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Just Goofin' Around

We'll Miss You, Grandma!

Grandma Norma was nice enough to come see us this past weekend. I had been telling Elias in advance about her visit and promised him she would read him all the books he wanted. When she walked in the door and he figured out who she was, he didn't say a word. Instead, he bolted out of the room and ran to the stairs. As he was frantically climbing, I asked him where he was going. "To get a big pile of books!" was his reply. I guess he WAS listening to me when I was telling him about all the fun he would have with his Grandma.

The weekend's fun wasn't limited to books, either. We took a ride on the Strasburg Railroad, went out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant, and Elias enjoyed some yummy macaroni and cheese made with extra love especially for him by his grandma.

Graham was sick and miserable, but was still able to enjoy a few cuddles and hugs with grandma.

to engineer is human

This is interesting.

On my way to relax and watch a little TV while the boys played quietly, I saw Elias building a couple of towers out of his bricks and and then attaching the train tracks to the top.

A little while later, he came and asked me for help. I knew just what he wanted to do as he explained to me his plan for building an elevated railway, and I showed him how to put together all the pylons and connect the tracks in a circle. I ended up doing most of the work, actually, because he seemed to have a problem with making all the pylons the same height.

After trying out the train he'd built earlier (you can see the little "Daddies" - that's what he calls them - riding on the train cars), he told me he wanted to make a tunnel for it to go through, so I built that too and put it just where he wanted it.

Wendy thought it looked like the Disney World monorail, which it sort of does.

We were lucky with this in that Graham didn't destroy it right away. Graham always wants to play with whatever Elias is playing with, especially blocks or trains. He loves to stand up next to the train table and throw train cars around and rip up track like Godzilla, or push down and smash whatever Elias builds with his blocks. Elias starts out tolerating this, but get frustrated with Graham quickly: "Get this baby away from me!" if we are lucky, or a push followed by a screaming baby if we are not.

(Click through for more photos)