Dinosaurs

Joseph is hooked on this Dinosaur book by Dorling Kindersley.

This means that we talk about, dream about, think about and play dinosaurs alllllll day long.

The boys were doing their rendition of "dinosaurs on parade" through my kitchen, dining room and living room the other morning. I told them to go quietly read down in the playroom.

Found this.

They were reading the book to their toy dinosaurs, pointing out to the dinosaurs which type of species they were...and, at the end of the day, who was gonna eat them!

Just to show you how the far down the line this new obsession has taken hold:

Nathan has his dinosaurs lined up on the couch and is singing Happy Birthday to Dinosaurs...until he sees that  I am recording. Then it  turns into "Hey, Mom is watching. Can't let her think that I can speak or sing in a normal voice. Her expectations of me might get higher."

So he changes to his dinosaur voice.

Disturbing.

Two Weeks

Two weeks. That is how long the littles have been withOUT Sarah and Joseph during the mornings. The olders have been attending Faith Formation every day. 

"Church School", as Tommy calls it.

It has been so hard on the two babies that Thomas has even played Pretty, Pretty Princess with Sarah in the afternoons...just because he missed her. 

 After I drop off Sarah and Joseph in the morning, this is what I have to deal with.

 Until Noon! In mommy-time, that is like 14 years...of pure toddlerhood.

 Which is only slightly terrifying...but enough to start making me wish that I had my two "stabilizers" back in the bunch.

I mean, C'MON! He's scary!

Yikes.

He's in a laundry basket.

 On a table.

 Covered in his baby sister's new quilt.

Mommy misses you, Sarah and Joseph!

"Cackers"

The children have been behaving better at Church lately...except for that time when Thomas punched Uncle Nick in the face last week and Nathan yelled "cow" through the entire Mass two weeks ago and Joseph had to go potty three times, in succession, the week before that.

SOOOOOO, all in all, pretty good.

I think the reasoning for all this good behavior is Joanna.

Joanna is a kind Italian grandmother that sits in the pew directly in front of us. She has a soft spot for our Nathan. And by soft spot I mean that she feels a strong and urgent desire to feed him. Everything. All the time.  Each week, she sends us home with another bag full of homemade/ Italian goodness.

This is the most recent treat. Nathan is packing on the pounds now.

He calls them "cackers". Joseph, Tommy and Sarah all call them by their real name: "Biscolussi". AND they say it with an Italian accent! I don't call them anything, because my Italian accent sounds just like my German/ British/ Irish accent....and I can't read the package because it is all written in Italian, so I don't technically know if they are cookies or crackers.  

Which means that they must be crackers so that I feel zero guilt when giving them to my children at 8:30am.

Feeling Hot! Hot! Hot!

We have been spending a lot of time in the "kiggie pool" in the early evening. We go out around 4ish and stay out until Matt comes home and makes dinner and does everything that I was supposed to do during the day but couldn't because of the extra 75 pounds on my anterior...

We eat, and then this happens:

Almost every evening around 6, Nate crashes.

When he doesn't fall asleep, we have about one more hour of family time to do whatever. I always pick food, obviously.

I'm hot. Let's eat.

And since I know the children have good taste in food, I allow them to pick.

Ice cream, each and every night? Sure!

During the day, we spend most of our time in the house. We just don't do well in this sunshine for more than 45 minutes or so.

Sarah has been helping me with my nesting techniques. I guess I haven't been warning people when I polish the floor and scrub the tub. She says I need to hang up signs. 

I walked into the bathroom last week, and this is what I found: 

Sarah had washed down the sink for me. I love the figure of the hunched over stick person, preparing to wash his hands. Lateral view, obviously.

31 weeks, in this picture. Lateral view, obviously....just not as trim as the picture Sarah drew above.

 If you want to know what 32 weeks looks like, in your mind, double the size of my abdomen, fingers, arms, face...you get the drift.

Joseph's Storm Troopers from his Star Wars Lego set...with Sarah's accessorizing.
She's an artist.

For Real

I asked Matt to get the kids into their suits and hats and to, pretty please, sunscreen them so we could take them outside before they destroyed the house. 

Found this.

Diaper Wars.

There were diapers hanging from the lights and stuck on the top of the bookcase. Joseph had stashed a bunch and was about to go into rapid fire on Tom.

 I didn't get a good picture, but my husband was also participating in the insanity...laughing like a 2 year-old...and carpet bombing the spinning ceiling fan, causing projectiles.

I was not pleased.

Matt: "What is that face for? I got them ready like you asked!"

I threatened to give away all their toys and just get them each a box of diapers.

Joseph: "Size 4, please!"

Road Trip- Home

It did not feel like a complete Pernot Vacation without trains. And up there, in the Adirondacks, we were not disappointed. The Adirondack Scenic Railroad was a stop we made before our departure home. We wanted to take a trip on the RR, but the ride for that day was a Bandit Train. My children still have nightmares about Max and Ruby. 'Nuff said.

We explored the yard and even found an old turn table for the children to march around. It was awesome!

Matt insisted on taking a different route home. Driving through Watertown on the 4th of July was not his first choice...so he took us on some back roads through some sleepy little towns.

Don't even try to tell me he DIDN'T plan THIS:

Matt promises me that he had no clue that there was a steam engine and museum on this particular route back home. I told him I would now be referring to him as a train magnet. Or maybe the trains are the magnet. Either way, we can't go anywhere without being drawn to some type of locomotive.

The kind lady at the museum started up this train table for the kids. It is a model of their town and has a precious little train that runs around, under and through it.

The kids LOVED this little locomotive. On special occasions, the museum starts it up and gives rides to its members.
Joseph wanted to know where to sign up.

"Thomas," I said, "please don't touch the coal in that box!"

Nathan is becoming a train nut like his father. You can't see his face straight on because the photographer's swollen abdomen kept getting in the way and threatening to knock off one of the sides of the train table. But you can imagine the sheer joy of that little face, no?

Road Trip- Day Two

Driving through the Adirondacks was more than half the enjoyment of our trip. I felt like we were taking the drive around town to look at Christmas lights, with the children "oooohhhh-ing" and "ahhhhhhhh-ing" in the back...and Matt pulling over every mile to let more traffic pass him. It was Heaven, to be sure. Slow, gratifying, God-praising Heaven.

Our first stop in the morning was the High Falls Gorge. I sent Matt in to the information office to check and see if there were child-friendly nature trails for the kids to explore.

Matt came out with wristbands for all of us and said we would "probably be able to do the hardest path of all, right down the side of the gorge....Isn't that exciting!?"

And I tried claiming I was going into labor, but Matt only responded that that would give us another 37 minutes before we actually had to push. At least.

Just kidding.

The beginning of the Hike of Insanity crosses over the AuSable River. The kids loved the bridge, and Matt was right: it was incredibly child-friendly. Gates and fences were EVERYWHERE! They were remarkably Tom-Boo proof.

After our excursion to the gorge, we stopped at a family restaurant and just chilled. It was perfect. The kids were perfect. The food was perfect. It was just one of those moments.

Needless to say, we had some tired babies that afternoon.

When the boys woke up, we beached it.
Matt and Joseph had blueprints and rules.

Thomas doesn't.
His plan was to make everyone feel like they were underwater. Whether we were sitting in a beach chair or building a castle...we were gonna get soaked.

Nathan's idea of a good time at the beach is to try to make everyone as uncomfortable as he is. He despises sand. So he stood there and threw sand at anyone within a three foot radius of his person.

Sarah has some serious stamina. She actually finished a pool that we set out to make for Nate.
I was so proud of Joseph. He is loving water this year. No meltdowns, no stress. He was the most enjoyable person to be around for this entire trip. Joseph is a permission seeker. He has to walk through each and every step of something that he is about to do. Just to make sure it's okay, safe, and that I know where he is and what he is doing. He kinda lost that part of himself during vacation, and I had to be extra special attentive when I discovered him walking out into the water by himself and being slightly more adventurous than normal.

That night we took a drive to Saranac Lake to watch the boats go in and out of the launch and maybe toss a line in the water.

I gave Tom the camera, to discourage him from trying to jump in the water to find a fish. Sorry about your head being cut off, Matt.
 Vertically-Challenged Boo.