Katie's First Birthday!

Today is Katie's first birthday! We can't believe we all made it through the first year relatively intact. Today we celebrated by going to the Smithsonian's new Butterfly Garden at the Natural History Museum. As soon as Katie walked in, a butterfly landed on her leg and stayed there most of the time. She didn't notice. She got to see lots of exotic looking butterflies flying freely around the enclosed garden. It was a lot of fun.

After that we wandered around the mammal exhibits but she didn't take much interest in the big bears, hippos, and tigers.

Tonight we went out to eat at Generous George's Positive Pizza Place and then went home and had cake with her Aunt Sue. She started by timidly sticking her hands in the cake but soon was grabbing big handfuls and shoving them into her mouth (and surrounding area). Rusty benefited the most by staking out the ground below her chair and catching everything that fell. Eventually, Katie decided to not bother using her hands and stuck her mouth on the cake.

Thanks for all the cards and well-wishes! We look forward to starting another year with Katie and everyone! For more photos, click here.

Washington's Birthday Parade

Today we braved the 75 degree weather and went to the George Washington Birthday Parade. Alexandria goes all out to celebrate it's most famous resident and it's always a lot of fun. Katie got to see lots of politicians, fire trucks, bagpipes, marching bands, dogs, girl scouts/boy scouts, shriners, and llamas. We're not sure how the llamas fit in but Katie really enjoyed them.


Katie enjoys watching the llamas (llamas?!?).


Katie holds her new flag that someone from D.A.R. gave her during the parade.


Katie with her flag and Mardi Gras beads. Appearantly anything goes at George's parade.

Swingin' Katie

This afternoon was sunny and fairly warm (45 degrees) so we walked down to our neighborhood park to play. Katie played on the swings and slide and Rusty chased sticks. A good time was had by all.

Tonight we bought Katie a new stroller to go with her new car seat (she outgrew her old stroller and car seat). The car seat has a cow print design on it which really confused Rusty the when he walked by Nancy's car after we installed it. He kept looking into the window as if thinking, "What the heck am I going to share the backseat with now?!?!?"

After we got the stroller, we ate a yummy dinner at Red Hot and Blue. Katie was very chatty and kept making cute faces at the tables around us but she was a little loud at times. Luckily they were smitten with Katie. At one point when she was loudly giggling/squealing, we were trying to quiet her down when the people next to us said, "Oh, don't worry. She's not bothering us. She's quiet compared to our kids."

Nancy fed Katie some tofu during our dinner to keep her happy which made us wonder if she was the first person to ever eat tofu in a southern bbq restaurant. After she ate she grabbed her Raggedy Ann doll and kept hugging it which was too cute for words.

Celebritology

In this crazy world we live in, there is nothing more important than crafting laws to make sure our celebrities are protected. That's why I am proposing a law outlining 10 restrictions to keep our stars from being bothered. You can read them in today's WashingtonPost.com Celebritology.

Katie on the Move

Here's a video of random shots of Katie motorin' around our house. It's a bit long (10 minutes) but it was hard to cut out any more cute stuff. I may have to put the extended director's cut on her next dvd. A larger version is available here.

Our Lil' Ballerina

Here's a batch of Katie photos taken over the last week. Click here for more photos.


Nancy's friend Jenny was nice enough to send a box of clothes that her daughters have outgrown. Katie's favorite item so far is the ballerina tutu.






Her hands aren't quite on the ASDF JKL; keys but they're close!


I was in charge of Katie one night while Nancy got her hair cut. I was working on the computer and realized it was too quiet in the room. I looked up and she was sound asleep in her exersaucer. She's never done that before. It was so cute and it made for an easy night of babysitting.