Our Night at The Museum

This year Mia and I invited Claire and Mateus to come with us to the overnight at The Museum of Science. Because, clearly we aren't getting to see them enough these days, what with living in the same house with them and all. Overall it was a huge success. I think the activities were better this year for the younger crowd. We built domino chains, made fireflys that really lit up, learned about alligators, ferrets, hedgehogs, and chickens up close, along with all the other awesome stuff that is regularly at the museum. The lightning show at 10:15 was great except I think the kids eyes were about as heavy as The Van De Graaf Generator that was creating the indoor storm. (The world's largest of it's kind.) In the morning we ducked out of the planetarium show early because the kiddos were bored, but then thoroughly enjoyed the IMAX show about dolphins. Here are some pics.

Mia and Mateus proudly showing off their firefly necklaces. It was super cool because we had actually spent the week studying bugs.

As usual, not even phased by being up close and personal with a big scary looking creature.

Our ever-impressive domino chain.

Definitely Mia's favorite activity here at the museum - spinning around as fast as she can for as long as she can before some impatient kid asks for a turn. She never seems to get dizzy at all.

Right here Mia is in "The Sneakiness Corridor"...Seriously. It's an activity where you try to sneak up on deer and stuff before the birds start chirping. The idea is to see how easily birds can sense movement.

Our bedtime snack of Dippin' Dots. Claire is lookin' out for the ice cream police. She looks so nervous. She must have already had her daily dose of sugar for the day.

Sweet action shot of their pre-bed pillow fight.

Enjoying breakfast with a beautiful view of the Charles River and Boston

Our "camp site"

Mia wasted no time once we were home making another domino chain. It ended up looking just like a sea horse we thought.

Chatty Kathy

My favorite thing Lennon is saying right now is (little bit more water) "i bi moi adoo!" He is talking constantly. Today Mia was trying to climb into his new Little Tykes pick up truck as he was loading it up for his trip to see Nana and Papa and he turned to her and said "Nooo, Miiiia! Sit down. Eat!" She had gotten up from eating her lunch. He is becoming more and more awesome every day. He has such a good time now. He loves animals and water, however his one true love is food. That boy loves to eat. He will eat almost anything too. There are few things he doesn't like. Some of his favorites are broccoli, bread, turkey and raspberries. He can eat right through an entire apple leaving only the stem. I don't know if he eats the seeds or what, but I never see them when he's done.

He has suddenly decided he wants to have a say in his wardrobe too. He usually will only agreeably let me dress him if I show him an animal on the shirt. If there isn't a dinosaur or dog or something else really cool he will pitch the biggest fit. He can scream so loud it's almost unbelievable. He's really starting to warm up more to Mia too. He always wants her with us at bedtime to read to him and even sometimes sits in her lap which she loves. She's such a great big sister. I am so excited to learn more and more about him each day.

I Don't Even Know How to Respond to That

So, a few nights ago, we were all in the car. Gaga and I were in the front seats of Claire's van, Lennon and Shelby were in the middle and Granmommy and Mia were in the back. My memory is blurred a couple minutes in each direction of the conversation that unfolded, so I can't even tell you how this subject came up. Shelby eluded to the fact that he wouldn't necessarily "mind" having more kids. Immediate shock and horror overcame me. My reaction was to sort of nervously laugh and try to get a straight answer out of him as to if he was just sort of saying that or if he really wanted more kids. We didn't really get to the bottom of it, but then the saddest thing ever happened. When we stopped to get out Mia came to me seriously upset. She said she heard what Daddy had said and she wasn't very happy about it. She was on the verge of tears. I thought she was just being protective of me and didn't even know what we had been talking about, but was basing her reaction on my intensely oppositional reaction to Shelby. When she told me that what she thought he said was that he wouldn't mind having "different children," she burst into tears. The whole time we were talking in the car, she thought Shelby was suggesting that we get different children, not more children. She was so upset she could barely breathe. It was truly one of the saddest moments with Mia so far. I think everyone else at that point also had tears in their eyes. We reassured her that Daddy would never want different children and that the only reason he would even want more is because the two he has are so amazing.

Mia finally calmed down and went about her day, but I am still on the verge of a nervous breakdown at the thought of any more kids.

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY MIA!!!!!!!

Our little princess is seven. I can't believe it. She is such a little sweetheart and we take every opportunity to cuddle her because we know time is passing by so fast.

We had an awesome day today with Gaga and friends. The day started off with an awesome breakfast at a little local restaurant called Pignone's, and Shelby was able to join us because they open super early. After breakfast we dropped Shelby at his office and tried to run in Fanueil Hall to get Mia some chocolate covered gummy bears, but they didn't open until 10 so we went on ahead to Chuck E Cheese which was Mia's number one wish for her birthday. The kids had a blast! Lennon hadn't ever been to Chuck E Cheese and it took him a while to warm up, but in the end he really enjoyed putting money into the slots and playing basketball with Gaga. Mia earned lots of tickets which was pretty much her only goal for the morning and got a whole bunch of plastic junk which made her happy. She also used some of her tickets to get Lennon a couple of little things. We came home in time to have lunch and put Lennon down for his nap. While he napped Mia played with Mateus and Claire, Gaga and I sat in the kitchen and gabbed. In the afternoon we made a quick dash to the new Stoneham farmer's market to get some yummy local tomatoes and local, raw honey and then it was back to the house for dinner and ice cream cake. Mia's new friend Bailey, who lives next door joined us for cake and singing happy birthday again to sweet, little Mia. Once Lennon was in bed we watched Matilda and sent the little birthday girl to bed at the late hour of 9 o'clock. Overall it was a great, fun day. We are having an awesome, busy visit with Gaga and it's only Tuesday.

Mia wearing a dress that was mine when I was little. I don't know if she could have been any happier this morning to be seven.

Lennon was really sweet to Mia today. He is getting much better at giving and receiving hugs and Mia is very grateful for his newfound appreciating for hugs.

Mia and Gaga at Pignone's

Mia's Happy Birthday Belgium Waffle

It was so awesome that Shelby got to spend the morning with us on Mia's birthday.

Always the little helper. Mia hoisted little Lennon up into the tubes and then helped him down the slide.

Lennon being amazed at his last sweet shot. Gaga's grabbing a ball that obviously went in the wrong direction.

They had so many tickets we had to split up into teams to count them all.

Lennon may have tasted Mia's cake. He made sure we knew he wanted an Elmo cake on his birthday.

Mia posing with the neighbor girl Bailey. Bailey went and got a matching haircut after seeing how cute Mia's was like that.

Doddy Meeeeuh!

So, Lennon has learned to say sorry, although I'm not quite sure he understand how to properly use it yet. He sometimes uses it really well. Anytime someone cried he says "doddy." However, he also sometimes purposely hits Mia and thinks that it is all okay as long as he says in a really sweet voice, "Oh, doddy, Meeeuh!" She seems okay with this arrangement so far, but I'm trying to work on him. He also will push a chair over and say "oh, doddy, that." What a dork.

Believe

Mateus: (with a rubber snake wrapped around his neck) Is this snake real?

Mia: It is if you believe that it is.

Good answer!

Mia's New Look

Mia has been asking to cut her hair really short for quite a while now.  We told her that as soon as it was long enough to donate to locks of love she could cut it.  Well, that day has come.  Here are a couple shots from the hair cutting.

They are in reverse order.  Sorry. 

Mia has been asking to cut her hair really short for quite a while now.  We told her that as soon as it was long enough to donate to locks of love she could cut it.  Well, that day has come.  Here are a couple shots from the hair cutting.

We're Back!

We're finally all home.  My head is still not quite screwed on just right.  My mom came for a visit.  A few weeks later my in-laws came.  Then my sister and nephew came while we were packing like crazy.  The day they left, they also took Mia.  Next day we moved.  Ten days later Lennon and I left for Texas for almost three weeks.  We're all finally home and together again and in our new home.  The last couple months have been insane for me.  Really the whole winter was crazy and the spring was just as hectic, but not as stressful.  I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing summer with my kids and my friends and a few visitors here and there.  In a little more than a week we have one visitor, so I've got a lot of work to do to try to get the house ready for that.  And then we will have two days where two visitors overlap.  Gaga and Granmommy will both get to be here for the kids birthday parties.  We are super excited and trying to make sure both of them are as comfortable as possible while we are all here together.  We did it once before right after Lennon was born, so I think if we all handled that, this should be a piece of cake!  I have so much catching up to do on this blog and I'm not even totally sure where to start.  Texas was awesome, but there is so much to say that I may just post pics and caption them and move on to current events.  I still have to back up and do some pics from all the visits we had before the move while the camera was MIA.  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  I feel like that's all I'm saying right now, but wanted to have some sign of life on here.  Until next time...