the power of thomas...

When we got here (to the hotel) there was no DVD player in our room. Before going out to buy one, we called down to the front desk to see if they had any. A couple minutes later some guy knocked on the door. He had come to save us. Ethan had not been able to watch Thomas for about a week and it had been rough. As the guy was setting it up, Ethan ran to him and said, "I have to tell you something. I...LOVE...YOU!"


Yes, that is a band-aid. A bit obsessed? I think we are enabling this addiction a little too much.

Thanks to Thomas the Train, Ethan has finally kicked the "binki" habit. I know, I know, a two-and-a-half year old still using a binki, pathetic. In our defense, he only used the binki at night. But that is beside the point. The fact is, the binki is now gone and no longer a source of contention in our family (Jon wanted it gone long ago, but I liked sleep). Ethan earned a new Thomas movie by sleeping without it.

One week later and still no binki. Thanks Thomas!

weekend recap...

Family picture at the DC Temple (typical scenario: ethan upset he has to stop for a picture and will chewing on something, in this case, my bracelet)




DC...

On Saturday, we went into D.C. again. One of our stops for the day was the National Archive museum. We got in line just after two huge school groups and the wait was forever. After waiting for around 20 minutes we made it to a sign that stated we had an approximately 45 minute wait ahead of us. It had started to rain, so we decided to take off and come back later. Just as we were walking away a huge lightning bolt shot across the sky which was immediately (like half a second) followed by a crashing boom. Both school groups took of screaming, and most everyone else, and we were stuck on the street trying to figure out what to do (and I was of course stressing out, I'm deathly afraid of lightning, especially outside with two kids). We looked at each other for a brief second and then bolted back to the line for the museum. Oh yeah baby, no more 45 minute wait! We waited for about 10-15 minutes in a terenchal downpour. At one point Ethan said from under his rain cover, "wow, Mom, super crazy." We were soaked to the bone for the next few hours, but it was well worth the short wait. (unfortunately, no pictures to back up my story, just have to take my word for it.)

Ethan enjoying his three favorite things, in no particular order: trains, dad, water



and in an instant, it's all gone bad...




The National Zoo...

I took the boys to the zoo yesterday. We had such a good time. Ethan especially loved the lions, tigers, and... elephants. He would get really excited and say, "that's so cool!" I finally got to see a panda, so that was cool.

It was very hot, but luckily every few hundred yards they have misters. Naturally, this was Ethan's favorite part...



checking out the sea lions (I think that's what they are)...



I told Ethan to look at the camera and say cheese, hmmm...this is what I got...



zoomed in...



I guess it was opposite day. Duh mom.

i'm really not bitter...

Jon has an obsession. Although not as intense as Ethan's obsession with trains, Jon is obsessed with airplanes. I think if it weren't for his color blindness, he would have chosen a different career path. He considers his inherited trait a curse, I consider it a blessing.

Anyway, not long after we arrived here, there was an air show at Andrew's AFB. Jon was dying to go. I wanted to go shopping...ha, no such luck. To the air show we went. We had to park at a metro stop a few miles away, go through a security line 10 x the size of the airport lines, dispose of all food and drinks in our bag (then they charged an arm and a leg for food), get shuttled by bus to the base, with two screaming kids and a double stroller all while fighting the crowd of 400,000 people (true statistic). After it was all said and done, we really did see some cool stuff.






I thought the first outing to the air show had satisfied Jon's obsession for a while. I assumed we were good for a least another month or so. Yeah right. On Monday Jon had the day off and he really wanted to go to the Air and Space Museum out by the airport. Again I really wanted to go shopping. And again, Jon won.




Yeah Ethe, I feel the same way.



Actually both the things were really cool, I just can't admit defeat.

oh what a day...

Last weekend we headed into DC to be "tourists". Let's face it, that is what we are (although, I hate the stigma, so I try to pretend I'm not).


ethan's first train (metro) ride...
By now, we all know Ethan's obsession with trains. So it's no big surprise that this was quite a monumental experience in his life.




ethan tormenting birds...
We come to DC and his favorite thing to do is run around chasing birds saying, "no, no bird. No, no." Hmm...




taking it all in...




will chillin'...




life of the rich and famous, ok not so much...
So the Marriott Residence Inn is not exactly 5 star, but it's close! After a long, exhausting day, it is so great to come home to fresh linens, dishes washed, and floors vacuumed.






a "pillow top" mattress...
The kid is going to have a harsh reality check when he gets home to a cheap toddler bed.

system overload...

Caution: two very long posts ahead. I also have pictures of things since we've been here. Stay tuned (that is, if you care to).

30 hours in the car or 4 hours on a plane with 2 kids...

...it's a toss up.

We finally all made it to Virginia. Jon drove and I flew with the boys.

Here's how it all went down...

After finishing up the yard late Saturday night, we headed to Logan for Mother's Day. We had a great time visiting with lots of family. We went back home early Monday morning to pack up the house and load the car. We also had to have the house clean by 7:00 the next morning (Tuesday) because the people renting our house for the summer were going to be there. I pulled an all-nighter and Jon went to bed super late, especially late considering he dad to start his drive early Tuesday morning. Somehow, we got everything done and I got back up to Logan around 8:00 Tuesday evening. I spent a couple days there with family.

Friday morning, we headed to the airport. But in true Megan fashion, we were late. Our flight left at 8:42 am. We arrived at the airport around 8:00. We did curbside check-in to save time, but we still needed to park the car and go to the counter to get my mom a security pass so she could help me to the gate (I had a double stroller, two car seats, and two carry-on bags, oh and a 7-month old and 2 1/2 year old). The man at the check-in was a saint. He grabbed my mom's ID, went in and got her pass for her, all while she went and parked the car. Hopefully I will see him again sometime so I can tip him even more.

We gathered everything up and headed to the security line. Being a Friday morning, it was so crowded. We waited in line forever. We finally reached the belt and started loading everything on. I took the kids out of the stroller which upset both of them. I had to put Ethan's trains in the bin, which really upset him. Then we had to take his shoes and jacket off, which really, really upset him (we were definitely providing entertainment for onlooking parents and birth-control for everyone else). We finally got through the metal detector and were ready to grab our stuff off the belt. But our stuff never came. Apparently some lady had something in her bag that they needed to retrieve for security reasons. So they start unloading her bag on the conveyor belt. It's 8:33, my plane is set to leave in 9 minutes. I'm OK with the fact that they need to do their job, that's to be expected, but do it somewhere else. Don't hold up the whole line. Finally, our stuff came through. I grabbed Ethan's arm (he's still screaming and sitting on the ground) and start dragging him. My mom is holding Will, who is also still unhappy. We didn't have enough hands to get everything to the gate. Again we were so blessed with kind, giving people. Some guy grabbed the stroller, someone else picked up the car seats and we all ran to the gate. Somebody else had ran ahead to tell the gate we were coming. I get there and the guy at the check-in counter says, "the flight is ready to leave, you need to get on, NOW!" Thank you, I'm trying. I picked up Ethan and his seat and rushed on (I didn't even say goodbye to my mom). Someone else, not sure who, brought Will on. As I'm walking down the aisle, bumping the arms of all the coveted aisle-sitters with Ethan bawling, "I want Bama Sue, I want Bama Sue", I see all the annoyed looks from the other passengers. How dare I hold up their flight. I finally get to my row and look at the guy sitting in the aisle. I get the "oh, please say she's not sitting by me" look. I say to them, "I have two seats here, and one over on that aisle." Some guy in the other row says, "We want the one that doesn't cry!" Ha, that would be neither. Luckily, the flight attendants came to the rescue and made the guy in my row move to another seat. Which he wasn't too happy about, unless he got to sit first-class. Sure buddy, sit with my screaming child, that's your choice. Finally we sat down, I strapped the boys in their seats, gave both of them Binky's and I enjoyed pacifier bliss...for a few minutes.



Aside from a few minor mishaps, the flight went pretty well.

After the flight ended, I let everyone else get off first. I had the help of two flight attendants and one another guy pushed the car seats in a wheel chair (hmmm??). One lady handed Ethan to Jon, who was at the gate waiting for us, and said very boldly, "You owe your wife dinner!"

My dad, so wisely, keeps saying, "This is all journal material".

summer vacation...

before...

Before we left for the summer, we needed to make our yard as maintenance-free as possible. We had two things to do: 1) plant hearty, resilient plants, 2) install a sprinkler system. Jon, bless his heart, thought he and his dad could install the system over a weekend for about $500...hmmm, not quite.



during...

We found a guy who would install the system for cheaper than we could buy the materials. Nice guy, somewhat slow, but a great guy. However, when he cut into the water main to install the stop-and-waste (I learned a lot of new terms), it created a leak in a different part of the main, causing a huge problem. Because it's an old house, there was really nothing to do but replace the entire water main...and destroy our backyard.



end result...

Two weeks and $4,500 later