While in Mansfield, Alice slept in a pack-n-play in a separate room. At Cam's, she slept in a "big girl bed" -two mattresses stacked on the floor, in the same room as us and Simon. She slept well and did a good job staying in her bed (unlike last summer), but woke up at 6am, saw us, and started saying, "Mommy, it's morning. Wake up!" Repeatedly.
The good news was she woke up without a fever. The bad news was she was still not feeling well, and soon needed a morning snuggle/nap.
One of Alice's favorite things to do at Grandma's house is to try and use ever pen in the large vase of pens. Cam was prepared for this and had planted several colorful pens in among the rest. Alice scribbled happily while the rest of us got ready.
The plan for the day, Cam's birthday, was to go to Dawes Arboretum. This seemed like a good idea because it was nearly an hour away, so we hoped the kids would sleep in the van on the way there, and that Alice would have some energy when we arrived. The sleeping part worked out as planned, but not so much on the energy. The poor kid, finally feverless, was still not feeling well (translation: whiny, needy, weak, disagreeable).
But the arboretum had a wonderful children's area in the basement of the visitor's center, where the kids had fun playing and crawling around.
After spending some time, and nearly all of Alice's little bit of energy, in the visitors center, we ate a picnic lunch on the patio, then walked around the gardens a little bit. We went to a pond and saw some little fish. We also went to the cedar swamp, which was quite fun.
For the record: These pictures do not document all the crying and whining involved in this excursion, including a complete breakdown and tantrum in the restroom when I tried to get Alice to go potty before the long drive back to Ashville.
That evening, Cam drove to Coshocton to get Bevin, and Zac and I made supper (stir fry) and Zac finished the fruit pie for Cam's birthday.
Simon photobombs Cam's birthday cake shot.
Alice really enjoyed story time every night with Grandma.
The Giving Tree is a really sad story, because you don't really admire the tree or the boy, and they have a very unhealthy relationship. I think a lot of children's books are actually cautionary tales for parents. With Alice being sick, I was starting to feel like that tree: she was sucking the life out of me.
