Robots

One of Dylan's all time favorite movies is Robots, and we have probably watched it about a bazillion times in the past few years. So I learned a while back there was a traveling Robots exhibit, and it just came to Baltimore this past weekend.

Logan had an appointment at Kennedy Krieger up there yesterday morning, so afterwards, we headed to Port Discovery to check out the exhibit and play. Its such a cool interactive kids museum and we've been many times. They have a cool new water play exhibit, a three story 'urban treehouse', and tons of stuff for kids.

Here are the boys crossing river in Ancient Egypt:

Here's Dylan with some rather famous robots:

Here they are trying to assemble their own robot:

Logan getting soaked at the water table:

And Dylan hanging ten:

It was a fantastic day despite the ridiculous traffic coming home and our ridiculous lunch. Before going to the museum, we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, and it was our first and last time there. What a rip off! We asked for bread for Logan, and she brought a tiny plate with two tiny pieces of cold, thin garlic bread. When the bill came, it was $3.80 for the bread, and $2.99 for an iced tea. You've got to be kidding me? We should have known better, but anyway...

It was a great day nonetheless. And, it just so happened to be our 8th wedding anniversary! So Happy Anniversary to us!!

ahhh, what a weekend

This weekend at the lake house was about as close to a perfect weekend as possible with a five and almost two year old. The weather was gorgeous, the company was great, we all slept well, the kids played so nice with the other kids and we enjoyed some incredible meals and quality time with my Mom and Stepdad and other family members. Logan loved his first jet ski ride and Dylan tried knee boarding behind the boat for the first time. Dylan tubed behind the jet ski for hours, and spent the rest of his time swimming to and jumping from the dive platform, fishing, and eating junk food.

We got our first glimpse of what a family vacation feels like now that the kids are a little older, and it will just keep getting better. Last summer Logan was just a baby and napping twice a day and not walking and a 'vacation' was really just a change of scenery. This year is totally different. We actually got to relax and have fun ourselves. I think I read four People magazines!

It was so fun, actually, that we spent all day yesterday frolicking and grilling dinner together and didn't get home until 10 pm last night. So with arms sore from tubing myself, I am tackling a bazillion loads of very dirty lake laundry today and nursing a sunburned back. A small price to pay for lovely weekend.

making like a fish and heading out

We are heading to the lake house for the holiday weekend, and will be meeting my parents, and many other family members - a full, crazy house of fun. The forecast looks awesome and we'll be soaking up some sun, doing lots of fishing, roasting marshmallows, boating and mojito drinking.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend, and I'll post lake photos next week!

how they change

Today is Dylan's last day of preschool. He will have a field day and graduation ceremony June 5th, but today is the last 'real' day. I can't believe it. This is a photo of Dylan on his first ever day of preschool, October 2006.





And here he is today.




He looks ready for college doesn't he? He's turned into a little man right before our eyes. He's gotten so confident, too. I remember he was a little nervous to go to preschool. He never cried or said he didn't want to go, but I could tell he wasn't quite sure what to expect. I don't know that his preschool has always been a totally amazing academic experience, but its provided him the chance to learn how to make friends on his own and he's had a lot of fun along the way.


They just grow up too darn fast.

cousin love

Our beloved NJ cousins came for a visit this weekend. And the absolute utter cuteness of our combined four boys (6, 5, 4 and 2) giggling, holding hands and, well, just being little boys, was beyond words. Dylan told me last night he wished they could have stayed for 14 nights. Fortunately we'll all be together in about a month when we meet halfway for an amusement park adventure. Here are some photos of the cuteness. Thanks for a great weekend guys!

Mission Accomplished

Done. Over. Mr. Possum is no longer part of the menagerie in this suburban dwelling. I went MacGyver on his arse. Armed with a common household mop, a broomstick, and twelve feet of telephone wire, I snared the little beast. The first thing a possum does when cornered is growl. The second thing he does is go skunk-like and spray. But since he is not a skunk and lacks the scent glands, he more than makes up for this in scatological offerings. He shit the wall! Oh man does that little bugger stink. I snared his head and was trying to remove him from behind a bakers rack on our deck, but his prehensile tale grabbed everything. True to my word, I walked the bastard down to the library and let him go. It was a this moment that he went limp. I am assuming he is playing dead. Picture above is not of the actual animal, but it would have been a fitting end.

Possum, you have been served.

UPDATE....

Oops. Now I feel bad. He is either dead, or an Oscar worthy 'possum. I am hoping, for karma's sake, he's a really good actor.

a crush and a homocide

Yesterday when I picked Dylan up at preschool, I learned he has a girlfriend. Her name is Jayda, and she is a cute little blond tiny thing. She colored a heart for him, and then ripped it in half so Dylan could bring his half home. Dylan told me when they get a little older, they are going to drive to Chuck E Cheese together. If only next week weren't the last week of preschool! But, it is, and I'm honestly ready to trade days of dropping off and picking up for lazy days at the pool. His preschool field day is June 5th and then we'll be looking ahead to kindergarten. Hard to believe. I'm sure this disbelief will be a recurring theme in my summer posts, but I just can't believe my little man is going to real school soon.

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Logan's speech therapy sessions have been sort of on hold the past few weeks due to come scheduling issues. This Monday, she spent 1 1/2 hours with him at our house, and noted lots of progress since she last saw him. He is really imitating us now, and will at least attempt to make the beginning consonant sound of a word. He has added car, go, cup, boo, up, duck, cow and probably a few other words I am forgetting. So I'd say he's up to about 12-15 words that he'll use when prompted or imitating us. Our next goal is to encourage him to use words spontaneously on his own. He loves saying "yeaaaaaa" really drawn out and will reply to any question asked. Logan, would you like a banana? "Yeaaaaaaaaa". Logan, would you like to play puzzles? "Yeaaaaaaaaaaaa". Logan, would you like to eat some pickled monkey brains? "Yeaaaaaaa". He's not discriminating.

His tantrums seem about the same in frequency and intensity - some days are better than others. His hitting has definitely tapered to maybe once or twice a day. The best days are ones where we stay busy and have at least one excursion outside. He is trying so hard to jump and crouches down in the right position, but can't quite get both of his feet off the ground yet.

We are waging a paci war and its a battle to keep it away from him when he's awake. This was never a battle we had to wage with Dylan, who never cared about pacis and stopped sucking his fingers on his own at 18 months after a raging case of hand, foot and mouth. When Logan has a little more maturity and comprehension under his tiny belt, I think we're going to wrap up all the binkys in a pretty box and take them to the baby pandas at the Zoo. We don't want him walking around all day with a binky in his mouth preventing him from practicing his sounds. But you come over and try taking it away from him. Do they make a Paci-rette Patch?

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I forgot to mention a couple of weeks ago that I committed homocide. I was holding the Sea Monkey container over the kitchen sink and it got away from me. Before I knew it, they were all down the garbage disposal. I felt terrible, as most of them were pregnant and we even had some new babies. Poor little Sea Monkeys. My bad.

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We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our cousins tomorrow night for a nice long weekend of fun and playing and grilling and adult beverages! We haven't seen them for about a year. Dylan is so excited to have two little boys his age to play with all weekend. I hope to take lots of photos of their visit. Logan will be old enough this time to join in the reindeer games too now that he's a "big boy". Last time they visited, I sliced a chunk of my finger while making a salad and spent a couple of hours in the ER getting stitches instead of enjoying margaritas like I should have been. The shame of it. Here's hoping someone else mans the knives this time so I don't take any chances to miss happy hour.

a little trip...

On Thursday morning, I loaded up the kids and we drove two hours to our families' lake house for an overnight stay. We went to help Grandma Lynn do a few things around the house. It wasn't the greatest weather, but that didn't stop Dylan from swimming for hours. Logan still isn't a big fan of the sand, we're going to have to work on that before we go back for Memorial Day weekend. He was perfectly happy to sit in his lawn chair and eat pistachio nuts.

The lake house was built and completed two years ago, right when Logan was born. All of the kids in our family will grow up having a place to go to their whole lives, with fishing, swimming, boating, campfires, crab feasts, and cook outs. Its a place to make memories together and we're so grateful to have such a wonderful place to escape to!

10-4 Good Buddy

One of the towns near us opened up their public works facility this week and gave kids full access to all of their trucks and maintenance vehicles. Heaven for two little boys!

Dylan driving the trash truck. Mommy look at all these buttons!

And the street sweeper...

And the digger...

And then there was Logan, who was not so sure he wanted to do any trucking.

Cinco de Mojito

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, and in the spirit of Latin American celebratory adult beverages, I thought I'd share Andrew's delish recipe for his famous mojito.

First make simple syrup.

Equal parts water to sugar. 8 liquid oz of water to 1 cup dry measure of sugar. For flexibility sake, 3 cups of water to 3 cups of sugar. Place in a pot and bring to an almost boil. Stirring frequently until all the sugar dissolves. Place this in a pitcher or bottle and chill in fridge, it should keep about a month.

Now for the Mojito itself:

Mint leaves. Muddle the mint in the bottom of the class with the back a wooden spoon to crush the leaves and release the essential oils.

Add ice, half to ¾ of glass.
1 part white rum
2 parts simple syrup
1 part lime juice

lime wedges

If you like a fizzy cocktail, add a dash of club soda.

Put on sarong and enjoy in a hammock listening to a steel drum band. Or in reality, put kids in front of TV and sip.

reason #1,789 why i love my husband

You must remember our possum friend from last month? He came sauntering onto our screen porch thru the doggie door last night. I went to let Bella out and she freaked and before I even saw the varmint, she had chased it into a corner and had its head in her mouth. It was playing dead and I thought she killed it. I thought there was blood all over the floor (turns out it was just drool, I'm not sure whose, maybe mine?). I'm screaming "No Bella! No Bella!" and she comes back inside. I close the glass door and Bella and I stand there staring at the possom playing, well.... possom.


While this is happening, Andrew very calmly disappears to the basement for a good five minutes or so. I’m standing there in the kitchen looking at the possum who is just started blinking its beady little black eyes again and I'm wondering where the heck Andrew went at a time like this?? He arrives carrying (I am SO not kidding) a mop and a long telephone cord, from which he quietly and quickly proceeds to fashion a snare, total MacGyver style, and steps onto the porch to snag it around the neck. It must have sensed his fierce determination in becoming the first man to capture a possom using a cleaning apparatus, so it runs back out thru the doggie door. I’m yelling more than one obscenity, as it scurries off into the darkness, and we both collapse into fits of laughter.


When we caught our breath, I asked him what he planned to do with it if he had gotten the snare around its neck. To which he matter of factly replied he was going to just walk it down to the corner where there are some woods and let it go. We live on a pretty busy through street. If you were a motorist, can you imagine seeing some guy at 11 pm calmly walking a possum connected to a mop and a telephone cord?? If you were a burglar, I bet you'd think twice before breaking into our house. Who knows what he'll come up with for the next intruder.