An Adventure to LegoLand

We got more snow last night, but nothing like a few days ago, so we didn’t get too excited about it.  It won’t get in the way of any of our exciting plans for the day!

We started with a trip to LegoLand.  What a cool place!  I think Raj and I had just as much fun as (if not more than) Shawn!  We were greeted by a giant Lego model of a giraffe spanning the entrance, a huge replica of Albert Einstein’s funny face (with moving eyes!) and two little statues holding toothpaste and a toothbrush right inside the door.  We were hardly inside the building and we’re already very impressed.  It just got better from there…

There was a mock-up of downtown Chicago with flickering campfires on the beach, working lights and sirens at the fire department, and a light timer set up to show how the city changes in daylight and nighttime.  It was complete with Buckingham Fountain, Hancock Tower, Navy Pier, the elevated train, Water Tower Place, and even construction!  (With the amount of detail shown in this display, I wouldn’t be surprised if the model city was to scale.)  As if that wasn’t complicated enough, the Lego artists kicked it up by invading the city with Star Wars characters!  There was a scavenger hunt set up so you could search for specific characters, but we just had fun taking it all in and seeing what we could find on our own.  It was incredible. 

  

When we left the city, we walked right into a Lego Jungle!  There were life size tigers, monkeys, alligators, birds, giant spiders, a few safari guides (the only things that weren’t life size, though Shawn may disagree), and then… Indiana Jones from the Temple of Doom!  Later, we even saw Darth Vador and R2D2!

 

There was a ride through a Dragon Quest where we saw wizards and royalty and, of course, a very large dragon.  We took a very brief “tour” showing how Legos are made accompanied by a mini history of the toy.  Then we watched a 4-D movie featuring Clutch Powers, a Lego character.  Not only did we wear 3-D glasses (Shawn didn’t keep his on, but he liked playing with them), but during the movie you could feel wind blowing when the characters were outside or driving fast and there would be a light mist of water when the characters got rained on, which was the fourth dimension of the movie.  Though the movie was a bit cheesy, it was a pretty cool concept and a fun way for Shawn to experience his first movie. 

After the movie, we went to the Build & Test center where there were buckets of all sorts of Lego pieces to experiment with.  Shawn got a LegoLand hat, in similar fashion of the old Burger King crowns, to give him official Lego Builder status.  After building vehicles, we launched them down ramps to see how fast they could go.  We also played in Duplo Village with giant foam rubber Lego bricks.  Raj and Shawn built towering structures on an earthquake platform to test how long they could withstand the vibrations.  I think Shawn had more fun playing with the buttons and dials that controlled the quakes, but he was still Dad’s helpful assistant.  Finally, after working hard in close proximity to the café, we decided it was time for lunch.  We weren’t overly impressed with the café selections, so we headed out. 

We decided to try Sweet Tomatoes for lunch, but Shawn barely made the five minute drive across a few parking lots before he fell asleep.  Once we got inside, he decided that lunch was worth waking up for.  The enormous buffet was inspiring to our rumbling tummies and the quality of the food was impressive.  We sat a table that was in the path of most people making trips to fill their plates, so Shawn was thrilled to flirt with most of them, as long as they didn’t stop to talk, which made him shy and a little nervous.  We made dozens of trips to the different areas: soups, salads, pastas, pizzas, baked potatoes, desserts, etc.  Empty bellies no longer!

Shawn and I took the rest of the day/evening off.  We had plenty of excitement from the day.  He napped, I did laundry.  Raj went out with some friends to watch the SuperBowl.  Since it was painful that the Packers made it and he wasn’t interested in the Steelers, Raj claimed he was rooting for the Blackeyed Peas, who were performing at the halftime concert.  (Obviously, he wasn’t upset by the Packers enough to keep him away from the game entirely!)  Not interested in the game myself, I had it on in the background while I folded and put clothes away, just so I could catch a few of the famous exclusive commercials.  There were a few funny ones, but not enough to keep me interested in actually sitting down to watch!  (Raj was impressed I had it on at all.)  It’s a good thing we had a so much fun earlier in the day because Raj was a little resentful when the Packers won.  Sorry, honey, but the Blackeyed Peas just couldn’t score any points on the field!

My Smiling Heart

Shawn had a great night’s sleep last night! He was out from 8:30 pm – 8:30 am with one quick wake up – phew!

Shawn and I met Heena and Veer in South Barrington for a free event sponsored by WTTW Kids: Readers are Leaders (a PBS television station).  Miss Lori’s Campus was presenting “sing alongs, reading, and engaging activities for kids 3-8.” AND, the first 200 kids would get a free children’s book.  Heena and I agreed that even though Shawna and Veer are still a little young for the intended audience, it wouldn’t hurt to see what it was like, especially since it was free.  There was a lot of dancing and singing, which our boys did not participate in, and Miss Lori preached the importance of being healthy by eating right, exercising, and getting enough sleep.  The show was highly energetic and, although the venue could have held more people, it turned out to be a little overwhelming for both of the boys.  Shawn went into people-watching over-drive and Veer started climbing up Heena with tears in his eyes.  They stepped outside about half-way through the show so Veer could take a break and get a snack from their car.  Even though Shawn wasn’t exactly involved in the audience participation, we stayed the whole time and even went through the line at the end to get our free book, Judy the Elephant by Laura Gates Galvin, and a few other freebees on our way out.  (Oddly enough, almost of the coupons that they were giving out were expired and not just recently, but by a few months!  Oh, well, I probably wouldn’t have used them anyway.)  We also got to meet Miss Lori when we got to the end of the line.  She gave us a postcard with her picture on it and the autographed it for us.  Some families were taking their pictures with her, but I knew Shawn wouldn’t go for it, so I thanked her for the great show and we headed out the door.  We met up with Heena and Veer in the parking lot and told them about the giveaways, but Veer was content in his car-seat eating his snack.  Perhaps the event was still a little too much for our boys, but we can’t complain too much about a free afternoon out!

For dinner, we went to Shaw’s Crab House to celebrate Raj’s best month EVER at his office!  The meal was wonderful, but the best part was when Shawn got compliments from a woman dining nearby.  She stopped by our table as she was leaving the restaurant and pointed out how rarely people take the time to tell others how nice their children are and that she wanted to let us know how much she enjoyed sitting by us and watching him smile and play.  Though I don’t remember most of her exact words, one line has stuck with me:  “He made my heart smile!”  Raj said he didn’t know if I could smile any bigger or have my eyes light up any more after she said that.  Though we have had people stop by our tables at restaurants to smile at Shawn before, it never gets old.  This woman knew exactly what to say.  It made my night.

Sleepyhead and Diva

Shawn woke every hour and a half last night.  I thought he’d sleep in a little this morning, once he finally passed out.  Nope.  He woke around 7:45 am.  This could be a long day!

We went to Gymboree for Music class.  Again, Abby participated in the Ba-Ba rhythm activity and showed that she knew how to move her stuff!  She danced, showed high and low movements, shook maracas, hit drums to beats, bounced her knees to beats, walked fast and slow...  She was on fire!

Meanwhile, Miss Elizabeth even noticed how drained Shawn appeared in class today.  He was very stand-off-ish and dazed.  There was a definite difference between his being shy and people watching versus today’s lethargy and zoned-out stance.  Poor kid.  I wish I knew how to fix whatever was going on last night!

On the way home, I played Shawn’s bedtime lullaby CD, hoping that the hum of the car and the Pavlov’s response to the CD would lull Shawn to La-La Land.  It worked – even better than I had anticipated.  Both fell asleep on the way home (around 11:30 am).  Not risking trying to transfer Shawn from his car seat to his crib, left him in the car with the garage closed, but the car window open.  He’s bundled in his winter coat and the car is still pretty warm from our drive home.  I’m in the dining room so I can hear him when he wakes up (and I can check on him through the kitchen door, too). 

Abby had no problem with me getting her from her car seat.  (I’m sure it was a relief for her neck to get out of the awkwardly bent angle she was sleeping in!)  We took off her boots and winter gear, got her baby doll, then easily went back to sleep in the pack & play.  Sweet dreams, Little Ones! 

I’m tempted to take a nap myself, but I feel like I should use this time to get some things checked off of my To Do list.  Hopefully, we’ll have an early bed time (and one that sticks this time!  …at least for a few hours… please?!)

Abby eventually woke up at 1:45 pm and Shawn slept until 2 pm.  I thought it would be fun to have some more music time, since Abby was a rock start this morning and Shawn basically zoned out the whole time and missed it!  So, I played a few songs on the harp for my miniature audience.  They both came over and stood at the base of the harp, sometimes touching the strings, sometimes just watching, sometimes playing with toys closeby.  At the end of a song, Shawn looked up, smiled, and said, “Good job, Momma!”  That’s better than any encore or standing ovation! 

Then, it was their turn:  True virtuosos in the making!

We spent the rest of the afternoon reading books…

…and watching snow plows.

I’m not sure why the library chose this week’s theme so soon, since there’s still over a week before the actual day, which includes one more story-time session… regardless, today’s theme was Valentines.  Ms. Nancy read lots of books about love, family, and making Valentines and hearts:

Valentine Cats by Jean Marzollo:  “The cats enjoy Valentine’s Day.  Cards are written, drawn, and delivered with the help of the entire group of cats.”

Sweet Hearts by Jan Carr:  “Valentines are hidden throughout the house.  It doesn’t take long before every card is discovered.”

Be Mine, Be Mine, Sweet Valentine by Sarah Weeks:  “Everyone gets their own Valentine.  Each one is different and specially selected.”

Never Too Little to Love by Jeanne Willis:  “Tin Too-Little wants to give a kiss to someone who is very tall.  He uses something to help him reach up high.”  (This one was my favorite pick of the day.)

We also danced to and acted out the song Skinnamarink.  Abby liked trying to follow Ms. Nancy’s miming.  Shawn stood and watched for most of the song.  We also did some finger play:

How Many Valentines?

Valentines, Valentines, how many do you see?

Valentines, Valentines, can you count them with me?

One for father (hold up one finger)

One for mother (hold up another finger)

One for grandparents, too (hold up another finger)

One for sister (hold up another finger)

One for brother (hold up another finger)

And here is one for you! (make a heart shape with thumbs and pointer fingers)

Five Little Valentines

One little Valentine colored pink and blue (hold up one finger)

A second one came and then there were two (hold up two fingers)

Two little Valentines clapping with glee (clap hands)

A third one came and then there were three (hold up three fingers)

Three little Valentines tapping at the door (knock three times)

A fourth one came and then there were four (hold up four fingers)

[I think I’m missing a line here – oops!]

A fifth one came and then there were five (hold up five fingers)

Five little valentines wanted to say

Have a very happy Valentine’s Day! (wiggle five fingers)

And of course, a variation of the classic:

Roses are Red

Roses are red.

Violets are blue.

Honey is sweet,

And so are you!

So, with all of that Valentine’s talk, we should be well primed for the big day… in a little over a week from now!  Hmmm...

Back to a closer holiday… I never did hear what Punxsutawney Phil decided to do yesterday, but if he was living in Chi-town, he'd be nuts not to scurry back inside!  Our streets are looking pretty good, but I know there are still many that haven't been plowed yet or only have one lane open.  Many schools and businesses are still closed.  Part of the problem is getting the plows around to all of the areas, but the other problem is where to put the snow once it's plowed.  We'll be lucky if it's all gone by Spring!

Still, I think the storm's moved on.  We were expecting more snow last night, but it never came - though it's a little hard to tell with all the snow we do have!  There's a drift at the back door that's between 5-6 feet high; meanwhile, my car in the driveway hardly had any snow on it at all.  Amazing micro-meteorology at work!  I think the final total around here was in the vicinity of 20".  With all of the variability in the drifting, I couldn't even guess what we have in our own yard.  Last night's news forecasted today's wind chill to be between -20F to -30F, though the actual temp is 12F right now. brrrrrrr......  I'm just glad we're not among the thousands who lost power!

Chicago Blizzaster, SnOMG, Snowmageddon, Snowpocalypse 2011‏

Last night, we were hit with "the Blizzard of 2011," as the news stations are calling it.  We're doing well, though we're pretty bundled up.  Watching the wind blow the snow around yesterday and last night was amazing.  The BBQ grill in our backyard is now completely buried under snow and there's a drift that goes halfway up the windows in the back of our house.  I think it must be between 5 - 6 feet high.  On the other hand, my car hardly has any snow on it at all.  (Pretty incredible micrometeorology at work here!)  I tried taking pictures last night as the blizzard was rolling in, but it was getting dark, so I couldn’t get enough to make a good time lapse series.  Still, you can see some photos from last night and then today. 

Since so much snow came so quickly, everything shut down - Lake Shore drive even closed!  Here's are two photos of cars burried and abandoned there last night:

This picture was taken on an abandoned bus that was on Lake Shore:

My attempt at time lapse photos was no where near as good as this guy's:

There are a lot of great blizzard pictures and stories.  Here are just a couple: 

http://www.chicagoweathercenter.com/photos/chi-110201-monster-snowstorm-2011-pictures,0,7403567.photogallery

http://www.nbcchicago.com/weather/stories/Blizzard-Unleashes-Winter-Fury-115047384.html

Entire towns were closing businesses and school districts, so Raj got to stay home today, too.  (That doesn't happen very often.)  I dragged the boys outside to play in the snow earlier today - sledding, snowballs, and climbing on the mounds left behind by the snow plows.  Shawn wasn’t nearly as impressed by all of the snow as we were.  I guess sledding with Mom and Dad just isn’t the same as playing in the snow with Abby.  He was less than amused by the whole experience.  He did crack a few smiles when we pushed him around in his Cozy Coupe, but with all of the ice on the road, that was a lot of work!  It was nice to come in for hot chocolate when we were done.  I think Shawn had more fun playing with our snow gear inside than he did while we were outside!  Oh, well.  We tried.  Here's the video.

We're supposed to be getting a few more inches tonight, but I think the major part of the storm finished last night.  In fact, it's actually really pretty and relatively warm out right now – as long as you’re not trying to drive anywhere!

Oh, yeah – and Happy Ground Hog Day! I have a feeling winter's going to be sticking around for some time- it's at least going to be a while for all of this snow to melt.  I'd be surprised if Punxsutawney Phil even cared to venture out to find his shadow today! 

Ready or Not, the Snow is Coming!

After breakfast was over, Shawn and Abby had a few minutes to play before we needed to get ready for Spanish class.  Among all the toys, they found two Magnadoodle type boards and got right to work.  Here they are, concentrating very hard on some very important documents. 

We were very disappointed to find out that Diego was out sick today from Spanish class.  He had a very nice sub, but she was a little too energetic for Shawn and certainly unfamiliar to him.  As a result, he completely shut down and wouldn’t talk.  He was completely shy around the new teacher.  Abby didn’t seem to mind.  I think she liked her enthusiasm and chirpiness.  Since our lesson was a review of colors today, our project involved making necklaces with colored fruit loop cereal.  Shawn ate his for lunch on the way home.  When we got him, Baron followed Abby while she wore her yummy smelling “jewelry.”

Good news!  Shawn understands that when someone gives you something, you should say, “Thank you!” without being prompted!  Unfortunately, he wasn’t waiting for Abby to actually give him the toys before snatching them from her hands.  He did follow up with “Thank you, Abby!”  I’m not sure if I should be thrilled about his expression of kindness or if I should have a problem with his greediness! 

It looks like my hopes for the snow to hold off one more day were in vain.  Snow is coming.  A lot of it.  A Red Alert for the Village of Roselle was delivered via email and text message:

Village of Roselle Weather Alert message

‏:  2/1/2011  12:26:53  PM  EST

This is a CODE RED message from the Village of Roselle. The National Weather service has issued a BLIZZARD WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM TUESDAY TO 3 PM WEDNESDAY. Village Hall Offices will be closed on Wednesday February 2, reopening on Thursday, February 3. Garbage and recycling pick up has also been cancelled for Wednesday and is rescheduled for Thursday February 3. All on street parking is banned after three 3 inches of snow fall to assist in plowing efforts. Residents are required to move parked vehicles off the roads so that snow removal functions can be done safely. Vehicles left on roads will be ticketed and towed at owner’s expense. Residents and business owners are encouraged to assist the Fire Department in identifying and clearing fire hydrants. If you are unable to clear hydrants, please mark the area of the hydrant so that the Fire Department can clear them. Residents are encouraged to stay home and not to drive if possible. Please remember to check on your neighbors who may be in need of assistance. For more storm related updates, visit the Village web-site at www.roselle.il.us. Thank you

Oh, boy!  It’s not sounding good!

While Shawn finished his nap, Abby snacked on some chocolate pudding.  Chocolate always makes the day seem better, doesn’t it?

I’m still getting messages from the school closure service in Bensenville.  My former district is closed tomorrow, which rarely ever happened during my seven years there – not to mention before the snow actually falls!  Roselle Schools had early dismissal today and will be closed tomorrow.  Aurora University closed early this afternoon and cancelled classes for tomorrow.  Language Stars follows snow policy of the school district around them in Arlington Heights.  When the school district is closed, so is Language Stars.  So, our first German class is postponed until next week.  Our first Mom and Tot outing through Mothers & More is rescheduled for next week because Little Monkey Bizness is closed tomorrow.  Shelley called to say that her office has already closed for tomorrow.  So, Abby is going to stay home to have a snow day with her family and bake cookies.  Maybe we’ll see them sledding or something, if it’s not too brutal out.

While Abby and I waited either for Shawn to wake up or for Bill to pick her up, whichever came first, we watched the snow coming down out the front window and the snow crew struggling to keep up with it.  It’s amazing how quickly it’s already coming and the “blizzard” hasn’t even hit us yet!

This is incredible!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen snow like this before.  The snow plows can’t keep up with snow accumulation! As soon as they clear an area, it's covered again just as quickly!  They're trying to compete with both the new falling snow and what is being blown around, and it's a losing battle.  I can't imagine what it would look like if the crews weren't out there at all!