Family Fun with Four
Maybe I'm just going to be bad at updating this site for a while. I always intend to update but things keep getting in the way - mostly getting the house reset for the next day, dishes, laundry, running on the treadmill, spending time with Matthew after the boys have gone to sleep. Also getting the boys to sleep lately has been tough. One or the other is usually having some trouble, requiring intervention every five minutes or so for an hour - tonight it is Simon, last night it was Adlai.
In any case, in lieu of a family trip, we've been taking the stay-cation approach of spending every Sunday morning (until Adlai's afternoon nap) doing something fun and interesting. Last weekend we took the boys to Gilroy Gardens for the first time. It's a theme park filled with gardens and lots of rides, games, and fun for the kindergarten and preschool set. Simon is usually afraid of rides and Adlai is usually too small to be on rides so this place turned out to be the perfect level of thrill. It was so great that we bought ourselves a family season pass. Gilroy is hot so we're looking forward to some cooler days of gentle rides in late September and October. Also, as it turns out, I'm pretty lucky with a ball and some breakable plates. I won Simon a stuffed whale on my first attempt. He won Adlai a stuffed lion just for trying.
This past weekend we took the boys to the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Mateo and then out to lunch on the wharf of the Fish Market in Foster City. Adlai, it should be said, LOVES planes so Simon was excited to introduce him to the 747 parked at the back of the museum. Off the boys went, hand in hand, while Simon chatted away...
Later, Simon went into the museum with Matthew while Adlai and I played in the kid area. The kid area turned out to be so enjoyable that Adlai never even made it in to the actual museum. We bought a season pass here as well. We're looking forward to a witch arriving by helicopter and dropping pumpkins in October and I hear someone flies using a jet pack some time soon.
After a nice fish lunch for Simon and buttered pasta for Adlai (his first order hurt his incoming teeth so we had to reorder something plain), we drove the happy boys home.
New things for Adlai:
He has finally learned to say "Simon" only he pronounces it "Da-don" (before, he called Simon Da-da and Matthew Daddy).
He has a really good throwing arm - when food or utensils are involved.
He has lost interest in some of his easier baby books and gained interest in books with a few more words such as "Green Eggs and Ham".
He likes to listen to people talk to him on the phone (but he rarely talks back).
His teeth are causing him a great deal of pain. I don't know how many he is missing at this point but suspect it is between two and four.
And, for those of you curious about kindergarten, Simon is still having a great time. He seems particularly fond of his Mandarin classes which he will have every day until the end of third grade at which point it becomes an after school class. He recited a cute song about monkeys this evening that he learned in music class and has started to show more interest in letters and simple math problems.
It's now an hour after bedtime, Simon has finally passed out and Adlai has started to cry. SEE?! Oh wait, Simon isn't asleep either.