Staging a Breastfeeding Protest

Just kidding! Ed’s sister, Cherie, visited us the last part of October/beginning of November. During her visit, we went to the Washington Monument. Cherie’s lifelong dream was to go to the top of the Washington Monument. We reserved tickets for Sunday morning and headed up the monument via elevator, of course (you can no longer take the stairs up to the top).

Unfortunately, the time we reserved happened to be the same time that Tate needed to be fed. So…I found a small (very small) empty area where I could breastfeed Tate.

It wasn’t too bad even though I had a camera almost directly above me.

Luckily, the area where I sat was pretty dark and I was able to hide everything under my Hooter Hider.

The view from the top of the monument was really nice. During my breastfeeding session, Ed and Cherie had a ton of time to take pictures (it usually takes about 20 minutes for me to feed Tate). So…here are some pics of the view…




Here's a picture of the Pentagon from the Washington Monument...

I know that some of the pictures are cloudy, but it's the plexiglass. It's not the greatest quality...

We also decided to head over to the Natural History Museum. The museum just completed a revision of their Oceans Exhibit. They did a great job and Tate even seemed to like it. He was mesmerized by the aquarium exhibit.

It was really cute. Now, Ed and I will have to take him to the Baltimore Aquarium where they have even more aquariums.

Here's another picture taken at the Natural History Museum exhibit.

While we were at the Museum of Natural History, Cherie spotted a Penny Smasher Machine (or whatever you call it). Cherie had to get her penny for her Penny Passport.

Before we left DC, the President must have known that Cherie in town and decided to make his appearance via Air Force One. Ed took a couple pictures of the three helicopters (one of which held the President). It was interesting to watch them fly around the monument.

Saturday (yes, I know that this blog entry is a little backwards), Ed and I took Cherie to Charlottesville, Virginia. It’s a great college town and Ed and I always enjoy going there for a relaxing weekend. We took Cherie to the University of Virginia (aka UVA) and walked around campus a little.

While we were at UVA, Tate decided that it was necessary to give a lecture on "The Perils of Pooping".

Here is Tate putting an emphasis on his lecture. Fortunately, we had several outfits for him to change into.

Here's another outfit change. As you can see, in the end, he ended up with just a onsie and a long-sleeved shirt -- no pants...

We also took her to Monticello, the house of Thomas Jefferson.

Here’s few more pictures from our journeys around DC and Virginia…

First Flight

During the last part of October, Ed, Tate and I flew to Wisconsin to visit Ed’s family. It was Tate’s first flight. I watched the faces of the people as we boarded the flight first, of course. Needless to say, they weren’t too happy. I’m sure that they were hoping that we weren’t sitting next to them. Fortunately, Tate did pretty well. He was a little irritated at first because we made him wait for meal time and the plane was late taking off.

During our trip to Wisconsin, we introduced Tate to the Grandmas.
Here’s a picture of Tate with his Memo (Ed’s paternal grandmother).

Here’s a picture of Tate with his Grandma (Ed’s maternal grandmother).

All of the grandmothers were quite taken with Tate. He smiled and loved being held by them.

Not only did he spend time with the Grandma’s, he also spent time with Ed’s sister, Cherie, and brother-in-law, Brian. It was fun watching them play with Tate. He always loves playing with Cherie, but I think that he was quite taken with Brian as well.


He also spent lots of time with his Mutti (aka Ed’s mom). As you can see, he definitely loves spending time with Ed’s family.

During our trip, Ed wanted to get Tate a Stormy Kromer hat. I’m not sure if he likes it or not. At times, he doesn't like to have things cover his ears.

Also as you can see, Ed isn’t to thrilled about the hat either.

I’ll leave you guys with some more pictures of our trip to Wisconsin.

A Growing Tate

This past Tuesday, Tate had his four month check-up. He was weighed and measured, again. He doesn't really like the physical examination for some reason. I'm there the entire time, but when it comes to someone else touching him (i.e. a stranger), he becomes very upset. His stats from the appointment are as follows:

Weight: 15 Pounds (52 Percentile)
Height: 26.5 Inches (88 Percentile)
Head: 42 Centimeters

Tate is definitely growing. Since he's been born, he's grown 6.5 inches. And yes, Ed is still very happy with his progress.

This time during his check-up, he only had to have three shots, instead of five -- they had the combo shot this time. I was very happy when I heard this. Of course, Tate did pretty well again. He cried a little longer this time, but it was still under a minute of tears -- I guess that it didn't help him to hear the other kids in the other rooms screaming "NO!NO!" or "I DON'T LIKE YOU!" during their shots. So...needless to say, Tate was a little trooper again at the doctor.