Doctor's Office vs. the Aquarium

At about 7:30 on Sunday morning I told Nick, "Let's go upstairs and get dressed because we are going somewhere special today." He said, "Where are we going, the children's museum?" (He was talking about the one in Easton, a fave place to go). I said, "No, a place that has a lot of fish, do you remember what it's called?" And with the enthusiasm that only a kid can have, he said, "The Doctor's Office!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Yes, they do have a giant fish tank but I can assure you that the one at the Aquarium is even better! We were out of the house by 8:15am and the second people in line for the 9am opening (free passes in hand, even better). Both of them had a great time. Chelsea added some more words to her constantly growing vocabulary..."tuttle", "sheesh" (fish) and "see" (see it? - we must have been saying that a lot that day). And Nick lasted much longer than when we went about a year ago (thanks to Chelsea for taking her morning nap in the stroller so we didn't have to leave after an hour). One of the education people came up to us while we were looking at an exhibit and asked if we had any questions. I told Nick that he worked there and that he would answer any questions he had. He said, "I have a question about yogurt sticks." Awesome. We also tried to give him a few lessons along the way, reading the information next to the exhibits. He was MUCH more interested in bopping as quickly as possible from one thing to the next and yelling, "Mommy, Daddy, come here and look at this!!!" I guess we'll leave the aquarium lessons to his 5th grade science teacher.

This was not staged, I looked back and they were holding hands. I thought my heart would melt right then and there. (Of course I had to get them to do it again by the time I got the camera out)

Fish kisses in front of the fish

"My name is BRUCE!!!"

Not sure why but Ryan took exactly 14 pictures of this turtle

"sheesh!"

Nick at the "petting" tank

"Nick, come look, it's Nemo!". "Mommy, that's not Nemo, that's Nemo's Daddy." Well excuse me.

A Great Great-Grampa

Nicholas and Chelsea are very blessed in many ways. One of their blessings is that they have been able to spend time with 3 of their 4 great-grandparents; I wouldn't imagine that many people can say this. Their great-grandfather (my mother's father) passed away this Monday and he will be sorely missed. Russell W. Stone was a World War II veteran, a talented artist and an all-around WONDERFUL man. My favorite memories of him were at the beach (he taught me how to fish) and on holidays at his and my grandmother's house. They continued to host every major holiday until this past year after Grampa's fall made it too hard. He was 89 and my grandmother is 84. Nana and Grampa have 4 daughters, 8 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren...and grampa could never keep everyone's names straight! "Pammy, Nancy, Jenny...what's your name, oh wait, Heather!!!" When it came to the great-grandkids he basically just called everyone "kid"..."hey, you there...kid". The memories and stories are endless and we will not stop telling them any time soon.

I hope that someday Nicholas and Chelsea realize how lucky they are to have known him and treasure whatever memories they have of him. We love you Grampa.

http://www.legacy.com/SouthOfBoston-Enterprise/DeathNotices.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=139784395

Christmas 2008

One of Great-Grampa's many, awesome pieces of art

Curtain Monster

Our favorite game of the moment is "Curtain Monster": the kids get behind the curtain, run out and tackle Mommy. Lots of screaming is involved too but Chelsea didn't have her screams going in the video below...

Clean baby

I am one of those people who doesn't mind picking up a piece of food that just dropped on the floor and eating it. I am not an "over-sanitizer", slathering on the Purell at the slightest notion of a germ. So I wonder where Chelsea got this...

Tall Tale

And the stories begin...

Nick woke up one morning this week and he had wet his bed. The conversation went something like this,

"Mommy, I'm all wet"
"Oh, you must have peed in your bed while you were sleeping"
"No, I didn't"
"Then how did you get all wet?"
"It was water"
"Where did the water come from?"
"Tommy jumped up on my bed while I was sleeping and knocked the water over in my bed"

This poor cat gets blamed for everything!!!!

Holy Birthdays!!!

January means lots of birthdays for our friends and family. We kicked them off this weekend with 3 parties!!! Our neighbor's daughter Zoey turned three and they had a party at Kid's Club Funland on Sat. from 12-2. It was kind of like Chuck E Cheese with games and tunnels and ball pits. Nick had a blast climbing, sliding and running. Chelsea had a blast being pushed around in the cozy coupe for 45 minutes (she refused to be taken out...I opened the car door a couple of times and said "want to get out" and she leaned right over and slammed the door shut!) After that party we headed up to Haverhill for our friend's daughter Emily's big 1. The kids slept almost the whole way so they were ready for the next round when we arrived an hour and 15 mins later. Everyone had a great time and the kids were troopers. It wasn't very surprising though that the next day everyone (including mommy and daddy) took extra long naps before we headed over to Uncle Pete's to celebrate Auntie Karen's birthday. Again, not surprising when meltdowns set in a little bit earlier than they should have. It was a busy weekend but we had lots of fun celebrating everyone's big days.

Happy Birthday Emily, Grammie Sue, Zoey, Grampy Gary, Baby Kate, Gavin, Auntie Karen, Auntie Tara, Addison and Drew!!!!!! (I think I got everyone)

Daddy and Chelsea at Kids Club (look at how many tickets Ryan got playing SkeeBall with Nick's tokens!)

Nick, Zoey & Kylie riding the carousel

"We're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship!"

John, Emily, Chelsea, Nick and Sawyer at Emily's birthday party (these are the children of Ryan's oldest and best buddies...and there are more on the way...soon the kids will out-number the adults)

Happy 2010!

Nick started the New Year out with a classic (quite logical) quote/observation. Well, technically it was on New Year's Eve. We were at my cousin Lori's house for appetizers and cocktails. She has two teenage girls with whom Nick is IN LOVE. Sometimes they babysit for us and he calls them "the girls". So cute. At one point they went upstairs to get dolled up for a party. When they came down one of them had replaced her sweats with ripped jeans. Very ripped jeans. She was standing next to Nick and when he took in her new attire he said, "Victoria, what happened to your pants?" Everyone was dying laughing and then we were all kind of looking at each other like, yeah, what happened to her pants??!! Why would she wear those??!! I guess we are turning into old fuddy duddies!!! I love that young kids have absolutely no filter and actually come out and say what is on everyone elses minds.

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2010 filled with peace, laughter and lots of love!