Colonial Williamsburg

Several weeks ago, the kids had a four day weekend for fall break. I had wanted to go to Colonial Williamsburg back in the summer, but the kids wanted Washington, DC even more, so we didn't go.

My mom is always up for a trip to just about anywhere, so when she asked me if we should go somewhere during fall break, I knew exactly where I wanted to go!

Because, yes, I am nerdy like that. Most kids want to go to Disney World (let down - Cinderella's castle isn't even a real castle for Pete's sake) or a beach (love, love the beach, but btdt). Me? I was always looking for some historic monument or battlefield to visit. So yes, I have always wanted to go to Williamsburg.

Back to the story. I honestly figured I would be dragging the kids from place to place and bribing them with promises of hotel swimming pools and movies in the room. But I was wrong. At least partially. I guess that the apples don't fall too far from the tree, because Ben and Will were just as enamored with the costumes and old buildings and museums as I was.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let us start in Jamestown, the first permanent European settlement in Virginia. (Let me just put it out there that although I love history, the Colonial period is not my specialty. I very well may be making this stuff up.)

The first stop was the museum, where we learned the basics of Jamestown history before venturing out into the park. We then walked to the re-created Powhatan village, where Will told us all about totem poles, we learned that it is really cozy in these houses when it rains, and we found out animal hides are pretty comfy to sit on. Ben also learned how to make a rope out of long leaves and grass.
Just down the hill from that is the re-created ships that the English settlers came on. The kids decided that it was way more fun steering or shooting the cannon than being inside the ship.

My mom was a total trooper, just going with the flow and enjoying her grandchildren, even in the rain. She loves to travel even more than I do (which is saying A LOT).

Then we went to the re-created fort, where they asked the park re-enactors lots of questions about chickens, blacksmithery, and the shape of the fort (I'm just glad there was somebody there to answer the questions, since in DC I got to field the hard ones).

The next day was Colonial Williamsburg, which I have to say is way bigger than I thought it would be, but there is a bus, so it is all good:)

We went to the governor's palace, the colonial capitol, and ate lunch. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and the kids were incredibly well-behaved during the tours. They participated several times, and Ben was asked to stand up and quote, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" at one point. He thought that was really funny.

We walked around, going into the "businesses" that interested us, and leaving when Will got bored. Will was a good gauge for that because Ben could've listened to these re-enactors all day, while Kate was bored immediately. Will was somewhere in the middle, so when he was done with listening we moved on. We visited printers, wig-makers, and lots others. They gave out maps to the kids, which Will loved, and if they went into certain places, they could go talk to a person sitting outside, tell them something they learned, and the person would stamp their map. After they collected so many stamps, they earned a free pin. Will talked some guy into giving him a second one.
He and Kate were fascinated with this jailhouse toilet.

After earning his pins, Will was eager to get to the museum, but at that point he was exhausted, and we all know what happens to Will when he is exhausted. But thankfully, they had a children's area with paper and crayons, which always has the most calming effect on my Will...


By the time they were done he was ready to go to dinner without making a scene. To bad I can't say the same for the other kids.

There was lots of climbing on statues.I later caught Will with his fingers up this guy's nose.

The last day was spent in Yorktown, which was the location of last major battle of the war. There were about a million re-enactors that day, who answered all of my kids questions. Some of them are park employees who are paid to do this, and some of them are volunteers. And some of these people are intense. I made the observation that the volunteers, who do this for fun, are waaaay more intense than the park employees. Like, sometimes you just have to walk away while they are still telling you about what soldiers' rations were like. I started asking them right off the bat whether they worked there or were just there for the weekend before I decided if I wanted to ask them any more questions.

Ben was asked to help load a cannon, which he thought was awesome, and Kate thought was loud.

After that we walked around the tiny little town, drove around the battlefield, and ended the day with some miniature golf. Because you have to do that on vacation. Or so my kids always say.
And what did Kate think? She never once complained, but I asked her what she liked the best, and she replied, "Nothing." The day after the trip, I overheard her tell her Daddy that she should have stayed home with him.

Birthday, Halloween, and Everything in Between

Every once in awhile I just need one big ole catch-all post to capture a whole bunch of busy-ness. This is going to be one of those posts, so prepare for randomness and tangents...

Kate is now a big FIVE year old. Yes, I said all of those cliche, "How did my baby get so big?" things, because seriously, HOW did my baby get so big? She is going to start kindergarten in less than a year! She is working on her letter sounds and writing! She helps me bake and wash dishes and folds laundry! She is sassy and bossy and hilarious! Ugh! So big!

OK, I feel a little better to have that out of my system, but I'm sure I will do it all again next time I see an old picture of her. Anyway, Grammy and Boopa, Bri and Danielle came up to celebrate by going to Kate's T-ball game and then to a local pumpkin farm that Will has asked to go to no less than 487 times since last October.

Mimi and Arlie also took us out for some Olive Garden on her birthday...which makes me really hungry to just think about.

Moving right along... As usual, the kids had no less than three opportunities to dress up for Halloween this year, with all the sugary goodness that accompanies that. Ben was a young Obi Wan for each event. Will was Obi Wan for event #1 and a pirate for events #2 and #3. Kate changed her mind hourly about what she wanted to be. I have stopped buying costumes at this point, because they have them ALL. Seriously, I just say, go upstairs and find something, and they come down fully dressed up. Anyhoo, she was a clone trooper, a dragon, and here you see her dressed as Clark Kent. However, she never actually opened her shirt to show the giant S, so she mostly just looked like a cute old man. They also decorated pumpkins with their dad. All three of them hate to clean out the pumpkin's insides, so Tim tells them that if they can't stick their hands in the pumpkin, then there is no way he is going to let them wield a knife. They are fine with this and just draw pictures of what they want, and Tim does the cutting. Ben's is the big Angry Bird on the left, Kate's is the Angry Bird in the middle, and Will's is the pirate on the right. Arrrgggg.

Ear Tube Update

Kate and I visit the ENT every three months. He likes to keep up with whatever is going on in her little ears. Usually the visit consists of getting a ton of wax pulled out of her ears, and then he says she looks good, and we go home.

Her last set of tubes was from August 2010, and one of them had fallen out almost immediately, while the other one lasted until this past spring. He had pulled one of them out, but the other one is still laying in there. He also mentioned that one of them (the right? Why can't I remember this stuff better?) still had a hole from where the tube was. It hasn't healed like it should have.

So what now? Well, because of her cleft palate, her Eustachian tubes don't work like they are supposed to. As she gets bigger, they will hopefully get stronger and do their job, but until then we have to keep an eye on her ears for ear infections which could also lead to more hearing loss. The plan is to let the hole in her ear act as a "tube" to drain fluid from that ear. Then we will watch the other ear (left?) to see if she her Eustachian tubes are working properly and if she gets more infections. It will act as a gauge to tell us when she is big enough to not worry about tubes any more. At that point she will then have to have the hole repaired.

At this point it isn't a huge deal. We just watch it and see what happens. Most people aren't even aware that she has ear issues, especially since it doesn't affect her on a daily basis. We are very thankful that she recovered so much of her hearing when she had that first set of tubes put in. Later this week, she has an appointment at the cleft clinic, where we will see the plastic surgeon and the audiologist. We expect that appointment to go well too.

Happy Belated Kate NaNa Day!

It has been three years since I met this little girl.

She was timid and quiet at first, and not really intereted in us - just our cookies. But then she realized that the man they kept calling Baba had a cool camera.

She still likes cool toys like that.

It didn't take long for her personality to come out. By the time we were back at the hotel, the boys had her laughing this deep, scratchy laugh, with traces of tears still in it. And I knew that she was one of the bravest people I had ever met. This tiny person who was terrified of me, she could still find a way to be vulnerable and show joy. To show trust in this Baba she just met.

For the next few days, she only tolerated me if I was bearing chocolate (see the last video here).

But now, three years later, she is the biggest mama's girl you ever saw. If we are home alone together, she is right by my side, "helping" me with whatever I am doing. At this moment she is sitting right next to me on the couch, with one foot that she keeps sticking under my leg and the other on top of my leg. I keep moving it, but she keeps kneading me with those tiny, beautiful toes.

While I type, we wait for her chocolate birthday cake to come out of the oven. I am still bearing chocolate for this girl.

This year we had to celebrate Kate NaNa Day a week late because we were out of town. We gave her the red silk purse that our guide, Sunny had bought for her when we were in Suzhou. We had saved it because we were afraid she would tear up the embroidery. But a big, almost-five-year-old can probably take care of it now.

Kate NaNa, we love you with all of our hearts, and we are proud of what a strong, brave, smart, funny girl you are. We are so glad that you are a part of our family!

Procrastination

Have I mentioned I am taking a class right now? No, nothing fun like pottery or painting. Or painting pottery.

No, I am taking library science technology. Part 2. It has two components - web design and video making. Can you say gag me with a spoon?

I know I may have some of you fooled into thinking that I am a Technology Genius with my mad blog design skills, but here is confession (There have been a lot of those lately, yes?) - Blogger does it all for me. I do very little. I just get to write. (Of course, those of you with blogs of your own realize that my blog design is lame, but I have been fooling many of my readers for years!)

It's not so much that I find web design hard. Although to me it is. I also find it incredibly boring. All of the link creating and repetitive tasks involved and frankly, I would rather read a good book, or play on RQ, or clean a toilet than do it. But alas, if I want to pass this course and eventually be certified to be a school library media specialist (aka, librarian), then I must actually do the work. Ugh.

But you can see how well I am actually doing that. Here I am, with an assignment due tonight at midnight. All my kids are at school. The one child I am babysitting today is upstairs asleep. Dinner is in the crockpot. And what I am I doing? I am here talking to you. And not even about anything important like Kate NaNa Day, or our recent trip to Williamsburg, or a Big Announcement that hopefully I can share soon. No, I am writing about procrastination.

I do seem to be an expert on the topic after all.

Another Bad Mommy Confession

We are still catching up on the Summer Activities Report with this one. Unfortunately, I have put off telling this story because I am totally embarrassed by it. Ahhh, confession time.

First, a little back story - As a kid, I swam constantly. Like, every summer weekday I was at the pool. Every weekend, at the lake. I spent about seven summers working as a lifeguard. I swam competitively for awhile (although be aware I am using the term "competitively" quite loosely here). I have been swimming so long that I don't actually remember learning to swim.

If you had asked me ten years ago, what is one thing your kids will know how to do before they are five years old? I would have said swim. Obviously, it is a very important life skill, right?

But all of a sudden, I looked around, and I had three children who were afraid of the water. Had I taken them swimming? Had I gotten them lessons? Had I worked with them myself? Yes to all three, but obviously not enough.

This summer, I decided enough was enough. I declared that this would be the summer that everyone would learn to swim! I told them that every chance we had to be in the water, we would be swimming!

It sounds like an excuse, but it really was a challenge to find a suitable pool. That has always been part of our original problem. Our local outdoor pool is freezing and only about three feet deep. None of my kids were going to learn to swim in water that shallow. The local indoor facility has one pool that is warm, but only about three feet deep, and one that is cold and reserved for swimmers doing laps. Again, not ideal conditions. We ended up doing most of our "lessons" in two locations: my uncle's pool in the next town over and in a tiny little pool (that is five feet!) in my hometown, two hours away.

So, a couple times a week I would drive to one of the above locations, put them in the pool, and work with them individually and as a group. We practiced kicking, holding our breath, blowing bubbles, and moving our arms. They were mostly willing to learn, but I'm not going to lie. Every one of us lost our patience more than once. We all got mad at each other those first few times.

On one particular afternoon in June, I almost had a mutiny on my hands. We were at Uncle Ricky's, and we were all upset. All three kids wanted to quit. One of them shouted that he would learn to swim when he was a teenager. I told them that no way, no how, were they going to be the 15 year-old kids requiring a life jacket to swim in five feet of water. They were learning. Now. Yes, Mean Mama, who was also embarrassed at what a bad job she had made of it, had had Enough!

After much weeping and gnashing of teeth, they got back in the water. And they tried. And I tried. And on other days their dad tried. And Daddy John tried. And basically we all worked very hard all summer to not let one more season pass without them learning how to swim.

So, did it pay off? I am very pleased to report, that despite my ineptitude, my children did indeed learn to swim.
Ben is learning basic strokes, and can swim across the pool. He is even starting to learn to dive.
Will was terrified to swim without a life jacket in June. He is now doggy paddling all over the place, and loves to jump in the deep end. And he isn't holding his nose!
Kate NaNa still prefers to hold onto a float, but she can swim across the pool. OK, she can in the shallow end. She can't quite figure out how to come up for air without putting her feet down. But she is only four, so I can cut her some slack on that one, especially since she has conquered her fear of the water. She also has a crazy strong kick that propels her really quickly across the surface.
By the 4th of July, they were able to swim with their cousins without clinging to the wall. Or holding their noses. Or asking 18 times if they could put on their life jackets.

In the end, we still have a long way to go. And I am still embarrassed that I let this go so far. But at least I am now confident that my children will not drown. Or still be afraid of the water at the age of 14 (no offense to those of you who are older than 14 and afraid). We are going swimming at an indoor pool this week, and I am eager to see how much they remember from last month.
I'm sure if I lose my temper again that they would be happy to tell you about it.

Canoeing with Dad

Now that fall is upon us, I realize that I am woefully behind in my blogging. And it isn't just my random ramblings about whatever is bugging me, but rather my posts that I write as a sort of scrapbook for our family. Tonight I will try to at least partially remedy that.

One very hot Saturday in August, Tim decided to take the kids canoeing. We live less than a mile from a creek that is great for taking the kids for a calm ride. It circles through our town several times, so I dropped them off at one landing and picked them up at another. They spent a couple hours on the water playing, learning how to paddle, and spending quality time with Dad. And obviously there wasn't room in there for me, right? Thanks, Tim, for being an awesome dad.