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Archive for the ‘things we’ve done’ Category

Busia’s visit by phil

Posted in things we've done on April 18, 2012| 1 Comment »

Busia “Mommy” Wozniak came to visit during spring break.  This also coincided with Amy’s first day of work at her new job. It was great to have Busia on hand to take care of all babysitting duties this week. As you can see in the slide show Busia and Amy took Wil to the park and all of us took Wil to the aquarium on the weekend. Additionally,  Busia took Wil on a walk down to the Bay one of the days while both Amy and I were at work.

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While Busia was not taking care of Wil she found time to make dinners for Amy and I, it’s like she has had taken care of an infant AND put dinner on the table for a hungry family before. Who would have thought.  During the shenanigans Amy, Busia, and I also found time to put together a puzzle. All in all, it was a very successful trip, thanks Busia for helping out with the kid.

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monthly update

Posted in baby, Job, things we've done on April 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

hey – welcome to your monthly woznation update.  that seems to be how often we’re posting, huh?  That might be the new norm. Things are busy, but good, over here.  I started my new job, and am still learning to balance work things and life things.  Phil was in Yuma for awhile but is back for a good long stretch. Wil is doing better at daycare and seems to like his new playmates.  I think Barney is the only one really living it up.  He now has the house to himself for 3 full days, with our dog walker coming to get him out on nice long runs when Im at work.  Life is good for that pup.  Here are a few pics from before I started work:

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Oh and Phil posted some videos a few weeks ago, be sure to check out the little man in action.

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Twenty Nine

Posted in baby, random, things we've done on February 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »

This might have been my best birthday ever.  I just have a whole new appreciation for birthdays since having Wil.  Birth is just an amazing amazing event, with so many things having to go perfect for the end result. It kind of baffles me that it happens so often – yet Im surrounded with beautiful, happy, healthy people in my life. Thank you all for the birthday wishes. Im so very very lucky.

 

Yesterday was filled with a whole lot of cuddling, chatting with friends and family, and watching ‘The Help’  (which did not help my emotional state!) I think Phil was glad he was at work for my ‘love of life’ swell yesterday, haha – there was, perhaps, too much love happening around these parts for him. But a day of appreciation was exactly what I needed.  Especially as I start applying for jobs in the area. Ive had a few interviews and am close to making a decision. Im excited to get back to work but of course will miss time with my little buddy.  Here are some pics taken in the last few weeks:

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Thanks again to everyone for a great birthday! Miss you all!

 

 

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Merry Christmas from Woznation

Posted in baby, things we've done on December 12, 2011| 2 Comments »

AK came to visit last weekend and we took Wil to the mall to get his picture taken with santa! I had to do this with AK because Phil is a big ol grinch and hates the mall at christmas time.  We had an awesome time and Wil posed like a pro.  We also got a mini christmas tree at our house!  All the ornaments were given to us by Phil’s mom.  She had an ornament for every year of phils life – and gave them all to us our first christmas as a couple.  The tree also sports some cascading ribbon – al a ‘nancy style’.  A christmas tree doesnt seem like a christmas tree without some cascading ribbon, am i right?

Its also the blogiversary!!  My first post was a year ago today! This is our 80th post.  Meaning we’re averaging a post about every 4.5 days.  Not too shabby.  Ive really enjoyed keeping in touch with everyone through the site.  Thanks for stopping by!

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Nov 2011

Posted in baby, things we've done on December 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

In November we went to DC, went to Bloomington, and hosted Thanksgiving with the Wozos!  Here are some highlights:

Phil and I went for a day trip down to DC – its about 40 miles from here, it took about an hour doorstep to doorstep.  It was SO FUN.  We took Wil to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum first.  At this point, he was a little over 4 months old and is finally starting to watch things.  He tracks them and you can tell hes trying to figure out what the heck is going on and what it all means.  The number one thing about going to museum with kids is watching THEM watch other things.  Its amazing.  After the museum we met up with Phil’s friend Brian.  We walked a good 2 mile loop around the Mall on a gorgeous fall day.

Then we headed off to Bloomington , where I really didn’t take many picture.  But we plan on swiping all grandparents’ pictures’ when we are home for christmas, so check back around new years for a mega pictures post (probably my next post at this rate, right?).  But Wilek did awesome on his first plane ride.   I took one picture in the airport and one picture of Phil and Wil.  The family picture was actually from when Wendy was visiting – I just wanted to throw it in there.

Then 10 days later, the Woz’s came to Baltimore!  It was sooo great to have round-the-clock baby holders.  I got to cook.  Phil got to game.  Busia got to hold Wil.  And Dziadzi filled in where needed :).  Again…minimal picture taking since grandparents seem to have that down, but Ill post some once we get them all over christmas. 

We made it to the Maryland Science museum.  It was so hands-on!!  I think Phil (And Busia!) had the best time.  But again, it so fun to take Wil places now that hes really noticing and interacting with things.  I cant wait to post the video of Wil with the tornado wind tunnel (Videos next on the to-do list!  Check back within a week!).

In the off weekends we stayed close to home, walked along the harbor, looked out the window, and played with barney.

Again, its so fun to think about what was happening a year ago.  The day before Thanksgiving last year, we had our first ultrasound and got to see the heartbeat of our littler ‘Casper’.  We managed to finagle thanksgiving alone in 2010, so again – it was still our little secret.  But much more real than Halloween.  And now this year – We had a rambunctious little 5 month old bouncing up and down – eating his first bite of avocado!!  We are truly thankful.

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Oct 2011

Posted in baby, things we've done on November 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Im so behind on life.  In October and November, we had visitors or were travelling every other weekend.  So Im finally catching up on bills, emails, and blogging.  But – I am done with christmas shopping.  So whos behind now, bitches?!?!?!?  just kidding.

Since yall checked in October – we had the harrisons visit and halloween.  Here are some highlights.

It was a short visit, but so great to see my sister, nate, and luke.  my nephew is about the most adorable thing ever.  If Wil grows up to be half as cute and smart as he is, I will be a lucky lady.  Luke has an awesome vocabulary – 2 words he has down pat are ‘block’ and ‘hat’.  So Phil made a block hat.  It was a hit.

We spent an afternoon in the park, checking out all the playgrounds, ducks, and ‘leaf’s.  Luke made sure to point out all the leaves.  It was mid-October.  There were a lot. ‘Leaf.’ ‘Leaf.’ ‘Another Leaf.’ The ducks were the biggest hit though.  A nice family gave us a few pieces of bread – that made all the ducks flock to us.  It was quite a sight.  Luke (and I think even Wil) loved it.  Except we’d give Luke a piece of bread to feed to the ducks, and hed just eat it himself, haha.

We also checked out the Baltimore Aquarium – Wil slept through the whole thing, literally.  But Luke seemed to enjoy it.  Especially the diver in the tank who was there merely to wave at kids.  Soooo cute.  The Dolphin Show was also very exciting.  But we didnt get any pictures of the actual dolphins.  Just sisters 🙂

Halloween was super fun this year. Except for Wil’s 4 month shots.  You cant see the bandaids in the picture, but he was a champ.  And hes starting to sit-up with the help of the boppy!

Its the first time we’ve been in a house with trick or treaters, so we thought it would be fun to dress Wil up and show him off to the neighbors who came by.  Obviously – in this house – super heroes are a big draw, so Wil went as Spiderman.  I loved his little costume.  And made a pumpkin about 10 mins before that photo below was taken.  hense, lack of imagination.  But it got done.

We also ran out of candy within like a hour.  I got a 50-peices bag of candy and it was gone by like the 3rd group of kids.  The greedy assholes took like 3 pieces each.  So for the next few groups I had to be that mean old lady yelling ‘ONLY ONE EACH!!!’.  Then when we where nearly out,  I had to put some candy corn into plastic bags to at least have SOMETHING to offer them.  I seriously thought we were going to have to resort to quarters.  (Or worse…Toothbrushes.)  But luckily things died down.

It was a fun, successful night.  October was also lots of fun because it was really crazy to look back on what life was like a year ago. Last year, I found out I was pregnant the day before I was going to Notre Dame to visit Andrew for Halloween weekend.  I definitely wasnt ready to tell anyone yet.  So I made up a lame excuse about some medication I was taking that I couldnt drink with.  And Phil and I dressed up and tailgated and tried to act as normal as possible with this huge news – that hadnt even sunk in yet.  And now, a year later.  Im passing out candy in baltimore with a mini-spiderman.  i love it.

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The 4th trimester

Posted in baby, Barney, things we've done on October 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Im starting to get sick of this whole ‘weeks’ thing.  So we will switch over to months – Wil is about 3.5 months now.  The first 3 months of life are sometimes referred to as the 4th trimester (Which mathematically makes no sense. The 4th quadmester maybe?).  Basically Wil is still adjusting to being outside the womb and has no idea what the f*ck is going on until about this time.  We’ve spent a lot of time soothing, swaddling, and singing in the last few months and I think Wil has finally decided that the real word ain’t so bad.  He cries less and less and is smiling more and more.  Id go as far to say hes a honest-to-goodness ‘BABY’.

Exhibit A:

Blurry, but happy, baby.  Hes laughing too – we have a few videos of it that Ill get Phil to post soon.  The last few weeks have been pretty uneventful.  I go to a baby play group once a week now and we are still taking lots of walks.  We STILL dont have the Jetta back, so I stay pretty close to home most days and then we run errands at night or on weekends.  Im very excited to get a car back, then I can run errands during the day and spend more quality time at home.  Hopefully we’ll get it next week.  Its been 68 days since we were a two car family. Sheesh.

Anyway, like I said, pretty uneventful.  Wil loves to sit out on the stoop and watch the leaves blow and cars drive by.

Barney enjoys it too.  He also watches the car go by from the couch inside, but the other day he fell behind the couch into the window well and couldnt get out. I thought it was pretty hilarious.

We go to the farmers market on sunday mornings.  Its under the overpass in downtown baltimore.

We went to a street fair where we needed an emergency clothing change.  This is what was in the diaper bag:

Yellow short-sleeved onesie. Blue jacket and dinosaur socks. We bought the leggings at the fair because it was cold.  We looked for a hat but couldnt find one.  Parents of the year over here.  We also snapped this gem – this one is for you, mom:

We’ve gone hiking a few times:

Other than that, Its been some of this:

And a little of that:

Life is good, my friends!

22 pictures in this post people!! Im getting better!  I feel like you can even see it in the progression of photos – Wil is no newborn anymore! Hes so alert and interactive now.  He loves to study faces and make noises.  He is starting to grab things and then put them directly in his mouth. Hes rolling over more frequently and loves it when I sing songs to him.

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Sister Act

Posted in things we've done on September 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Em and Sam came to visit a few weeks ago.  I count them as our first real visitors, since the parents came mainly to help us unpack rather than exploring the city. When Em and Sam were here – we were actually in a place where we could go have some fun!  Im finally getting more comfortable being out of the house with Wil and our place feels like a home.  It was great to have them here to share our new life with them.

Wil meets Aunt Em:

When Wil was first born, within hours of meeting him, I remember mentioning how much he looked like Em.  I guess he looks like a Woz in general, but from time to time I still look at him and think he looks most like Emily.

Anyway, we had a fun relaxing visit.  Phil was only able to take one day off work.  So Em, Sam and I kept ourselves busy during the day.  The first day it rained, so we stayed close to home.  We tried to time a walk in the park around downpours, but planned quite poorly and ended up drenched on the way home.  The next day, we were much more successful.  We walked to fells point and took a water taxi to an Os game :

They were playing the Yankees, so they upped the ticket price, haha.  And the whole crowd was cheering for the yankees.  it was surreal.  It was a HOME game, but the whole place would cheer if an oriole struck out,  it got to be confusing.  But we rooted for the home team – and they won in the bottom of the 10th!  Good times.  Afterwards, we met Phil to go crab smashin’:

The next day, we went to the Baltimore Aquarium:

We sprung for the Dolphin show and 4D movie. The 4D movie was just a crappy 3D movie with ‘enhanced effects’  which turned out to be them squirting water and air into our faces.  not cool. The dolphin show, however, was cool but Wil slept through both.  He woke up occasionally and seemed to stare at a few shiny fish tanks.  Phil and I bought a year-long pass though, so we hope to go back frequently Wil will pick up on.

It was suuuuuch a great visit.  Thanks so much for coming guys!!

And Ill have Sister Act Part II coming in a few weeks when Wendy, Nate and Luke visit!!!

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Columbus

Posted in things we've done on September 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

We made our first road trip to Columbus OH on Aug 17th.  We werent going for the best reason, but we made the most of it by seeing as many friends and family as possible.

All the Watkins sibs except Nate got to meet Wil:

And Cel and AK! Unfortunately – Wil had his fussiest 2-3 hour stretch of the whole trip right when they were visiting.  Go figure.  Hes normally a pretty happy baby, only crying when he really needs something, but we could not keep that boy happy!!

We were able to snap one ‘almost’ smile:

The Wozniaks also came over to Columbus for a visit and Nick got to meet Wil for the first time!

Phil and I also had our first night out without the baby – Grandma and Grandpa Woz watched Wil and we headed to college buddy’s wedding.  Woooo friends in pretty dresses (minus the bride!):

And Phil got to spend some quality boy time once we got back to the hotel:

Thanks to everyone who traveled near and far to meet Wil.  It was a long, emotional trip but it was great to hang out with so many people.  We hope to make it back to the midwest soon to see everyone again!

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Last Day at Fort Monmouth by Phil

Posted in science, things we've done on July 16, 2011| 3 Comments »

As most of you know, we are getting ready to move from New Jersey to Baltimore. We are moving because the research lab I work in is relocating and Friday was my last day, ever. They are completely shutting down the base and transferring the land to the county. I have been so incredibly busy trying to wrap things  up in NJ while keeping things running in Baltimore (plus the whole ‘baby’ incident) it didn’t really hit me that Friday was my last day at the Fort… ever.

This my sounds like hyperbole but it really is the end of an era. A whole lot of amazing science/technology was developed at Fort Monmouth and at my building (McAfee Center in the picture above) in particular. The McAfee Center’s namesake, Walter Samuel McAfee was an African American mathematician and scientist who first calculated the speed of the moon relative to earth. At the time, when the official announcement of this scientific breakthrough was made it only mentioned Dr. McAfee’s white colleges. Dr. McAfee was an integral part of Project Diana (intellectual forerunner of NRL’s Moonbounce program) which proved it was possible for radio waves to exit the ionosphere, bounce off the moon, re-enter the ionosphere, and be received at a monitoring station. This project is considered the birth of the US space program and fields of study such as radio and radar astronomy. This was the first time the human race had purposefully ‘touched’ another celestial body. I could bore you (even more) with the technical details but I won’t, just trust me, the project was amazing.

I consider Project Diana to be the most interesting and advanced thing to come out of Fort Monmouth. However, other scientific breakthroughs and projects developed at the Fort include:

  • Major Edwin H. Armstrong developed frequency modulated (FM) wireless communication here. This is the same theory the radio in your car operates on.
  • Developed the first radio equipped weather balloon which led to the first air to ground wireless communications
  • In 1949 Fort Monmouth housed the 1st Pigeon Breeding and Training Center. Hundreds of these pigeons went on to serve with distinction in WWII and Korea . I swear this is a real thing, I have been told this book does a good job of telling the story.
  • In the 1950’s and 1960’s various night vision technologies were developed here which enabled US forces to operate 24/7 in Vietnam.
  • Counter IED and counter mortar technologies (This is what I currently work on).

Overall, Fort Monmouth was a great experience and the history of the place is amazing. I cannot believe our congressman let the base shut down, especially since he has an advanced degree in science. The only member of congress who is a rocket scientist. Anyway, the family is looking forward to starting a new chapter in Baltimore. Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, moving out of Jersey will stop people from asking us if we know Snookie.

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