A Weekend in Wichita

Two weekends ago while the daddies had to work, the mommies got to play. Thank you dears! We missed you, but had a truly delightful time. We met my best friend in Wichita. It was four kids, one hotel room, a whole lot of socks, immeasurable peanut butter, and a lot of great adventures. Wichita is really great, I am always surprised by just how much there is to do there. It has big city feel and small town charm.

We started out on day one at the zoo. We were told it was spring break but it was blissfully quiet and we probably passed less than 100 people the whole day. It was moderately cold, so I guess that helped. Here the littlest "whos" chased ducks, kissed goats, and looked for peacocks. Connor was bold enough, and cute enough, that when he asked if he could help the zookeeper feed the the barn animals he willingly said yes. It was pretty funny watching him try to throw alfalfa chunks that were nearly as tall as he was. There was lots of rock climbing, lion watching, Masi imitating. One particularly obtuse goose frolicked in the grass in the lion's cage and we were hopeful that the lioness would have five minutes of wildness coupled with delicious dinner, but, alas, her partner was too uninterested and her instincts too domesticated.

 

There were nights of star lights on the ceiling (which apparently is the most revolutionary toy ever if you didn't know) and mornings of little girls in snuggly jammies and pig tails. There was bed bouncing, naps (thank heavens!) and new Dr. Seuss.  There was hand holding and lots of laughing.

We loved driving down Douglas street and looking at all the charming statues. The day it was raining, some funny person had adorned the barefoot man statue reading a newspaper with some rain boots; which amusingly later disappeared. Exploration place gets our whole hearted endorsement as one fantastic kids museum. Here the girls saw mascots for the first time and Cali was both enthralled and completely apprehensive. She chased Scooby all over the museum, but wasn't quite sure if she should shake his hand; all the kids had fun playing tag and hide and seek with him.

At this museum there is a rather elaborate vertical medieval castle maze. It had been updated since the last time that we were there and there was now a catapult. Cris was the king and a random kid adorably told us he was Lancelot. Here they made potions, rode horses, started a garden, and practiced their welding. What great fun!

Finally we kept up our tradition of eating crepes together at a tiny warm place called Lotus Leaf Creperie. We were wrangling our children most of the meal, which made me feel a teeny tiny bit bad for the couple next to us who appeared to be on a first date, but I got over it.

On our last day, we were astonished when 1-3 inches of predicted snow turned out to be closer to 6! One final fun snow before spring decides to stick around. Pretty to look at, a little harder to play in since we had forgotten our snow boots and mittens (boo!) and Connor was crying from cold feet. A few lessons in broadening our horizons with some unusual people, and a day that went completely differently than planned, especially because nothing is open in Wichita before noon, but an enlightening and beautiful day none-the-less.

It was a weekend when we got to unplug and fully answer the sweet call of "mommy play with me" and we can't wait to do it again!

Happy Hippos in San Antonio

Since Calyn was born and somebody gave her a pink sleeper with hippos on it the lyrics to song "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" (which, as a cool aside, I can tell you became famous after it was sung for the Oklahoma City Zoo during the 1953 campaign when kids were raising money to buy a pygmy hippopotamus) have lumbering around in my head. And as she grows and gets those lovely little padded thighs on her squat legs make her even more reminiscent of the song to me; sorry darling. "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. Only a hippopotamus will do. Don't want a doll, no dinky Tinker Toy, I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy...Only a hippopotamus will do. No crocodiles, no rhinoceroses. I only like hippopotamuses. And hippopotamuses like me too!"

Hippos at the San Antonio Zoo

A bit beyond pleasantly plump, it is hard to imagine hippos as icons to emulate. However, don't let their size burst their image bubble. These river horses were revered in Egypt as the deity of pregnancy. They carry their babies for nearly as long as us (8 months) and then do extended nursing for almost a year. Here are some other things they share with me: love of swimming, love of water, little sweating, love of forests (pygmys), being vegetarians (I am not currently), and unpredictability. And as far as parenting strategies go, I like the idea of "hippo parenting" that if your kids are being unruly or way out of line you should not digress to arguing but just solve that problem by sitting on them!

Well a few weeks ago, I took my sweet little happy hippo on a rather big adventure. The two of us drove to San Antonio. It was the farthest trip I have ever driven by myself before. We left at 8am on a Wednesday and after 6 stops got there at 9pm. Evan's uncle graciously allowed us to stay with him and I think he had a great time admiring the baby. I was there to go to a conference on early childhood topics- perfect place to take a baby to, she was a celebrity! And while we had a pretty long day on Thursday learning about creating outdoor spaces for infants and toddlers and using outdoor classrooms more efficiently, I also had such a lovely time just getting to enjoy this beautiful baby, my beautiful baby, with lots of unstructured time and long stretches without interruptions. It was so fantastic for a little while to just treat her like a first and only child.

We also got to do a bit of exploring in San Antonio, which was also fun because it is where Evan lived until he was six.  We explored the river walk with those magnificent cypress trees and mosaics and had some amazing Mexican food. We met a dear friend in Pleasanton, which has a most ironic name! Then on Saturday just the two of us ended up at the San Antonio Zoo. It was great! It had so many areas dedicated to very young children and some very purposeful ways for kids to play like animals; I can't wait to return with my other kids! My favorites were their monkeys... and the hippos. Seeing these fantastically huge giants swimming right in front of my face with their pursed lips seeming to smile at me and my baby was pretty magnificent. Turns out I love hippopotamuses, and hippopotamuses love me too!