Music Together...

Today was our first Music Together class. Liam and I took the Summer off and we are back into the swing of things. Liam had been back and forth about wanting and not wanting to go. He has been in these classes since he was six months old, so two years. He was a little tired of them- so was I. It was nice to have Summer off, but Liam is so musically inclined that I felt a little guilty about possibly not taking the class. It is also a 10 week class and he will have heart surgery in October so we will miss some of it. It is also expensive, so I wasn't sure if, in this economy, it was worth. The fact is that I will do anything for my kids, even if it means scrimping somewhere else so that they can reap the benefits of some class. Liam is so vocal and, although this was the first day, still tries to "sing" to the songs, whether he knows them or not {which we don't know 95% of them yet}. The class was a success, he really loved it.

After his class ended we ate some food and had to go pick up Aiden from school. Then we were off to GG's house. Reminding me how much he loved his class he was singing "A Ram Sam Sam" pretty loudly, not necessarily to anyone, just singing as children do, mindlessly. The thing is that all the adults noticed. GG Alice commented on how he was singing a new song and I explained that we had our first class of Music Together today.

We went huckleberry/blackberry (mmmmmhh) picking and then cut up some apples and made a yummy {and healthy} crisp. The kids ate some for 4 pm snack time.

That's about it for our day..more later...

Grandparents day...and more...

This morning we went to Pancake Breakfast with the boys. We haven't gone for 6 months and it sounded fun. Afterward, we went to a spot that you can take a fantastic picture of Mendocino. I haven't ever really took pictures of the town (well, village really). I got pictures of the boys sitting with the town in the background and pictures of just the town and the beach. The boys really like seeing this "new" little spot and wanted to do some other things that they have never seen or done while living in Mendo. We decided to go down to Big River Beach, but instead of going on the river side we went down the steps and stayed on the ocean side {eww, so new and exciting, right?}. There was a new log that was HUGE and so smooth and fun to walk on. Aiden was being so daredevilish and even jumped from 6 FEET!! Even I {albeit, I confess, I am not a daredevil} would be a little scared of that. I am a wuss when it comes to heights {maybe it was all the jumps I saw my father do that really got me scared}. Anyway, Aiden was leaping to his little hearts content. After that shiny newness wore off we went to a little "pond" as the kids called it. In reality it was just nasty saltwater that has been cutoff from the ocean and is now stagnate. They threw sand "asteroids" in for a while and splashed around. Aiden was walking around when he found this fish, on its back, in really shallow water. He was like, "whoa, look at this it's really cool." I was looking at it and then noticed that its gills were moving. I was like, "oh my gosh it's still alive." I flipped it over and grabbed it and slipped it into the water. I think that it was fine. It swam to the bottom and when we checked on it a little later it was gone from the spot that it was relaxing in. I wish i would have taken a picture before I picked it up. My split reaction was that it was going to die so it needed water ASAP. We played for a while longer, making an island for each of the boys. Finally we got home.

We had plans to meet up with friends at their house to have a late lunch, and so that i could bring over some baby stuff for her. The boys really enjoyed hanging out with them and getting to know them better {they are newer friends}.

When we got home we invited Lucas's parents over because it was Grandparents Day. We bought them flowers and made a card and had a really nice dinner with them. They left just before brushing time.

The rain today was a welcome surprise and made everything look all new and shiny. Looking forward to more rain and Fall to arrive. Shorter days, fires, tea and hot chocolate, splashing in puddles and snuggling inside all sound so nice.

These are a couple of random pictures from an earlier time.... they were too cute not to include.

Brothers bumping around...

I JUST took these and immediately loaded them onto my computer because they are so cute. While I was in the house uploading them Liam got his toe ran over and the fun was over. Aiden went on to something else and Liam soon returned to the car after a few tears and a nose wiping. He is back laughing outside with Grammy Mona on the porch. So here they are...enjoy.

Catheterization...

Here are the photos from our trip to San Francisco. We had lots of fun with cousins and going to the Aquarium of the bay and the Exploritorium. We also walked around San Francisco and found some nice parks for the kids to play in. After all the fun came the hard part. Liam had his cardiac catheterization and while he did do just fine, we are always worried and, come on, how fun can a hospital really be? So enjoy the pics of family and fun, and some that aren't much fun. Also, the video that I described on the post before this is on this post, for those of you that were confused.

Back from the hospital...

I will post pictures very soon of our trip. Here are two very cute videos of the boys, both taken at UCSF over the past two days. In one, Aiden is wearing the doctor stuff that he was given to pretend to be a doctor and make things seem less scary. In the background Liam is still sleeping from his catheterization and he is getting a sonogram of his heart, which you can kind of see on the screen. In the other video Liam has been awake for a while from his procedure and starting to become bored with laying in the hospital bed. He hated staying still for hours. Enjoy...