Desert Museum

On Friday, the kids went to school in their PJs as it was Pajama Day at school. They both looked super cute. I had a colloquim at school, which I enjoyed. I thought I was feeling better until late afternoon. It was like I hit a brick wall. I came home, walked the dogs, and felt awful. The grandparents picked up the kids at school. They'd had a good day at school. Miss R's report sheet said that she was very "into" the day's activities, which included putting diapers on some dolls. Jeff got the kids from my parents' house. I don't really know much about the evening as I fell asleep unintentionally and didn't wake up until morning.

My lungs still hurt a little this morning, but energy-wise, I felt fine. Jeff was coughing but felt OK. After breakfast, the kids had a great time climbing into the laundry basket of clean clothes, hugging each other, and then tipping if over with themselves inside. They also discovered the joys of the rocking chair and how to make it rock without parental assistance. At times, it didn't work too well b/c they were swinging their bodies in opposite directions, canceling each other's motion out.

Around 10AM or so, we took the kids to the Desert Museum. We felt that was a relatively safe place to go b/c it is almost all outside, meaning that Jeff and I could stay away from other people, keeping our germs contained. All in all, it was a good trip. Miss R was driving us nuts, however, with her throwing temper tantrums if I didn't hold her. She refused to walk, but then got mad if she saw Henry doing something fun. And since Henry was all over the place exploring, he was finding lots of things fun. I don't know if it is a boy-girl difference or just a Henry-Miss R difference, but she is so much more passive than Henry. It is no surprise that Henry has better gross motor skills. He practices them all of the time. She always wants to be held. I've catered to this under the assumption that she wants/needs closeness to an adult that she may have missed out on. But I do think that she needs to move and explore, which she does but only a fraction to the extent that Henry does.

Miss R has also been have these fits where we offer her something (e.g., a cup of water), she says "no," pushes or throws whatever it is away, and then gets mad three seconds later b/c she wants it. Ugh. I think that she's pushed us to the point where we are going to have to create harder boundaries. For example, she started off today's trip by throwing her water cup on the floor. So, we left it on the floor for about 10 minutes (10 minutes of her wailing). She's going to have to learn consequences.

At the tortoise exhibit, Henry found a young girl with whom to flirt. She was about six or so. I don't think that she really noticed him however. He greeted people as they came to the exhibit. He gave everyone an exhuberant "Hi!" and waved. And when people left, he said, "Bye! See you tomorrow!"

Henry enjoyed looking at the beavers in the underwater exhibit. They had a little den setup there. He enjoyed climbing steps of course. He climbed into the crevice of the coati exhibit but couldn't find it. We decided that it must be taking a nap. We stopped at a little cafe for some ice cream. That was Miss R's favorite part of the day.

We decided to forgo the canyon loop, which has the javelinas and coyotes. The cloud cover that protected us during the first part of our day had dissipated. It was hot. We'd tried forcing Miss R to walk on her own but she was having full out tantrums when not being held and we didn't want to ruin the place for the rest of the tourists. So we took a short cut to the cave and geo exhibit. Henry loved the cave. We walked into it, and he called it "The Cave of Wonders!" (reference to Aladdin). We got separated from Jeff and Miss R at one point. They took an exit that we didn't see. Our exit lead to a children's play area where the kids can put on goggles and do some digging.

We then saw the mountain lions and deer. When Henry saw the deer, he called one "Bambi." Miss R very mucy liked the "Bambi." We got the kids a sandwich on our way out. We figured that they should have lunch before driving back b/c they were likely to fall asleep. And sleep they did. They feel asleep about five minutes into our drive.

We then headed to the grandparents. The grandparents were planning to take care of the kids in the afternoon and evening b/c we had dinner plans with friends. The dinner was something that we'd been looking forward to for three weeks. After much discussion, we ended up deciding to cancel. Two of the party are pregnant; one friend (and dinner host) is due at the end of this month, the other friend is due in January. We decided that it would be unfair to put two pregnant women at risk for getting our cold or whatever the heck it is that we have. The host was gracious when I called and said that we could come if we felt better. Energy-wise, we were doing OK. Not running marathons or anything, but we were OK. Our coughs are still present. My concern is knowing that one can still spread germs for a couple days after "feeling" better. Plus, I'd read something about how there is a line of research which suggests that viruses may be to blame for some pre-term labor. Sigh.

Jeff picked up the kids after dinner. Grammy apparently had put her foot down with Henry and refused to give him cookies before dinner, so he was unhappy. When the kids got home, Jeff read Henry a book. I put Miss R on the nebulizer. She was pretty good this time. Then it was teeth brushing and bed.