Downtown Adventure

Last Saturday, July 3, we had quite an adventure. The day started with finding a MARTA card on the Freedom Park trail during my morning run. I can't return the card to it's owner and decided to give it to Colin. He is actually right on the cusp of being required to pay for his MARTA rides. Of course, Colin wants to try the card out right away. So that afternoon while Bob bottled beer with a beer friend, we decided to go to the High Museum via MARTA. After we got on the train I realized that we would not make it in time before the museum closed. Modify the plan, go to Centennial Olympic park where they have a playground.

At Five Points we were waiting to transfer to the North-South line and saw that the next train was coming in 15 minutes. Well, Centennial Olympic park is less than a 15 minute walk from Five Points, so we started walking. On the walk I noticed some barricades, then I noticed a bus that was burned to a crisp! What the what??!! Did some huge accident happen downtown? Terrorists? My mind was racing and I was wondering if I should point this out to the boys (they have not noticed it yet). And where was all the activity that should surround a burned out bus? And why is there a police officer standing casually right next to it? As we approach this strange situation, a couple of girls are looking and questioning the scene as well when a guy walking past heard them and said that they are filming a movie. Duh! Makes total sense now. But for a second there I was really worried.

So off to Centennial Olympic park where we first see the fountains and lots of fences for some kind of event. But the fences are blocking our way to the playground, so instead of walking through the park, we have to walk around the park. I'm not worried. I should have been. When we get to the playground, the fences go around the playground, including it in the inaccessible area. Colin gets really, really upset. For 15 minutes we try to come up with an alternate plan, but he is too upset to want to do anything else, except go to the Children's Museum. The Children's Museum happens to be right next to the closed playground, but it's really close to closing if it hasn't closed already. Also it's one of the only places in the city that we don't have an annual pass for. Ultimately we go in the Children's Museum to see if they have a discounted rate (like free) for the last 15 minutes of the day. Nope. But we can go to the gift shop. So two grabber thingies later (just a little bit less money than the reduced museum admission) we are heading back to MARTA to go home. And what should pass us, but the burned out bus being towed away.

Figures of speech

There was an almost empty bag of pepperoni that Bob and I were eating and I said to Bob, "You want me to kill it?".

Nathan gives me the weirdest look and says, "How do you kill pepperoni?"

Then later when Bob was serving the little pizzas he made, we told Nathan that the cheese pizza had his name written all over it. He's a smart kid because he said that his name was written in invisible ink.

When I grow up ...

Nathan wants to be a fireman, and Colin wants to be an inventor.

Tomorrow

Time is a difficult concept for children. Nathan just hasn't made the connection yet. He is always asking us, "Is it tomorrow?"

No, Nathan. It's never going to be tomorrow. Of course, we don't tell him that. We just tell him that it will be tomorrow when he wakes up.

The best compliment ever

You know when you get a babysitter and come home and ask how everything went. The sitter always says "fine" or "the kids were great". But I always wonder if they always say that regardless with how the kids acted.

So back when my cousins were in town, we had tickets to see a UGA game in Athens. This required an all day babysitter for the boys from noon to late at night. I lined up one of our sitters that usually does just the night time routine.

We came home that night and were talking to her about how the day went. She was very honest with us and told us that she thought the day would be difficult. Her husband also made the comment that the day would be "birth control" for them. (They don't have children yet.) So she said, "I had so much fun with the boys; they are not birth control!"

I was so happy to hear that my children aren't birth control! I mean what a great compliment. So maybe my sitters aren't lying to me after all.

Colin's Writing

Colin is learning to read and write and is very excited about it. After he writes something, he will cut it out and tape it to his bedroom door.


This first sign lists the names of everyone in the house, including the cats! It says:
Ambrose Flowers S.
Simon Purr S.
Phoebe Fast S.
Nathan Martin S.
Colin Robert S.
Kristine Marie S.
Robert Wayne S.

Of course, Colin gave the cats middle names too.


The next sign says, "This is a invention. Date 2009. I like invention making invention and they ! are ! awesome!" I think he accidentally put an extra "invention" in the one sentence. And I explained the exclamation point to him for after "awesome". He decided to put some more in for extra emphasis.


I couldn't figure out the top of this note, but the bottom says, "I like this family". I like this note!

Scraps

This is what Colin makes when I give him my scrapbooking scraps! Impressive!

A "Say Anything ... " moment

Remember the movie "Say Anthing ..." with Ione Skye and John Cusack. At the beginning of the movie John's character is walking Ione's character home from a late night. He sees some broken glass and kicks it aside making sure that she doesn't step on it or anything. Remember that scene? Probably not. But I do.

Well, last Monday we had a playdate with Grace from Colin's class (another playdate with a girl -- I love those kind of playdates!). Anyway, we were walking home and Colin pointed out some glass on the ground and warned Grace of it, making sure she didn't hurt herself.

He is such a sweet kid.

Nathan and Laura

I'm doing much better about setting up playdates for Nathan. He has at least one a week now, sometimes two. This week Nathan asked to do a playdate with Laura. A side note, Laura is Eva's little sister. Colin and Eva were in the same class last year and Colin really likes Eva. It looks like the younger siblings are on a similar path.

So I emailed Laura and Eva's mom and set things up for yesterday. When we got to school, Nathan said he wanted to walk in with Laura. So we waited for Laura to get to school and they walked in hand in hand after a big hug. Nathan was so excited to see her.

The playdate went so very very well. Nice and calm ... well, except for the tornadoes in the tents. But that was short lived. Laura was excited to play with the trains that Nathan got out. I hope we do many more playdates with her.

Nathan-isms

Things that Nathan says:

"hide -n- peek" = hide -n- seek

"carry me up" = pick me up

"panana" = banana

"canola bar" = granola bar (Colin used to call it "bar bar" when he was little

And one day when we were blowing bubbles, he says, "I want to fill the whole world with bubbles".

Yeah, wouldn't that be awesome.

How to get better ...

When one of the boys are sick, they watch a lot of TV. My kids don't do naps, and TV is a mostly sure way they stay calm and rest a little. Otherwise, they are bouncing off of the walls. Having two boys, they bounce off the walls a lot, even when they are sick.

So right after school started, Nathan got sick, just a little cold that kept him home one day. Knowing that he was going to get to watch lots of TV, Nathan said, "TV will feel me better."

'Drop off' playdates

Yesterday Nathan went on a playdate. I've really been neglegent in doing playdates for Nathan. So most of Nathan's friends are Colin's friends, and most of the playdates that were scheduled this summer were with Colin's friends.

Anyway, Nathan was invited over to the house of a little boy that will be starting in his class soon. The little boy's sister used to be in Colin's class and that's how we know the family. On the way over to the playdate, Nathan told me he wanted to be "dropped off". Well, since I know the mom and wanted to hang out with her, I told Nathan that he could just pretend that I wasn't there. But the fact that he asked to be dropped off really demonstrated to me how different Nathan is from his brother. Colin hates "drop off" playdates.

Directions

Colin still has difficulty with left and right, but he totally gets North, South, East and West. It's really strange. My theory is that to him North, South, East and West make more sense because they are always the same but right and left are dependent on your prespective. Kinda like how I preferred math to english because 2+2 always equaled 4, but english has all kinds of exceptions ('a' before 'e', except after 'c', etc. etc.).

Nathan grunting

When I was pregnant with Nathan, I grunted ... a lot. It seemed like I grunted more than when I was pregnant with Colin; maybe it was because I had to take care of a toddler.

So now when Nathan is working really hard at putting the wheels on a toy, or lifting something heavy, he grunts. I mean really big exaggerated grunting sounds. It makes me wonder if it had anything to do with all the grunting that I did when he was in my belly?

Mr. Inventor

Colin is the master of inventions. He is always saying, "I'm going to make a machine that will ..." and fill in the blank with the most amazing, bizarre, and/or random thing that you can think of.

Many times, this is Colin's coping mechanism when he is angry. I was a mean mommy one time (imagine that!) and wouldn't let the boys do something. Colin was extremely upset with me and said that he was going to make a machine that was an elevator that could hold all of his friends and not me. There was more to the elevator but I can't remember all the details, it was pretty elaborate.

And just today, Colin expanded his inventions to potions. So school just started and there's a little bit of a transition involving who plays with who on the playground. Without going into all the details, one boy made Colin very angry because he was playing with Colin's usual playmate on the playground. So Colin says that he is going to make a special potion that will turn people into bugs and give it to so-and-so and then he's going to catch the bug and put it in a container.

What an imagination.

A beatle in the park

Last night was the Paul McCartney concert in Piedmont Park. I had tickets to another show and sold them so we could go to this one. The other show is a bi-annual event, and I figured that this was a once in a lifetime occurrence.

Wow, what a show. Paul did a couple of really special tributes, the first to Linda. He sang "My Love" which he also wrote for her. Second, Paul brought out an ukulele that George Harrison gave to him. During "Something", a slide show of George played behind the set.

Paul also talked about Woodstock, that yesterday was the 40th anniversary and then did a little Jimi Hendrix, very cool. The anniversary of Woodstock was further cemented when it started raining ... for a while it rained pretty hard and we held the blanket over our heads.

Nature called during the show so I headed to the porta-potties. The energy of the show continued where someone sang "Man on the Run" full volume in there. Okay it was me singing! Except I was singing "Band on the Run", a little rendition that was made popular during bootcamp elastic band workouts.

But my two favorite songs of the evening were "Hey, Jude", and "Live and Let Die" which he did back to back. I remember "Hey, Jude" from the first time I saw Paul McCartney in 1989 at Iowa State. We sat outside the stadium watching the show. During "Hey Jude", the whole stadium of fans sang and it gave me goosebumps to hear it. Last night, being one of the many singing, I wondered what it sounded like to everyone else outside of the concert venue. If the sound was as loud and as awesome as I remembered.


Then "Live and Let Die" cranked it complete with fireworks and explosions, just like the first time in Iowa. I was looking forward to it and thought I was ready but was still blown away.

The stage behind us, impressive!

Dentist

Nathan went to the dentist for the first time on August 12. However, he got a couple previews of what to expect when I went to dentist a week earlier, and Colin also had an appointment two days before Nathan's. Next time I have their appointment on the same day.

My dentist appointment was probably not the ideal time to bring Nathan. I had a full set of x-rays done and poor Nathan had to sit out in the hall in a little stool. He looked so bored.

So with all that practice, Nathan's appointment went really well. He opened his mouth really big and cooperated very well. I was very proud. And all three of us didn't have any cavities, Yeah!

Colin at his appointment:


Nathan's shoes:

Oregon Brewer's Fest

We returned from our trip to Omaha Wednesday evening, just in time to wake up early Thursday morning for the next trip to the Oregon Brewer's Fest in Portland, Oregon.

The flight was good for us, bad for the couple with 3 boys next to us. Their littlest one had an earache and cried most of the trip. Luckily, it didn't bother us too much, just grateful it wasn't my kid -- is that bad?

We took the train to downtown Portland from the airport which the kids really liked. But we couldn't check into the hotel yet so we grabbed some lunch and headed to the brew fest. At the brew fest I noticed that Bob didn't have his laptop backpack, which I also talked him out of checking in with the doorman at the hotel with the rest of our luggage. For some reason I didn't think it would be safe. Instead he forgot it at Quizno's. Should've let him check it in with the doorman. Luckily, it was still at Quizno's when Bob went back.

At the brew fest, the kids played in the sand/dirt for a while. They said they were making sand castles. Next the root beer tent where there was crafts like coloring frisbees. Then we threw the frisbees where Colin really got into it.



Dinner was at Rock Bottom, a chain brew pub. It's pretty good in the west, not so good in the east.

Friday, I ran a course that was suppose to be 10 miles. It took me 2 hours, so I'm thinking maybe a little more than 10 miles, more like 12 miles. I did get lost once but not too bad. I could see where I wanted to go, just didn't know the best way to get there.

At the brew fest, there were a couple of rough spots with the kids. They were getting bored. Bob and I would take turns hanging with the kids in this shady, grassy area by the porta-potties. At one point, a guy started talking to us -- wanted to take a picture of my Ale Smith t-shirt and started playing with the kids. Really lightened the mood a bit for us. Friday, we also saw friends of ours from Roswell Farms, Mike and Alanna. We haven't seen them in years and they live in Seattle now. And get this, the first time we went to the Oregon Brewers Fest was with them! How ironic is that!

Saturday we went to the Saturday market which is a really neat arts and crafts market, and bought some Christmas presents. I really wasn't interested in taking the kids back to the brew fest ... it was going to be so much more crowded on Saturday and they were getting bored with it. So I begrudgingly offered to take the kids to the museum across the river while he went back to the brew fest.

The route we took to the museum must have been over 2 miles, but I really wanted to walk over the "Steel Bridge" which is an amazing structure. Nothing like it really, with two decks that can move indepedently.


We finally make it to the museum, and in the free part of the museum is a steel ball run (like a marble run) called the "Gravitram". The kids were absolutely entralled with it. After watching for a while, I drugged them away to get tickets to go to the rest of the museum. Well, I forgot my wallet, so no money, so no tickets, and back to the "Gravitram". Good thing it was there! Good thing my kids are good sports too.


That night Bob and I went out to dinner with Colin (not our Colin but a beer friend from Atlanta) and Colin's girlfriend, Abby at Deschutes Brewery. Good times.

David's Wedding

My brother got married! Woo Hoo! Big excitement and celebration. Colin and Nathan were the ring bearers and Bob was a groomsman. I had the important job of mother of the ring bearers.

We flew in Friday, getting up at 5am. Bob had the special treat of flying to California the day before and returning on the red eye Thursday night. He flew in Friday morning, got a couple hours of sleep before going back to the airport again. We flew to Kansas City (fares to Omaha are outrageous!) and then drove to Omaha. First we visited with Grandma Mary, Grandpa Jerry and Great Grandma JJ before heading to Nikki's where we were staying. Bob and I had just enough time to get a teeny tiny nap in before going to the rehearsal. David was so cute, dancing down the aisle during the rehearsal. The rehearsal dinner was at Godfather's Pizza where everyone had a good time. We got back to Nikki's after dark and the fireflies were out, so we caught some fireflies before getting to bed.

Saturday was just as hectic. I woke up early to go a 16 mile run. Training for the Chicago Marathon doesn't stop for anything, you know. More visits to Grandma Mary's and Grandpa Jerry's where the kids stayed the night too. Bob and I had plans to go to Misty and Heath's where most of my cousins were getting together. That was the first time in a long time that so many of us were able to get together and chat.

Sunday was the big day for David and Bernadette. I was the lead person in getting the reception hall ready but my cousin Misty had been to many receptions at the Reed Center and was a big help in telling everyone what to do. My cousin, Scott's wife, Melissa was also a major helper in getting everything done. Uncle Tom and Connie were also there and blew up the balloons. Although every time I looked over at them, they were doing something crazy like using the balloons for augmenting body parts (that was Connie not Tom!)

The wedding was beautiful, and Colin and Nathan were the perfect little ring bearers. Colin took the responsibility very seriously and stood up there very solemn the whole ceremony. Nathan was a typical 3-year-old and got a little antsy but it was all so cute. Just a little wiggling around, but still he was very good.

David and Bernadette got married in the same church that Bob and I did. During our wedding we forgot to light the candles so we had no flame for the unity candle. David kept in the tradition by forgetting the paperwork for the judge to sign after the ceremony! Fortunately, the paperwork was found after the wedding and the judge agreed to go to the reception and do the paperwork there.

The reception was also at the same place as when Bob and I got married, the Reed Center which is also the same place that I went to Summer Day Camp when I was a little girl. After it got dark, Colin and Nathan played in the backyard where I played as a little girl. Colin and Nathan caught more fireflies that night.

While staying at my sister’s house, I noticed that she had the same eye shadow that I had. I mean out of all the million’s of different eye shadow colors out there, we have the same one. It actually was a 3-pack and it was the same color in the 3-pack that we both used. Reminded of the time I returned home from college with my long hair cut off. Only to discover that Nikki had cut her long hair too. We had no idea the other one was thinking about doing it. I guess there is just something about sisters.

Diving board

Last Thursday after swimming lessons, one of the teachers, Tyler asked Nathan if he wanted to go off of the diving board. Nathan is fearless but wouldn't do it at first but then Colin said that he wanted to do it and viola! both boys were jumping off the diving board. Colin can almost swim to the edge by himself but Nathan still needs lots of help getting to the edge of the pool.

Nathan jumping to Anna.


Nathan going in!


Colin and Tyler.


Colin's big splash.


Colin swimming to the edge.