Port Discovery

Patti was on-call last night and she never got called in so we made the most of her extra time with us.  Check out Stella and Maggie cuddling and seeking Patti's approval in the new "Feeling the love" video to the left!

We took advantage of her extra time with us this morning and took the whole family to Port Discovery in Baltimore.  It's a hands-on, stroller-friendly playing and learning environment with something for everyone.  Maggie and Stella even got to play and walk in one section while Will explored nearby.

We watched ourselves on TV in the mission control section.  Will even shared the captain's chair with the girls.

Patrick and Patti took turns climbing and crawling through the main exhibit with Will - a three-story jungle-gym/treehouse/play-area.  There were tunnels, ladders and slides with one creative way after another to exit the treehouse into each of the three levels of the museum.

Will met a human-sized Mr. Potato Head, he played in the train, with the golf-ball locomotion machine, in the water center, in the pyramid, in the spaceship airlock and more.  Will could have spent the entire day playing in the water center - it had spray nozzles to shoot drums, chimes and cymbals with water and make music.  There were opportunities to learn about the water cycle, to make dams and locks in a small water system, and to use water to turns wheels and gears.  He was so cute in his little blue raincoat walking from one learning opportunity to another.

The girls seemed to like certain things but they were too small for all but one or two parts of the museum.  Next year they'll probably be running everywhere too...

Maggie monkey

So Maggie has become a monkey.  Her new thing is to climb whatever she can, over and over and over again until we create enough obstacles that she decides to move on to something else...to climb.  Dining chairs, the armchair, the couch, the ottoman (our obstacle to the stairs), the entertainment center - all fair game this week.

Yesterday, Patti found Maggie sitting on the center of the dining room table and Patrick found her trying to lay down on the second shelf of our bookshelf (she used Stella as a step).  Stella is always at her side, but she hasn't shown any interest in leaving the floor.

Here are some of her feats.

Hard work and Mother's Day

Patti showed Will a neat idea in a Lowe's catalog and he went goo-goo over it so we spent Saturday converting Will's boring old sandbox into part of a larger play area, complete with plants, a ramp, a lake, a helipad, a road with stripes and a tunnel.  He was quite the helper to Daddy and Pop.

We're pretty thrilled with the final product, and Will loves it too.  He spent all Sunday morning playing in his sandbox and moving his trucks out on to the "road."  He was completely head-to-toe white from the sand - like we'd dusted him in flour...

We celebrated the rest of Mother's Day with our Moms.  Patrick called his Mom and got to chat.  Daddy and Pop cooked lunch, Mommy and Mimi got beautiful flowers from their hubbies, and after gifts and a nap for the kids, we went out for a delicious dinner together.

Here's to you Moms!

Patrick's birthday

Today was Patrick's birthday and a good time was had by all.  Will started the day by asking Patrick why he had to work on his birthday and then he stopped him on the way out of the house to tell him that he loved him.  It was awesome.

After work, Patrick celebrated with the family, Bill and Bonnie.  Patti made a very cool Death Star cake (Will wanted a race car cake but Patrick chose something a little easier).

Will helped Patrick open his presents.  Will was very sweet and very patient about it, though.

Will is quite the character.  He got Patrick a funny chimp card and a "huge" cucumber.  Of all of the things he thought Patrick would want, he chose a huge cucumber.  He even said "Will want Daddy to have huge cucumber on Daddy birthday."  When you put it that way, there's probably some truth to it.

Stella and Maggie were good little sisters tonight.  They laughed and clapped through much (not all) of the evening.  Their present to Daddy will hopefully be a solid night of sleep.

Truck Touch 2012

Saturday was Will's second annual Truck Touch at his nursery school.  A great time was had by all, and the turn-out for this annual fundraiser was phenomenal.  This year featured an ambulance, a fire engine, a mobile home, an active recycling truck, a dump truck, a front-end loader, a bucket truck, a UPS truck, and a pick-up truck.

Like last year, Will was a little reluctant to get into all of the trucks, but he had a few in mind that he really looked forward to getting into.  And this year he wasn't afraid to run right up to them, touch them, and point out the things that he knew about them from his books or from playing with Daddy and Pop.

Will and Daddy got right into the front-end loader.

Will threw one item after another into the recycling truck.  Every few minutes, they fired it up and smashed all of the paper, glass and plastics.  Will probably could have spent the whole morning at this truck.

Mommy, Maggie and Will explored the inside of the UPS truck.  Pretty bright in there!

When Will was helped into the cab of the fire engine, he stepped on the siren pedal and it gave a solid wail for a second or two.  Will flip-flopped between being scared and proud of himself.

One of the firefighters is the father of one of Will's classmates so Will took even more interest in the fire engine than last year.  Will ran right up to him and said "Hi fireman Chris!"  Check out how Will has grown.