Sunday Already? Again?

I have every intention of posting two or three times per week.
Then life with four children happens and at 8:45 when I cuddle into bed (I'm not ashamed), the only thing I can look at is the back of my eyelids.  Even when I couldn't run last week, I was up at 5 working out the parts that I could.  It's safe to say my arms and abdominals are also displeased with the roofing nail that made acquaintance with my first metatarsal.    Four C-sections and core stability are not mutually exclusive, but DANG, it's not easy to have them paired.   Oy.
Hopefully, resuming a moderate running schedule is possible this week.
There is a race in Georgetown calling my name.  Walking or crawling, the finish line will be crossed.

Nate is back.
Full force.
He's scared to eat crunchy foods, but he's running, jumping, shouting and has resumed his duties as Captain Chaos. 
His hearing is better.  I think he's overwhelmed at times by it.  When Shirley Temple passed away, we had some of the neighborhood kids over to honor her by having Shirley Temple flavored snowcones.   Of course, with 11 kids under the age of 10 in our living room,  it was loud.  Nate was overwhelmed and hiding behind a chair with his ears covered.  It was just too much for him.  He is doing things like that less and less.
He's also NOT snoring and seems to be sleeping better.  He hasn't complained about there being an "orangutan in his ear" (meaning his ear hurts).  This is excellent news - I hope it continues. 
I forgot how exhausting it is to chase him about.
That being said - I'm so glad he's back. 

Sam is  having a tough past couple weeks.  I think the snow days, Nate's surgery and the lack of routine have taken a toll on his brain.  School is getting more challenging (yikes) and I think the poor kid is just overwhelmed.  There is also a bully on the bus that is being dealt with.  All this resulted in Sam refusing to go to school on Thursday.  Normally we're up and ready to go out the door at 7:40.
Sam didn't get to school that day until 9:30.
It was a rough.
The good news is that days since then have been better.  Sam is very excited about the Science Fair this week.  We went to the Smithsonian today so Sam could stand in front of the Triceratops skeleton to get a picture in scale for his project.  We had lots of fun in the Devonian and Silurian Periods, too.  I know more than I never wanted to know about dinosaurs and other creatures that lived prior to the Mesozoic Era.  We spent time in the Ocean Exhibit for Nate and in the Origins of Life exhibit for CJ (David Koch or NOT).
We decided to take advantage of the beautiful  weather (until the next round of snow shows up).  We went and wandered around the Mall.
Who knew there was a skating rink in the National Sculpture Garden?  Caroline was decidedly unhappy when we said she could not skate today, so we hightailed it out of there.
We walked by the National Gallery of Art and all three verbal children requested to go in.  We had never been there before.  I'm sure you can appreciate our reticence with Nate around anything worth more than $5 that can be considered a priceless work of art...
IT WAS AWESOME.  The kids were well behaved. Perhaps they were intimidated by all the security guards - but whatever works - we'll take it!!!  We saw all sorts of things.  Monet, Manet, Degas ("That's the picture that Olivia likes, Mama!!!"), Picasso, Cassat, Renoir, Cezanne, and "The Dying Gaul".  The most interesting exhibit for us was The Byzantium Collection.  The artwork was fascinating, don't get me wrong...but the kids were fascinated because the exhibit was filled with nuns.  Lots of nuns.
I think they've watched a little too much of "The Sound of Music".
The kids were awestruck.  So we went up and introduced ourselves and said "Thank You" for all they were doing for the world.
It was pretty cool.  Many of the nuns were my age or younger.  I wasn't expecting that.  
Caroline has declared she wants to be a nun when she grows up.
Nate has, too.
We'll address that one later.  ;)
All in all...it was a good day.

Strange to think we'll have our first full week of school since the beginning of the year this week.
Wow.

Sam and Daddy at the Triceratops

The Urchins looking at a diorama of the Ordovician Period.  There is an orthocone near Nate's right elbow.  An 8 or 9 year old girl came up and called it a squid.  Nate gently corrected her.  I was surprised how nice he was about it.  She insisted it was a squid.  To which Nate replied, "NO. It's an orthocone!"  The girl was quite righteous about her answer.  I thought Nate was going to deck her. 

In the "Origins of Human Life" Exhibit.  Sam thought the cave paintings were pretty cool. 

The Four Turkeys