Sledding in New Hampshire

Simon was lucky enough to get a fancy sled for Christmas to live at the lake house. Grandma and Grandpa took him out yesterday for a walk and some sledding. He seems less than impressed but tolerant of the things we do to him. He was wearing his new snowsuit Mom found on ebay and the mittens Aunt Jody made him. And a video!

Nerds are everywhere

I am over in Greece and the hotel I am staying in was very full. Turns out they were hosting a Warhammer 40,000 tournament. The floor with the conference rooms smelled like bo and cigarettes. They had at least 30 tables going with lots of people watching each game.

For those of you who don't know, warhammer is a minature game where you move your painted figurines around and fight each other. I haven't seen anyone playing it since high school.

One Quick Photo

Simon is getting so big. On Thanksgiving he had his first crawling experience. He went backwards about 8 feet and then put his head down on the floor and had a meltdown. No photos of this event, I didn't want to disturb him.

On Saturday he had his first bagel which was a big hit! There were tons of people to stare at as well so he had a great day.

Don't tell Mom

I went to the park and got to go swinging. I spent the whole time staring at the girls next to me. They were very cute!

Happy Halloween

No, Simon won't be trick or treating tonight but he did attend his first ever parade of costumes at Grandma's elementary school on Friday. Simon was an adorable bear (big thanks to Aunt Jody for knitting him such a special costume) and Grandma was a park ranger. The two of them were so cute, looking at all of the children in the parade.


I also took some photos of Simon in his costume at home, hoping to catch that elusive smile. No smile, but this was just too sweet not to share.


We also took Simon to the pumpkin patch last weekend for the obligatory fall photo and I have to admit, he's sooo cute sitting amidst the pumpkins I can see why parents do this every year.






Next year, we might have to take someone with us to get a family photo of the three of us. Of course it took about 50 shots of each pair to ensure all eyes were open at the same time, let alone smiling/grinning. So be forewarned... a family photo could take a while.

But don't worry, Simon will enjoy playing in the dirt and trying to eat the pumpkins no matter how long it takes.

Learning to Eat

Simon is doing really well with solid food. His current favorite is squash which he likes better than bananas, rice cereal, apples and peaches. When he tries a new food he makes the best faces! Watch to the end of this clip, this happens several times before he will eat anything new.


Eating is also fairly messy at this point. He gets it all over his legs and feet most days, in addition to everywhere else.

Laid Back...

... Got my mind on my money and my money on my mind.


This pose just cracks me up. Nuf said.

Baltimore Farmers Market

We came to the farmers market today. Simon showed slightly more interest in the market this time, unlike the last time we took him to the farmer's market in Boise. Aside from playing with green beans he really liked watching the people.

Very Cool Space Photos

I wanted to share these two cool articles I read lately about space photography.



The photo above was taken by a group of high school students in Spain who got a camera 100,000 ft in to the atmosphere on a balloon and were able to take photos. Full article is here.

The second article I wanted to share are photos of the shuttle Atlantis approaching the Hubble Space Telescope silhouetted against the sun.

There are more pictures and information available on the photographer's website here: including pictures of the shuttle Endeavour docked to the ISS.

New Hampshire Vacation

We are on vacation in New Hampshire at my parent's lake house. It's been a fun filled week so far. Sol and Meera stopped by and we everyone including Simon went in the lake.



He also tried rice cereal for the first time. He didn't really enjoy it as you can see.



Today we went over to Vermont for bacon. It's a long story but the best bacon in the world is available at Singleton's Store in Proctorsville, VT.

We followed that up with maple cremee's at the Green Mountain Sugar House. A maple cremee is a frozen maple dessert. Very yummy.

We stopped at the covered bridge.


We wrapped up the day by going to the King Arthur's Flour Baker's store.


Tomorrow we are going to stay home and play on the lake.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver

As everyone knows, I've worked at Special Olympics since 2002. I try to keep my work life out of the blog as much as possible but today I am making an exception.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver passed early this morning, she was the Founder of Special Olympics and the person who did more for people with Intellectual Disabilites than anyone thought possible. Her work has touched millions around the world and I just wanted to ask everyone to take a minute and remember her today for all the work she did and everything that still needs to be done.

Our little reader

One of Simon's favorite toys to play with at the moment is a plush, 'Pat the Bunny' book, given to us by Bruce, Josh's former boss at the Games. Simon has started to teeth and just loves to chew on anything and everything, so this plush, pliable book with multiple textures is a real winner. He regularly falls asleep for his morning nap with the book. Too cute.

Temple of Poseidon

I am actually in Athens this week meeting with the IT team for the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games. Since it is the weekend I took a bus trip out to Cape Sounio to see the Temple of Poseidon. It is about 90 minutes by bus as you follow the coastal road through the Greek beach towns. The views were spectacular.

Here I am at the temple.



From here I'm going to cheat in the interest of time. I've created a slide show with the pictures from the temple.


I am off to the Acropolis on Sunday.

In the pool with Simon

We have taken Simon to the pool twice so far. He is not really into it, he doesn't fuss but I think he would rather be on dry land.

Here he is all ready to go in



Sitting on the steps with Grandpa C


I'm not so sure about this. . .

Where is Mom?


I still don't like it.

Corn

I am bringing corn home in my suitcase. I don't think this kid has a work permit.

Racoons & Corn Fritters

I'm still in Nebraska, home of the corn silo. Lincoln has several of these large structures located on the train tracks. I haven't seen a corn train yet but I have been looking.


Last night Jesus conned Josie to take us to Omaha which is about 50 miles from Lincoln. We went to Dixie Quicks for dinner and it was very good but I would like to return for breakfast which sounded great. I found this restaurant on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and figured I would go if I was ever in Nebraska.


After dinner Josie took us to the Surfside Inn Club on the Missouri River for corn fritters.They only serve two other things, fried catfish or fried chicken.

When you are done with the bones and fried bits you throw them over the fence for the racoons who come right up and grab them. We loved their people-like hands, these little guys have way more dexterity than Simon.



Looking out across the river you can see Iowa, we actually made a wrong turn and drove over the bridge to Iowa at one point. I'm not sure if it counts as a state I visited if it was by accident.

Lincoln, Nebraska

I am in Lincoln today to talk IT with the 2010 Special Olympics US National Games. I had to fly out of national instead of bwi due to a travel agent mixup. This also forced me to get up at 3:15am to make the flight.



All is good now that I am here. The lincoln airport appears to have 4 gates and you are allowed to park curbside with a 10 minute limit!

Hanging the TV

The goal was fairly simple. I wanted to hang the TV over the fireplace. I consulted with Dad, Nick, other Dad and we all decided that this wasn't going to be much fun.

After staring at for a while I decided to call Chris. This needed an engineer's fearlessness.

Chris and Nick came over on Saturday and the decision was made to reinforce the studs by adding some additional framing. That meant that a 55 x24 inch hole had to be cut in the drywall.



This hole was later enlarged so that the framing gun could fit. (I cut the crooked top)


We took the opportunity to run some speaker wires and hdmi cables for the tv.


The wall was reinforced and a new piece of drywall hung. Joanie is sanding and repainting. We hope to actually hang the tv next weekend and get our living room back.

Reduction in Force

This came to me via my father-in-law. I'm not sure if it accurately reflects where you work but I have several friends whose companies are following this logic.

In this current economic crisis,

we see no alternative but to reduce our staff.

We have to lay off André.

Meeting new people

On Sunday night we had a lovely dinner at Chris & Pam's house. It was Simon's first time meeting them, their kids Evan & Sam as well as Joanne & Mr. Yuck and Jake & Mandy. We forgot our camera so all photos come curiosity of Joanne.

Chris was his usual over the top self and made a huge paella. As Pam commented Simon's dubious look probably has something to do with the fact that he would fit in the pan.


















Here is a shot of Evan, hamming it up.


















Here is Sam. Do we have this mess to look forward to while feeding Simon in 7 months? She looks so pleased with herself!














Here is a shot of just the boy. He has started playing with his tongue and makes all sorts of funny faces now.

Simon got his swing back!

One of the first things unpacked today was Simon's swing. He had big smiles and coo'd at the mobile as it spun around. He sure is fascinated by the whole apparatus.