Saturday: birthday

Today was Joshua's fourth birthday.  While he still seems young because he's the younger sibling, when I actually look at what he's doing I notice how 'old' he's actually getting.

His birthday party isn't for a week yet, so we gave him his birthday present today.  He got the Police Legos.  While very similar to the Firefighter Legos, this one has bad guys.  They have already captured his imagination.  He's suddenly gotten very good at putting sets together.  He still likes us to find the pieces for him, but beyond that needs minimal help.

We just ran out of blueberries, so we went to pick some more this morning.  The boys weren't really thrilled about it, so we bribed them by saying we'd get a birthday treat afterwards.

They also got to play on the playground for a bit.

It was a good day, but I'll admit by the time dinner was finished I had heard, "Mom! [Pay attention to this.]" a few too many times.  I'm glad my children want to talk to me, but they wouldn't stop talking!

Friday: conversations

Joshua: do we get to see Grandpa again? 
Amanda: no, two times is enough for today.
Joshua: two times isn't enough!!

Joshua, to Grandpa Paul: Will you bring Grandma Pat to my birthday?
Grandpa Paul: of course.
Joshua: Grandma Pat will make my birthday special.

Thursday: around downtown

While Isaac was at science camp Joshua and I stayed around the Hope/downtown area.  It started with a trip to see Grandpa, as normal this week.  Joshua did a good job of talking a bit before asking for a treat.

We walked around a bit and took pictures of my latest quilt.  It was cool, so the quilt got a trial testing with Joshua.

Our eventual destination was the library, because they were doing a 'Dragons Love Tacos' theme.  Joshua brought his dragon.

Here they are!  With a taco!  We had tacos tonight since...it seemed appropriate.

Next we went back across campus to the art gallery.  It actually went a bit better than I had expected...and I wasn't expecting much.  Joshua liked the speaker with sprinkles on it the best.  He also liked the sculptures and how they changed as you walked around them.  He even suggested walking around one or two, so I'll note the excursion as a win.

Since we had about thirty minutes before needing to pick up Isaac, we made a quick trip to the candy store.  Joshua picked out some chocolates.  We had several, but he wanted to make sure that we saved some for Ben and Isaac (but especially for Ben.)

Wednesday: growing up and fish

Amanda: Joshua, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Joshua: a grown-up
Amanda: That's wise.  Very wise.
******
After science camp today we visited the 'zoo' at Hope College.  The first fifteen minutes were rather full, but then most of the people left and it calmed down.  We were looking at some skulls and I thought one was a shark, but wasn't quite sure.  I encouraged Isaac to ask one of the helpers, but he declined.  Joshua asked!  Joshua went up to him, brought him over, and asked the question.  I think it's the first time that he has taken the initiative and asked a question [of a stranger] instead of having me ask.  We ended up asking all sorts of questions...even leaving a few times, looking at the aquarium outside the room, and then coming back in to ask a question.  Isaac persuaded him to feed the goldfish and the boys got such a laugh out of it!  It was apparently the silliest thing in the world.

Tuesday: more or less normal day

Today was a more or less normal day.  Isaac had science camp and made a catapult and worked with wheels and axles.  It was his favorite part of the day.  He also had ice skating today and managed to do more than three 'steps' in a row.  It's nice to see him improve.

Joshua and I didn't have anything all that special through the day.  We took a walk around Hope and I was surprised, as normal, with some of the new things that I saw.  We came home to work on his loft, play Duplos, and get a few other things done.

Monday: punching triangles

This morning Isaac started his science camp.  This year the his theme is simple machines and Legos, but he keeps calling it chemistry camp because that's what he did last year.  Today he learned that triangles are the strongest shapes.

During this time Joshua and I did several errands and Joshua had an extra gymnastics class.  They did a dinosaur dance as a warm up and it really stuck with him as he mentioned it several times.  We took a quick stop back at home because I had forgotten a book that needed to be returned to the library.  I quickly got out to get it and when I returned to the car the first thing Joshua said to me was, "I'm going to punch you in the stomach." 

"What??  Why?" I replied, surprised.  "That's not really nice at all and you shouldn't be saying things like that."

"Well, just if you do something bad I'll punch you in the stomach."

"No, I don't want you to do it even if I do something bad."

...I still don't know what prompted such a statement.

Friday: fruits

Today we went blueberry picking with Aunt C.  The weather was perfect!!  Warm but not too warm, with scattered clouds.  Not too windy, although there were a few gusts to make you appreciate that most of the time the blueberries stayed in your hand as you picked them.  We ended up with one bucket full.  The boys picked some, ran some, and ate some...they really just wanted to go to the playground.  Since it wasn't too hot this time, we stayed at the playground for quite a while.

After coming home, I picked our first raspberry crop.  When I looked a day or two ago there were only one or two worth picking, so I left them as I was hoping for three.  This time there were a bunch!

Isaac also played with wet socks again.  Not quite as long this time, but it was still...odd.

We finally got a little rain today, although I think everyone was hoping for a bit more.  Hopefully tomorrow.  Isaac also got all weepy on us when we told him that he didn't have to eat his four dinosaur chicken nuggets, but that he then wouldn't get a treat.  (He had originally only asked for two or three, and so didn't feel as though he should have to eat the last ones to get his treat.)  Afterwards I tried to tell him that many kids need to eat everything on their plate and that they have to sit there until they eat it...so our rule wasn't as harsh as he was making it out to be.  I'm not sure it worked.