Mr. and Mrs. Wood Go to Washington

It was our first time to be away from Barrett (mine anyway, and certainly the longest time Matt has been away from him as well), but we had a fantastic time. Thanks so much to the Brocks for their above and beyond hospitality. Jon, also, gave us a lot of his time, and hosted a hilarious hang out at his place Friday night.

Trip Highs:

• Watching Matt spend several minutes trying to close a broken umbrella in the pouring rain so he could get into a cab. Trevor, the cab driver, and I all watched and laughed hysterically.
• Lunch at Lauriol - great salsa and margaritas
• Dinner at Bobby Vans - awesome food, great conversations
• "Dreamlining"
• Walking by the White House in the evening with the Brocks
• Holocaust Museum

Trip Lows:

• Seeing the bus that was supposed to take us to the airport leave the bus stop as we were running after it with our bags. (We ended up having to take a 30 minute cab ride to Dulles)
• Terribly sore feet - I should have just accepted that I'm now an old lady and worn sneakers, but I did not do this. I was practically limping by the end of each day.

An otherwise wonderful trip. Some pictures...

Matt and I in front of the White HouseFord's Theater. The infamous Presidential Box.

The Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Big teeth.

Us on the beautiful Georgetown campus

312 Months

Barrett at 11 months...

And Daddy at 312!
Happy Birthday, Matt!!! I had Matt sit in Barrett's birthday month seat for this picture, and there's an excellent chance that this post will be deleted when he stumbles upon it, but here it is for now. I love you sweetie!

Proof!

Hershel

Barrett is (pretty much) walking! Matt has taken to calling him Hershel. I've been trying like crazy to get it on camera, but he's never been one to perform on cue. So far I can only capture him taking 5 or 6 steps at a time and then falling on his tush. I know that's still pretty good, but I'm trying to get a shot of him making it to where he's going before I post a video.

He also really loves to weave around the dining room table and chairs and have me chase him. He finds this game VERY exciting (as you can see), and it's incredibly cute.

Easter plus

Some belated Easter pictures of Barrett.

We also took our second official family trip last weekend when we drove down to Clute to visit Mandy and Brian and our precious new nephew Gabriel. Both Barrett and Charlie did surprisingly well for the 5 hour car ride.

Thanks again, Lipscombs, for having us!

Barrett - As Seen on TV

Barrett had himself a pretty big day today. He and mom prettied themselves up and went downtown to the Fox 4 studio to shoot a commercial! It's kind of silly, but we're feeling pretty excited about it.

My friend Krystle Gutierrez is a reporter for Fox 4 News (you can check her out on the morning show, and as a sometimes anchor on the midday show). So, Fox was doing a promo for the March of Dimes who has a race coming up in Dallas, and they needed a few babies with their mamas for the commercial. You'll get to see Krystle and her precious daughter, Katelyn, and also Barrett and I of course! The commercial should begin airing sometime next week, and will run up until the race, which is April 18th.

If you live in the Dallas area, you can be on the lookout for us - I am "candidly" playing with Barrett when I look up at the camera to say, "I'm marching for Barrett" (which I'm not - the only time I'll ever be on TV and of course I'm lying. Part of me actually feels the need to sign myself up for the race now). We had to do about a dozen takes, because our normally ebullient little man was totally dazed by the lights and cameras. He did a lot of blank staring and uncomfortable squirming. I, too, was pretty uncomfortable - I kept forgetting to deliver the line, so I was basically just sitting there on the floor in front of the cameraman playing with my son, occassionally looking up to awkwardly say the line. Hopefully he'll be a genius in the editing room, but if you see us and we look silly, you'll understand why. I'm rather famously awkward, you know.

After we filmed, Krystle gave us a tour of the studio and we got some great pictures

Barrett and I with Krystle and Katelyn at the news desk

Barrett the Anchorman

Elroy Matthew Wood?

Is it just me or does Barrett look
an awful lot like Elroy Jetson?
I'm seriously considering this as
a Halloween costume down the line.