Who knows if it's the changing weather, exposure to germs from outside of the house, or what, but none of us are feeling the best today. I'm thinking it's going to be a day for movies, playing outside (if/when they're up to it), and maybe throwing a chicken in the crockpot. After I take out last night's chili that no one ate. I guess no one was feeling that well last night, either, because normally it would have been GONE!
As much as I don't like being sick, I have to say there are some advantages to it. It's nice to have a lazy day every once in a while, and to be able to do some of those "sitting down" things that you don't have time for when you're feeling better- things like mending clothes, and making crafts for the craft fair, and reading extra stories to the kids. And yes, even watching movies you don't normally watch. We have a ton of nature documentaries and other nifty stuff on our Netflix queue, but usually the kids want to watch Backyardigans, or Busy Town, or Kipper, or things like that. They like the other stuff, but it isn't their first choice most of the time.
Last weekend, I brought the kids geocaching. This cache was farther away from the house, but still an easy find once we got there (and once I figured out how to work with the coordinates on the GPS!) I'm actually learning a lot about mapping, and coordinates, and am having my eyes opened a lot more to what's around me by looking for the geocaches. This last one we found, we ended up taking a little walk along the way, and the kids threw some rocks into the water, had fun running around, and Brennan found a bright green frog so small it could fit on my thumbnail. I don't even know how he saw the thing! But, they passed it back and forth several times, then Brennan tried making it swim in the water, before I finally made them let it go so they wouldn't kill it. It was so cute!
This week I also brought the kids to the Lynnwood Park Zoo. A lot of the reviews online said it was dirty, unkempt, not worth going to, etc. I thought it was a delightful little place! True, the cages did seem a bit small for some of the animals, and it wasn't the most stroller-friendly place I've ever been, but the kids had a great time, and the man who runs it even brought a few of the animals out for the boys to pet, and gave them some extra food to feed the goats. We'll definitely be going back there! It was so nice and outdoorsy, and a great place for the kids. Nick, towards the end, got out of the stroller and started walking with us. When he saw one of the monkeys, he stood completely still and stared at it, and watched it for several minutes, even after I called him and tried to get him to move on. He finally did, and then got entranced by a cockatiel or something like that the same way. That one, he had a bag of snacks in his hand, and was taking out handfuls and shoving them in his mouth without taking his eyes off the bird, pretty close to someone watching a movie and eating popcorn. It was so funny! You could just see him calculating, trying to figure out what this thing was, watching it's every movement.
Also this week, we went to the thrift store and found some new books. What were they? Arctic and Antarctic, Shoes Through History, something about different kinds of flowering plants, My Body Is Private (appropriate and inappropriate touching), The Eye, a school book that has a mix of fic and nonfic stories on various subjects, and Biscuit's First Thanksgiving, because we all like Biscuit so much!
We also got a chalkboard, and the kids have been using it to draw on, scribble on, spell on, and I'm sure we're still at the tip of the iceberg of what they'll end up doing with that thing. My family had one when I was growing up, and I used that thing a LOT!
Did I write about our spider in the window a while back? She's still there, and she has an egg sac. We've watched her make a new web most mornings when the blinds are up, and we've seen her catch a few insects. Yesterday a black praying mantis parked itself above her web, and they watched each other for a good part of the day. It's been so interesting to watch the spider! I'm glad we didn't kill it when it first showed up.
Also, the kids are really getting into Adventures in Odyssey. I'm going to have to start switching out the CDs in the car more often, because it's the only thing they want to listen to anymore!
Colin is collecting stuff outside. He found a something he calls a starfish, and it does look like one. I thought at first it was the base of a (very) small tree, but Matthew says it looks more like the bottom of a mushroom. In either case, we let it dry in the windowsill for a few days, since Colin found it in the ditch after it rained, and now he's got it in a box with a few other treasures from outside.
Last but not least, Nick may finally be starting to speak! He's said a few more words the last few days, and today already he's said "cup" and "off". Woohoo!
More adventures later!
-Amanda -_-*
