Trip to the Lex

Today, Dave and I decided to take the boys to see the U.S.S. Lexington, which is a decommissioned aircraft carrier that has been turned into a museum. It even played a part as a Japanese ship in the movie Pearl Harbor. Corpus Christi has a special this month where if you are members of one of six museums, you can get into any of the others for free. So (since I am always up for a good deal) we thought it would be fun to take the boys and let them explore a little. Here's a picture of the Lexington, on Corpus Christi beach.

Calvin had been before last year, but Luke hadn't. It's kind of tricky with a little one because there are lots of steep ladders to climb up and down, but Dave did a good job hauling Luke around. You first walk on to the main hangar deck and strangely enough, sitting there were three rather large John Deere tractors! Pretty neat to see but we had no clue why they were onboard an aircraft carrier and there were no signs to explain. I took pictures anyway, because it was, well, different.



Here's Luke in the ship's "brig". It was really just a little thing they had out where you could stand inside and take pictures. Calvin absolutely refused to go inside. Luke didn't like it too much - as you can see, Dave is holding the door closed.



Both boys seemed to enjoy seeing all of the planes and other parts of the ship. Here they are in one of several mock cockpits that you could sit in.

This is Calvin's favorite place to be.

We got to watch an IMAX movie which involved lots of jets that Calvin really loved. He actually cried when he walked out of the theater because he didn't want it to be over. Luke and I had to leave halfway through because it was too loud for him - he held my hands over his ears almost the whole time. When we walked out he told some lady "Loud... ears" and held his hands over his ears. It was funny. The boys had so much fun, they didn't want to leave. In fact, here is the scene in our car on the way home.

In case you can't tell, he's saying "Boat, boat" over and over. And yes, he did this the entire way home (which is at least 15 minutes). Dave and I were just glad that his crying kept him from falling asleep, since it was already 5 o'clock. I had to laugh when Luke started fake crying as well - he really does copy everything Cal does. After we got home and Calvin got over it, he told me, "I still miss the boat Mommy." Aww, well, at least I know he had a good time.

So Many Things to Love

Here's a random picture from last week. This is the little co-sleeper bed Luke slept in when he was a baby. I got it out for them to play babies with, but of course they both like to lay in it themselves. Hard to believe he used to fit right inside and now he's hanging over the edge.

Tonight after dinner Calvin started crying because he didn't want to take a bath and go to bed. Luke looked at him with concern and said "Bubba, cry". He then looked at Dave and I and said "Nigh-night?". Yes we replied. Again he pointed to himself and asked "Lukey, nigh-night?". Again we said yes. Luke then got the biggest smile on his face, threw his arms in the air and said, "Yea" with all the excitement you could imagine, then started clapping his hands. I'm either living in the twilight zone or every mother's dream. A child who embraces bedtime... Okay, so his next comment was "Blanky, binky?" Ahh, he just wanted his lovies. Well, whatever works. At least for now...

The Perils of Fast Food

Dave went on a cross-country this weekend (another one). Yes, my husband left me all alone on Valentine's Day :(. Anyways, since it was just me and the boys, I decided to take them to McDonald's after church for a little treat. I got to drink my coffee and read the paper while they played. Perfect.
They had a great time, running around and climbing. I was keeping an eye on them as I perused the local news. Well, first of all, Luke insisted on carrying around his blankie. Unfortunately, he likes to hold it by one corner, so it drags around all over the ground as he walks. Kind of gross, I know. (That blankie has been washed so many times in the last month...) I watched Luke run over to the video game machine (Really, why do they have these??? As if the fast food isn't enough, now your kids can go eat crap and play video games at the same time. I like McDonalds because they can go run around and play. I certainly don't want them sitting and staring at a screen. But, I digress...) So, next thing I see is Luke climbing under a table and kind of patting the underside of the table. I turned back to my story, then looked up again to find Luke eating something. Great, I thought, he found somebody's left over french fry on the floor and is eating it. Not too surprising for my kid, but still disgusting. I went over to remove the offending food. As I got closer, Luke gave me a silly little grin. I held out my hand and ordered Luke to spit. He spit, but nothing came out. That's when a flash of color under the table caught my eye. It was worse than I thought. Luke found somebody's chewed up gum stuck to the bottom of a table, pulled a small piece off, and was happily chewing away!! The worst part was, it was stuck to his teeth, so I had to stick my hand in there and pull it off. Talk about yuck. I just hope that gum had been there long enough for all germs and bacteria and anything else that might have been living on it to die. At this rate, Luke is going to have a fantastic immune system.

Little Aviator

Another dress up costume that Calvin loves - his flight suit. I love how he has to put everything on - even his hat and boots. Dave ordered him a patch just like his that Calvin was thrilled about. Look how he's standing with his hands behind his back and everything.

Since several people commented about the sunglasses in my previous post, I just have to say - the second picture was somewhat staged. Calvin used to put on his glasses, then go get the stroller and push it around. Luke was up in my room the other day playing with the baby and there were sunglasses lying around, so I thought it would be neat to get a similar picture and compare them.

Here's a new version of fun the boys have discovered. They've always liked to be spun around, but "Mommy doesn't spin", as I tell them, so they figured out a way to do it on their own.

This and That

Okay, first of all, I have a guilty mom confession to make... The boys hair was getting so long - it hadn't been cut in two and a half months. And I just couldn't resist the temptation... So I pulled a Tracy, and I put a little barette in Luke's hair, just to see what it would look like. Oh, he would make such a cute little girl... No pictures though. He apparently didn't agree with me and ripped it right out. Oh well.

Lynn and I took the boys to the science and history museum here last week. They had a great time running around in the children's area. But despite our best efforts, pictures of them together were hard to get. They did not want to stand still at the same times. Just wanted to share the few that I did manage to get.

Here's Luke and Bradley, tasting the little magnetic poles, naturally.



Calvin and Jack, hanging like bats. Except Jack didn't really want to...

Finally got them stationary, but the picture turned out a little blurry.




Here's my own little blast from the past. Calvin at about 22 months, pushing the baby in the stroller.
And Luke, at 20 months. Yes, this is the same baby that they fight over.