When what I'm doing feels right

Sometimes in the midst of staying at home raising two boys I lose sight of how important my job is. Tuesday just feels like trash day and not "I did something right" day. Sometimes I feel sad that we don't have much money and that we live in a small apartment with no yard for the boys to run free, we drive small paid-off cars and cook most meals at home.  

But then I have days like today, because on this particular Tuesday we met up with friends at the Children's Museum. Pittsburgh's Children's museum has been rated one of the best in the country for several years now. And this place, like the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Science Center, is familiar to Owen. He goes almost weekly and knows his way around instantly. Owen goes to these wonderful museums several times a week -- A WEEK! He takes classes, explores, paints, learns and grows.

They opened a new exibit in a large open space. This large inflatable rainbow tunnel is staffed at the entrance. Children wait in line and are allowed to run through to the other side. When we arrived there was a short line of kids. Keeping toddlers in a line is quite the job and several mothers were helping to teach the kids how to take turns. Owen was fearful at first and waited in line several times only to turn around and stand back beside me. My friend Erin walked to the end of the tunnel so that O could run to her.

And he did.

And then he waited in line to run through again and again. As lunch time approached kids trickled out and soon only Owen and Emmet were left. The attendant told them they could go in and bounce since it was just them.

They bounced and jumped and giggled for a half hour until they were tired.

The attendant told me that on the weekends the line wraps around the room and out the door all to run through this exhibit once. My kid bounced in a national exibit for a half hour because I've chosen to make small sacrfices and live on less to be home with him.

He isn't missing out, he's getting more. More of me and of this. As least for my heart and my children, it all feels right.

My friend, Erin had a baby a month after I did. She was one of the first people I met when I moved here and even though Emmet is almost a year older than Owen, they are great buds. We had a blast being pregnant together and now our boys Gillen and Teddy are going to grow up friends just like their big brothers. Erin sat at the other end of the tunnel cheering the boys through while nursing Teddy, I thought it was a beautiful picture.

Actually, the whole thing was just a beautiful day.

Phipps Botanical Gardens

We're thinking of getting a membership to Phipps Botanical Gardens. They have added a lot of kid-friendly activities, such as a train exhibit and a kids shopping market -- and it's such a beautiful, serene place to walk around. A friend of ours had some passes so I decided to take the boys to check it out.

Apparently 2.5 is not a great age to visit a flower museum. Owen was like a bull in a china shop. Unfortunately he picked flowers, ripped them to shreds and threw them in the walkway much to the horror of the 55 and older crowd. He also tried to climb into a pond, threw rocks and ran away from me. To top it off he crapped his pants and threw a giant tantrum when I tried to change him. --- I'm going to hold on to that membership application until he's done being 2.5

But here are a few pictures from the first fifteen minutes of our trip while he was still behaving himself. Don't let the cuteness fool you... this boy is in the midst of terrible twos at their WORST.

 Trains!

 

A very ducky birthday party

When Owen was a baby we took a land/river tour on a ducky-themed car/boat. He got a little whistle and while he was too young to remember the tour he found the whistle this summer and has been wearing it every day since.

Saturday was the 15th Birthday of the ducky tours in Pittsburgh and they celebrated with a duck and circus themed party. It was free and open to the public and while it was just a small affair, Owen thought it was great. He devoured his cupcake, got a ducky-shaped balloon animal, a duck "tatoo" on his arm and even had his picture take with a giant birthday duck.

Gil slept soundly in the stroller the entire time.

Ducky birthday party = success!

5 days old: Let's Ride on a Boat!

A busy Big Brother has no tolerance for laying around the house all day so we toured Pittsburgh via the Gateway Clipper Lollipop. Owen was thrilled with the big boat and the clown who made him a balloon animal. Gil enjoyed the sights from inside the wrap, slept and nursed most of the trip.

 This was a far cry from what we were doing 5 days post partum with Mr. Owen!

A Saturday just for Owen (and an AWESOME date night!)

Daddy had the weekend off so instead of working on our to-do list, we decided to have FUN! Just like last week, once Owen found out Daddy was home for the entire!day! he requested to take off the shirt I dressed him in and put on his "DUTE shirt!"

So away we went for the day with my boys in matching Duke shirts....

While Mama showered (alone! uninterrupted!)Daddy and Owen played trains.

... and "Doctor Daddy"

And then we headed to the Children's Museum

Where the boys played with clay

and we let some letters fall on Mama's belly

and then Owen worked his fine motor skill putting spokes on a wheel

and last but not least we checked out the Wizard of Oz exhibit.

"Owen, what does the COW say?"

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That night we got a babysitter so that Jeremy and I could go to a STXY concert that followed a Pirates game. There was no way I could sit through both the game and the concert so we put O to bed and than headed over. We were seated in the 9th inning just in time for the game to be done and the concert to start. This was the 5th time I've seen STYX in concert. Our seats were awesome, it was 70 degrees outside with a light breeze and there was an awesome fireworks show throughout the concert. SO glad I made it to 36 weeks so we could enjoy these tickets!!

On our way home we stopped at IHOP for a midnight snack :)
We rolled in to relieve the babysitter at 1:30am and felt like TOTAL party animals!

"More Dinosaur Museum!"

Every morning Owen either asks to go to the pool or the dinosaur museum (or both).  It was stormy and hot last week so we met up with our friends from playgroup at the dino museum on Tuesday and then went again with Daddy on Saturday.

Jeremy was on call, so he had to take a few calls while we were there but he had never seen real dinosaur bones up close and Owen was thrilled to show his Daddy his favorite 'T-REX!"

They did some collections together, this time Owen chose to collect rocks.

and Mama chose to collect spikey dinorsaurs!

Water table

While I very much enjoy living in the city, there are days - especially in the summertime- when I am sad that we don't have a backyard for Owen to play in. Of course he spends his days in beautiful parks and museums and is none the wiser, but it would be nice to let him loose in the yard on a hot summer night.

We've been trying to find things to do in the evenings between nap and dinner. I bought Owen a water table last year, but he was still a bit small for it. It was HOT outside so I decide to drag it down in our front lawn and let Owen play.

First thing he did was climb up into it and said, "Pool!" --- I know, buddy. I wish we had a pool too...

but a fudge-pop and water table will have to do, city boy ;)

Mama and Owen: The Museum of Natural History

Owen and I have been trying to find places to beat the 90 degree heat. Today we used our membership to explore the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. I was hesitant to take Owen because I was afraid there would be nowhere for him to run and very little for him to do, but I was completely wrong. He loved every minute of the "dinosaur museum" and there were LOTS of activities for 2-year olds!

 Dino dig!

There was a great exhibit with a large table of rubber items to "collect" they gave each child a box and they could choose to collect frogs, snakes, dinosaurs, leaves or any combination they wanted. The collecting part was kind of lost on Owen, but he really liked sorting through the huge piles of rubber goodies and putting them in his box.

We'll definitely be going back, hopefully next time with Daddy!