+ 3 - 2 | § ¶A shower and a video
Tonight some friends and i went to a bridal shower for our friend Diana, who is getting married in just over a week. There was lots of yummy food and good conversation. And really, a night without having to cook supper or get kids in bed is always a good night no matter what.
I got home at 10:15 and went upstairs, and Zane immediately popped his head up and said, "Hi, Mom!" Houston and Katrina were both sound asleep, but Zane? Awake and perky. Twerp.
Also, this is a video that i took of Houston last week. It kind of captures a large part of his personality quite amazingly well. Plus, it makes me laugh a lot.
+ 2 - 2 | § ¶Things that Zane is afraid of.
I mentioned that Zane is going through an "I'm afraid of everything" stage. It coincides nicely with his meowing stage. When he is afraid of something, or when he's unsure if he SHOULD be afraid of something, or when something is just an unknown, he meows. There was a lot of meowing this weekend. My dad was getting somewhat annoyed with the meows even before we got in the car to start driving to Ohio. Strange car, long drive without his brother, sister, or dad, people he hasn't seen in quite a long time, strange hotel, people he doesn't remember at all, people he's never met, Grandpa and Uncle Jim roaring at him, and a host of other terrifying events. By the end of the second day the meowing had drastically reduced, thank goodness. But for posterity, i decided that i should write a little list of things that terrify the boy.
In order, more or less, starting with the most terrifying, here are the ones i can think of:
1. Bugs that fly. Outside, the bugs terrify him enough to want to go back inside. Inside, they lead to screaming and terror that immobilizes him. In his bedroom? Good heavens. Last night he started screaming about a fly in his room. I searched and couldn't find one and finally tried to fake that i had killed it. I left the room and he immediately started screaming again, and when i came back he cried that the fly was on his puppy. I searched, gave up, and left again, only to be screamed for a third time. This time i finally found the offending bug. It was a teensy little mosquito-esque bug. I killed it, and he went right to sleep. Sigh.
2. Fluff. Or feathers. Or little clumps of dog hair. I'm not sure if it's because of the way they float and blow in the wind or if it's the fact that he doesn't know what they are, but if he spots a fluff somewhere, he will not rest until it is properly disposed of. On the bright side, our house is generally pretty free of fluff/dust bunnies.
3. People roaring at him. I think it started because Houston sometimes roars and chases him and Katrina around the house. Houston meant for it to be in fun, but to Zane it was too scary for words. He is now afraid of anyone roaring, even if it's in conjunction with doing fun things like throwing him up in the air. My dad and brother found that out the hard way, when they tried tossing him about and he started meowing loudly.
4. Monsters. Or people pretending to be monsters. The other day we were in the car, and he started putting his shoes by his ears and roaring. And then a minute later he explained carefully to me, "Mama, i am not a monster. And i am not a lion. I am just Zaney." Nice of him to clear that up for me.
5. Ants and other bugs. These are not AS terrifying, as he can just run over and stomp on them until they die a horribly, squashy death.
6. Random weird things. Like Juanito driving with pigtails. I still can't explain that one.
+ 4 - 1 | § ¶Ohio
My brother Rick is getting deployed to Afghanistan soon. He, Ashley, and the kids all flew to Ohio (a decision just made this week) for Ashley's brother's wedding. Since this is our last chance to visit with Rick before he leaves for the year, all of my brothers and sisters (along with Jim's wife Alisha) and my parents (and also Zane) drove down to Ohio to see them. We left yesterday afternoon, slept at a hotel, spent this morning and early afternoon with them, and then got back tonight. It was a lot of driving for a day's visit (10 hours, total), but we packed a lot of stuff into that one day: Evey got baptized, we celebrated Ben's birthday, and we said goodbye to Rick. It was totally worth it.
And while we were there, my friends Linda and Andrew have been babysitting Houston and Katrina. They've had 5 kids for the past two days. They are superheroes.
+ 3 - 1 | § ¶There is no reason to be afraid.
This morning we went strawberry picking, which i always expect to be more fun than it is. The strawberries we got are delicious, and the kids are eager to eat them all immediately, so that makes all the stooping and crawling worth it. I stupidly wore my fake crocs this morning, and i ended up taking them off and going barefoot for most of the time we were there. The crocs were killing me, but once i was barefoot, my feet were all happy and eager to continue. Stupid cheap shoes. (Incidentally, i think that i could write this entire post JUST about stupid things i did today. I won't, though.)
We spent a lot of the afternoon outside in the pool. Houston and Katrina did, anyhow. There's a little too much splashing going on to make Zane want to go anywhere near the pool. He started playing in the sandbox, but that lasted only as long as it took him to notice a fly.
Zane has entered into a new stage: Fright. Anything unknown is terrifying. He positively freaked out tonight because there was an unidentified fuzz on the floor that might possibly attack him. He hates bugs of all types. When he sees an ant, he immediately stomps on it, so he can deal with those, but anything that flies is immediate grounds for a running/crying/terror reaction. He asks me a dozen times a day if he needs to be scared of (fill in the blank).
+ 4 - 1 | § ¶Two of the many expressions of Zane
+ 1 - 4 | § ¶Random tidbits
Today was HOT. Somewhere in the low 100's. And people who live in Texas and stuff are all, "Yeah yeah, but it was 125 HERE," to which i have to reply, "Yes, but do you also have really high humidity AND no air conditioning?" Because dude, it was HOT today. I think my eyelids were sweating. Can eyelids sweat?
So Zane has been meowing, right? We were at the Y today, and the lovely, lovely childcare person was all, "Oh, that's totally normal. Yeah, i used to teach preschool, and lots of kids really think they're animals. Pretty soon he'll probably have an imaginary friend!" So ... good! He's not completely bizarre. And also, awesome! An imaginary friend! I always wanted one of those.
I'm pretty sure that i can scratch "Jock" off the list of things that Houston will grow up to be. He had his second t-ball practice today, and i couldn't help but be amused at him. He's eager to follow instructions like, "Ok, you play first base," but once he's there, the coach has to keep saying, "Houston! Pay attention!" Because even though the other kids are all standing up and watching what's going on, Houston's pretty uninterested. He's more interested doing things like playing with the dirt. You've heard Brian Regan's routine about when he used to play in Little League? Houston's totally that kid. On the bright side, he seems to be enjoying himself.
+ 3 - 3 | § ¶Two things
For the past several months, Katrina has been saying that she REALLY wants to share a room with someone. And Houston has been practically begging to have his own room. So ... fine. Today i switched their rooms around, so now Houston is all by himself in the pink room, and Katrina and Zane are sharing a room. It might be really a good thing, actually, since Katrina and Zane are both early to bed, early to rise types, whereas Houston is more of a stay awake late reading type. So sleep-wise, this is a much more practical match. As long as Houston doesn't mind having a pink room, because i am SO not re-painting it.
It was kind of a bad day to choose to undertake this whole massive operation, because it was HOT today - i don't know what degree, but i was dripping with sweat. After several hours, i told the kids, "Right. We need to finish this quickly so that we can all go out in the kiddie pool for a while and cool off!" So we did.
Houston had his first t-ball (coach pitch) practice today. It was actually the team's third practice, but the first two were last week, when we were in NY, so we missed those. Houston paid attention (mostly) and tried to follow their instructions, but...he is easily distractable, and when he was asked to stand in the field for a long time he ended up either standing with his mitt high in the air, clearly thinking about something else, or squatting down to pick the flowers. It's a good thing that people here in GR don't seem to be very competitive about their 7-year-old's baseball. Except for a few parents, whose kids are REALLY good.
+ 2 - 3 | § ¶Home again, home again
We spent today getting back into the swing of normal life. Juanito had an interview to be able to go to YL camp (as he's done the past 7 years), we collected Graham and our computers from my parents' house, we went to ZUMBA! for the first time in a couple of weeks, and Katrina and Zane took good long naps. Houston decorated his bike with streamers and then rode up and down the street for as long as he could. Juanito fixed the car that broke while we were gone.
Being home again is lovely. I mean, vacation is wonderful and it was amazingly fun and all that, but there's just something relaxing and comfortable about being back in your own house. Even though our hosts were awesome. Things that i usually take for granted, i'm all, "Ooooo...lots of hot water!" Or, "Wow, it's nice to crawl into our OWN bed!"
Have i mentioned lately how much Zane meows? I think it's his default setting. If something happens and he doesn't know a good response, or if he's upset, or if he's too tired, he just meows. It's occasionally annoying but generally pretty comical and odd. I look forward to teasing him about the whole "meowing stage" years from now. Hee hee hee. I'm such a mean mom.
+ 5 - 1 | § ¶Pittsburgh! - The last two days of vacation
As i was figuring out our vacation, i realized that the route from New York to Grand Rapids went within about 20 minutes of our friend Karen's house. Not only was she on the way...she was almost EXACTLY halfway between the two. Perfect! So we used her as a convenient and awesome halfway point to stop and play for a couple of days before we headed back to reality.
I warned her before we even left for vacation that we might get to her house and want to do exactly nothing but crash, and ... that's pretty much what we did. We flung ourselves into bed after arriving at about 4:00 in the morning, and everyone (Karen and, more shockingly, ALL OF THE KIDS included) slept until 10:30 in the morning. I think that THAT is completely unprecidented in this family. When the kids woke up, so did Karen and i, but Juanito, who had driven the entire way from New York even though he was exhausted too, slept until about...noon? One? I forget.
The kids played with chalk and water, colored (and kind of ruined) several of Karen's tennis balls, watched a movie or two, read a bit, and generally relaxed as much as possible. I think we may have been a bit less than completely conversational with poor Karen, since we were pretty much completely wiped out from all the fun and busyness of the city. It was really fun to hang out with Karen anyhow. We all adore her, so it was fun just being with her even if we didn't do much at all.
Today we left her house at about 2:30, drove and drove, and arrived back at our (seemingly un-robbed) house at about 10:00. Hurrah!! It's nice to be home. We came home to lots of food that Beth brought over so that we wouldn't have to go shopping as soon as we got home. There is milk! Bread! Ice cream! I am happy! She is an awesome friend.
Also? It is Father's Day today and Juanito is a great dad but i hardly did anything for him today at all, and i also just realized that i forgot to call my dad, which i was planning on doing this morning, but at the time he was heading to church and then i never thought about Father's Day again, and i kind of suck. But he's a great dad too.
+ 4 - 1 | § ¶New York - Day 9 - The final day
After being rained out yesterday, we decided that we needed to try again. Today was a beautiful day - perfect for spending in the park. We ended up leaving for Pittsburgh considerably later than we'd meant to, but the kids loved it.
The huge rocks were a gigantic hit. The kids could have spent the entire day just climbing on rocks.
Katrina, exhausted beyond all reason, had a few major disappointments. They would have been minor disappointments except that she was so tired that she couldn't bear the sadness of tehm. The biggest disspointment was that she had been hoping and planning to play IN the fountain that they danced around in the movie "Enchanted," and cried and cried when she found out that she wasn't allowed to. Poor girl.
We left Tony's house, went straight back for my cell phone charger, and left again, and everyone was asleep almost immediately. And thus ended our trip to New York.
+ 4 - 2 | § ¶New York - Day 8
Up to now, my plans have been working out surprisingly well. I scheduled things for a certain day, and we've been doing those things. A couple of times we dropped something because we didn't have time, but we've done those things on a different day. I was all, "Woohoo! Look at how well i plan!" So of course (of course) today had to completely screw up all the plans. Incidentally, about 3 different strangers have told me, "It never rains this much in New York in June!"
It rained. Hard. All day.
Today was the day we were SUPPOSED to go to Central Park. We aimed for the power of positive thinking, packed up some dry clothes, and headed out anyhow. Because it was already raining when we left, we decided to start with a trip to see the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine (the fourth largest Christian church in the world) so that we could hopefully wait out the rain doing something inside. We got off the subway to pouring rain, threw on our raincoat-thingies, and started walking. Apparently i turned the wrong direction, because we took the very-very-long way getting to the church, which was supposed to be a block and a half from the subway stop. Katrina started crying almost immediately because she was cold. About two minutes into walking, Houston realized that it was going to be too cold to jump in the fountains in Central Park, and he started crying. The two kids cried and cried and cried the entire 10 minute walk. It was really quite pathetic. On the bright side, they stopped crying the second we were inside and no longer getting rained on.
Just outside the cathedral was a huge sculpture called the "Peace Fountain." It supposedly shows Michael beheading Satan, but from what i could see in-between raindrops, it looks more like a bizarre huge crab with a deer on it, holding the beheaded Satan head in his huge claw. And right in front of the sculpture is a sign declaring it a "Children's Sculpture Garden." O...kay.... I would have liked to actually look around out there a bit longer, but the heavy rain was a bit non-conducive to the whole "strolling around" thing.
The inside of the cathedral was enormous. Cavernous. Impressive. There were stained glass windows everywhere, making me happy. The kids had fun walking around, we all enjoyed the beauty, and best of all - it was dry.
When we were ready to leave, it was still pouring outside, so we decided to visit FAO Schwartz, since we'd skipped it earlier this week. It was too far to walk, and we were going to take the subway, but the kids wanted to try out the bus, and since we weren't in a hurry and there was a bus that went directly to it, we hopped on the bus and spent at least half an hour watching it continue to pour outside. (Houston and Katrina have been wanting to take a bus ride for the past year or so. I was planning on riding a bus somewhere this summer, but when we were at the halfway point, Houston informed me that bus rides? Were boring.) Katrina and Zane both fell fast asleep.
FAO Schwartz was fun. The kids had a blast looking at the thirty bazillion toys. Katrina was enraptured by the Barbies and the dress-up clothes. All three kids lost their minds when we got to the big piano and they could run all over it. We spent a couple of hours there, hoping the rain would stop. It didn't.
So we came back to Tony's house, changed into dry clothes, and got warm. Tony sent Juanito and me out to get the pizza for a "date," since it was our anniversary. (Oh, by the way, today was our 15th anniversary! Happy anniversary to us!) We walked down to the pizza place, ordered a pizza, drank some hot chocolate (me) and coffee (Juanito) and ate a piece of cheesecake (me) and tirimisu (Juanito). I expected the cheesecake to be all awesome, because...New York! But it was kind of weird and ... not good. The pizza, on the other hand? Awesome! We have lots of leftovers for later, too. Probably Tony will get most of those.
As soon as we got back, Katrina ran over and yelled, "Don't go in the kitchen, Mama!!!!!" Right. Well, i hadn't been planning to, but ... thanks for alerting me to the fact that something was going on in there, Dearheart. We made Tony watch the movie Enchanted while we yelled things like, "Look! That's Times Square! We were there!" And then the kids ran into the kitchen to "help" Tony do something. Juanito and i started reading our books, because obviously we were supposed to be not paying attention, and a minute later Houston came over and asked, "So...Mama? Are you enjoying your book?" He talked very carefully with us for a few minutes, until Katrina came over and said, "Houston! We need you!" And Houston whispered, "I'm distracting Mama and Daddy!" Cute.
So the surprise was that they made us a cake! Hurrah! For our anniversary! Fun. We had cake and root beer floats. And still got to bed almost at the right time. Hurrah!
+ 4 - 2 | § ¶New York - Day 7
Somehow today ended up being...less than well-planned out. Possibly because we switched things around to make sure we'd get to the things we wanted to get to on time. Possibly because i didn't know what i was doing when i planned it. Either way, we ended up walking along the same places several different times. So we started at the US Custom House, and then we saw it again after the first loop, and then we saw it again on the way to the Staten Island Ferry. We went to Trinity Church, and then we saw it again from the back and then again from the front. Sigh. On the bright side, we definitely got a good look at everything today.
We spent the first part of the day in the financial district. We started in the US Custom House, which was considerably cooler than i'd kind of expected. The rotunda was amazing. There was an exhibit of Native American clothing that Katrina loved. We could have spent a lot more time in there and not been bored. Then we went to Bowling Green, where Houston educated Tony on how they melted down a statue of King George to make bullets.
We went to the Charging Bull, where i'd kind of expected to take a zillion pictures, but i ended up taking only four total, and only two of those had people i know in them. I think that was the most mobbed thing we've seen all week. People were simply swarmed around it (both times we went by it, at totally different times of the day). And there were just as many people by his behind as by his head - the genital area was probably the most rubbed-off area besides the head. Crazy.
By then it was about lunch time, so we went to Trinity Church and sat in the courtyard to eat right next to the cool roots sculpture thingy. See, when the World Trade Center was destroyed, this huge tree was uprooted, so they took the roots, covered them in bronze (or made a copy or whatever), and put it next to Trinity Church. It was pretty cool. The church was really beautiful inside too - when we went in, there was a choir singing and everything.
We walked up Wall Street and saw the pock marks in the wall where the worst terrorist attack in the US before 9-11 was. Houston was impressed that he got to stand in the SAME SPOT George Washington had stood when he gave his first presidential inauguration speech. And then we went for a tour of the Federal Reserve. We got to go down into the vault in the basement, where we saw billions of dollars worth of gold, the most amazing locking mechanism ever, and ... well, that's mostly it, but it was cool. There were absolutely no pictures allowed anywhere on the premises, though, so...sad.
And then this is where we started going back and forth a bit. We went back to Castle Clinton to meet Tony (who didn't go on the tour with us), and then went all the way up to Union Square, where we saw lots of street musicians, hula-hoopers, crazy people, and a huge art/farmer's market. Houston and Katrina loved watching the musicians. When we got here, we gave them each a few dollars worth of quarters to give to anyone they thought deserved it, and the kids love being able to give money to people they like. (Or homeless people. Houston can't pass up a homeless person he notices without wanting to give them something.) Across the street from Union Square is a building that a panel of architects voted the ugliest building in New York. We totally agree with them - it's hideous - a gigantic digital clock, a hand sticking out of the top, steam belching out from it, hideous materials and colors.... I asked if they could have possibly made it any uglier, and Houston said, "Yes. If they stuck underwear on it."
After Union Square, we went back down to Ground Zero, which ... was actually kind of disappointing. It just looked like any other construction site you might come across. There was nothing at all to make it stand out. There used to be a huge cross made out of beams from the wreckage of the WTC, but i guess they moved that far away uptown, so we didn't get to see it. Bummer.
And THEN we walked down to the Staten Island Ferry. By the time we were going across, it was getting close to sunset, which would have been really cool if it hadn't been so totally cloudy. The kids still loved it - partly excitement over seeing the Statue of Liberty again, partly excitement over being on the huge ferry, and partly hyper-ness due to extreme exhaustion. Poor kids haven't had a decent night's sleep in a week. Katrina fell asleep again on the subway, although this time she woke up halfway home. If only they'd sleep in a little bit in the morning.....
+ 5 - 2 | § ¶New York - Day 6
This morning we got on the subway, and almost immediately Zane told me, in a pitiful voice, that he was tired. He was sitting on my lap, so i told him that he could close his eyes if he wanted to, assuming that he'd bounce up again in two minutes. Instead, he very studiously closed his eyes and tried very hard to fall asleep - and fall asleep he did! He was OUT. When we had to switch trains, i carried him up and down and up and down the steps, onto another subway, up the stairs again, and STILL he was completely asleep. He finally woke up when i put him down in the stroller, and at that point he opened his eyes and looked and looked around, completely disoriented.
We started out with the Flatiron building today, and Katrina later declared it to be her favorite thing of the entire day. It is pretty cool. There were a bunch of people in the little square painting, and both Houston and Katrina were fascinated. Katrina begged to be allowed to paint too, and Houston really wanted to give one of the guys money for being such a good painter.
Excuse me for a brief interlude here.... A couple of months ago, i made a little book for each kid with a picture of the major things we would see and a short description of each thing. I read the books with the kids a few times before we came to NY, and hoped that they would remember a couple of things. I have been amazed at how much the kids remember. We saw a statue across the street today, and IMMEDIATELY Houston said, "Hey! I know that statue! That's...Willie Seward!" Which was really close. It was William Seward. Interlude over.
We played in Madison Square park, saw the New York Supreme Court, went into the Church of Transfiguration (which was really quite a pretty little church that the kids enjoyed seeing immensely), went into the Empire State Building, visited Washington Memorial Arch, had fun turning "The Cube," and then decided to skip a couple of things on the agenda today that we didn't care very much about, opting instead to walk the Brooklyn Bridge, which we DID care about. On the way, we took a detour to Houston Street, which Houston really wanted to visit. As i was taking a picture of him with the sign, some people walked by and said, "People take pictures of the weirdest things here."
Zane has been excited about the Brooklyn Bridge for weeks. He recognizes it in pictures, he spotted it across the city, he talks about it frequently. So i expected that he'd be excited to actually WALK across it. Nope. We started walking, and his response was, "I'm hungry, Mom." (His being hungry would be more impressive if he didn't tell me that 50 times a day, sometimes WHILE he is eating.) We tried to convince him that we were on the Brooklyn Bridge, and he was all, "Meh." The rest of us enjoyed it, though.
When we were at the Washington Memorial Arch, there was a guy selling bubble guns. He walked around blowing bubbles, and the kids followed him around gleefully. Katrina had some money that she could spend, so she decided to buy her own bubble gun, which she then ran around blowing bubbles with, amusing little kids everywhere, until the bubbles ran out.
+ 2 - 3 | § ¶New York - Day 5
Most of today was spent at the Statue of Liberty. Before we left for New York, Houston and Katrina unequivically stated that the thing they were the most excited about seeing was the Statue of Liberty, so i figured that we'd better plan on being there a long time. And we were. Just over 4 hours. One of those hours was spent standing in line, but even so...wow. It didn't seem like it was nearly that long. As we were standing in line to get on the ferry, Zane spotted the Statue of Liberty for the first time, and started trembling in excitement, pointing and insisting that everyone else notice it too. He was definitely more excited than i'd expected him to be. Weeks before we left, the kids saw someone wearing Statue of Liberty hats on a movie, and they totally wanted one. A few days later, i found some at the dollar store. Score! They were about 5 dollars at the Statue. I pulled them out this morning, and the kids were thrilled. Houston wore his almost the entire day.
We went up as far as we could go, looked up the inside of the Lady, stood on the top of the platform, where Katrina shivered and cried that she was So Cold, and took a ton of pictures. We slowly made our way downstairs - Houston and i ran down the steps while the rest of them used the elevator, and we still beat them by several minutes - and then took a ton more pictures, including the mandatory jumping pictures. (We also have jumping pictures in front of the St. Louis Arch and, i think, the Washington Memorial in DC. Maybe our goal should be to take jumping pictures in front of every major US ... thingy.)
We stopped off at Ellis Island, and then were planning to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, but the pouring rain made us forgo that plan for the time being. I do want to do that sometime when we can fit it in, though, because it would so terribly disappointing, especially for Zane, if we missed it.
Instead we went to Chinatown, ate dinner, and walked around until way too late again. Katrina, completely exhausted, fell asleep on the subway and stayed asleep all the way into her sleeping bag. Poor Juanito had to carry her up zillions of steps.
Speaking of steps: Tony lives on the fourth floor in an apartment where the staircase is kind of smallish. The first night we got here, Zane was terrified of the stairs. He cried the entire way up. The next day, he cried the entire way down. We are now on day 3. When we got home tonight, before we were even in the building, he looked at me very seriously and asked, "I not need to be scared the steps, Mama?" Sweet boy.
+ 3 - 3 | § ¶New York - Day 4
Today was probably the fullest day that we're going to have here. I figured we'd start out strong while we had lots of energy, and then slow down a bit on the rest of the days. We started out with the kids' First! Ever! Subway ride! They were completely excited, and apparently expected something else, because when we were halfway through the trip, Katrina turned to me and asked, "When are we going on the subway?" And then, "But...i thought the subway went underground." Apparently she thought that she'd be able to SEE the underground in a different way.
We came up from the subway right into Times Square, so their first glance at NY City was a loud one. Apparently New York closed down half of the street in Times Square for the summer, and the closed-down half is filled with thousands of nearly-broken lawn chairs, where we sat to eat lunch and people watch. The kids chased the pigeons around (much to the chagrin of anyone nearby), and Houston was captivated by the huge billboards surrounding him.
We went to Bryant Park, where the kids played with gravel for as long as we would let them. What? Big buildings? Meh. I'd rather play with these rocks.
Houston was the first one to spot the Chrysler Building, and was very proud of himself. I tried to take pictures of him and Katrina in front of it, and got some really cute pictures of THEM, but the Chrysler Building is completely washed out to the point of being invisible. Grrr. I took more later, when we were closer, but they're not as cute.
The New York Public Library was closed, which was disappointing, but we did get to see the lions outside. Katrina remembered that one of them was named Patience, and was pretty proud of herself for that.
We went to Grand Central Terminal, looked at the sky, went to the secret whispering gallery, oooooed and aaaaaahed at the $20 dollar clock in the middle of the station, and pretended to get our shoes shined.
The Chrysler Building was closed off for everything but the entryway. So we went in, took a picture with the sign, and went on our way. It's a pretty disappointing building to be near. I didn't even realize that it was the right building until Tony pointed it out. From up close, it's just a boring building.
From there we went to the UN, which was under construction so that most of the sculptures and the artwork and the piece of the Berlin Wall were all off-limits. Also? It was flag day, and there were NO FLAGS at all flying. What's up with that? We did get to see the knotted gun - as soon as we saw it, both Houston and Katrina exclaimed, "That is a LOT smaller than i expected!" Which was basically what i was thinking. It was pretty cool, though.
THEN we sat in front of the Seagram building and ate a snack, because everyone was getting tired. And hungry. The Lever Building, which is about half a block away, had huge Hello Kittys in their art display, which was kind of perfect, given Juanito's love of all things Hello Kitty, so we walked around that for a bit. And from there we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral.
St. Patrick's Cathedral is every bit as humongous as it is said to be. And as beautiful. What Houston was immediately drawn to, however, was the candles. There are candles everywhere - the kind that you pay $2 to light. He wanted to know what they were for, and so i told him (using my limited and possibly inaccurate knowledge of Catholicism) that when someone you love dies, you can light a candle to remember them. He didn't say much about that, but then 10 minutes later he watched carefully while an old man lit two candles. And then he turned to me and started crying, because that was just So Sad that the man had to light two candles because that meant that he knew two people who had died. He was truly heartbroken for the man. It was terribly sweet. While we were inside, Zane fell sound asleep in the middle of eating. (Sadly, when he woke up half an hour later, the first thing he did was shove a napkin he was holding into his mouth, thinking it was food.)
From there, we went to Rockefeller Center, and up to the Top of the Rock. The weather was PERFECT, and our visibility was awesome. It was the perfect day for viewing the city from above. The kids were mostly captivated, until Katrina finally gave up and curled up in the stroller. In her defense, it WAS getting really late and we HAD been walking around all day long. So i guess she's excused.
So basically...it was a fun day.
+ 3 - 3 | § ¶New York - Day 3
After yesterday's long, tiring day, and knowing that the next several days will be pretty busy as well, i decided that we needed a relaxing day where we could visit our aunt and uncle. The kids all slept until 8:30. Juanito spent all day cooking first kimbap and then paella. The kids and i walked down to a really cool playground. I helped my aunt figure out some things on her computer. And when we should all have really been in bed, we moved over to Tony's house! Woohoo! We are now officially in New York City. Hurrah!
+ 4 - 1 | § ¶New York - Day 2
This morning my aunt suggested that we go to an amusement park near their house - one that is geared mostly toward little kids. So we all piled into our van and headed off.
Our kids had never been to any kind of amusement park before. They just about lost their minds in sheer joy. They loved almost every single ride, running out as soon as it was finished to yell, "I want to go on again!" and fling them themselves back in line. And since the day started out rainy, then got sunny, then POURED for about 15 minutes, and then was sunny again, we had the park very nearly to ourselves. The longest wait was about 5 minutes. It was awesome.
Roller coasters were a definite hit. None of our kids had any problem with climbing onto something that would fling them about. Katrina, our little thrill-seeker, was terribly disappointed that she was too little to go on some of the bigger rides, like the big roller coasters. Zane was extremely cautious about every ride, working hard to figure out how it worked before he'd let himself fully enjoy it. He is very serious about his fun. All three of them flung themselves into the wildness with characteristic glee.
Since it had rained, there were puddles everywhere. Our kids were drawn to them like magnets, especially Zane. He needed to stop and thoroughly splash in every single puddle before he could move on. While he was waiting for Katrina and Houston to do some of the rides that he was too little for, he was happily content to splash and play with the puddles nearby.
One of the games (Whack-a-mole) needed a minimum of two players to play, and then the highest score won. So we played two kids against each other three times, resulting in three prizes, which meant they each got to pick a stuffed animal for a souvenir. Zane chose a puppy, which he immediately hugged and fell in love with and has been snuggling ever since.
And then, when it was already late enough that we were all exhausted and it was technically past dinnertime, we decided to walk down to the nearby beach for a few minutes. The beach turned out to be a lot farther of a walk than we'd expected, but the kids loved it. Katrina especially.
By the time we'd eaten dinner and gotten home, it was nearly 10:00, and everyone was beyond exhausted. I imagine that everyone will be dreaming of roller coasters tonight.
(Hey, ALSO!!! Did i mention that we got a new camera? We had it sent to my aunt and uncle's house, so we just got it yesterday, and i love it with the fires of a thousand suns. It's awesome to not only have a camera that takes beautiful pictures, but to also have one that can take pictures amazingly fast. You can read all the details about it over on Juanito's blog.)
+ 5 - 1 | § ¶New York - Day 1
We made it! We're in New York! Woohoo!
The ride up was fairly uneventful, with one notable exception: At about 4:00 in the morning, Zane suddenly screamed in terror, shocking me out of sleep, along with Katrina. He cried and cried and tried to tell me what was so terrifying, and after several wrong guesses, i figured out that he was afraid of Juanito. Terrified of Juanito. For about 40 minutes, he cried, "Daddy not scare me anymore." Every time Juanito would turn or move even slightly, Zane would cower and shake and freak out again. It was heartbreaking. We finally had to stop and get him out of the car for a few minutes and then get back in and start a movie on the laptop for him to calm down. So...all three kids were awake by 4:00. They each napped a little after that, but they were basically awake. Sigh.
We got to my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Billy's house at about noon. Our brand new camera(!!!) was here waiting for us, so when we went to the dam, we brought it with and took loads of pictures. Sadly, it was a gray and drizzly day, so they're a little dark, but i can't wait for a sunny day to try it out. When the kids heard that we were going to go see a big dam, they ran around the house for a few minutes yelling, "Dam! Dam! Dam!" I turned to my aunt and commented that really? That just seemed a little wrong. I didn't stop them, of course, because as far as they were concerned, they could be yelling, "Milk! Milk! Milk!"
The kids are all beyond excited to be here. I'm excited to be here. We are having fun. And so, all is good. Hurrah!
+ 1 - 4 | § ¶We're off!
Our old neighbor Corbyn came over this afternoon, and the kids immediately went crazy. It took about two seconds for them to fall into their old game of "Jump all over Corbyn and try to tackle him while he pretends to scream for help." They all very obviously love him.
We spent the day tying up loose ends - bringing the dog over to my parents' house, then later going to the library to say goodbye to my mom and also to bring her the dog food and dog bed that we forgot the first time, then going BACK to my parents' house tonight to get the GPS that Juanito forgot in his scooter jacket pocket in their garage. Sigh. I also planted squash (finally), with the help of three very eager children, cleaned up with the help of two less than eager children, and loaded up the car. And we were completely ready to go by about 6:00. Woohoo! I rock. We even had time to paint everyone's toenails. Mine are supposed to be the New York skyline, but i'm less than impressed with how they turned out.
Cute things my kids did today: While we were watching Cinderella (i had to keep them from messing up the house before bedtime), i asked the kids, "Is it more important to marry someone who is rich or someone you love?" Katrina IMMEDIATELY yelled, "Rich!!!" O...K...
As we were reading a book, i asked the kids, "If you had a birthday wish, what would you wish for?" Houston - A party. Katrina - To go to New York. Zane - A dolphin. I have no idea WHY he would want a dolphin. We weren't discussing or even mentioning dolphins, but...there ya go.
And now we are leaving for New York. Houston wanted to take a nap today. Because he was tired. And he didn't want to sleep all the way to NY. Um, he won't, but really, he'd probably be happier if he did. Really. So would i.
Oh, also? Don't bother robbing our house while we're gone. Everything of any value has been sent away. Thank you.
+ 3 - 2 | § ¶Countdown to NY - one day.
I told Katrina, "Hey, look cool!" And that's the pose she gave me. For the record, this is Houston's "cool" pose, and this is Zane's.
Zane has become quite a proficient talker. Sometimes it's a bit hard to know exactly what he's saying still, but he talks in full sentences and uses most words and phrases correctly. So it always makes me smile when he wants to tell me to hold onto something. Or when he wants to hold onto something. Because he doesn't say "Hold onto the blanket," he says, "Hold the blanket on." Y'know, like "Turn the light on," can be "Turn on the light." So "Hold onto the leash" can clearly be "Hold the leash on." Cutie.
I realize that the kids' attitudes often reflect the mom's attitude, and i have been busy with laundry and cleaning and packing and cleaning again and generally getting ready for our trip, and i've been TRYING to convince the kids that they want to clean up their rooms please without complaining, but WOW. They are a bit crabby. I suspect that Katrina is still tired from her weekend of feeling sick, and since she refuses to actually sleep past about 6:30, she's just not catching up on sleep. And i know that it's not actually FUN to clean rooms or help with chores, and nobody likes to be pestered by their little brother, so, yeah. I understand. But it's still really annoying. In the middle of the afternoon, as i was finishing up the last load of laundry, my mom called, and i mentioned that laundry is possibly the least rewarding chore in the world. We talked for a minute about how most housework is actually like that, and i jokingly said, "Ah, but then your kids say, 'Wow, Mom! Thanks for cleaning up the house. I really appreciate it.'" And then we both laughed.
After a day filled with needy children and way too much to do, i really kind of needed to get out of the house, and since i've hardly seen Beth lately, we decided to go out for a bit. Fun!
I got home and cleaned some more, and then Juanito came home with the kids, and Houston turned to me and said, "Thanks for cleaning the house, Mom. I really appreciate it."
Aw! He was listening. And understood and cared enough to actually tell me thanks. What a sweetie. I love my kids.
+ 2 - 4 | § ¶Best! Day! Ever! According to Katrina, anyhow. Who seems to have a lot of best days recently.
Katrina woke up this morning feeling sick. She started throwing up around breakfast time and threw up for the last time at about 3:00. And then, at around 7:00, she hugged me and told me that today was the "Best! Day! Ever!" I assume that the "best" part had more to do with the fact that she got to lay on the couch and watch movies all day and less to do with all the throwing up.The people who live across the street from us spent most of the day outside. Yelling at their kids. Screaming at them to shut up, swearing at them, yelling at them to shut up some more. I felt so sad for the little boy - about Zane's age - who was crying and crying, and instead of just picking him up to comfort him or whatever, the adults were just yelling, "SHUT UP!" at him. Really? You think that's going to help? I can guarantee that i'm not sending my kids over to play at their house any time soon.
+ 5 - 0 | § ¶Do Dah, Do Dah
Every year, Kalamazoo has a Do Dah Parade; a silly, fun little parade that has some of the normal parade stuff (candy, people handing out advertisements), but packages the humdrum stuff in-between fun stuff. We went to it once before, when Katrina was a baby. This year i finally gave up on the Memorial Day parade nearby, because i just got too sick of all the politicians and businesses who did nothing but drive a car down the street while throwing candy at the kids. Instead, i promised the kids that we'd go to a better parade - a more FUN parade.
They did not disappoint. The parade started with a random guy dressed head to toe in green spandex - completely covered, face and all. There was a group of bug people and another group of bug dogs, a giant dragon and a tall puppet lady, and even an old guy walking while doing the hula hoop. Lots of random stuff, in other words. Fun!
The kids were happy because there was some candy thrown, and i was happy because there was not a TON of candy thrown. Zane covered his ears very seriously every time he heard a siren, but then he would always have to remove his hand to point at the car and tell me, "Police Car!" right as the siren got the loudest.
And we got to act like statues, which is one of the kids' favorite games. So we all win!
+ 5 - 2 | § ¶Three Big Events
1. Houston had his last day of school today. I think i've said this way too often, but i love, love, love his teacher. So does he. He has no real joy about ending the school year, because every time it's mentioned, he gets all sad that he will not have his same teacher ever again. I realized this morning that today was the last time i will ever drop off only Houston at school. Next year there will be two. Ah, milestones. So bittersweet.
2. Festival! This morning i looked up last year's festival, because i could have sworn it was later in the summer, and was fairly surprised to learn that it was the same exact weekend...BUT! Last year was in the 90s AND it was the same day as Houston's last day of T-ball. This year, it was in the 70s and he hasn't even started T-ball. So it seems different.
This year we met up with my mom and my sister Jackie and her kids. We did all the normal stuff: The paint-in (everybody's favorite thing), the glue-in, the making of fancy hats, and the watching of dancers on stage. I am always appalled by young kids who dance sexy dances to inappropriate music, and as we were watching one group perform, my mom and i were cringing from the ... wrongness of it. At one point my mom turned to me and asked, "Does dancing HAVE to be sexual?" And then the next group got up and danced (more impressively) with completely appropriate moves to completely appropriate music and restored my faith in dance. After watching the two groups, i have no hesitation in declaring that if i were sending Katrina to dance school when she's older, she would definitely be going to the second one.
3. We went out to dinner with the family to celebrate my parents' 40th anniversary. We hit the buffet at Pizza Ranch, which Katrina declared was the Best! Place! Ever! Mostly because of the chocolate pudding and the desert pizza, i think. And also the pink lemonade. Afterwards we all stood around outside talking while the kids picked everyone huge bouquets of "flowers."
As we were walking to the car, Katrina declared today the best day ever, which prompted me to ask the kids, "What is the favorite thing you have ever done?" Houston's response? Going to the hotel with the whole family, back in October of 2007. Katrina's response? Wearing a diaper when she had diarrhea. Weirdo.
Oh, ALSO, just to make this post even longer.... Today we bought something that i'd never have thought we'd buy. Something that i have rolled my eyes at for years. Something that kind of embarrasses me just to think about.
Leashes. We bought leashes for our children. This kind right here. They're for New York, because the idea of having three kids, all with the ability to run off into a huge crowd at any second, all of whom are generally obedient but have their moments of "Ooooo! Something shiny over there!" being dragged all over the city without SOME way to keep them close to us? We could do it, but i think i might come home with considerably more gray hairs. For their parts, the kids are all THRILLED to have a backpack/leash, and are eagerly looking forward to using them. And, as an added bonus, now they can carry their own water bottles. Score!
Sigh. One more thing to add to my list of "Things that make me a huge geek."
+ 1 - 4 | § ¶Walk like an Egyptian!
Tomorrow is Houston's last day of school. And it's only a half day, at that. Today, therefore, was a lot of cleaning-out-the-desk and gathering-up-the-artwork and finishing-off-the-things-to-do before the end of the year. And then they had Egyptian day! Fun! Katrina and Zane and i joined them for that. They made Pharaoh crowns and wrapped each other up like mummies. Houston truly loves his teacher and is SO sad that he won't have her anymore. He's going to miss his friends too.
All three kids were EXHAUSTED today. Ex. Haust. Ed. I'm very much looking forward to the not having to wake up sleepy children thing this summer. Of course, if Saturdays are any indication, all three kids will wake up at the crack of dawn every day, what with their not needing to.
We went shopping today, and as we came around a corner, Zane yelled, "Lobsters!" and took off to look at them. Houston looked up, crumpled a little, and said, "Seafood? I never knew lobsters were in the seafood area. Does that mean they're FOOD?" And he and Katrina both burst into tears. Zane was happily oblivious. Later in the same store, Houston made some random passing lady laugh by dramatically declaring, "I just want to be in a peaceful place!" Oh, the horror of having a sister who is talking to you! Silly boy.
+ 3 - 1 | § ¶Sleepy
A couple of cute pictures of Katrina, for your enjoyment.
Last week Juanito got knocked out by something, which caused him to sleep for about three days straight. Yesterday i slept for half the day, slept all night, and still woke up feeling like this. Besides the exhaustion and need to sleep for hours and hours, i feel fine. I imagine that i'm fighting off some kind of illness, which, i guess, is better than actually GETTING that illness.
Here's hoping i can actually keep my eyes open tomorrow, though.
+ 3 - 2 | § ¶Field Trip!
Today was field trip day for first graders in Houston's school. We went to Meijer Gardens for the first half of the day (during which it rained most of the time, although in more of a drizzle than a downpour, thankfully), and then went to the park for the second half of the day.
I was in charge of three kids, including Houston. I was completely amused, during the Meijer Gardens part, at the obvious difference between the girls and the boys. The boys were all running, climbing, and conquering - a constant go-go-go. The girls we passed were all happily walking around in little groups, playing calmly.
I was extremely proud of Houston a few times. The other boys in my group took one look at the giant horse and started pointing and laughing about the fact that it was anatomically correct. They dragged Houston over to show him, and he looked, shrugged, and ran off to throw himself under the horse's hoof. Either he's not old enough to care about potty humor or he's too mature. Or just oblivious. Whatever the reason, i'm happy about that.
A few more pictures at the Gardens: Houston and his friend Dallas, Houston desperately wanting to get soaked but trying to obey my pleas to not get soaked, the three boys by the arch and by some sculpture. They definitely had a blast. Even with the rain.
At the park we ate lunch, played on the playground, and did some crafts.
I've decided that one of the reasons that i really like Houston's teacher is that i think she's someone i could easily be friends with. I'm not sure how one would go about befriending the teacher of one's son. I am definitely going to request her when Katrina and Zane reach first grade, though.