We're at the end of a solid week of rain and looking forward to a sunny Wednesday. Today was the most dramatic of this series of rainy days with two inches in an hour this morning (around 11 a.m.) that caused flash flooding. It wasn't near our house, but unfortunately, John got caught out in it. He was leaving a meeting and thought his umbrella would suffice for the two blocks he had to walk to his car. Not so. He reported that water was flowing over every curb and there simply was no way to walk around puddles. He ended up soaked from head to toe and had to come home to change before heading back to work. On his way home he had to detour around a road that was covered in water. It's all gone now, but was an eerie reminder of this time two years ago.

On one of the rainy afternoons, I decided a new distraction was needed and brought out an easel we'd had stashed in the basement. This was one some friends had given us when they packed up the house their kids had grown up in and left town to retire in Colorado. We also have one that was a Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa, but that one wasn't assembled yet. Besides, I thought, it has two sides--chalk and whiteboard. Surely they can share, right? Well, theoretically, yes. But it seemed that as soon as one would move to one side the other only wanted that side. Then when I'd do too good a sales job in attempting to convince one to try the other side and they'd both want it. Another complication was that we only had one dry erase marker. Plenty of chalk, but of course once there was only one of something, they both had to have it.

We rectified the situation over the weekend, purchasing more markers and assembling the other easel. Then they started begging to paint. We really tried to deflect, but rain, rain, rain. Inside with dwindling entertainment options, we told them they could paint after naps on Sunday. They had an absolute blast, and it wasn't as messy as I'd feared. Don't get me wrong, it was MESSY, but the paint wiped easily from all surfaces and skin.

As John noted, they are proponents of the "more is best" school and just piled the paint on. He tried to show them how to scrape the brush on the edge of the cup before brushing on the paper to no avail. Daniel's paper actually disintegrated right at eye level, even as we encouraged him to "paint higher" and use the whole sheet. We hung them "to dry" on our back porch, but it was so humid that they were still sopping wet four hours later. With more rain expected overnight, we brought them in and hung on the kitchen wall behind our table. This is certainly not most people's idea of interior decorating, but we're not that particular.

As noted previously, we spent Memorial Day weekend in Evanston with my parents and were also able to see three of my five siblings. Nora lives in Chicago, Ann and family were planning to come down for a day to celebrate her Katherine's 4th bday, but the real surprise was that my brother P.J. was in town for a professional meeting and held over an extra day to go to a Cubs game. It was great to see him, though the boys demanded to know where Sean was. I was bummed that a deadline for my class meant I had to do homework Friday night instead of hanging out with the adults after putting the kids to bed.

Daniel slept in a real bed for the first time--bottom bunk of the ancestral bunk beds that still grace one bedroom of my parents' home. He fell out despite our creation of a blanket berm under the fitted sheet. But it's not far off the floor so he didn't get hurt. As part of my parents' process of cleaning out the house, they're planning to give us a mattress and box spring that will become Edward's bed and we'll move Edward's twin to Daniel's room. I do like being able to confine him, especially as he's taken to having almighty tantrums recently, but I know it's time to say good-bye to the crib (which will convert to the head- and footboards for Edward's bed.)

When my sister's family came down from Milwaukee, her older two girls brought their bikes. Katherine's was brand new from her birthday that week, but she still graciously shared with Edward who was thrilled to race up and down with Maggie. We'd brought our helmets, but didn't have room for the bikes.
Daniel and Abby shared a snack on the picnic blanket. Daniel was highly amused by Abby's preferred method of locomotion and began to imitate her. Even now, he'll sometimes drop to the floor and scoot along saying, "I'm 'cooting like Abby!"
Much to John's dismay, I am currently sharing a childhood favorite, "Mary Poppins" with the boys. Daniel doesn't really pay attention to TV (though he did like the scene with the animated penguins serving tea while they're "in the chalk drawing") but Edward is fascinated. It's so fun to watch his face light up at the magic. No babysitter will ever live up to his new expectations. We also started another "big kid" activity with Edward of reading one chapter a night from a longer story. It's hard to know how much he's gleaning, but he asks a lot of questions and remembers from one night to the next what happened, so I think it's going well. Plus it gives us some relief from reading the SAME favorite books night after night! We're reading Beverly Cleary's "The Mouse and the Motorcycle."

And speaking of motorcycles and other two-wheeled vehicles, our boys have started not only pointing them out while we're driving, but also calling out "bad choice!" if the rider happens not to be wearing a helmet and "good choice!" if the rider is properly protected. Edward even chastised one of the college students who works part time at the daycare after we saw him leaving helmet-less on his moped one afternoon. The next day he said to me, "Edward busted me for not wearing my helmet." He claimed he'd left it at home when dashing out in a rush. Edward bought it, but will be on the look out in the future.