Monday

I don't really have much to say about today.  It was a pretty normal day.  There was some work.  There were some errands.  I went to an exercise class.

Sunday - 3.5yrs

Today is Joshua's 3.5 year old birthday.  We happened to be at Meijer on Friday and he saw a small cake and wanted it.  I wasn't going to get it, but a half birthday seemed like a good reason.  He proceeded to tell everyone about his cake, telling Ben, Isaac, and myself that it was our favorite cake because it is chocolate.

Cruise - day 6: sea day

We had our last sea day today. 

In the morning we found Pluto.

At lunch Joshua really really wanted "sauce pizza" and then didn't eat a bite of it.

We rested in our rooms quite a bit in the afternoon.  It was too busy to go swimming...I'm sure that we got some ice cream and probably worked on the detective stuff (more coming on the last day), but we mostly lazed around.

That evening was the semi-formal dinner.  We got there just a bit early and who was roaming outside but Pluto!  Isaac and Joshua had both brought their Plutos, and were excited to introduce them.

Isaac also asked throughout the trip if we wanted to play, "rock, paper, scissors, shoot."  We kept telling him there was no shoot on the end.

I haven't touched much on the wait staff, but they were incredible.  They cut up the kids' food.  They had drinks waiting for us when we got to the table.  They were happy to bring different food and anyone could order anything.  The food ranged between good and delicious.

Our main server was really good with a large table of mixed ages.  He had brain teasers for the adults. He had magic tricks for the kids.  The kids' food often came out first so that they could take their time eating.

There were three different restaurants.  In this one we were right by some windows, which was rather nice as the kids could get up and look out if they were getting antsy.

We went to the nightly show tonight.  It was a drumming show.  Well, the part I saw of it was drumming.  Joshua was rather tired and done with it after about twenty minutes.  The part I saw was good, although Ben said there was a part in the middle that wasn't quite as good.

Cheryl watched the kids at night while Larry, Ben, and I went to see Thor.  I thought the movie was excellent - it was your normal action movie with a bunch of funny parts.  (Oh, I forgot...the night before we saw Coco in the huge auditorium.  Joshua wanted to leave, but right after we got out the doors he changed his mind.  I was glad of this because I wanted to see the movie.)

Saturday: dance

This morning we went to a dance recital at the library. 

Isaac loved it.  The group is having a workshop through the library on Tuesday, so I signed him up for it.  We'll see how it goes.

Joshua liked it.  It was a nice break in the day; he had a rough one.  He decided that he doesn't want to clean his room this week but it has included a lot of tears.  He is fully accepting of the consequences...apparently we need to change the consequences.

Friday: laundry

Let's talk about laundry.  Mostly, the folding of it.

Folding laundry seems like something anyone should be able to do.  But it turns out there are many nuances.  For example, the kids socks.  You need to know that any that have letters on the bottom are Joshua's.  You need to know that some have the same design and are different sizes, the larger size for Isaac and the smaller for Joshua.  You need to know that currently Isaac and Joshua are wearing the same size sock (although Joshua's have shrunk some), so you can't go on size alone.  A long time ago I decided to make Ben's socks all the same kind.  Because of the kids' sock issues, I've decided I'm not going to fold Ben's socks anymore.  I'm just going to dump them in his sock drawer and he can pull out two.  They're all the same and don't wrinkle.  Why am I folding them?

You also need to know that, during the summer, Isaac can wear some 2T shorts but most of the 2T shorts are Joshua's.  Beyond that sizing is pretty obvious, with the exception of a few T-shirts that Joshua has that are way too big for him.

I was telling Joshua that I didn't want to do laundry anymore at lunch time, and he said I didn't have to.

A: Are you going to do it?
J: No.
A: Are we going to wear dirty clothes?
J: No.
A: Who's going to do the laundry?
J: Dad.  He's the biggest.

Thursday: mostly back to normal

Today was mostly back to normal, and it felt nice.

I even had the motivation to do some house work.  (It's been a while.  There are piles of dirty laundry.  There are many piles of clean laundry.  There are piles of dirty dishes.  And of course, there are toys all over.)  Joshua decided that he was in the mood to help, and he did a great job.  So I gave him some money...a while ago he wanted to buy a fire plane, but didn't have enough money for it.  So we said he could do some extra chores to earn the money and buy it.  He remembered right away that he was saving up for a fire plane.

Needless to say, we've ordered the fire plane ahead of schedule.  The one he wants is out of print (print?) so we need to order it from a third-party seller and sometimes that can take a while.  At the rate he was going tonight, he might have most of the money tomorrow. :)

Yesterday we were talking about summer activities and Isaac was excited about science camp the most.  Ok, that's cool.  He said he wanted to do something with molecules.  Well... That would be chemistry camp about and he already did that.  Next he wanted to do something with atoms.  Well... Same thing.  Next he wanted to do something with the things smaller than atoms.  Electrons? I asked. Well... That one isn't an option.  We settled on a Lego one, but I'm glad that he remembered things from the last camp!  Maybe I should see if there are any other chemistry things going on this summer for his age.

Wednesday: life

This morning was rough.  I was feeling awful due to other non-whatever-I-had-this-weekend reasons.  After getting Isaac to school, I went home and went back to sleep.  I felt better after that and Joshua and I went about our day.

We were meeting a friend at the local play cafe.  It was a nice morning with a delicious muffin!

But went we got home I crashed.  Joshua was nice enough to help me still be engaged while still crashed on the couch.

One more nap later and things were getting better.  Ben suggested Fiesta Lime Chicken for dinner, which sounded good...when nothing had since the muffin this morning.  We both ate all of it, but didn't touch the mozzarella sticks.  I love mozzarella sticks!  All three of us are still dealing with a yucky tummy some of the time.  But we're constantly improving, so hopefully will be back to normal soon.