Monday, August 04, 2008

Panic

This morning we joined a friend and her kids for an outing to the Boston Children's Museum. I haven't been there with the boys in a year or so, mostly because it's expensive and my membership expired 2 years ago. Plus it's hard to chase after two of them, particularly when one likes to linger at exhibits and the other darts around from place to place like a pinball.

Well, all was going well enough. We were all in the bubble room, a large space with a variety of bubble-making objects, when Rowan asked if we could go to the construction area. (A favorite of my boys - two skid steers, hard hats, reflective vests, and a variety of construction vehicles they can play with.) I consulted with Julia, an dwe began the process of rounding everyone up. Kemper was desperate to try the bubble thing where you stand inside and pull a rope that raises a soapy hula hoop around you to make a giant bubble, so Rowan was standing with us while he waited. Julia had her two kids doing an activity in the next room while they waited for us.

As soon as Kemper's turn was over, he wiped his hands on his pants and he and Rowan ran out of the room and literally disappeared. I mean, it took me maybe 5 seconds to follow them around the corner of the doorway, and they were nowhere to be seen.

Now, I am not prone to panic, and I wasn't all that worried as I knew they didn't run toward the exit and that eventually they would find someone if they were worried. But in my pregnant and very slow condition, I was having a hard time figuring out the best way to search for them.

Luckily Julia found them fairly quickly - she had a head start on me, as I went to inform the Information desk that they were missing.

But this is why I'm so reluctant to take them places alone now - they're just too darned fast! This is also why, when visiting a busy place where I can foresee being separated from them, I write my cell phone number on their hands. I also often take a picture of them with my phone camera, in case I need a description of what they're wearing. At least it ended well.

What's in a Name

Last night we had a babysitter so that we could get out on our own for a few hours. We're very lucky in that the young woman who lives across the street from us adores our kids and they feel the same about her (they actually ask me if I can have Joslin come babysit).

When we got home, we had the usual summary of events. It was so funny, though. Apparently they all sat on the front porch, and Joslin's mom came over to visit. They started talking about names for the baby (which, by the way, we have made no progress on). It seems Kemper sat in deep thought for a while, then decided he would name his baby brother Pocket. When Joslin asked him why, he said, "Because I always have such interesting things in my pockets".

In its favor, I'm pretty sure he'd never in his life meet another person who shares his name....

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Flood

Well, we were at the beach for a week of relaxation and came home to find that it had been even rainier in Boston than in Maine and our basement had flooded in our absence. This happens every now and then, but typically in the spring with the never-ending storms we seem to get then.

By flood, I don't really mean flood. More like puddled. The water comes in on one side of the basement, fills up this hole in the floor (don't know exactly what said hole is for), then overflows and runs across the basement floor into another hole (again, not sure why it's there to begin with). If that hole fills up, which is extremely rare, we then get the buckets out and bail it from there into the basement toilet (yet another feature of our house that seems a little unusual). Of course, this all assumes we're home to monitor the situation. Which we weren't.

Normally the basement is in pretty good shape to withstand said water issues. But it just so happens that we're in the middle of renovating our kitchen and back room, so we had to put a bunch of boxes and stuff into the basement for the duration of the project. To prepare for the boxes, we rearranged other things, which ended up being right in the path of the water. It then took my pregnant self a week to finally assess the damages, and I found to my relief that most of the baby clothes were in plastic bags and therefore seemingly undamaged. Whew. Then I found the suitcases - mostly dry, but covered in mildew. Once those were tossed out into the sun to dry and get brushed off, I discovered my infant car seat. Which was, of course, coated in fuzzy mold. Ugh. So now I'm just hoping I can get it clean enough to use when the baby comes. Plus I think I'll need to inspect every article of clothing now to make sure it isn't green and fuzzy.

Sigh. Like I really needed this.