Mash Up

This morning, O sang:
"Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
And on this farm he had a dog and Bingo was his name-O,
E--I--N-G-O, E--I--N-G-O, E--I--N-G-O,
and Bingo was his name-O."

The boys are right back into the swing of things from our trips, with school back on for Z and play time with friends for O. O loves accompanying Z out to (and then onto) the school bus each morning, saying hi to "Miss Vicki" when the doors open (even if Z himself doesn't always) and then climbing onto the bus and finding a seat while I buckle in Zachary. O is definitely ready for school, even if he's still got around 3 years to wait.

The travels continue -- at least for the grownups. I had a work conference this weekend at a beautiful resort in northern California; while I was mostly indoors sitting at conference tables, I did make sure Meh came with this time around (last year she hadn't been able to), and she took full advantage of their spa treatments along with some quiet uninterrupted reading time. We both got to take a few nice walks together, on one of which Meh found a giant shed snakeskin right in the middle of the path.

It was a nice opportunity to recharge a bit after our two extended summer trips with the boys. And of course we spent much of the time thinking and talking about them (I even woke up a few times with imagined/dream-induced fears that they were awake and getting into trouble elsewhere in our room) in between admiring the scenery and eating tasty food. Huge huge thanks to mima for watching the boys over the weekend. She reported in daily with great snippets of quotes from her many fine conversations with O and Z:

O: I wish I had a dog at my house.
M: What kind of dog?
O: A small red one that doesn't bark.

M: Zachary, Papa is coming to take us to breakfast!
O: There may be bananas.
Z: In Maryland?