July Part II
Boy, two kids really keep you busy! We've had a hard time getting a minute to post a blog entry and we're getting a bit behind. We've been doing lots of travelling and having a great time, just not having much time to document it all.The first thing to do is to update Lux and Nick's stats. They went at the same time to the doctor on July 15, Lux for her 2-year visit and Nick for his 4-month checkup. Both are very healthy and progessing well developmentally. Lux was 26 1/2 pounds (50th percentile) and 36 inches tall (95th percentile). An old rule of thumb is that your final height is twice your height at two years old. If this holds true, Lux will be a 6-footer and we had better get her volleyball training going soon! Although she needed no shots, her checkup did involve quite a bit of screaming since she wan't really interested in having her eyes, nose, and ears checked by some strange person. The doctor asked us if she knew 200 words yet. We said that we thought so, but weren't 100% sure. So, when we got home we started to count. This turned out to be futile, since it seems that the minute we left the doctor's office Lux started adding about a word an hour to her vocabulary. She'll basically say anything now and often surprises us with words we didn't know she knew. She recently started using her own name, although she pronounces it more like "Lou" than "Lux". The doctor also asked if she dressed herself. We said no, feeling bad, but again, almost as soon as we got home she started taking clothes out of the laundry and trying to put them on.
Nick weighed in at 16 1/2 pounds (75 percentile), his head is 17 inches (60th percentile) and is 28 inches tall (>>97th percentile!). We knew he seemed tall, but he's WAY off the charts. Apparently, Grandad Dan's 6 foot 5 inch genes skipped a generation! Nick had no problem with his checkup and had just the usual short cry when he got his four(!) shots. Of course, the fact that he is 28 inches tall means that he is TWO inches too tall to continue using his "bucket" (infant car seat), so we had to retire it.
We also had a nice visit from Grandma Paula and Grandpa John in mid-July. They had fun playing with the kids, and enjoying summer in DC. They got to accompany Lux to her "Preschool Picassos" class and see her work on her art skills. Lux is really enjoying art these days: painting, coloring, gluing, etc. We also all went up to this really cool park up in Arlington where there are a bunch of cool water features that let you play with rainwater (pumps, puddles, etc.) Lux had a great time splashing in the water and walking in the creek, then went over to the adjoining skate park and watched the big kids attempt tricks on their boards and bikes. Also over the weekend, we went up to Rockville to Cartoon Cuts where Lux got her second-ever professional haircut. She looks super cute again with her chin-length bob. We also decided that the best way to handle the car seat issue is to bump Lux up to a booster seat and give her convertible car seat to Nick. We bought the same brand, Evenflo, so the fabric and buckle system is familiar and Lux adapted to the new seat right away. Nick is also very happy in a car seat that actually fits him.
In other news, we've decided it is time to get a new car. Paul's Porsche is starting to fall apart and the fact that it is black and has no air conditioning is getting unbearable. This is in addition to fact that it only holds two people and we have a family of four. We've also found that each time we have visitors we need to take two cars everywhere since the Jeep can't hold more than 5 people. So, we looked around and settled on the just-introduced 2006 Subaru B9 Tribeca. This is Subaru's first full-size SUV, and it seems like a great one. It has a flip up 3rd row seat so it can hold a total of 7 passengers when needed, though it isn't a huge gas-guzzling thing like some of the monster trucks on the road these days. It also isn't a minivan, which Paul is very happy about. We placed our custom order (7 passenger Limited, with GPS navigation system, & tow hitch in Atlantic Blue Pearl and grey leather interior) on July 16th. Amazingly, they let us test drive one of the Tribecas on the lot, not for an hour, but for the WHOLE weekend! This was great, since we had Paula and John visiting and we could really test out the all the features, including the third row. We even picked up Karen, filling it up to full capacity (including two kids in car seats!) and it was a joy to drive. We can't wait for ours to arrive in mid-September! With Karen, we all went out to dinner at Jaleo in Arlington, a new location for our favorite Spanish Tapas restaurant. The food was fantastic, and Lux greedily ate tons of "fries". We didn't have the heart to tell her that they were actually fried calamari, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her, right?
Right after Paula and John left (literally, just a couple of hours later), we all jumped into the Jeep (which Lux now refers to as the "old, hot car" after the weekend test drive of the Subaru) and drove up to Penn St. where Paul had to attend a pulsar conference. We stayed at a Days Inn that was pretty nice and included some kid-friendly features like a waterfall in the lobby and a swimming pool. The weather was a lot nicer than the heat and humidity of DC, and Susan pushed the kids all over town in the double stroller while Paul was in meetings. They loved the library, which included a puppet theatre and lots of puzzles to work in addition to tons of fun books. They also enjoyed Penn State's famous "Creamery" (it's an Ag school, you know) where Lux got to have chocolate ice cream. However, pushing the big double stroller was hot work and the "armada", as we call it, is really unwieldly. Then, the foot rest on Nick's seat broke and he fell through the floor, where he started to get dragged along the pavement before Mom noticed and saved him. This was the last straw for the armada (which we got for free), and we decided we needed a new side-by-side double stroller before the next trip. Both kids did great on the 4.5 hour drives each way, and we are encouraged that family driving vacations can be a lot of fun.
After the Penn St. trip, Paul was home for only 24 hours before heading back to the airport to fly to Austin, TX for a 1-day work meeting. Right after that, we began our big Berkeley resort vacation, which we'll save for the next post.
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