Some weekend fun

Sunday afternoon Josh passed some time happily arranging potatoes on the sun porch. Who needs toys? He was very excited to do it. And once or twice paused to try to take a chop out of one, only to look up at me with sorrow in his eyes that it didn't turn out better.

Saturday the boys and I met Ian and his mom at the science museum. Ian and Sam wandered around with Ian's mom, while I followed Josh. Josh loves stairs, an area where you can roll balls down inclined planes, the native American section with its many dioramas and sloping floors, and the mastodon. What a hit! He kept pointing and exclaiming and pointing and exclaiming. :-)

Our clothes drier broke, which meant a trip with the boys to the laundromat Sunday afternoon. Josh engaged first in his favorite pastime, cart racing. This was followed by cart riding, once he demonstrated that he could climb in all on his own. It didn't take long before both boys were bored, but that's part of the package. Since we use laundromats on many of our vacations, it reminded me of being on vacation, only without the warm weather or exotic locales. 

Sunday a pair of ducks wandered up from the creek and around our lawn. As Josh and I stood on the sun porch they came right up next to the window, as if they could tell that Josh, caged, couldn't hurt them. They then moseyed around the front of the house, and off somewhere else. Clearly ducks who have spent time on golf courses.

Our budding bird watcher

This video, courtesy Dianka, shows Josh looking for birds. I think the "oh no!" is because he's not finding any. It ends with his plaintive "where are you?" :-)

Sam, lying underneath the disk swing as it glides over his head

From Susan:

Okay, now I feel old... Sam and I were talking about how maybe someday we'll learn all sorts of neat, mind-blowing things in heaven that our brains currently can't grasp. And Sam said, most enthusiastically, "Mom, I wish I were as old as you so I could die sooner!"
Thank you, son. Thank you for reminding me just how close to death I am...

From me:

This year Sam's been doing subtraction with "borrowing." Except he said tonight it's not really borrowing. It's taking and using. Those little ones never get returned.

Another observation from Sam:

"If you could see through everything, then you couldn't see anything."

Yes! We talked about Superman's X-ray vision after that.

Nap please

One of Josh's sitters didn't know when Josh usually goes down for his nap.

Josh knew, though. Fetched a bottle, and pleadingly handed it to her, then lied (lay? lay) down on the floor saying, "Nap!"

New art!

Some Sam Art. 

Below are two ideas for Pokemon cards. Before you glaze over, in this context it just means monsters, with arrows indicating how they transform from one into another. 

Really, it's just an excuse to draw monsters. Sam loves to draw monsters. 

Many kids this summer will put up lemonade stands at the edge of their lawns. Sam began last week drawing monsters to sell.  Originals for 25 cents, color duplicates for 10 cents. 

This summer he'll take at least one week-long art class with a babysitter of his, Dianka, who just got her masters in art education. She has a studio where she lives and will teach out of there. 

New Box!

We have a new box!

It came with a new forward-facing car seat for Josh. But the important thing is the box, as you will see below...

You'll notice Josh isn't wearing pants. He really really didn't want to wear pants.  Susan, who spent one year of hear early youth wearing a black swimsuit, is not in a position to deny such requests for pantslessness.

Happy Easter!

Had a pleasant Easter weekend. On Saturday, got the boys out for a little hike in Linear Park--the same hike Josh and I did in the snow not so long ago on his little sled. 

The weather was cool but pleasant. We saw many fishermen, who all reported that the trout were content just gazing impassively at whatever was put before them. But then, this was late afternoon. The water was high with snow melt, which captivated Josh, who would point at it and say in wonder, Water! 

Sunday we at the Elliots over for a pleasant and memorable Easter feast. The boys got decked out in shirts an ties for church, and later went for an Easter-egg hunt, and got to chew the ears off hollow chocolate bunnies. No tradition was neglected. 

Worth noting that we were all finally feeling mostly healthy again. A great Easter gift.