Book Festival

After seeing the notices posted around the local public library, we decided to try visiting the local book festival—hailed as the largest in the country after only three years.

It started with a children's parade with Madeline leading the parade and lots of little Madelines following along with their parents.

Then we stopped at the fire truck, which had to leave for an emergency.

Then we visited the Target Children's tent, where the oldest decorated a book bag with markers, buttons, and stickers. (I'm hoping that the markers will wash off, then we can do some more permanent decorating.) The youngest got one too, but he didn't decorate his (yet). Then we headed out to view the booths, and the booth for the puppet stage had free puppets to make--we made a bat named "Murcielago." We paused for a snack of pears, goldfish, and water. Then we ran into my professor who was volunteering for the historical society and got us started on a history scavenger hunt around the old county courthouse (a lot of interesting facts and a statue of Tomas Jefferson).

Two and a half hours and everyone was hot and tired, especially the littlest guy who didn't nap in the stroller like I hoped he would. But it was fun and it was a good experience. I like knowing that books are appreciated where we live.

The Mellon Teaching Fellow

My sweet husband started teaching at the local private girls' college as part of the Mellon Graduate Teaching Fellowship Program. He has four (that is right, 4) students. But he has an office, free athletic membership for the family, free parking pass, discounted all-you-can-eat meals, free printing (maybe), and an awesome faculty picture. All in all we are excited for the school year.

Sandbox

Since the weather has cooled down a little bit, we have been outside playing in the sandbox. Unfortunately for our screened-in porch, the sand has spread all over. But we have had fun. Here is a dinosaur sandcastle that my big guy and I made yesterday. The dinosaurs are protecting the pink frog (hidden inside of the sandcastle) from the blue frogs outside of the moat. The picture is sideways here, but right side on my computer. So tip your head a little.

Equal Time

I feel like most of the things I write about here are about my oldest. My husband and I and the youngest tend to take second fiddle. I have decided to spend this post trying to remedy that. So here are fun pictures, movies, and a story or two.

Yesterday, my husband returned less-than-triumphantly from a racquetball game. His exercise for the past year + has consisted of walking to and from the shuttle every day. So he wasn't in peak form. He described his opponent as having "long arms" that gave him an unfair advantage. My husband also ate a robust lunch of red beans and rice with chunks of low-fat spicy sausage at 3:10 in preparation for the 3:30 game. When he got home, he kept asking me to check his "fever." The game had done the poor guy in. All I can say, is that he plans on this being the first of many games, and he intends to win his share.

The little guy is doing his best to keep the world awake at night. I never worried about getting him sleeping through the night because at his 6 month checkup, he wasn't quite on the chart for weight. So I decided to keep feeding him at night. Well, he is now in the 10-25%, and he loves to eat at night. I also think that he is teething (he's congested, fussy, drooly, and biting on everything—but he has been that way for a while). So when I got home from book group last night at 11:10, he had been screaming for a couple hours, and he was MAD. I fed him, and then, for the first time ever, he slept through the 2:oo feeding until 5:10 am. Unfortunately, I don't anticipate this becoming a habit.

He has also started liking books. We read 2–4 board books at nap and bed time, and he loves to touch them and read them with me. He likes picking up the books around the house, but likes to eat and tear the pages of the picture books. Last night he was calmly sitting reading these books.

This little guy is also hilarious in the bathtub. We put in about 1 inch of water and then let him go wild for a bit. He usually does laps in the tub, interspersed with standing up on the edge or by the faucet, while Mom and Dad say, "Sit on your bum."

We are the Dinosaurs

The boys are dinosaurs–sometimes Tyrannosaurus Rexes, sometimes three horns, sometimes Spike, and sometimes they just growl. It is fun to wake up to three-year-old asking to play dinosaurs and then be greeted by a growling ten-month-old. The sandbox is filled with sand and dinosaurs, winter dinosaur pj's are the hippest (and dirtiest) trend, the oldest will eat his protein if he's pretending to be a sharp tooth (after all, no good herbivore would eat chicken). It only presents one problem. How do you convince a sharp tooth dinosaur that pretend biting is better than real biting?

Future Engineer

Our oldest has become interested in construction, specifically constructing "temples." He gathers all of the toys, buckets, dolls, doll clothes, car seats, and other miscellaneous things he can and carefully piles them into great towers. He likes it when there are some precariously balanced parts. Maybe this means that he will become an engineer, or maybe he will follow his grandfather in the construction business, or maybe this is just fun. Any way, we have the most avante guarde "temples" around in our living room.

Como Divertirse Cuando Se Está Desnudo

This is a new thing that the boys like to do together: make faces in the sliding glass door.