Monday, July 22, 2013

"Identity theft"

Corinna likes Rachel's wallet. She likes it a lot.  We're only modestly successful in keeping out of her reach, but we bat 100 at recovering it quickly, since once she has it there is an explosion of cards and receipts and everything in the wallet all over in very short order.

Until last week.

Last week, I was in California for a board meeting.  Rachel had our regular sitter over on Wednesday night.  Since we couldn't go on a date, her plan was to get a massage and take a break from the kids.

But as she headed out the door, she realized her wallet was missing.  Besides the small matter of driving without a license, how was she going to pay for the massage?

Rachel and the sitter looked all over and could not find it.  Corinna must have taken it, but what did she do with it?

Eventually they gave up and Rachel retired sullenly to our bedroom.  At least she was going to get a break from the kids.

Then the sitter saw Corinna playing with a dollar bill.  "Where did you get that, little one?"  Corinna led her to Isaac's lunch box.  Inside the lunch box was the missing wallet.

Sunday, July 07, 2013

A few more from Washington

We landed in Seattle at 8:30 Pacific.  The kids were all about as tired as Isaac looks here, but nobody fell asleep until we were almost to our hotel in Bellevue, about 10:00.

Then they woke up early the next morning.  We can vouch that the sun rises at 5:00 in the Pacific Northwest.

"Up late, up early" was a pattern that we grew to loathe and fear.

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Our first night, we put the three youngest in the king, Matthew in the closet, and Rachel and me in the twin second room.  The twin was so uncomfortable that I moved to the couch instead.  For the remaining nights, we had Isaac and Melissa in the twin, Corinna on a quilt on the floor, and the two of us in the king.

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For our last night in Bellevue we tried to take Telitha and Nolan to the Cheesecake Factory, based primarily on convenience to our hotel.  It was a Tuesday night so we didn't expect a wait, but it was packed and they told us 90 minutes.  So we went to Red Robin next door, instead.

Come to think of it, I think the same thing happened last year.

And then Nolan took advantage of me chasing Corinna outside to pay for dinner, which I think everyone will agree was completely unsporting of him.  But I did get this cool shot of Corinna climbing on the wall by the fountain.  It looks like she's about to bust out some parkour.
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I dug deep for ways to keep the kids entertained and relatively quiet while Rachel was gone.  Friday afternoon was Construction Time.  I picked up tons of craft sticks, paper, tape, crayons, and stickers.  A good time was had by all, but especially by Isaac and Corinna.

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a quickr pickr post

Tacoma Children's Museum

Thursday afternoon I took the kids to the museum after Corinna's brief nap. Brian was off work early, so he came, and he volunteered Chris to come too.

There were four main areas to the museum: a sort of indoor tree house, a water play area, a pneumatic wall installation that you could put balls and scarves through, and an art room. The water area was by far the biggest hit with my kids.

(Both I and the staff tried to get Melissa into one of the "lab coats," but she was on the small side and kept shrugging it off. She went home wet but happy.)

In the last picture you can see Matthew's Dam of Ducks. Brian suggested to him that the water source would be much more amusing if it were overflowing, and that the plentiful ducks might be able to be crammed into the ports to achieve this goal.

Brian would also like the record to show that I'm dam proud of that kid.

All went well until it was time to leave, and Isaac noticed the art room. I had to drag him to the car, wailing "I want to draw!" Alas, the only parking spot we found was two-hour street parking, so we were on the clock.

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Creative Bubbles

Creative Bubbles by jbellis
Creative Bubbles, a photo by jbellis on Flickr.

Tired Bubbles

I had to be on a call Thursday at the Sinden house while Rachel was in Walla Walla. Mom watched the kids; three of them were good, but Corinna was very vocally displeased to have Daddy gone. I heard yelling downstairs for fifteen minutes or so, and then it stopped. This is what I found when the call was over. Unfortunately, she woke up when I tried to move her to her bedroom.

Tired Bubbles by jbellis