Summer fun
I had my 5-year old nephew with me yesterday all day. Though I'm off for the summer, I don't really care to spend my time off babysitting other peoples' kids. My brother was in a spot, though, and this isn't a regular thing. Really, it made my day a little easier because it gave Junior someone to play with. I love my kids, but there are only so many minutes I can bear playing Star Wars or dragons or whatever.
Give me some Legos or Lincoln logs and I can hang in there a little longer, but I'm not really the fun parent. My husband is much better; he'll spend a lot of the day playing with Junior. Of course, then he stresses because he didn't get much done...and the kid is an attention black hole. Don't think that because you spent two hours playing with him that he's going to want to play on his own for a while!
We definitely differ here. My parents didn't entertain us all day long. We read, or went places with friends, or played with our toys. Whatever. Not that my parents didn't take us places. They did, and our "educational vacations" could be a whole 'nother blog post. At home, though, we were pretty much expected to find our own fun. My mother-in-law, on the other hand, spent a lot of time playing with her kids. She didn't work outside the home, so I'm sure that was part of the difference. The parenting differences have carried over into our parenting styles. I'll spend some time playing, but I also expect him to be able to play on his own. My husband, not so much.
Anyway, that's a long digression on the point that I do enjoy when my kid has company and he plays with them. And play they did, for most of the morning. After lunch, we had a little field trip.
Junior and I just finished reading on of the Magic Tree House books, Twister on Tuesday. It took place during pioneer times, so I thought it would be neat to visit the Museum of Westward Expansion under the Arch. My child didn't so much agree with me, but he did prefer the trip to taking a nap.
There's no very close parking to the Arch, and free parking (we're all about free) is ever further, so we had a nice little hike along the riverfront. Not the most scenic of areas, but the boys were sufficiently entertained that they didn't complain about all the walking.
Statue of Lewis & Clark and Clark's dog, Seaman. The river is up a bit.
The concrete boxes are exciting, right? Yeah, I know. Not at all. And yet, the little boys looked in every one and categorized it: "Wet!" or "Not wet!" Every one.
The Arch. Overcast on our way in, bright and sunny as we left.
On their way to a Rocky moment.
The boys were interested in what the robots had to say, but this one caught all of our attention.
They enjoyed the museum, but I think we could have skipped it and just played by the river for an hour or so. Something about jumping away from the waves...
After our hot hike back to the car, we just had to stop for some slushies and ice cream at Dairy Queen.
Summer stats:
Trips to the pool: 2
Museum trips: 1
Fishing: 1
Trips to the park: 1
Give me some Legos or Lincoln logs and I can hang in there a little longer, but I'm not really the fun parent. My husband is much better; he'll spend a lot of the day playing with Junior. Of course, then he stresses because he didn't get much done...and the kid is an attention black hole. Don't think that because you spent two hours playing with him that he's going to want to play on his own for a while!
We definitely differ here. My parents didn't entertain us all day long. We read, or went places with friends, or played with our toys. Whatever. Not that my parents didn't take us places. They did, and our "educational vacations" could be a whole 'nother blog post. At home, though, we were pretty much expected to find our own fun. My mother-in-law, on the other hand, spent a lot of time playing with her kids. She didn't work outside the home, so I'm sure that was part of the difference. The parenting differences have carried over into our parenting styles. I'll spend some time playing, but I also expect him to be able to play on his own. My husband, not so much.
Anyway, that's a long digression on the point that I do enjoy when my kid has company and he plays with them. And play they did, for most of the morning. After lunch, we had a little field trip.
Junior and I just finished reading on of the Magic Tree House books, Twister on Tuesday. It took place during pioneer times, so I thought it would be neat to visit the Museum of Westward Expansion under the Arch. My child didn't so much agree with me, but he did prefer the trip to taking a nap.
There's no very close parking to the Arch, and free parking (we're all about free) is ever further, so we had a nice little hike along the riverfront. Not the most scenic of areas, but the boys were sufficiently entertained that they didn't complain about all the walking.
Statue of Lewis & Clark and Clark's dog, Seaman. The river is up a bit.
The concrete boxes are exciting, right? Yeah, I know. Not at all. And yet, the little boys looked in every one and categorized it: "Wet!" or "Not wet!" Every one.
The Arch. Overcast on our way in, bright and sunny as we left.
On their way to a Rocky moment.
The boys were interested in what the robots had to say, but this one caught all of our attention.
They enjoyed the museum, but I think we could have skipped it and just played by the river for an hour or so. Something about jumping away from the waves...
After our hot hike back to the car, we just had to stop for some slushies and ice cream at Dairy Queen.
Summer stats:
Trips to the pool: 2
Museum trips: 1
Fishing: 1
Trips to the park: 1
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