Sophie's Big Girl Bed

We have been waiting for just the right time to move Sophie to a bigger bed. Adeline has been sleeping in the pack-n-play since birth, and that hardly seems fair now that she is nearing 5 months old. But with the move and all, we wanted Sophie to get used to her new room and get used to sharing her room with Addie (she was in with us in Kansas). We've been settled for about a month now, and the room sharing is going as well as can be expected, so this weekend, we finally decided to switch things around.

I debated and debated on what type of bed to buy for Sophie. Down the line, I would like for her and Addie to have matching beds, but that is still 2 years away. Also, I didn't think the girls room would be big enough for all of their furniture, plus a twin bed right now. So, we settled on a darling juvenile bed from IKEA. It will expand into a twin size, but right now we have it on the smallest position, so it is a little longer than a crib mattress (but much wider). Lets face it-our kids aren't setting any records in the height department, so it will work just great for Sophie. Ben tested it out, and he fits too!

We bought the bed last Friday, but didn't assemble it until Sunday night. We talked about it all weekend, and Sophie was very excited. By the time Sunday night rolled around, she could hardly contain her excitement for her new bed.

Nick promised that Ben could help him assemble the bed. Benny proved to be a great help! Nick didn't bargain on Sophie, Smokey and I helping too, but he still managed to get it together.




Taking a little break while Daddy finishes with the bed frame.





Yeah! Sophie is so excited for her new bed!

We immediately moved Sophie's favorite blankets, elephant and Daddy doll to her new bed. Once she had her things, she had no problem 'giving' Adeline her crib. However, she really wanted to 'share' her new bed.

The girls were so cute in Sophie's new bed together!

We were worried whether Sophie would stay in her new bed once we put her down last night. But to our surprise, things went very smoothly. She is now near the end of her first successful nap in her new bed too! Once we are sure she is settled, we will fix the crib up for Addie. Addie did sleep in it last night, but it still needs to have the bumper put back in. I also have cute wallpaper letters to hang over Addie's side of the room now.

I hope we have continued success!

Weekend Fun

We are taking advantage of our free weekends, and are trying to see the sites. Two weekends ago we took the Metro into D.C. and went to the National Zoo. I am not sure what was more fun for the kids-riding the train, or seeing the animals. I'll have to admit that our trip was a bit of an endurance test. The train and zoo were both very crowded, and it was a hot, humid day. Aside from that, we managed to have a great time!

Ben was really excited about seeing the Giant Pandas. He had not seen a panda before and was fascinated by the exhibit. He showed a lot of interest in learning about their vanishing habitat. It never ceases to amaze me his comprehension of things. He is still asking me questions about it a week and a half later.

Ben and a Giant Panda

Sophie had fun with some new found freedom. She spent most of the day out of her stroller. She's never had to ride in it much, and isn't very fond. Nick and I are struggling trying to find the best way to transport three kids on our adventures. We have a double stroller, but Sophie faces backwards and can't see anything. So on this trip, we took two small strollers. One for Addie, and an umbrella stroller for Sophie. Only problem was that Sophie didn't want to ride. That left us in a bit of a quandary because now we had two kids loose, two strollers to push, and only two adults to contain the chaos. Sometimes I put Addie in a baby carrier, but lately it's been just too hot, and our excursions are way to long to keep her in it all day. Any mommy suggestions???






Eventually, we found a system that worked for us to travel around the zoo and managed to see most of the animals. Ben's favorites were the reptiles and amphibians. He loved looking at the snakes. I had to practically pull him away from them! Ugh! I don't know where he gets it from. I would rather not visit the reptiles! Sophie loved the elephants and tigers and did not like the gorillas at all! She watched them intently until a silverback male came in and showed some aggression towards another gorilla in the pen. It's too bad she wanted to leave because there was a rather new baby that was adorable!



In between weekend trips, we finished up a round of swimming lessons. Both kids did wonderful and progressed so much. Ben moved on to the next level and started more lessons today. Sophie is very adventurous in the water, but just isn't tall enough or coordinated enough to do much more that Level 1 right now. She did start another round of lessons though to keep her confidence in the water high. After their last lesson Thursday, the had a little party to celebrate. The teachers handed out certificates and had doughnuts for the kids. Sophie thoroughly enjoyed her first Krispy Kreme doughnut and of course, Ben didn't try one. He doesn't know what he is missing!






Then on Thursday evening, we had our first visitors! My parents drove down from Michigan for the weekend. It's great to be only 10 hours from home. It is totally drivable in one day. It's been awhile since we have been this close. The kids were super excited to see Grandma and Big Pa, ever though it had only been a few weeks since they last saw them. They anxiously paced the front windows waiting for them to pull in. After all, we had a fun weekend ahead.




Friday we ventured out early to give Nick the day to finish a big paper that was due by Saturday morning. I wasn't up for driving into D.C. without Nick, so we decided to stay close to home. We ventured up to Mount Vernon, home of George Washington. Venture wouldn't be the best word, it's really just 4 miles up the road. My parents and I had visited Mount Vernon when I was a child, but that was so long ago, I didn't remember much about it. It's located on a very beautiful property on the Potomac River. The grounds and gardens are fun to walk through. Ben and Sophie had more fun than I thought they would touring the mansion. As usual, questions abounded from Ben. We looked at most of the out buildings, peeked in a few gardens and then decided to get lunch. It was a nice day, but just too hot for Addie in the baby carrier.

On the front porch of Mount Vernon

Running through the gardens

Saturday we drove into D.C. to tour the National Museum of Natural History (aka 'The Dinosaur Museum'). We thought that Benny's favorite exhibit would be the fossils, but instead he loved the Ocean Hall and the Insect Zoo. Sophie loved the insects too, but most of the displays were 'Yucky' in her words. Because of some parking difficulties, we ended up taking the Metro part way home which made both kids happy and all adults hot, frustrated and worn out. We had a great visit, but will have to go back to see everything. Good thing we have three years!

Admiring a mastadon fossil

Studying the insect display

Facinated by a horn worm

Sunday we went to church and spent the rest of the day relaxing indoors due to very stormy weather and very tired adults!

Grandma and Big Pa had to head home Monday morning, but not before they went to swimming lessons! They couldn't resist staying to watch the kids in the pool. The kids were so proud to show off their new swimming skills. We miss you already Grandma and Big Pa!

A Skirmish

Last weekend we took advantage of the beautiful Virginia weather and headed to Fort Ward for a Civil War re-enactment. We were looking for a Saturday activity that wouldn't take all day and completely wear us out. Fort Ward is just up the road from us, and Ben loves anything to do with the military so it seemed like a good choice for us.

Fort Ward isn't a very big fort. It was used during the Civil War to protect the Capitol from the South. We were able to walk around and view the various activities going on. The kids watched a cannon firing demonstration, although they never actually fired the cannon. Bummer.

Later we watched a drill by the 5th New York infantry Zouave. Benny loved their red uniforms.

Benny had the opportunity to practice his rifle carrying skills. He loved the one on one attention he received from the re-enactor.

Finally, we watched the 3rd U.S. Infantry perform a skirmish firing drill. This was the highlight of the day! The soldier's used blanks, so they actually fired their weapons. Every time a rifle fired Sophie would exclaim "POW!".

We couldn't leave without a little souvenir, and since Benny loves to dress up and roll play, a Civil War era hat seemed the perfect fit! Although, we aren't sure why he chose one from the South! To his credit, he did chose a Cavalry hat.

More fun to come!

A Recap in Photos

I'm feeling a little crunched for time these days.....There is so much to do while our busy, busy two year old is napping. So, I decided to recap our last few weeks in photos!

Nick and Sophie at a Junction City General's Game

A little sibling rivalry-Ben and Sophie fighting over who will hold Addie for this 4th of July photo.

Happier Moments....

4th of July-Ben made these Indian hats for everyone at the BBQ-11 people. He was very excited to find goose feathers down by the river and decided that everyone needed a hat for the 4th of July. Oma happily obliged and spelled out everyone's name for him to write, so we could each have our own personalized hat! Even Addie had her own hat!


Sophie playing baseball with Uncle Matt

Ben at the Air and Space Museum by the Wright's first plane.

Sophie had to have her picture taken too!

Nick and Addie in front of The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Nick enjoying a Father's Day beer at the Fish Market in Old Towne Alexandria

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery

The girls new pretty yellow room

Ben's new room-he's over being mad that he doesn't have the same curtains from his room in Kansas!

And finally, our new house!

Nick is enjoying his grad school classes that he started this past week. He has night classes Monday thru Thursday, but Wednesday's class meets online, so he doesn't have to travel all the way to Capitol Hill for school. He is home all day with us, and will be until New Years. After that, he will have both grad classes, and will work during the day on the Hill. We are enjoying our time together very, very much. Our biggest challenge has been trying to make and eat dinner by 4:30 each day before he leaves for school. I'm sure we will figure it out. He gets up really early to do his reading and schoolwork before the kids wake up.

We are still working on unpacking, but are getting closer to being done every day. The basement still needs a lot of attention, but we will get to it soon.

We have enjoyed seeing old friends from previous duty stations. We have had a few dinners with the Childress Family (from Anna Log-under our friend's blogs), who were stationed with us in Germany. They have a daughter Anna, who is a year older than Sophie, and a son, Joshua who is three days older than Addie. Anna is such a sweet girl, and we look forward to many play dates and more fun times.

We have also met up for lunch with the Garcia family, also from Germany. Kenny was a platoon sergeant in Nick's troop, and his wife Sandy is a lovey German woman. They have two girls, Kira and Kelly, who are one year older, and one year younger than Ben. Ben had a great time with them this week at Uno's Pizza. We also look forward to spending more time with them.

Further afield is my friend Angie, who was stationed with us at Fort Riley. Currently he husband, Theron is on a short deployment to Afghanistan and should be home by the end of the summer. Nick looks forward to catching up with him. Angie came down from Maryland on moving day to help me unpack. Thanks Angie!

We have only had one major outing with the kids. We took them to the National Air and Space Museum, and they had a blast! There was so much to see and do, I think we will have to make several trips before we see it all. Thank goodness, the admission to the Smithsonian museums is free! We took the metro into the city, and that in itself was a huge treat for the kids. We had a great time, but the trip made us all very, very tired. It's two days later, and I think we are still recovering. We can't wait for more adventures.....

While we waited

Lots has happened since my last post. We did get the townhouse in Kingstowne, which is an area of Alexandria, Virginia. It is a really nice community and we will have access to unlimited playgrounds or tot lots as they are called here, pools, fitness centers and jogging trails. Originally we had ruled out a townhouse because we thought they were too small, but they are surprisingly spacious on the inside. We will be losing some square footage from our house in Kansas, but I think we will be just fine. We may need to downsize a bit, but we probably needed to do that anyhow.

Tomorrow the movers will be here to deliver our stuff from Kansas. I am excited, but dreading the work ahead of me. Nick has to work all day, but thankfully my friend Angie from Kansas will be here helping me for awhile. She lives up in Maryland now, and is in town visiting another friend and offered to stop in and help. I jumped at the chance because moving can be a bit hectic. Every box has to be accounted for on the inventory, and you have to tell the movers where to put everything. It will be fabulous to have help!

Nick and I have been keeping really busy while we have been waiting for our things. Most recently we have been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. The previous tenants apparently cooked with a lot of oil, because the kitchen was very gross and sticky. It took us hours and hours to clean it up, but it was by far the worst room in the house. The carpets had been cleaned before we moved in so we were thankful for that. It took me awhile to dust this place because it has lots of pretty decorative woodwork. It only took a few days to get it up to our standard of clean, and then we were able to enjoy our weekend.

Over the past two weeks, Nick and I have been trying to do things here in the DC area that would be harder to do with small children. We figured while the kids are with our parents would be the best time, because who knows how long it will take to find a good babysitter. We have visited downtown DC a few times. Our first trip was an adventurous one. Our car got towed!!!! You would think that as seasoned travelers, we would have know better to read the signs fully. We thought parking was free after 4pm. So we paid the meter up until 4. Apparently, after 4pm you get towed! There is so much traffic here that they open up some of the parking areas into traffic lanes during rush hour. It wasn't too difficult to retrieve our car. We also received a $100 dollar ticket. So we figured we paid about $33 dollars an hour to park in a prime location! We have learned our lesson-always read the parking signs completely!

One Saturday Nick and I visited Arlington National Cemetery. He had been there recently with his boss to see the Iraq/Afghanistan area to pay their respects to their fallen comrades from the 1st Infantry Division. But he didn't get to see much else on his trip. We visited the grave sites of the Kennedy's and also visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The cemetery is definitely overwhelming.

The next Sunday we visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was a very sobering experience. There isn't much to write except it is just very troubling how cruel humans can be to one another.

On a lighter note, we went in to Old Town Alexandria several times. There are lots of cute shops, restaurants and bars in this area of town. It is right along the river, and there is a festive air about the place. On Father's Day we enjoyed a nice meal at the Fish Market. Another night we had Thai food, something we couldn't do with Ben in tow (Sophie would probably love it!). We've also been for Indian food, one of my favorites. We hadn't had Indian food since Germany, and it did not disappoint. (We just couldn't seem to find an Indian restaurant in Kansas). Last night we decided to celebrate our anniversary a little early, and we dined at the Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant. It has been a place we have always wanted to go, but never had the chance. It was a bit pricey, but it was very, very delicious. Dessert was our favorite, and I probably would have licked my plate clean had I not been holding Addie.

This morning, we attended Mass in downtown DC at the National Basilica of the Shine to the Immaculate Conception. It was a beautiful cathedral and a beautiful service. We will definetly take our kids back, and visitors too!

We miss our kids terribly, and cannot wait until we see them on Friday. Life has just not been the same without them. I have never been away from either Ben or Sophie for more than one night. We are so thankful to our parents for taking such good care of them while we have been gone. We really couldn't have been able to house hunt and get set up with three kids in tow! We call them frequently, but they are usually too busy to talk to us. They have been having so much fun of their own. They have been swimming, to baseball games, to the zoo, to breakfast on the farm where they got to give a bottle to baby calfs. This weekend they went camping out at Nick's Aunt Amy and Uncle Kevin's house. I am glad that they are so well adjusted. I think Sophie has been giving everyone a run for their money though. She is currently infatuated with sticking things up her nose! Cheerios, corn, an onion and a piece of a hamburger to name a few. Don't worry, Grandma and Oma, we are on our way soon!

I hope to post some pictures of our new place soon! I will probably add some pictures to this post soon also, Blogger is giving me a bit of trouble right now.....

Waiting.....

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update. Nick, Addie and I are still staying at Fort Belvoir temporary housing while we find a place to live. Actually, we have found a place, but it is taking forever to get the lease drawn up and to get the final stamp of approval from the owner of the townhouse we will be renting. Hopefully it will go through today or tomorrow, otherwise we may have to start the whole search over again. Needless to say, we are frustrated. I think it was easier and faster to buy our house in Kansas, that it has been to lease a place in the DC area.



Last Wednesday we started looking on our own at houses that we had found on the Internet. We were sure that we were going to find a nice house with a nice yard with an easy commute for Nick. Ha ha! How wrong we were! The first house was very nicely done, had a great Turkish owner (who talked to us forever) and was in a great location. But, it was tiny, tiny. We kept wishing it would have just one more room because there was no way we could cram ourselves into it. We left that house hopeful of finding something similar but bigger. No luck. In fact, all that we could find were 'Moldy oldies' (just as you advised Marie). I actually cried after we went into the last house. It was so awful inside, I don't think I would have let my dog stay there! That night we called our friends Marie and John, who we knew in Germany, and are now living here. Marie had lots of great advice, which helped us a lot on Thursday. On Thursday we switched gears and started looking at townhouses. There are everywhere here, are usually well maintained and close to the commuter lines, and are surprisingly spacious on the inside. We had originally ruled out a townhouse because of the size of the yards, but after Wednesday's tours of the moldy oldies, we decided a newer townhouse was the way to go. There was actually a great unit for rent just across the street from Marie, but by the time we called on it, it had already been leased. We were disappointed, but continued our search with the help of a realtor this time. To shorten things up, we looked at 5 units, and the one we chose was a clear winner. This unit has three bedrooms all on the same floor (sometimes a rarity in townhouses), three and a half baths, a finished walkout basement, a separate dining room, family room, eat in kitchen and a garage. It even has a small fenced backyard for Smokey. It is not as newly updated as Marie and John's place, but it really is a nice space and should suit us well. Now, if only the realtor will call us with some good news.

We'll keep you all updated as we have more news to share. With any luck we will have a roof over our heads soon and have our things from Kansas delivered before we go get the kids in Michigan next week!

We're not in Kansas anymore......

That's right, the Cook Family is on the move! Things have been a little busy lately, and we haven't been able to post. The movers came last Monday and Tuesday, and miraculously packed and loaded our house in just two days. We spent the remainder of the week sleeping at a hotel and working on the house during the day. We were sad to say goodbye to 517 Tallgrass, but bigger and better things await us.

We are currently in Illinois, and will be to Michigan this afternoon. We've split our trip into two travel days since we have three kids now and our 100 pound dog! 14 hours is just out of reach for a one day trip. As usual, Sophie is not happy to be trapped in her car seat for hours on end. Benny is doing a great job entertaining himself in the far back with movies and coloring books. Little Addie slept the entire trip yesterday which made us very happy! And finally, Smokey is great but nervous, especially since he was boarded at the vet all week and has no idea what is going on. We're hoping today's trip goes smoothly......

Our plan is to spend a few days with our parents, and then Nick, Addie and I will head to the DC area to search for a house to rent. Hopefully we will find one quickly, get our things delivered and be back to Michigan by the 4th of July to retrieve our children and visit with family and friends. Our plans are all up in the air until we know more about Nick's schedule. He starts orientation for his fellowship on the 22nd and starts grad school at George Washington on the 7th of July.

We can't wait to see some of you in the next few weeks!