You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2007.
Months ago, I received a tip from Aunt Julie that Thomas the Tank Engine would be coming to St. Thomas, Ontario on his 2007 summer tour. Thomas is highly popular at our house – he ranks right up there with the guys! After confirming information on the Thomas & Friends website, I marked my calendar with the date and time that tickets were to go on sale – April 1 at 12:00 pm. I then called Shannon. who lives across the street, to share the exciting news. Shannon has a little girl, Dakota, who is even more of a Thomas freak than Connor. Any and all Thomas information we come across is automatically relayed between our houses. I’d heard that Thomas tickets go pretty quickly, so when April 1st finally rolled around, I was watching the clock. By 12:05 pm I had an e-receipt for four of them! One for Connor, one for Grandma, one for Grandpa, and one for me. The St. Thomas tour date was scheduled for July 21st and I made sure that our first week of summer holidays was scheduled to coincide with this important date.
Grandma and Grandpa came home from Wiarton on Friday, July 20th to get ready for the big event the following day. Saturday dawned warm and sunny. The plan was to drive to St. Thomas, have an early lunch at McDonald’s, then head over to the main event. With four in our car, and Shannon and Dakota following in their car, our little convoy was off! The drive from Listowel to St. Thomas was a bit of a haul, but we had lots of water tower, bridge, and train track sightings to keep it interesting!
The Thomas crowd was just starting to gather at McDonald’s when we arrived, so our timing was perfect. There were lots of little people running around sporting Thomas shirts – Connor and Dakota were no exception.
The Day Out With Thomas was to have been held at the Elgin County Railway Museum, however, when we drove to that location we were redirected to the auditorium. Lots of signs were posted to point people in the right direction, so it was easy to find the new spot. I don’t think it actually clicked in with the kids that we were really doing something special until we had parked and were walking to the entrance gates. There were lots of people, lots of strollers and lots of kids – some of whom were trailing Thomas balloons. It was the sight of those balloons that did it – squeals and bounces all around!
There was much to see and do! We watched, sang and clapped along with musical performers, had a meet and greet with Sir Topham Hatt, and found our way through a straw bale maze. There was an inflatable, bouncy obstacle course, but Connor wasn’t feeling brave enough, so he skipped that one. Dakota, on the other hand, thought it was an absolute riot and bounced to her heart’s content.
The true highlight of the day was a train ride. When it came closer to the time for our ride we walked over to the loading area to watch for Thomas’ arrival. Grandpa popped Connor up onto his shoulders so he could have a better view.
Thomas arrived with a mighty whistle blow and a blast of steam! Right on time and really reliable!
There were tons of excited people (big and small) anxiously awaiting a ride behind the famous engine.
When we were finally able to board the train, Connor was in awe!
We trundled down the track with well-known Thomas songs playing in the background, waving at all the people in cars that had stopped at the railway crossings. Our 25 minute ride was over too soon, but it was totally worth it!
After disembarking from the train we wondered over to the auditorium to see what else was happening. Inside the arena there were ‘Imagination Stations’ where kids could play with trains and build tracks, do colouring activities and make engineer’s hats, and write their own stories about their ‘day out with Thomas’. We stopped for a temporary tattoo – Connor picked Thomas, of course!
There was also a video viewing room and a story-telling area. Connor and I both enjoyed shopping for some new engines – Deisel and Fergus were the chosen two. Then, because I couldn’t help but spoil him a little bit more, I bought him a new Thomas shirt and a train whistle. Grandpa also felt compelled to do some spoiling. He thought Connor should have the special Day Out with Thomas caboose.
Connor and Dakota had a blast checking out the banners of various engines that were displayed in different places around the grounds. We parents had fun trying to get the kids to stand together in front of the banners to take pictures.
The entire event was so well organized and the people working at all of the activities were wonderful. One of the workers at the inflatable obstacle course was a senior. He said he’d been a little apprehensive when he was told what his assignment was, but as it turned out he was having as much fun as all the kids!
The whole day was a terrific success. The best part for me was seeing the excitement on my boy’s face. There was a lot of build-up to this event and I was thrilled because he was thrilled. I guess that’s what being a mom is all about – seeing him happy and having fun gives me joy beyond description!
Was there ever really any doubt? It was only the Sea Turtle level, but I’m his mom so I’m proud anyway!
Yesterday’s lesson went very well. It seems he didn’t forget anything after being away for Thursday, Friday and the weekend. Today was not so great. He was a cold, shivering, blue-lipped little boy who just wanted his towel. (and his Mommy) It’s too funny really because the moment I have him wrapped up in his towel and we start getting clean dry clothes on, he perks right up. When he left the changeroom after dressing he told Julie, his instructor, that he was sorry for crying.
He was thrilled to receive his progress booklet with a sticker of a sea turtle to indicate that he had passed.
The comments on the page say: “Great swimming Connor! Your bubbles are excellent! Keep practicing your floats for next year. Have a great summer!!” Julie
In case you haven’t guessed, the next level is Salamander. Julie suggested that we wait until next year to sign him up for that level because it involves being able to do floats on your own and to willingly go under water. We have a lot of practicing to do before we’re at that point. Our holidays start this Friday night, so if the weather cooperates we’ll be able to practice next week.
I’m thinking we’ll go to Wiarton for a few days. The town pool there is always warm and never busy. All we’ll need is a little sunshine.
Multi-tasking is a buzzword that describes handling or carrying out multiple tasks or jobs at the same time. I am not a multi-tasker. I do not multi-task. I have made a conscious decision not to multi-task. Okay, there are small exceptions such as doing laundry, making supper or reading email while keeping my eyes and ears on Connor to know what he’s doing and where he’s doing it, but I don’t think of those as true examples of multi-tasking – they are more instinctive or intuitive than anything else. I’ve chosen not to multi-task because I believe that when I try to do more than one thing at a time, one or more of the jobs I’m trying to accomplish suffer as a result.
Not too long ago on a free weekend, I made a plan to get through all of the items on my ‘to do’ list. The day before the actual weekend arrived I was going over my list and suddenly, as though someone had walloped me on the head with a baseball ball, I was hit with an explosive feeling of being overwhelmed. So intense was the feeling that all I wanted to do was put on my flannel pj’s and curl up in bed for the weekend. Sleep it all away. At that point I didn’t want to do any of the things on that list anymore. The number of activities I had planned to do was absolutely ridiculous! These weren’t just things I was going to do for myself – I had things planned to do for other people as well. I had crammed so much activity into those few days it would have been impossible to carry half of them out in any sort of respectable fashion. OMG! That was when I decided that I cannot please everyone all of the time and that included me. We are all guilty of taking on way more responsibility than we can reasonably handle. That list proved it to me. And who was responsible for that list? ME – I planned it and I wrote it. I needed to take a step back and reassess the situation.
Rather than curl up and hide I re-wrote the list. I eliminated the wants and concentrated on the needs. I also phoned the people I had planned to do things for and essentially asked them to re-write their lists. I asked them “What is more important to you – would like me to do this or would you like me to do that?”. By the time my list was revised and rewritten I felt that I was able to breath again. You might think this is an example of me going off the deep end, but I prefer to think of it as a lesson in multi-tasking disaster prevention. In order to get through and cross off all of the items on the original list I would have been doing some serious multi-tasking, not to mention teleporting. If I was that overwhelmed by the mere thought of trying to do so much, imagine what would have happened had I actually attempted it? Can you say psych ward?
And how did that weekend turn out? As a result of that lesson in multi-tasking disaster prevention, I completed and crossed off the important items that others wanted done and worked my way through most of my needs as well. Everything received the full attention that it was due and if there was any unsatisfied feeling of “Oh crap, I should have done that too!”, it was overridden by “Man, that turned out better than I expected it to!”. Will I ever feel overwhelmed again? Oh, yeah! Will I ever multi-task? More than likely (only under duress), but I will definitely concentrate on what really needs to get done as opposed to everything I want to get done. It’s in my nature and the nature of many people to want to help others who need it. We just have to remember that the world will not come crashing to an end if we occasionally say no.
What do you do with a boy who has no fear of water and thinks he can swim? You put him in swimming lessons, of course!
Connor started swimming lessons last week in Listowel. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it went reasonably well. Typically, in small towns, lessons are set up to run in two-week blocks – one lesson every day for two weeks. Because Connor is only in Listowel for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday each week, the normal way of doing things wasn’t going to work with our schedule. For this reason, I chose to go with private lessons. I was able to book the lessons for the mornings of the days he’s with me. He is working one-on-one with the instructor which means there are no other kids in close contact to distract him and the number of lessons required is fewer. They generally do three lessons, then depending on the child’s progress, will schedule two or three more lessons as needed.
So, how did he do? Monday was pretty good. It’s hard for a little monkey to get used to someone new and learn something new all within a half hour, but I thought it went pretty well.
He was blowing bubbles with his face in the water. He would have preferred just his mouth, but with other lessons going on at the same time in other parts of the pool, the water was a little wavy, so even though he may have only planned to get his mouth in the water, the wave action took care of his whole face.
He can do big star fish arms and legs, but is a little uncomfortable with relying on someone else to hold him in a back float or front float position. His kicks are terrific and he has a new favourite song – Motorboat, Motorboat. Tuesday on the other hand was not good. In fact it was bad. He cried for most of the lesson, the instructor didn’t understand him when he told her he wanted to “ride on front”, and he could not be bribed. For Connor, riding on front means he wants you to hold him close so he can put his arms around your neck. Kind of hard to do swimming lessons while riding on front. She tried to bribe him with a trip down the slide, but he said “No thank you”. He was polite, I’ll give him that, but he was also definite – there would be no bribing! To her credit, the instructor was very patient and kept trying to get him to do different things. He did a few bubbles and a few star fish positions, but he just wasn’t into it. Tuesday night at bedtime we talked a lot about swimming lessons in the big pool. Wednesday morning rolled around and Connor and I talked a lot about swimming lessons in the big pool. We arrived at the pool and while we were waiting we talked a lot about swimming lessons in the big pool. We also sang Motorboat, Motorboat. When the time came to go in for lessons he went quite willingly. Aside from being cold because it was a yucky day, he did very well. Lots of blowing bubbles, better floats, rocket ship hands and lots of trips down the slide.
Ahhh, perserverance pays off. Like Dory say’s in Finding Nemo, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming”. We’ll see how long the happy thoughts and good times last when he finds out we are going back on Monday and Tuesday. I’ll be sure to post an update so you can see how he gets along. I know inquiring minds will want to know!
In case you’re wondering, the ‘guys’ are the characters from the Disney movie Cars. You’ll probably hear a lot about the guys because they go everywhere with us. Every night we pick two of the guys to go up to bed – “no, not three, just two”. Every morning we pick two or three of the guys to go for the ride to school (daycare). They wait on Connor’s seat for the day and are there for him when I pick him up again in the afternoon. When we are driving anywhere the guys are looking for water towers along with Connor and I. Sometimes when we are camping out on the livingroom floor, all the guys get lined up in our bed.
This photo only shows three of the actual guys, but I’m sure you get the idea!
Here is a list of the guys:
- Towmater
- New Towmater
- Blue Towmater
- Old Lightning McQueen (in Connor language McQueen is pronounced McLeen)
- New Lightning McQueen
- Luigi
- Old Doc Hudson
- New Doc Hudson
- Sally
- DJ
- Wingo
- Police Car (he’s actually the Sheriff)
- Ramone
- Frank the Combine
- Chick Hicks
- The King
- Laid Back Filmore
We have a Cars ‘pack pack’ (back pack) that they all fit in for when they are traveling in large numbers or all together. There is a picture of Towmater on the back pack, so naturally we call it the Towmater back pack. In the morning after Connor goes to school, I gather up the guys and put them in the Towmater back pack. Every night after school the back pack is up-ended and they all come out again.
Occasionally, one of the guys makes it into the shower. Showering with the guys has led to one bad experience. One night when old Doc Hudson had a shower, the water washed away his eyes. Connor was afraid of him after that and even though I spent a ridiculous amount of time putting a new white sticker over the place where his old eyes had been, looking for a good picture of Doc Hudson’s eyes, very carefully drawing them on and sealing them with clear nail polish, it became apparent that a new Doc Hudson would be the only solution. Thank goodness Grandma and Grandpa spent some ‘quality’ time on a search one day and were able to locate a new Doc Hudson. Connor was not afraid to look at his new Doc Hudson and was quite happy to receive the four or five other new guys that just so happened to come along with him. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa! Old Doc Hudson was put way up high out of site where Connor wouldn’t have to worry about him any more.
I can’t imagine life without the guys. I know it’s just one of those phases that little people go through – like Spiderman or Ninja Turtles, but these guys have been great for Connor. The pretend play is awesome, his language has come so far, and they’re like having friends around all the time. Some of his other best friends are of the Thomas the Tank Engine persuasion, but I’ll save them for another post at another time.
