My Ice Cream Headache

I like to curl up on the couch and enjoy a scoop of ice cream from time to time. It's a treat I don't indulge in often, but I do try and enjoy it when I can. I have learned that I can't have ice cream to myself when the kids are around, however. They flock to me like ants and then proceed to beg with wide-open mouths for a share, while saying "ahhhhh" like they're at the doctor's office.
Yesterday we went to a carnival at my aunt's church. The kids each got a scoop of ice cream of their own, and for once there wasn't anyone trying to steal bites of my ice cream.

At the carnival they also got to go on a mechanical elephant and lion. These things were pretty fun, and I think Toby really enjoyed riding them with his cousin Tova.

My "Kermit" Crab-Catcher

Toby and I discovered that hermit crabs are very easy to acquire at our local beach. Toby called them "kermit" crabs for a little while. We even brought a bucket full home one time. They didn't last through the night, sadly.
But we've spent our last two trips to the beach searching the shallows for these little guys. Then we put them in a bucket at the shoreline and Toby tells all the passersby about them. All I have to do is stand in the water and feel them crawl across my toes and reach down and grab them. Kinda creepy, but it keeps Toby occupied.

My Neighborhood

I was out jogging yesterday afternoon and -- for the second time in a month -- was stopped by a passerby asking for directions. It felt kind of nice to be able to help out these people (one was a cab driver looking for the airport and yesterday a woman was looking for a building on campus--about a half mile away from campus). It's a little bit freaky to be jogging along (slowly, of course) with my headphones on and then get flagged down by an oncoming car, but it made me proud to be able to point these drivers in the right direction. It was also lucky that they asked me about places I knew around here because there are easily as many streets that are unknown to me as those that are familiar. That's why I am enjoying jogging around the neighborhood. It's helping me to learn about back routes and streets that I never would have driven down. For example, I found an old school the other day while mapping out a new route. It was all weeded over and closed, but it looked like it was a nice school back in the day.

My First Tomato

Toby picked the first red tomato of the season yesterday. He then proceeded to launch it across the yard like a golf ball, oblivious to the fact that this was a momentous occasion for me, the novice gardener. It shows that despite my utter lack in skill, weeding, and overall attention, our garden has actually produced an edible vegetable. Well, I guess that fact remains to be seen because our first visibly-edible vegetable is now rotting somewhere near the neighbor's fence, or has been devoured by a local rodent. (Which we have several; have I mentioned Toby's attempt at petting a skunk, thinking it was a cat?)

We have five or six blooming tomato plants and three or four peppers (on six pepper plants). We've used the basil we planted in several dishes, but it now looks like it's been eaten away by bugs. We'll see if we can salvage any more of it to coincide with the fothcoming tomato harvest--a summer Caprice Salad was our original goal when we started the garden back in April.

My Morning Paper

Today was kind of weird because Norah actually got up before Toby and so I got to spend some time with just my daughter. That doesn't happen often because usually Toby is up first and goes to bed later. So we made a blueberry pie. I think she learned a lot, but specifically that she likes blueberries that have been tossed with sugar.
Toby and I spent time reading the paper after Norah went down for a nap. But since Toby doesn't read (yet) and certainly has little to no interest in the New York Times I made it into a game. I got a pen and put circles all around the letters in his name that we found on the front half of the Business Day section (above the fold). We spelled his name four times over and then he wanted to find the letters to spell zoo. We did (thanks to an article that mentioned "Amazon") and then we tried finding all the letters in the alphabet. We did it very quickly with the letters in the headlines and thanks to a blurb about the Red Sox and an article about the flu vaccine (influenza). We had a lot of fun and it makes me appreciate the fact that we subscribe to a paper that can occupy me and Toby with a simple "find the alphabet" game, while enabling me to read up on the news too.

My Kids and the Big City

Here are two pictures I got off of BJ's phone yesterday, even though they were taken weeks ago when we went to New York City. Norah and I are smiling from the enclosed children's play area inside Central Park. We also grabbed a picture walking down part of 5th Avenue after leaving the Park (Toby's tongue is blue from the ice cream treat he just finished). It'll be fun to look back on these pictures some day and see what we were able to do with the kids.

(Update: BJ and I have officially signed up for the 5K race in September. I am excited to see our progress, though I feel like 3.2 miles is still a long way off from what I'm able to accomplish right now. Hopefully our knees will keep up with the training--from nothing to 3.2 miles is a lot--and our kids will cooperate for us to fit the workouts in while our runs are getting longer.)

My Sleepy Head

Toby fell asleep yesterday while snacking on pretzels in the car. We snapped a picture with BJ's iPhone.