it has been kind of cool here (low to mid-70s) for the past week and today was rainy too. i feel like we have been at home too much so we ate an early lunch and then headed to the museum for a few hours - i just love having a pass!
the kids' all love finding everything on their clipboard each time. i love watching them compare notes and help each other.
since manning is getting more and more mobile (he can free stand very easily now and takes 2-4 steps at a time - i am trying to get video but he will only walk to me on demand and he thinks it is funnier to just fall into me), i let him have time to explore at a few baby-friendly spots in the museum. i think his favorite was the turtle cage and the aerodynamic demo (we call it the 'ball popper') - manning and maddux could have spent the whole time playing with the air and balls. manning could actually catch the balls as they were 'floating'. i don't know why i did stills instead of a video...
after some quiet time when we got home, maddux and i read books for a while and then i went down and built the kids a fort to use while i made dinner. this was the first fort since manning could crawl apparently because he thought it was the greatest thing ever!! he kept crawling through and laughing hysterically. you can't really see the fort in the pictures but both boys are in the middle of it.
i think we are actually looking forward to our rainy day at home tomorrow! love.
not sure if i have mentioned this in another post before, but baby wipes clean everything! seriously, blood, grease, stainless steel, markers, you name it and there is a pretty good chance a baby wipe can undo it. it has often made me give a second thought to using them on the little tushies in our house!
what baby products have you found a double use for?
so manning is now a "stinker". today at the library he was pulling the board books off the shelf while i was helping maddux cut out the craft. so went and put him back over by the train table. and then it became a 'game'. he would look at me and grin before making a bee-line back to the book rack while cracking up hysterically and looking over his shoulder to see if i was watching and chasing him. it was actually adorable, but i was trying not to laugh or smile because this was not something i want to be a regular game. even other moms were trying not to laugh because they could see what was happening but his laugh and smile were so cute you couldn't help it. he wasn't even pulling the books down any more, it was just about me coming to get him. so when we got home i tried to get some video of the laugh (because i don't think that i have enough - or any - of his belly laugh) and chase. it wasn't quite the same fun for him at home though.
thinking about manning's first signs of 'stinker-ness' at the library during our drive home reminded me of maddux between 1 and 2. i think i posted about how he might be the undoing of me. he was just always into something and wasn't responding to our normal discipline and it was exhausting! and somehow i got through it and now he is generally super sweet and a pleaser. i never thought it would end in the midst of it and i felt like this huge failure and yet i didn't notice when the change happened. and then i realized that maddux is strong willed (i already knew this part) but i think that is why he has been the most 'obsessed' with something (orange, jake, etc.) - it is just him giving a no budge control over something. i never thought of these long periods of favoritism as a manifestation of being strong willed before. what do you think?
i have been working on cleaning up and organizing the basement storage (which reminds me, i should take a "before" picture to help motivate me to the "after"...) and i found the "photo" box that had some wedding pictures. i am pretty sure that there is a clearer picture of us in front of the stained glass window i mentioned in a post from our florida trip, but, as promised, here is the difference 11-1/2 years makes. love.
mason received several superhero legos sets for his birthday and this week he and madelyn decided to build them all. mason got too exciting about playing with the first finished set and the superhero figurines so madelyn was left to build the rest mostly on her own - not that she minded. i was so having flashbacks to my childhood of building my brothers' legos sets; right down to having to set it up exactly as it appears on the box.
i spent a few hours yesterday acting as her 'assistant' and finding all of the pieces she needed when she needed them. i've got to say i was enjoying it as much as she was - i do love legos!
here is some video of the kids explaining the spiderman set they finished this morning:
the only downside to the kids really being into the legos this week is that the weather has been gorgeous! i really hated being inside and kept making them go outside to play a little.
the kids have been taking swimming lessons over the past two months or so and they really like going. and this session has been easier on me because i learned on the last day of the last session that i could check the kids not swimming into the child care.
while we cant sit poolside during lessons, it occurred to me that i could still get some video of the bigs swimming. i thought of this after maddux' lesson. mason and madelyn have lessons at the same time and it always seems they they both get their turn to swim at the same time. here is some blurry video of madelyn through a slightly dirty window with a lot of zoom and mason's is on the observation monitor to the kiddie pool.
madelyn's teacher (and mason's today) happen to be some of my favorite instructors for my water aerobics classes. there is a lot of joking and splashing in madelyn's class. it has really helped her improve her comfort in the water.
we are getting closer to having reliable swimmers! yay! love.
a local frozen yogurt place was having a "christmas in july" event where if you wore a santa hat 10% of your purchase went to matt's hospital and the two best costumes were going to be given a $10 gift card. i thought that the kids would enjoy seeing their christmas decorations (more impressive than the ones in the picture but the kids wanted to be with the gingerbread house behind the counter) and matt had golf so the kids and i had a super late afternoon snack and then went up to get a sweet treat. they (and i) were pretty excited.
while we were taking pictures, manning was after the frozen yogurt!
i was able to find three christmas hats pretty quickly without having to open too much in the basement. i thought about finding some christmas shirts but figured the costumes would be pretty good. we didn't even see someone else where a santa hat though! we might have had a good chance at the gift card if we had worn shirts too. oh well. the kids were just happy to have a hint of christmas. love.
some friends invited us to join them at the zoo today. since we didn't have any plans and the day was going to be gorgeous we were in! it wasn't all that crowded on monday when we came with papa, nana and uncle derek, but today was crazy! and people were not paying any attention to others. it made things a little stressful but the weather was so gorgeous that it was nice to be there.
there were five families of moms and kids so we made a fairly large group. it was easier to stay together than i had expected which was nice. since my kids were the youngest, we started to need to end the day a lot earlier than everyone else and broke off from the group to move towards the exit a little sooner. but thanks to a few too many bathroom breaks (with super long lines), they caught back up with us twice.
madelyn couldn't resist a pose with a statue on our way out. maddux decided to join her with the "baby turtle".
so happy to have friends who thought to invite us along. love.
we went to the ymca this morning for my class and then swung by the library to pick up a prize maddux won from completing the summer reading program - they had a drawing. not only was he happy to win, but he was ecstatic that it was orange!
manning was playing peek-a-boo with the frisbee this afternoon so i wanted to get some video. however, he was done and maddux wasn't going to give it back.
and then we were just silly. i was trying to get a picture of manning's real smile. he seriously has his mouth open in almost every picture, but he has a sweet, clinched teeth smile that i have yet to capture.
silly face maddux - his idea for a pose
and then he showed manning how to smile for the camera.
yet another open-mouth picture of our little rolly-polly.
almost it but not a full smile.
the kids were quite happy to be playing inside but it was too nice to be inside so i made them come out to play for a while. it was actually almost cold. i seriously thought about going in for a sweatshirt - in july!
last night matt and i were talking about how we haven't done any 'everyday' summer stuff yet - family walks on the trail to get ice cream, family trip to the pool, etc. and then i was talking about how all the bad eating (from vacation and eating in restaurants) and not being able to get to the gym is hurting my waistline. so this morning i decided that the kids and i would walk to a park. madelyn decided that she wanted to ride her bike (a huge deal for her) and mason and maddux would walk (or run as they were talking about before we left but barely did). we left about 9am but some fresh/loose gravel at the start of the trail caused madelyn to wipe out and skin her knee. she pretty much cried from that point on. but, to her credit, she stuck with her bike and rode or walked it the whole mile to the park. we were all happy when we finally got there!
everything was a little wet from all the rain yesterday but it didn't stop the kids from having a great time. they were excited that the fire pole wasn't too high at this park and couldn't get enough of it. (even though this park is close and walkable from our house, we have never gone there to play before.)
the walk/ride home was just as tearful after madelyn wiped out trying to stop before getting to an uneven patch in the path. and then the fatigue of the ride and the rising temperatures started to make her melt down. but where she would have just left the bike or stopped moving, she kept trying again and riding home. the boys were starting to get hot and a little slower; manning fell asleep in the stroller (he was the only one who had a great time). mason was back to his normal self today and would stay and help madelyn each time she fell off her bike and threw a fit. he would offer to help her with a push to get started or to walk her bike for her. he obviously had a great night's sleep last night.
even with all the tears, it was still a pretty nice way to start the day. love.
when the kids are irrationally clinging, i have started giving them a picture of me. it started with a small framed picture i gave matt in college. but tonight i had to pull prints out of a random photo album. i think i might need to get some wallets of a recent headshot.
over the weekend the zoo opened a new exhibit that has been under construction for at least a year. we didn't think that nana would want to do that for her birthday (plus we figured that it would be super crowded) so we thought that it would be perfect for today. they needed to leave town around 2pm (they were driving to indiana to visit more family) and we don't usually last much later than that at the zoo. i had a small concern that it might be crowded with day camps today but it proved to be a great day to go. it did drizzle almost the entire time we were there but i didn't find it to be too bothersome and everything was nice and cool.
papa on the rope bridge
i think papa emptied out his pockets with the kids so that they could watch the coins roll down.
peek-a-boo manning and maddux
peek-a-boo manning and papa
the new part of the zoo is called grizzly ridge. it was beautiful and the kids were really, really excited to see the animals that haven't been on display during construction (their old areas were torn down to make this brand new section).
one last group shot
little 'birds' in a nest
one of the things i thought was the coolest was the clear tube slide through the river otter exhibit, it went through the otter's tank at the bottom of the slide!
look at these crazy critters!
and we took a spin around the carousel on our way out - papa and nana's treat. i rode with manning since it was his very first time and uncle derek rode with maddux - madelyn and mason were tall enough to ride on their own. if maddux grows about two more inches, i will be able to take the kids by myself.
and then it was time to say good-bye. mason was in really rare form today (he is just tired and overstimulated from all the traveling, late nights and visitors). he almost missed out on saying good-bye. we were all sad to say good-bye but i think everyone had a nice visit. it was nice that uncle derek was able to join us too since we missed him when we came through atlanta because he was out of town.
now we get to have almost two weeks with no major schedule! i think this is the longest stretch all summer. i am not sure how that happened... love.
as we were eating breakfast on friday morning, mason was the first to see a hot air balloon! it was a total surprise because the first flight wasn't supposed to be until friday night.
unfortunately, this was the only balloon we saw all weekend! at least nana got to see it but papa and uncle derek had not arrived yet. if you were reading at this time last year, you would know that we had the balloons land in our neighborhood several times. papa and nana were going to visit in early august, but we suggested they come a few weeks earlier so that they could see the balloons. oh well. love.
we all went to church together and the papa, nana and uncle derek went back to our house while our family stayed for second service (the kids have classes and matt and i teach one). second service ended up getting out a little later than usual so we had to race home for lunch before matt, derek and papa went to play golf.
the kids were all exhausted and ended up sleeping in the afternoon. since i didn't have any cooking to do and was exhausted, i excused myself to sleep too. i told nana that she should have golfed with them afterall since she was just sitting at the house by herself. i felt even worse when they guys came home raving about how beautiful the course was they had played. however, matt also came home covered in ticks! yuck!
a pretty uneventful day but the kids and i got some much needed rest. love.
we started the day with blueberry chocolate chip pancakes in honor of nana (blueberries are her very favorite food) and after much planning and debate among matt and i over what to do during the day in honor of nana, we couldn't come to a decision. so papa decided that he would like to go to a restaurant we took them to last time for lunch. since the restaurant is part of a larger complex we spent the day there. first was some browsing through the flea/farmer's market. i think uncle derek carried someone the entire time.
then we headed over to the restaurant and we didn't have a wait for the first time (we have been about three or four times and the line is usually very, very long).
manning enjoying lunch
nana and papa at the birthday lunch
and just what every woman wants to do on her birthday - we went to the hardware store. this is a very impressive hardware store and is along the lines of what disney might do in a hardware store so it wasn't all bad. (i actually can't wait to go again! they have a model home built in the middle of the store as an 'idea house'.)
uncle derek found a few things and to put in his cart...
our rowdy crew on the drive home. since i had all of the carseats out and was starting to have trouble folding manning in half to get him in, i turned him around. he is in heaven! seriously, he has been SO excited to face forward.
since we had some time before dinner, we decided to give nana her presents. maddux started singing her happy birthday (he kept calling her "grandma" instead of "nana" since nana is a grandma and we just came from seeing "grandma". he also called "papa" "big pop". oh well.)
and then he laid one of his signature "big kisses" on her!
the monkey on my back
the three bigs made her cards (maddux' writing was remarkably good - i should have taken a picture before giving it to her).
we found a purple giraffe - two of nana's favorite things together
teavana tea set.
unfortunately, madelyn was not feeling her best and came down with a fever. she took a nap on papa and then had a full blown fever and chills when she woke up. but a dose of medicine, a wardrobe change to a fleece and jeans and she was able to join us for dinner. she just had a smoothie but the rest of us had a nice quiet dinner at a restaurant. we went kind of early in the hopes of seeing the balloons but i think the weather was too bad for them to get off again. bummer.
maddux ended up with two orange crayons and was quite happy
stinker face with uncle derek
i remembered to have the waitress take a group picture for us. this is the only one we have with our whole group.
more stinker face
and then we went home for cake. i was going to make something but matt and the kids wanted the ice cream/cake combo we had for madelyn's birthday.
and then it was time to call it a day. madelyn just wanted to get into bed as soon as possible but the two big boys stayed up for a while reading books.
we put all four kids in the same room during their visit (papa and nana were in madelyn's bed and derek was downstairs on an air mattress). the thought was that if one of the older boys woke up, they would only cry in their room for a few minutes but would cry in our room for up to an hour - manning had a better chance at sleep in the room with all the kids. it actually worked out fine and we are thinking about putting all the boys together sooner than later.
i hope you had a great day, nana! so happy that we could help you celebrate. love.
