Bad Case of the Grownups

Last night at dinner:

Zach: {HICCUP.  HICCUP.  HICCUP}  Poppy, I have a case of the grownups.

"Know What, Mom?"

I hear this a million times a day.  It's Zach's "go to" thing to say I suppose when he wants to talk but has nothing better to say...

"Know what, Mom?"
"What Zach?"
"My peoples are coming to my house."

It's started to grow on me.  I sorta like it when he says it out of blue and out of context - especially when we're either out of town, driving away, or have plans somewhere else. 

But today something weird happened.  It changed.  Today after "Know what, mom?" came, "My friends are coming to my house."  Friends??  What??  What happened to the people?

And it bummed me out.  Because I know this is the beginning of the end.  Soon he'll stop saying it altogether, and it will be another sign that he's growing up.  Why do my kids keep doing this to me??

Someday Her Prince Will Come

Last night, after reading Lexi and Zachary a very non-Disney version of Rapunzel, Lexi says to me, "I wish I was Rapunzel."  "Why?"  I asked.  "You want to be locked up in a tower?" "No" she replied, "I want to be saved by the prince."  I said, "Well Lexi, someday you'll find your prince just like I did."  "You mean Daddy?", she asked.  "Yes!"  I replied.  There was a small pause and she said, "Roan is Katie's prince." (Two friends from preschool)  "Really?"  I asked  "Roan and Katie are an item now?"  "Well, they want to be", she said "but I want Roan to be my prince too."  "Really?" I said  "Well, that's a problem.  What are you going to do about that?"  She replied, "Well, we decided that we have to come up with a plan, but since we haven't seen much of each other lately, we haven't had a chance to come up with one yet."  How very diplomatic of them.  We both want Roan for ourselves, but we wouldn't want to be rude, so we'll just have to take turns.  And so it begins...

Thomas the Train and StoryLand 2011

At the beginning of each summer I make a plan to ditch as many chores as possible, and have as much fun as we can.  It's not always as easy as it sounds, but I think this past weekend was a smashing success.  On Thursday at noon, Ahren and I ditched all responsibility, picked up the kids early from daycare and camp, and pointed the car north towards Bartlett NH.  There we met up with our friends The Dewey Family and spent four of the most fun packed days together I could have imagined.

On Friday morning we went to what was probably the highlight of Zach's entire year - A Day Out With Thomas.  Zach simply could not believe that he was going to get to ride on Thomas the Train, and must have asked me about it 47 thousand times before we were finally climbing on board.  He had a blast, although he was probably regretting how late he stayed up the night before when the rumbling of our little train ride put him right to sleep.  Luckily he woke up before we left so that he could say a proper good bye to his buddy.

Yay for Thomas!

Ready to ride.

He's got a ticket to ride...

Thomas was very overwhelming!

After a brief rest at the condo, some lunch, and a tooth falling out, we packed up again and headed off to StoryLand!!  We spent a day and a half in the park, and it was a blast.  Lexi and Zach were both tall enough and willing (after a little prodding) to go on all the rides - even the water rides, and their friends Morgan and Marissa were not afraid of anything.  So, we were like eight kids on a mission to get to the front of any line as quickly as possible, only stopping to eat all sorts of junk food (a very unusual treat for the Lippman children).  In the evening we had great, relaxing dinners all together, and then got to relax with some beer or wine, or both, once the kids were (finally) asleep.

So much excitement ahead of us!

Whirling Whales

Twirling Turtles

Zach and Lexi driving the tractor

Who can resist taking a picture of kids in front of a big bear?

Girls on a Turtle

They were surprisingly yummy!

 

The kids driving again!

On Sunday, we went out for a fantastic breakfast, said goodbye to our friends, did a little bit of shopping in North Conway, and then rushed back home so as not to miss National Ice Cream Day at Benson's, and the Sunday Evening Concert on the Common.  It was an amazingly fun and exhausting weekend.  All of the pictures can be found here.

Lexi and Marissa - sweet friends.

Zach and Morgan dance their way through breakfast.

After such a fun and busy weekend, I easily could have taken today to relax and catch up on some way overdue chores around the house.  But, we heard that our friend Nick from In The Nick of Time, and his wife Tracy would be singing in a bookstore in Westboro.  So, I woke the kids up bright and early this morning and we made the one hour trek to see the show.  It was a great show, and the kids were very excited to meet Nick in person after listening to his music for so long.  So we are now thoroughly exhausted.  Tonight calls for an early bedtime for all, and then back to work/camp/daycare tomorrow - I think we're all looking forward to the break!

A Missing Tooth!

 Lexi is very lucky to have a cousin who is almost the exact same age as she.  They are very close friends and each summer they get to spend some time at "Camp Gigi and Poppy" together.  This year was especially exciting because the stay was two full weeks, and each of them had the same loose tooth!!  They enjoyed showing off their wiggly teeth to anyone who would look for the entire two weeks. 

Gigi with her two "campers".

Lexi, Cassie and Zach enjoy some Benson's Ice Cream on a hot day.

Best Cousins!

Beautiful girl!

While Lexi and Cassie are great friends, and get along very well, there is also quite a bit of competition between the two.  Because of this we were all pleased that all teeth remained in their proper mouths until after the visit was over.  It was only two days after Cassie left that we got a note saying her tooth had popped out!  We were all very excited for her.

This past weekend, as we were preparing to head off to Storyland for the weekend, I made Lexi wiggle her tooth for me to see if it might come out while we were away.  It didn't look like it was ready to go, so we left the tooth box behind and hit the road.  We were there less than 24 hours when Lexi gasped loudly during lunch.  When I asked her what was wrong she said, "MAMA!!  I just pulled out my tooth!!!"  I cheered and said that it was great, expecting to see a huge smile on her face.  But instead she looked like she was in a panic and said, "NO!!  Not the wiggly one!!  The new tooth came out by mistake!!"  Of course, it had not, but it really freaked Lexi out, so even though her friends, Zach, Daddy and I were all excited, she needed a few minutes to check it out on her own.  After a bit she was ready to pose for pictures and show off the space in her mouth.

Tiny little tooth.

Per Lexi's request, the Tooth Fairy held off on visiting until we were back home in North Andover. We did, however, pick up a new tooth box while we were shopping in North Conway.  When we came home on Sunday night, Lexi carefully placed her tooth into the box next to her bed (she did not want to put it under her pillow).  She then asked me to leave the Tooth Fairy a note asking that she leave the tooth in the box.  It was her first lost tooth, you see, and she wanted to keep it for sentimental value.  The Tooth Fairy obliged, and still left her a shiny gold coin as a token of congratulations for meeting such a milestone.

It's all very exciting, though I admit that it's always a little hard for me when Lexi hits another milestone.  It's just shocking how quickly she is growing up.  I'll just have to keep making her show me that adorable little toothless grin.  :)

Lexi and Cassie Compare The Gaps

Driving Miss Daisys

This morning I picked up the two little old ladies from Gigi and Poppy's house to bring them to camp. When I arrived they were making the bed together. I rushed them off to the car, and started on our way. Their conversations were extremely amusing. First, after telling them that we would be would going to the circus tomorrow because we were going to the track tonight they have this conversation:

Cassie - "What's track?"
Me - "It's where Gigi and I run around and around in circles while you guys play."
Cassie - "Why would you want to run around in circles?"
Me - "Because it's fun!"
Lexi - "Cassie, it's like a little road, but cars aren't allowed to drive on it. But Mama, I would call it more of an oval than a circle..."
Then a few minutes later:

Cassie - "Why do we always go to bed so late??"
Lexi - "Yea, we're tired!"

Then, the funniest of them all:

Cassie - "School buses aren't safe because there are no seatbelts"
Lexi - "School buses are safe Cassie. You can't get hurt in them. They didn't put seatbelts in on purpose"
Cassie - "Yes you can, you can fall out of the seat and out the door!"
Lexi - "The doors don't open unless the driver opens them, and the windows are safe too because they only open half way."
Cassie - "Unsafe, unsafe, unsafe."
Lexi - "Cassie, buses are safe, they drive very slow, you can't fall out."
Cassie - "What if the door opens?"
Lexi - "The driver doesn't open the door until the bus is stopped."
Cassie - "What if he opens it by mistake?"
Lexi - "He doesn't even touch the lever until the bus is stopped and he's ready to open the door."
Cassie - "He might accidently hit it with his butt."

Ultimately, we arrived safely at camp, feeling happy about the fact that we did not have to get there on a bus.