Peaches for Breakfast

This picture may not look exciting, but it ushered in a whole new era at our house.

I woke this morning to discover Tommy and Ellie in the kitchen.

I woke up late this morning.  Very late.  As in, I rolled over and the clock said 8:56 and I said a bad word.  Tommy always wakes me by seven, usually before six. I listened to the nursery monitor and heard nothing, so I went downstairs. I realized later that it was turned off, from my alone time break the day before.  Most mornings, as soon as my feet creak the stairs, I hear a cheery "hello, Mama!" from Tommy's room, but he was silent.  He has been sick most of the week, so I thought maybe he had relapsed and was sleeping off a fever again.  Ha, ha, ha! Think again, Mama!

Ellie has figured out how to open the gates at the bedroom doors, so she had let herself and Tommy out of their comfy little prisons.  I had left the kitchen gate unlatched, so they had ambled on in and were in the process of getting themselves breakfast.  Among other things.  They had the whole contents of the silverware drawer out and had gotten out my miscellaneous kitchen stuff basket from a cabinet.  Tommy had found his Cars plate that I hate and had hidden and was treating it like a long lost friend. They had out the plastic lids bin, a roll of scotch tape (declared "sticky") and several bottles of children's medicine.  They had also pulled their cups of milk, blueberries, an orange, an apple, and a can a peaches from the refrigerator. 

I took a deep breath and reached for the camera.  I did not scream.  (And I'm rather happy about that, because it seems like lately I have been yelling an awful lot.)

I congratulated them on their cleverness in getting through the gates and asked who knew how to open them.  They were loyal to each other and neither one confessed or tattled.  Ellie gave away the secret several times later today when she locked Tommy alternately into and out of his room.

I shooed them out of the kitchen so I could put things away.  They were furious that I forced them out, as they were quite proud of their accomplishment, and also they were hungry and they had been so busy getting things out of cabinets that they hadn't yet gotten anything into themselves.

The can opener was laying abandoned on top of the peaches. This was what they wanted to eat, so I showed them that it had a pull-top ring.  Ellie said, "oh, okay, that's how it works."

Overall, I was happy that their breakfast choices were all fruits, rather than the open package of cookies or the chocolate cake that had been left on the table by their parents the night before.  I do wonder though why the heck I taught them how to open pull-top cans.

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The train at Lodi Station

Like most 3 year old boys, Tommy is obsessed with all things train.  So we decided to take them for a ride on one.  We headed out to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, and intended to catch a ride at the Peninsula station at 11:30.  We left with time to spare, but then discovered that the exit our GPS was telling us to take was closed.  We skipped the exit, but our detour ate up the extra time we had allowed.  We had to park in the overflow lot, and heard the train whistle as we did so.  The train parking at the station actually blocked our access from the lot, so we missed our ride.  We did however get to stand and ooh and aah at the train all close up and noisy.  Unwilling to wait another 2 hours to catch the next train, we decided to do the next best thing.  We stopped at the Lodi Outlets on the way home and took a ride on their little choo-choo.

It worked for Tommy!

And Ellie too!

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It's 85 degrees out today, but Tommy insisted on wearing his winter hat.
For several hours!  Goofy boy!