Day 5: Kayaking and Crawling

By the fourth and final day in Mansfield, Alice was really breaking down.  She still had a bad fever, and she hadn't been eating well for several days so she was starting to look like a child that needed sponsored for a dollar a day.

She was still able to muster enough strength for one more kayak ride...

...and some feather gathering.

Simon, however, was the epitome of health and happiness.  His only downfall was that he couldn't walk yet but desperately wanted to get out and explore on his own.  Our yard is a minefield of goose poop though, so we resisted his squirming as long as we could.  On this last day though, I finally gave in and set him down.  He had a blast crawling around in the grass, and up and down our hill.

Day 4: Biking and Bonfires

Alice's fever did not abate on day three, so she mostly played around the house, with the toys and water table.  Simon showed no signs of a fever and was in excellent spirits the whole time.

The one good thing about Alice being sick is that she's a lot snugglier and wants to cuddle more.

She managed to rally enough in the afternoon for a brief kayak ride and a short bike ride around the neighborhood.

Alice had helped Nelson pick up sticks in the yard (she's a natural) and he must have explained that they were for a campfire, because for the previous two days she'd asked for a campfire.  It had been too windy, but this evening was calm enough for one.  It turned out she didn't really like it though, because there was too much cracking and popping. 

Day 3: Canoeing, wading, fishing, watermelon and watertable

The second full day in Mansfield, Alice still had a fever.  But although she was more tired and needy than normal, she still managed to take advantage of the opportunities a lake house presents.  While I stayed home with a napping Simon, everybody else took a canoe and kayak over to a nearby beach so Alice could go wading.

Due to her illness, she got tuckered out pretty quickly.  But some lunch, a nap or some quiet time on the couch often revived her enough for the next activity.  I'd been telling her for weeks that she could do some real fishing at grandpa Shogren's, so that afternoon Nelson dug up some worms, loaded the hooks on a couple of cane poles, and Alice was really fishing (in Alice's world, a little canoe paddle is part of the fishing process).

It was not long before she got a nibble, and Nelson helped her bring in her first fish: a medium-sized carp.

She managed to fit in a little more time at the water table before supper.

Grandma and grandpa prepared a watermelon "cake" for the kids to blow out their birthday candles.  Alice cracked under the pressure, and Simon was enthralled but clueless.

Then it was time to open presents.  Nelson and Stana got the kids all sort of great stuff, but Alice's favorites were a net and a squishy dinosaur.

Day 2 - Mansfield: Little Buckeyes, Carrousel, Pontoon Ride

Our first day at Grandma and Grandpa Shogren's was a big one, chock full of everything a little kid could want.  We first went to Little Buckeye Children's Museum in downtown Mansfield.  They had many great stations, but I'd say Alice's favorite was the one near the front with a dinosaur fossil dig site, complete with buckets, shovels, toy dinosaurs, and a large dinosaur fossil buried beneath rubber wood chips.

The museum had many other interesting stations that Alice enjoyed as well, including a doctor's office, grocery store, cave exploring, a train set, an airplane, an old-fashioned school house, an elaborate water table, etc. 

There was a play area for babies too, but Simon was due for a nap while we were there so he only played a little bit and wanted to be held most of the time.

From there, we went to lunch at a pizza parlor downtown.  Simon immediately fell asleep.  This was also the first time Alice went to a restaurant and just sat in a normal chair (no booster seat).  She did pretty well, although she did keep trying to sit backwards.

Then we went to the downtown Mansfield carrousel.  Alice loves to ride the carrousel at Pullen Park, but we only ride it one time.  But in Mansfield, she got to ride it three times in a row!

We noticed that despite all the fun, Alice was a little less exuberant than normal.  It turned out she had a fever.  We couldn't believe our bad luck--she'd been terribly sick when we were in Ohio for Christmas too.  But after a good nap, she mustered enough energy for the evening activity: a pontoon boat ride.  

Simon's favorite part was drinking water out of a plastic cup (because we forgot his sippy cup).

Two interesting things happened on this boat ride.  We were not far out of our own cove when we noticed a man sitting on the front of his pontoon boat paddling.  Nelson quickly inferred that he was having engine trouble, and we rode to the rescue.  We ended up pulling him back to his own dock, and along the way learned that this handsome, muscular, deeply tanned, lightly tattooed stranded man was a firefighter.  It would have been something out of a romance novel if we weren't all married with kids.

The other funny thing was that the first time we approached the bridge, Alice saw it coming and laid down on one of the seats, presumably because she thought there wasn't enough clearance under the bridge.  I find it interesting that she is always observing her environment, predicting possible calamities, and taking the necessary preventative measures.  As we got under the bridge, we were able to convince her that she would not be decapitated if she sat up.  On the way back she was fine.

Day 1: The Drive to Ohio

The drive to Ohio is always challenging.  It takes about 11 hours for us to get to Mansfield because we have to take a lot of breaks for nursing, diaper changing, stretching and running around.  It always starts out fine, but the kids start breaking down by the end of the day.  The last two hours are the worst.

Mon-Weds-Fri Routine

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Zac drops Alice off at school and Simon and I stay home together.

Once we get Zac and Alice out the door, I will finish feeding Simon if that didn't already get done.  Then we head out for a walk for about an hour.  I walk about 3.5 miles, during which time I either talk to Laura on the phone or listen to podcasts.  When I'm not talking to Laura, I try to run a lot on the way back.  Sometimes Simon stays awake and sometimes he sleeps.

When we get back home, I let him crawl around for a while.  If he didn't nap on the stroller ride, he will usually nap soon after we get back.

When he naps, my rule for myself is that I read.  I am currently reading Middlemarch.  It's one of those many classics that I haven't read, but have heard referenced, so I used a Barnes and Noble gift card to buy it online.  The funny thing about buying a book online is that you don't have any idea how long it is.  Sure, they list the number of pages in the details section, but I forgot to pay attention to that.  It turns out my edition is 794 pages long.  After a few days of reading, I'm only on page 147.  This book is going to take me all summer.  But, so far, it's good, with clever lines like "He took a wife, as we have seen, to adorn the remaining quadrant of his course, and be a little moon that would cause hardly a calculable perturbation" (88).

When Simon wakes up, I feed him lunch.  I try to give him some finger food first, to have him keep practicing eating.  It's still a work in progress, but I figure one way or another he'll eventually get the idea and actually like eating rather than taking one or two bites and then just squishing it, smacking it, or flinging it.

After lunch,  I'll let him crawl around the house some more. He is pretty easy and will roam around by himself quite contentedly for long periods of time.  Sometimes I carry him around and talk about things with him.  Other times I sit with him so he can practice sitting, or I put him in the little rocking chair for a few minutes.  While he is playing, I use the time to do any chores that need done, because I can keep an eye on him at the same time.

At some point, usually around 2 or 3, he'll go down for his second nap.  After that I usually feed him again around 4.  On average he eats 4-6 containers of food during the day, plus maybe two more for supper.

It's really fun just having a chance to pay more attention to him.  And sometimes we just sit and click at each other for a few minutes.

Scuba Diving and Tool Using

We hadn't been to Marbles for a while, so we went there this morning.  Simon had a great time crawling around in the baby corral, while Alice did some painting and coloring (it drives us nuts when we go to Marbles and she wants to do the very things she could do at home) but eventually she moved on.  She went into the tool section for the first time, and was ecstatic to be able to use real tools like a saw, drill, file, and screwdriver.  She needed a lot of assistance, of course, but she had a great time.  We are glad she finally has enough of an attention span to stay at one task for a while.

And she also got to go scuba diving!

The mask didn't stay on long, but she walked around for a while in the flippers.  Later, when we were reflecting on the day, and I was talking about how she went scuba diving, she clarified that she needed to be under water to go scuba diving.