Mission Accomplished

We are back, and it all went well. There is one Hertz mini-van that will never be quite the same, and one seat on a 737 (D30, to be exact) which had to be "swapped out", but the whole family is thriving.

J. got to catch fireflies, the twins swam in freezing cold NY water, everyone rode on the Bear Mountain carousel and a good time was had by all. My father-in-law was briefly back in the hospital, but is now in the nursing home and hoping to go home in a week or so.

Taking to the air again!

Tomorrow we;re doing it again: flying from Texas to New York. We have a laptop, a portable DVD player and an iPod, so I'm hopeful that the flight will go smoothly. The hardest time is sitting in our seats, waiting for the plane to get moving. I bought out the Baby-Einstein themed chew toys at Target for B. For G., I printed out pictures of the Wiggles, Barney, Pingu, Bob the Builder and a few other characters and covered them with packing-tape (poor man's lamination). J. should be fine with Spiderman, Batman and a contingent of ocean animals. Judging from last time, my role will be crawling around on the floor of the plane, retrieving things.

My father-in-law recently had surgery for intestinal cancer, and is recovering in a nursing home. We are hoping to cheer him up with our energetic (chaotic) presence. G. is in an interesting period-- he does not want to pee or poop in a diaper, but has zero interest in the potty. Our carpet is not doing well. My mother-in-law has had four kids and a bunch of grandkids, so she's already seen it all, I'm hoping.

We're going to meet up with my parents at a state park for a picnic one day. I can't wait! Last time I talked to them they had been on a tour of a retirement village, the kind which includes assisted living and a nursing home. My dad was concerned that there was nowhere to store his canoes and bicycles. Things are always changing, and I am still focusing on appreciating each day and its little miracles.

Time for the Happy Dance!

From Saturday til today, G. has

- hugged J. spontaneously

- pulled J. up from the floor by the hand

- taken J. by both hands and done a little "circle dance" (twice)

It makes tears come to my eyes just to type this.

G. looks very serious in this clip, but I suppose he's way out of his comfort zone!

Staying Busy

Overall, we are having a great summer in terms of progress...G. is using phrases, and repeating a lot of what he hears. B. is using more and more single words to make requests, and singing snatches of songs. Both of them have been more engaged than they had been six months ago (this always comes and go...the going still has the power to put me in a tailspin!)

J. can pedal his bike, has new friends next door and is learning by leaps and bounds.

This may go along with the language progress, but we are having more problems with kids "getting into things". It's mostly B., and it's mostly getting into the bathroom, to be specific. In the last three days I have found him sitting on the edge of the toilet with his feet in the water, another time on the counter with his feet in the sink, and (this is a new one), standing in the bathroom sink, looking in the mirror. Of course, the simple answer is to keep the bathroom closed, but in our house we don't always manage it (think four year old brother, and forty-something scatter-brained mom).

He is also very interested in toothpaste, toothbrushes, markers, pens, and crayons, and any container of liquid he can get his hands on. I was chatting with a neighbor the other day, and B. lay down on his tummy to drink out of a puddle.

In the blogs I read, I don't notice a lot of descriptions of these kinds of escapades. I'm sure they must be going on in many homes, but maybe those moms have trouble getting to the computer to blog.

Most of the time, B. is just so darned cute that these things seem funny (although the germiness factor is troubling). If any of the three or so people who read this blog have been through this stage and come out the other side, I'd love to hear about it!