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I don’t know why but I don’t often pull my camera out of late. I tried to do our day in photos on Monday but Chullain was pretty sick and so I only took a few photographs. We took him to the doctor and he had some wheezing and they gave him a Z-pack and inhaler and he was doing better on Tuesday morning and is even better today. Sooo, the photos are really over a bit longer than 24 hours but I think it’s close enough to count anyhow.

Aidan has decided that he needs to eat cereal with milk in his own chair with his own spoon. It’s a HUGE mess every day that he has it. I try and coax him to eat other less messy things but now that he has words and can express his definite ideas some days there’s no avoiding it.

Animals are the order of the day, week, month… We have to look at books of animals and talk about them as we drive down the road. We make animal noises and watch videos of them on the internet. We pet the animals in our house and talk about them too. We had some realistic animal figures that we were saving for Christmas but figured we’d better pull them out early as he was so interested. He plays with them often so I’m glad that we did! Here the rhino and dinosaur are having their daily battle. Sometimes he gets the elephants and has the tiger and lions gang up on them and growl, lol.

She’s a dancing queen who doesn’t like to have her picture taken anymore. I have a bunch of shots where she is hiding under a blanket and some more of the side of her head. It’s the age I think as I remember Chullain doing it too. She’s mouthy just like Chullain was at that age as well. Luckily she’s my second child so I know that it will pass with time. She’s not mouthy to me so much as with Chullain so I guess the years where they’d play quietly with one another for hours may have passed away for a season.

This was on the sick day hence the strained expression. Chullain decided that the house needed to smell better because some people were coming over and so chose a candle and lit it. That was quite domestic of him. I think that his love of striking matches might have played into it a little bit as well though.

Midnight popcorn. Aidan is going through another growth spurt apparently and woke up at midnight crying and crying like he was doing a few months back. I got cereal but to no avail. He didn’t want a drink and he wouldn’t be lulled back to sleep. We brought him downstairs and he asked for popcorn and proceeded to eat almost half a bag. Now we’re trying to be sure to give him a snack before bed so he’ll be able to sleep through the night better.

This is Ruca’s response to a midnight popcorn run.

We went on a geocache hunt yesterday to reinforce practical uses of latitude and longitude. We did find the cache but it’s in the middle of a sticker bush which wasn’t so cool. There was a big spider wed and so we just took a picture of the cache and didn’t take or add anything. Next time we’ll try and find one that is a little more accessible. The kids did get a soda which is a big treat for them as it was at a rest stop so all was not lost.

Yesterday it rained and since it hasn’t really rained hard in awhile that was exciting for everyone. Aidan went to the window and said “rain” which was a word I didn’t know he knew. Victoria wanted to go out and play in it and I couldn’t see any reason not to. Aidan was a little nervous at first but once he got a little wet he was good to go out with the others. It’s the simple pleasure that make up some of the most memorable parts of life in my experience.

Bo’s parents aka Mamaw and Papaw came to visit last Friday and were with us for a week. This is the first visit where Aidan really interacted with them and he had a great time. Chullain and Victoria jabbered away at them as much as possible the first day or two and we took in a few of the sites. It was a great way to start the summer and wonderful to catch up with them as we haven’t really visited with them both since we were in SC last June.

Old Mesilla was a fun place to visit and to shop. Papaw is a big history buff and loves things related to the Native American tribes so he found a few of the shops really interesting.

Victoria and Bo went around with his parents while they shopped and Aidan, Chullain and I played in the square. Victoria couldn’t pass up the rack of hats in one of the stores and had to give just a few of them a try.

You just have to have your picture with “Billy the Kid” when passing by the court house where he was tried (it’s now a lame-o shop but hey…)

We headed to our old stomping grounds at white sand missile range and wander around the missile exhibits as well as the museum. Both of these things were interesting to my in-laws as they haven’t been through either place before. The kids have been to both places quite a few times so I just spent time chasing them about but that was cool as it’s all family time.

A trip to White Sands National Monument is almost obligatory when someone comes to visit. The great part about this trip was that Papaw slid down the sand dune! The kids won’t be forgetting that one anytime soon and neither will he I suspect.

Just as Aidan was warming up to playing with his Papaw it was time for them to go home. I took this picture of them this morning before we went to the airport and it was just too cute to watch them play. Ronnie would show Aidan something new and Aidan would have to try it right out. Too much fun!

Aidan wants nothing more than to watch them build the houses around us. They are building one two houses down and also one across the street. Yesterday was super cool for him because they were doing the stucco and the stone wall which meant a cement mixer, tons of workers, a small bulldozer and trucks. I was trying to get him to go into the car in this picture and he just wanted to stand a watch instead. He’s got the word “truck” for sure.

Aidan also spends a lot of time here, sitting and staring, on the back of the front room couch. The window has a perfect view of the work across the street so it’s his favorite apart from the big one upstairs which gives him an eagles eye view.

Chullain has been taking a geology class three mornings a week for the last two weeks. The culmination of this class was a field trip to a local museum where they have some amazing geological samples and fossils. Both of these items are petrified wood but there were some neat fossils inside. Aidan is to the high maintenance age and so I didn’t get many photos after the initial ones but these give you a good idea of what other neat things might have been inside the museum. Chullain really enjoyed his class and we’ll keep on the look out for other similar things.

Jasmine, mmmm. Bo bought this on mothers day weekend and we still have to repot it but it’s wonderful to have in the living room.

I had to end with this one. Aidan has a new dance that’s been doing and it’s highlighted in the first two seconds or so of this video. He is getting to be a handful but he’s extremely amusing as well.