Visit with Nana

At the end of May my mom came to stay with us for five days. It was entirely too short of a visit, but we tried to make the most of our time together. Over the weekend we spent a fair amount of time out and about. The pool at our apartment complex has opened for the summer so we took the kids to hang out by the water for a bit. Gabe likes to get in the kiddy pool, but the girls are still content to watch and throw toys into the pool for Gabe or mom or dad to retrieve. Other fun activities included visiting farm animals at Stew Leonard's (a dairy farm turned grocery store that boasts live farm animals and animatronics inside the store so the kids can gawk at talking chickens and lobsters flipping on a trapeze in the seafood section), Gabriel eating his first ice cream cone while the girls slept in the car, going to Muscoot farm to see more animals and explore an old working farm, a trip to the mall, and plenty of fun at home. Garrett and I also, as has become our habit, took full advantage of having a grandparent in town and we spent a night with some friends in the city. On Sunday morning we woke up, got some treats at Starbucks, and took a leisurely walk in Central Park. It was really fun walking around our old neighborhood and the parts of the park where we used to walk Haley when we first moved to Manhattan.



I really did not want my mom to leave. I've been having a hard time this spring keeping up with the kids and feeling like I just don't know how to spread myself wide enough for all of them. Abigail has been having a dreadful time with what has developed into fairly chronic tummy aches that cause her a great deal of pain. It's led to some mighty tantrums from all three kids given the strain of me trying to meet all of their needs and ultimately failing. We are plugging away but feeling the stress of it all. It has been hard too, that the kids are not talking more. If only they could just tell me what they want! It has been very trying. But at the same time I have seen a lot of progress in their speech and overall communication. Amelia has finally learned to say "bear" which is handy since she has two teddy bears that she can't seem to live without. Our house is filled with babble now and new words as the kids experiment. Many words don't stick right away, but some do, so I'm hearing lots of attempts and variations at words like cracker, out, open, door, chair, puppy, up, boom, on, off, diaper, and shoes. Shoes are the new big thing in our house these days. The kids are obsessed with them, especially the girls. Abby has perfected wearing flip flops, which is pretty darn cute, and Amelia is so smitten with shoes of any sort that she has taken to stealing them off of her siblings' feet. Today she almost made Abigail face plant on the concrete at the pool's edge while Abby clopped around in my flip flop sandals, and later this afternoon I caught her trying to take Gabe's crocs off his feet while he walked around the apartment. Guess I better keep an eye on that.

Any other kind souls out there who want to come visit? There are plenty kids for all to enjoy!