Friday night was a super, super, super late night for me. I'm not really used to being out late anymore. Laura refers to me as "the old lady." Oh well, I'll take it! I won't deny that I love being in bed at 9 and sleeping till 7 or 8. :)
Yesterday morning I had to wake up at 6:30.... Eeek. After enough hours of sleep to fit on a single hand (which isn't acceptable in my life in order for me to be in a good mood) I set off for Altoona at 7:15 for a long day of babysitting. My uncle and aunt, Nate and Shawna, had an adoption conference that they were attending for the weekend, so yesterday, I got to watch little Keegan.
They adopted Keegan a couple of years ago when he was just a little tyke. He's now 3, and full of spit and vinegar! Keegan an I started our day together at 8:00 AM. He was MORE than excited to go to the swimming pool. So we switched up clothes, put on the suits, and headed for the pool at approximately 8:05. When we got to the pool... we realized it doesn't open until 8:30. I made the suggestion of going back to the room to watch some cartoons until it was open, but NO. That was not an option for him. Instead, he went and found the game room.
Keegan thought he was pretty cool playing "Big Game Hunter"... :) The gun was a tad big, and there were no quarters put into the machine, but he had a good time "shooting" the deer! :)
Finally, when the pool opened up, he was #1 into that water. He even got the whistle blown at him for running!!! I told him he couldn't run or they would kick him out of the pool and he couldn't go back... that put an end to that!
He had an absolute BLAST in the pool.
After about 2 hours at the pool, I decided it was time to move on for the day. After another 30 minutes of trying to convince him it was time to go see the dinosaurs, he finally obliged to leaving. We got back to the room and it was bath time. He was sad his bath-tub toys weren't there, so he substituted a bar of soap instead. He picked it up to was his belly, and it slipped out of his hands. He chased that bar of soap around the tub for 20 minutes until I told him it was time to go see the dinosaurs. I would almost believe that kid was a fish! After getting dressed, we packed up everything from the hotel room, and checked out. We then went and got the car seat from their truck so I could put it in the escape.... Who knew car seats took about 20 minutes to move from one vehicle to another!? That thing was tied down like Fort Knocks. Eventually though, we got it, and off we were to get a snack since he was hungry. I tried talking him into going to get some breakfast food, but nooooo. "I don't like food. I just like snacks." So, 2 ho-ho's and a bottle of bug juice later, we were off to the science museum.
For those of you who haven't heard of the Science Center of Iowa, it was an awesome place to take a sugared up 3 year old for the day!
http://www.sciowa.org/
The Science Center was featuring Sue, the T-Rex, and that was how I convinced Keegan to come with me! He was pretty excited to see the dinosaur. There were so many other activities too. Some of the activities Keegan and I did were:
Keegan really liked the dinosaur. I don't think he was expecting a real dinosaur though. We walked into the room where Sue was on display, and the poor little guy clung to my leg like a leech. He looked at me and said "Whoa.... I'm scared. I don't want it to eat me." ... Crack. Me. Up. So I picked him up and we walked over to where Sue was on display and I explained to him that this was just the dinosaurs bones and the dinosaur was dead. We had a good 15 minute conversation on why the dinosaur was dead and why the bones were there. This is how I explained how they found the bones...
The Science Center had plastic "bones" that resembled Sue's bones. These were then buried in ground up rubber to make it look like dirt. I told Keegan that people, like him, went and dug the bones up out of the dirt, just like he was doing. The kids were all digging and paint brushing off the rubber chips. Keegan played here for about 30 minutes before he got sick of it. :)
After about an hour sitting at the Dinosaur exhibit, we decided to walk around the rest of the building. There were so many activities for kids to do.
There was a space room, where you could go and look at meteors, remote vehicles that were used on the moon, look through telescopes, and we even went and watched a movie on the stars, earth, sun, and moon. Keegan really liked this movie until the sun exploded and he thought he was going to get burned. It was in a miniature I-MAX theatre, so he laid on the floor and stared at the "big tv screen" as he called it. It looked like the stars were flying past our bodies and like we were really in space!
The static ball was on display in the space center. Keegan thought it was pretty cool how the electricity would go to his finger when he touched the ball.
There was also a Build and Test room. You could build paper rockets, stick them on a piece of pipe, and when you pushed the button, pressurized air would push the rocket off the tube and it would fly away. Keegan and I made a rocket and we walked over to the launcher. We counted to ten and pushed the button... and our rocket got stuck in the ceiling of the building. So many people were clapping at Keegan that we wanted to make another one... but then got bored half way through. He also made a "derby" car out of lego's and raced that down a "derby" track with 3 other little boys his age... he didn't win, but he didn't really care! He also got to build a train track and play with trains here!
They also had a huge wall covered in tubes and pipes and baskets where the kids could watch balls zig and zag through the pipes and stuff. Keegan really liked this ball place too. The balls were the same as what are in a ball pit... And he chased them around for over an hour, trying to throw them into the baskets, changing the amount of air that went through the pipe so they would go fast or slow... He loved it!
Around 1:00 I decided it was time to eat. Keegan once again told me that he doesn't like food, only snacks. Still wasn't convinced. I asked him "Hot dog, cheeseburger, or pizza?" and he replied "I don't like any of those." So I asked "Fries or Tater-Tots?" ... again "I don't like any of those." ... argh. I was SO not convinced because I have seen him eat pizza before! And I'm sure he's had hot dogs and cheeseburgers before! So, a hot dog and tater tots it was! He ate about half of his tater tots and then 3 bits of his hot dog and a few chips. Ok! At least he ate something, I figured.
One of the other rooms that they had on display for the time being, and one of the "sessions" we went to watch was Cold Blooded Critters. A guy talked about different critters such as the American Toad, Northern Hognosed Snake, Bull Snakes, and Turtles. Keegan got to pet one of the box turtles! They had a huge room with displays of native Iowa Critters. There was a huge snapping turtle in a tank that Keegan really liked. He also liked the Beaver and the Duck that were stuffed and put on display with a whole bunch of other "swamp" animals like the Muskrat, Blue Crane, Goose, and a few others, that I didn't know! Keegan's favorite part of the display though, were the snakes!
This fat toad was one of the things Keegan liked because he kept hopping around!
Keegan also really liked watching the snakes squirm around in their aquariums too. He even got to see the "Hognosed" snake's nose!
Keegan and I also went to the session on 'Fireworks.' They taught kids that it's NOT ok to play with fire... even though Keegan said "Yes" when they asked the question..... Lol. He learned that fire can burn you really badly. They blew some stuff up, which Keegan really liked, but the loud noise scared him. They took balloons filled with Hydrogen, Helium, and Nitrogen and showed how they burn differently. It was pretty interesting! :)
Around 2:30 I realized that Keegan was beyond ready for a nap. I told him it was time to go and, needless to say, he was NOT ready to go... This was when temper tantrum #1 came out to play. So, I carried him to the car and we drove off. He screamed for the first 5 minutes saying he wanted his ball back... So, off to Target we went. I told him I would get him a ball.
I park at Target, get out, and grab him from his car seat and he is practically sleeping. I carry him in and we find a ball. Then we find a ball and bat. Then a dragon. Then Thomas the Train. Then Angry Birds... and he wanted ALL of that... Well. I told him ONE thing.... and temper tantrum #2 came out to play. So. I grabbed the bat and balls and we went and checked out.
The whole way back to the hotel he was asking to go to the playground to play with the bat at balls. Well, by now it was almost 4:00 and Nate and Shawna were going to be done at 4:30. So, I just told him maybe tomorrow! ... When we got to the hotel, I got him out of the car and headed to the entrance of the hotel. I realized that the little Mr. isn't next to me anymore and turn around to see him DROP to his knee's and start screaming "I WANNA GO TO THE PLAYGROUND!"... Eek. Temper tantrum #3 for the past hour! 4 other parent's were walking past me, chuckling, and the only thing I could think about was "and this isn't even my kid!" Hahaha. So I told him lets go inside and find Mommy and Daddy and then he could ask them to go to the playground. He was ok with that. At this point, I figured Nate and Shawna knew how to handle a tantrum better than I did, so I shoveled that one off onto them! Lol. I wonder if he even mentioned the playground to them?? Lol.
When we got inside the hotel, people were EVERYWHERE, but Keegan wanted to play with his bat and ball. So, I told him he could "golf" with his bat and he could hit the ball nicely. He was ok with this too. Eventually Nathan walked up and Keegan began to throw another hissy fit, but Nate knew exactly what he was doing! :) Thank goodness. Keegan was by far, beyond tired. I told Nate and Shawna, I wouldn't be surprised if he was passed out before West Des Moines...
When I turned my phone on after going to a movie last night, I received a cute text from Shawna. "Roslyn will come see me tomorrow" "I will tell her... her come see me tomorrow." Someone stayed awake the entire way home and is already making plans for you tomorrow!! Thanks again!" And another one later that said "KJ told me that I should go see the Dinosaur and the Fireworks. But I can't see the fireworks till I eat first." ...
Well, needless to say. I think I passed my "toddler" test yesterday. I decided though, I will NOT be adopting a 3 year old any time in the near future. Not until after I get more experience first. I don't know how people do it! I believe that the transition from baby to toddler helps you become more prepared for the "events" of toddler years... Jumping into it... people are nuts! :) That kid wore. me. out. I slept like a rock last night, took about 5 minutes for me to fall asleep! :) I'm glad Keegan had fun! I had a blast, up until the last hour and a half! :)
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