Aaron!

At the end of a very long day at Diggerland our dear friend Aaron found a good spot and met us for dinner. He was very patient and kind with three adults and three kids who had been out in the sun all day and were pretty exhausted, hungry, and grumpy (I'm looking at you, Theo and Beckett).

Diggerland

Friday night we left for our first big family road trip (with Uncle Jon!) en route to Diggerland in West Berlin, NJ. We stayed in a hotel Friday night and got to Diggerland just after it opened. We heard about it from Sarah M and have been thinking about planning a trip ever since. It's an awesome, small park with real, live, working construction equipment that you and yours can operate yourselves. Many of the rides have height requirements but most allow for a shorter kid to ride on the lap of a grownup. I walked around with Reed most of the day while Jon and Jeff rode excavators, mini-dumpers, skid steers, and mini-excavators. Jeff and Jon also got to do the ropes course, and Jeff had a go at the rock climbing wall. At the end of the day I had some time with Theo to ride the train a couple times, ride the tractor wagon, and try out the mini-excavators. The park is beautiful and clean and well-run and safe and it was an absolutely spectacular day.

Jeff in red on the climbing wall

 Jeff and Beck on the skid steer

 Jon and Theo on the skid steers

The biggest boys on the ropes course

 Watching the construction vehicle stunt show

Diggerland videos

Boys riding the barrel train

Uncle Jon and Beck operating the excavator

Jeff and Theo riding the mini-dumper

Reed

Reed continues to be a very easy going, relaxed little guy. He gets super grumpy right before he goes to sleep, but other than that, he's a good mood guy. The picture above is after I unbuckled my Ergo and just set it, and him, down on the bed. Now that's a good nap! Below is one of my favorite faces of his. It's blurry but it's impossible not to laugh when he makes that grumpy face. Which is great, because when I laugh at his face, he then breaks into a huge grin and forgets all about why he was grumpy.

On the back deck yesterday, enjoying the sunshine. Theo was kind enough to go inside all on his own to pick out a toy for him, and then start the baby seat vibrating and singing a song.

This Exersaucer has gotten a lot of good use! First with baby Dylan, Kate and Aaron's first, then Ollie, then Theo and Beckett, and then I think Sarah Markowitz's twins, and now Reed! Next stop: Kath Zannella (nee Fenzel) for her new baby girl, due next month.

 Sunday I noticed one new tooth breaking through, and today I saw more clearly that there are TWO new teeth! WOW! The bottom picture shows them the best.

Reed at Five Months

Pediatrician Update--Four Years!

I delayed the boys' 4 year well child pediatrician visits so that they could get flu shots on the same visit. Nice mama, huh, to condense all the shots into one visit?!? The boys were perfect patients, answering all the nurse's and doctor's questions and complying with all the tests and measurements with good humor. They really haven't had any medical or health issues (but for the Lyme disease and broken leg in August) so it was a pretty short visit. Theo is in the 13th percentile for height and has an above-average BMI (he must have eaten a lot at school that day) and Beckett is in about the 30th percentile for height and with a below-average BMI (I think he lost some weight, or at least slowed gaining, while he had the broken leg). Their vision is perfect and they are in all measurable ways growing just as they should be.

The boys just chatted and chatted all through the visit, asking all kinds of questions to the nurses and doctor about what was going on and what they were doing at school and various other things. It was pretty funny. Then after the doctor finished up, she reminded us that we had shots to get today for kindergarten. Three shots, not including the flu shot. The boys were again given the choice to get flu mist or flu shot, and they again chose the shots, to the nurses' amazement. When the nurse came in to give the shots, she asked me how I wanted to do it. I kind of shrugged and said she could do Theo first, then Beckett. I got up from sitting with Reed to go stand next to Theo. The boys were excitedly counting "FOUR! FOUR shots!" Theo got his first shot, and a cloud came over his face. "That didn't feel good!" Three more and he was pretty unhappy but never cried or flinched. Beckett, watching all of Theo's shots, seemed concerned but then took his shots like a champion. After the first one, he proudly announced, "That didn't hurt!" He looked like he might cry after the fourth shot, but he didn't. The nurse looked absolutely stunned and said she had never seen four year olds tolerate shots like the boys did. I realized then that when she came into the room with the needles and asked me what I wanted her to do, she meant, like whether she needed extra people to hold them down or something. I've never been bothered by shots, and I guess the kids aren't either. I was so proud of them!

I also had the chance to weigh Reed, who is now 18 and a half pounds. He has rolls upon lovely rolls. It's fantastic. People love to tell us what a chunker he is!

Play date with Elaine

Sunday morning we met my childhood friend Elaine at a playground in Onondaga. The day was perfect--sunny and warm with a cool breeze. Her son Michael got along great with T&B, and the three of them romped all around the park and were quite dirty, sandy and tired after three hours.