Pictures, pictures

More pictures ...

Finn is starting to enjoy his toys more.

Reading with cousins - Maiah is great with Finn

So is Zoie!

 

Wearing her necklace as a headband

Growing, growing, growing

Warm & cozy

Train audience

Brothers

Life goes on - the mostly big kid update

Since there's more going on around here than just a new baby, here are a few pictures from the last two weeks.

Enjoying their free Rita's - summer reading program prizes. Yay for reading!

Yum!

Oops! Mama forgot the bibs!

Finn joined the adventure - one of his first trips out.

The kids have been able to ride bikes almost every morning with Nana.

Silly girl!

Elijah's train track creations.

Buzz Lightyear!

Do his cheeks look chubbier?

(Almost) a big girl!

This weekend we planned to use our three-day weekend to go to Pittsburgh to visit friends and family while I can still travel. Then Molly decided to fuss all night long for a couple of nights (for no apparent reason) and then she woke up with a fever on Thursday morning. Not wanting to infect any of the pregnant mamas or new babies in the waiting room at my prenatal checkup, Patrick kept the kids outside - they went for a walk and played around, and then Molly fell up a cement step and cut the inside of her mouth, and skinned her chin and her shin, and bled all over Daddy. The nurse who was supposed to be taking my blood pressure and getting my Rhogam shot got to clean her up and get her some ice and a bandaid. It was a rough day to be Molly.

Anyway, by Friday Molly was over her fever but certainly had a cold and a cough. On Saturday morning, Patrick and I had to make the unfortunate call that she was not well enough to go anywhere, and certainly should go nowhere near my fragile little grandma at the nursing home. So the boys went to Pittsburgh and Molly and I stayed home, both of us heartbroken not to be able to go.

Molly and I have been talking about getting serious about potty training, and we were planning to start on Tuesday - after Elijah finished preschool, and we got back from our trip to the 'Burgh. Since we were going to be stuck at home for the whole weekend anyway, we decided to go for it.

Molly has been wearing her training pants whenever she's awake since Saturday morning, and went a full two and a half days before having an accident!! WOW! We offered her the same deal as we did Elijah - keep your training pants dry for three days in a row and you get to go pick out some big kid undies. I thought she might just pull off a crazy straight-to-panties victory today, but the streak ended around 10 am this morning when she was too involved in solving a train-track related problem and didn't make it to the potty on time. Still, she's obviously been ready for this for a while, and she's doing an amazing job. I'm so glad we waited until she was ready and excited to do it, and that we had this weekend to just focus on Molly and the potty. Molly has been proudly telling people on the phone that she is "almost" a big girl, since Daddy always tells her that she will be a big girl when she doesn't wear diapers anymore. She really is getting to be such a big girl!

Last night's adventure

Ever wonder what happens when a 4 year old sticks his finger in the hole end of a Thomas train track?

It gets stuck.

Ever wonder how you get a 4 year old's finger unstuck from the hole end of a Thomas train track?

Well, if lotion doesn't work, try floss.

(I really, really thought the floss would work. Crap.)

If floss doesn't work, try a sharp knife.

If a sharp knife doesn't work, try a drywall knife.

Better yet, educate your 4 year old about the dangers of playing with innocent looking Thomas tracks.

Finally rescued.

I am so glad that Daddy was the one using a small saw millimeters from Elijah's finger. Phew.

Riding the rails

A couple of weeks ago, we all got to take a little family vacation down to Pennsylvania and then to Rehoboth Beach with all of Patrick's family. On the first day, we were very excited to do something we've been thinking about for the past two years - we surprised Elijah with a trip to the Strasburg Railroad to take a ride on Thomas! Thomas has been Elijah's favorite character, and building train tracks his favorite activity for such a long time that we knew this would be so special for him. Patrick and Elijah and Uncle Danny and Evan rode Thomas and the Strasburg Railroad and had a great day.

Some of our adventures in Colorado

One day while we were in Colorado, we met our friend Barb and her granddaughters at the park to play. It was a fun, shady park and the kids had a great time together. It was nice to catch up with Barb too!

Emma and Elijah had fun making baby Grace laugh.

Taking a snack break with Nana

Another day, Nana took us to a nearby shopping center so that we could ride their little train. Elijah was thrilled, of course!

Riding in the tender with Nana.

How fun!

After the train, we walked over to the fountains to play for a while. The kids were pretty intimidated at first - we don't have a real yard, so they've never even played in a regular sprinkler before. The fountains were very exciting, but they weren't at all sure that they wanted to get close enough to get wet. Elijah eventually got into it and had lots of fun (but still didn't want his face wet) but Molly just stood in the center where there were no fountains (but her feet could get wet) and held my leg and watched.




Afterward, Grandpa took us all to Red Robin for lunch. The kids had never been before, and they thought it was great. They loved the mac & cheese (I can't seem to convince them to order anything else - no matter where we go, if it's on the menu, they get it!) and the balloons, and Nana, Grandpa and I loved our yummy burgers and milkshakes. Happiness all around!

mmmm ... mac n' cheese!

Yum.

Catching up - some spring photos

I discovered I have some catching up to do - I have a bunch of pictures from before our trip that I hadn't put up yet! Here are some from earlier in May.

A beautiful double rainbow from our back door.

Sitting in a bin ...

reading her Bible.

This is still what Elijah spends most of his indoor playtime doing - building "awesome" tracks.

Molly is getting pretty good at it now, too. "Mama, I buiwd awesome twack!"

At Bobbi & Papa's house

Last week the kids and I went down to Pennsylvania while Patrick was away at a conference for work. We really enjoyed spending time with Bobbi and Papa. The highlight of the trip for Elijah was that Papa took him to a huge train and toy show in Lancaster - he was in heaven! We also got to spend a fun day playing with Diane and Rylee and Brynn. It was a good trip.