So, I have litterally 1/3 of the house space that I used to have up in NY. Having a full layout is out of the question for me. Granted I have a large N-Trak group in my area, I find that I miss the social aspect of the club. I really do miss my “home” layout up in Glens Falls, NY.
While we’ve been here I’ve tried to contact the Severna Park club, which is one of the top layouts in the country apparently. Sadly, I don’t think they care to invite new people to the group. They’ve been covered in the Model Railroading magazine a couple of times in the past (take a look). Too bad I don’t think I’ll see it until thier open house in December.
Another amazing layout we found was at a local mall. A couple of churches convinced the Marly Station Mall to give them a good sized room by one of the entrances all year round. Starting 6 months before Christmas, the churches of many different denominations get together and start building a brand new layout from scratch! The substructure might be the same, but the rest is all brand new each season. Essentially, they had 5 layouts this past season. 2 smaller units and one extra large piece with multiple levels and automated equipment that kids cycled on and off from the sidelines. Everything they ran was O-scale.
We have made our way to DC a couple of times. I prefer to park at the very edge of the city and take the rails in to town. Coal trains often go running by as you travers above ground during the first part of the run. You also get to see the maintenance yards along the way on the east side of the orange line.
Lastly, we’ve also made it up to the B&O Museum up in Baltimore. Too bad the place is surrounded by so many bad neighborhoods. But in the facility, things are wonderful. Whether its steam or diesel, they have your flavor of history. It includes a short, but historically rich train ride in the local neighborhood. When we visited, we were lucky enough to see a small G scale layout, a huge N-scale layout, and another layout of 2 separate track plans for a massive O-scale group: all of which were modular. Did I forget to mention the outdoor G-scale layout? Wow!
Today Johnny woke up at about 6am. Mommy eventually picked him up out of his crib, let him play, and started him on a banana & Cheerios breakfast. After a nice memory recall on Mommy’s part, we all decided to go to Einstein’s Bagels in Severna Park, MD.
We arrived and found the restaurant to be quite busy. We all had a nice carb heavy breakfast. Johnny was more than happy to work over his Dutch Apple Bagel. We all agreed that it was a superior bagel house compared to Panera.
Next we went to Annapolis Mall. We played at the children’s area, took a potty break, and got back to more play time in a chaotic frenzy of small children climbing over animals, boats, and slides. We finally left after Johnny tried 1 to many times to escape. He may be quick, but not quick enough to escape Daddy: yet!
Mommy needed to do some shopping so we went through J.C. Penny’s, Macy’s, and then finally NY & Company. She needed a new outfit for a baby shower later in the day at 2 pm over at Kristin’s house. Mommy picked up a real nice yellow shirt and highwaters.
During this time, Johnny hung out in the stroller patiently (for the most part) while Daddy took him through the stores, got him lunch at Subway (Juice Box, Ham and Wheat Bread only sandwhich, and raisins), and visited Border’s where Daddy bought a book and read a few for Johnny to enjoy.
When Mommy was finally done, Johnny went to sleep. He stayed awake until 12:45pm! Wow! He was truly ready for a nap. Daddy got him to pass out by giving him a binky.
When the family arrived at home, Mommy put Johnny in his crib and she then prepared herself for the shower. Daddy unpacked all of the goods and laid down for a short nap. Most of the nap time Daddy ended up watching a couple of episodes of Penn & Teller’s B.S. on Showtime.
Right after Mommy left, Johnny woke up. With a few cries, Daddy picked him up and out of the crib. He let Johnny run around until his saffron rice and chicken nuggets were ready, which didn’t take long since Daddy had a funny feeling Johnny would wake up soon so he started early on the food.
After Johnny was done eating, Daddy let Johnny watch an episode of Baby Einstein’s “Baby Neptune”. Johnny loves the show; Daddy loves it because he did some house cleaning and dishes. It is also good as a distractor while Daddy put shoes, socks, and a coat on his little man.
After the video was over, Daddy & Johnny went to the playground behind Beekman Elementary School. There Johnny went down the slide twice. He then spent the rest of his time climbing up and down steps on the playground equipment. He even tossed the a purple rubber ball back and forth with Daddy a couple of times.
Eventually, Mommy called and told Daddy that she was back home from the baby shower. Daddy asked her to pick them up in front of the school. When she arrived, Johnny was on his 4th attempt going over an embankment to walk out into traffic where all of the exciting cars were driving by at very fast speeds. Funny boy!
Next, we convinced Mommy to go to Petsmart to get cat food for our kitties Chloe & Chester. We also visited the fishies. Once again Johnny was on the run again through out the store as much as he could get away with in front of Mommy & Daddy.
Finally, we came home and played some more. We finished off with pasta for Johnny’s dinner. We all helped Johnny take a bath where Johnny was video taped laughing as Daddy teased him with a toy.
To end the day, Daddy did the “Barnyard Dance” for Johnny. Johnny was happy.
Taken on December 9, 2007, the picture below is one of Johnny trying to get out of the tub. You’ll notice there’s a wash cloth on his head. Since he doesn’t like people pouring water over his head, we play a game of putting a wet baby wash cloth on top of him. He laughs and pulls it off right away.
Personally, Daddy likes this one so much that it’s the background on his work computer.
Here’s an oldy, but a goodie. Mommy went through 28 hours of labor with 2 failed epidural procedures. Daddy was there for the whole ordeal. Grandma Susan was there for a large portion of it too. All of our friends were standing by to hear how things came out.
Then finally on September 24, 2006, Johnny was born at the Saratoga Hospital. Daddy had a birds eye view of everything. Not what Daddy wanted at all.
Daddy did get this video of the first moments of Mommy meeting her precious little boy. Such a special event for us all.
One of Johnny’s most used toys is the Fridge Farm Magnetic Animal Set made by Leap Frog. He received it as a Christmas toy. I can’t say I remember who exactly gave it to him, but he attacks it like it was a gift from heaven.
The Fridge Farm Magnetic Animal Set is applied directly to the refrigerator door with magnets embedded in each of the pieces. Batteries, which come included, power the base which provides the sounds and music once a piece or two has been inserted; the sound level is not to high as to take away from other activities in the house. None of the pieces show any wear and tear, even though Johnny throws them on the floor multiple times a day. All of the pieces are too large for him to swallow.
The only down side to this set of toys is the age range listed by the parent company. Johnny is 17 months old as of today, but still doesn’t have full dexterity to insert the pieces into the base properly without assistance. Leap Frog recommends the set for ages 1 to 3 years, which is fine if you don’t mind having most of the use in the toy being a collection of items to throw on the floor.
Overall, this is a nice toy for children. Just don’t be surprised if your child can’t get the full benefits from it till almost 2 years old.
Barnes & Noble is a trip we like to make once every week or two. We visit the one located in the Annapolis Harbor Center. It is a great family place for us all to go for many reasons.First, we can pick up baby food at the grocery store nearby for Johnny and bring it in with us to the cafe. Johnny is yet another child with both a milk and soy allergies. The Starbucks cafe inside doesn’t carry much that is appropriate for such a young child with his peculiarities; they don’t seem to mind since we get food for the adults.
The next reason why it’s such a good destination is because we all get to pick our favorite topics. Mommy and Johnny usually spend most of their time in the extensive children’s collection. Daddy likes to visit the software, business and engineering sections. By the time we’re all done book shopping, we have at least 5 books for all of us.
The final reason why I like the Barnes & Noble family tour is the environment with respect to Johnny. He can get out of his stroller and run around. He can play hide and go seek with Daddy. Mommy and Daddy don’t have to worry about him breaking fragile merchandise.
In the pictures below you can see Johnny with some of the Sesame Street plush dolls. He has Big Bird, Elmo and Cookie monster. These dolls weren’t animated, so his interest only lasted about 5 seconds.
I often ask, where in the world would we be if we didn’t have Cheerios for our younger children? I swear they are a miracle food for the modern age. Little ones will often default to them when they don’t want to eat much of anything else. Johnny is no exception to this rule.
Johnny loves his Elmo. He loves his Baby Einstein. He really loves his Mommy & Daddy. But he also loves his multitude of toy balls.
He has a variety of sizes and materials, but to him they are all the same: fun! In the past week or so he’s actually started to throw the balls. He may not get very far on the toss, but that doesn’t stop him from having a good time.
In this video below, we can see he’s having a great time bouncing the balls on the hard surface of our kitchen. It’s not uncommon to find toys all over the floor there for you to step on. You should see the mess he can make when he pulls down his magnetic toys off of the refrigerator.
Before Johnny was born, we had a family joke going around. When Mommy told Grandpa he was going to have a grandson, he said, “Great, I’m going to have a little fishing buddy.” A comment like that is something we’ll never forget.
So with the pictures below, you can see he’s not kidding when it comes to his fishing. I don’t know where he caught them, but I’m pretty certain he did his fishing up in the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York. It’s nice to see it froze over enough for him to go out on the ice.
During our trip to see Aunts Lucy and Rosy graduate from medical school, we drove up to Minneapolis, MN. We made a big point of visiting Great Grandma & Grandpa Esberg. If you ask me, this picture is priceless. It symbolizes 4 generations of John being passed down. To bad my father wasn’t there in person to join us.
Oh boy, it’s toy time! Grandma Susan went shopping with Mommy and Johnny at the Annapolis Mall earlier today. While there, she picked up a few more toys for our favorite little man. One of which is the Fisher-Price LittlePeople Racin’ Ramps Garage.
After they toy was first taken out, to be assembled by Mommy, Grandma put the box over her head. She sat there waiting for Johnny to notice.
Johnny didn’t quite pick up on it right away, so Mommy and I started asking him, “Where’s Grandma?” He took the hint, pulled the box off of her head, and started a game of crawling into the box just for fun.
Below is a video of Johnny going at it again for a second round.
Grandma Susan flew in this morning on Southwest Airlines from Albany, NY, to Baltimore, MD. A short non-stop flight for a visit while she is on winter break from teaching kindergarten in a small town school. In our family, Southwest is definitely the family carrier for us. With each flight being as inexpensive as $86 (plus taxes) one way, it is certainly a better deal for time and money than driving.
While she is here, Johnny will have no time lacking for play and attention. Grandma is going to be making up for some lost time. Truly, she will earn her keep loving her little man while in our house.
I always find it interesting watching her interact with Johnny. I often wonder if her ease of connecting with the little man is due to her experience as a professional teacher, her genetic relation expressing itself, or her undeniable love for him. I suspect it is a mix of everything and more, but that certainly could use a bit more investigation if for nothing else other than my entertainment.
Once again, here’s another good one from the past. Johnny is definitely thinking of something good. I could joke about Mommy offering him some “Milky”, but he’s probably just in shock over seeing the flash.
I must admit that I miss the days where Johnny was just learning to use his face and was testing every facial movement possible.
On Sunday mornings, Daddy takes Johnny out of the house so his Mommy can rest up. Today he woke up before 7:00 am. To kill some time, Daddy found a Baby Einstein video on the internet for him to watch. Granted we own a copy of what he was watching, but it was best to let him listen via headphones.
So, his Daddy hooked up his Sony’s and put them on Johnny. Amazingly enough, he stood in the chair for over 20 minutes to watch the video. Daddy stood behind him to make sure he didn’t fall.
Here’s a picture of Johnny wearing headphones for the first time for you to enjoy.
Ok, its a little late. On Monday February 4, 2008, at approximately 5:00 pm, John Victor Esberg said his first word. Daddy came walking after driving home from work. Mommy was on the couch. Johnny came running around the couch and said, “Da-Da”. Wow! His first word.
Since then he’s also kicked out another attempt at Kitty. It sounds more like “Kee-Eee”.
Looks like we’re finally off!
(Note from Mom: It’s not really the first time he said “Da-da”, just the first time that he said it to his Da-da’s face.)
I believe it is best to say, this blog is inspired by our son. Born September 24th, 2006, he is quite the cute little man. He is the 5th John in a row. His passions are:
Elmo
Running around outside
Baby Einstein Videos (such as “My First Signs”)
Baby Einstein Books
Playing with Mommy or Daddy (”Da-Da”)
Sondra Boynton’s “Barnyard Dance” with Daddy dancing to the words before bed.
Cheerios
Gerber Puffs
Granted this list is not all inclusive, it is a good start.
Once again, here’s another good one from the past. Johnny is definitely thinking of something good. I could joke about Mommy offering him some “Milky”, but he’s probably just in shock over seeing the flash.
