I took the kids to the mall this evening since we didn't have anything to do here in Sioux Falls. The weather was supposed to turn bad, so we decided to head out and get some dinner before it started to rain. Of course the kids wanted to play first at the germ infested play area. That lasted about 5 minutes until Kaitlyn slipped and fell backwards off of some stairs and James had to go potty. Long story short, after getting shoes on, James didn't have to go potty anymore, and Kaitlyn was back to running around. Doh. Oh well, I thought, this would be a great time to get hands washed and head back to the food court.
The kids enjoyed a ride on the miniature carousel for a WHOLE dollar (geez). They had a blast though, and it actually lasted a while, to my surprise. Then, it was off to the DQ.
I love Dairy Queen, but really only for their ice cream. I did notice though, that they had a kid's meal for around $3.00, which included a hot dog, drink, applesauce, a toy, AND a free kid's ice cream. Really? $3.00? Wow. Must be some quality hot dogs... sigh.
The kids and I sat down to eat... me my bbq beef burger and them their hot dogs, and they weren't the least bit interested in the hot dogs. Both kids ate their applesauce first, and while they did that, I cut their hot dogs in half for them. I looked in the center of the hot dog, and honestly, I could NOT tell if they were cooked all the way through. SICK! I tried a bite of Kaitlyn's and still wasn't sold, but she gobbled up a few bites and seemed happy with it. James had one bite, and after the past history of his touchy stomach, I decided to not push it. So basically, for dinner, they had applesauce, and ice cream. Nathan, I've lost it, haven't I?
The best, most awesome part of the night was me showing James the automatic trash door on the garbage cans in the food court. I told him, "James, watch this!" and I waved my hand in front of the door, and voila! It opened! You should have seen the look on his face! For the next five minutes while we waited for Kaitlyn to eat her ice cream, James put one thing after another into the trash just so he could wave his hand in front of the door to open it. Every time, he giggled. One older gentleman, who had just finished his ice cream, came over to the trash to throw away his cup. James quickly waved his hands in front of the door to open it for him and then rushed off to the side to get out of the man's way. The man looked at James and said, "Why thank you!" and James bent his elbow, putting his hand up to his waist, slowly bowed forward and said, "With pleasure!" LOL! Where does this kid come up with this stuff???
Pretty soon the trash can door stopped responding. I told James that it must be because it was tired. As we headed out through the rest of the food court to the parking lot, James waved in front of every trash can door he could find. When it opened, he said, "Nope! This one's not tired!" :)
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Back to Sioux Falls, can't we just go HOME?
On the 5th, we drove back to Sioux Falls. My parents, the kids and I made the trip over nap time again, but late nap time. Before we headed out of town, we stopped at Auntie Lois' house to see it. Mom and Gini liked looking through the house and through some family photo albums. It seems I may have another scanning project on my hands someday. :) It was fun to see Maggie and Justin, Kari and Matt again too. I didn't get to see them much, which I chalk up to having the kids with me.
The kids fell asleep immediately in the car and slept the whole way again, I even nodded off for a while which was nice but uncomfortable. Ha. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, as these past few days have been. I seem to be exhausted and really really really ready to go home. My patience has run thin, and I basically have none left. When we said bye to Grandma and Papa today (we dropped them off at the airport for their flight to Utah) and I used all my energy not to cry in the car on the way back to the hotel. James was chanting, "Grandma! Grandma!" and I was just about bawling. Pure exhaustion, I think.
The best part about being in Sioux Falls again is the pool at this hotel. We're staying at the Clubhouse hotel on Loise. It has a pool, but it's only 3 feet deep in the deepest part. Why is it so great then? SLIDES! There is one huge slide for kids that are at least 48" tall (damn them!), and then a little froggy slide for the little ones (they climb up and into the back of the frog's mouth, and then slide down the tongue- very cute). The kids absolutely LOVED it! The slide has water pumped up to the top of it to keep it wet so they slide down incredibly fast. Kaitlyn loves the pool also because she could walk from the slide to the shallowest end and get out all by herself. The downfall is that the floor in the pool area is extremely slippery (something Jack Miller apparently found out the hard way, twice). I had to lay towels down on the floor just for my kids to be able to make it from the pool's edge to the slide's ladder. Seems like they need some mats on the floor! James and Kaitlyn had so much fun in the pool- it's definitely one of the better memories of this trip.
James has found the Light Saber on my phone. It's a stupid app that I downloaded secretly one day to play fight with Nathan with our phones. James thinks it's a game, which it's not, but since he can change the light saber color by moving the sliders, it's all a game to him. When you swing the phone back and forth it makes the light saber noises, and is all accompanied by Star Wars music. I can see why a 4 year old would like this app, but really? A total obsession? Yes, apparently it is for James. He asks to use my phone about 20 times a day. I tell him no most of the time, telling him that I need my phone to make calls, receive calls, etc. but that doesn't seem to sink in to his brain. I'm contemplating getting him a Nintendo DS, or some type of gaming system that has educational games on it for him to play. We'll see. For now though, maybe the light saber app may mysteriously disappear. Ha. One thing that it has also brought out in James is ATTITUDE. An attitude that I despise... bossiness. He told me today, "Mom, you call Dad and then you give that phone RIGHT back to me!"
"EXCUSE ME??? You don't talk to me like that James."
So this brings me to mentioning that Kaitlyn is mimicking me more and more. After this incident with telling James how NOT to talk to Mommy, she started in on him too. She gets this low raspy voice that is apparently her "mommy" voice. "MY turn!" she'll grumble. Or something like, "Do NOT do that!" It's funny, but it also really irritates me. Another thing that irritates me? ME! I let it slip today that something (or someone) was driving me crazy, and James says (while watching Cars on my computer and constantly being interrupted by Kaitlyn's big head in the way), "She's driving me crazy!" Ugh. Sigh. I guess one can never be the perfect parent... and with that, I end this blog... hopefully to wake tomorrow with a better attitude and a replenishment on my patience level. Man I wish I had some BEER. Ha.
The kids fell asleep immediately in the car and slept the whole way again, I even nodded off for a while which was nice but uncomfortable. Ha. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, as these past few days have been. I seem to be exhausted and really really really ready to go home. My patience has run thin, and I basically have none left. When we said bye to Grandma and Papa today (we dropped them off at the airport for their flight to Utah) and I used all my energy not to cry in the car on the way back to the hotel. James was chanting, "Grandma! Grandma!" and I was just about bawling. Pure exhaustion, I think.
The best part about being in Sioux Falls again is the pool at this hotel. We're staying at the Clubhouse hotel on Loise. It has a pool, but it's only 3 feet deep in the deepest part. Why is it so great then? SLIDES! There is one huge slide for kids that are at least 48" tall (damn them!), and then a little froggy slide for the little ones (they climb up and into the back of the frog's mouth, and then slide down the tongue- very cute). The kids absolutely LOVED it! The slide has water pumped up to the top of it to keep it wet so they slide down incredibly fast. Kaitlyn loves the pool also because she could walk from the slide to the shallowest end and get out all by herself. The downfall is that the floor in the pool area is extremely slippery (something Jack Miller apparently found out the hard way, twice). I had to lay towels down on the floor just for my kids to be able to make it from the pool's edge to the slide's ladder. Seems like they need some mats on the floor! James and Kaitlyn had so much fun in the pool- it's definitely one of the better memories of this trip.
James has found the Light Saber on my phone. It's a stupid app that I downloaded secretly one day to play fight with Nathan with our phones. James thinks it's a game, which it's not, but since he can change the light saber color by moving the sliders, it's all a game to him. When you swing the phone back and forth it makes the light saber noises, and is all accompanied by Star Wars music. I can see why a 4 year old would like this app, but really? A total obsession? Yes, apparently it is for James. He asks to use my phone about 20 times a day. I tell him no most of the time, telling him that I need my phone to make calls, receive calls, etc. but that doesn't seem to sink in to his brain. I'm contemplating getting him a Nintendo DS, or some type of gaming system that has educational games on it for him to play. We'll see. For now though, maybe the light saber app may mysteriously disappear. Ha. One thing that it has also brought out in James is ATTITUDE. An attitude that I despise... bossiness. He told me today, "Mom, you call Dad and then you give that phone RIGHT back to me!"
"EXCUSE ME??? You don't talk to me like that James."
So this brings me to mentioning that Kaitlyn is mimicking me more and more. After this incident with telling James how NOT to talk to Mommy, she started in on him too. She gets this low raspy voice that is apparently her "mommy" voice. "MY turn!" she'll grumble. Or something like, "Do NOT do that!" It's funny, but it also really irritates me. Another thing that irritates me? ME! I let it slip today that something (or someone) was driving me crazy, and James says (while watching Cars on my computer and constantly being interrupted by Kaitlyn's big head in the way), "She's driving me crazy!" Ugh. Sigh. I guess one can never be the perfect parent... and with that, I end this blog... hopefully to wake tomorrow with a better attitude and a replenishment on my patience level. Man I wish I had some BEER. Ha.
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