Two Laughs for Today

As a point of reference, my son is not big on sharing information.  You will recall the comment I got previously when I asked too many questions about the story they read in preschool: "You should have just stayed there if you wanted to hear the story."  Along those same lines, on Sunday Jerry was asking Will what he did during Children's Church. 

Will:  "Nothing."

Jerry:  "Did you learn anything?"

"No."

"Did you read a story?"

"Yes, but it was boring."

"What was it about?"

"I don't want to tell you because it would make you bored too."

Today we went to the basement to expend some energy on the air mattress.  I sat on the edge and let him bounce me (relax, you don't have to worry about seeing any pictures of me jumping on the mattress!).  After several minutes of jumping he took a break and I asked him if he had stopped to catch his breath.  He said "Yes, and I can chase it too!"  He took off running around the room with his mouth open and his tongue hanging out!  During his next break he sat down beside me with a big sigh, then quickly inhaled several short breaths.  He explained that his breath was just outside his lips that time so he could catch it without chasing it!

Make that three laughs for today.  As I was typing this I just saw Will kiss his own knee after he bumped it!  Talk about independence!

Sharing a Milkshake

We stopped at Chick-fil-a for lunch today while we were in State College and we all shared a milkshake for dessert.  : )

Our Trip to New York with Jerry

Jerry had to travel to Sidney, NY this week for business so Will and I joined him to have something different to do.  There aren't many kid-friendly activities in the area but it was just a short trip and Jerry did find The Discover Center for us to visit while he was at work. 

We drove up on Monday and Will was SOOOO excited to get to the hotel.  He talked my ear off the entire time I was packing our suitcases.  On Tuesday he and I went to The Discovery Center.  It's basically a small science museum geared toward young kids.  They had plenty of activities to keep Will very busy for the day. 

This exhibit depicting the Susquehanna River was Will's favorite.  A stream of water
was running alongside the fish tank and flowing down the stream bed to the right.
I think he would have stood there watching it all day if I had not directed him
to some of the different activities!

You could make a huge bubble around yourself!

Will checked out the display of various bird eggs,
but was disappointed that they weren't going to hatch.

Will's response to the x-rays of the insects:
"Those are creeping me out!"

You can tell we don't eat many salads at our house - Will used the
stove to cook one for me!

Along with my cooked salad Will served me a taco, a burrito,
a hamburger, and a cookie.  What a meal!

He enjoyed playing in the airplane cockpit and taking me for a flight.

This computer game was cute.  You could build a bug and specify
the number of features you wanted it to have.  Will's had ten eyes, three
antennae, and six legs.

This was my favorite section.  It was a kid sized grocery store with
real food containers and very realistic meats, cheeses and veggies.

Will's first trip through was great!  He bought bread, peanut butter,
chicken, three boxes of snack cakes and two tubs of ice cream!
You can definitely tell what his favorite foods are!

The next time through we ended up with lots of fruit.  It was pretty interesting to watch
him though.  Most of the things he bought were the things he sees me buy
most often (bread, chicken, oatmeal, bananas, peanut butter, canned tomatoes, etc.)
I think it goes to show how early we establish our eating habits and how
likely we are to learn those habits from our parents.

He found the train table that is just like ours at home but he was disappointed
that the track wasn't already set up and connected.  This room had
lots of cool types of blocks that we enjoyed more.



Will liked this cute, cozy little reading space.  And so did I for a
little bit of quiet down time.

On Tuesday night we went to a Japanese Steakhouse for dinner.  I wasn't sure Will would care for the food, but then again I never know what he will eat!  Of course he didn't want the vegetables but he did like the meat.   

Will was very impressed by the onion volcano. 

I think the chop sticks were his favorite part!

He even managed to eat a couple bites of rice with them!  : )

On Wednesday we enjoyed the indoor pool at the hotel.  Will swam hard for 45 minutes, non-stop.  By that time we were both freezing (the pool was heated, but not quite enough!).  Fortunately all that exercise resulted in a really good nap on the way home that afternoon!  : )

A New Sink!!!

I have really hated my kitchen sink ever since we moved here.  It leaks.  The "spray" function won't switch off completely.  It's too shallow.  It's so scratched that no matter how hard I scrub it never looks clean.  I've often wished that I could have packed my kitchen sink from Covington and moved it along with us! Anyone who brings "everything but the kitchen sink" forgot to bring the most important thing!  A nice sink is easy to take for granted until you have a really crummy one!  I tried for two years to make peace with my kitchen sink but it never worked.  The final straw was when we realized the leak underneath was worse than we thought.  So purely in the interest of protecting the subfloor, we replaced the sink and faucet today!  YAY!!!!!!!!

Will was so excited to help Daddy with a project.  He and Jerry checked out
the pipes before they started work.  With a very official air, Will repeated
everything Jerry said or did.  It was priceless!

I had the best of both worlds today - getting a new sink and
watching Will help Jerry install it! 

   Will's quote of the day:  "We're doing man things now!"

A Snow Day!

We finally got a good snow this year!  We got about 5 or 6 inches overnight Friday and we were all excited to go sleigh riding today. 

We walked over to the drainage basin at the entrance to the neighborhood. 
The hill there is perfect.  Will could slide down one side, get towed back up by daddy
and then slide down the other side without even leaving his tube!

This side of the hill was less steep so Will was able to walk back up, giving
Jerry a little bit of a break from towing him.

Daddy took a few turns with Will too.

Unfortunately for Jerry, Will was not able to tow him back up.
He did give it a really good try though!

What kid can resist eating the snow?

I got a turn too!

Will tried out the disc slide too but it wasn't as fast.

And it was much more difficult to get back up the hill.

After rolling back down the hill several times, daddy sent down the
rescue tube and Will (along with the sled) enjoyed a free lift back up.

After sleigh riding Jerry shoveled the driveway and Will
helped by loading snow in his Gator.
That was his favorite part of the day!

Though he also enjoyed getting buried in the snow!

And no snow day would be complete without a nice
cup of hot chocolate!

A HUGE Surprise!!

Jerry played poker Friday night so Lindsay and I took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for the evening.  We had a huge surprise while we were there.  I looked up and there were mom and Kristen!!  They had come up to visit and when they found out we were in Altoona they drove over, found Chuck E. Cheese and surprised us!  I was so amazed they found me without me knowing what they were up to!!  Will was so excited to see them and all three kids had so much fun playing with Kristen while we were there!

As we were having breakfast Saturday morning I looked up and saw a whole herd of deer going through our back yard!!  It really made me miss the deer that were always in our yard in Covington.

We counted at least eight deer but didn't see any horns.

Painting Pottery for Mother's Day

For Mother's Day last year Jerry gave me a certificate to paint pottery at 2000 Degrees in State College and  I finally got to use it last Friday night.  Lindsay and I went after the guys got home from work to keep the kids.  We had a great time but we were overly ambitious regarding the amount of painting we could get done in one night!  We both chose two pieces to paint but neither of us even finished the first one by the time the shop closed so we ended up going back to finish on Sunday afternoon.  I'm not entirely sure Jerry believed that it wasn't my intent to turn the gift into TWO nights of babysitting for him!  I explained that the gift had simply accrued interest since I waited so long to redeem it!

Will enjoyed making his own pizza during his
evening with Jerry.



I can't say I created a masterpiece, but it was very fun and relaxing!



And I ended up with a useful holder for my new salt and pepper grinders.    : )

Asleep on the Sofa

Will actually fell asleep on the sofa today!  I went upstairs to fold laundry after lunch.  It was quiet for a couple minutes and when I yelled down to ask Will what he was doing he said he was looking at pictures (on the digital frame).  Ten minutes later I realized it was way too quiet downstairs so I came down to check on him.  After slightly panicking when I didn't see him right away I found him on the sofa asleep with both dogs. I was amazed because it was almost an hour earlier than his normal nap time.  I guess he played too hard with Natalee and Brady this morning!  I didn't have the heart to move him so I scooted him down to be more comfortable and did more laundry while he napped.   : )

Baking with Daddy

Jerry's sweet tooth finally got the best of him and he took Will to the kitchen to bake some cookies.  He decided to try a recipe he found online for blueberry oatmeal cookies.  Despite my reservations based on the very thick consistency of the batter, they turned out delicious (and purple which was very unique).

A Moment to Make Me Proud

It was sunny outside yesterday, though not very warm, but we decided to enjoy some fresh air.

Will was racing one of the cars he got for Christmas down the driveway
then tracing its path with chalk to see how far it went.

After school let out all the neighborhood kids migrated over and
started a game of football.  Will wasn't quite old enough to keep up
or get the ball but he was a really good sport about it.

I have to be a typical mother here and take a minute to brag on my son.  After the boys started playing football one of the little girls from next door came over and wanted to play too.  She asked repeatedly to join in but the boys were ignoring her (except for one who told her she could be a cheerleader!)  Finally Will went over to her and told her she could play too, but he wasn't running the game so his attempt really didn't help.  After she asked a few more times Will went over to one of the other boys and told him that she wanted to play and that it wasn't nice not to let everyone play.  After that, she got to play!  Wasn't I the proudest mother in the world!!

Playing Soccer with Jenny & Craig

Jenny, Craig, and Brittney came up for a short visit this weekend - they were only here 24 hours, but we had a good time anyway!

It was a beautiful day Saturday and Will wanted to play with the new soccer ball Aunt Kristen got him for Christmas.

After Will got warmed up he couldn't resist starting a snowball
fight using the small pile of remaining snow in the yard.
(Leftover from the pile we had loaded and dumped from the back of his gator.)