STEM Expo 2012

 So if you are a science teacher in the greater DC area, you have been receiving information about the STEM Expo since....October of last year.  My assistant principal asked me and fellow teacher Sheri to take a group of students and their parents on a big yellow bus for the expo last Saturday.  While the idea of giving up my entire day (7:30 am - 6:30 pm) on one of my "days off" was less than appealing, the expo had lots of fun activities, demonstrations, and people to meet!

 robotic snake

 Sheri and I stood in line for 2 hours to meet Bill Nye!  We got pics with him and autographs!

 Some kid had make an R2D2 replica and was driving it around the place.  He had a loyal following of fans behind him!

 The science cheerleaders.  All of these ladies are previous professional team cheerleaders (there were ones from the Redskins, Falcons, Bangals, etc) AND have advanced degrees in science (they introduced themselves and had master's degrees in Nursing, Public Health, Organic Chemistry, etc and doctorates!  One was a dentist among other really impressive degrees).

 Mayim Balik was there (she has a huge following as Sheldon's girlfriend on Big Bang Theory).  She was great speaker--she talked about how her grandparents were immigrants, her parents were teachers, and she went for her masters and doctorate in Neuroscience because she finds science fascinating but not easy--she wanted to challenge herself/see if she "could do it".  She wanted to go to medical school but her hands weren't steady enough for brain surgery.

 I swear she's looking right at me...



TAG Art Show 2012

 Well, my two resident artists were show cased in the King George TAG Art show this past week!  Caroline did the paper weaving collage above and the weaving/tapestry below.  Garrett made the sea life metal mobile at the bottom and received many compliments on his work!  Overall, people were very impressed with my kids' art and so was I!

Expanding by Two Feet

and these were the two feet I was referring to!  Baby Cuatro is sticking its legs straight out, jamming its feet into uterine wall.  We captured some very cute pictures from our follow up scan on Tuesday (our NT scan the week before involved an "uncooperative" baby who wouldn't show nasal bones).  Our tech Carla is phenomenal--she spent a good ten minutes trying to find some genitalia on the screen, but had to give up when the baby refused to open legs and give us a good shot.  No matter!  We have the anatomy scan in 6 weeks (on June 5th) and can get even more great pics then.

So we are officially 14 weeks along (almost 15) with a baby measuring at least one week ahead and a due date of October 26th!

Emily: Seventeen Months Old

I may be a couple days late on this posting, but I've been a little busy around here! This toddler keeps me running! Once we did the crying out a couple of months ago, bedtime is much more pleasant. Em is in the bath around 6:45 PM, then some quiet playtime til 7:30 PM. Then we get her blankies and snuggle on the couch to read exactly 5 books: Teddy's Bathtime, That's Not My Tractor, Elmo at the Zoo, Counting 1 2 3, and Farm First Touch and Feel. She reads all of other books during the day, but at night, it's these 5 and only these 5! Then I sing "good night Emily" and pat her back while I carry her to bed and she snuggles down into her covers. She still listens to ocean sounds all night. I can usually plan on getting 11-12 hours straight out of her.

Did I mention that she loves food? Especially carrots, broccoli, bananas, grapes, Nilla wafers, goldfish crackers, cheese sticks, and Go-gurts. She will try anything once and usually likes it.

Emily would spend every minute outside if she could. She loves to push around her play stroller, kick a soccer ball, ride the lawn mower, take a wagon ride, or just pick dandelions from the yard. We take her to the park almost every weekend, where the daredevil goes down the big twisty slide...by herself! When inside, she loves to do art (draw with markers or pens) or play with Sissy and Brutha (her toys are not interesting to her at all unless someone is playing with them with her!)

Emily is up to 24 pounds. She wears size 18-24 mos clothes and size 5 shoes. She's still in size 3 diapers because: (1) they go up to 28 lbs and (2) you get way more diapers in a smaller size for the same price! She has 16 teeth (!) with all 4 back molars. She brushes her teeth every night after her bath.

Emily loves all music! She tries to play Caroline's recorder, but she really enjoys when Garrett plays his trombone and Caroline plays her recorder together. She'll clap her hands and rock her head back and forth to the beat.

Color My World...or at least my House

Timmy and I regularly visit Lowes or Home Depot for their paint sample cards. Now that we are a month away from closing on our house, I am in mad planning overdrive: Where will the furniture go? Where will I store our winter clothes? What color will each room be? We've been "crazy about beige" for the last six months while we got the house all neutralized to sell. Now that we're past that stage, we are picking out real colors outside of the "tan" family for the new house.
And isn't it funny how people will still choose the same colors over and over again? I know that my sister--an expert at moving--has painted "beach glass" in her last three houses. We didn't stray too far from what we have now! The gray family for our master bedroom (which was originally tan). I'm sticking with Stormy Cove on the left hand side.

Tans on the left for hallway and staircase (both are historic preservation colors). On the bottom right--Lyndhurst Jade, our living room/dining room combo color.

Caroline wanted "pink or turquoise or maybe both". I think I have her convinced on the top two colors--Aqua Green or Bayside. Both look awesome with white trim.

Our new family room addition is currently "Ocean View" and I love it. A close match for our new family room is "Rushing Rapids"--sample on the bottom left.

Garrett loves green, so of course that was his choice for his room. I think we're going with Fiddlehead Fern--middle sample on the right.

And Emily's room? She likes yellow! Not "nuclear sun blast yellow" (which is an actual color) but more of a "sunlight all over my room" yellow. We're going with Summer Wish (middle color on card).

Emptying Out

What better time to start packing than the 5 days of "break" they give us teachers every spring? Baby is still hanging out at day care because (1) I still have to pay full price whether I use the services this week or not, (2) Emily is a much happier camper when she sticks to her routine, and (3) packing is so much easier when I'm not trying to entertain a one year old.
I have been collecting paper boxes from work for the past month, so all of my bookcases are not officially in marked boxes in my garage at this point. We did a huge clean out when we put the house up for sale, so there isn't really much that I can get packed up at this time. I'm doing a little cleaning this week, too, just to get a head start on it.
And wouldn't you know....the dryer decided that this would be the best week to stop working. One month too early!

Easter Sunday 2012

Tim and I took all three kids to Peggy and Joe's house for Easter dinner. Mary, John, and cousin Brooklyn were there, too. Brooklyn is only 7 weeks younger than Emily, so they are pretty much doing the same things and like the same stuff at this point. Big difference? Brooklyn is still not walking, much to Mary's dismay. She does get around--she scoots on her knees! I have never seen anything like it!
We had a very nice roast beef dinner with my favorite sweet potatoes (Peggy does them right--lots of butter and brown sugar!) and then spent the rest of the afternoon outside.

Emily has a slight obsession with wiping her nose--notice the wad of tissues.

Hunting for Eggs

Cammy came to visit this weekend, so after knocking out a birthday party at noon, we headed home for an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Emily is finally starting to feel better after her strep throat diagnosis on Thursday (guess the broad spectrum antibiotics are finally kicking in) so she was up for the challenge of finding eggs. Believe me, Cammy didn't give her enough credit and "hid" the eggs in places like on top of the gravel and in the flower beds. Emily found them in about 1.5 minutes. Cammy also hid money and candy for the older two in less obvious places.