness photo ops than a grandparent and great aunt/uncle could ever wish for? Of course. But unfortunately, we forgot the camera! I considered committing the post-digital sacrilege of purchasing a disposable camera, but just couldn't quite bring myself to do it.

Well, it was a fun time, once we finally got there! Mrs. Pickles' brother Dave flew up, sans winter coat, from sunny Florida, and then we drove to Ohio the next day. We had a bit of an adventure right before we arrived -- it had been bitterly cold for most of the drive, but only just started to snow about an hour or so from our trip's end (or what OUGHT to have been an hour!). Uncle Dave, taking a turn at the wheel at this point, got a taste of driving in REAL weather. :) The roads were just awful -- not a plow or salt truck to be seen. About FIVE MILES from our destination the traffic suddenly came to a standstill, right after an exit, naturally. We moved about half a mile in the space of an hour. It was crazy. We could have walked there faster! We finally inched our way to the next exit, pulled off the highway, and took a back road past the blockage. There must have been a major accident sprawling across the highway to make the traffic stop so completely. It wasn't surprising, either, considering what a terrible condition the road was in! Fortunately the girls were extremely well behaved. I just kept feeding them graham crackers to keep their mouths busy, b/c it was past suppertime and we were all starving.

The most interesting part about our wait was trying to find a traffic report on the radio. We got broadcasts from Chicago, eastern Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont, but nothing local!

Anyway, we finally arrived safely (after an interesting little spin at the last corner -- thank goodness for Uncle Dave's racing reflexes!) and had a fabulous weekend. Good food, good company! I hardly saw Miriam all weekend -- she spent the whole time playing with Edy.

We made it home in good time and without incident, other than the usual travel headache Mrs. Pickles always seems to develop around Hagerstown.

It was fun getting some extra time with Dave, too, and hearing him give our piano a real workout! :)


yay for Uncle Dave!

I like this picture because even though my girls are such total opposites when it comes to complexion, they both have that same mischievous look in their eyes...


Katie also got some more fun birthday presents. Here she is enjoying one from her Aunt Katie2:


whee!

By the time she was done she had quite the pile of tissues around her! First she practiced blowing her nose. Then she proceeded to try to put them all back in the box. When she started trying to eat them I decided she'd had enough fun, even though she didn't agree and protested when I cleaned them up. :)

Okay, so maybe this post wasn't as short as I thought it was going to be...

Goose Egg

goose egg

You can hardly even see the welt (the big purple spot above her left eye), especially when I cover it with her bangs, so hopefully I won't be getting a call from Social Services. The poor child has gotten so many knocks on the head -- if she doesn't get into Harvard or win the Nobel Peace Prize we'll know why.

My trip to Staples

Well, the story begins with me realizing that even though Katie is over a year old, we still do not have a copy of her birth certificate. Usually airlines like to have some proof that you're not trying to cheat them out of fares by pretending your three year old is still under two, usually in the form of a copy of the child's birth certificate. When we flew to MN Katie was only 8 or 9 months old, so that wasn't an issue. But now that she's walking, even though she's petite, a childless ticket window employee wouldn't necessarily know she's as young as we say she is.

So, to make a short story long, I went to Staples today to make copies of my I.D. for the mail-in certificate request. (not that I actually expect it to come in time, but you never know.) While perusing the aisles for some other items, I momentarily turned my back on the basket with Katie sitting in it. Mistake. Next thing I hear is, CRASH!! ...eerie silence... "Ow!" "Shriieeeeeeeeeeeeek!" Miriam had tried to climb into the basket, and instead pulled it over on top of herself, knocking Katie out of the seat, who went flying (because there was no buckle) and landed on her head. I rushed to pick up Katie and sent Miriam to time-out in an office chair, while someone asked me if Katie was okay. Miriam then started shrieking b/c Katie was shrieking and she felt guilty. So we processed, two thirds of us noisily, to the restroom, so I could apply a cold compress to the goose egg now swelling rapidly on Katie's forehead.

After a few minutes of wailing, in stereo, both girls quieted down and I was able to finish my shopping. At least Miriam, feeling properly chastised, was the very model of obedience for the rest of the trip.

Sigh. Isn't shopping with small children FUN?? Never a dull moment.

I'm sure you're just smirking right now, Mom.

Par-tay!

Here are some pics from Katie's birthday party a couple weeks ago.


ooh – presents!


wha?


A cupcake for our cupcake!
(note Miriam poised and ready to "help" blow out the candle)


yum!

Fortunately, she didn't make nearly as much of a mess with this one.


oh joy

I love her dress. I was so happy I found it! Gotta love Laura Ashley. (Gotta love consignment sales!)


bday girl


bday girl, again

This one is slightly blurry because she kept trying to run off!

baby face

Enjoying some of the spoils...

bubbles!

Adventures with Google

The internet is such a fabulous tool for research. The number of resources available to you is simply amazing. Pick a topic, and you're likely to find some information about it using the Google search engine.

Recently, I've been looking for some technical papers related to the research project I've chosen to complete my Masters in Statistics. My topic is a method called Iterative Proportional Fitting (IPF)--also known as Raking, RAS, SPREE, and a few other titles.

Here's the process in a nutshell. Imagine that you have a statistic (such as average income) that is given for different groups, such as age and sex. Let's say that at 20 years-old, men make more money than women. If the difference between male and female income changes (i.e., the difference approaches 0) as age increases, then we have a relationship (or interaction) between age and gender. IPF is a very simple method for updating estimates with new information while preserving relationships between different, specified groups.

Most of the resources I have are about 20-30 years old (some are older), so I'd like to find some resources that are a little more recent. (Cue Google to enter stage right. Play triumphant music. Cue loud record scratch noise.) Some of my attempts were less than successful. Here's a list of my searches and results.

1.) Iterative Proportional Fitting

Result: This search initially offered the best results. Unfortunately, most of the hits resulted in documentation on IPF in different statistical packages. There were a few decent articles, but nothing substantial. There was also some lame SAS code. Overall, this search was somewhat disappointing.

2.) IPF
I've often heard the procedure mentioned with just its acronym. Of course, so many things in government are referred to simply by an acronym, but I still thought it was worth a shot.

Result: International Powerlifting Federation. ..., ah, no.

3.) SPREE
This is a term coined in the early 80's by some researchers. I've seen it referred to in other documents, and it could be used as a keyword in a paper, thus increasing the chances of finding a good site.

Result: Unfortunately for my search, Google doesn't do case sensitvie searches. That is, "spree", "SPREE", and "SpReE" are all the same search. Think of all the phrases that include the word "spree", and you'll get an idea as to how wide from the mark I ran. I ended up with over 9,000,000 links, and links that ranged from shopping spree to Spree candy (I had forgotten about those candies. There's a website that sells "old-time" candy, and it sells Spree).

4.) SPREE statistics
I figure that that ought to narrow the search and make it a bit more specific.

Result: The first website discussed the proper way to rank players in online first-person shooters (top choice is the kill-to-death ratio). Another site gave statistics for killing sprees for online players of Castle Wolfenstein. Definitely not what I'm looking for, though it was kind of interesting.

The IPF method will be used with relation to particular statistics like death or unemployment, so I tried those words next.

5.) SPREE statistics death
Result: Some pro-death penalty and pro-gun websites.

6.) SPREE statistics unemployment
Result: Once again, a few useful articles, but nothing substantial. I'm now down to about 87,000 links. Since I started at around 9,000,000, I'm definitely improving. At this point, I'm hoping for a pseudo Google whack (pseudo since it will involve more than 2 words).

7.) SPREE statistics categorical
I decided to use this hit since SPREE is also defined by that fact that it uses categories.

Results: At last some useful material! I found a couple valuable papers with this hit. I got my search down to about 560 sites--not the 2 I need for a Google whack.

At long last, after about 60-90 minutes (I spent too much time on the first-person shooter stats) my adventure ended, and I had 3 additional papers to read through in my attempts to acquire greater knowledge on the subject.

All in all, it wasn't a bad experience. While it took a little searching, I did find what I needed, and some hard work is usually required to get what we need.

My experience could have been much worse. It could have been an interview with Ask Jeeves.

Random Cuteness Blogonanza!

Here are some notes I've been jotting down for the last couple weeks, in addition to a few random pictures.

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Katie does NOT like the printer. When I turned it on to print something while she was sitting in my lap, she started whimpering, and as the paper started spitting out she freaked. It was really funny. Inanimate objects just aren't supposed to DO that!

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Miriam was participating in one of her favorite activities: spinning in circles until she can't stand up anymore. After a fairly long session she climbed on to a chair, pointed at the floor, and said, "Look, Mommy, the floor's going wound and wound!" I laughed, remembering when we used to spin around the clothesline pole in the backyard, and then collapse on the grass and watch the palm tree fly around over our heads. Katie also likes spinning in circles -- usually on a slippery floor like the kitchen or bathroom. I can't exactly describe the noise she makes while she's doing it -- I guess it's her baby version of "whee".

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Katie's understanding is growing so much lately. We can tell, because whenever I ask her if her diaper is stinky, she'll wrinkle up her little nose and start sniffing. I don't know where she got this but it's hilarious. Also, whenever she finds a stray tissue or napkin on the floor, she'll hold it to her face and sniff.

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Katie has a new favorite word: Ba-Po! Isn't that cute? ....What? You don't know what that means? Why, "Peek-a-boo" of course! She'll smack both hands onto her nose, then wrap them behind her head, and say, "Ba-pooooo!" over and over again. It's one of her favorite games these days, and a great distraction while changing her diaper!

She also says it while climbing the stairs:


peek-a-boo!

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Katie can say "Mama" or "Dada" now -- well, at least, not to refer to her parents. She'll say "Da! Da!" when she's exploring. Or when she's holding a baby doll or stuffed animal, she'll tuck it under her chin and pat it on the back, saying in a sing-song voice "ma-maaaaa." Hmm, interesting -- I just realized there's actually a psychological connection here. When she's feeling bold and adventuresome, or just plain curious about the world around her, she uses bolder sounds, like "da" and "ta". But when she's feeling snuggly and affectionate she'll use more comforting sounds, like "ma". I wonder if it's the same for babies all around the world.

Of course, Miriam has been calling her parents lots of thing for a long time (most of them good). It's funny when she tries to use our first names -- particularly after a family visit when she hears them a lot! But lately she's also taken to calling us "Mother" and "Father" -- I can only surmise due to the influence of Sound of Music. She'll say, "Mother?" and she wants us to answer, "Yes, daughter?" Usually by that point she's forgotten what she wanted to ask us in the first place, because the formal address sounds so funny to her. :) Miriam is fond of saying to Mr. Pickles, "Daddy, you're my father!" She recently informed our piano tuner, "My daddy is my father!" Thankfully, he just laughed.

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Katie had her one-year checkup today. In the last two months she's only gained ONE MEASELY POUND!! She's off the charts. I don't understand it. She's an eating machine -- she regularly eats more than Miriam does. How can we possibly shovel more food into her? I guess the strategy now is to make every bite count -- feed her as much high-fat and high-calorie stuff as possible. I realized today that we've been giving her a lot of the same things Miriam eats, like fruit & cereal for snacks, but Miriam has the opposite problem. I've had so many people ask me if she's in kindergarten already.

Well, maybe Katie's problem is that not enough is actually getting INTO her mouth....


aahhhhh!!!

(She makes this face whenever she takes a big drink from her sippy cup.)

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Miriam is having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that she's not the baby anymore...


wait a minute...

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Katie has gotten very snuggly lately. Several times she's even gone up to Miriam, wrapped her little arms around her, and patted her back while saying, "ahhhh...." It's SO adorable -- especially the pleased look on Miriam's face. Miriam will say afterwards, "Katie LIKES me! She givved me a hug!" I've been trying to get a picture of it for days, but our dumb camera takes so darn long to focus! The moment is long gone by the time the shutter finally clicks, at which point they're already at opposite sides of the room.

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Miriam enjoying the last of the Halloween candy:


mystery flavor!

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Katie is really into putting objects into things. Give her a toy, and she will find a receptacle for it. The other day when I got out of the shower, I noticed that one of my unmentionables and a nightgown (after having been tried on first, of course -- I was watching from behind the shower curtain) were stuffed into her baby bathtub. We have to keep the kitchen trash can turned so she can't open the flap -- otherwise we just know something's going to end up in there, like one of her shoes, or a sippy cup, or a baby doll, or whatever random object she happens to be carrying around that day.

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We love our beautiful baby doll.


doll baby

The Blue Room, reborn!

I just realized I never posted the pictures of Miriam's new room! Here it is in all its glory.


The Blue Room reborn!

I just love this shade of blue. It's so pretty. While we were first painting, though, it looked white compared to the previous electric smurf blue!

Since this picture was taken we've also moved Katie's crib into the room (more on that below). The friend of one of our neighbors was providentially getting rid of a girl's bedroom set, so we were able to find complete furnishings for the girls' room. I was REALLY excited about that. As soon as Katie is old enough to share a bed with Miriam, we'll get the double ged set up. Meanwhile, Miriam's still on her usual twin mattress on the floor. In the set there are also a nightstand (which I've commandeered) and a desk, which is currently living in our room until I can decide what to do with it!

Here you can see the dresser. It's a really pretty furniture set.


all around the mulberry baby...

Miriam was running around and around Katie, who was just giggling at her, when she wasn't busy with Madeline. (She LOVES that doll! She'll carry it around everywhere, giving it pats.)

So the reason we moved Katie's crib out of our room was mainly so that everyone could get more sleep. Mrs. Pickles was getting rather tired of being woken up several times during the night by little hands whapping on her face. The Pillow Barricade had also ceased to be effective -- Katie fell down a flight of steps one day before we even knew she was awake! So last week we moved her into the room with Miriam. The first couple nights were unqualified disasters -- pretty much nobody slept. But after Katie adjusted to the new surroundings, she's actually been sleeping pretty well, once she finally decides to STAY asleep. (For example, I'm writing this at 12:30am, while she toddles around the office, because she woke up and I can't get her to go back to sleep, short of letting her shriek in her crib which would wake everyone else up.) A couple nights she's even made it through without needing to nurse -- Mr. Pickles will just walk with her until she goes back to sleep. Then she'll sleep until morning. A few times my little human alarm clock hasn't even woken up until 7:30 -- what luxury! :)

At first Miriam was freaked out with Katie in the room, b/c whenever Katie cried, it would wake her up & scare her. But now she knows that Mommy or Daddy will come and take care of Katie so everything will be all right. There were also a couple mornings when they'd wake up together and just start giggling at each other, so Miriam's realizing it's fun to have company in her room. We're hoping this will help her to stay in HER room all night long instead of coming into ours all the time!

Katie's also getting better about falling asleep in her crib -- at least we know she CAN do it now! One night when I was exasperated from trying to walk her to sleep unsuccessfully, I just put her in her crib, told her to go night-night, and lay down on Miriam's bed (who was sleeping in OUR room). Katie complained for a few minutes, then decided it wasn't worth the effort since it didn't get any results, so she sat down & played with her blankets & dolls. I was so exhausted (it was about 2 am by this point) that I fell asleep, only to awaken at dawn & realize that at some point after I fell asleep, Katie must have lain down by herself and gone to sleep w/o a fuss! Just knowing I was near was enough for her, I suppose. I'm hoping that eventually seeing Miriam there will be enough for her to get herself back to sleep, too.

So, slowly but surely, there is hope that we will sleep again! Probably just in time for the next pregnancy.

5 Good Years and counting....

Mr. & Mrs. Pickles just celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary last week. We can't believe it's already been 5 years! Another reason we love fall is that it always reminds us of our wedding day. :)

Mr. Pickles once again earned his status as Husband of the Millenium by taking me out for dinner and dancing on a cruise ship that sailed up and down the Potomac. He also made all the babysitting arrangements (thanks, Branches!) so I didn't have to lift a finger! Have I ever mentioned what a wonderful husband he is?

This was the last course of our 5-course dinner:


Happy Anniversary to us!

There was room on the ship's deck to walk around and/or dance (we did both), while watching the views of DC at night pass by. It was awesome, albeit cold! Mr. Pickles just about froze his tail off. Mrs. Pickles, being the California girl that she is and afraid of freezing to death, had the foresight to wear a wool coat. :)


on the river (Lincoln Memorial)


Kennedy Center

The views were just breathtaking. It was so peaceful and beautiful. It was so interesting getting the perspective on things from the point of view of the river, too. We wanted to stay out longer, but it was just too cold. Whenever we lost feeling in our noses, we'd head inside to the dance floor.


shall we dance?

There was a pianist who played live music during dinner. She played some pretty good stuff. Hey, Dave, I could see you doing this kind of thing on weekends! For the dancing music they had canned stuff. It was interesting -- whenever something fox trot- or swing- or latin-worthy came on, the dance floor was filled, but once something even remotely resembling mosh pit came on, the floor was deserted. You think they'd get the idea and stick to the good stuff! We had actually been practicing the fox trot and two-step (thanks to the E-Z 30 Minute Dance Course (TM)(c)!)so we wouldn't feel like fools doing only the high school shuffle. :) Now we're determined to take actual ballroom dance lessons so we can do this kind of thing more often (well, maybe minus the 5-course dinner and boat part).

So it was a lovely evening, and came to an end all too soon. Well, here's hoping for many more opportunities for this kind of evening!


aren't we cute :)

A Day at the Park

We had another nice day last weekend, too. It was nippy, but not so much so that we couldn't take the girls to the park. It was Veterans' Day, and since Mr. Pickles feeds at the government trough (his words!) he had the day off. There were a couple other dads at the park too, which was nice to see.

Poor Miriam -- Mommy has been so busy that she doesn't get to play at the park as often as either of them would like. Very often she'll come up to me and say, "Mommy, I need something to hold on and swing!" We're seriously thinking of getting a chin-up bar & a small slide so she can have something to do to burn off energy inside, especially now that winter is coming soon.


mountain climber


swing!

Mr. Pickles got this shot just before Miriam landed on top of him:


aaaaa!!!

Katie had oodles of fun too, even though she couldn't play on the playground equipment. She mostly led Mommy around and climbed up and down little hills and stomped on the bridge.


Katie taking Mommy for a walk

It's nice spending time together as a family like this.

Fall Bike Ride

Here begins my frantic attempt to get caught up in blogging before the holidays take over my life!

We had a couple days of glorious weather two weekends back, and so decided to make the most of it. We hoisted the bikes on the car rack (and by "we" I mean "Mr. Pickles, while I watched a offered executive managerial advice") and drove to a trail that runs along the Potomac River. Everybody and his dog was there too!


all set!

The girls were actually really good on the trip. We had them well supplied with sippy cups and toys and books. I think they both spent a good part of the trip sleeping too!

We paused for a quick break at a park right next to an airport. Landing airplanes flew RIGHT overhead. It was pretty cool.


vroooom!

Naturally, Miriam freaked out b/c they were so loud. So we didn't stay long. Just long enough to get this shot of the Capitol and the Washington Monument in the distance.


the view

Neither of us had a watch, so we didn't know how long we were biking. We had planned tentatively to try to make it up to Roosevelt Island, which we've ALWAYS wanted to visit. But after 8 miles or so my legs gave out so we stopped for a lunch break.


taking a break

Many flights follow the course of the river before they land at the aforementioned airport, so Miriam got to watch more airplanes (and helicopters too) from a safe, quieter distance. She was pretty jazzed about that.


look!

Katie was just happy demolishing Daddy's banana. She'd take as big a bite as her little cheeks could hold, sometimes bigger!


mmm... yummy


little monkey

It's views like this that make me glad we live near our Nation's Capital.


wow.

Before we took off again, Miriam got the wiggles out by running downhill. Admit it -- who doesn't love doing that?


wheee!

One of the best parts about the trip was being surrounded by the glories of fall. Apologies to all my California relatives, but you don't got nothin' on this.







There's an ent in this last shot. What, you don't see him? He's the tree with eyeballs. ;)
It's just amazing to think this kind of beauty exists in the middle of the big city. No concrete jungles for us -- just the real leaf & bark ones!

All in all I think we biked almost 17 miles. My legs just about fell off when we got home! But it was a lot of fun and so worth it. It's too cold to go out anymore this year, but maybe in the spring we'll actually make it to the island. Cherry blossom time is another glorious season.