Great Wolf, Part II

First, let me post a little observational disappointment I have on the developmental progress of children.

I am greatly saddened by the attention span and interest Button has for ceiling fans and mobiles. I'm not disappointed by HER development, mind you--she's moving along swimmingly, and since I expect her and Gabe to be geniuses capable of supporting their parents with lucrative jobs, I'm eager to see her develop as quickly as possible. Instead, I'm disappointed in how terribly these things keep her attention now, just a few scant weeks after she discovered their existence.

I had always been told that ceiling fans and mobiles are a great distraction for infants, keeping their attention for hours on end. We saw no evidence of this with Gabe when he was still a groundling. He has, from the moment we got him, had a notoriously short attention span for pretty much everything. He will watch something for a few seconds, and when it fails to engage ALL of his interest, he'll move on, never to return. This has applied to everything--toys, television programs, small child distractions, and, most of all, me (but I can't really blame him there, I'm pretty boring). Only now that his communication skills have increased has he started to show some interest in a few television shows (most disappointingly Max and Ruby, one of my top ten least favorite shows--but at least it's not Barney or the Wiggles, probably because I've refused to even let him know those exist). But our fans and his mobiles and other such distractions were never much of an option.

So, since Norah has been far more "typical" in her early development (meaning she's done all those things that we were told babies were supposed to do, like not cry every second they're awake), I sort of figured she'd take to the ceiling fans and the mobile over her bed. The way people talked about these distractions, I figured they would be akin to an adult watching the entirety of a convoluted television series like "Lost." I thought she'd end up staring at the things for hours on end, eagerly awaiting the next plot twist, or the introduction of (and with Lost, the inevitable elimination of) a new character. The way I saw it, she'd lie, transfixed, on the floor, staring expectantly up at the fan for HOURS on end.

This has not been the case. She has hardly taken a passing interest in any of that.

In fact, she's starting to get a little demanding, now. She's no longer interested in lying in her bouncy chair off to the side watching Gabe systematically destroy our living room. She's showing real interest in being involved, which, considering Gabe's heavy-handedness, isn't really an option. Over the past week or two, we've made several references to the line from Dirty Dancing--"Nobody puts Baby in a corner." Though, really, we probably shouldn't be making ANY references to things like Dirty Dancing around her, lest we curse her personality forever. As it stands now, we're a little worried about the type of girl she might grow up to be. Right now, her two favorite things (the things she'll always smile at) are being laid down on her back and having her diaper taken off. She ALWAYS gives us a big smile as soon as we pull off her diaper, then she'll coo and giggle the entire time the diaper is off. It's very worrisome.

Anyway, on to the last part of our Great Wolf adventure.

It is common knowledge that terrible luck, poor planning, or some sort of disaster makes a vacation memorable. Throughout my childhood, we took numerous vacations "back east," to the D.C. area where my Mom is from. We also traveled to the Black Hills and then, once I was in late middle school and high school, we visited family on the west coast, too. By most standards, I was pretty well-traveled. And I have some pretty good memories from many of the trips. From time to time, we'll casually reflect on this event or that from one trip or another. But, for the most part, our vacations went off without hitches. Because of this, there aren't many that we can REALLY sink our conversational teeth into. With two exceptions, and both of these trips have come up in casual conversation not just with family but with friends who never went on the trips in the last few months--proving their conversational mettle. And they came up because they were truly memorable for their terribleness, which is what makes a truly memorable holiday.

The first was a trip that we took to Russell, Kansas, for a cow show of some sort. During the mid to late 80s, my Dad was pretty big into showing cows, so we went to a number of places for overnight or weekend stays while he did his cow things (the details of which, I won't go into now). This trip to Russell took place in the middle of winter, and a big snow storm hit while we were there. Now, nothing particularly INTERESTING happened to us because of this storm, but the trip was memorable because we spent three days trapped in our cheap motel room with literally nothing to do. We had a few books and that was about it. We didn't even have the benefit of a television to keep us distracted because this was pre-cable time for much of the rural area. All we had were the few local networks that came in. To this day, I still rank those three days as among the most boring of my life.

The second happened on a trip we took to California--I think some time around 1994. My grandfather was ill and we were making the trip there to be with him. Because it was cheaper than flying, we decided to put a topper on our truck, put some carpet on the floor so we could take shifts sleeping or playing back there (a travesty of motor vehicle safety, I'm sure), and drive it. The memorable part started as we were leaving Wendover, NV (which we now lovingly refer to as Bendover). We were about forty miles from town, and dozens of miles from the next town, when the transmission went out on our truck. And it was the middle of the night--about 2 a.m., as I recall, and I recall it pretty well since I was the one driving at the time. Thus we were stranded in the middle of the desert in the middle of the night with nothing but a sheet and a few light coats to keep us warm in the cold desert night. What followed was a series of crazy events that put the truck in Salt Lake City, us on a series of buses to get us to San Fransisco (and a train back to Salt Lake City later on). I got to sit next to a hairy knuckled sociopath for nearly six hours! Very memorable.

Oh, and one time we road on an airplane sitting next to Kool and the Gang when flying to Maryland. This was during--or close to--the height of their popularity, and we were in coach, so that probably says something about the state of the music industry then and now, though I'm not sure what.

And then there were a number of trips that friends and I took in college and shortly after, most of which were very memorable because we are TERRIBLE planners, but I'll save those for another time as well.

Anyway, I was secretly hoping that something like that might happen on this mini-adventure, just because it lends itself well to stories. But no such luck. Everything went off without a hitch, thanks in large part to Libby's ability to seemlessly and meticulously plan events.

Gabe and Finn had a pretty good time, though Finn doesn't much care for swimming or water in general, us adults weren't too put out or worn out since it was only a 36 hour trip, and fun was had by all. Pretty tame as far as storytelling options go.

Gabe and Finn sitting on our balcony, checking out the "tail" at the big outside pool. Such big boys.

In fact, Gabe LOVED it. I'm not sure he's ever had as much fun as he did running around and trying out all the different water features.

After the first trip to the pool, Gabe was still in splash-mode. Libby let him pretty much demolish our bathroom because, as she said, "It's a hotel!" Sound logic, except that we only had a few towels left over to use after we mopped the inch of water off the floor.

There was only one small hiccup when he crashed and burned in the toddler area, which I happened to get on video. Sort of. From my vantage point, I wasn't really able to get much good footage of anything, but here it is, for what its worth. He got a pretty good skinned knee out of it.

Then, after we checked out of the hotel, we went to a nearby mall and visited a Build-a-Dinosaur workshop (by the same people as Build-a-Bear, but much cooler because it's dinosaurs instead of lame ole teddy bears). There, Gabe got to pick out a dino. They stuffed it for him--which involved him picking out a heart for the critter and then there was a bit of a ceremony as the guy stuffed each of his body parts ("We stuff his head so he can be smart and come up with wonderful ways to play with you" or some such stuff--I couldn't really hear what was going on because I was trying to take pictures from out of the way).

The stuffing process

"We stuff his ass so that he might expel mighty dinosaur wind on you while you sleep, haunting your dreams with rancid dinosaur butts."

There was one minorly tense moment while we were in the store. Every thirty minutes, the lights all start flickering and noises of a big storm start. I observed that this must be the Extinction Event, but none of the dinosaurs were lying over dead afterward, so I'm not sure what it was. Unless the intent was only to terrify toddlers, because it worked a charm in that sense. Gabe is terrified by thunder right now (and all really loud noises, really). Finn isn't bad with thunder, but he HATES dinosaurs, so he was already on pins and needles just being in the store. The Event pushed him closer to the edge and Kris and Jess had to take him outside shortly after that. A weird thing to include in a theme store for kids, I think.

Then we let him name it. He named it Soupie (possibly because the outfit we got him was a superhero outfit and he was trying to say "super," but we can't know that for sure). Now, Soupie the dinosaur is Gabe's new favorite toy. This, of course, is great because it gives me yet another character to use in our playroom dramas. If I should ever have the time or energy to get back to those, that is.

So, all in all, a great trip!