No, they can't just leave her alone.

Mary sleeping peacefully

This is what happens if Mary is ever sleeping peacefully. Stanley's leg is blurry because he is leaping off some kind of furniture and landing inches from her face. If there is no furniture nearby, he takes a running start.

He just loves his little sister, that's all.

Science park

The St. Louis Science Center is pretty close to our apartment here. There is a playground outside that is usually overrun with field-tripping school kids, but if you go in the evening or first thing in the morning, it is a fun place for the boys to play. Stan has been obsessed with the science center ever since Scott took him to a planetarium show there, and he asks to go there nearly every day. We have made it to the park a few times, and inside the building once or twice.

Henry is turning the wheel on the gear thingy. We like how it's so big.














This is a house/maze kind of thing made of different colored transparent panels to demonstrate color mixing.

















The boys are about to pull the starter on the Gravity Race.














We have also made it out to the zoo once since Mary has been born. I had mary in the Moby Wrap and the boys in the double stroller and we made it aroud ok. It wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. I like the zoo because there are other people with two or three kids, so I feel like less of a spectacle than I do just going around our hip "walkable urban" (i.e. no kids) neighborhood.

The first day of the rest of my life

So, my mom went home today around 5 pm, and I was left to my own devices for two whole hours before bedtime. I managed to get dinner served and then the boys and I made a blueberry buckle (like a very sweet blueberry coffee cake) to take up the time between dinner and bed. It was a little nerve wracking, since henry is still a little young for cooking, but we got it in the oven and I started on the dishes. I looked over a minute later and found Henry playing with probably a cup of salt he had poured on the table and floor. I put away the salt (I should have known) and swept it up with the little hand broom and dust pan, which I then left on the table. I started the dishwasher and began the hand-wash items. I looked over at henry and saw that he had opened up Stanley's box of soymilk and was pouring it into the dustpan, which, being a dustpan, was letting the milk run right out onto the table and floor. After dessert I picked the lock of the boy's room (Stan locks each door in the house and pulls it shut, as of yesterday), let Mary cry while I took care of a 5-wipe diaper of Hen's, and did a quick ni-night time. They are in there now throwing something at the mini-blinds, but at least no one is crying yet. I am locked out of my room and cant get the bobby pin to work, so here I am. And Stan just let Henry out--so much for them being in bed. ll,lkk. bjjgg nhjm,

Two weeks

Green and purple shirt

For comparison's sake

Serious harmonizing on the invisible mike.

Forest Park III

We finally put batteries in Stanley's bubble gun, which he got for his birthday. Lots of fun.

Forest Park II

Ants


Heading for a mud puddle.



Mid-stride



Bird

Forest Park

Lookin' good, pre-natal style.


Stanley plans his next move.


Stanley watching the MetroLink from the bridge above.


Henry pushing the pram as Stanley looks on.

Fathers and Sons II

I took Stanley on a campout on May 9-10 with many others from church. We had a fun time, and Stanley slept very well in his doubled-up sleeping bag. I was pretty cold during the night, mainly because I only had this thin red jacket to wear, having forgotten the other jacket at home in the midst of everything else. It was fun, though.




Stanley as a four year old

Fathers and Sons

First there were two boys.


Then there were three.


Then there was a fire.



Then there was dangerous playing around the fire.

More Mary Elaine

None of the boys had cheeks like that when they came out.