Before anyone wonders, no the girls haven't killed me and stashed my body under a crib; it's just been one of those weeks.
Last weekend we took a quick (up on Saturday; back on Sunday) trip to Evelin's sister's in New Jersey. The drive up wasn't too bad — a little bit of fussing — but there was a milk stop/fussing incident that coincided with our exit just north of Allentown, PA, and I didn't realize we were staying on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike for too long until we were nearing the Lehigh Tunnel. Earlier in the day, Celeste had been impressed with the Harbor Tunnel in Baltimore, crying out for "More" once we got back to the surface, so I thought she'd like the Lehigh Tunnel. She judged it to not be as nice as the Harbor Tunnel.
Despite the extended drive north, we were only about an hour or so later in arriving at M---'s than we'd expected. We had a bit of visiting and play time, before it was time for dinner and then bath/bed for the kids.
The next morning, we ended up going down to the lake/beach. It was cool, but Celeste was adamant that she didn't want to wear more than her swimmy diaper. M--- and K--- splashed near the shore and Evelin and Quinn stayed on the beach, but Celeste and I took advantage of the water (which was warmer than the air) and walked all the way out. I did hit an underwater hole, which startled Celeste, but I kept her head above water. After a little swimming and splashing, I ducked my head under and Celeste pronounced me "clean" and said I was "hairwashing." (During her baths, Celeste is happy to pronounce herself clean, but hairwashing is always preceded by the word "no.")
The drive back was along our intended northbound route (much of it along Route 57), and went pretty well. Celeste had a good nap, and Quinn was happier more often than not.
One thing I expected to be able to find out more about once we got home was The Concrete Mile. At some point along Route 57, I noticed a sign denoting the road segment as "The Concrete Mile," but there was neither time nor place to pause and look for a historical marker. There's not too much info as far as I could find on the Internets, but the gist of the story is that in 1912, Thomas Edison was involved with pouring this one-mile segment of the Morris Turnpike. It's lasted under continuous use with only minor repairs since then. [ Concrete Products | The Record | vintage picture ]
The rest of the week has been the usual work and what not. Tuesday went relatively well with the girls; they both slept until nearly 3:00 p.m. However, Quinn woke from her nap crying and was generally unhappy until she went back down. Her second wake up was much more peaceful. On Thursday, both girls were a little off, but we managed to make it out for a quick trip to the farmers market. And Quinn won't drink more than a few tugs from the bottle, so she was really, really happy to see her mother when she got home.
The odd thing is that Celeste has been getting really worried about the helicopters and planes that fly over the house several times a day. She'll point out the window and say "No plane" and if it doesn't immediately veer away from our airspace, she gets upset ... sometimes to the point of needing a hug or her blankie. It could be part of an attention-seeking thing (the worst reactions come when I've been spending a bit of time trying to comfort/feed/entertain Quinn), or maybe just a phase. She's also been a bit concerned about loud cars, particularly tricked out rides with purposefully loud mufflers. Those annoy me, too.
Also Wednesday was Evelin's birthday, something I realized Tuesday night when I was telling Evelin how I'd asked Celeste if she wanted to help make her mumma a birthday card on Thursday and Celeste said, "No. For Celeste!" Evelin then asked (in a slightly conspiratorial tone) if her birthday was Thursday and what today was. I said that I hoped it was the 25th (which it was), and then she started laughing.
This autumn will be our eighth wedding anniversary, and we dated for several years prior to that ... and I still misremember her birthday pretty much every year. I had presents, I had a plan, it was all set to spring on the 27th ... one day too late. Doh!
So that's all the week late, as for the dollar short bit ... we need to get a new stove, so it'll be more like a few hundred dollars short. We've needed a new stove for a while, but have kept putting it off ... even after the solenoid shorted out during a self-cleaning cycle leaving us unable to open the oven for a few days until I figured out how to take the back panel off and disengage the automatic lock. That was a few years ago ... it's long past time.
This weekend, I want to take the back panel off again and check out how the connections are done, just to assure myself that we don't have a recurrence of the F²/D² of last summer.
I think this is the model we're getting. It doesn't have a nice double oven or anything, but it be way better than the old Harvest Gold Montgomery Ward range it's replacing.
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