Tour de St. Louis: Raging Rivers

Mike took off work today, and we went to Raging Rivers Water Park in Grafton, Illinois. The forecast promised perfectly gorgeous weather, and it was right. The drive took about an hour, enough for Noel to start fussing (one of the reasons we opted to be local tourists this summer--he hates long car rides). To get to Grafton, you have to cross the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, so we got a firsthand look at the flooding. I was sad to see Elsah, such a picturesque little town, under several feet of water. All along the Great River Road, water was lapping up close to the highway.

Raging Rivers was fun. First we went to the kiddie areas, but the boys weren't really into those. Dom didn't like the bucket dumping water, and Noel cried when I got him two feet from the Itty Bitty Surf City. Dom did ride the Cascade Body Flumes. I took him first, holding him tightly on my lap. It was fast! We landed at the bottom with a big splash, going under the water slightly. I assumed Dom would be freaked out by that, but instead he said, "Let's do it again!" He liked the wave pool, too. Noel was most interested in pushing the stroller around. By naptime, he was getting pretty cranky, so we left at 3:00.

Back at home, I saw on the park's website that it will close starting Friday because of the flood. Our original plan had been to go then, so I'm glad we went today! I took some pictures and will try to post them to Picasa tonight or tomorrow.

Overheard today

Dominick, to Noel: "I'm not going to ask you again. I'm tired of saying that."

Hmmm, where do you suppose he heard such a thing?

Summer school begins

Emmanuel started its summer program today, and after two weeks away, we made sure to take advantage of it! Dominick was very excited because he got to take his lunch. Instead of fussing that he wanted to stay home, he grabbed his lunch bag and put on his shoes several minutes early, saying he was ready to go. Once we arrived, he was a little apprehensive about going into the Blue Room, but with Mrs. Cassilly's encouragement, Dom did fine. He even made a new friend today, a boy named Colin. I hear they hit it off really well.

I have to say here that now I feel somewhat older, having made Dominick his first school lunch (peanut butter and jelly, a mix of leftover peas and cauliflower, and grapes). Working a booth at his school carnival last month did the same thing. I've been a mom for more than four years, but I still don't feel like a "mom," if you know what I mean. I'm still me. I remember when I was a senior in high school, not feeling as mature as I thought the seniors looked when I was a sophomore. It's that kind of thing.

Here we go

So, despite the ridiculous heat this afternoon, I found myself rummaging through our recycling cart (which I love, by the way) for the elusive list of words. I was hoping that nobody attending the open house next door would think the potential future neighbor was some kind of recycling-cart-diving weirdo. Alas, the search was futile, but later this afternoon, I sat down with pen and paper and racked my brain to come up with the words below. This time, I reused a piece of junk mail (am I thrifty or what?). To avoid losing the words again, I am ensuring that they live on, at least until Blogger crashes, by posting them here. If it seems a bit silly that I'm putting so much effort into this, it's because this blog is as much a record as a way of communicating with friends and family. I don't keep a journal, and I'm waaaaay behind on baby books, so this is it.

Here are Noel's newest words: cracker, bubble, eye, balloon, paper, hat, shoes, teeth, fish, cheese, cup, down, phone, Cheerios, ball, my (he's even said "my book"), car, truck ("guck," just like Dom used to say), hi, sit, strawberry. He also likes to say "poe," which may sometimes mean pillow. Also, he refers to his boy bits as "peese" (as in "peace") or "beese."

Even more pictures are up on Picasa. Yesterday was Mike's birthday, and we went to the zoo to celebrate. It was the third stop in our Summer 2008 Tour de St. Louis. On Friday, May 30, we went to the Boathouse in Forest Park to eat lunch and ride the paddleboats. My months of spin class came in handy there. It was a lovely day, a perfect beginning to our jaunt through the city, but I FORGOT THE CAMERA! All the mental reminders to bring the camera were for naught. I came home and stole some other people's Boathouse pictures from Flickr, but that's only small consolation. What I really wanted, obviously, were pictures of us. Lesson learned. The second stop on our tour was the Missouri Botanical Garden, which is holding its Niki de Saint Phalle exhibit. I took the boys on Wednesday morning, and we had a good time. By some miracle, I remembered the camera that day.

As for the zoo, it was fun and not too hot first thing in the morning. Noel had never been before, so he needed to go. Dom's favorite part was the train, specifically the train tracks. He didn't even go in the fountain in the Children's Zoo because he just wanted to go to the tracks. The only other thing he cared for was a bench with bugs in the seat. I'm not sure what Noel liked best. Maybe it was the slide in the Children's Zoo. He did well on the train, not laughing but not crying, either.

Scrambled eggs

We've been fairly busy lately, but I'm too lazy to write about our activities, so instead I'm posting some of Dom's newest hilarious sayings. These date from about the last month. Here they are in order:

Daddy thinks we can have worms for dinner.

If you don't feed me [i.e. I know how to use a spoon but don't feel like doing it myself], I'm going to take your drinks away!

I'm going to throw away all your crossword puzzles! (Whoa, Dom! Calm down!)

The clouds had to pee to get out some rain.

I'm going to take all of the kids outside the house who came here, and I'm going to throw them at spiders. (Nobody was here. When he's mad, it's amusing to watch him try to come up with things like this to say. He always emphasizes certain words, usually the threatening verb, which makes it even funnier.)

dried-out Play-doh with hooks (dough ornaments)

I forgot to wash my other hand.

I had a nice, long list of words from Noel, too, but it apparently went to the recycling cart. That's what I get for reusing random scraps of paper. My memory won't tell me the words now, so I'll try to coax them out later. I'm probably better off going through the recycling cart. In the meantime, check out the Picasa page. I finished May and started a folder for June. I wasn't happy with my point-and-shoot digital camera, so I've switched back to my film SLR. I'd forgotten what a pain film is, but at least I'm getting better pictures. In a somewhat risky move, I've bought a digital SLR on eBay. Here's hoping it actually arrives and is in the described condition. The digital just isn't doing my gorgeous boys justice. I do like the movie mode, so I'll keep using it for that.

In case you're wondering, the post title is a reference to Paul McCartney's working title for "Yesterday." I couldn't think of anything on my own (it's getting late), so I'm taking Paul's idea.