Adam went back to school on August
8th (though the students didn't start until the 19th) and it seemed
like we crammed everything into the last week of his summer
vacation. We went to the Nature & Science Museum--there we
went to the Planetarium and the to an I-MAX movie on sharks.
Both kids had a great time. We saw a Sesame Street movie at the
planetarium, so it wasn't as much motion within the show, which is
what Lennon struggled with the last time we went. The shark
movie was really interesting, though it started out ominous with the
Jaws music, so I was worried that it was going to be too suspenseful
for the kids, but it wasn't at all (and both of them fell asleep the
last 5-10 minutes).
Heritage Square
The next day we went to Heritage
Square because Lennon got some ride tickets for doing the summer
reading program at the library. We thought we would stay for an
hour or so, not knowing how Lennon would like all the amusement
rides, but we ended up getting wristbands and staying for 6 hours!!
The ride he rode the most was the
Tilt-a-Whirl. He alternated between riding with me or with Adam
(though he did say he liked going with me better, because I made it
spin faster!) He loved going fast--which surprised both Adam and I,
but he kept saying, "I want it to go really, really, really
fast!" The banana ride wasn't as fast or exciting, but he loved that he could control going up or down.
Tesla fell asleep amidst all the excitement..mid-graham cracker bite!
Teacups & riding the Ferris Wheel with Dad--he waved and yelled, "Hi Mama!" every time he went around.
The dragon ride was his other
favorite--we probably rode it 6 or 7 times in a row. It
was a mini roller-coaster and he loved it! Most of the time he
had his arms raised in the air!
Lennon has some strange connection
with the people that were running the rides. Other kids would
wave to their parents....not Lennon, he would wave to the employees.
When he was riding the swings, he was doing this hilarious head nod
and would sometimes tip his hat to the lady who was running it!
Unfortunately, the attendants weren't really paying much attention to
him, so he never got his gestures reciprocated.
Mom & Lennon
Date...Rockies Game!
Two ladies in one of my water
aerobics classes had 2 spare tickets for a Rockies game one
afternoon. Adam was already back in school so that eliminated
the option of a date. I asked Lennon if he wanted to go to the
baseball game with me and that we would ride the train (light-rail)
downtown--he was all on board with the game, but the second I
mentioned riding the train, it was done deal--we had a date!
He was so very excited about riding
the train--the West Line opened the end of April and we haven't ever
had a reason to take the train downtown (since we usually park in my
office parking garage downtown). Here he is, waiting for the
train to come and then on the train, which he still talks about every time we pass the tracks:
Lennon always does really well at
baseball games and he pays attention to what's going on. We
lasted the entire game, which was thankfully a shorter game:
2.5 hrs. I made sure to have a full arsenal of snacks with me,
which made all the difference...we won, by the way!
Our Graceful Little
Girl
Tesla hasn't been the most graceful
of babies lately. Two weeks in a row she got pretty banged
up--a black eye and a check gash. Now, I know this may not seem
like a big deal, but let me remind you that Lennon has never
gotten this banged up in all of his 4 years. I'm pretty sure
that she was going through a growth spurt during that month
surrounding the accidents because she seems to be in a little more
control of her body...at least I hope it was just a phase! The black eye happened when
she slipped on a book or toy on the floor (you'd think she would be
used to having things covering the floor) and she fell, eye first,
into one of our green, upholstered arm chairs. Her eye swelled
up immediately. These pictures don't really do it justice...
I realized how much Tesla loves the camera when I went to document her gash, which looked so much better after an hour or so. I felt like I was at a photo shoot--she would run
to one place, making sure I was following her, and then would stop
and strike a pose. I tried to put the camera away many times
and she would begin to cry. She then would go immediately from
her cry to her playful giggle, continuing to play for the camera!
Brother and
Sister...Love?
Lennon and Tesla are playing
together more and more, which may be because Tesla can keep up and
Lennon is having a hard time dodging her! They are hot and cold
together, one moment they're both giggling and then next moment I
hear Tesla's high-pitch, god-awful screech or Lennon yelling, 'No!'
Here's a video that shows how
Tesla plays to the camera...
THIS is what happens when Tesla
doesn't get her way...annoying. She learned to scream from her
cousin, Jordon, who really doesn't screech all the often, but it only
took one bad day, well over a month ago, for him to do it and Tesla
claimed it as her own. One of the things Tesla
hates sharing the most is me. Lennon has picked up on
this hot button of hers and I swear he cuddles more with me, just to
get a rise out of her. Tesla is usually fine until Lennon
crawls into my lap and then she loses it. The other day, I was
cuddling with Lennon and Tesla came up immediately, so I picked her
up, thinking she would be content if I was holding both of
them....wrong. She started pushing Lennon off my lap and even
resorted to head butting him--needless to say, she lost her
lap-cuddling privileges.
I usually put Tesla's carseat
upstairs so it's out of the way, but it becomes a toy when I leave it
downstairs--for both Lennon and Tesla. This time, Lennon
crawled in the carseat while he was watching Magic School Bus (his
new favorite show). Tesla will climb in and play with the
handle toys (toys she never actually plays with while she's in the
carseat for real).
The other night Tesla was a
little too quite, so Adam went to check on her and found her hanging
out in her shoe bin!
Lennon has a strider, peddle-less
bike that he cruises on. It's one of the few times his
adventurous spirit comes out. When we go to the playground
across the street, there is a sidewalk that goes down a big hill,
which he flies down because it's paved. However, we realized
when he started going down that hill that he's ready for a regular
bike...one with brakes. Here he is going down the hills by the
pond near our house. Those strider bikes are great because he
has amazing balance now--they take the place of training wheels on
bikes.
One more little (but awesome)
story to show how clever Lennon is--and a prime example of how he has
surpassed us...Lennon can get his own water. His cups are in a
drawer at his level and he's tall enough to get the water from the
fridge. However, it's the one thing he hates to do,
which we don't understand at all. So when he asks us to get him
water, we say if he wants it right now, he'll have to get it himself,
otherwise he'll have to wait until we go into the kitchen next,
whenever that will be. This one particular time, Lennon called
to Adam (from the kitchen!) and asked Adam to get him some
water. Adam pointed out that Lennon was in the kitchen and for
him to get it himself. Lennon, predictably, refused, so Adam
said he would have to wait. A few minutes went by, Adam
continued to read his book, and Lennon calls out, smoothly, "Hey
Dad, come here for a second." Adam, not thinking anything of it,
walked into the kitchen. Lennon, again, oh so smoothly, said,
"well now that you're in here, can you get me some water."
We couldn't help but bust out laughing, and Adam responded, "Well
played, Lennon; well played."
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