Mamma's Office

Apparently I must spend a lot of time doing dishes because Irby has recently been going up to the dishwasher, banging on it and saying, "Mamma's Office!!"  He's had a recent obsession with Daddy's office, I think mainly because we've been going to eat lunch with Irby about once a week and he gets a sucker every time.  If that isn't a memorable experience for an almost 2-year old, I don't know what is.  Here are a few pictures from recent (or not so recent) days.

The favorite Christmas gift, and still a favorite toy these days since

we're inside so much because of the cold weather...

Riding my new trike, thanks Nanna and Doc!

Feed the birds!  Irby has no fear, at least no fear of birds.  We walked down to the Capitol last weekend and there were people feeding the birds...I've never seen him so excited!

A morning at the Natural History Museum.  One of the many great things about DC is the museums.  There are so many, and they are all FREE.  It's just like going to the zoo or a giant indoor playground.  Makes for a great morning activity to get really tired for a good afternoon nap.  I'm just thankful we are so close to the Mall so we could go everyday if we wanted to!  It made me a little sad that Irby didn't bark at the big elephant in the entry hall like he usually does.  My, how my little boy is growing up!  

We've also had a few birthdays around our house recently.  Now I don't know how much Irby follows this birthday thing, but he's seen several people get to open presents after lots of people say Happy Birthday, so this has become a common sentence in our house:  "Irby Happy Birthday!  Irby Roller Skates!!!" (Apparently there's a dog in one of his books, "Go Dog Go" - my personal childhood favorite - with roller skates on and he thinks that looks fun:)

Snow and Another Bad Haircut...

We're getting tons of snow up here!  It's been snowing non-stop since we got up this morning.  It's so beautiful (until it gets all nasty brown and slushy that is).  Here's a pic of Irby playing out there, he had a great time, except seeing as we just moved from Alabama, he really doesn't have a proper snow suit or boots, so we didn't stay too long because snow+regular clothes=wet, cold clothes=sad boy.  PS-I've got to stop thinking I can cut Irby's hair, clearly I CANNOT!

Life in DC

I heard Irby laughing hysterically in bed, when he should have been napping, and this is how I found him!  I have no idea how he did that...

Static!  Our cheap sofa at our temporary apartment will give you major static cling!

Uncle Will came for a visit and taught little Irbs how to play the wii.  It was pretty funny to watch.  We got to visit all week and went out for Thai food, which, I'm proud to say, even little Irbs enjoyed!

This is a picture from after Christmas playing at the park near Nana and Doc's house.

Too bad it really emphasizes the Jim Carrey dumb and dumber haircut I gave him...

Wearing my towel like Dadda.

We ventured out on Inauguration day to see the crowds (we'd given our tickets away bc little Irbs really wouldn't have enjoyed 20 degrees for 8 hours, me neither for that matter).  After wandering up the the Capitol for a bit (we live on Capitol Hill which is just behind the Capitol, and I must say it was a very interesting crowd!  and just had a very different vibe than last time.  It was like being at a really big, really cold rock concert, except without the music, strange! Anyway, we really just wanted to see what 2 million people looked like), then we went home and watched it on TV from the comfort of our WARM sofa and fire.

Colorado

These are 2 runners up for our Christmas card picture.  Don't worry, they are coming, just a little late getting organized over here...

Sledding with Daddy, this was definitely a highlight for the trip.  Little Irby loved it, and of course Daddy Irby loved trekking halfway up the mountain with little Irby on his shoulders, and sleds in hand, about 6 or 7 times.  Talk about a good workout!

Now this was the highlight of my trip....every time we got in the elevator, which was several times a day, we would see this picture in the elevator.  It was just behind glass on the calendar which indicated the events taking place in the clubhouse that week.  Anyway, little Irby would get so excited and bang his finger on the glass yelling, "DADDA!  DADDA!"  It was especially funny when there was someone else in the elevator who would kind of look at us, I'm sure they were thinking, "Does your dad wear spandex?  Can your dad do that with his body?  Does your dad have a long braid?"  It was pretty funny...

Funny Boy

Sorry, these pictures are all out of order. I haven't spent the time to figure out how to make them all line up with the text, but enjoy them if you can figure out what they are!
Anne Caroline, Irby's youngest sister was Cinderella in the Montgomery Ballet preformance this fall, so we got to go see her. She's an incredible dancer! Here's a picture of Lucy (Lulu as she's known around our house) and her finacee Whitt. The others are at my parents house and playing with Grandoc and the playground. Also, we went on a business trip with Irby to Dayton, OH, and while he was in meetings I took little Irby to the Air Force Musem, which he LOVED. We met a veteran of 3 wars who showed us around and even showed us the plane he flew and let Irby sit in it! I've never seen him so excited. We also got to get our picture taken in the space suit, which was great fun, of course!

This is Irby with little Irbs and little Mac on a trip to Nashville. Sweet Devon and Shellye kept Irby for us so we could go cheer on the Dores, who had a sad loss...

Well, Irby has been keeping us laughing here recently. I'll just give you a few examples of some of his antics.
Irby got is 18 month shots a few weeks back and he had his first sentence. After the nurse gave him 3 or 4 shots in the leg, he wailed, "LEG HUUUURRRRTTT!!!!" He hasn't really spoken many sentences since then, but he also hasn't been nearly as distressed as he was then either!

The past few mornings Irby has been entertaining us over the monitor after he wakes up. Now he is like his Daddy in the mornings. It takes a long time to wake up and it's better just to let him roll around in the bed for a while sucking his thumb, and he's perfectly happy doing this. In fact, he prefers this to getting straight out of bed in the morning. The past few mornings we've heard not a peep over the monitor until we hear an emphatic, "WOAH!" I just wonder what it is he's dreaming about or what he's thinking about in these early mornings. He usually then proceeds to talk about his boo-boos, and usually when you go in there to get him up he has his pants leg hiked up and he's pointing to his knee. What a boy; he loves showing off his scars, even to himself.

Last night was Irby's office Christmas party which was a lot of fun, especially for the kids who got special presents! Irby got a little plastic play laptop, which he loves. While I was not looking, one of little Irby's parents (who shall remain nameless) let his son eat some chocolate cake, some carrot cake, a whole glass of eggnog AND a sucker. This is all after he ate a regular dinner of chicken and veggies. The whole way home and to the bed he just kept holding his belly moaning "BOO-BOO!" Needless to say, he is OK now, and thankfully slept the whole night despite the sugar high.

My sister is hard core

Ok, first I need to apologize for not knowing how to put my pictures on and make them line up with the text properly, I'm new to this, and trying to figure it out, so bear with me.
My little sister, Kirsten ran the Marine Corps Marathon last weeknd in DC. We got to see her because we were there looking for a house (no we didn't find one yet). She did a great job and finished with a great time! Let it be known to everyone reading this (which is probably no one because I've not actually told anyone about this blog yet) that Irby has decided he is going to run it next year! Go IRBS! Here are a few pictures of Kirsten's race. (Oh, and in that 2nd picture, I know that I'm the one holding the water while she's running her 26.2 miles, but I promise I brought it for her, and she did drink some!)

Happy Halloween

Well, we had a great and pretty quiet Halloween here in Huntsville. Irby was supposed to be a lion, but due to a bad website that I ordered his costume from, he was an airplane instead (which he actually probably liked better anyway, although he does have a really good 'roar' like a lion. The costume was totally homemade and not very cute, but he loved it! Basically it consisted of his airplane footie pj's and cardboard wings and wheels). We went to a little restaurant near our house and sat outside because the weather was just gorgeous.

Huntsville has had a really beautiful fall. I guess because it's a little farther north, it gets cooler and the leaves are amazing! Here are a few pictures from the night Trick-or-Treating and also our afternoon in Monte Sano, a mountain nearby where we enjoyed the wonderful fall air and played outside.