Board Games

Since we don't have our car here in Florida yet we have been confined to the house for most of the day each day and that leaves us a lot of time for indoor activities. And actually that's just fine because it's HOT outside!

Chance deciding which card to play in Sequence for Kids
Each day when I ask Chance what he wants to do he says "play a board game" so we have been playing the ladybug game and what we call the animal game which is actually sequence for kids. He's getting pretty good at that last one, I actually have to pay attention now or he sneaks up with the win.

And then Niagara Falls...

We arrived at Niagara Falls in the evening so we didn't get to actually see the falls on the first day but we did have a great time at our hotel. The location was strange surrounded by a hospital complex on all sides but the staff was absolutely amazing. I have never seen more friendly hotel staff in every single department they excelled at customer service. If anyone is looking for a hotel in the Niagara Falls/Buffalo New York area you want the Doubletree on High Street in Buffalo, they are simply amazing. When we arrived at the hotel I asked the front desk clerk if he knew a place to get poutine fries in the area. He didn't know what poutine fries were but he asked the chef and even though they were not on the menu he made them special for me at no charge and them for the rest of the staff to try as well. And that was all within the first 45 minutes of arriving, the service did not go down from there.

Kristy holding Chance so he can see the falls up close.
The next morning we woke up and headed out toward the falls. We walked all along the boardwalks and sidewalks beside the river and up to the falls. At first they are not that impressive, you know it's a river that is moving kind of fast but other than that it's nothing big...then you see it from the bottom and your whole outlook changes.


Kristy at the top of the Falls
To get that view from the bottom we took a Maid Of The Mist tour. They gave us each a poncho and down, down, down in an elevator we went and onto the boat. Chance was excited to get on the boat and he wanted to be right at the front on the top deck so that is where we were, front row seats for sure. The tour takes you passed the smaller falls generally referred to Niagara Falls or the American Falls and right into Horseshoe Falls or the Canadian Falls. At one point the falls are surrounding you on three sides and the spray is hitting you to the point that everything outside the poncho is soaked by the time you are through.


Chance in his poncho on the Maid Of The Mist
Chance loved every minute of it, he was holding onto the railing right in front of me. I kept checking on him to make sure he wasn't getting scared or anything but every time I bent down his face had a huge smile on it. As the water wet his face and hands he was laughing and saying "it's like a roller coaster!" He is such a cute little guy, that;s a big happy face in that picture above.

Chance looking at the Falls from Canada
After the tour and grabbing a bite to eat we got in the car and headed over to Canada. This was Chance's first time in another country so even though he didn't really understand I was pretty excited for him. It is true what they say, the falls are much much more impressive from Canada. From the Canadian side you can see the whole falls, it is beautiful. Though I am still not sure how you could spend much more than one day there because once you have seen it and taken a couple different "tours" to see it from different angles there isn't a lot more to do so we went back to our hotel and left the next morning feeling like we had been there and done that in the Niagara Falls department.


Rayna and Chance looking cool on the Canadian side of the falls.

More Silliness This Time Out Of The Car

We were at a restaurant by Niagara Falls and although the view and food were good the service was a bit slow so we were looking for fun things to do to keep Chance occupied. Aunt Kristy won the award for coming up with the best idea. She taught Chance how to turn himself into a little monster with horns and long teeth using a few french fries.

More Silliness In The Car

Neither one of these pictures are very good but it is hard to get a totally still picture in a moving car. This first one if just me and Chance taking a silly picture



This next one is Kristy and Chance playing head-to-head Tap, Tap, Revenge on Kristy's phone. Chance is better than one would think.

Washington D.C.

After meeting up with Scott in Baltimore we drove back about an hour and spent half a day in Washington D.C. I hadn't been to D.C. in many many years so I was happy to see the sights a little and of course show Chance the landmarks that he might recognize and at least be able to recognize next time he sees a picture of them. That is one of the great things about travel. People learn and understand things better when they are exposed to them repeatedly and in as many different ways as possible. I love being able to see pictures of the White House (for example), see it on TV, talk about it and then actually be able to take Chance there and let him see it for himself. He knew that was where President Obama lives but didn't quite understand why we couldn't go in and meet him and his kids.
We had a great time walking around if only for a few hours. I don't even remember who this statue is in honor of but it was the first one we came across and Chance wanted his picture taken so I took one of him in front of it:



Then he wanted to take one of me so he did:



The next place we went was the Lincoln Memorial. I wasn't sure what Chance was going to think but his response to the Lincoln Memorial makes me very proud of him. First we had a fun time walking up all those stairs and then when we got inside he immediately wanted to know who Lincoln was, most four year olds are content with a simple answer but Chance is not he wanted to know exactly who he was and when I told him Lincoln was a president he said "like Obama?" Then he wanted to know if there were other statues in the building and when I told him no, because Lincoln was such a great guy and did so many great things that he gets this whole building all for himself, he took a step back, looked all around and said "wow". He asked me what the writing carved into the walls were and when I told him they were speeches that Lincoln had made he asked me to read one so I read the first paragraph of the Gettysburg address to him, he didn't run around he stood right there and listened then asked me questions, "men are created equal?" So I tried to explain that what he means is everyone in the world just like everyone in this building little ones and big ones, boys and girls, red hair, brown hair, no matter what color their skin is, they all have great potential and all deserve your respect.
After we looked all around the Lincoln Memorial we sat on the stairs looking out over the mall at the Washington Monument for a while. I am usually not much for views of man made things but there is no denying this is a pretty awesome view.



And here is one of the two of us while we were sitting on the stairs but Chance didn't really want to be in this one:



We made our way down the stairs and started across the mall toward the White House. Our first stop along the way was the Vietnam Wall. Again Chance was very interested asking about all the names and loved the statue of the soldiers nearby. We made our way along til we got to the White House. we couldn't get too close because evidently someone had jumped the fence the day before but we paused to take a look before moving down the mall on the other side slowly back toward the car. We got an up close look at the Washington Monument and the World War 2 memorial which I had never seen before. It was getting dark as we walked up to the WW2 Memorial, it is might impressive with it's fountains and dramatic lighting. Highly recommend checking it out at night. As we continued down the walkway Chance noticed that we would be walking passed the Lincoln Memorial he asked if we could walk up and see it again. Instead of going in again we walked right down in front so we could look up and see Lincoln all lit up looking out on the mall. No matter what your opinion on Lincoln is there is no denying that is an impressive sight. I got down on my knees next to Chance to be on his level so we could look at the Memorial together. When I did he hugged me and said "It's better than I thought it would be" That little boy is so amazing, I am in awe of how a four year old can genuinely seem to be taking all of it in on a level you naively think a small child incapable of. I am so proud of him.

Seeing Daddy in Baltimore

While on our mini vacation we were able to hang out for a day in Baltimore with Scott. We didn't actually have a lot of time together because he was flying out the day we drove in but we spent a few hours walking around the harbor, ate lunch and hung out for a while at the hotel. We all had a great time seeing the area and Chance had a particularly good time hanging with Daddy at the hotel as you can surely tell from this picture, just look at that happy face.

Silly Pictures of Chance

There are so many silly pictures of Chance out there, in fact as a 4 year old that is pretty much what he does...be silly.
In one of the hotels we stayed in while we were bringing in out things and getting settled in Chance was looking around the room then I heard him say "mommy, look at me" repeatedly (one of his new favorite phrases) so I looked over to where I thought he was and he wasn't there. I walked over and looked closer and this is what I found:



Here he is just wearing a paper hat (pulled over his face...silly boy) that is oh so true.

Chance Drawing Videos

Last week while we were on our mini family reunion vacation there was a lot of time in the car. Chance is a great little traveler and we all had lots of fun finding things to do to keep him occupied. After a while we started making videos with my phone. Chance really liked making them then watching himself in the video. We made quite a few more than these two but I thought I would only upload the cream of the crop.

This first video is Chance drawing a Volcano. Volcanoes are his new thing to draw, actually he has been talking a lot about them lately. making them out of blankets and pillows. He said he wanted to go see a volcano so next time we hit Hawaii, Chance is going along.



And this video is Chance drawing the classic monster truck. His monster truck is getting a bit more sophisticated these days. It used to be just two wheels and a straight line but now sometimes there is a cab at the top and other times (like in this picture) there are little lines all around to show movement.

Video of Chance making funny faces

I took this in the car while driving. We are on our way to Niagara Falls via Baltimore before heading to the family reunion in Kentucky next weekend.

Sleeping Baby

OK, he's not a baby anymore but as we all know when they sleep they automatically look littler and sweeter for some reason. Chance has given up the formal nap time, a few months ago the afternoon nap just became much more of a struggle than it was worth since he seemed to be doing fine without one throughout the day. Well, turns out what he seems to need is a nap every other or every third day because I have caught him just falling asleep in strange places.

all right on the couch isn't really a strange place but

between the couch and the chair is! He likes to hide in this spot because he can still see the tv but he thinks no one can see him. Well, he did some sneaking around the couch and crawled into his little hiding spot which I saw him do then he sat there for a long time and when I looked over at him he was fast asleep. It didn't look very comfortable so I pulled him out and put him on the couch but I had to grab a couple pictures before I did.

The many faces of Chance

Here you can see Chance demonstrating Angry Face (top left), Sad Face (TR), Happy Face (BL) and Monster Face (BR). He is becoming very theatrical. He has started trying to be sneaky by actually crawling along the ground then freezing if anyone looks at him (if he's frozen you can't see him) he freezes his whole body often including his eyes. He has also started miming things. Sometimes when he is trying to tell you something it turns into a big game of charades, it's fun to figure out what he is trying to say and he is pretty good at moving and explaining with his body so it's neat to see the way his brain is working to put together things and explain them to you in a creative nonverbal way.
I think I might make a simple game of charades so we can all play together.

In Florida

I'm not going to go into the long story right now because I want to just right into the cute things Chance has been doing lately but the short story is Scott and I are separated and Chance and I are living in Fort Myers with my Mom. If you have questions feel free to email me and I will answer.

Now, Chance has been going in the pool pretty much every day we have been here this Summer. He loves it and is taking big steps toward actually swimming. Since we live in a house with a pool now I am hoping to get him swimming lessons soon and I think with just a few lessons he will be really swimming. Right now he can keep himself afloat for a little while and just started making forward progress so it won't be long before he can swim all over the pool.

Kristy heads up the pool maintenance and Chance has been there to assist every step of the way. They make a good pool cleaning team. Chance follows her around the pool and does what he's told so he actually does end up helping more than you'd think.