Eight Years Later

These pictures were taken of Sam and his cousin eight years apart, almost to the day, though they are on opposite positions in each photo.

French Fries Dipped in Ice-Cream

Lanie discovered this combo today, because why not?

"Where are you?"

Sick days

Even when you are sick in May, with possible flu, it is okay to be fashionable.  Blue hair and shiny gold, whatever makes you feel better, little girl.  She's been down and out for about a week, the kid who never sits still.

The Struggle is Real

 Lanie tried to put Sam's backpack on and wouldn't accept help.  It was tough!  And I didn't even laugh out loud.

Angry, rude Lanie!

New Beds

Over the weekend I saw a post for a loft bed being sold in our town.   We have been working on getting Vivian out of the toddler bed into a twin bed, and since her room is small, it seemed like a great solution to keeping her room in tact, while up sizing her bed.  She is also our climber, so getting up and down seemed like it wouldn't be a problem.  It also simultaneously allowed Lanie to graduate from the crib to a toddler bed, and we could get rid of the crib.


So Chris picked up the bed on Sunday in his truck and we moved the beds, disassembled the crib, Chris reassembled the loft bed, etc.  At the last minute, I thought we should hang onto the toddler mattress Vivian had been using, just in case.  Meanwhile, Vivian was sick on Saturday and spent the entire day asleep, which started to morph into a cough.

The girls were both super excited about their beds, and Lanie kept telling us "come" and then taking us by the hand and showing us her bed.  She would periodically put herself to bed under her blankets.
However, Vivian looked at her bed and decided perhaps she would sleep in it "another time," and I put the toddler mattress on the floor under it. 

Come Sunday night, Lanie put herself to bed, then cried when we said, "good night," but stayed in her bed.  Vivian meanwhile passed out on the kitchen floor, so Chris put her in on her old toddler mattress under the loft bed.

Last night, Chris went back to work and Vivian decided to sleep in her loft bed.  She climbed up, went to sleep, and coughed for an hour and a half straight.  I climbed up the ladder and put Vicks on her feet and chest, put pillows under her head, turned on a humidifier and she continued to cough.  At 10:00 she was coughing so much she was crying, and I thought she was going to vomit on the high up bed, and I was standing on a chair next to her bed trying to talk her into coming down.   It took 10 minutes of negotiations to talk her into climbing out of the bed, she kept coughing and lying back down.  I finally got her to stop coughing and put her back to bed in my bed.  I fell asleep and at exactly 10:30, I heard a thump and Lanie crying, and found her upside down, feet still on the bed, on her head on the floor.  She was more indignant than hurt.  Obviously this woke Vivian up, so she immediately started coughing again.  We should probably have just left everything the way it was.

Although everyone actually slept after that, with periodic episodes of coughing. 

Museum Visit

Recently my dad and I took the children to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Ma, to see some of the exhibits.  I tried to prep them for driving through Salem and how it is a historical town in Massachusetts, in term of settlement and history.
Vivian: "So the buildings and houses are old?"
Me: "Yes."
Vivian: "Like from 1996?"
Me: "A little older than that.  Like around when the Pilgrims came here.  A long, long time ago."
Vivian: "Oh.  Like 1992."
Me: "Before that.  Like 1692." (turns out it was before that). "Before there were cars, and electricity, and phones."
Vivian: "They had candles."
Me:  "That's right."

There were some great exhibits at the museum, one interactive electronic exhibit that we all enjoyed, XYZT. 

 Ironically one of the things that was in one of the rooms was a phone to listen to the screen that described the artist's work.  Both Sam and Vivian picked it up and said, "what's this?" and then couldn't figure out how to hang it up.  However, they were all comfortable in the darkened rooms with the interactive screens.

Lanie's favorite exhibit was in the Playtime area, and was essentially two robo vacuum cleaner type machines that competed for space.  She kept wanting to return to it.  It's also one of her favorite things at home too.  Luckily she was free so we didn't actually pay to have her watch them.

When she got home she "relaxed" on the armchair and watched our robo vac.

 

Lanie's Selfies

 Baby/toddler selfies are the best.  She thinks she has to open her mouth to pose for them for some reason.

Learning How to use the Whoopee Cushion

                          Sam and his friend taught Lanie about whoopee cushions the other day.