Six things you might not know about me.

I was tagged by Leah for this meme. I’ve never been tagged for a meme before!

1. I once rode in one of the Life Lion helicopters. No, I wasn’t the one being transported to the hospital. It was kind of cool for the first 10 minutes…until I became VERY nauseous halfway into the flight!

2. I’m a beach snob, although I’m not a very good swimmer. I’m not interested in hearing that lakes in the U.S. have “beaches”. I also find it hard to imagine visiting a beach in June and finding that the water is cold. I suppose growing up in the Caribbean has something to do with that.

3. I have 2 “baby teeth” that never fell out. I don’t know why – I seldom visited the dentist growing up. They don’t bother me and they don’t show any signs of loosening yet. But I shudder to think what horribly expensive orthodontic genes I’ve passed on to my offspring!

4. I am really good at standardized tests of any kind, but I suck at essay-type tests.

5. I was 25 years old when I finally got my driver’s license. By then, Mark and I had been married for almost 4 years, and he was sick of being my chauffeur. He was the one who taught me how to drive (poor Mark) but that’s another story.

6. Lately, I have developed a craving for those awesome “hand spun” chocolate milkshakes from Wendy’s. So if this new baby weighs 10 lbs, that’s the reason why!

I am now tagging Mark and Misty and anyone else who is interested in playing. 

Slip-n-Slide!

We have a really tiny yard.  Last summer I wanted to buy the boys a wading pool, but Mark said it would take up too much space, and it would kill the grass.  Instead I talked him into buying a Slip-n-Slide since it can be easily rolled up and stored in the basement between uses.  But for some reason we never used it last summer at all.

Today was my half-day off work again.  It was a beautiful 93 degrees outside!  Perfect weather for finally breaking out that Slip-n-Slide!

The big boys had a blast.

Here they are demonstrating what NOT to do.

Mark and I took lots of pictures, then sat in the shade to watch with Ben.  I got the bright idea to put Ben’s feet in the little pool of water that had accumulated at the end of the slide.  I guess it wasn’t such a bright idea after all.

The big boys played for a long time.  They are already asking to get it out tomorrow again.  Who needs the beach or a pool? 

Mini-Vacation

I get a half-day off work once a week. Lately, that half-day has been spent sleeping! Last week, however, was quite different. Mark picked me up from work and we drove to Hershey, which is about an hour and 15 minutes away. Mark thought it would be nice to visit the lovely Hershey Gardens. I’d never been there before, although we’d once lived in the Hershey area for 4 years.

It was early afternoon when we arrived, but the temperature was probably in the mid to upper 70’s and quite pleasant. We began at the Children’s Garden where Jonny’s found his favorite attraction – the Hershey Kiss fountain.

We visited the Butterfly House. We learned so much about the life cycle of butterflies!

If you look closely at the photo below, you’ll see Isaac has caught a butterfly on his card.

We did lots of walking, but fortunately for my swollen ankles, there were plenty of benches around. Ben slept for most of the beginning of our trip, but eventually awoke. He really enjoyed seeing all the trees and flowers.

Finally, the big boys began to get whiny and hungry, so we headed to Friendly’s for dinner and some ice cream.

What an awesome afternoon! It felt more like a mini-vacation than a typical half-day, although I still managed to nap on the drive to and from Hershey!

Teeth

We have only just started taking Jonny and Isaac to the dentist for regular checkups in the last year or so, although we do pay close attention to dental hygiene at home. So when Isaac had his first checkup at the age of 7, and had NO cavities, we were thrilled. Our joy was short-lived. Jonny’s checkup showed that he already had a cavity at the tender age of 4.

I asked the dentist if we could “keep an eye on it” since I didn’t want his first experience at the dentist marred by potentially painful dental work. The dentist reluctantly agreed. So Jonny had his second checkup this February, and guess what? Our one cavity had multiplied! There were now two – unfortunately on opposite sides of his mouth! Meanwhile, Isaac still had none.  I didn’t get my first cavity until I was in my late 20’s!

At that point we realized we had to do something.

Jonny had his first filling back in March, except that it wasn’t one – he had two since the two cavities from February had multiplied again into FOUR! I don’t know why he is getting cavities at an exponential rate. I took him back last week to get the second two filled.

Jonny was unbelieveably well-behaved for both sets of fillings. The photo above is him waiting to be called back. His only comment to the dentist before the procedure this time was that he wanted it to be quicker than the last time. He took the shots like a pro – I still can’t believe it – and sat still the entire time and let the dentist do two fillings. Our dentist is such a nice guy too – he is really good with children even though he is not a pediatric dentist. Jonny did so well that he got a brand-new Pokemon game for his Game Boy as a reward. Here he is showing off his four new fillings:

We are being even more vigilant about Jonny’s teeth now. The dentist gave us a special fluoride gel to use after his regular nighttime tooth brushing. I hope it helps. I also worry a lot about Ben’s teeth. He isn’t keen on having those cleaned AT ALL since he hates to have anything in his mouth. We do our best, realizing that any kind of dental work for him will likely require sedation or general anesthesia.

In other (more pleasant) news, here are my three silly boys just before bedime tonight playing video games.

The Last Soccer Game and a New Camera

Mark likes to save up to buy big things. He has this peculiar desire to sock money away from each paycheck in an envelope somewhere without telling me, so that it doesn’t get depleted as part of the “general household fund”. I have not really known what to think about this strange habit. However, since January he has been putting money away to buy a new camera for me! He didn’t say anything about the money until a couple weeks ago. I was quite surprised, especially since he’d already managed to save enough to buy a rather nice camera.

So we went to our local camera store. I now have a Nikon D60 which came with two lenses. I absolutely LOVE it, but most of the controls are still intimidating. It came with a couple of instructional DVDs, but I am ashamed to admit that I fell asleep within 5 minutes of the first one, not because it was boring, but because I’m always tired these days.

I took it to Isaac’s last soccer practice and game to try it out. We had lots of bright, sunny, HOT days this week!

Jonny likes to think he’s one of the “big kids”. The big kids have been great to him all season and let him practice with them.

Isaac’s team did well for their last soccer game. The temperature was in the 90’s, and fortunately some kind soul lent us an umbrella for shade.  It didn’t take long for the kids to get tired, but they all played hard.

Ben was fussy and irritable because of the heat. He finally fell asleep halfway through the game, poor guy.  I think he needs to visit Trinidad to get used to hot weather!

Even with the heat, I am kind of sad that soccer is over until the fall.

Happy 5th Birthday, Jonny!

I can’t believe my chubby little baby is such a big boy who will be starting kindergarten in the fall!

Jonny has grown a lot this year. He just LOVES soccer. He’s good too, probaby because he practices with Isaac’s Under-8 team! He’s learning to read and he loves to draw and color, and of course, play video games. He loves to do whatever Isaac is doing, and he loves to bother Ben. He is always the first one to volunteer to help clean up, fetch a diaper, water the plants or bring the newspaper into the house.

He is definitely the most attention-seeking of our kids so far…

Happy Birthday Jonny!

Name-That-Baby Giveaway

The due date for Baby Boy #4 is fast approaching, and we haven’t come up with a name for him yet.  What can I say – we’ve run out of little-boy names!  So my darling husband Mark has a giveaway in progress on his blog.  The prize goes to the person who can come up with the worst, most outrageous or funny name for our as-yet-unborn fourth son.  (Or you can feel free to suggest some “real” names too!  And don’t worry – we won’t really name the baby anything bad!)

The winner will get a copy of “Italian Grill”, Mario Batali’s cool new cookbook.