Birthdays

Alexi had a birthday on March 8th. Jesse's birthday was the 13th. In all of my parental wisdom... I thought "ahh, how great full moon and a Space Shuttle launch. The date perfect.... right between the boys birthdays. So we drive, more like caravan with a couple of other families (friends of the kids) over to Cape Canaveral.

Perfect weather, great place to stay (cheap), lots of kids around and many activities. The boys all love the ocean anyway. Jesse and Ryan (Jesse's best friend) and Ron (Ryans dad) have their surfboards, the littles all have sand toys and water gear. We've read and painted and talked about the moon, space travel and astronauts..... READY! Alas, a hydrogen leak.... come-on, NO. :( Boo. No lift-off, at least not Wednesday, not the night of the full-moon. Not till Sunday... but that's OK.

Amazing and awesome in it's earth-shaking, awe-inspiring presence. The entire experience, the facility are well worth a trip. The lighthouse and beach are beautiful, clean and uncrowded.

Alexi’s obsession with rockets is on fire now. He now wants to watch YouTube videos of rocket launches; I showed him ONE, really just ONE. Alexi loves the part.....with the countdown, firing, and announcement “we have a liftoff!”. He both signs and attempts to say "LIFTOFF". It's just so darn cute.

Jesse has had a fascination with the moon and stars since he was a baby and has shared this with his brothers, especially full moons. On the coast in Florida, in a small town, the sky is so clear that stars are brilliant.

Perhaps Alexi will be the first astronaut with Down syndrome :)

One thing is clear... we need more books on space, rockets, the space shuttle, astronauts, etc.