I constantly think of topics to write about but seem to have a problem “putting it down” (I’ve been watching Olympic Snowboarding and all involved love to say “Put it down” every 4.2 seconds.). I was perusing a friend’s blog and after my initial excitement at his new posts subsided, I appreciated the “5 Things” theme he’s been using. I need a writing impetus so I’m going to rip him off now. Thanks Melvin. I shall, however, change it up a bit and make it 4 Things.

Dinosaurs

In a burst of bravery, I decided to take the little boys by myself to The Science Center to see animatronic dinosaurs and make stuffed dinosaurs. I promised the triplets they could go to Build-a-Bear Workshop once they were fully potty trained because, well, bribery works. Promises of stuffed animals and M&M’s are how I finally got the triplets potty trained. They’ve been trained for quite a while but only Lily had visited the magic workshop. Today, I had someone to stay with her while the oldest was at school so I decided to take just J & E. This was not an easy decision because lately, E has been incredibly difficult in public. I convinced myself this time it would be different as I loaded them in the van and headed for the science center. After a 30 minute drive and the longest possible route through Forest Park (I swear I cannot visit that park without getting turned around at least once), I paid to park right next to the dinosaur exhibit. No sooner had I turned the car off did E puke all over himself, the carseat and floor. He wasn’t sick- he either got sudden car sickness or gagged on his ever present winter snot because after he threw up, he smiled and wanted to go in. He hadn’t been feverish & is on antibiotics already so I deemed it a fluke puke. I thought for a second, stripped off his shirt as I wiped him down with baby wipes and zipped him shirtless in his coat. He picked out a tie-dyed penguin shirt in the gift shop and headed off to the dino exhibit. The boys walked around with their hands on their ears because the giant, eerily lit fake dinosaurs had very real sounding roars. At least E seemed done puking.

Build-a-Dino
After twenty minutes of hands clamped on ears and freaked out running, the boys wanted to leave. They had almost knocked over the same Indian grandmother three times and attempted to climb under the faux bamboo gates and velvet ropes enough times that, $12 be damned, I was ready to leave as well. We headed to the Build-a-Bear speciality shop inside the museum called Build-a-Dino. I reminded the boys they got to go there because they were potty trained which prompted Jack to loudly proclaim his need to poop. We took care of that and proceeded to choose a green triceratops and an orange velociraptor for stuffing. The boys were generally confused by the whole “rub the heart on your tummy, etc” routine involved in building the stuffed dino and were much more interested in the giant, foot-pedal activated stuffing machine. Overall, they didn’t seem overly impressed with the process except for the amazing! intriguing! computers! used to generate the newly stuffed animals’ birth certificates. All they wanted to do is sit there, read the screen and type their names. Huge building full of exhibits? Giant fake dinosaurs? Stuffed animals? Who cares! There are typing opportunities! I dragged them away from typing to explore but they didn’t care anymore. Oddly, after we got back to the van they were in love with their stuffed dinosaurs. They’ve been gleefully playing with them ever since and torturing Lily with stories of how they got to go and she didn’t.

Chocolate
I love finding after holiday clearances and I adore good chocolate. Therefore, the week after Valentine’s Day is like a small slice of fattening heaven. I found myself rifling through clearance shelves looking for cheap Ghiradelli an embarassing number of times.

End of Winter
I spotted the first spring bulbs’ leaves poking through the snow this week. Spring is so close I can feel it. St. Patrick’s Day is less than a month away and February is on its way out. This makes today’s weather forecast calling for below zero cold this week slightly more tolerable. Almost.

4.5
I lied, there are more than 4 things. Our DSL has decided not to work so I pain-stakingly typed this on my Blackberry and there is weird spacing. Also, my fingers are cramped. Do you see what I do for you?

4.75
Just got off the phone with AT&T who walked me through fixing the issue. 1) Grateful I kept ethernet cable hooked up to back of modem for instances like this when wireless not working. 2) Apparently a high definition antennea somehow interferes with our wireless signal even though it doesn’t transmit but receives a signal. Go figure. 3) I was very glad to speak to an American when I called because usually off hours customer service calls route to non native speakers.  I have no problem with non native English speakers but have a hard time resolving technical issues when I have to ask the rep to repeat themselves every other sentence. Thank you AT&T tech support for making that one an easy call.

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