will's dance clinic

Will really enjoyed getting his dance on at Nana and Papa's house. The best part was that he attempted to explain his moves.

To twirl: "Put one leg down. Then twirl."

He could sense we were losing interest, so he jazzed things up. Maybe he will be a breakdancer someday.

I just missed his kicked legs sticking up in the air.

To kick: "Put your head down, then kick your legs up."

There's just something about the John living room that makes kids want to dance.

2013 :: week 17

One of Lauren's favorite spots to hang out is at the bottom of our stairs. Its been a favorite hangout of hers for awhile, but she really stepped up her game while we were in Boston. Sunday afternoon we couldn't find her and then there she was, just sitting on the bottom step. I am not as careful about keeping the gate up as I used to be because she usually isn't interested in climbing up the stairs. Also of note, Sunday was her first day in the nursery and she did great!

Monday night we had our friends the Tanzies over for dinner. After we ate the kids played in the basement for a bit. Will is really into "hiding" right now, and the kids hid between our storage. The Tanzies are some of the first friends we made when we moved here and it is sad for us to see them go, but exciting for them.

Lauren got her 18 month shots this week. Usually her shots don't seem to bother her too much, but this time they did. She was fine so long as she was nestled in my lap. It was a bit of a gray day with lots of drizzle and Will wanted to go outside. Usually I don't let him go outside by himself, but since Lauren needed me indoors I decided it was okay to let him out as long as I could see him from the window. It was kind of funny watching his hooded figure move around the backyard. I'm so grateful for our big windows that allow to me to keep an eye on him while keeping Lauren cozy.

Half eaten bowls of cereal aren't really worth remembering, except for the fact that they are becoming annoyingly common. Lauren used to be such a great eater. Now I am struggling to get her to eat much of anything. It is really frustrating because I try to adapt the meals I plan to her dietary restrictions, but when she won't eat it TJ and I are stuck eating the bland food (Will hasn't been eating most of the things I make for years).

For some reason library fines don't motivate me to return materials on time. But I'm turning over a new leaf and I've kept my fine balance steady at $0.00 for over a month now.

On Friday I took the kids to the local children's museum. Will asked me to put a "W" on his cheek, then decided that I need the "ill" on mine. We had a fun time, but every time we go I end up getting annoyed at other parents. I know my parenting skills have room for improvement, but I do my best to keep an eye on my kids when were are in public and not let them run amuck.

Saturday night we went on an impromtu date to the Royals game. Our friends had extra tickets and invited us to come with them. It's amazing how much less stressful it is doing things without kids. We could talk, pay attention to the game, and didn't have to lug around snacks, diapers and wipes. I love my kids, but it is fun to get out once in awhile.

2013 :: week 16

Sunday night we went to family gathering at the Bennett's house. Anthony's family has a fun tradition where all the family members that live in the area (in this case Boston) gather together every few weeks to visit and keep in touch. The adults talk upstairs and the kids play in the basement. Weston and Lauren found this exercise ball and had fun hitting it for quite awhile.

Happy Patriot's Day! This is Will's soldier face. Very intimidating. This may be my favorite picture from our trip.

Will is fascinated by all things sea life. When I told him we were going to see the ocean he was concerned there would be sharks, but disappointed when I told him we weren't going to see any dolphins or whales. Can't win 'em all.

Wednesday Lauren and Weston enjoyed the baked goods we got at Glutenus Minimus. Feeding both of them is difficult because Lauren has a limited diet and Weston doesn't really like eating. But for a few minutes, they ate together happily.

We were so much more tired heading home than we were on the way out. The kids were excited to watch planes land. Will hung out in the window for a long time.

Friday night was our ward soup and bread night. This picture isn't very clear, but our kids are mostly in focus. A group of kids started running around one of the tables after people were done eating and Will and Lauren were happy to join in. They only caused a few pileups with their untimely stops or direction changes.

A few days before we left I noticed that some birds had built a nest on top of a light fixture on our back porch. I should have done something about it then, because now there are eggs in it! The birds are always keeping an eye on their nest when we are in the back. It kind of creeps me out. But it feels wrong to destroy their home, especially with the eggs inside. Does anyone have any ideas about what we should do?

boston, part 3, day tripping

After the Monday's crazy events, we decided to head away from Boston for our adventures. Many things were closed or cancelled in the aftermath of the bombing and heading away from town made the most sense.

 

Tuesday we drove to Newport, Rhode Island, to check out the mansions and see the ocean. We toured The Breakers, the amazing Guilded Age vacation estate of the Vanderbuilt family.

 



 

Lauren and Weston weren't too impressed with the interior. They much preferred roaming the grounds.

 

 Group shot on the back lawn.

 

The kids were as good as can be expected while we toured the mansion, especially considering it was an audio tour. Papa and Anthony finished before the ladies, so they took the kids out to the back lawn to run around. The "Guilded Age" is an era I don't know a lot about and I would have loved to stop and listen to every vignette.

After exploring the estate we walked along the Cliff Walk. Portions of it were closed because of damaged received during Hurricane Sandy.

 First time being photographed by an ocean.

Wednesday Tina took me to a local bakery (Glutenous Minimus) she wanted to try while Lauren was in town. We sampled a few things and bought a loaf of pumpkin bread, a dozen gluten-free cookies to share and a few vegan cookies for Lauren. The gluten-free vegan cookies just weren't as good to those of us used to butter and eggs. Lauren loved her cookies. Tina also bought us a few mixes to take home and I am planning on making the gluten-free coffee cake this weekend.

Anthony's high school friend Sam and his family stopped by to say hello. Then we said goodbye to Meredith and Weston. They had come down for a few days, but had to return to normal life in NH. I snapped some cute pictures of Lauren and Weston while Meredith was packing up to leave.

Lauren is lucky to have two cousins born the same year she was. Weston is just a month younger than her. She enjoyed taking his blanket, following Will around, and hanging out at the bottom of the stairs with him.

Wednesday afternoon we drove to Walden Pond. It was an absolutely gorgeous afternoon. The sun was shining, sky was blue and it wasn't very crowded.

Lauren didn't want to get too close to the water, but she did enjoy having the freedom to roam as she pleased.

She was happy to lead Nana around the beach.

Will loved the water. When we got there he was fully dressed. By the time we left he was just in his underpants.

Papa played in the sand with the kids and was extremely patient when they dumped sand and water around him.

Will also caught a fish. Literally. There was a dead fish floating in the water and he picked it up. He was very proud. The rest of us were a little grossed out. He could have stayed and played in the water for another hour.

After the pond we tried out the new Shake Shack. We all agreed they were some of the best burgers or hotdogs we had ever eaten.

Alicia deserves some sort of MVP award for what a great aunt she was to Will during our trip. She was awesome with Will--read him lots of books, danced with him, helped him hunt for "ghosts," and paid attention to him when the rest of us were feeling tired. When he saw this picture on the computer he smiled and said "That's me and Lee-sha. She's my friend." 

While we were waiting to board our flight home the airport got really quiet. No arrivals or departures were announced and then we noticed a crowd of people at the window. Turns out that Air Force One had just landed. President Obama came to Boston to attend an interfaith prayer service for the bombing victims. I've never seen Air Force One before, so that was kind of neat. Other than that our trip home was pretty uneventful.

We had a great trip! It wasn't quite what we expected, what with the bombings and all, but it was great spending time with family and being together during this strange time.

boston, part 2, patriot's day and an emotional roller coaster

One thing I was looking forward to doing on this trip was celebrating Patriot's Day for the first time. When Anthony and I were dating I remember getting into a discussion about Patriot's Day--I had never heard of it, but he insisted it was a real holiday. He always had the day off school and would watch the Red Sox play during the day. It is also the day the Boston Marathon is run each year.

Tina found out about a fun Patriot's Day festival in Somerville, so we went there in the morning.

Not surprising to those of you familiar with our crew, the high school band was a big draw for the younger members of our party. I was surprised at how long Will was interesting in watching them play. Tina, Meredith and I walked around with Weston and Lauren and sampled the "colonial treats" while Doug and Anthony watched the band the with Will. The samples were pretty good. They had corn bread, anadama bread, apple butter, apple juice, and cookies. It doesn't say this on wikipedia, but according to the ladies handing out the samples, anadama bread gets its name because a woman named Anna was experimenting with her breadmaking and, in the words of her husband "put every damn thing in the kitchen in the bread." Excuse me, I believe that is the first and probably last time our blog has featured a swear word.

Nana helped Will try out the colonial games. Some of them were surprisingly hard! None of us did very well at the ring toss. After completing the games Will "won" a wooden top. I couldn't resist, and bought him a colonial tricorne hat. The spirit of Patriot's Day was getting to me.

Lauren rocked the hat for a few minutes while we were waiting for.............

Paul Revere!

 

After the festival we ate a quick lunch at one of the sketchiest McDonald's I've been to, then headed to the JFK Presidential Library. I find the Kennedy family very interesting and have been reading and watching a fair amount of Kennedy related media lately. When we were brainstorming things we'd like to do while in Boston, naturally this was on my list.





The only photo I took at the library, before an employee pointed to the "no photograpahy" sign.

The library wasn't very crowded, most people were downtown watching the marathon or outside enjoying the gorgeous afternoon. We had the place pretty much to ourselves. My favorite part of the exhibit was the special presentation they have right now focusing on the Cuban Missile Crisis. JFK recorded his meetings with his national security team and advisors during those stressful thirteen days and we were able to listen to portions of the tapes.

We headed home, put the kids to sleep and turned on the TV only to find out that there had been explosions at the marathon! Then the news reported there was a fire at the JFK Library. We all felt overwhelmed and grateful to be safe. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the TV, desperate for any information about who did it and what would posses someone to do something so awful.

This was the closest I have ever been to a terrorist act, and it hit close to home. Boston isn't my home, but it is starting to feel like a "home away from home" for me. Many people I love and care about live here or call it home. We have a lot of fun family memories in Boston. I don't like knowing that something like this could happen anywhere. It was nice to be with family on this scary day. I was touched by the number of friends and family that texted or emailed me to make sure we were safe. It's weird, but even in the midst of these terribly unsettling events, I felt secure and loved.

 

We decided to save these so we could remember where we were on the day of the Boston Marathon bombing.

boston, part 1, getting comfortable

We recently returned home from a weeklong trip to Boston. For blogging purposes I am breaking it down into three segments, but the breakdown is pretty natural. It felt like there were three "phases" to the trip.

Our plane departed Thursday morning. The kids were pretty good on the flight. Good enough that I was able to read about 30 pages from my book. Will watched a few episodes of Word World on the Kindle and Lauren watched too, which was surprising considering she couldn't hear anything (Will was using the earbuds).

Will fell asleep in the car on the way home and continued to sleep for a few hours. Lauren stayed awake long enough to eat some lunch, but then she too slept for awhile. I was really glad they got some sleep, but they both woke up really grouchy. Shy kids in grumpy moods in a new environment don't exactly make for the most friendly houseguests. After a dinner where Will wouldn't look anyone in the eye we headed to the John family room. Nana, Papa, and Alicia thawed the ice by reading to the kids.

At this point the kids were comfortable enough they could enjoy the favorite pasttime of generations of John kids: dancing in the living room to Papa's vast music collection. TJ wisely selected Hungry Heart to start off the set.

Within a matter of minutes we had this happy boy:

The kids danced til they dropped and went to bed pretty easily. Lauren wasn't too fond of the pack and play the first couple of nights, but she warmed up to it eventually.

Friday was a gray and rainy day. Doug and Tina took us to the Boston Children's Museum after they did some work in the morning. The museum is awesome!  Our first stop was the bubble room, where we spent a lot of time.

Will loved this room! Most of the bubble-blowing tools were pretty simple. As I mentioned before, I kept thinking I could put together something similar at home, on a much smaller scale, of course. Will was so fascinated by the bubbles.

I mentioned before that the bubble room wasn't a good fit for Lauren. While Will played in the bubble room with Nana, Papa and Anthony took Lauren to the ball room. I was really interested in seeing this room because there is a sign up in the ball room at our local children's museum that says it is modeled after the ball room in the Boston.

The room was actually pretty similar to the one we have here in Kansas. Lauren had fun roaming around and hoarding golf balls. Will eventually came over and had fun too, depsite an incident where an older kid pushed him out of the way.

At this point Alicia and Bryce joined us at the museum and we ventured to other exhibits. The adults kept saying that Will and Lauren would have been satisfied to spend the entire three hours in those two rooms, but we wanted to get our money's worth and check out the whole place.

There were many more exhibits upstairs.

Lauren enjoyed organizing a healthy plate of food.

Always in the mood to dance.

 

 

Will loved the water area almost as much as he loved the bubbles.


The last area we spent a lot of time in was in "Elwood City," the fictional town of Arthur Read's family and friends.

Will and Lauren enjoyed dancing with Alicia and Nana to the Arthur theme song over and over.

Will's favorite spot was the cockpit of Buster's dad's airplane. We had to drag him away.

 

While Will was playing at the front of the plane, Lauren slid down the back entrance. The girl loves slides.

 

 

 

We stopped by a few more exhibits after that, but I didn't get any good photographic evidence. The adults were starting to drag. We headed home, ate dinner, and chatted the night away.

 

Saturday the only thing we had scheduled was a Red Sox game. We relaxed in the morning and then headed to the game.

 

 

Due to the shuttlebus detour we arrived in the third inning, which was a little disappointing. But the game ended up going into extra innings, so it all worked out in the end.

 

We were all pleasantly surprised with how well the kids did, especially Will. He seemed interested in the game the whole time. He was willing to move around when Lauren was demanding more space or wanted to sit on the lap he was currently occupying.

 

He decided his favorite player is Will Middlebrooks, because they share the same name. He kept asking when it was going to be "his" turn to bat and if "he" got a hit. He was pleased when he (Middlebrooks) got a hit, but Daniel (Nava?) did not.

I was prepared for it to be really cold, but we were all comfortable wearing hoodies.

 

Thanks for the great game, Doug and Tina!

 

When the game was over Meredith, Steven and Weston had arrived. They picked us up so we didn't have to ride the shuttlebus again on the way home.

 

 

That evening we tried to get the kids to enjoy a nice bubble bath together, but no one really enjoyed it. Will ended up staying in for quite awhile after Wetson and Lauren got out, but neither toddler had much fun.