August

On the way to the park this morning, stopped for a horse crossing.

On the evening of July 31, I was getting ready for bed and feeling kind of depressed at the thought of one long, hot month ahead of us with no plans.  So I decided that I would make August a big blow-out for summer. We'd do all kinds of fun summer things, a kind of "last hurrah" to the season, to being a family of 4, to the end of this pregnancy, etc.  This is what I came up with, a sort-of bucket list for the end of summer:

1. Splash pad

2. Ice cream

3. Peerless pool

4. Breakfast at the Track

5. Big Truck Day

6. Popsicles (make our own)

7. Pickles (make our own)

8. Carousel 

9. Visit 2 new parks

10. Breakfast out during the week

11. Meet RWF for lunch at work

12. Hair cuts (I only put this on the list because I can NOT have a list with an odd number of items. So #12 it is.)

So on August 1, I woke up with great, ambitious plans. I thought I'd take the kiddos to the splash pad, followed by the park, and maybe an ice cream in the afternoon.  Knock 3 items off my list in one day!  But that morning, Bode was a total grouch, wanting me to do everything and insisting that I was doing everything wrong.  And then I lost my phone.  For two hours (!!!), I hunted for my phone in vain. I was going ballistic. After tearing through the house,  I worried that I had thrown it in with that morning's wash.  I poked through wet clothes, pulling out tangled shorts and tees, only to find no phone.  Then I went into the dryer, where another load sat.  No phone, but I decided to use the time to fold the mass of clothes.

I ran around and around the house, going over the same places that I might have put my phone down.  I searched high and low. No phone.   I didn't want to leave the house without my phone. I knew that as soon as I did, it would be the morning that required an emergency phone call (and I'd have no phone to make it).  I was near tears in frustration. 

So I decided since we were stuck at home, I'd make the best of it. Stuck at home? --time for potty training.  I put Gianna into some big girl undies, and put in the potty training dvd (that came highly recommended, but sadly, fails).   Both Bode and Gianna were psyched about getting to watch TV. Yay!

Coloring the planets yesterday

After the dvd, I tried to get Gianna to use the big girl potty.  While we were in the bathroom, I heard Bode yell, "Here's your phone!"  I left Gianna on the pot and ran out to Bode.  "WHERE? WHERE WAS IT?" I demanded.  He was non-chalant and only shrugged.  "Here it is." I was relentless, because I had torn the house apart for the past two hours. "But WHERE was it, Bode? WHERE did you find it?"  He pointed to the back of the couch.  I had laid it on the back of the couch.  (whaaaat?)  I groaned. "It's okay," he said, "You have it now."

There were some previews to other dvds on this potty training dvd that we watched. One was about the solar system. This preview was maybe 30 seconds long.  And as soon as the potty training dvd ended, Bode started asking me about the planets. And I knew by the way he looked at me and the questions he asked, that this was not something that would soon pass. We spent the rest of the day doing "research" on the computer about planets (so much for our "no technology for our children" policy).  We printed out coloring pages, and colored the different planets.  We found songs on YouTube.  And because he insisted that we listen to this one planet song 5, 385, 984 times, he now knows the name of every planet, in order (and, it should be noted, so do I!).   And, did you know? Pluto is no longer considered a planet.

We went to the craft store and bought supplies to make our own solar system. After I had loaded our shopping cart with all the necessary supplies (at least, in my mind, since I was doing this without step-by-step instructions), I found a ready-made glow-in-the-dark model of the solar system.  It was only $20. I showed it to Bode.  I asked him if he wanted to make his own planets, or if he wanted this one that glowed in the dark (Cool! Sell!).  He said that he wanted to make his own. So we pushed our cart up to the register.  Our supplies ended up costing $55. Ooops.

The start of our solar system project

Venus, Earth, Jupiter (not to scale) (ha)

Mars and Mercury

He got to paint his own planets, while I worked on the real model. 

Today we went to the park.  But Bode would only go to the park if I promised him that when we got back home, we could work on our solar system. So that is what we did.  My summer plans are not going as planned, but I kind of like the turn they took.  I love how Bode is so curious about the planets.  We are nerds, yes. God love us.

I'll be happy if I knock out half of this end-of-summer bucket list by August 31. What are your plans  for the rest of the summer?  Anything that you must do to make it feel like you had a good summer?  

Happy Thursday.

xo