the children's museum

 This was something Heidi wanted to do on her day off, and Julia's been asking to go here for months.   Alicia was game, and Dan was even also.

This is the Our World section where they have a neighborhood, including a bus, a clinic, a sound stage, an art museum, restaurant, grocery store, and post office.  The kids can keep busy for hours in here, and in fact might not ever want to leave and go to the other parts of the museum.

And how did my camera happen to be including a date, which I did not want it to, never mind it is a date from a year and a half ago?

Annoying.

 Here's the water part.  p.j. SCREAMED when it was time to move on from here.  What is so fun about messing around with water?   Doesn't matter.  It is.

This is the jungle room.

 And Heidi crawled into the turtle shell.

 This was almost a two-headed turtle, but it didn't quite work.  Probably that's for the best.

 These are thunder clouds controlled by pulleys and when they're all together, then a storm erupts.  Clouds build, lightening flashes.   b.g. loved it.

And then after over three hours of this we were all really, really tired.  Strangely exhausted.  I bought the kids sandwiches from the refrigerator case in the gift shop and we came home.

But what a great day, you guys.  This was so much fun.  love, Mom

she's two

 Today she's two and Heidi took the day off and invited us to lunch to celebrate.

The kids picked out a couple of her gifts for today--some are saved for the other party Saturday night.

These are the Hello Kitty sandals.   They are being worn with socks, yes--Santa socks, specifically

She dresses herself in the outfits of her own choosing.  Today along with the Santa socks she's also wearing an old pajama top of Julia's.

An old friend is a specialist in child development and she says this, "Kids affect our behavior far more than we do theirs--in large part because they are so single-minded in their purpose."

I can see what she means.   They aren't bogged down in what other people think, or being polite.   They want what they want.

Battles about clothing on an ordinary day--so not worth it.

 She picked out her own cake, pronounced it, "Pretty!"

The cake was delicious and the company easy-going.   Tim got to Swiffering and carrying on and I have not seen Heidi laugh so hard in a very long time.

And you my beautiful girl make us all so happy.   These two years watching you grow have been so much fun and spring is coming and you will love it outside barefoot and jacket-less.

Lydia wants to personally thank you for being her girl.

Happy Birthday, sweet p.j.    We could not love you more.  Lucky us.   love, Grandma and Grandpa and everybody, especially Lydia

happy birthday, buddy

 

Big, little.

 

 I don't even know what to say about you and all the happiness you've brought us.  There's never been anyone in the whole world quite like you.   Seven years of loving you--is that possible it's been only seven years?    It pretty much feels like we've always known you, like you were here the whole time.

We're lucky and we know it, Sweetheart.  

Happy Birthday, with love for always

Grandma and Grandpa and everybody.

kooky kid pictures

 James told the kids they could use his old camera. 

 They brought it a few days ago and wanted to download the pictures from it, so I helped them. The biggest problem was finding the cord.

 There were some fun pictures on there.  Those Barbies are just weird.

 He looks like such a baby here with his wild hair.

 I haven't seen this guy in a while, but I will on Saturday.  TODAY IS HIS BIRTHDAY.

 Awwww, Lydia.   Little auntie niece kisses.

And this one, taken with my phone last night, looking out the window.  It's still snowing today--beautiful pain in the neck mess.   Happy Tuesday, Kids.   love, Mom

better mood friday

These are pictures of yesterday, where a bad mood began to be overcome.   The first step was to make a pot of minestrone for lunch.

This is something Lori used to make, and thinking about her and eating minestrone helped.

Then in the evening, we went over to Dan and Alicia's to see the kids.   We all agreed staying out of our house was best--too many contagious people, but Dan suggested going there, and it was great.

b.g. and his baby brother were so happy to see us, it was pretty hilarious.   They were racing all over the living room, giddy, and finally b.g. told his parents, "You guys go to work so I can play with Grandpa and Grandma by myself!"

Alicia said they'd do the dishes then, and the child invited us downstairs to play with toys.   We built the train tracks and read books.  After a bit Dan came back downstairs and b.g. ordered Grandpa to cook him.

Cook him?

This means to dangle the child upside down over the couch and whiz him back and forth bumping his head along the cushions.   This went on for a while and then he told Grandpa, "Cook DADDY!"    We laughed. That would be a sight to see.

These pictures are from today.  Alicia invited us along to the Field House to play.   I never heard of this before, but it's a huge soccer dome full of bounce houses and balls and toys.

 $3/child.   They went nuts.

 Okay, this list of rules includes this rule:  no pets in the bounce house and also no silly string.

Okay, then.   Glad to know.

And then we came home, had McDonald's for lunch.

Thanks for making Friday a whole lot better than Thursday was.    love, Val