6/27/2014

Van, Esther and I are going for an after work adventure. I just picked them up from Julius's house where Zamzam watched them half of the week. It's raining out but they've eaten dinner, we have rain gear so we're going to a park with ducks.

Van: "Wow it's busy out here, this is a busy street right?"
Me: "Yep, everyone is going home from work."
Van: "You know, not everyone has a babywatcher, and they get to stay home all day.-"

I wince, I always worry about the day when Van will realized more often than not, a mom would stay home with their kids all day. I wonder if he will feel abandoned. But he continues...

"-Their daddy's stay home, and their mamas go to work."

Me: "yep, that's right."

Whew, dodged a bullet.
But then, for good measure, I add,

"You know, sometimes the daddys go to work and the mamas stay home."


***


We drive by Great Harvest for bread (really because I wanted to eat their bread. But since I used the cover of getting bread for us to feed the ducks, I still need to figure out how to avoid having Van feed the really expensive bread to the ducks. Maybe they have bread scraps at the end of the day?) but as it turns out, they are closed.

Me: "Oh man they're closed. Oh well, let's just go see the ducks, we don't have to feed them."

I can tell Van still really wants to feed the ducks (he told me on the way that this is what Curious George does.) So he thinks for a minute then says,

Van: "Mom, you know, more places sell bread than you would think."

Swim Lessons

I finally took some pictures of Van at his swim lessons. They're not great quality, but it's better than nothing.

Here we are ready for the lesson to start.

He's standing behind everyone

Now he's sitting at the end of the row

The orange noodle, of course.

Feelings

Van: "Mom, why are you sad?"

This is a question I get asked several times a day. Sometimes I am actually sad, sometimes I'm concentrating (like if I'm reading), sometimes I'm tired. But whenever my face doesn't have a smile, Van always asks.

Yesterday we drove to Frozen Yogurt, usually we bike on the weekends but without Andy to watch Esther we just drove.

Van: "Mom, why are you sad?"
Me: I wasn't really sad, probably just tired because it was the end of the day, but I said, "I'm sad we're not biking to Frozen Yogurt today, it's so much fun when we get to bike."
Van: "But your babies are here. You should be happy. Alway be happy when your babies are around."
Me: "That is very true, that is a great reason to be happy."

Clothesline

Our dryer broke. Here is the view from my kitchen.

Movies

We're making movies for Andy. Van is really into this. He's still making them by himself now.

Valdez

Andy is in Valdez for a couple weeks for work. His friend Cullan used to be a geologist with AES but left to go to flight school to become a helicopter pilot. So on this trip Cullan is the pilot (and photographer) for Andy's field work and he took some beautiful pictures.

THANK YOU!

Mom says I have ruined my reputation by coming out against Thank You notes. Not my intention. If you love getting thank you notes, I would love to send you a thank you note. Just don't you dare send me one.

Anyway, speaking of thank yous...

Aunty Linda sent us the most beautiful quilt for baby Esther!!!!

Mom brought over her camera so we could take some pictures.

It turned out to be an excellent quilt for playing peek-a-boo

 

Biking

Van and I have been biking all over town (and all our bikes end in frozen yogurt).

Unfortunately our camera is broken, so all I have are these phone pictures. Still here are our last three adventures.

Trip 1

Here are Van, Finn and I biked after our bike to Menchies.

Trip 2

Here are Van and I stopping at Carrs for lunch before our trip to Yogurt Lounge. It was a rainy day ride.

After we ate Van said, "Party's over mom" and walked out. The people in the area were highly amused.

Van and I were both wearing rain gear overalls because it had been raining on and off all day. When we went to leave I packed up the groceries in the Carrs bag and then I threaded it through my overall strap so I could wear it on my back.

When I showed Van he said, "How did you do that?"

I loved it. Later he would be totally embarrassed to be biking around town with me in rain gear with a Carrs bag awkwardly strapped to my back. But at 4 he's just impressed.

We made it to Yogurt Lounge. At Yogurt Lounge you get to pick a movie to watch. Van picked Mulan because he knew it was my favorite. Which is sweet because he doesn't even really like it.

Trip 3

Here are pictures from our bike ride at the Service trails today. We did the lighted loop and I took him to "The Rock". A big erratic out in the middle of the trails. He loved it. We climbed to the top of it; he wanted to play there all day.

But it has been obvious for a while that Van needs a bigger bike. So after our ride today I took him to the The Bicycle Shop and we bought him a 20". He was so happy. He said it was the best bike ever.

And just for good measure, here is a picture of Esther. She usually naps during our bike adventures, but here she is at the park. Love those stripes.