Day 4

Summer vacation. Day 4. It must be really hard for full time students to go from 9 - 3:45 learning, playing, learning, eating, playing, learning... to wake up, watch some quality tv, doddling around, quiet time for baby - like, learn to entertain yourself QUIETLY while Joey sleeps, no play dates at this time..- with lots of play in between. It must be so hard that Eli felt the need to write this to me while he was in time out.


The erased word is NICE. With an exclamation point. Serious business. Why is it erased? Because at 7:30pm Joey came out of his room with a jovial "Hi Guys!". He has conquered the crib railing. Without a fall. He has since shown me how and he is quite the careful climber - toes like a tree frog.

If you didn't know because you are in some land where the sun shines, it has rained hard here, for long periods of time, for the past 500 days. Or 5, but it feels like longer. That also adds to the difficulty with being out of school - going outside is like daring lightning to strike you. But the skies are amazing colors of purple and gray.

Bubbles during a rain break.

My garden is loving it. This pic was taken at 1pm today. Middle of the day.


The spinach, bibb lettuce and black seed lettuce is especially fond. I don't think the broccoli or brussel sprouts are too upset. The tomatoes and peppers are not big fans, they are cold. need. warmth. now.

Today, I checked weather.com to see if I had a window for the zoo. We ran over, meeting some friends, and spent about 1.5 hours there - perfect cool temps, not a lot of people. Love zoo passes. You don't have to feel like you have to stay a long time. Sometimes it is worth it just to go on the train and go home.



This song was on the radio when we got in the car. Kind of fitting.

Is it just me, or does the voice not match that of the singer in the video?

It reminded me of one of our favorite covers. Remember how much I love the show Chuck? Chuck has really nice teeth. You should watch the show. Here is their version. Dave and I are cracking up watching it. I mean, who hasn't wanted to perform this song with a backup synthesizer?

What is this wet stuff falling from above?

Some have said it is rain. I barely remember it. We had two storms over the last two days. What a relief. I love summer rain storms. Barefooted, running around, standing in the gutters. My kids were inside and heard the rain on the roof. They grabbed their umbrellas and binoculars (to look for more clouds) and headed out front. It was a warm rain.

Eli grabbed his butterfly nets and he and our neighbor were catching debris in the gutter. That would have been cool when I was their age, but now, it was a little gross.

The next day we had another little storm. Eli and Caroline once again grabbed their umbrellas. My neighbor and I stood underneath our garage while his daughter played with my kids in the rain. Dave came out with a large umbrella, to which Eli pronounced "I have a great idea..." and went running back into our house. This was the great idea: An umbrella hut. Emma added to our 4 or five umbrellas with some of her own.

I need to learn to think like a kid again.