Tractors?

Tonight on Skype with my mom and step-dad, I told Jack to tell them what he saw at Central Park yesterday. I thought he was excitedly going to tell them tractors, instead he said "too many kids." I don't know where he comes up with this stuff.

I was telling my friend Regina about him saying that tonight and she said he's just becoming like a real New Yorker. "I'm not going to Time Square... too many people." "I'm not going here or there... too many people."

Laundry

One more post today.

I decided this afternoon that I didn't want to do laundry tomorrow. Typically I wait till Freddy T. is home because it's a lot to haul the laundry down 19 floors and kids. But this afternoon I decided to load the twins up in the umbrella stroller, sort everything in our apartment so all I had to do was drop it in a washer, and had my quarters separated as well. So Jack pushed the stroller, sort of, and I pushed the laundry basket. For one week of laundry it typically takes 6-7 loads. 6-7 filled to the top loads. This wasn't too bad, not ideal for sure, but certainly an option for getting it done.

First Shoes

Conversations

A few conversations I've had with Jack lately.

1) About a month ago I was putting Jack in bed on night and he began talking about monsters. How they were coming, they were in his room, etc. I chalked it up as pretend and convinced him for the night that monsters were just for fun, not real.

A few weeks later while we were away at the Inter Varsity camp I was carrying him down the hall and this is what he said...

(in a whispered, deep voice)
Mommy, the monsters are in the hallway. They're coming. They're getting in their car. They'll be here in a minute....

Then in a loud, high pitched voice he said "THE TICKLE MONSTERS!!!" at the same time he went crazy tickling my neck.

I had no idea that's what he was getting at the first time we talked about monsters.

2) A few nights ago we had a bad thunder storm here during the night. The kids all slept through it but the next morning the sky grew really dark and it started up again, not as long as the night before. It thundered real loud. Jack said, "Mommy what was that?" "It was thunder Jack." "Mommy, can you turn it off?" "No Jack, God makes the thunder I can't turn it off." "Well maybe God will turn it off so I can go outside and play."

3) Jack is always "building" houses. Multiple times a day he stacks all the pillows on our bed and brings the ones from his bed and tells me he is building a house. The other morning he had all the cabinet doors open in the kitchen(4) and he said he built a house and told me which "room" he would be in. He was calling the tiny space between the open doors rooms.

"Jack, when you grow up you can build houses with Uncle Bubba. Does that sound fun?"

"Ummm Yeah. I go to Tennessee and I climb a wadder(ladder) and I go up,up, up(hands going up in the air) and I open kitchen doors!(his hands go out in front of him like he is opening french doors)"

Lillie

Lillie was laying on her stomach in her bed and I thought she was asleep. So I grabbed the camera to get a picture. She's never fallen asleep on her stomach before so I wanted to document it. As soon as I put the camera in the bed she popped up... not asleep at all!

Our Kids

Jack hailing a taxi, it's his latest "New York" thing to do.
Lillie in the dress I (with lots of coaching from Great Gran) made for her

Sweet happy Elliott

Strolla Mommas

We conquered a new adventure this morning. Strolla Mommas. Melissa, friend of mine from church, told me about this exercise class in Central Park where you come when you want(no pre registration), pay 10 dollars, and you push your stroller while the instructor instructs you just as if you were in an exercise class.

My first question, "Is there anyone with a stroller like mine in the class?" The obvious answer was no! So Melissa, "Do you think I can do it?" "Probably, its flat, we just go around the Great Lawn doing the exercises." I figured it was worth a try. Exercising, meeting other moms, no need for childcare, why not?

So this morning we left the house at 9:52 am to make a 10:20 class. I knew where to meet and we made it just fine with time to spare. I can probably leave at 10 next time and be ok.
It was fun. It kicked my butt. It's not that the exercises are really hard but think of what I was pushing. 35 lb Jack, 18 lb Lillie and almost 19 lb Elliott... and that's just the kids! I have no idea what the stroller weighs but it's not light! I made it and did everything the other ladies did. I was always in the back of the line, there was a small distance between me and the person before me, but I did the best I could to keep up. It didn't take long for me to be breathing heavy and wondering how long this was going to last.

We made 2 laps around the Great Lawn then we took a little side trail so we could run up some stairs a few times and run a lap with out the strollers (the instructor watches the kids) and at the end we went to this little circle area, next to a pond, and did some stationary exercises. At this point the older kids got to get out and run. Jack had a good time. He helped pass out the stretchy things for one of our exercises and he picked them back up as well. He rode and had a snack while I was doing the other exercises. I was kind of surprised he did so well. The entire "class" is an hour, plus the 20 minutes it takes me to walk there each way.

So, will I work up enough motivation to go back next time? I think so. I do think it's cool that I get to exercise in Central Park and don't have to worry with trying to find child care. And who cares if a kid cries or needs a few minutes of attention. We're all moms in the same situation and every one understands. I think it's a pretty good deal.