Overheard in the dining room

C4: Did you hear my fart?
E38: No, I did not hear your fart.
C4: But did you hear my fart?
E38: What should you say instead of announcing it?
C4: Excuse me. But it sounded like a kitten purring.
E38 [Not laughing. I am not laughing]:
C4: Sometimes farts sound like animals.
E38 [Must leave the room!}]

I managed to drag both children outside yesterday. Q3 and I were there first, with C4 inside moaning that she didn't want to go out. So, I left her there, and she did some coloring. I can't remember what got her outside, but once outside she enjoyed herself.



It wasn't the yellow tomato that got her out. We've only had 2 ripe tomatos so far, and both have been yellow. Q3 eats these, C4 will not. The rest are green.



We stood in flowers.
Q3


C4


And we stood under our little Harry Lauder's Walking Stick tree, where they would have done just about anything to get me to take a video.

Weekend of the 4th

We never made it to the fireworks. C4 had read about them in the sunday Mini-Pages, and was interested. We said maybe, sure, we'd try. So, Saturday afternoon we packed a picknic and headed to the pool, fully anticipating to come home, bathe, and head to fireworks.

But they couldn't handle the late night, and we had to put them to bed instead.

I told C4 that if she was up when we heard fireworks, I'd go outside with her to see if we could see any. But, there was no chance, she was asleep in 5 minutes.

Today, however, was a more exciting event. The National Capital Kennel Club, Inc. Dog Show.



Both girls slept late (Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!!), so we didn't get an early start (ahhhhh). But we got there in time to see a gazillion different dogs. We petted all the cute ones.

But the favorite ... the yellow lab puppies.



We spent 2.5 to 3 hours there. Then they'd had enough. Ready to go home. Which was fine by me. We all smelled like dog.

Lunch

Q3 is kind of a wiggly eater. Up down around whatever. She gets told her lunch is over when she leaves the table ... today she left the table while eating a rice krispie treat, so she was told she should sit down again ... or I'D get to finish her treat.

From across the table we heard "Or, I will get to finish it!"

I guess C4 REALLY liked the rice krispie treats.

Disco mornings

Yesterday I put the Saturday Night Fever disc in for my listening pleasure ... well, it has been a hit.

Evidence (and I do apologize to C40 who did NOT want to be filmed for this particular extravaganza):

Days 3 & 4 of vacation

I'm losing track of what we did.

We went fishing and boating morning 3 ... Q3 went in the boat twice, and C4, not at all. The pond was very small, but cute. You had to wear a life jacket in the boat,so C4 opted out. Also, she's never really been keen on boats.


Then in the afternoon we swam at the pool. Fun, easy, cooooool. Because the sun had come out and was beating down on us. The breeze off the York river was nice, but not enough, mid-day.

Day 4 we went to the pier. At one point there had been a rule that under-12's needeed life jackets. It turns out that rule was defunct, but all the girls had life jackets except for Celeste ... and when she found out she was to wear one she kind of ... flipped out. She tried all her strategies for getting out of it to no avail. In the spirit of parents and dog owners everywhere, I decided to go with bribery. She puts the life jacket on ... she gets a treat. She doesn't cry for 5 mintues, she gets a treat. She attempts to fish ... she gets a treat. And so forth. Peppermint patties and a donut are very very very effective.

Before treats: (yeah, I know this is sideways, I blame C40)


After treats:



Very very successful.

More pics of Q3 who enjoyed the whole thing.

Fetching crabs


Fishing

Night terrors

To not do list

Pick up child
Talk to child
Use child's name
Comfort child
Touch child
Try to calm child

Check, check, check, check, check, check.

Shoot, we did it all wrong last night.