As we waited for our food in a Longhorn Steak House the other evening Josh noticed a cow head mounted on the wall and said "aawww" like he would if he saw a cat or dog. I didn't tell him that the cow's relative is where the stuff on our dinner plates was coming from. While we waited for Papa to get finished with work that night we went to the train station and watched the trains come and go. They are into listening to a tape about a train right now so I dug out the train schedule to keep in my car for when we have a few minutes to spare while we're out and about. Ya gotta love it that these kids are so easy to entertain! They both like to walk around our neighborhood to look at flowers, cars and pears and to watch them change daily. The trash truck has given us lots of entertainment the guys who work our neighborhood usually beep the horn for us and last week when the one came to the pool to pick up the dumpster stuff they both stopped what they were doing to watch. Josh identifies the cars that pass us while we're on the road and Dima watches for gardens flowers and right now sunflowers.
Even hanging out here Josh is easily amused, I can give him a catalogue with kids furniture in it and he goes through it looking for cars and trucks and buses that are used in decorating the rooms. Dima likes to look through travel brochures for fountains waterfalls and hot air balloons. Last week we left the pool just in time in th evening to see a hot air balloon taking off - another great thing about this area, we see hot air balloons all the time and I'm using Dima's enthusiasm for it to try to teach him about time - they almost always take off around 7 o'clock so that's part of our daily picture agenda. We have pictures of breakfast, walking feet, food for lunch, a woman sleeping to indicate nap time and people blowing bubbles and a hot air balloon so they can see what's coming up through the day - it's supposed to help with Dima's anxiety issues to be able to see what's next and it's supposed to teach him that during the blank spaces in the day he can trust that I'll take care of things.
Yesterday we explored a farm near here. We went into the butterfly house but the main interest there for Dima was a fountain and pool of water and Josh found a station where kids are supposed to stamp a booklet - Josh ended up with two arms full of stamps and even one on his belly. I think I was the only one of us who actually looked for the butterflies. We found a trail that led through a field that was lined with blackberry bushes so they picked and ate for their morning snack - my favorite flavor - free!! I explained how the trail is marked with the blazes on trees and Josh did a good job of leading us through woods looking for the blazes along a creek that was a thrill for Dima - he's all about water of any sort.
Today my Mom and Dad are coming to hang out with us. Chris is golfing now and will be at a Phillies game later on so we would have been on our own all day so I asked them if they wanted to come for a visit. We'll probably do what we normally would do anyway but having someone else around is a nice change of pace for all of us. We'll be taking our daily walk soon and they're already wearing their swim trunks so we can get our baby pool out when we get back here to await the arrival of Gramma and Poppy. I've been thinking of letting the boys skip nap but Dima's already wound up at the thought of them coming so we'll see how this goes...
Tomorrow we're back to the work week so we'll probably do the pool and water park on the days that are warm enough- Our time before school is limited - I want to get out there and do Longwood Gardens one of these days too. Tuesday we're supposed to go visit my cousin, Lisa and her kids to swim in their pool. Maybe go play mini golf -we had planned to go to Longwood Gardens last week but did the pool and water park at Marsh Creek instead cause it was 90 degrees out there. The pool worked out well since the kids are all about the same level of ability in swimming and they all liked the water park too. We're due back here on Wednesday and I've been thinking of taking the boys to the shore as a spur of the moment thing one of these days. I'm not familiar with the Jersey beaches but at this point it looks like the best option since Ocean City Maryland is a three hour drive from here vs. two to Jersey. The shore would be a great thing for the kids since watching and playing in the surf is novel to them and if we find a boardwalk that's something they've never seen and we'd have lots of fun there. Juggling the kids alone could be stressful but I think it'd be worth it in the end.
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