Organic Road Trip

Well, besides the fact that I got to sleep at 9:30 last night! : )  Ches and I are sharing a room with Ethan (yes, Ha.), and he needs it dark, so I go to bed with him.  And he had no nap yesterday.  He did wake up at 10:30 crying like crazy, and I couldn't console him. I think he was still asleep, he couldn't tell me what was wrong or what he needed, he didn't want to get in bed with me-just CRIED!  Ches had to get him (Yes, I had to call him-he was working out)-he can take the loud unrelenting tears.  We finally calmed him down, only to put him in our bed (yes, crying again) at 3.  He stayed till almost 6, and he likes to sleep with his feet shoved in my stomach, and his head perpendicular to me and Ches.  GOod thing it's a king size bed.  We each slept on the outskirts while he took up the big fat, squishy middle.

What a day we had yesterday! : )  Long, but filled.  We started at the Museum of Natural History (well, we started with lunch there in their cafe-they had Organic Peanut Butter and Jelly: bread, Jif, and jelly from an industrial size tub-I don't know what part was organic..oh, maybe the $3) where we saw dinosaur exhibits, dug in sand/dirt for bones and fossils (I just have to post the pictures!), then saw fossils of footprints, lots of body exhibits on DNA, weight/square feet of skin per person, reproduction (with nasty liquid) of vomiting, one of mucus, a huge nose that sneezes every minute or so. Ches was playing with the DNA and finding mutations.  Then we went to the Children's Museum and played farm, planted seeds, collected eggs, played on the fire truck, played in the spider webs and ant holes, saw real snakes/turtles/BIG cockroaches (some hissing), tons more sand with little trucks/sifters, etc, a play house (Mary Claire made a friend and had to go back to say bye), Mary Claire went low and she'd left her meter in the van-Ches had to go get it (she wasn't low), then we went to the IMAX to see Dinosaur in the 3D dome theater.  It was good, not too much for Ethan (he actually made it through!!).  We got some yogurt for snack, and headed to the mall!


Just telling you about it makes me tired again!  I wanted to nap in the car for the 15 minutes or so to the mall, but I (and Mrs. GPS) had to keep Ches on track. Sometimes she tells you 20 feet too late, sometimes 20 too early.  We love it when she's "Recalculating..." then tries to get us back there.  When I'm watching, I read the streets, and I can yell louder than she can.  Then we make it.


So, then to the mall (NorthPark Center) to look for me some pants to wear.  Did I mention in my packing frenzy I forgot to pack my favorite jeans?  I even washed them, hung them to dry (if they shrunk any, I'd have to give them to MC!), and then left them in the clean laundry basket, all nicely folded and ready to wear.  Just not here.  We walked in to Macy's, and Mary Claire spied a dress she LOVED!  I let her try it, and we got it for her Easter dress, and finally found a little sweater for her First Communion.  The boys had all gone to the Lego store, so we went looking for them.  We mapped our way to PF Chang, had dinner (and Ethan loves Lo Mein-shocking!  Beige Spaghetti!)  got bum fortunes, then a tiny bit more shopping (me-jeans, remember??) and Ches went to the Apple store to get a cable to connect his new laptop (just like mine, hmm) to his extra monitor (doubles his screen size!).


So after all that fun, we came back to the hotel and swam until after 8.  What a long day!  The kids were then hungry again, and ate everything they could find.  And we brought a lot since we knew it could be a while, and we might lose everything in our freezer!


Funny: Clay wasn't being so nice (all day), and when he wasn't being nice to Ethan, Ches told him he was banished to Hades (I don't know if he heard), but guess where that was!?? With me-jeans shopping!  We went to this hip store with all young people, and the kids didn't want to go in the dressing room, so they sat in the floor with their treasures.  Clay thought I'd be a long time, so he dumped out his new Lego set-about a hundred pieces!  Then I walked out triumphant after two minutes, ready to go!  He had to scramble around to pick up all those tiny pieces!


Funnier: Yesterday morning Ethan was coughing when he got up.  When I asked him if he was okay, he said, "Yeah, I was coughing up my heart."

Funniest:  Ches was worried about our power being out and losing all our food.  So, he loaded a bunch of cold food into a cooler and a tub, and set them out on the back deck!  He figured the high was only 37, and they'd be covered and packed with snow, therefore colder than our fridge/freezer if they lost power! : )  He said I wouldn't use the ketchup, salsa, etc. if the refrigerator lost power, and our deductible is $500! (which means we'd be buying our own new ketchup...)


Note to Self: Skinny jeans only come in odd numbers (juniors sizes).  Maybe this is a clue that I should not wear them?  I could divide by two and be a teenager.

'Nother Note to Self: Don't dress kids in red, navy, or white to a museum in a big city, especially on a Friday.  There are lots of field trips, and they are mostly private schools. In red, white, and navy.


ps-Slideshow of yesterday is down below! : ) You're welcome, Mom!

Not Spoiling. Really.

We really don’t spoil our children. Really. Sometimes I even think we (meaning me) can be mean. We make them brush their teeth, wash a lot, fold their clothes, take their dishes to the sink, say “Yes, Ma’am”, help their little brother, and be appreciative. When we took the Crayola Factory tour today, they were good and took turns. Afterwards, we went to the Crayola Store, and we limited their treasures-to-go to $5. Why? I don’t know. It just seems like spoiling to buy them every little (or big) thing they want everywhere we go. I know we don’t go on vacation (that) often. But I think gifts every day (or every day of vacation) would spoil them. I want them to appreciate little things, and if you always buy the big things, they begin to expect big things. Then little things don’t matter. It’s a theory, and I’m taking a chance, but I like it. And that’s what’s important.

We drove to Easton, Pa for the tour (and learned how crayons and markers are made). And learned a few things:
#1: After a new marker is made, it has a white tip. It takes about 15 minutes for the colored ink to reach the tip. So you can’t use it right away!
#2: If you (well, probably your preoccupied child) leaves a marker lid off all night, you can soak the tip in water for 30 seconds, recap it, and it’ll work again after about 24 hours. : ) Handier to know Before you have thrown away scores of markers. But it’ll still save quite a few too!
#3: You can use white Model Magic (by Crayola) to make tons of things. We used tokens to buy white, and they taught us some tricks. One is to pull off a piece of white, color it with (preferably washable markers), then knead it to color it! You can keep it up to make it darker. Clay made a mushroom, and Mary Claire made a flower. Then wash your hands!
#4: They have a Dryer! After you paint, finger paint, and make prints, you put your art into this big pizza oven-looking thing, and it slowly runs your art through a heater/fan, and dries it!
#5: Crayons are completely non-toxic (so you can eat them). They are made of paraffin wax, clay (to make them stronger), and pigment to color them.
#6: The glue that holds the paper wrapper on is just cornstarch and water!
#7: They also make the paper long enough to go around the crayon twice, and that also makes the crayon stronger and less likely to break.

We are back on the road, planning to see the new Disney movie, G-Force at an IMAX theater near where we had lunch (kids made their own pizzas at Uno Pizzeria). Ethan’s been sleeping till now, and now he’s awake and mad! He gets so disoriented when he wakes up away from his bed. We’ll pull over, and maybe make the movie. It starts in 15 minutes.
**Update: We did make the movie, and it was cute (and compared to Transformers and Harry Potter, it was clean! No really bad language except, “Get your butt out of my face”). Ethan kinda made it through. He had to go to the bathroom about 10 minutes before the end, and then he was crawling around between the seats, but he made it. Tiny Success.

Tomorrow: Shopping in Philadelphia, Major Landmarks like these, and dinner at Rita’s!

Extra:
We think Clay has dandruff. He was itching a couple nights ago, and his scalp had peeling bits of skin. Ches got him the nice (coal tar or something?) shampoo, and it’s helped so much. I washed it again today with the shampoo, but it says to only use it twice a week. How did I never notice? Or did I not know what it was?

AND, did I get to tell you about Clay’s ENT appointment? It went well, and the doctor was so nice and helpful. She’s going to take out his adenoids, and reduce his turbinates (the big ball-type things you see when you look inside his nose). He’s using a nasal spray to see if she can get the turbinates to reduce in size, if not, she can do it while she’s in there. The surgery is August 6th. It’s outpatient so it shouldn’t be too bad. He is frankly relieved that there is something to be done, and that maybe he’ll be able to breathe better, soon.