We went to the Savannah area to see my brother Brad!
Yes, on the road again. Just a few short weeks after being on the road for many many many days. But it was worth it, because he has a new house and new job and he lives near the beach! Yay!
Y'all, it rained. Boo.
(Charlotte was basically reduced to abject weeping by the time we left town and she still hadn't seen the beach.)
But Uncle Brad was still sweet enough to take Nathan out to the Savannah harbor where he works, and show him his boat, and the container ships coming in and out, and even let him sit in the captain's chair. Which probably isn't called a captain's chair. That's what they call it in a minivan. I assume on a boat it has a better name? A bridge maybe? Is this even a boat, or is it a ship?
I don't know the lingy loo. I am not boat savvy. WHATEVER BOAT NERDS.
And we spent the rest of the weekend lounging with coffee and snacks and Netflix and target toys, which was just fine even though it wasn't the beach.
On Saturday night my sister came down with her whole family too, and one other brother Collin from Hilton Head nearby, and we threw the kids in bed and drank a lot of Draaanks and played Cards Against Humanity and here is what I have learned about my family while playing drinky card games:
1.) Brad has a super sick sense of humor. Not sick in a good way. Like, sick in a wide eyes way.
2.) Ashley's husband John cannot make a joke without explaining it. CANNOT.
3.) I miss Marky when everyone else is hanging out and he's not there.
4.) Collin's girlfriend has no idea what she's getting into if she wants into this Bumgarner mess.
5.) Brad and Marija were champs to have all of us in their house at once. Champs I say.
CHAMPS, I SAY.
It was a weekend of bad sleep and I came home exhausted, but I am so glad we went. It's fun whenever we can all be together, and it doesn't happen enough. Also, the kids and I didn't mind at all being on the road even more. We have gotten good at it! We listened to The BFG on the way down, and Matilda on the way back, and the kids loved both of them. I had forgotten how either of them ended, and was startled on both counts.
And now I need to crawl in bed and sleep for many days. I am officially traveled out.
Nathan is seven and a half. SEVEN AND A HALF. (I keep waiting for the age that won't give me all-caps wide eyes, but we haven't hit it yet.)
My sister pointed out this week that being seven and a half means he's halfway to driver's ed. (I told her to shut her damn* mouth, because obviously.) (*I used a different word.) (Not a better one.) (Not the one you're thinking though.) (I digress.) (Parentheses!)
Anyway, he is growing up and I'm trying not to do any mom math in my head or I will realize it's all going to fast, and I will panic. So instead I will just think about the here and now. So, some things about Now:
Nathan is growing, yet ever-smaller for his age, still wearing mostly size 6 clothes (the same as Anneliese!) but he is suddenly eating everything in sight, and asking for more, and he ordered a Korean steak taco at the smoothie place the other day, and I don't even know who he is anymore, is what I'm saying.
No, no. What I am saying is I think we are expecting a growth spurt any minute now, and maybe he won't be the smallest in his class forever. (Or maybe he will. He is also one of the very youngest. Mark was also the youngest and the smallest, so... it could happen.)
He is very into planes and ships and designing and building lego vehicles of any kind - flying and sailing and driving alike. He will read fiction with some coaxing, but mostly he reads biography after biography, even of people he has never heard of. (What?) He watches video footage about aviation and what causes plane crashes, and seems undisturbed, yet won't watch the Little Mermaid because Ursula terrifies him (see also: the first five minutes of Tangled).
He loves whales and space and geography - asking questions about countries and languages and poring over the giant world map on his ceiling (yes really) and the world atlas book my dad gave him for Christmas. (If you know my dad, that's the least shocking sentence in the history of ever.)
He and Anneliese remain best buddies, and he is jealous for her attention when she and Charlotte are feeling particularly chummy on a given day. He does his running club at school on Friday mornings, and is fast, but besides that he isn't super into sports. He sings in children's choir at church (a solid fifth-ish below everyone else, not that it matters) and still plays his cello, better and better all the time. He is a baby hoarder, squirreling away bits of paper, and pieces of toys and random... stuff that he thinks he might want to build something with.
(The other day he told me he was bored -- well, he started to, and then I reminded him if he says he is bored I will find some extra chores for him to do -- and so he went in the recycling bin and got this starbucks cup and built... a boat? I think? THIS IS SO NATHAN, Y'ALL.)
He is a kid who wavers between extreme chattiness, and not knowing how to say what he wants to say. He writes and draws a lot.
Here is some information about the Queen Mary 2. (Why, what does your seven-year-old obsess over?) You can choose whether you like or don't like the information. Complete with a hand-drawn thumbs-up, because he is a Child Of The Era. (I always circle "like." Duh.)
His obsession with this ship oddly makes me miss my Grandpa Schnack. They would have had so much fun being boring together. Truly. Grandpa would have delighted in him.
Here is a Japanese battleship, complete with WWII-era Japanese naval flag (?) (we are fully living in the age of when our kid knows more than we do about the stuff he's interested in).
And yes that's me on top, sitting on a lounge chair, reading a book. I mean... at least I get to go to war? (What does this say about what he thinks of me?)
He is known to bring random notes downstairs to us, that sometimes do or don't make any sense.
He also has an old phone of Mark's, which he can use when he asks permission. He has had a gmail account for several years, and he uses the chat app to "text" people which is usually pretty cute.
Well, usually pretty cute. Not always.
And sometimes just super exciting, as Mark is learning.
And sometimes really legitimately adorable.
And yes, like every other kid his age, he is into Minecraft (thanks Uncle John) (no really, it's fine -- cute, even) and he not only plays the game, but watches other people playing the game on YouTube. AND watches all manner of toy review and project/craft videos, and then got the harebrained idea that he should... do one himself?
So many questions. Is where/how to get that template not an important part of the instructions? Why not color the eyes before folding it? And WHY SO MUCH TAPE FOR THE LOVE. (He could use some time-lapse here also.)
(Please know, he is so proud of this. Really super duper pleased.)
(This all happened with Mark's help one night while I was at choir. I came home and it tickled me so much I cried.)
My child! Who spent years staring at adults, mute, when they asked him something. Who even now hates when people watch him or call attention to him or even laugh at his jokes... wants his own YouTube channel? Talks to the camera as if it's the most normal serious thing in the world? I don't even know, y'all.
Growing up. It's weird.
Happy half birthday, you quirky bright sweet wonderful child.
So, before Anneliese's birthday, we took a little family weekend jaunt to Washington, DC.
why, with the monument and my head, random-passers-by-photographer? why?
Our impetus was twofold:
1- The National Geographic Museum's special rotating exhibit right now is a big thing about spinosaurus, and... yeah. I just realized that sort of explains itself. SPINOSAURUS. So, we knew we wanted to take Nathan to see that this fall.
2- Anneliese has been asking for an American Girl doll for months and months, so we wanted to surprise her and get her one for her birthday. Yes she's a little young, and yes they're too expensive, but she made a giant effort at keeping her room and toys organized to prove that she is a big girl five-year-old who can handle having nice things, and I find zero objectionable anything about American Girl dolls in general (history! dolls! characters! books! they're good toys). Anyway, the closest store to us (which is more fun than ordering online) is in DC.
So we mapped out the calendar looking for a weekend after the spino exhibit opened, before Anneliese's birthday, and when Mark was actually off work -- and last weekend was it. So we went! It wasn't the most conventional "Washington DC Family Trip" but we had our own goals of stuff to do, and we live close enough that we didn't feel like we had to do All The Important Things this time. So here's what we did:
1.) Rode the Metro a Lot - as far as Nathan and Anneliese are concerned, this IS seeing the sights of DC. That dark tunnel. Right there. Super! Exciting!
2.) National Geographic Museum - Mark and I know DC well, but had never been to this museum. Fun to do something that's new to us too. Also, the look on Nathan's face here, when we saw the spino they had specially installed outside the museum = maybe worth the whole weekend away.
3.) American Girl Doll Store - oh man Anneliese was so sweet wandering through this whole store (we had never been in one! I was overwhelmed) and seeing all the dolls and books and outfits and such. She waffled a while but then settled on Kit, and seems really happy about that, and she was so happy I thought she would burst. It was lovely and special in a way that 5th birthday treats should be, and it was so fun to shop excitedly with her. So, meet Kit, from 1934.
PS I just realized why we can't find Anneliese's orange hoodie anywhere at home. :/
4.) Air & Space Museum at Dulles - another new place for Mark and me! This is an extension of the Smithsonian museum downtown on the mall, and we have heard great things about it for years, but have never gone out to Dulles to see it. We did this time, and we are so glad. It was very cool. Like, the other museum sort of pales in comparison (don't hate me, internet, I still love the original too!) -- it is really hard to overstate the massive numbers of planes housed in this one giant hangar out there. Like, hundreds. HUNDREDS. Including some tough ones (the Enola Gay? Hm I don't want to explain that history to my fascinated child, kthx) and some cool ones (space shuttle!) and everything in between.
There was also a section with a tower where you could go up and see what was happening at Dulles airport, and a small exhibit on radars and air traffic controlling, which Nathan found a little more fascinating than the rest of us, but he was cute. (His favorite lego things to build these days are airplanes; this trip was good timing.)
I will leave you with this oddly fascinating fact from the museum at Dulles: the space shuttle is covered in... thermal blankets.
THAT BEAST WENT TO SPACE COVERED IN QUILTS. That is all.
5.) Air & Space Museum at the Mall - it was the most crowded I had ever seen it, and it was hot inside, and the throngs of people were overwhelming, and also there was an area cleared for salsa dancing lessons, and I don't even know. We hit a few exhibits and climbed in two display planes and Nathan gleefully spent some allowance money at the gift shop, and then we were done. Basically I could not get us out of there fast enough. (And I love that museum! Just, not that day.)
we saw a lot of planes last weekend, y'all
6.) Carousel on the Mall - because obviously. It's close, it's easy, it's fun, it wasn't raining, so yes.
And then we sat and had a funnel cake, and let the kids run around and play, because sometimes unorganized fun is just... necessary.
Walking back to the Metro, Nathan wanted to take some pics with us and the Washington Monument. He clearly has a future in photography.
I mean. Yeah.
7.) Adorable Cosi Dinner - this is DC dining at its finest, right? HA HA HA. But it is a good place with kids, it's tasty and relatively fast and relatively inexpensive, and it ended up being a delightful dinner. The manager thought they were out of stuff for make-at-your-own-table s'mores, but then found more fire, and comped us the whole thing and extra brownies, for no reason at all other than he said we were sweet. SO NICE. It was all lovely. And cozy. (See what I did there?)
8.) Walk Around the Monuments - on Sunday morning we took a walk in a big loop around part of the mall - from the Washington Monument down past the White House and then over to the World War II Memorial.
It was gorgeous and sunny out, and the kids needed some time to run in circles where they wanted, instead of us clutching their hands crossing a million trafficky intersections, so they played in the grass and chased each other and had lots of big talks about being president. They somehow decided it would probably be Charlotte, because she's a lefty (?) and they kept asking her if they could visit when she lived in the White House. Adorable. (She said yes.)
Lying in the grass looking up at the Washington Monument. I totally remember doing this as a kid.
Aaaaaaand that was our weekend. Honestly, one of the best parts might've just been staying in a hotel all together. We had two big beds and a sofabed so it felt big, and who doesn't like hotels, just in general, right?
this is like a vision of my own childhood, right here
The second night wasn't great sleep, but a slumber party in one room was mostly really fun! I like having all my people close. Especially when get all angelic when they sleep.
Mark and the kids went to Lake Wateree to see his dad last week for his birthday (and also left Nathan for a long weekend). Ali and I stayed home and sorted bookshelves, which was its own brand of thrilling, and no that is not sarcastic. (We would have loved to have gone, but Ali isn't quiiiite sleeping through the night, and their house isn't quiiiiiite quiet enough for four kids, when one doesn't sleep through the night.) We were fine at home, but it means I have to live vicariously through Mark's pictures.
Nathan and Anneliese are still besties, of course, and this photo makes me melt.
This one too OMG I CAN'T STAND IT MAH BAYBEEEES, this is just so them.
Okay, also, Charlotte apparently went fishing:
And drank a sprite??? Who gave my baby SODA??? *side eye Oma*
Here's a thing I'm glad I didn't know was happening in the moment, because HASHTAG: TERRIFYING.
But Opa has a sweet gentle side too.
And the short version of this post is: my people are pretty cute on boats.
So, we went to the state fair... about a month ago. (I am so on top of all things bloggity.) With three kiddies, the fair is a bit different than when it was just Mark and me. This year we didn't get on any adult rides. We didn't see any fancy crafts. We went in broad daylight when the crowds were thin enough to push strollers (strollers! plural! like two strollers!) through. We did not shoot targets to win turkeys. We didn't go into even one exhibit building.
What we did do was ride kiddie rides and eat fried junk food. Yay North Carolina?
WIN - The big kids are old enough to go on rides themselves. And Anneliese's bravery makes Nathan a little less chicken. Sibling support at its best.
FAIL - Charlotte miiiiiight have gotten a bit sunburned on her still-kinda-bald hatless head.
WIN - Daniel Tiger at the pbs kids tent. (Don't ask me why Daniel is the only one looking at the camera.)
FAIL - This was about two seconds before the rooster crowed in Charlotte's face and she completely lost her sh!t. I don't know what her favorite animal will end up being, but I think we can safely say not rooster.
WIN - A friend who helps you manages your strollers and corresponding small people who ride in them. If you don't have this friend, I am sad for you.
FAIL - This stroller might be a bit small for our tall girl.
WIN - Fried everything, and dipped cheesecake on a stick.
FAIL - It's not the state fair until someone chickens out of going down the giant slide. This year? Nathan.
WIN - Both kids eat hot dogs now. I see a light at the end of the picky eating tunnel!
FAIL - Hey Anneliese y u no looky at the camera?
WIN - Being out past naptime is easier if the baby naps anyway. Yay flexible baby! (Actually, yay anything that wears kids out!)
FAIL - no sculptures made of butter.
Another Nathan was properly horrified. You see, he comes from Iowa and in case you didn't know, Iowa has the best state fair of all the state fairs (in related news, Another Nathan has more state pride than most people we know). And at the Iowa state fair, they have a butter cow. It's famous! It's important!
He legitimately couldn't believe we didn't have any butter sculptures at the fair. He kept asking Mark "what, no things made of butter? none? you mean, no butter elvis? no butter Last Supper?" with a straight face.
Actually I just decided North Carolina's lack of a butter Last Supper might be a WIN.
