Thalia made her first trip out to the summer home this past weekend. The car ride went pretty well. Poor Thalia will never have the beneficial setup that Siena did, where one parental unit or the other would sit in the back seat next to her and be able to provide a pacifier, hug, or amusement. Thalia gets stuck with Siena next to her, whose first and almost always only reaction when Thalia starts crying is to try to raise the hood on her car seat, thereby making the problem (visually at least) go away.

On Saturday we celebrated daddy’s birthday, and Siena sang the entire Happy Birthday song and gave a huge hug. It was about the best gift she could give me. Thalia snoozed.

One of the Saturday activities was building a wall around the girls using a set of sturdy cardboard blocks from Melissa & Doug, which we can’t really recommend highly enough (and sadly no, I’m not a “mommy blogger” paid to recommend their product!) Here they are inside the structure:

And here are the girls ready to actualize their escape:

In the joyful process of breaking free:

Afterward, Izzie wanted to make a shop. She was very clear on needing a counter and a door. She knows a lot about how shops work and what they are for (impressively so for a three-year old, but I figure that’s because her dad works in one..Siena has no clue what software development is…). Here is Siena buying a pie from Izzie:

And the shopkeeper displaying her wares:

More posts to come about Thalia’s tummy time and going down to the lake. I’m trying to post related sets of pictures.

Mom and girls and dog are still there for the week, while I returned home to work and try to get some painting done.