Pleasant, perfect weather weekend. We had a great time.
According to Lucas, the best part of the whole weekend was getting in the water and running away from the waves.
This happened:
GET ME OUT! WAH!
This little cutie loved shoveling the sand into her mouth, but you wouldn't believe how she cried when I dipped her feet in the water. Is this really my kid?
He calls her his pillow, and she loves to pull his hair.
We took our first family camping trip over Memorial Day weekend. Despite the rain and cold, we had a great time. We went to Stokes State Forest and stayed in a lean-to (a little cabin with a wood burning heater inside). I would totally recommend it.
Everyone looks unbelievably happy in the following photos. (That is why you should always take a lot of photos.)
New sleeping bags are so exciting!
Lucas already practicing his power poses.
Had to eat inside our lean to, thanks to the rain.
Maiden voyage for the dutch oven. Success!
Happiest/cutest baby in the world. BTW, all you have to do is say, SMILE!, and she does.
No rain the next morning meant we got to go on a fun hike!
Lucas looked at this and said, "Guess what? I'm in time out. I'm in Annie's crib."
(For the record, he was not in time out. Although, he does love to climb into Annie's crib with her whenever he can. She reserves a special cry just for such occasions...her Lucas cry is unmistakeable.)
He walked out of his room wearing a take-out container as a top-hat and using a broken hanger* as a cane. How he came up with this, I have no idea. But it was pretty great. I just wish my photos were better.
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*Note: Hanger was broken while he was trying to swing from it like a trapeze. Wish I had a video of him climbing on a chair in the closet and jumping up to grab the hanger.
Disclaimer: Had I known that was his plan, I would have stopped him when I saw him taking his chair into his closet.
Three months ago, I experienced one of the more harrowing events of my career as a mother. So traumatizing that I am just now able to write about it. It all started with deal on a membership to the American Museum of Natural History. So one day, I decided to go to the museum to see the dinosaurs with my two kids, a couple of friends and their kids.
It all started off pretty well...
Watching a movie.
Posing with the mammoths (I think?)
I took my eyes off him for the briefest moment in an area of the museum where I thought he was corralled by walls/glass on three sides and strollers blocking his exit. Suddenly Corinne exclaimed, "Look at what your kid is doing!" And this is what I saw*:
Lucas. On the WRONG side of 8-foot-high protective glass surrounding an exhibit. NOTHING separating him from priceless millions-of-years-old fossils. And I couldn't figure out how he got in there.
Surely there must have been a gate that was unlocked or a gap in the glass. He couldn't have gone underneath - the glass cleared the floor by only 4 or 5 inches.
Then Lucas began to TOUCH things: labels, boxes where the bones were displayed, a rod holding up the skull of a giant prehistoric sloth...which he thankfully didn't move.
Finally, Jacob (his 3-year-old friend) confirmed that Lucas had, in fact, slid under the glass. So I beckoned him over to me, grabbed his ankles, and yanked. Slightly panicked, I almost ripped the poor child's ear off as I maneuvered his head under the glass.
And thankfully, the sloths aren't under as much security surveillance as the more interesting dinosaur bones, so no alarms went off, no security guards approached, and my new museum membership was not stripped from me. Since then, I've only been brave enough to go back to the museum when Daniel is there to play man-to-man defense with me.
* Film credits go to amazing Corinne. Photo courtesy of Annalisa.
A few weeks ago, we went on a stroll through Central Park with some friends. THE MOST beautiful day ever. Thank you, Corinne, for these great photos (many of which were taken while I was elsewhere chasing down Lucas).
Lucas and Joseph hanging out. It's amazing how they get along despite the age difference.
Couldn't decide which of these I liked better.
The skyline. The baby. The grass. The most magical day.
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