Tot Lot

We've come a long way since Maggie's first visit to the Tot Lot, at the tender age of 5 days. Snug in her car seat she slept through her entire first visit, oblivious to the shouting, crying, racing of Big Wheels and acrobatic talents of the 5 and under crowd.

Now she crawls after Big Wheels, cries because she can't follow Cate and Ben into the giant inflatable bounce house, and LOVES to go down the slide (with help, of course).

I'm always astonished when I meet someone who lives in Iowa City, has small children, and who has never even heard of the Tot Lot. Seriously. How does a parent, especially one who stays home, make it through the long, cold winter without the Tot Lot? For only $1.50 a kid, it's the best deal in town if you're looking for a cheap and easy way to burn off energy. AND it can keep a 9-month old, a 3-year old and a 4.5-year-old entertained for almost two hours.

I tried to describe Tot Lot to my brother, who had never been there. He smiled and said, "So basically it's like a dog park for kids."

Exactly.

Uncle's Day Out

Wednesday was the date of the long-awaited, much-anticipated Uncle's Day Out. The Uncles (my brothers, Devin and Mike) promised that as soon as Cate and Ben were potty trained they would take them on an adventure.

Without Mommy and Daddy. Or Maggie since she still wears diapers.

Yesterday afternoon they delivered on their promise.

According to the Uncles, in their haste to get to the Old Capitol Museum, Cate and Ben practically sprinted through the Natural History Museum at MacBride. As has been mentioned in this blog, my children have developed a strange fascination with the "Burned Bell." Ben was eager to share this delightful artifact with Cate. (Cate is still mad because she was at preschool the first time we went which means that Ben has seen the "Burned Bell" one more time than she has).

After the Old Capitol Museum they trekked to the Iowa City Public Library, played outside, and then read some books in the Children's section. After the library? Ice cream at Whitey's. Mint chocolate chip for Cate and chocolate for Ben.

I asked each of them to tell me the best part about Uncle's Day Out:

Devin: Ice Cream

Mike: Ice Cream

Cate: Ice Cream

Ben: the Burned Bell

BOO to you!

Special Guest Appearance

We've been lucky to have my little brother, Devin, staying with us this week. He is on leave from Ft. Campbell, KY and has chosen to spend a large chunk of his time with our family in Iowa City.

So far this week he has: visited Cate's preschool, helped Ben ride his bike, given underdogs on the swingset, taken Cate to school, attempted to jump the battery in my minivan, gone to Niabi Zoo, lunched at the Happy Joe's buffet, visited the Iowa City Public Library's Halloween Food Fun story time, chased kids (only mine) on the playground, played Crazy 8s, put together countless jigsaw puzzles, created block tower after block tower only to have it knocked over by "Baby Godzilla" (Maggie) or one of her siblings, played hide-and-seek, and acted as one of the three little pigs trying to avoid the Big Bad Wolf (Cate) and her famous tricks.

And we still have a week to go.

Chris and I are placing bets about whether he will last another week at our house or jump ship to my brother Mike's peaceful one-bedroom apartment on South Van Buren. There are trade-offs: he will sleep on an air mattress but no one will be calling to him from the doorway at 7:00 each morning, "Devo? Uncle Devo? Are you awake yet?"

Mike claims that just walking into my house makes him tired. The kids. The noise. The questions. The toys that sing endless songs.

No doubt Devin will need a vacation from this vacation.

"Our Mom"

Today we went to a kid's cooking class at Hy-Vee. Cate and Ben had a great time making apple muffins and apple shake-ups.

My favorite part occurred at the beginning of the class, right after the dietician asked my kids what their names were.

Ben: My name is Ben.

Dietician: Ben, okay! Glad you're here.

Ben: And we have a baby named Maggie.

Dietician: That's nice.

Ben: And we have a dog named Sadie.

Dietician: Really?

Ben: And our dad's name is Chris.

Dietician: Oh?

Ben (points to me): And this is our mom. Her name is...um...Our Mom.

Field Trip

Wednesday morning we were approximately 5 minutes from Cate's school before we realized that she was shoeless.

By the time we drove home Maggie was asleep and as my (bad) luck would have it, her little eyes popped open the minute we pulled back into the driveway. Total nap time: 20 minutes.

So we backed out of the driveway (again) and headed downtown.

Ben is a big fan of the Museum of Natural History, particularly because with a stroller in tow you have to ride the elevator and with Cate at school the buttons were his and his alone to push. We visited the usual suspects--the sloth, the lynx, the zebra, the mountain goats, the panda, and the gift shop.

Then, because neither Ben or I had been there before, we went to the Old Capitol Museum. Although the museum is clearly not geard toward the 3 and under crowd, the charred remains of the bell partially destroyed in the fire of 2001 instantly captured Ben's attention.

The next 20 minutes were filled with questions: Why did they have a bell on top? What color was the bell before it got fired? How did the fire start?

He asked so many questions that as we were driving home I had to call back to the museum to save my sanity and to find out precisely how the fire started. (A worker cleaning the tower used a heat...something...and ignited the tower).

This led to more questions: What happened to the worker? How did the worker guy get out of the fire? Did the firemen come? How did they get the fired bell out? What did the firemen do after the fire?

I was amazed at how his little mind kept processing the situation, and I hope that his interest means that we might have a future fireman (rather than an arsonist) on our hands.

Weekend Review

We had a great weekend and thoroughly enjoyed the 80+ degree weather. Some highlights: Uncle Devo begins his 3-week Iowa visit, a trip to the pumpkin patch with cousins and grandparents, getting out our (limited!) supply of Halloween decorations, playing in the leaves, and lots of work on the construction site in the sand box.

Miss Maggie: Nine Months

Likes: "If You're Happy and You Know It," strawberries, standing up, lift-the-flap books, sippy cups, crawling up stairs, "Itsy-Bitsy Spider," swinging outside, having people blow her kisses, playing peek-a-boo

Dislikes: Exersaucer, wearing hats, her carseat, bottles

New Material

We went through a phase at our house where the kids were enamored with knock-knock jokes.

(This phase is no doubt documented somewhere in this blog but I am too tired right now to read through my archives and post a link).

Today I pulled out one of our old favorites.

Me: Cate--knock-knock.

Cate: Who's there?

Me: Olive.

Cate: Olive who?

Me: Olive YOU!

Cate (sighs): Mom, I think you need some new jokes.

I will take this as a sign that my audience is in the mood for new material.

Danger is My Middle Name

This morning Ben was almost flattened by a white minivan in the preschool parking lot after sprinting away from me as fast as his little Pumas could carry him.

When I caught up to him I said, in exasperation, "Ben, why do you insist on living dangerously?"

He looked up at me and said, quite seriously, "I just like danger."

Playing Together (?)

Me: Ben, what are you doing to the baby?

Ben: She is a turtle and I am being her shell.

Busy...

It's hard work being a baby---people to see, rooms to explore, things to climb on, brothers and sisters to follow...

Maggie's favorite place to play these days is our mammoth stone fireplace. Clearly this fireplace is a trip to the emergency room waiting to happen. (In fact, this fireplace was the cause of Ben's first ER visit. Hence the giant plastic baby gate now covering the hearth).

Maggie delights in crawling up the step, pulling herself up to standing, lowering herself to a seated position and then crawling down (face first!).

So far she's managed the maneuver relatively gracefully but there are a lot of sharp corners so I fear it's only a matter of time before someone ends up with stitches.

Baby's First Parade

2010 UI Homecoming Parade