How we spent our summer

This summer was pretty great. It was a pretty mild weather so we only had a handful of those awful sticky melting days. Also, the bugs were never really bad either. Because of that, we were able to spend more time outside, which is what I prefer. Through our walks outside we were able to track the progress of the corn and soybean crops growing on the USDA farmland near our house.

 The conversation Jack and I had right before this picture was taken:

Jack: Let's play rock stick.

Hilary: How do you play rock stick?

Jack: You throw a rock at a stick.

Jack and Juliet have become quite good buddies. Jack is always calling for Juliet to come do something, and when she hears it she comes running with a smile. Anything Jack does or says, Juliet tries to do the same.  

 This is their rocky game.

Juliet also made friends with the tricycle. I would often find her outside just sitting next to it and observing the world.

 Typical indoor activities included playing with a lot of cars. This is our slide. It came from a leftover piece of plywood from when I extended the countertop in our kitchen. Juliet calls it the “wee”. Nearly everyday after breakfast she'd find a car on the ground and come up to me asking “a wee? A wee?”

 Another typical scene is Jack playing with some marbleworks contraption, while Juliet sits in a box.

 They also manage to make their fair share of messes. For some reason Juliet got into a small tupperware of flour and had a blast playing with it. I thankful it was just flour and not something worse.

On the occasional days when it was too hot to be in our house (no central air means misery) we would take little field trips to places we knew had a/c and where it would be ok if we hung out for a few hours. We spent a lot of time at the library, target and thrift stores to play with toys, Ikea on Tuesdays, looking at birds and fish at the mall, or hanging out at the local NASA visitors center. Then we would generally spend the afternoons in the little kiddie pool in the backyard.

For a nice summer treat to finish off the day, we were able to have free Rita's a few times due to nice mailer coupons.

And now onto our miraculous independence day. As I said before, usually the 4^th of July is pretty sweltering. But, this year it only got to the upper 70's. By evening it was actually cool! We all wore pants! (Side note- we put Juliet in footie pajamas for the first time since spring and she thought they were the funniest things ever, she kept kicking/stomping her legs saying “feet! Feet!”)

Our little city has its own firework display on the little lake, a fifteen minute walk from our house. This was our first year going so I didn't know what to expect, but it was great. It's a small enough deal that we were able to get a  spot right under the fireworks. They were as well done as any other professional show I've seen (except Disney of course). And we didn't even get eaten alive by mosquitoes.

The last miracle of the night came as we were walking home. We were walking the same route Chris takes from his bus stop and he was just commenting on how we were approaching the stretch of path that didn't have any lampposts and how he doesn't like walking though it because it is so dark. We reach the darkness and we notice all this glittering in the trees. There were fireflies everywhere. Thousands of them. This spot of path is in a small clearing with tress all around,  so the entire tall wall of trees was lit up with the bugs.. It was like someone had strung twinkle Christmas lights all over. That sight was one of the most amazing things I've seen.

 We could not get any kind of picture because our point and shoot just doesn't do that, but this is the spot during the day. All throughout the trees, was the constant glitter of the fireflies. If you ever are at our house early summer, we are taking you here.

Next to come are our vacations.

Highlights from the January to June

• A new Aldi opened, the closest one yet! Right across from Costco! I have come to really appreciate this store and the many wonderful deals to be had there. My parents were in town for the opening (way back in January) so my Mom and I went to the open house and had samples and got a free tote bag and ham coupon.

• Also while my parents were in town we went to the National Air and Space Museum part II in Virginia toward the Dulles airport. There were of course lots of planes, but the absolute coolest thing was the space shuttle. The museum got this shuttle while we've lived here; it was a big deal when it was flown in strapped to the back of a plane. I wish I had sought out a spot to see it fly in.

• Chris moved into a brand new building at school in January. Since Chris started his program he knew they would be moving when the building was finished, and so he kept a careful eye on the webcam showing its progress, and always informed me of the updates. 

• In April we went downtown to the National Science Expo, because we like since. Actually the real reason we went was to see the band They Might Be Giants perform, but the science expo was a nice bonus. There were two performances two hours apart, one for kids, and one for adults (but still child friendly.) After barely getting seats for the first show it was quite obvious that we would not be able to leave the seats if we wanted them for the second show and so we had to stay put and watch watch whatever was in between. And that is how we saw Bill Nye and Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs, they both had hour long segments. Disappointingly I was actually not impressed by Bill Nye, but surprisingly I was very much entertained and impressed by Mike Rowe. They Might be Giants were as fun as we were expecting and we saw pretty much all the songs we wanted. We have become fans of their kids CD's, but the kids didn't think the performances were that great. Juliet slept through the first show and Jack slept through the second (it was a long day). Who's kids fall asleep during rock shows? Ours apparently. Unfortunately with phone problems we lost all pictures from the month of April, so there is no evidence of anything. But we did get a ton of swag, including these plush microbes! I've wanted these since my one of my roomates in college got some. And they were free! Made my day.

• In May we learned that Juliet is deathly afraid of peacocks. We went to a little farm and enjoyed looking at them, but then they made their loud peacock yell and it was a little overwhelming. Every time after if they would yell, even if she was not anywhere near them, she'd burst into tears. We had to leave pretty quickly.

• On a rare date into the city around prom season, after a failed attempt to get into the holocaust museum, we were at the Jefferson memorial and happened upon a large group of prom goers taking pictures at the memorial. It's a thing to do I guess.

• We went to six flags! Our dear friends have season passes and brought us with them on one of their bring a friend free days. (Did you know DC had a six flags? I didn't for the longest time.) The highlight for me was riding three roller coasters. I haven't been on one since before I was married. Two summers ago we were at Universal Studios and Sea World but I was pregnant and couldn't go on anything fun. Jack and even Juliet went on some kiddie rides and we had a lot of fun in the water too. Thanks Ribieras! 

Jack Update

Jack and I have been getting along really well lately, and I love it. He finally became fully potty trained in January, eleven months after I started training him. That was one of the longest years of my life, trying everything to get him to poop, but nothing worked. It was really only when he was ready he figured it out. One of the bargaining chips we tried to use was that he could stop taking naps when he went in the toilet. For a while after he was trained I would find him asleep in various places since he stopped having his quiet time. The potty training seemed to be the real transition to his pleasant self. He is so much better behaved and more enjoyable to be around, I am so grateful to have finally turned that corner.

 One of his 'potty presents'. We had a bunch of things sitting on a self waiting for him and he knew they were there, and then he finally got them. And now the may ways I found him sleeping. 

 This was during our cold, long winter. All I could see was his nose.

A couple of the sleeping pictures occurred while Jack was listening to CDs. He is really into music and will ask for a CD and just sit and listen. He can work it himself and will often rewind certain songs over and over again, just to hear the parts that he likes. He is also well aware of songs on the radio and can often tell you the name and artist.

He is really liking his father these days. He will tell Chris, 'I just love boys, I just love you... and my grandpas.' Chris will ask if he loves his mom, and Jack will glare at me and say 'sometimes'.

He is still into his cars. Now they have races all over the house where he drives them in herds across the carpet. He always assembles the one that don’t drive very well in a separate clump and call them his ‘prisoners’. The other day we saw a new Mustang parked on the street and Jack stopped in awe and said ‘what is THAT car?’

 The cars racing are on the floor, and the 'prisoners' are on the couch.

This summer I’m working on his writing skills. With our little preschool group it became apparent that Jack's writing ability was behind his peers. He can do straight lines and circles, and that's it. He doesn’t ever draw pictures of anything, it's all just scribbles. Before he would get frustrated because he knew that he couldn't do it well, and so he wouldn't even try. Now I bribe him with treats to practice and I think it is helping.

Jack has his fourth birthday in April, but due to phone malfunctions I’ve lost all April pictures. Which is fine because I didn’t do a fancy cake.

Jack is really into bugs. In the spring when there were caterpillars all over he would always find them and make them his pets. He would wear them on his shirt or put them in the stroller to take with us on our walks, and always check on them. He also has always been fascinated by ants. Lately he has started to blow them off the sidewalks. Other times he draws circles around them (drawing!) with chalk. It seems to be his favorite pastime now, he'll often say “I'm going outside to blow ants!” and head out the door, not minding the 90 degree heat and high humidity.

Despite the weather, we go outside a lot, mostly walking to the library and back and exploring all the parks and bridges in between. I was taking a picture of the kids playing when happen to catch this great shot right as Jack was taking a dramatic fall on the concrete. It was very slippery and slimy and gross and he bonked his head and scraped his elbows. He decided it wasn't such a good idea to play there after all.

When I just have the single stroller and they both want to sit.  

Now for some more random pictures.

 The marbleworks in the background is the favorite inside activity.

 He likes looking for treasure under couch, but the reason I took this picture because he told me he 'cleaned up', but really shoved all the toys into a big pile.

I love this picture. We go to Ikea pretty much every week for the free kids meals and to meet up with friends. We've developed several little traditions there, and sitting on the escalator going down to the underground parking is one of them. I love that Jack and Penny are both wearing red and both have their arms up, and I love Penny's hair. It's a picture that would be fun to recreate when they're older and dating.