When we returned from Diggerland last Saturday, Uncle Jon stayed an extra day with his favorite nephews (and brother and sister-in-law). He got to play soccer with Jeff and roughhouse with Theo and Beckett. This game is called "double piggyback."

Last week I was part of a cool thing: a mom in California decided to send baby carriers to Greece to meet the Syrian refugees at the boats and in the refugee camps. She posted something on Facebook about it, it got to me somehow, and I started collecting carriers from my neighbors and co-workers. The organizer lady is of Greek heritage and is planning to go to Greece, to the island of Kos where her family is, and she has a plan of meeting families as boats land to hand out carriers and then going to refugee camps to meet with families there as well. She hoped to get a couple hundred carriers and some money to cover travel expenses but she's collected thousands and lots of money to buy new carriers at cost and cover logistics expenses as well. It feels really wonderful to be part of a movement to help refugees in a tangible way, mom to mom, in a way that I imagine could make a small difference. She asked us to pin notes of hope on the carriers, so I found some extra fabric and wrote in "sent with love from Syracuse, NY USA" on all of them. I sent twelve carriers as part of the effort, thanks to many good friends and neighbors (and five of my own)!

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