Two kids, back at home...

On Tuesday, Alice's first full day at home since the vacation in Ohio, she burned through three activities by 10:30 am.

We always do art during Simon's nap, and she also did three things: stamping, painting, and playdoh.  I was impressed by how long she stayed sitting at the table working: about two hours.  This was good for me because I had a sore throat and was feeling quite achy.  I did use the time to reorganize some drawers though.  

Simon took a really long nap, and so he was still asleep when it was time for Alice's nap.  I tried to lay down for a bit while their naps overlapped, but Alice didn't actually sleep.  Instead, although she had refused to go potty before her nap, she suddenly let loose an extremely full bladder, surpassing the capabilities of her pull-up.  I got up to change her sheets and her clothes.  Then she said she wanted more lunch.  By the time I put her down again, she was under the impression she had already taken a nap (laying down in bed and tinkling everywhere apparently counts as a nap in her world).  So she just sang and shouted and jumped the whole time.

Simon soon woke up and the reason for his long nap became clear: he had a fever.  While thankful he didn't get sick in Ohio, I wasn't ready for another sick kid, especially since I wasn't feeling well myself.

Day 11: Bye, bye, Ohio; hello donuts!

It was a grueling trip, mainly because Alice was sick, but any trip for so long with two little kids with disrupted sleep schedules and eating habits is hard.  But when I look back over all the pictures, which conveniently do not document the meltdowns and whining, it seems like it was nonstop fun.  So that's how I'll choose to remember it, and that's why we'll come back again in 6 months.

One part that we forgot to take pictures of at Cam's was how much fun the kids had going up and down the stairs.  But here are two of Simon's other favorite places at Cam's:

Looking out the front door at the tree and cars going by on the road.

Hanging on the recliner handle.

And a family picture right before we left. (Don't worry, we'll invade again before you know it.)

Bye, bye, Ohio!

For the first hour or two of the drive, Alice talked to herself nonstop, just processing everything she'd experienced on the trip.  For our first break, we discussed stopping at the Charleston Krispy Kreme since it is right next to a Kroger Gas.  Alice, who listens to everything we say except instructions on proper consumption of food, chimed in with, "Like we did at Christmas time!"  We were surprised she remembered going there, so we asked a few follow-up questions and she confirmed she remembered "eating donuts with Daddy" (since I was in the van nursing Simon).  At any rate, her memory of it, and Zac's love of donuts has birthed a new family tradition: from here on out, we shall stop at the Charleston Krispy Kreme donut shop on our way back from Ohio.  It is a convenient stop about 3 hours out, with gas, a grocery store, and a donut shop with clean restrooms and windows where you can watch the donut conveyor belt.  Plus, since Krispy Kreme is a native of North Carolina, it is a fitting tribute to heading home.

From the display case, Alice ordered a "birthday cake" cupcake because it had yellow frosting and sprinkles on it.  After she licked all the frosting off, she stood on a chair watching the conveyor belt for a while, as we fed Simon.  She eventually came back and Zac was able to convince her that the rest of donut was yummy as well.  Simon also ate a few little bites of donut.

Day 10: Slate Run Metro Park

For our last day in Ohio, we went to Slate Run Metro Park, which is right next to Cam's house.  In the morning we went to the historic farm.  Then we came home for lunch and naps, then went back in the afternoon for the pond and playground.

The living historical farm had all sort of "old fashioned" activities for visitors to enjoy, like walking on stilts and swinging.

Alice had fun trying the pump, but couldn't do it fast enough to produce any water, so Cam had to help.

They got enough to fill a little pail, and took it out to water the garden.

Relaxing in the hammock after a hard two-minutes of work.

In the barn, we got to see some sheep, cows, chickens, and horses.  We were also able to watch them use a horse-drawn pulley system to hoist hay up into the hay loft.

Modern parent, old barn (waiting in the shade while Alice played in the corn).

Alice played in the corn for a looooooong time.

Family portrait.

We originally intended to go to the pond and playground right after the farm, but after a snack failed to revive Alice properly, we decided going home for some real lunch and naps would make the trip to the pond and playground more fun.

Unfortunately, Alice didn't actually eat very well, so at the pond, she was still weak and whiny and needed carried a lot.  She ate a fruit snack on the docks and revived enough to have some fun, and later fish for seaweed with a big stick off another dock (where we also saw fish, a large water snake, and a turtle).

Simon wanted out of the stroller, but as soon as we put him down on the deck, he went to the edge and kept trying to get in the water, so eventually Zac just lifted him over the edge so he could touch it.

After the pond, we went to the playground where Alice tried out every swing.

Simon also enjoyed swinging...

and crawling in the tunnel.

Day 9: Mud Mountain

It was the 4th of July.  Alice was finally feeling better and was now at a fairly normal level of travel mess.  Cam drove Bevin back to Coshocton in the morning, so we went over to explore Mud Mountain.  This was the pile of dirt across the street, behind which cement trucks had been laying a foundation for a new house the day before.  All I said to Alice was that we were going to look at the construction site, and as if she'd been planning such an excursion for days, she quickly grabbed her bag and the scoops she used to play in the bath.  This girl was ready for a pile of dirt.

I am always so happy that Alice is the type of kid who looks at a pile of dirt and sees at least an hour of fun.

She played on this pile (pictured above with Cam's farmhouse in the background) for a long time: scooping dirt, climbing the hill, finding a piece of re-bar to poke things with, digging for "fossils" (any little rock)...  Then we went and visited the neighbor cows, which were quite beautiful despite being covered in flies.  Alice clung tightly, but she didn't hit the ground like last time.  It probably helped that they weren't mooing.

Around lunch time, Cam came back and babysat the kids while Zac and I went to Canal Winchester and met his former roommate, Brian, for lunch.  It was the opposite of dinner with Jason and Maria.  Without any kids anywhere, we were able to have a thorough, sustained conversation for about three hours.  We got back to Cam's around the time the kids woke up from their nap, and we spent the rest of the afternoon playing around the house.

That night was the first night we actually got the kids into bed at a reasonable hour since arriving at Cam's.  They even slept through the neighbor's stellar fireworks, which were quite close and quite noisy.

Day 8: Taesen's and Jason's, Fireworks

On Wednesday, we had plans to visit Taesen in the morning, then go to Jason's for supper.  The kids woke up early, and had some time to play while we got ready.  Alice loves playing with all the little things in the card catalog box.

Around 10am we headed to Taesen's, and luckily both kids fell asleep on the way there.  It always makes me sad that our kids don't live closer to their cousins.  It was fun to watch the kids interact and sort of play together.  We played outside on the swings and on the deck with the bubbles.  Alice thought it was great fun to ride a tricycle in the house!

She played enthusiastically for a couple hours, but her lack of sleep (late nights, early mornings, incomplete naps) was really taking it's toll on her.  Luckily, she was able to take a long nap before we went to Jason's.

Since we were early to Jason's, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up more fruit (Zac stayed in the van with a napping Simon).  Alice continued her exploration of cool-for-kids shopping carts.  These things are a pain to push around, but she likes it (see giving tree reference in previous post...).

We got to Jason's spacious house up in New Albany, and met his kids.  The boy (Alejandro) was a couple months younger than Alice, and their girl (Ameliana) was a few months younger than Simon.  Although it's a relief to visit other people with kids (because they understand the chaos), it's also difficult (because double the chaos).  We met in the driveway, but soon went in the house.  Alice didn't make it past the play room.  Then Jason suggested riding bikes, and they discussed their good fortune in having two bicycle helmets.  We haven't put a helmet on Alice yet, but we went along with it for the sake of their kid.  But imagine my surprise when the helmets were for riding tricycles around the driveway.  Anyway, that didn't last long, and soon Alice was gathering sticks from the yard for a campfire.  She took a break from playing with sticks to mow the lawn with a toy lawn mower and to sweep the driveway with a broom she found in their garage.

Ameliana, still very much a baby, didn't do much other than look around from her exersaucer (Hilarious word--what would aliens think of it? Imagine explaining it, and the etymology of the word).  We put pants on Simon and he crawled around the driveway, occasionally visiting Ameliana at her exersaucer.  Alejandro was quite friendly (he warmed up to me right away and I'm not exactly a kid magnet) and we walked around the yard a bit picking flowers while Alice worked on her campfire pile.

By the time supper was ready, Alice was breaking down a bit, due to hunger, and possibly nerves.  I'm starting to be more aware of how sometimes she gets intimidated around new people, especially when she is not as resilient as normal (day 7 of being sick and away from home and not sleeping or eating well).  To get her to eat, she had to sit on my lap to get the first couple of bites in before I could transition her to her own chair.  I am always surprised when people with kids eat supper late.  I assumed everyone with kids ate by 6. It seems like Alice can't make it longer than that without having two afternoon snacks.  The problem with that is then she doesn't eat supper well (because she filled up on a late snack).  Food intake management is the hardest part of surviving on other people's schedules.

Anyway, supper was chaotic, with the needs of four kids to interrupt us.  As Zac put it afterwards, "It was like we started 20 conversations but didn't finish any of them."  All in all, it was a nice visit though and it will hopefully become a regular part of our summer trip to Ohio.

That night, for some reason the kids didn't go to bed right when we got home.  We gave Simon a bath.  We didn't bring the plastic bathtub with us on this trip, and he wasn't enjoying the large baths.  We tried giving him a bath in Cam's sink, but he didn't like that either.

While giving him a bath, Bevin kept Alice busy with some coloring.

It's all a blur now, and I don't remember why, but for some reason Alice was still awake around ten when some neighbors started shooting off fireworks (the only benefit of her being totally out of whack and off schedule).  It was the perfect experience for her since the fireworks were quite far away and not very loud.  Although she seemed a little scared at the time, she didn't take her eyes off them, and it was the first thing she mentioned the next morning when she woke up.

Day 7: Dawes Arboretum and Cam's Birthday

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.

Day 6 - Ashville: Kites and cuddles

We arrived at Cam's place with one happy baby, one very sick Alice, and two worn-down parents.  Cam gave Alice some awesome birthday gifts, and they flew kites in the field out back.  Somehow I missed all of this (napping?).  When I came to, there was a kite stuck over the roof of the little house.  But it seemed like Alice was having fun.