(dictated by Jonah) The Goat's Island

Once we went to a park called "Goat Island Park". Some other people invited us to go there and there was a little place where we could climb on ropes. There were a lot of things to do there. There were chains from the top of a board to the ground with a lot of duct tape around it so we could stand on it and hold on at the same time. Although it was kind of tricky because there was not so much duct tape that it was a platform. There was also a chain from one end of the play set to the middle that had stairs we could climb up. Above the chain there was a rope that we put our feet on and we held the rope to walk across it. A couple of bees were flying around so no one wanted to play there. There was a toddler play set that had a mini-slide and two medium-sized slides. It had a little climbing wall with holes in it and by each hole was a picture of a leaf. When we put our hands or feet in the holes to climb the wall it looked like we were climbing the leaves. There was also an arch-shaped rock-thing. It was actually plastic but it looked like rocks. There were little holes on the top that we could put our heads through.
There was a person walking around that fell off his motorcycle and his leg fell off so he had a prosthetic leg. He showed us how to put it on and take it off. There was also a game that people were playing that they called 'disc golf'. I think it is called frisbee golf.
The reason it's called goat island park is because it's an island. We got across on a bridge and goats used to live there, so every Sunday people went to see the goats.

"Ooh. Heaby"

Miriam absolutely MUST carry in groceries. Otherwise, she feels very left out. At least, that's what I'm assuming is behind the tears when I don't give her a bag of groceries. The trick is finding the right bag. It can't be too heavy, but it also can't be too fragile (since she's prone to dragging it or banging it on the ground). The best part is that no matter the contents, she gets a very serious look on her face and says, "Ooh. Heaby."

(She also takes off her shoes every single time we take a trip somewhere. It's gotten to the point that I don't even put shoes on her until we get where we're going.)

5 years today!

I took a moment this morning to walk through the day in my mind (like I do every year). This year there wasn't even any sting. We told Jonah about how we worried about him and the way he tore up Grandma's lettuce and called it the broken trees. He says he remembers the stories but not the actual event. I'm glad. We hoped he wouldn't. There are so many great stories for him to remember, but I didn't want him carrying around the stress and anxiety of those first few days.

My Facebook feed is full of friends, many still in Alabama, sharing videos and memories from the tornado 5 years ago today. I especially like this video from the City of Tuscaloosa. I specifically watched this one instead of the others because I was looking for another perspective. I remember the funnel cloud well enough on my own, thank you very much. And yet, I teared up watching this, even though there was no footage of the storm and no James Spann (his voice will always take me back). Every year away we get from living in Alabama, it feels more like a distant memory. But seeing these streets and hearing these voices reminds me that part of my heart will always be in Tuscaloosa. 

Some perspective, after you watch the video:

-If you drew a line from the Forest Lake neighborhood and the Full Moon BBQ in this video, we lived on that line.
-Full Moon was the first place in Tuscaloosa that I liked. (Not just restaurant. The first place at all--We stayed in a crummy hotel and looked at some really awful rentals our first day. We were tired and broke and a long way from home. Full Moon was friendly and clean and the food was delicious. We ended up renting a house across the street and eating there 3 or 4 times in our first week.)
-I can't imagine surviving Katrina and then to be in Alberta during the storm. Alberta was practically leveled.
-I remember seeing the sign "We Are Coming Back" hanging outside a house on Forest Lake while everything slowly got back to normal.
-I knew Hobby Lobby (located right next to the Full Moon) bussed its employees to stores all over the area while their store was rebuilt so they would have hours and paychecks and health insurance even if they didn't have a way to get to another location. I didn't know Full Moon kept their employees on the payroll, but I'm not surprised. I love these people and this town.

Roll Tide.

Jonah describes our first taste of heat.

"It was windy, but only windy enough to blow sand in our eyes, not to make us cool. So it was really hot. But it was fun."

Dear Dad,

I don't even know how to handle sour attitudes in my children. Sometimes I think I should let them know I won't stand for their sass. Other times I think I should just hug them and tell them jokes until they laugh. Today, the struggle came during math. We are learning about adding money, and I had the idea that we would watch an episode of The Price is Right after our work is done. There's plenty of money addition there! I started to tell the kids all about what to expect, and Jonah said, "Oh yeah! I love that show. I used to watch it with Grandpa Hunt!" Remember when you two used to sit and watch tv and eat Lucky Charms? To this day, he still calls that "Grandpa's cereal."

I don't have any idea what you think of the new format of the show, but I'd love to discuss. Let's get that Skype connection set up please? If anyone can do it, you can.

I love these crazy kids

At one point during our trip to the grocery store, Miriam was crying and trying to climb out of the cart, Caroline was pushing the cart away from where I compared produce (and into the displays), and Jonah was hiding behind a display of tomatoes because Caroline was looking at him. It was just as fun as it sounds.

But then we got home and spread out a bit and had dinner and everyone was happy again. I got online to write a blog post about the insane number of bugs that have come out to play in the last 3 days, but I ended up looking at these pictures instead. I love these crazy kids and they love each other. (Except at the grocery store, apparently.)

writing advice by Jonah

"I decided I should write my story before I write my title because one time I made a title and a first page and then my story had nothing to do with it. But if you're making a dictionary, you can probably go ahead and write the title first."

why we aren't sleeping

Why Miriam couldn't sleep: she napped for 3 1/2 hours until we woke her up for dinner.

Why Caroline couldn't sleep: one of her stuffed animals "looked angry." (It was Snowball. He has been banished to the closet for the night.)

Why we aren't sleeping: Josh is using a voice generator to tell me jokes across the room. It's really not that funny until he laughs at his own jokes. Then it's pretty funny.

art and things

It's not like Caroline lacks personality. She has been extremely passionate since the moment she was born. That said, she has recently been discovering a love for art. She sits in with Jonah when we do art lessons for school and spends most mornings "making books." I currently have at least 10 books of drawings she has stapled together.

Here she is working with modeling clay last week during art:

Jonah too, always a fan of art, is developing a new skill: writing letters. Writing to the Grandmas has always been fun, but now he has a bonafide pen pal. Mat, a few years older than Jonah, has been writing letters to Jonah since he came to visit with his mom and sister this Christmas. I found this discarded letter the other day and it made me laugh. I have no idea how old it is, but it was too perfect not to photograph for posterity.

Today we painted. That is, until Miriam decided to dump her paint out all over the table. Most of the experience was peaceful and happy, so I'm going to focus on this one:

spring, glorious spring

I've just about decided that my favorite season is Spring. This came as a bit of a shock to me, since I have always believed my favorite season to be Autumn. I love Thanksgiving, college football, going back to school, and hot chocolate weather. Fall is a comfortable season. Still, I am loving Spring this year. We are so ready for park weather, for a garden, and for the trees to be green and leafy again. Even mowing the lawn hasn't felt like a chore so far; it's just so great to have a lawn growing again!

Planting a garden is my favorite part. You'd think it would be harvesting, but the planting is so fresh and hopeful. (At least until the freak freeze that killed half the plants last week even after they were covered up against the frost. Boo.) See this big plot Jerry dug up for me? I'm in heaven!

The person who is most excited about the lawn mowing has to be Miriam. She gets so indignant when anyone else dares to ride on the lawn mower. If Josh starts up the mower, even if she's in the house, she will sprint to the front porch and wait for him to come pick her up. If she catches him driving past without her, she bursts into tears.

Right after I took this next picture, she held her hand out and said, "Keys?"

 

The National Zoo

Just about the very minute Josh told me about his conference in Baltimore, I planned on taking the kids to the National Zoo. I promised Jonah I'd take him to see a panda many years ago, and the National Zoo is home to quite a few. Plus, it's free! (Other than parking, which is $22/car.) Of all the zoos I've visited, this might be in the top 3. It's hard to say after just one visit, but I was so impressed with the range of exhibits. The small mammal house was especially awesome.

The reptile house had stools all over the place for kids to stand and see in the exhibit. THANK YOU! Maybe other zoos avoid them because of liability, but I did not see a single child fall. This is the first trip to a reptile house since Jonah was born that I wasn't lifting up a child to see in every little window.

One section of the exhibits had built-in ledges for viewing which was even better. Even Miriam could climb up without assistance. I don't think she could see the animals, but she didn't mind. All she wanted to do was be wherever Jonah and Caroline were.

I didn't take many pictures, but I had to get proof that we did, in fact, see the pandas. Here we are outside the lower viewing window:

Funny (maybe?) story about the inside viewing. We checked out everything we could see on the lower observation tier outside and followed the path around to a building that had no sign other than the one that said strollers were not allowed. The walkway to the building was narrow and difficult to navigate because it was right next to the red panda exhibit which is currently being expanded. I sent Jonah in to see what was in the building so I could decide if it was worth finding a place to stash the double stroller. Since the girls were both tired by this point, they were quite content to sit and wait. Jonah came back and said he didn't see any animals, so we should just go somewhere else. So we turned around and went up to the upper panda observation deck, checked out the otters and fisher cat and went merrily on our way. It wasn't until the end of the day when I realized we still hadn't seen the baby panda (or any sign of him), that I looked online for the best way to see the baby panda. Oh, that building? That's the panda building! We went all the way back, parked the stroller by the exit (so we wouldn't have to walk the circle to get back to the stroller), and ventured inside. It was pretty empty and we had such a great view of the pandas. I don't know if it was empty because it was late in the afternoon or because no one else knew what was inside, but I was so glad we went back. 

After all that, though, we still did not see the baby panda. He was climbing a tree outside when we were inside and hanging out inside when we were outside. The kids didn't seem concerned, so we just enjoyed the grown ups in the family.

The "most ridiculous of all ridiculous slushees" caused a bit of a problem. Jonah and Caroline each spent $5 of their savings on these gigantic slushees. The flavor wasn't great and they were hard to eat. Jonah was not happy that there was so much flavoring and not enough ice (which is how I feel about every single slushee ever), so both of them got thrown away only half consumed. Jonah was pretty ticked about spending that much money on something he didn't enjoy, but we turned it around by coming up with funny names for how crazy they were. "Most ridiculous of all ridiculous slushees" was Jonah's favorite and we ended the trip laughing instead of sulking. Crisis narrowly avoided.

To round off the vacation, we went back to Port Discovery. It was raining and cold, so our original plan of hitting up the Library of Congress and a really cool park no longer sounded appealing. The kids played their hearts out and then fell asleep the minute we got back to the hotel. That is until Caroline coughed so much she was sick all over the bed she was sharing with Jonah. The hotel was apparently "out of every single clean set of sheets," so I trudged over to the laundry room to was the sheets, her blanket, and the clothes she'd been wearing. It was a desperate moment for me because I was so tired from running around with the kids and keeping things upbeat all week. (Remember the slushees? I wanted to say, "Quit crying or I'll give you something to cry about!" But I turned it into a game instead. That kind of self control takes something out of you, let me tell you.) All was well, though, when the laundry room turned out to have 4 available washers and the book I'd picked up on a whim turned out to be so fabulous that I just sat on the floor and read it while the sheets washed and dried.