Vacation update

Well, we have survived. Actually we're doing great! Good food, good people, not too hot. The girls have been good. We've watched a lot shows lately because it has been raining for the past 3 days, but they're doing good.

Dave showed Kate and Mary how to play a Playstation Scooby-Doo game and they're hooked. I think this has been the first time that Kate could actually play a game by herself and have some success so she's pretty excited about it. She gives John a play by play update everyday when he calls. Hopefully he'll have some time to play with them when he comes back because I keep telling them that Dad will show them when he comes if they ask me how to do something(I'm not really a computer game person although I have played with them a little).

Ruth has decided that if she can't find her dad, Dave is a pretty good substitute. Every day when he comes home from work, she hunts him down and makes him carry her around for about an hour. It's very cute. I went up to go to bed the other night and she was talking in her sleep, saying, "Da da!" really sadly. I think she thinks we lost him. It was sad and really cute at the same time. She definitely misses him and hopefully will be glad to see him when he returns.

I had the girls pick up all their stuff all over the house today and put it back in their backpacks that we brought with us. Emma took this as a sign that we were going home and came down wearing Ruth's backpack and pulling hers and saying, "I'm ready to go!" It took a little explaining until she understood that we had a while before we were leaving and we were just cleaning up. She is having fun but she enjoyed looking at John's pictures of home tonight.

Friday we went to the children's museum. It lived up to all expectations. The girls all played happily for almost 4 hours without a single fit or breakdown. It definitely was worth the money. They dressed up and tried on the cultures of South Africa, Mexico, Vietnam, and Holland. They fished to their hearts content and then dressed like fishmongers and sold the fish to each other. They played with a giant kitchen set and picked their own food in the garden. They helped build a house and played with puppets and all kinds of games. They're already clamoring to go back. I'd have super cute pictures but as usual I forgot my camera. Bummer!(All of the above activities were plastic replicas by the way)

Anyway life is good in Buffalo. The girls are having fun and so am I.

Day 4: Visit to the Art Museum

Today we took the girls to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery here in Buffalo. Fridays it is free from 3-9pm so we decided to give it a shot. Kate has been learning lots about art in school so now she is really into art museums. She must have asked if we were going 50 times today and 50 more in the last week (we thought about going last week but it didn't work out so she's been lobbying since then). When we went to the museum she insisted that I walk around with her and read her each piece's title and artist. But all the girls enjoyed the museum today.


This museum had quite of variety of works. There was a giant jack-in-the-beanstalkesque set of giant table and chairs. We all really liked that. There also were two huge sculptures made entirely of hair. The pictures are above. The other two pictures are a couple of other sculptures from the same exhibit that the girls really liked. We definitely saw some interesting things. They had a whole gallery displaying more abstract art and the girls really liked all the bright colors. The girls' hands down favorite though was the sculpture at the end that was just for kids to climb on with live jazz music playing in the background. I guess that just goes to show that hands on is always the most popular. Anyway it was a good trip. Kate is already lobbying us to go back next week. We'll see.


The other thing that I discovered today is that Emma really needs her naps. I didn't have her lay down this afternoon because we wanted to go to the museum and it was in the middle of her naptime. But about an hour after she usually lays down, she went crazy. She went from crying hysterically about something little to running around the house chasing her sisters or bugging them and back to crying. I don't if she needs naps so she can stay calm or so I don't go crazy, but she won't be missing another one soon.

Day 2 and 3

We've been playing outside and taking naps, that pretty much covers our days. Emma said (in a slightly indignant tone), "Dad went home and he left us here!" (She's been asking to go HOME since we got here and aparently she's hurt that John didn't take her.)

Grandma has a really cool backyard with lots of toys and the girls love to play out there. There's a kitchen set and a tool bench and a little playset and some bikes. We even broke out the chalk. There's also a sand box but that's getting limited use because it requires an accompanying bath. Anyway, it has been great weather, mid 60's and I've just sat out there and read my book and let them get tired. Her backyard is also very shady at all times of the day so we haven't even gotten sunburned. It's been very nice. I'm kind of jealous of her trees.

The girls have also been working on their stitcheries for their rag quilts (obviously I haven't made them yet). Even Emma tried to do one today. She was having a little trouble but she'll get it soon enough. I bought a small light box to help me trace the designs and it has worked perfectly. It's only about 5"x9" but it's great to use while traveling. I've gotten about 3 or 4 done since I've been here. Maybe I'll get their quilts done yet. My target is 10 stitcheries per girl and I have all of Ruth and Kate's done. I'm working on Mary's and Kate and Mary are helping me. Together maybe it will all work out. My absolute final deadline is before I have the new baby which gives until December. That ought to give me plenty of time.

Pretty much everyone's gone back to work now so we have space and quiet to enforce naps. Kate and Mary don't like it much, but Emma and Ruth have been sleeping 2-3 hours each day so I guess they need the naps. I need the naps too and they always seem to end too soon, but what else is new?

Other than that our vacation is going well. We're having a good visit and eating lots of good food. We miss John but he'll be back soon, so all's well.

Day 1 alone

Today was the first day that I was alone with my girls here in Buffalo. John left this morning on an airplane to go back home and I'm staying here for 2 weeks with the girls until he comes back.
He offered to take Ruth with him so I'd only have 3 girls to watch but Ruth really isn't much of a handful--she sleeps a lot and doesn't talk back yet-- and I really want John to do some cleaning projects at our home which wouldn't get done if he had to take care of Ruth.
I haven't been feeling all that well the last few days so I was a little nervous but thankfully this morning I woke up and felt much better. I think we will have fun here. The girls love spending time with their grandparents and uncle Dave and aunt Missy and Amy may be coming back too.
Today we went out and played outside in the sandbox and then ate lunch, had naps, took baths, ate dinner, and put the girls to bed. All in all things went remarkably smoothly. The girls were good. They didn't get crazy or even complain about going to bed. Kate misses her dad and wanted to call him but he's still on a plane so I told her we could call him first thing in the morning.
It's about 8:30pm eastern and I put the girls to bed at about 7 and they're still awake but that's about normal. Hopefully they'll go to sleep soon, when it starts to get dark and I hope they don't wake up Ruth. I'm pretty sure she went to sleep right away. But life is good. It feels pretty quiet here with just us visiting now after everyone had been here, but in some ways it is nice. The girls had a little bit more normal day today and it felt pretty relaxing.