Liam got his first haircut on Thursday! He ws getting pretty shaggy, as you can see by the picture below! It was very long in the back. If anyone has tried to cut a 10 month old baby’s hair I’d love to hear your story. Liam did good..just a little fussy at having to hold his head. And I was very nervous about accidentally stabbing him if he turned the wrong way or jerked away too fast. So, it’s not the neatest cut but it’s a lot more tailored than it was. Quite an experience!!!

Okay, so the pictures didn’t get posted on Friday…but they are here…finally! We got to go to Newnan’s last regular season game. They played East Coweta and won. They also won the Region Championship too! The first time in several years. We were able to leave early enough to get to the pep rally . The kids were pretty impressed. Here are the pictures from the game and after.

This is Todd with Jacie (Abbie’s neice). Todd is a former football player of dad’s and also coached with him when he was at Oxford. Dad didn’t know they were at the game until the end. It was a fun surprise for him!

Mom & Dad enjoy some celebration cuddles. This was a great end to their regular season game. And Dad’s last season as a football coach.

This is kind of dark but it’s Jay (Abbie’s Brother-in-law), Ethan (Abbie’s nephew), his sister, Jacie, Zoe, and Ace all walking hand in hand. It was too cute that we couldn’t resist a picture.

Thanks, also to Chrissy and Chad for coming to the game. It was great to see them and meet Maggie finally!

I’ve been a bad blogger and just haven’t updated the website…but I have a good excuse. I got a stomach bug over the weekend while at my parents’ home. Then it was my birthday on Tuesday! Big 29…It was a good day but still very very puny feeling. We managed to survive and start Ace on his potty training adventure (which of course has kept me busy the rest of the week).

I’m posting pics tomorrow, I promise!!!

Just a few things that have come up that I wanted to post real quick!

First off, I met with Liam’s service coordinator today and he will be done with Early Intervention at the end of November!!! We have been blessed to meet such wonderful people who have been so great to get Liam on track developmentally.

Second: Liam is now saying “more” using sign language! He says it for everything…food…waving goodbye, etc. He’s also crawling on all fours (not a belly crawler anymore) and today he let go of the coffee table and took two steps to me! He’s so cute!!!

Third: I forgot to mention this in our post on going to the WWII Memorial…It was close to 45 to 50 degrees when we went so the kids were bundled up in coats. The WWII Memorial has beautiful fountains and waterfalls. Ace’s first comment when he saw the beautiful memorial: “I gonna take my coat off and pway in the pool!” That was too cute and I just couldn’t resist posting it. Can’t believe I forgot ot post it when I wrote about our trip but here it is anyways!

No pics for this day. We headed out of DC about 11:00 a.m. and got back to Georgia around 10 or so. It was a long trip home but we were able to take our time and the kids were very good for being in the car for so long. We are very glad to be home. I’ll post a kid update soon…

Day 6 was a trip to the outlets in the morning. Liam lost his paci and was grumpy the whole time, but I got a lot of good deals on clothes for next season and beyond.

We met Mark at a metro stop in the evening and trekked in the freezing cold to the WWII Memorial. On the way, we saw the White House and the National Monument! Zoe and Ace were really impressed with the size of the National Monument. Mark took this great picture of the White House and showed just a great little glimpse of all the beautiful trees changing color.
This picture of the National Monument was at sunset while we were at the Memorial. From one side of the Memorial, you could see the Monument and when you turned the other way, you could see the reflecting pool and the Lincoln Memorial. Both were very beautiful. You can probalby see the Memoria sunset picture better if you click on it.

This is part of the WWII Memorial looking from the Pacific side to the Atlantic. It was absolutely beautiful and a great way to honor our soldiers and families who participated in the war. For those that don’t know, my (Abbie’s) grandfather, served in the Navy during WWII and was still overseas when my dad was born in July of ’45. This was a neat way to remember my grandfather and all the many sacrifices he and countless others made. I wanted to go see the WWI memorial, which I’ve read has not been taken care of nor is it as large as this memorial, but we didn’t have time and it was VERY cold!

So, back to the metro we went to thaw out and meet Mark’s coworkers for Barbecue. It was Memphis style from Red, Hot, & Blue. Not quite like good old Georgia Southern Barbecue but pretty good. Here are all the guys (plus Jackie and Julie) that traveled to work in DC for the week.

I decided this was going to be an easy day after two very long days. So, we loaded up in the car to take a 5 minute drive (literally) to Potomac Park to play on the Awakening Statue and at the playground. However, I had to get gas first. When I finally found a place to get gas, I couldn’t turn back around to get on the interstate until I got all the way into Maryland (I think it was Maryland). After getting back on the interstate, it took me another 45 minutes to get to the park because I missed the exit, and couldn’t get back on the interstate. But, we finally got there and Ace and Liam both had a good nap and were ready to climb. This is Zoe and Ace looking at Potomac River!

The Awakening. I saw this when I first came to DC but it looked a lot bigger then (I was also just 12). It has a leg and foot coming out of the ground too, like he’s waking up. Zoe and Ace liked putting mulch in his mouth! They are the two little bumps on his face.

Liam hanging out on the statues hand!

Zoe, Ace, & Liam on the Awakening’s hand!

Well, our first official day in DC was rather interesting. Because of the time change, Zoe, Ace, & Liam were all up at 5:00 a.m. We made it down to breakfast as Mark was leaving for work.

After breakfast we loaded up the stroller and headed for our first official trip on the Metro (subway). We all enjoyed the ride.

We had a detour on our first day of sight seeing. Zoe has been so interested in painting, drawing, and doing whatever she can with arts, that I thought she might enjoy the Smithsonian Gallery of Art. We went to the classical wing first. I was right…she loved it! Especially, when we found some of Degas’ Ballerinas (one painting and several statues). I was so upset when I realized I forgot her sketch pad…she would have had fun “drawing” some of the art. After spending a couple of hours of Zoe asking about every single picture, we went down to the basement level to eat our sandwiches. Ace was out completely through lunch and Liam woke up halfway through and ate a little (did I mention he had a stomach virus and very little appetite). Ace woke up as we left the art gallery and proceeded to pitch a fit because he was hungry and he was also soaken wet! After a quick change and eating lunch, he was much better and ready to go look at planes and space shuttles.

Our next stop was the Air and Space Museum. I thought they would enjoy it, and they did. But being preschoolers and craving more hands on, they wanted to push all the buttons and climb on the planes and touch everything…not a good place for two preschoolers. As we left the Air and Space Museum tired and done with sightseeing for the night, we had our first big adventure.

I came out on the Independence Ave. side and searched for a ramp to roll the stroller down…nowhere to be seen and the guard wasn’t much help either (but he did point us in the right direction for the metro). We crossed Independence and made it to the curb. As I was trying to get up on the curb, the strollers left front wheel broke and folded up underneath the stroller! So, with two kids in the stroller and one wonderfully obedient little girl holding on to the stroller, we popped a wheelie and went about 2 1/2 blocks to the metro with Ace’s legs high in the air (Liam was sleeping so that made it a little easier). After getting to the metro (and across the street to the elevator), we went down two levels still on the back two wheels. Once we got on the metro, I realized that I could probably wheel the stroller backwards and be able to use all wheels. So, we tried that at our metro stop and it worked. I walked through DC with a stroller high in the sky and then walked backwards through Pentagon City! Yes, it was very funny and very hard all at the same time.

When Mark got in from work, we headed out 8 miles and 45 minutes away to a Babies R’ Us to get a new stroller…my souvenir!

Here is the stroller before it broke!

A neat little sculpture in the Smithsonian Sculpture garden. It was a granit seating area where we nursed Liam and took a quick break.

Liam at the National Mall.