We went to the Durham science museum today with Aunt Nora, Grandma, and Cousin Daniel. It's a great activity because they have indoor and outdoor stuff to do, so it's appropriate for any weather. (And the weather forecast for today was terrible; rain and thunderstorms all day.)
Unbeknownst to us, though, today was a special event -- some kind of Robot Rumble, with all kinds of different robot exhibitions set up all over the museum. That would have been really cool if any of the children with us had been old enough to care at all about robots. As it was, what that meant was that both the regular parking and the overflow parking were full, so we had to park at the middle school down the road and take the shuttle bus. Fortunately, Daniel thought the shuttle bus was just another part of the fun. :) James was not sure about it at first (it was a bit bumpy), but he relaxed after I sang the Wheels on the Bus to him.
We started out in the kids play area, since a lot of the other sections were fairly crowded. The boys had a good time there, but then we took advantage of a break in the weather to go outside and try to find the train (since Daniel really likes trains).
The second picture is in the play area -- it's not a great picture, but that blurry figure on the left is James making a break for the exit when Grandma turned her back for just a moment. I like it because it illustrates how fast he moves these days. :)
It turned out that the break in the weather lasted a good long time, so the boys got to play with the drums, see the little farm, and play on a sand hill. I'm not actually sure that the sand hill is intended to be a play area; it's possible that it was just there because they were using the sand for something else. (The title for that picture could be, "Reasons why you should not pay money for things to entertain toddlers." Thousands of dollars worth of exhibits, and all they want to do is climb the sand hill!)
They do have an actual sandbox with trucks and so on that looked like fun, but we scooted right by that because we thought the train was closer than it was, and because I had a feeling that once Matthew got in there, he wouldn't want to leave. (He threw a big fit yesterday when he had to leave a sandbox, and I wasn't up for a repeat! He spotted it anyhow and kept pointing back to it saying, "Play! Play!", but eventually he was willing to be distracted by the animals...and the other pile of sand.
Once we reached the train, Daniel decided that all he wanted to do ever in the whole world was to ride the train (even though in the past he's only wanted to look at trains and not ride them), so Grandma went back to the main building to get tickets. In the meantime, we grabbed a quick lunch in the cafe, and finished just in time to get on the train. (I brought James and Matthew's bottles on board in blatant disregard of the "no food and drink" sign, but the conductors showed us to our seats and didn't say anything, so I assumed bottles were an exception. I almost asked, but decided I didn't want to give them a chance to say no and thus have two crying babies on my hands!) The train does a little ten minute loop, and all the boys were great. When we got off, Matthew even said, "More! More!"
It was a fun morning and early afternoon, and we left around naptime (although only James ended up taking any sort of decent nap).
P.S. These pictures are from my phone camera, since Mike has our regular camera. I know lots of people use their phone as their main camera and seem to be able to take lovely pictures that way, but the pictures on mine (an Android) are generally awful (blurry) -- if any of you techies out there have any suggestions for making them better, I'd be glad to hear them! (Unless, of course, the suggestion is to get an iPhone -- no dice on that one. I am still a phone luddite, and only have this beautiful smartphone because it was a gift.)
We were out in a different part of town than usual this morning, so the boys got to explore a new playground. 
Mattie liked the dragon, and Jamesie liked the toddler climbing wall (of course!) The only problem with the gorgeous weather is that the slide was hot!
J
ames was sitting in one of the armchairs in the living room, and I said something to him about being a big boy sitting in the big boy chair. Mattie was on my lap drinking his milk, and he pointed to himself and said emphatically, "Baby." Then he pointed to James and said, "Brother, baby." Yes, that's right, they're still my babies!
Top picture: the boys decide to try to put on their shoes themselves. (After this picture was taken, Mattie was walking around with his shoe half-on saying "almost! almost!")
P.S. James's hearing therapist is delighted with his progress -- according to her evaluation, he's doing almost everything you would expect for his age, which is fantastic for someone who didn't get hearing aids until he was one! (Recent words include walk, touch, bounce, rain, and a properly-used "two" -- for two boxes and two dogs!)
Our Easter weekend plans all went down the drain because I got sick on Friday night, and spent most of the weekend in bed with a fever, while Mike played SuperDad. 
Our neighbors had invited us to an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday, but unfortunately, it overlapped almost completely with the boys' naptime. He and the boys went by a little late, and although they missed out on the socializing, the neighbors kindly put a couple of eggs out on the grass for Mattie and James to "find." (They don't quite have the idea of an Easter Egg hunt yet, although I expect they would have picked up on it quickly if they'd been there with other kids.) 
Our friends J & Y were over for a while on Sunday, fortunately during a time when I was feeling a bit better. The boys and C had fun with the water table, and little Miss E was her usual adorable self (and rapidly catching up with James in weight!)
James walked around the longer block today with N (or walked most of it, anyhow). We hope he'll still be content to have the occasional stroller ride after all this freedom! He loves the "outside!"
Two scenes from today:
On Saturday, I noticed some blood in James's ear (never a good sign), but of course, it was after the doctor's office was closed. He wasn't acting at all unhappy or sick, though. So I brought him in on Monday, and the doctor diagnosed him with an ear infection. Poor little guy! (And also, it's so annoying that he gets his first ear infection AFTER he had the ear tubes!) So he's on antibiotics now.
He also took a walk all the way around the block yesterday. Babysitter N took him out for what she thought would be a little walk down the street, but he insisted on going further. (She said she even spun him around to try to trick him into going back to the house, but he wasn't fooled!) So he went all the way down our street, out to the main street, and back up to our house, all walking. That route isn't that short and has some hills, so we were very impressed! She said he knew exactly where he wanted to go. He's an explorer!
James's hearing therapist asked at her last visit whether he was using two-word sentences frequency. I said no, I wouldn't say frequently, it was more like occasionally. So since then, of course, he's been using a ton of them! ("Elmo bike", "Dada guitar", "Light on", "Water bye-bye" "Paci uh-oh"). Go James! 
We had another nice day with Grandma, Nora, and Daniel. All the boys were a little tired still from their big day yesterday, but they enjoyed the playground and lunch at Panera (where, to my surprise, the biggest hit for Matthew and James was getting to chew on Grandma's baguette). Mattie carried it home in the car, and when I opened the door to get him out of his carseat, he held it out to me and said, "Toast." 
Abby Beagle got many hugs from Matthew and James -- she was very patient with them!
We went to the Durham science museum today with Aunt Nora, Grandma, and Cousin Daniel. It's a great activity because they have indoor and outdoor stuff to do, so it's appropriate for any weather. (And the weather forecast for today was terrible; rain and thunderstorms all day.)
Unbeknownst to us, though, today was a special event -- some kind of Robot Rumble, with all kinds of different robot exhibitions set up all over the museum. That would have been really cool if any of the children with us had been old enough to care at all about robots. As it was, what that meant was that both the regular parking and the overflow parking were full, so we had to park at the middle school down the road and take the shuttle bus. Fortunately, Daniel thought the shuttle bus was just another part of the fun. :) James was not sure about it at first (it was a bit bumpy), but he relaxed after I sang the Wheels on the Bus to him. 
We started out in the kids play area, since a lot of the other sections were fairly crowded. The boys had a good time there, but then we took advantage of a break in the weather to go outside and try to find the train (since Daniel really likes trains). 
It turned out that the break in the weather lasted a good long time, so the boys got to play with the drums, see the little farm, and play on a sand hill. I'm not actually sure that the sand hill is intended to be a play area; it's possible that it was just there because they were using the sand for something else. (The title for that picture could be, "Reasons why you should not pay money for things to entertain toddlers." Thousands of dollars worth of exhibits, and all they want to do is climb the sand hill!)
They do have an actual sandbox with trucks and so on that looked like fun, but we scooted right by that because we thought the train was closer than it was, and because I had a feeling that once Matthew got in there, he wouldn't want to leave. (He threw a big fit yesterday when he had to leave a sandbox, and I wasn't up for a repeat! He spotted it anyhow and kept pointing back to it saying, "Play! Play!", but eventually he was willing to be distracted by the animals...and the other pile of sand. 
We were about to leave the playground this evening when we overheard the mother of another child mention to her friend that they were going out for ice cream. We thought that sounded like an excellent idea, so we stopped at the frozen yogurt place on the way home for the boys' first "ice cream." Matthew took to it with enthusiasm, but James would have none of it. He dipped his finger in, but then closed his mouth and turned his head away whenever we offered him a spoonful. Ah well, maybe next time he'll be in the mood for it!
