Do You Hear What I Hear?

Mom: Erik, what do you want to be in the Sunday School Christmas program? Sheep? Cow? Donkey? Shepherd? Angel?
Erik: Ummm...
Anna: I think Erik should be a train engineer.

Well, that would have made an easier journey for Mary -- Nazareth to Bethlehem by train.

Columbus Day Weekend Get Away

Okay, so we knew several days away from home with three small kids was probably going to be challenging. We knew it would probably be more fun to remember the trip, than to actually do it. Turns out we were totally right. On the way home from our travel adventure, I contemplated renaming my kids Tornado, Temper and Timebomb. (And they would probably name their parents Tired and/or Testy.) Oh, well. We did it. We survived. And in the pictures it looks like we really had fun! It's all about making memories, and that I think we accomplished. So here are some highlights...

First Stop: Sweet Stop

We started off on Friday with the intention to make the Jelly Belly Center near Kenosha our first stop to break up the drive to Milwaukee. A friend mentioned the train ride to me a few months ago since we have such a train fan in our house. It was such advertising, but we enjoyed it (as I mentioned here). I have to admit, I loved the chance to sample those nasty flavors you see on the Harry Potter Bertie Botts Beans boxes and Halloween packages. They cracked me up. I do have this advice to share, which should be obvious, do not under any circumstances allow your children to bring the chocolate beans into the car to eat during the drive! I'm still finding chocolate covered jelly beans in the back of the van and I don't know if a certain middle child's car seat will ever be the same. Like I said, should be obvious!

Some of the delightful flavors offered at the bulk bins.
The free-sample bar  had plenty available for taste testing!

On to Milwaukee ...

We went to Kopp's Frozen Custard for lunch because it was a favorite place of Jamieson in his Marquette days. To the kids' disappointment we did not have any dessert, what with having bellies full of Jelly Bellys and all, however, the burgers were more than adequate. Then it was time to check in. 

"Are we there yet?" is generally the question that drives driving parents nuts. For this parent, the grit-my-teeth question was "When do we get to the hotel?" We had planned to visit several sites to make our trip worth the effort. Honestly, we could have parked ourselves at a hotel seven minutes from our own front door and, as long as it had a pool, the kids would have been thrilled. I hate hotels. Even the nicest hotels make me feel claustrophobic, but the kids were beside themselves with the wonders of a unique room with all its hotel features, you know:  microwave, lights, multiple beds, and, William's favorite, tissue boxes at eye level in the bathroom. Really it's hard to know what William liked best because he was so busy getting into ALL of it. There is NOTHING relaxing about being in a hotel room with a toddler. Nothing is baby proofed and everything is a potential hazard. So all time is spent either telling big kids to stop bouncing on the beds or removing William from the threat of wiggling the full-length mirror, dresser drawers, outlets, curtains, closet doors, and escaping down really long hallways. Ever see those shirts for kids and pets that say, "I'm the reason we can't have nice things"? He needs one that says "I'm the reason we don't travel." And don't even think about asking about how we slept. Five people; one room. Even suite style, there's no making up for the fact that the world's most inflexible family really, really prefers our own beds. Oh well, we survived those sleepless early baby days and somehow we all survived the sleepless travel days. Just. 

The kids got their afternoon pool time in and they were happy. In both Milwaukee and Green Bay we chose hotels that had shallow toddler pools with small slides and water jets. They were no water parks, but good enough for my crew. Since I haven't seen fit to enroll the kids in year-round swimming lessons, their swimming skills are erratic at best. So it was nice to have more than just a oval-shaped, sorta deep hotel pool  for them to really enjoy and not just bob about in mom-mandated life vests. 

For dinner, everyone seemed unlikely to manage a sit-down dinner so Jamieson chose a drive-though fish fry place: Serb Hall. How very Milwaukee to have such a thing but it was amazing. The kids ate the peanut butter and fruit we picked up at a grocery store on the way back to the hotel -- more fry for us!

In the Desert Dome

Saturday morning, we basked it the glory of the hotel breakfast. Kids love Fruit Loops. Adults love the waffle bar. Mmm. 

Tropical Dome = camera fog

We then drove through Jamieson's old college  stomping grounds and then headed over to the Domes. The kids enjoy the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, so we thought they might like three! Ever since the hail storm of a year ago took out much of the glass at Garfield Park, Erik has been very concerned about the progress of repair. At the Domes he immediately asked if a hailstorm would break their glass. I think the technology of greenhouse glass improved by the time these windows were installed. One of the brochures said they used mesh glass from Germany. Nice of him to be concerned, though! 

Sheboygan is more than a sausage!

For the next leg of our journey we headed toward Sheboygan for lunch and a visit to Bookworm Gardens. Kudos to my mom for the recommendation to visit Bookworm Gardens! When Jamieson and I were little we both visited a place in the Wisconsin Dells called Storybook Gardens. We used to think it would be neat to take our kids there someday. Unfortunately, it closed a few years ago, so no photo ops of multiple generations in the same place. Enter Bookworm Gardens. Also inspired by stories, but so, so much better. Instead of being just statues of storybook characters, this garden is filled with book inspired vignettes and activity areas. The kids knew many, many of the stories that inspired the various garden areas but even where they didn't they had fun just playing. It's the kind of place the kids love because no one is saying, "Don't touch." They are supposed to explore and they do. 

The entrance 

Bookworm Gardens: I totally want our new shed to look like this.

William having a moment of zen

Notice a theme? He did NOT want to relinquish that broom. 

The Three Little Pigs: feel free to make your own comments

For the record, I caught William before he fell out of this chair.
Getting a nice picture of these three bears is impossible!

Without hesitation, I would definitely stop at Bookworm Gardens again and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to families with kids, as well as adults who love gardens and/or books. It was a delight.

On to Green Bay...

We made it to Green Bay with enough time to squeeze in some pool time for the kids again before attempting bedtimes. Sheer exhaustion helped everyone sleep a bit better for the second night of the trip.

Our plan for Sunday was to enjoy another ample hotel breakfast and then make our way to the reason for our Green Bay destination: the National Railroad Museum. We needed to make one other stop, though. It's no surprise to anyone that we aren't the biggest football fans around, but if football needs watching, it needs to be the Packers. Jamieson feels more than a bit of loyalty to his Wisconsin roots and I find the Packers to be the only team I can stomach. The whole fan ownership thing is a win in my book. So, we swung by Lambeau. We had checked that there wouldn't be a game in town while we were there, since we did want to be able to afford a hotel room, but it seemed worth it to stop by. So, the kids ran around the atrium for awhile -- nice place! -- and then we marveled at all the Packer products in the gift shop. Packers paper towels, really? Alas, our attention to the team did not bring them a good score later in the day. Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing the stadium, at least. I love how Green Bay is just a mid-sized town that anyone's cousin or grandma could live in and then all of a sudden, there's an NFL stadium down the street. Not sure where everyone parks for the big games, but it is a nice place.

The gift shop is that way!

The high point of the day was the train museum, of course. I've already written about it here, but it deserves a few more thoughts. The National Train Museum is a great place. It's not huge, but their collection of rolling stock is first rate. Someday I wouldn't mind going back to take in the truly historical aspects of the museum and its displays (when I can do so without loosing track of my peeps). Not unexpectedly, by the end of our visit, our tired train lover Erik was declaring that he didn't really like trains. We predicted that within a few minutes after leaving he would declare it his favorite place ever. Guess what? "I loved that place. This is a great vacation." So, I think it's time to adjust a parenting strategy just to see what will happen. Generally, I don't tell the kids about play dates, parties and trips till just before they happen. If things get changed or cancelled, the grief is much easier to manage if they never knew about the plans in the first place! On the other hand, it's more than time to begin learning to adjust to disappointment. Plus, maybe some advance notice will help take the edge off that overwhelmed feeling all three kids seem to get when they're doing something out of the ordinary. It will mean a lot more "No, it's not time for that yet." from me, but maybe moods will even out in the long run. Who knows.

An action shot of Anna at the railroad museum playground.
Honestly, action shots are about all we can get. 

Loving the cab inside the Big Boy

Oh, look. William is sticking his fingers in a random hole in a train car. Again. 

The boys on the ground while Anna and I climb to the top of the observation tower.
She made it to the very top, all 99 steps. That's my girl! 

View of Green Bay from the observation tower.
The clouds don't give it justice, but the fall color during the trip was spectacular.

To end our train-themed day, we had dinner Sunday Evening at the Titletown Brewing Company. Despite the name, it was more about railroads than Packers. Housed in an old depot, the historical building was a great place to end the trip. Or would have been if not for the 20 raucous middle-aged women having the time of their life in the table next to ours. The silver lining there was that William could be as loud as he wanted and no one cared. Anna had crayons and a kids' placemat to decorate, so she was happy. Jamieson and I liked the history of the place. So, the majority had a good time.

How I felt at the end of the trip.
(Actually, another cute statue at Bookworm Gardens.)

So, final thoughts. It was a good trip. It was a hard trip, but we expected that. I don't think we are going to plan any further excursions until William is more comfortable with alterations to his routine. Not that any of us do change very well, but he will be easier to tote along as he gets older, I hope. Every place we visited was fun and worth a repeat visit in future years. It's not all bad, though, to hear the kids say that it's good to be home. Maybe that's worth the effort of a trip, too. 

I'm Bored!

Dearest Children,

Believe it or not, "I'm bored. There's nothing to dooooooo," does not inspire me to turn on the TV for you. In fact, it tends to make me want to load up all your toys and drop them off at Goodwill. Also, "I'm going to my room!" isn't generally perceived as a bad thing by the adults of the house.

With love,
Mom

Melancholy Mom/Proud Mom

So, I thought that once I sent Erik off to first grade -- in school all day for the first time -- I would be relieved. There would be one less chatterbox and one less instigator to contend with for most of the day. Turns out, I don't like it so much. I miss the little guy. I feel antsy all day knowing that he's not home. Of course, he's fine. He's in an excellent school with a wonderful teacher. The long day tires him out, but he seems to be doing well and enjoying most of it. (Lunch! Two recesses!) Once he does come home, my anxieties shift from "Where's my boy?" to "What's my boy's mood?" since doing homework and dealing with little siblings is not really what he wants to do (pleasantly) when he returns. So, the days haven't gotten easier for me, just different. (And, to all you more experienced moms, please don't tell me tales of when bigger kids go farther away. My heart can't take it this week.)

As if I wasn't feeling sentimental enough with my oldest heading off to first grade, my youngest chose this week to master walking. Every day he's walking farther, faster. This weekend he definitely started to show a preference for walking over crawling. It seems like I just got used to having him here. Now I have to get used to not just having a little person keeping us company, but to having another little firecracker zooming around and getting into all sorts of mischief. I'm already finding him climbing on all sorts of furniture and exploring things that are really best not touched by toddlers. He's going to be my gray-hair causing monkey. Not like the other two were giving me lots of sitting around time!

So my boys are insisting on growing up and I'm not sure I appreciate that. My pensiveness is only amplified by an excellent book I started this weekend: Boys Should Be Boys by Dr. Meg Meeker. I read a fair number of parenting books, but I can honestly say this one is one of the best. There's no parenting philosophy agenda at play here, just a mom who wants to encourage parents to be actively present with and for their boys. As she sees it the world outside our homes is filled with all sorts of challenging influences ranging from subtle peer pressure on parents to overschedule kids to the immoral vices enticing all of us through media use. It's our job to simply spend time with our kids, trust our guts and be the the parent our own unique children require. The ideas aren't new or revolutionary, but Dr. Meeker states them clearly and compassionately. I can't speak highly enough about this book. It so moved me that I wanted to wake up all my kids last night and hug them. But I didn't. Let sleeping kids lie. (Because the teething baby will wake up crying in a few hours anyway!)

As always, it's not just two of the trio who are growing and changing. Our dear sweet middle child keeps me hopping, too. Anna seems to have brought a bit more drama into age 4 than she had just a few weeks ago at ol' age 3, but she's also becoming such a young lady in delightful ways, too. I will spend the rest of the school year second guessing the decision to enroll her in preschool only two days a week because she loves it so. On the other hand, she keeps so happily busy at home, that I have no doubt that she will do fine in school years to come. That new Lego set is getting a workout already. Like her big brother, she studies the instruction booklet and has begun to build structures of her own. I can see her ideas and imagination really take off. It's always been there, but I love seeing it evidenced in such a traditionally "boy" area as building. She's also our household entomologist, a fearless explorer of all sorts of back yard muck, and an aficionado of old National Geographic kids' science books. And she really likes Disney princesses. Well rounded, indeed.

Tomorrow the younger two have their annual check up. I'm looking forward to seeing if they are really as tall, on the growth charts, as everyone says.

William at 12 months: Milestones aplenty

Yesterday was a big day for Master William. For the past two weeks or so, he's been taking a tentative step or two here and there. Every day he gets stronger, cruises faster, stands longer, and generally seems ready to take off running. Yesterday evening Daddy, who was witness to the very first step, enticed him to take a few more steps and this time there was nothing tentative about it. He walked quite strongly across most of the living room and the whole family was there to see it. Of course, he had no interest in repeating it for the camera. Crawling is ever so much faster, you see. So instead I got the great video of our newly minted four-year old reading. Excellence all around!

As if that wasn't enough of a milestone, yesterday was the day William finally demonstrated his competence at feeding himself. Last week he deemed Mum-Mums worthy of picking up and eating. Maybe the crunch was satisfying for those four new teeth. I had never heard of them before last month when I bought them in a spree of grabbing every toddler snack in the baby aisle, hoping that they would inspire self feeding. Theorizing that maybe crispy round things were his thing, I tried some generic Ritz crackers at lunch yesterday. Success. He grabbed them and ate with relish. By dinner, he was an eating machine. Crackers, yes. Pasta, yes, but what else do you have. Ham? Yes, yes and yes! Breakfast this morning was a blur of rapidly consumed zucchini bread. (Thanks, Grandma!) As anticipated, the problem is now that he shoves too much into his mouth at once and gets crabby if anyone tries to do it for him. Anna decided she needed to serve him yogurt today, though, and he seemed happier to let her feed him than if I was doing it. Aside from the vast quantity of yogurt on his face, this worked out fine.

Meanwhile Erik and I labeled his school supplies yesterday. Today we went to Target to get the last few items, including red scissors. Foolish me for thinking orange would be adequate. Since we still needed to get Dixie cups for Anna's list, I was willing to humor him. No doubt in my mind that someone in this house will use the orange ones at some point.

So, a walking little boy, a reading little girl and a first grader. Whew.

Lego girl!

Anna and her new Legos

It's quiet time in our house right now. That means that William is sleeping and Erik and Anna are playing "quietly" in their rooms. Erik has spent most of the day building a diesel switcher and train station platform (with cafe) out of his Lego bricks. This summer he discovered the joy of audio books, so he's been listing to 101 Dalmatians repeatedly while building. Multitasking at 6-years old. Impressive. Erik gave Anna Legos for her birthday. It's the basic pink girl set. Admittedly I'm the one who strongly suggested Erik "get" them for Anna. I'm also the person who would have had a small fit if anyone gave me pink Legos as a kid -- too girly! Times change.

Until Thursday, Erik had every standard-sized Lego in our house in his room. Because of his love of trains and Legos, he is saving his money for a Lego train set. The basic sets start at $150. He gets about .50 to .75 per week in allowance. He will be saving for awhile. I love that Erik loves Legos and I have no problems with his interest in trains, but I won't be buying that train set any time soon, either. Why should I when he spends his time building train engines, cars and stations that are far more imaginative than anything I've seen in a toy catalog? It's entirely possible that he will indeed keep saving till he has enough, which would be a wonderful lesson in financial discipline. Until then, he has Lego-related synapses developing all the time.

Erik and one of his recent creations: subway station

Half the Legos in Erik's collection were mine, and I still feel pretty attached to them. As much as I love Erik's love for them, I also have two other children in the house who I feel need access to all the wonders of Lego building. For now, we chase William out of Erik's room and direct him to our collection of large Duplo Legos, but what about Anna? That's where the pink Legos come in. If we gave Anna a box of any old Lego set, Erik would decide that it should really join the other Legos, which just so happen to be in his room. Even with her new set, he argued that an orange piece (we think it's supposed to be a diving board?) should become his because "orange is a boy color." Um, no. So, the pink Legos make our princess lover very happy and they stay in her room because pink and purple just don't work with Erik's vision for his Lego railroad empire. No, it's not a box of Technics or Mindstorms, but it's a start. As I closed the doors for "nap" time this afternoon, Anna was building a house of her very own creation. I know that there's been an uproar about the Lego Friends collection, and I purposefully didn't bring that set and its doll scenes into the house at this point. They will probably come in time, though. Yes, I'd rather just giver her a box of any-colored blocks, but I honestly don't believe a few sets of girly Legos will damage her development. Anna is surrounded with a science-loving engineer father, a tomboy, book loving (fashion impaired) mother, and two all-boy brothers. The princess culture can only go so far in this house. Anna is a girl who keeps choosing books on robots, space and electricity to read. Last week, while she was prancing around in a princess dress she deflected my complement on her appearance with, "I'm not pretty, I'm strong." (You can be both, honey, and you are.) So, I can live with her current love of princesses, too, because I think my princess is on her way to royally great things. Thanks for the pink bricks, Lego. They work just fine.

August birthdays

Time for a tea party

We're coming off of a big week here at the Olsen house. Last Wednesday, Erik had a morning of basketball camp at school, which gave him a rare chance to do some sports. We aren't the most athletic folks around here. He was glad to see his school friends and even happier to have one of his best friends (equally obsessed with trains, thankfully) come over for lunch afterwards. He also spent some time on his bike which he has just figured out how to ride with no training wheels and, even better, no falling over! So, Erik had that as his special day, which was important when the younger two had big days next.

Not to miss the spotlight for any length of time, William showed us on Wednesday that he can indeed feed himself if he's so inclined. I've been fretting because he refuses to pick up food for himself despite his ability to use a cup well and to generally use his hands and fingers with notable dexterity for a baby. Baby Mum-Mum, a strangely named rice rusk product did the trick. He picked them up and ate them repeatedly. But only them. (Postscript, one week later: On a hunch, because he also picks up and gnaws round cork coasters, I gave him Ritz today. Same story, picked up and ate. Guess he only wants round, thin food. Hmm.) So, there's one less worry to hold. Baby can feed himself. Sometimes.

Sprinkles!

On Thursday, our little girl turned four. We opened presents in the morning. The Birthday Fairy (a joke I made once that seems to have been taken to heart) brought Anna a tea set much to her delight. Erik was very happy to show her how to build with the Lego set "he" got for her. (I apologize to my younger tomboy self for the pink Lego set, but if it's not pink it will be absorbed by Erik's collection. A girl needs her very own Legos, too!) Later in the morning we walked over to our favorite doughnut shop -- Dimples!-- for a birthday treat. We were a bit late in the morning for a full selection of goodies but the birthday girl was given an extra one just because it was her day. I love those folks. Glad we walked, though! As if that wasn't enough sugar, after lunch -- and our usual birthday reading of Dr. Seuss' Happy Birthday to You -- we made the birthday cake. I was feeling a tiny bit guilty for not creating a fancy birthday cake of my own for the day. Now, I think I will always have the kids help make their own cake. It's so much more fun than staying up late to make a cake I hope will be good enough. Anna loved helping to make the cake and you should have seen the decorating! It was a strawberry cake for our lover of all things pink. We frosted it white and then had a pink sprinkle side and and green sprinkle side in honor of the next day's birthday boy. Anna and Erik each took over decorating their halves and they did it in a big way. Children do not apply sprinkles gently. Half a bottle on each side. Wow. Jamieson described it as a Peep cake. It had that same so-sugary-it-hurts-your-teeth feeling. But the kids were happy, so it was worth the mess. For dinner we went to 2 Toots. We tried to let Anna chose a restaurant since we don't want to always be heading off to train destinations as if only Erik's interests matter. She didn't want to make another choice though, so we tried a different location and enjoyed it, too. Anna had a birthday cupcake at the restaurant. The rest of us refrained since we had cake to enjoy at home. Highly sugared all around, we called it a good day.

Happy birthday to me!

This was not the end of birthday celebrations, though. Anna just barely escaped having a birthday twin. (Sorry, kids.) On Friday, we celebrated the first birthday of the boy formerly known as "The Baby." William is now an official 1-year old toddler. Anna and Erik very eagerly gave him his presents. (Trying to hold them back from totally unwrapping them and playing with them was the challenge of the weekend.) William had the good manners to be interested in all his toys, even the diaper covers mom thought would be okay for a birthday gift. He seems especially thrilled with the trucks. Although anything with buttons has him smiling, too.

Daddy took the day off and we spent most of the morning getting ready for the big party on Saturday. In time for lunch Grandma and Grandpa G arrived to enjoy some pre-party time with the kids, including a walk to the park to see the monkeys play.

On Saturday we were ever so grateful for the absolutely beautiful day. After the dry hot summer we've had, I was bracing for a houseful of people trying to avoid the heat. What we got was a sunny, breezy day in the 70s. It was absolutely perfect. We had all the grandparents and many good friends. The kids were able to stay in the yard and play. They were pretty well entertained with our collection of fabric tents and tunnels, a ball pit made from the wading pool, a craft table to make sun visors and bubbles aplenty. We ended up with way too much leftover food, but that means no cooking for our own meals right after the party. Yay!

It's so hard to believe that our little William is an entire year already, although his newly toothy grin makes him look more like a little boy and a lot less like a baby. Even Anna moving from 3 to 4 sounds like quite the age jump. In just a week she and Erik will begin a new school year. The kids are all getting big rather quickly. I'm doing my best to appreciate these little kid years. They wear me out, but I couldn't be more proud of all of them. What a blessing to watch them grow.

Seriously, folks? A pink cake? Do I have to share birthday stuff with my sister every year?