Shootin' Dice

Kyle hosted a poker night at our house on Saturday evening. When he was getting everything set up, he took out the dice and started shooting them on the floor. He taught Peyton how to roll them too. I went to get the camera to take some pictures and when I got back, I saw that the stakes had gotten pretty high... There was $60 on the ground! Of course, Kyle was just playing around, but it was pretty funny anyway.

You can see the dice in Peyton's hand here.

And here the dice are in mid-throw.

I told Peyton that he is allowed to shoot dice now, but that he has to wait until he is 3 years old to play poker. Hehe.

Terps Game

I got my dad tickets to the Terps versus North Carolina State basketball game for Christmas. I told him that he could take anyone he wanted with the second ticket, but he chose me! Yay! The game was on Saturday. For the occasion, Peyton dressed in his Terps gear too. Aren't we cute?!

Kyle was hosting a poker night at our house the same evening, so Peyton spent the night with my mom. I took him up to my parents' house around 4:00. Then my dad and I headed down to College Park. The drive was good until the ramp from I-95 onto Route 1, where we sat for a good 40 minutes. That ramp is always backed up on football game days, but we didn't think it would be so bad for a basketball game. I guess we were wrong. When we finally arrived on campus, we found the free parking lot and parked. Then we had to wait for a shuttle bus to drive us over to the Comcast Center, as it would have been a really long walk. The bus was packed, so we had to stand. I tried to play the pregnant card so that someone would give me their seat, but it didn't really work.

We got over to the Comcast Center around 5:30, 30 minutes before the game was scheduled to start. We found our seats and then went to grab some dinner. We had hot dogs on water soaked buns. Gross. Anyway, here's my dad and I before the game.

I felt sort of old being at the game. I've been out of school for 4 years already, but nothing that the students do has changed. We got back to our seats just in time for the starting line-up introductions. All of the students bring in newspaper and wave them around while the other team is being introduced. After each player's and coach's name, the students yell "SUCKS!"

Next, the lights go down, the cheerleaders shake their pom-poms, and Testudo dances around. Then the Maryland players are introduced. Saturday's starting lineup was Landon Milbourne, Jordan Williams, Eric Hayes, Sean Mosley, and Greivis Vasquez.

After introductions, the players formed this intense huddle. It was Gary Williams' 1000th game as head coach at Maryland.

After the Maryland players are introduced, the students sing that, "Dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-Hey!" song. (You'd know it if you heard it...) The students add some words though to make it their own -- "Dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-Hey-YOU SUCK!!" The band has not been allowed to play that song at sporting events since 2003 because of the way the students, ahem, deface the song. But that doesn't stop them from singing it anyway! At the football games, they sing it after every touchdown.

Here is the view from our seats. They weren't too bad, but I'll have to admit that the student section seats are much, much better. Duh.

The teams got ready for the opening tip-off. The Terps are in yellow and NC State is in red. I am not a fan of the yellow uniforms, although the Terps usually play well when they wear them.

The game was great. The Terps played really well. They ended up winning by 24 points, 88-64! I was sort of nervous that they might lose because earlier in the week, NC State beat Duke. Duke is #7 and NC State was picked to be last in the ACC, so that was a pretty big upset. But they were no match for the Terps!

After the game we had to wait for the shuttle bus to take us back to the parking lot. We waited for what seemed like forever before the bus pulled up. It was also pretty chilly that night. We were pretty far back in line, but I insisted to my dad that we WOULD get on the first bus to arrive. And we just barely did; only two people got on after us before it was full. We had to stand again. Doesn't anyone have any respect for pregnant girls these days? Haha.

I had a really good time at the game. Thanks for taking me, dad!

Caps/Redwings Game

I got Kyle tickets to the Capitals versus Redwings hockey game for Christmas. The game was last night. My mom picked Peyton up from daycare so that we could get to the game on time. We left our house around 4:45. We drove down to the Metro station in Greenbelt and took the train down into Washington DC. There is a stop right at the Verizon Center, where the Caps play, so it is much more convenient to ride the Metro than to drive. Here we are on the train.

We got into DC around 5:45, so we had a little over an hour before the game started. We walked a block or so to find some dinner. We decided to eat at California Tortilla. It was delicious. It was crazy packed in there though, so we were crammed at a table with strangers. Everyone had the same idea to eat there as us, I guess.

After dinner, we headed back over to the Verizon Center. Here were are in our seats before the game.

Here's a picture of center ice.

Our seats were right on the red line. We were all the way up top, about 5 rows down from the very last row. I thought the seats were really good though because we had a good view of the whole ice.

Here's the Redwings' starting lineup.

This is Slapshot, the Caps mascot.

Here are the Redwings as soon as they entered the ice.

Here is the first face-off of the game.

The score was 0-0 after the first period. The Redwings had about 20 shots in the first period, but the Caps didn't even get their first shot off until 15 minutes into the game. The Redwings scored first in the second period, but the Caps answered with a goal of their own, so the score was 1-1 after the second period. The Redwings scored first in the third period too. The Caps scored a goal a few minutes later to even the score at 2-2. Less than 1 minute later, the Caps scored again, to make it 3-2, which would end up being the final score. The Redwings took so many more shots than the Caps, but Jose Theodore (the Caps' goalie) was on fire. He was named their Star of the Game.

It was crazy loud in there after the Caps tied the score at 2 and then even louder when they took the lead. The atmosphere was very exciting to me since I didn't really care who won. Kyle, however, was sad that the Wings lost.

We got home around 11:00. It was a fun night, even if I was tired this morning.

Winter Gala

Last Friday Peyton's daycare had a "Winter Gala." It was a little show with each of the classes performing a song. The program opened with all of the classes helping the toddler class sing their song, which was "Jingle Bells." Here's a picture of that number.

Peyton did a really good job singing. We taught him Jingle Bells before Christmas anyway, so he already knew it before they started learning it at daycare. He also did a great job jingling his bells. Even after the song was over, Peyton kept on jingling!

Peyton's class, the 2's, was next. They sang "5 Little Snowmen." It was to the tune of "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." It went like this...

Five little snowmen riding on a sled
One fell off and bumped his head
Frosty called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more snowmen riding on a sled" ....

Here are two pictures of his class. Some of his friends did not show up for the show. The little boy in the yellow is Levi. He is Peyton's BFF. They get so excited when they see each other in the morning when I drop Peyton off. They usually run to each other and hug. It's cute. Anyway, Peyton's class did a good job, but Peyton definitely stole the show. He sang the loudest and did all of the hand motions. He even danced at the end of the song. Some of the other kids just stood there frozen. And one screamed and cried the whole time. When the song was over, Peyton clapped like crazy. I guess he thought he did a great job too!

The 3's and 4's classes each sang a song next. Finally, the older kids did a play about Frosty the Snowman. The whole program only lasted about 20, but it was cute.

I took video of the program on the video camera, but I can't upload it to the computer. I thought our camera had that capability, but it actually doesn't. Bummer. I wish everyone could see how cute Peyton was. He is seriously the cutest kid in the whole daycare center. (But I'm not biased or anything...)

Paging Dr. Peyton

Santa brought Peyton a doctor's kit for Christmas, and boy, does he love it! I just wanted to include some pictures of him playing with it, because he's so cute!

Most times, Peyton is the doctor and mommy or daddy is the patient. Peyton will get his kit and then tell you, "Lay down!" This time, Kyle got to be examined.

Peyton checks Kyle's heartbeat

And his reflexes
And decides that Kyle isn't healthy, so he needs a shot

Mom's birthday

Monday was Mom's birthday, so we headed up to my parents' house to celebrate. I stopped on the way between work and daycare and bought a "50" balloon for my mom. When Peyton got in the car, he said, "Oooh! I love it balloon!" (Sidenote: He always puts "it" in sentences like that, for example - "I love it cookies.") He wanted to hold the balloon and play with the balloon. I had to explain to him so many times that it was for Grandmom's birthday. When we got to her house, Peyton wanted to carry the balloon inside to give it to her so that he could play with it. Finally he (sort of) gave Grandmom the balloon and although it took lots of tries, I got this picture.

The birthday cake was sitting out on the table when we arrived. Peyton was really excited about the cake. He is the one that organized everyone into the dining room so that we could sing happy birthday. From this picture, you'd think it was Peyton's birthday - he was so excited!

Peyton loves to sing 'Happy Birthday' and Grandmom even let him help her blow out the candles, so he was in heaven.

Next, my mom opened her gifts. We got her a super cool blinking 50 pin (which you can see in the bottom picture) and a gift card. Jeremy also got her a gift card (and a greeting card too, which he never, ever buys!). Dad got her the little boy charm with Peyton's birthstone to add to her bracelet with mine and Jeremy's charms. (In July, she'll need another charm!!)

We enjoyed some cake and ice cream, and then headed home to put Peyton to bed.

Happy birthday, Mom!

One More Christmas

On Saturday, we got together with Dave, Kate, and Noah to have Christmas with them. Peyton was excited to see Noah, as usual. The boys even wore semi-matching clothes, haha.

We hooked Noah up with two outfits and the Songs and Smiles Sillytown (or something like that!) He was most fascinated with the wrapping paper.

The Borowski's gave Peyton some GeoTrax with a remote control train. Peyton loves it because there are extra tracks to make his set bigger, and the remote control train means that he doesn't have to crawl around pushing the train by hand.

After the gift opening, we had pizza for dinner. I love it when cooked food just arrives at my door piping hot and ready to eat. We played with the boys and chatted for a while after dinner. Then, Noah had to leave so that he could get home and to bed.

This was our last celebration of Christmas for this year. We had a really nice holiday overall and Peyton got a lot of stuff!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I just wanted to wish my Mom a very happy 50th birthday! We ♥ you!

Fire Trucks!

My cousin Bo is a Baltimore City firefighter. On Friday we took Peyton to his firehouse to check out the firetrucks. Peyton loves when we see a firetruck or an ambulance when we're out driving, so we thought he would love to see them up close. And boy, were we right. As soon as we got to the firehouse and walked inside, Peyton yelled "Firetrucks!" and took off running toward them.

First, Bo let him "drive" the firetruck. Look how excited he is.

Then Bo showed Peyton how to turn on the lights and sirens and how to honk the horn. Peyton liked to honk the horn, but it would scare him so much each time he did it. It was so funny to watch him literally jump out of the seat each time the horn would blare, even though he was the one controlling it.

Peyton learned how the firemen handle the hose. Even though there was no water, Peyton still said that it was heavy.

Bo let Peyton put on his helmet. It was so heavy that Bo had to hold it so that Peyton wouldn't fall over.

Next, Bo showed Peyton the axe. Peyton had no idea what it was, so he wasn't too impressed. I think it is funny that the axe is bigger than Peyton!

We checked out the ladder truck next. Peyton and my little cousin Dougie took a turn driving the back portion of the truck. I learned that the person who steers the back of the truck is called the tillerman.

There was another fire engine in the house that day. Peyton had fun in this truck just turning on the lights because he could see them reflecting on the other truck which was parked in front of this one. He was able to turn them on all by himself once Bo showed him where the button was.

Bo put all of his gear on for Peyton. He said that with the oxygen tanks included, all of the gear weighs 55 pounds. That's about two Peyton's! Those guys and girls have to be in really good shape. Peyton wasn't afraid of Bo in his gear even when he was wearing the mask.

Peyton took a turn wearing the mask too.

Then Bo let Peyton step into his boots and pants. The boots were almost as tall as Peyton. Once he was in the boots, he couldn't stand up too well and kept falling over to one side. He looked like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz before he was all oiled up. Too funny!

Dougie took a turn wearing the mask too.

Just as we were getting ready to leave the firehouse, they got a call. It was so exciting (for me, at least!) to see the firefighters rush out and get into their gear and drive away. I must say that they had a really quick response time.

Peyton loved checking out the firetrucks. Thanks Bo!!

New Year's Eve

For New Year's Eve, Jeremy and Jill came over to hang out. It was a low key party. While Peyton was still awake, we just played with him. He was so wound up, so right before bedtime, we watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to settle him down a little so that would go to sleep.

Peyton was ready to ring in the New Year.

After we put Peyton to bed, we played some board games, including Guesstures, Scruples, and Scattergories. Jeremy and Kyle each won a game of Scruples. Kyle and I each won a game of Scattergories. We watched some Dick Clark and counted down to the New Year. I actually made it all the way to 12:30 this year. Jeremy and Jill stayed up even later. We really are party animals. Some pictures:

And, happy 2nd anniversary to Jeremy and Jill!