Out and About

I'm still struggling to catch up on all the things we've been doing lately. I missed including this video on a recent blog entry. We had gone to Home Depot to get the new tarp for Nicholas' fort roof and while we were there, Stuart decided to get some ropes for some other upgrades on the fort. Nicholas loves playing with the ropes while we were there. In this video, he is using the ropes and the shopping cart like a snow sled and saying "Mush!". Cute stuff!



Earlier this week, we met up with some of our PTA friends for a playdate in a friend's pool. There was lots of shade so it was really nice considering this terrible heat we're having.



Nicholas enjoyed playing like his was a shark with his big dorsal fin sticking up. Earlier he had been doing this while making the music from Jaws!



Nicholas and I recently made a trip to Burlington/Baby Depot so I could shop for a few more pieces of maternity clothing. While we were there Nicholas said that he wanted to pick out a new toy for his little sister. He searched all over but wasn't thrilled with the selection of toys there. He finally decided on this farm animal toy from Fisher Price. He did pretty well for choosing an age appropriate toy and not something related to Star Wars or a super hero!



As we walked through the store just browsing, Nicholas found these two very-low-to-the-ground, sink-your-body-right-into-them chairs. Of course, he wanted us to both sit in them and not being one to pass on fun with the boy, I obliged. However, after struggling to lower my larger than usual body into the chair without falling on my behind, I soon realized that I was going to have an even harder time getting myself out of the chair. As I tried to pull myself out, I decided I was too tired and just wanted to sit there a little longer. As I sat resting, my sweet child started making fun of how I was trying to get out of the chair. It was nice having him show me just how graceful I looked!

A Big Boy Bed - Finally!

Yes, Nicholas is four and he has just now gotten his "big boy bed". We have been wanting to move him from the toddler bed to a twin bed for quite a while but we kind of thought that if we had another little boy then it would be easiest to put the baby in Nicholas' room which was still decorated in a "nursery" style. Then we wouldn't have to start over with decorating a little boy's nursery and we'd just move Nicholas to the other bedroom to make a more dramatic "big boy room" for him. Well, we aren't having a little boy so we decided to just leave him in the same room with the light blue walls and redecorate it for a big boy.

Nicholas decided that he wanted his big boy room to have a space theme. First we had to get rid of all the ABCs and teddy bears throughout the room. Thank goodness he hasn't minded having a nursery theme for so long! We took down the border around the top of the room and painted over my little hand painted cloud mural that said, "I'm A Little Gift From Heaven" (I was sad to see it go). Nicholas was excited to help take apart his toddler bed.



We put it and the matching dresser in the little girl nursery since the toddler bed can convert back to a crib for her. Next Nicholas helped to bring in the headboard and footboard for his new twin bed. He was so excited to be involved in putting his room together!



Before we could even get the bed made up and put some other things away in their new homes, Nicholas was already jumping on the bed. For some crazy reason I had been inspired to set up the bed just before Nicholas' bedtime. Well of course he was too wound up with excitement to go to sleep for quite a while. Instead he reveled in the joy of jumping on his new bed to initiate it.



To create the space theme for the room, we used some giant foam board printouts of some awesome space pictures that our church had used in their preschool. They were going to just throw them out so they were happy to let me put them to good use. The space theme goes well with the Star Projector and Moon In My Room that he already had.

Fort Upgrades and Water Balloons Galore!

We had a big hail storm here back in April. The roof on our house needed to be replaced afterwards but amazingly the roof on Nicholas' fort appeared to remain strong. However, the storms must have weakened the tarp roof and since April it has slowly started coming apart. Today Stuart went to Home Depot and bought a replacement tarp for the roof. While he was there he also bought two kinds of rope - one for a climbing rope on one end of the fort and the other for a pulley system he created near the front door of the fort to help Nicholas get snacks, drink, and, of course, water balloons to the top floor quickly. Nicholas loved playing with the ropes before Stuart even got them to the back yard. Stuart had his ladder out for some reason and Nicholas had him tie the rope to the top of the ladder so he could pretend to climb the rope.



Here is Nicholas testing out the new pulley system with a bucket full of water balloons. Of course, I was in a dangerous position and got pelted with a few balloons right away!



While Daddy filled up more water balloons, Nicholas planned a sneak attack on him. He got Daddy good!



Next Nicholas decided that being spashed by water balloons was fun and popped one over his own head! Silly boy!





Then Daddy and Nicholas took turns popping the water balloons on each other's head while I stayed relatively dry with the excuse that "I have the camera so I can't get wet!"

Shaken Up 7up

Stuart is home sick today with a stomach bug. Nicholas and I went to the grocery store and got him some "get well" foods such as 7up, chicken noodle soup, and Jello. Nicholas wanted to try some of the 7up as soon as we got home. He shook up the 2 liter bottle before opening it but of course 7up is carbonated and doesn't need shaking! I told him not to open it and explained to him how the bubbles wanted to get out of the liquid and how they can cause the 7up to shoot out all over the place now. He was fascinated with this idea. We put that bottle aside and I opened the other 2 liter bottle that I had bought that didn't get the Nicholas shaking treatment. It was warm and had been jostled some on its way to our house so it tried to spew a little as I opened it. Nicholas, of course, got excited and thought it was fun to watch. He grabbed the shaken 7up, laughed a little evil laugh, and said, "Let's give the shaken one to Daddy and let him open it so he gets squirted! Hee hee hee!" Such sympathy for his poor sick Daddy! I couldn't help but laugh at his plan though :)

Quote for the Day

"If we can teach our children to honor nature's gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever." - former president Jimmy Carter

One of Our Favorite Parks

We spent the afternoon at one of our favorite local parks. It is a small park with just a single play structure. But there are lots of trees, pine needles, pine cones, sticks, mulch, leaves, and other natural delights that we find lots of fun playing with. When Nicholas was very young, we were at this park and I decided to show him what we could do with the pine needles we found on the ground. We bunched them together and made a bird's nest and added a few pine cones for eggs. Ever since then, Nicholas insists on making bird nests whenever we go to this park. Here he is gathering the pine needles, a very important first step.



He added lots of pine cones and then hid them under even more pine needles. He started to pretend to be a bird sitting on the nest but we decided that the pine cones would be too pokey for that to be much fun.

There are some cool trees around the park and there is one in particular that Nicholas likes to get help climbing into.





Of course, you can always just play Star Wars no matter where you are. Here is Nicholas and Daddy playing with pretend light sabers.



The heat here has been terrible. I think it got up to 107 degrees today! We soon decided we needed some refreshment in the form of Baskin Robbins! What a way to wrap up the day :)

Missing pics from Making Gummies entry

I found the missing pictures of Nicholas making his own gummy bugs from the July 27th entry. I take way too many pictures every day and have such a hard time keeping up with them all!

Here he is mixing the gummy goop and using a pipette to transfer it into the bug molds. By the way, Nicholas loves playing with pipettes and water! We have used them to measure and talk about suction but what he likes most of all involves using them like little water guns!