Vacation - Final Chapter

[continued from previous post]

The next day was Sunday and our final day at the hotel. We finished up our MagiQuest game, claimed her arcade tickets for a prize and headed out, stopping at her grandparent's house on the way. We picked up the dog from her other grandparents, and finally got back home around 7:00 PM. She was a good girl for the whole day.

Then night came.

I mentioned in a previous blog that we took the side off of Hailey's crib to make it a toddler bed that she can get in and out of. That was the key factor in our final story The Poison Control Phone Call.

At McDonald's (gah, that place keeps coming back) she had gotten several Lego cars from her Happy Meals. Well, when she went to bed Sunday night she wanted to play with them in her crib and we told her no, because she needed to go to sleep. She was apparently not happy with that answer because as soon as we left her room, she grabbed them anyway. That was not all she grabbed. I was barely 10 feet away in the doorway of our computer room when ninja Hailey decided she was going to go into our room, climb my dresser and get two bottles of (expensive) nail polish. Neither Nathan nor I saw or heard any of this happening - which is odd because the giggles usually give her away.

I walked past her room and saw her hide something behind her back. I saw one of the Lego cars in her bed and assumed that was what she was hiding...not the case. Hailey apparently decided she wanted to paint her toenails. Nathan found it and we descended on her like a pack of wild animals...patting down her crib, bedding, countless stuffed animals in bed with her, her pajamas...everything. The only thing she got polish on was a water proof pad that I was considering throwing out anyway. She had painted the pink on the pad, and successfully replaced the brush without getting any on the bottle. The clear polish wasn't as neat. I saw she had unscrewed the top and gotten polish all over the opening...without spilling it or even getting it on the sides of the bottle. We were really lucky. Until we looked at her face. Pink and clear polish...on both cheeks, right by her mouth.

Um...not good. I asked her if she had put in in her mouth and she replied in her unreliable three-year-old fashion that she had. I looked at the bottles...no poison info...that didn't surprise me as most people don't try to polish their tongues. I went online and Googled 'nail polish ingestion'. The bits of information that I found online did not make me feel good. But it was hard for me to concentrate on what was really out there and I knew better than to panic over something I read on the Internet. So I looked up the phone number for poison control.

Those people are ridiculously nice...and calm. I gave her the brand name of the polish and in less than a minute, she told me I had nothing to worry about, particularly because Hailey was acting just fine. We gave her water and watched her for a bit. Honestly, neither Nathan or I thinks she really put it in her mouth, we would have heard a 'Yuck!' Regardless, it is not the kind of thing that you just brush aside. I don't think I excessively worry, but it's when I don't feel informed that I get stressed out, so I was glad I called.

My nail polish has all been moved, and the door to our room is now shut. I still feel some guilt over it. It was in a place she shouldn't have been able to reach, but I should know by now I can't underestimate my daughter and her ninja skills.

Of course, the next day, her birthday, we scheduled her three-year-old portraits. We spent the morning getting her ready and had to pick dried nail polish off her cheeks before we went in for photos. Never a dull moment.

And that, dear freinds, was our vacation....let me say that again, slowly....va -ca - tion....our relaxing vacation with our, bathroom barging, water-spitting, beagle puppy, nail polish eating three-year old.

I honestly can't wait to do it again next year!

[for more pictures of our Trip to Great Wolf Lodge, go to the Y Spot photo page...here]

Vacation - Part Three

[continued from previous post]

The next day was relatively mild, in terms of Hailey behavior. We hit the extremely tasty breakfast buffet at the hotel and went into the arts and craft room they call 'The Cub Club'.

When we made our reservations, we also bought a special pass that allowed us a lot a freebies. One of these was a color-your-own item from the Cub Club area. We chose a t-shirt for Hailey to color. The attention span for shirt coloring lasted about 10 minutes (I had to finish it up for her). While I sat in the micro chair and colored, she had a good time exploring the play areas and talking to the wonderful lady running the crafts - the same lady whose quote started this series of blogs. She ran to a plastic fort-like house they had and as soon as she closed the half-door behind her, she turned to her Dad and said "Can I take your order?" Hmmm... have we taken her out for fast food too often? That's o.k., I won't be going to McDonald's any time soon.

We quickly got her a stuffed animal wolf...the hotel's version of 'Build-A-Bear'...which was also free from our kid's pass, then we headed to the arcade. I think there is a lot you can learn from watching what arcade games people gravitate to. My chivalrous husband tended toward the Skee-ball game as that seemed to produce the most tickets for Hailey, but also indulged in the occasional sword fighting game. I tried a classic circa 1980's arcade game and skee-ball as well. Hailey however...is no longer allowed to try skee-ball - we couldn't seem to convince her that an over-hand toss into the other lanes was not the best technique for amassing points. Car driving games were also not her style - watching her, I was vaguely comforted by the fact that a learner's permit is still years away. We did, eventually find Hailey's perfect arcade niche, the game so incredibly tailored for her that it should have her picture on it - 'Whack-a-mole'. Big soft mallet, whomping things on the head...it didn't get much better. She could have scored higher, but she was giggling too much.

After the arcade, we played an interactive game called MagiQuest until she fell asleep. It was fun game, which was included with the pass, but a lot of walking - it tired us all out.

Nathan and I made a bargain that we each got an hour, to ourselves, to go to the hotel's spa. I got a wonderful pedicure and he opted for a relaxing massage. It was really the only moments of peace for either of us all weekend.

After dinner we headed back to the water park. Kiddie Pool Incidents #2 and #3 are more amusing than embarrassing, so I will lump them together.

K.P. Incident #2 consisted of Hailey finding a girl, close to her age (maybe a little younger) being friendly and then splashing her until the girl literally ran away from Hailey. Hailey, however, would not let this little girl alone..like a kiddie pool stalker. We were right there telling her to stop splashing and leave the girl alone, but she was determined to get this kid wet. I was a little embarrassed around the other girl's dad - he obviously didn't know how to protect his daughter from our little predator. Eventually Hailey left her alone and 20 minutes later, the other girl started following Hailey around like a puppy. Toddlers. Who understands them?

It is important to note that the entire weekend, with the exception of the 4 hour drive up, Hailey was totally without any kind of diaper or pull up, and she didn't have a single accident - even when sleeping. K.P. Incident #3 does not count as a potty accident. The three of us were standing together in the kiddie pool, when Hailey suddenly gets up, walks out of the pool and over to a drain in the floor - a drain which was in front of a large group of tables and chairs filled with people. She proceeded to assume a mini-sumo wrestler stance over the drain and as she did...more 'water' emptied from her swimsuit bottom than it would naturally hold. Nathan and I looked at each other and laughed. She wide-legged it back to the pool and continued playing.

Hey!! She didn't pee in the pool!! She peed in the pool drain - it's kind of like a toilet. It doesn't count!

At least that night, she was so exhausted from not having a nap and playing at the pool, that once she fell asleep, she stayed asleep.

[to be continued...]

Vacation - Part Two

[continued from previous post]

So we got to the hotel and signed in. We had time to kill before our room was ready, so we walked around the hotel for a while, getting our bearings. If you have never been to a Great Wolf Lodge before...let me tell you...there is a lot of stuff to look at. Plus, we didn't even glance at the outdoor things because the whole weekend was overcast and rainy. We got into our room around 4:00 and decided to go down to the indoor water park.

The water park is awesome.

There was so much stuff to do there. Hailey gravitated to the 'kiddie pool' area which was maybe a foot and a half at it's deepest point. That area became our base of operation because even though Hailey often went running willy-nilly through the park, she always came back to that place, with it's 'kids only' slides and waterfalls. it was a nice place, parents could sit in the pool and see their child from almost any point in the pool. It was the there that Kiddie Pool Incident #1 occurred.

Hailey is a brave little kid...the type of kid that will go up to anyone and say hi. It really didn't concern me when she started swimming up to a small group of 'kiddie pool wading' moms. She kind of crab walked up to them, her face almost in the water...

*insert the Jaws music here*

as she got close enough to one of the moms...

da dum...da dum...da dum...

she suddenly dunked her mouth underwater, filled it up and spit water directly into this woman's face. A perfect hit. If that mom had been a carnival game, Hailey would have won the big stuffed monkey. Nathan and I were splashing our way over to apologize when the woman filled her mouth and spit right back on Hailey. "YES!" Awesome! High five to the strange mommy in a skirted bathing suit who just spit on my child! It was the perfect response! Hailey giggled and crab walked away. I apologized, but I could see it wasn't really necessary. The mom trio was having a good laugh about it. Thankfully, there are some people in this world that have a wonderful sense of humor!

It wasn't long after the spitting incident that her dad and I started getting exhausted and we hustled her out of there. After a quick trip to the mall and Meijers for supplies, we were back at the hotel for Hailey's Story Time Seating event. This incident wasn't so bad, but still pretty typical Hailey.

Every evening at 8:00 and 9:00 Great Wolf Lodge has story time for the kids in the lobby. Traditionally, children come down, dressed in their pj's and sit in from of the giant animatronic tree and listen to a story. We got down there just as the story was starting. All the other children were arranged in a big semi-circle in front of the storyteller. I tend to call children with calm dispositions like this: 'Golden Retriever Kids'...but don't misunderstand...that is a term I use with a certain kind of respect and longing. Golden Retrievers are the most popular family dogs ever, easy to train, generally calm...simple and well behaved. I have learned that I don't have a Golden Retriever Child. My kid is more like a beagle puppy...cute, but spastic. She's the type that runs around in circles barking and gets her nose into absolutely everything!

What was the phrase that lady used...oh yes..she has 'character'

Our little beagle puppy decided she didn't want to sit with the cookie-cutter children and instead sat in the big oak tree chair like a princess. [see picture] It was cute...a little embarrassing...but at least we didn't have to apologize to anybody. After that we took her back to the room where she didn't fall asleep until she had driven her dad and I totally out of our minds.

Hailey had gotten most of the embarrassing stuff out of the way on day one, and that was now coming to a close. However day two (and three) would still have great stories in store.

[to be continued...]

Vacation - Part One

"She's a character!"

That is what we were told by one of the super nice employees at the Great Wolf Lodge this past weekend.... and she had only been in the same room with Hailey for about 20 minutes. Her comment was a gigantic understatement.

Let me start with some of the back story details (before I dive in to the crazy things my daughter did this weekend).

Today is Hailey's third birthday. To celebrate, Nathan and I took her up to the Great Wolf Lodge [link] in Traverse City this past weekend. If you haven't been there.....GO! .....Go now.... make your reservations - but ONLY if you have children (or don't mind 5 excited kids to every square foot of space). It was an awesome mini vacation, and an extremely tiring one. We left Friday afternoon and came back Sunday evening.

Before I launch into the stories, let me say that, when vacationing with a 3 year old, it was surprisingly refreshing to stay in a place that was so geared for kids. Not only was the staff profoundly nice and patient, so were the guests... the other parents. Not once did I feel the hot stares of childless people who were wondering why I let my child out of her cage. Everyone had a really good sense of humor...and Hailey made sure she tested her limits.

Let's begin with possibly the best story of the weekend - The McDonald's Bathroom Story.

The drive up to Traverse City, is about four hours from our house, that's a long time for a potty-training toddler to be in the car. So...we stopped at a McDonald's for lunch and a bathroom break. We got a booth near the bathrooms (booths are a necessity to box Hailey in, so we aren't chasing her all over the restaurant). I needed to go to the restroom, and asked Hailey if she wanted to come to (girl's bathrooms rules know no age limit). But she didn't...at least she didn't for the 20 second that it took me to get into a stall.

As I was in the restroom, I heard people entering - one of which sounded like Hailey...but another woman was talking, so I thought it might be another little girl. It wasn't. It was Hailey. Apparently, she wanted to join me so she followed a McDonald's employee into the restroom. When I opened the stall, I almost hit her in the head with the door. The employee was trying to stop me saying 'Don't hit the little girl!" I looked down and said "Oh, she's mine" as the woman give me a very odd look - obviously wondering why I let my child sit outside my stall, unattended.

I asked Hailey if she needed to go potty...she said "Yes!" and ducked under the door to the handicapped stall faster than I could reach for her. I turned to the McDonald's worker and asked if anyone was in that stall and she shrugged...so I poked the door with my finger to see if it was locked. The door (with the obviously broken lock) swung open to reveal a young lady (maybe in her twenties) seated on the toilet with my daughter doing her 'booty dance' in front of her (*for a video of the booty dance, click here*). I quickly shut the door and started yelling at Hailey to come out, but she just giggled louder and continued to dance. Not knowing exactly what to do, I turned my head away from the poor girl (who was in a state of public toilet shock) and reached my arm in to try and grab my daughter. So picture in your head... someone who is straining and flailing around to grab something that is just out of their reach and a little girl who is running around the stall, barely dodging my hand. Finally... Hailey retreated to the very back corner of the stall (I never realized before how BIG McDonald's handicapped stalls were) and I literally had to go in and retrieve her. Hailey threw a quick tantrum and I hurried her out of there.

I was so mortified that I couldn't even talk to Nathan - who heard the whole thing, but didn't know what happened. The best part was... that because we were seated right next to the bathrooms, we were right there when the poor girl came out. I apologized profusely, and fortunately, she had a really good sense of humor about it. After I was absolutely sure there was no one in the bathroom, I took Hailey in for a potty break. I must have been a dozen shades of red...I couldn't speak I was so embarrassed.

We hadn't even made it to the hotel yet....

[to be continued]

Goodbye Green Socks

Hailey is growing so fast, it's hard to keep up now.

I asked her to do something this week and she responded with "Yes Mother". Is she going to be 3 this month.... or 16?

Last month we took the side off her crib and made it into a toddler bed which she can get into all by herself. She did great with it for several weeks - then one night she realized she could get out of bed, and its been downhill from that point on. Sure... it's cute when she peeks around the corner of the door then runs down the hall like the wind....a giggly, naughty wind. It's really hard not to crack a smile. That is, until it's 11:30 pm and she has been doing that for two hours - at that point, not smiling is really, really easy.

Potty training has been going so remarkably well, that last week we decided it was time...time to inspire our girl to greater bathroom success with the magic of.... panties! We bought a 3 pack of Hello Kitty undies and she LOVED them. When we unwrapped them, Hailey grabbed a wad of cotton bliss in her little fist and ran around the house singing "Panties, panties". It went great for several days, until she had her first accident - no big deal, we expected that. Then she started hiding out in corners and having an accident a day. Eww. Now Hello Kitty goes on over the pull-up.

*editorial note - Hailey still is pull-up free at daycare - it's only at home where she runs around like a wild animal*

I saved the best story for last. A little over a week ago, I came home from band camp to spend the evening with Nathan and Hailey. They got home from daycare and Hailey (as she does every day) took her shoes and socks off. She struggled with the socks because she tried pulling them from the toe - and they were a little suctioned to her feet. She called for our help and her dad told her to pull them off from the top. Which she did, and it worked! However, she must have been really mad at those socks... because when we turned our backs for a second, the next sound we heard was the toilet flushing. Yep. She flushed her socks. Her green socks. Both of them. Her only pair of green socks. Right...down...the....toilet. I guess I'm glad she flushed both because if she just did one, then I would be left with a one sock reminder of the suction power of our toilet.

I'm thinking about starting a new website... "Will it Flush?" where I just flush random objects to see if they get stuck. 1 pair of toddler socks = flushes like butter. 1 large pine cone = not so much.

Nothing is left unexplored in this house, no stone is left unturned.

For example, as I am typing this...I hear Nathan is the other room telling an obviously grossed out Hailey..."Well don't lick that if its yucky."

Awesome. You have to have a great sense of humor to live in this house!

Why Do I Do It?

Summer vacation. Most people I work with take a vacation in the summer and go someplace nice and peaceful. Others use it to do work on their house, using the time constructively to make improvements around home. This is not the case with my vacation.

For the past three years, I have taken a week's worth of my vacation time and spent it with my former high school's marching band... out in the sun...every day for an entire week. I am part of the visual staff that helps to dream up the elements of their fall marching program, make them a reality and then transfer that onto the field. I also help the color guard choreographers teach and clean the work they write. Prior to working with the fall program, I volunteered the same tasks for years with the winter color guard.

I am self-admittedly not in the best physical shape and easily the oldest person out on the field every day (and many of the kids like to remind me of that fact). I get sore and sunburned to the point where it almost hurts to lay down in bed at night - and I might not attempt it if it wasn't for the fact that standing up hurts even worse.

I joke around about the pain and my age a lot while I am at camp. However, there are a lot of moments when I take stock of my life and honestly really wonder..."Why am I still doing this?"


Upon reflection, I really have a lot of various reasons for submitting myself to this demon but the underlying one really is the one that supports all the rest. My surface reasons are many....

#1. The Students. It is very obvious to me that I learn more from the students than they learn from me. I have known some of them for years and as I have watched them grow as individuals, I have become a wiser person. They also keep me young. I can still laugh with them and I have learned that I can have friends of all ages. This year, I was able to meet more band kids than before and they are just as amazing. Can you imagine watching a young person who had a double lung transplant 5 months prior, out on the field marching with everyone else?!? How can you see that not be inspired?

#2. The Experience. I love to reconnect with the people I have grown to love, but it is the opportunity to interact with new people that is sometimes more exciting. Last year, I got to meet a great new director. This year two new staff members joined who were a lot of fun. Every person just adds to the total experience. Plus, I get to meet new band parents. With most of them, I get to see examples of how really good parenting produces amazing kids. On the flip side, I also am able to observe what happens without parental involvement. As a result, I have been able to start my own parenting experience with open eyes.


#3. The Art. I feel totally blessed to have as one of my closest friends, one of the most creative people I have ever met. Robert's insight and vision draws out from me artworks that without his inspiration would never have seen the light of day. He challenges me artistically on levels that I would not attempt on my own. On top of all that, he appreciates me and respects my opinion beyond anyone else in my creative world. I don't think he truly realizes how grateful I am for his trust and support. He is just simply... the greatest muse I have ever encountered and I love him for that.


The biggest and most underlying reason for my continued participation is that I feel that I owe it to this activity...as a form of payback. The one decision I made, to audition for marching band almost 26 years ago... is directly responsible for most of the best things in my life: my friends, my husband (and by that means...my daughter), my confidence and continued artistic growth. My path in life would have been so different had I not made that one, seemingly insignificant, choice. It was a turning point that took years to recognize. I love my life and I can't image any other outcome than what I have. My mother always tells me that, aside from saying 'Yes' to my husband's proposal and having my daughter...joining band was the smartest decision I've ever made.

Despite how sore and sunburned I am today...I'd have to agree.