Leigh was sitting with Samuel on the couch in the morning.

Belinda came up and said, "I'm a big mean lion!" Then she pretended to nibble Sam's hand. "I bit him!"

All of a sudden she let go of his hand and said very dramatically, "Don't worry Sammy, the Lord will save you!" And she danced back and forth.

I guess this was her version of Daniel and the Lions' Den...

It was a drizzly day, so we decided to go ahead with our plans to visit the Art Museum. No, we didn't see Rocky running to the top of the steps, but they did have a giant portrait of Salvador Dali taking up most of the stairway. We hadn't been to the Art Museum for probably 5 years and so we were pretty excited.


We were glad to see that they were just about done building the starngest tower in town, a lopsided glass highrise...


Here we are sitting in a courtyard from the 1200's that they ripped out of Spain and set down in the museum. The fountain still works!
We walked through several structures they had transported to Philly: Hindu Temple from the 1500's, a Persian Palace, a French Royal Estate, a Japanese Tea room. Pretty neat.



Especially cool to the boys (yes, Sammy included) was the section containing hundreds of different kinds of spears and swords and coats of armor. All the Catholic School children were on the floor drawing the items and labeling them.





Belinda and Leigh enjoyed their time too, looking at furniture and pictures of girls. Belinda really liked the one of the mother and daughter playing.

I put some more pictures of pictures up on the Jon's Notes link.





Here's Belinda being an artist. She sure looks like one of the masters!

At Walmart there was a lady who just couldn't wait. As Leigh tried to file out of the check out line holding a baby in her arms, the woman bumped Leigh's heel with her cart. Then she bumped her again. Then again. It almost seemed as though she was doing it on purpose...

Leigh turned around and said, "Could you please stop bumping my heel with your shopping cart."

The lady looked down at her cart and said, "Move." Leigh was surprised by the rudeness of the lady, but she kept her composure and moved on.

That was a real "remember you are a disciple of Jesus" moment, where you decide not to bite back.

Anyway, I (Jon) am sure her blog would be less readable, "Today there was some pretty woman holding a baby that wouldn't move fast enough in line at Walmart, so I bumped heels and yelled at her when she asked me to stop doing it."

**

This morning Belinda was an elephant with overalls...was a mouse...was Baby Sammy...was just Belinda who wouldn't let you call her a mouse or an elephant. All that within 5 minutes.

Sometimes she's a Mean Dog who takes things from Sammy, also known as a Grabby Pest. This animal is not welcome in the house and has become much more sheepish lately because we've talked a lot about how bad the Grabby Pest is.

The other day Belinda said, "I don't like myself." She said it so cheerefully. Of course I answered, "Well, I like you enough for both of us."

What weird conversations you have with children...

**

Tomorrow: Philadelphia Museum of Art.

We did every fun thing imaginable today. Outside fun, inside fun, Quakertown Farmers Market fun, eating out at a restaurant fun. And it only cost...um...
I guess fun's not cheap these days. But it sure is fun!

Belinda has taken to calling him Haby Hammy, which if said properly will rhyme with Baby Sammy. It's so funny to see her giving him a big hug and whimpering, "Ohhhh. Haby Haaaammy." She gets confused about Daddy and Mommy and such. We're either his Daddy and Mommy or hers, but she can't understand that we can be D & M to both at the same time. Man, come to think of it, we can't either sometimes!

What he wants to do all day and all night -- EAT.

OK, we're back. Jon is worn out (and has been poisoned by pesticides. Don't ask.), but other than that, we're doing alright. Between catching the last mouse and handing in the last paper, we've done some fun family stuff.

First of all, Sammy has learned to sit up. He seemed pretty surprised, but now he's a natural. He is a very sweet and pleasant baby. He knows that we love him.







We went to the Philadelphia Zoo for Leigh's birthday weekend and had an awesome time.

The animals are nice at the Zoo. Here are the usual suspects. We didn't include the very scarry "bats-the-size-of-monkeys-with-red-eyes" which is originally from Madagascar.


Belinda has a special love of Penguins. We tell lots of stories about Pooster the Penguin and Lucy the Butterfly.




Belinda got a real kick out of the animals. I think the highlight was the very silly orangutang who kept putting a bedsheet on his head. A little monkey would promptly run over and grap the blanket and throw it on the ground. The orange guy would have to make his lazy, neurotic way down from his nest and get his sheet to put back over his head. This went on a few times before the orangutang went and got an old box, put it over his head, and sat in the corner. A zoo attendent said, "That monkey's always got something over his head."




If you judge an activity by how tired the kids are afterwards, it was a success.



A day or two later, Belinda decided that she was a baby giraffe, pacifier and all!


An occasional, special treat for Belinda and Jon is Lucky Charms. Belinda was calling them Yucky Charms, but now she calls them Lunky Charms.


The mothering instinct kicks in young. Belinda not only cares for Sammy, but also has gone through a stage of putting band-aids on herself and her dolls. This poor doll needed extra care.

We are experiencing a techincal difficulty -- Jon, the primary poster to this site is so busy that he doesn't even have time to take out the trash. No pictures of that...

In about 10 days you may expect to see the bi-daily posting of pictures and snippets coming back to this address. Until next Sunday, just pretend like this page doesn't exist.

Spend the time you would have spent typing in the address doing something else instead. No suggestion me on what you should do instead, since you know what you like to do.