Life and Science

Rachel had an "early release day" today, which means she got let out of school two hours early. She has several early release days scattered throughout the school year and they're always on Wednesdays which is awesome because that's the day when admission is free for Durham residents at the Museum of Life and Science.

We went, of course. And were blown away with how amazing it was (as well as how uncrowded it was). Anything that is hands-on is obviously hands-on. Anything that is hands-off is impossible to touch. I really couldn't ask for more as a parent in a museum.

Today we wanted to see everything the museum had to offer so we breezed through the whole thing in two hours. We missed a ton but we saw a lot. We'll definitely be going back (but probably not until the next time Rachel has an early release Wednesday).

I had to tear Andrew away from the weather exhibit. I won't tell you how many different weather apps he has on his phone because I think it's generally understood that he's a little bit of a nerd. He kept calling the girls over to each station while I was standing there with the baby going, "Two hours. Whole museum. Get moving."

The girls were terrified of the little tornado machine. It was rather hilarious.

He's definitely the third child

We are still unearthing toys. They're stashed everywhere—in boxes of books, in boxes of dishes, in boxes of books, in boxes of clothes, in boxes of books...and, well, we mostly brought books. And toys. But mostly books. "The tools of my trade," Andrew calls them. "You wouldn't ask a carpenter to work without his tools," he tells me. I credit blame Patrick Mason for teaching Andrew this argument. On the one hand this has made unpacking a snap. On the other hand all our bookcases are full and we still have a few boxes of books left. *sigh*

Fortunately, I was a librarian in a former life (you know, the one before I had kids) and I can keep books on the shelf. The toys, though, are another story. They were packed everywhere and now they just are everywhere. I'm working on it (but organization is not my strong suit, especially with a bunch of littles running around).

Today I pulled out a box to unpack and found that it was mostly full of too-small clothes and toys, which was perfect. I worked on it for a minute before sitting down to compose an email to Rachel's teacher (she had a difficult day at school yesterday (Rachel, that is...not the teacher (though she may have had a difficult day, too...I don't know))) and I left the box on the living room floor beside Benjamin who, for once in his life, was kicking around happily.

Miriam noticed some toys inside the box—toys that had been "missing" for several weeks now—and she excitedly asked if she could get them out. I told her that she could and went on typing my email. I looked over my shoulder after a few minutes and saw this:

Uhhhhh...guys...a little help here? Anyone? Bueller?

Boring Benjamin

I'm pretty sure Miriam thinks Benjamin is either bored or boring because she is constantly inventing ways to get him to play with her. He can't even get away from her when he's fast asleep—when she often will get right in his face and 'ooga-booga' at him. So far he hasn't accepted a single invitation to play, though he will smile for her occasionally.

Ladies' Man

The biggest caterpillar I've ever seen!

While Andrew was mowing the lawn this morning he came face to face with the biggest caterpillar he'd ever seen. It was dangling from whatever kind of tree is in our backyard (some kind of pine), munching on its succulent leaves. He finished mowing the lawn and then called the rest of us out to see it.

It was the biggest caterpillar any of us had ever seen! It was ginormous! And hairy! And a little lethal-looking...

Eno River State Park

Weekends have been resurrected! For the past five years my weekdays and weekends have been identical but with Rachel in school now the weekends are different—Rachel's home all day! We celebrated our survival of the first full week of school (minus Monday, which was a holiday for everyone in the entire country but Andrew) by going on a picnic. In the car Rachel said that the only thing that made her sad about going to school was that she has to be away from her family all day long (which is a great compliment to our family, don't you think?) but as Andrew pointed out it means that we get more quality time together this way—time when everyone is making an effort to be kind and have fun rather than screaming, crying, and whining.

We've heard a lot of talk about Eno River State Park so we decided we should check it out. I spent the afternoon making pita bread and hummus so that we could leave as soon as Rachel got home (which means we left 45 minutes after she walked through the door) to have our picnic at the park, which we hoped had ample picnic areas. It did. We were the only ones there (besides a few overly agressive friendly squirrels).

Duke

Rachel didn't have school on Friday and Andrew doesn't have class on Friday afternoons so we decided to go on a tour of Duke's campus (for my sake, since I hadn't been there yet). The campus is beautifully Gothic—even the newer buildings on campus tweak their modernity to have a Gothic feel by adding arches or crenellations or other cool things.

Both girls are fairly convinced that Duke is Hogwarts.

You say goodbye. I say hello.

Saying goodbye for a long time is easier for me to do in rounds. Benjamin and I stayed behind in Utah for a week and a half before coming out to North Carolina and we got to say a lot of goodbyes. It was super easy to say goodbye without crying because I could easily convince myself that I wasn't leaving yet...because I wasn't.

When Sarah stopped by with lunch—Costa Vida, yum—we had a lovely chat. And then she cried when she said goodbye. I didn't. Because I wasn't leaving yet.

Later I said goodbye to my nephews—like a half hour after they met Benjamin for the first time—but I didn't cry because I wasn't leaving yet.

Rub-a-dub-dub...

Three kids in the tub! 

And what do you think they be?

A schoolgirl, a toddler,
Their premature brother—

All as clean as could be!

Rachel's in swimmingarten

Not too far from our house is a community pool. And it's completely at our disposal. We've only gone a couple of times though because I don't have enough hands to take three non-swimming children swimming, especially since one can't even sit up yet. Taking two children was a piece of cake—you plop the toddler into a floaty and hold the baby, one arm still devoted to controlling the tot's floaty. How, though, do you safely manage two children in floaties while holding an infant? You can't possibly keep an arm on all three children at once. So you have to let one of them float solo—but what if that floaty flips over? How do you grab the now-drowning child without risking the safety of the other two?

Maybe I'm over-thinking this. But having worn the lifeguard hat I know how quickly a happy time at the pool can turn tragic. I've seen floaties flip over with babies inside them. It's scary.

So I took the girls swimming while Grandma was still here (leaving her at home with the baby). We went again on Thursday after school. This time Andrew sat on the deck with the baby while I went in the water with both of the girls. In theory he was supposed to study but in reality he dealt with a wee blow out, waded with Miriam in the kiddie pool (or cat pool, as she likes to call it), and got bit by mosquitoes.

To make the best use of the pool, though, what we really need is another swimmer in our family. Rachel was voted the most-likely candidate so while Benjamin and Miriam were napping this afternoon and Daddy was studying, Rachel and I headed to the pool for swimming lessons (courtesy of moi).

An hour later she was doing this:



She's making excellent progress. I'd really like her to be able to swim the width of the pool without stopping before I brave the water with her and two non-swimming babes. I don't think it will take her long, though, because she is absolutely determined to learn how to swim. She didn't want to leave when our hour was up and probably would have stayed until the pool closed.

As it is, we swam through sun and rain and while being bombarded by huge bumble bees (no joke).

Rachel's in kindergarten!

Rachel had her first full day of school on Thursday. She has to be at her bus stop at 8:15 and doesn't get home from school until 4:15. That's a long day! I was so worried about how we'd each handle that kind of separation but I think we did alright.

Getting ready for school in the morning was quick and easy because she was so anxious the night before that she laid out her clothes and packed her backpack and lunch. I have a feeling doing those things will seem like more of a chore later on in the year...