Jackson's First Hurricane (and Tornado Warning)

What are the chances of experiencing an earthquake and hurricane in the same week in the same state?  No need to go to the west coast for the earthquake and south for the hurricane, Delaware has it all!

Thanks to everyone for their inquiries about our safety - everything is totally fine and Wilmington managed to escape the brunt of the storm, I think. 

Here's a quick recap of the past 36 hours:

Friday we stocked up on water and some groceries after work.  One large gas station was completely out of gas.  The grocery store I went to was out of water, bananas, berries, but I did manage to grab the last loaf of non-white bread!  Adam luckily got some water at the grocery store by his office. I also made a nice dinner, thinking that we may be without power and water for a few days and eating Lara bars!

Saturday morning we got up and started moving everything indoors - patio furniture, Jackson's toys, even the grill (minus propane).  We moved the cars out of the way of trees.  Then we went for a nice long walk in preparation for hunkering down.  I baked some muffins.  We spent most of the day inside hanging out, watching coverage of Irene on tv until we couldn't take it any more.  It rained a little, it was a little windy, but nothing crazy.  Jackson went to bed around 8 pm and then at 10:30 pm when Adam and I were getting ready to turn out the lights, there was a tornado warning for Wilmington.  So, I got Jackson up, and we went down in the basement for 15-20 minutes.  Then it was back upstairs and to bed (with the tv on in our room in case there were anymore tornado warnings as there are no sirens out here).  We all woke up at 7 am to some wind and rain.  We took a walk outside at lunch to the restaurant down the street.  I saw one small tree down, but that was really the extent of any damage I saw.  Then by 5 pm, the wind was dead and the sun was shining!  Such a weird weekend, but we are so thankful that it was such a non-event for us in the end and that we never lost power.  

And through it all, Jackson was great!  I think he knew something was up and was on extra special good behavior.  An earthquake and hurricane in one week is sure one for the (baby) book!

Jackson's First Earthquake

Dear Parents,
All children and staff members are safe and sound after today's earthquake. We did evacuate the building immediately and waited for the building inspector's clearance before re-entering. No one was injured.
As you may or may not be aware at this point, we experienced an earthquake in the area. First reports is that it was an 5.8 which was felt from Virginia to New York City.
Children are all accounted for and back comfortably settling back into their classrooms at this time.
Thank you,
Your friends at The Goddard School

Making music

Yesterday we were on Skype with Gramdma and Grandpa Porter and I remembered that I had a music set we had bought for Jackson when he was a baby that I hadn't opened yet.  Jackson LOVED his new instruments and loved showing Grandma and Grandpa his musical inclinations even more!  And this hippie baby still does not wear clothes (in case you hadn't noticed). 

Bite him back!

I solicited advice on Facebook on how to get Jackson to stop biting after getting 2 "incident" reports from daycare this past week, not to mention the daily assults he does on Adam and me.  I think the answer is somewhere in these responses!

Time for a haircut?

We went to the Eagles pre-season game vs. the Ravens last night (daddy got luxury box tickets, which is really the only way we could have taken Jackson comfortably). We decked him out in his Jackson jersey, snapped this photo and then I turned to Daddy and said "oh my gosh, look at his hair!"  Time to call my girl and see what kind of magic she can work on this.  The pediatrician recommended "layering" at his 18 month appt.  When you have a pediatrician telling you to cut the kid's hair, you know it's time.

18 month update

Weight: 29 lbs 5 oz (92nd Percentile)

Length: 34.25 inches (92nd Percentile)

Visitors: A lot of people came to my house on July to see me, but then I realized they were really there to send daddy into his 40s.

My Likes: Throwing balls, riding my car around the house, crawling on furniture, playing with the iPad, walking up the stairs alone (no more crawling), smacking Daddy's meatball (belly), picking blackberries off the bush in the backyard, sitting in the front seat of cars (not while in motion), Miss Jenny at day care (who I gives hugs and kisses to!), water (baths, oceans, water tables, splash day)

My Dislikes: I don't really like to listen to mommy and when she makes me mad I either bang my head on the floor or bite her.  I don't have much patience either, which daddy says I get from mommy.

Other milestones: I'm pretty handy with a fork and spoon.

My Words: Melkkkkkkk (for the white stuff you drink), beep beep (for cars), up down, Dada and occasionally daddy (still my favorite word), Mama (seldom!), book, ball, more, bubbles.  Surprisingly, the one wond I don't say is "No" although I love to shake my head

Trips: We just went to RI last weekend and spent a week in WI the first week of July

Looking forward to in the next few months: Grandma Honey and G-Pop coming to visit for a week in Sept and going to the beach while they are here

Rhode Island visit

There is so much to update, that I figured the best way to do it was start with the most recent and work backwards. Last weekend we flew to Rhode Island for the weekend.  I've been flying into Providence to go to a client in MA since June.  Neither Adam nor I had ever been to RI before, so thought we would make a weekend of it. 

We were up early on Saturday morning (4 am) and almost missed our 7 am flight due to insane crowds at check in and security.  It was a quick 45 min flight to Providence, and we were at the William Rogers zoo in Providence when it opened at 9 am.  It is really a beautiful, open zoo.  We really enjoyed it and Jackson seemed to as well. 

After the zoo, we headed to the Carousel.  This was Jackson's second time on a carousel and frankly, I'm sure he would be fine if it was his last.  He's not a big fan.  He did, however, love the little rides there which we had to pull him off of kicking and screaming. 

We then headed to the hotel in downtown Providence, which was right across from the Capitol and is also an old Masonic Temple.  It was beautiful and in a great location.  We walked down the street to have some lunch at a brewery and then went back to the hotel for an afternoon nap.  When we woke up, we jumped in the car to explore Providence a bit and ended up seeing most of it, as it's not a very big city.  We hit a great ice cream shop and drove by the local baseball stadium.  There wasn't enough time to stop though - we had to get back downtown for Waterfire. 

Waterfire is once a month downtown Providence and is very popular.  It was the best date night that we didn't have to get a babysitter for.  We basically strolled up and down the river, listening to music, eating food, watching the fires and sipping on some beverages while Jackson chilled (most of the time) in the stroller.  We even listened to the Providence Philharmonic for a bit before walking back to the hotel.

The next morning we were up early and in the car headed down to Newport, which is on the ocean.  We had breakfast downtown Newport, but the one highchair was in use so Jackson sat next to mommy like a big boy (until he was naughty and daddy had to take him outside).

Then, we walked, and walked and walked some more, thinking we could get ourselves to the ocean.  We finally ditched that idea, jumped in the car and hit the first beach of the day. Jackson had a blast running in the water and on the beach.  This was his first time on a beach since Aruba in February, so we were happy to see he was a bit less afraid.

We then walked up to the Cliff walk which overlooks the beach we were just at and contains multi-million dollar homes, including the Vanderbilt's Breakers.  When you are on the walk it is impossible to see the houses, so we took a drive through and they are all amazing! 

From Newport, we headed south along the shore to Westerly, a more family-friendly beach town.  All we had was a beach towel and our suits, but it was enough for an hour's worth of fun in the sun before we packed up and headed back to Providence.

More pictures from the weekend here!

Poop & boogers

I hope a funny story can make up for my lack of posting lately. Here goes:

Daddy went to pick Jackson up from school yesterday and was holding Jackson while listening to the teacher tell him how Jackson dug in the back of his diaper that morning, pulled out a turd and showed it to all his classmates.  Jackson, deciding that that wasn't enough of a story, then reached into his nose and picked a fake booger and tried to feed it to Daddy.  Such a boy!

Stay tuned.....pictures will be up this weekend!