The kiddos

I posted this picture because Tommy climbed this rock by himself, almost. I told him I wouldn't help him, so he backed the stroller up to the rock and used the board (which can't be more than 6" high) to give himself a small step. I admired his determination.

I swear to God, this is the last post that will discuss or picture (ew) potty-training. But just for the sake of keeping a record, here he is (still no accidents; he is just awesome):

The Lulabell in a very cute hat:

The Lulabell sitting with her daddy and helping him with his work:

Today could have been horrible but was fine. It rained, so I decided we would go to the Natural History Museum. It is a block away, and free. We had to get out of here about 9:20, so we found a digger to watch for a while, and then skipped into the museum at ten on the nose. This was a good thing, because there was a pretty long queue when we left at 11:30. Tommy had a great time, except that the T Rex was pronounced "scary." Then, we had lunch and left for preschool. Tommy didn't want to stay once we got there, but after trying to be nice for five minutes, I turned into a mean mama and told him he had to go and he would have fun and I left.

When I picked him up, he told me he'd had fun, and then it started pouring. I am a person who is used to rain and as long as Lizzie isn't getting wet, I'm normally okay with it, but this was HARD RAIN. And we were walking home. So I was trying to steer the buggy with one hand and cover Tommy and me with an umbrella in the other hand and it was horrible. So I stopped under an awning to reorganize and dropped my phone. And then carried on, without it. For those of you who don't know this about me, I love my phone. It's an iPhone. And here's why I love it. When I push a little button, a map appears. And the map shows me where I am. I can hold it and walk and the little dot on the map that is me moves. I'm certain you all understand how valuable this tool is to me in a city like this. A city that is not on a grid and thinks nothing of using the same (or nearly the same) street name four times.

About ten minutes down the road, I realized I had lost the phone. So, I tore the stroller apart looking for the phone while the kids got wetter and wetter. And then I turned around and went back and talked to the people in the two shops nearest to the spot I'd dropped it. No phone. We went back to the apartment and the whole time I was thinking about how whoever took the phone could be calling China! Or reading all my email! Aaaah.

But, when I got home, I called Eli and he had already spoken to the woman who found my phone and I have it back now. Safely with me. Which is good because on the way there, I lost my A to Z (I had to use it to find the nice woman who found my phone's house, of course, because I didn't have my phone). It fell out of the cup holder. There has to be some sort of message here, but I really don't know what it is.