Speckled Frogs

We were given this bouncer when Mark was born. For the first three or four months it's only purpose was to allow me to take a shower without Bryce at home. Recently Mark has learned how to grasp things so we reattached the toy bar to the bouncer. His favorite game is to pull the frog which plays a spiced-up version of the "Speckled Frogs" children's song. He'll do this at least 5-10 times in a row in less than three minutes.

The toy is more touchy than you'd think. If he continues to hold it, the song won't play again so he either has to let go and then grab it again or let up on it a little and then pull it down. He caught on quickly.

We also started feeding Mark solids this week. He's just doing rice cereal right now, but seems to like it okay. Our pediatrician wants to see us before we give him other foods so he'll start on those at the end of August.

Days of Summer

We've been enjoying a slight blogging hiatus these past six weeks. Really, it's just that we haven't been up to very much. Bryce is just about finished with his two MPH classes for the summer, I've been working 15-20 hours a week from home, and we've both been taking care of our little guy. Here are a few highlights of our summer.

For Father's Day, we went down to North Carolina. We had a lot of fun just hanging out. We appreciated our babysitter (Grandma) that allowed us to go to the temple. I finally got a haircut after eight months, Mark went swimming for the first time, and we played a lot of Rock Band 2 courtesy of Kim and Jason.

Mark didn't really like the pool. Despite it being nearly 100 degrees, the water was cold due to rains earlier in the week. We all got used to the temperature, but Mark wasn't willing to wait and adjust (go figure). Hopefully he does better next time.

The 4th was pretty quiet. Mark was having a rough week so after an early BBQ with the Blooms and Judds, we decided to skip fireworks in favor of Mark going to bed at 7:30 and having some peace and quiet together. That next week he was having a little bit of a fussy streak and not sleeping at night like he usually does. Then, on Thursday, we figured out the problem: he had his two bottom teeth! We weren't really expecting them to come in so early, but he handled it pretty well. It does explain why he has been trying to chew/suck on everything in sight. We expect his top two will appear within the week. Now we've just got to start him on rice cereal so he can get ready to use those bad boys.

This past weekend we headed up to New York to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. We headed up on Thursday night with the Judds and Hardings to Elmira, NY. The next morning, we drove to Niagara Falls. While Tara and Andrew went over to Canada to see the falls from that view, the Hardings and we went on the Maid of the Mist. It's a short boat ride that takes you right up to the falls. In addition to the mist that comes off the falls, we got caught in a huge downpour. It was a blast. Mark was a bit confused at why he had a big plastic poncho on, but when we got to the falls, he couldn't take his eyes off them.

On Saturday, we hit the Church history sites. We stopped in at the Peter Whitmer Farm (where the Church was organized), the E.B. Grandin Printing Shop (where the Book of Mormon was first published), and the Palmyra temple. By the time we reached the temple, Mark was exhausted so we let him sleep in the stroller.

After a drive-by of the Martin Harris farm (the original burned down in 1849), we grabbed some snacks and drove to the Hill Cumorah. We got there almost three hours early so we had some time to kill. We played some Yahtzee, ate some dinner, entertained Allie, and tried not to freeze. Apparently summer hasn't made it to upstate New York. It was probably 60s during the pageant. Once we got Mark in his sleeper and wrapped burrito-style in a blanket, he warmed up and fell asleep about 30 minutes before showtime.

After my freshman year of college (six years ago), I was in the cast of the pageant. Saturday night I finally got to see the entire show. It brought back a lot of memories. If you ever have a few weeks during July, apply to be in the cast- it's an amazing experience. I hope we can do it as a family in about 15-18 years - we'll see.

Sunday we went to church in Palmyra, the Sacred Grove, Joseph Smith farm, and to the top of the Hill Cumorah before going home. It was a whirlwind of a trip, but we had a good time. Thanks to the Judds for helping entertain Mark in the backseat for much of the trip. He did remarkably well, but still had moments when he just wanted to be out of his car seat.

I've Wanted to Take a Picture of This Sign for 10 Months

This is perhaps one of my favorite signs in Baltimore and I finally got a good picture of it. It's right at the beginning of I-70 out here. For one, my family lives near Denver so sometimes I think 1700 miles doesn't sound that bad and maybe I should keep driving (then I quickly come to my senses and realize I'd much rather fly that distance). Second, outside of the LDS world, who really knows where Cove Fort is? Even on Google Maps all they have is a dot where I-70 intersects with I-15 in Utah. I wish I knew what people were thinking when they see these three major cities and then an ambiguous name at the bottom. It's so random, but it always makes me smile.

Go Terps!

We went for a walk at Harper's Ferry (a national park that has some Civil War history) this past weekend. Of course, we took some more pictures of Mark. He loves to suck on his hands and we've given up on trying to fight with him about it. The second one is my current favorite.