2011_08_27 Saturday

Today is the big day: Hurricane Irene is due in this evening. It's sort of drizzling here now, and the wind is very low. I've done as much preventive work as I can, including cleaning up the neighbor's back porch. The storm windows and jalicies are down; everything possible is stored in the garage. The anticipation is hard. Jonathan keeps asking when we're going to Oma/Opa's, and I keep asking him if I missed the rain storm.

We even had breakfast in town today where peoples' opinions of the storm ranged from "no big deal" to "the sky's falling." It's funny: I catch myself talking mental photos of things around town to see what it will look like afterward. How half-empty am I?!

I'm trying to think up as many no-light-needed games/activities (in case--or when--power goes out): playdoh, making sock puppets, legos...

I've got a couple of finger-lights for J, 3 headlamps, and lots of candles (which authorities advise against but I have no choice since there were no flashlights or batteries left at stores. We'll be careful). I'm tempted to pack 3-day Go Bags for each of us, but that might be overkill.

2011_08_24 Wednesday

yeah, yeah, it's been awhile....

We went on an overnight adventure on Tuesday-Wednesday. I drove the kids up to Mystic, CT to the aquarium and then to Oakdale to The Dinosaur Place. We had a total, absolute blast. The drive was much longer than I had anticipated, but we still got to the aquarium around 1, in plenty of time. We visited all (or at least 90% of) the exhibits before having lunch around 3. J wasn't interested in the Balogas, although I was. He liked the sharks (he touched one!), the penguins, and the dang $2 boats that you drive remotely in a pond. ugh. The glow-in-the-dark fish, the jellies, and the sea lion came a close second for him. He also tried touching the rays, but the tanks were deep enough that they'd swim by, but too deep, him. We looked for frogs, tadpoles, and turtles in their marshland. J told me that tadpoles go through 'metaphoosum.' (oh, and we didn't feel the earthquake.)

We ate dinner at a local pizzaria. I think we all were beat by then, and I should have carried out. Next time. Our motel wasn't spectacular, but it was fine. E went to bed around 7:30 (on time), J played games on my phone and I read until 8:30, and we went to bed around 9. I woke up at 4am ready to party, though. The kids woke up around 8:30, so that worked out well. We had some fruit that I had brought along to hold us over until breakfast.

After checking-out, packing the car, and getting b'fast (Dunkin Donuts, oh well), we headed to The Dinosaur Place in Oakdale, CT. It's an outdoor dinosaur exhibit around a pond and in the woods. It was gorgeous. We walked the trails, and "life"-sized dinos were hidden along the way (see pix below). The have a maze, a playground, and a splashpad (of course, all dino themed). At the playground, E loved the old-school dino and seahorse rockers, and J (naturally) loved the 3-story rope climb (more gray hairs for me). Four dino characters roam (we found 3 of them). And, on the hour, their volcano, which is in the pond, erupts. We literally spent seven hours there! The kids ran through the splashpad with trepidation but lots of laughs (good thing I was in a suit too). Some of the bigger kids really annoyed me. J befriended an older boy, who helped him through the maze and who leeched on for the rest of the day. A strawberry ice cream topped off the day for us.

And, luck was on my side; I didn't hit traffic either way. amazing. The kids could not have been better. I'm energized to do more excursions now!

These pix should do our trip justice:

2011_08_21 Monday

Auntie Shannon gave J a super-cool dinosaur excavation kit. We decided to crack into it (literally):

As it turned out, we had a slightly defective dino, so we're getting an entirely new set sent, and I'm buying the T-Rex one. We are both really excited to do it again and to try out the T-Rex.

2011_08_02 Tuesday

JONATHAN PEE-ED STANDING UP!! And, he got it 100% in the toilet!! How exciting. He's more interested in sitting, still, but now he knows he can do it!

2011_08_01 Monday

We went to our town pool for the first time this summer. It was wonderful despite being 92+humidity. Jonathan found Joshua to play with for awhile. After he left, we went to the bigger pool, which is just a tad too deep for him at the very end, and had a blast. Jonathan would go underwater; he even sat at the bottom of the pool and touched his toes. He's working on pushing off from the side, but hasn't figured it out at all yet. Elise loves being in the water. Both kids were moderately willing to practice floating; I think it was still a little too splashy around us for them to be comfortable. A woman even stopped me (as I had Elise in front and Jonathan 'swimming' on my shoulders) that we looked like a photogenic family and a very sweet moment to capture. It was nice to hear that.