Day 913 - Name or No?

When a child reaches adolescence, I hear there are a couple of things that are really important for them to know. Number one is that you need to know who your real friends are. Don't get caught trying to fit in with the popular crowd and lose the important people to you in the process. Number two is knowing when to say no. Lucky for Bethany and me, Ethan is already working hard on figuring out both of these things.

Ethan has reached that stage of life where he is rapidly learning new things each and every day. Nowhere is that more evident than in the case of his vocabulary. Not a day goes by where he doesn't learn a new word. Some recent new words for Ethan include favorites such as "cookie", "block", and "baby". However, rather than focusing exclusively on new words all of the time, Ethan still takes time to remind himself who his true friends are. For an example, look no further than our times around the dinner table as a family.

Imagine the four of us, if you will, sitting around our dinner table together. It may be lunch time but I would prefer if you would think of it as dinner time. Also, can you imagine us eating fajitas too? I think that will help. Anyway, one of the first things that happens each night when we sit down for dinner is that Ethan will begin looking from one side of the table to the other. Then, he will begin to point at each of us individually and excitedly proclaim our name.

**point** "Ellie!"  

**point** "Mommy!"

**point** "Daddy!"

Of course, that's not the only time Ethan does that little trick during the day. It happens at random intervals throughout the day. My favorite though has to be at bedtime. As I'm tucking in, he'll inevitably spring up in bed saying "Mama?", "Ellie?", or "Baby". In case you're confused why he's saying "Baby", it's a fun story. You see, Ethan has decided that Ellie's baby doll is in fact a real member of our family. As a result, if he doesn't tell it good night, then he gets pretty upset and displays his unhappiness through a increasingly louder "No!".  It's both cute and a little insane.

Speaking of that "No!", it doesn't just come out at nights. It is now a constant part of our lives. Any moment when Bethany or I might ask Ethan to do something is generally met by a resounding "No!". It first will begin as a sad/depressed little "No." From there, it will grow in intensity until he is actually screaming it at the top of his lungs. Don't worry though, it really never reaches that point unless it is bedtime.

So, as you can see, it's just like I said in my cold open. Despite his young age, Ethan is in fact striving to remember who his friends are each and every day. Not only that, but he is already learning to say "No" to what he believes is the appropriate time. Truthfully though, I'm not entirely certain it is the appropriate time. However, that's probably a discussion for another time. #DaddyWrite

 

Day 908 - The One Where Ethan Had No Shoes 2: The One Where Ethan Had Shoes!

 "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

I know that everyone recognizes that old saying but I would wager that very few actually know where the saying originates from. I'll give you a hint: it's not Ben Franklin. It's also not Thomas Edison. Believe it or not, it's not even Matthew McConaughey. It was first coined by an educator named Thomas Palmer in his book, 'Teacher's Manual'.

Interesting, huh? Actually, it's really not all that fascinating but it gave me a nice cold open for this blog. It's also applicable for the subject matter at hand which is about Ethan's and my second attempt at a trip to Crown Center this week. Let's flash back to Thursday.

After dropping Ellie off at preschool, just as we did on Tuesday, Ethan and I pointed the Traverse south towards Crown Center and drove towards downtown Kansas City. However, there was one distinct difference between Tuesday and Thursday: Ethan had shoes! **insert "Hallelujah" chorus here**

 

Now, there were several other things that I learned after our fruitless trip on Tuesday. This time, I knew for a fact that Crown Center Customer Service would not open until right at 11:00 am. Never fear though as the presence of Ethan's shoes meant that a trip to Union Station to see the model train display was in the cards. First though, there was one more unforeseen hurdle the two of us would have to overcome.

As we wandered through Crown Center, I was feeling pretty good about our chances for a good morning. Those happy feelings persisted as I watched Ethan happily gaze upon the waterfall located in the hotel that adjoins Crown Center. As we walked toward The Link which would connect us to Union Station, I knew nothing could stop us. Well, nothing except a big sign stating that The Link was closed as a result of COVID. What, seriously? Come on, now! 

With our preferred route closed, we instead had to wind back through the hotel until we could locate a set of stairs. From there, we had to head down that set of stairs, through the lobby, and out the big, spinning doors until we found ourselves outside. From there, Union Station was a mere two traffic lights/pedestrian crossings away. That doesn't seem all that bad but just know that it feels a little worse than it probably is when one has a twenty--three pound toddler in their arms with the temperatures in the high 70s.

After arriving at Union Station, we slowly made our way through the Great Hall until we entered the model train display. Though Ethan was a little cautious at first, it didn't take long before he was running from train to train, happily yelling in excitement. The best part though was when he happened to find a model train with an adjoining stockyards full of cattle. It was all I could do to pull him away from that display and we even had to make multiple trips back.

 

After we spent about an hour at Union Station, which included multiple trips to the model train display and a trip outside to the elevated bridge over the train yards, it was time for us to return to Crown Center. Therefore, we wandered back along our route until we were back outside Customer Service only to find that they were not yet open. You see, 11:00 means 11:00, not 10:45. Lucky for me, Ethan had his own ideas of how to kill 15 minutes. 

First, he wandered to Chip's Chocolate Factory where he peered through the windows, watching as a man (maybe Chip?) monotonously stirred chocolate in an enormous pot. It didn't take long for him to burn out on that. It was then, though, that Ethan noticed the escalator.

He happily ran to it before pausing when he noticed the stairs were moving. With that, Ethan reached up and grasped my hand, holding on tight as we stepped onto the escalator and rode from the second floor up to the third floor. Upon arriving on the third floor, he sprinted to the down escalator, grabbed my hand again and headed back down to the second floor. After we arrived on the second floor, it wasn't long until he was back at the escalator. All together, we probably rode the escalator about seven times each way.

Finally, mercifully, our trip on the escalator could end as I looked over and saw that Customer Service had finally opened. We wandered over the window and received the art supplies that we had been waiting for since Tuesday. Then, I grabbed Ethan up in my arms (so we could avoid the escalator) and headed out in the parking garage for our trip home.

Oh, one more thing that constitutes a win on this trip. I GOT MY PARKING VALIDATED. Dare I say, it made me feel so...validated. Sorry, that was absolute horrible. #DaddyWrite

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Ethan's discovery of this enormous ice cream cone. Alas it was pretty depressing for me to have to break the news to him that it wasn't real.

Day 906 - The One Where Ethan Had No Shoes

Today was one of those great "Dad Fail" days in a long sad history of "Dad Fails". However, I did learn a few important lessons as a result of my complete ineptitude. So there's that...

 

With Ellie heading back to school today after four fun-filled days off, I decided that Ethan and I should go have a little adventure. Also, by four fun-filled days off, I mean FOUR fun-filled days. She jam-packed a trip to the Red Barn Farm on Friday, Family pictures and a grocery shopping excursion on Saturday, church and a "date" with Mommy on Sunday, and a trip to the Weston Orchard with her cousins on Monday into those four days. Crazy busy, right? Anyway, I think she was probably more than happy to get back into the routine of school today after that weekend of hers.

Somewhat ironically, Ethan's and my morning out revolved somewhat around Ellie. After dropping her off, we continued on south towards downtown KC and Crown Center. Our mission? To obtain a free bag of craft supplies from Crown Center Customer Service for Ellie so that she could craft to her little heart's desire. It wasn't all about Ellie though as I had grand plans to take Ethan to Union Station. After all, I figured the little man would love to see some model trains. Our first stop though would be the Customer Service office.

Upon our arrival at Crown Center, the first thing I had to do was rouse poor Ethan from his cozy slumber in his car seat. Lately, we've been striving hard to eliminate his morning nap at all costs. Even a short thirty minute nap can have disastrous effects on his sleep that night. Fortunately, his car nap was only about ten minutes in length, if that. After waking Ethan, I stumbled across my first issue: his shoes were nowhere to be found!

 

While I grabbed Ethan's diaper bag before leaving home today, I somehow missing bringing his shoes along for the trip. I think there were several reasons for that error though. The main being that getting Ellie out the door for school with Ethan in tow can sometimes be difficult as I'm focused on other things. Since I didn't see Ethan's shoes before leaving, I simply assumed they were still in the car from our trip to Weston Orchard yesterday. WRONG!

Unfortunately, that mistake had consequences as it meant our trip to Union Station was off. After all, there's no way Ethan would allow me to carry him around all morning (nor would I want to). Also, him running around in just his socks may be frowned upon so we had to call that part of the trip a bust. It's ok though because we had crafts to get. Or so I thought...

As we headed into Crown Center, the first thing we had to do was find a map of the mall since I had no idea where Customer Service was. After locating our destination, we headed up the escalator and turned the corner only to find a still-closed office. With no hours listed, I had to resort to a quick online search to find out when it opened only to find "Customer Service opens when stores open for business for the day." Ok, that's clear, right? The next question was when do other stores open for the day. Believe it or not, this was a relatively difficult question to answer.

In an attempt to answer our quandary, I, with Ethan still in my arms, set out on a stroll around Crown Center to find either a store that was open or one that at least placed their hours of business on display in the window. At first glance, the chocolate store and Function Junction failed to provide the answers we sought. Therefore, we headed up the escalator to the Halls floor to see what we could find. There, we were met by a series of gates denying us entry to the store but unaccompanied by hours of business. We headed back downstairs and finally by a children's clothing shop that cared enough to list their hours of business which began at 11. With Ethan lacking shoes however, it was unlikely that we could find a way to kill an hour. So with that, we loaded up in the Traverse and headed home, sad and defeated.

Actually, as I ruminate on the experience for a brief moment, I realize it wasn't all bad. After all, we weren't in the Crown Center complex long enough to be charged for parking even though I couldn't find a soul to validate. I guess I can consider that a win, right? #DaddyWrite 

Day 904 - One Day in Omaha (OK, maybe just a little more than that)

 

Whenever a family goes on a trip, there is but one important rule. Thy must consume tasty tacos. Actually, that's not the one rule (even though it is very important). The one rule is that it needs to be fun for the kids. Fortunately for Ellie and Ethan, our quick little family vacation to Omaha last week was just that.

As most could guess, the pandemic has made vacation travel a little more difficult than in years past. The last thing anyone wants to do right now is get on an airplane to travel to a jam-packed tourist destination. Why do that when you can instead travel a couple of hours north on I-29 to Omaha, NE and check out the Henry Doorly Zoo (which has over 2 million visitors every year).

While we could definitely do a trip to Omaha and back in one day, we decided to make it more of a special experience. For one thing, our friend, Emily, would be joining us for this trip. We met her a couple of years ago while leading our college life group. Since then, she and Bethany have been close friends. For the record, Ellie also completely adores her! Rather than stay in a hotel on this trip, we instead found an awesome Airbnb with two bedrooms less than five minutes away from the zoo.

We left around for Omaha last Thursday around 12:30 when Emily got off work and made it to Omaha around 3:00. While it was a fairly uneventful drive, there was one thing of note. You see, like any one-year-old ever, Ethan tends to get really bored whenever he's locked into his car seat for long periods of time. When he gets bored, it's only a matter of time until he gets upset. When he gets upset, there's only one thing that can calm him down: listening to Cocomelon's version of "Wheels on the Bus" over and over and over again. As you can probably guess, that's exactly what we had to do. It sends a shudder down my spine all over again just thinking about hearing that song over and over and over.

After checking into our Airbnb, the five of us took some time to relax before heading to the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge. Bob the Bridge as it likes to be called (not kidding) stretches across the Missouri River connecting Nebraska and Iowa. It's actually a pretty cool experience to walk across it since at one particular point, you can find yourself straddling the line between Nebraska and Iowa. After finishing our walk across the bridge, we headed back to our Airbnb for the night, stopping to pick up some authentic street tacos from a food truck along the way. My mouth is seriously watering just thinking about them.

The next day, after waking up around 7:00, I wandered a block over to a local bakery to buy donuts for our breakfast. When I returned "home", I found Ellie and Emily in the midst of their own little spa day as Emily was painting an excited Ellie's toenails bright blue. After consuming our donuts and preparing our lunches for the day, we loaded up around 9:00 and headed to the zoo.

 

After arriving, the very first thing we did was head to check out the giraffes and elephants followed shortly thereafter by heading into the African Grasslands exhibit. There wasn't a ton of excitement there within until we reached the brand new lion exhibit. That's where Ethan began to get really excited. From his comfy perch in a hiking carrier on my back, he began pointing at the lions while enthusiastically saying "Cat!".

From there, we wandered through the Asian Highlands exhibits (home to another "Cat" sighting in a tiger) and into the Gorilla Valley. The Gorilla Valley was pretty cool. That was especially true due to the presence of a baby gorilla that made its home there. In fact, both Ellie and Ethan were absolutely transfixed as they watched the baby alternate between snuggling with its mother and playing with anything and everything.

Our next stop was honestly the highlight of the zoo trip for me as we headed to the new Sea Lion Pavilion. While I've seen sea lions at the zoo before, I've never seen them like this. For starters, the entire attraction is made to resemble a sea lion's home environment. The most impressive part was when we wandered into an underwater viewing area and watched as the sea lions deftly flew through the water next to the glass time and time again. As for the kids, Ellie absolutely loved it which was proven by the fact that we could barely pull her away from the glass. Ethan probably would have loved it but unfortunately he had fallen asleep in his carrier on my back.

After a quick lunch break, we then headed to the Desert Dome, Aquarium, and the Jungle before calling it a day five hours after we began. After loading up in the car, we made a quick sojourn to a nearby ice cream place for some frozen treats before resuming our trip home and bringing an end to a great little vacation.

There is one thing that needs to be said though. I'm already craving some more of those authentic street tacos. I've already broached the topic with my wife of making a trip to Omaha for some more this weekend. Sadly, she is not in favor of that idea. #DaddyWrite

Day 896 - Five Days of Preschool: A Recap

 Today marked Ellie's fifth day of preschool.

The last time I blogged, I wrote about some nervous feelings on my end about having my little girl head to preschool. For the record, those feelings were not aided at all by the whole shoe-licking incident (**sigh**). However, with "two weeks" in the book, I can definitely say that things are going well. Ethan may or may not agree though.

In case you're interested in knowing, Ellie is at preschool for the hours of 9:30 to 11:45 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday each week. I drop her off each day around 9:00 and pick her up at 11:45. Those time frames aren't anything too crazy and we thought it would give her a chance to test the waters with school and not get too nervous or anything. Honestly, things are going better than expected.

Each morning when we get in the drop-off line at Little Lambs, Ellie gets progressively more excited until our turn to drop off comes. Then she's out of the car like a bullet, barely even stopping to say goodbye. As for a hug? Ha, like that's going to happen when school's "a-callin'." When we return to pick her up, Ellie's generally excited to see Ethan and me. However, it may just be because she wants to tell us every last detail of what happened in school that day.

Thus far, Ellie has been working on the months of the year, days of the week, some letters, and sight words. We'll also hear plenty about whichever boy she decided to flirt with on the day. For the record, she doesn't have choice other than to play around with boys since there's only one other girl in her class. Outside of a small punching incident where Ellie and some boys picked on another little boy, things seem to be going quite well. Once again though, Ethan might disagree with that assessment.

While the thought of Ellie starting preschool initially caused me some distress, there was one thing that excited me about it. I was looking extremely forward to having regular periods of 1:1 time with my son. We've spent plenty of time together throughout his life but there's something special about those 1:1 times. In fact, I already had grand ideas for how to spend those hours each day. Park trips, puzzle time, reading books, maybe even a trip to the trampoline park. Anything is on the table. 

 

For Ethan though, there was one thing that bothered him about Ellie being away and that was Ellie being away! On her first day of school, the second she hopped out of the car, Ethan began crying and didn't stop until he finally exhausted himself and passed out from all of his crying. Initially, I figured that would be a one-time reaction. However, it is now a traditional part of dropping Ellie off at school. The only difference is that it happens the moment we pull into the school's parking lot, persists through her leaving the car, and mercifully ends when we get home or he falls asleep in the car, whichever comes first.

Honestly, it is pretty cute seeing the love that my kids have for each other at work.  Obviously, Ethan has his somewhat depressing reaction. Meanwhile, Ellie's reaction is sweet as well. One of the final things she does before heading inside the building with her teacher is to tell her brother "Goodbye."

Now, if they can just keep that kind of love for each on into their teenage years, I'll feel pretty good about this whole parenting thing. #DaddyWrite

Day 889 - The End of an Era aka The Sandal-licking Fiasco

Dear readers,

I regret to inform you that today marks the end of an era. Today was Ellie's last day before starting preschool. 

 

I realize that shouldn't actually sound so solemn and mournful. Instead, it really should be cause for celebration since a lot of cool things will come out of it. Ellie's going to make new friends and learn a lot of new things. For one thing, she's super excited to learn to write her real name. While she's long been able to write "Ellie", "Eleanor" has been a little more difficult to grasp. She's also pretty excited about getting to do different science experiments and art projects.

Despite her palpable excitement, there's also some serious trepidation on her part. That trepidation was definitely on display as the family loaded up this afternoon to go meet Ellie's new teachers at Little Lambs Preschool.

It was important to all of us that Bethany get to be a part of meeting Ellie's teachers today. Therefore, she scheduled her meetings and responsibilities around leaving the office (home) for 30 minutes over the 2:00 hour. Of course, Ethan didn't really have a choice other than to tag along for this very unusual experience.

I realize "unusual" really isn't the kind of phrase a person would normally use to describe something as mundane as meeting your child's teachers. However, there were several things that made this an experience to remember. For one thing, this was a drive-through event. When we arrived at the school, we joined a line of cars outside the front door and waited patiently.

After a few minutes of waiting, our turn had finally arrived.. The first thing we did was pass two Wal-Mart sacks of school supplies through the windows into the waiting arms of the teachers.  Then, we rolled down the back window for Ellie to meet Ms. Anna and Ms. Molly. While we expected Ellie to be her normal exuberant self, she was anything but. First of all, she was mumbling and basically refusing to make eye contact with her teachers. However, that was far from the strangest thing she did.

As her teachers continued to interact with both Ellie and Ethan in the back seat, Ellie then did something that we have never seen her do before. She carefully lifted up her leg so that her foot was right in front of her mouth and proceeded to lick the sole of her sandal. Allow me to say that again. She LICKED the SOLE of her SANDAL. Feel free to join me in saying "EWWWWWWWWWWW." Seriously, I don't even want to think about the germs on the bottom of that particular piece of footwear. Also, what a first impression to make with your preschool teachers, am I right?

 

Moving on from the sandal-licking escapade for a moment, I want to be real for a moment. It's actually kind of a sobering thought to realize that after four-plus years of spending almost every single day with Ellie, she's getting ready to head to preschool. Yes, it's only two and a half hours a day, three times a week, but it's still kind of weird.

I know she's going to learn a lot, make a ton of new friends, and have so much fun. However, that doesn't stop me from thinking about all the times I've gotten irritated with her or selfishly didn't spend time with her. I just can find solace in the knowledge that there are still plenty of good times ahead for the two of us before I inevitably embarrass her to death as a teenager and isn't that all that I can really ask for? #DaddyWrite