Bandicoot v. Pancake

If you give a bandicoot a pancake,

she'll probably stuff it all in her mouth at once.

If it doesn't fit,

she'll just try harder.

If all else fails, she'll use her hands to keep it in her mouth.

Hot Summer Days

Nearly every afternoon of our visit at Grandma DeShon's house was spent in a similar manner:

enjoying the sprinkler.

The days were REALLY hot and humid, so all five kids enjoyed running through the sprinkler, filling cups with water and dumping them on their heads, and generally being cool and wet.  I enjoyed spectating in the shade, that is, when someone didn't steal my seat.

Sidewalk chalk and bubbles were also on the outdoors entertainment list for all of the kids.  The kinds of things for which summer must have been created!

A Morning at the Museum

With a day at Grandma DeShon's house to recover from travelling, by Friday we were ready to take the town of Lincoln by storm.  On Friday cousins Nick and Emma joined us for the day and we started the morning with a visit to the Lincoln Children's Museum with my friend Jenny and her son, Jack.  There is much to see and do at the Children's museum and it was suitable for our range of kids from 17 months to 11 years old.

There's a theater area with dress up clothing, a stage, and a puppet area, too.

There's also a large water area with lots of things to do (I didn't get any pictures of this area).  Near the water area is a real life semi truck for the kids to climb in and play on.  We took a few shots in the semi and talked about Grandpa DeShon (who drives on for a living).

Liyah never got behind the wheel of the big rig, but she got a chance to drive something more her size later in the toddler area.  This area was nice because it was gated and we were able to keep the four smallest children in one area and entertained for a lengthy period of our stay.

While the little kids played in the toddler area, Nick, Emma, and Xandra explored the grocery store area, doctor area, motorcycle, and much more.

Before we left, everyone took turns getting their face painted, including Nick.  He offered to let the little girls paint his face. 

He may have regretted his decision when it was all said and done, but they sure enjoyed themselves!

With painted faces, full tummys (we picnicked on the roof outside), much of the museum unseen, and tired kids, we took a few last shots

and headed for home. 

Thanks for a fun morning Jack, Jenny, Emma & Nick!

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

After a short night of air-conditioned sleep, we awoke at 3:00AM to begin our vacation travels to the midwest.  After showering, loading the car, and competing final preparations, we woke the girls at 4:00AM and put them in the van.  Joe then drove us to the metro station (one different from where someone is trying to steal his scooter), dropped us off with all of our luggage (pictured above, significantly less than last time!), and drove home to get his scooter to drive back to the metro station so he would have some wheels to ride home (provided no one stole them) when he got off work that evening.

Our goal was to catch the first train to come through the metro station, just after 5:00AM.  Once Joe arrived back on his scooter, we had a few minutes to spare.

We made a transfer to another train line and got to the airport with a little buffer time.  It's funny how you can eat up all your buffer time by taking one wrong turn out of the metro toward the wrong airline terminal.  It takes awhile to get to the terminal, walk the entire terminal, realize the airline you're looking for is not in the terminal, ask someone where the airline is located, discover that you need to take a bus or walk 15 minutes to the correct terminal, haul your small children and pile of luggage outside to the curb, miss the first two buses because you're standing in the wrong place, go to the correct place, load on a bus and ride to the correct terminal.  Once you've done all of that, you'll realize that you're actually now in danger of missing your flight (or at least your bags are).  Thankfully, things seemed to be turning around when we got to the airline counter.  They checked us in, gave Joe a gate pass (he wasn't flying with us, just getting us to the gate) and turned us loose on security with minimal effort.  We were now closer to back on schedule with a good 40 minutes before our flight took off and 30 minutes before they closed boarding. 

Unfortunately, security was not as kind to us as the airline counter.  We were the fifth people in line and would you believe that it took us 35 minutes to get through security?  I know you would believe it because this is The Doolittle Gambit you're reading.  My mantra became, "We're never gonna make it."  Joe tired of this after the 20th repetition and kindly asked me not to talk if that was all I could think of the say.  After getting through security (I caused a small slow down because I left my phone in my pocket and had to go through the scanner twice), we hustled to the girls to the gate knowing there was no way we were getting on that plane. 

Fortunately, for us the man directly behind us in security was also on our flight.  He blazed past us running toward the gate and when we got there he was already begging them to open the jetway doors back up and let him on the plane.  My travels have taught me that once the jetway door is closed, there's no way you're getting on the plane.  He, however, seemed to possess some magical power and convinced the manager on duty to open the door and let us on the plane.  I have never seen airline personnel work so quickly in my whole life.  Within two minutes of the decision to let us on the plane, we were down the jetway and entering the plane.  This meant issuing us new tickets, tagging and taking our stroller and hustling this slow moving train down the jetway.  I still don't know how they did it, but I do know I almost made it on the plane without my cell phone.  Joe got us to the gate and just as they were closing the jetway door I remembered I'd passed him my cell phone in security and had never gotten it back from him.  "Where's my phone?"  I yelled in a panic.  Then the panic moved to his face as he tried quickly to remember what he had done with it in all the confusion.  He checked one pocket, then the other, pulled out his phone and in the last seconds pulled out my phone, handed it to me and the jetway door closed in the next moments.  It was very dramatic.  In fact, we went from being sure we'd missed the flight to getting on the flight so quickly that we didn't even have time for proper goodbyes.  This caused the pregnant lady to tear up in the middle of the chaos.  Perfect timing, right?

Life with the Pulls is not always a disaster.  Sometimes we actually get on the plane and when we do we realize that we have an entire row, both sides of the aisle, all to ourselves.  This makes for a happy pregnant mom who was intending to lap hold her 17 month old for the entire flight.  The girls did well on the first flight and we had plenty of time for play in the Milwaukee airport, too.  If you're ever travelling with small children on an airplane, may I highly recommend the Milwaukee airport as a great place to land with children.

We camped in the toddler play area for about 45 minutes before boarding our next flight and it was a happy, happy time for all!  Well, except at the end when Liyah fell off the elevated path pictured above, but other than that, very happy.

The kind, kind, sanity-saving flight attendant on our next flight asked the person next to us to move before we even got to our seats.  As a consequence, we again had an entire row all to ourselves.  Aliyah slept in the seat next to me (a miracle, no?) and the older girls sat happily across the aisle munching pretzels and drinking airline water. 

Friends met us in Omaha, NE and escorted us in their van to Grandma DeShon's house.  We were exhausted, but happy to be done travelling.  At 2PM eastern time, we'd been on the go for 10 hours.  While it was a long morning, not one I'm interested in repeating anytime in the near future, the girls were well behaved, fun to be with, and after getting on our first flight, things went smoothly.  Not bad for the crew that usually good for an entire morning of disasters!

Time Travel

Welcome to our home on the evening of July 25th, at 8PM:

At approximately 3PM on this particular Sunday afternoon, our family was transported back to the 19th century.  A very strong thunderstorm knocked out power for most of Montgomery County, MD, and the result was no power until Tuesday evening.

Not knowing how long our power outage would last, Joe promptly taped the fridge and freezer doors shut to save anyone from allowing the cool air within the appliances out.  We decided a trip to a nearby grocery store to buy a 1/2 gallon of milk was in order.  We would have cold cereal for dinner and wait for the power to come back on.  Upon arriving home, I poured the first bowl of cereal for Theia and topped it with our newly bought milk.  Only after I put the milk on the cereal did I realize that the milk was spoiled. 

The girls and Joe chose to have water on their cereal and I ate mine dry.  It was certainly an adventurous meal.  When dinner time was over, I decided that it might be good to clean the heaping mound of dishes on the counter that I had neglected to put in the dishwasher earlier in the day.  Oh what a good example of the negative consequences of procrastination. 

I proceeded to clean the dishes in the twilight.  Fortunately, for us, we do NOT actually live in the 19th century and my husband has these cool LED glasses with lights on the rims.  They're perfect for washing dishes in the dark.  How nerdy, yet wonderful.

The fun continued in the summer heat for two more days.  We had early bedtimes, no internet, no refrigerated or cooked food unless we bought it somewhere else, no dishwasher, no washing machine or dryer, and a very strong awareness of how dependent our lives are on electricity.  With no sign of power returning and our plans to leave on vacation early Wednesday morning, we were forced to maka a Tuesday morning trip to the laundromat with dirty, stinky cloth diapers and mildewed clothing that had been in the washer when the power went out.  While it was nice to have all the laundry clean and folded in a few hours, the cost at $26.00 for 5 loads of laundry was a bit tough to swallow.

Thankfully, after a dinner out on Tuesday evening, we came home to the 21st century.  Lights, spoiled milk in the fridge, and AIR CONDITIONING! 

Unfortunately, only part of our life has returned fully to the the 21st century.  Someone has been stealing bikes from the metro station where Joe parks his scooter everyday and while we were without power, they made two attempts to steal his scooter from the bike racks at the station.  He has yet to ride his scooter back to the station and has relied on his lovely ladies for a ride in the van to and from the metro station most days since.  We'd really like a return the to the 21st century where a man can ride his scooter, which he purchased with the sole intent of helping him easily complete part of his daily work commute, again without fear of someone disabling it or stealing it all together.  It would also be nice to not have to answer questions about the "bad man," as Xandra likes to call him, who is trying to steal daddy's scooter on our daily trips to and from the metro station.  Her most recent suggestion is that we buy the "bad man" his own bike then he won't have to steal daddy's.  We're certainly open to suggestions regarding our scooter dilemma, but only ones that cost less than giving away scooters.

Until the scooter delimma is solved, I'll just be grateful to enjoy our cool, air conditioned, lighted living room by which to write blog posts, while the dishwasher washes the dishes, the washing machine washes the clothes, and my husband plays a computer game nearby. 

The Countdown

The countdown has begun in earnest at our house.  Yesterday the girls and I worked to make a paper chain that would help us count down the days until Quincy's due date. The girls had a great time helping me make the links and then saying the numbers out loud while I wrote them on the links.  We also included a few dates on our links between now and then that we thought were important.

In just six more days, with 20 days left in the Qunicy countdown, we'll celebrate Xandra's fourth birthday.  Xandra, Theia, Joe and I all each took a guess as to the day when Qunicy will actually arrive.  The blurry photos that accompany our guesses are below. 

Theia was the most gracious to guess that the baby would come nine days early.  She was an early bird herself, arriving at 37 1/2 weeks.

We hung the finished product up in the living room and the girls have enjoyed removing the first two links.  How many more links will they get to remove?  My answer is torn between my desire to complete as much of my to do list as possible before the baby comes (lots of links) and a desire to be finished with pregnancy (a few links). 

Eternal glory to the person who guesses correctly in the comments below.  Maybe, if we're lucky, Andrew will contribute a dollar.  I will say, however, your odds are better at guessing the gender, which remains as much a mystery as Qunicy's arrival date.

Eat Baby Eat

Some of Aliyah's new favorite words are eat (ott) and baby (baabee).  Turns out she's good at combining the two: