Ohio Day Five - Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

  I am sick.  My sore throat is better but now my head is so stuffed up and I think I have a fever.  So today James drove himself to work so that I could have a chance to sleep in.  That last two days we've had to drag the boys out of bed at 7:30 so I was hopeful.  But alas, this morning all three kids were up by 6:30.  I think that is one of the laws of parenthood, have somewhere to be and they will sleep, but desire to sleep yourself and they will need all your attention as early as possible.

  After breakfast the boys and I walked the half mile to the playground.  Now, before you say "Wow, what a self sacrificing mother!" (I know you were all thinking it), you should know that this was completely selfish on my part.  Three little boys in a hotel room all day is never fun.  But when one of them is a toddler?  Chaos.  We have a limited amount of toys for Charlie to play with but there is seemingly an infinite number of things that he shouldn't touch.  For example, this morning I found him locked in the closet trying to eat a packet of sugar.  If I had felt any worse I might have just let him eat it.

 The walk to the playground wasn't too long and last night's storm had cooled things down a bit. But still the boys were tired and ready for a snack shortly after we arrived.  Halfway through snack I realized that I had left my camera on the bench so I had to send Will (aka Sonic, aka The Flash) back for it.  He is my little super hero.  :-)

The walk to the playground

Charlie on a dinosaur

   There were more kids on the playground today and the boys had fun playing with some new friends.  Charlie flirted with a girl his own age and played with a little boy in the sandbox.  Will and Jon ran around with a group of bigger boys who were playing cops and robbers.  I found some boys jumping out of a window on the second floor of one of the playhouses so I informed their teacher.  The mom in me was horrified and worried that they would get hurt (I ran over to catch one boy but he landed safely before I got there) but the kid in me felt bad for "tattling".  

Charlie plays with a new friend

juice break

  After the playground we headed home again for lunch and a nap.  The walk seemed longer this time.  Possibly because Charlie has perfected the art of "going boneless" whenever he doesn't want to hold my hand or when I won't let him run into the road.  But we made it back and Charlie took a three hour nap which was nice.  I even got to sleep for an hour!!  A good nap can do wonders.

  When James got home we all headed out to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum.  Will and Jon were really wound up so James took them for a run around the pond while I got Charlie ready to go and packed the diaper bag.  Poor Charlie was so eager to leave that he kept saying "go? go? I ready. go? ready? go?" and pulling me towards the door.  He was so cute.

  We arrived at the museum a little after dinner time but we foolishly attempted to see some of the exhibits before we ate.  That was a mistake.  So we headed up to the cafe to find some food.  Jon saw carrot cake on display and he immediately walked up to the counter, plunked down his money (about $.95 in change) and said with confidence, "I'd like a piece of carrot cake and a red slushie."  James and I were laughing but the girl behind the counter just stared at him.  We did end up getting him his slushie and the cake but we made him eat a burger first.

Outside the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Running outside the museum

Jon listens to a display about D.J.s

Charlie checks out an Elvis display

  At one point we passed a Katy Perry display and Jon said "Mommy! What if you had this dress?!?" He seemed very excited about it.  Sometimes I wonder just how my children see me...

My new dress?

   After dinner the kids were in a much better mood to tour the museum.  Charlie seemed to really enjoy himself, there were all kinds of colorful things to look at and he was dancing around to the music. Will and Jon did well although they were less interested in the exhibits.  At one point we came across a Billy Joel quote which said, "If you aren't doing what you love you are wasting your time."  Will read it to me and when I asked him if he thought that was true he said, "Yeah, but I'm not doing what I love!"  

Do what you love

listening to music

Daddy talks to the boys about a David Bowie
exhibit.

  Despite their complaints, Will and Jon did have a good time.  They enjoyed the David Bowie exhibit, especially since we had recently listened to Space Oddity.  And they both spent a lot of time listening to music on headphones.  Will recognized Nat King Cole's "Route 66" from the movie Cars and he discovered and loved Howlin' Wolf's "Evil".  Jon liked everyone but he spent the most time listening to Louis Armstrong.

enjoying some music

Will loved these touch screen exhibits

   We had a good time but the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame wasn't quite what I expected.  Though the building was large the exhibits seemed a little small.  I guess I thought that a museum dedicated to Rock and Roll would be... cool.  But I shouldn't judge to harshly since we didn't have time to see the whole thing.

  On our way out Jon stole the camera and took a couple pictures of us.  He loves taking pictures just like his father.  Although he can be a little bossy about it.  :-)

leaving the museum

On the streets of Cleveland

  We were hoping to grab some ice cream at Tommy's, the nice little restaurant the boys and I visited on Monday, but we got lost and it was closed by the time we got there.  So even though it was late we stopped at Wendy's for a frosty.  Charlie started squealing with delight and that made our frustration melt away.

Thankfully the boys went to sleep quickly and now I must be off to bed as well.  
Goodnight!

Ohio Day 4 - Dinosaurs at the Zoo

  Police cars here are hard to spot.  They are SUVs instead of cars, their coloring is different and even their lights are the wrong color.  Not that this bothers me.  As a conscientious driver I would NEVER go over the speed limit, not even a little.  

I hated to wake these sweet boys

  

Who is cuter? Sleeping boys or sleeping koala?

  After dropping James off, we drove (very slowly) to the zoo.  We got there at 9:15 but as I was getting out of the car I noticed that something was wrong.  There were a few other people in the parking lot but no one was getting out of their cars.  As we got closer to the entrance I realized my mistake: the zoo didn't open until 10:00.  We were far from our hotel and I didn't know the area so we had to just hang out until the ticket booth opened.  The sky was gray and threatening but the promised rain never arrived.  At first I was grateful but as the day got hotter I began to long for a nice torrential downpour.

At the zoo

Riding and elephant

The elephants were very interested in Charlie

Jon on a slide

 The boys were really excited to see a Trumpeter Swan at the zoo.  They decided it was Louis' mother and they were hoping to watch baby swans hatch.

Louis' mom

  Once we got in, our top priority was the dinosaur exhibit.  I know, they aren't typical zoo residents but this one had a large area that was set up with tons of animatronic dinosaurs.  The boys were in heaven.  The dinosaurs moved and roared, although sometimes they were a little loud for Will.  The exhibit also featured stations where the boys could dig for fossils which was a big hit.

Charlie says hi to a dinosaur

Jon is a little nervous

digging for fossils

My little paleontologists

  As we were walking through I ran into a fellow adoptive mom and her two boys.  We chatted for a while about our stories and kids while our boys played together.  Her oldest was three and he walked up and said "hi dinosaur!" to every one.  He, Will and Jon ran screaming from some of the dinosaurs, although it was all boyish exuberance and not fear.

  Charlie wasn't scared a bit.  In fact, he kept trying to feed and pet the dinosaurs.  It was really cute.  One pair of dinosaurs periodically sprayed water and after some initial hesitation the boys had a lot of fun with them. 

Will watches the spraying dinosaurs

Charlie jumps back from the spray

Charlie tries to feed a baby dinosaur

Charlie and the T-Rex

A little afraid to turn their backs...

  And in case you want more, here is a little video of some of the dinosaurs.  The loud squeaking is my stroller which, while still my favorite, needs a little oil. 

  The rest of the zoo was also pretty cool. We saw some primates, a shark and we spent a lot of time in a tree house with a snake slide.  We were there for hours.  Right before we left, Will and Jon had the opportunity to ride on a camel.  When I asked what they thought, Will shouted, "That was awesome!!!" and Jon said, "It was amazing!  I could do that all day!"  They were pretty happy.

Will watches a shark

Monkey family

Will heads into a snake's mouth

Charlie is swallowed by a snake

On a playground camel...

...riding a real camel!!

Finally, exhausted, we left the zoo at 1:30 and headed home. Charlie fell asleep as soon as we got in the car and he didn't wake up until 4. But Will and Jon were their normal, chatty selves.  I happen to remember a particular conversation that will give you a taste of what our drives are like.

Will: What happens when all your blood is drained out of you?

Me: Well, that's called exsanguination and when that happens you die.

Jon: You become a vampire!

Will: What happens when your blood and your brain are both gone?

Me: Well, then you die.

Will: Really die!

Jon: You become a ghost!

Will: And when we are ghosts nothing can harm us.

Jon: Except the ghostbusters.

Will: Yeah, if they saw as ghosts they would kill us right away!

  After a long nap we set out again to pick up James. And right on cue the promised thunderstorms arrived.  Once we got back we decided to stay in for the night.  Our hotel is pretty awesome. Not only do they have the thickest, most luxurious towels I have ever seen, but they also offer a free small buffet on certain evenings.  But, keeping our priorities straight, we headed to the pool first.  Once again Will practiced his swimming and Jon paddled around in his float.  Charlie too stuck to his routine of trying to drown himself.  He really, really wants to swim.  But we were able to distract him for a bit by swinging him around in the water and letting him dunk me.  

Jon in the hot tub

Will in the hot tub

  It was another fun day but I am exhausted.  I have a rather unpleasant cold and my sore throat kept me up last night.  So I am off to bed in the hopes of catching up on my sleep.

Goodnight!!

Ohio Day Three - Playing in Cleveland

  I wish I could remember to write down everything on the day it happened but I always seem to be a little behind.  That said, here are a couple of anecdotes from yesterday.  Will and Jon are convinced that Ralph the mouse (from the Beverly Cleary books) lives in our hotel.  They have been on the lookout for tiny motorcycle tracks and Jon says that he found a mouse hole in our room.  I love that books really do come to life for them!

Also, while Will was writing in his journal yesterday he called out to me, "Mommy!  I know how to spell pool!  It is P-O-O-L!"  "That's great!", I replied, "How did you know that?"  "Because I know Deadpool!"  Yeah, our boys are getting a super education.  :-)  As an aside, almost everything the boys say (particularly Jon) is said in a tone that conveys "This is the best and most awesome thing in the world!!" which hopefully explains the abundance of exclamation points.

But enough about yesterday, let's talk about today!  We started out early because we had to get James to his class by 8:30 and we weren't sure how long it would take to get there.  Charlie was the only one happy to be up, both Will and Jon usually sleep until 8 so they were a bit cranky.  James and I are rather silly when we're tired and we spent the whole drive laughing and laughing.  After dropping him off, I took the boys to a really great playground just around the corner from our hotel.

Three boys ready to play

Digging up a fossil 

Will and Charlie play

Charlie chases Will

Running on the ramps

This playground had everything.  Buildings where kids could practice breaking and entering...

Climbing out of the window

Charlie climbs in the window

 
...and then spend some time in jail!

Jail!

  Seriously though, this playground was amazing.  And really, really huge.  It was impossible to keep eyes on everyone so I just followed Charlie around and periodically checked in on Will and Jon.  Luckily no one else was there so it was easy to hear them.  Plus, all the boys were wearing very visible shirts.  I took some super cute pictures of Charlie which, alas, I can't show you.  The playground was built to be wheelchair accessible so it had some great ramps that the boys ran up and down on.

Balancing act

Will and Charlie play

My boys

On the tire swing

  It was very hot today and by 9:30 I was dying.  By 10:00 I called it quits and we all went back to the hotel for a rest.  Charlie slept for a couple hours and the rest of us lounged around and read.  The boys voted to go to the Children's Museum this afternoon instead of the lake because, as Will said, "It is too hot outside. We need to go somewhere with air conditioning!"

Buzz!

Reading time

  

  The Children's Museum was small but perfect for the boys.  It was designed for their ages and they loved every minute of it.  I've been to a number of Children's Museums in the last couple of years and I think this is one of the best.  The exhibits were simple but fun and even kids with short attention spans (Charlie!) could spend a long time in one room.  We were there for a couple of hours and I was ready to leave well before the boys got tired.

Charlie drives the bus

Jon plays the drum

Will uses an old sewing machine

Charlie feeds his "Sheepy"

He refused to believe that he was riding a horse
and not a "Sheepy"

Jon writes out a train ticket

   At the lower level was a water table and a place for kids to do the weather report.  I had Charlie set up at the water table and I turned, for just a second, to watch Will report the weather. When I turned back I caught Charlie with one foot in the water trying to climb in.  When I scolded him he just gave me a huge grin and splashed the water, soaking his shirt.  I am a sucker for cute two year-olds.  :-)

Jon Revere

Will works at the store

Charlie drives a car

Will in a canoe

Jon at the top

Jon plays the violin

Will writes a note

  After the museum we still had an hour to kill before we went to pick up James so I drove to another part of town where we could get some ice cream.  Allow me a second to brag...  I successfully navigated a strange city by myself with three kids!!  And I didn't get lost!  Ok, there were a few times where I didn't know where I was, but when I kept going I ended up where I wanted to be so that worked out.  

  But back to the ice cream. We live in New England and I feel that my standards for fantastic ice cream are pretty high.  So I was surprised at how amazingly great this was.  We have to go back with James before we leave.

Enjoying ice cream

  After dinner Will was bouncing off the walls so James took him and Jon out for a run.  I don't know how they still had any energy after today but they all enjoyed the evening run.  In fact, that was the subject of the boy's journals tonight.  Jon drew a picture of himself running up and down the hill and Will made sure he wrote down who got the gold medal.  He also drew one of the running hazards, a Canadian goose that was on the track.  

Journals

  Tomorrow I think I'd like to just do one thing but we'll see what happens.  But for now it is time for me to get to bed.  Goodnight!!