Zoos, Magic, Sonic Youth and Go Cardinals

We spent the last two days of our vacation in St. Louis. We went to the St. Louis Zoo on Day 1, and liked the monkeys the best. We ended the day in my old (and short-term) hood, with dinner at Ciceros in University City. Kids loved it, and the pizza was great.

On the carousel

G on a panther with Ya Ya.

We went to the Magic House the next day. It has to be the best Children's Museum in the country. It is incredible. Guillermo and Maya spent a lot of time shoveling gravel and building a house in one part of the museum. "There's a lot of work to do, mommy," Maya said as she took a break between shoveling and sweeping. Later, she fished in a pond upstairs while Guillermo repaired a car. We probably covered only about half the museum before nap time was upon us. We then drove down to the Arch so they kids could take a look. I've been up only once before and had no desire to do it again. Luckily, the line was too long. We played and played and must have wore Guillermo out because as Maya and I were off doing something, Guillermo crawled in Will's lap and fell asleep.

Fixing a car at the Magic House.

Touching an electrostatic generator at the Magic House.

We ended the night at the St. Louis Cardinal's game with Julie and her family. I had planned to take Maya to the free Sonic Youth concert along the river, but at the last minute changed plans when I realized we had enough Cardinals tickets for Maya and I to go. I was a little bummed I was missing one of my favorite bands but I frequently commended myself for being such a good mom when I saw how much fun Maya was having at the game. :)

Lego Mania

Guillermo and Maya had plenty to keep them entertained at my parent’s house. Not only were their cousins there, but there are a ton of toys, a huge back yard and my father even put up the tent. They played Zingo and HyperDash, kicked soccer balls and rode bikes and scooters and took tractor rides.

But the highlight, at least for Guillermo (Maya didn’t care what game she played as long as she could hang out with her older cousin, Lily), came when my mother broke out several boxes of Legos, including several of my old sets. I don’t know who was more excited, me or him. Many of my Legos were still in the same form as when I left them 24 years ago, the bed, the couches and kitchen appliances still in tact. The day my mother opened the boxes, Guillermo and Lily played with them as I originally had built them, but I think by the next morning, Guillermo had destroyed all of my childhood work. Here's a photo so you can see some of my youthful labor. Don’t you love the retro people? And the record player?

Never in His Wildest Dreams

Never in Guillermo's wildest dreams did he expect to meet Darth Vader (or Dark Vader, as he calls him) at the Peoria Air Show. But, Darth Vader was there, along with a whole crew of Star Wars characters. Will was pretty excited, too!

Guillermo ranting like the Tusken Raider next to him.

Will and Darth Vader

With Boba Fett, the greatest bounty hunter that ever lived.

A fatherly pat from Darth Vader.

Summer Vacation

Over the next few days, I’ll be posting photos from our vacation at my parent’s house in Illinois. We had a great time. I love summer there. This year, we planned our trip to coincide with my father’s 60^th birthday. My sister and her family were there, too, which made it extra special. (Get ready, we took more than 500 pictures in our 10-day trip!)

My mother and father at my father's 60th birthday party.

We arrived Friday afternoon and the kids immediately fell into step. My father had bought them each a flashlight, which they used to hunt for my parent’s two cats (poor kitties).

Saturday was my father’s birthday party and it was so fun. Lots of friends came to wish him a happy birthday and they kids were on their best behavior. They ran around the backyard and played soccer and they didn’t mind one bit that we didn’t serve cake until about 9 p.m. Shortly after that, we put them to bed and stayed up a little later to celebrate. The party was especially fun for me because a few of my parents’ friends from our old neighborhood in Iowa drove down for the celebration. It was wonderful hearing some great stories about my parents. Just as fun was watching everyone look at the various photographs of my father that we scattered on the dining room table. I wish we still owned a scanner. Here are some current photos.

Guillermo and Will

Maya, hugging grandpa

A family photo

Perfect Things

"Mommy, everyone is perfect at one thing, right?" Guillermo asked.

"Yes, everyone is really good at at least one thing," I said.

"I'm really good at three things," he declared

"What are they?" I asked.

"Math, science ... Wait, I'm really good at five thing," he said. "Math, science, Lego building, words and numbers. That's five, right?"

"Yep, that's five."

Festivities, Fireworks and Fears

Before the parade

We had a wonderful July Fourth. Guillermo, Maya and Will started the day by decorating our bikes for the parade from Weaver Street to Town Hall. For his trail-a-bike, Guillermo taped one red streamer to his handle bars "because that's all it needed. My bike is blue," he reasoned. He also taped a flag to the back and wrapped a wiry string of metallic stars around it. "I made a nebula," he declared. Maya and Guillermo wrapped blue streamers around Maya's trailer and attached another flag to it.

The parade is a pedestrian/bike parade that crosses about two blocks. At the end of the route is a festival with a bouncy house and slide, games, music, scraps from the Scrap Exchange and food. Maya wanted to play the ring toss and other games so she could win candy. Guillermo was content with the bouncy slide, but only once because the line was too long after his first turn. Later, we went to a friends' house for a wonderful barbecue and the kids played.

But the best part of the day, for me anyway, was taking Maya to see the fireworks at the UNC stadium. Guillermo wanted to keep playing at the barbecue so Will stayed with him and I took Maya. She loved watching the fireworks last year after a baseball game with my parents and on that 20-minute ride home repeated "Fireworks, show mommy, pretty-o" over and over and over again. She wanted to see them this year and we didn't want to let her down, although Will and I both feared the fireworks would be too loud for our suddenly loud noise-averse daughter.

Maya and I arrived at the stadium about 8:30 p.m. As we walked there, I showed her the hospital where she was born and she talked all about being a baby. ("Yaya and grandpa visited me there?" "Guillermo tickled me?" "You were so happy?") We bought water, watched the band ("they are wearing costumes!"), played with a friend and stood in a long line for ice cream as we waited for the 9:30 p.m. start. About 20 minutes before showtime, we found seats next to a girl from Guillermo's preschool and her mother. Maya ate her ice cream and then played with the girl, as happy and smily as could be. Finally, the show started with a woman singing the National Anthem. I picked Maya up so she could see and we snuggled close, cheek to cheek, smiling. It was so sweet and I thought about how this was becoming one of my favorite summers and this was one of my favorite nights. Something behind us distracted Maya and she turned to look and a few seconds later the woman ended the song. And, just as she ended, fireworks, LOUD fireworks, exploded. Maya flipped her head to the noise and her face, a few seconds ago full of joy, was frozen with terror. Her hands snapped to hear ears. "Too loud," she managed to say. It was loud. I hugged her closer, and told her it was OK and tried to point out the pretty colors. "Too loud," she said choking back tears. "Do you want to go?" I asked. "Yes," she said. And, we ran out of the stadium, about 30 seconds after the fireworks started.

I stopped frequently on the way back to the car so we could watch the fireworks explode in the sky, pointing out all the colors. Maya admitted she liked them and admired the "diamonds, gold, rubies and emeralds" bursting in the sky but after a few seconds each time, she covered her ears and said "too loud. I don't want to see them anymore."

We got back to the car at 9:59 p.m. She fell asleep six minutes later.

Hyena Droid Bomber and other Legos

Will took Guillermo to the grand opening of the Lego store a few weeks ago. Guillermo has been asking to go back ever since. 

We were lured to the grand opening weekend with the promise that the first 300 customers that spent $35 or more (or something like that) would get a free Lighthouse Tower Lego set. Guillermo got one, but he bought so many other things that Will didn't even show the lighthouse tower set to him (which was disappointingly small and came in a plastic bag). Guillermo came home with an Indiana Jones set, a Hyena Droid Bomber set from The Clone Wars and a bucket that he filled with Legos from the "pick a brick" section. 

Others, a lot of others, were lured to the grand opening for the same reason (that, and the promise that customers could help build a life-sized Yoda) . Will says the checkout line snaked around the store and around the shopping center. A security guard had to escort shoppers from one part of the line to the other part because some of the path was blocked by a fountain. Our friend, Thomas, went with Guillermo and Will and he was the hero of the day because he did most of the waiting while Guillermo and Will shopped. All told, they waited in line for two hours (TWO!!) to get to the cash register.