Proof of Life

We finally got our first real snow for the 2013-14 winter.  It's only about 3 inches but we'll take it!  Please and THANK YOU!

Every year in winter I see this view...

The neighbors (not just that house, but all around us) have a nicely shoveled/snowblown driveway and pristine, lovely sparkling snow.  And now look down.  That's our front yard and driveway.

Now, here's the view out of our back windows:

Left side of the fence...our yard.  Right side of the fence, our neighbor's pristine, lovely sparkling snow with nary even a squirrel track, much less hundreds of dog and kid tracks.

Proof of life at our house.  LOTS of it.

I may not have pristine, pretty snow, but I DO have a built-in work force to shovel the snow.

But keep in mind that will NEVER happen again this winter - the kids begging to shovel the snow.  From now on it'll be begging to go out and play, doing the whole, tortuous 15-minute-per-kid-snowsuit-hat-gloves-wool socks-boots routine.

After which in less than 10 minutes they'll all be whining to come back inside, thereby triggering the whole even-more-tortuous-20-minute-per-kid-peeling-off-snowsuit-hat-gloves-wool socks-boots routine-leaving-melted-snow-everywhere, which then triggers at least one of them slipping & falling on the wet floor, thereby triggering MORE whining and wailing.

But it IS CUTE proof of life, good thing they have that going for them.

I'm sitting here now puzzled about why exactly it is that I like the snow??  It never looks pretty at my house.  It turns my kids into begging, whining hyenas.  It hides the dog poo in the back yard so you can't tell until it's too late that you're stepping in it.  *ponders another one of life's big questions*

Too Sexy for His Shirt

Today is 3rd grade picture day!  Call me crazy, but I always let my kids pick their clothes and backgrounds for their school photos.  I just don't take them that seriously or stress about 'em.  Connor always picks blue or green and prefers fairly plain clothes anyway, so no worries there.  Shelby always picks pink or rainbow backgrounds, and I DO help her with her clothes a bit (and her hair a LOT).

But then there's Noah…

Last year for his 2nd grade photos, he picked a bizarrely ugly rainbow splotch background and he wore his beloved bow tie tee, which he calls his "dress up shirt."  I just rolled my eyes and went with it.  But look at his smile!  This is one of my all-time favorite photos of Noah, because it's just so…. NOAH - big goofy grin with a goofy shirt.  On a rainbow puke background.

Anyway, today he emerged wearing this T-Rex shirt.  AND he'd already picked a waterfall landscape background (corny!!!!, ugh!!!!!, but yes, I went with it).  I pointed out that for his school photos, he'd look like a T-Rex wandering around in the wilderness.  Just a suggestion, just sayin'…

He thought about that, went back into his room, and emerged wearing his favorite pretend-leather tough-guy biker shirt.  Oh yes, MUCH better, Noah.  Eye roll again, please.

I then asked Noah how he wanted his hair done and of course, he wanted a faux-hawk.  But I was tired of using the cheap crap from Ulta (he came home from school with flat hair every day, oh no!) and tossed it into the trash, and dug out the super-expensive but super-POTENT "Short Sexy Hair" that I used to use on him (until I tried to save money).   You just can't cut corners on hair gel.  Or cheese.

Despite having previously used it, Noah evidently had never read the product name.  But this morning, he got a good look at the tube and shrieked, "WAIT, YOU'RE MAKING ME SEXY???  I CAN'T BE TOO SEXY, MOMMY!!!"

Mommy:  "Do you even know what sexy means?!??"
Noah:  "YES!  AND I ALSO KNOW I CAN'T BE TOO SEXY FOR SCHOOL PHOTOS!!!"

All together now - GROUP EYE ROLL!!

The Thrill of Victory - FINALLY!!!!

So, early summer has become a time of dread for our family.  And NO, not because it's the beginning of summer vacation and having non-quality 24/7 kid time (though that would be a close second, as you can understand after reading last week's blog post). 

NOPE, what our family dreads most is the annual early summer Cub Scout competitive event.  You know, the Pinewood Derby, Boat Regatta, etc.  Those words strike fear and dread in my heart.


2011
Connor is eight years old and had been in Scouts for about 5 months, when along came the Sailing Regatta, our Scout Pack's 2011 event.  To power your Regatta boats, you have to huff and puff and blow your sailboat down a little canal.  Connor & Mark (neither of whom at this point are very good engineers) crafted a little clunky (but cute) green sailboat with a pine tree on its sail that Connor named "Forest."  It's adorable, right?  But, very sadly, Connor & Forest lost badly in every race they were in.  Now keep in mind, Connor has autism, and his number one meltdown trigger (always has been, probably always will be) is frustration.   And it's MIGHTY frustrating to huff and puff and watch your little cute boat move… a couple inches.  Cue up crying meltdown for poor little Connor.

Here's a photo of Connor losing to his friend Rowan, whose boat eventually won the whole competition.  (Notice cute little attentive 6-year old Noah in the background, behind Connor)

HOWEVER, Rowan, being a great friend to Connor and seeing how upset Connor was, loaned Connor HIS winning boat to race.   Wowie!  That's awesome!!! 

And then, uuuuummmmm, with Connor at the helm, this boat loses, too.

UGH.  Thought it couldn't get worse, but it kinda really horribly did.


2012
A year later, it's now time for our Scout Pack's Pinewood Derby.  Connor, with the rotten Regatta memories evidently resurfacing, flatly refused to build a car.  Mark and I took the easy way out, breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "Fine."  Now, in our defense, I would usually say to my child, "No no, we fell down, but we must get back up and keep trying" or some rah-rah speech like that.  HOWEVER, when you have a kid with autism, you learn to pick your battles.  And believe you me, this was NOT one of them for us.

HOWEVER, on the day of the Pinewood Derby Connor decided that he DID want to go.  UGH!!!  But okay, fine, we thought maybe it'd be good for him to go, be a good sport, support his friends.  When we arrived at the Pinewood Derby, some friends of ours (with two older boys, who'd been through MANY of these events) offered Connor one of their old cars to race, which they had conveniently brought with them.  Surprisingly (and horribly), Connor agreed.

The car didn't even make it halfway down the SUPER STEEP track.  A square covered in chewed chewing gum would have moved faster. 

AND, to finish it (and Connor) off, the wheels then all fell off.  No, I am not kidding.  It. Was. That. Bad.

Have you ever seen a sadder photo than this one?  Connor (left), trudging away, with another frustration meltdown soon to come.

And once again, here's eager little Noah (and Shelby at the left), watching the Pinewood Derby, dreaming of the day that HE can be a Cub Scout:

MARCH 2013
The announcement of the 2013 Cub Scout Space Derby is announced.  UUUUGGGGGHHHHHH.  You're with us now, right, on the UGH part?  You understand our dread now, right? 

This is now Noah's first year in Scouts, so he is OVER THE MOON excited. And Connor decided that he would build a rocket, too.  Noooooooooooo!   At this point, I ACTIVELY tried to plan a surgery.   Or root canal.  Or a broken leg.  ANYTHING to get us out of having to go to this event.  BUT, both boys insisted they wanted to go and do it. 

*deep sigh*  Fine.


JUNE 2013
So, we went to work building …. airplanes.  Connor and Noah both wanted to build airplanes.  I kept reminding them it was a SPACE derby racing SPACESHIPS.  They insisted on airplanes.

*more deep sighs*  FINE!  Build airplanes!!!

Here's Connor's stealth plane, named "Nightshade."  Connor's entry won him "Coolest Name." 

And Noah showing off his WW2-looking plane, the "Noah 'Nado."  Noah's entry won him "Most Ferocious!"  Although Connor commented that Noah should have won "Most Prehistoric."  Ha ha, very funny.  I had previously warned Noah his entry was rather big and not very aerodynamic but he said he didn't care about winning, he just wanted it to "look awesome."  Love that kid.  :)

Okay, I'll admit, the planes are pretty cool-looking, even if they're not rockets.  Mark helped them shave the wood down to the shapes they picked, then they painted their base colors, and I helped them with the finishing touches. 

After we arrived at the Space Derby and started to wind the rockets airplanes, ummmmm, things began breaking off.  In alarming frequency.  SO MUCH SO, that both Noah and Connor weren't able to compete in their races while Mark was frantically trying to repair their planes.  And in a horrid turn of events, those delays pitted them….against EACH OTHER, in the first heat.  Ritchie vs. Ritchie. 

You can say it with me now - "UUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I'll admit, I silently, feverishly prayed for Noah to lose.  And by this time, Noah's plane had lost all but two of its back wings, so I was even more hopeful that my little darling eager light-of-my-life adorable freckled son Noah would PLEASE STINKIN' LOSE!!!! 

The epic showdown of brother vs. brother began.

The Noah 'Nado took off …… well, it took off like a ROCKET.  And left Connor's Nightshade literally sitting still, spinning dust.

No, I am not kidding.  IT.  WAS. THAT. BAD.  You don't believe me?  Here, watch it on video:

I think my look of horror matched the Scout Leader's look of horror (she has been with Connor through all of these events and I think was dreading it almost as much as we were).  Even Noah in the video looks a bit shell shocked.

Needless to say, Noah recovered quickly and ran down to retrieve his winning plane.  HIS STINKIN' WINNING HUGE FAT PRE-HISTORIC NON-STEALTHY PLANE THAT WASN'T EVEN A ROCKET!!!!  

It was at this point that I realized I didn't hear screaming and crying.  ?????? Connor was actually holding it together.  I could tell he was upset, but he was HOLDING HIMSELF TOGETHER.  Mark and I both blinked, and then quickly went to work fixing his plane.  Because they told him he could race it again.  I was silently shrieking, "NO NO NO!  He does NOT need to race again!!!""  BUT, he wanted to.  So we grimly fixed the Nightshade up.

And guess what?  Connor and Nightshade WON their second race.  Unfortunately, it was against Connor's good friend, Luke.  But YES, you read that right.  CONNOR'S PLANE WON!!!!!!  (and yes, that's Shelby's head inside the race area wandering around - *sigh*)

REPEAT THAT:  CONNOR WON A CUB SCOUT RACE!!!!  Yes, it was only one heat.  And it was against one of the more losing rockets (sorry again, Lukester) of the competition.  But Connor was thrilled and didn't even want to race it again.  He said he was happy just knowing that his plane REALLY did work and COULD go fast.  And he spent the rest of the event holding Nightshade and wandering around being happy and sometimes even congratulating the other boys.  ???? !!!!!

WOW.  My little fellow is growing up.  And all of our efforts of helping him manage his autism are starting to show.  JUST WOW.

(back from my break 10 minutes later, the Mommy tears were flowing)

And in other great news, Noah went on to win again!  And again!  And with Connor's amazing good mood and attitude about all of it, it felt SOOO great to be able to cheer for Noah now!

Alas, even the ferocious Noah 'Nado was no match for Noah's good buddy, Nathan, and Nathan's literally fast-as-a-rocket rocket, which went on to win the entire competition.  Yay Nathan!   Noah placed a respectable 5th or 6th place.  WOO HOO!  And of course, Noah was a great loser - he was just thrilled to FINALLY be able to participate.

But WAIT, there's more!  The Scout Leaders, in addition to the top prizes, awarded a couple of other prizes.   And Connor won the Sportmanship medal!  Woohoo!  His fantastic Scout leaders, knowing his difficult history, KNEW first-hand just as much as we did, how much progress in that area Connor had made from previous years and knew that him being able to lose AGAIN, and this time to his punky little newbie brother of all people!  and handle it gracefully, was nothing short of astounding.  Connor was absolutely beaming about this award.  Mark and I may have been beaming a little more, though.  :)

Mark and I both agreed that THIS DAY, a day we'd been dreading seriously literally for MONTHS, had just turned into one of our all-time favorite and most proud days of Connor.  To see Connor overcome something that had plagued and tortured him for years - his frustration, NOT at not winning, but frustration at his entries not even WORKING - and even congratulate other boys was SUCH a dramatic behavioral turnaround!!   I mean, his experiences would frustrate even the most patient person, right?, but to a kid with autism, well, what happened today is nothing short of miraculous and amazing. 

And, for the first time, we were able to go out and celebrate our family's Scouting victories today!  We celebrated with another Cub Scout family, and told Connor and Noah that they'd have to "share" Luke.  So, here is Luke being "shared" and looking a little alarmed at the prospect!  This photo completely cracks me up.

At home later, we fixed up the Noah 'Nado and the Nightshade and hung them in the boy's rooms.  (I have no idea what happened to the Forest or the sad little wheel-less Pinewood derby car from last year).  Noah was delighted to lay on his bed admiring his spacecraft airplane.  And yet another win today - this is one of my most favorite Noah photos ever - look at that face!!!! 

 

And here's goofball (and still ecstatically happy) Connor, feigning fear from his stealth plane sneaking over his head in his room.

 

 Welp, can't wait to see what we'll be doing for Cub Scouts in 2014!  And yes, I actually mean that! 

Summer Scorecard: Kids 1, Mommy Big Fat Zero

Welcome back devoted readers (aka Grandma), after my 6-month hiatus, during which I thought I thought I'd get tons done if I weren't blogging or thinking about blogging or reading other people's blogs.  But I didn't get anything new done.  So now I'm back, itching to document the dubious joys of our family life.  And complain a LOT while doing it, about it, this motherhood thing.  Remember, it's my only form of scrapbooking (didn't get any of that done either during my hiatus), and some of this stuff I may want to re-live someday.  Hard to imagine right now, especially after THIS day...  

Anyway, it's Monday.  The 5th day of summer vacation.  Crummy lousy day 5!!!!  Out of 76 days (yes, I have them counted exactly). 

And ohhhhhhhhh did I have big elaborate plans for our daily schedule of LOTS OF FUN MOMMY & KID TIME!  I was following my brilliant Summer 2012 plan (even though I only successfully did Screen Time Tuesdays and a few surprise Wednesdays) but I was going to do ALL of them this year and be SuperFunMom Of The Galaxy!!

But I was high.  Plain and simple.  Stupidly, insanely high.  And I didn't even inhale!  (j/k)

Actually, today was only the FIRST day of my Big Family Fun Summer Schedule.  Crummy lousy day ONE!  And I began to realize what a crock of baloney it was at about 11:30am.  I didn't even make it to lunch.

Mondays were to be Park-It Mondays where we'd go and discover a new park or playground every week.  It would be SOOOO glorious, this precious time with my cherubs.  Time that I couldn't let go to waste, time I could never have again with them…

….THANK GOODNESS!!  'Cause I don't WANT it back!!

It wasn't ALL the kids' fault, though.  It WAS about 164 degrees today with ridiculous humidity.  We lasted at the park for about 11 minutes.   But first, here they all are sitting on their tushies on the ONLY playground bench in the shade.  *I*, however, was obediently sitting IN THE BLASTED MELTING SUN where THEY begged me to sit so I could see every wonderfully entertaining playground move they made.    *grits teeth and repeats to self:  Precious time, time I can't get back, precious time, time I can't back….*

Yeah, that wasn't working out so well for me, so I packed 'em back in the car and told them they could go home and play in the sprinklers.  Which they love.  Which I absolutely detest.  Because EVERY time, EVERY time, EVERY BLIPPIN' TIME they end up getting the entire backyard muddy and wet (including me), and fighting and crying and screaming and wailing:

"You squirted me in the eye!  Waaaaaaah!"
"Shelby, you broke the rocket!  Waaaaaah!" 
"Noah, don't run through MY stream!  Waaaaaaaah!"
"Mommy!  Connor broke the water!  Waaaaaah!"   

They don't care if they step in dog poop, but OH NO, do NOT run through Connor's water stream!  What!??!!

So, THAT activity lasted another 11 minutes before I forced them all screaming into the house, into dry clothes and into their rooms until further notice.  I then stomped upstairs and informed Mark (whose home office is now in our master closet where he can remain oblivious to the screams while I suffer through the brutal agony that is known to moms everywhere as "summer vacation") that I was going to Taco Bell for MY lunch and then I was going to watch the Kardashians ALONE in SILENCE.  Mark wisely didn't argue.

A few blissful, mind-numbing minutes into the Kardashians with my Burrito Supreme, I came to the realization that my daily summer schedule definitely was a crock of crap and was in no way sustainable.  I could NOT be with my precious little screaming cherubs gargoyles for that amount of time every day.  Goodbye joyous-basement-sports-fun time.  Goodbye oh-so-sweet-Mommy-one-on-one time.  Goodbye dutiful-Mommy-helping-study-habits time.  Goodbye happy-smiling-kids-and-Mommy-board-game time.

HELLO Wii.  My precious.

Welcome back to our home.  YOU HAVE BEEN MISSED.  By ME, most of all.

After finishing my burrito (but not the Kardashians, so don't judge me as harshly as you were a moment ago), I went back upstairs and told Mark we needed to have a talk, and I explained that this summer would not be survivable if we didn't buy a new Wii (our old one had been dead for about 2 years and we'd never replaced it, vowing to be super-fantastic parents who didn't succumb to the video game babysitter - bwa ha.  As if!).

Again, Mark wisely agreed (turns out he COULD hear the screams, the kids AND mine, despite being in an interior room with no windows and with the door closed), so we all piled into the car and headed for Toys-R-Us, where the gargoyles behaved strangely excellently, and even arranged themselves neatly into this sandbox.  I couldn't resist the photo opportunity.  Three kids for just $49.99!  But I'll entertain all offers (sandbox not included, sorry).

On the way home we were listening to church music (irritating to me at the time, but it was either that or Dave Ramsey) when I noticed Shelby was in the backseat clinging to her beloved three-headed dragon, swaying to the music, and singing along to "In a Little While We'll Be With the Father" by Amy Grant.  Here's a video:

Well, if that can't melt the maddest Mommy heart, then I don't know what will. 

And here's another sight to warm a Mommy's heart - a working Wii! - sing ALLLLLLLELUYAH! Alleluyaaaaaah! - , replacing the 3:00-4:30pm time slot of Mommy-one-on-one-time (and kindly ignore the messy living room, yes, I have lost all control of my house and my kids and my temper).

30 minutes later update:  As I am finishing typing this entry, there are now screams coming from the living room.

"Shelby!  I want to be the pink Kirby!  Waaaaaaah!"

"Connor, quit beating me!  Waaaaaaah!"

"Mommy!  Noah is cheating!  Waaaaaah!"

All three kids are now back in their rooms.  The brand new shiny beautiful Wii is sitting useless. 

!^@$%&^#%$^&#@$&^^#@&^*&@#^$&*!!&Q#*&!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas in 5 Long & Wordy Acts: ACT ONE

Ritchie Christmas 2012 Act 1: Random Unplanned Getaway Surprise Trip 

…because there's plenty of time and money for that right before Christmas, right?

So, we went to Rochester for a weekend.  Now, Rochester may not scream "woohoo great fun can't wait to go" to the uninformed, but it actually does have some fun family stuff.  Yes, I'm serious.  And it's close by.  And (here's the truth now) cheaper than Hawaii.  Anyway, we were going to go over Christmas vacation when school was out, but figured there'd be lots of crowds (yes, because people flock to Rochester for Christmas fun.  well, not really).  We called the kids in sick to school and surprised 'em with the trip randomly, out of the blue, on what would have otherwise been a boring plain old Friday.  Woohoo!

Rochester has a fantastic children's Museum of Play, a definite kid favorite.  But upon arrival, Mark insisted that I should just drop them off and go shopping by myself for the day.  "Oh no, I'd much rather spend the day at a kids museum than shopping".... replied Estelle NEVER.  I was jumping for joy higher than they were.  Seeeeeeee ya!

Mark remembered to take a few photos at the Museum of Play.  As expected, Shelby loved the Dora & Diego exhibit.

But wait, what's this?  Two boys who think they're MUCH too cool to watch Dora or Diego anymore, playing with the Pirate Piggies???  Bwa ha ha!! 

So, shopping for me!  And guess what?  Rochester now has a Trader Joes!  But it does not look HALF as nice as the southern California (where we first discovered TJs) Trader Joes surrounded by palm trees and bougainvilleas.  This is a sad, gloomy little photo, compared to my blissful memories of past Trader Joes in my life.  *sigh*

And here's my sad little TJ shopping cart.  I couldn't buy any of their fresh yummy (and cheap) produce because we were staying in a hotel that evening.  But I HAD to get SOMEthing!  So, I got TJ cheerios, cookies, and curry sauce.  How's that for a good-sounding combo?  But I was still excited just to be there.  Kind of.

Rochester has one of my favorite stores, Craft Company No 6!   Lots of Christmas fun was had here!  By me.  ALONE with no kids.   Of course, being ANYwhere alone with no kids is fabulous nowadays, but shopping is extra EXTRA fabulous.  The next day on our way out of Rochester, I begged Mark to stop and turn around so I could shop JUST A LITTLE more here at my oh-so-happy place.   "Just one more thing.  Or two.  Or maybe three.  Or $173 worth..."

After my glorious shopping alone day, I was in a good enough mood that the boys were able to talk me into taking a spin with them on the Museum of Play's carousel when I arrived early to pick everyone up.  But first, I had to photograph them in this tub - look at the words, "The Lovers Tub."  CRACKS. ME. UP.  Because they're sort of anything BUT, if you know what I mean.  And especially because they pick it every time we go there and they've still never noticed the words on the side.  Goofballs.

Here's happy little No in mid-spin.

Here's not-so-happy me in mid-spin.  But seriously, I'm getting too old for this shi….I mean shtuff.

While waiting for Mark to bring the car up since it was raining, I thought I'd try and sneak in some potential Christmas card family photos.  In this one, Shelby was cut out entirely.

And in this one, we lost Noah (but Shelby popped up), and we gained a closeup of my lovely double chin and of Connor's equally lovely boogies.  Marvelous.  So much for our Christmas card photos.  Oh well, I tried.

What else does Rochester have?  It has a Longhorn Steakhouse!  Here's Shelby doing a hands-up "Oh yeah!  Oh yeah!" there.  And here's Noah ... well, here's Noah with food stuck on his teeth.  Kinda makes you want to get in your car right now and drive over there, doesn't it?

We stayed overnight in a hotel advertising an indoor water-park, and thought we'd gotten ourselves quite a bargain.  But NO, it was a creepy little hotel and we had to pay an extra FIFTY BUCKS for the water park!!!  Look at this creepy hallway - Connor and Noah (oblivious to the creepiness) ran ahead and they reminded me of the creepy hotel scene from The Shining with the 2 creepy kids.  Did I just say my kids were creepy?  Well, I DO wish they had higher hotel standards…

Anyway, we were captive there at the hotel and we'd stupidly hyped it up ahead of time before our arrival to the kids, so we had no choice but to pay the stinkin' 50 bucks.  And THEN Mark and I had to pay another $15 for the privilege of sitting there watching them for hours.  How happy do I look about that?  Bah humbug.

But speaking of happy - we had the pool and stuff all to ourselves (because, like in The Shining, the hotel was creepily deserted) and the kids had a grand time.  Still not worth $65 bucks. *grumble grumble*

I know, I know, Shelby really needs a new swimsuit, but I just get too much joy from seeing her swimsuit wedgies.

Here's Shelby performing water aerobics or something (look in the background), while I read my magazine and realize that this pedicure color really doesn't look good on my chubby toes.

Fortunately, the swimming knocked 'em out enough that we could make them sleep in the horrid hide-a-bed couch-thing without having to bribe them.  Yesssss!

The next day, we discovered that Rochester has a pretty great children's science museum!

The kids can literally climb the walls.  I wonder what it would cost to get one of these installed in my living room?!?

Here they are digging for dinosaur bones.  Noah dug for about….oh, FIVE SECONDS before proclaiming, "This is hard work!" and quit.  Mark and I fear nearly every day he's going to be living with us when he's 30, playing video games in his underwear and scratching himself a lot.

To be honest, museums aren't my thing and I get bored (and subsequently obnoxious) VERY quickly.  I'm just not a why or how person.  I'm an it-is-what-it-is-so-just-deal-with-it-dammit person.  I entertained myself by taking random photos like this one, and then told Connor the mammoth skeleton bum was going to rain poop on him if he didn't hurry up and finish digging up the @#^&#!& dinosaur bones. 

I do a pretty good job on this blog of documenting exactly WHY my kids will never nominate me for Mother of the Year, don't I?

And speaking of that nomination, Connor discovered he liked sitting (as opposed to standing) on the vibrating earthquake-shaking-machine-thing.  Ummm.  This fact will probably greatly embarrass you in a few years, Connor.  And yes, I will remind you of it then.  In front of your prom date.

In the Knex building area, I, being how I fabulously am (extremely left-brained and orderly), neatly constructed a teepee-thing precisely according the rules and diagram. 

Noah, however, constructed a self-designed prison for his fingers with a finger-chopping block.  I honestly don't know where this kid came from.  Noah's not even REMOTELY like Mark or me (though we do think he has a lot of his Grandpa Davis' mischievousness and contrariness).  But I guess that's what makes Noah endlessly entertaining to us!

ARGGGG!  Hello rolling and spinning balls and tracks, meet my autistic son Connor who is now going to insist on playing with you ALL BLASTED AFTERNOON (look at his grin).

I, being bored again, told Shelby I'd pay her $1.00 to carry my handbag around.  And it WAS somewhat entertaining watching her, given that it weighs probably twice as much as she does.  And I never did pay her the dollar, so it was definitely a bargain as far as cheap entertainment (child labor?) goes.

Shelby's favorite activity at this museum was this dam-building sand thing.  We have sand and buckets at home that she could do the EXACT SAME PLAY with, but noooooo, why do it at home when she can do it somewhere else that her parents have TO PAY for her to do it, am I right?

Noah thought Sue the T-Rex, the special $14 million dollar exhibit on loan from Chicago, was fabulous.  I have about 20 photos of him posing in various ways with Sue.  I'll only post two.  You can thank me later (like next week when you're doing reading all of my Christmas Acts). 

This is Connor's expected eye-rolling response to Sue the $14 million dollar T-Rex.  No respect, I tell ya!

My usually-much-braver-than-her-big-brothers little Shelby was terrified of Sue:

But I did catch her a while later brave enough to to look through this dinosaur head and thought it was absolutely hysterical.  Because I'm sure all fashion-forward dinos wore flowers and sparkly light-up shoes.

And of course we can't leave any kids attraction without buying a toy.  Shelby, despite being terrified of Sue the T-Rex, naturally picked out…wait for it….a T-Rex.  And naturally, named it "Baby T-Rex Baby Loves."

Noah, naturally, picked out a hand-grabber thing and dubbed it his "great nose-picking machine."  And naturally, it was broken 5 minutes later.  I guess his boogies were fighters...

We went back to Longhorn Steakhouse again, too!  Yup, it's that good.  No food photos for you (too busy snarfing it down), but I do have one of Noah demonstrating his newest invention, the "fry saber."

On the way out of Rochester, we stopped at this cool bench in the artsy district (near my beloved Craft Co 6) and managed to get a few pretty decent family photos.  Too bad I totally forgot we had these photos when I did our Christmas cards and used a summer one of kids in swimsuits instead.  Christmas card fail.  But hey!  Since the Mayans were wrong about the world ending last week, maybe I'll use it for our 2013 card.