Sunday/Monday: family

Nathan and his family came over for a night this weekend.  It was very, very nice.

Evelyn and Isaac played very well together.  They played a bit Sunday night, but then for a long time on the beach this morning.  I expect they would have played even longer if it wasn't time for lunch.

Joshua really liked Jameson.  Jameson got many Duplos from Joshua.

So it was a nice time.

Saturday: door knob

A bit ago Isaac asked how doorknobs work.  I tried to explain it to him, but words aren't that great.  I asked Dad if he happened to have one...it seemed like the type of thing he might have.  And he did.

So now we have a doorknob floating around the house (until it is returned).  We looked at it for a bit and Isaac looked at it bit on his own.  He put it down rather quickly, but has returned to it a few times too.

You'll notice in the picture that Joshua actually has the latch part.  He's enjoying the door knob too.

Friday: librarians

We often go to a smaller branch of our library that is very close to our house.  Sometimes I see four people working there and wonder what they all do all day.  Now, it's not that I think they aren't doing important work, I just don't have a good feel for what they do.

But as Isaac has gotten older and we have more questions on this book or that topic, I start to understand the in depth knowledge they have of the books they carry...knowledge that would take many hours to be able to call up.

Airplane books?  They go to several different authors and find them.  I-spy books?  They know the location.

Today's questions was, "Do you know what the book is called that you flip through it and it becomes a monster and then it goes away and there are holes in the pages?"  Yup.  "'Go away, big green monster.'  I think we just checked it out to someone."

Sure, they need to look things up sometimes, but to even have a starting point with a silly question like that is amazing.  (And it had been checked out.)

Thursday: busy day

Today was a busy day.  We left the house at 8:45 and didn't get back until 7:45.  Now, there were a lot of fun things that happened, but it was still busy.

Joshua was the only one at swimming lessons (usually he's one of two) and he took full advantage of that fact.  He was hamming it up so well.  He was imitating the teacher better than I've ever seen him do.  Although he still won't blow bubbles...he keeps sticking his tongue out instead.

Wednesday: Critter barn, quiet day, flurry, exercise

Today's activity was the critter barn.  Isaac enjoyed it but didn't want to pet much...some of his comments made me think he didn't want to wash his hands.  After I told him he'd have to wash his hands anyway he got a bit more into it, but not as much as I had been expecting.

Joshua, on the other hand, seemed to love it!  He was a bit scared at all the noises from the big goat and sheep aisle, making a scared face I've never seen, but loved the birds and was not the one always ready to go to the next animal.

(After the picture Joshua really wanted to hold Isaac's hand but Isaac wouldn't hold Joshua's any more.  It was a bit sad.)

***
At lunch we had the following conversation:
Isaac:. Let's have a quiet day.
Amanda: OK.
Pause
I:. But we can talk.  And laugh.
A: what makes it a quiet day then?
I: well, it was a quiet second

***
Flurry's blood work came back and the vet said it was excellent, especially for an 11 year old cat.  She's probably just trying to show us who's the boss in this house, but it will backfire.  Especially as we get pills in her mouth to increase appetite.

***
We had our training day at the gym.  We have had a hard few months getting on a consistent schedule with our own exercise, so that's been a bit annoying.  Hopefully everything will calm down soon.  However, our trainer is moving away so we had the new trainer with us today too.  Ok, that wasn't all that interesting.  What is interesting is that in the time that we've been meeting with the trainer I've gained eight pounds but my body fat has gone down a bit...so I'm gaining muscle.  I was a bit surprised to get that result this week as I ate a lot at Disney, but was still happy.  It's hard to remember that muscle is better though, because I'm about at a milestone on the scale that I'd prefer to not hit.

Tuesday: melting

And the summer activities have begun!  I'm going to try it a bit differently this year...we're going to pull out the activities for the week at the beginning of the week.  I could still see pulling out an extra one if things aren't going well one day here or there, but this way I can schedule the week better.  The big things can happen on days that don't need to have errands or other pre-planned activites, while the small ones can be fit here and there.

I also let Isaac put several back when doing the first pull today; I don't know if we'll keep that up.  It seems like an easy way to just to the fun activities and not the work ones.  Oh, I put all the activities together this time.  If we have a work one scheduled I will probably try to do a fun one too.

Today's was "what things melt in the sun?"  It might have been better in the middle of summer, but was still interesting.

We started with a glob of wax, a rock, a dishwasher soap pack, frozen peas, cheese, hummas, bread, toast, soft butter, hard butter, chocolate, and and ice cube.  We checked it at 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, and at the end of the day.  (We made a chart too, but I don't have a picture of that.)

I don't know if there were any earth-shattering revelations, although it's sometimes hard to tell.  Isaac did notice how hot the rock got and we talked about how people sometimes would put rocks by a fire and then in their bed.  At the end of the day we saw how the things that didn't melt got rather hard.  I found it interesting, which is half the point too. :)

After a trip to Target we stopped at the PetStore to look at all the animals.  The cats were gone, but Joshua especially loved the birds.

We also went to the vet.  Flurry hasn't eaten much the last two weeks.  (And she's down to about 8.5 from 11.5 pounds.)  Nothing serious at this point, although we'll get the blood work back tomorrow.  We did get some special food (which she gobbled right up) and some pills to help her appetite.

Ben had a last minute band practice tonight, so I put some water in the water table.  Both boys played well with it and the squirters.  Isaac seems happier to spend time on the deck when Joshua is out there with him, even though I hear a lot of "no thank you!"s.

Monday: close beach

This morning Isaac asked a few times if we could go to close beach today.  I said maybe after school...we'll have to see how things are going.

Fast forward to after school, and he asks once before getting in the car.  I still hedge.  I'm not against the idea, but not ready to commit yet.  We're in the car and he says, "I've decided we'll go to close beach."  Oh really.  But at the same time there was no reason not to go.  So we went.

Isaac had a great time.  Joshua had a good time for about a half hour and then lost it.  He was having problems last night too, so I think something is going on.  (Or he really misses Zach and Jenny.)  Even food and TV didn't calm him down until we were several minutes into the movie.  I was hoping that Joshua would last a bit longer since Isaac showed no signs of slowing down, but as I told Isaac, "We're a family so we have to work together."

I also had my yearly doctors appointment today.  I got there a bit early, but was out twenty-five minutes after the scheduled start of my appointment...and that included going to the lab for a blood draw.  I was rather amazed.