Just an Ordinary Day

Here's some video and pictures from last Tuesday, June 4.  Thought you'd like to see what 7.5 month old babies do in our house these days:

Click here for video of Erin

What?  What did you expect?  Something exciting?  Cartwheels and somersaults?

I Used to be Braver

I'm not sure how to convince Dex of this, but I used to be brave when it came to amusement parks.  I did roller coasters (with the standing agreement with Kathy that I can sit on the side where the railing is, on the way up the big hill).  I did pirate ships (so long as I could sit in the middle and not on an end).  Waterslides.  Bumper cars.  Things that go upside down and make all the change fall out of your pockets.  Whirly things that stick you to the wall and then drop the floor out from under you.  I did all the rides.  Except the ferris wheel.  Cuz... no.  Just, no.  Tall things that go slow freak me out.

And then I got old.

Now when I ride up glass elevators I have to turn and face the wall so I don't see out.  Now when my child goes on the ski lift thingy at the amusement park I tell him "Daddy can go with you" because Mama don't do that shit.  Now when I decide to grow a set and just GO on the swing ride, I have a death grip on the bar the entire time and I call down to John about how much I really don't like this.  Now when I get off said swing ride, my son tells me "Next time we can find you a less scary ride, Mama."

Despite my bravery shortcomings, we all had a perfectly fantastic time at Dutch Wonderland yesterday.  It was Dexter's first amusement park experience and I do believe he loved it.  He said the only ride he didn't like was the "boat ride" (the log flume) because it went too fast when it went down the hill.  But he did say that when we go back (tomorrow, he said) we can ride all the rides he likes.  We stayed for a couple hours in the rain in the afternoon, and it paid off nicely for us as we got free "rainy day" tickets to come for another day.  Thanks, Dutch Wonderland!

Here's some pics from our awesome day:

The Turnpike ride was probably Dexter's favorite.  He steered (not well, but it didn't matter) while someone with longer legs pushed the gas pedal.  I think he was most intrigued by the camera that took pictures when you drove by.  He also kept going back in line to see if he could get a different color car the next time around.

Dex can tell you what every single sign on the Turnpike said.

He went down this big huge slide BY HIMSELF.  Gripping the sides so tightly that he had to actually push himself down the slide at the bottom because he was going so slowly.  He went down 4 or 5 times and was actually going kind of fast by the last time down.

I caught up to the boys just as they came down the big hill of the log flume.  Dexter was, I think, unimpressed.

Dex bounced back and had fun again on the "Crazy Airplane."

Yay!  Mama got to ride some rides, too!

Yeah.  Mama don't do this.  Somehow, though, I am ok with a chair lift when I go skiing.  Weird.  The boys got off at the mid-point and walked back.  Dex said it was "too slow."

Found some plasma cars!  There was a tunnel to drive your car through, and a maze to navigate.  Dex was wicked fast and was the example the parents used when trying to explain to their kids how to make the cars go.

Erin spent most of the day doing this.  She was a trooper, really.  She slept in the stroller for about 30 minutes, but the rest of the time she was awake and chipper and highly entertained with watching all the rides.

"There's no seat belt on this carousel" says the boy.  I don't know how he remembers everything he does, ever.

Judging by the giggles and grins we got out of Erin on the carousel I'd say that she's going to be our dare-devil child.

She loooooved it!

My excellent driver back on the Turnpike.

Turnpike self-portrait

This driving stuff is serious business.

Nap time.  Glad we brought this stroller.  I brought it in case Dex got tired, because he can just ride on the step.  But it was great in the rain because I pulled down the rain cover and Erin stayed 100% dry the whole time.

Bumper cars!

We found the Cranky Cars, and there's where we stayed for 45 minutes.  Dex was, I am sure, driving the nice worker person crazy.  Now he wants to drive a black engine.  Now a green one.  Now the other black one.  At the end, when we just wanted him stop riding this ride another time OMG, there was no line.  And the green engine was in front.  And he wanted black.  Sorry, kiddo.  You get green, or you get to be all done.  You choose.  Green it was.

The swings were right next to the cranky cars.  I suppose that 45 minutes of watching the swings go right over his head got him interested.  And he wanted to go on.  Are you SURE, I asked?  He was sure.  I was freaking out.  Not because I was worried about his safety.  But because I was worried about his mental ability to ride that ride.  What if he gets up there and decides he hates it?  Can they stop the ride for a freaked out kid and let him off?

My panicked self was texting my fears to my sister a million miles a minute.  I needn't have worried.  He went on three times and would have stayed on as long as we'd have let him.  But it was raining and he had goose bumps all over his little body.  John rode with him twice and then I decided I'd man up and go up there with him.  I shall not decide to do so again.

We shall return some time this summer.  And next summer, when Erin can ride a couple rides.  Perhaps next time we will go when it's hot, and do the water park portion, as well.  We didn't need a water park yesterday.  We could have used some hot chocolate by the end of the day.

Old Friends

I was trying to remember what toys Dexter was playing with at this age, because it seemed like Erin was getting bored with her baby toys.  My point of reference for this age is always Dexter at the Adirondacks.  He was seven months old then, and I can actually summon some vague memories from that week.  And it seemed like I took more than just baby toys there for him to play with.

So I looked in the basement in the two boxes of "Young Toddler Toys" I have.  Each toy I pulled out brought the thought of "Hey!  I completely forgot we had this toy!"  And maybe a couple "Oh, crap!  We still have this toy..."

Both kids were excited.  Dex was so psyched about a tower of stacking stars that plays music that he brought it out to the swing set and decorated the swing set with stars.  And then he decorated the table with stars at dinner time.  Goofy kid.

Not a new toy, just a new location.  I tossed Erin and her exersaucer out in the garage with Dex one day while I was making dinner.

John thought I was crazy, but the kids were entertained

Erin LOVED this letter spinning thing

I'm pretty sure Dex never tried to eat it, though

Dex was delighted to discover his old favorite toy, this godforsaken loud obnoxious steering wheel thing that I hate with a passion.  It's still loud and obnoxious and I still would like to remember who gave it to us so I can go put it in THEIR house, with a one year old boy pushing all the buttons.

And I finally dug out our backpack.  Erin was, as you can see, thrilled.  (She actually was fine when I was walking.  Not so fine when standing still)

He gets his drawing skills from me

Tonight, after Dexter went potty and brushed his teeth with his very cool tickly toothbrush (he now brushes his teeth like seven times a day) he wanted to dance in his room.  He likes a dance party, and he especially likes telling people what to do.  So we all were instructed to DANCE!  And KICK!  And JUMP!  And KICK!  And then DANCE NORMAL!  And he proceeded to dance, Dave Telesco-style, hands flapping, butt out, and legs shuffling a million miles an hour.  We were a sight, because "dance normal" in our house is not "normal" in anyone else's house.  We're excellent dancers...

A couple months ago I bought a whole series of "Pony Pals" chapter books, used, for like 5 bucks.  I pulled one off the shelf for the first time the other night.  It turns out that might be the best five bucks I ever spent.  He is now obsessed, and John rolled his eyes and sighed when Dexter declared last night that he "LOVED Pony Pals."  John thinks it's a grand conspiracy, and shall now counter with some terrible motorcycle chapter books, or maybe race cars.

The fabulous thing that came from this was the Pony Pals Journal, where Dexter was to write or draw pictures of various things.  Dex isn't a big drawer, but he's been drawing more in the past month or so.  Mostly train tracks, and maybe a train or two.  And he drew some "No Smoking" signs on our dry erase board, to ensure that nobody smokes in our house.  Because, MAN, were we worried about THAT.  But in the Pony Pals Journal he expanded his horizons a bit, and I am so very proud of him.  I drew a bit, too, and it's quite obvious he gets his excellent drawing skills from me.

I was impressed with the hands he drew for his teacher

Here's a car, with a headlight, and a turn signal, and a tail light, and someone driving

On the left is a riding ring, with some brown dirt.  On the right is Dexter's horse.  After he drew this one, he asked me to draw a horse, because his wasn't very good.  Which, really, kind of broke my heart.  I adore his horse drawing.

So I drew a horse.  I'm an excellent drawer.  Dex added a ring around my horse, and drew some blood in its belly.  He also wrote "horse/pony" at the top.  And I think that's supposed to be a horse he drew, on the right.  After I drew my horse, Dexter said "Mama, can you draw a better horse now?"  Ummmmm.  No, actually.  I can't.  That's all I got, kiddo.

The left page says "no horses" and the right is Dexter's horse.  I can't remember why he said his horse had a sad face.

Then we moved on to cars.  I drew the car on the left, Dex drew the car on the right.

Here's another one of my cars.  "Mama, why does your car have triangle windows?"  Just mixin' it up, son.

One more of Dexter's cars.  With very little wheels.

Now we're moving on to trains.  Mine is on the left, Dexter's on the right.

And, finally, another train from Dex.  Complete with tracks.  He signed his name and everything.

Too Cute to Cut

I think I downloaded 250 pictures from my camera today.  I went through and deleted a good number of them (never enough, in John's mind.  I never delete enough).  I still have oodles of pictures on the computer, though.  But, seriously.  When your pictures are this cute, how are you supposed to delete them?

First picture of the day.  BAM!  Could have stopped right there, right?

Huh?  What's this cool thing?  Our rhododendron are really quite spectacular this year.

Just a matter of time before one of these ends up in her mouth...

As I said

We've moved over to a different bush

Dex came home from school and joined the photo shoot.  The kids are watching the neighbors across the street, I think.

See Dexter's eye?  Yeah, he fell out of a chair yesterday.  Not a kitchen chair.  One of the tall deck chairs.  It actually looks way better than I thought it would look today.

Dex is too grumpy.  We'll just keep taking pictures of the happy baby

Buddy in the front yard, watching the traffic

Cute baby belly

Aaaaaand, we're done