Cirque de Soleil et Veille de la Toussaint

Just as the title reads, that about sums up Scarlett's last 2 weeks ;) OK, we also had a visit from Shonna's friend and classmate Justin who stayed with us over the Halloween weekend, and Scarlett missed out on a swimming class. It was devastating as Shonna will describe later. If you saw Caddy Shack, just think Baby Ruth. Also, I went on a 2-day business trip to Colorado Springs, my old stomping grounds. We also went to our first Ravens game as a family. I'm forgetting something. I know something else happened over the past couple of weeks... what was it... Oh yea, it was also our 3rd anniversary on October 20th :)

I guess I will go in chronological order.

Tuesday the 19th was Scarlett's swimming night. It was fine but wasn't much different than the week before. We have 2 weeks to cover so I'll move on.

Wednesday the 20th is our official anniversary, but we didn't exactly celebrate until Thursday night. We both had to work early Thursday morning, so we thought it would be better to wait until we could at least sleep in another hour or two. We didn't completely blow off the official day. We pulled out our wedding crystal and had a glass of champagne. Scarlett didn't seem to mind that we were home. As a matter of fact, if memory serves me correctly, she woke up quite a few times that night to remind us how happy she was to spend the anniversary with mommy and daddy. She loves doing that when we have an early day. Good thing it doesn't happen often! Thursday was our dinner date at The Source http://www.wolfgangpuck.com/restaurants/fine-dining/3941. Great food, modern architecture, great service. We went with the tasting menu, which was excellent, but a bit pricey for what you get. Unlike places such as Marcel's, you are better served ordering a la cart. While we were out, Scarlett was having a great time with our neighbor, dog walker and babysitter extraordinaire, Abigail. This was Abigail's third night with Scarlett, and first time she was able to get Scarlett to sleep! Shonna and I were both shocked when we received a text just after 9pm stating that she was down for the night. One less thing on our minds! We could relax a little more and enjoy the rest of the romantic dinner. Soon after dinner, the romantic vibe took a 180 as we walked through the doors at carpool, but still fun none the less. We had a drink (well, we both had a beer, but the bartender poured us his favorite Grand Marnier, and both pours ended up in my glass), chatted with Raj the bartender (I've known him for 14 years- worked with him at Sequoia), and soon we were on our way home. The fun night owls were through the front door by 1130pm... Actually, Abigail had to be home by 11 pm, but Shonna's friend Juli was kind enough to relieve her so that we could stay out late. These days 1130 qualifies!

Friday, we worked from home and took Scarlett to her first "circus"! Actually, it was Cirque du Soleil OVO at the National Harbor. OVO was perfect for Scarlett AND her parents. Kind of like Shrek, there is action and humor for all ages. Although she spent half the time looking at our neighbors, she was fascinated by all of the characters, costumes, noises, lights, and high flying acts. She loved the music and danced almost the entire time. Try to guess her favorite out of the following list:

a. Trapeze
b. Goofy bug costumes
c. Trampoline tumblers
d. Wall climbing acrobatics
e. One-man hidden inside costume with 5 huge slinky limbs

I will reveal the answer next week. Guess correctly and you win a prize (or maybe you'll just have bragging rights :) Seriously though, if you have time and OVO is playing near you, try to see it. It was spectacular. We've been to 4 or 5 Cirque productions over 7+ years, and this might have been the best. Only 2 were memorable. The first one and last week's.

Saturday- Outlet shopping in Leesburg. Clothes for Scarlett, a few things for us, including a wallet that both of us thought would be the best one I've had. I'll look for another one asap...

Sunday- Ravens game, hon! We figured the Buffalo Bills game would be a good starter because there was a chance the game would be a blowout and we could leave early (if she fussed too much we would have left early regardless, but Scarlett was, well, Scarlett, at this game. Too many people to play with). We bought Scarlett a Ravens shirt before game day, but as it turned out, we wanted much more for our little purple peanut. We parked, walked down "Ravens Alley", and stumbled into an outdoor Ravens gear store. Ooops. I was wearing my Ray Lewis jersey as was Shonna, so we figured we should get Scarlett a jersey. The only one in her size was Joe Flacco, but he hasn't played up to Scarlett's standards yet. There was a few others, but we focused in on Ray Lewis. The only problem was the size- 3T. It didn't take us long to do the math. The jersey wasn't much more than some of the clothes we've seen, and unlike clothes her size, she will have this jersey for 2+ years! Its a bargain! So the family of Ray Rays walked into the game- quickly I might add. There are multiple security lines for men, women, and only one for family. Guess which one is shorter? Yep, family by like 90%. How great is that? During the game, Scarlett was on her best behavior. Most likely because she was surrounded by fans who were doing what she loves best. They were all paying attention to her. Fans in front, behind, and especially across the aisle were smiling at her, making faces, and waving. She didn't mind that she didn't eat that much, or that it was hot, or that the sun was in her eyes when she looked right. All she cared about was the attention (and unfortunately whatever was dropped under our seats- she loves empty beer bottles and soda cups...). Well.... the game went on and on and on and replay after replay to reverse bad calls on the field, and 71 points scored, and overtime.... it was the longest game I've ever been to. Of course, right? That said, it was a great day to that point. In hindsight if we would have just driven straight home it most likely would have continued that way, but instead we decided to eat a late lunch. We wanted crab soup. The place that used to have great crab soup changed their menu, so we left got in the car, and headed to another place we know of. It took a few loops to find parking, and by that time Scarlett had fallen asleep. OK, change plans again. We drove home. The only problem was that there was an accident on 495. We tried to bypass it (and GPS woke Scarlett up), but apparently traffic also backed up on the side roads as well as further down 495. When Scarlett woke up, she realized that she was starving and very tired. Not a happy baby. Sooooooo we stopped in Silver Spring. We finally found the location, parked, and walked around looking to for a place to eat. All told, instead of getting home at 6-630, we were home after 9 (after a normal game, we would have been home 530 at the latest). Lesson learned. Still a great experience for Scarlett.

Paul left for Colorado on Tuesday morning, which meant that I was going to take Scarlett to swim class all by myself for the first time. After we got home from daycare, I kept talking it up as I got her dressed and she was pretty psyched by the time we got in the car, and even more excited when we got out and she saw the building for the pool. We got in and they told us the news. There had been an "accident" in the children's pool and all classes were canceled. What?!?! What about the adult pool, can she go in there? Nope. Poor Scarlett had to be turned around and dragged out of the building without ever having touched the water. As I tried to put her back into the car, she held onto the door frame and cried her little heart out. SO SAD. I'm not sure I've ever seen her so disappointed. She even had a brand new bathing suit on. Sigh. I felt so bad. I wanted to take her to a playground or something as a consolation but it looked like it was about to storm and was already getting dark. We played a lot at home that night to try to make her feel better, but she is probably forever scarred with disappointment.

Paul got back on Thursday afternoon, just in time for my friend Justin from Minnesota to arrive. He came into town for a job interview and stayed with us through Halloween weekend. Scarlett had no idea what to do with herself around him. Every time he smiled at her or talked to her, she smiled and buried her face in my chest. Now, that newly found shyness seems to be here to stay. She is doing that more and more with strangers.

On Friday night, we went out to the craft store to buy costume making supplies. Justin was a pirate of sorts, Paul was a mallet, I was Old Bay, and Scarlett was a crab. On Saturday we went to Scarlett's first (non) rally at the National mall. Metro had it's highest ridership since the Dessert Storm Rally - Over 740,000 passengers -- one of them being Scarlett. She did as well as could be expected in the crowds, but she only napped for about 10 minutes so we left the rally early as she started melting down and headed home for a group nap. Later that evening, Abigail took over so that Paul, Justin, Jacy, Joel, and I could go to a Halloween party. Except for a ridiculously long cab ride on the way back, it was a good time.

Sunday Justin, Dave, and Paul watched football before I took Justin to the airport. Jacy, Joel, and Liam came over and we went out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood for the first time. It was a lot of fun to see the neighbors and made us love our neighborhood even more. The firetruck came by passing out bags of candy and invitations to their Christmas party. Liam and Scarlett went as a devil and angel, respectively. They got a lot of compliments. We discovered that Scarlett can break through a candy wrapper and she discovered her first love... CHOCOLATE. We were walking around when we suddenly noticed that she was covered in chocolate drool. And so was her formerly white costume. She had a MAJOR temper tantrum when we took the chocolate away too. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

One nice byproduct of trick-or-treating was that we found 2 potential babysitters! One block over there were 16 year old twins who thought she was cute and want to babysit.