Sunday: Florida pictures

Ready for a picture overload?  In no order, because that's a bit too hard.

Joshua floating all by himself.  Better sign him up for swimming lessons this summer too.

Joshua had a lot of cute pictures this vacation.

Dulpo train

Slide in the dulpo area.  There was a very nice nursing area here too.

There were giant duplos in the area too.

Isaac got to go in his own car on the driving range, but it didn't really go very well.

There was a nice guy that helped him though.

Lego seagull.

Ben and Isaac in a boat.

Joshua looking cool.

Isaac and a robot boat.

Isaac's pool get-up.  A loose life vest and swimmies.  It looked silly but worked very well.

Ben and Joshua

Isaac lining up all the ducks.  Actually, he really enjoyed "rescuing" the ducks and putting them in the hot tub.  It gave him a purpose to swimming around in the pool.

Swimming

Splashing and kicking with me.

Joshua at the playground.

At a playground.  It was a rather nice playground.

Cheryl.

Water break.

Isaac on the duplo train.

Ben sat behind him.

I tried to get him to take a picture by duplos that he had, but instead he wanted the carrots and corn.

 Isaac with a Lego Camel.  It was kind of hard to get him out of the stroller since he was a bit sick.  But later he saw the pictures and said "It's Jerusalem!"  (That's the name of his camel.)

Waiting in line for beetle bounce.

 Ready for beetle bounce.

Standing by the octopus because Joshua was dressed in his octopus outfit.  However, he was asleep and I wasn't about to wake him.

In mini-land by the space shuttle.

By mini-land.  Both boys were still asleep.

Everyone sleeping.

Last ride - the carousel.  It was also the first one that Joshua could go on.

Isaac on a black horse.  He really does love black.

Goodbye LegoLand!

Isaac with rescued ducks

Joshua and me.

Joshua.

A "trap"

Joshua looking thoughtful.

Saturday: home

We're home.

Ben and I were rather sick today though.  I'm not really sure what I have...there's a little cough, but mainly just tired in a sick way.  Luckily, the boys behaved themselves pretty well and we made it through the day.  I even got several pieces of luggage unpacked and the wash done.

We were both feeling better after dinner; we'll see what tomorrow brings.

My interesting thought of the day: we have two of those tubs that you get to bring home from the hospital.  Isaac uses one in the tub, and the other one might be the throw-up bucket since the throw-up cup is lost.  (I know.  How does one lose a throw-up cup?)  Anyway, at one point Isaac was worried that the throw-up bucket was the one he uses in the tub.  So today I thought we could put the acronym on the throw-up bucket to differentiate between them: T.U.B.  Oh...that doesn't help as much as I was hoping.

Friday: laughs

On the way to the airport Joshua was in an incredibly happy mood.  I managed to get more laughs out of our serious little guy than I ever have.

Tuesday: legoland

We went to LegoLand today! Overall, it was quite fun. There were enough rides that Isaac could go on. And he enjoyed going on them...he even went on the scary one twice so grandma could go on it too.

However, it was rather hot by the end. Isaac also is a bit sick, but he was a trooper. And Joshua...well, he put up with the whole day.

On safari. We got to ride in a zebra car just like the one he has.
Many of the rides had areas where the kids could play while the adults wait in line.
He had three bowls of fruit loops for breakfast. He's never had them before...and I expect it will continue to be a special treat.

We took lots of pictures, so more to come later! (My phone was having problems with the pictures I took on it, which is why there may be captions with no pictures.)

I also got to see a high school friend for dinner. It was very nice to catch up.

"Everything is awesome"

Monday: more vacation

Today was another relaxing day. We played in the pool, went to a nice playground, and ate good food.

We're now on our way to legoland.
Joshua fell asleep.



Isaac enjoyed the manga doodle. He enjoyed making faucets and we washed our hands a lot.

Saturday: ultimate Pi day

We had a lovely relaxing day today.

Isaac's curls started to come back. I thought he had lost them. I have a picture on my phone...but am currently on the ipad. The camera pictures can't be uploaded because I don't have an adapter anymore, but will have a picture post at the end.

We walked around the marina several times. Isaac had fun exploring all the new toys.

We went in the pool later in the afternoon and Isaac loved it. He had a life jacket and swimmies on and could do a sort of standing up dog paddle all by himself. So we did some practice with what would happen if he tipped backwards. Then let him go in the pool by himself to get some ducks from the other side and bring him back to the hot tub. (He had very close supervision.) After several times he was getting more comfortable and even found that he could go around in circles. The funniest thing was that every time he was about to get the pool he first sat on the side for a bit and waited for the "EEs" (monkeys) to come over from far away and come in with him.

Joshua enjoyed the pool, but only as long as he didn't get too wet. He looked super cool in the stroller with his sunglasses and hat. He took a good afternoon nap, finally. (Last night was a bit rough.)

I celebrated Pi day (3/14/15) at 9:26pm by eating a cupcake...it was circular. And delicious. I think I ate a few too many treats today, but they were good!

Friday: wisdom of Solomon

Today both boys wore Mickey Mouse shirts. Isaac's is just the body (such that his head is where Mickey's head would be) and Joshua just had Mickey's head.

I was telling a whole clothing story to Ben that was not really very coherent and he says, "Yeah, I got a bit distracted thinking about Mickey and King Solomon." I couldn't help but laugh.

Also, we left on vacation today. Travel went really well. Isaac was really excited about going under bridges on the way to the airport. He was also excited about going on an airplane. I'm not sure that he realizes that he should really be excited about being on vacation. Joshua barely slept at all today, but was in good spirits. He enjoyed laughing at a boy on the airplane that was making funny faces at him.

Thursday: the ending and milestones

I remembered the ending to yesterday's conversation...

A: Ethan?
I: Yeah!  Ethan!! My hands really want to go to Ethan's house.

Isaac's hands are really fond of going to Ethan's house.  This isn't the first time Isaac has said such a thing, and I don't really understand it at all.
*********
Joshua's milestone today was that he learned to make the "M" sound, so he is saying my name now!  Not on purpose, but it is still fun.
*********
Isaac's milestone is that he actually kept his eyes closed through the bedtime prayer.  We haven't really pushed keeping one's eyes closed in the past because it just seemed too hard and, oddly, too distracting.

Wednesday: a conversation

I: pick two names
A: mom
I: pick one more
A: dad
I: no
A: Amanda
I: no
A: Joshua
I: no
A: Isaac
I: no. Only pick one!

Hmm...I thought this had a better ending but I forgot it. Doesn't help that it's 2am and I'm holding a child that is resisting sleep. The moral of this story is "don't flip over a baby to put the pacifier in"

Tuesday: pajama day

It was pajama day at school today.

Thursday is "what you want to be when you grow up day."  So far Isaac has answered "bigger", "house builder", and "small tree builder".  I don't have very good dress up clothes for those...we'll see if we participate.  Joshua always wants to do the same thing that Isaac does.

Monday: 32 weeks

Joshua is 32 weeks old!

He's still rolling over a lot in his sleep, and yesterday and today I've finally seen him roll over a few times while awake.  While it wasn't a huge concern, I was a bit worried about it and glad that he's rolling over.

Ben was going in the basement and Isaac wanted to be carried too.

Joshua got his first cart-seat ride today.  I like it a lot better, but convincing Isaac that he has to walk might not always work.  Once it gets a little warmer out Isaac could ride in the back of the cart.  We'll see how it goes.

Sunday: potty training

I was going to do a monthly post about Isaac, but then he didn't want his picture taken.  It didn't get done all week and since we're now a third of the way through March, I'll just try again for next month.

However, I had been very excited to show his calendar.  He gets a sticker for every day without accidents.

Something finally clicked the last week of January.  It obviously isn't perfect yet, but I don't have to remind him to go every two hours either...he usually goes by himself.

So here's a very tentative "hurray!"

Also, Joshua adjusted very well to DST with waking up an hour early for his last feeding last night.  Isaac, however, is still awake and singing and it is 10pm.  He's been in bed for two hours...but they've been a happy two hours.

Saturday: outside

We ventured outside today.  When we were getting ready the sun was shining brightly, but by the time we actually got outside it was a bit cloudy.

Isaac initially didn't want to go outside but then saw Joshua's sunglasses and was suddenly excited.  I was a bit surprised, but going with it.  Then I realized that Isaac actually saw them as goggles and wanted to wear goggles.  So we went with that instead.

It's hard to lawn mow when there is snow on the ground.

Joshua, looking cool.

Lawn mowing a puddle.

The sunglasses stayed on much better than I was expecting, although part of it could be that he didn't really have hand access.

Friday: 18 years

18 years spent with my children at home! While thinking this evening I once again realized how quickly that time will fly and got a little sad.


...it's easy to feel this way after the kids are in bed.

Thursday: what classifies as an emergency

I was trying to describe to Isaac what constitutes an "emergency" and when it is ok for him to yell for me.

Not ok: his stuffed snowman gets bitten by a shark
Ok: Needs more water, needs a wipe, threw up

He immediately starts doing something weird with his mouth.  Then promptly tells me that he has some spit-up.  Luckily, his wipe took care of it and I didn't need to describe the difference between spit up and throw up.  :p

Wednesday: messed up together

During dinner we're watching a show called "Brain Games".  It's not great, but it's ok and it's ok for Isaac to watch.  Today's episode was basically on subliminal messages.

Ben and I got a lot of the games wrong.  They said, "count the ducks" and we both thought they were rabbits.  (It turns out they could be either, but since they said 'ducks', most people think they're ducks.)  They said, "which person would you hire?" and we both chose the 'wrong' person.

Then Ben got out his phone and showed me a picture..."what do you think these look like?"  "Ladybugs," I responded.  Ben said, "Me too!  But when you look at them up close they're just circles with holes in them.  People didn't understand how I could think they were lady bugs."

We might be messed up, but at least we're messed up together.