Reston Mom

sweetest moments

Yesterday afternoon, Hope decided that she really wanted a "daddy-daughter date" to go get dessert.  I told her she was welcome to ask him - which she never did - she just basically took it upon herself to see that it happened.  

She pretty literally choked down her dinner even though she didn't like it at all because she knew she would get refused dessert (it was quite amusing to watch what a kid can do when they put their mind to it).  Then, she rushed upstairs and chose her nice dress and dress jacket and shoes and dressed herself. She radiated excitement!

Luckily her daddy is awesome.  So Matt obliged, put on a jacket and some cologne just for her and took her to the cheesecake factory.  They had a fantastic time.

Changing Station Evaluations

Check out this blog by three dads (www.beingadadaintbad.com)- I think it is so cool that a few fathers have come together to blog from a daddy's perspective about parenting. 

Another cool thing is that one of these guys and his wife got together to make another site called  Changing Station Evaluations - which basically finds and rates places with good public facilities for nursing and changing babies.  It may not seem like a big deal, but if you've been a new mom before - you've probably learned that having strategic knowledge of a good place to take a care of baby while you are out brings a lot of peace. 

 If you live in the D.C. Metro area, this couple is always looking for more evaluations of local changing rooms.  Also, if you live outside of the area and would like to evaluate some stations in your own town, they are interested in adding pages to the site.  So, if you've got inside info on any places that a new mom or dad would appreciate knowing about, please share the info. via the Changing Station Evaluation site. 

And of course, I had to laugh at their graphic which is shown here.

Daddy-to-be T's

I have a few friends who are currently first-time pregnant and it is fun to see them exploring the maternity-wear world - which pants are better, the ones with the stretchy band or the big cloth belly? And most importantly, wearing cool T's that hug their growing belly to show the world that there is definitely something wonderful happening in there (it's not just belly-fat people!).  While it may be annoying, these women are being patted, congratulated, engaged in conversation all the time...while their also excitedly expecting hubbies are, what? Sort of sitting on the sidelines, waiting.  Well, they'll get their chance when they finally get to parade around with a cute little bundle in their arms - there's nothing like a proud daddy showing off his new little bundle of joy.  Still, I was glad to see this company making fun T's for the fathers as well - they aren't displaying a huge, traffic-stopping belly - but why shouldn't they get to display some pride too? Try this on for size: "the man behind the belly," "he shoots, he scores," "bullseye," my personal favorite, "look what I did," and more....