::"Our" Children's Museum::

Max has been dying to go and visit the Providence Children's Museum ever since I let it slip to him that there was one in existence. So finally the other day we talked our friends into picking us up, and we went to check it out.

For some reason they give out free tickets to the museum at the library. Since we basically live right across the street from the library I went over and picked up free tickets for all of us.

It was pretty fun. It wasn't as nice as the Manhattan one though, and didn't come anywhere near the one in SLC. So far that one has been by far the best we've seen.
But he did have a lot of fun. And his three year old friend that we were with had a great time too.

For some reason the first exhibit you see is this huge hideous set of teeth (you probably can't see it, but the teeth have a little body with legs. Super weird). Max practiced his bass technique.

I find it a little creepy myself, but I guess this museum isn't all about me.


There was a big room filled with water stuff, faucets and floating things and currents and stuff, kind of standard kid's museum fare. Max liked it, but was ready to move on pretty quickly. His friend loved it and so we had to split up for a while. Max charged ahead to see what else there was. I could hardly keep up. As usual.


They had a big exhibit that was supposed to educate the kids about different periods in RI history, and the immigrants and all that. Max didn't quite get the point of it, but he did like driving the pretend boat.

And being the cashier in the super old little store.

But of course, he can't hold still for too long in a place like this. What if he missed something?

I think it was ingenious that they had a little area filled with fake rocks and Tonka trucks. That was a winner with Max and his friend. Probably if that'd been all there was at the museum the boys would've all been happy.

Another cool thing was this little road smushing machine. What are those called? Steam rollers maybe? Anyway there were little boys crawling all over this thing like ants. It was a big hit.

Can anybody tell me what the man of a thousand faces is thinking here?

Another exhibit was all about bones. Max thought he'd check out some x-rays. But of course the light didn't work.

They did have Kris's collarbone on display, which I thought was pretty cool.

They had a cool skeleton riding a bike. His bike was attached to a bike on the outside for the kids to ride. When Max pedaled the skeleton pedaled with him so we could see the way the bones all worked together. Max just couldn't figure out why the guy didn't have any skin. I don't think the bone articulations did much for him. But he was psyched there was a bike to ride.

He must've thought it was pretty cool because he stayed there longer than like 3 seconds.


My friend and I eventually got tired of chasing the kids through the museum, so we made them go outside into the garden. It seemed like a great idea until the three year old climbed up into the little fountain and got soaked. Then he climbed into a tunnel and got covered with dirt. So fun!
But they did have this really cool thing out there that was like a whole bunch of trash cans and different things that the kids could play with drumsticks. I think it was a really good idea, and it kept them busy for a little while.

I think this is one of the only pictures where I was able to get Max and his friend in the same shot. They're two very busy little dudes.


All in all it was fun. I'm sure we'll go back. I'm glad we got to go with my friend Bonnie though, it made it all so much more fun and less boring for me.
Max liked it a lot, but he was bummed there weren't a whole bunch of little cars like in the SLC museum. Oh well. There're reasons why they call it Zion I guess...

.::Big Haircut(s)::.

Pre:


Post:


We have a barbershop one door down from our house. It's a father son place and they've been there for 30 years. Kris needed a haircut, and Max was starting be blinded by his bangs, so Saturday morning we thought we'd give the barber(s) a try. Max was done by the dad and Kris was done by the son. The dad is probably like 80 and the son is probably around 60.

They give old school barber type haircuts, obviously!!
It was fun, they were super nice and Max was SO good. They used the clippers on him, and the vacumn and he hardly even flinched. He got a tootsie pop afterwards too, which made everything worth it.

Actually, the haircuts look good when they're not combed in quite such an extreme way. If I could've gotten a picture today or yesterday of the two boys I would've. They both look cute.

Kris looks super cranky in the first picture because the brake sensor switch or something like that decided to wear out in our only car. Which means it wouldn't shift out of park. He ordered the new part on thursday night--overnight, but of course turns out it wasn't going to be delivered until monday (today). We wanted to go have fun on saturday, but were stuck home. No beach. Bummer.
But luckily we live within walking distance of lots of stuff. So we still had a fun day. We walked a whole bunch around our area and got some lunch and did a little grocery shopping at a local market (not really local to us, but local to the area).

We got the part for the car today and Kris fixed the problem in about 10 minutes. It was amazing. It's nice to have something small and fixable go wrong once in a while. Hopefully I don't speak too soon!

::He's A Reader::

My boy is a reader!
He started to read a little bit just about when we left Kansas City.
We got some little reading books for him (which are much harder to find than they should be, by the way) and started working on it in April I guess.
He was making good progress. My mom made an adorable book using Blurb which really inspired him to read. He learned a ton of words working on that book. I think it really laid the foundation he's using now.
When we were in UT I borrowed the set of readers my mom used to teach us to read. While in UT I read through the first one with him. He did great.
His preschool teacher recommended that I get a little set of books called "Bob books" from the bookstore. It's a little box with about 12 or so tiny books that each have a short simple story. They build on each other, so with every book the child becomes a little more comfortable with longer words or different letter sounds.
Anyway, the whole point of this is that he finally read through the whole set.
I'm happy!


Not without a little coercion, let me tell you. I've found that the best way to get him to read to me is to make it a condition of doing something he wants. Like playing on the computer or watching a movie or having a cookie or something like that.
If I do that I can get him to read. It's not something he does often just for fun.
But hopefully that will change down the road.
And I've been rewarding him sometimes when he finishes a book or a reader with a toy or something else he's interested in. I think that's ok. It keeps him going.
That's the only reason why I work--so I can get the $ which is the reward at the end of it! Hopefully someday the reading will be it's own reward.

A couple of nights ago he read most of Hop on Pop to Kris and really did great.
I'd like to take complete credit for the reading, but I think his teacher at school last year probably deserves most of it. They went through every single letter in the alphabet and learned how they work phonetically. He had such a strong basis to start with it was almost impossible for him not to be super good at sounding things out.

I'm really excited at the world of possibilities that open up to him with reading! It's still one of my favorite activities, so I'm thrilled to see him get started.

::Mr. Bubbles::

Just a couple weeks ago was the first time Max allowed me to add bubble bath to his bath water. He's weird like that. I did it for him once a long time ago and for some reason he didn't like it. But I talked him into trying the bubbles again the other day and they were a big hit. He's had quite a few bubble baths in the last couple of weeks.
Anyway, yesterday we were just about out of bubble bath, so I told him that when we went out to run errands in the evening we'd get some more. Well of course I totally forgot.
So this morning when he wanted a bath there was just a tiny bit of bubble stuff left in the bottle. He was pretty disappointed when I told him we forgot to get new stuff.

So we walked down the street this afternoon to get a new bottle at CVS. Of course at CVS a bottle of Mr. Bubble is about twice what it is at Walmart. But some things are just important, so we bought it.

We got home and I asked Max to take the bottle into the bathroom and put it away. I went to get the dog some water. As I was doing that I heard something, but I couldn't quite figure out what it was. I finally realized that it was the bathtub, of course! Max was running himself another bath!
I rushed in there but by the time I got there he'd already emptied at least half the bottle of Mr. Bubble out onto the bottom of the tub. Arrrgh.
So I had him get in and he had the bubbliest bath ever.



Please disregard the peanut butter sandwich that's all over his face. That's why he needed another bath I guess.
And I don't know what's with the big dark circles under his eyes. He has a little cold right now, so that could be it...or maybe it's because he's been going to bed late and getting up at 6 or 6:30AM...I'm not sure.

The bubbles piled up quite a few inches above the edge of the tub.
When I was little that was my dream bath. If only I'd been smart enough to get to the Mr. Bubble before one of my parents!

Here's the bathtub guard, on duty. Sultan isn't enjoying the heat today I don't think. He's sleeping in front of the fan a lot. But he took a break from that to keep an eye on the bathtub boy.

Now I know that I need to keep the bubble bath up high. We learn new things every day, right?
Oh well it makes him happy, and sometimes that's all that matters. And a cool bath is never a bad idea on a very warm day.

.::More Beach::.

OK, so we're not trying to make anybody feel bad, but we went to the beach last week. A different beach, and as Max requested there was no seaweed--well at least a normal amount.
It was right at the end of the heat wave we had, and unfortunately we picked the wrong day to go. It was very cloudy and kind of cool.
Because of that at least we had most of the beach to ourselves.
It was just Melissa, Grant, Max and I this time. We stopped for lunch at a little shack by the beach. It was pretty yummy.

They have really weird hotdog buns here.


Kris and I got Max a little sponge bob boogie board so he could learn to do it. He thought he knew how right off the bat. He would run along the sand, throw the board down and dive onto it. Not in the water. It was pretty funny.

Melissa tried to show him how to do it.

He was pretty confused at first.

But finally got in sort of the right position.

I don't think he realized the water was going to come and jump on him. It was pretty cold.
I love his face in this one! Close up:

He was a lot more prepared the next time. He's laughing because he thinks he "did it!!!!" That's what he kept saying. He was very proud of himself.


As I have probably said before, he's really brave in the water. He doesn't let much phase him. He worked on the boogie boarding for a while longer even though the water was getting colder and colder and a cool wind was beginning to blow!




And of course he got a few more jumps in before it started raining on us. Brr that was cold.


We drove over to a little town called Watch Hill which is very close. It's a cute place. We had some ice cream and Max got to ride on the Flying Horse Carousel. It's supposed to be the oldest one in the country right now.

Supposedly it was built around 1876. The horses don't go up and down or anything, they basically just hang and swing out a little when the thing goes around. It was pretty cute. He loved it of course.

It was a fun day. I feel like we're really getting to take advantage of the fun of summer out here so far. Thanks Melissa for driving us all around and showing us everything!

::He made it!::

We have a dog!
For anybody that doesn't already know, Sultan has been staying with my parents since we moved, in early May.
He flew in at the end of last week. Luckily Kris was able to leave work for an hour or so to help me get him. The kennel was heavy (and HUGE) and Sul was very anxious to get out of the airport. And by that I mean he totally dragged me out by the arm. So I don't think I could've done it without Kris.

Sultan didn't forget to bring his tongue with him.

Isn't he cute?
But I bet you didn't know that I have TWO dogs.
One's named Sultan, and the other one is named Sultan.

They both bark, and they both walk on all fours. It's just that Sultan number two has a little higher bark than Sultan number one. And it's nastier feeling when he licks you somehow.

This one thinks he's pretty funny.


Sultan didn't know we got another dog while he was gone. He was interested for a while--long enough to get inspired to stick his tongue out too.


The real Sultan was pretty dirty and smelly when he got to us. I think he was a little stressed out in the plane--maybe all dogs do this, but when Sultan gets stressed he gets a little smelly. Kind of doggy musky smelling. Anyway, he was due for a wash.

So I had the official dog washer and his lovely assistant do it.

Max made sure and sprayed everyone liberally. I'm sure Sultan appreciated it.

Doesn't he look like he's having fun?

Poor guy! He's really patient and good.



And he's cute when he's wet. The dog washer isn't so bad himself!

It took Sultan a couple of days to recover from his trip, but he seems to be ok and normalized now. He's eating food, so that's a good sign. He seems to like our place, and enjoys sitting by the door watching stuff happen. He's also enjoyed going out for jogs with Kris and I. There are a lot of different smells for him to explore out here.
We're glad to have him home.

We love Sultan!

.::Seaweed Beach::.

So last week when I was complaining to everybody that I couldn't go to the beach because Max woke up sick, I neglected to mention that we had gone to the beach with some other friends just a couple of days before.
But seriously, would you have felt bad for me if I'd told you that? No! And I needed sympathy.
But now I have to come clean and admit it, because I have these fun pictures that I wanted to post.

And, as always I don't keep up with the events in my life on this blog too well, so I'm behind. This was a little while ago, like maybe a week and a half.

We headed out to the beach with a couple of the other wives from Kris's residency--Melissa and Angie. Melissa has a two month old baby (Grant--so cute!) and Angie is pregnant, due any day now really.
We're told there was a hurricane out on the water somewhere that was making some pretty big waves. When we got to the beach, not only were there bigish waves, but there was seaweed all over the place!

The sea was packed full of it. It was all over the beach where the tide had been, and you could hardly walk without stepping in it. One of the ladies that worked there told me she thinks the hurricane must've roughed up the waters out in the ocean somewhere and torn up all the seaweed and brought it to us, like a lovely, stinky, slimy present.

Max didn't like the seaweed too much.

But of course, it didn't keep him down for too long.

Can you see the black waves rolling up in the background of the above picture? The waves were so full of the seaweed it looked weird. And gross of course.



He loves to jump over the little edges of the waves as they come at him.

It really felt nasty to get in the water, because the waves would come up around your feet and legs, and bring all this seaweed in, then when the water rushed back out it would leave you with all sorts of seaweed wrapped around your feet and/or legs depending on how brave you were.
Such as this:

There are some weird kinds in there I hadn't ever seen before. I'm used to just kelp I guess. That stuff just felt so slimy on the feet!

Then Max went out and found a huge hairy clump of weed that looked like a big octopus and brought it to me "It's for you mom!!" just like he does with dandylions and any other flowers he can get his hands on. Then he said "I want to bring it home!"
I told him thanks, but that big old seaweeds like that have to stay in the ocean. Somehow that worked.

But here's the really gross story.
Angie and I were standing by the waves keeping an eye on Max and chatting when we saw a big disgusting maxi pad wash up towards us. I called to Max and told him we should move down the beach closer to our towels and such, hoping he wouldn't see the thing.
We did. A couple minutes later though I look up and see him hurrying back over to where we were. He goes straight for the pad and picks it up. I can see he's excited and yelling "look what I found!" I yell to him to put it down, NOW, but of course he either can't hear me or chose not to. So I had to sprint down the beach, which is not my favorite thing to do in a bathing suit, in order to wrench the disgusting thing from his hand.
Why is he like a magnet for the things that I don't want him to do? Why?


He decided next time we go to the beach he didn't want it to be the "seaweed beach" and I don't blame him. I'm hoping next time it's not the "sanitary napkin" beach either. EWWWWWW.

But we all had a really good time, despite the seaweed. We played in the sand for a long time with the little cheap buckets and castle molds I bought, and I got to chat with my friends which was nice.
I made a great investment the other day and bought a beach umbrella. Who knew that people even had those? It was great because we could play in the sand without feeling like our heads were burning off.

Isn't it great? I think it was about six dollars. I'm glad I have it. You can see Melissa and Angie in this picture--Angie is on the right. She dug a hole in the sand for her belly and was able to lie on her stomach for the first time in nine months. She said it was heavenly.

So we're going back soon. Seaweed or no seaweed. Max and I love the beach, that's all I can say!

::Summer::

See his pink cheeks? We took a walk down the street to run some errands, and by the time we were done he was so pink and hot. I felt bad for him and got him this ice cream sandwich. He'd been craving one for a while.
He took it out back (not his choice). In these photos he's sitting in the window of the back neighbors garage that backs up to our backyard (um, get the idea that it's the in the back??.) He told me he was "getting some fresh air in the dark" over there.
I love the way he puts things sometimes.

It actually finally cooled down today. It felt great.