Saturday: funny mail

Sometimes, you just wonder what the companies are thinking...and why it took them 6 months to notify Ben that I had requested access to his medical records.

Friday: apple picking

Ben took off work a bit early today and we all went apple picking.  It was a wonderful time to do it.  There were only a few people there...it was cloudy and warm, but not too warm.  They had some wheelbarrows that were very easy to use, so the kids got wheeled around for most of the time.  The only downside was that most of the honeycrisps were already gone, but there were still plenty of good apples.

Isaac had just studied apples in school, so he could tell us things like, "The best golden delicious are the yellowest ones."  We weren't sure what kind(s) to get, so we did a sampling and I think everyone enjoyed how they all tasted so different.

Oh yes, Isaac got a massive hair cut today.  It's a bit shorter than normal, but we went to a different place and I might have given them the wrong number for the cut.  But he suddenly seems to have a bald spot in the back of his head, and we have no idea what would cause it except for him pulling out his hair.  So it needed to be short enough that he couldn't pull.

Joshua didn't really care about picking apples but just wanted to eat his apple.  By the end of the trip most of the skin was off.  He just happily sat there, eating away.

Look!  Ben's here too.

The restaurant wasn't busy at all - we could sit right down - so we ended up eating there.  Joshua loved pointing out that there were airplanes and drinking out of the cup with a straw.  (Usually at restaurants if there's a straw we hold the cup because the positioning isn't very good.  But this time it worked.)

Wednesday: slides and teasing

We went to the Grandville mall today to meet up with a friend.  The boys love the little play area there.  It has surprised me because it's not really that big and it hasn't been a huge hit past years, but this month they're excited about it.

Yesterday on the way to drop the boys off at school I looked at Joshua and it looked like he was asleep.  (Sunglasses make it so hard to tell!)  I said, "Joshua, are you awake?"  No response.  "Joshua, are you awake?"  Still no response.  I was going to give up since he was already asleep, but Isaac started the chant.  "Joshua, are you awake?"  "Joshua, Joshua?"

I glance back one last time and see a huge smile on Joshua's face.  He hadn't otherwise moved, but he was pretty proud of his trick.

Tuesday: email

Saturday night my previously free email app on my phone changed to a paid subscription of $50/year.

I was very sad.

And so now I've been trying all sorts of different ones and none of them are "just right".  There's one that's pretty close, but for some reason it doesn't turn on the LED notification when I have an email.  There's a second that's pretty close too, but it isn't color coded like I like.

I'm still sad.  And have spent way too much time on this.

Monday: a full day

Today was a rather full day, but not necessarily busy.

It started out with Joshua only waking up once in the night and sleeping past his alarm clock turning green.  And the wake up was just because he was cold, not because of unknown causes, so he went right back to sleep.

We had gymnastics in the morning.  Joshua still wanted to be picked up a lot in the beginning when we were doing some new things, but once we got to the things that we did last week he had a lot more fun.  Isaac did well too, but I only watched bits and pieces.

Then we ate lunch and went to Closest Beach.  (Not to be confused with Close Beach.)  We had a sort beach time last night so I said we could go again today.  It was rather warm, but nice.  We made volcanoes and tickled each other with water.

After rest time we watered the flowers.  I had been hoping to make banana bread today too, but we didn't quite have enough time.  Oh well.  We'll see if the bananas are still good later...they've been on the edge for a while.

Saturday: Joshua

Joshua had a really good day with potty training.  He went on the toilet several times, and only had one accident when wearing underwear.

He was so tired that he was almost falling asleep at lunch but then woke up an hour later.  He's going to bed more easily  - he seems to want the door open - but is still waking up pretty early.

Also, my boys really like tasty water.  We seem to have a problem, but they were on sale.  Isaac's been doing assorted experiments with them and making super potent flavor ice and melting it and chopping it...I'm not really sure what's going on, but he's doing something.

Friday: playground, gravity maze, rain

We went to the playground with some friends this morning.  It was a beautiful day for it.  We even managed to get all the kids in the same spot for a picture...I took a bunch and Betsy took a bunch, and I think she got one of the best.

Later on in the day I was changing Isaac's sheets and found several lost toys.  This led to Isaac and Joshua playing one of them together, and really playing quite well.  (It's been happening more and more often lately.  But then there was yesterday, when Isaac came out of his room and asked Joshua, "Do you want to chase yourself?"  When Joshua responded affirmatively, Isaac went back in his bedroom and Joshua was left with tears.)

We played down by the beach for a little bit tonight.  The forecast said no rain, but of course about five minutes after we were out it started raining lightly.  I exchanged my book and phone for an umbrella and we stayed out for another fifteen minutes, until it started raining harder and neither boy wanted to play in the rain.  I thought it would last a bit longer, but oh well.