Got 'em

I finally borrowed my sister-in-law's camera so I could download pictures she had taken that I had not.  This is going to be a bit of a catch-up post for the last month.

July 2nd

Spencer and Alyssa in the pool

Alyssa's 4th birthday cake 

4th of July

Last year we were in Vermont with all of Michael's family.  This year we were in Tucson with all of Michael's family.

Patriotic cousins

All of the men

2011

All of the men

2010

The day started out really hot, but then a nice monsoon storm came through and really cooled things down.  It was actually cooler in Tucson this year than it was in Vermont last year.

I like this picture because Spencer is mid-air before his puddle splash.

And here too

July 13th

Bryant built a pretty cool wall in Spencer's room.

July 14th

This is the day we all went to the pool and I got horribly burned.  My back is just now getting back to normal.

July 16th

The day we went to the Diamondbacks game/hell on earth for me.

Can somebody please explain the appeal in baseball.  It is so damn boring.

It was Spencer's first game.

July 23rd

We were back in Tucson and at Michael's parents house.  Spencer tripped in the yard and skinned his knee.  He bled on Michael's shirt.  Michael took his shirt off to wash it.  Spencer decided he wanted to be like daddy and took his shirt off.  Alyssa decided she wanted to be like Spencer and took her shirt off.

We will torment them with this picture when they are about 15.

Then they got into jammies and watched Cars before we left to go back to my parent's house.

I apologize for this post being all over the place and rather boring.  I'll do better next time.  I just felt like I needed to include this stuff for the "family photo album" aspect of the blog.

P.S. It's the middle of the day and I'm blogging because Spencer is at school.  This whole Spencer going to school while I'm at home thing is marvelous.

First Day (Again)

I feel like I just barely wrote the post about Spencer's first day of school last year. In reality it was exactly a year ago (well, July 26th.  Close enough).  You can re-read it here.

I really did just write the post about Spencer's last day of school.  That was only one month ago.  If you have short term memory problems you can re-read it here.

We decided in March to send Spencer to a new preschool for this school year.  We also decided not to tell him about his new school until a week before school started.  I didn't want him to have that knowledge and to be stressing out about it for 6 months.

We told him a week ago that he was going to a new school.  He did not take it well.  There were tears and glares and refusals.  So, we did what any modern day parents would do and offered a bribe:

We'll buy him a Henry train if he makes it through the whole first week with no refusals and no complaining.

We're going to go through with the offer, but I don't think we'll even need to.

Once he got used to the idea, he's been all about his new school. We went to meet the teacher night last week and he didn't want to leave his new classroom.

So, today was his first day.  He has a new outfit.

And his same, old Elmo backpack.

Drop off is between 12:10 and 12:15.  His teacher instructed the kids to sit at one of three tables.  Spencer sat at the puzzle table.  We were out the door by 12:11.

I think he's going to be juuuuust fine.

Name

Spencer and I were eating lunch together on Tuesday.  I casually asked him what he thought we should name the baby.

He seriously thought about it.  There was a long pause.

Then he told me, seriously, that we should name the baby Cherry Lewis. 

He was not being silly.  He wasn't joking.  He really thinks his brother or sister should be named Cherry Lewis.

I think it's going on the veto list.

Sounds too much like Jerry Lewis.

Although to be completely fair to his ideas maybe I should clarify which cherry he was talking about.

Cherry?

Chairy?

Or Cherie? 

Science Center

Turns out I didn't take any of my own pictures when we went swimming so I'll have to get those from my sister-in-law before I blog about the day at the pool (aka, the day that contributed to my future skin cancer).

This is the day at the Science Center.

In the lobby is a huge reverse telescope- you look in the end of it and it projects that image onto a huge screen.

This is Spencer's eye.

And his tongue.

Alyssa and Spencer in the play house.

Spencer and Cameron in the shower.

We saw a fun demonstration about fire.

Spencer quickly became addicted to gambling.

Uncle Raymond saw how hard he had to pedal a bike to burn a certain amount of calories.

All the kids had fun playing in the human digestive tract.

It was complete with realistic human digestive tract noises.

Spencer and Michael did something sciency with these balls and rings.

And played with these lifting seats.

Side note:

Spencer and I were at the Science Center almost exactly a year ago.  He went on the same lift.  I love seeing stuff like this where I can see that he really is growing.

Spencer spun around until he was so dizzy he fell over.  Then he asked to do it again.

At the end of the day we all played mindball with each other. 

You put these headbands with electrodes on your head, look at a ball and use your mind waves to move the ball.  The person who is more relaxed is better able to control the ball.  The winner is the one to move the ball completely on to the side of their opponent.

I beat Michael in about 6 seconds.

Then Spencer and Alyssa competed.  Spencer beat her twice.

Spencer's brain is on the left, Alyssa's on the right.

Spencer and Michael played.

Michael's brain is on the left, Spencer on the right.

Michael beat him.

We also saw a very cool planetarium show about black holes.

It was a fun day.