Smaller Handbags, Here I Come!

Nils chose this week to no longer wear diapers- yay! Of course, we've had crappy weather for 2 weeks and were trapped inside. And the day that it turned nice again he decided this and we're still trapped at home. And next week the work on our house begins, so it will be hard to take the kids out a lot. But I am still very, very happy that he decided, on his own, to wear underpants. And that he's doing very well with it too. Yipee!

We took our first outing today sans diapers and it was a success. Of course, it was just a walk for about 15 minutes.... we wanted to go to the playground, but ominous looking storm clouds and thunder scared us off and we took a quick spin around the main street here. Jay was the same age when I took away his diapers- it took him barely two days to get it down. But 2 years, 7 months- not bad!

Friday, we had the scaffolding put up on the house. The roofer comes Monday and we'll be fully underway. I cannot believe that it took six months to get a building permit for a new roof and to build a room on our rooftop deck. Until I spoke with my neighbor and it took them two years for a permit to tear down an old building and build a new one. It is the historical district after all.

Amusement Park

I've meant to make this blog post for about 2 weeks now. Or at least since I made my last posting, since we did these both on the same weekend.

We took the kids to their first amusement park. It was geared to younger kids and actually looked like a ten year-old would be bored here. Anyway, the kids loved it. Michael, Nils and I went on a pirate water ride- Jay chose to stay on shore. Smart for him because Michael and I got soaked. Nils stayed dry- he started crying so I huddled over him and then he loved it. Go figure, he's a fish and cried because he got wet. (It was pretty intense though).

Michael took Jay and Nils, individually, on the huge Ferris wheel too. They loved the view and everything. I can't deal with heights like that when I'm in a non-enclosed space (see the Switzerland entries for an angst-filled photo of me ready to go in a gondola- and that's closed!). We also went on a tractor ride, trampolines, massive slides, a train ride and a huge play/climb-ground.

Before I had kids (shoot, even three days before we went!), I always swore that I would never, ever be the type of mom who would let her preschooler run around in only a diaper and tee. Well, I became that mom! There was water on the playground and rather than try to limit Nil's playing, we just took off his shorts- we had more diapers but not more pants! Of course, I shall choose not document evidence of this alleged incident- no photos of Nils playing in his diaper!

Legoland

Since Michael was away all last week, we did nothing but family stuff over the weekend. I made sure our errands were all taken care of and he passed on his weekly badminton game. Saturday was beautiful and we decided to go to the newly opened Legoland in our area.

I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed when we first got there because I always thought it was an outdoor park for smaller children. Instead, it was inside- why would we want to be inside on such a beautiful day? Well, we went anyway and it was good because it was about 11:00 and we wouldn't want the kids in the sun at that time anyway.

Legoland had a ride through a castle with a dragon, an Indiana Jones exhibit (complete with quiz questions for the kids), a lego factory and more. Look at how thrilled Jay is to be next to Batman (!). Notice the cool Foos tee too! We even bought the photo of use that was offered at the end of the dragon ride- very unusual for us! I have to scan it in later this week so you can see it.

Of course the best part for the kids- the huge play area in the cafe at the end. Oh, and eating fish sticks and fries outside while watching ducks. After eating, we went on a paddle ride on the water. Nils, the fish, looks like he's about to fall in a couple of times, but he was safe. Notice that I have a photo of myself in the blog now twice within a one-month period! Amazing.