Month: July 2011

“Targetization”

One of the drawbacks of everyone shopping at the same place is that people all get the same things.

There were three girls, all about the same age, with the same bathing suit as Helena at the pool. That makes it a bit more difficult for keeping track of her.

I cannot remember if I wrote about this earlier, but you need a wristband now to go in the lazy river without a parent. Helena asks where we get them, so I ask a lifeguard who points us over to the swim lanes and says that she’ll have to take a quiz. We get over there and the “quiz” is that she has to swim 25 meters, which she did really well….doggy paddling.

Anyway, she’s still wearing that wristband, so she’s pretty proud of herself.

Hot Day – Time to get out of the house

The Weather Service issues a heat warning that goes from Sunday to Wednesday with heat indices over 100 each day, so we start it off by being outside for hours.

In the morning, when it was still relatively cool (but quite hot) we went to the zoo. I hadn’t seen the new Grizzly exhibit, and after walking through it, I still haven’t seen a bear. The rest of the animals, humans included, were panting in all parts of the park. So we went inside where the kids pet the tiger sharks and rays for a good half hour. I had to drag them away from there. After seeing the penguins, Ada and Helena walked around the gift shop for 20 minutes. Suddenly, Helena is all into stuffed animals again.

After that, we went to Once Upon a Child to get some clothes and stopped by their favorite restaurant, Old Country Buffet where they barely ate, but sucked down an Icee pretty well.

Then it was off to the pool at Lifetime to swim. As soon as we got there it was a 30 minute break for the lifeguards, so the kids played a bit, but mostly just waited. After swimming for about an hour and a half, some kid got sick in the pool, so rather than wait 45 minutes for that to be cleaned up, we left. Ada was out of the pool by then anyway, but Liam and Helena were disappointed.

After that we went home to eat in the 90 degree house, then got in the car to go downtown. The kids played in the water in Peavey Plaza. I told them that I had to go to the bathroom so we all went into Orchestra Hall to go, then I got the tickets out for the show. As always, Helena “knew” that we were going to go to a show, although they didn’t know what it was.

I was supposed to have tickets for another show, but Dalen had the kids then so I couldn’t go. So when I switched them, it wasn’t for a Family Series, but I figured that the kids would be least bored by “1964”, which is a Beatles cover band type of thing.

It took a bit for the kids to figure out what it was. But when they played the first few chords of I Saw Her Standing There, I look over and see Ada clap excitedly, so I was quite pleased. Helena loved the show the most, she was dancing through a lot of it. Liam….., well, he didn’t hate it. During Eight Days a Week the band had us clap twice at the end of each line of the chorus….Ada concentrated so much and she was so intense about it that even the people behind us took notice. However, she fell asleep during the last quarter of the show…by the next day she had a fever.

So, we spent the entire day except for a short dinner of microwaved leftovers outside the house. We got home, the kids went to bed (the fastest they have all summer) and I worked on lesson plans in the basement before going upstairs to bed.

Helena crouching down for a photo.
Seuss at the zoo.
Girls liked the cool shower out in the heat
Liam not so much
Helena wanted to be the one on, but Liam snuck on the back
Helena wanted this picture taken
Liam having fun in the toddler area
Cute photo of Ada if you ignore the flash
Liam with the penguins
Why they don’t mind Once Upon a Child
All smiles
Ada in her new swimsuit
Dad waiting for the pool to open. Thankfully there was no sun.
Liam waiting

Helena’s Half Birthday

Helena has wanted to “save up” twenty dollars to buy some doll that she’s seen at Puff ‘N Stuff, a local gift store. She doesn’t get any allowance anyway, so I’m unsure where this would come from.

Since today was her half birthday, I made a card that said, “Happy Half Birthday….pick which one you want” that was addressed to “Punky”. I had Liam run it into the store and hand it to the cashier without the girls knowing because they were busy in Jackson’s Gelato’s bathroom. (I’m not sure if it is an autoflusher).

Anyhow, so we go into Puff ‘N Stuff afterward because the kids always ask to go in there. Helena and Ada immediately run over to the display of the Ugly dolls. How Helena misses seeing the card that is sitting there for her in unknown to the rest of us all (Liam, myself, and the two awesome owners). Helena and Ada walk around the display about four times before I tell Liam to go over there and say, “What’s this?”, which he does poorly, because neither Helena nor Ada seem to take notice. Meanwhile, the owners and I are laughing because Helena is RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CARD over and over again.

Eventually she finds it and picks it up. Once she opens it she runs over and gives me a big hug, then she goes back and starts shopping. Ada is already asking me if she can have one for her half-birthday, which I tell her is a long way away (although her birthday is not even a month away).

It turns out that it isn’t even an Ugly Doll, but I can’t remember what kind it is at the moment.