Saturday, August 30, 2014
Friday, August 8, 2014
Magical???
The darker photo was taken at the beginning of the summer at a splash pad when Bray was practicing his power of controlling water. The lighter one was yesterday after he found his wand. Yes, some may think that it is a straw, and perhaps it is, but never underestimate what can be used for magic. 9 more years until we get the letter from Hogwarts!!
Heehee
;)
Although I hate the term "baby-sitting" when it comes to a parent watching their child, this onesie my mom got Bray is hilarious and works great for this weekend because I'm headed to Michigan for my friend's bachelorette weekend!! I don't know if I'm more worried for Brayden or Benson! ;) actually, probably Benson since Bray knows where the most important things are: his snacks, milk, and apple slices! just kidding.....this should be a great manly bonding weekend for the two of them!!
Monday, August 4, 2014
Indianapolis Children's Museum (Lots of pics!!!)
I'm part of many private adoption Facebook groups and one of them had mentioned that the Indy Kids Museum had a China exhibit for a few months. Last summer we were binge watching a bunch of tv (in order to stay at home and save money for our upcoming adoption trip) and the commercials on Hulu (I think??) were always about all the fun things to do in Indiana's capitol (who knew?!?!). No therapies were scheduled for last Thursday and Bray has none on Friday so we decided to head over for a quick road trip.
We left Thursday about 1:30, got to our hotel, went and found the LOVE sign, had dinner (100% rated urban spoon Mexican restaurant!!), and then back to the hotel. Unfortunately, the last crib had been checked out a few hours earlier, but they brought up a roll-away bed. It was too high up for our little man, so we put the mattress on the ground and hoped for the best. Yeah, this boy is no fool....he rolled right over, got up and started walking around the room, all proud of himself! We took turns laying with him, then put him in our bed and finally he fell asleep so we moved him back to the mattress but we were too scared he would start wandering again and we wouldn't hear him so back to our bed he went....thank goodness it was a king size!
There were no breakfast places around the museum so we grabbed a quick bite in the food court and started exploring!
You had to pay extra for the Terracotta Warriors exhibit, and we were nervous that that was what the China exhibit was, but decided to buy tickets later if we decided that was something we wanted to do (nothing against his culture, but he wouldn't remember and we had seen some at the Milwaukee Art Museum a few years ago. From the sound of things, it wasn't what we were there for). Luckily, we were right to pass because on the 2nd floor they had a HUGE China exhibit, and this was obviously what the group had recommended. You could sit (we walked, having done the plane thing a bunch in the past year haha) in part of a plane and watch a short video about flying to China, and then when you got "off" the plane, a screen with a teen girl welcomed you by explaining how to say hello in Mandarin (Ni Hao). Brayden was FASCINATED by her and I held him there for at least five minutes. Every time she said Ni Hao, he would scrunch his face up and then smile and/or laugh. I would LOVE to know what was going through his mind. In just the past week, both Benson and I feel he is really starting to comprehend what we are saying/asking him to do (before, I really think he was picking and choosing what he would listen to....typical guy haha) I did notice that her fact scrunched a bit as she spoke Mandarin, so maybe he was mimicking her?
As you continue through, they take you through a "typical" Chinese apartment (um, maybe if you are super duper rich over there.....we've seen the extreme poverty :( ), then a market, medicine, tea, panda preservation, theater, the bullet train, and some musical instruments explanations. We missed the martial arts demonstration. All in all, it was an amazing exhibit, but probably too soon for us to be "back there", but it's very important to both of us that Brayden feel connected to his culture and know that we appreciate where he came from!
Our historic hotel in a forest preserve
Guess what he liked best about our whole trip? ;) The exit signs on the floor!
Outside the museum. I'm not a huge dinosaur person, but this was really cool!
We left Thursday about 1:30, got to our hotel, went and found the LOVE sign, had dinner (100% rated urban spoon Mexican restaurant!!), and then back to the hotel. Unfortunately, the last crib had been checked out a few hours earlier, but they brought up a roll-away bed. It was too high up for our little man, so we put the mattress on the ground and hoped for the best. Yeah, this boy is no fool....he rolled right over, got up and started walking around the room, all proud of himself! We took turns laying with him, then put him in our bed and finally he fell asleep so we moved him back to the mattress but we were too scared he would start wandering again and we wouldn't hear him so back to our bed he went....thank goodness it was a king size!
There were no breakfast places around the museum so we grabbed a quick bite in the food court and started exploring!
You had to pay extra for the Terracotta Warriors exhibit, and we were nervous that that was what the China exhibit was, but decided to buy tickets later if we decided that was something we wanted to do (nothing against his culture, but he wouldn't remember and we had seen some at the Milwaukee Art Museum a few years ago. From the sound of things, it wasn't what we were there for). Luckily, we were right to pass because on the 2nd floor they had a HUGE China exhibit, and this was obviously what the group had recommended. You could sit (we walked, having done the plane thing a bunch in the past year haha) in part of a plane and watch a short video about flying to China, and then when you got "off" the plane, a screen with a teen girl welcomed you by explaining how to say hello in Mandarin (Ni Hao). Brayden was FASCINATED by her and I held him there for at least five minutes. Every time she said Ni Hao, he would scrunch his face up and then smile and/or laugh. I would LOVE to know what was going through his mind. In just the past week, both Benson and I feel he is really starting to comprehend what we are saying/asking him to do (before, I really think he was picking and choosing what he would listen to....typical guy haha) I did notice that her fact scrunched a bit as she spoke Mandarin, so maybe he was mimicking her?
As you continue through, they take you through a "typical" Chinese apartment (um, maybe if you are super duper rich over there.....we've seen the extreme poverty :( ), then a market, medicine, tea, panda preservation, theater, the bullet train, and some musical instruments explanations. We missed the martial arts demonstration. All in all, it was an amazing exhibit, but probably too soon for us to be "back there", but it's very important to both of us that Brayden feel connected to his culture and know that we appreciate where he came from!
Our historic hotel in a forest preserve
Guess what he liked best about our whole trip? ;) The exit signs on the floor!
I LOVE the expression on his face here! This was a bit scary!
After seeing the LOVE sign (pictures on Benson's phone), we just let him walk to see where he would go. There was this long, tree-lined sidewalk and at the end (we could barely see it, but you could definitely hear something) was this fountain. I don't know how he knew, but nothing distracted this boy from walking straight there. I joked that it was the mother ship calling him home! :) Luckily, these plants and brick things were in the way, because I don't know how we would have kept him from going in there!
Outside the museum. I'm not a huge dinosaur person, but this was really cool!
The walkway from the (free!!) parking garage to the entrance of the museum.
Any chance we can take pictures of dragons for our dragon baby (born the year of the dragon), we do!
The lobby! Brayden LOVES Chinese lanterns, and ceilings/roofs, so he was in his glory :)
Next time!
How the Great Wall should be!!! :) :) It was really fun! (My picture is on his phone)
You could "dress up" as a baby dino....we tried!!
If all dinos were this cute, I could get on board with them haha
A train car that made it look like it was moving.
Brayden thought we were :)
He kept pulling them out and dropping them, making everyone turn and look at him :)
The "best" picture....of 6 ;)
His shirt has a picture of a dragon and says Dragon Baby.....our gift/souvenir from staying with our friends in Texas (Maddi is also a dragon baby!)
Of course he's going to play in the kitchen!
Chinese bells played with mallets (and Benson rocking his Bulls gear since we were in Pacer country...this was deliberate!!)
They had a sensory exhibit for kids only up to age 5 so that was a fun last place to stop to get out the last of his energy before hitting the road to beat Chicago Friday traffic. In this pic, I'm not sure who was having more fun building :)
The street signs taken from the Sky Walk
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