Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World: October 2008

Charlton is enrolled in an art class at a small studio near the Art Museum. There are five children in the class - 3 girls and 2 boys. They are all 2 or 3 and Charlton is the youngest. On the first class Teacher Jill had the boys and girls mixed together. On the second class she had the two boys sitting together at their own table. Smart move. The other little boy may be even more active than Charlton.

Class is one hour long. The kids spend the first 10 minutes coloring in their sketch books. Teacher Jill is quite impressed with Charlton's scribbling. Supposedly he is an advanced scribbler because he connects his lines in shaky circle shapes and then draws little lines on them. She said that means he is beginning to conceptualize drawing people. Of course, I was beaming from cheek-to-cheek when she told me this but tried to remain humble while the other mothers desperately scanned their child's sketch books for similar talent but found only haphazard marks. Still, as I am the only mother who has yet to enroll next semester, I couldn't help but wonder if there was something else behind Teacher Jill's comment.

After warming up with the sketch books, the kids then work in three differing modes that all have a similar theme. Last week they worked on mixing colors. First was printmaking with yellow & red. The brayers were a big hit!

Next were watercolors with red and blue. As you can see, Charlton has a light, gentle technique.

Lastly, they used yellow & blue Model Magic. By the time he was done he made a nice green pancake.

As you can see, its been over a year since my first and only blog entry. Yikes! It was not only a sad start, but a pretty lame entry. At the encouragement of my good friend Ann, I'm going to make a second attempt. We'll see how it goes...

This past weekend we had a great adventure visiting Niagara Falls and upstate New York. When we lived in Boston we loved taking leaf-peeping drives through New Hampshire and Vermont this time of year and thought that it would be fun to do that through Pennsylvania and New York. We left on Friday within about 2.5 hrs of our target time, which is pretty good for us. The drive through Pennsylvania was beautiful! We made it to the Pocono Mts, about 2 hrs away, and decided to stop for gas and lunch. As we were getting back in the car, I suddenly realized that I'd forgotten our identification for the border. Crud!!! In a panic I asked Rob if by some odd chance he brought the IDs. He just stared at me which I interpreted as a no. What to do? We really only had one choice so we begrudgingly headed back to Philly. We sped back as fast as traffic would allow on a holiday weekend Friday. Once there we grabbed our IDs and left the house around 5. As we were getting in the car, Rob very politely asked if I would like him to drive. Now usually he likes for me to drive so I paused to think about that one a minute. While its no secret that I love being driven around (it makes me feel like a princess), I thought there might be something else at play here as I have been known to exhibit bouts of what some people might consider aggressive driving. I thought about the last couple hours of my driving and decided that it was best to hand over the keys. We were off! Again.

The drive up went smoothly this time around. Although Charlton never napped, he was really good most the time. We loaded a bunch of episodes of Caillou, Curious George, Charlie and Lola and Telebubbies on the ipod and he sat in his seat with his headphones on and watched for hours. He finally fell asleep around 11 and we rolled into Canada about 12:30am. The motel was about a mile away and we checked in and crashed.

We got out of bed the next morning around 9. It was so nice. Charlton slept in until about 8 and played quietly (for him) in his bed until Rob and I finally got up. We dressed and went down for breakfast...mmmm...waffles! I love it when the motel has a waffle maker. Rob made some yummy extra-crispy Belgian waffles just like Erika use to make for me in Boston but without the chocolate chips. Charlton wasn't interested in eating and instead ran laps around the dining room. Good thing most people thought he was cute.

After eating we took off to see the Falls. Our motel was less than a mile to the Falls so we walked down. If you haven't been there, it is a resort town with casinos, shops and other tourist traps. It was all very clean and nice. I did notice, however, as we walked down the main drag, Clifton Hill, that Canadians and/or people who visit Canada must really be into haunted and scary attractions. While its true you do see these types of places in the States (though we usually prefer mini golf and go-karts), you usually only see one or possibly two per destination town. Now let me tell you, this is a small place, and there were at least 5-8 of these haunted house places. And no, they were not there just for the Halloween season. They were full-time attractions. Some of them were really spooky and of course Charlton zoned right in on those. He was super nervous and saying in his scared voice "no no no" so we tried to distract him but it was hard with so many mummy's and coffins at every turn.

The Falls were amazing. We have both been there before but it was when we were much younger. We headed to the Maid of the Mist boat ride. All along the way they had these standing binoculars. Charlton loved them. He kept saying "Wally, Wally" because they actually do look alot like Wally especially if you look at them from the backside.

The boat trip was fun and Charlton made friends with everyone. A group of Japanese tourists loved him and kept trying to pick him up and rub his hair. He started running in circles and doing laps around those not holding onto the railing. When Charlton is really excited he loves to run in circles around things. His favorite is running around people, which is pretty weird for the people he is running around especially when they start walking away and he follows them while continuing to run his circles, laughing the whole time. He had on his little rain poncho and liked it when the mist started. Soon, however, the mist turned into a full-on down pour and he did not like that. He started bawling so we took him below deck where it is more dry but still quite wet. After the boat turned to head back, Rob started back up stairs to the deck. Charlton would not go. Rob told him the water was gone but he didn't trust him. He was squeezing my neck crying "no no no". I started up the short flight and when I was halfway Charlton could see the clear sky he started yelling "down mommy down" so I let him down and he ran up the steps and started doing his circles again but his time drenched. Everyone was laughing and taking pictures of him.

After the Maid of Mist we walked across the street to a nice park they have there. Charlton loves to run. Just the other day one of our friends was visiting and asked if Charlton ran everywhere. I never thought about it until then but I guess he does run about 85% of the time and walks the other 15%. Even in the apartment he just runs. And its not like we're living in a mansion here! Anyway, with the traffic and the Falls, I was extremely nervous he was going to end his life early so we headed over to the park to let him run. And run he did. He saw some kids near a pond so he made a bee-line over there. He loves kids and every time he sees some he walks right up to them and tries to play. He must get his social prowess from his Grandma V and his Aunt Renee. The kids were older and were hitting sticks in the pond. Charlton found a big stick and was about to the do same when he walked right into the pond. He then started freaking out because his pants and shoes were wet and muddy. We calmed him down and he started hitting the stick again in the water. Rob was about 1 ft away from him and he started hitting the water harder and harder with his stick, then in about one one-hundredth of a second, Charlton lost his balance and fell completely in the pond. The water was about 2 ft or so he was completely immersed. Rob grabbed him and he was muddy with leaves, moss and sticks all over his body. He was totally gross. It was so funny to watch I couldn't help but laugh which didn't help the situation as he is prone to get very upset when he's dirty and when water gets in his eyes. I was able to regain control of myself enough to calm Charlton down and set him in the stroller for the walk back to the hotel. Everyone was looking at him smiling and chuckling. Fortunately, he was too focused on the haunted houses, wax museums, fun houses and arcades to notice. Sometimes he can be very sensitive to people laughing at him. When we got back I tried to wash him off in the tub but he was so wild up that he stood up and slipped which just compounded his agitation (luckily I caught him before he hit his head). We then told him he could put on his Nemo shorts (his swimsuit) and he calmed down. We tried to wash him off but he's a spazz in the shower and bath these days so Rob decided to take him down to the pool. I was not down with this idea at first because I thought it was not only rude but also low-class to use the pool as our tub. Then I took a second to think about it and decided that since we were staying at the Country Inn and not the Sheraton, stuff like this had to be expected... It worked! Charlton was clean. (Sorry, no pic of him after falling in the pond, I was too focused on calming him down).

After swimming himself clean, Nemo boy napped. We headed out again after he woke and he proceeded to splash in every puddle soaking his last pair of dry pants. As if I wasn't already afraid of Charlton falling over the Falls, that afternoon's dive into the pond made me more paranoid so I tried to keep a tight hold on him. At one point he was standing on one of the railing rungs trying to put his leg over while I was holding him. I was so stressed either he or I was going to slip but he thought he was hilarious. Rob kept a tight hold too.

We left the next day, Sunday, to visit Palmyra and Fayette, where the beginnings of the restoration of our church took place -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-days Saints -- or as its popularly known, the Mormon church.

First we visited the Hill Cumorah and visitor center. Charlton had fun escaping through the railing and running up and around the Hill.

Next, we visited the Joseph Smith Homestead and Sacred Grove. While at the Sacred Grove, we ran into some of my family's dearest friends, the Hansen's, who live in San Diego and just happened to be visiting the east coast for a couple weeks. For those mormons out there, you may be remembering your own "the church is so small" experience. For those of you who aren't mormon, I'll let you in on a crazy phenomena that occurs in mormondum where we often have random encounters with long lost mormon friends at the oddest places and times. This was one of those situations. The Hansen's lived in Kentucky for several years in the '80s and our families became good friends. Lorraine was my Laurel advisor and helped me make the cutest sundresses. I also use to babysit their kids, Anne, Jenna and baby Corey. I think Bryce was born right before they moved and I can't remember if I ever watched him or not. They were my favorite kids to watch because they were always the best behaved and most fun.

After leaving the Sacred Grove we headed out to the Peter Whitmer Farm, where the church was officially organized. After a tour from a very nice sister missionary we headed home, taking the scenic route along Cayuga Lake through Ithaca and down into Pennsylvania. It was beautiful.