Living History

Here's a video clip from our trip to northern Michigan. We visited Fort Michilimackinac, which is on the south shore of the Straits of Mackinac, near where we camped. The Fort was built by the French in the early 1700s and and served as a supply post for fur traders. They do a great job of re-creating the time period and have lots of opportunities for participation. We wandered by while they were doing rifle training. As much as Miles loves playing with pretend guns, he got shy when the rifles were being handed out. Ruby stepped right up though! Everything went well until she realized she had been separated from mama.

Ruby Two

We celebrated Ruby's second birthday on Friday with cake, friends, balloons, and a few special drinks for the grown-ups. Ruby was excited to get out the Elmo party hats and she seemed to enjoy the presents too. She wasn't that interested in the cake (even though it was chocolate) but she was happy to have a Popsicle earlier in the day. She's been on quite a popsicle kick lately, and will declare just about any time of day "Popsicle time!"
Among her other 2-year-old tricks--screaming, sinking to the floor when she doesn't get her way, and bossing. She tells me to "stop it" when I sing to her, complete with her little palm out to me. Yesterday at the playground she told me to "sit on the bench" while she played on the slide with George and Miles. She can often be heard (by the neighbors I'm sure) saying "put it back!" (in reference to her comb) or "pick me up!" And "Ruby out!" is her favorite way to ask to be excused from the table, approximately one second after Miles is excused. She is quite loud, this one!

Catch-up Blog

I feel like I'm in summer limbo--having some time at home between trips. Our last trip was to York to visit with Oma, Opa, Kris and Kalea for 4 days, and our next trip is multi-stage, starting with 4 nights of camping with friends in northern Michigan. Much more preparation for that one! I'm dreading the 10-hour drive on Friday, but hoping the kids will stay occupied with the new DVDs from the library and the many small diversions I have ready for them (gift-wrapped too!)
In York, Ruby and Kalea did lots of Ring-around-the-rosie at home (and chase around the house), and Oma and Opa took us to Lake Tobias one day for a bus ride through the animal park. Miles liked feeding the animals right from the bus and he got up close and personal with the goats at the petting zoo. Opa also took us to see the new robots at the candy factory. Fun!

Back in Pittsburgh, Miles has been spending lots of time at Wil's house, three doors down. Yesterday we went down to visit but they weren't home. Then we tried 3 other friends on the street and 2 a few streets away. Miles and I walked around the neighborhood, then had popscicles on the porch, while Ruby and George napped. It was nice to spend some one-on-one time with him, just hanging out outside. When he is home during naptime I'm constantly reminding him to be quiet and he's constantly wanting me to get involved in his pretend play, which often involves pirates, fighting, flying on rocket ships, crashing, and firefighting. I find all this a bit tedious and will usually try to sneak away...which is futile of course! I'd much rather get out and take a walk around the neighborhood.
Ruby is always ready to go too, of course. Maybe she is like me in some ways after all! She's added some new words to her vocabulary, which I have not been diligently keeping track of as I did with Miles. But I can recall that she's started saying "fluffy" although not always applying it correctly. Yes, the duck in the book is fluffy, but mama's chin? I hope not. She also added "butt" (as in "baby butt," one of Miles' favorite insults) and "I don't want to" (in reference to getting dressed or going to bed, never to going in the car). She has a great appreciation for mamas and dadas and is always pointing them out in her books, whether they are people or animals. She is somewhat obsessed with Mickey Mouse and his clubhouse and will watch the same episodes over and over. (Not that she spends all day watching TV, just when I need to shower, cook, or maybe think.) She interacts with Mickey and friends, and she knows all the answers to his questions pretty well by now. She had been saying something I couldn't quite interpret, along


with a gesture of putting her hands over her mouth. I finally figured out she was trying to call "Oh Toodles" with her hands around her mouth, as Mickey does. Too bad the handy magic tool guy never shows up!