Tuesday: smart kids and ducks

Joshua has started giving fives all the time.  If your hand is turned over he'll move it so that he can reach the palm of your hand.  He has also gotten more consistent at waving.

Isaac read the word "off" in the car.  It's a word we've talked about before and I don't think we've talked about it in the context that he read it in, but I'm not 100% sure.  Anyway, I'm calling it a reading win.

Isaac also discovered a law of physics tonight.  He had a ball on the ground and would drop a rock on it (and it always hit a side of the ball).  He then said, "They always go in opposite directions!"

Today's fun activity was to feed the ducks.  We made a last minute call to some friends and they were able to join us!  I had a lot of bread (remember a week or two ago when the bread went moldy really fast?) and so it lasted about forty-five minutes.  It was a lot of fun!

This is just a small number of the ducks/seagulls/geese/sparrows that showed up.  This bridge is really the best place for feeding ducks.  There's always a bunch.

Monday: activities

This week doesn't have much lined up.  A huge contrast from last week, where it felt like every morning was a "keep moving" morning.

So we stayed at home all day.  We did some work.  It was about 11:00 and Isaac decided, "We should do an activity!!!"  So we pulled out the jars...clean the doorknobs and (after a few tries) make cookies.  We did the door knobs first...Isaac would do one side and I'd do the other, so it kept his attention.  Then we made almond bars.  Joshua was being rather clingy at this point and I wondered what was going on only to remember that we missed his nap time. Oops.

Nothing all that exciting the rest of the day.  Everyone took a nap.  We worked on finishing up the library summer reading program.  No one liked the new recipe that I tried today, but we need to try new things sometimes.

Sunday: another surprise

I had a finger in Joshua's mouth the other day, trying to get something out of it, and discovered a molar!  Surprise!  He's had several rather clingy days lately, but I was expecting more front teeth and looking there.  I don't think there are any others through yet, but the other side might be close.

Also, Isaac was super teary today.  I felt like he cried more than not before church, although I know that's an exaggeration.  I'm not really even sure what he was crying about half the time.  And I didn't really care.  Maybe it's because I was tired, maybe because it was his fake cry.

Saturday: racquetball

We brought Isaac into the racquetball court for a few minutes this morning.  He seemed rather in awe of how high the ball went and loved watching us hit it.  He tried hitting it, but was surprisingly ineffective...I think he saw the ball start to drop, swung and missed, then saw the ball go by the racket, swung and missed because it was too late, etc.  He eventually got a few hits in though.

Friday: yesterday

Yesterday I went to the quilt show in Grand Rapids.  I had an excellent time and had to hurry home because the babysitter's time was up.  You can see more pictures and such by going here.

Yesterday evening we got our new table!  It was a Christmas present.  It took us a while to decide on one, and then it took a long while to actually have it come in.

What Ben and I failed to consider when purchasing was the "tunnelness" of the table and chairs.  The boys, however, discovered it immediately.

This morning another tunnel was made.

Thursday: pop tarts

In our house, pop tarts are an adult-only food.  Because sometimes I want to enjoy them for breakfast while not feeling bad about giving my kids sugar for breakfast.  Sure, it's a double standard.  I'm willing to accept it.

Wednesday: zoo and gym

This morning we went to the zoo with some friends.  We had a very nice time; many of the animals were moving (including the large mammals), so that made it rather fun too.

 Here is Giraffe the giraffe, ready to see his friends at the zoo.  It was a special treat to bring Giraffe.  Unfortunately, Giraffe didn't have a great time because not all of his friends were at the zoo.  Giraffe is kind of clingy and sad lately.

Isaac enjoyed looking at the maps.

Here we all are (including Giraffe) with a chimp.

Joshua was extra smiley today.  Isaac was happy to help him smile.

Isaac loved playing on the train.  It was hard to get him to move on to the next thing.

A tiring day. :)

This morning Joshua also realized he could take all the plasticware out of the drawer at once.  It was rather cute.  What wasn't so cute is how ... much bigger Isaac is.  I quickly had to make a rule that it had to stay in the kitchen and that he couldn't put anything in his mouth and that he didn't need three cups full of water.

Today was the first day of a new gym routine...first strength training and then cardio.  You could tell we had worked by the time we got to racquetball.  I was a bit surprised, but it was good.  Strength training isn't as fun as racquetball, but still good.  Now I need to feel more comfortable doing it.