The Kluesner's Came to Town

Well, Drew, Heather, and Alicia win the prize for being our first non-familial visitors from out-of-town. Since the first time Cole met Alicia (when she was just a few weeks old and he was about six months old), he has just adored her. Whenever he sees her blog, he touches the screen and talks about her.









We met up with the Kluesner Fam at the Minnesota Children's Museum on Saturday morning. Despite our best efforts, we were late (go ahead, we know all the jokes!), but this time it really wasn't because of us running late or being lost. Nope, this time it was all about the traffic. We found ourselves following a never-ending detour until, finally, Scott veered off and steered his own path. His internal gps system never fails to amaze me, and on this day, it was definitely up and running. So, we all met up and discovered the benefits of going to the Children's Museum on a non-free day. There were hardly any kids running around, unlike the thousands that, I swear, swarm around the place on those free days. Yay! Less germs! :)



When we got there, Heather found us and led us to the music video room where Alicia was rockin' out. Cole was shy at first, but once we made our way over to the huge kitchen, he found his own groove. While the kids could've stayed there and played happily forever, we managed to lead them to some of the other attractions.






Cole really loved loading these rock/brick thingys, and I was all but too happy, taking loads of photos for the sake of posterity. While Cole was hard at work, Alicia was enjoying the various features of the water area. After the two kids had their fill, we made our way up to the third floor, where they have a ball room that features various arrangements of wooden and plastic tracks that you can roll golf balls on. Balls, balls, balls, and oh my, even more balls fill this room. The kids can play ski ball, watch balls wind up and down a giant ramp, or around and around on a pole. They can even nail each other with balls-as-big-as-your-toddler or, you know, roll them through a maze. Finally, we made it to the quiet 'dream nursery,' but by that point, we were all starving, so we hurried off to find food.



As we wrapped up our meal, we decided it was too gorgeous outside not to do something outdoors to enjoy it. So, while Scott and Drew used Heather's too-cool-for-school i-phone to locate an orchard, Cole and Alicia amused themselves near the Subway stand. Heather took a bunch of photos of them as they played there. It was kinda like a game of tag, sorta like a game of risk, and your usual, giggly, toddler thing, that's just plain silly good.



Our drive to the orchard wound up being long and slow--I swear to all of you, traffic's usually not an issue here in Minnesota. However, if you find yourself moving at inch-worm speed in Minnesota, you know you are in the company of either sports fans or outdoor enthusiasts in the know, so just go with it because the crowd won't steer you wrong. When we finally arrived at the Pine Tree Apple Orchard, we found that, despite it being 3:30 on a Saturday, the place wasn't in any hurry to close--posting daily hours from 9am-7pm. I can't tell you how refreshing that was since so many we've found here close by four. We'll definitely go back to experience the hayrack rides, pony rides, samples, and more. But when you plant four shutterbug parents in a fall setting with two uber cute subjects, well, all of the other stuff has no chance really. So, the four of us happily clicked away as Cole and Alicia explored the trees, leaves, randomly placed ladders, apple crates, and a giant tree stump adorned with pumpkins that made a prefect photo-op, and of course, fields of pumpkins.








After hundreds of shots were taken, we made our way into the shop - there was a line for that too! We made it just as a soft rainshower began to fall. Once inside, we split up and then wound our way back to each other, time and again, oohing and aahing over the scrumptious baked goods and apple samples. Heather and I spotted a sign for apple donuts, only to discover they were out. Luckily, it was only a temporary outage, and a second sign promised fresh donuts by 5:30. So, we settled in line right behind the first two families. I think, all told, we stood in line for about 35 minutes; the families ahead of us waited for forty-five, but it was well worth it when, at 5:30, the bakery men rolled out the giant trays of warm, apple donuts, covered in cinnamon sugar. YUM!







Of course, up 'til now, I've spared you the details of all the impatient customers who found our line and completely converged upon it, without any respect for the pre-laid system. They just pressed and pressed up against us until we thought we were going to pass out. You would've thought we were at a rock concert or, at least, in line for tickets to one! Well, I take that back, those donuts really were rockstars in their own right. Must go back!







Heather picked up some yummy jam, and I got our family favorite (ever since visiting Tanner's Orchard back in '06), apple butter. Cole is beyond picky, and he loved the stuff back then, so I had high hopes for a repeat in his appetite (so far, not so lucky, but I've been enjoying it!).


We wrapped up the experience with a quick snack - I cannot tell you how badly we needed that apple cider - it felt like we'd just run a marathon or something. Seriously, when I snatched my donuts, a woman behind me had to implore her elder family members to 'let the poor girl out.' She said I was going to get trampled. Seriously! Someone ought to write a satire about it. :) The snacks totally hit the spot, but we all agreed, the cinnamon ice cream was a dead ringer for Red Hots. If you like Red Hots then you must try some - if not, considered yourself warned.



Not ready to say goodbye to our good friends, we asked the Kluesner's over to our place for dinner. The kids had a blast playing together, and Alicia drew a very colorful picture for us. We're so glad that we got to spend the day with you guys! Hope you come back sooner than two year's time; though, we'll totally understand if Mickey and the gang win out first!

August '08 Visit to Quad-Cities

Ideally I would be posting about the Kluesner's visit this past weekend. However, I still haven't posted about many other things and so today I'm going to post a bit about our August trip to the Quad-Cities. We went for my 15th high school reunion and managed to see many family members in between events. We had not been back to the Quad-Cities since Christmas '06 so you can imagine how exciting it was for Cole to see everyone again.

Just as when we still lived in Illinois, Cole loved hanging out at his Great-Grandma Dodie's house.

The morning of the reunion we were able to meet up at Great-Grandma's house with Cole's second cousins (Gaige, Seamus, and Carter). It was a fantastic time for all four boys - they watered plants, played with cars, and of course tolerated the never-ending flash from the familial click squad.

After the reunion, we met up with Scott's mom and then headed over to my mom's house for a homemade meal. The most memorable moment occurred when Cole realized that he had three grandma's sitting across from him at the table. His great-grandma, his maternal grandma, and his paternal grandma. It was clear to see how cool he thought that was by the huge grin on his face as he pointed to each of them and then himself again and again. By the end of the night he had Grandma, Grandma, and GrandmaGrandma (so great you gotta say it twice) down pat!

On our last day in town we spent the morning with Grandma Jane at the John Deere Pavilion exploring all the tractors, gizmos, gadgets, and what have you. We also had fun goofing off in the gift shop. There are so many pics from the John Deere Pavilion we'll have to share them separately. Just follow this link for the slideshow. http://s453.photobucket.com/albums/qq257/ColesMama_photos/JohnDeereFun/?albumview=slideshow

Needless to say, Cole loved being able to explore so many tractors inside and out!

From there we met up at Great Uncle Ed and Aunt Eileen's new place. Great Aunt Eileen had saved a balloon from her birthday for Cole - she had an inkling that he might be a fan of balloons - and he is! Cole's loved balloons since his very first Halloween when a lady at Jewel gave him a pumpkin shaped one. Cole had a great time playing with his balloon (check out the monkey toes action!) while the adults all caught up. Scott and Great Uncle Ed found they have some common summertime memories from growing up in the region. Very cool. It was great to see Great Uncle Ed and Aunt Eileen again!

Two's Company

Today was Cole's first day of school. Yay! He's in a class called Two's Company, and it's with other kids who are in the Early Intervention program. In an odd twist, he's in class with two other little boys and both boys are the sons of his first two speech therapists. Yep, that means he's got four of his teachers in class! I was a bit nervous about how he'd do and whether or not he'd find that confusing, since he's only had his two new teachers for two weeks now, but he did great. There was one little hitch with transportation, however. We'd gotten Cole up at the crack of dawn (well, it felt like it was the crack of dawn to us) in order to meet our bus at 8:23a.m. Cole was very excited as we waited outside in the frigid morning air he kept exclaiming, "I hear bus!" again and again. Sadly, most of those times, the motor he heard belonged to a city worker, and the one bus that did come up our street wasn't ours. Cole was very bummed out when he realized the bus was not coming, but luckily, Daddy hadn't left for work, which opened the door for us to take the car. Since then, we've been promised a free cab ride if the bus stands us up again, but hopefully, it won't come to that.

As for class itself - fantastic. Being the first day and all, most the kids kept to themselves and their own parent, but the room was full of boys, which will be great for Cole. All last year, every outing left him in the vast minority, but since this past summer, the roles have changed, and we're finding more and more boys for him to play with.

When we first arrived at his school, I see two things immediately: The first being a welcome sign that states the classroom is nut and peanut-free (Yay! Must remember to thank his teachers for that!), and the second thing to catch our attention are the lockers. Each child is assigned a locker, and on it, there's a photo of them so that they know which locker is theirs. When you open the locker, a smaller version of the same photo is inside, with velcro on the back for use in the classroom. When you enter the classroom, there you will see a little red schoolhouse with velcro spaces for the children to go up and place their photo on, engabling all the other kids to see which of their friends have arrived. Later on, the photo makes two more appearances. Once at snacktime, in the form of a photo placemat, so each child knows their place, and the final appearance is during circle time, when the photo is used on a slightly padded homemade mat - again, so they know where to sit.

At the beginning of class, the kids are encouraged to move from area to area, discovering all the special items their teachers have set out for them. The settings change month-to-month. The first play area that you see in the classroom is the kitchen, so of course, that's where Cole spent most of the free play-time. The area next to the kitchen is full of puzzles and a barn, complete with your usual barn animal fare. Further on into the room, there is an art table, where on the first day, the kids painted with apple halves - very cool. Just past that was the discovery table featuring water, buckets, and apples. This was very popular with the all the kids as well. The final area features an art easel (nearly identical to the one Scott made for Cole!), a reading nook, and of course, the snack table, which doubles as a second activity table, and on the first day, offered the kids fresh homemade playdough to fool around with.

It took me, and all of the teaching staff, but we did manage to get Cole out of the kitchen. Once he left it behind, he was very interested in the sensory table and the playdough. He didn't have much time at either and just caught sight of the art easel when they turned off the lights and told the kids to put their hands in a circle above their heads, stop, and listen - each time there's a transition, that's the routine. I, apparently, missed that bit in the parental orientation packet, so Cole and I were both sitting there looking at the others like they were space aliens. Oh well. Once the kids move on to circle time, a bongo drum is passed from child to child while the whole class sings "The Name Song." If your name is being sung, you get to pound on the drum to the beat while the rest of the class taps along on their laps. Cole really liked the song (we sung it all the way home), but he was still feeling a bit shy, so I got to pound on the drum for him--like they had to twist my arm, right? After circle time, the class makes its way over to the snack table, where their other teacher has laid out the photo placemats, a cup and a damp washcloth at each setting. Cole was positioned in the first chair, but tried very hard to sit at Ava's place, located next to him - it was cute. Before the children are allowed to eat, they have to first wipe their hands clean with the washcloth and then say, "I would like some juice please," I wish all of you could've seen Cole's face when he heard that AND when he heard other kids actually doing so.
(He's used to going into the fridge and grabbing his own beverage of choice and then asking one of us for help in getting a cup.) Cole never gave them the magic sentence, but he did wait patiently until they came to him, and then, he held his cup up politely. When the snack was passed around, each child was encouraged to ask for it by name (crackers), but Cole didn't really want the crackers, so he just kept drinking the juice. Finally, when one of his teachers offered him some, he obligingly took two, but still didn't eat them right away. He was too busy inhaling the juice with this frantic--downright competitive--look in his eyes. He was determined to get a second glass of juice before all the other kids drank it all. Ha! I seriously felt like I was watching some timed all-you-can-drink contest. He made it under the wire and got that second glass of juice though, so all's well. After snack time, the kids are given the choice of either doing puzzles or reading with their parent. Cole chose the books but had a hard time settling into one. He would just flip through each of the pages, jump up to put that one away, and sit back down with another. I barely read three words before he was off to the next one. Again, I felt the need for a stopwatch. A few minutes later, the lights turned off again, and we heard the transition song letting us know it was now time to go outside and play. Once Cole heard that, he really sparked to life--he began chatting away and ran to his locker. He just could not get outside fast enough. The playground was still wet from the previous day's rainstorm, and it took only seconds for his entire backside to be caked with damp sand. His frontside was all wet as well, but he had a very good time.

Here's the photo that greets Cole each Wed. now at school