The girls

These two girls are starting to be so much fun together! These aren't great pictures, but the look on Gemma's face is priceless. She simply adores the attention she gets from her older siblings. Any attention.

My Girls

Here are my girls today while they (briefly) watched some TV together. This lasted less than a minute. Still adorable..

A Game

Which pair of shorts below is size 4T? What one is size 24 months? Can you figure it out? I can't.*



* The one on the left (purple) is size 4T. The left set is size 24 month. The shorts are made from the same material and are the same brand FYI.

The Toe

Ouch! On Sunday, Gemma was playing in the kitchen pantry while I was cleaning up after breakfast. It was one of those days where the list of things that needed to be done was a mile long. We had a lot of work to do to catch up after the Race on Saturday and also to prepare for the coming week - I return to work on Tuesday.

I was wiping the table when I heard the thunk of the can. This isn't an uncommon noise, but I still held my breathe for a moment while I waited. Either there would be silence because she was fine or crying from the hurt/surprise. It was crying this time. Lot of crying. When I went to pick her up, there was bleeding. Lots of bleeding and I couldn't see what had happened.


I got John back inside (he was out changing the oil in the car) and we assessed the situation and then made a call to our favorite Grandma hotline. She always knows what to do. Ultimately, we agreed on the wait and see camp.

Her big toe is badly bruised and swollen. There is a cut that reaches from the tip of the toe all the way back past the knuckle. The line extends through the toenail. I can't see how she won't lose her toenail.

However, after the initial crying drama, our tough kiddo is just as fine as can be. She is running, climbing, jumping and crawling as fast as she can. And she is acting just fine and normal.

Daddy's Shoes

Shoes are SO fun to wear! Even when Gemma is running at top speed. Even when they are huge. I'm finding shoe all over the place in crazy places. The bathtub, her room, on the steps. Everywhere but where they are supposed to be.

It is very cute, but makes getting out of the house just a little more difficult...

Racing

For the rivers. We do it every year. I think we're crazy. Probably it is just me with the crazy.

The non for profit I work with (less and less these days) has their big fund raiser in August. We have run the children's activity booth for the last 5 summers. It's a fun day, but super exhausting as well. We were at the park at 9:30 this morning and finally packed it all up at 5pm. A long day in the sun.

William was my helper this year. He stayed ALL day without complaint. Not one. None at all. What a great guy. He played and helped and ate a sno cone and played some more.

The picture is one of the activities we run. William is showing our high school helpers how the activity works. He then continued to show them for the next 2 hours.

Kindergarten work

I'm organizing papers and ....well trying to get organized. I ran across these two papers and they made me laugh. Both of these papers are from the end of April/beg. of May last school year. They read as follows:

On Fridays I get chokolit melk in my lunch. It is the last day of the skool week ten I get to stay home for Saturday and Sunday.


If I went scuba diving, I would play with the dolfin and ried on them. I would tak a pishr of a sqid. I would take a riad on a wale.

Unintended uses

I went to change Gemma's diaper last week and she had the top to the plastic shape sorter in her hands. She hasn't been very tolerant lately about holding still and allowing a diaper change to occur. C'mon. She has messes to make and trouble to get into.

As I set her down, she stuck both of her hands through a shape hole in the sorter. And they got stuck. My daughter had handcuffed herself with a lid to a child's toy. She was NOT happy about being restricted and quickly wiggled herself free. But, the hands being held still did make the diapering portion easier.....

PreK

Amelia started her prekindergarten classes this week. There has been much preschool drama (on my part) as of late. We struggled with finding the right fit for our big girl. Of course, if I hadn't left it up until the last minute, it would have been a much smoother process.

Luckily, Amelia wasn't part of the emotional turmoil over making the Right Decision and she is enjoying her first week of school as well. For the record, I did take her picture on the first day, but it is on the big camera and I am too LAZY to get that all sorted out right now. Instead, you will need to make do with this Open House picture of her. As an added bonus, I will regale you with several stories about her new school and her first week. (warning, much bragging is ahead).

#1
The Friday before Amelia started school, I went in to drop off the necessary paperwork and make sure everything was squared away. You know, since the decision for her placement was made less than 24 hours before. Seemed like a good idea to appear organized at least.

I was standing at the counter and filling out paperwork. The director of the preschool was standing at the counter chatting with all of us. Amelia was standing next to me and Gemma was on my other hip. I vaguely heard Amelia say

"Learning together is lots of fun for our team."

I was very occupied with making sure I had the right birthdate listed and was signing up the correct child with the correct information.

Mama: MMmmhmmmm

Director: Wait. What did she say?

Mama: Huh? I don't know.

Director: Amelia! What did you just say?

Amelia: Learning together is lots of fun for our team. (then she points to the words painted on the wall.) It says so right here. I can't read those other word though because they are in clursive (cursive).

Director: Are you kidding me? She knows how to read? She must be almost 5, right?

Mama: Yes. She can read. Except, obviously, cursive. She isn't 5. She isn't even 4 and a half quite yet. She started reading just before she turned 4 and has really been getting good at it lately.

Director: (practically dancing) What does this say? (has Amelia read a few other various signs at the front desk. Amelia reads them back to her).

Director: (Giggling). This is so awesome! Do me a favor? Don't tell her teacher. I CANNOT WAIT to see her face when she realizes that Amelia is reading so well.

Mama: Okay. I promise. But, if the teacher doesn't notice by the end of the second week, I'm going to have to tell her. Deal?

Director: (squealing) DEAL!


#2

*It's the first day of school and I am picking Amelia up. I can't wait to hear about how Amelia's day is going. I pass the front desk the director of the program sees me coming. She has a HUGE smile on her face.

Director: Amelia had an amazing day!
Mama: Great!
Director: I could only wait until 9:30. I tried to wait longer, but I just couldn't. At 9:30, I finally went back to the classroom and had Amelia read the sign on the door to me.

Mama: Oh?
Director: She read it like a champ! And her teacher was AMAZED! She said "Did you set this up to fool me?" I had to tell her "NO! It is for real!!" The teacher is so excited. Then we had Amelia read all the other signs in the classroom for fun. And Amelia read ALL of them! AMAZING!

Mama: Great! (inside I'm thinking: keep talking! I love hearing great things about my kid).

Director: The teacher is SO excited to get started with some reading instruction for her to focus on comprehension and upping her confidence in her skills!

Mama: Yehaw!

Then I walked down to get Amelia and she was beaming! She was so happy and excited about her first day of school.

#3
We went to Open House night at the preschool to hear about the programing for the year. Also, they had free ice cream and a bounce house. we are totally suckers for free ice cream.

When we arrived in the classroom, a little girl in a yellow dress popped up and squealed: Amelia!!

Amelia: (dropping my hand) Q___! (name edited for obvious reasons)

Q: Hi Amelia! Let's play! (she proceeds to grab Amelia's hand and pull her away. Amelia is beaming. Her smile is electric and it is lighting up the entire room.

Teacher: those girls are already inseparable! They play together all the time!

3rd child

They say the third child is tougher because they have to be to stand up to their oder siblings. Here is the proof folks: Gemma carries knives. Plastic knives with a serious look on her face. Look out for her at your next playdate.

Note to self

Do not buy the floor model. Ever*.

Also: shopping for a new refrigerator is our idea of a fun Friday night. Wahoo! Fun for the whole family.

* note: this behavior was not encouraged or tolerated. Except when I had to take a picture. Because inside I was cracking up at the open/shut sliding door fun that was causing my children to cackle with delight. But, on the outside I was stern and mean. You know, after I took a picture.

How does that happen?

Our whole family went camping this last weekend. We spent the 48 hours in extremely close quarters. We didn't go anywhere without each other. We slept in the same (gigantic). With kids this age, no one even went into the bathroom by themselves.

So then, how is it that William and I are both covered in chigger bites (William pronunciation: ch-higger) and the rest of the family doesn't have any (or just 1-2). William in particular is COVERED with bites,the poor guy. I'm estimating somewhere around 50-100. I'm currently trying to write an appropriate draft of an email in my head to William's teacher for tomorrow. Something along the lines:

If it appears that William has ants in his pants, he doesn't. It is somewhere around 50 chigger bites in his pants. Poor guy.

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I'm WINNING!

If this mama thing was a real game, I'd totally be winning.  100%.

I just discovered MOLDY clothes in my child's backpack from May 2013.  Turns out she got wet at preschool and changed her clothes.  The wet ones got shoved in her backpack and no one told me about it*.





*Although being her most observant mother, I probably noticed she was wearing different clothes when I picked her up.  And from there made the connection that there would be wet clothes.  Again, such a WINNER.

Ahhhhh....x2

Another night of camping. I'm a little impressed with ourselves. This is the first time we've camped in a tent for 2 consecutive nights with the kids in tow. I'm impressed because the kids are 1,4 and 6. It's a lot of work, but we are loving it.

My favorite quotes so far:


William (bedtime, in pajamas, laying in the tent): Ahhhh. I love camping. I just wish we had a fan here. Also, the bugs are really loud. (They were super loud)

Amelia (bedtime, in her pajamas): can you sleep closer to us (the kids) tonight? Daddy snores so loud I can't sleep at all.
--
Amelia: (before eating a snack at our campsite picnic table): can I have some of that stuff? I need some stanilizer.
--
Gemma: (pointing to a big dog): bu-pe
Mama: puppy?
Gemma: (laughs uproariously)

Ahhhhh

Wish you were here......

The weather is gorgeous and we our enjoying ourselves immensely.

Tooth #5

William lost tooth #5 sometime in the middle of the night.  He came in this morning about 6:45am all in a panic and asked me if I had his tooth.  Whhatt?  Huh?  Snarg?

I'm not at my best in the morning.  By some miracle, he didn't swallow it and it was just laying on his bedsheets this morning.

Lower right tooth next to the front one.  Whatever that guy is called.

My sidekick

Amelia and I had a great day hanging out today. She has spent all summer hanging out with William and playing. I think I maybe only saw her at mealtimes.

With William back to school, we got lots of talking in. Not surprisingly, Amelia has a lot to say. We enjoyed library story time (sunglasses photo) together, had a lovely lunch, played a math game, and then we made cookies to celebrate the first day of school for the big kid. Cookies from a tub, but still cookies.

It's nice to have my sidekick back again and see the girls play together. I'm looking forward to watching the girls forge their sister relationship this year before Amelia head off to kindergarten next year (!!!).

1st Grader!

Today is the first day of school for our big guy! We made it to the bus on time- which was a minor miracle. I can't wait to hear all about it!

Best friends

Sometimes these two are so sweet to each other (most of the time, in fact when they aren't trying to maim each other). Today I caught William giving Amelia pushes on the swing. She is going to miss him tomorrow when he starts school!

Disappointment

Summer is winding down here, although weather-wise it doesn't really feel like it.  William starts school (1st grade!) on Wednesday next week.  Amelia starts the following Tuesday (pre K) and I start the Tuesday after that (GED, still).  We have our summer checklist pulled out and we have checked off everything with one exception.  Time is getting scarce if we are going to make CAMPING happen!

Last Thursday, we realized the weekend weather was going to be camp-able.  What that means is that it will be cool enough that we can sleep at night and comfortable temperatures through the night.  It also means the daytime temperatures are cool enough that we can hike/play/wander/climb/hang out without wishing we could sit in our air conditioned car and cool off. 

So, we tentatively planned on camping Saturday night into Sunday.  Friday night there was a strong chance of rain.  While that isn't a huge problem, it isn't fun to camp wet.  It is really not fun to camp while wet with 3 whining kids.

Saturday morning we spent devoted to preparing and packing up the car for the trip.  Not surprisingly, there is A LOT of work that goes into prepping for a camping trip and it is quite time consuming.  It might be why we don't do it more often.

John made hundreds of trips to the car and one trip to the store.  I packed and repacked stuff the kids unpacked.

After Gemma napped, we loaded up the kids in the car and set out to the park.

It is a 40 minute drive one way to our favorite localish camping park.

We pulled up to the camping station to buy our camping permit for the night.....and they were full.  No campsites available.  Apparently, there is a lot of flooding in the southern portion of Missouri and many people came north for their camping adventures.  I wanted to pull forward and roll down the back windows on the car so the campground host could have the pleasure of informing the backseat that there was no room in the inn.  I wanted to cry. (I had just spent 7+ hours of getting ready to camp and found out there would be no camping.  Boo.)

 The campground host did not have information available about other campgrounds nearby.

There wasn't any wireless in the park, so we couldn't research alternatives right there.

We finally had signal enough when we reached the highway, although here is a piece of advice for you:  When traveling 65+ miles per hour, it is not the best time to have a discussion and make any type of decision.  Especially when you have 3 crying kids in your backseat.  Even if one of the three is only crying because the others are crying. 

I made a valiant effort and called 1 local campground (number no longer in service), found another local campground (no contact information available), found a state park 40 minutes the opposite direction (contact number went straight to voicemail), and the state park reservations center (who helpfully offered to make me a reservation for Tuesday.  Because they only make reservations 2 days in advance.  No way to know about availability for today.  Sorry.).

So, we went home and unpacked the van.  We unpacked the van in a very crabby fashion because we were very crabby about not going camping.

We discussed camping out in the backyard, but with the hill down to the forest taking up 97% of the backyard, it would have been uncomfortable for the person in the southern end of the tent as everyone would end up there by midnight.  Or, we could elect to pitch the tent on the patio.  Which is a very hard surface to sleep upon and could result in ripping the floor of the tent.  Did I mention we have a brand new tent?  We've never slept in tent?  It is 2 years old and we've never slept in it.

Plan B included: grilling some burgers, tater tots and making s'mores over our new fire pit in the backyard.  We sat in our camping chairs around the fire and just tried to keep Gemma out of the fire.  We roasted the specialty flat marshmallows John acquired for s'more making and spent time together.  It was lovely, although it wasn't camping.



*It was mentioned by one of us that it might be good to have a reservation.  The other adult disagreed....or maybe just didn't think it was necessary.  Although the first adult was CORRECT in that we needed a reservation, by the time we decided to camp, it was to late to make a reservation.  So I will admit that although one of us was CORRECT, it wouldn't have helped.  No names used to protect the person who was wrong.

Dinner conversation

Amelia: mmmmm! I love this corn! I'm super hungry! Can I have more corn?

Mom: you need to eat some more of your other food.

Amelia: okay.

Mom: Amelia do you want some more chicken?

Amelia: NO!

Mom: No.....what? (Teaching politeness appears to be a years long grueling marathon of epic length).

Amelia: NO WAY!

Mom: (not at all what I'm going for here!)

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William v.6.5

William v.6.5

William turned 6 and a half on July 26th in the midst of our crazy travel until you drop month.  I didn't get an update then, but I did want to spend a few minutes talking about our big guy.

William:
-still loves to read.  Currently loving the Magic Tree House chapter books, Magic School Bus Chapter Books, Geronimo Stilton Chapter books and any book on dinosaurs he can get his hands on.  Although he is capable of reading the books on his own, he still loves (and prefers) to be read to.  I find him up many nights reading by the hall light at the end of his bed until 9:30.  This will have to come to an end when school starts, but until then I turn a blind eye.

-He is Amelia's best friend and she is his.  Or worst enemies.  There isn't any inbetween.  Most days after breakfast, these two will disappear into their rooms and play (almost) happily until lunchtime.  Until I go in and demand they put clothes on (remind me to tell you sometime about my pajama hypothesis).  Somehow after they are dressed, everything becomes more difficult.  Although they still play and play and play.  I think both of them have enjoyed reconnecting after the busy school year and having down time to set up their elaborate play schemes.

-He adores Gemma.  He is kind and gentle.  He tells complete strangers at the park proudly that she is his baby sister and she is CUTE.  Even strangers who clearly do not want to talk to a 6 year old about how cute his baby sister is.  William was so helpful with Gemma while John was in Korea.  Without his help, life would have been much more difficult.

-He adores dinosaurs.  Everything dinosaur.  He has long since left me in the dust (fine by me and I will say that I'm not trying very hard at this particular subject) with his breadth and depth of knowledge on the subject.

- We've become much more interested in trying new foods.  Maybe just a bite or two.  Even last year this was so difficult for him.  Now he enjoys trying something new.  He might not eat more than a bite, but at least he is trying some new things.

-Much of the time he is so easy going, it takes me by surprise when he digs his heels in about something.  He wears whatever clothes I put out, no arguing.  He eats what is on his plate with little to no interference from me.  Time to go to the library?  Sure mom.  Hand me some wipes?  Sure, do you need anything else mom?

He sure isn't perfect, but we do love him lots and lots.  This summer has been wonderful and I have enjoyed spending more time with his as company.  I've enjoyed listening to his ideas, thoughts and questions rather than being exhausted by the constant stream of thought that used to come from him.  We're currently working hard on learning that some words have big meaning and can lead you to big trouble.  Like a lot of kids, he talks first and thinks about the words much, much later.  And that mouth has been a source of trouble for him, but we're working on in!

Giggles

Almost every day something happens that I think "I need to write this down".  Then life gets busy and when I have a moment to breathe, I a) don't feel like writing it down and wrestling with octopus Gemma over the phone/computer or b) I can't remember what was so funny.


I have a few memories llllooooooonnnng overdue and I perhaps have even written about them here before.  However, in the last few days they keep resurfacing over and over.  And every time I think about them I giggle.  So, here is a post about things that make me giggle.

#1 - William was maybe 3?  We were struggling with some problem behaviors and our method of dealing was time outs.  William would sit in the assigned Time Out Chair for 3 minutes when he was not exhibiting the behavior we expected.  Because I tend to not pay attention to time AT ALL, I always set the oven timer to remind myself when the time out was supposed to be over.  Left to my own timing skills, it could be anywhere from 4 hours to 2 days before I noticed my child was still in time out (still true, x3).

One particularly difficult day, William served many time outs in his Time Out Chair.  Later in the evening, we were making something in the oven (likely a frozen pizza.  we are super gourmet that way), and the oven timer went off.  William's head whipped up and with wide, wide eyes asked "Who is in time out now?"

I was laughing so hard I could hardly answer.  "No one," I finally replied.

"But....the timer....." he trailed off.

And then we had to explain that the oven timer wasn't only for his time outs.  It had other uses as well....


#2

In June, we were at the Lake of the Ozarks for my work conference.  The resort had a lovely pool and our room was conveniently located adjacent to the pool.  Only it turns out to be very difficult to swim for enjoyment when you have 3 kids at the following levels:

1) child believes he can swim.  Has no fear and is not worried.  Totally confident in his own skills.  Reality: He cannot swim for distances greater than 3 feet.  While we have made great stride, we still aren't there.  In this pool, he cannot quite touch the bottom, which means he needs to be holding on to someone/something any time he is in the pool AND be closely supervised due to his overconfidence in his own skills.

2) Cannot swim and knows it.  Has a healthy fear of the water and has to be convinced every time to get in.  Cannot touch the bottom and must hang on to someone/something the entire time while in the pool.

3) Cannot swim and doesn't care.  Love to splash/kick/wiggle at random times.  Slippery when wet plus the wiggly component plus the no fear attitude means extreme caution must be used.  Whoever is in charge of this child much be very vigilant.


After discussing with coworkers, one wondered why I didn't bring floaties for the kids so it wouldn't be so stressful.  My mouth gaped like a fish as I asked myself "Why?  Why?  Why didn't that occur to me?"

Floaties were promptly acquired and inflated for pool use the following day.  William loved the arm floaties in particular.  He paddled around with them on and tormented his sister by considering letting her have a try.....but, no.

What happened next could have been a different story, but since it turned out okay it has now become funny.  Hilarious in my mind even.

All 5 of us are paddling around in the pool.  John and I are holding Gemma and Amelia.  We switch as needed by request or to assist the other child (ie: I took Amelia to the bathroom).  William was paddling between John and I, taking the time to torment and tease his sister through both splashing and offers to share the floaties.

When I looked up next, I noticed William hanging onto the edge, removing the arm floaties, and putting them on the edge of the pool.  I looked away to check briefly on the girls and when I looked back, William was struggling to put the floaties back on.  He was putting them back on his legs.  His legs are so slender that the floaties slid alllllll the way on up to his thighs.

One beat later, the floaties did exactly what they were designed to do.  They floated.  They floated to the surface of the water with William's skinny chicken legs still firmly attached.

William was totally not prepared and was swept off his feet.  The look on his face was total disbelief and confusion.  His head came close to going under and I reached out to grab him.  Baby under 1 arm, big kid under the other.

The look of shock, confusion, disbelief and outrage STILL sends me into a fit of giggles.  We then went on to chat about why that wasn't a good idea and how the floaties needed to stay on his arms, etc.

Less than 10 minutes later, I looked over and he was again removing the floaties from his arm and putting it on his leg.  Although it was funny the first time, now it was serious and get got out of the pool.  Out we went and back to our room.

How to make a baby tired

Make her push around her older sister on a push toy.

Ps. I love these pictures because somewhere we have a picture of William and Amelia in about the same way - Amelia is pushing William on this very toy at grandpa and grandma's house.

A timeline

It's been a crazy busy summer for us.  I wanted to just jot down my notes for a record for my memory.  Maybe just to document how crazy I really am?

June 19-21 Kelly work conference at Lake of the Ozarks (3 hours away)

June 28- John flies to South Korea for work (close to 24 hours of travel time)

June 28 (afternoon)- my dad offers to meet me at the halfway point with my mom and drive me the rest of the way to MN.  I agree.  Frenzied packing and list making happens as I pack 3 kids for 8 days at grandpa and grandma's house.

June 29 - Drive myself and 3 kids to Iowa city (3.5 hours away) and meet up with my parents.  We divide kids and drive the remaining 3ish hours to their house.  W&A ride with grandpa.  Gemma and grandma ride in the backseat while I drive.

June 30- We are able to attend my niece's (Z) first birthday party in Minneapolis.  On my way to the party, I decide it is a good idea to swing by IKEA and pick up a bookshelf I have had my eye on.  Shipping it to our house was going to cost $785.  Over the next 2 weeks I curse myself over and over as it is now next to impossible to get in and out of the van.  The boxes are super heavy and require the seats to be folded down which blocks the exit/entrance to the vehicle.  Super duper bonus points go to Amelia for monkeying her way around the boxes to get to her carseat in the back row for every single car trip.
-various friends and family meet ups occur.  Our friends and family do such a great job arranging their lives around our travel plans.  It is awesome to see someone different every day!

July 7- drive with Grandpa and Grandma to Mount Pleasant (3.5 hours away).  I get all the kids back in my van +bookshelf and we drive the rest of the way home (3 hours).  We make it home in time to take the big kids to soccer practice.

-we have various activities this week: soccer, swimming, a library story time, etc.  Something to keep us busy every day.  It is still a LONG haul chasing 3 kids by myself.

July 12- John arrives home from South Korea (close to 24 hours of travel time)

July 17/18- We get a phone call that my Grandpa's health continues to fail.  We have been getting updates on his health at least on a weekly basis for the last several months.  We have a trip scheduled for the next week to North Dakota.  After much discussion, we decide we need to make the trip.

July 18- drive to Rochester, MN (7ish hours)
July 19- Drive to Grand Forks, ND (6ish hours) I am able to spend some precious time visiting with my Grandpa.  We also get to see my brother, sister, my aunt/uncle along with my grandparents.  It is good to be surrounded by family.

July 20 - Drive back to Rochester, MN (6hours)

July 21- Drive back home so John can be at work and William can attend the one camp we signed him up for this summer. (7 hours)

July 23- Grandpa Tom passes away.  So thankful for our trip the previous weekend.

July 26 - I fly solo with Gemma to Grand Forks, ND.  The trip is good and uneventful with the exception of the time Gemma shoved her finger painfully up my nose.  As a reflex, I jerked my head away from her prying, sharp fingers.  When I did that, I managed to smash into the head of the poor woman sleeping next to me.  Oops.

*John picks William up from his Inventor's Camp and drives to Rochester, MN (7 hours)

July 27- Gemma and I attend Grandpa's funeral.  While sad, it is wonderful to be surrounded by family.  Family I haven't seen in years is there.  It was wonderful.  Also, stressful when Gemma wasn't interested in sitting.  At all.  A huge thank you to my new sister in law (Jenny) for taking Gemma on a nice walk.  Another thank you to my aunt Kaye for chauffeuring me and Gemma around town and to my mom for picking us up at the airport.

*John drives with the 2 big kids from Rochester, MN to Grand Forks, ND.  They miss the funeral (it is likely they would not have attended anyway).  They DO get to visit with all the cousins, aunts, uncles there including a few they hadn't met before.

July 30 - We drive to Medora, ND for our previously planned family vacation.  We started talking about visiting the badlands of ND this past winter and scheduled it weeks ago.  We briefly discussed cancelling, but then decided to forge ahead.

Along the way, we stopped to visit the gravesite of John's mom/Grandma Heidt.  Our girls have not been there before and we thought it was important to have them visit.  I forgot what a peaceful, quiet and scenic place this is.

We then made a stop at Fort Lincoln State Park outside of Bismarck, ND.  John has many fond memories of visiting this location from when he was growing up.  We thought this might help break up the car trip for the kids as well (okay, for the grown ups too).

Total driving time- 7 hours. 

*Time spent at Teddy Roosevelt National Park including A SCENIC DRIVE! (3 hours+)

August 1- drive back to Grand Forks, ND.  We stop at a dinosaur museum along the way.  Total drive time 6ish hours.

August 2- Drive back to Rochester, MN (6 hours)

August 4- drive back home (7ish hours)

Is it any wonder that when I went to put Gemma in her carseat on Monday, she arched her back and screamed?

Area we crazy?  Probably.  But, it was fun AND I am thankful for the time we had together.  I'm also thankful John talked me out of driving another 6 hours one way to see Glacier National Park.  Maybe next summer?

Little one

This little monkey. I looked away this morning to eat my own breakfast and when I observed her shoving a cherrio into her ear. Why? Who knows. Maybe she has an ear infection. Maybe she just noticed she has a hole in her ear. Maybe her sister did the same thing when I wasn't looking and Gemma was just copying her. There is never a dull moment. Nothing is getting done today. She wants to be right on me. Every second of the day. I was crabby about it for awhile this morning and then had to remind myself: I don't stay at home so I can have a clean house or be caught up on laundry. It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day demands of dishes, laundry and other commitments. It turns out today all of that is on hold. At least until naptime. I have some books to read to this sweet, sweet baby of mine.

Breakfast thoughts

Amelia: William! William! Do you need to smell both ways before you cross the street?

(Both William and mama stop, mid chew of cereal to stare at her. Gemma continues to bang her spoon, screech and toss Cheerios by the handful as normal)

William: what?

Amelia: you know! You need to look and listen before you cross the street. What about smelling? You could maybe smell some tires. Or the gas. Or the paint on the car.

William: no. There is no smelling when you cross the street. Just looking and listening.

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How do you use this thing?

Hmmm.....

Baby entertainer

Dear hotel,

Thank you for the awesome baby entertainment device! Our daughter has loved emptying the tissue dispenser and then shredding each individual one! Emptying plus shredding took her almost 20 minutes this morning! What I don't understand is why would would refill the box when all the evidence was still on the floor in front of the area there.....

But, thanks to you I predict more fun in our future!

Sincerely,
The mama