Back to School, Church and the Grind

Now that we have been home for nearly two weeks, we are finally settling in and getting back into our busy schedules. James began school right away, John just this past Thursday and Joseph started new "big boy" classes last week.

Since returning home, we have been to a total of 11 appointments, be they doctor, dentist or some sort of therapy. Joseph has been a real trooper, spending countless hours in a variety of waiting rooms...and Gram has been hero for several of these appointments simply by watching some assortment of kids. Granny and Granddaddy even took John and Joseph for the entire day last week!

There is nothing like Daddy time. The boys have enjoyed being home and joining Daddy for a movie on the sofa.


John getting ready for church...


John getting some baseball instruction while his brothers get ready for church. Note that the kid still has not run into a hairbrush, but he has managed to get his shirt buttoned.


James decided that walking to church was too much for him. Now that the church is under construction, it makes sense to park two blocks away rather than walk all the way around the church. Thank goodness that Lang was still up for carrying Joseph...that kid has been gaining some serious weight.


The boys after church...


On Sunday after church Lang & John headed to a laser tag birthday party for John's friend Stephen. His brothers joined me for a "new family" bbq for James' (and soon Joseph's) school. Although we are not new, we got to come anyway since I am on the board. After John arrived he was a fabulous big brother and took charge of Joseph.



James having a great time with his buddy Sullivan.


Kung Fu Panda


Joseph's nose is runny yet again but it doesn't get in the way of his having a great time. Here he is at James' PT appointment. John was with me and played with Joseph. He was also camera happy and I have 60 pictures of the experience.


I managed to wrestle the camera away for this picture...


I am going to miss having John with me at appointments. It is so nice to have John with me for these times...


...and this is why! I was able to take out my puzzle book.


Here I am trying to teach John how to use the zoom/telephoto feature on the camera.

Wednesday was a crazy day. We started out at James' PT (which is where we were for all the previous pics), then came home for a meeting with Arlington PIE (parent-infant education program) for Joseph and then off to yet another appointment for James. John was great and managed to complete lots of his Kumon work at James' second appointment. I spent the hour chasing Joseph outside (he had no intention of sitting and waiting). From there we took James to school and went to John's school for a pizza lunch and an open house. The construction on John's school is beautiful and I had an encouraging conversation with his teacher. I think this next year is going to be great.

One of John's favorite things to do is to come home and dig books off of James' shelf to read. I guess there is something about reading an easier book with lots of pictures that is really relaxing.


School boys...John is patiently trying to pose with James on his first day of school.


My second grader! Could it be?!?!? What happened to my baby?


I wanted to get a picture of John as he was walking into the school but quickly realized that there was a huge back-up at drop-off and finally just took a pic in the car. Getting through traffic at drop-off took 20 minutes!

After the big boys were dropped at their respective schools, Joseph and I headed to Gymboree for his art class. He is not terribly interested in art yet, but is having a great time nonetheless. However...getting to class on this particular day almost didn't happen. Joseph's Mom completely missed the fact that I-395 South was closed for the Pentagon 9-11 Memorial! We couldn't get anywhere! Joseph and I spent 1.5 hours in the car on Wednesday before we finally made it to his art class. In the amount of time we should have been over half way to the beach!

After art class Joseph and I decided to see if we could make it to music class. The start time is a little too close to the ending time for art class but, wallah, we made it! And, the other parents in the class agreed to move it back 15 minutes. The end result, Joseph will be in absolute heaven on Thursdays, getting to see Ms. Mary and Ms. Brenda all in one day!

I quick snapped this picture of Joseph on the way home from music class...after so many hours in the car I figured we should memorialize the event!

Nationals Game

We arrived home on Sunday at 11:45am. This was just enough time for everyone in the family to shower and eat before leaving at 12:45pm for the Nationals game. We were aided by Mom's provision of chicken and child feeding assistance...thank you!

The game Sunday was against the Braves. If the Nationals were to win, they would shut out both the Dodgers and the Braves over the past six games. For a team that has the worst team in baseball, this couldn't be possible, could it? Oh...but yes it could and what a blast we had cheering as the Nationals made it six in a row!

Lang and Joseph during a pitching change break.


The people sitting behind us this season are lots of fun. They have tickets to every game so they are pretty much always there. All three of our boys love them...


...especially Joseph! Becky must have that special touch!


John was camera happy and took a bunch of pictures of me. This is the only one I dare include!


James was tired an ornery but nonetheless adorable at the game.


But he managed to get it together enough to run the bases...after which he had sparkling eyes and this smile to offer!


Joseph kept sleeping but found a new baby holder in Gram.

On Tuesday night we returned to Nationals Park for a game against the Phillies. By this time the Nationals had beaten the Phillies on Monday and were now at seven in a row. Could they make it eight? No...but it was a great game and not obvious that it was lost until the 7th inning so we had a great time watching. And...they did beat the Phillies again on Wednesday night meaning they won the series and played spoilers to the Phillies as they head into the pennant race. Go Nats!

When we arrived at Nationals Park we were greeted by George Washington, Daddy's favorite president! He stopped long enough for us to get this picture.


Lang must have had a soft spot for Joseph on Tuesday because he stopped on the way to buy Joseph some oreos. Lang came directly from NIH via Metro.


About half an hour later this is what Joseph looked like. Note that James switched out which hat Joseph got to wear as well...


Can you see James' haircut?


John tried desperately to get James to pose, but right now he is not much into such things, so we take what we can get.

The Return to Arlington

Saturday we awoke to great plans of packing up and getting out in the early evening. Imagine our surprise when we discovered standing water next to the house. About eight phone calls later the Town of Bethany Beach Water Department showed up and shut off the water to the house. This did nothing to speed up the packing process as I was trying to wash sheets and towels among other things.

It turns out the plumbing leak was immediately behind the water cut-off about 18 inches from the foundation. We had never before known where the water cut-off was but we found it. It was hiding two feet underground and beneath a 4 1/2 foot bush. Silly us for not looking there...

This is the hole that Lang dug...

We were totally blessed in our whole plumbing disaster. We spoke with a plumber who wanted to charge us $2800. The guy from the water department was wonderful and hung around until another plumber arrived. Turned out they knew each other. Total cost for the plumber: $150 not including parts, for which Bethany Beach will be billing us. It helped that Lang had removed the rather large bush (the middle one in a series of 3) and dug a rather large hole exposing the broken pipe.

After solving the plumbing crisis, Lang went up on the roof to address some missing shingles from the May Nor'easter. We were concerned Hanna (and friends) might show up...good call considering she's raining on us here in Virginia as I write!

James went missing while I was trying to throw the hose up to Lang. I found him most of the way up the ladder on the other side of the house.


James celebrating some triumph or another!


John stayed inside and cared for Joseph while I worked. Did I tell you about the box of cheerios which was dumped, gathered and dumped again? John was a trooper! Here they are watching Veggie Tales, always a sure sell with my boys (and me for that matter).

In the midst of everything two of the boys' summer friends who had come back for the weekend arrived and wanted us to join them at the pool. Note from previous pictures James is already dressed and ready. It was my plan from the beginning...and I new Dylan and Morgan might just be in town.

We spent way too much time at the pool but it was relaxing and fun. The kids all played together and James was able to join in the day's pond adventure (pond is next to the pool, across from our house). Joseph tried twice to climb into the diving well. The first time he was all the way in and hanging onto the side of the pool for dear life before I got to him. After that I can't believe he did it again, but I guess he figured Mom would come.

Joseph was initially entertained by his favorite activity: Oreos. Needless to say, entertainment by eating lasts only as long as the kid is hungry.

On Sunday morning we bid the Town of Bethany Beach farewell and made it home just in time to shower and head to Nationals Park. I have lots of pics on a separate blog.

We joined our playgroup for a picnic at Donaldson Run pool on Monday. This is the pool at which I spent countless hours in elementary and junior high school. It is always a walk down memory lane for me to be there. We had a great time and James swam his little heart out. Joseph, thankfully, did not choose to climb into the pool. However, there was an outdoor shower next to the pool and he did spend quite a bit of time there.

Five of the nine kids hanging on Lloyd, including two of my own.


Kung Fu Panda on our way home from his first ever tae kwon do class. At some point during the swim gathering I realized I might be wearing him out and we quickly left the pool so James could rest up.

Only James started school on Tuesday and I started the process of truly moving back in to our home. I am still feeling the effects of unloading the car from Costco. On Wednesday James missed school for his four appointments, all medical except his swimming evaluation. We are still trying to find a way to keep him swimming this winter to strengthen his upper body.

James wasn't feeling too picture happy when I dropped him on Tuesday. Do you see the Hippo on his shirt? That is his school logo.


I am still working on getting the morning routine down. We are still a bit rough around the edges, and Joseph looking like this after his morning shower isn't helping! Thank goodness this happened Friday and we didn't need to be anywhere immediately after James' drop-off!

Trimper's Rides

For our summer finale, Lang and I took the boys to Trimper's Rides in Ocean City, MD on Friday. They run a deal where you can ride for 5 hours for $18. We missed the first two hours, but trust me, three was enough!

Be prepared...this blog entry is going to be picture heavy!

This was Joseph's first ride. He was more enamored with the flashing lights than most anything else.


Here is another picture of Joseph. Lang took the two big boys to ride the "big" rides and I took Joseph to the baby rides, this is why you are enduring so many Joseph pics. This ride made me nervous as he started leaning but the seatbelt saved him. Perhaps all motorcycles should have seatbelts?


Joseph on the mini carousel. Thank goodness for the little one...otherwise I would have had to go on a circle ride. Not a good thing with my stomach!


This is a new ride this year at Trimper's (or was it last year?). This one required an adult...and Lang had the band.


John and James rode ahead of them...


Can you believe they accepted Joseph on the frog hopper? The big boys are excited and ready to go. Joseph is still trying to figure out what is about to happen to him. Thank goodness he likes to ride!


Another ride all three boys can ride together. John didn't really want to ride this one but I pushed him to get on because Joseph needed his biggest brother.


Back on the motorcycle ride. James has an amazing imagination and managed to get truly into the moment.


John is very interested in taking his own pictures. I've got to get a camera that works well so I can teach him. The posed picture he took of us at this same spot included parts of both of our faces.


We found a new section of rides that we had not before experienced. Lots of rides all of the boys could ride together...


...although Daddy had to ride this one.


John was a fabulous great big brother and took Joseph on a bunch of rides.


John refused to get on this ride...finally I made him get on and he proceeded to ride it NINE times...seven of them by himself.


I took a video of John on the ride but somehow it didn't save on my camera. So...here is an image of the ride from Wikipedia. John's ride was purple and blue.


When we finally got John off the Freak Out ride, this is where he ended up. He and Lang are in the front seat...


James and Joseph did their own roller coaster while they waited.


James was terribly disappointed that he could not ride Freak Out. After dinner we stopped by the Jolly Roger rides on the other side of the boardwalk and found the Slingshot which is even more insane than Freak Out. Somehow they'll let my little guy ride.


James actually wanted to ride it. John said, "no way," which was a good thing since they charge $20 per rider! Lang is insisting that John will ride it next year...and I guess I'll have to let James on then too. This picture is also hijacked from Wikipedia.