Trains trains train and Peach

Greg's niece came to town a few weeks back to visit.  She brought her mom with her.  Alice was in love.  Although Alice insists that she is still a baby, she also insisted that she could make baby Peach happy and kept asking to hold her when she cried.  As a side note, Andrea is the only one who calls Samantha by her real name--Samantha.  The rest of us just called her Peach (her middle name).  We didn't mean to.  It just came out.  I'm interested in seeing what little Samantha Peach actually ends up getting called.

Thursday and Friday night, Andrea and SP came over for dinner. I did dinner on Thursday and Andrea and Libby did dinner on Friday.  Allen, Sahar, and Bryant also joined us on Friday.  

Friday's dinner was followed by a few rousing rounds of Uno, Go Fish and Sorry.  Rex really likes board and card games, and for a four-year-old is pretty good at them.  He's pretty ruthless when it comes to Sorry! and doesn't get upset when he gets bumped back to home, so playing with him isn't too bad since I don't have to go easy on him.  And you can bet that Greg doesn't--is that just a male thing?  Greg must assert his dominance in the house at all times.  Maybe we shouldn't have named Rex after Oedipus Rex.  You live and learn.  Alice regressed to baby self and entertained herself in the baby car seat the whole time.  I hope baby X survives his second mother and makes it to at least a year, when he'll be able to defend himself a bit.

Saturday we invited the whole Baker clan to the train museum in Salisbury with us, but for various reasons only Andrea, SP and Libby came.  It was cold, wet, and my kids (mainly Rex who then convinces Alice) are afraid of just about everything.  Rex refused to climb ladders to look into train windows, nearly wet himself on the turn table--where the turn trains around (it went about 0.5 miles per hour--I literally had to carry him), and covered his ears every time he thought he might hear a train.  Alice, on the other hand, often forgot she was supposed to be afraid of these things and actually enjoyed herself on the turn table and climbed a few ladders (thus ruining the white cardigan I had dressed her in), until Rex reminded her that she should be afraid.  Good times.

Riding the train to the museum

He looks happy here, but we had to tell him for about 3 days that the train would not be scary or loud.

He refused to be in the picture because the train might be loud in the near future

Forcing Rex onto the turn table.

Rex's favorite part--pretending to drive the train.  He did this for like an hour while we waited for the train back to the car.