Small developments

My brother got L2 a little scooter for Christmas. At first L2 ‘s feet didn’t quite touch the ground and he preferred to double up behind L1 rather than ride his own tricycle. Just a few weeks later, he had grown enough that he could sit and scoot, but hadn’t figured out how to steer. A few days ago he mastered steering and now whizzes around the sidewalk. He is changing and learning so quickly; one day he can't do something, and the next day he can.

Yesterday, L1 learned to throw a paper airplane. We’ve played with paper airplanes before, but he always threw it into the ground. Yesterday, he “got” how to throw it. Before his breakthrough, L1 tried coaxing his plane (“Come on airplane, I know you can do this!”) and then yelling at it. Once he figured out how to make it fly, he wanted to show L2, who obligingly was excited whenever L1 threw the paper airplane. L2 follows L1’s moves like a dance partner: L1 stands up, and then L2 stands up. L1 takes a stance, and then L2 takes a stance. L1 jumps, and then L2 jumps. L1 sits, and then L2 sits.

With paper airplane

Today a maintenance man came to check my mom’s HVAC system, and both boys were fascinated with his work. They followed him when he went to check the outside unit and happily played, crawling on the grass, running around, and making loud noises. The worker commented how nice it was to see two boys playing so well together, and my mom had to laugh because this morning the boys were fighting non-stop. They are not yet best-playmates and friends as I would wish, but at least they have moments when they play well together.

Playing ring-around-the-rosie.

A Good Decision

J is in New Zealand today and called this evening after a trip to Hobbiton. It all sounded wonderful, but I’m not sad that we are missing it. As we were planning J’s sabbatical, I spent weeks agonizing whether we should travel as a family to Australia and New Zealand. They are places on my life list; I could also have checked off being south of the equator and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. I was afraid I’d regret not taking a leap of faith and just going, even if the circumstances were not ideal. But the timing wasn’t right and it was too expensive.

So we decided I’d stay in Phoenix with our parents while J was gone, and that decision has worked out really well. For all of J’s adventures, I’m not sad to have missed the long flight to Australia that was plagued with mechanical trouble, or the storms and leaches in Tasmania, or the heat wave in Melbourne, or the hours waiting in the airport. In addition, J has had the freedom to concentrate on work late into the night without the complications of small kids. 

The weather in Phoenix couldn’t be more beautiful and the kids and I have spent hours outside.  Any time they start getting wiggly or cranky, I say it is time to go outside. L1 often asks to go out before the sun is up. In the evening, we go out to look at the sunset after dinner, and the stars before L1 goes to bed. This week we are at Grandma Jenna’s house; the kids have spent hours playing in the gravel in the backyard, digging with trowels, industriously pouring the gravel on the other side of the patio, and digging up weeds. They have had a ball. I’m glad we’ve been able to spend a more extended time with my mom and J’s parents. And as for travel and memories this sabbatical, we will have plenty of adventures in Greece, and plenty of time waiting in airports, I am sure.

Brothers playing together

Jim is in Australia for the month and I’m settling into a routine with the kids at my Mom’s house for the time being. L1 and L2 are used to being in daycare with lots of other children and activities. I think L1 has been missing the play with other kids because his constant refrain has been, “Do you want to play with me?” It is the first thing he says in the morning, and the last thing at night. He wants his grandma or me to play with him, while L2 is usually the antagonist who messes up his train track or takes his cars. To be fair, sometimes L2 seems to deliberately provoke L1, as by grabbing a car and running to the closet to hide with L1 crying in pursuit. Lately, however, L2 is becoming a desired playmate and I’m so happy to see the brothers having fun together. Previously, there were occasions when they would play well together, but these golden moments were rare. Today, however, L1 asked me when L2 would wake up from his nap so they could play. Hooray!  They play together best when the activity doesn’t involve toys to share. But give them a box to jump off of or a bush to hide in, and they will play happily, if noisily, together. Their current favorite activity is to ride L1's trike around the neighborhood; L1 peddles and L2 rides behind. My hope is that this sabbatical time together will establish a great friendship between the two.

Ten things I love about Phoenix in the winter

Ten things I love about Phoenix in the winter:

10) Wearing sandals every day.

9) Eating Christmas tamales.

8) Every sunset is spectacular.

7) Enjoying 70 degrees F and no humidity while hearing of snowstorms in the rest of the US.

6) No mosquitos, flies, chiggers, or ticks to drive you inside on a beautiful day.

5) Picking grapefruit off the tree for breakfast.

4) Seeing hot air balloons in the morning and evening.

3) Seeing Orion in the night sky.
2) Visiting the Desert Botanical Gardens.

1) Sunshine, sunshine, sunshine.

L2 with grapefruit the size of his head.

The family at the Desert Botanical Gardens

Chihuly

Chihuly at the Desert Botanical Gardens

L1 as photographer

Saguaro and Chihuly at the Desert Botanical Gardens

Highlights of the drive into Phoenix

Here are some highlights of our drive to Phoenix:

•           In Oklahoma City, we visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum where those who were killed in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building are remembered. The most striking part of the outdoor memorial is the field of empty chairs, one for each survivor, facing the reflecting pool that covers the footprint NW Fifth Street. It is a grave yet beautiful place. However, we probably should have known better than to go through the indoor museum, which is not a place to bring two young children who need to run off noisy energy after at the end of a long day of driving. The museum simulates the intenseness of the day the bomb went off and tells the stories of the survivors; it is a place to be solemn and quiet. On our way in, I noticed a young man sitting alone with bowed head near the reflecting pool. He sat there a long time and was obviously more than a tourist. I wondered how he was connected to the memorial. Was he there that day? Did he lose a loved one? The memorial is an active place of healing and remembrance.

•        In Albuquerque, we were excited to finally be in a part of the country where we could count on getting good Mexican food. Based on Yelp reviews and the recommendation of the hotel clerk, we went to Sadie’s of New Mexico and our taste buds were so happy. Sadie’s serves New Mexican-style Mexican food, which involves chiles (“Red or green?” is the state question and refers to what type of sauce you want on your food) and sopapillas among other things. The food at Sophies was everything we were looking for: home-made chips and spicy salsa; sopapillas and honey served as part of the meal. I ordered a stuffed sopapilla with red sauce that was so large we ate it for three meals.  Jim ordered a chile rellanos combo with green sauce. Both were excellent, but my sopapilla was best. On the way out of town, we saw three colorful hot-air balloons with the sunrise, which is emblematic of Albuquerque. See here for a lovely time-lapse of the hot-air balloon festival.

Sweet corn and black bean soup at the Turquoise Room

•       The next day we stopped for lunch in Winslow, AZ at La Posada. We’ve only been there twice, but I’m tempted to say this is one of our favorite places, perhaps because we discovered it by accident years ago and it was such a great find in a small town. La Posada is a hotel that was built by the Fred Harvey Company and the Santa Fe Railroad in 1929. It has been beautifully restored and has enormous personality exhibited in paintings, sculptures, and architectural details throughout the inn. It is pet friendly, which is how we discovered it when looking for a place to stay with our dogs. The Turquoise Room is possibly the finest restaurant in the Four Corners area. The chefs create “regional contemporary Southwestern cuisine” based on fresh and local ingredients. Where Sadie’s was comfort Mexican food; the Turquoise Room was elegant Arizonan food with offerings such as piki bread and hummus, sweet corn and bean soup with chile sauce, and honey-mesquite corn bread. Everything was absolutely delicious. After lunch we walked the grounds outside and found a haystack maize that delighted L1 and L2. L2 imitates everything that L1 does, and is often determined to do it on his own. L1 led the way through the maze, and L2 walked the whole way, following L1 every turn. 
  
  
  

•         As we left Winslow and drove the last leg of our journey into Phoenix, the San Francisco Peaks beckoned us on to Flagstaff. Leaving the mountains, we told L1 to keep an eye out for saguaro cactus, and that when he saw them we would be about 45 minutes from the grandparents. He not only spied the first saguaro, he continued to tell us whenever he saw another one, which was essentially for the next 45 minutes. I don't have a picture of the saguaros, but I'll try to include one next time. We also saw a bonus of several more hot-air balloons over the valley.  And finally, we arrived safe and sound at Grandma and Popop’s home and didn’t get back in the car for two days!

Cross country drive

If you have been following J’s blog, you know he is ahead of me and that we’ve already reached Phoenix. So I’m playing catch-up.

One of our challenges on our cross-country drive was to find stops in the cold winter weather where the kids could run off some of their energy after several hours in a car. We planned driving times of four to six hours with stops every two hours because that is about the extent that our youngest can ride in a car. Our solution the first two days of travel was to stop at shopping malls (the Galleria in St. Louis and Northpark Mall in Joplin). This worked reasonably well; the malls provided room for them to walk and wiggle, and lots of visual stimulation, even though we prefer parks and playgrounds when the weather permits.

We also made sure to stay in hotels with indoor swimming pools so that L1 and L2 can swim off their final energy for the day. L1 was excited to swim each time we arrived at a hotel and would have jumped out of the car straight into the pool if we had let him. In his words, “It is hard to wait,” which covers most situations where a 3-year old has to wait for adults to finish all those pedestrian tasks such as checking into the hotel, walking the dog, and getting dinner. But oh, the joy of warm, chlorinated air and jumping in the pool.

We stayed in three hotel chains that met our criteria of being pet friendly, having an indoor swimming pool, and a free breakfast: Baymont Inn and Suites; Springhill by Marriott (my favorite with the best breakfast); and Drury Inn (it won on the free evening meal and drinks in addition to free breakfast).

Although I was a slow convert to a smart phone, I have found it to be indispensable when traveling. Here are several apps that we found useful, especially when you have a three-year old who says he really needs to go potty:

Road Ahead: my number one travel app. It locates you on the highway and tells you what is coming up at each exit ahead of you. It includes gas stations, restaurants, rest areas, and occasionally other businesses or even parks. It is linked to Yelp reviews.

Play Places: Locates McDonalds with play places and Chuck-E-Cheese. Integrated map shows your car’s location. You can search ahead. We found the locations to be slightly off; the app usually got us in the general vicinity and then we had to look for our destination. We were sick to death of McDonalds, but sometimes it was the only place to stop for in indoor run-around.

Rest Area: Simple, locates all the nearby rest areas and tells you if they have facilities. One drawback is that it does not list whether the rest area has a playground. Integrated map shows your car location with gps.

Around Me: Great if you are stationary (at a coffee shop or gas station) to tell what businesses are around you in any direction. Not so helpful when you are driving need to find something in the direction you are going.

Trip Advisor: I used it to research hotels for amenities and quality based on customer reviews.