July 16, 2018: Summer in the City

If you’ve ever wanted to see a huge collection of toddlers jumping into water, today is your day! But first, there’s an emergency, and Officer Mina is on the case.

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Oh. The emergency is that some ponies need a ride.

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The weather has been brutal the last few weeks. We softies out here on the coast aren’t used to above-90s temperatures, but we’ve been experiencing them week after week. One particularly awful day, the kids emerged from playing with the water table and demanded ice cream. They sure look like little urchins here.

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We also celebrated Mina’s half birthday on July 4 (as one does). She wasn’t sure what to make of the cake. Or maybe it was the candle that troubled her?

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Anyway, Linus jumped onto the table to show her what to do, and she was on board right away.

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Mina may not like sweets, but she sure likes a party!

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Linus is finally in a big boy bed, and he’s changed his whole approach to napping along with it. Yen had pretty much taken them both off of naps for the last month or so, but now that he’s got his own bed, Linus sometimes just disappears and puts himself to bed for a few hours in the afternoon. Here he just spread out on the couch and went to sleep!

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Mina is really into two things right now: bubbles and changing her clothes. When she announces a wardrobe change (which is generally about four times each day), it goes all the way to the underwear. She coordinates her entire outfit. She’s also started dictating what others should wear. We had quite a row yesterday afternoon when she wanted me to wear a frilly bra instead of the comfy one she watched me change into after an outing.

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Oh wait: three loves. She’s incredibly into puzzles right now. Typically she works all the puzzles in the house, one after another. As she finishes each one, she stands on it, jumps up and down and says, “Mina did it!” and then rips it apart to make room for the next one.

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I don’t think this really requires comment.

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Every time Mina plays with one of the rescue trucks, she puts on the hat first. Even when she’s only rescuing ponies.

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And speaking of hats… She’s found an alernate use for this neck pillow Ba Noi gave Linus.

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Linus is really into playing doctor lately. He is Dr. Pink and Mina is Dr. Yellow. Here he’s giving Ba Noi a check-up. Don’t worry – she’s not as alarmed as she looks. She was laughing pretty hard. He informed her that she weighs 50kg, and that she was healthy, “So that’s good news.” Every time Dr. Pink examines a part of your body, he says, “So that’s good news.” He’s got a terrific bedside manner.

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New outfits courtesy of Co Ba.

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Linus looks a bit like a samurai with his hockey stick.

This weekend he asked to wear this again, tell me that if he needed to pee, he could just lift the flap. He was incredibly excited at the prospect.

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Emergency! Emergency!

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Yesterday we decided it was too hot and humid for hiking, so we headed into Boston. We had a few different ideas, but ultimately landed in the Common, as it was the only place where we found parking (believe it or not).

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We walked to Chinatown for lunch, and then came back to check out the carousel.

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Linus got this lollipop after lunch and specifically saved it for the carousel ride. He carried it – unwrapped – for more than 15 minutes without licking once. The kid has incredible restraint. Sometimes at dinner, he’ll say to me, “Set a timer for five minutes.” Then he’ll sit quietly in front of his food, not eating, until the timer goes off.

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After the carousel, the kids noticed the frog pond. Good thing I packed an extra set of clothes!

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Now, you’re about to see many, many photos of the kids jumping in. But they all just crack me up, so I can’t eliminate any.

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There’s Linus with his blue lips!

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They mostly stayed at the end of the pond where the carousel is until suddenly Mina struck out by herself without a word to anyone. I watched her for a while and then finally said to Linus, “Could you go get her?” Adults really aren’t supposed to go into the pond, you see.

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Finally her destination was revealed.

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We finished up and said goodbye to the carousel.

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Bought an iced lemonade and headed back home. Lovely Sunday!

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