The pool, at long last

I can't believe it took us until the penultimate weekend of summer to make it to the pool, but we've been so busy doing other activities that it never happened. So we went today, and it was a perfect day for swimming. First, we had to pick up our resident ID cards, which took a few minutes. Dominick received his very own (see August album in Picasa). Noel won't need one until he's four.

Once we got to the pool, Dom headed straight for the kiddie pool, with its fountains and slides. He had a blast. Noel spent most of his time there wading in, stepping out, and repeating ad nauseum. He got up to his waist in the water, but he didn't like any of the spray fountains. Dom and Mike also went into the bigger pool for a little while. The boys made it about an hour and a half before they became fussy, so we went home, cleaned up, and went out for pizza. Because we missed our workouts both days this weekend, after Noel's nap we loaded up the boys in the stroller and wagon and walked a mile or so to the produce market. It was an eventful day.

Check out the Picasa site for more pictures from the pool today and the rest of August's adventures thus far.

Thanks, baby!

Tonight's post is to record (and share, of course) one of those lovely details of life with small children. I had a bad afternoon yesterday, but Noel did something to cheer me up. I had just changed his diaper and leaned over to talk to him. First he reached up, stroked my hair, and said "hi." Then he said "hug," and pulled me down to wrap his arms around my neck. He had no idea how much I needed that! Sweet boy.

More Tour de St. Louis

Wow, I haven't been here in a while! How quickly two weeks have passed. This entire summer has flown by. We're now in a short break between summer program and the start of Dominick's second year of preschool. I love how his first day is September 8, yet we pay for the whole month.

Over the past two weekends, we've visited two more places on our St. Louis tourism list. The first was the Museum of Transportation on August 9. I thought the boys would like a place devoted to trains and, to a lesser extent, cars, boats and airplanes. Dominick was most interested in the tracks and what he calls bumps (crossings). Their cousin Seth was here for the weekend, and in addition to that outing, the three older boys (that includes Mike, of course--I'm so outnumbered) played a round of golf.

This Sunday, we went to Powder Valley Nature Center and walked the longest trail (1 1/5 miles). Dominick and I had been there once before when he was about a year and a half old. The most lasting memory I have was of nearly losing him and his stroller down a very steep embankment. This time, I knew better, so we decided to forgo wheeled transportation and just carry Noel when necessary. The trail has several (non-stroller-accessible) bridges, which I thought Dom would like, but at one point he said, "Another bridge! That's enough bridges." We also saw some deer and two lizards.

Back to the subject of trains, the boys have been loving their new Thomas stuff. We have tracks all over the place, in addition to the original train table. Noel says "Thomas" about a hundred times a day. How fitting, since that's his middle name. Look what happened to this poor boy the other day, when he took a spill on the exterior basement stairs (I think he tripped over the hose). He'd just gotten over a scrape on his nose from tripping on a sidewalk the week before, too. Boyhood is full of scrapes and bruises, it seems.

Note: I've just added July's pictures to the Picasa album here.

Time to catch up

I've been remiss about blogging lately, so here are some notes on the past few weeks in the Atwood household, in no particular order:

We went to Joplin to see my parents and gush over their new garage, landscaping, and flagstone patio. I'm so jealous! While there, we treated Dominick to his first movie theater experience ("Wall-E"). The movie was good but perhaps a bit too much for Dom, especially considering the length and volume of the previews and commercials that preceded it. Come on, theater people!

The four of us went to the Magic House. The admission there is ridiculous: why is it $7.50 for anybody over 12 months? Fortunately, we used two buy-one-get-one coupons, and we had a good time. (I'll post pictures eventually.) One of these days I'll get Dom to touch the big metal ball to make his hair stand up.

The dark area underneath Noel's fingernail along the line of the laceration has gone away. Maybe it was just dirt after all.

Dom can eat a full-sized cheeseburger with bun, a hot dog with bun, and potatoes and still want more.

I reworked the curtains in the boys' room, shortening them and adding sewn-in lining. This project was fraught with difficulties (it seemed like I made every mistake possible), but I persevered. Treating it as a learning experience helped me keep a positive attitude; otherwise, I might have chucked the sewing machine out the window. Thank goodness for my seam ripper.

Dom and I went to the Soulard Farmers Market together. He was overwhelmed by all the sights and sounds but got a balloon-dog-hat out of it, so he was happy. I bought blackberries and made a blackberry-white peach thing with not-so-puffy puff pastry on top. I'll call it rustic.

Noel uses words for real communication now, not just labeling. Even more exciting is that he's started telling me when he has a dirty diaper, which gives me hope that he'll toilet-train earlier than Dominick did.

I learned that Noel definitely does not like chocolate. Could this really be my child?

Dominick, on the other hand, loves watermelon, pronouncing it "gooder" than black beans, pickles, everything.

I can have an allergic reaction to cats just by holding a baby who lives in a cat-infested house. (Sorry, Storms!)

Mike has haunted eBay over the past two weeks, searching for the perfect Thomas set for the boys. I don't know how many auctions he bid on before finally winning two. Dom is going crazy waiting for the stuff to arrive. When that day comes, Mike wants me not to open the packages before he comes home from work. That will go over well with Dominick. "Sorry, sweetie, but you'll have to wait another six hours to play with your 52 new engines." [Update: Box 1 arrived just after I posted this. I let Dominick take out 21 engines and some track before Mike came home. Now they've set up a fairly elaborate track in the basement.]

Watch for new photos on Picasa...sometime.