Saturday, January 29

Happy Kansas Day!  It's my home state's 144th birthday. You can celebrate by singing a song while you look at some Kansas pictures.

After hibernating for 2 weeks we finally got out of the house today. We all went to the ICA. We couldn't stay very long because Iris was not enjoying herself at all. But since it's a pretty small museum, it didn't take long to see everything anyway.  After we were done there, we went across the street to the Prudential Center to walk around.

The Prudential Center was packed full of dentists, which were recognizable from the green and yellow bags that they were all carrying. Eric brought home 5 of these bags, all full of toothbrushes, toothpaste and tons of really exciting dental paraphernalia, when he went to Yankee Dental on Thursday.

Here is a picture of Henry dressed for Tae Kwon Do and here is a picture of Eric and boys playing in the snow.

Sunday, January 23

We got some snow here in Boston. This is the view from our dining room window. 

I haven't been out of the house since I drove Theo to school on Thursday. All 5 of us have been pretty sick all weekend and the boys have been sick off and on for about 10 days now. I think I may have discovered the source of my family's ill health when I was looking through the photos from Henry's t-ball class from a week ago Friday. Here are 2 more pictures: 1 and 2.  You can see for yourself the little girl is not doing too well.

I also thought I would post this picture of Iris from earlier this evening. You can see where she got her stitches.

I obviously haven't switched over to Movable Type yet.  I don't want to use one of their basic templates and I got a little overwhelmed when I tried to set one up myself. So I'm now waiting for the Movable Type Bible which I ordered to arrive.

Thursday, January 20

Happy Inauguration Day - NOT!

Not One Damn Dime Day has been making the email and internet rounds lately. I truly believe that we as Americans can make a powerful statement with our wallets, but I don't completely agree with this as a form of protest.  I don't see how not spending a few dollars at the local independent coffee house or bookstore, especially those with liberal or democratic owners, sends a message. Of course, I won't be stopping at Exxon to fill my tank today. (Luckily I won't need to either!)

We're going a little stir crazy here, but that comes with this time of year. With the cold weather and the boys swapping viruses we have been homebound. Henry will have missed school, as well as all of his other activities, every day this week. Theo is finally better and will go to school this afternoon. 

For all of you with young kids at home to entertain, Starfall is a nice and fun website.

Monday, January 17

Happy Birthday Grandma!

I want to show off the two pieces of furniture that I found on Craigslist recently. We bought this dresser from a woman who is moving to Ireland and we picked up this chair this evening. The man selling the chair mistakenly listed it for less than half of what he really wanted for it so it was a real bargain. Let's just say I got both pieces for less than $150. Craigslist rocks! We found our current apartment using it.

We didn't do much this 3 day weekend. Theo was a little sick and the weather has been pretty lousy. I did bundle up the babes and get them out for a little fresh air today. It was really the first time Iris walked around in the snow. I don't think she had that much fun because she fell down a lot. I brought the camera with me because I did promise pictures. So here they are.

The Kung Fu class didn't work out. It was actually kind of a weird scene. One instructor wanted Theo in the class but the other one thought he was too young. But he said Theo could prove himself worthy of joining by memorizing the creed. He's not even 4 years old! Anyway, we're going with Tae Kwon Do at another place and only Henry wants to do it now. Which is just fine.

I Have a Dream

Tuesday, January 11

We went to the zoo today to see the new baby gorilla.  If you live anywhere near Boston, you have got to go see it. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. (Besides my own children, of course!) It's also the perfect time of the year to go to the zoo. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. Besides the friends who joined us, I think I saw 3 or 4 other small groups there.

Eric and the boys are checking out a kung fu class. I don't have the slightest interest in martial arts but Eric used to do Kyokushin when we lived in Japan. There's a small dojo in Henry and Theo's preschool building so we thought we would let them give it a try. I'm a little afraid this may encourage the boys to be more physical with each other, but I don't think that is possible. Perhaps it will just channel their energy instead of having them wrestle willy-nilly all over the apartment. I do like some of the principles involved:  modesty, moral character, discipline and so on. I especially think it will be good for Henry who is starting to show some hyperactive tendencies.

I don't have any new pictures of the kids, but I will try to take some tomorrow or the next day.

Monday, January 10

Yesterday we went to the Mapparium at the Mary Eddy Baker Library. It's a 3 story stained glass globe with a glass bridge going through it.  They give a seven minute presentation where they turn down the lights and back light the globe. It was really cool. The boys were a little freaked out, mainly because the guide made a joke about not dropping anything off of the bridge and crushing the penguins at the South Pole. They spent most of the presentation worrying about Iris dropping things or falling. (There was no way she could have done either.)

Anyway, the globe was made in 1935 and has not been updated since. Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Italian Somaliland and Manchukuo are just a few names on it. I found this interesting website: Historical Atlas of the 20th Century. Besides his own maps, the author provides a great list of Historical Maps on Other Sites. Though there are quite a few dead links there is still a lot of interesting information.

Tuesday, January 4

Happy New Year, a few days late. I generally don't make resolutions; I believe that one should constantly strive for self improvement. (Ha Ha)

Instead of joining 1,000,000 other people at Boston's First Night celebration we went to nearby Quincy's smaller scale festival. We met friends, watched a parade and fireworks and the boys got to jump in a moonwalk. The kids were in bed by 10:00 and I got to greet the New Year with a Law & Order: SVU rerun with Eric sleeping next to me on the sofa.

On New Year's Day we tried to go for a hike but it was too slushy and slippery. The boys got wet and dirty and Iris was not happy about riding in the backpack.

I tend to be squeamish when charities promote a religious message while helping others, but I was really impressed by what I read about the Salvation Army on Dr. Mercola's Blog.  What we donate to the tsunami victims may be through them.

Fear mongering news articles like this one really irritate me.