More Playing in the Sand

When I came home from work today, I encountered the cutest thing on my deck.




Raleigh just may end up having feet like his daddy.

Help Raleigh Get the Best Education!

No matter political party affiliations, I think that most people would agree that our education system needs to be overhauled. I think that for one of the most developed countries in our world, our country is falling behind in education.

"Children our our future"...I'm not sure who came up with that slogan, but it is the perfect slogan. No one can argue with that. Repeat it a few times and really think about it.

If you are an older person reading this blog, I hope that you are one who looks not just to your future but also to the future of humanity. I think that one of the hardest things that someone can do is to be empathetic instead of sympathetic, think of the whole instead of the small picture, think of the greater good.

Education should be a high priority for all of us, and it should be a high priority for all of our political candidates in the 2008 election. Let's all try to voice our opinion about education. Hopefully, all of our political parties will embrace the need to enhance our education system so that whoever is elected, good things will happen to education in the U.S.

Read the following article about how a few billionaires are trying to get the word out on Education.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/education/25schools.html?_r=1&oref=slogin


"Eli Broad and Bill Gates, two of the most important philanthropists in American public education...are joining forces for a $60 million foray into politics in an effort to vault education high onto the agenda of the 2008 presidential race."

"Experts on campaign spending said the project would rank as one of the most expensive single-issue initiatives ever in a presidential race..."

Here is one of their printed ads:

Here is a link to this ad online:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/20070425_eductionAD.pdf

Let's try to be a part of the solution and make education a non-partisan issue.

Already a Writer

As I was sitting at the computer with Raleigh tonight. He started banging on the keyboard. So, naturally...I opened up Microsoft Word.

And now I share with you his first typed letters.

Jhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhkkkgt n ngm \
M, gbumn h ; , nj:? 0

As you can see, he's very intelligent. Already, he's learned how to spell "bum". I would suggest that he work on his puncuation though :)

A Visit to the In-Laws

We had a wonderful visit with my in-laws last weekend. Jenna stayed home to watch Winnie. So once again, we were able to have a calm Winnie-free weekend.

She's gotten to be quite a whiny pup lately. She'll bark incessantly just to get attention some times.

Here are some pictures from the weekend. Raleigh sure had fun with Relatives :)

Raleigh is 20 weeks old today!!!

Enjoy these new video clips.



What?...a video and pictures in the same blog...I know...I'm spoiling you all. The pictures below are mostly of Raleigh's first sand box experience.

Now Who's the Sickie?

Raleigh seems to be getting better, but I have taken ill. Oh, doesn't that sound horrid? I probably just have my normal change-in-the-seasons cold. I'll get over it. Josh is already dreading when he's going to get it.

Here's Raleigh in a cute shorts outfit and handmade knitted booties that my mother-in-law made him.


Here's Raleigh after Bath time getting some tummy time.


Raleigh holding a bottle for his dad while mom was at work.

His First Cold

I believe that Raleigh has his first cold. He's stuffed up and has been coughing every now and then. It's hard to keep his nose clean because the snot dries quicker than we can wipe it off. Sorry if you were reading this blog while eating.

Even so, Raleigh is still a very happy baby; He must not realize he has a cold.





Josh is making his Mom's oatmeal bread today, and I guess I am going to attempt homemade chicken noodle soup. Hopefully they both turn out edible.

When Josh started the bread, he realized that the yeast that we had in our cupboard expired in 2003...oops...so I went to the grocery store to get some more. While I was there, I noticed a mom and her four kids. She had 2 boys and 2 girls, the oldest boy was pushing the shopping cart with the oldest girl in it, and the other boy was pushing a stroller with the youngest girl in it.

The mom looked about my age, but she didn't look happy...she snapped at the boys, who looked like they were being a wonderful help to her...and the kids look unkept and they weren't smiling either. I can imagine that it would be difficult having four children so close in age and I am not trying to judge the woman.

The reason I am even writing about her and her four kids is because it reminded me of my childhood except the opposite. My brothers and I were always smiling and so were our parents. Trips to the grocery store were fun...and if they were hectic for our mom, she did a good job of hiding it. I guess I am trying to say that I'm very grateful that my mother was able to handle four kids and make it fun for us to grow up.

Thanks Mom!

Happy Easter to you!

I'm tired...but that's because I had loads of fun this weekend at my parents. We drove to their house on Friday with a packed Ford Escort ZX2. I find it truly amazing how much we bring along when we travel with an infant.

The ride there was easy. Raleigh slept the whole 3 1/2 hours. The ride back almost took us twice as long because we stopped to eat, stopped to feed Raleigh, and changed two messy diapers.

In between those two drives, we enjoyed the company of family, died some eggs and savored Dad's cooking. Not only did he cook us breakfast on Saturday and Sunday, but he made a turkey and a delicious Ham for Easter dinner. He might have been watching the food network a bit lately; his Ham had apples all around it and I think I saw orange slices inside the turkey.

I also was able to see my newest nephew again. He's already 2 months old. The last time I saw him, he was a day old.

Here's a picture of Sam sleeping in his car seat. Cute little guy isn't he?



And here's a picture of Raleigh, Josh, and me all dressed in our Easter clothes. Raleigh is doing Superman on Josh's knee.



All the died Easter eggs back in their carton. Sometimes, I imagine them coming from the chicken that way and then thinking about the type of chicken that could lay eggs like that. I imagine it would be a chicken with brightly colored neon feathers and piercings in its nonexistent ears.



Raleigh sat on his Grandma's lap while everyone died their eggs. When he figured out that the wax paper could make noise, he just wouldn't stop grabbing at it.



Grandpa seemed to be the only one to get the boys to be alert and not crying at the same time for pictures.

April showers bring May flowers...

...but what happens if April brings snow? That's what I was asking myself this morning as I looked out my window at 6:30 am to view the near-blizzard like conditions.

Just two days ago, this is what it looked like out my window at 9 pm

Just tonight, I took this picture at 9 pm

...And of course, some more pictures of Raleigh

Crying in Progress

Content

Eyes Starting to Water

Completely crying