Day Out with Thomas

You should have heard the shrieks of joy.  It was all so very real to him - we were on Sodor, riding in Annie and Clarabelle, and meeting Sir Topham Hatt.

He's only grumpy because we made him turn his back on his hero.

Eva didn't quite get the fuss, and the rest of us noticed quickly that it was hot and humid... but Asa was absolutely in his element.

Even in the ridiculously hot train car.

Asa decided that the conductor was Sir Topham Hatt.  Which was just as well, since he was scared of the one with whom we could take pictures.  (Below...)

More cousin love.

The best part for the adults - which did not in any way make up for the heat - was the view of the upper Hudson River.

When we got back to the station, there were play stations, temporary tattoos, and music - with instruments for the kids.

And, like I said, we could take pictures with Sir Topham Hatt.  That part didn't go quite as well, but Asa was perfectly happy to have seen the owner of the Sodor Railway on the train.  (*phew!*)

He's still talking about Thomas, and riding on Thomas... We're really just fueling an obsession, but it was so worth it to see such joy.

Truction Wiggles! Real Ones!

Asa and Eva thought it was cool, just having Poppy pulling them in a little red wagon.  

And then he pulled them to a construction site.  And Asa, at least, was in heaven.

Each machine correctly identified... I think he only wished that the crew had left the keys.

Driving an excavator.  Life is sweet.

Cousin Power!

Finally, the last of the August vacation series... just after another weekend with these very same family members!  Maybe I'll  be really caught up soon?

The last leg of our trip involved another 7 hour car trip, this time across southern PA.  The turnpike doesn't get more interesting the more you drive it, I must say.  Just more expensive.  But all these visits were worth every mile of farmland, and every cent of tolls.

Asa and Eva picked up where they left off the week before, and then went further.  The very first morning, they were jumping on our bed.

They would jump, and rest, and jump again.

After getting dressed, they were inseparable.

But their favorite game by far is still "tackle".

They also kept me busy enough to not take any pictures of Aunt Tara or Uncle Mike, or even of Mummy's cousins Alison and Chelsea, with whom we had a fabulous lunch one day.  All I can say is that I completely understood Asa's sentiments, as we headed home:

Thank you to everyone who hosted us.  We had a wonderful trip, and we love you all!

Finally!

Yeah, vacation posting got derailed again, this time by Tropical Storm Irene, who knocked out our power for 56 hours.  Just enough time to make us throw out food.  Sigh.

But we're back up and running as of about 6:00 last night, so in between loads of laundry, I'll do my best to catch up...

From the family reunion in upstate New York, we drove to southwestern PA.  I have to brag a little bit about our awesome son, who dealt very well with about 7 hours of car travel.  There was a little whining, certainly - after all, he was strapped in to the car seat, without even the ability to change position, but he was remarkably good.  It helped that the Pennsylvania Turnpike was under construction, so there were plenty of dump trucks, cranes, excavators, and such.

When we arrived at Uncle Rick and Aunt Lin's house, Asa was shy for a few minutes, until Uncle Rick mentioned that he owns a tractor.  All shyness dissolved as they walked hand-in-hand out to the shed.

After that, Asa made himself right at home, enjoying both the space for running, and the smooth patio for drawing, and the wealth of toys at his Aunt and Uncle's house.

Almost as fun for Mommy and Mummy was watching Mummy's family fall in love with Asa.

The feeling was mutual, although Asa was a little tired and cranky during our afternoon of visiting.  With Uncle Rick and Aunt Lin, however, Asa was head-over-heels.

And that was before the pre-birthday celebratory cupcake, with included candle-blowing lessons.  (Lessons included, "don't kiss the candle, blow on it!")

When we left, Asa was begging to have his Aunt and Uncle get in the car and come with us.  We promise another visit, sooner than later.  Maybe we can convince Granna and Pap Pap to come, too?

Big Boy Bed!

We interrupt a chain of posts on our recent vacation for breaking news... No, not the impending hurricane; nothing to do with Sprout, either.  Well, maybe a little to do with Sprout.  But mostly to do with Asa.

Because Asa now has a big-boy bed.

We got a lovely hand-me-down bed from Auntie Sarah's parents.  It was, in fact, both a crib and a toddler bed for Sarah and her brother... um... several years ago.

A couple of minor changes had to be made: this style of drop-side crib/bed is now illegal... not to mention that it's not as needed on a bed as it was on a crib.  Besides, despite having slept on something similar as a kid (as did we all, in the 70s), this hardware made me nervous.

(Yes, I know.  Modern first-time overly-nervous mother.  I admit it.)

Also, new models of mattress are slightly shorter than the old ones, so that had to be taken into account.  With all that in mind, I took off all the hardware, removed the lower-leg section so that the footboard would be lower than the headboard, and began to prime the wood - most of Asa's room is white or cream, after all.

(The imprint of the mattress texture.  It had been in a hot attic for a while, after all.)

After a fairly short while, it became apparent that the easiest thing to do would be to make a new platform, to replace the metal side supports.  So after a couple of days in the basement with power tools and primer, we had this, ready to paint:

Which meant that today, it was time to take apart the crib.  I had a good helper - and he had a hammer.

Now, originally, we were just going to bring in a new bed.  But a trip to Ikea yesterday added a couple of fun touches... like a big bed net and a new play rug.  Asa calls the new net his "castle".

Yes, I let the pregnant one hang the net.  What can I say?  She's taller.  Doesn't the room look empty?

It took a little finagling to get the bed into the room, and then I had to reattach the rails and do a little paint touch-up.  The bed was supposed to be white, but the color we actually got was a good match for the walls.

Then we made the bed...

...and stood back.

A lot of rearranging, on the assumption that we'll have to fit the crib back in here soon enough, but it does look bigger.

And I think Asa likes it.

Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. C.!  We love you!

Vacation, part 1

Sorry about the long delay - it's been one thing after another since we've been home, and posting hasn't actually been the priority.  I didn't even get most of these photos downloaded until today!  But here you are, patient blog-followers: the first weekend of our last vacation, otherwise known as Asa and his many many cousins.

M.'s cousins do enjoy a good get-together.  We eat, and chat, and eat, and play with the kids, and eat, and swim, and eat.

This was the first of these reunions in which Asa was not under direct adult supervision at all times.  He ran and played with the kids, discovering the drumset, the books, the puppets, and all the joys of cousins.  He swam like a fish (with help... okay, for that part he had adult supervision) and played chase in the water with the kids.  It's a strange lesson, this learning to trust that the child you can't actually see is still okay, and not in imminent danger.

It was also really nice to have one extra night to spend in peace and quiet with just our reunion hosts.  We got to have longer and more relaxed conversations - even to watch a ballgame together.  Sox-Yankees, at that.  I'm just sorry none of us made it to the Sox' win, at the end of extra innings...

Truction Wiggles

After ten days of traveling, much of which involved long hours in the car, Mommy and Mummy developed a rather perverse fondness for road construction - notably, for the large equipment that distracted a small boy from the boredom of being strapped into a seat.  This was the last day, as we were caught in traffic on our rainy drive home - and even "truction wiggles" (construction vehicles, to the uninitiated) weren't enough to keep him happy, and he started chewing on his toes.  Did I mention the three teeth he cut during those ten days?

Sorry for the angle - someday, I'll remember to keep my phone turned on its side while I take video.