Things I never thought I'd know . . .

Before having a little boy in my life, I couldn't have imagined a day where . . .

I'd know each one of these cars' names, could speak in their accents and wouldn't mind watching them over and over and over on television:

I'd know the theme song to Thomas ("They're two, they're four, they're six, they're eight . . . ") and could tell you which one of these green trains is Emily (left), Henry (middle) and Percy (right):

I'd be able to tell you which one of these trucks is a backhoe and which is an excavator.  And that a little part of me gets excited now when I see a bus . . . even if it's when I'm driving in the car by myself.

Having a little boy has opened my eyes to lots of new experiences.  Some are expected . . . like Evan already giggles every time anyone passes gas.  And some are unexpected . . . like finding joy in buying matchbox cars for Evan.  I won't lie that I am going to miss never getting to enjoy watching The Little Mermaid with a daughter of my own. But my eyes are being opened to a whole new world of boy things and it is a lot of fun.

Touch a Truck

On July 7th, despite 100+ degree heat, we headed to a Touch-a-Truck event in Haverford.  This type of event is something I had never heard of until I had a little boy in my life.  As I've mentioned before, Evan is obsessed with all things trucks.  He now enjoys car rides as long as we head through a construction zone on the way (which happens most of the time).  He joyfully proclaims the name of each truck as we pass by.  It certainly makes car trips much more bearable.  So when I googled and found out about a nearby fundraiser where children are allowed to climb and play in their favorite vehicles, I was beyond excited.  This would be like Christmas morning for Evan.  Unfortunately, the heatwave put a bit of a damper on our plans.  We arrived right when it started at 10:00 AM and it was already 100 degrees there.  It was held in a black-top parking lot, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and most of the trucks were turned on (engine heat).  Eric was sleeping in his car seat and I had to have the canopy over for the sun, which resulted in it being even hotter in his seat.  I knew we had less than an hour to enjoy the sights so we made the best of it. 

As in all new situations, Evan was a little slow to warm up.  I should know better by now - I expected him to go running to the trucks.  Instead, he was cautious and didn't seem to be thrilled.  But once he had a few minutes to warm up (no pun intended), he had just the reaction I had been hoping for. 

The first vehicle he was willing to climb into was the shool bus:

 I'm seeing into my future right here:

 Thrilled to be driving one of the fire trucks:

 With daddy in the fire truck:

 Now onto driving a police car with Brian pretending to be hand-cuffed in the back:

Another fire truck picture.  Can you see how sweaty Evan was?  This was from no running or activity - just walking around.  And no, he did not run under a hose or anything like that:

 Driving a SEPTA bus:

 Sitting in the excavator:

About 45 minutes after we arrived, we were on the way home.  I hope to attend another in the fall when we can hopefully enjoy it for more than 45 minutes.

Eric is 4 months old!

Eric turned 4 months old on Friday, the 13th.  Someone at Brian's work also informed us that Eric will turn 13 years old on Friday the 13th.  Uh oh! 

Eric had his 4 month appointment today and weighed 13 lbs, 4 oz (17th percentile) and was 23.5 inches long (5th percentile).  His head was also 15th percentile so at least he's proportionate.  He's our little peanut!  His big brother weighed more at 2 months old than Eric weighs at 4 months old. They have given new meaning to the term "little brother" and "big brother".

Eric continues to be our happy, easy-going boy.  Not much seems to phase him.  I hope he stays this easy-going.  He eats well, sleeps well and enjoys just taking in the sights around him.  He smiles most when we sing to him and does seem to like when his brother pays him some attention.  He very much looks like his father and may end up with his father's personality too.  And Eric also rolled from back to front on Friday - choosing to do so for Brian while I was upstairs playing with Evan.

Playing with Lily - can't quite tell but his legs are wrapped around her neck and he is grabbling her eyes.  Lily continues to be a saint with the boys:

And Eric in his exersaucer:

And as a comparison, just look at Evan at 4 months and how CHUBBY he was. He weighed 16 lbs at 4 months old.  Looking back at these pictures had me in tears of laughter.  Evan and Eric definitely do not have the same build:

Date Night at Longwood Gardens

Last night we hired our babysitter to watch the boys while we headed out to Longwood Gardens to see their exhibit by British artist Bruce Munro called "Light: Installations".  We started off our date night with a trip to get cheese fries and a milkshake to share on our way to the gardens.  We were excited based on the pictures we had seen of the exhibit, but we were even more impressed with what we saw when we were there.  I tried taking pictures but it honestly doesn't do it any justice.  I would highly recommend it, though.

These little fiber optic bulbs were everywhere in a forest section of the gardens and they changed colors often:

 A view of the forest, but again, this does not do it justice:

 Another close-up of the bulbs:

 The red sea:

 We made our way to the meadow next, where there were these towers of water bottles, filled with water and fiber optic lights.  The colors were amazing:

 A few individual shots of towers of different colors:

In the conservatory, these chandeliers were hung.  This is a picture of the same chandelier only a few seconds apart - the colors changed so suddenly and often that by the time I got my camera ready to shoot the color I wanted, it had already changed:

As we were leaving, we walked by a pond, which had beautiful reflections of the lights.  Again, the pictures don't do it any justice:

And if you'd like to read more, you can go to the following link:
http://light.longwoodgardens.org/

I think we'll be going back again before the summer is over to see it again. 

Fourth of July - 2012

We had quite the busy 4th of July this year.  We started the day off at the West Goshen decorated bike parade.  It was a hot day and Evan, as usual, did not want to be photographed.  But here he is just before the parade started.   

Not sure if you can tell or not, but the line of bikes goes the entire length of the picture.  There was almost as long of a line going to the left as well of strollers, wagons and training-wheel bicycles. 

 Here is Evan and Brian (notice his shorts) in the parade: 

 Enjoying his buggy ride:

At the end of the parade, they awarded 3 prizes to each division.  To our surprise, Evan actually won!  This is surprising because I don't consider myself to be artistically inclined, but I guess I did ok.  Evan picked a kick-ball and shovel as his prize.  Our neighbor also won in her division. 

 And once we got home to some cool air conditioning, Eric was more than happy to pose for photos:

Always an easy subject for the photographer.  I know they say you don't take as many pics of your second child as you did of your first.  But with the way my first is with pictures these days, we may end up with more of Eric:

And this was the only picture I could get where you could tell that the boys were in similar outfits - red/white/blue plaid shorts and navy shirts:

 Evan asked to hold Eric - he asks to hold him a lot more these days:

Brotherly love.  Right after this, Evan leaned down and kissed Eric.  Unfortunately, my camera's shutter speed was too slow and the picture is a total blur.  It would have been adorable had it come out clearly:

And Brian was feeling rather festive, so he went to Walmart and Kmart last night to find this outfit.  I was quite embarrassed by it but he wanted to show up to the party we went to in his holiday best:

After naps, we headed to Beth & Terry's where we played a fun, Olympics themed competition where 7 couples competed against each other in games such as water balloon toss, wheelbarrow race, and many minute-to-win-it type challenges.  I'm hoping it can be an annual event.  But we just got home at 9:15 and it's going to be rough for everyone tomorrow.  Oh well - it was worth it!  Happy 4th of July!