Don't call CPS on me

Ruthie had a little tumble today, she fell off her scooter. It seems she may have broken a bone in her foot, I should know for sure tomorrow. Poor little bit, I have to carry her around, so she calls to me: "mommy, please take me potty" or "mommy, I want to sit in the other chair". So sad. I took her to the pediatrician and we had x-rays done, but the radiologist hasn't reviewed them yet. In the meantime, ice cream, an ACE bandage, and some Motrin is holding her off until the morning. The medical imaging place has a special separate room that is quite obviously the mammogram room, while we were waiting no fewer than three little old ladies came in to get their boobs squished. They all looked slightly nervous, and when the door to the special room opened I saw posters about breast self exams. Ruthie kept asking "what the ladies doing mama?", it was cute. She's such a little chatterbox, her latest kick is knowing everybody's name. The mailman, the homeless guy looting our recyling bin, the little girl having a tantrum at the doctor's office, the x-ray technician, etc. she must know everyone's name or else!

A (not so) Happy Meal story

I was stumped for ideas of what to do today, so I took the kids to McDonalds for lunch. They can run around and work off some energy while I sit on my butt in the shade. Sounds awesome, right? The husband met us there and immediately Ruth had to pee, so he took her to the men's room. Ew. Apparently there was poop on the back of the toilet and that upset Roo, so later on when she had to poop she chose to crap her pants in the middle of the play area. This was our first crappy pants experience, she hasn't had any poop accidents since she potty trained. I took her to the ladies room and cleaned her up, but I didn't have any bags so I had to stick her poopy panties and shorts in a happy meal box. Luckily I had spare panties and shorts in my car, but she's been so good about not having accidents, I was really caught off guard. When I asked her why she pooped in her panties she said "no go bafroom, it dirty"! Is there a good way to get poopy panties off without getting crap all over her legs? I pulled one leg out then the other, so we only got poop on one leg, but ew.

She has such a big heart

We went for a bike ride today, pics to come later. There's a gorgeous bike path in town that runs along a creek and through one of the older neighborhoods in town. About a year ago a house burned down, the elderly couple who lived there were both killed (the fire was set to cover up the scene) and the crime is still unsolved. :-( The house is still standing, though basically destroyed. I was dying of thirst and we just happened to stop right across the street from the house, and Ruthie and Alden were very curious about what happened. I explained that the house caught on fire and burned down. Naturally, their response was "why?". I said someone was naughty and played with matches. Ruthie reflected on that for a minute, looked at the house, then looked back at me and said "Mommy get house ice?" Ice you see, is the miracle cure for everything. Your brother bites you? Ice! Your kitty scratches you because you are trying to stick your finger up her butt? Ice! Mommy refuses to read Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See for the thousandth time? Just cry and ask for ice! She's such a sweetie. I wish ice could fix everything wrong in the world.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Yesterday we went to Monterey in order to escape the heat. It was so refreshing to be out of this hot weather and gross air. Towards the end of the day we actually had to buy sweatshirts! I felt like such a tourist. We started out at the aquarium, which the kids l-o-v-e-d. We did the older part first, and the newly remodeled Splash Zone. We discovered that European tourists are extremely rude, and that it was pointless to bring the strollers in because Ruth and Alden preferred to sprint between exhibits. Ruthie's favorite animal is the "habapuss" aka octopus, Alden seems to prefer the starfish and kelp. We took a break around lunch time and had some pizza on Cannery Row.

After pizza we went to Trader Joe's and bought some flowers, then we went to the cemetary and put them at my grandfather's grave. To escape the somberness, we then took the kids to Dennis the Menace Park. Unfortunately our battery died at the aquarium earlier in the day, so no pictures of the twins having fun. While I was waiting for Ruthie at the bottom of the slide, I had a nice chat with a woman who just moved to the area a year ago. I commented that the park had changed a lot since I played there as a kid and she said "oh the park has been here that long?" I'm not sure what her interpretation of "that long" was, and I started to wonder if I'm really old, then I realized that I played there TWENTY YEARS AGO. Crap I'm old.

After we left the park, we walked around Fisherman's Wharf and chowed down on some free chowder samples, and we had a caricature drawn of the kids. We also went to the candy store and Ruthie picked out "candy balls" and Alden chose gold coins. That boy, he's all about the money! He loves carrying coins and paper dollars.

After the Wharf we went back to the aquarium and went through the Outer Bay area. The aquarium is open until 8PM on weekends in the summer, but it was mostly deserted. It was so neat to have room to let the kids run and shout without worrying about losing them or getting the evil eye from the previously mentioned rude European tourists. Seriously though, at the Splash Zone, Alden splashed some water. Approximately three drops landed in the vicinity of this little girl's sleeve. The five adults with her all shouted "hey hey hey" and shot Alden dirty looks and clucked their tongues and shook their heads. WHAT THE HELL?! I looked at them and said "he's 2 and you don't all need to yell at him". Ugh. Asses. It's not like he dragged her into the bathroom and gave her a swirlie.

Anyway, here are some pictures!