Careers, Cousins, and (Seriously) Dangerous Content

With only a few days left with Sarah, you bet we lived it up. On Sunday we stayed up playing Ticket to Ride and eating decadent chocolate lava cakes. That was Sarah's request, or else I wouldn't have made it. ;)

Monday was the first day of swimming lessons for my boys, and they were excited to be in their new levels. They love their teachers, and last year decided they'd be life guards like them. However, after the first lesson Josh changed his mind.

Josh: I decided I'm not going to be a life guard. It's boring. All you do is watch people swim.
Me: Well, when you're a teenager, you have two options. Cook the hamburgers in the back of McDonalds or be a life guard. Which one do you guys want?
Josh and Noah in unison: Lifeguard!
Josh: Do the lifeguards get money?
Me: Yes.
Josh: How much?
Me: Probably about 8 dollars each hour. So, if they teach kids swimming lessons for 3 hours and then watch people swim for 3 hours, that's almost 50 dollars.
(The sound of amazement and elation.)
Noah: Dad should have made the choice to be a lifeguard, then we'd have lots of money.
Me: Dad actually makes 3 times what lifeguards make, or more. There's just lots of things we have to pay for.
Josh: Okay, I want to be what Dad is, the guy that does stuff at the state capitol.
Noah: I want to do something like be a builder. Do those guys make a lot of money?
Me: It depends on what you build and if you're in charge.
Noah:(after throwing out a few suggestions) How about hotels? Will I make a lot of money building hotels?
 . . . And that is how my 5 year old worked out his American dream.

On Tuesday Miss Madeline and Miss Violet fed the ducks with Lissy and me while the boys did swimming. It was adorable to see cousins and ducks, even if Lissy ate the bread like they were croutons. I will post pictures when I get them. After that, we all stayed for open plunge, and of course it was too fun. Josh and Noah could spend all day going off the diving board. I really don't know when they would stop if I didn't ever leave. Lissy decided she likes floating in the deep end, and was extremely upset that I wouldn't just let her go. Besides swimming, we had all sorts of cousin-fun . . .

My boys introduced Madeline to this game - she's no wimpy girl!

Andrew's sunglasses kill me.

This was the most-participated-in activity for these two little girls. They would activate the  music on the big toy, then dance around as they cooked in the little play kitchen.

Every CF treatment was a huge draw for the kids. Can't resist a book.

Another treatment, another arrangement. They can't get enough.

Sarah couldn't go all the way back to Pennsylvania with no Cafe Rio, so we had to do Taco Tuesday with her. As we were pulling out of the driveway, it was cloudy, but not raining. Josh saw a few "strucks of lightning." Then, as we grew closer to town, the rain started, then got worse and worse, until it got so severe I would have had Gary pull over if we weren't a hundred yards from the restaurant. Gary pulled up right in front of the door so I could get out with the kids, and there was nothing but a mini-van between us and the building. I jumped out grabbed Lissy, and ran in, tripping and nearly crashing both of us to the floor. When we all got inside I couldn't believe it - we were so soaked it looked like we'd jumped into a pool, and we couldn't have been outside longer than 10 seconds. I have never seen rain that hard in my life, and I've seen some wacky storms in Hawaii.

Dinner was marvelous, of course, and when we left we did a little kid-swap and each went to different grocery stores. We took Madeline, and Sarah took Noah. Mads didn't want to get out of the car, but then Josh said, "They have really cool carts for kids to drive." She jumped right up and said, "Mommy never gets those." (I understand, lots of moms don't.) The girls were very excited to drive together, and the dynamic of having 2 of each gender was so different than our usual 3 to 1 ratio.

They're so excited to be driving together!

Sarah and I stayed up talking until 3:30, and just barely scratched the meaning of life, so I guess not long enough? They were set to leave on Wednesday, but not before the kids got some major playing in. I mean major, I think they showed Madeline every toy we have. And then left them out. It's not every day they get to play with their PA cousins, though, so I let them go and go.

This is probably my favorite thing these two did. So funny and adorable.

The climber/trampoline jumping game got a whole new dimension when super-hero costumes were added.

Madeline was definitely into her batman role.

The little girls were getting bounced too high by the super heroes, so I  decided to put out a quick water play activity for them. They were excited, but then it turned out so were the super-heroes.

The kids were disappointed that the vehicles wouldn't float, but then Noah remembered using foil to make boats at preschool. They each got a piece and had made some great boats.

Lissy did a treatment for almost the full half hour the day Sarah and company left. She loved it, and Noah captured it on camera. I think I need one of these to keep her occupied.

Madeline and Lissy popping bubble wrap together.

Cousins in the summer - what could be more amazing?

The second Sarah and children drove away, I was sad. Boo for living far away. I guess the point is, though, hooray for having people in my life that make me feel like life is awesome.

This is where things start to get dangerous. Actually, they got super dangerous on Tuesday when Noah literally stuck a fork in a light socket. He scorched the socket, burned a hole in the side of the fork, and tripped the breaker, but says he felt nothing. I had the griddle plugged in, and he thought it would be a good idea to saw the fork between the plug and the outlet. I seriously saw sparks fly, and I cannot believe he avoided the hospital on that one.

This picture doesn't do it justice at all. The fork looks much worse in real life.

Thursday was the perfect day for swimming lessons. The boys enjoyed themselves as usual (Josh was learning to "shred" water, so that's awesome), and then we all stayed afterwards to swim. Lots of people we know were there, so we chatted and played until late in the afternoon. The perfect way to beat the heat and enjoy a relaxing summer. We came home absolutely beat. We did have an incident where Lissy flipped off the top of a railing that is above my head and landed kinda on her head, but she was fine. Once again avoided medical care.

As I was making dinner, Andrew asked if he could swat some flies. I let him, and he was on the hunt. He was on the top of the couch trying to get a fly when he slipped and fell. I saw him as he hit the ground, and ran over to console him, when I saw blood going everywhere. I know head wounds bleed a TON, so I didn't immediately know if he would need stitches. The problem was, there was so much blood I couldn't find where the wound even was. I was putting pressure on it and considering cutting a chunk of his hair out, when Noah suggested ice. Brilliant! Between the ice and pressure, the bleeding slowed enough to see the gap in his head. It was a short gap, but definitely a gap that wasn't going to heal without some help. Noah was sooo sweet to sit there and hold the ice pack on his brother's head, and our neighbors were awesome to take my other 3 kids all half-dressed as they were. I think Noah and Lissy had a full outfit between them.

After all the accidents at our house that week, Andrew was the one who had to go in. He was super brave at the urgent care. He was sad, but not crying, just quiet and huggable. The doctor and the nurse were so impressed with him as he got his 3 staples. Those staples were so gross - if it were anywhere but the back of his head they would have had to do something else to keep it together. I was planning to get him a get-well treat, but he was so tired out he fell asleep in the car after about 2 minutes. Aw, buddy . . .so sweet. He slept until we woke him up at midnight to check for head injuries. Maybe an over-board precaution, but I didn't want to be that parent who ignores advice and ends up in the E.R.

They made him a pink ninja when we first got there to get the numbing gel activated. Love this boy.

Andrew's injury wasn't so bad as far as injuries go, but with one sad consequence - no more swimming lessons. He was only 4 days into his 9 day class! He loves swimming so much, and his brothers were still having their lessons, so I felt super bad for him. Also,we had plans with friends to stay after lessons to swim, so sad for all of us, none of that could happen.

On Friday I took Andrew to feed the ducks during lessons, and that was a pretty awesome substitute for the day. Once again, what a sweetie-pie! He was so good at getting little pieces, and so delighted when the ducks would eat them. He would share with Lissy willingly any time he was asked. Lissy actually got into the spirit of it, and learned how to tear off small pieces and throw them herself. What great strides she made in 3 days!

From the top of his head, Andrew could be Josh at that age. Which wasn't very long ago. Which is why I blog. Sigh.