I have to admit that we sat around on Saturday like three lazy-boned people. It was great. The sun was shining through my bedroom window and MacTroll and I snoozed pretty much on and off the whole day with a variety of fuzzy animals. X-man was busy playing by himself for a while, and then MacTroll went and played the Wii U with him. In the afternoon his friends from down the street came over and played for a couple of hours, too.
Today, was a bit different. It was miserable outside. We were still kind of lazy (in bed until 9:30 a.m.) but then we watched "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." We finished the book a couple of weeks ago, and X-man wanted to see the movie. We did have to fast-forward through the end fight, but other than that, he did pretty well. What was great was that throughout the movie, he was pointing out things that were different from the book. It was amazing not only how much he comprehends, but how much he can recall from finishing the books two weeks ago.
He also started his private swim lessons with Ms. Ellen at the Y again. He finished them last July, and due to my surgery, wasn't able to start them up again. So, he had six, 30-minute sessions. Today's were on Sunday but the next five will be on Monday evenings at 6 p.m. For the first time ever, though, he was able to swim from the deep end of the lap lanes in the family pool to the shallow end. It was 25 yards. It was all face-in-the-water doggy paddle. But it worked. Ms. Ellen was impressed, because all last summer he was scared to go too far. He was thinking about it too much.
While he was at his lesson, I took roughly 14 minutes and went up to the track and walked/ran a full mile. It's the first running I have done since March 2012. It was a big deal. It felt weird, but there was no pain. Afterward, when I dropped X-man off at Skateland to go play laser tag with MacTroll at 2:50 p.m., I swung by Body N Sole and picked up "The Orb." As I ran, my calf was tight. It worked, but I really had to concentrate to push off using my toes. I seem to push off on the lateral (or outer side) of my foot. This means I have a tendency to supinate. It's something I get to talk about with my doctor when I see him on Feb. 4 for my final "post-surgical" appointment.
It's possible he may want to make me custom orthotics, so that I don't lean out on the outside of my foot, which is called supination. It's easy to feel, as I'm running that I lean on my peroneals, and I don't want to risk another tear. Since 90 percent of runners pronate versus supinate... I often wonder if it would drive a podiatrist mad to try and make inserts that actually perpetuate pronation in order to prevent supination and work up muscles in a different part of the leg. I guess I'll find out!
But I did the mile. I didn't have to walk in between (i.e. I felt I could run longer and wasn't winded when the time was over. I was advised by my PT to try it out first and to go slow, and I'm a very compliant patient. I'm hoping that I'll get to do it again on Tuesday.
The only other thing we did this weekend was play an 8-hour game of Monopoly. We ended up calling it a three-way tie because it went on for so long. But we noticed that X-man was totally adding up the three die (we use the speed dice in the championship game) and adding and subtracting the money really well... into the hundreds.
I hope everyone had a restful and fun weekend, too!
Showing posts with label family time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family time. Show all posts
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Home for the Holidays
This year most of MacTroll's family came to our house for Christmas. Since we plan on putting the house up for sale in March and hope to move to California this summer (barring any ugly, national financial issues) it's likely to be the last Christmas in a house that can hold nine extra people.
It was super fun to see the family and for X-man to have kids around. He was so excited about it that he couldn't spend the night in the tent with his cousins. He said it was too hard to shut his brain down, so he spent the night on my yoga mat in his Buzz Lightyear sleeping bag on the floor of our room. We've been getting him to bed by 9:30 every night, with his usual 30-45 minutes of reading stories time, so we're not doing too bad.
Lily, on the other hand, was flabbergasted by all the people. I have nieces and nephews that are quiet steppers. Unlike my family, who are all loud steppers. So, children would arise and come upstairs for breakfast and Lily would freak out. "Where did you come from? Have I met you?" Bark, bark, bark. Then she'd sniff them and they'd pet her and she'd remember and calm down. But five unknown kids and four unknown adults makes things interesting for her. Plus, none of them have dogs, so they totally took her for a lot of walks, which she appreciated.
My father-in-law wrote a book about his many years working for Caterpillar. He asked me to proofread it so I started on the preface this morning after the family all left. It's a memoir, so it reads very easily.
X-man had only one real setback this Christmas, when miracle upon miracle, I was able to find a white Wii U. I ordered it online from Toys R Us. It came, X-man opened a Wii U game first and said, "Wait! We don't have a Wii U." Then he looked at me, ran back to pick up the heavy box, unwrapped it and started to hug it and repeated "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Great! Awesome! Except when MacTroll took it downstairs, it didn't work. We tried a few things and then he went upstairs to look online. Blinking blue light = Wii U D.O.A.
Lots of disappointment. But my Dad did get X-man a copy of Lego Star Wars Clone Wars III for the Wii. And we just popped that in. And any disappointment seemed to lessen.
I think Nintendo was happy MacTroll waited two days before calling their customer support line, too. We have to send the console back in and they're sending us a new one. But I think the guy on the other end was glad there wasn't a verbally abusive parent with a sobbing kid in the background (or lots of kids.)
Overall, it was a very enjoyable Christmas. I have lots of good books to read and a new fuzzy robe. And I also get to start on doing the paint touch ups on the house and finish up getting ready to sell. It's coming so quickly now.
I'm really kind of excited -- and nervous!
It was super fun to see the family and for X-man to have kids around. He was so excited about it that he couldn't spend the night in the tent with his cousins. He said it was too hard to shut his brain down, so he spent the night on my yoga mat in his Buzz Lightyear sleeping bag on the floor of our room. We've been getting him to bed by 9:30 every night, with his usual 30-45 minutes of reading stories time, so we're not doing too bad.
Lily, on the other hand, was flabbergasted by all the people. I have nieces and nephews that are quiet steppers. Unlike my family, who are all loud steppers. So, children would arise and come upstairs for breakfast and Lily would freak out. "Where did you come from? Have I met you?" Bark, bark, bark. Then she'd sniff them and they'd pet her and she'd remember and calm down. But five unknown kids and four unknown adults makes things interesting for her. Plus, none of them have dogs, so they totally took her for a lot of walks, which she appreciated.
My father-in-law wrote a book about his many years working for Caterpillar. He asked me to proofread it so I started on the preface this morning after the family all left. It's a memoir, so it reads very easily.
X-man had only one real setback this Christmas, when miracle upon miracle, I was able to find a white Wii U. I ordered it online from Toys R Us. It came, X-man opened a Wii U game first and said, "Wait! We don't have a Wii U." Then he looked at me, ran back to pick up the heavy box, unwrapped it and started to hug it and repeated "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Great! Awesome! Except when MacTroll took it downstairs, it didn't work. We tried a few things and then he went upstairs to look online. Blinking blue light = Wii U D.O.A.
Lots of disappointment. But my Dad did get X-man a copy of Lego Star Wars Clone Wars III for the Wii. And we just popped that in. And any disappointment seemed to lessen.
I think Nintendo was happy MacTroll waited two days before calling their customer support line, too. We have to send the console back in and they're sending us a new one. But I think the guy on the other end was glad there wasn't a verbally abusive parent with a sobbing kid in the background (or lots of kids.)
Overall, it was a very enjoyable Christmas. I have lots of good books to read and a new fuzzy robe. And I also get to start on doing the paint touch ups on the house and finish up getting ready to sell. It's coming so quickly now.
I'm really kind of excited -- and nervous!
Sunday, November 4, 2012
The Weekend of Science
X-man and MacTroll worked very hard finishing up X-man's science project for Thursday's science fair at school. X-man did three experiments to better understand how lava gets into a volcano.
First of all he learned while doing his background research that lava while inside the volcano isn't lava -- it's magma. So he revised his question to how does Magma get into a volcano.
He studied the layers of the earth and then drew a picture of what he learned. Since he has trouble handwriting, he sat down at the computer and typed out the different layers, so we could attach them to his drawing for his poster board. We also worked on his bibliography.
His research said that magma gets into volcanoes because of the heat of the molten rock and gases (it makes it rise quickly) and the pressure from the shift of the Earth's plate tectonics. So we borrowed good old Janice Van Cleave's Volcano experiment book from the library and did two different density experiments.
The first one we poured room temperature water through a makeshift funnel into a beaker and timed it. The second one we poured hot water through a makeshift funnel into a beaker and timed it. Then we did the same with room temperature vegetable oil and hot vegetable oil. The more dense, hot liquid ran into the beaker the fastest.
Then we took salt and dumped it on top of the oil and watched as droplets of oil rose to the top of the beaker just like a lava lamp.
Then on Saturday, we ate breakfast and watched Bill Nye DVD regarding the Earth's Crust. We love Bill. He's fantastic! It was another great library find. MacTroll took to constructing a device that will allow them to practice plate tectonics. This required the use of power tools, wood and plexiglas. The two of them running around in face masks and safety goggles was awesome. Then they both got to use the hot glue gun to put it together.
After it was together, X-man constructed a mini "volcano" at the top of the device. And today, I made homemade playdough (which I didn't have enough red food coloring for because it came out like pink slime), so he can practice squeezing it through his volcano tonight.
But before we get to the end of the experiment tonight, we took time out to drive to Indianapolis today to see a live show of two of X-man's favorite animated scientist/engineers Phineas and Ferb.
I know that Super Muscles' Mom will erupt in laughter as I admit that it never occurred to me that there might be a Colts game at home today. That said, parking, traffic and food availability is much better than going to a Cardinals game in St. Louis or a Bears game in Chicago. When we arrived, we found easy parking near the mall close to the show, so it was easy for me to transport myself. We ended up eating at an Einstein Bagels because the football game also began at 1 p.m., and there were long waits at all the sit down places (we were eyeing PF Chang's).
Anyway, we made our way over to the stadium. Our seats were pretty awesome, and X-man got a t-shirt and a stuffed Perry to take home. The next two hours were full of song and dance. It didn't look like many people were going to be there, but they all filed in at the last minute. X-man said he "loved" the show, but I loved how we spent the entire day together with absolutely no whining -- not even during the 2-hour drive there and the 2-hour drive home.
First of all he learned while doing his background research that lava while inside the volcano isn't lava -- it's magma. So he revised his question to how does Magma get into a volcano.
He studied the layers of the earth and then drew a picture of what he learned. Since he has trouble handwriting, he sat down at the computer and typed out the different layers, so we could attach them to his drawing for his poster board. We also worked on his bibliography.
His research said that magma gets into volcanoes because of the heat of the molten rock and gases (it makes it rise quickly) and the pressure from the shift of the Earth's plate tectonics. So we borrowed good old Janice Van Cleave's Volcano experiment book from the library and did two different density experiments.
The first one we poured room temperature water through a makeshift funnel into a beaker and timed it. The second one we poured hot water through a makeshift funnel into a beaker and timed it. Then we did the same with room temperature vegetable oil and hot vegetable oil. The more dense, hot liquid ran into the beaker the fastest.
Then on Saturday, we ate breakfast and watched Bill Nye DVD regarding the Earth's Crust. We love Bill. He's fantastic! It was another great library find. MacTroll took to constructing a device that will allow them to practice plate tectonics. This required the use of power tools, wood and plexiglas. The two of them running around in face masks and safety goggles was awesome. Then they both got to use the hot glue gun to put it together.
Anyway, we made our way over to the stadium. Our seats were pretty awesome, and X-man got a t-shirt and a stuffed Perry to take home. The next two hours were full of song and dance. It didn't look like many people were going to be there, but they all filed in at the last minute. X-man said he "loved" the show, but I loved how we spent the entire day together with absolutely no whining -- not even during the 2-hour drive there and the 2-hour drive home.
Friday, October 26, 2012
It feels like Saturday!
X-man was off school today. We got to get up a little later than a typical school day, but we had a parent/teacher conference at 8:45 a.m. The conference went okay. Most of X-man's struggles have to do with his trouble writing, so I contacted the OT I know today and we're setting up a time for her to evaluate him. She'll also get to see him at school starting Oct. 29th. His teachers were very happy with his verbal expression, reading comprehension and how much he enjoys and excels at math and science. We saw vast overall behavioral and confidence improvement from last year, too. So, the socialization and behavioral issues are definitely improving with age and counseling. But he still has trouble operating as part of a group. He does better one-on-one with his friends. And we all know that cooperative learning and problem solving is going to continually be a part of his school life. We'll get to talk to his therapist April Keaton about that on Nov. 8th. She's moving out of Kevin Elliott Counseling and setting up her own practice at Windsor and Duncan, which means no more remembering change to pay downtown meters each week. I'll write about the OT evaluation after we have it.
Carrie Busey also had their fall book fair today. We let X-man pick out the books he wanted. In the last couple of weeks he's suddenly gone totally Star Wars crazy. He's also manual crazy. He wants to see pages and pages of characters. He wants to know the names of each of the clone troops (he's this way over Pokémon, too). I have to draw a line sometimes when reading to him or I'll go nutso. We also got a couple of chapter books.
Then we stopped in to see the school librarian, Ms. Cahill. I totally miss volunteering this semester. Stupid foot! Anyway, the school had a decorate a pumpkin like a storybook character contest. X-man and I made the fish from "Memoirs of a Goldfish." We got to vote for Best in Show, Cutest, Scariest, Most like the Book, etc. All three of us voted and I cannot wait to get back into the library. I feel totally out of sync because I don't know the "way of things" at the school. It's just odd to be there because I haven't been.
When we got home, X-man asked to watch Clone Wars and play at LegoStarWars.com. I set him up and then went upstairs while MacTroll got on his conference calls. I needed something therapeutic to do, so I sat down on the floor of X-man's room and sorted Legos and scrubbed down his Lego table with cleaner. Then he came up, noticed that all of his "town" pieces were on the table together and not in a mess and we started playing. Then we pulled out the Scribbles coloring and activity book my sister got him for his birthday and we did some activities. He read me the instructions and then I'd take one page and he'd take another. We fed some crocodiles with our art. We determined that the "heavier" of an object would be an elephant over a refrigerator. We drew striped and polka dotted brontosauruses. It was fun.
I made X-man lunch and then set him up with his next section of Handwriting without Tears. He finished his worksheet practice with only one correction from me. Afterwards we all had to head out to the library so that MacTroll and I participate in early voting at the Tolono Public Library. It was awesome. It was so nice because X-man could go pick out books while we voted and we didn't have to worry about standing in line. We were voter numbers 100 and 101. And there were at least a half dozen people coming in behind us.
Then we drove north and got MacTroll his birthday cake. I ordered him a specialty Doctor Who cake from the Cake Artist's Studio that looks like the Tardis for his 37th birthday tomorrow. X-man is adamant that we must celebrate birthdays. So a cake is a requirement. I still haven't found the black camera, so here's a photo of one that is similar. But I like celebrating MacTroll, too. :-)
Then we went to Meijer to do a quick pick up of food. I stayed in the car with X-man and read him some of the library books. Two of them were picture books based on uncomfortable social situations. He would panic in the middle of them, and we'd have to close them and talk about what made him upset. One was Howard B. Wigglebottom and the Monkey on his Back: A Tale about Telling the Truth and the other was I Gotta Draw about a boy who can't stop doodling (It's his fidgit) in school and he's earning terrible grades until his teacher adapts a bit and learns to accommodate his learning style. Then the whole class is integrating learning and art.
When we got home, MacTroll had a few more calls to make. So X-man and I headed up the stairs to his room to play more Legos. We also ended up reading "One Morning in Maine" by Robert McCloskey. There's a scene in the book where the older sister is helping the little sister brush her teeth. I asked X-man who the girls reminded him of. He smiled and said Super Ella and Super Chloe. Great minds think alike.
When MacTroll was done with the phone around 6 p.m., the boys sat down with the BIG purchase from the book fair today: A paper airplane book where you make the starships from Star Wars. Cutting and folding are fine motor skills, so it was nice to see them working together. Plus, there are five pages of each plane, so you can make whole squadrons. X-man makes up stories about what's happening with the planes. "A bad guy stole this Naboo plane so the X-wing has to run him down..." MacTroll is now playing planes with his Millennium Falcon while we prepare to watch Return of the Jedi as a Family Movie Night.
But I keep having to remind myself that tomorrow is Saturday! And after the giant cake is out of my fridge we'll have room to do a real grocery shopping trip. :-)
Last night I tried to watch the DVD of the first two episodes of Game of Thrones. It made me terribly uncomfortable and after violence against children in episode one and violence against dogs in episode two... I've decided I am not the Game of Thrones key audience. I had to fast forward through most of it (incest, arranged marriage and dwarves, oh my!). I think I'll go back to the Big Bang Theory. Much more my speed... I find great comfort in Leonard and Sheldon.
Carrie Busey also had their fall book fair today. We let X-man pick out the books he wanted. In the last couple of weeks he's suddenly gone totally Star Wars crazy. He's also manual crazy. He wants to see pages and pages of characters. He wants to know the names of each of the clone troops (he's this way over Pokémon, too). I have to draw a line sometimes when reading to him or I'll go nutso. We also got a couple of chapter books.
Then we stopped in to see the school librarian, Ms. Cahill. I totally miss volunteering this semester. Stupid foot! Anyway, the school had a decorate a pumpkin like a storybook character contest. X-man and I made the fish from "Memoirs of a Goldfish." We got to vote for Best in Show, Cutest, Scariest, Most like the Book, etc. All three of us voted and I cannot wait to get back into the library. I feel totally out of sync because I don't know the "way of things" at the school. It's just odd to be there because I haven't been.
When we got home, X-man asked to watch Clone Wars and play at LegoStarWars.com. I set him up and then went upstairs while MacTroll got on his conference calls. I needed something therapeutic to do, so I sat down on the floor of X-man's room and sorted Legos and scrubbed down his Lego table with cleaner. Then he came up, noticed that all of his "town" pieces were on the table together and not in a mess and we started playing. Then we pulled out the Scribbles coloring and activity book my sister got him for his birthday and we did some activities. He read me the instructions and then I'd take one page and he'd take another. We fed some crocodiles with our art. We determined that the "heavier" of an object would be an elephant over a refrigerator. We drew striped and polka dotted brontosauruses. It was fun.
I made X-man lunch and then set him up with his next section of Handwriting without Tears. He finished his worksheet practice with only one correction from me. Afterwards we all had to head out to the library so that MacTroll and I participate in early voting at the Tolono Public Library. It was awesome. It was so nice because X-man could go pick out books while we voted and we didn't have to worry about standing in line. We were voter numbers 100 and 101. And there were at least a half dozen people coming in behind us.
Then we drove north and got MacTroll his birthday cake. I ordered him a specialty Doctor Who cake from the Cake Artist's Studio that looks like the Tardis for his 37th birthday tomorrow. X-man is adamant that we must celebrate birthdays. So a cake is a requirement. I still haven't found the black camera, so here's a photo of one that is similar. But I like celebrating MacTroll, too. :-)
Then we went to Meijer to do a quick pick up of food. I stayed in the car with X-man and read him some of the library books. Two of them were picture books based on uncomfortable social situations. He would panic in the middle of them, and we'd have to close them and talk about what made him upset. One was Howard B. Wigglebottom and the Monkey on his Back: A Tale about Telling the Truth and the other was I Gotta Draw about a boy who can't stop doodling (It's his fidgit) in school and he's earning terrible grades until his teacher adapts a bit and learns to accommodate his learning style. Then the whole class is integrating learning and art.
When we got home, MacTroll had a few more calls to make. So X-man and I headed up the stairs to his room to play more Legos. We also ended up reading "One Morning in Maine" by Robert McCloskey. There's a scene in the book where the older sister is helping the little sister brush her teeth. I asked X-man who the girls reminded him of. He smiled and said Super Ella and Super Chloe. Great minds think alike.
When MacTroll was done with the phone around 6 p.m., the boys sat down with the BIG purchase from the book fair today: A paper airplane book where you make the starships from Star Wars. Cutting and folding are fine motor skills, so it was nice to see them working together. Plus, there are five pages of each plane, so you can make whole squadrons. X-man makes up stories about what's happening with the planes. "A bad guy stole this Naboo plane so the X-wing has to run him down..." MacTroll is now playing planes with his Millennium Falcon while we prepare to watch Return of the Jedi as a Family Movie Night.
But I keep having to remind myself that tomorrow is Saturday! And after the giant cake is out of my fridge we'll have room to do a real grocery shopping trip. :-)
Last night I tried to watch the DVD of the first two episodes of Game of Thrones. It made me terribly uncomfortable and after violence against children in episode one and violence against dogs in episode two... I've decided I am not the Game of Thrones key audience. I had to fast forward through most of it (incest, arranged marriage and dwarves, oh my!). I think I'll go back to the Big Bang Theory. Much more my speed... I find great comfort in Leonard and Sheldon.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
A Summer's Cold
I got home today at 10:55 a.m. Central time. That means I was up at 4:45 a.m. Eastern Time, and now I'm really tired. I went with MacTroll to pick up X-man from Little Gym camp and when he saw me, he threw his arms around me.
I looked down and saw snot all up and down the shoulder of his shirt. It was caked onto his face. The poor dude has a cold. He was talking a big like Kermit the Frog and he felt a bit warm. So we got some lunch in him and brought him home rather than sending him to Mad Scientist's camp at the Rec Center. (I had assumed I'd get home much later than 12 when I planned the double day of camp.)
Anyway, he's watched one episode of Phineas and Ferb while we cuddled, and he's been in his room quietly playing Legos. Me, I'm totally ready for a nap.
I looked down and saw snot all up and down the shoulder of his shirt. It was caked onto his face. The poor dude has a cold. He was talking a big like Kermit the Frog and he felt a bit warm. So we got some lunch in him and brought him home rather than sending him to Mad Scientist's camp at the Rec Center. (I had assumed I'd get home much later than 12 when I planned the double day of camp.)
Anyway, he's watched one episode of Phineas and Ferb while we cuddled, and he's been in his room quietly playing Legos. Me, I'm totally ready for a nap.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
A Day in the Life of...
My mom was here visiting for a couple of days. She took X-man to swim lessons at the Y, so I could get to my physical therapy appointment. She also played monopoly with him, so I wouldn't have to. :-) Thanks, Mom.
If I look like someone beat me in the leg with a stick that's officially part of my recovery. It's called Astym with some Active Release Technique on the side. And it hurts like a BITCH.
But I made a few things that were actually pretty yummy, including vegetarian taco meat. We also made a trip over to the new TCBY, because it would be blasphemy if there was an ice cream-esque business in town that we hadn't been to. It's a pretty happy place. They even put up with my son, who is usually a pro at doing a clean job of putting on toppings, messing up twice and having to get the spoons washed. (Sorry, TCBY). It was a combination of him being exhausted from playing and from the counter where the toppings are being higher than the one at Cocomero where he "trains" for topping adventures.
Today, X-man went to the Secret Agent Camp at the Little Gym. He's decided that outside of Parents' Nights Outs, he's outgrown them. He has one more day of camp on Friday, and then he'll be officially done. But Ms. Lindsay said he was really good at comforting one of the younger kids when he got sad, which was nice to hear.
After camp, we chilled out before going to behavioral therapy. Then we had to come home and fill water balloons. Big D, X-man's friend from Kindergarten who moves to Dunlap next week, came over for their last play date. They had a giant water fight in the front yard with squirt guns and balloons and the baby pool. (Yes, after the 15th day in a row of weather over 95 degrees, I broke down and bought one at Wal-mart in mid-July.)
Now, we're both tired. I'm not sure what I did today. I feel like I've just been picking things up all day and doing dishes and driving places. Oh, I did get my hair colored today.
Tomorrow is a "work around the house day" outside to get ready for the painters coming on Monday to paint the fence. So, there's trimming to do, because the ground is way too dry for me to pull weeds, so I'll just chop off their heads.
I also need to get X-man down to the library. He needs to cash in his last 6 book bucks because the prizes are down to nothing... My guess is he'll go for Meatheads and a sticker. But we'll see.
I think MacTroll would love to take X-man to Meatheads. MacTroll hasn't been there since he went when it opened.
If I look like someone beat me in the leg with a stick that's officially part of my recovery. It's called Astym with some Active Release Technique on the side. And it hurts like a BITCH.
But I made a few things that were actually pretty yummy, including vegetarian taco meat. We also made a trip over to the new TCBY, because it would be blasphemy if there was an ice cream-esque business in town that we hadn't been to. It's a pretty happy place. They even put up with my son, who is usually a pro at doing a clean job of putting on toppings, messing up twice and having to get the spoons washed. (Sorry, TCBY). It was a combination of him being exhausted from playing and from the counter where the toppings are being higher than the one at Cocomero where he "trains" for topping adventures.
Today, X-man went to the Secret Agent Camp at the Little Gym. He's decided that outside of Parents' Nights Outs, he's outgrown them. He has one more day of camp on Friday, and then he'll be officially done. But Ms. Lindsay said he was really good at comforting one of the younger kids when he got sad, which was nice to hear.
After camp, we chilled out before going to behavioral therapy. Then we had to come home and fill water balloons. Big D, X-man's friend from Kindergarten who moves to Dunlap next week, came over for their last play date. They had a giant water fight in the front yard with squirt guns and balloons and the baby pool. (Yes, after the 15th day in a row of weather over 95 degrees, I broke down and bought one at Wal-mart in mid-July.)
Now, we're both tired. I'm not sure what I did today. I feel like I've just been picking things up all day and doing dishes and driving places. Oh, I did get my hair colored today.
Tomorrow is a "work around the house day" outside to get ready for the painters coming on Monday to paint the fence. So, there's trimming to do, because the ground is way too dry for me to pull weeds, so I'll just chop off their heads.
I also need to get X-man down to the library. He needs to cash in his last 6 book bucks because the prizes are down to nothing... My guess is he'll go for Meatheads and a sticker. But we'll see.
I think MacTroll would love to take X-man to Meatheads. MacTroll hasn't been there since he went when it opened.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Too Much Togetherness
Holy cow am I ready for X-man to go to Baseball camp tomorrow!
I think we're getting to that point where there are only 4 weeks left of summer, and I'm ready to go school supply shopping and send him back. Because I can get nothing done when the boy is home. If he was a TV junkie, this would not be a problem. But he's not. And when I have a project, bless him, he always wants to help. Having him help, of course, slows everything down to a snail's pace, and it's hard to make him understand that if I can get my stuff done, I can play or take him somewhere cool.
Tomorrow night at 6 p.m. we're headed over to Sholem to meet up with his best buddy from kindergarten. I'm not sure when they're moving to Dunlap, so I have to see if this is their last play date or not.
But you can tell I've had enough because I'm baking chocolate chip cookies and I had a Matilda with dinner.
I think we're getting to that point where there are only 4 weeks left of summer, and I'm ready to go school supply shopping and send him back. Because I can get nothing done when the boy is home. If he was a TV junkie, this would not be a problem. But he's not. And when I have a project, bless him, he always wants to help. Having him help, of course, slows everything down to a snail's pace, and it's hard to make him understand that if I can get my stuff done, I can play or take him somewhere cool.
Tomorrow night at 6 p.m. we're headed over to Sholem to meet up with his best buddy from kindergarten. I'm not sure when they're moving to Dunlap, so I have to see if this is their last play date or not.
But you can tell I've had enough because I'm baking chocolate chip cookies and I had a Matilda with dinner.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Wolf Boy
Last weekend, we went to Chicago for my great aunt's funeral. Before the event, we stopped at Brookfield Zoo for a couple hours so that X-man could get some kid time in before going to a non-kid friendly event for several hours.
I had a memory from the first time he was at Brookfield when he was two. It was a father's day weekend, and his father wasn't there. But my dad was, and my sister, and her ex-husband. I flipped back to those photos on my computer and there it was.
The zoo had someone repaint the sign between then and now.
X-man looked at the picture from when he was two and asked who that kid was. So, no, he doesn't remember, but I do.
I had a memory from the first time he was at Brookfield when he was two. It was a father's day weekend, and his father wasn't there. But my dad was, and my sister, and her ex-husband. I flipped back to those photos on my computer and there it was.
The zoo had someone repaint the sign between then and now.
X-man looked at the picture from when he was two and asked who that kid was. So, no, he doesn't remember, but I do.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Elephant and Piggie
I'm going to claim Mo Willems as my favorite children's author right now. Not just because I find the Knuffle Bunny stories sweet or the Pigeon stories HILARIOUS, but because Elephant and Piggie are totally our favorite stories to read around here. Usually, I have to do some mild tap dancing to get X-man to read to me at night.
But with Elephant and Piggie -- I read Elephant's part and X-man reads Piggie's parts. And we go through the books. All of the books. And he loves them. He particularly likes when Pigeon ends up as drawings on the end sheets.
He's reading words I didn't know he could read like "crazy" and "happening" and "broke." And the stories make him laugh.
So, if you're trying to check out Elephant and Piggie books from the Heartland System or from Carrie Busey Elementary School, we have about 7 at our house right now. I promise to return them as soon as possible.
But with Elephant and Piggie -- I read Elephant's part and X-man reads Piggie's parts. And we go through the books. All of the books. And he loves them. He particularly likes when Pigeon ends up as drawings on the end sheets.
He's reading words I didn't know he could read like "crazy" and "happening" and "broke." And the stories make him laugh.
So, if you're trying to check out Elephant and Piggie books from the Heartland System or from Carrie Busey Elementary School, we have about 7 at our house right now. I promise to return them as soon as possible.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
X-man's First Karaoke
X-man received a karaoke machine from his aunt and uncle in California. I have never seen him quite as serious as when I got out the camera and started filming. So I promised him I'd keep that footage to myself.
What he learned is that song selection is key... and that he gets a little nervous when he is watched or filmed. Not a surprise. I sung the best when I turned around and faced the bookcase Jim Morrison style -- even in our living room.
On another note, the karaoke machine is nice because it has a button you can push where it smooths out the lyrics from your iPod, so if you know the song, or you've printed out the lyrics, you're singing just to the music. But if you need a little help, you can sing along to the words just on a microphone. MacTroll is already thinking of getting a headphone splitter, so you can listen to the words in headphones, but they wouldn't play as you sang to the "crowd," for those of us who freak out and have minds that go blank even if we've sung the song a million times in the car.
Either way, we spent several hours yesterday playing American Idol. X-man has never seen American Idol, so I'm not sure how he knew to go and make up number cards to evaluate the singers as judges. But that's what we did. My first song I got a 10 from MacTroll and a 0 from X-man. Now I know which one is my Paula...
When we were done, the boys had Chinese food for dinner and then played with the castle that X-man's grandparents gave him.
Then I went off to see the Descendants by myself. Where I feel I got duped by a trailer and supposed "Oscar buzz" again. Sigh. It wasn't hilarious. It wasn't funny at all. I was anticipating quirky like Juno. The whole thing was sad, sad, sad, sad.
I much preferred seeing the Muppets.
What he learned is that song selection is key... and that he gets a little nervous when he is watched or filmed. Not a surprise. I sung the best when I turned around and faced the bookcase Jim Morrison style -- even in our living room.
On another note, the karaoke machine is nice because it has a button you can push where it smooths out the lyrics from your iPod, so if you know the song, or you've printed out the lyrics, you're singing just to the music. But if you need a little help, you can sing along to the words just on a microphone. MacTroll is already thinking of getting a headphone splitter, so you can listen to the words in headphones, but they wouldn't play as you sang to the "crowd," for those of us who freak out and have minds that go blank even if we've sung the song a million times in the car.
Either way, we spent several hours yesterday playing American Idol. X-man has never seen American Idol, so I'm not sure how he knew to go and make up number cards to evaluate the singers as judges. But that's what we did. My first song I got a 10 from MacTroll and a 0 from X-man. Now I know which one is my Paula...
When we were done, the boys had Chinese food for dinner and then played with the castle that X-man's grandparents gave him.
Then I went off to see the Descendants by myself. Where I feel I got duped by a trailer and supposed "Oscar buzz" again. Sigh. It wasn't hilarious. It wasn't funny at all. I was anticipating quirky like Juno. The whole thing was sad, sad, sad, sad.
I much preferred seeing the Muppets.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Bowler or Scientist? Mmmm....
So this morning when I dropped of X-man for Little Gym, I expected us to just chill out and play with his new castle. But we didn't. Instead, we stopped by Old Orchard and he had a pepperoni pizza and we bowled two games. The first game he scored a respectable 71 (His highest ever is 78). I bowled a turkey and a spare the first game, so he was starting to wonder when he'd ever have a "special score."
It came in the second game, where the 4 college guys next to us were trying not to concentrate on the fact that two of them had significantly lower scores in the 7th frame than my five year old. Sure he had bumpers, but they were 20. He finished with a 101. He beat his mother by 1. It was awesome... plus he had two strikes and a spare in that game. MacTroll had run in (he was supposed to meet us for lunch but caught up with his gossiping -- I swear, who needs a water cooler when you have a cellphone?) and he missed my turkey, but he got to see X-man beat me, which was awesome.
After bowling we came home and opened another present. This one came from my aunt and uncle who live in town. X-man could hardly contain himself while I got it out of the box and put batteries in it. Was it a Nintendo DS? Was it slot cars? No.
As you can tell, Lily was trying to figure out what in the hell he was doing. But my kid is apparently a scientist who bowls. And he's mighty adorable, too.
Oh wait... the karaoke party at our house might just be about to begin.
It came in the second game, where the 4 college guys next to us were trying not to concentrate on the fact that two of them had significantly lower scores in the 7th frame than my five year old. Sure he had bumpers, but they were 20. He finished with a 101. He beat his mother by 1. It was awesome... plus he had two strikes and a spare in that game. MacTroll had run in (he was supposed to meet us for lunch but caught up with his gossiping -- I swear, who needs a water cooler when you have a cellphone?) and he missed my turkey, but he got to see X-man beat me, which was awesome.
After bowling we came home and opened another present. This one came from my aunt and uncle who live in town. X-man could hardly contain himself while I got it out of the box and put batteries in it. Was it a Nintendo DS? Was it slot cars? No.
A microscope. Where he spent almost two hours making slides of stuff around the house. Specimens off of light switches, water from the cat bowl (which was made up of a LOT of hair, go figure), stuff from his shoes, the counter MacTroll made his lunch on, etc.
As you can tell, Lily was trying to figure out what in the hell he was doing. But my kid is apparently a scientist who bowls. And he's mighty adorable, too.
Oh wait... the karaoke party at our house might just be about to begin.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Life After the Mouse
We landed at Orlando Airport around 1 p.m. on Thanksgiving Thursday. We decided that Thanksgiving isn't going to be about food for us, so we picked up our rental car and ran over to the Swan Hotel. The Swan backs up to The Dolphin, The Boardwalk and the Yacht Club resorts, so there were a lot of choices for meals.
We dumped our stuff and then headed to the Magic Kingdom and let X-man lead the way. And that's pretty much how we spent the day. We walked around the park and let him point to rides, wait in line and then grab a snack here and there. X-man has never been a big Winnie the Pooh fan, but he found that all these childhood favorites in the same area more than awesome. So he decided to skip the Pooh ride and instead, visit Mr. Sanderz' house.
After riding my favorite ride (the Teacups, where the boys found my crazy giggling quite amusing) X-man and I went on the race cars. He was too short to drive according to the measuring pole at the front of the ride, but it looked like they weren't caring too much about who was driving when they got in the car. However, X-man is a bit of a rule follower, so when I offered it to him, he refused. But we had to stop and sit in the stands afterwards so he could practice being an announcer at the races.
It was beautiful weather in Florida. It was in the 70s the whole time, but in the evening, a breeze would kick up and it got a bit chilly. On our way to pick up a sweatshirt for X-man, we stopped by Cinderella's castle all lit up in purple. The castle had all the Christmas lights on it, too.
Now wrapped up in a new Pluto fuzzy sweatshirt, we sat down on Main Street to watch the Electrical Parade. I had to tell X-man who 70 percent of the characters were (the major floats were for Pete's Dragon -- a movie he refuses to watch because of the Gogans -- as well as Alice in Wonderland and Pinnochio.) We also got a Mickey balloon for him. He was fascinated by the fact that it was a balloon inside a balloon. There was some whining over the fact that it wasn't an LED balloon. But he got over it -- quick.
Here's Mickey on his train float. After the Electrical Parade, we got on the bus to go home and skipped the fireworks at 10 p.m. It was X-man's bedtime when the parade started (Central time), so he was totally wasted by the time the parade was over.
I'm really glad we didn't book a character breakfast or wait in line for the buffet at our hotel that has them first come/first serve on the weekend. Because this was X-man's reaction to getting within 3 feet of one of the many green Toy Story guys hanging out in front of the Pixar part of Hollywood Studios. He didn't mind waving at them from a distance. But he did NOT want to get close to them. On Day 2, we spent the morning at Hollywood Studios doing Star Tours (Oh, the Loosey Giggle factor came into play here every time we jumped to light speed), watching the Jedi Training Academy (X would have been too scared of Darth Maul and Darth Vader to participate) and the Toy Story Mania ride (which is a newer better version than the Buzz one in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom. We also ate lunch at the Sci Fi Dine in (which was a giant movie screen playing old promos for 1950s science fiction films and short cartoons like Tom and Jerry) in a darkened room for lunch before we headed over to the Animal Kingdom. We spent the afternoon there and then ate lunch at the Rain Forest Café. I had never been to one, and unless you need a lot of loud noises to drown out your child's crying, I'd skip it.
X-man really enjoyed the two park areas within the parks. The first is the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground (where it is impossible to keep an eye on your kids without getting on your hands and knees and going through it with them) in Hollywood Studios. It's a great way to run off any steam or whininess that has built up from waiting in line for things (which is not often a favorite past time of small children). The other free play area is a Dinosaur playground in the Animal Kingdom next to the Dinoland, USA kiddie ride section.
My favorite part of this trip was that X-man and MacTroll got some quality time, even if it was on a bus ride or at the dinner table. MacTroll's been on the road a lot, and I think having four days with no computers and TV in the middle of Disney was really very good for both of them.
X-man balked at the hour that we were going to wait for the Safari Ride in the Animal Kingdom, but they really got us through in 25 minutes! My favorite was watching this giraffe chow down on the low branches.
For breakfast on Saturday, we went to Cat Cora's restaurant on the Boardwalk. X-man got his Mickey shaped waffle. I got my fruit bowl and tea and MacTroll had an excellent breakfast skillet.
Saturday we headed over to Sea World after breakfast. X-man was very excited about getting wet at the dolphin and whale shows. It used to be... 20 years ago... that the shows were just educational bits about the animals with some background music. This dolphin show had -- um -- a plot with character development and trapeze artists. It was totally bizarre.
But X-man totally dug it.
Sea World doesn't have very many rides, but X-man really liked the boat ride. They got pretty wet. I took photos next to the area where other visitors could put quarters into spray guns and squirt the boat as it came by. I tried to soak them... my quarter didn't freaking work!
We could also imagine that the conversation about the decision on high to keep the trainers out of the water went something like this, "You're not allowed in the water with the animals during shows."
"What are we gonna do then?"
"You're gonna dance."
And yeah, if you're wondering, scientists doing the white man shuffle to bad music is totally the reason they invested so much in four giant moving movie screens. It draws most of the focus away from the trainers and onto the screens or to the animals.
And since he was already wet from the Orca show, when we hit Shamu's kids area and X-man saw the water playground, we told him to go for it. I ran off for lunch and then when I returned, X-man was complaining that Sea World people told him he had to wear shoes on the other rides. Um, what? Of course you do... MacTroll just shrugged.
But then the boys went to play on the pirate ship.
This is the GIANT rope climb with all kinds of crazy tunnels and tire swings and awesomeness that X-man spent a full hour going through with and without MacTroll. Around it were a lot of kiddie rides, but X-man spent most of his time in the free play area.
And underneath the rope climb is the seal the deal reason why Quigs will never want to go to Sea World... giant sandbox... :-)
After Sea World, we headed to Downtown Disney and ate dinner at Fresh A-Peel and visited the Babycakes Vegan bakery between the TREX café and the Lego Store. X-man got a new Lego set and built himself three mini figures before he went out to the work tables and made a car. He entered in a race and won! Then I walked him down to Once Upon a Toy and he built a Light Saber for himself.
X-man found out that MacTroll's mother is going to Disney next week with some of her other grand children. He asked if he could go back with them. We told him he had to go to school, but I told him he'd go back sometime. He asked when. I told him to talk to his Papa. :-)
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Those Carnies Don't Mess Around
This weekend was the Savoy Orchard Days festival, a.k.a. the carnival in our backyard. We walked over at dinner time on Friday night and spent 2 1/2 hours in the cold watching X-man run around like mad using his $17 wrist band to its fullest on all of the rides.
My favorite was watching him and his favorite neighbor on the Scrambler... They loved it so much they went twice -- not needing an adult to ride with them this year. :-)
We ate some kettle corn. I had the Rotary Club of Savoy grilled pork sandwich from Old Time Meat Shoppe. (Which at $5 for a sandwich, soda and chips was the best deal over there... not to mention, strangely the healthiest.)
Then we came home and tucked X-man into bed. On Saturday, after the Carrie Busey Family Fitness run, I walked over to work the pork chop booth for 4 hours and X-man and MacTroll went back to ride more rides, see the antique cars, etc. It was a much warmer day, but they were still there for three hours. And then we went and watched the first half of the Illini football game. X-man sat through the first quarter fine, but spent the second quarter jumping on MacTroll in the grass by a snack stand (he was tired... and manic). On our way home, we got offered a ride back to our car by an ADA transport. I guess me in a walking cast was enough for the driver to ask if I needed some help. As we were driving back to the car, X-man said, "This is the best part about tonight." Okay, then I'll save my $20 to park and $35 in tickets next time. (Stub hub is awesome.)
The carnival ended at 11 p.m. last night. And by 6 a.m. this morning, the rides had disappeared and the carnival operator's trucks were gone.
That was a lot of stuff to take down and put away in seven hours... maybe they could come over and help with my house today as I prepare to have the Preston Street party inside given the 60 percent chance of rain between 4-7 p.m.
My favorite was watching him and his favorite neighbor on the Scrambler... They loved it so much they went twice -- not needing an adult to ride with them this year. :-)
We ate some kettle corn. I had the Rotary Club of Savoy grilled pork sandwich from Old Time Meat Shoppe. (Which at $5 for a sandwich, soda and chips was the best deal over there... not to mention, strangely the healthiest.)
Then we came home and tucked X-man into bed. On Saturday, after the Carrie Busey Family Fitness run, I walked over to work the pork chop booth for 4 hours and X-man and MacTroll went back to ride more rides, see the antique cars, etc. It was a much warmer day, but they were still there for three hours. And then we went and watched the first half of the Illini football game. X-man sat through the first quarter fine, but spent the second quarter jumping on MacTroll in the grass by a snack stand (he was tired... and manic). On our way home, we got offered a ride back to our car by an ADA transport. I guess me in a walking cast was enough for the driver to ask if I needed some help. As we were driving back to the car, X-man said, "This is the best part about tonight." Okay, then I'll save my $20 to park and $35 in tickets next time. (Stub hub is awesome.)
The carnival ended at 11 p.m. last night. And by 6 a.m. this morning, the rides had disappeared and the carnival operator's trucks were gone.
That was a lot of stuff to take down and put away in seven hours... maybe they could come over and help with my house today as I prepare to have the Preston Street party inside given the 60 percent chance of rain between 4-7 p.m.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Kings, Knights and Magicians
X-man was supposed to go to the Airshow in Charleston with MacTroll yesterday, but because he had a roll of awful behavior on Friday night he lost that privilege and spent yesterday pretty much in his room. When I came back from completing my 5k on Saturday morning, there was a letter of apology written to me on the dining room table. X-man had decided that his big kid paper didn't have enough space for everything he wanted to say, so he dictated his message to MacTroll and then MacTroll printed it out in a font that made the letters out of dots and X-man sat down and used a pencil to connect the letters and sentences.
So, when MacTroll woke up this a.m. and had issues getting off the pot, I snatched my boy up, threw him in the car and drove to Danville (which I'm sure makes SuperShanna proud). Why Danville?
Today was the second day of the Illinois Renaissance Fair. We showed up right in time for the starting ceremonies. The trick was that my child had no idea where he was going. It was a surprise. So when he pulled up and saw a knight on a horse he flipped out!
"Mom! Mom! Mom! It's a -- It's a -- What is that KNIGHT doing there?"
Then we got out of the car and ran over where a woman played a set of bag pipes and lead out the king and queen. "Are they really king and queen?"
I explained they were acting.
"Like a play? Do I get to dress up? I want to be a knight, too."
We went in and found a LOT of girls dressed up as princesses and maidens, but not a lot of complete boy dress up options. X-man skipped the wizard's hat, but what he did not miss out on was the bamboo bow and arrow set for kids. The arrow part is made of cloth and foam, so it doesn't hurt. He shot it a few times and then hung the bow around his shoulder "like Green Arrow."
Then he saw the area where they taught kids how to duel...Again with the foam swords and shields. Kids had to follow the rules of not hitting heads or groins (a word I had to explain). If you were struck in an arm, that meant you lost the arm and had to drop what was in your hand and put it behind your back. If you were struck in a leg, you had to kneel. Get two appendages cut off and you were dead. A strike in the back, chest, stomach or butt and you were dead... X-man spent an hour and fifteen minutes out of the three hours we were there either watching big kids duel or dueling himself. He had a great time dueling with a grandfather who we knew from Savoy.
It was a nice, quiet fair. It was very affordable and there was a lot of entertainment. There were about eight different stages that had something going on every 30 minutes. We watched some grown ups duel with real swords and learned about some of the dueling techniques. We watched a magic show. We saw two knights (including a female knight!) do a round of jousting. We ate a plain pretzel and shared a lemon shake up and went around finding folks with blue bows on their shirts who were carrying little prizes for the kids (pirate patches, rings, slide whistles, etc.). We listened to singers. Then, he took me to the stockade, where he gave a quarter to the woman and announced that his mom was buying 3 water balloons, but he didn't want me to throw them at the teenager for their fundraiser, he wanted me to throw them at him, because he was hot and wanted to get wet.
I soaked him using all three and then asked him if he wanted more. Because really, when does a mom get to pelt her son, who is imprisoned in the stocks, with water balloons any more?
X-man really liked the Fair, but he said he wished his Dad had come with, so they could have dueled as a team. We'll have to go back again next year. Maybe then we'll dress X-man up like a knight!
So, when MacTroll woke up this a.m. and had issues getting off the pot, I snatched my boy up, threw him in the car and drove to Danville (which I'm sure makes SuperShanna proud). Why Danville?
Today was the second day of the Illinois Renaissance Fair. We showed up right in time for the starting ceremonies. The trick was that my child had no idea where he was going. It was a surprise. So when he pulled up and saw a knight on a horse he flipped out!
"Mom! Mom! Mom! It's a -- It's a -- What is that KNIGHT doing there?"
Then we got out of the car and ran over where a woman played a set of bag pipes and lead out the king and queen. "Are they really king and queen?"
I explained they were acting.
"Like a play? Do I get to dress up? I want to be a knight, too."
We went in and found a LOT of girls dressed up as princesses and maidens, but not a lot of complete boy dress up options. X-man skipped the wizard's hat, but what he did not miss out on was the bamboo bow and arrow set for kids. The arrow part is made of cloth and foam, so it doesn't hurt. He shot it a few times and then hung the bow around his shoulder "like Green Arrow."
Then he saw the area where they taught kids how to duel...Again with the foam swords and shields. Kids had to follow the rules of not hitting heads or groins (a word I had to explain). If you were struck in an arm, that meant you lost the arm and had to drop what was in your hand and put it behind your back. If you were struck in a leg, you had to kneel. Get two appendages cut off and you were dead. A strike in the back, chest, stomach or butt and you were dead... X-man spent an hour and fifteen minutes out of the three hours we were there either watching big kids duel or dueling himself. He had a great time dueling with a grandfather who we knew from Savoy.
It was a nice, quiet fair. It was very affordable and there was a lot of entertainment. There were about eight different stages that had something going on every 30 minutes. We watched some grown ups duel with real swords and learned about some of the dueling techniques. We watched a magic show. We saw two knights (including a female knight!) do a round of jousting. We ate a plain pretzel and shared a lemon shake up and went around finding folks with blue bows on their shirts who were carrying little prizes for the kids (pirate patches, rings, slide whistles, etc.). We listened to singers. Then, he took me to the stockade, where he gave a quarter to the woman and announced that his mom was buying 3 water balloons, but he didn't want me to throw them at the teenager for their fundraiser, he wanted me to throw them at him, because he was hot and wanted to get wet.
I soaked him using all three and then asked him if he wanted more. Because really, when does a mom get to pelt her son, who is imprisoned in the stocks, with water balloons any more?
X-man really liked the Fair, but he said he wished his Dad had come with, so they could have dueled as a team. We'll have to go back again next year. Maybe then we'll dress X-man up like a knight!
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Island Adventure Highlights
I've had people tell me I was crazy for going to the Caribbean in the summer, but I prefer it. "It's warm at home," they've told me. Yeah, but seriously... the sprinkler and the public pool look nothing like this.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Review of Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Resort
Monday afternoon through Thursday morning, the boys and I were in Utica, Illinois, at Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Resort with MacTroll's parents and his three brothers and their families. The reunion was planned and financed by his parents. So, 10 adults and nine children came from way out east and way out west, and way up north and, um, an hour and a half away to stay together just outside of Starved Rock State Park.
I'd asked about Grizzly Jack's before, and I know some of you have given me your thoughts on the resort via Facebook. Whether the adults loved it or hated it, everyone came back with the same response of -- "The kids really enjoyed it." And our kid was no different. He woke up demanding to know why we were leaving a day earlier than everyone else. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was because his father had given me the dates incorrectly, and that, unlike most people he'll meet in his life, his lame mother had scheduled meetings and doctors appointments that would take weeks to reschedule on that Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. We both bombed on this one. But then again, you do what you can, you know?
As a resort, MacTroll and I were not overly excited about Grizzly Jack's. And here's the deal, that my brother-in-law from California brought up once MacTroll found out that the resort is $10 million in the hole and filed for bankruptcy in January. "You don't build a giant resort in the middle of nowhere cornfields." Apparently, the Kevin Costner "Build it and they will come" philosophy doesn't apply to indoor water parks in Central Illinois.
Our in-laws thoughtfully provided large housing accommodations in a villa and a townhouse for the whole group. As it turns out, when GJ opened, it sold these villas and townhomes to folks as vacation homes that they could then rent back to other families like ours to make money off in rent when they weren't using them. Each place is decorated pretty much the same: think bears meet fake antlers meet moose paraphernalia. The owners then provide things like silverware and cups and dishes. The issue is if you stay at a place that sleeps 12, you'd expect there to be 12 forks instead of 5. See what I'm saying? When GJ originally opened purchasing a Townhouse was like $250,000 for 2800 square feet. Now, you can buy them for $50,000.
On the wall of the villa was also a sign indicating you could purchase their fancy towels and washclothes, but I guess there must have been a run on those, because all we could come up with was that the ones they provided us were so old and washed that they were -- very exfoliating.
We went to the waterpark twice, each for two-hour play dates. Inside are two water slides, one body slide and one raft slide. You need to be at least 48 inches to go down them, so X-man was an inch too short, which was okay. There was a splash park that we made the best of, but it was in complete disrepair. The two spray guns had tubes that were completely broken. MacTroll just reached over the side grabbed the dislodged hose and sprayed family members that way. Above the spray area was supposed to be one of those giant buckets of water that dumps over onto people, but the door to the "ranger station" wouldn't open, so the water dumped inside the house and just kind of drained down rather than pouring. It looked like there was some kind of musical warning system to tell you when it was time to dump (like a clanging on metal as it got full) but it didn't work. The bucket system with pulley to dump water on someone's head below was broken. They had at least put a new rope climbing apparatus in over a broken one, but they left the broken one attached, so it looked dumpy. X-man did okay on the two slides for kids under 48 inches. They had soft landings at the bottom. He also enjoyed going around in the rafts on the lazy river.
The lodge is located just down the street from a quarry blast sight, so the water is very hard. My friend M warned me that their water tasted kind of funny and to take some bottled water along. It was similar to the water at my Mom's in Loves Park, so it wasn't as disconcerting to me. But I was grateful for her advice. The issue is that there was mineral and mold build up all over the place in the water park. You'd float around the lazy river and see it on the walls. The wood on all the steps was turning green and rotting. The underside of the Ranger Station was building up with white mineral deposits from the inappropriate dumping.
The lazy river was supposed to be only for rafters, but everyone was in it. They were swimming around it. They were diving under the rafts to get around people. There was also a small wave pool, but there was no indicator in the room any longer as to when the pool would be starting, so you missed it, or you sat around waiting a long time for it -- a lot. The water was warm and they did have some fun water falls to swim through, which also became the "safety zone" for X-man when the "crazy waves" came on. The waves from the wave pool either came out "traditional" like you were on a surf at a beach or "crazy" like you were in water between docks and it was going sideways. The crazy ones were a bit too rough for X-man, so he'd go into the safety area until they stopped.
The next issue was -- the lifeguards. At Sholem, you get a sense that they're not messing around. Everyone has their crazy scanning headbobs, and they've got their whistles in hand. They've got new suits and sun protection and life saving equipment on hand. At Grizzly Jack's, I watched one lifeguard literally chew her finger nails for her entire shift. Everywhere she moved she had her fingers in her mouth. And she looked everywhere except at the water. One lifeguard was taking his float on a walk. It was crumbling apart. I didn't notice it until I thought it was a chunk of apple floating by. I felt better it wasn't food -- and then I didn't. The guards didn't watch the water. They looked bored. So they gave no sense of reassurance and I didn't let X-man out of my sight.
The indoor Amusement Park named the "Enchanted Forest" was okay, as were the sea of bounce houses outside of it for children ages 3-12. X-man loved running around and pretend playing the arcade games. He also went on all the rides. MacTroll was with him most of the time because during a morning walk/run on the Canal, I managed to jack up my foot (yes, I have an appointment for an X-ray with sports medicine this month) and had trouble walking. The only issue here was that you could tell that because of the poor economic issues, they only had two people running all of the rides. So, you'd wait in line behind the gate of the one you wanted to ride -- and wait -- and hope that enough people lined up behind you so that you could go on it. Then you'd go on that ride as many, many times as possible before the employee moved on to the next ride.
But the biggest difficulty was that everything local was kind of closed in the area. The first night MacTroll and I tried to do a pizza night. We found some places with good reviews online at the nearby Oglesby. We figured we'd pick stuff up. Yeah, one was closed and the other was at the other end of a road that was closed that would require a long detour back to I-39. So, we ventured into Lasalle-Peru and found the Jewel and a Papa John's. This was a theme. We tried to go to an independent bookstore and candy shop in Utica -- both were closed at 11 a.m. on a Wednesday. We tried to canoe at Starved Rock, but the boat shop didn't open until 11:30 a.m. (nice and hot then, right?) When we returned at 11:30 a.m., the shop was open to take our money, but no one with a key was there to unlock the canoes. MacTroll, X-man and I gave up and went back to the moldy water park, while the others sat around waiting for the guy with the key to show up. MacTroll also reported that my MIL tried to stop by the Starved Rock Stables, which were empty of horses and abandoned of people.
But again, despite our reservations as adults, X-man liked it -- because it had bounce houses and rides and water slides and a bunch of kids to play with. So if you focus on younger kid happiness, you'll do fine. Unfortunately, I'm afraid if you enjoyed the park before, you might find it lacking due to the fact that the place hasn't been kept up. So if you return, it's probably not going to be exactly as you remembered it.
I can recommend, if you're in Peru, to get breakfast or lunch at the Fourth Street Bakery. They don't have a lot of breads (but they do have a lot of bagels). X-man and MacTroll both enjoyed a mid-morning snack there. It had a great atmosphere and the owners were very welcoming.
I would not necessarily recommend running on the canal. I entered it at Lock 14. It's a decent path, but it smells of dead fish. And the Illinois River spill over areas around are flooded with beautiful egrets, who walk on their tall, graceful legs. It's amazing to see, until you realize they're walking around the dozens of tires floating in the water. Sigh. The whole area needs a giant environmental clean up.
I'd asked about Grizzly Jack's before, and I know some of you have given me your thoughts on the resort via Facebook. Whether the adults loved it or hated it, everyone came back with the same response of -- "The kids really enjoyed it." And our kid was no different. He woke up demanding to know why we were leaving a day earlier than everyone else. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was because his father had given me the dates incorrectly, and that, unlike most people he'll meet in his life, his lame mother had scheduled meetings and doctors appointments that would take weeks to reschedule on that Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. We both bombed on this one. But then again, you do what you can, you know?
As a resort, MacTroll and I were not overly excited about Grizzly Jack's. And here's the deal, that my brother-in-law from California brought up once MacTroll found out that the resort is $10 million in the hole and filed for bankruptcy in January. "You don't build a giant resort in the middle of nowhere cornfields." Apparently, the Kevin Costner "Build it and they will come" philosophy doesn't apply to indoor water parks in Central Illinois.
Our in-laws thoughtfully provided large housing accommodations in a villa and a townhouse for the whole group. As it turns out, when GJ opened, it sold these villas and townhomes to folks as vacation homes that they could then rent back to other families like ours to make money off in rent when they weren't using them. Each place is decorated pretty much the same: think bears meet fake antlers meet moose paraphernalia. The owners then provide things like silverware and cups and dishes. The issue is if you stay at a place that sleeps 12, you'd expect there to be 12 forks instead of 5. See what I'm saying? When GJ originally opened purchasing a Townhouse was like $250,000 for 2800 square feet. Now, you can buy them for $50,000.
On the wall of the villa was also a sign indicating you could purchase their fancy towels and washclothes, but I guess there must have been a run on those, because all we could come up with was that the ones they provided us were so old and washed that they were -- very exfoliating.
We went to the waterpark twice, each for two-hour play dates. Inside are two water slides, one body slide and one raft slide. You need to be at least 48 inches to go down them, so X-man was an inch too short, which was okay. There was a splash park that we made the best of, but it was in complete disrepair. The two spray guns had tubes that were completely broken. MacTroll just reached over the side grabbed the dislodged hose and sprayed family members that way. Above the spray area was supposed to be one of those giant buckets of water that dumps over onto people, but the door to the "ranger station" wouldn't open, so the water dumped inside the house and just kind of drained down rather than pouring. It looked like there was some kind of musical warning system to tell you when it was time to dump (like a clanging on metal as it got full) but it didn't work. The bucket system with pulley to dump water on someone's head below was broken. They had at least put a new rope climbing apparatus in over a broken one, but they left the broken one attached, so it looked dumpy. X-man did okay on the two slides for kids under 48 inches. They had soft landings at the bottom. He also enjoyed going around in the rafts on the lazy river.
The lodge is located just down the street from a quarry blast sight, so the water is very hard. My friend M warned me that their water tasted kind of funny and to take some bottled water along. It was similar to the water at my Mom's in Loves Park, so it wasn't as disconcerting to me. But I was grateful for her advice. The issue is that there was mineral and mold build up all over the place in the water park. You'd float around the lazy river and see it on the walls. The wood on all the steps was turning green and rotting. The underside of the Ranger Station was building up with white mineral deposits from the inappropriate dumping.
The lazy river was supposed to be only for rafters, but everyone was in it. They were swimming around it. They were diving under the rafts to get around people. There was also a small wave pool, but there was no indicator in the room any longer as to when the pool would be starting, so you missed it, or you sat around waiting a long time for it -- a lot. The water was warm and they did have some fun water falls to swim through, which also became the "safety zone" for X-man when the "crazy waves" came on. The waves from the wave pool either came out "traditional" like you were on a surf at a beach or "crazy" like you were in water between docks and it was going sideways. The crazy ones were a bit too rough for X-man, so he'd go into the safety area until they stopped.
The next issue was -- the lifeguards. At Sholem, you get a sense that they're not messing around. Everyone has their crazy scanning headbobs, and they've got their whistles in hand. They've got new suits and sun protection and life saving equipment on hand. At Grizzly Jack's, I watched one lifeguard literally chew her finger nails for her entire shift. Everywhere she moved she had her fingers in her mouth. And she looked everywhere except at the water. One lifeguard was taking his float on a walk. It was crumbling apart. I didn't notice it until I thought it was a chunk of apple floating by. I felt better it wasn't food -- and then I didn't. The guards didn't watch the water. They looked bored. So they gave no sense of reassurance and I didn't let X-man out of my sight.
The indoor Amusement Park named the "Enchanted Forest" was okay, as were the sea of bounce houses outside of it for children ages 3-12. X-man loved running around and pretend playing the arcade games. He also went on all the rides. MacTroll was with him most of the time because during a morning walk/run on the Canal, I managed to jack up my foot (yes, I have an appointment for an X-ray with sports medicine this month) and had trouble walking. The only issue here was that you could tell that because of the poor economic issues, they only had two people running all of the rides. So, you'd wait in line behind the gate of the one you wanted to ride -- and wait -- and hope that enough people lined up behind you so that you could go on it. Then you'd go on that ride as many, many times as possible before the employee moved on to the next ride.
But the biggest difficulty was that everything local was kind of closed in the area. The first night MacTroll and I tried to do a pizza night. We found some places with good reviews online at the nearby Oglesby. We figured we'd pick stuff up. Yeah, one was closed and the other was at the other end of a road that was closed that would require a long detour back to I-39. So, we ventured into Lasalle-Peru and found the Jewel and a Papa John's. This was a theme. We tried to go to an independent bookstore and candy shop in Utica -- both were closed at 11 a.m. on a Wednesday. We tried to canoe at Starved Rock, but the boat shop didn't open until 11:30 a.m. (nice and hot then, right?) When we returned at 11:30 a.m., the shop was open to take our money, but no one with a key was there to unlock the canoes. MacTroll, X-man and I gave up and went back to the moldy water park, while the others sat around waiting for the guy with the key to show up. MacTroll also reported that my MIL tried to stop by the Starved Rock Stables, which were empty of horses and abandoned of people.
But again, despite our reservations as adults, X-man liked it -- because it had bounce houses and rides and water slides and a bunch of kids to play with. So if you focus on younger kid happiness, you'll do fine. Unfortunately, I'm afraid if you enjoyed the park before, you might find it lacking due to the fact that the place hasn't been kept up. So if you return, it's probably not going to be exactly as you remembered it.
I can recommend, if you're in Peru, to get breakfast or lunch at the Fourth Street Bakery. They don't have a lot of breads (but they do have a lot of bagels). X-man and MacTroll both enjoyed a mid-morning snack there. It had a great atmosphere and the owners were very welcoming.
I would not necessarily recommend running on the canal. I entered it at Lock 14. It's a decent path, but it smells of dead fish. And the Illinois River spill over areas around are flooded with beautiful egrets, who walk on their tall, graceful legs. It's amazing to see, until you realize they're walking around the dozens of tires floating in the water. Sigh. The whole area needs a giant environmental clean up.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Grizzly Jack's
Tomorrow the family and I leave for Grizzly Jack's in Utica, IL for MacTroll's family reunion. There are no kids on my side of the family, so this is X-man's shot at playing with all of his cousins. We're particularly close to the cousins from Baltimore, and we missed our Memorial Day trip to see them this year. But we're also seeing cousins from Michigan and California that X-man has only met once or twice before. Reviews for the lodge have been very mixed on the adult side, but most of the kids we know who have been thought it was fine, and for four days, that's pretty much what's important. We have two rental house-like places for 18 of us to stay. There's an indoor amusement park and an indoor water park. Starved Rock State Park is across the street, so we're investigating some walks.
I've been on a mission to reel in the eating since Monday. It's working out okay, but most of my physical activity has been household labor like tree digging and mulching in crazy hot weather. But Utica isn't exactly filled with non-fast food places or with chains that have met the calorie printing provision, so I'm packing in my own food -- just to be safe. It helps that there are kitchens, so I can take along my little blender and my popcorn maker. I decided rather than look like an ass and cook my own dinners separately from the pizza and grill out that is bound to happen, that I'll just take my meals in the box from HMR.
I'm also taking walking shoes, so I can head out and about. The hardest part of all of this is going to be leaving Lily for four days. We have an overnight petsitter coming to the house, and Super Shanna is going to drop by twice on Tuesday and twice on Wednesday. But I still feel guilty. But since she doesn't get her second booster until the 15th, it's really safer for her to stay home than go with us into the land of nature.
Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes. We roll out of town Monday in the afternoon and will return Thursday by 11 a.m. I've got Rotary at noon and then on Friday, we're taking X-man to Carrie Busey to eat in the cafeteria for breakfast at 8 a.m. as part of the free food for kids summer program. Then at 10 a.m., MacTroll and I are taking everyone in the Black and White Mafia (and their newest canine member) to the vet for annual check ups. Just imagine us with three geriatric cats and a puppy... while X-man plays with KTDID.
I've been on a mission to reel in the eating since Monday. It's working out okay, but most of my physical activity has been household labor like tree digging and mulching in crazy hot weather. But Utica isn't exactly filled with non-fast food places or with chains that have met the calorie printing provision, so I'm packing in my own food -- just to be safe. It helps that there are kitchens, so I can take along my little blender and my popcorn maker. I decided rather than look like an ass and cook my own dinners separately from the pizza and grill out that is bound to happen, that I'll just take my meals in the box from HMR.
I'm also taking walking shoes, so I can head out and about. The hardest part of all of this is going to be leaving Lily for four days. We have an overnight petsitter coming to the house, and Super Shanna is going to drop by twice on Tuesday and twice on Wednesday. But I still feel guilty. But since she doesn't get her second booster until the 15th, it's really safer for her to stay home than go with us into the land of nature.
Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes. We roll out of town Monday in the afternoon and will return Thursday by 11 a.m. I've got Rotary at noon and then on Friday, we're taking X-man to Carrie Busey to eat in the cafeteria for breakfast at 8 a.m. as part of the free food for kids summer program. Then at 10 a.m., MacTroll and I are taking everyone in the Black and White Mafia (and their newest canine member) to the vet for annual check ups. Just imagine us with three geriatric cats and a puppy... while X-man plays with KTDID.
Friday, June 3, 2011
How It's Gonna Be
My house is a mess. Like shit is everywhere. It was clean as a whistle on Tuesday, but that seems so far away. I used to have an hour in my day after work where I could clean things up before X-man came home from school. But now he's always here. And most of the time, he's pretty good about picking up when I'm around, but when MacTroll is around, it's like the world is ruled by a different cosmic king and -- all clean up goes to hell.
Meh. Whatever, right? It's just going to get dirty again. The reason I hate housework isn't that it's a challenge. It's the monotony. I've cleaned up everything: Blood, vomit, paint, shreds of paper, bubbles, urine, poop, toys, salsa, wine, etc. It's always something. So I lose interest. Pristine is apparently not in my abilities any more. And I'm okay with that.
I'm also realizing that I'm not a person who really lives in my house. I use it more for storage and sleeping. The rest of the time I'm just tossing stuff into the holding cell so we can run out the door somewhere else.
For example today, after MacTroll got some bloodwork done and I went to physical therapy, we ate lunch and took X-man to Decatur to go to the Children's Museum of Illinois. We have a Super Family Membership at the Orpheum that gets us into over 120 Children's museums around the country, so we decided to put it to use. We hadn't been there since X-man was 2, so he didn't really remember it, i.e. it was all new to him. But, like usual, we spent over an hour of the two and a half hours that we were there in the grocery store/bank/post office area. :-)
We even ran into the folks at CAOS (Carle Auditory Oral School) who were on a field trip. Since it was balls hot outside and the museum was nice and cool, we decided we were very smart for staying inside. Afterwards, we took X-man down to Merchant Street to Del's Popcorn and bought him his favorite white chocolate covered pretzels and a blue slushie as a snack. Then we drove around/through Millikin (my alma mater) which took -- oooooohhhh a little over two minutes. The thing he liked most though was driving by all the factories, particularly ADM, and announcing, "What is that smell? It smells like poop." MacTroll told him it was where they produced different kinds of additives for foods. And right away, X-man figured out they were the kind of additives that drive mommy nuts. (Why, for example, does something called SOY sauce have wheat in it?)
Anyway, if you know the funk of Decatur, you understand why I found this entertaining.
We were home for 45 minutes to throw dinner at him before we dropped him off at Little Gym and MacTroll and I went out for date night. The first part was very successful. We ate at Escobar's which we hadn't done in a long, long time. Unlike other more "prime people watching" locations no one was there at 6:30. So we didn't have to wait for a table, the service was spot on and my shrimp and scallops were wonderful. Afterwards, we headed over to Urbana to drop in on the Coop expansion party for owners. We checked in and then scoped out the new space, but we didn't stay long enough to deal with the crowd. We weren't hungry, so we didn't need the free food or wine. And the music was a little loud, plus it was standing room only. So we went into the store to get jam and honey. I feel like a jerk for buying organic jam from Italy, but it's really good pomegranate raspberry. The honey, however, was local. I swear.
So we vacated the crowd to hit Espresso on Daniel St. on campus. And as you might expect, the place was EMPTY. It was awesome. We sat there for an hour sipping on our drinks and chatting about how we couldn't hear anything. Cars and bikes were infrequent and we were two of five people in the entire coffee shop. And this, is why I love to live here. I love that sometimes, I can sit on my back porch and hear NOTHING. It's not as quiet as it was when we first built our house, of course, but at the same time, in comparison to most urban areas, it's darn right peaceful.
I'm trying a slew of vegetarian recipes this week, so if you're a friend of mine on Facebook, I'll post the good ones there. :-)
Tomorrow is set aside for either garage sale time or farmer's market time with X-man and then some work for the Tolono Library District. I have my first meeting as the Secretary on Tuesday. I'm a bit nervous, but at the same time, excited about helping out. You know me... anything to get out of my cage, um, I mean house.
So the next time you drop by, please forgive the mess. It's a work in progress. And right now, I'm working outside of the home as much as I possibly can. :-)
Meh. Whatever, right? It's just going to get dirty again. The reason I hate housework isn't that it's a challenge. It's the monotony. I've cleaned up everything: Blood, vomit, paint, shreds of paper, bubbles, urine, poop, toys, salsa, wine, etc. It's always something. So I lose interest. Pristine is apparently not in my abilities any more. And I'm okay with that.
I'm also realizing that I'm not a person who really lives in my house. I use it more for storage and sleeping. The rest of the time I'm just tossing stuff into the holding cell so we can run out the door somewhere else.
For example today, after MacTroll got some bloodwork done and I went to physical therapy, we ate lunch and took X-man to Decatur to go to the Children's Museum of Illinois. We have a Super Family Membership at the Orpheum that gets us into over 120 Children's museums around the country, so we decided to put it to use. We hadn't been there since X-man was 2, so he didn't really remember it, i.e. it was all new to him. But, like usual, we spent over an hour of the two and a half hours that we were there in the grocery store/bank/post office area. :-)
We even ran into the folks at CAOS (Carle Auditory Oral School) who were on a field trip. Since it was balls hot outside and the museum was nice and cool, we decided we were very smart for staying inside. Afterwards, we took X-man down to Merchant Street to Del's Popcorn and bought him his favorite white chocolate covered pretzels and a blue slushie as a snack. Then we drove around/through Millikin (my alma mater) which took -- oooooohhhh a little over two minutes. The thing he liked most though was driving by all the factories, particularly ADM, and announcing, "What is that smell? It smells like poop." MacTroll told him it was where they produced different kinds of additives for foods. And right away, X-man figured out they were the kind of additives that drive mommy nuts. (Why, for example, does something called SOY sauce have wheat in it?)
Anyway, if you know the funk of Decatur, you understand why I found this entertaining.
We were home for 45 minutes to throw dinner at him before we dropped him off at Little Gym and MacTroll and I went out for date night. The first part was very successful. We ate at Escobar's which we hadn't done in a long, long time. Unlike other more "prime people watching" locations no one was there at 6:30. So we didn't have to wait for a table, the service was spot on and my shrimp and scallops were wonderful. Afterwards, we headed over to Urbana to drop in on the Coop expansion party for owners. We checked in and then scoped out the new space, but we didn't stay long enough to deal with the crowd. We weren't hungry, so we didn't need the free food or wine. And the music was a little loud, plus it was standing room only. So we went into the store to get jam and honey. I feel like a jerk for buying organic jam from Italy, but it's really good pomegranate raspberry. The honey, however, was local. I swear.
So we vacated the crowd to hit Espresso on Daniel St. on campus. And as you might expect, the place was EMPTY. It was awesome. We sat there for an hour sipping on our drinks and chatting about how we couldn't hear anything. Cars and bikes were infrequent and we were two of five people in the entire coffee shop. And this, is why I love to live here. I love that sometimes, I can sit on my back porch and hear NOTHING. It's not as quiet as it was when we first built our house, of course, but at the same time, in comparison to most urban areas, it's darn right peaceful.
I'm trying a slew of vegetarian recipes this week, so if you're a friend of mine on Facebook, I'll post the good ones there. :-)
Tomorrow is set aside for either garage sale time or farmer's market time with X-man and then some work for the Tolono Library District. I have my first meeting as the Secretary on Tuesday. I'm a bit nervous, but at the same time, excited about helping out. You know me... anything to get out of my cage, um, I mean house.
So the next time you drop by, please forgive the mess. It's a work in progress. And right now, I'm working outside of the home as much as I possibly can. :-)
Monday, February 14, 2011
I have no pictures, only words
Yesterday, MacTroll, X-man and I drove to Bloomington to Upper Limits Climbing Gym to meet Sox. Sox is a friend of mine, who also enjoys running. In fact, she's one of the friends I'll be doing the Disney Wine and Dine 1/2 Marathon with in October (that is if they ever open registration today!).
Last November, we both purchased Group On's to the climbing gym. Then in January, we took the 2-hour long class to learn climbing safety. We're now certified to climb there. They gave us some coupons, so we decided to meet. We got rechecked and then took turns belaying and climbing for two hours. We were all pretty tired and sore when we left, particularly in the forearms.
But it worked out pretty well, particularly with X-man in tow. He did not want to climb in the silos, they were too tall. But he did a great job traversing in the smaller room. He completely enjoyed watching the men get to points where they were hanging upside down too. He said he'd like to go back, but I think we'll wait until next fall before we take him again. See if he gets more daring than going 4 feet up on the wall. Either way, I was glad that he was happy to be there, rather than bored and whiney.
I didn't take any photos, but I think Sox was the only one who made it to the top of the silo to touch the roof. I made it 1/2 way to 2/3 of the way, up but then I started getting shaky. Silos are tall. And clinging to the side of one worried about falling (even though I know I was tied to my partner) was a little strange. But Sox and I are going to try to give the one at the Arc a try some time. And I think MacTroll and I will go back to Bloomington one day by ourselves.
Last November, we both purchased Group On's to the climbing gym. Then in January, we took the 2-hour long class to learn climbing safety. We're now certified to climb there. They gave us some coupons, so we decided to meet. We got rechecked and then took turns belaying and climbing for two hours. We were all pretty tired and sore when we left, particularly in the forearms.
But it worked out pretty well, particularly with X-man in tow. He did not want to climb in the silos, they were too tall. But he did a great job traversing in the smaller room. He completely enjoyed watching the men get to points where they were hanging upside down too. He said he'd like to go back, but I think we'll wait until next fall before we take him again. See if he gets more daring than going 4 feet up on the wall. Either way, I was glad that he was happy to be there, rather than bored and whiney.
I didn't take any photos, but I think Sox was the only one who made it to the top of the silo to touch the roof. I made it 1/2 way to 2/3 of the way, up but then I started getting shaky. Silos are tall. And clinging to the side of one worried about falling (even though I know I was tied to my partner) was a little strange. But Sox and I are going to try to give the one at the Arc a try some time. And I think MacTroll and I will go back to Bloomington one day by ourselves.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Bowling on Christmas Eve Day
In the summer, my friends who are also parents are always on the move to the pool, to the park, to baseball games, etc. In the winter, everyone is always trying to come up with new and different ways to keep kids physically busy when outside conditions get ugly.
Every day that X-man isn't in pre-school, and sometimes on the days he is in pre-school but they don't get to go outside, I'm scheduling gross motor time.
Yesterday, I decided today's gross motor time should be bowling at Old Orchard Lanes. Today, we took my mom and met up with Special K and and Rudy's families. The boys all bowled, so did some of the parents and my mom. It was a fun time. And when we got home, X-man was able to spend two hours of quiet time with his Legos and helping me make chocolate chip cookie dough truffles (holy cow, are they good).
Every day that X-man isn't in pre-school, and sometimes on the days he is in pre-school but they don't get to go outside, I'm scheduling gross motor time.
Yesterday, I decided today's gross motor time should be bowling at Old Orchard Lanes. Today, we took my mom and met up with Special K and and Rudy's families. The boys all bowled, so did some of the parents and my mom. It was a fun time. And when we got home, X-man was able to spend two hours of quiet time with his Legos and helping me make chocolate chip cookie dough truffles (holy cow, are they good).
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